I broke 100 reviews last chapter. Made for an awesome Christmas present. The support you've all given me is incredible. You have no idea how much I love hearing what you have to say and I appreciate every single one of you who is reading this so very, very much.

I own nothing and mistakes are always my own, but I'm warning you that I gave this chapter a final read through very late and after a very long and tiring (but wonderful) Christmas. So, I hope you'll be forgiving.

Chapter 14

EPOV

I woke the next morning with a pounding headache, an unsettled stomach, and an obnoxious tickling sensation underneath my nose. The first two made me feel like absolute shit, but I could care less about the tickling since it was a direct result of the gorgeous, silky, brown hair that was splayed out all over my upper body. That tickling sensation meant that everything that had happened the night before was real, it wasn't a dream or a drunken figment of my imagination. Her hair was tickling my face, her arm was lying across my chest, and her leg was hitched over mine. It was real and I couldn't believe it.

I shifted a little and it must have jostled her too much as she grabbed her head and groaned. "No, no don't move, please."

"Sorry sweetheart," I mumbled and placed a kiss on the top of her head and ran my hands down the length of her body. It took a moment for my sleepy brain to register it but my fingers were met with cloth and not the smooth, silky skin I'd been hoping to find.

"Hey, wait a second," I pouted. "How do you have clothes on and I'm still naked? That hardly seems fair?"

She giggled quietly and then grasped at her head from the movement. "Sleeping naked, all cuddled up, skin to skin in the middle of summer? Sounds nice but it's actually, uh, kinda sweaty and sticky. I woke up in the middle of the night and it was hot and I felt like death on a plate. So, I grabbed some clothes, got a bottle of water and found your ibuprofen. Then I got back into bed."

"What'd you do with the pills? My head is killing me too."

"Nightstand."

She slowly and carefully slid from my chest to the other pillow so I could gingerly turn over and face my nightstand. The woman was a goddess, she left a whole bottle of ibuprofen and an unopened bottle of water sitting there. I popped a few into my mouth and downed half the bottle of water, desperately needing to rehydrate. Since it had been a few hours since she'd first taken them, Bella popped a few more as well and finished off the water. Now that she was clothed, it made me feel like a weirdo to just be hanging around naked. So with slow movements, I rose out of bed and pulled on a pair of boxer briefs and some sleep pants.

When I pulled back the covers to get into the bed I smiled as I noticed that she was wearing my button down from the night before with only half the buttons done up. She saw my little smile and called me out on it. "First thing I saw," she said with a shrug, but when I slid into the bed next to her, she was wearing the cotton shorts from the night before, which had been left in the other room. She'd gone that far for her shorts and still wore my shirt instead of grabbing something of her own while she was up.

"Looks better on you anyways," I replied honestly. It wasn't the first time she'd worn my clothes but it was the first time she'd worn them like that and I'll be damned if she ever looked sexier than she did at this moment. I was instantly regretful that our hangovers prevented me from doing anything more than appreciating the view but I reminded myself that the odds were in favor of me being able to do more than look a little later.

When I was back in the bed we carefully we slid closer to each other once more and drifted back to sleep for a few more hours. The next time I woke it was just after noon but my headache was gone and I felt mostly human again. My stomach was a little sensitive still but I expected it would be ok once it had something in it. Bella reported similar symptoms before offering a proposition I couldn't refuse.

"Coffee and Netflix on the couch?"

"Hell yes."

"Can we bring this blanket?" she asked, gesturing to the comforter wrapped around her.

"Duh, of course."

"And the pillows?"

I nodded, giving her an over exaggerated eye roll as I gathered up most of my bedding and carried it out of the room. While Bella picked something to watch, I set to work on the coffee. When I carried the two steaming mugs into the living room, I found that Bella had created a small bed of sorts on the floor with pillows and blankets for us to cuddle up in. It looked exactly like the kind of 'nest' we used to create in my mom's living room to watch movies in as children when the weather was nasty and cold.

"The couch was too small," she said with an adorable little shrug but I didn't care. It looked like heaven.

In the back of my mind I knew I had a million questions that needed to be answered but for now, I'd enjoy this and later we could have that talk. I handed over her mug and she took a careful sip and then smiled.

"I still can't believe you remember how I like it after all these years. This tastes like I made it myself."

"Of course I do. It's not hard, half a spoonful of sugar and just a splash of milk. You've been taking your coffee the same for years. Though if you're splurging on the fancy overpriced stuff you get a double shot white chocolate mocha with plenty of whipped cream because 'what fun is splurging if you don't get whip'," I quoted with a smirk. "Unless of course it's Christmas," I added "then it's a gingerbread latte."

"Wow," she said in surprise. "I'm impressed."

"Pshhh," I scoffed. "That's nothing. You're favorite food is Italian, basically anything with pasta makes you happy but you also get cravings for Mexican food often which is where our weekly taco night came from. You like sweets, especially cheesecake but for general snacking, you choose salty over sweet. You don't mind my comic book action movies but you hate anything with too much gore or with gratuitous violence. You prefer comedies and lots of sappy romantic movies, though you only watch those when you're alone."

Her mouth fell open in surprise then and I laughed. "You leave them in the dvd player," I informed, enjoying the blush that had crept across her cheeks. "Anyways, when it comes to books you read a lot of those young adult books to keep in touch with what your students like reading but you personally prefer the classics, except for Moby Dick, that one bored the hell out of you and took you forever to finish. You like Pride & Prejudice when you're happy but when your love life has beaten you down a bit you tend to go for Wuthering Heights. Not sure I understand why though I guess it would help to read about people whose love lives are way more messed up."

"I can't believe you know all of that about me!"

I shrugged, taking a sip of my own coffee before setting it on the coffee table which she'd shoved off to the side to accommodate our nest. "Why? I'm your best friend. Aren't I supposed to know that stuff?"

"But you're a guy. Guys don't ever notice all that. I was with James for three years, as way more than just a friend and I doubt he knew any of that, not even how to make my coffee. In fact, the last time he picked up Starbucks he brought me back a tea. When have you ever seen me drink tea?"

"Never," I said, confidently. "Your mom used to give it to you when you were sick but you've never liked it."

She grew quiet after that, staring into her cup while I pretended to peruse the Netflix options. When a full five minutes had passed without a word I had enough.

"Alright, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, I just…" she sighed loudly and set down her cup before looking up at me. "I just realized I was going to marry a man who, after three years, still didn't know whether I preferred coffee or tea. All the while, I've never even considered the man who knows me better than I know myself. Do you know that I've never made the connection between what's going on in my life and when I choose to re-read Wuthering Heights or Pride & Prejudice? But you're right about it. I totally do that."

"B, I've just known you a really long time. I bet you can rattle off a whole list of things about me too."

"It's not about the length of time," she said, her voice low and serious. "You just cared enough to notice and remember."

I couldn't deny that. "Well, you could probably answer all of that about me too…and more."

I could see her mull that over for a bit before offering a little nod. "You're right. I can. Funny though, I was just bitching about James but the truth is, I can't answer half of those for him either. I mean, I know how he takes his coffee and I know when we ate out he always chose Indian food or steakhouses but that's about it. I don't even know what his favorite movie is or his favorite song. That's weird, isn't it?"

"Like I said, Bella, I've known you longer."

"But I was going to marry him! Shouldn't I have known that stuff before I even considered marrying him?"

"I don't know, B. What are you trying to say?"

She shrugged and her head dropped sadly. "I don't know. I guess I'm just trying to figure out how my life went wrong. How I could agree to marry a man who, apparently, I barely knew and who obviously barely knew me in return? You heard him, he wanted me to spend my life barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. In three years he couldn't figure out that I'm not exactly the June Cleaver type. I wasted years on a man who had no qualms about being unfaithful and getting another girl pregnant, so clearly he didn't really even care much about me. Yet I totally ignored the one who did. God, I'm so fucked up."

I could see her eyes grow watery as tears threatened to fall but she was stubborn and I watched her try to hold them back.

"Stop it, Bella. Don't do that to yourself. Hindsight is twenty-twenty you know? Plus, you did not ignore me. I saw you all the time."

I reached my hand over to hold hers but she pulled it back quickly. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm still struggling with the fact that I was so stupid and naïve to think I could marry a man that I clearly didn't know that well and believe we'd live happily ever after. Meanwhile, there's a man who knows me better than I know myself, who's always been there for me, who has loved me," her voice cracked with emotion and the tears began to form once more, "for years, I think you said, and I was too stupid to see it. That's what I mean by ignoring you. James looked good on paper and so I spent years trying to force something that was completely wrong that I couldn't see the right thing when it was staring me in the face. I'm so sorry, Edward."

"For what?"

"For refusing to acknowledge what was right in front of me. For never allowing myself to even consider you as more than a friend. I don't know why. You are the best man I know, kind, fun, caring, honest, responsible, smart. How did I not notice that you were also sexy as hell?" The last little bit came out as a whisper and her eyes grew wide and her face turned beet red as she realized what she'd just said aloud.

My ego had heard it loud and clear though and I couldn't hold back the smirk that crossed my face. "What was that?" I teased.

"Nothing," she insisted, dropping her head but we both knew I heard it. To stave off her embarrassment, Bella decided to turn the tables.

"So, when you said you loved me for years you never said how many. Now I'm curious because, until the Jessica and Mike debacle, you seemed to enjoy screwing around with whoever. You kinda so I know you haven't always been in love with me. I wanna know when it started."

Uh-oh.

I picked up my cup and took a strong fortifying drink of my coffee as I looked for a way out. There wasn't one. Honesty had worked for me last night and if I wanted to make this work with Bella, it needed to be built on honesty.

"Um, like seven years."

"Seven?"

It was my turn to drop my head. "Junior year. Remember the party you threw after the 'Jessica-Mike debacle'?" I asked, stealing her own phrase. You danced with some guy and I got really mad and it became a huge thing?"

"Yeah?"

"That's the night I knew. I didn't realize it until after our fight but that was it."

She was very quiet for a second as she processed all this new information. I could almost see our history replaying in her head. Thankfully, I had set down my coffee cup because the next thing I knew a massive pillow hit me square in the face.

"What the fuck?" I cried.

"Seven years?" she yelled. "Seven years and you said nothing? What the hell, Edward?"

"I was scared," I said which only earned me several more whacks with the pillow.

"Of what, you colossal dumbass?"

"Of getting murdered by pillows for one!" I hollered, throwing up my arms to defend myself. When she tried to hit me again I was ready for it. I grabbed the pillow and tugged on it but Bella wasn't letting go and so I ended up pulling her on top of me and nearly toppling over in the process.

Bella was now lying on top of me and we were both laughing and breathing heavily. I moved a strand of hair out of her face and caressed her cheek tenderly. "This, Bella. I was afraid of losing this."

"You couldn't lose me if you tried," she replied.

"Even if I had told you I was in love with you back then?"

She pushed against my chest and sat up as she pondered that question. "Truthfully?"

"Sure, let's have it." She was mine now so I had nothing to fear.

"If you'd just come out with it and announced it out of the blue, it might have freaked me out just because we were never like that."

"That's why I never said anything," I began.

She gave me her stern teacher face and I immediately shut up. "I'm not finished."

"Sorry."

"Shush," she said with a smirk. "Anyways, as I was saying. I might have freaked out, but I would have thought about it and I would have realized that I could never find a better man than you. If I wasn't such an idiot I would have seen that for myself years ago. I think I locked away the idea of you and I in that way so long ago that I had lost the key and forgotten that the idea was even possible. I always told myself it would be weird and awkward, like being with Emmett or something."

I must have made a face at the visual that gave me because Bella laughed and said, "Right? Gross!"

"Bella, please tell me last night was not like being with your brother. If it was I may need you to put me out of my misery right here and now," I said, only half joking.

"Oh my God! Edward!" she screeched and once again I was being smacked in the face with a pillow. "First of all, I have absolutely no basis for comparison so…yeah. Secondly, I think I might barf and it'll be all your fault so any mention of Emmett ends here or else you'll be stuck with a lot of puke-y laundry. Lastly, I can confidently say that last night was the single most incredible experience of my life and I will be forever grateful to the liquor Gods for letting me actually remember it."

That thought hadn't even crossed my mind and suddenly I felt like the world's biggest shit for allowing our first time to happen while we were drunk out of our minds. "Shit, Bella, I didn't…I mean…fuck, I screwed it up didn't I? I had a better plan, I promise. I wanted to tell you how I felt but not that way. And our first time? Dammit, I should have taken you out, somewhere nice and treated you like a queen. Instead we were drunk and yelling and…"

"Edward, get the fuck out of your own head for once, will ya?" she said, and then moved to straddle my lap, taking my face in her hands. "I just told you that it was incredible. Fuck, it was mind-blowing actually! I didn't even understand that phrase before now. I mean, sex was always nice and all but last night? Holy shit! Who cares if you didn't wine and dine me? That wouldn't be us! If we're going to do this I want to still be us, and our idea of wine and dine is Two Buck Chuck and Taco Bell. You wanna get fancy? We can get a whole box of wine and some Chipotle."

I snorted and she smiled. "See, you know that's more our speed. Let's learn from that disaster of a nightclub last night and stick to what works for us."

"Like spending a Saturday in a nest of pillows and blankets on the floor watching movies like we did when we were ten?"

"You're learning."

I couldn't believe this had all worked out, that she was mine and that we were really doing this. "Sorry, I'm such a slow learner," I whispered as I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly. "I just realized we were drunk for our first time and felt like shit. Last night was amazing but I don't want to feel like I took advantage of you. I love you so much, I don't want to screw this up."

"Edward?"

"Yes, B?" I replied, as she sat back.

"I'm sober now."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"I said that I'm sober now," her voice dropped to a low husky tone and she moved to the top button of her shirt to accentuate her point. "You didn't take advantage of me. If I recall, you gave me plenty of opportunities to stop it if I was uncomfortable with anything and, drunk or not, I would have if that's how I felt. I'm not scared of you. If you had tried to do something I wasn't down with I woulda called you out on it and told you to back the fuck off."

She popped the button free and I began salivating as her breasts came into view. "But I wanted you, Edward," she said, working the next button free. "I wanted you last night when I was drunk and I want you again right now while I'm sober."

She ground her hips a little as she toyed with the third button. "I trust you, Edward. I would trust you with my life. I just need you to trust that I will always tell you the truth. Good or bad. You should know that by now."

"Of course I trust you," I protested, wanting desperately to touch her. But it felt like she was making a point and I was trying to let her make it even though her hips wiggling against my hard as steel erection was bordering on torture and making it damn near impossible to form coherent thoughts.

"Then believe me when I tell you that last night was perfect but if you'd like to try and top it…"

The girl was good. She knew I was a perfectionist who loved a challenge and so she knew just what to say. I took it as my greenlight and my inner caveman took over as I all but ripped the shirt off of her. She crushed her lips to mine and rocked devilishly on my lap as my hands roamed every exposed inch of skin. She was so soft she would probably make silk feel like burlap in comparison. It was pure heaven.

However, her grinding her little lap against me was hell, at least while we still had too many layers of clothing separating us. With my arms securely around her I flipped onto her back. "Mmm," she moaned against my lips before placing kisses along my jaw. "I kinda like this new form of wrestling we have."

"Do you? Because you're still going to lose," I teased as I lowered my head to her gorgeous succulent tits, flicking the pert little nipple of one with my tongue as my hand gently massaged the other.

"Am I? I'm pretty sure I'm winning right now," she let out with a gasp.

"Isabella Swan, I've known you forever. So, how is it I'm just finding out what a vixen you are?"

She tugged on my hair and I lifted my head to look up at her. "Because you forgot the most important part of our friendship. We can tell each other anything. No matter how scary. Got it?"

"Got it. Now can I show you how sorry I am?" I tried to lower my head back to worship at her breasts but she tugged on my hair again, keeping me facing her.

"Nope."

"What?" I cried. My lower lip may have even come out in a petulant show of protest.

"No more apologies," she said breathlessly. "We've both said ours now and we can probably argue faults or mistakes forever but it doesn't matter. It all worked out and we're here now, together, and it feels amazing."

I couldn't argue with that. "Ok, then can I show you how much I love you?"

Her entire face lit up as she smiled. "Only if I can return it."

I paused with the realization of my dreams coming true. I was in love with this woman and she was in love with me in return. I pushed myself forward and captured her lips with a ferocity that caught her off guard and elicited a small gasp from her. The electricity between us practically crackled in the air as our kisses grew hungry and desperate. Bella slid her hands down my back and slid under the waistband of my pajama pants and pushed them down. I broke away from her just long enough to take them and my boxers off completely. She lifted her hips so I could slide her shorts down and I did so at lightning speed just so I could get back to kissing her again.

We became so wrapped up in each other that neither of us heard the sound of the key in the lock of the front door. Or the sound of the door opening. But both of our heads snapped up in surprise and utter horror as an all too familiar voice pierced our quiet little bubble.

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

Any bets on who it is? I imagine a lot of you will figure it out but I'd love to hear your theories. See you Monday!