Yeah, yeah, I know what you're gonna think. This girl, what's she doing, all the drama with that message and she's updating? :P
Well, I'm weak. Really weak.
I've taken the decision of giving you a second chance at this. I'm updating a new chapter, and then I'll decide to keep posting here in FanFiction, or doing what I had already told you in my message. I have the mails of those who do want the following chapters of the story sent to them, so I will send them in case I decide to make good on what I told you before.
REALLY GUYS, JUST REVIEW ANYTHING; EVEN IF IT'S ONLY A HAPPY FACE :) OR SOMETHING: GOOD; I DON'T KNOW, WHATEVER YOU WANT.
I hope you enjoy this chapter, and the following ones. I've received from my Spanish readers very nice reviews, so I'm hopeful you'll like the entire story from Edward's point of view.
STEPHENIE MEYER OWNS ALL TWILIGHT STUFF!
=D
CHAPTER 24. Surprise
I had known very well since before Alice came back what would be Bella's reaction to those words. She had tried all the possible to try to not get to her eighteen years old first, and then her nineteen years. It was obvious that Alice wasn't telling her that she was actually nineteen years old, but it was her nineteenth birthday. At least she had nineteen years in this world, existing.
What was the problem? I perfectly remembered how she had told me in our honeymoon that she wanted to wait, that she wanted to be human for a while longer.
"Still… eighteen, nineteen. It's really not such a big difference."
"No. No way!" Bella said, while she shook her head quickly. Then she turned to see me, and I smiled at her, almost smugly. Just because I knew that she was the one who still wished she was seventeen years old, and I her nineteen years. "No, this doesn't count. I stopped aging three days ago. I am eighteen forever."
You are still the smallest kid from the family, Edward. Well, after Renesmee. Alice joked around while she returned her attention to Bella and her tantrum.
"Whatever," Alice told her while shrugging. "We're celebrating anyway, so suck it up."
Bella sighed, Alice had already seen a second before I did that this would happen. Still, she liked to play.
Her smiled became even bigger when she saw that her vision hadn't failed her, and of anticipation. She already wanted to see Bella's face when she saw what was her gift. She still couldn't see whether she'd like it or not, because Bella had no idea of what was it.
"Are you ready to open your present?"
"Presents," I corrected Alice.
Oh, yeah. The Ferrari, right. You know? That's even easier, Bella'll take it but…
I neither needed a vision to know that Bella would not be even a little bit excited with her second gift, but it was hers.
It'd be better for you to wait for Jacob and Seth to be awake. Alice recommended me, more because of the fact that she didn't want to waste more time and go straight toward the gift she brought, from all of the family.
I took my hand to the pocket of my jeans to get the key of her new car out. I was sure that when she saw it she would know what it was.
Edward! Don't you dare. Alice warned me.
"Mine first," Alice insisted, then she stuck her little tongue at me. Though yours it's closer.
"Mine is closer," I insisted, too.
Would she even use it? I had no idea, perhaps yes, perhaps no. That I would know later, though seeing her behavior and how all her personality had stayed completely the same way it had been when she was human – something that wasn't rare – I bet that it wouldn't excite her, and wouldn't use it.
Bella didn't like sports cars and the speed like all my family seemed to like us.
"But look at how she's dressed." Alice complained.
I would have told her that she shouldn't worry about that tonight, but it would be too much to reveal that in front of my family, so I held back.
"It's been killing me all day. That is clearly the priority." Alice finished.
I looked at Bella frowning when she heard Alice. It seemed, nor had her sense of style or her taste for new clothes and fast cars changed.
It made me glad to see that she was the same Bella that a few days ago still blushed with my smiles.
"I know – I'll play you for it. Rock, paper, scissors." Alice offered.
Typical Alice. Like she didn't know. Jasper chuckled.
I sighed, Jasper was right. "Why you don't you just tell who wins?"
It was almost stupid to expect that it was me who would win in this occasion. With Alice, you never win. One way or another, she always got her way, as it surely would be this time.
Oh, well, if you insist… she told me joking.
Alice was even happier than before. The excitement was almost impossible for her to hide. "I win. Excellent."
Even you knew, Edward. Ha.
I decided to take Alice's advice about the Ferrari and the wolves. "It's probably better that I wait for the morning." I turned towards Bella and smiled at her. Then I nodded toward Jacob and Seth who were asleep on the couch, completely unaware for what was happening at the moment around them. They would be there all night long. It was something good that we weren't going to be here to listen to Rosalie whining about the smell all night, too. "I think it might be more fun if Jacob was awake for the big reveal, don't you agree? So that someone there is able to express the right level of enthusiasm?"
Bella smiled openly at me. I could imagine what was going through her mind. Maybe if the car would have been her old Chevy back, she would have been excited.
But everyone, including myself, hated that truck.
"Yay. Bella, give Ness – Renesmee to Rosalie."
It was going to be a problem if everyone kept correcting themselves that way in front of Bella. At least she hadn't complained about the name with no one, except Jacob himself, of course.
Deeply, I knew that no one would stop saying it, and that at the end, Bella and I would be the ones who ended up accepting her nickname. Maybe I would do it much sooner than she would, hearing it in everyone's minds was an extra problem Bella didn't have.
"Where does she usually sleep?" Bella asked.
With me, Rosalie thought happily, or with Jacob. Her tone changed to irritated. With Esme, too, sometimes. The grandma was delighted when it was her turn.
Through my mind passed quickly the reaction that would have had my mother – Elizabeth – if she would've met Renesmee or even Bella.
Alice shrugged and answered her. "In Rose's arms. Or Jacob's. Or Esme's. You get the picture. She has never been set down in her entire life. She's going to be the most spoiled half-vampire in existence."
I laughed, that was completely true. We would see if when having her bedroom ready she would want to sleep in her own crib or if she'd rather sleep in her mother's arms.
Mmm… I was hoping it was the first option.
Nessie, so beautiful. But she won't be only the most spoiled…
Rosalie came over and took Renesmee in her arms, happy to have her back with her. "She is also the most unspoiled half-vampire in existence. The beauty of being one of a kind."
She smiled at Bella when she had Renesmee in her arms.
Another sister, and she made me aunt. Rosalie was thinking while she saw Bella as much as she saw Renesmee.
I would have never, ever imagined that there would be a baby in the family, much less that it would be in the family thanks to Bella, who she had hated so much since the beginning, and me.
I could see that all the frictions between us had been left behind, as if they had never existed. I was glad.
In this moment, I also could see more clearly how what Rosalie had told me two days ago had been completely true. Even when I had seen in her mind and she had assured me that she now felt a true feeling of sisterhood towards Bella, it was much easier to see that it was true by having her smiling that way and seeing her thoughts. There was no resentment in them, there was only happiness for seeing that our family was united, and together for the eternity.
I knew that it would make Bella happy too to know that Rosalie now did accept her and even loved her.
It made me happy.
Well, it's time. She needs to start seeing what clothes to wear and how to not destroy them. At least she won't have to hunt in a week at least.
Alice turned towards Bella and pushed the key into her hand. Then she took her from her elbow to turn her towards the exit.
Edward, let's go. Alice told me.
Esme spoke to me before we got out. I hope you like it, son.
"Let's go, let's go." Alice was almost desperate to get Bella to open her gift.
"Is it outside?" Bella asked.
"Sort of." Alice told her while she pushed her forward so we would get out of there.
"Enjoy your gift. It's from all of us. Esme especially." Rosalie said to her now that could yet.
"Aren't you coming, too?"
What do you want us for? She may want us to not sleep. Ha ha. Emmett made fun of it with me.
"We'll give you a chance to appreciate alone. You can tell us about it… later."
Carlisle and Esme were hugging each other while they saw us three getting out. Esme, more than anyone, was overflowing with happiness by seeing that storm was over, and that finally we had found a little peace after all this time.
Esme was remembering the so many times that she had tried to convince me that everything would work out well, while I was with Bella, and before and after that stupid decision of leaving her.
Emmett didn't hold his laughter any longer and burst into laughs.
If the house survives, and you little brother… Emmett joked again. Thinking on the extreme strength Bella had for being a newborn.
And that with just a hug she had made me say ow when she woke up.
He would make fun of that for the next decade, I was almost sure. I grimaced at him before leaving, and Emmett raised his eyebrows.
What? It's true.
We got out the house hurriedly because of Alice's anxiety, then, everyone else said goodbye quietly, and I listened to them getting back to their stuffs as soon as were getting away.
This is exciting. I already want to see her face. Alice kept chanting the same thing while we were going to the river. We made a good job, I think. Alice told me, showing me again how the house was so I could give Bella a tour when we got in.
I was wondering, when seeing how the house was, if Bella would like it. It was the kind of things that Bella liked, but the answer would remain a doubt.
I never got her reactions right. I was only expecting it to be how I was expected it to.
The house was smaller than any of our properties. Esme had found it from the very first time we had come to the state of Washington a few decades ago. I couldn't even consider it a house, it was more like a cottage. Still, Esme had decided to remodel it, it was the closest property to our house, and as she had told me before leaving to Isle Esme, she didn't want us far away from them. But she had also thought, that being newlyweds, we would want a place to live just the two of us for a while.
I wondered idly, while we were nearing to the river, if soon there would be the opportunity that Bella knew the place I had chosen in New Hampshire.
Bella's and Rosalie's tastes were very different, Emmett had said that thinking about Rose.
But the way it was, the stones floors and the brown colors, the furniture all different but somehow Esme always found the way to make them match, the paintings on the walls that she had chosen from our house for Bella, they were some of her favorites. Mostly, the bedroom, I was sure that it would such a great surprise for Bella when she saw it. It would almost like getting back to Isle Esme. The bed, the view to the outside, Esme had really tried hard on bringing some stuff from Isle Esme, guessing that we had loved that place, especially Bella.
It would our second honeymoon almost on the same way as it had been our first honeymoon.
Bella smiled hugely, and Alice interpreted her smile as excitement.
She hit lightly her elbow, and told her. "There's the enthusiasm I'm looking for."
I hope you can show the right level of enthusiasm, too. Alice told me, echoing the lines she had used with Bella, while she released her by the arm to jump over the river.
"C'mon, Bella." Alice called her from across.
Right… now. Alice said while she saw Bella on the second she decided to jump, making that I, unconsciously followed her next words, jumping at the same time that Bella did.
I wondered what Bella was thinking now that it was nighttime. The darkness was no problem to us.
Alice ran towards north where our new home was, the entire time she was considering the option of making this gift a real surprise. I would have commented something to her thoughts if it weren't for the fact that Bella could now listen to even the softer whisper of the wind, so I held back and just listened to what she planned.
Through my mind passed the comment that Jacob had done while Bella was still pregnant.
If he succeeded with this, if Bella lived, Edward wasn't going to be able to get away with so much when her senses were as sharp as his. He'd have to work on the honesty thing.
Alice and her ideas distracted me from that memory, that was still on the bunch I didn't want to remember.
Her ideas were always a bit exaggerated and she tended to get away with her ideas, anyway, so there wasn't any point on chastising her for what she was planning either way.
At the last second, she decided that she'd climb on Bella's back, because Bella was a little bit taller than her, so she would obstruct her eyes and she wouldn't look at anything until we were right in front of the door. I knew what would happen if she did it without warning Bella about it, I had just seen it in her visions, and the answer was obvious, too, because any of us would have reacted the same way. But, trusting that her personal control was still as efficient as from the beginning, she decided to try.
Here, if we go any farther Bella'll see her gift before it's time. Alice thought while she stopped.
Okay, Edward, watch my back. Alice told me before turning towards Bella.
We both stopped and Alice came to us.
"Don't attack me," she said to her before getting to Bella's back.
"What are you doing?" Bella asked, while she twitched. I was sure that she felt the need of throwing Alice away, but she controlled herself somehow.
I would never get tired of getting impressed at the control I could see on her.
Good, Edward, no I'll cover her eyes up, eh? You're guiding our way.
"Making sure you can't see." Alice explained.
At this moment it seemed infantile to me what Alice was doing, but I also knew that though I told her, there would be no way of making her change her mind.
"I could take care of that without the theatrics." I said to Alice, that quickly refused, of course.
Yeah, right. And I'm still naïve. Alice answered skeptically.
"You might let her cheat. Take her hand and lead her forward."
"Alice, I-" Bella said but Alice interrupted her.
"Don't bother, Bella. We're going this my way."
I took Bella's hand and intertwined our fingers. It had been several hours since I had had her hand in mine, and it felt good. I tried to make her feel better about Alice, knowing that my words would bother my sister in a way. "Just a few seconds more, Bella. Then she'll go annoy someone else." I told her, while I was pulling her forward as Alice had asked me to.
"You might be a little more appreciative. This is as much for you as it is for her." She said while sticking her tongue at me.
You neither have told me what you think, huh.
"True." I answered to both comments. "Thank you again, Alice."
"Yeah, yeah. Okay."
We kept walking for a few more seconds when we walked into the place we had so waited for. New smells got to us while we were getting closer. I could assure that Bella could notice them, too, though she didn't say anything.
There it is, Edward. Let's hope Bella loves it. Esme really did her best.
"Stop there." Alice almost yelled at me out of excitement, pointing at a place right on the beginning of a little stone path that was leading to the front door. "Turn her just a little to the right. Yes, like that. Okay. Are you ready?"
"I'm ready," Bella answered.
Well, we'll finally see if she likes it or not. Alice thought, with a little fear over Bella's reaction.
Everyone else hadn't wanted to come so they wouldn't force Bella to give a positive answer, or like I had said, to not force her to show excitement when she saw her gift. If there would have been some way, Alice wouldn't have come either, but she couldn't stand the idea of not seeing Bella's face and most of all her reaction. In spite of her fear, I didn't have to read Bella's mind nor seeing the future to know that Bella would love it.
Alice took her hand off Bella's eyes, letting her see what she had in front of her, and then she climbed down from her back.
Neither Alice nor I said one single word while we watched Bella's face and any sign or change in her expression that could tell us what was she was feeling. There was nothing to see, there was no expression to read, her face was black with surprise.
I listened how her hand squeezed a bit the hand she was carrying.
I had to accept it, I did like it and considering Bella's tastes and mine were very different, I wondered, if after all, I would have gotten her reaction right. It would be almost surreal that Bella hated it or less dramatic, didn't like it.
Alice was too much anxious for hearing the answer, but she kept silent while we waited for Bella to say something, or finished appreciating what she was seeing.
I could definitely see us here, I could see Renesmee and Bella walking over the stone path that led to the door, hand in hand. I could see them walking into the house to rest after a long day. The forest in front of us as our personal garden. I remembered our meadow, and thought that we should take Renesmee soon.
The only thing I was waiting for at that moment, was that Bella could also visualize herself and Renesmee and me in this house that'd be our home.
Oh, enough, I have to say something. Alice said, in a tone that was quite despite her anxiety.
How did she manage to control herself? I had no idea.
When she spoke, it was in the same tone. "What do you think?"
Bella opened her mouth but didn't say anything. Curiosity was burning inside of me, almost the same way that did on Alice. I had to know what she was thinking.
"Esme thought we might like a place of our own for a while, but she didn't want us too far away. And she loves any excuse to renovate. This little place has been crumbling away out here for at least a hundred years." I told her, expecting Bella to say something.
But again nothing, her mouth was open while she kept watching what was in front of her.
Every time she did this, that she kept quiet while everyone else, especially me, were waiting for her to end with her silence, frustrated me even more and more, but there wasn't anything that I could do to see inside of her mind.
Alice misunderstood her silence, and without being able to stay silent, she started speaking. "Don't you like it? I mean, I'm sure we could fix it up differently, if you want. Emmett was all for adding a few thousand square feet, a second story, columns, and a tower, but Esme thought you would like it best the way it was meant to look."
I frowned when I listened to Alice's description and what Emmett had wanted to do. It was clear that he'd had in mind Rosalie's taste by offering those changes.
He didn't know Bella at all if he'd thought of adding all of that. I was glad that Esme hadn't listened to him.
"If she was wrong, we can get back to work. It won't take long to—"
"Shh!" Bella shushed her.
I smiled while Bella kept staring and Alice tightened shut her lips so she wouldn't speak until Bella said something.
It took several seconds, and Alice was getting anxious again.
What was with her and her impatience? We had so much time for waiting Bella to say something.
Yes, we did, and just thinking about it got me on a good mood even when I was still frustrated for her lack of response.
"You're giving me a house for my birthday?" Bella barely whispered. Her eyes were still on the house.
"Us. And it's no more than a cottage. I think the words house implies more legroom." I corrected her.
"No knocking my house." Bella told me.
So… "You like it."
Bella shook her head, and instead of thinking the worst, considering Bella's words, Alice knew what Bella meant.
"Love it?"
Without saying, again, another words, Bella just nodded.
Alice exploded with happiness and excitement when she saw Bella's response. It was what she had been waiting for since the moment they had left the house to get to us. I was, too, happy that Bella loved it. The only thing that was missing for making it perfect, was having Renesmee in her home soon. They hadn't had enough time to fix her bedroom.
Oh, I wish Esme would have been here now. But the second gift would have been ruined.
If I had been able to blush, I would have been like Bella when she was still human when I heard about the second gift from our family.
"I can't wait to tell Esme!"
It almost surprised me that Alice didn't sprint off back towards the house to tell them all.
"Why didn't she come?" Bella asked.
Ahmm… do I have to answer? Alice asked me hesitating, of course I didn't tell her anything, she had to do it. Bella wouldn't let her go.
Alice's face twisted when she saw she was forced to answer. "Oh, you know… they all remember how you are about presents. They didn't want to put you under too much pressure to like it."
"But of course I love it. How could I not?" Bella told her.
"They'll like that." Alice said to her, while she patted her arm before leaving. "Anyhow, your closet is stocked. Use it wisely. And… I guess that's everything."
"Aren't you going to come inside?"
Of course not. Alice thought, while she took a few steps back. "Edward knows his way around. I'll stop by… later. Call me if you can't match your clothes right."
Which I doubt, that she'll match them and call me.
Alice smiled. "Jazz wants to hunt. See ya." She said, and then she disappeared into the woods, suddenly anxious of getting back.
Bella didn't say anything for a few seconds.
Soon, I couldn't listen to not even Alice's thoughts while she got away.
I was wondering what was what Bella was thinking, and as if she had heard my doubt, Bella spoke. "That was weird. Am I really that bad? They didn't have to stay away. Now I feel guilty. I didn't even thank her right. We should go back, tell Esme-"
"Bella, don't be silly. No one thinks you're that unreasonable." I assured her before she kept thinking that way.
This was still her night and she had to enjoy it. Her gifts…
"Then what-"
"Alone time is their other gift. Alice was trying to be subtle about it."
"Oh."
Bella kept staring at my face, while I stared back at hers. It was as if there wasn't anything else around us, I felt how the magnetic force that had forced me to be with her without letting me escape from falling in love with her from the beginning, was around us again. Like this little place was our own bubble…
There wasn't anything else in this world that could pull me away from her, nothing or no one now.
The only thing that mattered at the moment, was that I had her with me, and that it would be that way for eternity. Just thinking about that, made me internally shudder of excitement.
Again, the curiosity floated in my mind, wondering what was Bella thinking now.
Somehow, the house cam back to my mind, and I remembered what we had been about to do a moment ago, to know our new home. "Let me show you what they've done."
I took her hand, and with the emotion I was feeling in the moment, the electric current that I felt every time I had her skin on mine, ran through me more strongly. It was pleasurable feeling, and I knew it wouldn't last long before having her close to me soon.
I would have the excuse in a few moments.
Bella didn't say anything, but I saw something in her expression that reminded me of her human days. Her reactions every time I touched her, even in the most casual moments.
Her heart would always react, her beats would always get faster or sometimes stopped. I always wondered what was in me to be able to cause such reactions in an angel as beautiful as her. But again, I knew that if I had been human, too, my heart would have reacted just as hers.
My breathing too would have become harder when I would get closer to her to kiss her, and not for fearing to kill her, but for anticipated pleasure.
Her cheeks would have been blushed with a beautiful red.
But all of that, everything I had once thought I'd miss so much when losing it when Bella became one of us, was nothing at all at this moment, having Bella holding my hand. Knowing that she'd be with me for the eternity.
It was an insignificant detail.
Bella laughed, then, as if was also agreeing with what I had just thought.
I knew she was. It was her who had insisted on being with me, from the beginning, and now, finally, she saw her wish, our wish fulfilled.
"Do I get to hear the joke?" I asked her.
We started walking towards the door, while Bella answered. "It's not a very good one." She told me. "I was just thinking – today is the first and last day of forever. It's kind of hard to wrap my head around it. Even with all this extra room for wrapping."
Bella laughed again, and as it always happened to me, I laughed when hearing her. She was right in what she said. It had happened to us all something like that.
I raised my hand towards the doorknob, and pointed it for Bella to be the one who opened it. After all, it was her gift, and I could enjoy it with her, too. Even Nessie.
Bella stuck the key in and turned it.
"You're such a natural at this, Bella; I forget how very strange this all must be for you. I wish I could hear it."
And as I couldn't help it any longer, I bent down to take her in my arms. They were the only arms where Bella would be the rest of our eternity.
Only having her with me, even now that she was so unbreakable as I was, it was when I felt her safe.
Mi protector instinct would never leave maybe.
"Hey!"
"Thresholds are part of my job description." I told her. "But I'm curious. Tell me what you're thinking about right now."
While I told her that I opened the door, and we walked through the threshold to the inside of our new home.
"Everything. All at the same time, you know. Good things and things to worry about and things that are new. How I keep using too many superlatives in my head. Right now, I'm thinking that Esme is an artist. It's so perfect!"
I could see her eyes looking over every corner of the house, and her look reminded of that she'd had in Isle Esme. The difference was that here there wasn't recognition, because though Esme designed our properties the same way, using the same colors, this one was different in all aspects. The colors were warm, just like Bella. It didn't matter that she weren't human anymore, her essence kept having that warm that had always emanated from her.
It was as if the Bella in my arms were the same Bella I had met, that human and full of life Bella. With her chocolate brown eyes and her red cheeks.
Looking at her face, I remembered the many time I had thought, that I had believed that by giving up our mortality for immortality, we lost our souls.
"How many people in this room have a soul? A shot at heaven, or whatever there is after this life?"
"Two." Bella had answered without a second of hesitation.
At that moment, I had only smiled when I listened to the confidence in her answer. How could she know, how could she be so sure?
Maybe she wasn't the only one who believed in vampires myths.
But, now, right this moment, while I was staring at her immortal face, even when I myself had swore that we didn't have souls, even when I saw my family and sometimes I doubted my belief, it wasn't anything similar to the doubt that was getting into my at this moment.
How could it be possible that a being as good and pure as Bella didn't have a soul, even when she were going to live for an eternity?
For the first time, in my long existence, I believed truly and with all my might, that Bella was right about it.
It was hard to believe that Bella, if she were going to live this world, even when it hurt me so much to consider the idea, didn't have a better place to go after.
To get to heaven, and at least to have the right of being judged for what she had done in this world.
There wouldn't be doubts of her presence in heaven.
I would make sure of keeping her away from temptation. She hadn't broken any rule that forbid her heaven. I'd fulfill my promise. Every one and each of the promises I had once made to her. The most important of them all, make her happy and love her everyday of forever.
The image of Renesmee showed in my mind, not only would be Bella who I'd make happy and love, my daughter too, our daughter.
When I felt Bella's eyes on my face, I knew that she had finished admiring the work Esme had done.
"We're lucky Esme thought to add an extra room. No one was planning for Ness—Renesmee."
Bella frowned, and I knew perfectly well why. "Not you, too."
"Sorry, love. I hear it in their thoughts all the time, you know. It's rubbing off on me." I told her, and Bella sighed.
I decided to change the subject, something that distracted her almost completely. And so, we would also keep our tour though the house. "I'm sure you're dying to see the closet. Or, at least I'll tell Alice that you were, to make her feel good."
"Should I be afraid?"
You have no idea, I thought. The closet was overwhelmingly bigger than our bedroom.
Esme and Alice had had an argument just because of that part of the house. Knowing that neither Bella nor I needed something that big, after all, Alice only allowed us to wear one set of clothes per day, and then she almost take them roughly away from us to replace them with a new one.
Then, what was there a need to give so much to Bella for? Especially, when she knew that my angel wasn't an addict to fashion clothing like her.
"Terrified."
I took her in my arms through the hall towards our bedroom. Close to ours was the one that would be Renesmee's when Esme and Alice were done decorating it.
While we were getting nearer, each step that took us towards our bedroom, the electric current that ran through me was unstoppable, getting stronger. It seemed that we were walking toward the same place from the first time, it almost seemed the night of our honeymoon.
"That will be Renesmee's room." I told her, while I pointed with my head toward an empty room. "They didn't have time to do much with it, what with the angry werewolves..."
Bella laughed quietly. And though I didn't ask her what was the joke now, curiosity was in my mind, but it was easier to ignore than I would have thought possible. My mind was busy with other things more interesting.
Like the fact that we were closer to our room…
We got the last door, I opened it and we walked in. It was as if we were back on Isle Esme.
"Here's our room. Esme tried to bring some of her island back here for us. She guessed that we would get attached."
Again, Bella looked over the room, and after a few second, she whispered. "Oh."
We both stayed there standing. Memories of every minute that we had been on Isle Esme passed through my mind.
It was so different this honeymoon, that we almost seemed other ones. She was other one, not completely. But at least I wouldn't have to worry about hurting her or killing her. I could love her in an intense way without any more restrictions.
I shuddered with pleasure by considering that.
Images kept passing through like a film.
"We belong together." Bella had told me in a whisper while we were at the beach.
"Forever."
Forever, that word resonated in my mind, now more than ever.
All the eternity was opening up in front of us. And there wasn't anything that could make me happier. Nothing more than to be with her. It was what I had always wanted, what she had always wanted and for stupid I had refused.
None of that mattered now.
Then another matter crossed my mind. Bella was no longer human, and though I had seen and she had said herself that still wanted me, would it be that way?
"You are so human, Bella." I had told her that night that had been too much for us and I had giving in to her desires, finally. "Ruled by your hormones."
"That's the whole point, Edward. I like this part of being human. I don't want to give it up yet. I don't want to wait through years of being a blood-crazed newborn for some part of this to come back to me."
I shook off those thoughts. It seemed like I didn't know Bella, like being a newborn vampire were going to be an obstacle for her, or even me. Honestly, I didn't care.
"I have not had enough." She had told me while her hand ran over my chest.
It was almost surreal that that was what at the end, would make Bella accept to wait a little while longer as human to then become a vampire and join me in eternity. I should have known that that would be the best way, even when it didn't come true and instead of having a few years as human, she got Renesmee, now I could see it as a blessing instead of a curse.
"Do you want to swim with the dolphins this afternoon—burn off the calories?"
"Maybe later. I had another idea for burning calories."
"And what was that?"
"Well, there's an awful lot of headboard left—"
It had been a while since I had had Bella that way.
But I would wait for her to appreciate her present. She didn't even know where the closet was, that Alice had so nicely stocked herself.
I smiled hugely, guessing Bella's reaction when she saw it. "The closet is through those double doors. I should warn you—it's bigger than this room."
Bella did not even turn to see toward the closet I had pointed at her. There was nothing else or even words that explained to me the reason of her lack of interest. If it would have been my gift, I neither would have turned to see having her in front of me.
I didn't need any more hints, I wrapped my arms around her, my lips just a few inches from hers, and anxieties filling me the closer mine were of hers.
Bella put her hands on my head. "We're going to tell Alice that I ran right into the clothes." She said to me, while her fingers intertwined in my hair, her hands pulling my face closer to hers, and I let her pulled me without hesitation. "We're going to tell her I spent hours in there playing dress-up. We're going to lie."
I pulled her face to mine, suddenly anxious for having her lips on mine and not having to get away from her for not even a second. It was as if my mind had gone blank and there was nothing else in this planet than the two of us.
Her lips touched mine, and the sensation was simply wonderful. I heard a moan getting out of my mouth and I felt Bella respond to me with the same intensity.
There was no fear, there was no hesitation, there was no more wait for us, we could be fully together, no restrictions, and that excited me even more than having her with me, because for the first time I would be able to enjoy of having her completely.
The fabric of our clothing tearing up under our hands, brought to my memory that second night by her side. That night when her seduction had gone just too far, to the point of destroying my personal control, the oath I had made to myself of not being with her until she were a vampire. I had given up to her with a growl, and her gown had ended up shredded apart just like now were our clothes. Just that the only difference, was that Bella was also destroying mine. I knew that if she were human, her cheeks would have been blushing red scarlet.
And without even thinking about it, we were on the floor instead of on the bed in the middle of the room.
If I had thought that being with Bella while she was human, and that that night had been the best night of my life, I had been wrong. There was no comparison to this night. I still could not believe – not even having Bella in my arms and with all the feelings and emotions running through my entire body while Bella did the same – that I were capable of feeling this way.
But I knew that it was the best night of my existence just because I was with Bella.
After a few minutes, Bella watched my face, while her hands ran over my chest, and I would have never expected what words would've gotten out of her mouth.
"And I thought I knew you better than me," she whispered, her eyes looking over every part of my body that was at her reach.
I chuckled, and Bella silenced me with another passionate kiss.
I had no idea that I was capable of feeling more love for her that the one it already filled me.
If Bella thought that I was different – as I surely was when seeing me with her new eyes – she didn't have any idea of I saw her, how I felt under my fingers, how was her taste, her desirable floral smell mixed with honey, if it had been the sweetest one I've ever smelled, now it was much more potent. Her face was as soft as it had been when she was human, my hands could feel her softness so easily that it was difficult for me to raise my hands from her face to another place, her lips were as soft and desirable that it cost me hard work to get away from them to taste her.
Her tongue made a path over the skin of my throat, making me shudder with pleasure.
"This is so much better," she whispered against my throat.
"Better?" I asked her when I felt her hands again twisted in my hair.
I smiled, and something occurred to me.
Before I could even notice what she was planning, I had Bella on me.
I smiled at her, I could feel the playful tone in my eyes when she saw surprised. "This is better."
Bella smiled and we started where we had left of.
While I was kissing her and we were one, I remembered the promise I had made to Bella while we were still waiting Renesmee to be born.
It took me several minutes to part from her mouth and from her skin to remind her that promise.
I stopped her for a moment, and her eyes seemed frightened again, as if she were waiting for my rejection. How could she think that right this moment?
I brought her face to mine slowly, as if I were hesitating, as if I were taking care of her like when she was human. Her eyes recognized my hesitation and the look in my eyes, and she frowned a bit.
I smiled at her gently. "I don't have to worry about you attacking me, right?"
Bella smiled, and for what I saw in her eyes, I could see that she remembered the day that I had used that word to describe her reaction to our first kiss. "Show-off." She repeated the same word than that day.
"No," I told her, just like that time, making it become engraved in her mind. "I was thinking there was something I wanted to try."
I took her face between my hands, Bella stopped her breathing, and I hesitated. Then our lips touched softly, and I kissed her. Just like that afternoon, Bella kissed me with more intensity and her breathing became gasp, her fingers twisted in my hair, her lips parted, and I stopped. I took her face in my hands to get her face apart from mine, and Bella opened her eyes.
"Oops," she murmured.
She clearly remembered our moments together better than I had idea.
Bella returned her lips to mine and her attention to the way our bodies were united. Her hands touched over all my face, as if she were trying to memorize it with just touching it. Her fingers played in my hair, and it was a wonderful feeling.
I couldn't help moaning again, and her kiss became more intense.
Seconds passed and there never seemed to be some moment in which I were going to get tired of this. Physically, there was no possible way, but emotionally, there was simply no way of that at some moment I would stop wanting to have her body on mine, every line of her figure to my reach, my hands on her face, her neck, her back, everything…
Thousands of sensations were running through every part of my body while Bella and I were one. I couldn't believe that I was capable of feeling so much, I couldn't believe that after so much pain, Bella was finally with me for the entire existence.
And the most wonderful, that I had been capable of making her be a mom, to give her a daughter, and she was the most beautiful creature on this planet, after her mother, of course.
Never, not even if I lived for a hundred thousand more years, could I find the reason why I had won the love of an angel so pure and beautiful like Bella, how had I been able to give her something I had never thought I could, something I'd give up on being a vampire for, a daughter. Now there were two important people in my life, my own family.
Bella got away from me suddenly, but not enough to be separated for more than an inch.
"Did I do something wrong?" I asked her, confused by her reaction to something I hadn't felt.
"No – the opposite," she said to me, and her words reminded me of something. "you're driving me crazy."
And then, I understood. More memories.
"Really?" I asked her, content that it was that. I smiled at her the same way that that first night in her room. It was one of my favorite nights, as I had once told her.
"Would you like a round of applause?"
I grinned hugely, and continued with the memory. "I'm just pleasantly surprised," he clarified. "In the last hundred years or so. I never imagined anything like this. I didn't believe I would ever find someone I wanted to be with… in another way than my brothers and sisters. And then to find, even though it's all new to me, that I'm good at it… at being with you…"
"You're good at everything." Bella reminded me, I shrugged and then we both laughed.
Her lips were back to mine, ending that memory.
Only she had the power to make me speak or silence the moment she wanted me to. The only thing I wanted was to give her what she wished, and if in that moment was not speaking, well… who was I to deny me to her wishes?
"I can't believe nightmare's gotten behind us," Bella commented me several hours after our last words. The memories were no longer necessary for the moment. There would be a lot of time for that. All eternity!
I lightly smiled, and nodded. "I know what you mean."
It was as if I were never going to be able to get away from her, but deeply in my head I knew, that at least this day, we couldn't continue though we wanted to.
Now there were responsibilities for both of us that we didn't have before. We were parents, and I was sure that Renesmee would be waiting for Bella to come in a few hours. Anxious to show her all her memories, too.
After a while, the sun was barely wanting to rise from its hiding place, when Bella spoke again, surprising a bit with her words.
"Do you miss it?"
I didn't quite understand what was the point of her question. What could I miss when I had absolutely everything?
"Miss what?" I asked her, curious for hearing what she was thinking.
"All of it – the warmth, the soft skin, the tasty smell… I'm not losing anything at all, and I just wondered if it was a little bit sad for you that you were."
I laughed, understanding what Bella was talking about. But I didn't have any idea of why she was saying that, much less that her supposition was absolutely wrong. I had told her once, when she had told me that she was a little bit afraid that I wouldn't want her anymore when she changed, that if that was the reason I had to not want her to become a vampire.
"It would be hard to find someone less sad than I am now. Impossible, I'd venture. Not many people get every single thing they want, plus all the things they didn't think to ask for, in the same day."
And for a part, Bella should fit in that description. I was almost sure.
She was also getting all the things she never thought in asking. A family that wasn't just being part of the Cullens, it was more than that, it was her own family, Cullen Swan. With a husband that loved her unconditionally for the rest of eternity and now a daughter that would love her that same way, too.
"Are you avoiding the question?"
Was it possible that she still doubted her hold on me was unbreakable?
I would have to leave this very clear on her again. Everything to see that Bella was completely sure that what it mattered to me and made me happy, was to have her for eternity, not the characteristics from her human life. Because I really was not losing any of them, they'd just changed a bit.
I took my hand to her check and pressed softly. "You are warm."
Her skin didn't have the same degree of warm than before, of course, any other person, human, would notice the coldness of our skin, but being equals now, there wasn't any difference. It happened the same with a human, but vice versa. His skin was warm and they don't notice the difference, but if one of them is cold, the other one notices it. Bella should notice that point.
Soft skin Bella had said, her skin was so soft or even softer than how it had been while she was human, I had to let it clear.
I stretched my hand over her face, and then with my fingertips I ran over her face and then her throat to her chin. I touched every inch of her skin to her waist. With pleasure by seeing how her eyes unfocused a bit while I ran over her body feeling an electric current. The current that emanated from her, made me want to show her more of her soft skin.
"You are soft."
The last thing was the smell, I wondered quickly how could I explain to her that I didn't miss that either.
"And as for the scent, well, I couldn't say I missed that. Do you remember the scent of those hikers on our hunt?"
I was hoping the memory didn't make her suffer, as would it be normal. But I hadn't found any other better comparison. It was exactly the way her smell was now. Irresistible.
"I've been trying very hard not to." Bella told me.
She may change her mind if she saw from my point of view. "Imagine kissing that."
"Oh."
It was obvious she had understood what I meant.
"Precisely. So the answer is no. I am purely full of joy, because I am missing nothing. No one has more than I do now."
Bella kissed me again, but I was almost sure of what she would've said.
There could only be one exception to my words, Bella.
Never, not even when I met Bella, when she had accepted me as I was and swore that she would rather die before staying away from me, not even when she accepted me back after having hurt her so much, and when she accepted marrying me and decided that she loved me more than Jacob, not even when we were together that first time, could be compared to the happiness that I now felt. Having her in my arms and knowing that she was safe with me, that there was no more danger or fears when being together of hurting her or killing her, had no comparison. Knowing that our return to the house where our family was, not just Carlisle and Esme, Alice and Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett, but that also our daughter, waiting for us, Renesmee. Was surreal.
It was the first time in my entire existence, that I could truly say that nothing was missing for me, I didn't have absolutely anything to ask life for now.
There was no need to rest now, Bella wasn't going to lose energy when I most wanted to go on like when she was human, and as if she knew what I was thinking about, Bella spoke again, and the subject of her doubt wasn't very different from what I was thinking.
"How long does this go on?" she asked me when the sun was rising. "I mean, Carlisle and Esme, Em and Rose, Alice and Jasper—they don't spend all day locked in their rooms. They're out in public, fully clothed, all the time. Does this… craving ever let up?" she said while she got closer into me, and I would have preferred to not answer her and go on, but…
"That's difficult to say. Everyone is different and, well, so far you're the very most different of all. The average young vampire is too obsessed with thirst to notice much else for a while. That doesn't seem to apply to you. With the average vampire, though, after that first year, other needs make themselves known. Neither thirst nor any other desire really ever fades. It's simply a matter of learning to balance them, learning to prioritize and manage..."
"How long?" Bella insisted.
I smiled, and then my nose wrinkled remembering those first nights in which Emmett and Rosalie were together, it was nightmare just to remember them. It was one of the first things about having a photographic memory without opportunity of ever forgetting even just one thing. And it had been worse to me, with the fact of being able to read minds. "Rosalie and Emmett were the worst. It took a solid decade before I could stand to be within a five-mile radius of them. Even Carlisle and Esme had a difficult time stomaching it. They kicked the happy couple out eventually. Esme built them a house, too. It was grander than this one, but then, Esme knows what Rose likes, and she knows what you like."
"So, after ten years, then? Everybody is normal again? Like they are now?"
It was almost entertained that Bella asked these things.
I actually didn't know very well what Bella meant with normal, but well, I had to explain something of what I guessed Bella wanted to know.
In times like this, it was frustrating to not being able to read her mind and know what was really going through her mind. It would be so much easier…
I smiled at her, and said. "Well, I'm not sure what you mean by normal. You've seen my family going about life in a fairly human way, but you've been sleeping nights." I winked at her, expecting she understood what I meant, and continued. "There's a tremendous amount of time left over when you don't have to sleep. It makes balancing your… interests quite easy. There's a reason why I'm the best musician in the family, why—besides Carlisle—I've read the most books, studied the most sciences, become fluent in the most languages... Emmett would have you believe that I'm such a know-it-all because of the mind reading, but the truth is that I've just had a lot of free time."
But now, I was hoping it was all the opposite.
Maybe it was already time that my free time was over. I had had more than seventy years to do all of that, to read books, to study sciences and languages.
Who cared all of that when I had the most beautiful woman from the planet in my arms?
I certainly did not.
We both laughed, and the movement caused interesting sensations to our bodies intertwined as one. There was no more conversations in long while again.
There weren't enough interesting words to distract me from Bella in that moment.
We had finally reached our endless paradise.
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