I present the next chapter of TBTHWYD. I hope you enjoy it. REPOST of original story with edits. On with the story…
DISCLAIMER: I don't own…yada yada yada…
BPOV
The feel of his lips pressed against my head was like heaven. It was the lightest of touches but yet firm enough to show he was really there…with me…right at this moment.
I opened my eyes to look into his endless green caverns that stared back at me with what appeared to be shock at being caught. I could see my own flabbergasted stare reflected back at me but I, for once in my life, didn't blush.
I wasn't confident, not at all, but I didn't feel embarrassed. I felt like I was home. I felt that I actually belonged with this god among men. This beautiful creature in front of me made me feel as though I was meant to be by his side in his world. He saw me for me and welcomed me with open arms.
In an instance, I saw the shocked look disappear from Edward's face. He was now looking at me as if I was something to be devoured, and it thrilled me. He leaned in towards my face and I felt my breath cut off. My heart would give off a stuttered beat with every inch he moved closer to me.
The next thing I knew, his face was directly in front of mine and I could smell his sweet breath. Our noses were touching, giving the other Eskimo kisses, but those weren't the kisses I wanted. I wanted a real kiss.
Our eyes were locked together as he seemed to read my mind and he broke eye contact to glance down at his intended target, my mouth. I couldn't help but follow his example and match his gaze, taking in his full lips. When I glanced back up at his eyes, it was my undoing and we both instantaneously leaned forward.
Contact.
His lips were harder than I had imagined, but not painful. He was reading my mouth so effortlessly, giving his tongue to me when it was meant to be given and receiving mine when I wanted him to take it. The give and take was so natural for us.
He was perfect. The kiss was perfect; not frenzied, but definitely not lacking passion. That we had in spades.
I pulled my mouth back suddenly, but kept my forehead pressed to his while we caught our breath.
"Edward," I panted out loud and he looked at me. "That was…," I swallowed, unable to find the words. "But…what does this mean?"
He didn't say a word, just shrugged his shoulders followed by a wink before capturing my mouth again. This time he firmly grabbed my face between his strong hands and practically devoured my lips and tongue. Damn, he was an amazingly fierce kisser!
"Edward," I mumbled against his lips. He only gripped and kissed me harder and I happily retaliated.
My breath was coming in spurts, quick and short. I felt air leaving my body faster than it was being replenished. I was desperately holding on to Edward as tightly as I could so as not to lose him.
"Bella," he quietly breathed out while kissing me. His voice only added to the dizziness that I felt from the lack of oxygen.
"Bella," he said again and I felt as if I was losing my grip on him. I started to panic because it began to feel like I was being pulled away. He was pulling away. NO!
"Bella!" I heard his voice firmly call out.
"NO!" I cried. I was jolted upright. I was dizzy; I could feel the strong and fast palpitations of my heart. I felt his arms around me and while I had comfort in that fact, I was beyond confused. When did it become so dark? Why was my neck and back aching? Why weren't we still kissing? What the hell was going on?
"Bella? Are you ok?" When I felt confident the room had stopped spinning, I opened my eyes fully and met concerned green ones that were taking in all aspects of my face and body as if he was mentally going through a checklist and checking for injuries.
It was then I realized that we were still on the plane. I had to internally hold in a sob. It had been a dream…none of it was real. I could feel my heart break and I knew I needed to pull it together. This was ridiculous. I really couldn't do this in front of Edward! It was just a dream, Bella.
"Bella?" I could hear the panic setting into his voice.
"I'm fine. It was just a dream. Sorry if I startled you…but where is everyone?" Now that I took in the fact that we were still on the plane, the missing passengers were not lost on me.
"They've already deplaned. We've landed in Seattle. Apparently we both slept through it, but we need to get off so they can prepare for their next flight." He was calmly explaining everything to me but I could see a glint in his eye and hear the tension in his voice as if waiting for another outburst from.
"Oh," I said and began to disentangle myself from his arms. I immediately felt the loss of his warmth and presence around me. "Then we should get going, huh?"
I reached down to grab my bag from under the seat in front of me while Edward unbuckled his seat belt and was retrieving our bags from the overhead compartment. When he reached above his head, the t-shirt he was wearing rose up and I was able to see a strip of his stomach. Ugh. Not what I needed right now while coming off of that dream. It was defined and it was smooth looking and it had a thin line of reddish-brown hair that trailed down into his jeans which were tragically being kept in place by his thick brown belt. Curse that belt!
I quickly snapped out of my reverie as he dropped our bags on his seat.
"You ok, Bella? You look a little flushed?" Why did he have to notice everything?
"Um, yeah. It just got a little warm in here. They must have cut off the air. So, are you ready to go? I'm sure Alice and Angela are waiting." I snagged my bag from his hands as he handed it to me, but not without shivering at the contact we made in the exchange. It was as if every time we touched now, there was a shock to my system. I really hope that doesn't go away. I'm starting to live for that feeling. Way to be weird, Bella. Maybe that's what you need…shock therapy.
Shut up!
Edward backed up in the aisle to let me through and I led the way out of the airplane. My lead was short lived as I tripped in the jetway, but Edward was able to grab my arm before I could do serious damage to myself. He was chuckling under his breath and he pulled me back up, which in turn pulled me back to him.
"What would you do without me?" His eyes smoldered and I just wanted to lean in, relive my dream, smothering his lips with mine. Luckily I was able to pull out a semi-decent response and save some face in front of him.
"Probably visit the hospital more often." He just rolled his eyes and we continued walking. But this time, there was no leader as we made our way up to the gate side by side with his hand firmly planted on my lower back.
I continued walking next to him in my dream-like state until I saw both Angela and Alice waiting for us. I think I would start calling them our double A batteries. The energy between the two is palpable and they can keep going and going and going…
As they saw us, their eyes lit up like the fourth of July and that dream bubble I had been living in burst. Reality came crashing down on me.
We would be going our separate ways now. Sure, I would eventually end up on Forks, which is where Edward and Alice were heading, but I didn't know where they lived. I didn't know them when we were younger. I really didn't know that much about them, just what snippets Edward told me on the plane.
Besides, I needed to get over this…whatever it was…I had with Edward. He's not going to go out of his way to find me and I need to keep this strictly professional as I just need to make it through the next three weeks and get to the first DWTS show. Then America can vote me off like I know they will and I will go back to my life the way it was before: Edward-less.
I could feel my heart imploding at the thought, but things needed to happen this way, because let's face it, things were going to happen this way. I wouldn't be lucky enough to catch this hunk of a man's eye so why get my hopes up.
"Hey there Sleeping Beauty! I see Prince Edward managed to wake you up. Did he do it properly?" Wow, Alice was not subtle. Not that I expected her to be after all that I knew about her, but still. I felt my cheeks burn.
"Alice!" Edward hissed in response and moved his hand from my back to gently grip my waist. I was definitely not complaining about the geographical move. He could put his hands anywhere. Bad Bella!
"Um, I think I woke myself up. Had some sort of dream that pulled me out of it."
"Hmmm, really?" Alice asked cryptically and cynically while eyeing up Edward. Did she not believe me? I glanced over at Edward who seemed to have a sheepish look on his face and in his body language.
"Well," Angela spoke up, effectively breaking the silence. "You and I should probably get going Bella. I'm sure these two have a long drive ahead of them."
Forks from Seattle wasn't exactly a short trip. It was several hours at least and it was getting later into the evening already. They really should go. But it made me think of something.
"Why didn't you two fly to Port Angeles? It would have made your drive a lot shorter." I don't know what I hadn't thought about it before. I guess I had been a little preoccupied.
"Oh, we know," Alice began. "Unfortunately, the last minute nature of our trip nixed that idea pretty quickly, but we will fly out of Port Angeles when we go back to California. Bonus though, our ride was already going to be in Seattle for the day so it all worked out perfectly."
Alice really did have everything planned out to the letter, even if things didn't go her way automatically. I needed to remind myself of this for any future purpose it may serve me.
"Speaking of, I'm sure our ride is waiting for us, so we probably should get going," Edward said but you could tell he was not ready to leave the airport quite yet.
All four of us walked towards baggage claim, though only Alice checked a bag. She scoffed at the rest of us when we said we weren't waiting for anything. I mean, really, who needed to check a bag for a weekend trip.
When her bag arrived, I knew why. It was bigger than she was! She was going to be here for two full days and she had brought a bag that she could have fit inside and weighed at least twice her weight. I could help but laugh as she tried to get it off the conveyor belt by herself and was nearly dragged along with it as Edward had to come up and assist her.
"Edward! Alice!" a female voice yelled over the small crowd.
"Esme," Alice screamed and beat feet over to the woman who was now making her way through the labyrinth of people. When Alice met up with her, I thought the poor woman would have been knocked over by the little pixie, but she held firm as Alice leapt onto her small frame.
Esme? That's an interesting name. Esme was a woman who must have been a little taller than me with beautiful caramel colored hair that reached past her shoulders. Her face was warm and inviting and she was amazingly enough just as enthusiastic as Alice, but in a more mature way; in a 'motherly' way. This must be their mother; although why Alice had said 'Esme' and not 'mom' confused me. Although, I was one to talk as I still called my own dad 'Charlie' on occasion. Yeah, but not to his face.
"Don't worry, Alice. I'll get your bag!" Edward yelled sarcastically over to where the two women still gripped each other tightly. I had to choke back a laugh after taking in his stern face.
"Thanks!" Alice paid him no mind as she continued her hug assault on Esme.
Edward huffed and I reached over and placed my hand on his forearm. He appeared to calm down fairly quickly, which I was grateful for. I glanced over at Angela who was checking something on her phone but could see that she was tired and on her last legs. She can typically sleep on planes, but I bet Alice kept her entertained. I felt my own exhaustion creeping in on me, despite my own nap.
"Edward," I said, drawing his attention away from Alice's luggage. "We are going to head out. I can see that Angela is about to crash and I have to admit, I'm not far behind her. Please drive safely and have a good weekend." I adjusted my bag higher on my shoulder and started to turn away when I felt his hand on my bicep pulling me back around to face him.
"Wait, I'm not going to see you this weekend? I thought you were coming home too?" He looked like a lost little boy. I couldn't stop the small shiver that went through me as he said coming home. I know what he meant, but for one fleeting moment I had a feeling like I would be coming home...to him. I had to shake that fantasy from my head.
"Haven't you had enough of me this week? Don't you want to spend time with your family?" I teased him, if only to not show how desperate I was to spend time with him as well.
"No, I haven't gotten enough of you," he said with his amusement evident in his voice. I melted.
"Well, maybe I will see you, but we'll have to play it by ear. There are some things I really need to catch up on and I'm not sure exactly when I'll be back in Forks." Sooner rather than later, I hoped. I really did want to spend as much time with him as possible, but I'm sure he wouldn't like that.
"Oh," he spoke again, sounding defeated. "Well, hopefully I will see you then, but if not, have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday."
He reached forward before I had time to blink and pulled me into his chest. I froze for a moment but relaxed into his embrace wrapping my own arms around his waist. I inhaled deeply as if to imprint his smell into my lungs so I would never forget it. I could feel his warm cheek pressed against my head and felt him breathing deeply as well. I pulled away, regretfully, and looked up into his eyes once more.
"Be safe," was all he said and his lips pressed firmly against my forehead. I closed my eyes at the contact, at peace with the way he was making me feel. I nodded my head when his lips finally pulled away. Don't cry, Bella.
I quickly turned back to Angela, hooking my arm through hers so we could walk out to meet the car she had arranged for us.
Once we reached the sliding doors, I looked over my shoulder to see if Edward was still there. He was and still watching us. He raised his hand to wave and then turned back to Alice and Esme, with Alice's bag in tow. He stopped in front of the two women, nodded his head and gave Esme a hug.
I smiled, turning away, but I couldn't stop that empty feeling that sat in my chest. I wanted Edward's arms around me again and watching him hug his mother wasn't helping.
"You've got it bad, don't you?" Angela asked me. She had no idea.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, as if I would really be able to play this off. I honestly thought I had been doing well. Really, until this evening, I could play off everything as an attraction but that was it. After being able to get to know Edward more, enjoying our conversation on the plane, I knew I was beyond just attraction. I was diving head first into infatuation, if not more. This wasn't going to end well.
"Please! I saw the way you two were looking at each other on the plane. I watched the two of you come off the plane together, with his hand on your back. I saw that goodbye interaction that you just had and that stare just a moment ago when you couldn't take your eyes off of him. You've got it way beyond bad!" Ok, so maybe I was more obvious than I thought. Crap.
We had made our way outside and saw a man standing by a car with Swan/Weber on his sign. Slowly we walked over to the car and got inside. I was trying to avoid continuing the conversation with Angela about Edward, so as soon as I was buckled in, I sighed and closed my eyes.
"I'm not dropping this, Bella," Angela said after a few minutes into the lulling drive. "I know I usually back away from a topic when you obviously don't want to talk about it, but not this time. This is amazing! Don't you see this?"
"No, Angela. I don't. There's nothing there so you shouldn't worry about this. Nothing is going to change." I kept my eyes shut. As soon as I opened my eyes she would know the truth. It's much easier to lie without my eyes giving me away.
"You can't deny this! Things will change and you should want them to." My eyes popped open at that comment. She couldn't be serious. She's always been concerned with my publicity, as she should That was her job. But she's always been more concerned for my well-being.
"What are you talking about?"
"I told you this show would be good for you. I never said that it would just be good for your career. Granted, I didn't really expect this, but…" I had to interrupt her before she got away from something I wanted to ask.
"What do you mean you didn't expect this?" Angela turned towards me in the seat to look me dead in the eye.
"Bella, can't you see? You're falling in love with Edward Masen," Her smile was big enough and wide enough to make any circus clown jealous. I felt my mouth drop open. She couldn't be serious.
"What the hell?! I'm not in love with Edward!" I huffed. Angela giggled.
"Correction: I said you were falling in love with Edward, not that you were in love with him…yet. Honestly, Bells. Do you think I haven't noticed how you come home and talk about him every night after rehearsals, and no, it was more than just a simple 'what did you do today' talk. You mentioned things that were more like things you would notice if you were in tune with everything he was doing."
Huh? That stumped, and truthfully, terrified me.
"You have no idea what you've sounded like this week, do you? It's always 'Edward did this' or 'and then Edward said' and so forth. Everything you have told me revolves around him. And I'm loving it!" She sang her words like the McDonald's jingle. I panicked.
"Ang, you can't say anything to him. We have to get through the next three weeks and then it can all be over. I don't want there to be any awkwardness between us. Please!" I had resorted to begging.
I knew she wouldn't say anything, but I had to keep the camaraderie between Edward and I up or these next few weeks would be unbearable. If he heard I had a crush on him, even though it feels like far more than that if I acknowledged the elephant in the room, I didn't want to make this harder on him than it already is. It was bad enough with me not being the most athletic or graceful thing to teach to dance. She owed this to me. She put me in this position. If she hadn't brought this up and practically begged me to do this damn show, then I would have never met Edward and I wouldn't be in this position.
Again, my heart gave a flutter and painful clench. The thought of never meeting Edward hurt. It was too late to take it all back now. He was in my life, for however short a time, and even though I knew he would be gone from it soon, I also knew that I wouldn't trade this time with him for the world.
"Oh, honey, I wish you would open your eyes," Angela spoke up again. I didn't want to hear her pity, but she surprised me. "He obviously has feelings for you too."
"I know you are trying to make me feel better about this, but there's no point in lying. I know he doesn't."
"Oh my…!" Angela blew out an aggravated huff. "You really are the most stubborn person I've come across! He does! I see it with every look. I think he's as oblivious about it as you are though. I even noticed it when you two first saw each other. The way you both adjusted to each other when either of you would move, as if you were in sync and you had just met!"
I just sat there wide-eyed as she kept talking. I couldn't believe it. She had to be seeing things. People can't see what's right in front of their noses. Isn't that the phrase? I knew it was wishful thinking to believe that Edward harbored any romantic feelings for me. I tried to stay away from that thought. I didn't want to be hurt. Angela must have sensed that.
"I talked with Alice about this, while we were on the plane. We kept an eye on the two of you throughout the flight. She said that she's never seen him like this, with anyone. Apparently he kept himself fairly closed off since he was younger, but with you, he's apparently like he used to be."
When Edward and I had talked, I could tell he was hiding something. It was ok that he did. I could tell whatever it was had left a mark on him. I wanted him to be able to talk to me if he wanted to. I would make that known when I saw him again. I was glad that he seemed to open up to me and maybe it would help him.
I must have been lost in my thoughts a little too long for Angela.
"Ok. You're driving your butt back to Forks first thing in the morning." I was about to interject but she cut me off. "No. You will go back home first thing. When you get back to your apartment tonight, pick up anything you may feel you need to work on and if you get to it, you get to it. If not, it's ok. I can handle everything here. Just go. Relax. Spend some more time with your dad. I know you miss him, more than you'd ever let on. And if you happen to run into Edward, great. If not, you will have still had a great weekend with Charlie."
I thought over what she said and I knew she was right. Charlie and I were like two peas in a pod. We both weren't very vocal but with each other we didn't need to be. We were a comfort for the other and I did miss him, more than I ever thought I would when I went away to college. I think he was a big reason that I decided to stay in the state. He still needed me, although he had survived on his own for years before I came to live with him. I also knew that a part of me would need him as well. So, I stayed and I'm grateful.
Spending more time with Charlie would make us both happy. Just being in the house together would be enough for us.
"You'll drive back to Seattle Sunday night and we fly out Monday morning. We have a meeting back on the set that you need to be at, so we'll go right there from the airport."
"A meeting? What about?" I didn't know anything about a meeting.
"I'm not sure. Everyone is being called in, so it's not just you. Don't worry. I'm sure it's nothing crazy. They mentioned something about an announcement." She spoke very calmly and I realized that she was about to fall asleep.
The driver pulled up to my apartment first. I stepped out of the car, stumbling slightly and I heard a tired chuckle from Angela. I shrugged my bag onto my shoulder and pulled my keys from my purse. I told her goodnight and began walking to my building. I heard the car window automatically roll down and turn back.
"Get some sleep tonight. You've got a long drive ahead of you! And just relax. And remember, if you see him, you see him. If you don't, well, it's not that long until Monday. Just do me a favor, ok?" She patiently waited for me to respond, but I just raised my eyebrows at her expectantly. "Don't ignore this. This could be a very good thing, Bells."
And with that, the window began to roll up and the car drove out of sight, with me still standing on the sidewalk. Don't ignore this. I didn't think I could ignore my feelings anymore, but it didn't mean I would actively pursue them. I would need a sign from a higher power before I willingly did that.
I dragged my tired feet up the stairs and to my door. As I entered I checked my phone for the time only to find it dead. I made my way through the kitchen and looked at the clock on the microwave. It was almost 10:30pm.
I took my bags into my room and dropped them on the floor. I immediately plugged my phone in on my bedside table and headed into the bathroom to get ready for bed. After brushing my teeth, washing my face and changing, I was practically begging for my pillow.
I dragged myself back into the kitchen to grab a glass of water and returned to my room. As I sat on my bed, my phone buzzed. It had gathered enough of a charge to alert me to a voicemail. I hit the 'speaker' button so the phone could continue to charge.
I took a sip from my glass when the message began to play.
"Hey Bella. It's Edward." I felt my heart stop at the sound of his voice as I nearly choked on my water.
And here's your sign…
Bum bum bum! Why did Edward call, hmmm? I hope you are enjoying the REPOST. I'm looking forward to where this story will go in the future.
