Hello! Sorry for the delay, I ran out of written chapters for this, so I have to improvise on the go with what I had in my head and with the idea that I have of where I want this to go.

I think this fic will be short, but I'm not sure.

I hope to update the next chapter after this one.

Stay safe and enjoy!

TWO CENTURIES LOVE

Chapter 6: The family.

The first week of me being back in Forks, and consequently on Edward's life was amazing. It was like a dream being back in his arms, feeling his kisses freely on my skin, not having to hide from undesired onlookers who would choose to judge two people in love.

Admittedly, it wasn't as fairy tale-like as we both would have dreamed. We both had lives separate from the other, and we were learning to merge them. He wanted me to meet his adoptive family, and I often spoke about Garrett, or many different friends I have made along the way.

I think at some point during that first week, he might have got jealous about Garret, but I assured him that nothing ever happened between the two of us. Neither of us saw the other in that capacity. For me he was just a friend, my best friend, and even if he was handsome in a not obvious way, he simply held no appeal to me. Edward was what I ever envisioned in my mind. During those moments when I thought about moving on and falling in love again, I would envision someone like him, old soul, gentlemanly, and someone who I could be free to love with all my heart and who would love me in return, regardless of the difficulties of the road.

We were learning to know each other again. I learned that he spoke multiple languages now, he learned that I spent a lot of time wondering nature and going up and down mountains all over the world. I would often wander alone, others I would go with an acquaintance, and very few times, Garrett joined me. He despised climbing mountains but endured those few times because he loved me.

After the first week of reconnecting with Edward passed by, I couldn't possibly imagine how could I have ever thought of moving on with another man. Edward rarely left my side, and I didn't complain. I loved being with him. We would run through the woods, we would go into Port Angeles, or lay in my house holding each other.

The moments after making love were my favorite. I felt extremely close to him, as if we hadn't been apart for over a century. As if no time had passed at all. In his arms, I felt the happiest I had ever been, the safest I have ever felt. He was my home. And I couldn't wait until the day until I could call him my husband. I had been ready a short while after we met while we were humans, I was more than ready to do it now. Today, tomorrow, whenever we fancied. We didn't owe anyone anything, and that was the most freeing thought ever. I could care less if the humans gossiped about Edward and I getting engaged after having seemingly just met. I hadn't broached the subject to him yet because I was a little embarrassed at my eagerness.

As I thought all of this, I felt his hands travelling up and down my naked back. We never got physically tired, and we could make love for hours on end without stopping, but we enjoyed these peaceful moments just as much as we enjoyed having sex.

"You're quiet." He pointed softly without abandoning his task of running his hand through my back.

I readjusted myself in his chest to look up at his face and meet his eyes. I gave him a lazy smile. "Just basking in this."

His smile rivalled the brilliance of the sun. He kissed my forehead and then my lips. I was so in love with that man in front of me, that every new quirk I learned made me fall more for him.

I climbed on his lap, abandoning my position on the bed. I teased his cock with my entrance and he let out a sound that was a mixture between a groan and a chuckle. I did it again a few times until neither of us was up for any more teasing. He entered me in one swift movement, eliciting a deep loud moan from me.

"Ride me, Bella." His voice gruff. It did wonders for me. I leaned on my hands that were resting on his chest and started doing what he had asked.

I rode him, I bounced on his cock, I circled my hips and bounced some more, while he was busy kissing and nibbling his way up and down my neck, my chest, my breasts. He seemed very eager to show love to my breasts. His hands travelled to my back and settled on the verge of my ass; he squeezed my butt cheeks from time to time.

I started quickening the pace when I felt my release building inside me. He followed suit, sitting up and closing the distance between our bodies. He hugged me while we rode our orgasm together. I stayed on top of him even when we were done. He did the same, still holding me close to his body.

I passed my fingers through his hair, brushing it out of his face. He smiled at the gesture and squeezed my ass once more. I laughed. Trust him to do something naughty while I was trying to be tender. He looked unrepentant and so damn sexy that I leaned over to kiss him. That led us to another round of delicious love and fucking. We were making up for lost time. We hadn't had any reservations the first time we laid together nearly a week ago, and we certainly didn't have any now.

I could walk around the room naked and not feel shy. I enjoyed the way he devoured me with his gaze, and he loved how I ogled him when he would stand up. He had a very bitable ass. I felt comfortable around him. Something I had never felt with anyone other than him.

"I love you." I said to him when we finally emerged from our bubble.

He smiled at me when he gave me the words back.

"I really am extremely happy." I hinted at him. I wanted him to know this was serious for me. I knew it also was for him. But there was a part of me, a very insecure minuscule part of me that doubted if he was as serious as I was.

He ran his forefinger down my cheek, all while looking into my eyes. "My sole purpose on this earth is to make you happy." He vowed. Whenever he said things like that, I had to resist the urge of proposing myself. I kind of suspected he wouldn't really mind it, but I also suspected that the old-fashioned man inside him wanted him to be the one who proposed. I could wait. I waited more than a century, I could wait a few months, or years. Hopefully it wouldn't take that long.

We nearly missed school that morning, we rushed in the shower and then Edward raced to get us to school on time.

It would be the first time we arrived together at school. As expected, once Edward closed my door, the murmurs of the student voices in the parking grew incredibly louder. People were whispering about us being together. Before today, no one had caught us kissing or doing anything other than occasionally holding hands. But today, however, they saw us arriving together at school, both our hairs damp. That certainly caught the most attention.

"Welcome to high school, little sis." I had to get used to Emmett calling me little sis when I was technically older than him by a few years.

"Where everyone gossips and mostly no one cares about the truth." Finished Jasper for him.

I rolled my eyes. I could care less what these humans thought of me. I had endured worse scrutiny in my life. For once I was doing something that my heart was happy doing.

Alice looked like she was about to say something while I stared at my man and whispered. "Well, if they want to gossip." I leaned on my tiptoes and kissed him passionately in front of everyone who wanted to look. Edward was surprised at first, but quickly kissed me back. Sooner than I would have liked he broke the kiss.

"If we keep that up, we'll get detention for public indecency." But he looked like he wouldn't mind. "Let's go to boring classes." He led me inside the school buildings, still smiling proudly.

He kissed my cheek in front of my locker and then left to go to his; but not before murmuring that I would get him in trouble for the first time ever. I laughed quietly. He was worth getting in trouble.

…

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…

During the rest of the day, I didn't see Edward, but I did see his two brothers who included me in their crazy conversation about action movies. I admitted I wasn't too much into movies, preferring tv series or my science fiction books.

Some girl classmates looked at me as if they wanted the earth to swallow me. There was one girl who looked as if she wanted to strangle me. This baffled me, since I had arrived one week ago, and had not crossed a word with her. I communicated this to Jasper and Emmett and both of them chuckled.

"She likes Edward. Has liked him since we arrived. I think she has fantasies about him. He abhors her."

Oh, so that's why she looked like she wanted me finished. Well, tough luck lady.

"She's not the only one with fantasies." I grinned unapologetically. Jasper groaned and Emmett laughed loudly. The teacher scowled at him.

…

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…

At lunch I sat at the Cullen table, bypassing and ignoring the line for food. I kissed Edward's cheek and sat beside him. This caused another loud murmur. I rolled my eyes. Didn't they have anything else to do?

"Bella, would you like to go to our house today?" Alice asked. Edward frowned at her, but she didn't meet his eyes.

"What about Esme and Carlisle?" I asked insecure. "Would they mind that I go over there?" I wouldn't blame them if they didn't trust me, or felt I was too good to his son to be true.

This time it was Edward who spoke, after giving Alice a very sharp look. "No, they're anxious to meet you."

I trusted in the sincerity of his words. "Ok. I'll go." Edward smiled excitedly and I spent the rest of the day wondering how it would go over with his adoptive parents.

I was nervous. He trusted and loved them deeply, and as such he held their opinion in a high place. What if they didn't like me?

I was a mess of nerves the whole road to the Cullen house. I divided my time between wondering how far the house was, and how would the Cullen 'parents' react to me.

Soon, Edward parked in the garage and made it over to the door. He shot a warning look at Alice who rolled her eyes but nodded. They tended to communicate silently. It was both weird and fascinating.

When we entered the house, I didn't have time to marvel over how open and illuminated it was, because there was a couple sitting on the living room, who stood up immediately when they heard (or smelled) a sixth person.

Esme was beautiful, heart shaped face with caramel color hair and thin figure. She was around my height and look so mother like, that without speaking I trusted her immediately. Carlisle looked familiar. He was blond, tall, lean with broad shoulders. He wasn't smiling, but his posture was welcoming. I guessed he felt guilty. Edward had told me how Carlisle regretted that he didn't allow Edward to look for me and tell me everything. When he first told me, I felt resentful as well, but I couldn't begrudge him his beliefs.

"Welcome, Bella." He said a little too formally, and I feared the worst. He didn't approve of us, and he didn't like me. "I'm not sure if you remember me."

I forced a smile. "You look familiar, but I'm not sure I'd say I remember you."

Edward was caressing my upper back, trying to give me courage. I felt a wave of calm, and I felt slightly less nervous.

"You are just as beautiful as Edward described you." It was Esme who talked. I smiled timidly at her not sure what to answer to her compliment.

Carlisle met Edward's gaze and the latter nodded. I wondered what was it with this family and their silent secrets and silent conversations.

I ignored the urge to ask and settle instead in looking around me. The living room was open, it had a chimney that was unused and made me wonder why a vampire would want a wood chimney if they were susceptible to fire. Where walls should have been standing there were glass windows from top to bottom. I wondered if it also reached the upper stories of the house.

My eyes rested upon a beautiful piano. I looked at Edward and he nodded, knowing that I was asking if it was his. I looked away from his face to the piano again, I had never heard him play. I knew when we were humans that he played, but in the short months that we had together I didn't have a chance to hear him play.

"He plays beautifully." Esme offered. Edward laughed and took that as his cue to take me to the piano. I sat beside him on the bench and saw him pass his hands on the keys reverently. It was very sexy seeing him like this. So in his element.

He winked and started playing Für Elise, then continued with Clair de Lune, and a few other classics. He played beautifully indeed.

For his last piece, his posture changed, he sat straighter, and a look of determination filled his features. He started pressing the keys of the piano, making a soft but somewhat sad tune fill the air. At times the melancholy was mixed with happier notes, but overall it had a taste of melancholy, it seemed as if it was about someone who had known immeasurable happiness, but also immeasurable pain. It spoke of love and loss, and had I been human I would have had tears in my eyes.

"I don't recognize that one, but it's beautiful."

I heard steps retreating and soon we were left alone.

"It doesn't exist."

I tilted my head in confusion. "How so?"

"I composed it." He smiled at the look of surprised in my face. "When I thought I had lost you forever, that I was never going to taste your kisses, or hear your laughter, or going along with some crazy idea that was definitely going to get us in trouble, when I thought I would never see you again, and that all I had of you was a picture to remember you by and my own memories." I took his hands in mine. I could understand the feeling of despair. "I composed it as a way to console my soul, as a way to keep your memory alive. If there was something tangible that spoke of you, then you would never leave me." I felt venom in my eyes. How could I have been so lucky to have such an extraordinary soul fall in love with me? "It has kept me company during my worst moments."

I kissed him, because how could I not kiss him when he said things like that.

I rested my forehead in his and transmitted all of my love for him. No one has loved anyone the way I loved him. "I know." He said. Of course, he knew what I was going to say before I even said it. He could read me like a book.

…

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…

After his piano demonstration he led me through the house, showing me bits of his history and bits of the Cullen history as a clan and as a family. It must have been wonderful, despite the hard times, having a family, someone to confide in, to keep you company. That's what Garret had been for me.

The tour ended in his bedroom. "I ordered the bed the first day I saw you at school. It arrived during the weekend. Alice helped put it together." I smiled devishly, trying to fight the embarrassment that came over me at the thought of Alice putting Edward's bed together as it was not intended for sleeping, but for other more pleasurable activities.

I bounced on it. It felt soft and comfy beneath my body. I beckoned him with my index finger, and he crawled to me. I laughed at the silly faces he was making.

"We will have a lot of fun braking in this bed." I promised.

I could hear groans and laughter across the house. Whatever, they had probably heard each other have sex all the time.

"I will hold onto that." He promised back, kissing my lips.

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…

"Do you think they liked me?" I asked Edward at some point during the night when his family told us they were going hunting.

"Esme loved you." He beamed. It was so evident that he loved her as he had loved Elizabeth.

"And Carlisle? I noticed he was a bit formal and serious."

He kissed me softly. "He loved you as well. He just feels guilty sometimes because he can see the changes in me. Just one day with you and I am someone completely different from the brooding man he's known for the past decades."

"I don't get it."

"He feels guilty because he sees what the distance did to both of us. How miserable I was without you and how utterly happy and elated I am since I saw you a week ago. He feels ashamed that he kept us apart, even if he didn't do it with ill intentions. He feels as if he owes you an apology, because he has apologized countless times to me."

I gaped at him. On one hand I could understand Carlisle's feelings and I understood his choices, he made them thinking on what was best for their survival, and he thought it was best for me. Protecting me, because I was alive, even if he didn't know that he had taken my life with him. I wasn't mad at him, and I didn't hold his decision against him. It was water under the bridge. We got our second chance, and I wasn't going to waste time holding pointless grudges.

"But he doesn't need to apologize to me. I'm here, with you. Happier than I've ever been. We're together forever…" I put my face in my hands, unable to see his face at my words. I didn't mean for him to hear that I fantasized with marrying him right at the moment. I mean, I loved him, and he loved me, we were good for now, despite my wishes of forever.

I felt him remove my hands from my face. He was stronger than me, and he used this to his advantage to force the movement.

"Why do you hide?" He asked looking into my eyes.

I shook my head, not wanting to speak my thoughts. He frowned looking hurt. "You know I want you forever and ever and beyond, right? That you're my entire life, and that you already have my promise that I'm going to marry you." He slid the ring from under my shirt.

When he said it like that, with that burning in his eyes, I felt stupid doubting him. Of course, I had his promise. But I kind of needed the words again.

He sighed and tilted my head. "I love you. You make me the happiest man on earth. It felt like a dream that I got you back. I thought all the thinking you, had conjured a hallucination of you in a day that held such a deep meaning for me." He ran the back of his hand on my cheek. "This ring, in your chain, holds the same meaning it did when I first gave it to you. I promise to love you forever and when the time is right I will definitely and without hesitation ask you to be my wife."

I jumped him unable to speak.

We broke in his new comfy and soft bed, and we had a hell of a good time.