I really need to sleep. I'm exhausted and just plain frustrated. But I'm forcing myself to get up and stop writing other stuff and just write this. It's gone long enough without an update.

(Chapter 23)

EPOV

I looked at my love as she slept. She had molded herself to me earlier…this morning. I'd been forced to leave and get dressed for a while for the obvious reasons. When I came back to her she was immediately molded to me again. A small smile came to my face. It was…cute. To solidify that thought, she nuzzled her face into my shoulder and let out a content sigh. Oh how did I get lucky enough to have such a beautiful mate like her?

I ran my fingers through her mahogany locks gently and committed every part of her face to memory. As I looked at her, my eyes unconsciously started to go lower and lower. It wasn't until I was looking at her half covered breasts that I snapped my eyes up and shook my head at myself. This was not how I should be acting. I wasn't raised to act like this. It seems like my morals were flying out of the window and I was acting like the average teenage boys that go to our high school. My pleasurable high was successfully diminished. I wonder what my parents would think if they saw me now.

Disappointment would probably be the number one emotion. Although I couldn't remember them correctly, I'm sure that being a gentleman was one thing that they instilled into me. Now here I was acting like a hormonal teenager who couldn't keep it in his pants. I sighed silently to myself and attempted to distance myself from her. I froze when I heard her whimper and clutch at me a bit tighter. I listened to her heart and saw that she had woken up a bit. There was no way that I could have caused it. Perhaps she had a bad dream. But I didn't sense distress from her.

"Stop it." She muttered with her eyes still closed. She was only half awake. Instead of continuing to move, I settled down and she immediately came back to me.

"Stop what love?" I asked curiously.

"Thinking whatever you're thinking. That voice told me you were depressing yourself." She mumbled again; all while still not opening her eyes. It was actually a bit frustrating to not be able to see her eyes.

I stayed silent and didn't speak. I wasn't going to lie to her about being depressed. What we did was wrong. She opened her eyes and looked at me. There was a bit of disapproval in them but the concern was the main emotion.

"What's wrong?" She asked while moving her hand up to gently touch my forehead. It was only then I noticed that I was frowning. I changed my face to a blank mask before I answered her.

"What we did goes completely against my morals. I apologize for my actions. It should have never happened. My original parents would be ashamed of me if they were to see me now." I was expecting her to agree with me or maybe even get angry. What I was not expecting was for her to recoil as if I had stricken her. She started to put distance between us.

"You think last night was a…mistake? You regret what happened?" She asked in a despondent tone. Her face told me all that she was feeling though. She looked like a wounded puppy with her watery eyes and trembling lips.

Immediately I wanted to smack myself. Of course she would take it that way. Humans are sensitive dumb ass. I shook my head and pulled her back to me. She buried her face into my neck and I could hear her trying to hold back tears. My heart broke a bit. I hate to see her cry. "No, no. I said it shouldn't have happened, not that I didn't want it too…very, very badly." That got the desired giggle from her.

"You must understand that I come from a different time than you do Bella. Back then we wouldn't have even been able to hold hands in public without someone frowning at us if I wasn't courting you. It was virtually unheard of to do what we did before marriage. My parents, my original parents that is, raised me to be a gentleman if nothing else. It goes against almost my every grain. I feel as if I've disrespected you." I was glad that she wasn't looking at me. She would probably see the self-loathing on my face.

She was shaking her head minutely against me. "I understand Edward, really I do. But you must understand me. I come from a time where women do a lot more in public that holding hands. I wasn't brought up the same way you were. Now I'm not saying that we should go jump in the nearest bed-" I chuckled a bit.

"We're already in a bed love." I said while bouncing a bit for emphasis. She giggled again and hit me a bit.

"Smart-alec. But I'm not saying we should just sleep with each other just because it's the 20th century. I'm not going to force you to do anything you're uncomfortable with just because of my selfish desires. If you want to wait then that's what we'll do. I don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to." I stared at her with loving eyes. What did I do to deserve a woman like her?

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" She giggled again and a small blush came to her cheeks.

"Maybe once or twice." She said with a teasing smile. I chuckled and pulled her closer to me.

"I love you." I whispered while pressing my forehead to hers.

She hummed and pecked my lips quickly. "I love you too Edward. Now let me sleep." She said the end with a playful smile. I knew she was partly serious.

"My apologies love. Sleep well and I'll be here when you wake." It was hardly ten seconds before I heard her even breaths that signaled she was asleep. A small smile came to my face. What would I do without her?

I'm so sorry. Originally, I had this chapter almost completely done since I said I was coming back. Sadly my laptop isn't as fixed as I thought it was. Now it's starting to work and I'm trying to get this finished as fast as possible. It might be shitty towards the end but at least it's finished. It's only a fluff chapter but I hope to have some time skip in the next chapter. Perhaps all the way to the start of the problems with Victoria. Yup, that sounds about right. Review and tell me what you think.