Author Note: Thanks for the continuing great response to this story! Glad you all like Bella's new condo! Most of you think she should let Edward have his fun, though someone pointed out the possible issues with grooming this late in pregnancy lol.
Thanks again to moosals and NKubie for pre-reading. Stephenie Meyer owns all characters.
Chapter 45 — Settled
I'm mortified at just the thought of holding myself over Edward's face while he… I mean, what if he can't breathe?
"Any other ideas?" I ask.
He laughs out loud this time.
When he stops laughing, Edward gets up off the bed, coming around to my side. He pulls the covers down, then grabs me by the feet, pulling until my butt is perched on the edge of the bed.
He tosses me a few of the pillows from the floor, and I sit up, propping myself up with them and bracing myself on my hands. Scooting on his knees until he's right in front of me, he lifts my legs over his shoulders, looking up at me with a smirk.
"Ready, baby?"
Staring at him wide-eyed, I feel his fingers first, gently spreading me open before he takes one long lick. "Oh God…"
His tongue circles around and around and around and I cry out when he puts his mouth over me, sucking. He gently pushes one long finger inside and I can't hold back my moan.
"Feel good, baby?" he whispers, his finger slowly moving in and out.
"Mmm… you're good at this," I admit, though I don't really want to stroke his ego. I also try not to think about how he got to be so talented.
Edward puts his mouth back on me, licking and sucking until I'm quivering on the brink. He pulls away before I can come, sucking on my inner thigh instead. I want to kill him.
"Edward!"
He chuckles. "Trust me, baby." His mouth moves to my other thigh, then finally I feel his tongue… inside me.
I whimper a little as he licks up to my clit, sucking it into his mouth, while his tongue flicks me over and over. I reach down with one hand to bury my fingers in his hair, trying to hold him there this time, begging him silently to let me finish.
He does.
I cry out when my orgasm hits, shuddering as I start panting heavily. Holy shit!
Edward licks me gently a few times then pulls away, grinning up at me. "See what you could have every night if you let me move in?"
I can't even bring myself to smack him.
After helping me back into my pajamas, he climbs into bed, spooning behind me with his arm around my stomach.
"You're good?" I ask quietly. I mean, I can feel him poking me.
"Tonight was all about you, baby. I'm perfect right now." He kisses between my shoulder blades and I close my eyes.
~*~*GN*~*~
We have nowhere to be on Saturday and I should be able to sleep in, but noooo… This kid won't let me.
Leaving a sleeping Edward in bed, I get up, find some clothes and a towel, then head to the bathroom. When I come out, freshly showered, he's sitting up in bed, shirtless and looking adorably rumpled.
"You left," he pouts.
"The baby kicked my bladder."
"Sounds like fun," he chuckles, throwing the covers back to reveal his mostly naked body.
While Edward is in the shower, I start going through the pantry, fridge and cabinets, trying to figure out what else I might need to buy. I check out the shelves in the storage closet to see that Esme has gotten me pretty well stocked with cleaning supplies, likely from her Target visit.
When Edward comes out of the bedroom, I look at him questioningly as he puts his jacket on. "There's a café around the corner," he explains. "I'm gonna get us some breakfast." He kisses me quickly on his way out the door.
I've just about completed my grocery list when Edward comes back with two breakfast bagel sandwiches and a coffee for himself.
"What do you want to do today?" he asks as we sit at the counter to eat.
"I've been making a list of food and other stuff I need to get."
"We, Bella. We need to get."
"Fine, we," I reply with an eye roll. "Are there grocery stores around here?"
"There's one on Halsted that's supposed to be pretty good. And the Target that's a few blocks south of here has groceries. We can try there first, if you like?"
"Sounds good," I agree. I have to admit I've never really done grocery shopping in an urban environment like this. How do you buy heavy items if you have to carry them home? It's a good thing Edward will be with me.
"So," Edward begins, clearing his throat, "There's one more thing about this neighborhood — Mom found a preschool three blocks from here. You could walk right by it on your way to class. I know you don't want to enroll our daughter until the Fall semester, but… I made us an appointment to go check it out Monday morning."
"Preschool for a six-month old?" I snicker.
"They have programs for infants and toddlers, too," he replies, rolling his eyes.
"That sounds great, Edward." Really, really great. I almost feel like Cinderella at the ball, and I can't help wondering when I'm going to turn into a pumpkin.
"What's wrong?" Edward asks, rubbing the back of my neck.
"It's just… I'm kind of overwhelmed."
Giving me a sympathetic smile, he stands, coming closer to my bar stool so he can hug me tightly.
~*~*GN*~*~
Three hours later, we're stocked up on everything I could want or need. I'm glad I've got Edward around since he can carry far more than I can. After the baby comes, I could probably carry stuff in the storage basket attached to the fancy stroller Esme helped us pick out.
Edward puts his coat back on and I raise an eyebrow. "How about gyros for lunch? There's a place that just serves at the counter."
"We just bought a ton of food!"
"I know," he shrugs. "You can cook dinner."
Shaking my head, I decide to start on laundry as soon as Edward leaves. Thanks to studying for finals, I let my laundry pile up that last week of school, and I haven't done any since finals were over, so, yeah… I'm almost out of clothes. That fit, anyway.
I carry my plastic bags full of dirty clothes to the washer, separating the items into several piles. Once I've got a load started, I take a few photos around the condo with my phone, then send them to Angela and Alice.
After Edward has returned and we've eaten our lunch, we pick a couple of movies to watch. I get up and tend to my laundry every time a load finishes. Around 5:30, his phone rings and I listen curiously as he talks to Seth.
"Was that about the album?" I ask when he's hung up.
He shakes his head. "You'll never believe this. The singer who was supposed to do the National Anthem at tomorrow night's Blackhawks game has laryngitis, so they've asked us to fill in!"
"Edward, that's great," I smile.
"It's not quite headlining a concert at the United Center, but it's a start. They said we can hang out in one of the suites afterward, and we can invite our families, so… you're gonna see your first hockey game. I gotta call my parents and see if they want to come, too."
While Edward is doing that, I get up to start on dinner, deciding on a chicken stir fry — one of the meals I learned in an attempt to get my dad to eat a bit healthier.
"Can I use your computer?" Edward calls.
I nod and he sits down at the desk, getting my laptop out of the bag and booting it up. I have to go type in my password for him. "What are you looking for?"
"This is the first time we've ever been asked to do something like this. I don't have time to arrange anything, so I need to find a version of the National Anthem already arranged for five different voices."
"Good luck," I chuckle.
As I cook, I can hear several different versions of the song playing. He never seems to stay on any one version for very long before moving to the next one, though.
When our dinner is ready, Edward grumbles as he sits on one of the bar stools. "Seriously, does no one have a version sung by five voices?"
"Umm… you might not want to hear this, but… maybe see if one of the boy bands sang it?"
"We're not a fucking boy band."
"I know you're not," I placate him, "But they usually have five singers, don't they?" He just hums his response.
Edward shovels a few bites into his mouth, then turns to look at me. "This is pretty good."
I shrug, feeling my face flush red. "I told you once that I could cook some things."
"I'll have to get Mom to give you all of my favorite recipes."
"You're just assuming that you're going to convince me to let you move in, aren't you?" I shake my head at him.
"I know you can't resist me, Bella," he replies with a wink. He's really got me there.
After we've finished eating, I rinse off the dishes and place them in the dishwasher while Edward sits down at my laptop again. I hear another version of the National Anthem start up and this time, he doesn't turn it off.
"Did you find one?" I ask, coming to join him.
"'NSync sang it at the one of the Winter Olympics."
"So I was right about the boy band!" I punch his arm.
"Yeah…" He pulls out his iPhone, his fingers flying over the screen.
"What are you doing?" I ask, nodding toward his phone.
"Sending the youtube link to the guys and telling them to get their asses over here to rehearse."
I give Edward one of my notebooks and he replays the video, making some notes on a blank page. I stand watching over his shoulder, though his scribbles make no sense to me.
Emmett is the first to arrive, about 20 minutes later. The doorman buzzes us that he's downstairs, then sends him up. I get up to answer the door when he knocks.
"Hey, Emmett."
"Hey, Bella-Boo." He steps inside, looking around at everything. "Nice," he says with a nod. "I came over on Thursday when Seth was painting, but there was no furniture yet."
"Where's Rose?" I ask curiously.
"She said she didn't want to listen to us sing the same damn song for hours."
Once Jasper, Seth and finally Riley have arrived, the five guys sit on the sectional while I take the matching chair next to the TV across the room.
Seth chooses a key and sings all the way through the song first, a beautiful rendition, before Edward shows the guys the notes he's made, letting them know what he wants. The second time through Riley adds the high harmonies, even hitting the high notes for Seth, since Riley doesn't have to strain to reach them.
As soon as Edward is satisfied, Emmett adds the bass line, then Jasper joins in, and finally Edward. Over and over they run through the song until it sounds perfect — every bit as good as 'NSync's version.
It's nearly 10pm by the time the guys leave and I stand up, stretching. I put away all of my clean clothes, then decide to get ready for bed.
When I come out of the bathroom, Edward is standing shirtless in the middle of my bedroom. I raise an eyebrow, staring at him.
"I can stay tonight, right? I mean, it's a long drive back to Evanston this late."
I chuckle, shaking my head as I walk up to Edward and twine my arms around his neck. "You're impossible."
He grins, leaning down to kiss me slowly. "That was a yes, right?"
~*~*GN*~*~
The next morning, I talk Edward into letting me make omelets for breakfast, instead of him going out to pick something up. We need to eat a fairly big breakfast, since we'll be skipping lunch.
Esme called at some point last night to let him know that she and Carlisle would be able to come to the hockey game tonight. The game starts at 6pm, so the usual weekly dinner at their house will be at three o'clock. The guys need to be at the arena at least an hour early, apparently.
Edward and I just hang out until we need to leave for Evanston. At some point, he turns on a football game and it reminds me of lazy Sundays at my dad's house. I snuggle closer to Edward, missing my dad, and he wraps an arm around me.
I know I need to make a decision soon about letting Edward move in with me. He hasn't stopped asking or hinting. I really do enjoy being around him. And I like sleeping in the same bed with him, even when we just sleep. He's been an awesome boyfriend ever since the moment he asked me to be his girlfriend. And if I think about it — he was pretty awesome for at least the last month before that.
When it's time to leave, I'm excited to see the garage for the first time. I buckle myself into the Porsche and we're off for the family dinner.
When we reach the Cullens', I see Rose's BMW already in their garage. Emmett had said once that he tries not to drive the Corvette as much in the winter, since it's not a great car for ice and snow.
"Good afternoon, you two," Esme calls when we step into the kitchen.
"What'cha makin', Mom?" Edward asks, going up to lift the lid on the pot sitting on the stove.
"Roast beef with mashed potatoes. Why don't you go get Emmett to come mash the potatoes? They should be done cooking."
"Do you need help?" I ask. "I can make the salad."
"That'd be great; I'm just trying to get these rolls ready to go in the oven to heat up."
"How's it going with Edward?" she whispers after I've gotten everything for the salad out of the fridge.
I'm sure my smile gives me away. Good thing, because before I can reply, Emmett shows up to start on the potatoes, ending any chance of a private conversation.
After we've eaten, Edward leads me upstairs to his room. He sits on the bed, bringing me to stand in front of him as he holds both of my hands in his.
"Are you done thinking?" he asks quietly.
A/N: The boy doesn't give up! What should Bella do? Let him move in, or make him wait a bit longer?
Moosals said after the lemon at the beginning that Edward probably got up to take care of himself as soon as Bella was asleep. ;)
Edward doesn't like boy bands, but I do! No offense intended. :)
Next update on Sunday.
