I honestly don't know what I do to deserve such nice reviews. thank you babes! now, the next chapter is driving me up the walls, so I'm not posting it until it's finished and I'm completely happy with it, so it may not be tomorrow! we'll see! and this chapter... well. I'll let you read for yourself. ;)

Chapter Fourteen: The Uninterrupted Moment

Bella

We ended up in the bar again, in Garrett's back room this time, just in case James still had people looking for us. Kate had snuck Edward a few beers, and I surprised myself by actually liking the taste when he offered me one. Pretty soon, the two of us very sitting very close together on the couch, talking a lot of nonsense and laughing at nothing.

Carmen came in at one point, looking troubled.

"Bella… did you say something to Tanya earlier?"

"Yeah," I shrugged. "She said something bitchy to me so I said something bitchy back."

"When?" Edward demanded, but I ignored him.

"Why?" I asked Carmen suspiciously, eyeing the uneasy expression on her face.

"Well… she was the one who called James and told him you two were here. She just told me there… I'm sorry, Bella, I don't know what she was thinking."

"What a psycho bitch!" Edward exclaimed, looking disgusted.

"That's my sister you're talking about," Carmen snapped.

"Sorry, Car, but your sister is a psycho bit-"

"OK, OK, OK!" Garrett said loudly, coming into the room. It seemed he had been eavesdropping outside. "Let's everybody calm down, yeah?"

"Tanya called James," Edward growled. "Does she have any idea how much danger she potentially put Bella and I in?"

Garrett frowned, sighing. "She seems pretty sorry, Edward. Kate's out there trying to calm her down."

"Tears and dramatics aren't sufficient apologies, Gar," Edward said. "You know as well as I do what James is capable of."

Garrett winced a little. I wanted to know what they knew, but something stopped me from asking - probably fear. Just the sound of James's name increased my heart rate.

"I know, but how about -?" he stopped suddenly, his eyes on the beer cans. "Where did you get those?" he demanded, pointing.

Edward stood up rather unsteadily, a tinge of guilt on his perfect features. "We brought them ourselves, mate," he lied, so well that for a second I was convinced too.

"Edward, for God's sake, if anyone caught underagers drinking in my bar I could get into a hell of a lot of trouble, and you know that! And you can't drive yourself and Bella home in the state you're in!"

"Whoops," Edward said, smirking at me, and I tried not to laugh, figuring it probably wouldn't be the best idea when Garrett was looking so pissed.

"I'll check you into the hotel for the night," Garrett sighed. "But you owe me."

"Can't we stay here?" Edward suggested, gesturing to the room around us.

"There's no space, and you'll be more comfortable at the hotel anyway -"

"Yeah, yeah, fine," Edward shrugged, giving in.

Garrett walked us both to the hotel and checked us in, and made sure we found the right room.

"Be good, you two," he said, turning to leave. "And if you can't be good, be careful," he added with a grin.

I blushed, mumbling "night, Gar", as Edward opened the door and pushed me inside.

I was surprised at how nice the room was. I spent ten minutes looking around, while Edward lay down on the fluffy rug in the middle of the room, for no apparent reason.

"What you doing down there?" I asked him eventually, amused.

"It's comfy," he said, and raised his hand in the air. I took hold of it, and let him pull me down onto the ground beside him.

Edward

My head hurt.

Tonight had just been… eventful. Too eventful.

I hadn't planned on going to Port Angeles, let alone go with Bella. Garrett had been on the phone, telling me how James was out of town and that he was putting my name down for a race so I had no reason not to be there, yet I was still reluctant.

I had been to Port Angeles more times than I could count, but now, all of a sudden, I couldn't imagine going without Bella.

I wished someone would punch me, or shake me, or tell me to be a goddamn man, and get over her. Get over this stupid attraction to her, because this wasn't supposed to have happened. She wasn't supposed to mean anything to me.

At all.

But she did. And I didn't know why.

My head gave another particularly painful throb, and I winced. I had overdone it tonight.

Breaking into Bella's house on an impulse - what the hell had that been about?! It was just pure luck that I had gotten the right window.

The race - I hadn't been in the mood for it, and I had so nearly come second again. Something was driving me forward though, making me determined that I would not lose - maybe it was the fact that she was watching.

James - that had been close. He wouldn't have cared about keeping up appearances; he probably would have tried to beat me, right there in the crowded street, and he would have dragged Bella away with him if he had gotten the chance. He was too dangerous to mess around with.

The beer - probably the main cause of my headache. Bad idea, and I hadn't even thought about it properly. Bella wouldn't get home until some time tomorrow, and she'd more than likely be in heaps of trouble with her old man - not that she seemed really concerned right now. She was lying on the floor next to me, and I could smell her perfume. It smelt like strawberries, and it was driving me mad.

She was driving me mad. I wished I could ignore this. I wished I could concentrate on something else, but every time I tried it all came back around to Bella. She was all I was concentrating on now, and I couldn't understand when exactly this had happened. Or how.

And I was sick of listening to myself.

"Edward?" Bella murmured.

"What?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"You," I answered, truthfully, eyeing her face in my peripheral vision, and smirking when I noticed her blush. She was always blushing around me.

"Oh," was all she said, and fell quiet again. I wanted to know what she was thinking, but she interrupted me before I could ask.

"Edward?"

"What?"

"Why are you thinking about me?"

"I don't know," I sighed. I sat up, and held my head in my hands for a second, waiting for the room to stop spinning. I wondered if they had any aspirin in here.

I felt Bella sit up next to me. "Are you OK?" she asked, her words slurring a little. I looked at her, and felt my breath catch - she was too close to me again. That kept happening. I couldn't think right when that happened, and it felt as though my mind was trying to pull my body two ways - away from her, so I could think straight, and towards her, so I could stop thinking.

I hadn't tried the second option yet, and I couldn't help wondering what it would be like.

It would mean I had more or less won the bet, but I didn't care about winning the bet anymore. It didn't seem very significant to me now. I didn't look into Bella's eyes and think of the bet. In fact, when I was with her, sometimes I didn't think of it at all.

I kept protesting, trying to tell myself that this wasn't how it was supposed to happen, but I wasn't listening to that part of my brain. I was listening to the part of me that was actually grateful that I had even bothered with Bella Swan.

There were only a few people I bothered myself with. Only a few people I actually cared about. Everybody else… just wasn't important to me, wasn't worthy of my attention.

Since I had focussed my attentions on Bella Swan for the last month, somehow, she had become important. One of the few.

Craziness.

She was still too close, and was looking at me with that kind of dazed expression, the one she wore when I was too close to her. I could see her chest rising and falling rapidly, and I only realised then that mine was doing the same… this was what kept happening earlier.

She would hold my gaze, and I would hold hers, and we'd both get a little breathless and dizzy and it would be intense… and then someone or something would interrupt.

But not this time. I waited for an interruption to snap me out of this trance, to snap me back into reality and leave me wondering what the hell just happened, but there was nothing. Nothing but Bella.

I then realised that her face was moving closer to mine, and that my head was angling towards hers, and I hadn't told it to. I didn't want to stop it.

She was way too close to me now, and I could see all the freckles on her nose. The mascara on her eyelashes. Every breath I inhaled was of strawberry perfume.

"Edward?" she breathed, her eyes half closed.

"What?" I sort of choked.

"I…"

She didn't finish her sentence, because suddenly she was as close as she could get to my face, and her lips were lightly grazing against mine, and whatever she had been about to say wasn't important to either of us anymore. I pushed my lips against hers instinctively, changing her tentative not-quite-a-kiss into something sure and soft and building; I found myself marvelling at how much I actually liked it, how good she tasted, how much more I wanted, and I got up on my knees and turned my whole body towards her, my hands grabbing her face and securing her to me, because I didn't want this to stop.

Everything was starting to get a little hot, and blurry… her hands were frantic and everywhere; her fingers were tangling in my hair, they were running down and pressing against my chest, they were opening my shirt buttons, they were locking around my neck and pulling me closer. I let myself be yanked towards her, my lips still pushing and moving against hers with that same frantic energy that seemed to be affecting her, too.

I had no idea what was going on, but I sure as hell didn't want to stop kissing her to find out.

But then all of a sudden she pulled away, and I opened my eyes, breathing heavily, to see her pull her top over her head. There she was, in nothing but that luminous bra I had caught a glimpse of earlier and a short skirt, drunk, her lip-gloss smudged and mostly all over my face.

And it woke me up a bit. I couldn't be kissing Bella. We weren't even supposed to like each other. She was drunk. She wouldn't be kissing me if she weren't drunk, so it wasn't right that I take advantage of her.

"Bella, what are you doing?" I asked, my voice hoarse, trying to respectfully look away, but damn was it difficult.

"Well, it's highly obvious that you want me, Edward, so screw it! I'm drunk! I don't care anymore…" Bella said, gazing at me with eyes that seemed unintentionally seductive. I struggled with myself. She was still so close, and I wanted to reach out and kiss her again, but I couldn't, I just couldn't…

"Bella, put your top back on."

"Make me."

"Bella," I whined. "It's very distracting. Will you please put your top back on?"

She giggled. "I didn't expect you to come over all honourable, Edward. I mean, when you got me drunk and had us booked into this hotel room… you must have had it all planned out beforehand."

"I honestly didn't think like that."

"Sure," she said, clearly not believing me. "Phew! It's hot in here."

"Please don't take off any more clothes."

"Spoilsport. I thought you were one of those badass guys, who wouldn't think twice about taking advantage of me."

I realised that if it were any other girl, things would be different… but it was Bella. I didn't want a drunken night with Bella.

I was momentarily confused. What did I want, then? I wanted to kiss Bella, just a minute ago. Did that mean I liked her? Wanted to spend nights with her that didn't involve alcohol, that were sober? I didn't want a drunken night with Bella, so did that mean I respected her more than those other girls, thought she was worth much more to me than a drunken night?

My head was hurting again.

"Edward Cullen, what are you thinking?"

I pulled myself out of my thoughts with a start, rather liking the idea of those questions never being answered.

"I'm thinking… it's time for bed."

"Now that's what I'm talking about."

"No, I mean… time for sleep. You need to sober up."

"You're such a -"

"I'm sure whatever insult you're about to throw at me is fitting, but I don't care. I'm too drunk, and I want to sleep."

"That's your excuse, is it?"

"Whatever, Bella. Now put on your goddamn top."

She was immediately sulky, but thankfully put her top on (backwards, I noticed), covering herself up. Thank God. I helped her up off of the floor and the two of us staggered our way towards the bed. I sat her down on it, and her arms locked around my neck before I could pull away; she kissed me again, before I could do anything to stop it.

I didn't want to pull away.

But I had to.

"No, Bella," I chastised, breaking free of her grip.

"Prick," she muttered, crawling under the duvet huffily. I rolled my eyes, not the least bit bothered. She'd get over it. In fact, she'd probably regret kissing me, in the morning.

I couldn't understand why the thought of that darkened my mood so much.

I staggered around to the other side of the bed, and collapsed on top of it. Bella was already half asleep, and my eyes closed too, as I hoped my brain would shut off quickly and not allow me to think.

The next morning I was wakened by Bella tossing and turning next to me.

"Edward?"

"What?" I muttered, but it sounded more like a growl.

"Where am I?"

"The magical land of Narnia," I replied sleepily, and jumped with pain and fright as she suddenly kicked my shin, hard.

"Ouch!" I yelped, definitely feeling more conscious now.

"Ouch!" Bella groaned, "shut up screaming, my head hurts!"

"You started it," I muttered maturely, the dull ache in my own head becoming more pronounced.

"Oh, shut up," she grumbled. We lay there in silence for a while, and I found myself wondering if she remembered kissing me last night. I remembered every last detail, and I didn't know whether or not I was glad about that. I still wasn't sure what I thought about Bella Swan anymore.

After a while, Bella sat up gingerly, looking around.

"What did we do last night?"

"Alcohol," I said, by way of an answer. "Can't you remember?"

"No, I can't remember much," she said, looking troubled. My heart sank, a little. "Did I do anything embarrassing?" she continued, wary now. "Go on, just make fun of me now, let's get it out of the way."

"Well, apart from the whole trying to seduce me thing you had going on, you were just your average drunk…" I said, smirking.

"I tried to seduce you?" she asked, sounding mortified.

"Yep. You should walk around in your bra all the time. It's hot."

She covered her bright red face with her hands.

"Oh my God," she groaned, avoiding my eye.

"Don't worry," I said, "I won't tell."

I really wanted to add that she had kissed me. Twice. And that I had actually liked it. I just couldn't, though. It seemed too personal a thing for me to share, for some reason, and I didn't want her to think that I liked her.

She didn't like me, anyway, so it didn't matter.

Bella lay back down, still holding her face in her hands, but bolted upright again when her phone started ringing. She fished it out of her boots, where it seemed she had stashed it for the night, and checked the caller ID.

"Oh no," she breathed. "Oh shit. Dad."

To my surprise, she switched off the phone and threw it back into her boots.

I was impressed. "You really are ditching your good girl persona, aren't you?" I commented. "The volcano has erupted."

"Don't think you had anything to do with this," she said grumpily, lying down again.

"I predicted the whole thing."

"Yeah, whatever."

I grinned triumphantly. "The good Bella wouldn't have been lying in a hotel bed with the devilishly handsome Edward Cullen on a Sunday morning, recovering from a hangover, ignoring calls from her worried father. And you know it."

She snorted. "There is no good Bella and bad Bella, Edward. I'm just… doing what I want to do from now on, and what I don't want to do right now is explain to my dad where I am."

"My kind of girl," I said, still grinning in triumph. She fell silent, and was quiet for so long I had to open my eyes and turn my head in her direction to check she was still awake. She was staring at me, looking thoughtful.

"What?" I asked, paranoid.

"What did you mean?"

"What did I mean when?"

"When you said that I'm your kind of girl. What did you mean?"

"I, eh…" I trailed off, momentarily stuck for words. I hadn't really thought about what I was saying when I said it.

We were staring at each other again, fixed in another one of those moments, and Bella's eyes suddenly widened.

"I remember -" she said, and I didn't have to hear anymore. I didn't want to talk, anymore. I moved towards her and kissed her again, and she kissed me back, and it felt and tasted even better than last night because she was sober, and it was a sober kiss, and I still liked it, and she was kissing me like she wanted to. I couldn't stop myself. I crushed her against me and kissed her until everything got too heated and too hazy, and she pulled away first, almost gasping for air. We broke apart, staring at each other again, and then it became awkward.

"I… I'd better get up," Bella mumbled, and half fell out of the bed. I just lay there on her pillow, unmoving. I listened to her getting up and checking around for her stuff, and I just lay there, probing my feelings.

I still didn't know what I thought of Bella Swan. I was torn between what I had previously thought of her, what I was meant to think of her, and what I shouldn't think of her, which annoyingly enough, was what I thought of her.

I rolled my eyes. I didn't think I could possibly get any more confused.