Warning: Lemons ahead!
The Protector
Chapter 37
EPOV
"Earth."
I roll the word around in my mouth, enjoying the way it sounds, the way it feels when I pronounce it. It's an easy word; uncomplicated in its simplicity, yet so complex in its meaning.
"I like it," I tell Bella, returning her happy smile. Then I laugh as she tries, and fails, to suppress a huge yawn. "Tired, love?"
"Yes," she grins sheepishly. "It's been a long day."
"That is has," I agree, nodding towards the door to my room. "Why don't you go ahead and get ready for bed. I'll… "
Suddenly, I stop – wondering if this is what she really wants.
It's true that we'd shared a bed during the time we spent in my family's home; but we hadn't really seen it as a choice, because there were no other bedrooms available in the house, and Alice's room was much too small for two people. When Riley arrived, he'd shared a room with Father. So, our touching had never gone beyond the holding and soothing she had done when nightmares haunted my dreams. The awkwardness of doing anything more in my family's home with Alice, Riley and Father close by had halted almost any thoughts or desires I might have had for a more physical relationship.
Now here we are, alone, and free to be and do what we want; but I don't know what Bella wants. My Father's words from Oath Night come back to me: " A Protector can invite; but the woman makes the choice" repeating in my head. Maybe I need to give her that choice.
"Bella," I start again. "I want to share a room with you on this voyage, but I understand if you don't want to; if you feel it would be too difficult or awkward with the restrictions we have. There are two bedrooms attached to the control room. Each one has a sitting area, and a complete bathing room," I add, nodding in the direction of both doors.
"My things have been stored in the room here to my left, and I would like you to share it with me; but it is your choice."
Bella watches me intently while I speak. When I'm finished, she gives me a pleased smile.
"Thank you for the invitation, Protector," she answers, paraphrasing the more formal acceptance speech for an offer to spend the night together. "It would be my honor to be your partner tonight, Ranger Edward."
I frown at her in confusion. I've accepted the limitations to our physical relationship, so I don't understand why she has answered with a consent for more than we are able to do.
"No," I begin. "I didn't mean…. " But she stops me before I can go further.
"Edward, do you remember me telling you that lately I've spent a lot of time connected to Ares?"
"Yes; I didn't understand how or why, though."
"Well… when Ares took a sample of my blood after I passed out on the return from the settlement, we discovered something very interesting. By testing it every day or so, he is able to chart the fluctuations in my hormones, and by following the fluctuations their levels, he can predict when I am most likely to conceive. Right now, they are very low; so it is highly unlikely that a baby would result from… from, ahh… "
Bella's reasoned, scientific explanation comes to a stuttering halt as she blushes slightly at the implication of her words. The excited, teasing smile on my face doesn't help, I'm sure. At her slight frown, I sober quickly, speaking the words to finalize our agreement.
"Your acceptance honors me."
Sometime during our conversation, Ares has retracted the wires that have connected us to him through the navigation globes. Bella unfastens her safety harness and stands, quickly picking up the package that Carmen had handed her.
"I'm going to go in and freshen up a bit," she explains, before heading towards my room.
I'm left alone in the control room, pacing nervously as I anticipate what is about to happen.
"Edward," Bella whispers.
I look up to see her standing in the doorway to our room. She's completely wrapped in a Ranger's cloak – the folds hiding all her body, and the hood hiding most of her face and hair. I watch as she slowly pushes the hood back, revealing her hair swept up off her neck, and arranged into an intricate knot. It leaves her neck bare, and I'm mesmerized by its graceful arc.
She reaches for the ties at the neck of at the cloak… and, keeping her eyes on me the entire time, loosens them and shrugs the cloak off her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor. My breath catches in an audible gasp – and she smiles shyly, as she steps away from the pile of fabric at her feet.
Bella is dressed in Ranger leathers. The pants fit her like a second skin, emphasizing the flare of her hips and the narrowness of her waist – which is now exposed to view, since she has forgone her over-shirt, choosing instead to wrap two wide strips of soft leather around her breasts. They leave her shoulders, arms, and abdomen bare.
My eyes roam over the exposed skin.
Her stomach is flat and toned, with the hint of muscle beneath the smooth waist of the pants dips below her navel, and I can see her hipbones just above the edge of the leather. I have the sudden urge to trace that line from hip to hip with my lips.
"Bella," I finally manage to croak, as I step closer to her. "You are so very, very beautiful."
Her smile widens when she hears my words. "You told me once that you liked the way I looked in my leathers." The smile changes to a soft chuckle. "I thought perhaps you would like this version, too."
"Oh, I do… very much!" I grin back at her.
Thinking of peeling those leather garments from her body leaves me tongue-tied and stumbling for words once more. "Were uh… were these in the package that Carmen gave you?"
When she nods, I give a silent "thank you" to the sweet woman we left behind.
Our smiles fade away as we both stare at each other, the implications of what we are about to do filling our thoughts.
Bella reaches around to her back to remove the leather around her chest; but I stop her with a quiet, "No, let me. Please."
She watches solemnly as I approach her, stopping when there are only inches separating us. My fingers reach out to touch a stray curl that hangs just in front of her ear. When I ghost my fingers along the curve of her neck and across one bare shoulder, she shivers, and chill bumps breakout across her skin.
"Edward," she sighs breathlessly.
I want to answer her; but I am suddenly unable to speak, my throat tight with emotions and clogged with all the words I want to say.
"Bella," I finally choke out. "These past few days, weeks… I… I need to tell you… " My words catch in my mouth as I try to explain to her how sorry I am for everything that happened, for every time I doubted her, for every time I lost patience.
"Shh, Edward, shh," she assures me. "Its over now, love. Everything is going to be all right."
With another shy smile, she takes my hand and begins to lead me to our room. After one last check around the control room and a mental touch to ensure the shield is in place, I follow her.
Closing the door firmly behind me, I find her waiting for me. She turns her back… and I release the knot that holds the covering over her breasts, letting the soft strips drop forgotten to the floor. The leather pants are slowly peeled down her legs, their supple leather slipping down over even more pliant skin. They, too, are left lying on the floor.
Finally, I reach up and release the combs and pins holding her hair on top of her head… running my fingers through the curls, until they fall in a riot down her back and over her shoulders.
I've never considered the beauty of a woman's back before. Defined muscles overlay her shoulder blades and outline the ridge of her spine; evidence of physical labor, and hours spent training with a bow and arrow. I trace the sinuous curve with my eyes. There is something endearingly fragile about the knobby spikes of her backbone. Although they look delicate and easily shattered, they are, instead, hard and strong – supporting her whole body and keeping her upright, even as they help anchor the ribcage that protects her tender organs. Ribs that I can also clearly see, beneath their slight covering of skin and tissue.
Bella is too thin.
Knowing she used her life force, her energy, to selflessly grow food for people who were, at one time, complete strangers; knowing she used that same life force to help sustain my shield, during our escape from the storm; and also understanding the stress and guilt she has lived with… all of it fills me with an overwhelming need to protect her. I want to wrap myself around her, surround her with my love and care, defend her from any unhappiness or stress.
I silently vow to spoil her on our long journey; to make her eat and rest, to make her laugh and relax, until she can regain the healthy fullness she once had, before our lives changed so drastically.
I cannot stop myself from lightly dragging my finger down her spine, tracing those knobby bumps until they end, disappearing into the cleft between the cheeks of her bottom. A visible shudder shakes her body, and a fresh batch of chill bumps erupts when I let my finger trail even lower.
The twitch of her body has shifted her stance, and two dimples appear just at the base of her spine above her hip bones. I stare at them, fascinated, until I can no longer control myself – and I lean over, placing a lingering kiss in each indentation.
"Edward, Edward," Bella whisper-moans my name.
Her voice is my undoing; and I straighten, placing my hands on her hips, turning her slowly so we face each other.
She is stunning in her nakedness: all smooth skin, and pebbled flesh; all soft hollows and rounded curves.
I let my eyes wander over each inch of her… the delicate bones of her shoulders and hips, the hidden strength in bicep and thigh muscles. I admire the graceful arc of her neck, the pink plumpness of her lips, the dark lashes that frame her glistening green eyes and hold the single drop of liquid I see gathering there. When my eyes have roamed her entire body and my sight is so full of her I can hold no more, I close my eyes, step closer… and I touch.
My hands follow the same path my eyes roamed. My fingers touch that same skin, those same bones, the same hollows and curves. They trace the same lips, the arc of neck and shoulder. They catch the drop of moisture that is slowly trickling down her cheek. My hands hold and caress, tease and fondle, part and explore. And when my hands have learned all of her… all her trembling parts, all her exotic femaleness… then I let my mouth and my nose explore where my eyes and hands have been.
Her skin is infused with the scent of herbs and flowers; her hair is a veritable bouquet of floral fragrance. I breathe it in, as my mouth finds a sensitive spot behind her ear. The lips I've explored with both eyes and fingers now yield beneath my own, and the sweetness of her kiss fills my mouth. My own lips trace a path down her neck, across her collarbones and chest, before veering to explore the erotic plumpness of each breast. I kiss, and I nip, and I suck my way across her stomach, her muscles contracting and flexing as I follow that enticing path from hip bone to hip bone.
And then I move lower.
A kiss to the back of the knee elicits a shy giggle; the trace of a delicate instep causes a breathless gasp. Each toe must be examined and lightly tickled. Calf and thigh muscles appreciated for their strength and firmness. The resplendent roundness of her derrière fills my hands; and I rub and squeeze, letting my fingers and mouth slowly wander to the junction between her thighs.
The scent and taste of her saturates my nose and mouth; my ears are laden with her hushed cries and tender beggings. She trembles and shakes, quivers and quakes… my name a litany of shuddering wants.
We have moved to our bed now, and my clothes are gone. Her hands and lips tug at me… pulling me to her, guiding me… as I settle into the welcoming cradle of her hips and thighs. My skin is alive where it touches hers. Chest to chest, abdomen to abdomen, hip to hip; her legs wrap around me, drawing me even closer… urging me to take, to claim, to give.
Pushing myself up on my forearms so that I can see her face, we watch each other, eyes filled with love and adoration, as she opens to me; and I enter, sealing our union in an act as old as time, as new as the exquisite pleasure coursing through our bodies.
Over-stimulated nerves leave us breathless and panting – as she shudders beneath me, and I tremble above her. We are soft moans and loud cries, tense muscles and soft kisses. I consume, and she yields; she demands, and I capitulate. We are sight and touch, taste and smell and hearing. And then, when my senses are filled to capacity with her… when I can absorb no more of the intense physical delight that is Bella… I open my mind, and find her waiting there for me.
I recognize the glowing, pulsating energy of Bella's mind that I touched briefly that night in my room. This time, there is no hesitation, no indecision; I boldly enter her mind, drowning in the pleasure, acceptance and love I find there. There is no vacillation from her, either, as she moves into mine. Brief flashes of childhood memories, thoughts and dreams are shared between us as our consciousness melds.
I watch as my gap-toothed, five-year-old self shares a sweet cake with a four-year-old little girl, whose name I cannot pronounce, my mouth stumbling over the 'R' and the 'S' sounds. I glimpse a brief memory of the party where she and her parents presented me with a gift to celebrate my leaving day, and I feel her sadness that we will no longer be allowed to play together.
Her thoughts of me over the years flash through my mind: a stolen peek at a fourteen-year-old Edward on a training field, drawing a bow and smiling in triumph, when his arrow hits the center; a sharp sting of jealousy and frustration from the girl who will never be allowed to feel the tug of the drawstring, or the satisfaction of hitting the target. I relive her joy and happiness at seeing me standing to honor her at her first social… as well as the shy but pleased smile I gave her when she approached me. Finally, I watch, from her hiding place with Jasper, as I raise my bleeding hand to all our people and swear to protect them with my life, my body, and my blood.
All her memories… all her dreams and plans and thoughts… are shared freely with me. She gives me her sadness, her sorrows, her loneliness, her guilt. She gives me her joy, her happiness, her pride… and her steady, unflinching belief in us. She gives me everything.
It is this sixth sense – this sharing of body and mind, of physical and mental – that truly binds us as one.
Her body is my body; her pleasure, my pleasure. The intense longing to hold her so close to me that there is no end of her or beginning of me has finally been realized, as we move together towards our completion. Each push… each squeeze… each thrust, and each clench… all are amplified by the duality of being both the giver and the receiver at the same time.
Riven by the rapture of our lovemaking, I am embraced by ecstasy, devastated by delectation.
My name is a supplication from her lips as I devote myself to the worship of her mind and body. For the present and for the future… for this moment, and for time unending… with a blinding climax of pleasure so consuming, so overwhelming that we are left stunned and astounded… we complete the physical act of our love.
Afterwards, we lie arm-in-arm, satiated and contented, the endorphins of our pleasure still pinging through our bodies. I sense Bella's mind and body slowly relaxing as she shifts onto her side, quieting to fall into a deep, restful sleep. I wrap my body around hers; pulling her to me, her back to my chest; protecting her and guarding her, even in rest. The blissfulness of sleep is stealing upon me; but before completely surrendering to it, I leave one last kiss on Bella's neck… whispering into her ear how much I love her, and will always love her. She must hear me, even if subconsciously, because she smiles… a soft, tender expression, full of happiness… before a gentle sigh leaves her lips.
I let my eyes close – opening my mind to the ship and the people, and to the shield that guards them all. Everything is as it should be; everything is peaceful, serene, calm. Safe.
And then… after I have reassured myself that my duty, my responsibility has been fulfilled… only then do I welcome the sweet release of slumber, slipping down into that quiet haven of rest.
Around us, the ship – wrapped in its protective shield – speeds away from our old world… leaving behind a dying planet, poisoned by the aftermath of greed and violence.
We rush instead towards a new world, a new beginning. A second chance to learn from our mistakes, and build a society of equality and respect.
A planet waits for us – pristine in its loveliness, and welcoming in its life-sustaining fertility.
A planet, named in honor of our mothers, and our grandmothers, and our great-grandmothers. Named for all the women who gave us life.
Women who nurtured, who supported, who protected – until it was our turn to share that responsibility.
Women who persisted, who resisted, who endured – until they had the power to change.
We travel to that planet, with its endless possibilities, its countless opportunities, and its limitless potential.
We journey to a new fate, to a new history… to a future of our own choosing and forging.
We rush to our destination… to our new home.
Earth.
.
.
An: This chapter has been written for several months and I am so happy to finally be able to share it with you. My first love scene, and believe me it was not easy to write! ha This story is basically finished. There is one more short, concluding chapter which we hope to post soon. Thank you for the support and love you have shown to me and to my story. I never planned to write 150K words, nor did I intend to wait until the end to let our two protagonists finally get together! I hope it was worth the wait.
Thank you, Belle, for... well everything!