Chapter Eleven
Edward looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, wondering how the hell a cold shower did nothing to alleviate the problem. He could have taken the edge off with a Bella infused fantasy and his hand, but he was afraid it would only make things worse the second he walked out and saw her in the living room. Several hours of sitting beside her to watch movies, her gentle perfume overwhelming his senses—he'd be hard the whole time.
"Hey, are you seriously still jacking off in there, Cullen!" He had taken several minutes, but she obviously had no issue with discussing sex. Nice.
"If I am?" He knew whatever she said, he'd regret asking, but fuck it, he loved the banter and teasing. The verbal foreplay kept him engaged, interested, even if it came with blue balls.
"I thought this would help." A piece of paper slipped from beneath the door; a drawing of her. His already unruly dick went metal-arm-hard at the sight of a drawn Bella in Loki themed lingerie. It was a cross between Leia's slave princess bikini with dark leather and gold embellishment.
"What the fuck is that?" His voice didn't sound like his own; it was deeper, rougher. Fans proclaimed that his voice was sex, but this was different.
"It's what I plan to wear under my costume." He could imagine the slight smirk on her lips, the innocent flutter of her long lashes, delivered sweetly, the little devil.
She didn't fight fair. The taste of her lips, something like vanilla and brown sugar, still haunted him and was dangerously addictive. Memories of the softness of her skin and hair combined with her sounds when he kissed her, he'd never make it past the door without having his way with her.
When he said nothing for several seconds, she cleared her throat and cursed. "Edward." Her voice was soft, apologetic. "I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have done that." Even if he couldn't see her, her apology was real. Making her a hundred times more appealing.
The door flung open so fast, Bella barely had time to look up before she was pinned against the adjacent wall. Edward's body nearly engulfed hers despite her height, the tip of his nose skimming the length of her neck. The brush of his lips on her skin ignited every sensitive nerve between her thighs, and everywhere else, for that matter.
And he was wet and nearly naked, with only a towel hung low on his hips. She was pretty sure there was only one thing keeping it up, too.
"Oh my fuck," she whimpered, need making her heart race. "You're not f-fighting fair."
"Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you." His voice teased her senses and made her moan. "Don't me wrong, I love the game we're playing. But I only have so much control."
So he liked her little drawing? She grinned but quickly let it slip away, lifting her eyes to meet his dark green gaze. "Sorry?"
His eyes narrowed, dipping down to her lips. "You sound so damn sincere, Swan." The way he emphasized her last name made her breath hitch and the knot in her stomach to tighten. The man was not only lethal, he had the potential to ruin every man after him. He was also using her last name to keep them from tripping over the line between them, one they agreed not to take for exactly nineteen days. "So are we going to keep doing this? I tease you, you tease me."
She fought another smile. "You're still assuming I found the kiss pleasurable."
His hips flexed, closing the space between their bodies, the pressure of his cock felt so damn good. She wanted to drop all pretenses and deals, more so when he whispered in her ear, "No assuming, I know." His teeth scraped against her neck for only a second, but it was enough for her knees to tremble. "Your nipples grew hard the second I started to walk toward you. Your breath, well, you were hardly breathing, Bella. And you couldn't stop rubbing your gorgeous thighs together."
"Acting," she lied.
"No one is that good, baby." His lips lingered over hers, but not touching. "Do you have any idea how badly I want you?" Her eyes dropped down between their bodies of their own volition, and she couldn't help the moan. His towel was slipping. "Yeah, you know exactly how much. Now, please, for the sake of my sanity, get your sexy ass down to the living room before we do something you'd regret." She shook her head, but his hand came down over her mouth to stop her protest. "You won't regret in this moment, maybe even the next, I guarantee you that. But later, you might and I'm not taking that risk with you."
Her eyes were drawn to his body, but she managed to pull them away to look at the bathroom beyond him. She needed the reminder of the consequences of mixing business and pleasure, even though she felt she wouldn't regret a night with Edward Cullen. She looked up at him, uncertainty in his eyes. He told her he got tired of the hookups and the empty, sneaky rendezvous with others in the business. She had to be strong—not just for her, but him, too.
"Are you going to behave now?" From the look in his eyes and the tinge of teasing in his tone, he didn't want her to behave.
She batted her eyelashes playfully, and then licked the palm of his hand. He hissed and grabbed her face with her both hands, but he stopped the second her hand landed on his chest.
"I'll behave for now," she whispered, closing her eyes. If she looked at the length of his body for another second, she'd drop to her knees and suck him in until he was gasping her name.
"Christ, you're killing me," he grunted as if he knew what she was thinking, and she felt the sudden blast of cool air and heard the bathroom door slam closed. Had she said it out loud? Oh fuck. "Please, Bella."
She ran out of her own bedroom.
.
.
.
Edward eyeballed the distance Bella put between her popcorn and his at opposite ends of the coffee table. It would mean he would take one end of the couch and she would take the other. No matter how much he wanted to spend time with her, there was only so much he could handle. He walked over to the light switches, bathing the room in bright lights, earning a playful hiss. The ceiling fan started circulating, and fuck if it didn't make matters worse. The scent of her hair filled his senses once again.
"I don't think this is going to work," he said, sitting down and taking his head in his hands. "Three cold showers and nothing can will this away."
Bella hummed, seemingly at ease, until he saw her nipples were still hard. "One time, Jake pranced around in a red panty and bra set I fucking loved as payback for a prank I pulled back in high school." Instantly, the image burned his retinas and he groaned in horror. "In six-inch blue heels." He snorted because it worked, holding his hand up and she quickly high-fived it.
With two sentences, she helped get him under control. She wasn't going to take advantage of his desire for her. Instead, she was taking him as seriously, as he was trying to do for her. Chemistry was something he dealt with before, but never this strong. Whatever was between them had the potential for something real, and he wanted it more than he could ever explain.
"Okay, I'm going to warn you right now," Bella started, picking up the remote and queuing up the movie. "I cry every single time I watch these movies."
"How many times did you watch Civil War at the theatre?"
She arched an eyebrow, closing the other eye as she tapped her chin with a fingertip. Fucking hell, she wasn't only beautiful, she was cute. Adorable, even— he had it bad.
"Seven times, but only because I got tired of buying tissues." She pouted then shrugged, and then her brow tightened. "I'm guessing that's not something you can do often. Going to the movies, I mean. Or anything really."
"I haven't been to a movie, except for my own premieres, in seven years."
"That's kind of sad," she whispered. "But understandable. I'm at your service if you want to give it a go sometime."
"Your service," he teased, grabbing his popcorn.
She threw a few kernels at him. "Get your head out of the gutter." He chuckled. "I meant if you ever wanted to go out without really being seen, let me know."
"You'd do that for me?" She must've heard the vulnerability in his voice; he sure as hell did.
"Of course, I would. I'm not in this for my fifteen minutes, I told you that. If after…"
"There's no if," he said with a little more conviction than intended. But he meant it.
"Okay," she said slowly, as if realizing he was being honest. "After Comic Con, we can go on a date. With a few changes to your clothes, hair, maybe some makeup we go do just about anything."
"What would you have in mind?"
"Skydiving."
Who was this woman and why was he only just meeting her? His friends were assholes for not introducing them sooner.
"That's something I've always wanted to do." She smiled and told him it was amazingly exhilarating. She'd gone twice and was becoming addicted to the feeling.
"Let's do it." He smiled at her. "It's a date, Swan."
AN: These two, seriously, I'm having so much fun with them. I'll try to update this coming week, but going on a mini vacation with the family next weekend. Have a thousand things to do! Thanks for all the recs and reviews, I love each and every one of them. Thanks to kyla713 for helping me wrangle my commas. I'm hoping the birthday girl is still loving this :)