AN: Another update for you guys – some much needed privacy for our favorite couple, hope you like it.
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. Just borrowing, as always.
29 – A Little Privacy
Bella
I managed to pay for my… outfit without having to meet the sales clerk's eyes once. When we left the store, I saw Angela give me an amused look.
"What?" I asked self-consciously.
"I just think it's a little funny that you can be embarrassed about buying sexy lingerie at Victoria's Secret," she replied. "I mean, that's what it's there for!"
I just glared at her.
"Do you want to go anywhere else?" she asked, seemingly indifferent to my evil look.
"Maybe Macy's," I suggested. I had avoided shopping for clothes since the twins had been born, and usually wore sweats around the house. Now that I had been forced to look at myself, however, I actually liked the idea of buying some new clothes.
"OK," Angela agreed, turning in the direction of the store.
We spent an hour picking out and trying on different outfits, and I ended up buying a new pair of jeans, three tops and a dress that Angela insisted I should wear on Saturday night.
"You'll be having dinner at the hotel," she pointed out. "Don't you want to look nice?"
I had actually been hoping that dinner would consist of room service, but I didn't mention that. It would be nice to get dressed up for once, it had been a really long time since I did. I decided to make sure that I would get to do just that; Edward hadn't said anything about going out for dinner, and I didn't think he had thought about that, so I would make a reservation at Anthony's.
"It is really nice," I said, fingering the soft material. "And it was on sale."
"There you go."
"Do you want to go anywhere else before we leave?" I wondered, stopping outside the entrance to the store and looking around me. I didn't need to go anywhere else, and we had already been here for over two hours.
"No, that's OK," she replied. "But do you mind stopping by the pharmacy on the way back?"
"Sure, no problem." We started walking in the direction of the parking lot. "What do you need to get?"
"A pregnancy test."
I stopped dead in my tracks at her words.
"Seriously?"
"Of course I'm serious." She looked at me, eyebrows raised.
"You're pregnant?"
"Well, that's what I'm going to find out," she said slowly, each word pronounced carefully, as if she was talking to someone who couldn't hear very well.
"Oh, this is so exciting!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around her, bags and all. I had thought that maybe she and Ben had changed their minds, since she hadn't mentioned it again after Ben's promotion in May.
"Hold your horses." She laughed. "I'm not even sure. We only just started trying a couple of weeks ago, and I'm only a few days late, but I thought I might as well take a test to know for sure."
"That's a good idea," I agreed, regaining the function in my legs again and pulling her along out of the mall. "If you don't, you just get stressed out."
"Exactly."
We got into the car and I pulled out of the parking lot, heading for the closest pharmacy.
"Is Ben at home?" I asked when she had paid for the test and we were back in the car.
"No, he's in Forks this weekend, his parents are renovating the bathroom and they needed some help," Angela replied. "I haven't said anything to him. I know he would just be disappointed if it turns out to be nothing, so I thought I'd take the test first."
"I know what you mean."
We drove in silence for a while, until I pulled into the parking lot at Angela's building.
"Do you mind if I wait while you take the test?" I asked excitedly when I had pulled into an open parking space. Angela laughed.
"Will you leave if I tell you to?" she retorted.
"Nope." I turned off the engine.
"That's what I thought. Come on."
I followed her into the building and to the elevator.
"I'm actually glad that you're here," she said after a moment, squeezing my arm. "I'm a little nervous, and you're always good when it comes to moral support."
"It'll be fine," I assured her. "If it's negative, you can just try again."
"I know."
The elevator stopped with a 'ding' and we got in. The ride up was silent.
"I'll just go… do whatever," Angela said when I closed the front door behind us. "Be right back."
She disappeared into the bathroom, and I went into the living room and sat down on the couch. After a minute, she came into the room with the little plastic stick in her hand.
"And now we wait," I said, giving her an encouraging smile. She smiled back, a little weakly, and sat down next to me.
"So, what do you want for your birthday?" she asked after a moment. Probably just to break the tense silence that had filled the room and keep her mind busy from wandering away with her.
"As always; nothing. Just come to the party Alice insists on throwing on Saturday." I thought of something. "But I guess I'll get out of that early; we can check in to the hotel room after four, so we'll probably leave a little before that."
"An entire night to yourselves, whatever will you do?" Angela wondered, winking at me.
"Hopefully more than sleep," I replied. "I've been going a little crazy lately, but Edward doesn't seem to be bothered at all."
"He's probably just good at hiding it," she suggested.
"Maybe." I shrugged. "Aren't guys the ones who are supposed to get sexually frustrated?"
She laughed at that.
"Well, we do want equality between women and men, maybe we have to take some bad stuff with the good," she joked.
"Good point," I agreed, glancing at my watch. "Time's up."
She took a deep breath and picked up the test. I could see the result on her face, where a disappointed expression appeared almost instantly.
"It's OK," I mumbled, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "I'm sure it'll work next time."
"I know." She nodded, smiling woefully. "I didn't really expect it to happen right away, but I thought that maybe…"
"Come on," I said, getting up and pulling her with me. "Let's go back to our place; Edward's making his pasta for lunch and we have Chocolate Fudge Brownie in the freezer."
Angela laughed.
"I think that's just what I need."
Edward
"Will you keep an eye on the twins while I start lunch?" I asked Lily, who was watching TV in the living room. The twins were in their bouncers on the floor.
"OK," she immediately replied, turning the TV off and sitting down on the floor between them. She loved feeling like she was in charge of watching them, even if we were only in the next room. She wasn't old enough to watch them on her own, of course, but giving her a little responsibility couldn't hurt. I brought the baby monitor with me, just in case, so I could keep an 'eye' on them.
The pasta had just started boiling when the front door opened.
"Hello?" I heard Bella call, and then the door closed.
"Kitchen," I called back, stirring the sauce.
"Hey."
I turned around and found her in the doorway, a smile on her face.
"Hey," I replied, noticing that she had a Macy's bag in her hand. "Did you have a good shopping trip with Angela? Buy anything nice?"
"I did." She put the bag down on one of the chairs and wrapped her arms around me, burying her face against my neck. I pulled her closer, the strawberry scent of her shampoo invading my senses. "I invited Angela for lunch, I hope that's OK. Ben's in Forks, and she needs a little girl-time," she mumbled in my ear.
"Of course." I didn't ask what had brought on the need for 'girl-time'.
She pulled back and gave me a look I couldn't quite decipher.
"I'll just go put this away." She picked up the bag and dangled it in front of me. "And then I'm going to get reacquainted with my old friend the bathroom scale."
"Really?" I asked, a little amused. I had been telling her that she had lost all the weight she had put on during the pregnancy for days, but she refused to believe me. I was glad that, apparently, Angela had made her see the light.
She disappeared out of the room and I started setting the table while keeping an eye on the food on the stove. When it was done, I poured the pasta into one bowl and the sauce into another and then left the kitchen.
Lily had returned to the couch and her show, Masen was still in his bouncer, happily swatting at the animals dangling above him, and Angela was sitting in one of the armchairs with Emma. She looked up when I came into the room.
"She looked about to deliver one hell of a tantrum, so I thought I'd intervene," she explained.
Emma had become more… expressive over the past couple of weeks, and would now let us know when she wasn't happy about something. She seemed to like the bouncer, but she would complain if she was left in it with nobody close by. Unlike Masen, however, it didn't seem like it was physical contact she wanted, because most of the time, it was enough if you just talked to her a little. She was the one who seemed to respond the most to our voices, always turning when either Bella or I spoke in her vicinity. She had also started making other noises than just crying; different cooing sounds whenever you talked to her, something that Masen seemed to have started picking up in just the last few days.
"Were you now?" I crouched down next to the armchair, and Emma turned her blue eyes to me and a big smile appeared on her face. I still felt a wave of warm happiness in my entire body whenever she or Masen smiled at me. It made the entire miracle that they were all the more obvious. "I think we might have to watch out for your temper in a few years, it seems like you've inherited your mother's."
"I have a temper?" I glanced over my shoulder to find Bella a few feet behind, arms crossed over her chest but, to my relief, an amused smile on her face. "Who's the one who's barely civil before he gets coffee in the morning?"
She did have a point.
"Let's just hope she hasn't gotten my morning mood too." I half expected her to argue, but she just shook her head.
"Turn the TV off and go wash your hands, Lily, lunch is ready," she said instead.
"Do you want me to put her back in the bouncer while we eat?" Angela wondered, standing up.
"Yeah, but bring her into the kitchen," I replied, picking up Masen in his bouncer. "Or we won't get to eat in peace."
As it turned out, we didn't anyway. I had just taken the first bite of food when I heard the first tell-tale signs that Masen was about to start crying. He always made these little, whining sounds before a full-blown wail started.
"Diaper change," Bella deduced before he got started.
"I'll get it," I said, getting up and picking him up out of the bouncer just as his face scrunched up, preparing for the cry. "Be right back."
I climbed the stairs and entered the nursery, where I put him down on the changing table. To my surprise, he didn't complain – he always did, he hated the changing table – but just stared up at me, his little fists flailing.
"Decided to be a grown-up about this at last, have you?" I asked, and he smiled. "A big boy?"
"Ah!"
I took that as a 'yes'.
I finished changing him and went back downstairs, putting him back in his bouncer and sitting back down at the table. I hadn't finished my third bite when Emma started crying instead. I put down my fork and was about to get up, but Bella beat me to it.
"I'm done, you eat." She picked Emma up and left the room, and I sighed.
The wonder of having two babies in the house.
xxxxx
"I thought you were the one throwing the party?" I grumbled at noon on Saturday, when I had finished blowing up the last of the five dozen balloons Alice had brought. "Doesn't that mean you're supposed to do this?"
"I'm in charge," she corrected me, taking the balloon from me. "That means I get to boss you around."
"I thought that came with the whole twin thing," I muttered, and she shot me a dazzling smile.
"That, too."
"Well, you're going to have to get by on your own for a while now, because I'm going to pick up the cake," I said resolutely. Alice had ordered Bella out of the house so that she – meaning me, as it turned out – could decorate the living room for the party. Bella had taken Lily and the twins with her to Emmett and Rosalie's, and I was starting to wish that I had managed to escape with them. Alice could be a real slave driver when she put her mind to it.
"Fine, go, Jasper will be here soon, anyway." She brushed me off with a wave of her hand, and I gratefully hurried out of the house before she had the chance to change her mind.
I loved my sister – really, I did – but she had a tendency to go just a little bit overboard when it came to things like parties. A cake, friends and family and some presents just weren't enough for her, whether it was her birthday or someone else's. There had to be balloons, and streamers, and a bunch of other decorations that were completely pointless to anyone else. And a strictly organized table for presents, and preferably party games. But when it came to the last part, she usually gave in to Bella's dislike of them.
I had, however, realized a long time ago that it was easier to just give in to her and let her have her way. Alice could also be very stubborn when she put her mind to it.
I got in the car and tried to remember that it would all be over soon. Hopefully, by the time I got back to the house, our parents and Charlie and Sue would have gotten there and could help with some of Alice's frighteningly hyper instructions. And Bella and I were leaving at four, so we would soon be by ourselves at the hotel.
I looked forward to our night away with excitement mixed with dread. I was of course eager to get Bella all to myself for twenty hours straight, without any interruptions, but at the same time, it was the first time that we would both be away from home at the same time since the twins had been born. I knew that they would be fine with my parents and Charlie and Sue, but it was still a little… nerve wrecking to think about it. So I tried not to focus on that aspect, and keep thinking about me and Bella, alone in a hotel room for an entire night…
But not yet. I had to pick up the cake and get through Alice's party first.
Bella
Alice had told me – ordered, pretty much – to stay out of the house until everything was set up. She had wanted to throw me a surprise party, but Edward had managed to dissuade her, which I was grateful for. But she still insisted that I not get a look at all her decorations before everything was done.
When she finally called and told me I could come back to the house, it was a little after one in the afternoon. I was secretly glad that the preparations had apparently taken longer than she had anticipated, because that meant that I would only have to put up with three hours of pretending to enjoy myself so as not to make Alice feel bad before Edward and I left for the hotel, and the birthday present I was really looking forward to.
We walked the two blocks back to our house; the weather was still summery, with temperatures that were lingering in the low seventies. I saw that Carlisle, Esme, Charlie and Sue had arrived, because the Mercedes was parked in the driveway. When we got inside, it became apparent that we were the last to arrive; Ben, Angela, Jacob and Vanessa were already in the living room with the others.
"Happy birthday!" Jake boomed as soon as I appeared in the room, scooping me up in one of his bear hugs. "I was all for getting you a cane – you are practically middle age now, you know – but Nessie managed to persuade me not to."
"Thank you!" I said fervently as he released me and I gave Vanessa a hug as well. "I'm not quite that old yet."
"He's just teasing you," she assured me.
"I know." I shot him a glare, but he just smirked at me. "Just remember that you're closer to thirty than twenty now, too."
"I don't obsess over my age," he replied, shrugging. "Only girls do that."
"He does," Vanessa stage whispered. "You should have seen him last year."
I remembered.
"I know, he's not as indifferent as he…" I cut myself off; I had just spotted something sparkling on Vanessa's left hand. "Oh my God!" I exclaimed, grabbing her hand. "When did you…?"
"Just the other day," Vanessa told me, blushing. "We didn't want to ruin your birthday party."
"You could never do that!" I had known that this was coming; I had helped Jake pick out the ring a couple of weeks ago. But he had said that he was going to wait until they went up to Forks for Halloween; they had met on Halloween two years ago. I reached up so I could smack him over the head. "You liar!"
"Sorry," he apologized with a grin. "It was a spur of the moment kind of thing, really."
Alice, Rosalie and Angela had gathered around Vanessa, admiring the ring. I enveloped Jacob in another hug.
"I'm so happy for you guys," I mumbled in his ear, feeling tears rise in my eyes. Finally, all of my friends had found love.
"Don't get all teary eyed on me now," he complained. "This is a birthday party, after all. And yours, you know, so you can't be crying."
Before I had the chance of replying, Alice got to me, pushing me down on the couch and putting a wrapped package in my hands. After that, I didn't get a minute to myself between opening presents, eating cake and keeping my friends and family entertained. Before I knew it, it was four o'clock and Edward interrupted my conversation with Esme and Sue.
"Maybe we should get going?" he suggested, looking torn at the idea.
"OK," I happily agreed. I was looking forward to our night away, but I understood his hesitation. I had never left Lily overnight when she was a baby; the first time I hadn't slept in the same house as her had been when she was three, and Angela had insisted that I needed a 'girl's weekend'. Jake and Ben had stayed with Lily at my place, and I remembered that I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep all night. But she'd had a great time with her uncles, and I knew that the twins would be fine with Edward's parents and my dad and Sue.
We had already packed and put our bags in the car earlier, so all we had to do was say goodbye and then go. It took even longer than I had thought; I had expected Edward to stall, but not as much as he actually did. But, eventually, I managed to drag him out the door and into the car. He took one last, long look at the house, and then pulled out of the driveway.
Edward
I glanced at the clock on the wall and winced when I saw that it was already a little after four. The entire afternoon had just flown by, and though I was really looking forward to tonight, I really didn't want to leave. Quite the dilemma.
They'll be fine, a little voice said inside me. You're being overprotective and just a little bit obsessive.
I knew that. I did.
I scanned the living room, finding Bella in a corner, talking to Esme and Sue. I made my way over, deciding that it was probably better to just get it over with. Like ripping a band-aid off. Quick and painless.
"Maybe we should get going?" I said when Bella looked up at me.
"OK." She nodded, a smile on her face. I was a little jealous of how easy this seemed to her. She had tried to explain, saying that she had already done the whole 'leaving for the first time' thing when Lily had been a baby, and that she knew everything would be fine.
I lingered for as long as I could in the house, pretending to have misplaced first my cell phone, then the car keys, but after half an hour, Bella resolutely pulled me out of the house – almost literally – and held the car door open for me. I stared at the house for a long moment, and then I started the car and pulled into the street.
Within seconds, my hand started twitching towards the cell phone that was in my pocket.
"No," Bella said quietly, but sternly, next to me.
I gripped the steering wheel tightly, so as not to be tempted, and soon we were at the hotel. I continued to let Bella take the lead, following behind her into the building and up to the reception, where she got the key to our room, and then to the elevators.
"How're you doing?" she asked when the elevator doors closed around us and we started zooming upwards.
"OK," I replied, shrugging.
"I know how you feel," she told me, wrapping an arm around my waist and leaning her head against my shoulder. "I know that it's hard, but they will be fine."
"I know." I sighed and hugged her back. "Can't I call, though? Just to make sure. It would make me feel better."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "We've only barely been gone for fourty minutes yet; we can't call every half-hour the entire night."
"I know that," I admitted.
"Come on, let's just focus on you and me tonight." As she spoke, she turned her head so that I could feel her breath against my neck. "Who knows when we'll get another opportunity to have a night all to ourselves?"
Her lips brushed my jaw line, and when they met mine, everything else melted away. There was just her and me and nothing else.
My body reacted to hers in an almost automatic way; I pulled her closer, taking a few steps forward so I could press her against the wall.
We were interrupted by the elevator doors opening, revealing an older couple who seemed more than a little surprised to discover us locked in an embrace.
Bella seized my hand in one of hers and her suitcase in the other and pulled me out of the elevator – I managed to grab my bag at the last minute – giggling when the doors closed around the couple. I quickly pulled her to a stop and reclaimed her lips, crushing her body against mine. She responded immediately, and within seconds, we were both breathing heavily.
"There is a perfectly good hotel room just a few feet away," she pointed out when we pulled apart for air. "I think the other hotel guests would appreciate it if we took this somewhere more private."
I had to agree with her, and followed her down the hallway, waiting impatiently as she unlocked the door to our room. Once inside, however, she slipped away from me and pushed me in the direction of what must be the bathroom.
"Take a shower," she ordered. "You are taking me out to dinner."
She hadn't released my hand, and now I pulled her with me into the bathroom.
"It's a big shower," I pointed out, unbuttoning the top button in her top. "We'd both fit."
"The only problem with that scenario," she said, taking a step away from me, "is that we won't make it out of this room tonight."
"I don't see the problem with that," I objected, and she laughed.
"I'm sure you don't." With that, she left the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
I sighed, then turned the water on in the shower and took my shirt off. When I got to the jeans, however, I realized that I still had the cell phone in my pocket.
Bella wouldn't know if I called, just once. She wouldn't be able to hear it over the running water.
I quickly hit speed dial one and waited for someone to pick up.
"Hello?"
"Hi Alice."
"Why am I not surprised?" she wondered exasperatedly.
"Just wanted to see how you're doing."
"They're fine. You've only been gone forty-five minutes, what could you possibly have thought would happen in that time?"
"I know, I just wanted to…"
"I'm going to hang up now," she interrupted me. "And you are going to enjoy having your wife all to yourself for an entire night, OK?"
Somehow, she made it sound like an order.
"I will, can I just talk to Esme real quick, I just…"
"Goodbye, Edward."
And she hung up. I stared at the phone in my hand for a moment, then sighed and put it down on the counter by the sink. It wouldn't do any good to call again; Alice wouldn't pick up, and I was sure that she wouldn't let anyone else, either.
I hastily removed the rest of my clothes and took a quick shower; Bella would get suspicious if I wasn't finished in here soon. Then I wrapped a towel around my waist and left the bathroom; one last attempt at getting her to stay in the room tonight.
She had already changed, and was wearing a chiffon dress in a deep, blue color; my favorite on her. She was standing in front of the mirror with her back to me, putting on a pair of earrings.
"New dress?" I wondered, stopping close behind her.
"You like?" She met my eyes in the mirror, one eyebrow raised.
"It's beautiful." I pulled her hair away and gave her one, feather light kiss just behind the ear. "But I think it would look even better off."
She laughed and slipped away from me.
"Nice try." She stopped in the door to the bathroom, giving me a glance over her shoulder. "Get dressed, I'm just going to put on a few finishing touches and then we're leaving."
"You're really set on going out for dinner, aren't you?" I asked, sounding only – I hoped – a little disappointed. I resigned to her determination and started getting dressed.
"We haven't done this in a really long time, so yes," she replied from behind the closed bathroom door. "Aren't you?"
I resisted the urge to say that I was looking forward to what came after dinner more, thinking that that might seriously diminish the chances of anything happening after dinner. And she did have a point. We hadn't been out to dinner just the two of us in months, and this was her birthday present. She deserved to be spoiled a little.
"Of course I am."
I heard her laugh, and knew I hadn't fooled her completely.
"So, where do you want to go?" I fiddled with the tie; I had never completely gotten the hang of those things.
"Anthony's," her voice came from right behind me. "Let me do that."
I turned around and she quickly fixed the tie, then took a step back to give me the once over.
"What do you know, you clean up pretty nicely," she said with a smirk.
"I could say the same for you," I replied. "You look amazing."
"Thank you." She flashed me a genuine smile.
"But Anthony's might be booked up, you know," I pointed out. It was a very popular restaurant, and it was Saturday night.
"Not a problem, we have a reservation at six." When I raised my eyebrows at that, she continued innocently, "I couldn't count on you thinking of everything, could I?"
I just sighed and shook my head.
"Let's go."
The restaurant did turn out to be almost full, but we were given a table overlooking the harbor.
"I really should have thought of this," I said as we looked at the menus. This was one of her favorite restaurants in the city, and it was practically next door to the hotel.
"I'm just glad you thought of staying at a hotel," she replied. "I honestly wasn't expecting anything like this, at least not this year."
"It was actually Alice's idea," I admitted, a little reluctantly. "I mean, I probably would have thought of it, but I don't think I'd have done anything about it if she hadn't suggested it and pushed me a little."
Instead of looking disappointed, Bella gave me an understanding smile.
"That's pretty much what I figured," she told me. "But I think that, at least in this case, it's not the thought, but the end result that counts."
It was a relief to hear that she thought that.
"Would you like to order drinks?"
We both looked up at the waiter who had asked the question.
"I'd like one glass of white wine, and then water," Bella told him.
"I'll have the same."
"Alright, I'll be right back with that, and you can have another minute to decide what you want to eat."
"Mmm, wine," Bella said with a wistful look on her face when he had left. "I haven't had wine since Mexico."
I laughed a little.
"Then why just one glass?" I wondered.
"I don't want to risk the alcohol not being out of my system tomorrow," she explained, studying the menu. "I doubt another glass would make much of a difference, but I still don't want to take the chance."
Of course, I should have thought of that.
The waiter soon returned with our drinks and took our orders at the same time. When he had left again, I glanced at my watch.
"I'll be right back, just need to use the restrooms," I told Bella, standing up.
"OK," she replied, taking a sip of the wine. "Just give me your cell first."
"What?" I stared at her for a moment and she gave me an innocent smile. "Why?"
"Because I know you, and you are going to call the house," she explained. "And, like I said, we're not going to call every half hour, so give me your phone."
I glared at her, but handed over my cell.
"And if you're gone for longer than ten minutes, I'll come looking for you," she threatened as I turned to leave. "So don't even think about going outside to use a payphone."
I couldn't help but smile as I walked through the restaurant in the direction of the restrooms. Sometimes it was a little frightening how well she knew me.
I was back at the table after less than five minutes; I hadn't really needed to use the restrooms, but I hadn't wanted to give her the satisfaction of admitting that, so I had spent a few minutes washing my hands.
"Are you going to stick to your 'no phone calls' policy until we get home tomorrow?" I wondered dryly as I sat back down.
"No, I'm not," she replied lightly. "I thought we could call when we get back to the hotel, to say goodnight to Lily and make sure everything's under control."
"And that's it? I can't call again after that?"
"Well…" she started, looking up at me through her lashes, "I was actually hoping that you would be… too distracted to think about calling after that."
I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly very dry.
"Were you now?"
She just smiled and nodded.
"Well, if that was your plan, how come we had to leave the room in the first place?"
The waiter appeared with our food just as I finished speaking, and Bella didn't answer right away. When he was gone, she gave me a look that, had we not been in public, would have had entirely different consequences…
"I'm a respectable girl," she finally said. "You have to take me out to dinner before you can take me to bed."
"Oh, really?"
"Uh-huh."
She picked up her fork and knife and started eating, seemingly completely indifferent to the fact that what I really wanted to do right now was throw her over my shoulder and run back to the hotel. I had no choice but to do the same myself.
I ate fast, wanting to get out of the restaurant as soon as possible, but she was not cooperating. She lingered on the starter, took almost an hour on the main course, and then insisted that we have dessert as well. When I had finally paid the bill, it was a little after eight thirty, and I was getting very impatient.
When I all but dragged her out of the restaurant, she gave me back my cell.
"Why don't we call on the way?" she suggested innocently.
I hit the speed dial, and Esme answered after a moment.
"Hello?"
"Hi mom, how's everything going?" As I spoke, Bella pulled me along and started walking slowly back towards the hotel.
"Everything is under control, don't you worry," Esme told me. "Emma and Masen just ate, and Emma fell asleep almost right away. Your father's trying to get Masen to go to sleep as well, but he doesn't seem to be having much luck."
I listened hard, but couldn't hear Masen crying in the background, so I assumed he just didn't want to go to sleep.
"Try one of the rocking chairs, that usually does the trick," I said, and heard Esme repeat my instructions to Carlisle.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" she asked, coming back to the phone. "Did you go out for dinner?"
"We did," I replied. "Bella had made reservations at Anthony's, and we're just on our way back to the hotel now."
"Oh, I love that restaurant."
"Is Lily there? We wanted to say goodnight to her before she went to bed." I hoped Lily wouldn't think it was odd that we called half an hour before her bedtime; I really didn't know what to say if she asked about it.
"She's watching a movie, hang on, I'll get her."
I waited for a moment, and then Lily's voice came over the line.
"Hi dad!"
"Hi princess. Are you having a good time with your grandparents and aunt Sue?"
"Uh-huh. We're watching The Jungle Book."
I could tell that there was no point in trying to drag the conversation out; it was very difficult to keep her from the television when she was watching one of her favorite movies.
"I just wanted to say goodnight before you go to bed," I told her.
"OK, night dad."
"Hang on!" I said quickly, as Bella held her hand out for the phone. "Don't you want to say goodnight to your mom too?"
"OK."
I handed the phone to Bella and then held the door to the hotel open for her.
"Hi sweetie, are you holding down the fort at home? Making sure your grandparents and aunt Sue know what they're doing… great… oh, I see, well, you go back to your movie, and sleep tight, OK… yes, we're coming back tomorrow… OK, sweet dreams baby… bye."
She ended the call before handing the phone back to me, and I put it in my pocket. I had actually wanted to talk to Esme some more, but I had a feeling Bella would confiscate my phone again if I tried to make another call.
"Now…" she started, pulling me along to the elevators. A group of business men were just leaving one when we got there, and we slipped in after they were gone. The doors slowly closed around us and Bella immediately pulled me down for a long, languid kiss. When she pulled away, she looked up at me with questioning eyes. "Do you think you'll be able to relax?"
It took me a moment to even realize what she was talking about, and I immediately felt guilty. But this was our night, our time alone together. I was supposed to focus on just her and me, right? The twins were fine with my parents and Charlie and Sue, and we would be back home soon enough.
"I think I'll be OK," I replied, pulling her closer. "As long as you keep… distracting me."
I could feel her smile against the skin on my neck.
"I think I might be able to do that."
I pulled her lips back up to mine and took a couple of steps until she was pressed against the wall. Her lips were willing and eager against mine, and I let one hand wander up her back to tangle in her hair, holding her to me. The other I let trail, slowly, down her side. The dress was too long for me to be able to reach the hem, but I traced the contour of her thigh through the thin material.
The ride didn't even take a minute, but by the time the little 'ding' announced that the elevator had reached its destination, we were both breathing hard. My mind was completely focused on her; her body against mine, her soft, warm lips, her eyes, staring into mine with the same want and desire I knew must be in mine. Somehow, though, I managed to register the fact that we were still in the elevator, and pulled her out of it, down the hallway and into our room. As soon as the door closed behind us, I pulled her to me again, finding her lips. Her arms wrapped around my neck, she pushed herself even closer, and I pressed one hand against the small of her back, keeping her there, while my other hand started working on the zipper in her dress. I managed to get it all the way down, but the dress still stayed in place. My dazed mind realized that there must be some sort of button or something at the top, and I started tugging at it.
And she pulled away from me.
I felt my eyes widen into a confused expression and was about to ask what was wrong when she slipped around me.
"I'll be right back."
I turned in time to see the bathroom door close behind her. What the…?
I ran a hand over my face, trying to pull my thoughts back together. I could feel my heart beating much too fast, and my breath coming in quick, shallow gasps. I sat down on the foot of the bed, staring at the door that now separated us and wondering what on earth she was up to.
I didn't have to wait very long; after only a minute or so, the door opened again. And all I could do was stare.
AN: I hope you liked the chapter! Let me know if you want me to pick up where I left off… I'm evil, I know!
