AN: Thanks for all your reviews, follows, faves and lurks as always. Ready for a little more Ned?

Ps. The answer is always.

Have a good weekend!

Chapter 17

Edward

My hands hold tight curves as she moves over me, a little moan as I run my thumbs just under her tits. I squeeze them together, ducking my head so I can take a nipple into my mouth, my tongue swirling, flicking. Her head drops backward, hands on my chest for leverage, dim morning light making her glow.

She's fucking perfect.

And I'm fucking obsessed.

A deeper noise slips through parted lips, eyes heavy lidded, mouth pouty when I let go.

"God, Edward."

She moves faster: hot, wet, heat sliding up and down. Shifting underneath her, I bring her closer to my mouth—kissing her neck, teeth against the skin that covers where her pulse flutters.

She rolls her hips until her nails are digging in and she's coming loudly, clenching around me so tight I can hardly see straight.

I don't last a minute longer.

She feels too fucking good like this.

My eyes squeeze shut, grinding up into her jerkily as I come, her name hanging in the air between us, punctuated with an elongated 'fuck'.

She leans forward and laughs, kissing my forehead and my cheeks as I hold her still, breathing out slowly.

"You have the best come face." She smiles, eyes bright.

I reach for her, tugging her naked body right back next to mine.

"So do you. You look like you're about to sneeze."

Her face reddens. "I do not!" she says, horrified.

"Next time, we can do it in front of a mirror. Then you can see."

Her tongue bar peeps in between her teeth, a sly look that tells me she likes the idea. My dick twitches. Because yeah, I like that idea. What's better than having sex with Bella? Watching me have sex with Bella.

"Then you can see yours. I'm not lying. You're so serious." She runs a finger down the side of my face before bopping me on my nose.

I dance my fingers over the spot just above the curve of her waist that's super tickly, until she's squirming back into me, laughing.

"You're gonna give me a complex," I tell her, trying to be serious. "Then we'll have to fuck with the lights off like old married people."

"Old married people can have wild sex too. Wasn't there that documentary on like middle-aged swingers not so long ago?"

"I dunno, generally, I don't go out my way to watch things about middle-aged swingers."

I repress a shudder; the thought of some wrinkly fuckers going at it makes my balls want to shrivel up and retreat into my body.

I lean over and kiss her before she peels herself out of my arms, swinging her legs out of bed and stalking over to the bathroom. I lie back, appreciating the view.

She's thin, but not too thin. Healthy curves, peachy ass. Full tits. She has white tan lines all over, making it look like she's wearing invisible underwear. It makes me smile.

Everything about her makes me smile.

The shower turns on, and only then do I allow myself to stare at the ceiling, and worry about what happened between her and Alice yesterday.

I know Alice is dealing with some shit: she confessed it all to me the other week when Bella was in LA. But it doesn't excuse her insinuating a drunken kiss was anything more than that.

For me it wasn't, but to her... I'm realizing that maybe it was. I've always known she's wanted to be more than friends; but I've just ignored it. I thought by acting like those feelings weren't there she'd get it. As it turns out, trying to ignore it hasn't been the best thing to do.

And now I've pretty much got to lay it out to her straight. There's no other way. She could've ruined this for me, and that's not what friends do. I'm fucking pissed off about it, especially when I remember Bella's face from last night. The hurt, the insecurity, all on the same day she told me she loved me and I told her I loved her.

I sigh, frustrated, reaching for the phone on the bedside table, picking up the room service menu and ordering us breakfast.

Heaving myself from the bed, I drag my laptop out of my bag; I need to send Esme and Carl a reply to an email they sent the days ago, otherwise they're going to worry.

They said they're flying back at the end of the summer, staying with Auntie C and Uncle Al for a week or so. It's kind of unexpected; I wasn't counting on seeing them until October, at least—maybe not even until Thanksgiving—but I'm not complaining. I'm actually excited for it. Maybe I can introduce them to Bella. If she's up for that. If she's still here and not in Chicago. Though, maybe they can meet in Chicago. It is where home is, technically.

I'm halfway through my reply when room service appears at the door. Taking the tray, I kick the door closed. Just as Bella comes out of the bathroom, hair twisted up in a towel and a fluffy, white robe wrapped around her.

"Urgh. You're the best." She smiles as she sits like a yogi on the bed, legs folded underneath her feet facing upwards as she dives into scrambled egg on toast. She looks at me, hand over her mouth as she swallows.

"What?"

I shake my head as she bites into toast again.

"Just happy with you."

She smiles, brushing a hand through wet hair.

"Happy with you too."

I drag my laptop over to me again, opening up my emails to finish my draft.

"What time are we leaving?"

"Eleven? Bands start up again at twelve, and with the traffic I figure we should get there earlier. You heard from Rose?"

"Mhm. She says she's going to leave at twelve, get there around one."

She leans her head over onto my arm.

"Is that Esme and Carl?" She asks, stilling my hand as I flick through open windows.

I go back, looking at them dressed in light linen clothing outside a rundown school, surrounded by happy smiling faces of kids.

"Yup."

"She looks like Caroline, but dark-haired," she says after a minute.

"Agreed."

"Carl's pretty hot too," she nudges me.

"Oi," I tell her. "No hitting on my old man."

She shrugs. "Just saying. I know you're not blood related but I wouldn't be able to tell if I was just… looking in."

I look at her. And shit like that makes the little boy who waited for a family for years, really fucking happy.

I open up my email again. The one where I'm coming clean and telling them the reason that I haven't been replying so regularly is because there's this girl.

"You're telling them about me?" Bella wonders out loud.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I? You're fucking awesome."

…

The line to re-enter Columbia Meadows is huge. There's not enough security checking wristbands and bags, people bottle-necked, and my hope of arriving early turns into arriving late. It takes forty-five minutes and a lot of moaning from Heidi before we're through.

I know I should've probably asked my PR to get me VIP tickets to avoid all of this, but I'm just not that kind of guy. The free standard tickets alone were enough.

Alice and Bella don't say a word to each other in any of that time. I'm not sure how much Jasper knows, but he's not exactly talkative either. He's got sunglasses on and lights up in the middle of the line, uncaring, taking deep hits before passing to Bella, barking a laugh when some straight edge scene kid starts complaining from behind us about the smell of weed.

We start walking straight for the main stage, but I hang back, tapping Alice on her arm, wanting to get this out of the way now so I can enjoy the rest of the day.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?"

I can sense Bella's eyes on us as Alice's widen. I gesture for Bella to go on with Heidi and Jasper. She mouths 'okay' and then she's gone.

I didn't mention that I was going to do this, but I think she knows, and I'm glad she doesn't hover and watch like she's insecure. She'd have every right to be, but I hope it means that she trusts me—trusts us—to be above this kind of shit.

Alice and I walk in silence for a minute until we slowly come to a stop by graffitied-covered board fences. The murals are pretty fucking cool, and there's more than one kid posing infront of it for their MySpace profile picture.

Alice crosses her arms, expectant and defiant, and for a moment I just don't know where to start without losing my shit with her. A surge of irritation pulsing through me. I kick out at a dandelion by my feet, watching the seed head explode.

"Look, I know what you said to Bella last night," I begin, trying not to sound pissed off but my voice betraying me. "I just want to know why you made it out to be something it wasn't?"

Her mouth opens, she stares off into the distance at the crowds of people moving past us before dragging her eyes back to me. Her shoulders sag.

"I'm sorry," she says, her voice small. "I was just… mad; she was making me angry and it just came out. I didn't mean it like that."

"Making you mad?" I repeat, dubiously. "Bella's been nothing but nice to you since you first met."

Alice's lip curls. "When she had a really shitty attitude? Yeah, real nice, Edward."

"If that's why you don't like her, that's just… fucking pathetic. It was an accident. If you just made the effort to get to know—"

"Like you've been making the effort with me? I've hardly seen you since she showed up."

She looks up at the sky and then at her feet, shaking her head as I stare hard at the ink on my hands.

"Fine," she says, then looks at me. "I'm sorry, okay. I already said that. I can't take the words back now, they're out there. We were arguing, and it came out in the heat of the moment. She's not this perfect person you put on a pedestal, Edward."

I dismiss it with a frown.

No one's perfect.

"What were you even arguing about?"

Her eyes return to the floor and then my face, she brings a hand up to rub the side of her nose.

"I just didn't want to see you get hurt at the end of the summer. I was just… airing my concerns, and she took it negatively. I'm going to have to live with you, remember, and the fallout."

"But that's between me and her," I practically bark. "Just like whatever you have going on with Jazz is between you and him. I'm not interfering with that. Yeah? So don't interfere with me and Bella. Telling her we hooked up was just fucking low. Even if you don't like her, you should fucking suck it up and be happy for me. Because I'm fucking happy."

Her expression turns pinched, eyes filling with tears.

"I get you're going through a tough time with your dad. I know… I know it's gotta hurt seeing him become someone he's not, and I'm here for you—as a friend. But lashing out is just fucking childish. It was one drunken kiss. It didn't mean anything!"

A tear escapes, her mouth trembling as she wipes it away.

I sigh and, maybe against my better judgement, pull her into a hug.

"Two months," she mumbles, looking up at me. "That's the best they can give him. Two fucking months, Edward, and then he'll be gone. He was literally fine, and now he's–he's dying."

"I'm sorry," I say sincerely. "I know. It fucking sucks."

She sniffs, wiping at her eyes as the tears fall thick and fast.

"And I am sorry. I wasn't thinking, it just… came out. Don't be mad at me, please."

"Have you told Jasper? About your dad?"

"No," she responds, voice thick. "He's exactly the type who wants to be there for me and I just… can't get that attached. Put that on him."

"I'm sure he'd want to know."

She scowls and I raise my hands.

"Look, it's your decision. Just saying. And I think you should apologize to Bella," I tell her. "You both would get along if you just got to know each other, I'm fucking sure of it."

She smiles, but it doesn't meet her eyes. She nods her head once, tucking her hair behind her ear and swiping away another couple of tears.

"Okay."

…

Rose meets Bella and me by the gate. She's got the white heart-shaped sunglasses she likes perched on top of her head and a wide smile when she spots us.

They hug like they haven't seen each other in months and not just a week, rocking around in a circle and talking in that high-pitched girl chatter that I can't keep up with.

I catch snatches of 'I missed you,' and, 'I missed you more,' but the rest is just unintelligible.

Rose eventually steps back and offers me a bright smile. "Thanks so much for getting us the tickets, Ned. I really appreciate it."

I shrug, feeling awkward. It wasn't really me that had to do the legwork, and I tell her that.

"Still. Showing up at the airport. Surprising our girl here? Scores big points in my book, anyway."

"It was Jasper," I tell her, kind of embarrassed. He'd convinced me to surprise her. Bella takes my hand as we make our way back to where we left everyone getting vegetarian chili dogs.

The rest of the day is a blur of beer, bands, and fucking fun. The atmosphere hyping everyone up, music we like and don't like coming and going underneath a cloudless sky.

If it wasn't for the conversation I had to have with Alice this morning, it would be a perfect fucking day.

Rose offers up some pills again later on, but after the horrific come down last time, I tell her I'm good. Bella hesitates and says no too, and I'm kind of glad. I liked rolling with her. I liked loving on her when we were fucked up together, but that shit wrecks my head every time, and I need my head sharp the next few weeks, especially with the X Games around the corner.

My hands twitch at my sides. It's only been a day and a half, but I'm itching to get back on a board, and I know as soon as tomorrow hits, I'll be out for an early morning session.

Embry texted something about it yesterday; more shots for his film, but I haven't replied—too caught up in the day.

I take my cell out of my pocket, reading through a couple of messages from the past few days I hadn't even opened.

The first is Emmett reminding me I still need to help him move the sample tile boards from his house, and the second is another text from Embry asking whether I'm down.

Without hesitating I tell them both that I'm there.

…

Bella stirs only slightly when I kiss her bye early the next morning.

"I'll be back with breakfast in a few hours."

"Have fun," she mumbles, pulling sheets up and over her, snuggling deeper into my bed, and for a minute I'm tempted to stay. The pull of skating is too strong this morning, though.

It's early, just before sunrise. Embry's idea of shooting some more of his film with the morning light hitting just right. He's talking long shadows and silhouettes against a deep orange sky. I can picture it clearly—what he's going for. He talks about tone and aesthetics, and the creative side of me admires it a lot.

I'm buzzing as I get out of El Grande, the weather looking like it's on our side. It's cool, but the sun starting to peak on the horizon promises a hot day.

"Yo," Quil greets, giving me a fist bump. "How's it hanging, EC?"

"All good, bro. Fucking dying to skate though. Been like two days, and that's way too long."

"Oh yeah. How was Warped, man? All good? Sick line-up this year."

"Yeah, it was wicked. Surprised Bella with tickets. Showed up at the airport and we went straight there."

He grins knowingly.

"Girls love that shit, right?"

I smile. "Right."

Embry's focused on his camcorder. He checks angles, moving around until he finds a spot he likes. The one he's using is better than the ordinary digital cameras, with a flip out screen so he can view everything he films; he can review the footage then and there. It looks expensive, and when I bring it up, he looks shifty.

"Borrowed it," he says, too casual.

"He means he fucking lifted that shit," Quil says with a laugh.

"Let's go!" Embry hollers, flipping Quil off. "Line 'em up."

We hit it hard, trying to do some tricks in tandem. Both of us sliding along concrete, one after another. I try out a couple of new things that have been buzzing around my head the past few days. Some of them work, some of them don't. And when Embry calls it and tells us to move over to the park and skate the bowl, the adrenaline is flowing, air whipping around my face, catching air. There's hardly anything I love more.

At eight thirty, I bow out, running down to a coffee shop and grabbing breakfast for Bella and me. She's working late at the store today and I promised.

She surprises me by already being up and dressed, sitting in the kitchen eating cereal when I get back in.

"Hey, you." I eye her Cheerios as I drop my keys in the bowl, brown bag beneath my arm. "I thought I was getting you breakfast?"

"Got hungry," she says. "I can eat those too."

She leans up and kisses me, wrinkling her nose.

"You absolutely stink."

I laugh, pulling at my t-shirt, sniffing, seeing that she's right.

"Let me grab a shower."

"I don't know where you can find the enthusiasm to get out of bed voluntarily before six am. It's unnatural," she says.

I shrug. "Itching to get back on a board. I even dreamt about it last night."

"So, you're an addict."

"Yeah. Pretty much." I kiss her again, and again until she's tugging my top off, her lips warm and needy.

And I'm fucking addicted to this too.

…

When I pull up to Emmett's two-story house after dropping Bella at work, I'm not the only one there. There's a car that looks vaguely familiar besides Emmett's shiny silver Mercedes, but I can't place it.

Ringing the doorbell, I wait, watching one of his neighbors mowing the grass opposite. Footsteps get closer behind the gray-green door, Emmett cracking it open.

"About time. You look like shit. Late night?" he says, gesturing me to follow him down the porch steps.

"Two days at Warped, early morning skate sesh. Pretty fucking exhausted."

"Nice. Can barely hack one night out these days. Feel shitty for it when I'm in the gym the next day."

"I bet."

We move to the right-hand side of the house, where his garage is. He opens it up, the door shrieking in the process, causing us both to wince.

"Shit. Need to get some oil on that. Right, I've got twenty of these damn things. They're fucking heavy, so just watch yourself."

We work as a team, and we're just loading the last one onto the tail bed of the truck when the door of the house swings open and Rose steps out onto the steps.

She stops dead, eyes darting between us. Her face pales, a deer caught in headlights.

"Thanks for the warning, Emmett." She flounces past him, keys jangling in her hand as she unlocks her ride. "Not a word to anyone," she tells me. "This is a mistake that won't be happening again."

I wince as she slams her car door shut, turning the engine on and backing out the drive. I raise a brow, Emmett looking strangely red.

"You and Rose?"

"Nah," he says, scrubbing a hand down the back of his neck. "Not really."

"I'm not judging," I tell him. "Rose is cool."

"Yeah," he says, trailing off. "She's right though. It's not happening again."

"It's happened more than once?"

His silence tells me everything and I can't help but laugh.

"Dude, it's a mistake if it happens once. If it happens more than that, it's a fucking decision."

He throws a hand up in the air.

"Tell her that."