Love you all. And I agree with you - it's hard to see Bella like this. It's hard for me to WRITE her like this as I always prefer my ladies to have a loud voice. I can tell you one thing...she will. Eventually. You just have to believe I'll get her there :)

Thanks to Frannie for making this readable and my prereaders for making sure I stick to my plan.

Any chapter with italics (except for the Prologue) takes place with her husband, such as this chapter here.

Enjoy!

He sunk his teeth into me deep – I was just oblivious to how deep and how sharp.

"This is perfect," I whispered, looking at both the small table reserved for two and the view behind it. Just us, overlooking the city below from a private, outside terrace that could have easily been plucked from my dreams.

I even had the Prince to go with this fairy-tale dream.

"Like you?" He answered back, leading me gently by my elbow closer to our table. Nearly tripping over the heels Rose had let me borrow for the evening, I placed a hand on the ledge and dared to look down.

We were blips in comparison to our distance off the ground. Little specks in the night, almost invisible as the world went on around us.

He was always throwing compliments around as if he meant them.

I think he did at first.

"If you say so," I dismissed him, turning my gaze away from the view to look at him. He stared intently at me again, making the skin on my arms prickle beneath his look.

"I do." He insisted, his breath dancing across my skin as he pushed my chair out behind me so I could settle into the seat at our table. My eyes met his as I sunk into the seat, possibly falling into something deeper than just furniture. "I'm just going to have to find a way to make you believe me, Bella."

I scoffed as he took his place across from me. "Good luck with that."

I said it with a smile, a smile he'd told me does funny things to his heart, but he didn't return the smile this time. Instead, he shot me a puzzled look and a shake of his head.

"Why don't you believe me?" He asked in disbelief. "No one's told you how perfect you are?"

Perfect? The last time anyone sent a compliment my way, I was ten years old, and my parents were still alive.

"From who? Most guys in this town have known me since we were all in diapers."

Rose had been old enough to take care of both of us when our parents had died, but it didn't mean she was able to do it easily. I loved her, and she did the best she could, but it was difficult to manage a young girl like me who had no idea where to begin finding out who I was or who I was supposed to be.

The boys in town picked up on it, too, and I was ignored for the most part until I hit my twenties. It never bothered me then, and it especially didn't bother me now.

"I'm not like most guys."

His hands reached across the table to hold mine softly in his own. With both of my hands enveloped in his, I was a captive audience. He wasn't cocky - he was confident. There was a difference I was slowly starting to learn.

His smile lifted the corner of his mouth, and this time it was my turn for my heart to do something funny within my chest.

"I think I'm catching on to that."

The waiter arrived and filled our glasses with the finest wine I've ever tasted, and with a clink of our glasses, I sealed my fate to him.

"Good."

The grooming started long before their marriage - and Bella was hooked.

See you tomorrow!