Back from Washington D.C.! Sorry for the long wait! Anyway, it was a long time since I had written when I wrote this chapter so forgive me if it's a little unorganized, I'm trying desperately to get back on track with everything. It took me three trys writing this, each try I came up with a completely different scenario but I think I liked this one best. I hope you do too :) Thanks for your super support and reviews! Hope you enjoy :)
P.S. If you haven't checked out my new story "From Where I'm Standing" I ask that you check it out it your spare time. I adore feedback :) Thanks!
Edward's lullaby was the theme song to my life for the next two weeks – though I never did tell him that I thought of it as his lullaby. It soon became my little secret. I would hum it at night, right after he hummed mine. I rarely got through it without my mind plummeting into dreamland.
The wedding was fast approaching and each day seemed to add a weight to the center of my chest. Soon I had three days left, and I felt like I couldn't breath.
"Breathe Bella," Edward would demand. This happened every time one of our usually comfortable silences became uneasy with my constant worries. The part that mystified me the most was the fact that I didn't even know what I was worried about. Alice had gone over the plans with me again and again, describing even the most negligible details so that no unneeded surprises would come my way.
My mind seemed to reason that everything would go smoothly, but my body seemed to erupt at the very thought. The thought of the wedding itself would play through my mind and I would feel the throbbing pain of my ankle shoot threw my body like an electric shock, surely reminding me that the cast on it, and the crutches would be accompanying me in my promenade down the aisle. Lovely.
My thoughts would then penetrate into the part of my mind that contemplated my wedding night. These thoughts made me feel sensations in a completely different place. The thought of my wedding night was one that made my skin feel like it was boiling, and around Edward I usually fumbled to hide my thoughts. Though we both knew he couldn't hear them, I didn't want to take any chances.
From there, my slowly cooling mind would succumb into the idea of my change. Somehow, those thoughts were the most comforting. The idea of Edward being the one to change me, to know that his teeth and more importantly his strength and his love, led me to my new eternal life, was ridiculously soothing. The idea that Edward and I could be bound even further made me want to make him change me right away. Though, I could see that he thought of marriage in the same terms. A human bondage rather then a vampire one.
These thoughts battled in my head all through breakfast and during my time at the Cullen's house. The routine went on as Alice held up various wedding items and I would just nod. The one thing that did catch my eye however, was the sheer blue lingerie Alice held up, her face impassive as she expected me to just nod rhythmically.
"Alice," I hissed, glancing out of the corner of my eye to the living room where Edward and Jasper were involved in video games.
"Oh, you'll thank me later," she chimed, waving her hand carelessly in the air as she threw the lingerie in the "keep" pile.
I felt my teeth clench together and pressed closed my lips. Jasper must have clued Edward into my less then friendly feelings towards his wife because Edward was suddenly at my side, an icy hand latched around my waist and his thumb made small circles around my hip.
His lips were immediately at my ear. "Are you ready for your surprise?"
I watched Alice leave the room grinning before I swiveled in my chair to face him. "What surprise?"
"My surprise to you." Of course he wasn't going to tell me what it was. I grimaced and he smiled angelically. It was moot point to try and explain to him that I didn't like surprises, because he knew fully well. Instead I stood up and opened my hand expectantly.
The sides of his lips twitched downward and his head tilted slightly to the side. I opened my hand wider and smiled tightly.
"Bella, what are you doing?"
"Waiting for you to give me the keys."
Edward frowned, and then quickly narrowed his eyes. "Why would I do that?"
"Because that's the only way I'm letting you give me this surprise. And because there is no way I'm being blind folded again."
Edward seemed to be considering his options as he picked me up and carried me to the Volvo. I was pretty sure I won though because there were three lines engraved in his granite forehead. He set me down about five feet from the passenger door and looked warily over my shoulder at his Volvo as he slowly took the keys out of his pocket.
I ignored his distrustful attitude and swung my crutches ahead of me towards the drivers side. Edward was there before me and opened the door. I held my head up high, maybe if I seemed more confident he would trust me. What actually happened, was enough to make him order me to lay down in the backseat.
My high held head, was a bit too high held and I wobbled slightly as my forehead came in contact with the top of his car as I attempted to hop in the seat.
I bit down hard on my lip, begging myself to ignore the pain.
"Bella, are you alright?" Edward's anxious voice sounded close to my ear and I soon realized my eyes were closed. I opened them to find my throbbing forehead laying gently on Edward's cool chest. I quickly pulled back my head, disregarding the fact that the scenery was spinning.
"I'm fine," I whispered, swiftly slipping back into the seat, my cheeks burning red as I tried to focus enough to get the key into the ignition. I was hoping he would just forget that that just happened.
Edward ghosted himself into the passenger seat quickly caught my trembling hand in his. He reached his other hand up to gently outline the bruise that I was sure would soon appear. He grimaced and looked back and forth between my casted ankle and my bruised forehead. I ignored him and shoved the key into the ignition, using my good foot to push down on the gas as I maneuvered down the long driveway
"I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping you safe," he whispered, his already dark eyes flickering a shade closer to ebony.
"Edward, keeping me completely safe is impossible, even for you," I sighed.
He seemed to let that sink in for a moment or two. "I bet I could," he whispered finally, his voice suggesting he was considering some kind of challenge. "I bet I could keep you perfectly safe for these next three days. Not a scratch, bump or bruise."
"For three entire days?" I laughed. Was he crazy? My record was like five minuets.
"Yes," he nodded, "No pain whatsoever, for three entire days." He pointed to where I should turn on the road and I slowly shook my head.
"Good luck with that," I muttered. It was true that my fatal incidents had become almost non-existent with Edward around, but he couldn't save me from my everyday occurrences, like stubbed toes and accidentally biting my tongue. I laughed at the last one. Let's see him save me from that one.
Edward directed me towards my surprise and I felt more confused by the minuet. My face soon become rock solid as I saw what was looming over the horizon, the horizon I was currently driving towards. As my mouth feel, Edward's seemed to rise. It didn't seem like he was able to tear his gaze away from my frightened face. I pulled into the parking space swiftly and folded my arms across my chest, preparing to throw a fit, but before I could even protest, Edward was at my door, carefully lifting my from the seat.
Edward had brought me to a carnival. My hair flew like hungry flames around my face as the roller coaster above our head glided across it's rusting tracks.
"Why are we here?" I asked him, biting my lip, hopelessly wishing it was just to pick up some cotton candy.
He peeked down at my face as he carried me through the throng of people waiting in lines that all crashed in the middle of the big park. "You'll see."
I watched warily as Edward grinned, his eyes trained ahead as the sounds of laughter and screams filled my ears. I never did like carnivals.
I looked ahead, just in time to notice Edward carrying my towards the one ride that had no line and no person operating it. The Ferris wheel.
"Um, Edward?" I squeaked nervously, adjusting the crutches that I clutched in my hands. "I don't think that ride's open."
Edward smiled and nodded his head forward, indicating that I should look again. I turned my head, and this time, standing at the little gray operating box, was none other then Emmett. He grinned as we stopped in front of him.
"Emmett, you don't work at the carnival." I glanced quickly between Edward and Emmett, both with devilish grins on their pale faces.
"I do now," he laughed, taking out a little plastic card. I looked at it closer, and of course, it was a picture of Emmett indicating his license to operate carnival rides.
I didn't even have the time to effectively glare at either one of them because sooner then I thought possible, Edward was placing me in the little bench seat of the round Ferris wheel car. He sat down beside me and pulled up the metal seat bar, shaking it – most definitely gently for him – probably to make sure it met my safety needs. He gave the thumbs up to Emmett and soon the ride trembled to life, and the car was beginning it's journey, backwards and then upward.
The second the ride started, however, I gasped and buried my face against Edward's upper arm.
"Bella?" He chuckled lightly. "What's wrong."
"Did I ever mention I'm afraid of heights?"
I could feel him stiffen beneath me and it took me a moment to realize where his train of thought must have drifted. My cliff diving episode.
"Okay, heights aren't my real fear, it's more carnival rides all together."
I heard his musical chuckle close to my ear. "Carnival rides aren't immensely horrible, are they?" His lips traveled from my ear to my shoulder as he kissed his way back up. "You can open your eyes now, Bella."
It took me a few moments before I peeked open one eye cautiously. The sight that met my eyes made me open my peeking eye wider, and loosen my grip of death on his arm. He didn't stop kissing me, his lips making tender trails across my cheek and down my neck, but he did seem to realize my discovery as his lips spread thinly into a smile against my skin. It was only then that I realized the ride had stopped, leaving us at the highest point of the large spinning ride.
"It's beautiful," I gushed, taking in the scene before me. The grassy land of Forks never seemed more stunning. The dark emerald hills seemed to roll on forever beneath the large orange sun that was just begging to disappear behind them. The sky was dark enough so that Edward's skin remained un-sparkling, but the brilliant clouds never seemed brighter. They floated across the sky, the bottom tips seemed to be licked by a pinkish glow, the tops shinning radiantly against their shadowy background.
"Just like you," Edward chuckled lightly, extending his trail of kisses towards my lips. I took a deep breath before he finally kissed me, knowing that when he did, I would loose all human abilities. If there was ever a moment where I didn't feel human, it was when I was kissing him. It was almost as if the second his icy lips met mine, everything in the background melted away, and I was no longer labeled. No longer human, or vampire, or danger magnet. I was Edward's fiancé, and he was my life, and that's all I needed.
Edward pulled away, even quicker then he normally did. He smiled and laced me fingers between his own. He glanced at me with his dark eyes, even while they were dead black and still against their white backdrop, they appeared soft yet intense, penetrating against me.
"Eleventh reason why I love you," He began. I felt my heart expand, the feeling unfamiliar as he had not given me a reason for a whole two weeks. I had began to worry that he ran out of reasons. " Your gorgeous heart beat." He smiled and glanced down at his hands as his finger traced the shape of a heart on the left side of my chest. "It's the loveliest sound in the world you know, next to your voice and your laugh. " He smiled but then his lips slipped into a frown. "And to know that I'm taking the beautiful sound of your heart from the world, from myself," he murmured, still refusing to meet my eyes. "Makes me feel selfish and masochistic, all at the same time." He lowered his head and rested his ear gently against my chest, my heart throbbing beneath it, stuttering at his closeness.
We sat there for a while, letting my heart calm down, and the moment sink in. Finally I began to ran my fingers gently through his bronze hair, feeling the soft texture between my fingers. "I wrote you a lullaby you know," I whispered finally. "Well not wrote it, as much as hum it to myself." I blushed slightly and could feel my heart speed up at the confession.
He straightened to peer curiously into my eyes.
"It's that song I hum every night, after you hum my lullaby. I thought that it was only fair, seeing as you wrote one for me, I should make one for you." I stopped blabbering long enough to take a deep breath and let my brain register his expression. He was fighting a smile as he leaned closer.
"Hum it for me?" He asked quietly. I wasn't sure if I was seeing things, but I was pretty sure his eyes faded into a shade farther from their current ebony.
I began to hum his lullaby, my voice trembling at first, but then becoming soft musical in light air of the night. He leaned his head back against my chest, the song vibrating through me and I knew he could feel the vibrations against my skin. As soon as it ended I began again, never wanting the moment to end.
Edward lifted his head from it's position against my chest and smiled. Before I knew it, his lips were against mine, the song lingering on my lips as my body shivered causing me to swallow the hums and focus on kissing him. He pulled away for a moment and smiled at me with his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered. I think he was halfway through saying "I love you," when my lips attracted right back to his, and like two magnets, we came together under the soft glow of the oncoming twilight.