I was glued to the spot as Bella's lips moved against mine. I did not respond, just stared ahead in mind-numbing shock.

Bella was kissing me. Really, truly kissing me.

My inner beast roared with wild triumph and joy inside of me. It was as if it were celebrating. As if it this was what was suppose to happen.

Then, before I knew what I was doing, I started to kiss her back. Her lips did feel rather good.

Bella must have realized what was going on then because she hastily backed away from me.

"Oh, my God," she gasped. "Carlisle, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that, I swear! Please don't be mad at me! It was an accident...!"

I placed a finger on her lips to interrupt her. "Don't worry. I am not upset with you for kissing me. Truthfully...I rather liked it," I admitted.

I might as well be completely honest with her. Now that both of our relationships were practically "on hold", it was safe for me to be.

She was completely taken aback, and I did not blame her. "R-Really?" she inquired.

"Yes. In fact," I went on, deciding to go the whole hog. "I liked it so much that I...I would like to kiss you again."

Bella turned to me with wide eyes. "You do?"

I nodded. "You have no idea of how much I want to."

Her face reddened. It was obvious that she did not know what to say about that.

Laying my hand on hers, I whispered, "Would you like to kiss me again too?"

"Uh...well..." she faltered.

"It's all right if you don't want to. I don't want you to feel as if you should because of what I want," I remarked.

An appreciative smile spread across her face. "No...it's not that I don't want to. It's just that I don't know if we should. What if Edward comes back and see us? Or what if Esme or the others do?"

Sighing deeply, I responded, "Well, Edward is giving you time to figure out what you want to do. And Esme...she wants us to have some time away from each other so that I can do the same. Figure out what I want to do, I mean. My other children know this. So therefore, it is safe for us to do whatever we choose to do with each other. At least, it is for now."

"Esme left you too?" Bella demanded in horrified shock. "Oh, my God, Carlisle. I'm sorry! I feel like this is all my fault."

"Don't feel that way, sweetheart. If anything, it is mine. I should not have approached you the other night. If I hadn't, none of this would have happened at all," I pointed out.

"But I should have told you to leave. I should have been more firm with you when I said no..."

I gazed at her evenly. "But you did want to do it. Otherwise, you would have had been more firm."

She looked as if she were about to argue with me when she caught herself. An odd expression flickered across her face.

I inclined my head pointedly. "Exactly."

Frowning, she turned away from me. I could tell that she still believed that everything was her doing.

Exhaling deeply, I took her chin in my hands and made her look at me. "Bella, listen. I understand why you feel the way that you do. Trust me. But what Edward and Esme have decided was purely based on my actions.

"I am not saying that the attraction that you feel towards me had nothing to do with Edward putting your relationship on hold. But after what I did, he did have a right to confront you for not making me leave you alone. And he had a right to find out if you were attracted to me because of it. But as I said, he would not have done so if I had not approached you in the first place."

When Bella still seemed thoroughly unconvinced, I murmured, "Think about it."

She hugged her knees to her chest and narrowed her eyes pensively. The longer she stayed quiet, the more I could see that she realized that there was a good bit of truth behind my words.

Nevertheless, it was obvious that it did not make her feel any better. Then again, I was not too happy about what I had done either, even though I did not regret it.

I just hoped that she would not blame me for everything that had happened. But I would not be surprised if she did.

After a while, Bella exhaled deeply. "I suppose that you are right in a way. Still, I feel as if I had betrayed Edward. What if he never forgives me? And what if Esme never forgive you? What if they hate us?"

Rubbing her back comfortingly, I sighed also. "I am sure that they don't. They will find it in themselves to forgive us...in time. At least, I hope that they do. They just need some time alone to sort all of this out, as Edward said. They will come around eventually. You will see."

I was silent for a moment, then asked, "Bella, are you angry with me because of everything that has happened? If you are, I understand. I am responsible for any pain and sadness that you feel."

"Well..." she began. "I know that I should be. Anybody in their right mind would be more than angry with you. They would be furious. But for some reason...for some reason, I'm not furious with you at all. I'm just furious that Edward left me without letting me have a word in edgewise. But I don't know why I am not angry with you...unless it's because I don't regret what I did in the first place?"

"That is a pretty good theory. Perhaps that is the reason. But I don't know if it is anymore than you do," I said. Then I laid my hands on her arms. "This is going to be a rough time for both of us. But know matter what, everything will be all right in the end. Alice told me that it would. The situation will clear up and we will all be happy again. I promise."

Bella must have believed me; she finally smiled. "Well, if Alice said that, then I trust that everything will. She would know that it will better than you or I would."

I chuckled. "Yes, she would."

We shared a laugh before growing quiet once again.

"So what do you think that we should do? I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not attracted to you. I am, but because I love Edward, I know that I shouldn't be. You are obviously attracted to me too because Esme would have left you if what we did was just a one-time thing."

"Yes, that is true, and you are very likely right about that. I have already admitted that I am indeed drawn to you in a different way than I am to the others. I have no idea why, but..." I stopped speaking, not wanting to say what I was going to next.

She cocked her head to the side. "But what? You can tell me," she added when I still did not answer her.

Turning away from her, I stated, "But I would like to figure out why I am. There must be a reason why I feel the way I do about you...I know that there has to be."

I looked around to see her digesting what I had told her. Minutes later, she appeared to have come to a decision about something.

"Hmm. Maybe there is one...we just don't know what it is yet. And since you want to find out why you are drawn to me...I wouldn't mind letting you, I guess. Since Edward and Esme are leaving it up to us to find out what we want, this is more than a good time to. Neither of us have anything to lose by me giving you permission to do what you want."

Raising an eyebrow, I queried, "Are you certain that you want to do this? You do not have to just because of what I desire..."

And suddenly, before I could finish my sentence, Bella kissed me with passion. I laid my hands on her cheeks and kissed her back.

I supposed that that was her answer.

As if to confirm this, Bella murmured, "Yes. I am certain that I do. I feel the same way about you, after all. Why don't we just find out why together? As I said before, we have nothing to lose by doing so. When we finally see what the reason is, we can think about what we can do from there."

"That sounds reasonable. When would you like to start doing this?"

"We can start anytime you please. This was your idea. But if you want to start sooner than later, I don't mind. I have all of the time in the world."

I bobbed my head. "Good. I actually would like to start soon. The sooner, the better. Just let me know if I am moving too fast for you, in case I start to."

With a laugh, Bella stood up. "Don't worry, I will if that ever happens. You can count on that. And now that you mention it, do you want to continue at the pace we were going? Or do you want to start from the beginning and get to know each other all over again?"

Pursing my lips, I replied, "I am not sure yet, but I will certainly think about it until I come up with a decision. For now, let me fix you something to eat. With everything that is going on, I know that you must be hungry."

"Truthfully, I am. Let's go." She started to walk over to the house.

I threw out an arm to stop her. "Hold on a minute, Bella. There is something that I want to do first."

"What's that?"

Taking her face in my hands, I bent down to kiss her. She kissed me back as I moved my lips against hers. Seconds later, I slid my tongue into her mouth. I had to taste her. I needed to.

And I was not disappointed that I had. She tasted so deliciously sweet that I thought that such a taste could only be found in heaven. I had to admit that even Esme did not taste this good. I hated to, but I did.

Bella must have thought that I tasted just as good. She glided her tongue along mine before darting it into my mouth. She explored it hungrily, moaning as she did. That moan nearly drove me crazy.

Eventually, I had to break to kiss so that she could breathe. I gestured to the mansion, and we both went inside.

(A/N: PLEASE REVIEW! What do you think that Bella and Carlisle should do, in regards to how to set their pace? Let me know! I would be grateful for your opinions on this!

I am also thinking of changing the story's title to Follow Your Heart. Let me know what you think of it, please. I won't change it if you don't want me to.)