Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N – Yes, I know it's been a while but my children want feeding and entertaining. They also keep trashing my house. I can assure you that I don't plan on abandoning any of my stories – but updates are slow and will be for now. Sorry.

Thank you to the beautiful E & D for pre-reading for me. This is unbeta'd – so all mistakes belong to me.

Chapter 25

Edward.

I swear that Bella is trying to kill me. As I perch myself on the edge of the bed I can hear her start the water and quietly hum to herself. The little tease has left the bathroom door open, and thanks to the well placed bathroom mirror, I can see the head end of the bath and a part of the counter top. I hear her rustling around and getting undressed and preparing for her bath, so I quickly unpack my clothes and dinner jacket so that it doesn't get too creased.

I hear her sigh and movement of the water as she sinks down into the bubbles. I can't help but look up to the partially open door. I can see her clearly; her head is lying against the top edge of the tub with her long hair piled up on the top of her head. Bella's eyes are closed and she's smiling slightly. Thank you, mirror!

If she didn't want me in there, she'd have shut the door, right?

Before I know what I'm doing, I'm in the bathroom. I look anywhere but directly down at Bella, who, under the sea of bubbles, I'm assuming is totally in the nude.

"Did you... lose something, Edward?" She asks me, and I briefly manage to make eye contact. For once, she's not blushing, so I can tell that there is at least a part of her that doesn't mind that I'm in there with her – even with her state of undress. My eyes travel the length of the tub – and unfortunately, she's very well covered with all the foam and bubbles. The water comes almost up to her neckline. Her head, neck and one foot is all that's visible to me.

"No...nothing is lost. I just got lonely out there in that big room, and thought with you, in here...also alone. I thought maybe we could keep each other company?" Smooth, Cullen.

"Well, I left the door open for that reason. I guess whist you're here; there is something that you can perhaps give me a hand with?"

"Did you lose the soap?"

"Not yet," she smiles. And yes, there's the blush I know and love so much. "But I guess I could lose that later. I was actually wondering if you would possibly grab that washcloth over there and give my back a scrub for me?" She bats her eye lids at me and sits up a little, her hand coming up and covering her bubbly chest.

She doesn't need to ask me again and I grab a washcloth from the counter top by the sink and the small bottle of body wash Bella has placed next to her bag. She giggles as I sit on the edge of the tub and dip the cloth into the warm water. I make sure to graze the soft flesh of her ass as I bring the material up and over the curve of her spine and to her shoulders.

I squeeze some of the body wash onto the cloth and rub in gentle circles across her smooth flesh. Bella moans and the sound goes straight to my cock. Perfect. Looks like I'll now have a hard-on for the rest of the evening.

"Hmmm that's nice. You're very good at this," she whispers to me, "you can do this more often – it's so relaxing."

"Well, make sure you don't fall asleep on me. I'd hate for you to miss dinner. You need to keep your strength up for what I have planned later."

Bella turns her head and looks up at me and I'm rewarded with an amazing glimpse of side boob as her hand falters a little from his position in its attempt to hide her modesty. "You can't say things like that to me, Edward." She says. Her lip finds its way between her front teeth and she exhales slowly. "And my eyes are up here."

"I'm sorry; you just look far too tempting. You're in there, wet and warm... and you've done nothing but tease me since we left your house. I do really want to take you to dinner, but eating anything other than you is not looking too appetizing right now.

Suddenly I'm pulled forward and I crash on top of her and into the bath water. Bella grips me to her tightly and laughs. "Well, now you're also warm and wet. I'd say we are pretty evenly matched."

Gone is her shyness and she grins, kissing me hard and her fingers finding sanctuary in my hair. I can feel her entire body under me; her soft and slippery skin, her nipples – so pebbled that they could cut glass Every single perfect inch of her is touching me though my layer of very wet clothes.

"Bella," I pant between frenzied kisses, "I need to stop, right now..."

"You... don't... I don't want to wait any longer..."

She's too utterly tempting. I could quite happily throw all my plans of romance out of the second story window right this second and peel off the last layer between us and sink deep into her heat right now. But something inside me makes me stop. I kiss her once again and follow it with two little pecks on her swollen lips.

"Please... just dinner. Just eat something. Let me do this for you." I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record – but she deserves so much more than a quick fumble. I want to take it slowly and love her entirely.

"Okay, you win," she pouts and gently pushes at my shoulders. I sit back on my knees, still between her parted legs in the bath. "But you're gonna have to go, because you're not making my situation any easier." She gestures to the current situation that's happening in my pants and laughs. "Or yours, for that matter. Go. And hand me a towel."

I love it when my girl gets bossy... I step out, dripping water all over the marble tiles and lean over and take some fluffy towels off the rail. I toss one on the floor by my feet in an attempt to mop at least some of the water up. I open up another and hand it out to Bella. She stands up and pulls it to her body, smiling sweetly in thanks as she wraps it gingerly around herself. I offer her my hand to step out of the bath which she takes.

My clothes are soaked, and I'm not going to get dry until they're off. I unbutton my thin shirt quickly and begin to strip.

"I...um, I'm just going to go get changed. I'll leave you to... well." She stutters. I've just been between her very naked legs and now she wants to play shy again?

She takes her leave and I finished stripping and dry off and secure the towel around my waist as I try and mop up as much water off the floor as I can. I put the wet towel into the bath and hope that the maid service isn't too pissed at my little gift for them tomorrow.

I tap the door quietly before popping my head around it. "I was going to ask if you were decent... but you're far too sinful." I joke. Thankfully there is no more nudity to distract me – but to be frank, it's almost as bad. Sitting in front of the vanity, combing out her hair is my Bella, wearing a dress.

"Do I look okay? I mean I only really have jeans other than this... I can change."

"No, you look great. It was just a surprise that's all."

"I'm a girl, doofus. I know I might not look like one all the time but my jeans and t-shirts are comfy, that's all."

She stands up. The dress is short, but not too short – hitting a few inches above her knees. Its royal blue and fits nicely. It's one of those halter necked things. She looks beautiful – and so much older.

I can't help myself once again and move quickly over to her. I lean in and place a soft kiss to the top of her head. "I love you in your jeans, and I love you without."

Bella snorts in a very un-ladylike fashion and punches my chest lightly. "Behave. Get dressed. Unless you want to go down to eat in the tiniest towel on the planet...you know, I think that was one of the ones you're supposed to dry your hands on. It really doesn't leave much to the imagination."

Of course, they'd only given us two of the bigger towels, so I was left with the much smaller version. I shrug and she sticks out her tongue at me before turning around and facing the mirror at the vanity and reaching for her purse. I grab my clothes from where I hung them before our little wet and wild adventure in the tub and head back in to the bathroom.

Amazingly, we manage to both behave enough to finish getting ready and head downstairs to the hotels on site restaurant without being late. Bella clutches my hand nervously as we wait in the small line at the reservation desk.

"Right this way sir, miss," we're greeted after I give the Matre D my name.

Dinner is great. Bella has never been shy of food – which in a woman is an awesome trait. The amount of times I've gone out with a girl who just wants to eat her salad is bordering on ridiculous. Bella can chow down a steak or burger almost as well as Emmett can. Not that I'd tell her that, because she'd be mortified. We both chose to have appetizers – which we split. Bella picks out the Bruchetta with fresh tomatoes and basil. It's pretty incredible and I decide on some Mini Thai Fish Cakes. For our Entrees, Bella has Seabass with fresh asparagus. The one bite she lets me have is nice – but she likes it too much to share the rest with me. I always like to eat steak when I'm out, so have the 10oz Filet, served rare. It comes with crushed potatoes and a mushroom sauce. It's the best damn steak I've ever had. We drink soda water and talk quietly about everything and anything. It's absolutely perfect – and something I can see us doing when we're old and grey in fifty years time.

We opt to share desert. It's a Key Lime Pie and we eat it off the one fork. It feels intimate...and looks that way too, by the way in which Bella wraps her tongue around the prongs as she licks off the remainder of the sauce. My dick tightens in my slacks and all I want to do it sign the check and get her back up to the room. "You about done here?" I ask. She nods and pushes the plate with the last few remaining crumbs away.

"I was ready three courses ago, Edward. But thank you. This has been really great. I've had a great time tonight."

I manage to attract the attention of our server and she returns within two minutes with the check. I sign it quickly so that it can be charged to the hotel room account and leave a pretty good tip. Bella is playing nervously with her hands across the table from me. "You ready?" I ask and she nods and inhales sharply as she gets to her feet and pushes her chair back into the table.

"You want to head on back upstairs. We don't have to, we could...um...go take a walk or something if you wanted?" She shakes her and ant takes my hand and leads the two of us out of the restaurant. When we're back in the hotel lobby she pauses.

"Take me up to the room?" Bella asks me sweetly as the gorgeous blush graces her cheeks. It looks like she's as nervous as I am – even though really, we've no reason to be, but also I can sense her anticipation. I swallow deeply – mute for a moment whilst I gather back together and lead her towards the elevator and press the button. The darn thing is stuck up on a higher floor and it feels as though it takes forever to get back down to the lobby. She pulls me inside and presses for our floor. We watch as the doors slowly creep closed behind us.

As soon as they are, I pull her to me, not being able to take or wait any longer. I kiss her hungrily, my hands roaming down to her perfect little ass, grabbing her there a little and pulling her flush with my body. The ding of the elevator arriving at our floor breaks us apart, the pair of us breathing hard and Bella flushed. I thank my lucky stars that there's no one waiting to board as we exit – could have been slightly awkward.

Bella giggles and I am under the impression her thoughts are similar. I grab her hand and pull her gently along the corridor to our room. The key is in my pocket and I fumble for a moment in trying to fish it out. When I finally manage and go to swipe it in the door lock... several times, the infernal red-light-of-death appears. "Shit," I mumble and rest my head against the door. "Typical,"

Bella chuckles and touches my arm lightly before stepping under it and in front of me. She pulls the stupid keycard out of my trembling fingers and gently slides it into the lock. It turns green immediately and clicks. Bella tries the handle, and of course the door opens.

"See? She croons, "it just wanted a woman's touch, that's all." I gape at her. "Well aren't you coming in?"

Gone is my sweet, nervous little girlfriend. Literally in the space of about twenty seconds and one steamy elevator kiss she's turned into a total sex kitten. And I like it. I follow her into the room and close the door behind me and put the privacy latch across. Nothing... and I mean nothing is going to disturb us tonight. It's going to be perfect.

Bella is perched on the edge of the bed and sliding the pumps off her feet whilst I kick off my own shoes and join her, loosening my tie in the process.

"Hi," I whisper, leaning over and pressing a kiss to her shoulder. She beams at me and runs her delicate fingers softy through my hair.

"Hey," she whispers back.

I know there's definitely no going back now.

Hope you enjoyed.

Until next time...