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Submission

Chapter One - The Discovery

Bella Swan P.O.V

It was hard to believe we had been back from Italy for almost a week now. Every single night since I had dreamt of our encounter with the Volturi and the day we almost lost our lives because of the rules they live by. Now we were thousands of miles away from them but the threat was still very real. If we didn't keep our word god only knows what they had in store for us. I didn't want to think about it, I would push it to the furthest part of my mind every day but every night as my head hit the pillow I was reminded in my dreams. Their speed, power and resources were beyond all our imagining, I didn't need to be a vampire to sense the danger thick in the air like perfume. One day they would come for us we all knew it and yet Edward maintained the dream that I would live out my life as a human. He wanted me to keep my soul and all I wanted was to keep him alive.

Things had returned to normal pretty quickly over the last few days. The Cullen's had Alice, Jasper and Edward re-enrolled at school, Carlisle had returned to his job at the hospital and Charlie, well Charlie sometimes even let me out of the house without giving me the third degree about spending all my available time with Edward. I just wanted everything to return to normal, I wanted my life back to how I remembered it before, a time before the Cullen's left Forks and I sank into a very dark place that I had to claw myself out of. It didn't seem right to tell Edward how bad things had gotten for me without him here, just a week ago he had thought I was dead and tried to end his own life.

The idea that he could just give up so soon after thinking I was gone, that not even twenty four hours had to go by for him to want to join me in the afterlife. Edward had always seemed so strong willed, so sure of himself and yet over the months we had fallen in love, I had become his biggest weakness. I was his soft spot, his trigger, his cliff edge.

The Volturi weren't the only thing keeping me from a peaceful night's rest, I could still feel the cold water from the fountain that I crossed trying to get to Edward on time. I could still hear that heart stopping drone of the clock tower striking twelve. In my dreams I never make it to him in time, either I don't run fast enough or I can't get through the crowds of people in time. Then every morning I wake up to find Edward alive beside me like nothing ever happened.

In an effort to keep myself focused and tired for bed at night I had been working harder at school, making that extra effort Charlie prayed for with my lessons, taking the time to study for tests, asking for extra assessments to take home and taking pride in my accomplishments.

However this morning things were getting off to a slightly different start...

I was sitting in history class attempting to follow this morning's first lesson of the day but found myself very distracted. Under the desk unknown to those around me Edward's hand was running up and down my thigh. I had almost jumped out my skin when his hand began by first tracing my knee and had only climbed higher since then. I must have been as red as a tomato by now, suddenly thrilled we had chosen to sit in the back row that morning. I kept glancing around at the others hoping none of them looked our way. I was a sweaty mess of course unlike Mister Cool beside me, Edward just continued to smirk and keep his attention forward, not looking my way once but very aware of the effect he was causing on me.

I had attempted to remove his hand whenever his grip became a little too intense or when his fingers edged to the inside of my thighs.

Finally I couldn't stand the silence a second longer, leaning back in my chair instead of glued to my desk I glanced over at Edward not gaining his attention.

"What are you doing?"

"Making you sweat" Edward replied

"Edward"

With that he raised his hand higher than ever making me go forward in my chair, I couldn't look at him, I couldn't focus on anything but this feeling he was causing me to have. This wasn't him, it was totally out of the ordinary and yet somehow he made it seem so natural. I had gone so long without his touch, without the ecstasy of his kisses that feeling him touching me now was indescribable. I brought my hand beneath the table and over his upon my thigh, using his other hand he quickly removed my hand from his and continued to stroke my thigh, finding every nerve ending I had and teasing it into submission.

When the teacher turned his back to the class to write notes on the board Edward lean over to me placing his lips to my ear and bringing his hand to the inside of my thighs, I pushed them together trying to block him out of reflex but when I felt his breath against my ear, my eyes rolled into the back of my head and I turned my head around to him, our lips threatening to touch right here and now.

"Bella" Edward whispered my name

"Kiss me" I said with a gentle plea.

"You're not paying attention to your lesson" He then whispered into my ear

My hand reached below the desk for his against and this time he took it, turning my hand over and opening it to trace his fingers across my sweaty palm. He knew what he was doing to me, the effect his attention and touch had on me.

"You're teasing me"

"I know" Edward agreed to my delight.

Our eyes met in that moment as the bell sprang to life.

"Out of time" Edward whispered.

Attention readers - Thank you for reading my work. Please leave a review and turn on story alerts if you want to be notified when the next chapter is published!