67

Charlie grips the back of his stool and glowers at me. "Do you understand how dangerous it is for a vampire to copulate"—he grimaces—"with a human? Bella would be executed without question if anything were to happen to you, and the entire family would be implicated."

The handprint-shaped bruises on my wrists are already fading, but I'm glad I chose to wear long sleeves today. He doesn't need to know about those.

"We're not. We haven't. I mean, we're not doing that."

Honestly, I would kill or attempt to kill Jasper if I found out he and Alice were doing half the things Bella and I have been doing this past weekend. The difference is we are both adults and can essentially do whatever the fuck we want. I am not about to tell that to my vampire mate's vampire father. Nope.

"Your face tells a different story, son," Charlie grits out.

I gulp. Surely, this man isn't going to kill me. I am rather important to his only daughter. Charlie cracks his knuckles, and I whimper softly. Please don't kill me.

"What are your intentions?" he asks.

The living room goes silent, and my heartbeat is thundering in my ears. "You mean am I going to marry her?"

He shakes his head. "I mean, are you going to let my little girl stand and watch you rot away and die?"

"Daddy," Bella hisses, appearing beside her father and placing her hand on his chest. "We've only just admitted our feelings for one another. The girls just found out this morning. Now is not the time for this particular conversation."

I open my mouth to interject. To tell Charlie that my mind is made up and eventually, one day, I'll suffer the three-day burn to be with Bella, but she shakes her head. "We need to have this talk with the girls before we go any further on this subject."

I nod in agreement, but Charlie isn't ready to let this go.

"I've seen vampires watch their mortal mate grow old and expire, Bella. We've both seen what happens when death separates a pair." His face softens. "You know how it ends."

"This is between Edward, his girls, and myself," she argues, but he shakes his head. "We're not Didyme and Marcus. It was a different time back then."

This isn't the first time I've heard that name, and my interest is peaked. "Who are Didyme and Marcus?"

Bella tells me not to worry about it, that we'll discuss it later, but Charlie quiets her with just a look and turns to me.

"They were Italian royalty around the time we were turned. Mates from their human lives and well into their immortal years," he explains, and his eyes never leave Bella's. "Renee and I met them during a trip around Italy. Marcus has the ability to sense the strength of a bond between mates, and we wanted to get tested."

Renee pops into the room and whispers in his ear.

"No, Renee. He needs to hear this."

I really don't.