*EPOV*
It was an uneventful flight to Houston. As soon as the airbus reached cruising altitude, Bella retrieved a sleep mask and a u-shaped neck pillow from her backpack, reclined her seat, and within minutes, her breathing evened out into a deep, rhythmic cadence.
She slept through the first four hours of the flight and woke up in time to watch the in-flight presentation of Wedding Crashers. She laughed riotously at Vince Vaughn's one-liners and Owen Wilson's hijinks before we landed for a short layover in Houston.
There was just enough time for Bella to freshen up and eat some breakfast before boarding the final plane to…
"Rio?" She asked excitedly after being issued her boarding pass.
"Just another stop," I grinned, building the suspense and enjoying her anticipation immensely.
Her second wind only lasted halfway through our ascent before she passed out again with our hands clasped between us over the immovable armrest. Even in sleep, her grip never slackened.
With my free hand, I pulled a pair of cordless earbuds out of my pocket, stuffed them into my ears. I scrolled through the album covers of my exhaustive music collection. Wanting to listen to something uplifting, I hit play on a Beatles Greatest Hits anthology and cranked up the volume as loud as could be managed without degrading the sound.
I looked enviously at a passenger across the aisle sporting huge sound-canceling headphones. If only it were that easy to block out the drone of voices in my head. Unfortunately, as was the nature of my gift, I didn't need my ears to hear them.
As such, red-eye flights such as this one were preferable because the human mind was much less busy when it was sleeping.
The human brain, when awake, was like a pot of water at a full boil, thoughts, emotions, and imaginings all bubbling away into a steamy haze of memory.
In sleep, the human mind was more like a gentle simmer with far more images than words. More interesting, too, to see the conjurings of the sleeping mind. You could tell a lot about a person from their unconscious thoughts.
Anxious people had anxious dreams. They showed up to a lot of important life events naked, fell into a lot of bottomless pits, and strangely enough, lost a lot of teeth.
Then there was the fragile alpha male type who dreamed about winning, supercars, corner offices, and beautiful, scantily-clad, mute women. Trophies of all sorts.
These types found it necessary to measure their own success against the perceived success of other people, and thus, were never truly happy with what they had.
Children's dreams were far and away the most fun to watch. Their imaginations were limitless and as colorful as the children's books their parents read to them.
I looked over at Bella who was sleeping as peacefully as could be managed in her semi-reclined position.
As desperate as I always was to hear her thoughts and dreams, the silence of her mind was one of her most complementary traits as my partner. It was an interesting dichotomy.
After all, she was the only soul on earth who could give me the gift of peace with her mere presence. It was the first thing that I noticed about her before I was close enough to catch the maddening scent of her blood.
Her scent...it turned me to ashes while her unique mind soothed like a balm. Though, soon enough she would be all peace and none of the pain, at least in theory.
Jerked from my reverie by a loud disturbance a few yards behind me, I yanked the earbuds out of my ears and scanned the minds of the other passengers for the source.
A young woman, probably in her early-twenties, anxiously paced the aisle of the economy class while bouncing a furious, red-faced infant.
All around her, neighboring passengers looked on with thinly-disguised irritation as the screaming baby made it impossible to sleep.
I was a little amazed the commotion hadn't woken Bella. I slipped my hand out of hers, careful not to disturb her.
I punched the call button above my head and was promptly assisted by a smiling flight attendant. I quietly (as quietly as could be managed over the baby's cries) requested a hot towel and glass of ice water with which she quickly returned.
The baby was really howling now. I dunked the towel in the ice water, letting it get good and cold, then quickly wrung it out.
I stood up and slipped into the aisle passing through the first-class curtain and approached the visibly flustered mother. She frowned apologetically and bounced the baby a bit more insistently.
"Sounds like he's cutting a tooth. Maybe this will help," I handed her the cold, wet cloth.
She looked at me with profound gratitude and handed the rolled-up towel to her baby to chew on. Almost instantly he quieted, soothed.
"Thank you!" It was almost a sob. "Younger sibling?" she guessed, thinking I looked too young to have a child of my own.
"Two," I confirmed. "And you should have heard them wail when their teeth came in," I smiled wryly.
**BPOV**
Woken by a screaming baby, I peeled off my sleep mask and was somewhat alarmed to find Edward's seat empty. Even more perplexing was the cup of ice water on his tray table.
I rationalized that there were only so many places he could be on an airplane. Maybe he went to the lavatory as part of his human facade. That could also explain the water.
Then the ear-splitting crying ceased, and a moment later Edward stepped through the economy class curtain. He lowered himself back into his seat looking a little startled to find me awake.
"Oh, hi, love. I'm sorry you woke up alone," he murmured, a trace of concern written across his perfect features.
Before I could ask him where he had gone, a honey-blonde flight attendant with kind eyes and a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose paused in the aisle and crouched down to say something to Edward. Her name badge said Rachel.
"I saw what you did back there, and I just wanted to say that was amazing! The world needs more people like you. Here is a travel voucher for your next flight. It's something we like to do for passengers who go above and beyond for their fellow passenger." Rachel smiled prettily and extended an envelope in her proffered hand.
"That's really not neces—" Edward held up his hands in protest.
She stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Neither was what you did for that lady, but the whole plane thanks you for it." She pressed the envelope into his open palm, straightened up, and walked back toward the rear of the plane.
Edward tucked the envelope away in the inside pocket of his jacket without looking at it.
"Ok, what was that about?" I pressed, completely lost.
"It was nothing," he said with a slight frown. "A woman back there sounded like she needed some help. I just did what anybody would've done." He sounded almost…embarrassed?
"Doesn't sound like it," I said dubiously, but seeing his obvious discomfort, I let it drop.
"Where are we? How long was I out?"
Edward's smile returned. "A couple of hours. We won't land for a while yet if you'd like to go back to sleep."
Wide awake now, I shook my head knowing sleep was unlikely to find me anytime soon. I also badly needed to relieve myself and stretch out the knot that was beginning to form in my lower back from the unnatural sleeping position.
I pulled the sleep mask off of my forehead, and the pillow from around my neck and stashed them quickly in my backpack before moving to stand up.
"Human moment," I answered the questioning look on Edward's face before he could ask.
He nodded and stood up for me to pass even though there was more than enough room to get by in our spacious first-class accommodations.
As I passed by him to step into the aisle, Edward's hands circled quickly around my waist, pressing me to his front. His chin rested lightly on my shoulder, and in a movement that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, he placed a cool, lingering kiss on the pulse point of my throat before releasing me.
Completely dazzled, I flashed him a sultry smile over my shoulder. However, my throbbing bladder wouldn't let me focus on any of my other growing needs.
"Hold that thought," I whispered huskily and speed walked to the first-class lavatory.
As I was going about my business, I could hear the voices of the first-class flight crew gossiping excitedly on the other side of the thin wall partition.
"Did you see that hottie in 2A breeze through the curtain and get that little demon to
stop crying like some kind of first-class hero? Swoon!" The young female voice gushed.
"I'd let him see the inside of my cockpit anytime," another voice giggled.
I cringed. The exchange gave me flashbacks of Jessica Stanley and all the crude remarks she would make about our male classmates, but especially about Edward before he and I got together.
My reflection in the mirror made a face as I washed my hands in the small basin. If I had heard them just now, then Edward definitely had, and he'd know I heard them, too. I sighed. This was the trouble with having a husband who looked like an angel carved out of stone.
I rinsed the strong-smelling orange-scented suds off my palms and straightened my wedding rings which had gone slightly askew under the warm spray of water.
Let them say what they wanted. He was mine, after all, and it just so happened that we were on our way to our honeymoon destination.
I smoothed the wrinkles from my dress, made sure there was nothing stuck in my teeth, and shouldered my way through the lavatory door with my chin thrust high. It was a short walk back to our row, just a couple of steps, really.
Edward smiled, a bit warily, and moved to stand, as he always did whenever I entered or exited the room, but I dropped a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
His brow knit together in confusion, then raised in surprise as I stepped in front of him and purposely fell into his lap.
I twisted to the side so that my knees were bent over the shared armrest and threw my arms around his neck.
"Next time just book one seat. Think of all the airfare you could save," I teased in a whisper, my lips a mere inch from his. He opened his mouth to say something, but it was muffled by my own lips crashing into his.
As was his habit, he froze in the split-second that he always took when deciding whether he would indulge my sudden display of affection or push me away. Wisely, he chose to indulge me.
His own arms wrapped around my waist pulling me closer, then he moaned softly into my mouth, returning the kiss with enthusiasm. I clamped my left hand possessively over one side of his strong, chiseled jawline and boldly nipped at his bottom lip.
He growled low in his throat, and the sound of it made every inch of my skin stipple with goosebumps. I could feel the blood and heat rush from my extremities straight to my core.
The silence coming from the crew-area of the plane was deafening. I smiled against the smooth skin of his mouth as the infernal kiss smoldered into something softer, like the gentle flickering of a tea light, then was extinguished altogether.
Edward sighed happily, his sweet breath washing over my face like a cool breeze. He pressed his lips once more against the high arch of my cheekbone and murmured, "I hope that wasn't in reaction to what those stewardesses were saying. But if it was, let me know so I can write them a thank you note." He chuckled lowly, the sound vibrating against the skin of my cheek.
I giggled despite myself. "I hope the only cockpit you want to see the inside of is mine," I growled back playfully.
Edward shuddered. "Please don't ever say that again," he said in a half-laugh, his face twisted in pure revulsion.
I threw my head back and laughed at his reaction. "Duly noted. You are not impressed by dirty talk."
"I don't know what that was, but it wasn't dirty talk," Edward's nose wrinkled as if he smelled something foul.
My heart fluttered at his obvious distaste for their unsolicited attention. It was easy...routine, even, for me to listen to the deep-seated voice of insecurity in my head that insisted I was flawed, insignificant, and wholly unworthy to be the object of this otherworldly angel's love and affection.
Other women being drawn to Edward was inevitable, understandable even. But his swift rejection of them simultaneously felt like the validation I so desperately craved-that he hadn't-and wouldn't-change his mind about me.
And while I may have understood Edward's irresistibility factor better than anyone, it certainly didn't mean I was above marking my territory.
One of Edward's hands fell away from my waist. His curved fingers swiped a lock of hair behind my ear before it came to rest under my chin, cupping it.
"Did you enjoy it this much whenever Jacob or any of your other would-be suitors drove me so insane with jealousy?" Edward's voice was teasing. His topaz eyes were dancing with mirth.
Thunderstruck by his question, my jaw fell open. "Well, not when you were disabling my truck or following me back from the Rez like some kind of maniac!" I said pointedly, shoving at his shoulder with the heel of my hand.
I quickly followed up with, "But I definitely didn't hate the part when you'd hold me a little tighter or kiss me harder whenever Jake was around. How would that not make a person feel more wanted and valued?" I asked rhetorically, taking the sting out of my earlier accusal.
He nodded, accepting that. "Well just so you know, I don't think it's possible for me to want or value you more than I already do. But if it pleases you for me to act like a caveman on occasion, I will happily oblige."
Edward gently pulled my chin down until our lips fused together like molecules of water joined together by unbreakable hydrogen bonds. I breathed him in, savoring the closeness of him.
And then, suddenly, I was no longer in his arms. In the blink of an eye, he'd lifted me off his lap and dropped me unceremoniously in my own seat, tightening the seatbelt across my lap.
"The pilot is about to announce some turbulence," he whispered urgently. "Brace yourself."
Edward's warning was punctuated by the seatbelt light beeping and flashing above our heads. At the front of the plane, the flight crew clamored to their seats, strapping in. At the same time, the pilot's voice crackled over the intercom.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. I've turned on the fasten seatbelt sign and asked the flight attendants to be seated. We may be entering an area of turbulence and would like everyone seated for safety. Thank you for your cooperation."
The aircraft vibrated and shuddered, skipping through the storm system like a flat, smooth stone on water.
Edward was sitting straight up in his chair listening for something I couldn't hear over the whining engines of the plane and the alarmed cries of the people around us.
He turned to me then. Trying to look reassuring, he gave me a tight smile, but my stomach remained firmly lodged in my throat.
My fingernails were trying to find purchase in the hard plastic of the armrest when a cool, steady hand easily unclenched the claw of my fist and took my hand firmly in his.
My fingernails didn't have any more luck against his hand than they did on the armrest.
"It's alright," he squeezed back minutely. "They have it in hand. A few more bumps and we'll be through the worst of it," he uttered in a low voice, sounding more confident than he had a moment before. I felt some of the built-up tension leave my shoulders.
"There's no need to worry, love. Don't you remember what I said I'd do in the event of a plane—"
The murderous look in my eyes kept him from saying the word "crash." But I did indeed remember the exchange of notes in Mr. Berty's English class.
'I'd wait till we were close enough to the ground, get a good grip on you, kick out the wall, and jump. Then I'd run you back to the scene of the accident, and we'd stumble around like the two luckiest survivors in history.'
I gave a stiff nod, suddenly more afraid for the plane than for myself.
Of course he was right. The cabin lurched once to the left, then corrected with a slight lurch to the right, and then the vibrating stopped and I could breathe again.
I looked out the window, and sure enough, now that we were through the storm the sky had started to brighten.
I sighed heavily with equal amounts of relief and anxiety. "How much longer?" I whimpered.
"Two more hours until the landing gear drops," Edward promised, his eyes were dark with concern, this time for me, not the plane.
Though, now that I thought about it, his concern had probably always been for me. It's not like he personally had anything to fear from going down with the plane.
He reached for my backpack on the floor by my feet and pulled out the bag of potato chips and a bottle of water I'd purchased at the airport.
"Eat," Edward demanded. I'd heard that tone before.
"Edward, I'm fine. I'm not going into shock. I just had a bit of a scare. And I don't think I could eat anything right now if I tried." I was calmer now, but my stomach hadn't fully descended into its proper place. I pushed the bag of chips away.
"Always so stubborn," he said through gritted teeth.
"Just a couple more hours and then…?" My eyes widened in the sudden realization that I didn't know how much longer our journey would take after we landed in Rio. Just another stop, he'd said.
He smiled reassuringly. "No more planes," he promised.
I exhaled in relief. But there was something about the way he said "No more planes," that made me suspicious. That didn't rule out cars, trains, buses, boats, or any number of other modes of transportation. Least of all, his own two legs.
I had hoped that the seatbelt light would turn off once the plane was flying in smoother skies so that I could curl up in Edward's lap and feel the safety of his arms wrapped around me again.
Alas, that was not the case, and I was stuck in my seat for the remainder of the flight. I breathed a sigh of relief when the flight attendants made their last pass to collect garbage because I knew our descent would be imminent.
When we finally did land, I honestly don't know how long it took Edward to retrieve our bags from baggage claim. He sat me down on a bench, and I must've nodded off, because the next thing I knew a taxi was dropping us off at an eerily quiet marina.
I had no idea of the time or even what day it was where we were, but the dashboard clock in the taxi had read 3:31, and the sky was too dark to be afternoon. So it was late, very late.
Then we boarded a small, sleek boat docked near the end of the pier. Edward started it up and guided it into the open water of the Guanabara Bay.
Tired as I was, it was impossible not to be exhilarated by the warm, salty air that blew my hair out behind me as I watched the impressive Christ the Redeemer statue get smaller and smaller until it disappeared entirely.
I had never felt so alone with Edward until right then in that small boat in the middle of the ocean.
Once that might've made me feel small, maybe even afraid. I looked at him then, marveling at how his pale skin gleamed even whiter by the brilliant starlight.
His eyes were on me, too, carefully appraising my reactions to everything. It occurred to me that of the two of us in that boat, Edward, strong as he was, was not the one holding the power.
I let the thrill of that realization flow throw me..It felt a lot like nausea.
It had been a quiet ride until Edward's excited voice ruptured the calm. "Bella, look!"
At first, I didn't see what he was pointing at. Then the fuzzy shape of an island began to breach the horizon.
"This is Isle Esme," he'd beamed when I had asked where we were.
**EPOV**
As I carried Bella, my wife, over the threshold of Esme's beach house, her thundering heartbeat could as well have been my own for how nervous I felt.
My palms should've been clammy, my knees should've been weak, and my voice should've had a tremor in it. That's how I felt, anyway, when I set her down on the distressed white balsa wood floors in the small foyer and excused myself to retrieve the luggage.
The luggage really could have waited, but what I really needed was a moment outside in the fresh air to clear my head. It was hard to think straight in that hot, humid little room with her heated scent hanging so thick in the air.
I stacked the steamer trunks into a manageable pile on the dock, but as I hopped from the gently rocking boat onto the dock, I was distracted by a flash of white from below. I looked again.
In the moonlight, on the gentle swells of the near-black water, I caught my own reflection staring back at me.
There was nothing precisely different about my appearance, save for the trepidation burning in my wide, unblinking eyes.
Those same eyes, churning and rippling with the movement of the water, reminded me of Carlisle and the faith he had in me. That faith, unbreakable as it was, paled in comparison to the faith that Bella had in me.
The anticipation of this night had swollen to intimidating proportions, and all of their faith and trust boiled down to this one night. It would either be shattered or restored based on how well I could control myself during the impossible task of making love to my fragile, human wife.
Focus. FOCUS. I demanded of myself.
Bella's life—or what was left of it—depended on my control. No mistakes.
From my lapel, I unpinned my boutonnière of the slightly wilted, white ranunculus, gently closing my fingers around the flowers in the palm of my hand.
I closed my eyes. I thought of her scent. I imagined the warmth of her skin. The heat of her breath. I remembered what the wet fire of her mouth felt like when she licked cake frosting off my finger mere hours ago.
I took a deep breath, opened my eyes, and unclenched my fist. A strangled gasp ripped out of my chest when all that remained of the flowers was a moist lump of white pulp.
I let it fall into the water as if it had burned me, the ripples it created distorting the reflection of my horrified face.
Back up at the house, I heard Bella's respiratory rate and heartbeat accelerate as if she was having an anxiety attack of her own. I tried to pull myself together, to steel my nerve.
She needed me to be brave for her, as brave as she always was for me. My own self-doubt only served to put her further at risk, so it was a luxury I couldn't afford. I could do this. I had to.
I picked up the pile of steamer trunks, balancing their easy burden in one hand. I double-checked that the boat was securely moored, and trudged back up to the house, at a human pace, kicking up sand behind me.
**A/N Happy holidays, everyone! Sorry for the long wait for this update, I lost of bit of my writing mojo over the holiday break and had to wait for a stroke of inspiration to start back up again. I'm glad I waited though because I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. And, yay, you get a bonus chapter, because I didn't want to update this fic until the wedding night was completely written, and now it has. I finally earn my M rating in the next one. *Runs and hides.*