TWENTY

I knew I had the goofiest grin on my face, and he smirked victoriously down at me. "Seriously, Carlisle? The stairs? You couldn't wait to get in the bedroom?"

"Says the naughty, little witch who was about to hump me in front of her father," he shot back, chuckling when my face burned with embarrassment. He pressed a kiss to my temple. "Just so you aware, mia streghetta, I was not as angry as I appeared. I was more worried about your father's reaction."

He helped me up and gathered our clothes swiftly before taking my hand and walking with me up to our bedroom. "I think part of the reason he is so uncomfortable with everything isn't just because you're his baby girl. I believe him when he says that he has nothing against me personally, but he has only just learned about vampires. I'm sure that he is also having difficulty grasping how a dominant-submissive relationship could ever be loving. You have to remember that as an officer, he's probably used to aggressive and dominant relationships being abusive. Controlling is another way of saying that the woman is isolated and mistreated. I doubt that he thinks that I'm actually hurting you, but this particular concept of dominance is probably just out of his reach due to things he has witnessed in his profession."

"Then maybe you should have bitten me," I pondered as I crawled on top of the covers. I sighed contentedly when he slid onto the bed beside me, my arms wrapping around his neck as I kissed his lips tenderly.

My mate shook his head. "No. Not then. Not under those circumstances." He nuzzled my temple. "Esme can only explain this position so much. She is a female who has never been made to submit by a male and can explain only from a clinical standpoint. Hearing her say what it is about and that it is not born of cruelty is one thing, but… well, can you honestly say that, had you not experienced being bitten in such a fashion, you would not have the same thoughts?"

I hummed. "Good point. Do you think he would be able to handle seeing it in the future?"

"After our little scenes in the field," he chortled, "I do believe that the majority of our behavior would not be too inappropriate. Obviously, it would be if we spend our entire time groping each other and having our lips continually fused together. But I do believe seeing you bitten, as well as the nuzzling and the purring and comfort that follows afterward, may reassure him not only of our bond but that he has nothing to fear from his own instincts, if my theory is correct."

I snuggled closer to him and pressed my face to his neck, giving into the urge to drag my tongue along the cool flesh where his pulse would have been were he human. I moaned when he responded immediately, flipping me onto my back and bracing himself over me, his on lips and tongue finding his mark. I continued licking him, surprised at the primal act, but enjoying every minute of it as his skin had a slight creamy flavor, not quite vanilla but still sweet.

I was just about to ask him why this instinct was awakening in me, particularly since I was still human, when I heard two things: my own familiar message tone and the strains of Jamie O'Neal belting out "there is no Arizona, no painted desert, no Sedona…"

I glanced at Carlisle, who was clearly blushing, despite the lack of blood in his face. "Arizona?" I could not help but smirk.

He cleared his throat, obviously embarrassed. "That can be laid on Jasper's shoulders. When I came home from work after seeing you for the first time, he managed to sneak around me somehow and steal my phone. He put that on there. I removed it, but a few weeks later, he got to it again and put it back on. I removed it again and confronted him about it because, at first, it was painful for me to hear. I told him that I could not be reminded of you because you were not mine. He informed me that if Alice said you were, then you were, and that I just needed to be patient and have hope. When I saw you next... when you walked into the house and looked at me for a brief moment as though nothing else in the world existed... I gained hope. That was the day that I let him put it back on the phone. It has never changed since."

A small smile graced my lips and I gazed at him adoringly. "I love you," I said softly, earning a tender chaste kiss.

"T'amo, m'Isabella," he cooed before blurring away to grab our phones. He groaned unhappily as he opened the message, and after opening mine I realized why, echoing the same grumpy sentiments. "Alice?" he questioned.

"Yep," I grumbled, very displeased. "Saying Esme wants us to have a late lunch?"

"Yes. Meaning that she is bringing Charlie?"

"To spend time with the entire family?"

"And that it would be within our best interest to dress?"

"That is not what she said, Carlisle."

"I refuse to repeat those words in front of a lady."

"Why?" I questioned, waving my iPhone at him. "It's not like I can't see what she said. She sent me the same thing!"

"Just because my children insist on talking like sailors does not mean that I will speak in such a vulgar manner." He smirked and lowered his lips to my ear. "Unless of course, I..."

I gasped at the words tickling my skin and felt my face turning bright red. I gaped at him for a few moments when he drew away, an absolutely filthy grin on his face. "Carlisle Cullen! I cannot believe you actually said that. I can't believe you actually knew that!"

His pressed his face into my neck and his breath caressed my skin as he chuckled. "You would be astonished, m'uzzola, at the things I know." He stroked his hand down my thigh, grasped my leg, moved it at a surprising angle. "In fact, this might—"

His phone rang again, this time with Alice's ringtone. He growled in annoyance as he answered the phone. "Is Esme with you? Well, then she is still in range and can hear me… I am with my mate and we are both very desperate right now. Do not… Using Charlie being Bella's father is blackmail. You are an evil woman!" He was obviously becoming annoyed and what he said next practically knocked me off of the bed. "All because you cannot be mounted does not mean that I have to deny my mate that pleasure!"

My eyebrows disappeared into my hairline and I wished to God that I had superior hearing, because I would give anything to know what that was about. Of course, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I might not.

My mate growled deeply. "Then do not drive too fast. We'll be ready when you get here." He abruptly hung up and practically threw the phone onto the floor before grabbing mine and throwing it away as well. He wrapped himself around me and once again buried his face into my throat, his lips and tongue returning to their previous activities.

I smiled. "Didn't you just say that we would…"

"You were hearing things," he interrupted between laps to my skin.

I sighed in bemused exasperation. "Carlisle, we have to get up." I heard him murmur 'too late' and burst out laughing. "Whether we like it or not, your family and my dad are going to be here. We need to get dressed and go downstairs."

"No," he growled deep in his throat.

I shook my head, unable to stop the chuckles welling up inside. "I'll make you a deal: we go downstairs and play family, then you can teach me whatever you want to tonight."

The growling stopped and he looked at me in a way that reminded of a child that was standing before a tree on Christmas morning and staring at the biggest present. "Promise?"

"Cross my heart."

He gave my neck a final lick and pulled me up off the bed with him, leading me to his closet where, to my surprise, a few articles of my own clothing hung. "Alice sneaked them in last night while you finished your dinner. I do believe that Esme has most of your wardrobe with her. She knows how difficult it is for us to be separated, and even if their relationship cannot yet go as far as ours has, I do believe Charlie and Esme are enjoying their private time."

I wrinkled my nose as he inadvertently reminded me of what he said earlier. "Um… I'm sure that I'm going to regret this, but why did you tell Esme… um…"

He chortled at my discomfort. "Unfortunately for your father, while male vampires are perfectly capable of having sexual relationships with humans, it is impossible for a female vampire to have sexual intercourse with a human male. It is true that female vampires like the Denali sisters have found other alternatives, the likes of which I have never inquired about, but actual sex is not physically possible."

"Again… I'm probably going to regret this," I said hesitantly, "but… why?"

He leaned over and breathed in my ear, "When we are mating and we climax, whose body is it that clamps like a vice around whom?"

I blinked for a moment, his soft accent teasing me, before reality crashed down on me. "Oh my God!" I shook my head violently as his meaning became perfectly. "Oh dear God! Carlisle, why? Ewww…" I whined, trying my best to think about anything else. "Carlisle, that was not right! That was mean! Just ew… I'm going to have to bleach my brain! How could you do that to me?"

He laughed wickedly. "Personally, I thought it would have made you feel better to know that your father isn't…"

"Stop!" I shrieked. "I don't need to know about my dad's sex life, lack thereof, or that he could lose his… Ugh! You can forget about sex tonight! It is not going to happen," I snarled before shuddering in horror. "I don't think I'm ever going to be able to have sex again."

I was slammed suddenly into a rack of clothes, my mouth being claimed in a furious kiss, and despite my words, my mind and body reacted accordingly, clawing and rubbing against his marble body.

"Never," he growled, "say that you will deny me the way you just did. I will accept refusal of my attention if you are unwell or if you approach me, at all, in a reasonable manner. But never again speak of refusing me in the voice you just employed." He snapped his teeth close to my ear, his rumbled warning making me shiver in delight. "You belong to me. You are mine! Unless you are ill or unless you approach me in an acceptable fashion, you will always submit to me. Do I make myself clear, Isabella?"

I nodded, trembling beneath him.

He lowered his lips to mine and gave me a tender kiss, before nuzzling my throat and lapping his mark. "Are you all right, cara mia?" He rubbed his face lovingly up to my jaw, before pulling back to gaze at me. "Have I frightened you?"

I felt badly for him. Despite his seemingly calm expression, his eyes betrayed him. They were filled with pain and, ironically, terror. He was afraid that he had gone too far and that I would not be able to deal with his aggressive behavior. "No." I shook my head for emphasis as a small smile tugged my lips. "You definitely did something to me, but frightening me was not the result."

He pressed his forehead to mine and began murmuring his apologies.

"Carlisle, were you acting on instinct?" When he nodded, I stroked his shoulders and back trying to soothe him. "Please, I'm begging you, don't slip back into your old habits, Carlisle. Never be sorry for your instincts. Never hide them from me. To do so is an insult to your mate." I smiled brightly when he glanced at me, almost hopefully. "You didn't hurt me in anyway, and I know you well enough to know that whatever your reaction is, I'm always safe. I do not fear you in the slightest. You didn't frighten me. I promise."

He kissed me again, firmly but sweetly. "I doubt that I will ever understand what good I have done in my existence to deserve a blessing such as you, m'Isabella."

I beamed, because it sounded so much like what he had told me over the phone the day after admitting our bond, when we experienced what it was like to be apart for the first time. "Just lucky, I guess."

.

Carlisle had decided that it might be best if he went hunting.

To my surprise, he returned a lot sooner than I had expected him to, his jeans and button-downed blue shirt completely free of blood or anything else. The only reason that I could tell he had been hunting was the brightness of his citrine eyes and the fact that locks of his stunning blond hair had fallen out of place. I smiled up to him then grabbed one arm and began rolling the sleeve up to just below the bend of his elbow. "You weren't gone long. Are you going to be okay?" I queried, dropping the arm I held and reaching for his other, repeating the motions as he pressed his cool lips to the crown of my head.

"Yes," he murmured softly into my curls and grasped my upper arms in his large hands when I released him. "I took down a single buck, so I am good for awhile longer. When your father leaves, I will hunt for bigger game, I promise." He inhaled deeply before speaking into my chocolate curls. "I am sorry, bella mia." When I sighed, he quickly added, "Not for my behavior or for my instincts, but for allowing myself a brief moment of doubt. It was foolish of me to think, even for a moment, that any part of my temperament would alter your perception of me or cause you to fear me. For that, and that alone, am I sorry."

I slipped into his embrace, my body melting against his while his arms held me firmly. "I truly don't think there is anything to forgive, but if it's what you need to hear to have peace, Carlisle, then I forgive you. There is nothing in this world that you could do that I wouldn't forgive."

He chuckled softly. "I highly doubt that you would have been elated if I had ripped your dog-friend's head off."

"Elated? No. Forgiving? Yes." I tipped my head back to gaze into his eyes. "Though, I have to take back my previous statement. Even though I don't think it's actually possible, I couldn't forgive you if I found you with another woman. I'd have Emmett and Jasper rip you into pieces, shove your head up your ass, and then set you ablaze."

He quirked an eyebrow and his lips twitched in amusement. "First, you would be well within your right. Secondly, as I am sure you are well aware, it is completely and utterly impossible for me to even look at another woman in such a manner, much less entertain such thoughts or act upon them." He raised one hand and ran his fingers through my flowing waves, pushing them back from my face. "And while I am not overly happy with him at the present time, I do know that if Edward were to return now, or at any point, that your body, mind, heart and soul belong to me." He bent his head ever-so-slowly to mine, his lips mere millimeters away when he whispered, "We are of one mind, one heart, and one soul, cara mia. That will never change. We will always be as one for all our eternity."

Then he kissed me. It was firm but loving, sweet but passionate, and utterly breathtaking. It took me a moment to realize that his lips were gone from mine and that he was staring down at me with a small smile. "Mia streghetta… mia tenatrice," he cooed. "Sei m'uzzola, mi gioia, mi vita… T'amo, bella mia. Ti amerò ora e per sempre."

I returned his smile, my lips twitching with barely suppressed amusement. I sometimes wondered if he had forgotten that I could not actually understand him, but was simply filling in what I did not know with what he had already told me and a few words that I already knew. "You know, I seriously doubt that we'd find ourselves in so much trouble if you'd stop calling me a witch." When he gave me a filthy smirk, I laughed. "It's always the quiet and innocent looking ones."

His grin was absolutely devilish. "Just wait until you end up in my emergency room again," he shot back, making me blush. He had just dipped his head to kiss me again when the door suddenly opened.

The largest and loudest Cullen tromped in first, shouting out, "I hope you're not doing it on the kitchen table again! Daddy Swan won't be happy if you are!"

I glared at Emmett, as he could clearly see us and was trying to torment us and poor Charlie with his crude behavior. I was about to tell him off when I heard Esme scold him from somewhere outside. Knowing that I could not say much more than the vampire's mother, I simply asked Rosalie to hit him for me and she gladly obliged. In the center of the living room, I waited, wrapped in Carlisle's arms, my back pressed against his chest, for my father to enter. He looked extremely relieved at seeing us in an uncompromising position, and I smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry about Emmett." I glanced mockingly at the giant. "You'd think he'd been raised by wolves."

My big brother gaped at me while my other brother laughed at the low shot. "Nice, Bella!" the Texan drawled.

Emmett just pouted at having been one-upped twice in less than twenty-four hours.

I made no attempt to move away from Carlisle. I briefly considered it, but ultimately knew that sooner or later my father was going to have to adapt to not only the family's odd dynamics and lifestyle but to mine and Carlisle's intense relationship. Out of respect, I knew that we would never do anything overtly sexual, even if it were a hundred years from now. Although by that time, he would definitely be ingrained completely into the family, but he was still my father. Nuzzles, purrs, gentle touches and little innuendos would have to be accepted; public groping and humping in front of Charlie was inappropriate. I knew that, being in heat, we would come very close from time to time, but having more restraint and modesty than I did, I knew that Carlisle could easily calm the situation and me with a very firm bite to my neck.

Esme led the way to the kitchen with Charlie and the rest of us followed, my mate's hand resting on my lower back the entire way. To my surprise and great thanks, after realizing that Charlie was planning on seating himself at the table, Emmett planted himself on the exact same spot where I had laid the night before for Carlisle to feast upon.

Letting out a heavy sigh, I muttered under my breath a very grateful thank you, to which he just smiled and nodded in return. It was true that Emmett acted like a lewd college frat boy half of the time, but when it came to things of this nature, he always could be counted onto step up his level of maturity. Knowing that I would have been genuinely mortified at my father sitting in that exact place, he had spared me the private humiliation and made sure that Charlie was nowhere near the spot.

I found myself moving toward my father, selecting a seat next to him as my mate slid in beside me, moving the chair as close as he possibly could, which Charlie noticed immediately. "Are you okay?" I questioned my father.

He stared at me for a moment. "Honestly, Bella, I'm not sure. I know that Carlisle would never actually harm you, but I'm having a hard time imagining a relationship like this being—"

"Anything other than abusive?" I interrupted. "It's not, I promise. Carlisle absolutely worships the ground I walk on. When vampires talk about dominating their mates and their aggression, it's not like the domestic violence you're used to seeing. In fact, Carlisle has only had to dominate me with a bite once, and it was because I was acting like, well, a bitch. There was no physical violence. He didn't hurt me. He simply bit me to let me know that I had crossed a line. Once he let go, I was calm enough that I could finish my argument like a rational human being instead of screaming and having a tantrum." He raised an eyebrow at me, and I blushed. "Dad, you would have been embarrassed by my behavior. It was... bad. The last words I said before I got bit were 'fuck you'." I didn't think I had ever seen Charlie's eyes go so wide. "Yeah. I've learned to never tell a vampire 'fuck you'. They apparently don't like hearing that."

"I can imagine not," Charlie drawled, the tiniest twitches tugging the edges of his mouth.

"Dad," I continued, "what you see now is pretty much how we always act. Occasionally, things get a little heated, like on the field, but this is pretty well how we normally are. Our emotions are a bit more intense, so when we get jealous, we tend to get a bit vocal about it. When we feel the other is being threatened, we get very defensive and protective, to the point where some can plant their son into a wall."

Charlie looked at my mate, who said in a surprisingly pleasant voice, "At that time, I felt that Emmett was a threat to Isabella, despite the fact that she was here in the kitchen and he had barely made it into the living room. I was already hyper-sensitive and was protecting my den and my mate. He rushed into my territory too hard and too fast for my liking, and he paid the price for his mistake."

"Didn't really hurt," Emmett spoke up, defending his pride. "You throw like a girl anyway."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Tell that to the pulverized couch. How long did it take you to patch up the wall again?"

I felt Carlisle nuzzle the back of my neck through my chocolate waves, purring loudly to calm my growing annoyance. Charlie watched us with mild upset at seeing someone being so intimate with his little girl, mixed with noticeable fascination at the obvious adoration and worship in my mate's behavior. "I doubt we're going to have another tense moment tonight, so you might as well," I spoke softly to Carlisle. "I know you still want to."

My mate brushed my hair aside with one hand and tipped my head with the other before lovingly rubbing his face against my throat, inhaling my scent deeply. His lips touched his mark, caressing it with reverence, before his mouth opened and his teeth cut into my flesh.

I hissed at the initial sting from the bite but immediately felt relief and calm wash over me as he took a firm draw, pulling out the venom-tainted blood before licking the wound closed. I hummed in contentment as my mate repeatedly lapped at the mark while my mind and body took a moment to refocus. When I came back to reality, I noticed that Charlie's mouth was slightly agape and he looked absolutely dumbstruck.

I felt my heart sink into my feet when he mumbled, "I'm sorry, Bella."

.

TBC

I have no Bob Ross quote for this chapter. I apologize.