I can't wait for the reactions to this chapter. I tried to hold off posting it for a few days, but I have impulse control issues. Enjoy!
And all around your island
There's a barricade
It keeps out the danger
It holds in the pain
Sometimes you're happy
Sometimes you cry
Half of me is ocean
Half of me is sky
But you got a heart so big
It could crush this town
And I can't hold out forever
Even walls fall down.
- Tom Petty
"This isn't bad, as these things go," Jasper said to Bella, who was watching apprehensively as he carefully aligned Edward's arm to the stump of his shoulder. Edward lay perfectly still, staring up at the canopy of the bed. "I've seen vampires torn into half a dozen pieces knit together in a few days. An arm like this will take a couple of hours."
"That feels so fucking weird," Edward murmured.
"Stay still," Jasper advised him. "The more you move, the longer it will take. Soon, when it starts to fuse on, it will become like a dead weight. You won't be able to get up. You'll regain control of it before morning."
"Are you in pain?" Bella asked anxiously.
Edward smiled. "No. But it feels like…like…my arm is missing," he said with a laugh.
"No video games for you tonight," Jasper said with a grin. He stood, satisfied with his work. "I'm off to kick some Denali ass," he said, and gave Bella a small wink. "He's all yours, ma'am."
Bella sat gingerly on the edge of the bed. "Can I get you anything?" she murmured to Edward.
"I'd like to see my mother," he said, smiling at her sadly.
"Where do you think she is?" Bella stroked his hair. The entire crew had carefully avoided mentioning Esme after the debriefing session, as if discussing it would somehow jinx her.
"I don't know," Edward said softly. "We tried so hard to keep this from her…I imagine she's furious with all of us."
"Maybe she understands," Bella said hopefully. "She knows you were just trying to protect her."
"Yeah." Edward sighed. "Like the last time I protected her."
"Oh, Edward." Bella leaned down and kissed his forehead.
"If she catches Jacob, I'm afraid one of them will die," Edward said seriously. "And…I don't see how we could stop that from happening. I didn't hear her thoughts during the fight…I was too focused on James and Victoria, and Jacob. But I know Esme, and I know that she won't be able to let this go. Ever."
"I understand that," Bella whispered. "It must be so traumatic for her. Even though Jake didn't kill Carlisle…" she sighed. "Like an Auschwitz prisoner meeting the child of a Nazi guard. You can try to disassociate all you like, but the rage is still there."
Edward smiled up at her. "You are an extraordinary woman. To be able to see both sides of this mess."
"Don't get your hopes up," she said tartly. "I'm still rather irritated at you."
"I'm completely at your mercy," he teased. "Hit me with your wrath."
"Hmmm." Bella sat quietly for a moment. He could see that she was mulling something over in her mind.
"Um…I was kidding?" Edward said hopefully.
"Edward," Bella said firmly. "I don't believe we will ever have an opportunity like this again."
Edward felt a strange foreboding in the back of his brain. He stared at her, wishing for the hundredth time that he could read her mind. He watched suspiciously as she stood and went over to her bag, which Alice had brought in from her truck, and pulled out her iPod. She fiddled with it for a moment and then set it in the dock on the bedside table.
"I talked with your family about your concerns," she said abruptly, and turned and walked away.
"Yes?" He raised his head and followed her progress. She was heading to the bathroom.
"Yes. And apparently, your viewpoint about you and I having sex is valid. I apologize for doubting that."
Edward felt a twinge of disappointment. He had been given to understand that Bella's plans for the evening involved at least some inappropriate content. "I'm glad you see it that way."
He could hear her rooting around in the dressing room, and the shift and slide of fabric as she changed clothes. He looked at the clock on the wall – it was only eight in the evening. Pretty early for bedtime…but she'd had a long day.
And since he was kind of stuck where he was, if she was planning to sleep there she was going to have to share her bed. It was an encouraging thought.
"However," she said, moving into the bathroom, "Circumstances have changed."
Mystified, Edward kept his mouth shut. He could hear her banging around in drawers and cabinets. Then the sound of her running the faucet and brushing her teeth. Then, some weird sounds that he couldn't identify…maybe a brush running through her hair?
"Have they?" he finally ventured.
"Mmm-hmm." And she appeared in the bathroom doorway.
She was wearing a silken nightgown the color of the evening sky. It fell around her body in teasing folds, concealing this while revealing that, the color making her skin glow like pearls. Her hair, which had been thrown up in a messy bun, was now rippling over her shoulders like silken chocolate. And she was carrying herself differently. With intent.
"Bella," he said warningly.
Slowly, her eyes dark and inscrutable, she drifted towards him. When she reached the side of the bed, she pressed play on the iPod she had set up…and the first heady strains of Ravel's Bolero began to thrum around them.
Edward took a deep, unnecessary breath. A strange, delicious fear was building in his mind and helpless anticipation awakened in his body. He felt himself growing hard even as he scrambled to assemble an argument that would dissuade her from her path.
"Bella," he began again, but his considerable intellect failed him.
"Shhh," she said softly, approaching the bed. She stood at the base and gazed at him, as if considering her options.
He stared back, a snake caught in a charmer's spell. He could smell her, God, her scent was already circulating in the air. His mouth was flooded with venom, a visceral response to the memory of her incredible, addicting taste. His cock twitched, drawing her gaze.
Her eyes on his groin, she slid first one, then the other knee onto the bed and sat kneeling at his feet. Moistening her lips, she let her eyes drift up and down his body.
"May I?" she said softly, fingering the black laces of one of his shoes.
Helplessly, he nodded. As if I could say no to anything, the way you're looking at me now…
"We'll go slow," she promised as she unlaced his shoes and slid them off his feet. "If it's too much, we'll stop." Shoes hit the floor, socks pulled off and followed their trajectory. Her warm hands closed around one of his feet; with the fingers of a master masseuse, she caressed the ball, the arch, the toes of his foot.
It was a completely novel sensation for Edward. Vampires don't typically have problems with podiatrics; he had never in his long afterlife massaged his own feet, and, well, it was a foregone conclusion that no one else had, either. Especially not someone like Bella, whose warm hands and warmer gaze slipped over every square inch of one foot, and then the other. She swayed slightly to the hypnotic rhythm of the music.
"Are vampires ticklish?" she asked, running one knuckle down the arch of his foot so gently that he barely felt it. He shook his head, unable to make words in his muddled brain. No, not ticklish, but the sensation of her sliding that digit down the arch of his foot made an arc of electricity shoot up his leg to his groin.
She set his foot down gently and swept her knee over his prone legs, straddling his calves.
"You're beautiful," she murmured, placing her hands on his knees and running them lightly up and down his legs. "I love watching you. The way you move, the way you stand…but I need to see more." She folded herself down and pressed her warm lips to his navel.
"Your chest is beautiful," she whispered. "Your arms. Your stomach. Can I see the rest of you?"
Wordlessly, he nodded.
Gingerly, she grasped the band of his jeans and slid the button free. Did the same with the zipper, pulling it down slowly. He felt the separation of every tooth in the base of his dick. His hips shifted involuntarily.
"Be still," she admonished softly. "I want you back in full working order…just not right now." He cracked a weak smile.
Getting his jeans off was a major operation. She had to pull and tug from all directions to get them down off his ass. He helped her as much as he could, but the paralysis was settling into his arm. He could feel it now, like the disembodied ghost of a limb, but it weighed him down like an anchor.
When she finally got the jeans halfway off, the process became much easier. She worked them down and over his feet and tossed them on the floor, breathing heavily. Her eyes roamed over the skin she had revealed.
"Beautiful," she murmured.
She crawled up over him again, sitting down on his thighs, and devoted herself to applying her lips to his. God, she was good. Her mouth was a carnival of delights for him, the way she plied her tongue on his, her sweet breath, her warm lips…he couldn't help but reach up with his good arm and grasp her hair at the crown of her head, pulling her down, preventing her from pulling away from him.
"Edward," she moaned, biting his lip with her little teeth. Shit. He shivered and mashed her lips against his, grinding his tongue on hers, fisting his hand in her hair. Closer, closer, come closer, please…let me break that sweet skin of yours and watch your blood drip down your throat…
With gentle fingers, she touched his cheeks. Tried to pull back. Groaning, Edward let go of her hair and threw his head back onto the bed, breathing harshly even though no amount of air could clear his fevered brain.
"You okay?" she whispered, brushing his cheekbones with her thumbs. He nodded, his eyes squeezed shut.
"Just…don't let me get my mouth on you until I calm down," he grated out. She laughed softly and prudently withdrew her hands.
Not far, though. He felt her touch again on his shoulders and had to open his eyes again to watch her. Apparently, she had decided to go exploring; over and over she ran her hands across his skin, mimicking the rhythm of the music. Down his neck, across his clavicles, over his pecs, down his sides, in to his abdomen, and up his chest again to start over. She put pressure on different points, watching him carefully for his reactions. They both discovered that he was most sensitive just below his navel and on his sides, where his lats crossed from back to chest.
When she had run over every square centimeter of his skin with her hands, respectfully avoiding his arms, she started all over again with her mouth.
She didn't seem to be in any particular hurry, but lazily searched over his skin with her lips and tongue. Like a bloodhound on a scent, she went over her field obsessively…but it wasn't until Edward heard involuntary groans coming from his own mouth that she carefully touched his nipple with the flat of her tongue.
His hips bucked. He flung his good arm over his head to prevent himself from grabbing her neck and breaking her spine. His fingers latched mindlessly onto the scrollwork of the bedframe.
"Fucking hell," he said redundantly.
Bella smiled against his skin but didn't pause, laving his nipple delicately with her melting hot tongue. The ends of her hair brushed lazily over his chest and arm. He could feel her, bare skin and hair and heat beneath her nightgown. Feverishly he searched for a distraction, something to keep him from either coming on the spot or breaking her neck, and heard Alice and Kate below, reciting the Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
"Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arm left," Kate said in an awful British accent, and the three Stooges below howled with laughter.
"Yes, I have," Alice replied.
"Look!"
"It's just a flesh wound."
"Plebeians," he hissed under his breath.
"Hmmm?" Bella murmured inquiringly, and the vibration went straight from Edward's nipple to his dick. He was pressing up into her stomach, probably making a fucking welt in her skin.
"Nothing," he mumbled.
The music had been building and building, the long, sensual composition surging into the final movement just as Bella chose to bite his turgid nipple lightly. Edward's back bowed off the bed and he shouted incoherently. The metal of the headboard groaned beneath his grip. He wanted to plead with her to stop, that he couldn't take another second of this torture.
"Harder," was what came out of his mouth.
Oooh, she likes that. His harsh command made her knees squeeze his hips and her fingers clench at his hips. With a tiny, breathless moan, she clamped his nipple between her teeth and bit down with slow and steady pressure.
"Harder, please," he panted.
She gasped and tossed her hair out of her face and moved to his other nipple. Her sharp incisors closed over his stony flesh, her pussy pressed down into his thigh, her thumbs dug into his ribs, and Edward climaxed just as Bolero's ballet reached the final measures. Stars exploded inside his eyeballs.
"Oh, my God," Bella moaned, burying her face in his chest. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"
"Son of a bitch," he agreed weakly.
Cool fluid soaked through his underwear and trickled down his thigh. Groaning, Edward relinquished his grip on the metal bedframe and covered his eyes with his hand.
"That was the hottest thing I have ever seen," Bella said breathlessly. "You wanna show me again?"
"Huh? Bella, shit, I'm about to lose my fucking mind here. I came this close to breaking your neck – "
"You did beautifully," she purred, nuzzling her cheek against his aching nipple. "And I didn't even get my hands down your shorts. I think you have a couple more in you, baby."
Baby. Just the word made him melt. He buried his eyes in the crook of his elbow and sighed in acquiescence. Bolero started over – she must have put it on repeat – and he snickered despite himself. Cocky little thing had known she had me from the start.
"First, let me get these off of you," she murmured, rolling to the side. She had her fingers hooked in the band of his boxer briefs and was pulling them down his hips when he covered her hand with his.
"Bella…I haven't been naked in front of a woman since World War One," he said with a weak laugh. "Go slow, please…"
"Poor Edward," she said, leaning up and kissing his lips sweetly. "I'm sorry. I've been dying for this for weeks…I lost my head." Reluctantly she backed away. "Do you want me to get a towel? Just clean things up a little?"
He had to laugh at her sudden concern for his sensibilities. "No, love, it's fine. Go ahead. I guess I just needed a moment."
"Are you sure?" She caressed his hair and kissed him again.
"Yeah." Now that the moment was upon him, he was kind of anxious for Bella's reaction to seeing him naked. Years of hearing the thoughts of men and women around him told him that humans had become obsessed with men's sizes. He wasn't certain, but he was pretty sure that he was at least respectable in that –
She hissed between her teeth when she got his underwear down and his cock, already getting hard again, practically jumped out at her. He heard her heart rate increase and her scent deepened. "Thank you, God," she breathed as she worked the fabric all the way down and off.
He took that to mean that she approved.
Her hands were shaking as she bunched up his underwear and used them to tenderly blot his skin dry. He groaned when she brushed over his dick, and she made a muffled sound of approval when her ministrations made him twitch and lengthen further.
"Edward, I don't want to be crude or anything, because I know you're from a different era, but I can't wait until I get that inside me," she said breathlessly.
"Fuck," he groaned, covering his eyes again. "Bella, can we please…I don't want to…"
"Don't worry," she assured him, throwing the underwear on the floor. "When it happens, I want to be underneath you…with your arms around me…mmmm…" her musings faded away and she tucked herself into his side, under his good arm, one knee over his leg and her cheek on his stomach. "Can I…" she reached out a hand tentatively and let it hover over his cock.
He made some sound of assent and reached up over his head again, latching his fingers onto the strong metal scrolls. Literally hanging on for the ride.
Her hand was so hot it felt like burning coals against his skin. She stroked her palm up the underside of his straining dick, increasing the pressure at the head just the barest amount.
He said something extremely obscene that made her giggle. Her laughter made the warm, soft breasts pressed into his side jiggle enchantingly, but did nothing to calm him.
It took her all of five minutes to bring him to ecstasy again; her light, gentle touch was too much and not enough, igniting all his nerves with a fire that he'd never felt before in his long, long life. When the agonizing waves receded she got up and went into the bathroom for a towel. She kissed him gently as she cleaned up his chest and stomach, then snuggled back against him and started over again, this time with his testicles.
Herein she ran into an interesting quandary. His marble-like body, so much less malleable than a human's, did not allow her to lift his balls to massage the aching sack. She requested, in her sultriest voice, that he do the honors, which was how Edward found himself gripping his own balls and stroking them roughly while she put her mouth on his nipple and squeezed his dick rhythmically to the sound of the snare drum.
"Do you get yourself off, Edward?" she murmured, swirling her tongue around his nipple. "Do you think of me when you touch yourself?"
"What do you fucking think?" he groaned, and went off again like a Roman candle. He was beginning to wonder if his seventeen-year-old body was making up for lost time and letting loose decades' worth of stored-up orgasms.
"And what did you do before I came along?" she asked, reaching for the towel and wiping him down again.
"Truthfully, I didn't think about it much," he admitted. His cock lay quiescently for the time being and he gazed at her dreamily, wondering if anyone, human, vampire, or otherwise, had ever felt this good. Ever.
"No?"
"No. Not much interest there, until you wandered in."
"I suppose you have some catching up to do, then," she said, making him laugh because her words echoed his thoughts so succinctly.
He was still chuckling when she again straddled his legs. He could feel her burning-hot sex against his skin and wondered languidly if she would let him eat her out tonight. Probably not a good idea, considering –
"May I?" she whispered, and he was startled out of his speculations by the sight of Bella leaning over him, her delicious mouth inches away from his cock.
"Oh, fuck," he breathed. His seventeen-year-old dick perked up again.
"Is that a yes?" Her hot breath caressed his skin. Her hands were on his thighs, stroking him in small circles.
"I…I don't know if it's safe, Bella," he said hoarsely. "It may be poisonous…"
"Alice told me it was okay," Bella said softly. "When I started thinking about it, a few days ago."
It's true, Edward, Alice's thoughts came from downstairs. The trio had abandoned their video games and Alice and Jasper were, predictably, getting it on in their room while Kate determinedly watched cartoons at top volume. I saw the outcome, and it's fine. Better than fine.
"Go away," he muttered under his breath, and Alice obligingly stopped paying attention to him and went back to performing carnal acts on Jasper.
"I want to make you feel the way I feel when you touch me," Bella said, shyness creeping into her voice. "But…I've never…done this before."
That got his attention. "Done what? Had sex?"
Her eyes flashed up to his. "No, I mean…gone down on a man." She said it in a hushed whisper, embarrassed to say the words.
"Oh…" that was interesting. He wanted to ask for details, but he figured now was not the best time to discuss Bella's past sexual experiences.
"Please?" she asked, her eyes huge and a little apprehensive.
He pretended to consider. "Go slow," he pleaded, almost more alarmed of the thought of Bella sucking him off and hating it than of her getting hurt.
She took a deep breath, blushing. "Okay," she whispered, and leaned down over him. He watched, fascinated and terrified, as she opened her mouth and licked across the head of his cock, gathering the drop of moisture that had collected there.
"Holy fucking hell," he groaned. Her mouth was melting hot, her tongue liquid velvet. The sensation of that single slow drag across his glans made him toss out all his high-minded ideals about her safety without a second thought.
She had to put her mouth on him. He'd die if she didn't.
"Oh, wow," she breathed, wetting her lips slowly, her eyes closed.
"What? Are you all right?" Okay, so he was a little concerned about her safety.
"Yes," she said faintly. "But it's like…like…"
"What?" Descriptors that he had heard used about the taste of semen popped into Edward's head. Dirt. Salty eggs. Bleach. Sour milk. Mortification made Edward want to cover his face and hide from her.
"It's hot," she mumbled. "Spicy. Like cinnamon…cayenne…wasabi…my tongue is a little numb."
Edward stared at her, dumbstruck.
"That is so weird," she breathed, and leaned down to lave at him again.
"You're telling me that my come tastes like hot peppers," he said as evenly as he could, considering what she'd just done.
"Yeah…no. More like cinnamon oil." She opened her mouth and fanned at her tongue with her hand.
"Bella?"
"Yeah?"
"That's the craziest fucking thing I've ever heard."
She burst into giggles.
They laughed helplessly together for a few minutes, before Edward got ahold of himself.
"I wonder if it's a skin irritant," he mused. "If so…we really shouldn't make love. It could injure you."
"Edward, humans aren't as dumb as they look," she said, still giggling a bit. "We came up with these things called condoms, see, and they have a variety of applications for modern living."
Edward's eyebrows rose. "Well, that's an idea," he said, impressed with her ingenuity.
"But that's for another night," she murmured, once again serious. She scooted down a little and leaned over his cock again, looking up at him with one eyebrow raised.
"You okay with this?" she asked.
"God, yes."
Smiling, Bella delicately licked his erection from base to head.
He fought not to buck, but his hips twitched regardless. She giggled when his spasm jostled her.
"Sorry," he muttered, panting.
"It's okay," she said, smiling. "Remember your arm."
How could he forget. If the goddam thing wasn't lying inert on the bedspread it would be wrapped around her waist and crushing her to him by now.
"Edward," Bella moaned, "I think you may be the perfect man." And she took him into her mouth.
Ravel's Bolero is, in my opinion, just about the sexiest composition ever written. Here's a good performance: www . youtube . com / watch?v=0OO5gLYR74U&feature=fvst. For those of you who don't have the time or patience to listen to the whole 15 minutes, I would recommend listening through the bassoon solo at the beginning and then skipping to about 14:00, which is when I estimate Bella started with the teeth.
I hope, for everyone's general well-being and happiness, that you are all familliar with Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I expect a couple of rolled eyeballs at the notion that Edward's ejaculate is like hot peppers. I have come up with a very mature and reasonable defense: we're all here to read porn featuring an eternally sexy, eternally young vampire who sparkles and fights for truth, justice and the American way. If you're looking for realism, your train left long ago.
I've been reading a couple of awesome vampfics that I want to make sure everyone knows about:
And With Thee Fade Away by Dierdru oFaolain. I went and found it because people were comparing it to FWtBT. It's complete, and I haven't gotten to the end. I got so scared at the beginning that I was afraid to sleep, and now I've hit another terrifying part, but eventually I'll get over my wimpy self and go finish it, and I know I'll love it. B/E romance, but you wouldn't know it from the first chapters.
Trippin, Slippin, Tumblethumpin by YellowGlue. I love this story. I LOVE it. If you like the slow burn, this one is for you. I found myself getting more and more tense as the chapters go too quickly by, until I was all but yelling at Edward to get a move on. The author's use of descriptive language is out of this world, and the romance is sweet, sad, and gets hotter and hotter with every chapter. Go read it. Now.
