*EPOV*

Rainbow Lake was not actually a lake at all, it was a widening of the Hay River, in the shape of a rainbow. Though it was only early evening, it had been dark for hours in this part of the world where spring had yet to take hold.

I followed Bella's scent to the edge of the water. It was a calm, clear night, the water was a perfect reflection of the starry sky above, brightly lit by an almost full moon.

With a flash of anger, I briefly wondered if perhaps she had broken her promise and gone on without me. I needn't have.

A few yards out, the calm water rippled out into widening circles as Bella's head broke through the surface. She slowly emerged from the water, her wet, slicked-back hair appearing almost black against the milky white porcelain of her skin.

With every step she took closer to the shore, Bella revealed more of the soft, graceful curves of her body; I was utterly transfixed by her.

When the water was at about her waist level, Bella stilled. She looked more like a goddess than ever, her pale skin bathed in the moonlight as tiny crystal beads of water fell off her eyelashes, the tip of her nose, lips, chin, and the pebbled peaks of her breasts.

My low groan sounded extra loud against the heavy blanket of silence.

I closed my agape jaw and cleared my throat. Finding my words, I nervously chuckled, "You make it hard for a guy to be angry with you."

She smiled disarmingly. "Join me?"

The entire way here I had been rehearsing the impassioned lecture I was going to give my wife about the irresponsibility of her actions and the panic attack she'd given me.

But the chastising words and my earlier ire had been shed as quickly as my clothes were strewn haphazardly over the rocky shore.

"Thank you. For waiting for me," I murmured, drawing her into my arms for a soft kiss and a long embrace.

"I wouldn't have left you behind if I thought you'd be reasonable about letting me go!" Bella replied.

"Perhaps it's because I know just a little bit more about the Volturi than you do," I suggested with a patient smile. "You're safe. And with me, " I said, squeezing my arms tightly around her petite frame. "That's all that matters. Everything else we can figure out together."

I could feel the tension leave her body. She sighed. "Admittedly, I didn't really think it through. I couldn't without tipping off Alice, which would have been the same as telling you directly."

Then she pulled back a little to scowl at me. "It's bloody inconvenient having to maneuver around you two, you know!" she huffed, giving me a playful shove on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry that you ever felt like you needed to," I frowned. "But now you see why it isn't practical to keep secrets in a family full of gifted vampires," I said, giving her a pointed look.

Then, reminding myself how new she was to this life, my voice and expression softened. "We're always better when we do things together. Never forget that, love."

Bella pressed her face against my chest and nodded. Holding her tightly against me with one hand, I smoothed her wet hair down her back with the other. I finally asked, "So how'd your father take the news? Was he terribly unkind? I wish I could've been there for you when you spoke to him," I said regretfully.

"Better than I could have imagined," Bella answered in an awestruck voice "I mean he was mad, obviously. But not like I would have expected." Bella then opened her mind to me, remembering the way he sounded on the phone.

"Of all the stupid things! Who told you you could run off and become a vampire?"

The peaceful quiet around the wintry lake was ruptured by the soft peels of our synchronous laughter.

It was probably only because he reminded me so much of my Bella, but Charlie could be downright cute when he was angry. His mustache would frown when he did. And I could tell by the tone of his voice in her thoughts the exact shade of red his face would've been.

"I think he was actually angrier when we got back from Italy than he was today when I told him the truth," she said with an incredulous laugh.

"I can empathize. It's not an easy thing to be left in the dust by you, Mrs. Cullen," I sheepishly admitted, one side of my face curling up into a crooked smile. "For my own sanity, please don't ever do that again."

She'd only been gone from my side for half a day and I'd nearly lost my mind. If multiple days had passed and still no word? There's no doubt in my mind I would've gone mad with worry.

Bella played through the conversation in her head. I felt my chest tighten when Charlie had said the bit about 'That's what unconditional means, doesn't it?'

It tightened again to hear the sheer relief and elation raw in Bella's voice at Charlie's relatively easy acceptance. The man was a class act, and I was lucky to have him as a father-in-law, even if he despised the ground I walked on.

Halfway through the call, I could hear the persistent beep of the call-waiting tone obfuscating Charlie's voice.

"I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not," I muttered. "You just about gave me a heart attack!" I scolded. "You don't want to know what went through my head when I found your go-bag gone." I shook my head trying not to think about the cold stab of panic I felt when I realized she'd left me.

"I'm sorry," Bella's voice was earnest as she pressed her lips against my chest, right over my silent heart.

"After all the thousand times I've told you I love you, you let one little bag break your faith in me. Really, Edward, what were you thinking?" Bella scolded right back.

I growled in response. "Touché, Mrs. Cullen," not at all pleased to have my own words thrown back in my face.

In a silent explanation, Bella remembered parting ways with me after breakfast, returning to our room and checking her messages as she'd intended. She remembered the panic and anxiety she felt at hearing the furious message left by her father.

Bella remembered thinking that Charlie's life was in danger, once again, because of her. And if Aro ever got wind of it, Charlie's subsequent death would be inevitable and it would be all her fault. So she clumsily took matters into her own hands.

I put some space between us so that I could look at her, still preferring to see her eyes when we spoke.

Taking her face between my hands, I stared intently into the blazing marigold of her eyes-wide, beautiful and undimmed by the dark of night. "Thank you for sharing that with me, love. It helps to understand your perspective, truly it does. But we needn't be hasty..."

"You promised you wouldn't try to stop me!" Bella argued hotly, nostrils flaring.

"I said I won't, and I won't," I said tersely.

I didn't say I wouldn't try to reason with her to change her own mind. "But let's just take a moment to think it through. There are a couple of things you're overlooking, love."

"Like what?" She asked in a petulant tone, her lower lip jutting out just a bit. I brushed my thumb over it.

"Like," I drew out the word, "you're imagining that Aro will sneak up on us somehow, but first of all, you underestimate Alice."

Bella lifted her jaw stubbornly. "If I can get around Alice and Victoria could get around Alice, so can Aro."

I narrowed my eyes and fought to keep my voice even. "Secondly, Aro wouldn't come personally to check on you. He'd send someone from the guard." Her eyes flashed. She hadn't considered that.

"And third, just because the Volturi won't kill you doesn't mean you'll be safe there, Bella. They will try to test you. Tempt you with human blood behind walls where there will be no consequence, no judgment, no incentive for you to deny your thirst and remember your morals. Are you sure you're up for that?" I asked, searching her eyes.

A flash of doubt crossed her features, but then her face smoothed back over. "Obviously I never want to hurt anybody, Edward. And this is going to sound cruel, but so be it. It's not like those humans aren't dead already by the time they end up in front of the Volturi," Bella rationalized grimly.

I sighed. Always so stubborn. I tried another tactic.

"Bella, Aro already knows that the Quileute know our secret; he knows about the treaty. He hasn't had them slaughtered. Maybe it will be the same for your father, since he's technically Quileute now," I speculated.

"Maybe? Do you think I would ever take that kind of risk with Charlie's life? You were the one that said the Volturi didn't honor truces with werewolves!

"What if...what if Aro uses my father's life as leverage to keep me? Or you or Alice?" Bella's eyes widened in horror. "He can't find out. Not about Charlie. Not about my gift. Not about any of it!" Bella's wide eyes betrayed her fear and distress.

Up until then, Bella's arguments hadn't held much water, but I couldn't as easily dismiss that last one as a possibility. There wasn't much Aro wouldn't do to have me or especially Alice by his side donning Volturi robes.

And Bella's gift to protect her mind (and others') from those that would harm her would likely be attractive to Aro as well.

I sickened at the thought of putting my favorite sister in the position of having to choose between Charlie's life and her freedom. Or my brave Bella offering herself in servitude in exchange for her father's life, which she undoubtedly would do if she thought there was no other way.

If Bella's hand was forced into joining the Volturi, I would go, too, without question. Similarly, if Alice joined, so would Jasper. Aro would count on that and get a two-for-one deal for the bargain price of one insignificant human.

My mother would lose two more of her children to an institution that would have just as soon seen our family destroyed by the newborn army last year.

"Alright. We'll do it your way," I relented.

With a whoosh of Bella-scented air washing over my face, Bella let out the breath she'd been holding. Then standing up on her tiptoes, she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me hard on the mouth. I moaned a little at the sweet taste of her breath.

When she finally pulled away, she purred, "You are so sexy when you're being reasonable."

"And you are sexy without qualification," I grinned as I dipped down to kiss her again.

With a little hop and a splash, Bella jumped into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist, and hungrily kissed me back. My lips curved into a smile against hers feeling the weight of her perfectly rounded bare bottom cradled in my arms.

It went without saying that there was no part of Bella's body that wasn't stunning and just utterly delectable. Though I was, without question, what Emmett would crassly call "an ass man."

I don't know how many hours I've spent thinking about my wife's beautiful backside. Before we were married, it tormented me, the perfect way her soft curves filled out her jeans.

Every time I'd wrap her in my arms, my hands would stay obediently at the small of her back, but I would let the sides of my hands rest on the swell just below.

I ached to let them stray further down, to dip my fingers into the back pockets of her jeans and fill my hands with her soft, round globes. But those were forbidden desires.

In my world, a disrespectful maneuver like that would earn a slap to the face, a woman's scorn, and the ill repute of a lecher.

Then there was the tempting it looked with nothing but a thin cotton sheet draped over it. Or peeking out of the bottom of the little nighties she'd taken to wearing to bed ever since Isle Esme. I could write a book about Bella's butt. It had definitely inspired a concerto or two.

And now she was mine, now and forever, and I could cup my hands around it and trace the little creases where her derriere met her thighs. Or dip my fingers into the back pockets of her jeans and give her a little squeeze whenever I wanted to.

And the best part was, whenever I did, she would press herself into my hands, craving my touch as much I craved her.

Then I thought about Bella's beautiful curves being covered up at all times with the flowing, shapeless Volturi robes, robes without back pockets, and I crushed her body to mine.

She was mine, and I had no desire to share her. Not with Jacob Black, and certainly not with the Volturi.

*BPOV*

I felt a sudden shift in Edward. One moment he was kissing me the way he always did, softly and sweetly.

Then Edward's granite arms folded even tighter around me, and he kissed me with a renewed sense of urgency. His marble lips claimed mine hungrily and possessively.

His long fingers greedily palmed my ass with more enthusiasm than he usually permitted himself. My hands glided over the broad expanse of his muscled shoulders and back that tapered down into his narrow waist. Long, lean, and well-defined Edward had the physique of a swimmer...if the swimmer also happened to be a god.

Oftentimes, I would look at him and marvel at the fact that he was really mine. Surely there had to be some mistake. Nobody as ordinary as me could appeal to someone as extraordinary as Edward. But then he'd kiss me and I'd know it was real. The rock-hard appendage poking me in the butt tended to have the same effect.

My ankles were crossed behind Edward's back, the heel of my right foot resting against the gentle slope of Edward's glutes. The near-freezing water felt room temperature against my skin as it lapped against my hips and kneecaps forming a tight circle around Edward's waist.

The water gave me an idea. Kissing his lips one last time, I gave his hand on my ass a little tap and murmured, "Let go. I want to try something." Edward raised a curious eyebrow but did as asked.

I unlocked my legs from around him so that I was standing on my own two feet. Just as he started to protest, I dropped to my knees, completely submerged under the water, and took him in my mouth.

I could hear the garbled sound of his loud groan from under the water. He placed a hand on my head, using gentle pressure intending to restrain. "Bella, love. You don't have to..." his words were distorted from the water, but easy enough to understand.

The silly goose wasn't nearly as comfortable receiving pleasure as he was at giving it, and it was time for that to change. After all, what good was not having to breathe if I couldn't give my delicious husband an underwater blowjob?

Throwing off my shield like a heavy blanket, I thought, 'I want to,' and imagined just how much I wanted to while mirroring those thoughts with my mouth.

"Fuuuuuuuuck," his low groan echoed above the surface. Edward's rare profanity let me know I was doing something very right. That made me giggle a little, which I shouldn't have done because I ingested some water which I'd have to cough back up later.

Undeterred, I continued the slow, rhythmic ministrations of my lips, tongue, and hands over Edward's impressive anatomy. The untethered ends of my hair floated weightlessly to the surface, swaying this way and that with my movements like blades of kelp.

I loved this, loved controlling his pleasure with the pace and pressure of my mouth, and feeling how strongly my movements affected him. A flicker of my tongue made his entire body shudder, while a twist of my hand along the base of his shaft made his hand tighten in my hair.

I quickened my pace, wanting to feel him lose his careful control, wanting to taste it.

"Oh God, Bella, I'm going to-"

I moaned around him in approval and felt him begin to tighten and pulse. He let out one loud grunt and thrust deeply into my mouth, convulsing as his sweet release spurted down the back of my throat.

In a flash of movement, Edward had withdrawn from my mouth and before his body even stopped quivering, I found myself pinned to the silty bottom of the lake as Edward assailed me with passionate kisses.

Being able to let him hear my thoughts at a time like this proved to be a useful trick.

Please, Edward, I need you, I pleaded. My arms circled around his back, my hands hooked over his shoulders, pulling him toward me.

I heard what sounded like a chuckle as air bubbles escaped his mouth and nose, and then he grimaced slightly, I guessed because he also had taken on water, but didn't let it distract him.

Before another air bubble could reach the surface, Edward had sheathed himself within me, making me throw my head back in a silent scream. Silent to me, anyway...Edward heard it just fine.

He thrust into me with desperate, powerful strokes, sending up effervescent little flurries of air bubbles to the surface all around us. His hand then snaked its way between our bodies so that his thumb could work its magic on my throbbing core.

As the bubbles ascended and the water clouded from the displaced particles of silt, Edward and I raced each other to our respective climaxes-the only game that Edward ever (and always) let me win. With one last pinch of his fingers on my swollen nerves, I let out another scream that was silent to neither of us.

As a furious stream of bubbles escaped his nose, Edward found his release while I was still racked with the aftershocks from mine.

A short time later, we found ourselves side-by-side retching up water into the tall reeds that grew alongside the lake.

"Worth it," I croaked, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

Hunched over with his hands on his knees, Edward nodded, "Without question," he agreed, spitting out the last volley of water with a grin.

*A/N* So, in your clever responses to the last chapter, you all helped realize yet another of SM's plot holes. When Edward let Aro touch his hand in NM, I'm not sure it occurred to SM (it certainly didn't occur to me when I read it) that he was giving away the Quileute's knowledge of the vampires and the treaty.

But wait a minute, in Eclipse after the newborn battle was over and Edward told Seth to take off, didn't he say it was because the Volturi didn't honor truces with wolves? And yet they honored the treaty with Quileutes and let the tribe live knowing the secret of the vampires? I find that highly suspect. Just saying. ️

Anyway, many of your wonderful responses explaining why this didn't make sense became Edward's reasoning for talking Bella out of her wreckless plan, but she eventually got him to see things her way. Edward couldn't very well have Aro fudging up their plans for eternity, could he? At least, it was the only thing I could think of that would sway Edward enough to go along with it. Would love to hear your thoughts! As always, thanks for reading and reviewing!

Til next time...in Volterra. Bwahahaha.