*BPOV*

"Hold my breath as much as possible, but make it look like I'm breathing. Keep interactions as succinct as possible. Move and speak slowly. Let you do the talking. Blink. Fidget. Shift my weight. Smile, but not too much teeth. I think I got it." I repeated Edward's tips for 'acting human.'

Edward took my hand and squeezed it. "Controlling your speed is the big one. Just keep hold of my hand and follow my pace. You can absolutely do this," he encouraged, squeezing my hand again.

I blinked (at the rate of three times a minute) over the uncomfortable film of brown-tinted contact lenses Alice had stocked up on for just such an occasion. It was hard not to get distracted by the microscopic scratches on the lenses that I could plainly see.

I felt bulky and ridiculous in the seasonally appropriate parka Edward had slipped on over my arms just before he pulled a black beanie down over my ears.

As he tucked a wayward strand of hair behind my ear, I was briefly reminded of our first official date when Edward had dressed me up in a coat and baseball cap before the ill-fated vampire baseball game that ended with me barely escaping with my life.

Once he was satisfied that I looked appropriately human (or as close to it as I was ever going to get), Edward kept hold of my hand and turned to lead me down the hill into the tiny town below.

I stalled, digging my heels into the ground. "Hey, wait," I said, tugging him to a standstill. "Aren't you going to show me how you do the dazzling thing?"

Edward's face went smooth. "The dazzling thing?"

"You know what I mean," I huffed impatiently. "When you need a human to do what you want, you do that dazzling thing and make people go all mush-brained. How do you do it? Seems like it would be a useful thing to know if I ever get into a tight spot."

Edward sighed a bit wistfully. "Are you really going to make me give up all my tricks?" he asked with a teasing note to his velvet voice. I said nothing, just arched an eyebrow expectantly.

He sighed again and stood closer to me. Close enough that I had to tilt my head back a few degrees to look at him properly.

He spoke in a soft, seductive tone, the sound of his voice slipping through his perfect lips like silk sliding over porcelain.

"When I want to be extra persuasive," he began as I raptly watched the way his mouth wrapped around the word, "I get extra close. I look deep into their eyes...It's so easy with you. Your eyes are so beautiful," he murmured, and my eyes broke away from his lips to gaze into his deep pools of liquid gold.

"And I would breathe on you, letting my scent overwhelm your senses. Your pupils would dilate, your lips would part," he breathed, cupping the side of my face, his thumb brushed silkily over my lower lip. " Just...like...that," he purred, his sweet breath washing over my face, "so enticing."

I could feel my face pressing against the smooth stone of his hand, wanting more of him. Completely forgetting our purpose for standing here on this blustery hillside behind a lonely little church at the edge of town.

"It's nice to know that it still works," he chuckled, kissing me lightly on the lips before pulling away and breaking the spell.

"Poor Mrs. Cope. You probably made her feel like some kind of a criminal!" I chided. He was such a little cheater!

"You're losing focus," he diverted, conveniently shifting the discussion away from himself. "Never lose focus. Why are we here?" he nodded toward the town just starting to wake up for the day.

"To buy jello," I muttered. "And not kill anybody or reveal ourselves while we're at it."

Edward nodded once. "Exactly. Are you ready?" He extended a hand toward me in invitation.

"Not even a little bit," I groaned. "But let's go."

The trading post was just opening up for the day when we walked through the front door that was merely a steel service door that rolled down from above.

The building was no more than a poorly lit steel bunker perched on top of a cliff overlooking the narrow canal of water that separated the peninsula from the main part of the island.

The inside looked like a typical convenience store, the aisles stocked with a basic inventory of canned goods and other non-perishables. As soon as we entered the building, I was immediately aware of the three heartbeats thumping away inside the shop.

One beating near the small produce section in the back, another hidden somewhere in the aisles, stocking shelves by the sound of it. And the third was the closest one to us, manning the register near the front.

The employee, a copper-skinned man with long black hair streaked with white started to say good morning but fumbled over his words as he took in the appearance of the ghostly pale, beautiful foreigners who stood before him.

Edward smiled and nodded at the man in greeting and tugged my hand to follow him down the closest aisle.

Walking purposely through the store, Edward zigzagged through the narrow aisles while leaving a wide berth between us and the steady heartbeat that was stocking shelves three or four aisles over.

Edward and I came to a sudden halt in front of a limited selection of baking supplies. All-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and there, under the blue cans of shortening were the brightly colored boxes of jello, with three different flavors to choose from.

I wasted no time in grabbing a box of each, cherry, lime, and berry blue, and headed for the register

In a deep, rich voice, the long-haired man at the register greeted us as I set our purchases down on the counter. "Good morning! Are you folks staying at the boarding house? I don't believe I've ever seen you in here before, and I never forget a face," he smiled charismatically. And in a town this small, I didn't dare doubt him.

Even though I wasn't breathing, being this close to the man still sent flames scorching down the back of my throat. I saw the thin skin of his throat pulse in time with his loud, thumping heartbeat and could barely concentrate on the words coming out of his mouth.

My eyes darted away from the man's throat, trying to look somewhere, anywhere else. Edward squeezed my hand reassuringly as he threw a bill down on the counter.

"No, my family built a vacation home on the north end of the island." Edward stuck to the truth, undoubtedly assuming, as I had, that this man was the town gossip and would be able to confirm easily enough who was and wasn't staying at the boarding house.

The man's eyes opened wide in surprise and concern. "The north end? I do hope you'll be careful. Tourists get lost in those woods all the time. The bears usually find them before help does," he warned with a grim expression.

"Yes, sir. Very careful. We'll be long gone before the bears wake up, but we're armed to the teeth, just in case," Edward flashed a wide grin, causing the older man to shudder.

"Well, thanks for stopping in, and enjoy your...jello?" His confusion had made his statement sound like a question.

A little too quickly, I grabbed the boxes off the counter, but the man didn't seem to notice my lapse. I muttered a quick "Thanks! See you around," with the breath I'd been holding and followed Edward's lead for the door.

I heard Edward curse under his breath and a moment later I understood the reason. A young boy and a woman who appeared to be his mother were entering the store just as we were about to exit. But it wasn't just any boy, it was Jaylen, the kid I nearly murdered just over a month ago.

I was so startled to see him, the boxes of jello tumbled from my trembling hands to the floor. I noticed Edward's body jerk ever so slightly. The humans never would have noticed it, but he was catching himself from reacting too quickly.

Normally, it would have been automatic for him to catch the boxes before they fell and make some quip about my eternal clumsiness, but he couldn't do that in front of human witnesses.

Instead, Jaylen was the one to scramble to the ground to pick them up.

"Here you go," he smiled as he held the boxes out to me.

My eyes grew wide as he came within inches of me. Edward's grip on my hand grew painfully tight. My still-trembling hand accepted the boxes, careful not to let his fingers come in contact with mine. "Thanks," I hissed through my teeth clenched so hard I thought they might shatter.

Jaylen's bright smile dimmed a little, not understanding my strange tense posture, but he shrugged it off and went to rejoin his mother.

As Edward and I escaped through the door, I heard Jaylen ask behind me, his voice cracking with pubescence, "Mom, can we get jello?"

*EPOV*

In a village this size, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that we ran into the boy, but I was just as thunderstruck as Bella was to see him there. I was suddenly anxious that this had been a terrible idea.

If Bella lost her composure, what could I really do about it besides wrestle her out the door in a huge conspicuous scene?

But once again, I underestimated her. While Bella wouldn't be winning any congeniality contests anytime soon, she stayed well in control of her thirst and her speed (if you didn't count the one small lapse at the grocer's counter.)

Once we were safely outside in the salty sea air,

I pulled her into my arms, hugging her tightly to my chest. The long breath I let out sounded just as intensely relieved as hers.

Resting my chin on top of Bella's head, I murmured "You did so well. I'm so proud of you." I pressed my lips to the crown of her head.

"Can we go hunt?" she pleaded into my chest, her ragged voice muffled by the insulating fabric of my parka. I took the half-crushed boxes of jello from her tightly gripped hand and stuffed them deeply in the pocket of my coat.

"Of course," I agreed. Not wanting Bella to be in pain any longer than she had to be, I took off for the trees without another word.

She caught up easily and together we ran side by side deep into the old-growth forest, occasionally bounding over the rain-swollen streams and rivulets that carved their way through the earth like pulsing arteries.

We ran, mostly in a comfortable silence, enjoying the speed, the majesty of this wild place, and the quiet. Though it wasn't really quiet at all.

The forest was thrumming with life. We were serenaded by the chittering of birds, insects, and small mammals scampering up the trunks of the trees. We didn't stop running until we were hundreds of miles away from the nearest human.

When I was satisfied that we were in a safe zone, I gave her the go-ahead to start hunting and let her take the lead. She followed the sounds of crunching hooves and lapping tongues to a herd of elk to the northwest.

She hurdled herself at a large buck who raised his head from the water, ears pricked, at the subtle sound of Bella's feet pushing off the ground with explosive energy. He didn't even see what hit him.

I sprang at one of the females that scattered, spooked by Bella's attack. I was so focused on Bella, admiring her in all her wild and untamed glory, that I didn't even taste the blood as it pulsed down my throat, soothing the familiar ache.

However, as the fresh blood coursed through our bodies, strengthening and revitalizing, a different ache was becoming increasingly more pronounced.

Once we were both sated and the animal remains had been disposed of, I sat on the ground, leaning against the gnarled trunk of a shore pine with Bella in my arms. The tree's broad, sweeping boughs sheltered us from the gently falling rain that had just begun to fall.

Bella sighed and snuggled deeper into my arms. "Every time we hunt, I always wonder afterward how you managed to be on your own for so many years. The desire is almost painful," she admitted, idly trailing a hand up and down my chest. I purred contentedly at the sensation.

"What did you do with yourself?" she asked as a follow-up. Then, giggling, Bella added, "Well...I guess I can imagine."

I chuckled and tightened my arms around her. "Actually, I ran. A lot."

"You...you ran?" Bella asked incredulously as the hand on my chest ventured lower down my abdomen. "Like Forrest Gump, you just ran?"

I groaned at the reference. "It took Emmett a solid decade to stop calling me that. But yes. I ran. Or I played my piano. Those were the only things that gave me pleasure that I didn't have to feel guilty about.

"You see, in my world, attitudes about sexuality were a long way from what they are today. Masturbation wasn't called self-love back then, it was called self-pollution. It was an act that was treated as the symptom of a disease,.of moral depravity," I explained.

"As a man of science, I have a much better understanding of it now, of course, but some things are hard to unlearn…"

"Then it was probably for the best that you couldn't read my mind when we met," Bella teased, her hand ghosting over my growing erection through my pants, "because you would have thought I was very polluted. Basically the female version of Mike Newton," she giggled.

"I find that very hard to believe," I snorted. "Did you have many fantasies about me and my brothers?

"Before you became a source of distraction to every red-blooded male at Forks High," I growled, "Mike used to fantasize about my sisters dressed in the gold 'Slave Leia' costume, servicing him as if he was Jabba the Hutt."

Bella made a disgusted face. "That is polluted."

"Yes, well, there's a reason his car was always breaking down," Edward snickered.

"I'm disappointed. You're a vampire, for crying out loud! Of all the ways you could've messed with him, you settled on disabling his car? Is that, like, your one move?" Bella teased, nudging me in the ribs with her elbow.

I rolled my eyes at the barb. "Of course not. I was being practical. For the aforementioned reasons, I already loathed him by the time you came along. And then he took such an interest in you...I told myself that sabotaging his efforts was essentially doing the young ladies of Forks a public service.

"Ever the public servant..." Bella muttered under her breath. I ignored that

"When I noticed you'd only go with him in larger groups of people, I didn't know if it was because you were shy or disinterested or perhaps your father was strict. But I knew if Mike's suburban was out of commission, he couldn't very well take you out, could he?"

Bella said nothing as she turned that over in her mind. Then she finally said something, with a smirk in her voice,

"You know, that night that you broke my truck, Charlie offered to let me use his police cruiser to go see Jake. If I'd taken him up on his offer, what would you have done then?" she laughed lightly at the memory of my misguided jackassery.

I groaned, remembering the irrational surge of panic I felt when Charlie had made that offer. I was still sitting in her truck waiting to see if, in her anger, she'd close her bedroom window that night, casting me away.

"I'm not sure...I was pretty desperate. A tree probably would have mysteriously fallen over, blocking your driveway," I replied with an embarrassed-sounding laugh.

Intensely relieved that she'd refused Charlie's offer, I remembered anxiously waiting as she stomped up the stairs and marched over to her window. When she slammed her window shut, I flinched as if I'd been struck.

Fear. Regret. Uncertainty. Aching hollowness. That's how I felt having earned the disfavor of Bella Swan, my reason for existing.

I consoled myself that if I couldn't have the pleasure of Bella's company that evening, well at least neither would Jacob Black. So in my mind, the ends justified the means.

But not ten seconds later, though it had felt like a short eternity, Bella wrenched the window back open as wide as it would go.

I was thrilled, of course, but it also gave me pause. Bella had never before been driven to turn me away. Not even after we returned from Italy when she had every reason to be furious with me. And that night (albeit for a short time), over that dog, she turned me away.

Later that night, as I watched her sleep, I held her a little tighter in my arms and vowed to be smarter. Better. That night it had become crystal clear to me that Jacob Black was a problem. More than a problem. He was a threat.

"Well, I'm just glad we met in my time and not yours. I don't even want to think about how many horses you would have poisoned back before everyone had cars," Bella had a hearty laugh over that, and the joyous sound of it was enough to rouse me from my abstraction.

"I never would have poisoned your horse," I asserted in a mock-offended tone. "I would have poisoned his," I amended with a lop-sided smile. Though I wasn't talking about the Newton boy anymore, I saw no reason to split hairs.

*BPOV*

I sighed contentedly. It was nice that we could finally laugh about such a turbulent time in our relationship. Enough time had passed that for the first time Jacob Black didn't feel like a festering wound that lingered between us.

Feeling the bloodlust mutate into plain old lust, I let my hands begin to wander again.

"What do you say we take the edge off with some guilt-free marital pleasure?" I suggested, turning my head to kiss and nibble beneath the ridge of his powerful, square jaw. "That is...unless you'd rather run or play the piano" I teased.

"Blasphemy," he growled just before he kissed me passionately on the mouth. He tasted like elk and rain and blackberry pie and Edward.

I could have sat under that tree kissing him for hours, like two high school sweethearts madly in love, necking in our meadow until the sky was streaked with brilliant hues of orange and pink.

As a human, being intimate in the great outdoors was mostly done out of necessity, in pursuit of privacy. But to be honest, it wasn't the most comfortable.

The ground was hard, wet, and cold, and the bugs seemed to be just as attracted to my blood as Edward was, but without any of his self-control.

All things I gleefully overlooked because it meant some intimate alone time with Edward. And also because during those times, Edward was usually a little laxer about his strictly enforced personal boundaries.

Conversely, in my immortal body, nothing felt cold or hard to me, only soft, spongey, or brittle, with the exception of Edward himself.

In that sense, it truly didn't matter if we were at home in a plush bed, or in a forest pressed up against a tree. Outside was actually preferable because we didn't have to worry about breaking the furniture.

Though I did worry, probably too much, about damaging the trees. The towering giants were older than the Cullens and deserved more respect than to be carelessly mowed down in an instant by one of us in a moment of passion or temper.

My brothers had gotten wind of this some weeks back when I'd voiced my dismay after they'd uprooted two perfectly healthy trees so that they could have a jousting match. They'd howled in laughter and began to razz me about going "full vegan."

The memory refocused me on our original goal: pranking them in retribution. But for the prank to be effective, the gelatin would need time to set.

"How about we head back, whip up some jello, and then have wild sex on some of Rose's ugly furniture while we wait for it to firm up in the fridge?"

Edward leaned his head back against the tree, deep peels of laughter erupting from his chest.

"Now you're thinking like a Cullen. I think 'prank thy sibling' is written in our family mission statement somewhere," he jested, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat as he chuckled.

I jumped to a stand and held out my hand to help Edward off the ground. He took it, leaping nimbly to his feet and pulling me in for one last scorching kiss before we made a mad dash back toward the house.

Edward sprinted back in half the time we'd taken to get here, I was barely able to keep up with him, even with my longer, newborn-powered strides.

"Somebody's excited about making jello," I snarked, mostly to myself, from several yards behind him.

He smirked over his shoulder at me. "It's 'America's Most Famous Dessert!'"

*EPOV*

"This is the perfect prank, by the way," I praised my wife as she dropped the last wireless controller into a bowl. "Few things disgust Emmett more than jello. But I had no idea it was so easy to make! You just add hot water and wait? Interesting." I stared at the electronics, submerged in clear glass bowls of brightly colored slime.

"Are you sure he's not going to be mad that I didn't wrap them in plastic first?" Bella asked with a concerned "v" etched between her brows.

Snorting, I shook my head. "Emmett goes through these things like you go through doorknobs," I teased, earning a scowl. "Besides," I grinned, "It would have messed up the aesthetic," I added, sliding the last bowl into the empty, spotless refrigerator.

Only Rosalie would care enough to spend the money on a top-of-the-line appliance that was merely a prop, I thought, rolling my eyes.

"Now what?" I asked coyly. as the refrigerator doors snicked shut.

Bella looked at me with a mischievous glint in her warm amber eyes. She took me by the hand and pulled me into the adjacent sitting room.

"It occurred to me earlier when you were talking about playing the piano that I haven't heard you play since New Hampshire. I miss it," she smiled, her gaze shifting to Rosalie's gleaming white grand piano, collecting dust in front of the north-facing window wall.

"On one condition," one side of my mouth curled up into a smirk. She merely raised a questioning eyebrow at me in response.

I gingerly put the top down and lowered the music rack. I patted the spot where I wanted her to sit, just above the keys. Without hesitation, she took a small step toward the piano.

"Wait," I held up my hand. "But first..strip." I grinned wickedly. Her eyes widened at my intent, then blazed with desire.

A moment later, my dark-haired beauty stood before me, gloriously bare. Tendrils of her dark, rain-dampened hair clung to the alabaster skin of her chest with stunning contrast.

Placing my hands on either side of her waist, I lifted her on top of the piano. Her polished toes played a few dissonant notes as her shapely legs bent over the front of the instrument.

I took my seat at the piano bench, right between her legs.

"I've been wanting to do this since you helped me practice for my music composition exam, Mrs. Cullen," I purred, as my eyes raked over the perfection of her body draped gracefully over the grand instrument. Her smooth skin, pale as a dove, nearly matched the lacquered chantilly lace of the piano.

Bella leaned back on her elbows, better allowing her to see my face. In doing so, her knees spread slightly, affording me a better view of her heaven. I groaned in pleasure, the scent of her making my growing erection strain uncomfortably against the front of my slacks.

"Any requests?" I asked in a husky voice, my lust-darkened eyes flashing up to her face. Bella's blazing amber eyes were hooded with desire, her full, pouty lips parted just so.

And if Bella's goddess-like beauty wasn't enough, her heady scent was like a siren song drawing me to its source, irresistible as it was intoxicating.

That incredible thing you do with your tongue comes to mind, she thought with a smirk.

The little minx! A low growl rumbled from my chest, incredibly turned on. My usually reserved goddess wasn't usually so direct about asking for her pleasure. At least not out loud.

Perhaps this would be her way of communicating things with me which she found too difficult to say aloud? I could only hope! I never had any expectation of Bella letting me into her mind on any kind of regular basis, but I was grateful and enthralled by every glimpse she spared me.

"As if you even had to ask," I chuckled. "Though, I was referring to music," I said, glancing down at the black and whites.

My fingertips slowly grazed up and down the silky skin of her calves. Her heels were still resting on a few of the keys, but the steel strings within the instrument had since stopped vibrating.

"Oh," she said flatly, in a way that let me know she'd be blushing if she could. "Well, then...play whatever you used to play when you were...trying to give yourself pleasure," she suggested.

My fingers launched into Concerto in D minor after Marcello's Concerto for Oboe and Strings. The piece started off in a slow adagio but intensified with elements of suspense and anticipation to the point of utter torment until it crescendoed into a satisfying climax by the conclusion.

Playing piano, like running, was as easy as breathing and not something I needed to think about. It was effortless for me to simply lean forward and dip my tongue between her thighs making her sigh with pleasure as I filled the room with the frenzied composition. Her delicious moans were the perfect accompaniment.

I was a one-man-band as I played the piano with my hands, while also making my siren sing with my worshipping lips and tongue.

I tapped out a staccato rhythm on her swollen bundle of nerves, driving Bella absolutely wild.

Her head thrashed back and forth as her fingers coiled around my hair, my ears...anything she could hold onto that wouldn't splinter beneath her grasp.

"Edwaaaaaard!" Bella wailed, her tone pleading for release, but I wasn't nearly done with her yet.

As the tempo of the song sped up into a dizzying allegro, so did my tongue, so that by the time the melody was hitting its explosive climax, so was she.

Before the final notes could fade into silence, my clothes were falling in tattered ribbons to the floor. Hooking my arms around her knees, I gave one good yank, and with a little shriek of surprise, Bella slid off the piano and onto my lap, where I sank into her with one hard, well-aimed thrust.

"Fuck!" Bella yelped at the suddenness of my invasion, though she was very ready for me. If it hadn't been for my decades of experience denying my strongest urges, I would've come right then.

Bella's arms and legs wrapped intimately around me as I rocked languidly into her tight core, settling into a sensual, unhurried pace.

The piano forgotten, I used my hands to trail them up and down her spine, squeezing the perfect curve of her ass with every circuit.

"Oh, my Bella," I murmured into the skin of her shoulder, her pert breasts quaking against my chest as she undulated on top of me. "Making love with you is the greatest pleasure I'll ever know. I love you. Every inch of you. Forever." I crooned.

She found my lips then, kissing me fiercely as we moved together, the oldest dance in the world.

As I love you, Bella thought serenely as her lips moved against mine

I took special care to press my pubic bone into her mound every time she sank down on me, giving her the friction she so desired. My hands then came around to caress her front, palming her breasts and feeling the pleasant weight of them in my hands as our bodies crashed together over and over again.

I knew Bella was close when her muscles began to tighten around me. I was on the edge, too. I quickened the pace of my thrusting and lowered my head to take a rosy pink nipple in my mouth, gently pinching the other one in the way I knew drove her mad. Bella threw her head back and let out a visceral sob of sheer ecstasy.

In that moment, Bella's shield came crashing down with the rest of her. Her thoughts were unintelligible cries of rapture, her only focus was to prolong the waves of pleasure for as long as possible.

I held steady until she began to wilt against me. Then, driving into her one last time, I let out a resounding groan and emptied myself deep inside her as she trembled with the aftershocks of her own release.

I released her breast from my mouth, kissing it one last time before my forehead came to rest against her shoulder as I recovered from my own shattering orgasm.

After the spasms finally subsided, I lazily kissed from the hollow of her collarbone, up the column of her throat to the dimple of her chin, and finally lingered on the soft petals of her lips.

With her body still wrapped around mine, I stood up from the piano bench, and cradling her in my arms, carried her back to our room.

I tucked Bella under the sheets and crawled in behind her, spooning myself around her form. Bella sighed contentedly.

"How very fortunate it was, for me, that of all the instruments you could have learned to play, you picked the only one that you can have sex on." She sounded almost drunk, still high from the pleasure.

I laughed at that. "I actually can play several instruments. "Guitar. Bass. Cello. Flute. Oboe. Trombone. Trumpet. Tuba…I spent most of the seventies composing a symphony, and I was obsessed with the idea of playing all the parts myself. So I taught myself. Took about a week to master each one."

"I bet Rosalie loved tuba week," Bella giggled.

"The tuba took two weeks for that very reason," I snickered. "But after that, I stuck with the piano...you know, for all the sex I'd have on it someday." I was full-on laughing now, as was Bella.

"Seems to have paid off," Bella noted, snuggling deeper into my arms and pressing the curve of her backside against my reawakening groin.

"I'll say," I agreed emphatically. "So how long does this jello need to take to firm up in the fridge? I can't wait to see the look on Emmett's face when he gets home," I cackled.

"Another couple of hours," Bella supplied. Still plenty of time to bend me over the pool table.

My eyebrows shot up, startled once again by the raciness of her thoughts. My reply was instant. "I'll rack 'em up."

*A/N* When the fam's away, the newlyweds will play! 💋💄

Alright, lovelies, I need your input here. I've been in a bit of a rut writing the lemons. I feel like canon Edward is probably pretty vanilla and Bella is the one who would (eventually) be interested in a little more experimentation.

Is that something you want to see explored? I got mixed reviews the last time I tried to make Edward go a bit more Dom back on Isle Esme. As always, I'm thrilled to hear your suggestions and love to write them in whenever I can! Thanks for reading and reviewing, and I can't wait to hear what you think!