*BPOV*
Edward and I had fallen into an easy routine that consisted of my morning human hour, followed by breakfast with Esme and the gang, school, lunch, homework, dinner, leisure time, and a whole lot of sex.
Broken up, of course, by intermittent hunting trips, afternoons idled away in our grove, and the occasional foray to New York to do some of the more touristy things. Edward was only too happy to let his inner tour guide shine.
Somehow, without my noticing it, time was starting to slip by. Before I knew it, I was studying hard for midterms, and Alice (who was much friendlier with Edward these days), was badgering us about coordinating Halloween costumes.
Meanwhile, being domestic partners with Edward was turning out to be a bit of an exercise in trial and error on both of our parts.
For example, I didn't see why he should trouble himself with certain chores when it wasn't his hair stuck in the carpet or his dishes in the sink. He argued that it was ridiculous that I should bother cleaning when he could vacuum a room in the time it took me to plug the damn thing in.
I had an outright fit when he'd donned yellow kitchen gloves meaning to clean the bathroom.
"Over my dead body, Edward Cullen! Find. Something. Else. To DO!" I stood in front of the door glaring at him with my arms crossed over my chest.
"I don't want you to clean. You don't want me to clean. I have an idea. Why don't we just hire someone? Problem solved," Edward's yellow, latex-covered hands flailed in exasperation.
But the idea of a stranger in our home cleaning up after me while I watched, or more likely hid, was not attractive to me. Especially not after traumatizing poor Kaure on Isle Esme.
"It's only a problem to you because you don't like watching me clean," I countered.
"Obviously I don't like to watch you clean, especially when it's just not necessary. There are a million other ways I'd rather you spent your time, Mrs. Cullen," he said with a suggestive gleam in his eyes.
"Well until midterms are over, my time will be spent studying. You can do whatever you like with your time, as long as it's not cleaning the bathroom. Go..." I waved my hand around struggling for a suggestion, "write a concerto or something."
Edward rolled his eyes and I heard him mutter "Impossible woman," under his breath, which I doubt I was meant to hear. Removing the gloves with a snap of latex, he then asked, "I'd be happy to help you study if you'd like," he offered.
He did know a fair bit more than me about Shakespeare than I did, so I agreed with a nod and gestured for him to follow me into the library.
Once there, I handed him a thick stack of color-coded index cards. "Quiz away," I said, making myself comfortable on the bay seat as he pulled the rolling desk chair closer to me and sat down.
Edward read the first card, "In which play would you find the following quote?…'Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!'"
"Easy one. Hamlet," I answered without hesitation.
Edward smiled and nodded, not needing to flip the card over to check. He then peeled his shirt off over his head and tossed it aside.
He looked up from the next card and took in my perplexed expression. He raised an eyebrow as if he was the one missing something.
Edward's tone was dead serious. "I was told there would be strip tutoring."
I covered my face with my hands, blushing madly. Oh, what the hell? What did it matter if I failed my exam? It's not like I had plans to graduate on schedule.
Conceding with a huff, I prompted, "Next card, please."
He flipped to the next card. "How about this one?" He recited, "The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth from the gentle rain in heaven uipon the place beneath."
That was a harder one. I screwed my eyes shut and held up a finger so I could think for a moment.
"A Midsummer's Night Dream?"
A shake of his head. "Merchant of Venice. Strip." I muttered a curse and tossed one of my socks on the pile.
I got the next three quotes correct leaving Edward in just his boxer briefs.
"I like this game!" My greedy eyes raked over him with the subtlety of a construction worker. "What happens when I get you naked?"
Edward smiled wickedly. "If you have to ask, I must not be doing it right," he quipped.
"You weren't lying when you said you were going to be the reason I need extra tutoring," I lobbed a decorative throw pillow at his smug face which he caught handily and tossed lightly back on the bay seat.
He held up his palms, one of which held the stack of cards tucked under his thumb. "You're going to have to trust me on this, love. My methods are very effective," he promised, not even trying to contain his smile.
It was my turn to roll my eyes. "I'll just bet they are. Next card, Romeo."
Edward glanced at the card and then his eyes smoldered up at me. "I have immortal longings in me," he read.
I sighed with my own immortal longing as I answered "Antony and Cleopatra. Strip."
Edward stood up, placing the stack of cards on the desk before straightening up and turning the full force of his gaze back to me. He hooked his thumbs under the waistband of his underwear and teased them down over his narrow hips, daring me to break eye contact.
One eyebrow quirked, his eyes were darkly seductive. His mouth curled into a cocky smirk as his boxer briefs pooled around his feet.
My eyes broke rank, unbidden, and my breath caught in my throat as I took in his chiseled perfection. How was it possible that this flawless being was mine?
A low growl rumbled from deep in his chest as I ogled him.
*EPOV*
Bella's eyes darkened with desire as she appraised me. The lusty look of admiration made my impossibly hard erection jump to attention under her gaze.
"Next card, Mrs. Cullen?" One side of my mouth pulled up into a lopsided smile. My voice seemed to break the spell and Bella's eyes flashed back to mine. Her cheeks were the color of a ripe peach.
Bella surprised me then when she said, "You know, I think I'm pretty solid with my Shakespeare. I think I should help you study," her eyes glinted with mischief.
She wordlessly stood up from her seat by the window and took me by the hand, leading me into the next room.
Bella gestured for me to sit at my piano. I obliged her, curious but willing.
"Don't you have a new piece you're working on for your music comp class?"
"It still needs a bit of polish, but yes," I answered, a smile playing at the corners of my mouth.
Bella was directly across from me now, watching me from under the angled shiny black lid of my Steinway. "Play it for me. No mistakes," she instructed.
It was immodest of me, but I couldn't help but laugh once at that. I didn't make mistakes when I played.
"As you wish," I murmured, placing my hands over the keys. Just as the first few notes rang out, Bella ducked under the piano.
My eyes widened, finally comprehending her intent. The little minx! I scooted the piano bench back a few inches to make room for her as she angled her body around the pedal column at my feet.
Situated between my legs, she looked up at me with wide, excited eyes from under a fringe of long, dark lashes.
"No mistakes," she reiterated as she took me into her mouth.
Oh for the love of all that was holy! My most cherished possession (if you could call her that) was between my legs and my second most cherished possession was beneath my hands. If I wanted them both undamaged, I would have to concentrate harder than I'd ever needed to before.
Bella was helping me study alright, just not for my music composition exam.
Keeping time while Bella's mouth worked languorously over me at a much slower rhythm was surprisingly challenging. Harder still was maintaining the control needed to play the complicated piece correctly without pulverizing the keys as Bella's tongue made my entire body tense with my mounting need.
A low groan escaped my throat as I felt the soft warmth of the back of her throat, fragile as a spider web, press up against the head of my hard arousal.
I concentrated on keeping my lower body frozen to the piano bench, feet planted to the floor, while also keeping my hands soft on the keys.
What a brilliant exercise it was to be able to practice keeping a soft touch under the intensely pleasurable attentions of her mouth while she was, for the most part, safely away from my hands.
The dissonant sound of a flat note, played in error as my fingers trembled under the stress, cut through the intricate melody.
Bella's dark, hooded eyes flashed up to me as she made a sing-song hum of disapproval in the back of her throat. The vibrations of which made me throw my head back and moan at the sensation.
As the composition headed toward its climax, so did I, with a cacophony of right notes, wrong notes, high-pitched whines, and throaty groans.
Intuitively, Bella moved her head away a sixteenth note before I was about to tell her to, but kept stroking with her hand as I finished onto the hardwood floor with a loud bellow.
Bella rested her face on the inside of my thigh as I recovered, panting heavily. With sparkling eyes and a smug grin, she said, "Not bad. But I think it needs more practice before you perform that for your class."
An exhausted-sounding laugh tumbled from my lips as I stroked the hair back from her clammy forehead.
Without warning, I scooted the piano bench backward, the wooden legs scraping shrilly across the floor as I scooped Bella into my arms and had her in our bed before the steel strings of my piano had had a chance to stop vibrating.
"You are wearing entirely too many clothes," I growled, noting that she still was fully clothed, barring the missing sock that was still on the floor of the library.
"Well, next time tutor me for a class that I don't like as much," Bella teased before I quieted her with a kiss and impatiently peeled away the layers of clothing from her body.
Moving down her throat, my lips muttered into her skin, "Jesus, Bella. I haven't played so badly since the time I was drunk on whiskey. That was incredible."
She hummed in approval. "Well, I guess it's kind of nice to know I can still get you drunk as an immortal," she said, gasping at the feel of my cold lips around her nipple. It was my turn to hum in approval and she moaned at the sensation.
"Even better. You don't taste like poison, you taste like heaven," I said kissing her all the way down her body before lowering myself between her legs. I was about to go to town, but then I had a better idea.
"You know, you didn't get much studying done today...I guess it's a good thing I don't need the cards," I chuckled, kissing the inside of her thigh.
Bella breathed my name, the fingers of one of her warm little hands tangled into my hair, and then slid down to cup my cheek.
In a gravelly voice, I quoted, "Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand. That I might touch that cheek!" I turned my head to kiss her palm, then went back to nibbling on the soft flesh of her thigh.
"Mmm... Romeo and Juliet," she whispered in a strained voice.
"Very good, Mrs. Cullen," I crooned, rewarding her with a long, hard lick. "Ohhh," she moaned, an octave lower than her speaking voice.
I pulled my mouth away just enough to quiz her again. "The course of true love never did run smooth," I whispered, my lips just a hair's breadth from the glistening pink flesh peeking out from within.
A deep chuckle rumbled out of my chest as she wriggled and squirmed for more contact, but I held her hips down with the stone restraint of my arm draped over her middle.
"A M-Midnight Summer's Dream," she stuttered out, white-knuckling the sheets now.
She was rewarded. I took her swollen bud between my lips. "Mmhmm," I moaned in the affirmative. Bella inhaled sharply, and I felt her hips vainly attempt to thrust up under my immovable arm.
I pulled away again, a bare millimeter. This time she growled in frustration. I chuckled again. "You aren't going anywhere until I make an A-student out of you," I promised, then sternly. "Now concentrate. 'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?' I quizzed, teasing her entrance with the tip of a finger.
Bella whined at my ministrations. "Taming of the Shrew?" she guessed. I shook my head at her incorrect answer, grazing her with the tip of my nose as I pulled my finger away to a grunt of protestation.
"As You Like It," I corrected, over-enunciating each syllable in a husky whisper.
With a gentle circling stroke of my thumb, "All that glistens is not gold."
A desperate cry, "M-merchant of Venice," she answered correctly.
I sank my middle finger up to the hilt in her wet heat, stroking the highly sensitive upper wall in a come-hither motion. This elicited a guttural groan that made my own renewed erection press almost painfully into the mattress.
Something that sounded like a sob wrenched from her throat. "No more teasing, Edward, please. I can't take it," Bella pleaded, her soft, smooth skin flushed from her hairline down to her sternum.
"Just one more then," I said, still stroking her from the inside. "Eternity was in our lips and in our eyes."
"Antony and Cleopatra," she sighed without hesitation. I wondered if maybe that might be a new favorite of hers. I'd have to ask her later.
"Such a good little scholar," I praised and then settled my mouth on her, not to be removed again. She tossed her head back into the pillows and whimpered as I sucked on her in earnest, filling her with a second finger.
"Fuuuck," it was a high-pitched squeal as I clamped my lips around her and flicked with my tongue, feeling her muscles squeeze around my fingers like a vice as she came. I only pulled away when she started giggling, oversensitive.
"You were right," she panted in a weakened voice, holding up three fingers while pinching her thumb and forefinger together in the universal sign for 'OK.' "Your methods are very, very effective."
*A/N* Whew, is it hot in here? 🔥 Maybe if I'd had a study buddy like Edward, I would have finished my degree. 😆 So sorry to those of you who wanted to read about the convo between Edward and Alice, but I did warn you all there would be some glossing over happening. If I don't advance the timeline a bit faster, this girl is never going to get changed. And you think the sex is good, now? Just wait. Bwahaha. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my lovelies, and thank you as always for your always amazing reviews.