*BPOV*
In between waiting on me hand and foot, Edward had spent the rest of Sunday dutifully ticking off items from our household to-do list, rendering me completely useless in case I felt the need to be "productive" again.
I grumbled at this. Lady of the house? More like the lady of the couch.
He tried to convince me to stay home and rest some more when Monday came. Though, as I had a paper due, and it wasn't even my writing arm that was injured, I insisted he take me to school as usual.
My last class was just wrapping up for the day, and I was glad for it. It was clearly time to take another anti-inflammatory, I thought, feeling the ache in my shoulder flare.
"A new week, a new paper," Professor Lipton sing-songed to a chorus of groans. She wrote the word "misogyny" on the overhead projector and underlined it three times.
Sexuality in Literature in the Early Modern Period had turned out to be a much less titillating course than several of my male classmates had bargained for.
"3,000 words on the role of misogyny in early modern literature and how that has translated to the present day. On my desk no later than Friday, people!" And with a wave of her hand, we were dismissed.
Now that seemed like a topic I could sink my teeth into, I thought as I gathered my things.
"Did you ever think a sexuality course could be so dull?" sneered one of the obnoxious frat boys from earlier who fell into step with me as I filed out of the room. Edward's words rang through my ears.
With students, we learned pretty quickly that if you're rude enough from the get-go, people tend to leave you alone.
I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to practice the Cullen Facade. I straightened up and turned toward the boy, raking my eyes over him from head to toe.
Polo shirt, check. Pastel-colored shorts, check. Enormous wristwatch, check. Boat shoes, check. Reeked of cologne, CHECK. The guy was a walking stereotype.
"I'm just so shocked that a privileged, heterosexual, white male finds the subject of misogyny dull. Way to break the mold!" I spat, acid in my tone. I tried my best to look down my nose at someone who stood a foot taller than me.
"You must be fun at parties," he snorted before hightailing it from the room.
"Miss Cullen?" A soft female voice called from behind me. I whirled around wondering what trouble I had just got myself into.
Professor Lipton was standing behind her desk, packing up her own bag.
"It's Mrs. Cullen, actually." Her eyes widened in surprise at my correction. "And I really enjoyed your lecture today," I added. Endlessly polite.
Professor Lipton smiled warmly. "I'm so glad. I just wanted to say," she said nodding towards the door that frat-bro had just vacated, "Ten points to Gryffindor," she winked and zipped up her computer bag.
I smiled and wished her a pleasant afternoon, and walked out of the lecture hall at least two inches taller.
*EPOV*
I waited in the shade by our usual spot at the coffee cart. Bella seemed to be running a little later than usual. I narrowed my focus to hear the thoughts coming from the general location of Sanborn House to see if maybe her class was letting out late.
I saw her face in the vapid mind of a young man who mentally referred to everyone as "bruh." He was thinking of something clever to say to Bella as he caught up to her after class. I ground my teeth. I supposed this part was inevitable.
What I hadn't expected was Bella's razor-sharp response. As the frat boy made a run for it with his tail tucked between his legs, I bounced out of his mind and into that of her professor's.
Maggie Lipton made it a point to make the first few weeks of her class a bit of a bore to weed out the dead-weight students who enrolled in her class solely due to the sexual nature of the coursework. Students like Blake Andrews. He'd drop the class within a week, she was sure of it.
"I'm just so shocked that a privileged, heterosexual, white male finds the subject of misogyny dull. Way to break the mold!" spat one of her most engaged front-row students to the very same Blake Andrews.
Maggie could've been knocked over by a feather by the forcefulness in the mousy student's tone.
Maybe she'd be rid of the Andrews kid even sooner than a week thanks to her new favorite student.
She was even more bowled over when this girl of no more than nineteen drew herself up straight and called herself "Mrs. Cullen, actually," with a strong note of pride.
"Ten points to Gryffindor," Professor Lipton winked at Bella, who lit up at the praise. The triumphant look on her face was one I wouldn't have wanted to miss for the world.
After Bella's accident, relatively minor as it was, I was growing even more eager for her immortality. Every day her heart continued to beat felt like a risk. There were so many ways that she could be taken from me that I'd be powerless to do anything about.
Brain aneurysm. Hit by a bus. Freak meteorite accident. Breaking her neck falling off a ladder.
With her propensity for disaster, I couldn't discount even the remotest of possibilities.
However, being a fly on the wall for that brief window into Bella's day was a sorely needed reminder that this time was a worthwhile risk. She deserved this time to grow and learn, emotionally as well as intellectually...even if it meant I would be a nervous wreck until the moment my teeth finally sank into her skin.
Fourteen more weeks until the fall semester concluded and classes were dismissed for the holiday break.
Last I'd checked, Bella had plans to see her mother for Christmas and then...and then there was nothing stopping us from going forward with her "renovations," as Bella referred to them.
She could always change her mind, of course. Though, if I was being honest with myself, I'd stopped hoping for that somewhere along the way.
If selfish was what it made me to need her by my side forever, then so be it. I could live with that. What I couldn't live without was her.
After seeing Bella draw herself up to her full height and introduce herself as "It's Mrs. Cullen, actually," I couldn't doubt for a second that Bella was as committed as she'd ever been.
Watching her rebuff another male and then go on to declare herself Mrs. Cullen had made me positively ravenous with need for her. Thank heaven it was time to take my wife home.
At the same time as my hands wrapped around Bella's waist from behind, I murmured "Wow," into her ear and pressed my lips to her pulse point. She hummed contentedly under my touch.
With my hands on either side of her waist, I spun her around to face me. I reached for the strap of her book bag slung over her good shoulder and slid it over my own.
"I thought I was going to have to keep an eye on that guy, but he won't be bothering you again, you made sure of that. And then after that, with your professor.." I drew in a breath and stared at her with wide-eyed disbelief.
"You were watching?" Her eyes grew surprised, and then I worried if I'd made a misstep in doing so.
"Only for a minute. You were late," I shrugged. "I have never been so simultaneously proud and turned on in my existence," I growled, eyes smoldering. "Can I please take you home and shower you in my admiration?"
She giggled and her cheeks warmed to a lovely shade of pink. "Well when you ask like that..." she purred and raised her arms to wrap them around my neck, then winced and put her left arm back down to her side.
I frowned and cupped a hand gently around the ball of her shoulder, hoping to soothe the inflammation. .
I pulled a small bottle of ibuprofen out of the pocket of my jacket, knowing she was due for her next dose. She looked at the bottle with relief.
"You're a lifesaver," she held out her palm while I shook out two pills.
"You'll want to eat something with those, so I got you a snack," I said, pulling out a small parchment bag from my backpack. Inside was a warm chocolate croissant from the coffee cart, her favorite.
She made a look of pure delight as she bit into it. "Oh my gosh, that's heaven!" she gushed, with a dusting of powdered sugar left behind on her chin.
Buoyant with pride and jubilation, I said, "Allow me," while taking her chin between my thumb and forefinger and kissing the sweetness off her skin.
Once we were in the car and headed for home, I couldn't help but indulge my curiosity.
"Bella, I have to know. What were you thinking back there in your classroom? I've never seen you like that. You were fierce. Your professor thought so, too."
She blushed and looked at her lap. "I was practicing the Cullen Facade since that idiot gave me such a perfect excuse to be rude. And then, with Professor Lipton, I just tried to be-"
"Endlessly polite," I finished for her, impressed as I was amazed.
"Bella," I said, waiting for her to look at me. "She was utterly dazzled. And so was I."
A winning smile lit up Bella's face, it reminded me of the one I'd seen before after her teacher had praised her. It was a thousand times more brilliant in person than seen through the dim eyes of Maggie Lipton.
*BPOV*
"Learned from the best, I guess," I said offhandedly, with a small tilt of my head and a shrug of my shoulders.
"You know, confidence is the sexiest thing I've ever seen you wear," Edward said with certainty, unleashing the full power of his eyes on me.
My blood boiled under my skin. "If you keep looking at me like that, we're not going to make it home," I warned with a nervous laugh in my voice. I wasn't so sure that was an outcome I minded.
That seemed to give him an idea. "How's your shoulder? Are you feeling up to being a bit... spontaneous?"
"With you? Always!" I promised. Edward's eyes shined with excitement and anticipation.
I looked over at him with confusion when he eventually parked the car in front of our house.
"Just dropping off the car, love," he explained. "We won't be needing it."
"Ok, well since we're here, I'm going to run inside for a human moment and drop off my books." My stomach growled. Maybe I'd pack a quick lunch, too.
"Sure thing. I'll be waiting right here," he said, making himself comfortable in one of the porch rockers.
My eyes grew soft looking at him there, because not only was I reminded of the time I'd woken up to him sitting in my bedroom rocking chair that first night he stayed, but there was just something so breathtaking about him occupying 50% of the rocking chairs that looked exactly right for "growing old" together.
He was the one I'd always hoped would be sitting beside me in a chair just like that, and by some miracle, we were doing exactly that-growing old together, with perhaps a few less wrinkles and gray hairs.
I watched him in profile, a serene expression on his face. His brow was smooth, his nose was straight and perfect, and there was the hint of a smile on his face.
"If you keep looking at me like that, Mrs. Cullen, we aren't going to make it off this porch," he turned his head toward me with a smirk and an arched eyebrow.
Jarred from my abstraction, I scurried inside. I tossed my book bag on the desk in the library, pausing to inspect the newly-applied non-slip grips installed along every inch of the ladder rungs. I rolled my eyes. He didn't waste any time.
After using the bathroom, and throwing together a quick bag lunch, I rejoined Edward on the porch.
"Alright, I've got my sweater and a PB&J. Bring on the spontaneity!" I announced cheerfully, shutting the door behind me. Edward took my lunch and zipped it inside his own backpack that he hitched over his shoulders.
Then, Edward picked me up into his arms, probably so I wouldn't strain my shoulder having to hold on to him, and dashed around the back of the house, running past the pond and into the trees beyond.
"I found this place the other day when Carlisle and I were surveying the area for hunting possibilities," he murmured into my hair. He came to a stop at the top of a gently sloping hill.
Somewhere tucked into the foothills of the "mountain," (it was more of a hill by Washington's standards), Edward had found an ancient grove of maple trees that grew along the base of a hill, overlooked by a rusty-red long-abandoned barn.
The trees, in full swing of autumn, were a shocking blaze of color, in every shade of red, orange, and yellow. From the slight distance where we stood, they almost appeared to be on fire. Some of the trees even had buckets still attached to the trunks from some long-ago time when they were harvested for their sap.
The treetops had been slightly thinned by the changing seasons, leaving a blanket of crunchy, brightly colored leaves on the ground below.
"Edward," I breathed. "It's incredible! Like something out of a Thomas Kincaide painting!" I whispered. The place was too beautiful, too peaceful to want to ripple the calm with talking.
Edward beamed at my obvious wonderment. "I thought we could use a new place that was all our own."
He set me down on my feet and we strolled down the hill, hand in hand, at a leisurely pace as I took in the sights, sounds, and smells of this enchanted place that seemed to be forgotten by time.
The chirping of birds, the light crunch of leaves and twigs under our feet, the earthy scent of decaying leaves, the rough, grayish-brown textures of rocks and tree bark under my outstretched fingers. And best of all, nothing was green.
Our meadow, much like the rest of the Pacific Northwest was green, and wet, and cold. This place, our grove was warm and dry and brown, save for the vibrantly colored leaves. It couldn't have been any more perfectly symbolic for the different season we were now in in our own lives.
Married. In college. In this weird transitional phase before realizing my true fate to become a vampire, to join my chosen family for eternity.
Every day these trees lost more and more of their glorious lifegiving leaves. In just a few weeks, they would be made completely barren by a bitterly cold winter.
Edward laid out a warm fleece blanket under a large, sprawling maple. Its canopy was so vast and thickly branched with mostly red leaves that I could scarcely see the sky. I curled up into him, with my face resting against the hard stone of his chest.
In the slight breeze, the fiery, star-shaped leaves drifted lazily down around us in every direction.
"If this is what you meant by showering me in admiration, then consider me impressed," I said dreamily, as I wrapped my fingers around a crimson leaf that had fallen onto Edward's chest.
"Not even close," it was almost a growl. "But it's a nice effect, isn't it?" Edward's voice was husky as he rolled on top of me. I froze involuntarily as his words reminded me of something James had said in the ballet studio.
That close-call felt like it was another lifetime ago, but still, every now and again, something would take me back to that day.
Cool fingers stroked my face. "Where did you go?" Edward's lips murmured into the hollow below my ear.
I shook my head slightly to free myself from my memories so that I could lose myself in the liquid gold of Edward's eyes.
"Sorry, just daydreaming," I smiled, probably just a bit too wide to be convincing.
"Tell me," he crooned, planting kisses down my throat. "I love a good daydream."
Thinking fast, I said, "I was remembering...the last time we were in our meadow. And how it's just like you said it would be. No curfews or treaty lines, just you and me in our little house...doing married people things."
"Mmm," he hummed, skimming his nose along the ridge of my collarbone. "We did some very married-people things that day."
Edward's hands slid under the hemline of my top, grazing the sensitive skin of my sides with his cool touch. "I was thinking we could do some more married people things right now," he rasped.
I giggled and knotted the fingers of my good arm into his hair as his lips traced the line of abdominal muscles that creased my stomach from my belly button up to my bust.
"What's gotten into you, today?" I asked breathlessly as he pulled my shirt gently over my head and tossed it to the side, soon to be joined by his own. It wasn't a complaint.
"You," he growled into my skin. "My God, Bella, I've never needed you as badly as when I saw you being a total badass today." His acute need was evident in the desperate way he kissed me.
I felt the cups of my bra pull away from my body as his hand slid under my back and smoothly unclasped it.
His mouth descended on my breasts, lips sucking and tongue twirling as his fingers simultaneously pinched the nipple of the other side with just enough pressure to make me arch my back for more. He hummed approvingly, sending deep vibrations into the soft, milky skin of my chest.
Slightly overwhelmed by the sensations and urgently wanting to feel his lips on mine, I put my hands on the sides of his face and pulled him up so that his face hovered over mine. I kissed him hungrily, meeting the intensity of his desire with my own.
It was a little awkward only having the use of one arm to wrap around him, but with my good arm, I raked my fingers through his air and slung my arm around his neck as he kissed me senseless.
Edward had to be the one to pull away first to let me breathe, but he just continued on down the column of my throat.
I managed to kick off my favorite chucks and wrap my legs around his back, pulling him right against my core. The guttural groan that this elicited from Edward sent a rush of heat straight to where our denim-covered bottom halves collided.
"Take them off," he whispered gruffly. "Unless you happened to bring another pair," he let out a hard-edged laugh.
I only had the one pair of jeggings, so I shimmied out of them and my panties while I was at it, while Edward lost the rest of his own clothes, slipping a condom out of the pocket of his jeans and tossing it on the blanket. I arched an eyebrow at him.
"I was a Boy Scout as a human, Bella. 'Be prepared' is our motto." His smile was as crooked as it was unapologetic.
"But don't you worry, we won't be needing that for a while yet," he said, lowering himself down on his front in between my legs. "This is what I meant by showering you with my admiration," his cool breath on my heated core sent a violent shiver of desire rippling up my spine.
And just when I thought I might die from the anticipation, my stomach clenched as Edward rolled us so that he was on the bottom and I was now straddling his face.
"Edward!" I gasped, clutching my hand to my chest at the suddenness of the movement. His face between my thighs looked positively wicked. And then the only thing I could focus on was the feeling of his tongue moving over the slickness of my skin.
Edward, of course, was tireless as he loved me over and over again, in circles and swirls that made me dizzy, and then with deep, penetrating strokes of his tongue that left me hoarse from crying out in pleasure.
When my legs started to shake, unable to support myself, I felt Edward reach up and place supportive hands at my waist as he continued to tease out my orgasm with expert precision.
The sound of his groan, muffled by my folds as I grinded against his mouth in hot pursuit of my release sent the first waves of pleasure crashing over me. His answering moan made me wonder which of us was enjoying this more.
Edward licked me until I jerked away, oversensitive, and then rolled me lightly back onto my back, where I laid there, heaving and rapturous. He gently disentangled himself and laid down next to me.
"Wasn't it your original plan for us to be together as virgins until I died? How did you see that going?" I teased, with a lazy, satisfied smile.
"If I love a ridiculous woman, then you love a sometimes-idiotic man," he said chuckling wryly. "God, was that ever a terrible plan," Edward shook his head, laughing at himself.
"One of your worst," I agreed, grinning. "This, though," I said, patting the blanket on which we laid, "This was one of your best."
Edward turned his head toward me and rewarded me with my favorite smile. I closed my eyes and stretched my neck toward him for a kiss which he eagerly returned. His kiss was soft at first and then deepened with the growing intensity of his need.
His arms wrapped firmly around me and then we were rolling, kissing, laughing, panting, and rolling some more.
When Edward had me positioned on top of him, he pressed me tightly to his chest and then rose up smoothly to a kneeling position, with me straddling his lap.
I inhaled sharply at the feeling of his cold, hard arousal pressing against the furrow of my backside. One of his hands crept in between our bodies to slide a thumb over my swollen bundle of nerves.
I whined and bucked at his teasing, already feeling another orgasm mounting.
In a flash of movement I barely caught, Edward rolled a condom on himself behind my back, and then was lifting me up several inches over his straining erection.
Edward's voice in my ear was rough with desire. "Say it again, Miss Cullen," he hinted, and then I knew exactly what he was wanting to hear. I threw my head back as his thumb continued to work its extraordinary magic between my legs.
"It's Mrs. Cullen, actually." My voice was low and husky to my own ears. Edward's deep groan came from low in his throat as he sheathed himself in me, slowly and gently, but without a moment's hesitation.
With his forearm wrapped securely around my back, he curled his body into me, flexing the taut, perfectly-defined muscles of his abdomen with every upward thrust.
From this position, he filled me so deeply it felt like I could feel him in my throat. I raised my head back to the level of his and rested my forehead against his as I bounced over him. His eyes were clenched shut in concentration, and his cool breath washed deliciously over my face as we raced each other over the edge.
Ever the gentleman, Edward waited for me to reach my climax, coaxing me with deliciously dirty words in my ear.
"That's it, my Bella, you're going to come so hard for me. Feel my fingers. Feel my cock filling you up. Give it to me, Bella. I want to feel you explode."
Edward had never been quite so vocal before, and that was all it took to see stars exploding behind my eyelids as I went to pieces around him, shaking and sobbing with pleasure.
With three more pumps, Edward turned his head away from me and grunted into his shoulder as he found his own release.
Holding me close to him, still connected, I felt him pant raggedly into the flushed skin of my throat as he slowly withdrew his still-hard erection from my body. The loss of him made me feel, well, hollow inside.
As we laid there together coming back down to earth, limbs intertwined, without a care in the world between us, my quiet laughter bubbled out of my chest.
"What's funny?" He murmured, stroking his fingers lightly down my back.
"If your bedside manner is going to be this good, maybe I should plan for another accident or two while I'm still breakable," I teased.
Edward's glare was as instantaneous as it was furious.
"Kidding. Kidding! Sheesh."
Still glaring, "You're a regular Johnny Carson," Edward deadpanned.
"Who?" I feigned ignorance, trolling him.
Edward sighed. "Eat your sandwich, Bella."
*A/N* I think I might need a sandwich after that one. Lol. Thank you all very much for your feedback after the last chapter! It was incredibly helpful. Of those of you who responded, it seems almost right down the middle between those who are digging the college life and those who want to see Bella turned already.
Bella will get to finish her semester, but if you notice a bit of glossing over the days and weeks...you'll know why. ;) I really hope you liked this update, and I can't wait to hear what you think. Thanks for reading and reviewing!