The countdown is on, folks! It's almost Christmas Eve! We're so excited to celebrate Christmas - with you all in this fandom, and with these guys on Sycamore Lane!

Shall we get to the date, yeah? :)

Chapter 24: Making Magic

December 23, Thursday

Forks, Washington

Edward

I cannot remember the last time I went on a date.

Not only do I never have the time, I'm never in one place long enough to meet anyone. I live my life on the road, never feeling the need to tie myself down in one city over the next. My job sends me all over the country, making it impossible for me to place roots in any specific place.

I always have the option to settle in one of our locations around the country, but since I've only had myself to look after for so long, I had never seen the point.

Besides the Cullens, I have no family to call my own. I have no emotional ties to anywhere, really. Maybe Seattle and Forks because it's the closest to where everyone I know is located, but that's about it.

So tonight is a pretty big fucking deal for me.

And I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.

In the past, all I've had to do was show up to a bar after work, and my expensive suit and flashy watch would do the trick. It wouldn't be long after that when a woman would make her way over to me. I never had to work for it. I never had to put any thought into it.

Everything about this is new to me. The fact that I have on dark jeans and a sweater instead of a suit. The fact that I'm getting ready in Jasper's old bedroom with Emmett on the bed really takes the cake. Who even am I these days?

"She'll like that," Emmett says from his spot on the bed, not bothering to look up from his phone.

Eyeing myself in the mirror again, I look in the corner at his reflection. "How do you know?"

"Because it's Bella," Emmett sighs, tossing his phone on the bed like the answer is obvious. "She likes you, bro. It doesn't matter what you're wearing or where you're going."

"Hmm." I ponder that some more as I stare back at myself, going through the plan for tonight once more in my head. Dinner. Tree lighting ceremony downtown. Dessert already purchased and sitting on the front seat of my boat for after the ceremony in the park.

Simple.

So why am I so unsettled? Why do I doubt myself? Is it because Bella has somehow managed to fall into my life like some Christmas angel, catching me completely off guard?

Sometimes it feels like it when I look at her when I think she's not looking. I've never met anyone like her, and I wonder why it is this Christmas that fate decided I'd meet her.

I've learned in my brief time here in Forks that timing is everything.

And I'm exceptionally grateful for my timing when I learn that Charlie, Bella's dad, is not here when I pick her up on our way to dinner.

She sparkles like tinsel and smells like Christmas cookies when she hops into the van. Maybe it's contagious, I don't know, but we wear matching smiles as we make our way down the road towards a quaint, family-run restaurant on the outskirts of town.

We eat light, too engrossed in conversation to focus on our meals. It occurs to me halfway through that it was always the other way around in the past. I would focus on the menu instead of the girl, looking for a distraction from anything that would even remotely suggest commitment. But now, as our hands link as we walk towards the park for the tree lighting ceremony, all I can think about is how much she's made me feel like a person again.

And I don't just mean tonight.

My laptop, brought home with me with good intentions, sits dead inside of my briefcase. I've postponed meetings until after the new year. I've reflected on how Seattle may open more professional opportunities than I have realized.

And I know it's because of the girl holding my hand beneath a now brightly lit and glowing tree, the light nowhere near as beautiful as the way Bella looks at me now.

"Merry Christmas Eve Eve," she smiles, right before Alice's Christmas snow dusts our heads and our jackets and right before I lean down and seal our story with a kiss.

"It's the first one I've ever had," I whisper to her, our foreheads pressed together once we can separate ourselves. Her eyes close at my words, and for the first time in my life, I know it's not out of pity. It's coming from the same place I find myself in.

From a place of —

I never get the chance to finish my thought. She stands on her tiptoes, her fingers pulling me down from the lapels of my jacket, and my lips land on hers again, this time with an intensity that has me holding her face in my hands as her fingers fist their way through my hair. Our tongues dance together, puffs of air coming from our mouths as we find each other under the light of the town's Christmas tree.

"Get a room!" I hear a voice shout from across the way, and Bella and I pull apart with a laugh. Knowing the voice from a mile away, I gift Emmett the finger as the rest of the Cullens laugh from their traditional spot at the tree lighting.

We may not have a room, but we absolutely have a boat.

And it's not the first place I ever thought Bella and I would experience this first together, but it sure as fuck suffices.

She tells me to pull over a mile down the road, leading us down to a path overlooking a meadow hidden behind a patch of trees.

Our feet and limbs tangle together as we make our way to the last bench seat in the van, groaning at how perfectly her little body fits on top of my lap.

"Hurry," she breathes in excitement, her lips and tongue ghosting beneath my ear and the side of my neck. "No one will see; I know for a fact."

I can barely answer her as my hands discover hidden places of hers that make her whimper into the silence of the van. "And I should trust the Chief's daughter?"

"Yes," she kisses me again, reaching down to unbuckle my belt. "I know all the best hiding places."

There's nothing hiding beneath my jeans right now, and I hiss when she finally frees me of my restraints, my eyes rolling to the back of my head at the feel of her hands exactly where I want them. With a lot of laughs and at an alarming speed, our clothes decorate the floor and the bench seats in the van. And even though the snow outside sprinkles its magic around us, the heat between the two of us can melt even the fiercest of snowstorms.

"Are you sure?" I ask one last time before we cross that line into more. My fingers sink within heated flesh, her nails digging into my shoulders as my lips taste whatever they can.

"God, yes." Bella moans and sinks onto me, our eyes meeting for the first time in our frenzied state as we freeze for a moment. I'm fully sheathed within her, my hands moving to her hips as she begins to rock slowly in my lap. Using the back of the seat for leverage, she moves up and down on my cock like we've done this a thousand times before. I keep up with her pace, matching her every stroke with an upwards one of my own, each one delivering a blow of pleasure that makes me pull her down harder on top of me. The sounds coming from her mouth only drive me to give her more, my own groans filling the car as we discover a whole new kind of Christmas magic.

I wish there was more light so I could see every inch of her, more space so my tongue could taste even the most hidden parts of her, but the glow of the moon filters through the many windows of the van, and I've never been more grateful for this fucking rental car disaster in the week I've had it.

"Permission to come aboard, Captain?" She pants in my ear, and I can start to feel her clench around me, and I lean forward, so her back is against the back of the seat behind her. Pinning her hips with my hands, I slam into her until we see fireworks in front of our eyes like it's New Year's Eve.

"Come anytime you want to," I say between breaths, once we're coated in sweat and sated.

Bella laughs, reaching a hand towards the condensation left on the window from our endeavors. When she draws a simple triangle Christmas tree against the glass, I press a kiss to her lips and add the final touch.

The heart I draw around her tree is the key to Christmas I've always been missing.

And thanks to the girl in my arms, I'm not missing it anymore.

Where can we sign up for a date like that? Love these two!

Tomorrow, share the best gift you've ever received.