Unbetaed because I'm impatient to get this out to you. And this chapter is truly M rated.
On with the show…
Chapter 21:
Edward's eyes widened as he realized what Isabella was doing. One moment, she was standing before him, vigorously shaking her head in agreement that he should be ever vigilant in the event he fought a vampire ever again; the next she leapt upon him, clinging to him as if her very existence depended upon it, roughly pressing her lips against his. What she lacked in finesse in the kissing department, she more than made up for with enthusiasm. He found that he was pleased that she was not experienced and looked forward to educating her for the rest of their existence.
He felt a low rumbling build in in his chest as the beast inside roused.
Take.
Mine.
Edward struggled to maintain control. There would come a time that he could completely lose his grip over the beast within, but tonight would not be that time.
Her hands moved from his hair to his face, her fingertips lightly caressing his cheeks and jaw, avoiding the rapidly healing cuts, then back to his hair, tugging as she tried to tilt his head toward hers. Without thinking, she pressed herself closer and tighter into him.
Now!
Edward felt his resolve slipping away.
Suddenly, Isabella's demeanor changed, and she froze in place as her mind opened to him. Her entire being tensed in horror at her actions.
No, no, no, no, no, no…
Isabella began to struggle to free herself from his grasp but only succeeded in hiking her skirts further up her legs as Edward wrapped one arm around her waist, the other just below her buttocks to hold her in place.
"Why do you say 'no,' Love?" he whispered in a strained voice. The friction between their bodies was too much to ignore, and he tried to still her.
A quick look of embarrassment flitted over Isabella's face as she avoided meeting his eyes.
"Isabella?"
Again, she refused to meet his inquiring gaze.
"Bella?" Edward ducked his head, trying to chide her into responding. His voice was a low purr, causing a shiver to course through her. He realized her thoughts were once again closed to him. "I cannot help if you do not tell me what is bothering you."
Isabella had never experienced such emotions. She wanted more. While she had a vague idea of what that would involve physically and emotionally, a part of her was afraid Edward would vanish once he took her innocence. Yet in spite of her fears, every fiber of her being yearned to be closer to him. How could she be this way when she had only known Edward for a few days? Sure that was not enough time to…
"Bella?"
"I threw myself at you," she said in a soft whisper, eyes clenched shut in frustration.
"And I responded in kind."
She shook her head. Even in her little corner of the world, she had learned what was acceptable behavior for a man was not the same as what was acceptable for a woman.
"Please put me down."
"No."
"Sir…"
"I think we are quite beyond such formality." He smiled, earning a frustrated growl and a shove to his chest in response.
Isabella struggled more to free herself. She was a kitten bowing up before a lion and it took all he had to not grin broadly in amusement at her fury.
Isabella was so adorably human in her vain attempt to move him.
Human.
But not for long, whispered the beast within.
"Tell me what has upset you," Edward gently requested, trying to ignore just where her breasts and his hands were. The mind was willing, but the flesh was weak. He felt himself harden and fought the urge to pull her closer and make use of the bed just a pace away.
Take.
Now.
Isabella's eyes shifted to glance over at a mirror. Edward saw a couple with tousled hair, bright eyes, and kiss-swollen lips. His clothes were dirty and torn from his battle with Laurent; her skirts hiked up above her knees as her legs were still wrapped around his waist. He saw the bits of white lace that adorned her undergarments peek out under the deep blue of her dress and wondered if there were ties or hooks holding it together.
In all of his days, human and vampire, he had never seen anything as alluring as what was reflected back at him right then.
"I was so relieved that you were not hurt, I guess I did not think of the impropriety…"
"Impropriety?" Edward said with a scoffing noise. "I had you taken from your home in the middle of the night because I wanted you in my bed. I think we are quite beyond being concerned with impropriety."
"But…"
"Hush," he whispered, tilting his head so their foreheads touched. "Breathe, my Isabella. I believe it is safe to say we both desire the other."
After a moment, she calmed, relaxing into his arms. Edward could not help but think of how natural this felt, as if they were made to fit together. Her thoughts, although disjointed, began to open to him once again.
"What am I to you?" Isabella finally said in a meek whisper.
Words like courtesan and concubine darted through her mind. Visions of a single night where he forced his attentions upon her only to leave her at morning light broken, alone, and abandoned flew through her thoughts.
Edward growled in anger, quickly ceasing when he realized Isabella cowered at the sound. She was his treasure, never to be put aside.
"What are you to me?"
She nodded.
"You are my everything. Everything I have ever wanted and everything I have ever run from."
Isabella tilted her head in confusion.
"You are my forever, Isabella Swan. Until you send me away, I am by your side."
Mine. The beast agreed.
She studied his face for a moment, trying to discern if he was telling the truth and saw no signs of deceit.
"Like Leah and Jacob?"
Memories of the wolf-shifter couple's relationship, granted they were colored by Isabella's perspective, flashed through her mind. Edward realized it mirrored that of the couples in his family and nodded.
"No leaving in the middle of the night?"
Guilt filled her mind as she realized she was not supposed to know that part of the story. Charles had attempted to hide it from her for her entire life, but during one particularly raucous celebration, a little too much fermented barley had loosened his tongue when he thought she had been asleep. Now she knew how her mother's life had ended, and while the closure was appreciated, a deep-centered pain welled within her chest. Edward promised silently that he would strive to never give her a reason to doubt the depth of his feelings for her.
"Unless you send me out," Edward vowed.
Isabella thought for a moment. She did not entirely understand what it would mean to be with Edward forever, for she had no strong example on which to base her decision. Yet she had watched Father Carlisle and his Esme since they had come to her village and admired the tender love and care she saw. If Edward was anything like them that was a forever she could be content with. She smiled gently before making the slightest of nods.
"I want," she whispered.
Edward's face fairly glowed from the broad smile he made in response.
"Now, let me try something. Be very still."
Without hesitation to allow her to debate, he kissed her softly, silently urging her to respond to his attentions. A sweet sigh of satisfaction escaped her lips as she did, learning quickly how to match his movements. He traced one finger down her jaw, gently urging her to open to him which she did, earning a groan of pleasure as he deepened their kiss. Isabella's hands gently slid under Edward's torn overcoat and without even realizing she was doing so eased it over his shoulders.
Isabella vaguely heard the clattering noise as the top of a dresser was cleared off before she was carefully placed upon it. Edward's coat followed the comb, mirror, and assorted bottles onto the floor. She stared in silence at him as he seemed to wait for her to say something, anything.
"Do you want this?" Edward finally asked in a strangled voice, holding himself in check.
Take. Mine.
He had a tenuous grip on his control, on the beast within that was struggling to get free.
"Do you want me? For eternity? And all it takes to obtain that?"
Isabella nodded.
"There is pain involved. More intense than anything you have ever experienced."
"You will be there throughout it?"
"Every second."
"And after?"
"Until you send me away."
"And when it is done?"
"Hell itself could not separate us."
Isabella thought for a moment before nodding.
The beast roared in approval.
"Say it," Edward pleaded in a low voice, his eyes darkening to the deepest black.
Isabella gazed into his eyes, meeting his stare unblinkingly.
"I want you," she replied in a strong voice, no louder than a whisper. "Forever."
Edward bowed his head in acknowledgement and silently removed her boots, one at a time, massaging her feet and ankles. He smiled as Isabella giggled when his fingers brushed against a particularly sensitive spot. Edward placed his hands at her waist and gently assisted her to her feet before turning Isabella to face the mirror.
She looked at her reflection, focusing more on the disheveled man behind who stared intently at her.
"My Isabella," Edward murmured, running his lips down the column of her throat as his arms wrapped around her waist.
Isabella swallowed hard, unable to speak. The coolness of his touch and the pleasure evoked by it caused her to shiver and close her eyes.
She felt the fastenings on the back of her dress give way and watched as Edward eased first one sleeve and then the other off her shoulders. Her dress fell with a soft rustle to pool at her feet.
As Edward continued to place soft kisses across the nape of her neck, he tugged at the ties that held a light corset in place. It, too, fell to the floor.
Isabella looked into the mirror to see a young woman with flushed cheeks and rosy lips slightly parted, clad in the finest, lightest-weight cotton underclothes imaginable as Edward watched her intently.
This must be what it feels like to be desired.
"Yes," Edward whispered, placing another kiss on her shoulder. "Beautiful."
He took her hand and gently guided her toward the bed. Edward sat on the edge and pulled Isabella to straddle his lap.
"I am yours," he whispered, his hands interlaced and resting on her bottom.
Isabella tentatively placed her hands on his chest, earning a nod of approval.
"You are mine," Isabella murmured, fumbling with the fastenings of his shirt. With a little struggling, she finally tugged the last button free but found Edward refused to release his hold on her to allow the shirt to be removed.
Isabella pulled on the torn fabric but he shook his head.
"No."
"But…"
"It will cost you," he said with a boyish grin.
Isabella could almost imagine Edward cajoling his way out of a punishment with this look.
"But…"
In a whirlwind, Isabella found herself stripped of her undergarments and laying underneath Edward as he knelt over her. With a slow grin, he eased the shirt off and tossed it to the floor before lowering himself onto her.
Isabella softly gasped in shock and then pleasure as she felt his weight against her. The fine wool of his britches brushed against her bare legs as he traced his lips over her forehead, across her eyelids and then to her ear.
"Mine," he murmured, reveling in how her body responded to his touch.
Edward continued to ghost his lips over her jaw, smiling as she giggled when he nipped playfully at the thin flesh that covered her jugular.
Mine.
Soon, he assured the beast. But not yet.
Edward's tongue lightly trailed over her collarbone before he ventured lower, placing a soft kiss over her heart.
Isabella arched her back and gasped as he blew cool air over the damp spot his kiss had left.
"You like?" he whispered, looking up at her through his eyelashes, earning a silent nod.
By all the heavens, she was gorgeous stretched out on his bed, trusting him completely as his lips drifted over one breast, lightly teasing first one peaked nipple and then the other. Her sounds of pleasure were sweeter than anything he had ever heard.
Never in all of his existence, human or vampire, had Edward ever imagined he would be here, in the house he had been born in, where his parents had died, with someone like Isabella. His Isabella.
Mine.
Isabella wriggled underneath him, her fingers laced through his hair as he continued to suckle her, teasing her further and further. She felt a tightening low in her belly and rubbed her thighs together in a futile effort to ease the ache.
"Ah, ah, ah," Edward clucked, placing one hand on her hip to still her. His thumb traced soothing circles over the bone. "Not yet, Isabella."
He smiled at the questions that flew through her mind, but continued to hold her in place. Edward was a selfish bastard and wanted her pleasure to be solely caused by him.
"But…"
Edward placed one finger over her lips to silence her.
"Scoot back."
After she obeyed, he took her hands and placed them on the spindles of the headboard.
"Do not let go until I tell you to do so."
Isabella studied him for a moment before a shy smile crept over her face. She nodded silently and watched as he slid off the bed and unfastened his britches. They quickly joined the other clothes on the floor. He knew she was studying him, her eyes widening as she realized they were both naked.
And she liked what she saw. Her thoughts told him how she admired the breadth of his shoulders, the strength of his chest, and more.
Without a word, Edward placed a soft kiss on a scar at her ankle.
When I fell in the pond, she remembered.
And then another kiss was laid on a healing scrape on her knee.
I tripped at the market.
Edward gently held her thighs still as he laid a kiss on a freckle near her hipbone before trailing his lips lower, brushing oh-so-lightly over delicate skin.
What are you…
Isabella's thoughts ceased, not because her mind closed to him but because she no longer could form a coherent thought as he parted her thighs and gently swept his tongue over her most sensitive of places. Every muscle in her body tensed as he opened her further and continued to pleasure her.
The tightening she had felt a few minutes before recommenced, intensifying as he licked and sucked. Isabella chanced to open her eyes and looked down at Edward.
"Let go and I stop," he whispered in a low voice.
Edward smiled a self-satisfied grin as he felt her grip on the spindles tighten.
She was close, and he knew it. From the warm honey that dripped from her to the rapidly pounding heartbeat, he was certain her pleasure was bearing down on her.
But he was a selfish creature. Later, there would be time for her to orgasm on his tongue. But tonight, he wanted her to be pushed over the edge by his cock.
Isabella writhed underneath him, reveling in the pleasure Edward was bringing to her. Far in the back of her mind, she remembered Sue's lesson on the relations between men and women.
Blood and pain.
"Only for a moment, my love," Edward whispered, suddenly next to her ear, causing her to start.
He soothed her, running his hands over her cheeks and jaw.
"Tell me to stop, and I will."
Isabella shook her head in denial. She wanted this. She wanted him.
"Wrap your arms around me," he murmured, moving to kneel between her thighs as she did.
"Mine," Edward agreed before thrusting into Isabella, swallowing her response as he covered her mouth with his.
Mine, Isabella sighed, pinching her eyes shut as a single tear threatened to spill over her cheek.
Edward slowly withdrew before sliding back home, reveling in the warmth, the tightness that was his Isabella.
She gasped as he moved, the pain now gone, replaced by the tightening she had felt twice before. Suddenly, the intensity grew, barreling down upon her. Isabella could not stop it, not that she wanted it to cease. Her groans and cries of pleasure grew louder and louder until her entire being tensed and suddenly exploded into shimmers of pleasure.
Mine, roared the beast just before Edward's teeth sank into Isabella's throat.
~~STTBW~~
*Peeks out between fingers* How we all doing out there in reader-land?
I do apologize for the delay in posting this chapter—RL was busy & then I decided hey, October 31st is my Twilight FanFiction anniversary (since 2009!) I'll post the chapter then. And my computer crashed. Thank heaven for DH's remote backups!
Yours truly has been nominated in two categories for the TwiFic Fandom Awards—Favorite Ficlet (Counting Chickens) and Favorite Out of this World Fic (She tames the beast within). There are sooooo many of my favorites listed in all the categories. First round voting ends 11/7, and you can vote every day.
It's time for the annual write 50k words challenge otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. I'm doing it so let's cross our fingers Beast gets the most attention, okay?
*mwah!*
DeJean