NINE

I stared at him for a few moments more and let him absorb the words and emotions of what I had finally said before I let my hands continue their eager journey. My fingers fanned out and traced the hard muscles of his abs. I smiled internally when the stone contracted and relaxed beneath my touch. He drew in a sharp hiss of breath when my warm fingers wrapped around the length of him, and just as I was starting to worry about his impressive length, my mind immediately recognizing that my fingertips were not touching due to his thick girth. His size was definitely going to make for an intense first time, even with my barrier gone.

He sensed my concern and pressed a kiss to my temple. "I will never rush you, Bella mia. I could never hurt you."

I gazed up at him with heavy-lidded eyes. "Do you have any idea just how beautiful you are, Carlisle Cullen?"

He swept me up into his arms and laid me down in the center of the bed, stretching himself over me. "A gorgeous goddess I am well acquainted with keeps informing me of this, but I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the claimed beauty of my body and soul pales significantly in contrast to hers." He pressed a kiss to my forehead then kissed beneath each of my lower lids, licking away the tears. He kissed my lips with such tenderness that I lost my breath for a moment. He trailed his lips to my throat and licked the vein on each side. He worked slowly down my body, suckling one nipple first and flicking his tongue over the tip before giving the other nipple the same delicious attention.

He stopped in his journey to dip his tongue into my navel and I squirmed feverishly under his administrations. He tormented me until I thought that I would scream in frustration, and when his mouth moved lower, I knew that I could not possibly survive the near-excruciating pleasure that shot through my core. His fingers parted my moist lips and he blew a strong, cool breath on my sensitive clit. He had to grasp my hips and pin them to the bed as my body instinctively thrashed. "Easy, mi diletta," he purred calmly before dragging his tongue over my soaked slit and lapping up my juices greedily.

"Carlisle… Oh God…" I whimpered helplessly. I was thinking that I did not know how much more I could stand when his cold tongue pushed deep inside my wet heat. "Carlisle!"

When he stopped, I thought that he was showing mercy, but I realized my mistake when he pulled the swollen bundle of nerves carefully between his teeth while slowly sliding three fingers into my dripping pussy. He thrust his cool digits in and out of me, slowly at first, then he sped up his pace as my passage fluttered around his hand. He suckled the bead of flesh hard and his tongue flicked back and forth with inhuman speed. He pumped me hard and fast, and within moments, I was clenching around him and screaming out in rapture.

I was still floating on a cloud of intense pleasure when he suddenly appeared over me, his lips, coated in my juices, claiming mine. He used the combination of my afterglow and the distraction of the kiss to slide the head of his cock inside, my stretching passage clamping around the cool thickness like a vice. The slow slide was incredible, but I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment when I felt a pressure deep inside.

He hadn't broken my barrier like I had thought.

My eyes must have shown my panic because he lowered his face to my ear, nuzzling and purring. "La mia," he cooed, "you need not worry. That is not your hymen. That is your cervix. I am too large for you, bella mia, and it will take a few minutes for your body to stretch to accommodate me." He licked the shell of my ear and purred softly while he slipped a hand between us, using his speed to rub my clit.

After several minutes of being teased, my body relaxed and accepted him more quickly, and I was alight with exquisite pleasure from him pumping steadily inside of me. I writhed under him and my fingers fisted in his silky hair as I met him thrust for thrust. "Carlisle! Oh sweet fucking God… Carlisle…" My breath came out in uneven pants as he pounded in and out of me, over and over, faster and harder. "Carlisle… Now…" I hissed. "Drink... Carlisle…"

It was all the invitation he needed, and I felt his sharp teeth bite low on my neck, sinking deeply to the vein beneath. The sting from his venom made me gasp in pain but it was gone almost instantly as he took a long pull of my blood, effectively removing the venom as he drank. My body responded immediately to the intimate act, shuddering almost violently as I approached my peak. When he took a second strong draw of blood, I squeezed my eyes shut and came hard, screaming and thrashing in the throes of divine ecstasy. My pussy clamped around his cock, and through the heavy blanket of pleasure, I could feel him explode deep inside me and my cleaning passage milking him of every drop of his cool seed.

I lay there panting and sighed contentedly as one cool hand cupped my cheek. When I felt his lips brush over mine lovingly, I opened my eyes and immediately raised my hands to his face, my thumbs caressing the marble skin below his eyes. I frowned when he bowed his head. I slid a hand over his jaw and lifted his face, whispering his name so he would open his eyes and look at me. When he finally did, I gazed adoringly at him. "Carlisle Cullen, you… are… absolutely… beautiful."

At my words, a small smile curled the corner of his lips. "M'amore… T'amo tanto…"

For the first since meeting the stunning vampire, I saw something that I had never seen in his eyes before: pride. Pride in himself, pride for what he truly was. It was mixed so clearly in the adoration and love that glowed in his bright red eyes.

.

I was unsure of how long we had laid there, tangled together on the covers, but after what seemed like an eternity, I moved so I could gaze up at his face and gasped in astonishment when I saw his eyes.

"What is the matter, cara mia?" he asked, concern evident on his face and in his voice.

"Your… your eyes aren't red anymore," I said as I leaned in closer to look. "Well, not bright red like before. They're more of a rusty color."

He looked supremely unsurprised, which in turn surprised me more. "I was quite certain the effects would not last long — not initially, anyway — given that I did not take that much of your blood. Plus my body was able to quickly metabolize your blood due to your emotions and, to an extent, our connection."

I was not quite sure what he meant and it apparently showed because he blurred away, grabbing a blanket and wrapping me up in it when he flashed back before he explained. "Fear and love are two of the strongest emotions known to almost all creatures, but they act in completely different ways. Fear is an emotion that bears resistance, the urge to fight, to defend… whereas love, true love, is an emotion that bears only compassion and acceptance. Our bodies metabolize blood by both the physical components of it as well as the emotions. The blood we drink results in the color of our eyes. As a human, you would not be able to tell, but there are slight variations in the color of even our family's eyes. Emmett's eyes have deep flecks of amber since he tends to hunt bears. Alice, Rose and Esme have threads of a champagne color in their eyes because they drink mostly deer. Since Jasper and I tend to drink from mountain lions we tend to have darker honey tones."

He stroked his hands down my arms before rolling me over onto my back, gazing down at me with a look of adoration that practically stole my breath. "Emotions," he whispered as he licked the shell of my ear, "are what help, or in most cases hinder, the rate at which the blood is metabolized. Most creatures, m'amore, are not like you and are not too keen on us draining their life force from them."

"So fear makes it harder for your body to absorb the blood," I repeated. I was intrigued and wanted to learn as much about my mate as possible. Considering I would be becoming a vampire in a few years, it did not hurt to have a heads up. "So I'm guessing it has to do with the exact hormones in the bloodstream?"

"Yes," he said with a smile. "It's a very long and complicated explanation, but—"

I smirked as something suddenly occurred to me. "The Great Carlisle Cullen doesn't know!"

He nuzzled his nose against my ear. "I just do not see any relevance of boring you with the tedious and wholly unexciting details."

He started purring happily... or perhaps to distract me. Either way, I burst out into giggles. "You don't know!" He growled playfully and began sucking on my earlobe before kissing his way down my neck to latch onto a familiar patch of skin and I gasped. "If you keep doing that, it's never going to go away." When he chuckled 'I know', I huffed. "Everyone is going to start noticing if I were your scarf every day of the year."

Suddenly, our positions changed and he was leaning against the headboard with me sitting between his strong thighs. His arms wrapped tightly around my mine and he held me with my back against his chest. He rested his chin on my head and sighed. "I fear that by now, the whole town will know of the change in our relationship."

"Oh God!" I moaned. "What is Charlie going to say?"

"I doubt that he knows at this point," Carlisle reassured me. "I vaguely recall Alice saying that she sent Esme to talk to him. If something were wrong, Esme would have notified us immediately, or rather she would have spoken to Alice immediately and Alice would have informed us when we were not so… engaged."

I blushed deeply. "We're… we're going to have to tell him, aren't we?"

"Would you prefer him to hear about it through your neighbors?"

I shook my head. "No, I suppose not." I nibbled on my lower lip as the glaringly obvious question bounced around my brain. "Carlisle, I… I don't want to offend you, but how..."

He growled softly and his grip tightened. "Alice and the rest are only a few miles away. She said that they would remain on the porch until I was reacquainted with their presence. Once I am comfortable with them being that close, they will open the front door to allow more of their scent into the house. From there, they will move into the kitchen and wait for us to come downstairs to them." He slowly climbed from the bed pulling me with him and urging me to get dressed. When we were both clothed, he pulled me back on the bed to sit with him. "Alice wants Jasper to use his gift, but I do not believe that would be a wise idea. As disturbing as these urges are at the present time, I must become accustomed to them if I am going to continue to function in society over the next few years."

I blinked in confusion as I scooted closer to him. "Next few years? I would have thought... I mean, that seems incredibly long."

He sighed and bowed his head and I could tell that he was embarrassed at the moment as he hid his face in his pale hands. When he looked up, I noticed that his eyes seemed to be an even lighter shade of orange. "Mi diletta, unfortunately, the entire mating process does not end with the physical act of mating nor does it end when a human mate is changed. Due to the nature of vampires, most have exceptionally dominant personalities — not violent or cruel, just very assertive and dependent. The males, obviously, are far more dominant. However, unmated and recently turned females are a rather aggressive force, so when an unmated female finds her mate, it generally takes about a year or two for her to completely submit to the male's dominance. The same amount of time applies to a recently turned female."

He lifted me into his lap and tucked me close against his chest. "It is within the male's nature to want to protect his mate and a newly mated female still has her instincts to fight for herself in situations where she does not need to. As dated as it sounds to a human, a female should not be fighting for or protecting the male unless they are overwhelmed by others or the male is severely injured and unable to protect his mate any longer. It is the male's responsibility to protect both himself and his mate against danger and it takes a year or so for a female to fully submit to her male."

I was shocked by this information and was not completely sure of what to make of it. "So… for the next few years, we're going to be… um… I mean, we're…"

"I am sorry, mia passerotta," he cooed, his carnelian eyes full of emotion. "I am not completely certain of the intensity of what we will feel during our mating. You must remember that I have nearly completely suppressed all of my instincts until I admitted our bond to you. Any emotions that I have felt until now, I have felt at a human level. After nearly a hundred years, I really did not even have to try to suppress them because experiencing life as a human came naturally. So I unfortunately have nearly four hundred years of—" he licked the side of my neck, whispering— "tension built up."

I shuddered at the innuendo and had just pressed my lips to his when he jumped back against the headboard, still cradling me in his arms.

He snarled viciously then spasmed slightly, bowing his head as shame etched the lines of his face. "They're here. On the porch." He shook his head. "I hate this, la mia. I hate that I am feeling this way toward those that I consider my family."

"Carlisle," I said patiently, "I know them well enough to know that they do not blame you for anything. They will not be upset with you in the slightest. My guess is that all four of them have experienced the same thing."

My mate nodded slowly, as if not wanting to admit that it was okay for his family but not for himself. "Alice and Jasper were already mated when they joined us, but almost immediately after Emmett was turned he had to leave with Rosalie. He was afraid of hurting his family because he was so aggressive with his mating."

I smirked. "So it's okay for them to act like this but not you?"

He sighed and turned his eyes to me. "That is not what I meant. I am just a bit overwhelmed." He tilted his head, apparently thinking. "I can tell you almost exactly what will happen between us, what will happen to me, about my instincts and reactions, but I have never experienced anything of this magnitude and it is quite disconcerting to me. Logically, I know that you have been threatened and I am just protecting you, but emotionally I cannot comprehend why I would feel that my family is too a threat."

I hugged him as tightly as I could without hurting myself. "I am sorry, Carlisle. I wish there was something that I could say or do to make this easier on you."

The smile in his voice was obvious. "Cara mia, your love and your support alone make a world of difference." He instantly stiffened and hissed, his eyes going from orange to black in an instant. "They're opening the door."

Not sure of what to do or say, I did the first thing that popped into my head and let my tongue dart out to lap behind his earlobe, the hiss immediately turning into a purr. I just held him and nuzzled the side of his face with my mine, reassuring him with soft murmurs that I was safe and that I was his. Apparently, it worked because when he pulled back, his eyes were again orange and he smiled softly at me.

"You, la mia, are truly the delight of my life," he said kissing the tip of my nose then chuckling when I blushed. "I would be entirely unable to survive this change if it were not for you wisdom, grace, and love, bella mia." He placed a tender kiss and my lips and rose slowly, as if unsure if he wanted to move or not. "Come, m'amore… I do believe Esme has news about the situation with your father."

We walked slowly down the stairs even for human speed and I was sure that it was due to him adjusting to allowing me near his family, but I did not mind. I would give him all the time he needed if it meant he was comfortable or as comfortable as he could be given the circumstances. The moment we walked into the kitchen, I could sense the tension so I was not surprised when my mate grabbed me and moved us back into the far corner of the room. The look on Esme's face was heartbreaking and I felt my stomach plummet into my feet as I whispered, "He knows, doesn't he?"

She shook her head and gazed at me sadly. "No, Bella, he doesn't. But we have a bigger problem."

"What? What's wrong?" Panic rose inside me and it affected Carlisle, who had begun growling deeply behind me. I pushed down the emotions a bit and stroked the cool arms that were wrapped securely around my shoulders. "Esme, what's happened?"

When she bowed her head, a shudder rippling through her willowy frame, I felt my mate's grasp loosen a tad and a heavy breath rush out of him. "She has found her mate."

I blinked in confusion for a few moments before the full brunt of what he said hit me like a truck. "Her mate is Charlie?"

.

TBC

In the words of Bob Ross:

You can do anything you want to. This is your world.