The Love Boat

Geekchic12, Carenl, maxandmo, and Obsmama are mermaids that clean up my words and dirty up the dirty. ;) I have no words to describe the love I have for them. And not just because the sea witch stole my voice. ;)

Chapter 21 Lover

I lay still, refusing to move.

My mind was awake, but my body was still sleeping.

If I could just manage to lull my brain back to sleep, the rest of my body would never know the difference.

It was probably too early to wake up anyway.

I turned over to face the nightstand, hugging my pillow as I took several long, deep breaths.

If I only opened one eye to see what time it was, I'd only be half-awake. I could still go back to sleep.

Oh my god, brain. What in the hell are you doing waking me up before eight? Edward and I didn't get back in bed until after three. Plus, we made out before we fell asleep. That probably lasted like twenty-two minutes, at least. Seven forty-three, minus three, less twenty-two minutes…wait, how do I know it was twenty-two minutes? I don't know…I'm half-asleep…it's an estimate. Anyway, that's only like three hours and twenty-one minutes of sleep. That's not enough. Go back to sleep, brain.

Ugh. If I was awake enough to be doing mental math, I wasn't getting back to sleep.

I rolled back over to look at Edward's peacefully sleeping face, illuminated in the glow from the bathroom light. My mind wandered back to last night with the chocolate and post -shower make -out session. After everything we'd done in the last week, how could just kissing and touching until we fell asleep still feel so amazing?

I started to wonder if Edward was fake -sleeping, trying not to wake me. He usually went for a run before I woke. As gently as I could, I rose up on my elbow, leaned over him, and whispered, "Are you still asleep?"

"Yes. But I won't be if you keep staring at me." I flinched at the gruffness of his voice. I'd expected the sleep-soaked huskiness but not the irritated tone.

"You're kind of a grump in the morning before your run."

"Maybe it's not the run that makes me less grumpy. Maybe it's what happens in the shower afterward." Before I could even gasp in surprise, his hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, pulling my hand under the sheet to his tent pole.

His pinched expression started to slip before he re-scrunched his eyebrows and pursed his lips to hide the cheeky grin that flashed across his face.

"Faker," I drawled lowly with a smirk of my own as I wrapped my hand around him.

He tucked one hand behind his head and sliding the other through my hair to draw my face closer to his. "I assure you, it's not fake."

I snorted, trying to push away. "Morning breath."

"Just a sec…" He held a finger up and twisted his lean torso to pull something from his nightstand. I thought he might be getting a condom, but when he came back, he ordered me to open my mouth. "Breath strips," he said, popping one into my mouth and then his own.

"Now kiss me, woman."

I tilted my head. The sheet stung my tongue as it dissolved. "You think of everything, don't you?"

"When motivated." He winked and pulled me into a searing kiss as I wrapped my hand around his length.

Edward's eyelids slowly slid shut as his head lolled against his pillow. I'd have almost thought he'd fallen back asleep if it weren't for the way his thumb brushed the outside of my leg in the same lazy rhythm my hand stroked up and down his shaft and the barely audible moans he exhaled as my hand tightened around him.

I wasn't sure if he was begging or demanding as he squeezed my thigh and asked, "More."

Scooting to kneel beside him, I gripped him harder and quickened my strokes. I looked down at my hand and was fascinated by the sight of him disappearing into it and reemerging over and over again.

I glanced at him sprawled across the bed and back to my hand. It made me think of the stories I'd heard Alice and other girlfriends tell about waking their guys with a surprise b-j. Of course, that would require me to A, wake before him without waking him up in the process and B, put his penis in my mouth. That was not going to happen. Even if his was almost pretty. For a penis. I mean, they're all kind of ugly. But his was less ugly.

Edward groaned deeply as I sped my movements. The more I watched him sliding through my hand, the more I wanted him. I involuntarily wet my lips. With barely a thought, I threw my leg over his hip and sank onto him.

In one fluid motion, he sat up and grabbed my hips, slamming me down. I started to wrap my hands around his shoulders but used them to push away from him instead, whimpering, "Shit."

At the same time, he exhaled, "Fuck," pushing me even farther off of him.

In the time it took me to mutter, "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry," he'd retrieved a condom and rolled it into place and was pulling me back to him.

I sank onto him again, this time protected, and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, grinding on his pelvis as he guided me with his large hands cupping my bottom. "I really am sorry. I got carried away thinking about—"

"Shh. It's okay. We're fine." He kissed my neck as he reassured me.

"I should have just stuck with the hand job. I just wanted you inside me." I gasped as he flexed his hips, pushing himself deeper as I rocked on him.

"Inside you will always be my favorite place to come."

I smiled at him, raking my hands through his hair as he warned me to hold on. He flipped us, laying me on the bed and thrust into me, pulling out slowly before forcefully plunging back in. "Can you go on birth control?"

A gasp escaped in place of words when I opened my mouth to answer. "Not in the next two days, before the cruise is over."

I looked away, not ready to think about when this would be over. I'd been quietly dreading it since we boarded the ship. I certainly didn't want to think about it when I was so close to coming.

"For after?" he grunted as he slammed into me.

My eyes shot to his. "There's an after?"

He stilled and looked down at me. "Of course there's an after. There may even be a happily ever after."

I blinked back tears. I didn't want to be the girl who cried during sex, especially when it was so relatively new, but I hadn't realized until that moment how much this looming expiry date had weighed on me.

He kissed the corner of my eye and then the other, before bringing his lips to kiss the spot just below my ear. "There is definitely an after." I felt the whispered promise brush across my ear as much as I heard it. And I still felt it as he started moving again.

His kiss swallowed the keening moans of my orgasm before he grunted his into my shoulder.

We barely had time to clean up and dress before room phone rang. "Hello?"

"Is it safe to come over?" Alice asked in a rush, not even pausing for the perfunctory greeting.

"Huh?"

"Is it safe?" she drew out slowly, emphasizing each word individually. "Jasper said I had to call to make sure you were up and not in flagrante delicto. So, are you?"

"Seriously? Why would I answer the phone if we were?"

"Good point. I'll be right there."

Alice was knocking before I could cross the three feet to the door.

"I miss you." Alice threw her arms around my waist. "You're my best friend, and I love you, and we had that thing. I want us to be okay. Are we okay? Do you still hate me?"

I let out a big breath of air. I didn't think I realized until that moment how much tension I was still holding just being at odds with her. "I could never hate you, Alice. I love you too."

"I'm sorry," we both said at the same time. Then we snickered at the same time, which ended up in simultaneous giggles. There's no way either of us could stay mad at the other. She was like my sister.

"I am sorry, Bella. I was a little too defensive."

"No." I shook my head, ready to admit my part. "It was a shock, and I overreacted. What you do privately is none of my business, and I shouldn't make it my business, especially when you consciously keep it separate from me. I'm okay with plausible deniability."

Alice's face lit up in a brilliant smile as she threw her arms around my neck, squeezing me in a fierce hug. "I'm so glad. I hate fighting with you." Her voice cracked and she sniffled.

I wrapped my arms around her too and took a couple of deep breaths to tamp down my own emotions. "I know, Ali Cat. Me too."

We swayed a couple of times before releasing. Alice stood back, wiping at her eyes, and centered herself with a deep, refreshing breath. "Well, now that all of this is over with, darling…" Alice said with an exaggerated New England lockjaw as she hooked her arm through mine, "Shall we brunch?"

"Oh yes, let's!" I replied, mimicking the snooty dialect as she pulled me toward the door.

"Boys, you may accompany us to brunch," she tossed over her shoulder at Edward and Jasper, who until this moment had been completely silent through the entire exchange.

"Oh, goody," Jasper deadpanned.

"Yipee," Edward delivered, equally flat.

After brunch, Alice and Jasper had to rush off to a "meet and greet." They actually had activities booked for the rest of the day. Even though I was okay with the don't-ask-don't-tell fuzziness of their plans, it still kind of felt like we'd been ditched.

Edward held my hand as we aimlessly strolled around the promenade, peeking into shops without buying anything. The simple contact of his palm against mine sent tingles all the way up my arm. The crazy part of my brain wondered if I'd developed bursitis during the trip, but the rational part of my brain knew it was just him. I snorted at my own realization that I'd considered magical prickles from a lover's touch a more logical explanation than a physical ailment.

That thought sent my mind wandering down an entirely different path: Edward was my lover. Edward Cullen, whom I'd secretly pined for my entire adolescence, the exemplar against which every man I'd ever been attracted to was measured, was now my lover. And he wanted an after with me.

The tug on my arm as I unwittingly halted Edward's forward motion snapped me from my introspection.

He spun to look at me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I shook my head slightly. "I just got a little lost in my head."

He raised his eyebrows and took a half a step closer to me. "What were you thinking about that put this sexy little smirk on your face?" He brushed his thumb under my bottom lip.

"I— um." I glanced up at him and was momentarily lost in his eyes before I regained my thoughts. "I just realized you were my lover."

He dipped his head lower so that his face was more level with mine and gave me a cocky smirk. "Were you in doubt about that?"

I shook my head. "No. But it is the first time it occurred to me like that… that you were my lover. I've never connected the words before."

Edward straightened slightly and looked at me expectantly.

"If you think staring at me with your pretty, every-shade-of-green, all twinkly-with-mirth eyes," I said, waving my finger over the general area of his eyes, "until I can't stand the silence and start rambling on about lovers and how you make my heart speed up, which should totally not surprise me at all because you always have, even when we were kids and you put boxes on my head, and how I wish I could go tell all those cheerleaders that hung all over you in the F. H. S. Mighty Spartans cafeteria that you're my lover now and we're totally going to have an after... you've got another thing coming."

Crossing my arms over my chest defiantly, I realized that I had indeed given him just that about a split second before I heard his hearty guffaw.

I stomped my foot, frustrated with myself. "Damn it."

He laughed again, and I snickered with him at my own ridiculousness.

"You're adorable." He dipped his head, pressing his lips to mine in a chaste and yet totally reassuring manner.

"Pfft." I uncrossed my arms and settled my hands at his hips.

"It's true. I adore you." He placed two more sweet kisses on the corner of my mouth.

"Adore?" I asked skeptically.

He kissed the other corner of my mouth and nodded. "Yes, adore. How else do you think I can get my eyes to be all twinkly with mirth?"

I playfully slapped his chest, shaking my head.

He lifted my hand, kissing it like a gentleman in the old time movies. "It's true."

"Oh, my god." Both of our heads shot to the voice coming from the promenade. "Even when you two are being cute and sweet, you're hot!"

As the stunning woman approached us, I couldn't pull my eyes away from the way her dark skin had this luminescent quality against the cobalt blue of the strapless maxi dress she was wearing. The dress elongated her lithe form, as if she needed it. She was almost as tall as Edward. I envied her ability to wear the dress so well. I could never find a maxi that I wouldn't have to pull up to my ears. Stupid maxi dress trend.

She smiled brightly, reaching for my hand. "Hi. I'm Colleen."

I didn't have a chance to respond before she moved to Edward, engulfing his hand with both of hers as she shook it too. "But my all friends call me Coco."

I tried to tamp down the green-eyed monster when she failed to release Edward's hand within an acceptable beat, raising an eyebrow as my eyes flitted between his affable face to her enamored one. "So, are we? Friends?" I asked, maybe a little more sharply than I should have.

Her head snapped back to me, and she dropped Edward's hand in a flash. Turning her attention back to me, she lightly stroked my upper arm in an overly-friendly way. "Oh, of course we are, sweetie. We're all friends on this ship."

"Oh, yeah. Everyone here is super friendly," I said dryly.

"Actually, one of the lifestyle resorts is hosting an exclusive event in the Boom Boom Room Pleasure Chamber today. And these…" She presented us with two black rubber bracelets with a flourish. "...are your special invitations."

We reached for them almost as a reflex to her theatrics. I looked at it and at the white band already on my wrist. They were very similar to the white-means-back-off bracelets, but they were about twice as wide and had the resort's logo embossed in red.

I couldn't remember what all the colored bracelets meant, but I certainly remembered black. Black meant anything goes.

"You want us to wear these? To the orgy room?" I asked with wide-eyed shock.

Edward chuckled, and Coco threw her head back. "You could call it that. But this is just a ticket into the room. No one's going to make you do anything you don't want to do."

She took the black bracelet from me and lifted my hand so she could slip it onto my wrist, adjusting them so both black and white could clearly be seen. "But just so you know, there ain't no shame in coloring up, sweetie," she practically purred, flicking my colorless band before winking and starting to walk away.

Before I could even ask Edward what in the heck had just happened, she turned around and skipped excitedly back to us. Her entire smooth, slinky, sensual act evaporated in her excitement, and she conspiratorially chimed, "Make sure you tell them at the door that Coco sent you. My best friend and I kind of have a competition for who can invite the hottest couple, and you two are my ringers. Jen always wins, but this time, she's going down."

"Wow," I said as soon as Coco was out of earshot.

"Yeah, that was…"

"Yeah."

"You want to get out of here?"

I nodded, and we made our way out of the shopping area. Eventually, we ended up in the solarium, which was surprisingly quiet. Edward grabbed a couple of towels to lay over the double lounger while I stripped down to the bikini I had the forethought to wear under my outfit. I was mentally calculating how long it'd been since Edward had applied my sunscreen in the room when he returned, pouting that he'd missed the strip-tease show.

"Ha ha. I think you've seen me undress plenty of times." I crawled onto the towel on my side of the lounger.

"But as your lover, I should get to watch every time." Edward settled onto his side with graceful ease.

I shook my head at myself. "Can we pretend that whole little breach of mental filter didn't happen?"

"No way, lover. I have so many questions."

"Yeah, I can tell." I turned on my side, and he mirrored me so we were lying face to face, not quite touching.

"I want to hear more about the part where I make your heart speed up." His hand moved to the place where mine rested on the towel between us. He started playing with my fingers, the same way he had when we met up at the restaurant less than a week ago.

"That," I said, nodding toward our tangled fingers. "I can't even tell you the things it does to me."

"Really?"

I nodded. "It makes my heart race and kind of steals my breath away. I don't know what it is about it, but it goes straight to my…" I bit my bottom lip, not sure if I could say where the excited pulses landed aloud. His encouraging eyes found mine, but I still couldn't quite say it. "Well, I think you can guess where."

"Yeah?" He licked his lips, rising up on his elbow to draw his lips so close to mine that I could feel them flutter as he said, "I have a couple of ideas."

"I'm sure you do."

"But first," he said with a cocky smile as he rolled back on to his side, "tell me about the boxes."

"Tease."

"You're the one who tried to distract me with Coquette 101."

"What?"

"Come on. The lip biting. The looking away. The breathy whispering."

"I was trying to be sexy." I huffed, trying to hide my silly smile.

"Everything you do is sexy. I'll bet you even sneeze sexy."

"Oh, yeah. I have the sexiest snot around. Even says so in my yearbook."

He chuckled. "Nice try with the distraction. Now tell me about these boxes I put on your head."

"Fine. I can't believe you don't remember this. One day the summer after you graduated, you came to pick Alice and me up at the pool. On the way home, you stopped by Thriftway to get some boxes. You said there wasn't enough room with Alice and me in the back seat, so you turned a couple over and put them on our heads. I had such a big, stupid crush on you, I didn't even care."

He threw his head back with a deep guffaw.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. It was hilarious," I deadpanned.

"I do remember that! The looks on your faces were priceless." He twirled his finger around at my expression. "Kind of like right now."

I tried to keep a straight face, but between the sounds of his belly laughs and the memory of my mortification, I couldn't hold back my own smile.

"And not even that could quell your crush for me?"

"Nope. I had it bad." I giggled because it really was bad.

Edward continued to play with my hands and fingers as I told him story after embarrassing story of my unrequited crush. Apparently, I was totally okay with exchanging my teenage humiliation for the amused twinkle in his eye.

Eventually

the conversation lulled, and after staring at each other moon-eyed for who knows how long, Edward asked what I wanted to do for the rest of the day.

Alice and Jasper would probably be off to one of their classes by now.

The cabin seemed too claustrophobic. The privacy of the microscopic room had its advantages, but I was feeling restless.

My beloved summertime read wasn't really hitting the spot. Something about the atmosphere on the ship made it hard to wander down the clay roads of late Edwardian-period Prince Edward Island.

The pool had too many people and too few bathing suits.

I wasn't much of a gambler, so the casino didn't sound like much fun.

I was even less of a shopper.

"I don't know what's left," Edward said with a resigned sigh.

I shrugged. "Hey, why didn't you ask me if I wanted to go to the Boom Boom Room party thing?"

He threw his head back and laughed.

I rose up on my elbow. If I wasn't offended before, I certainly was now. "What's so funny?"

He mirrored my position and steeled his face. "Okay, Bella. You wanna go to the orgy?"

NO! But I could hardly admit it after the indignation I tossed at him over not being asked.

He raised his eyebrows expectantly. The corners of his mouth started to pull into what I was sure was going to be the smuggest smirk ever known to mankind.

"Yes!" I sat up.

His jaw fell slack.

That's right, buddy. I can smirk too.

I stood from the chaise, crossing my arms over my chest. "Yep. Let's go to the orgy."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." I nodded, arching my eyebrow for added effect.

"Okay." He got up from the lounge and reached for my hand. "Let's go."

His smug look was back, but if he thought I was going to let him call my bluff, he had another thing coming.

Apparently, when he was on a mission to prove a point, he forgot that my strides were like half as long as his, and he practically pulled me toward the Boom Boom Room Pleasure Chamber.

Edward came to an abrupt stop not far from the entrance and spun to face me. "Bella, you don't have to prove anything to me."

Thank goodness. I let out a relieved breath. I'd been trying to think of a way to get out of this since that damn "yes" slipped out of my mouth. Not only was Edward giving me an out, but there weren't any traces of judgment on his face either. He wasn't challenging me or calling me a prude.

I started to tell Edward I'd changed my mind, but then I heard peals of laughter floating out of the repurposed ballroom. Part of me really wondered what exactly was going on behind those heavy curtains. I wondered what it looked like. How did people pair up? Did they even pair up? Or did the dude just aim for any convenient hole?

I shook my head to clear the distraction and opened my mouth again to tell Edward we should leave, but then I realized that this would probably be my only chance to see something like this. It would be like a study in counterculture, one I'd probably never experience again. "No. I want to go."

"Really?"

"Yeah. For… academic reasons." I trailed my finger over the invitation bracelet on my wrist.

"Academic reasons?"

I nodded and started walking toward the Boom Boom Room Pleasure Chamber.

"Alright…" Edward said, sounding slightly confused. "For academic reasons."

Do you think Bella will actually make it into the Boom Boom Room Pleasure Chamber?

Thank you all for coming back to read! I know it's been too long. And I know I've said that before, but the next chapter is already written. :) I'm going to give myself a couple of weeks to get started on the following chapter and hopefully, we can get this boat moving again!

Aslo, thank you to my special guest-mermaid, Jen who gave me the 411 on Coco.