62. Shine On

How did one describe the impossible? Incredible didn't do her justice. Amazing? Wondrous? Fantastic?

Useless words.

She was perfection incarnate, beauty and strength personified, without equal or measure. God, how I loved her.

"Wow," Bella whispered.

An instant later, I had my arms wrapped around her, feeling like the luckiest creature in the world to have the privilege of doing so.

"You took the word right out of my mouth."

She turned in my arms to beam at me. "Edward, I did it!"

"You did. You were unbelievable. All that worrying over being a newborn, and then you skip it altogether."

Feeling a kind of giddiness, I laughed and hugged her against me. Bella could do anything. I'd told her so, and I believed it. I wondered if maybe she did now, too.

"I'm not even sure she's really a vampire, let alone a newborn. She's too tame," Emmett taunted.

Shivers traveled down my spine as I felt the vibration of her growl against my chest.

"Oooo, scary," Emmett mocked.

A hiss of displeasure escaped her and woke Renesmee, who looked around for Charlie.

"Charlie will be back tomorrow," she told Nessie when she pushed the memory of him into Bella's mind.

"Excellent," Emmett said with a laugh of anticipation. ...won't be so distracted tomorrow. Maybe can't make a vampire blush, but her daddy still can.

"Not brilliant, Emmett," I muttered. I'd had about enough of my brother and all his talk. It pleased me that Bella appreciated it as much as I. It was about time my sweet, gentle girl showed off some of her more physical strengths, and doing so would probably feel good to her after a long day of restraint. I held my hands out for our daughter and gave her an encouraging wink when she hesitated. She handed Nessie over, the familiar look of bewildered confusion in her luridly red eyes.

"What do you mean?" Emmett asked.

"It's a little dense, don't you think, to antagonize the strongest vampire in the house?"

"Please!" ...little sister can't be stronger than them other newborns I took down… ain't no way she's stronger than me. Alice isn't.

But he didn't know. He'd never met a newly awoken vampire before Bella - the army didn't count - and didn't have a measure for how much his strength had fallen since his first year. It wasn't his strength alone that defeated the newborns he'd fought last spring but also all the years of training with Jasper. If he had gone up against them in a contest of strength versus strength alone rather than brute force versus training and skill, he might not have fared as well.

Bella didn't have his training or experience, but if he wanted a contest of strength, she didn't need it. He always accused me of cheating and claimed that he wouldn't lose so often if I couldn't read his mind. I couldn't wait for Bella to compete against him and win.

"Bella," I said, trying not to sound as excited as I felt, "do you remember a few months ago, I asked you to do me a favor once you were immortal?"

She frowned, searching for the human memory. I knew when she found it as the confusion was replaced by a look of surprise and, I thought, a touch of excitement. "Oh!"

I caught a flash of Emmett's furious face surrounded by a cloud of dust in Alice's thoughts before she broke out in her high pitched, trilling laughter.

"What?" Emmett demanded.

"Really?" Bella asked as her eyes searched my face.

"Trust me," I said, knowing that all she would see was my pride and surety in her.

"Emmett," Bella said, her lips turning up in a slight smile, "how do you feel about a little bet?"

"Awesome," he answered, bouncing to his feet and abandoning the partially constructed card house. "Bring it."

As he walked toward us, he puffed out his chest and flexed his muscles, making my already enormous brother look even larger. But he was a peacock, flashing his feathery plumage in useless defense. Bella, tiny and delicate-seeming, needed no artifice, only confidence. She was a jungle cat, and a single, lazy swat would bring him down.

His display did have an affect on her though, and she nervously bit her lip as he got closer.

"Unless you're too afraid...?" he taunted.

Afraid? Bella? Not likely. My grin broadened as she set her jaw and pulled her shoulders back, visibly gathering her confidence.

"You. Me. Arm-wrestling. Dining room table. Now."

Before the look of dismay had crossed Esme's face, Alice was already cautioning, "Er, Bella, I think Esme is fairly fond of that table. It's an antique."

"No problem," Emmett said with an anticipatory grin. "Right this way, Bella."

Our whole family, including Jacob, who munched on the last of his sandwich, followed the two around to the back of the house and toward the river, where an outcrop of rocks stood. A large boulder, deposited by glaciers eons ago, lay in the center of a pile of smaller stones, all of them slightly rounded. It was uneven and not quite level, but would suit their purpose. Emmett planted his elbow on the boulder as he faced Bella and wiggled his fingers in a taunting invitation.

I stationed myself where Nessie and I could see both their faces as the others spread out around the two in a loose, irregular circle. Jacob, beside me, cast glances my way. I was too at ease, relaxed and smiling as Bella faced down Emmett, who was far bigger and obviously far stronger than the diminutive girl I claimed to love so much. He looked back and forth between me and them, even nodding his head in their direction, encouraging me to intervene as surely I had to. I wasn't going to just let this happen, was I?

So what if she could reattach her arm? It would still hurt, wouldn't it? And what would Renesmee think if I allowed her mother be injured right in front of her?

Unconcerned, I shook my head at him and waited.

The nerves Jasper sensed didn't show on Bella's face as she took up her position across from Emmett, whose confidence wasn't faked. His mocking grin wouldn't be there much longer, I was sure.

"Okay, Emmett. I win, and you cannot say one more word about my sex life to anyone, not even Rose. No allusions, no innuendos - no nothing."

Delighted, I thought she couldn't have picked a better wager. For Emmett to be constrained against making lewd jokes and sexual innuendos were high stakes indeed. He would give it his all, and he would lose. And I would be free from his mockery of our love.

"Deal," he agreed without hesitation. "I win, and it's going to get a lot worse."

He wasn't kidding, and I was sure Bella would know it. As irritating as his teasing had been so far, it was nothing compared to what he could have been saying. What if she lost? Would she be doomed to spend the rest of eternity in a state of perpetual embarrassment? Her confidence faltered, and he pressed his advantage.

"You gonna back down so easy, little sister? Not much wild about you, is there? I bet that cottage doesn't have a scratch. Did Edward tell you how many houses Rose and I smashed?"

Resolutely, she clasped his hand and said, "One, two - "

"Three," he finished and threw the full force of his powerful physique against her tiny hand.

The seconds passed, neither one budging. Jacob looked on in confusion. He'd thought they were starting? Why wasn't Bella stumbling away in defeat? Sure, newborns were strong, but even so, shouldn't size and physique matter to some extent? Maybe she could put up some resistance, but at the very least, shouldn't their clasped hands be wavering back and forth as they fought for dominance? At last, Emmett showed the evidence of his strain. His lips pulled back from his teeth in a grimace, his forehead furrowed as his brows pushed together, and his feet dug into the rocky ground as he tried unsuccessfully to make the least bit of headway.

Then, Bella pushed back, just slightly, forcing Emmett's hand toward the rock. Satisfaction rippled through her laugh while he snarled in shocked fury.

"Just keep your mouth shut," she ordered, and the rock split with an explosive crack as she shoved his hand against it. A sizable chunk broke off and clattered over his feet. He kicked it away with poor grace, sending it across the river and knocking down a couple of trees unlucky enough to have been in the rock's path.

The laughter I'd been feeling within me all day burst forth unchecked.

He whirled on her, pointing a finger in her face. "Rematch. Tomorrow."

"It's not going to wear off that fast," she gloated. "Maybe you ought to give it a month."

"Tomorrow!" he insisted.

"Hey, whatever makes you happy, big brother."

As he stormed off, he punched the offensive boulder where he'd just lost a competition of strength to a slip of a girl, his expression the one I'd seen in Alice's mind a few minutes earlier. Dust and bits of rock rained to the ground at Bella's feet. Still smirking, she put her hands on what remained of the boulder and dug her fingers into the solid stone.

"Cool," she murmured as she looked at the handfuls of rocks she'd gouged out. Without warning, faster than I could follow, she spun in a circle and hit the rock with one hand, like a karate master hitting a stack of concrete bricks. It broke in half, the screech of protest it made loud enough to be heard for miles around, had anyone been there to hear.

But then, all I could hear was her, Bella's laugh, delighted and playful as she kicked and punched the boulder until it was nothing but a pile of rubble.

Somehow I'd forgotten what it was like, that feeling of power and strength after being sick and weak, as if I'd deliberately repressed the good memories from my days as a fledgling vampire in favor of wallowing in the misery of my sins. Watching her destroy the rock, I was reminded of how incredibly good it had felt to be a newly woken vampire. Only days earlier, she'd been too weak to stand, and now she was the strongest creature on the planet. It was an intoxicating feeling, I knew, heady and powerful, and I watched her indulge herself with a sense of rightness in the world.

Nessie's high voice abruptly joined in as she, too, laughed, thrilled by her mother's display.

Bella stopped attacking the rock and turned to stare at the tiny girl in my arms like the rest of our family was doing, as enchanted by the sound of her very first real laugh as I was with Bella herself. "Did she just laugh?"

"Yes," I confirmed. It was such a sweet sound, carefree and full of pure happiness, and I was glad that Bella had not missed this particular first.

"Who wasn't laughing?" Jacob scoffed good-naturedly, a grin still splitting his face.

"Tell me you didn't let go a bit on your first run, dog," I teased back.

"That's different," he said and landed a playful blow on my shoulder. There hadn't been much force behind it, but another creature would have injured their hand. I was suddenly and unexpectedly glad he was not human. Nessie would need someone suprahuman to keep up with her as she grew. "Bella's supposed to be a grown-up. Married and a mom and all that. Shouldn't there be more dignity?"

Married - to me! - and a mom - to my child - and all that, oh yes. Snickering in pleasure at his words, I thought nothing could top the events of today, but then, I'd thought nothing could be better than yesterday, or our wedding day, either. If every day hence was to be the best day of my life, what surprises would tomorrow hold? Not even Alice could know.

Nessie reached up to share an image of Bella's antics with me, and I felt her desire for more of the same.

"What does she want?" Bella asked.

"Less dignity. She was having almost as much fun watching you enjoy yourself as I was."

"Am I funny?" Bella zipped back to my side and scooped Nessie into her arms. "You want to try?"

Nessie took the broken bit of boulder Bella offered and tried to crush it the way she'd squashed the utensils, but the stone was much harder. Stronger than a human she might be, but as only half vampire, she was not quite strong enough to grind the rock to dust in her bare hands. She frowned, disappointed, and offered it back to Bella.

"I'll get it," she said, and took the piece carefully between her forefinger and thumb and squeezed until it was reduced to dust.

Delighted, Nessie clapped her hands, expressing approval the way she'd seen the football fans do. They both laughed, and their simple happiness had us all laughing along with them. After the tensions of the past weeks and today especially - and all of it gone now - my family's laughter sounded like as much an expression of relief as amusement.

The setting sun chose that moment to make an appearance, breaking through the fleeing clouds for the first time that day. Bella, upon first seeing my skin in the sunlight, had been fascinated, had even called me beautiful. Staring at her in awe, I had an inkling of how she'd felt that day. Always before, I'd hated the alienness of it, the constant visual reminder of what I was. To me, it was the skin of a killer, stone and cold and undeniable proof that I was not human. I'd never imagined how vampire skin would enhance her beauty. How the light would gather around her. How she would shine as if lit from within by her pure goodness.

Having yet to see any of us in the sun, Renesmee was surprised as well. Curious, she ran her fingers along Bella's arm. Her skin felt no different than before, smooth and silky. The rainbow reflections seemed so warm and bright that the cool temperature of Bella's skin was an unexpected contrast. Nessie felt the warmth of the sun's rays soaking into her, but it seemed it was only the light that affected us.

It affected her, too. Whereas it broke upon our skin into a million rainbows, Renesmee's skin seemed to absorb the light. A human might notice, but she would seem only radiant to them, alive with her healthy inner glow. She would not be restricted to cloudy climates. She would be able to walk among them whenever she chose, wherever she chose. They would stare - how could they not? - but they would not recognize her beauty as something inhuman the way they would with one of us.

When she laid her arm beside Bella's, Renesmee saw the difference between her skin and her mother's and was unhappy.

"You're the prettiest," Bella said when she shared that displeasure.

"I'm not sure I can agree to that," I said. Renesmee was lovely, yes, but her mother!

Bella turned toward me, and my breath caught as our eyes met.

Filling my eyes so that centuries from now I would be able to recall every detail, I was glad Alice had been unable to show me this. Renesmee's and Jacob's presence prevented her seeing, so it was with my own eyes, and not through a second-hand vision, that I first saw Bella as she was now. Smiling her pleasure, her red eyes filled with love and amazement as she gazed back at me, surrounded by a halo of rainbow sparkles, Bella was stunning, an unearthly beauty with which not even angels from heaven could hope to compete.

"Freaky, Bella." Jacob held his hand up as if her beauty was too bright, too much to take in all at once, and he had to protect his eyes from the glare or else be blinded.

"What an amazing creature she is," I mumbled, glad that my eyes could take them in without blinking.

Always, I had felt like the freak among freaks, but Bella was unique, like no one that had ever existed before. And I couldn't have been happier about it. She was special, and this special, amazing, exceptional creature loved me and had chosen to spend eternity in my company. We could be freaks together - me, the mind-reader, she, in all her glory, and our child, the only half-human half-vampire in existence.

Though I looked no different than the rest of our family, she had eyes only for me. I had to remember that her vision would be as changed now as the rest of her, and she was seeing me in the sun for the first time, the same way I was seeing her. Drawn to her, I found myself touching her shimmering cheek with my fingertips without realizing I'd crossed the small space between us. Her eyes rolled slightly as I stroked the smooth skin of her face and let my thumb trace her glistening lips, which parted at my touch.

We'd been separated for too long. Judging by the acceleration of her breaths, she felt so too. Charlie had come and gone, and there was no longer a need for her to focus on anything else. I wanted her complete and undivided attention once again and wondered if she felt like knocking down a wall or two, perhaps starting with that ridiculous closet. And if Esme made Emmett help us repair our place, as surely she would, he would not even be able to say a single word to us about why the little cottage had suffered such extensive damage.

Except, I didn't really want to destroy our home.

Then I had a better idea. No one would notice if we crushed a few rocks or knocked down a tree or two, and their loss would only open the way for new life and growth among the densely packed trees, contributing to the overall health and beauty of the forest. Emmett bragged about how many houses he and Rose had destroyed. A century from now, I would be gloating over the opposite. He'd had to learn to moderate his strength when handling inanimate objects, but had never had to restrain himself around Rosalie, and would never understand how thrilling it was for me to be freed from such constraints with regard to Bella.

"Thirsty?" I touched her throat, which had to have been aching after breathing in her father's scent all day.

Her hand flew up to rest beside mine. If she hadn't been aware of her thirst before, she was now.

"But we just hunted yesterday? You go weeks."

"You are newborn," I reminded her as I'd done yesterday when she'd still been thirsty after the lion. "Most newborns think about their thirst and little else for months. If you hadn't spent the entire day breathing in Charlie's scent, I would still take you hunting tonight."

She licked her lips and swallowed hard, then nodded, accepting the fact that her body still had needs that must be met.

Anticipating the pleasure of watching Bella hunt - sleek and powerful, beautiful and deadly, a surprising combination of gentle grace and immeasurable strength - I hoped we would find something more palatable than deer. Taking down a carnivore or two would do her much more good than a whole herd of timid grazers.

It had been several hours since Nessie's last meal, and my comments to Bella reminded her that it was time for her to have something to eat. She laid her hand beside ours, and I rather thought she expected us - all of us - to gather around Esme's table for a meal like she'd seen families do on the commercials.

"Jacob," I called over my shoulder. He appeared by my elbow as if he'd been waiting to be summoned. "Bella needs to hunt, but Nessie is thirsty, too. Will you take her, please?"

Grinning broadly, he held his hands out. He hadn't been allowed to hold her since before Charlie arrived and was only too happy to take over caring for her in our absence. Carlisle thought his approval at me. That it was Jacob I had asked, and not Rose or Esme, was tantamount to expressing my thanks for his intervention this morning. Bella seemed reluctant to let her go, but passed her to Jacob without protest. One day, in the not too distant future, the three of us would no doubt hunt together, but for today, Nessie was still much too young.

Rosalie was torn between following Emmett and staying with Renesmee so that she could feed her and not Jacob. I didn't detect any real animosity to her thoughts, more a desire to be included and involved. Emmett was only sulking over losing and being unable to tease us further. He didn't really need her consolation.

An image of a bassinet abruptly blossomed in Alice's mind. It stood in front of a curtained window overlooking a bed of rose bushes. Beside the bassinet sat a rocking chair with a brightly colored blanket draped over the back, and clustered around the chair were a variety of stuffed animals and a few dolls. Excited to be able to continue her decorating spree, Alice clapped her hands and dashed toward the garage, squealing for Esme and Rosalie to come on already before the stores closed. By the time we got back, we would be able to lay our daughter down to sleep in her own bed, while we spent the rest of the night in ours.

Leaving them to work things out on their own, I clasped Bella's hand in mine and pulled her after me toward the water's edge. We crossed the space in a few quick strides and hurtled the river together. Glancing over my shoulder just before we took off into the trees, I marveled at the picture they made. A family of vampires, a werewolf, and a half-human, laughing together in the sunlight. Bella had made it happen, through the sheer force of her indefatigable willpower. She had brought us together, given us a future none of us could have dreamed of before.

I had, unwillingly, given her what she wanted, and in return, she had given me more than I knew to ask. What the future held from here, I couldn't begin to guess, but it was sure to be as bright as the reflected sun off the faces of my loved ones, colorful and warm, and alive with hope and joy.

Together, our bare feet flying over the carpet of twigs and leaves, Bella and I ran into the mountains, my hand still held tightly in hers. I guessed she missed my touch, too. She held her breath, not needing me to remind her of what could happen if we came across a human's scent unexpectedly. Just in case, I cast my thoughts forward, listening hard for any hint that we were about to come upon someone. She swerved with me when I abruptly veered off to one side. We weren't the only hunters in the mountains today.

I couldn't scent them at all, but didn't want to take the chance that we would cross the path they had taken, so skirted the base of the mountain in the opposite direction from where they were stalking a many-pointed buck. I snickered over their enthusiasm. They were welcome to it. I hoped for bigger and better pray for Bella than a measly deer, no matter the size and spread of its antlers.

Once we left their thoughts behind, I pulled my hand free and put on a burst of speed for the sheer exhilaration of running. She might be the strongest, at least for the moment, but I was still the fastest! The space between her footfalls lengthened as she made use of her strength to take longer, more powerful strides. She grinned, her eyes shinning with delight as she pulled abreast with me and then past. I let her, just so I could have the pleasure of watching her run.

As a human, Bella had tripped simply walking across a smooth surface. Now, her sure feet found their way over the uneven ground and around bulging roots, flitting through the densely packed trees and around what underbrush was able to grow as if she were a ghost. Or perhaps a wood-nymph - a dryad rather than a vampire. Who knew but that they existed?

The sun peeked through the canopy of trees, casting a flickering spray of rainbows against the tree trunks and the ground as she flashed through the patches of light. Those reflecting off my own skin mingled with and danced around hers.

The similarity gave me an unexpected thrill of delight. I liked that we were the same now, and that that didn't automatically mean she was an inhuman monster. She might not have been a human any longer, but now she was so much more. Maybe that meant I was also more than just a killer. She saw something worthy of her love in me, and if I believed in her - and I did - then maybe she'd been right about me being the blind one. She'd been right about everything else. Why not this too? I didn't see what she saw, but that didn't mean it wasn't there.

I came to an abrupt halt, and an astonished laugh escaped me. As I stood, rooted in place more firmly than the trees around us, she wheeled back to rejoin me, a look of curiosity on her face.

"Do I get to hear the joke?"

"I love you." The wonder in my voice made it sound as though I had only just realized that fact, although I had known it to my core since the first night I'd spied on her.

"And that's funny because…?"

Shaking my head, I said, "It isn't. I was just remembering something Jacob said."

The smile that had been playing about her lips twisted into an expression of annoyance at the mention of his name. "Oh?"

"It was right after I first heard Renesmee's thoughts, so he was thinking of her at the time, and of himself, but it holds true for me as well." I hesitated, but she waited expectantly, so I explained, "I can't hate something that loves you, nor anything that you love."

It was embarrassing to admit how much I had hated myself, but that feeling was fleeting and quickly overshadowed by the relief I felt over the realization that no longer did I loathe who and what I was. As if a weight I didn't know I carried had been lifted, I felt a lightness in my spirit, a jubilation in my own existence that had never been there before.

My past was past. There was no changing it, but never again would I allow it to rule my future. It was my great good fortune to spend the rest of eternity striving to be the man she saw, to earn the love she gave so freely, and to love her more than was humanly possible.

No frail human body could contain the feelings I had for her. They overwhelmed me as it was. We were vampires, and I was the luckiest creature in the history of the world to be able to share that fate with her.

Our bodies were stronger than a human's, our comprehension faster, our senses heightened. Yet as fast as I could run, as sharp as my eyesight was, she had her arms wrapped around me before I knew she had moved. She'd launched herself at me as if her hunger for me was stronger than her thirst. I stumbled back a few steps, trying to keep my balance.

The tree I ended up against protested loudly as it broke apart and then fell, its trunk splintering and roots flinging up dirt. Other crashes followed as it took a few of its neighbors down with it. As with the destruction I'd caused on our honeymoon, Bella seemed oblivious to their fate.

We were hunting, and she was a newborn vampire who had spent the day breathing in the pure, undiluted scent of her human father. But though she should have been able to think of quenching the fire in her throat and nothing else, it wasn't important to her. I had her complete and undivided attention, as I had ached to have it all day. What she was, what I was, was immaterial, inconsequential. Vampire or human, we were simply two kids in love, and nothing mattered but that.

"I love you," she said against my mouth. My lips were to busy to answer.

Vaguely aware that the ripping sound was my shirt being pulled over my head though my arms were wrapped around her, I thrust my fingers into her hair and gripped the silky strands to avoid rending her clothes to pieces. I didn't care if I was shirtless, but didn't think she'd enjoy running naked through the forest. Never mind that I would have enjoyed watching.

As if she were human still, I carefully released her hair and slid my hands under her shirt, letting my hands glide up the smooth skin of her sides to her arms, so I could raise them up and lift the shirt away undamaged. Our kiss broke for that brief moment, and then her arms were free, and her mouth on mine again. The rest of our clothes followed, and at last, I had Bella naked in my arms.

Her hands were suddenly hard on me, wind whistled in my ears, and I found myself on my back. My eyes flew open with surprise. We had landed near the hollow where the tree's roots once grew. Its fall had created a break in the canopy that allowed the last rays of the setting sun to reach us. Much as I loved the taste of her mouth, I pulled away so I could see her, so that I could drink in her beauty.

What I could see of the sky beyond her shoulders was streaked with red and gold clouds. Wispy in places and bright around their edges, they stretched beyond the mountain's peak in a river of colors that shifted to lavender and grey, shadows cast by the fullness of the water they retained, with the sky behind them a deep indigo presaging the coming of night.

The beauty of the sunset paled in comparison with Bella. She glistened, her crystalline skin reflecting the same blazing colors. Golden honey she was, like a molten drop of sun come to life. Her hair caught the red as the brightness of the day's last light turned it into a fiery halo. It seemed to be a living thing, fluttering in the slight breeze, moving of its own accord the way a flame would dance upon its wick.

But then she guided me into her, and a low moan of relief and pleasure escaped me. She was my flame, though she burned me no longer. She was just warm, wrapped snugly around me like a human in their favorite blanket, her very presence making me feel safe and loved.

If ever I needed proof that we were meant to be together, I had it in this, the way we fit so perfectly. We were interlocking puzzle pieces, incomplete without the other. She'd been crafted for me, and me for her, and never again would I doubt that we were supposed to be together like this.

The taste of Bella's tongue flooded my mouth, sweet and rich as her blood had been, and as intoxicating. There was a magic in touching and being touched that I'd never known before her, a simple joy of skin against skin. Even humans recognised the healing power of such contact. I felt whole and complete through to my core, as if my very soul had been restored by the miracle of her willing touch, her loving hands.

Her forehead pressed against mine, our noses brushing as her fingers traced my jaw. Check to cheek, listening to her trembling voice in my ear, I felt I might explode with happiness that I could bring her pleasure, as if I needed another reason to splay my hands against her bare back, or to let them roam wherever I wanted. As good as she felt, as good as it felt to be inside her, it was as nothing compared with the fact that she wanted me there. Her fingers dug into the muscles of my arms, and I tightened my grip on her, knowing that the tighter I held her, the more she would enjoy it. Always before her change, she'd tried to make me abandon my careful control, never realizing how tenuous my grip on my restraint had truly been.

It could have been hours or days, perhaps even years had passed without our noticing as we made love on the forest floor, but eventually, she leaned against my chest with a smirk and said, "So lemme ask you something."

"Anything."

"Did you really bring me out here to hunt, or was that an excuse to get me alone?"

My answer got lost as I couldn't help but to react to her giggle. Not too much later though, I saw her absently rubbing her throat and reluctantly pulled myself away from her. We had all of eternity, and right now, Bella had other needs.

"Feel like wrestling an irritable grizzly? Or perhaps we can track down another lion?"

She stood immediately and looked around for where I'd tossed her shirt. Pleased with myself that I'd thought to save it, I found it and the rest of our clothes, and then did what I could to hide the more obvious evidence of our inhuman strength. I glanced at her as I smoothed away the imprint of her hand in one of the boulders that littered the area and thought that, if she'd still been human, she'd have been bright red with her blush.

Perhaps because of Emmett's taunts, or perhaps just because she loved me with such abandon, the clearing we had made showed the results of our lovemaking. Impressions left by our bodies were evidence of how we'd rolled about with no walls to contain us, and in the fallen trees and the exposed rocks of the mountainside were gouges torn by fingers raking for purchase.

There was no saving the trees we'd felled, but as I cast a last critical look over the wanton destruction we'd caused, I thought that no one would be able to tell what had made such a mess of the area.

Leaves and twigs still in her hair, and in mine I realized when I reached up to run my fingers through the tangles, we took off again. Twilight had come and gone, and in the velvet darkness we ran deeper into the forested mountains.