"And, oddly enough, he needs me, too. That part worked out better than I could have hoped." - Rosalie, Eclipse, p. 165 (Stephenie Meyer)

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TW/CW: Sexual themes

Moderation

Want me to love you in moderation
Do I look moderate to you?
Sip it slowly and pay attention
I just have to see it through
You got me looking for validation
Passion's new
Want me to love you in moderation
Well, who do you think you're talking to?

Then bow your head in the house of God
And little girl, who do you think you are?

Rosalie

Edward's eyes darted down and away as soon as I'd caught his gaze. I assumed he was wanting to create the illusion of privacy in my head, but I didn't even know what he'd heard up there. It was too much of a tangle for even me to sift through these days.

I knew he didn't have the patience for much of what was going through my mind. He'd begun to ignore most of it.

He'd avoided everyone's eyes for much of the past couple days, but particularly mine and Emmett's. I still had no idea what he'd heard in our minds that day that scared him off from his reading stoop, and I didn't want to know.

I sat with my nose in a book I'd read a thousand times so I didn't truly have to pay attention, my ankles crossed at the edge of the sofa.

Emmett and Kate were sitting on the floor together at the coffee table doing a 2,000 piece puzzle.

Emmett apparently found the puzzle too easy because with vampiric retention and sight, it was simple for him to fit the pieces together.

He decided it'd be better blindfolded, and he seemed to be temporarily amused as he turned a puzzle piece around in one hand and went over the pieces he'd already constructed with his other fingertips, immediately knowing them and memorizing them.

He was enchanted with the sharpness of his mind, and he laughed childishly as Kate tried to scramble the pieces again. He swatted her hand away playfully.

I knew I was staring, but in the comfort of him being blindfolded, I allowed myself a lingering look at him.

However, Kate wasn't blindfolded.

She caught my eyes and gave me a little wink, but I looked away swiftly as if to deny I'd been looking over the pages of my book.

She pushed to stand from the floor.

"Edward, let someone play something from this century." Kate insisted. "No offense."

Emmett peeked from under his blindfold and immediately his eyes glanced in my direction, dimples on his cheeks.

"Well come on, Rosalie." Edward sighed, his hands coming to a halt in the middle of Mozart's 23rd piano concerto.

"Oh no, that's all right. Finish the concerto." I said in a mumble.

"No. Please. Play something contemporary and vulgar and musically unsound." Edward rolled his eyes but ultimately seemed in good spirits.

Well, as good spirits as sour Edward can be.

His lips pursed into a line, but he didn't entertain my mental jab at him.

"Yeah, something we can dance to!" Tanya did a perfectly graceful twirl and winked at him in teasing.

"Fine." I snapped my book shut, but kept my eyes down and away from Emmett.

It had been a couple days and neither one of us had addressed the elephant in the room, but I saw Esme and Carlisle watching us even though they tried desperately not to make it obvious.

I'd thought about everything Esme had said and I really did want to heal…

I took a deep breath.

My prevailing emotion these past few days was embarrassment though. As much as I wanted to heal, I was vain, and I couldn't bring myself to the tough conversation that I would have with Emmett.

I'd thrown myself at him. I was greedy for the solace I imagined physical closeness should have given me.

Instead, I was scared and vulnerable and full of shame. I'd tempted him. I'd been positively immoral. I'd been too fast.

I didn't know what I was doing. I was reckless. He was terrifying.

I'd led him to believe I wanted… that… I'd… necked with him and I barely knew him.

I shook my head, shaking the thoughts.

I did know him…

The thing was though… He didn't know me.

"Play some jazz." Esme requested lightly, and giggled as Carlisle swung her into a dancing position.

My stomach ached, halfway regretting how vulnerable I'd been around her.

"Oh I don't know about that." I huffed, remembering how my mother thought jazz was positively obscene.

The hint of rebelliousness that would have flowed through my dead veins considered playing jazz as I sat down at the piano bench, but ultimately my intense self-control and watchfulness right now allowed me to squash it.

"Play your favorite song then." Emmett addressed me directly, his eyes full of anticipation as they lingered on me.

I took off my gloves to draw my fingertips over the ivories and he watched my hands before looking back to my eyes.

I swallowed, his beautiful face knocking the breath clean out of my chest.

My face seemed to have the same effect on him as his dimples showed deeply.

"Well, it's a slow one." I gave him a little smile, knowing that was his way of reaching out to me.

I was still coy and reserved though, so that response and little smile would have to do for now.

"Save it for me later, then." He insisted, trying as he did so often to acknowledge that we'd kissed.

It seemed to change everything for him.

But, the problem was that… He didn't know. He didn't know all that transpired. He didn't know the dark layers that pulled me deep into the trenches.

He didn't know how far I'd fallen…

I was afraid. I knew Esme was right and I just needed to communicate with him, but I didn't know how.

With this, I tickled the keys into something light and swift, happy to have something to keep my hands busy.

I began "Happy Days Are Here Again" and Esme grinned happily, ready to sing every word.

"Shall we?" Tanya reached out, trying her hand with Edward.

These women were bold in a way I'd never imagined being, and I willed my fingers not to falter and my gaze to stay down as I thought of the next possible trajectory.

Irina was on a hunt with Carmen and Eleazar.

I couldn't even bear to think about it.

"Let's dance!" Kate grinned up at him and I melted like butter on the piano bench.

"You wouldn't mind, would you Rosalie?" Emmett asked me in a velvet voice, absolutely mortifying me in front of everyone before he offered Kate his hand.

I cringed inwardly, angry I'd been put on the spot and my emotions tested.

I was reeling, thinking about her even touching his skin.

I was irrationally, intensely jealous.

My jealousy and selfishness and general awfulness spat out of my mouth before I could even stop it.

"Why would I mind?" I challenged icily, not even turning my head or letting my fingers falter.

The oxygen seemed sucked from the room momentarily as we hung on my words.

I felt his eyes on me full of heavy, suffocating weight.

I'd hurt him, or at least his ego.

Of course I cared.

So, I allowed myself the swiftest of looks in his direction.

"You're sure?" He tested me, and goddamn it I almost broke.

I barely even nodded.

Disappointment and irritation only flashed through his eyes for a second before he looked away from me and swung Kate into a dancing position.

She giggled.

I could have burst into a million flaming hot pieces then, hating everything in this wretched world.

It took every bit of focus to keep my fingers from running on the keys of the piano.

My control shattered, and I played jazz to Esme's delight and Edward's disappointment of course. But luckily, their opposing vocal reactions shook me out of my deep, dark, fuming anger.

I centered myself, taking a deep breath as I continued playing.

Emmett didn't dwell on things like I did. He was made happy and carefree within moments.

It was evident though, just how much Emmett loved dancing.

He was positively uncivilized, not knowing any real steps, but just… dancing.

He moved freely and animatedly. He heard music brilliantly, every note inspiring another step without judgment or thought in his mind before he physically processed the music in his body.

It wasn't awkward though or comical.

It was visceral.

I couldn't watch him anymore.

I squirmed, pressing my knees together and biting the inside of my cheek in anxiousness.

I couldn't know what I wanted.

Kate tossed her head back and laughed as he spun her around by linking his arm in hers.

She skipped out of her shoes and he pushed up his sleeves. They weren't dancing close, and for this I was thankful.

He swung her around playfully, childishly, and most importantly to me, platonically.

Really, he was just jumping and spinning around more than dancing, but it was… beautiful and I couldn't help but smile and forget about my heaviness, irritation, and downtrodden nature.

I'd never seen anything like him.

I marveled.

Emmett swung Kate around, turning her under his arm and around his back.

His dimples were deep as his perfect, brilliant smile stretched across his face.

My fingers danced across the keys as I watched him, knowing my every note motivated his every movement. I wanted to watch him forever.

His zest for life was contagious, and even Esme and Carlisle started to try learning and mimicking some of the movements.

Edward was too refined with all of those Victorian manners and all that finishing school training, but for the first time I saw him actually… grin.

I'd seen Edward smile before and it was nothing special, but in this moment, he truly grinned.

Tanya cut in on Emmett and Kate then, getting her turn of being spun around and jumping up and down like children.

Everyone was laughing, and as I sat at the piano, I saw everyone was… happy.

Emmett was light as summer rain and I was dark and heavy as a winter storm… I was weighted down with tragedy.

I couldn't ever be as carefree as he was in this moment.

I couldn't give him a life unburdened and free…

One song bled into the next and each second seemed to bleed into another as I withdrew into the shadows.

Then, I was jolted back into reality as someone sat down on the piano bench beside me, awfully close to me.

"You have a go at it, princess." Kate insisted, her golden eyes molten and full of life.

Though vampires couldn't have flushed cheeks, there was vibrancy in her face that hadn't been there before.

It angered me so.

"No, I'm fine." I kept my eyes away from her as I sat up a little straighter.

"I can play for a bit." Kate pushed again.

I clenched my jaw.

"Come on, Rosalie!" Emmett said, putting his hand on my shoulder from where he stood behind me.

"No…" I stiffened then to stone, letting my fingers slow.

"You should dance!" He begged.

"Go." Kate reached over me then, guiding my fingers off the keys so she could seamlessly start where I left off.

My fingers tingled then as I let them off the keys.

"I don't feel like dancing." I said, Kate reaching over my lap and Emmett standing over me.

"Come on, please." Emmett insisted, both his hands coming to my shoulders then.

"No, I…" I began, before he linked both his forearms under my arms to lift me off the bench.

"Emmett!" I protested angrily, hating him before my feet hit the ground and Kate slid over to take my place at the piano.

"Dance with me." He was smiling, his eyes sparkling as I turned around to face him.

I furrowed my brow, looking up at him in a rage that was swiftly dissolving.

He felt it.

"I don't know this dance." I told him in a half hearted attempt to object again.

"Well I don't either." He snickered, offering his hand.

I took a deep breath, loving how instantly it seemed like he forgave and forgot what I'd said to try and deny anything had happened between us.

Something had happened.

It was inexplainable, but the world had shifted and now we were each other's centers. We were… bound to each other in a way I didn't understand… Something that must be specific to the vampiric experience.

But, it was coating our skin and radiating from the ends of our hair. You saw it in a rainbow of colors around us now.

So I took his hand.

With a brilliant smile, he clapped his hand over mine, immediately spinning us in a wild circle. It bubbled up my stomach and felt fizzy like champagne in my fingers and toes.

"Now you just have to do a little somethin' like this." He instructed, linking his arm through mine, twisting around and switching directions, light on his feet like a tap dancer in the cinema.

I was too bound to social convention and technique and found it difficult to depart from what I'd learned and just dance.

"I can't." I protested half heartedly in a sort of breathy giggle as he lifted me off the floor, swinging me around his back.

He was absolutely unbridled by convention or style, and in his animated liveliness he was magnetic.

"Trust me." He insisted before he jumped and twirled me under his arm, his hand coming to my waist.

I shivered, but then… I smiled up at him.

His eyes checked through mine before he smiled back at me and tightened his hand at my waist.

In an exhale, I let him keep me close as we whirled around. He dipped me over his arm.

We clapped our hands and twirled under each other's arms and Emmett got the others involved in this sort of circular patten, twisting and stomping and clapping without a care.

I watched his face, made even more beautiful in these moments of freedom.

He put his hands in his pockets, shuffling his feet and Esme followed suit with an unbridled laugh.

She kicked off her shoes, and tried to participate, this encouraging the others to do the same.

It was evident as Emmett cheered Carlisle on that this made him feel at home.

I exhaled, wanting to capture the way he looked in this moment forever.

Emmett was alive and beautifully vibrant. He was living in color when all I'd seen was black and white.

It was blinding.

It was reckless. It was free, and I'd never felt anything like it.

I kept my shoes buckled and all the buttons on my dress fastened even as the others seemed to relax.

I couldn't.

I wouldn't.

"What's going on here?!" Irina exclaimed as she came through the doors with the others.

"We're dancing!" Tanya called happily.

"You call this dancing?" Carmen raised an eyebrow, obviously amused.

"They certainly must wherever Emmett's from." Kate added with a laugh.

"Hey, I never claimed to know what I was doing." Emmett defended himself.

Kate shrugged with a snicker.

"Well, we want in." Eleazar insisted.

There was no telling how long we all danced together, and as Kate turned on the radio allowing us all a chance to fill up the room, I couldn't help but smile.

I realized for the first time in a long time I'd allowed myself a moment of happiness so I almost didn't mind when he used his free hand to turn Kate under his arm and include her in our dance.

Emmett's lightness was contagious. His vibrance was felt tangibly. His essence filled the space so much I'd even been intoxicated by it.

Emmett's eyes captivated me, slowing time around us. In what seemed like both a second and a century though, we were the only two in the room.

It happened in a progression so slow I hadn't even realized it, but I'd melted into his arms.

I was oddly comfortable there, even now.

He kept me close, so I couldn't look up and see his face, but I felt him.

Emmett was tall, exceptionally tall, so that even in my own height and heels, his chin was hovering over my head. He kept his focus tilted down though, and the way his lips could have touched my hairline made my stomach flip in my stomach.

I closed my eyes then, pressing my cheek into his chest, my ear pressed to where I'd once heard his heart beat.

I conjured the sound from my memory.

"I had a lot of fun with you today." He said lightly.

I felt him exhale, as if he'd been deep in reflection. He hugged me close, pressing his cheek into my hair familiarly.

Our familiarity didn't feel misplaced in this moment, but I was certainly cognizant of his closeness in a way that was new and fresh.

That's when I gained the confidence to speak.

My center twisted into knots before I spoke, ultra quiet.

"I did mind." I whispered to him and only him, keeping my eyes away in nervousness.

I hung on the silence in between what I'd said and his reaction with anticipation. My eyes floated up anxiously.

Emmett's arm tightened around me.

Neither one of us needed to say anything then, but as he pulled me into a closer dancing position, I felt him smile and tilt his chin down in invitation.

He asked for a kiss.

His skin was like velvet against mine and I closed my eyes, my stomach twisting in knots.

I was a tangled mess of things then not sure what I wanted.

My mouth seemed to ache like an old bruise, wanting to be kissed again.

But, he sensed my reticence.

"I wish you'd let me kiss you again." His lips traced along the corner of my mouth as he spoke, close.

I hung on a breath.

"I haven't thought of anything else for days." Emmett admitted, his voice low and velvet, rumbling in his chest.

He touched his lips to mine then, but waited on me to truly make it a kiss and kiss him back.

"You make me nervous." I admitted to him, trying my hand at being honest but it really just made me feel like I was going to vomit.

I didn't like it.

I shut my eyes tight, deeply pained.

"Why?" He asked in a rumbling chuckle, pulling away a little.

I couldn't answer that question easily and I bit down on my bottom lip, denying him my eyes.

He seemed to understand this though and pressed his forehead to mine.

I closed my eyes, feeling close to him in a way that let me speak more freely.

"I mean… that day… in the water…" I began softly.

My voice was immediately burdened with guilt for being a subject of his temptation.

He kept his forehead pressed to mine, taking a deep inhale.

"You're trembling." He said lowly in his velvety voice.

I swallowed nervously, feeling his breath on mine.

We didn't move.

I was afraid to inhale and be intoxicated.

"I shouldn't have done that." I mumbled.

He pulled away then, his eyes darting over my face.

"What do you mean?" He asked, his eyes wide and round.

"I wasn't trying… to… I…" I stuttered over my words, my stomach dropping to my knees.

"I didn't mean to…" My voice was so small I didn't think he'd even heard it.

"I didn't… set out to… get so… reckless." I almost threw up the words.

Impossibly, I felt nauseous.

"What's reckless?" He asked evenly, but there was an edge to his voice.

I clenched my jaw and he looked over my face with an odd expression.

"Rosalie…." He drew out my name in a sigh, taking my hand.

"Tell me what's going on in your head." He said strongly and tenderly so I looked up into his eyes.

I was nervous, the tension in the air so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"I didn't mean to get so involved…" I murmured. "And… physically…"

He furrowed his brow, trying to understand.

"I didn't want you to think… I…." I stumbled over my words.

"I mean I noticed… I mean I felt… your… I know that I…." I cleared my throat and fidgeted as I could barely speak the words. "That I… tempted you."

His lips pressed into a line.

"I didn't want you to think…." I swallowed nervously.

"I didn't think anything, Rosalie." He assured me, narrowing his eyes in confusion.

He let me go then, and I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Well, I guess that's actually a lie. I did think… I just thought… I thought I liked kissing you." Emmett answered easily. "I thought you were beautiful, and too good for me… and I thought you looked good in your pink underwear… I thought about the curve of your waist… And that you might even like kissing me too and maybe I imagined that you felt good when I kissed your neck right there…"

He reached out, his fingers brushing by the base of my throat near my collar bone.

I clenched my jaw, but he was right. I did like that.

Focus.

I exhaled, frustrated and shying away from his fingers.

"Talk to me, Rose." He begged.

"I didn't want you to think I… I wanted… to… go any further…." I stuttered. "I really don't want to… Well… I didn't want you to…"

He waited, his eyes changing as he looked over my face, immediately understanding.

"Have you kissed somebody before, Rosalie?" He raised an eyebrow.

I immediately got defensive.

"Yes. What does that have to do with anything?!" I panicked.

"I mean… you're plenty good at it. That's not what I was sayin'." He held his hands up in surrender.

"I just ask because… well because… I didn't think you wanted to actually have sex with me just because we necked a little." He said candidly with a little unsure laugh that made him sound like an unsure teenager. "That's not how it all works."

I stiffened at just the word, feeling impossibly nauseous.

He spoke about these things so openly, so easily…

I shook my head, hating to even entertain the thought in my vulnerability.

It was improper. Surely he knew that.

"Don't patronize me." I growled, feeling vulnerable so I lashed out in my anger.

"I'm not meaning to. I just… I don't know if you understand…" He seemed to pick his words which was uncharacteristic of him. "People can kiss for plenty of reasons that aren't… always about sex…"

"I know that." I grumbled. "Don't speak so explicitly to me."

"Well, I wanna be clear and honest so, I'm gonna talk straight with you." He said with a nod of finality. "You can handle it and still be a perfectly fine lady."

I frowned.

"Are you real religious?" He asked, and I knew he was trying to place my anxiety about all this.

"Not anymore." I snorted humorlessly.

"Well, I'm just tryin' to figure out why you think you should feel guilty for anything we did together." Emmett shrugged. "Because there's literally no reason on this earth I can clearly see."

"Because… I don't… want… to… do… that…"

"We didn't." Emmett frowned, trying to understand me and trying to get me to understand him so he enunciated his words. "Rosalie…"

"Kissing isn't shameful, Rosalie." He tried to lighten the blow of the statement with a little humorless snort.

"I know, but it was… more than that. I mean you…" I panicked.

He sighed exasperatedly, putting his hand on the bridge of his nose in a way that suggested he was trying to come up with the right words and they weren't coming so he was just gonna settle on whatever came to mind organically.

"You know that's not… why… that happened. I just got… turned on because you're way outta my league and I like you and I like kissing you. It's not like it happened because I actually thought I was going to have sex with you. That's really not how it works. I mean that's ridiculous…"

I was panicking and his voice sounded like it was coming from underwater and I felt like my brain was thin ice about to crack and rush like raging water all around my head.

"But, it's my fault." I spoke mousily, feeling so much shame eating at my center. "I shouldn't have… been so…"

My mind instantly spiraled to just how bad it could've gotten and I shivered.

I was… embarrassed.

"So what?…" Emmett looked at me like I was speaking a language he didn't understand.

"So… vulgar…"

"You weren't vulgar." He laughed. "What are you talking about?"

"I…." My bottom lip trembled. "I don't want you to think I'm… that kind of girl."

"I don't think you're anything but perfect… That's the kinda girl you are." Emmett said, brushing my hair behind my ear.

"But I…."

"Rosalie… Darling… What are you really upset about?" He reached out, grabbing my face in his hands, caressing me with his tenderness.

"I don't understand you. But I want to. I really want to… So I'm gonna keep trying if you'll just help me.." His eyes darted over my face, genuinely worried.

I couldn't say anything as I looked up at him, hoping for once he could read it all in my eyes because it all felt like it was crashing down on me.

"Rosalie." He said my name strongly, trying to tether me to our conversation and not my inner world.

"I didn't want… But I… I still tempted you… I wasn't thinking clearly and…" I trailed. "I shouldn't have been so… careless… What… could've… happened…"

"Rose, it's not like I don't have any real choice in the matter." He laughed a little in a burdened exhale, his eyes darting over my face.

He looked half as nervous as I felt as he ran his hands through his hair.

"Well… Well, I didn't make your choice very easy… I took off… my clothes… I… kissed you and…" Blame ate away at me and rotted my stomach from the inside out.

I was worthless…

Panic rose in my throat, and I started to cry without tears, covering my face as I sobbed now, hating that all of this seemed to burst from within me.

He was silent as he watched me cry, and the more I cried the more I was filled with rage that the monster within me was getting wilder and stronger.

If we possessed the ability to generate tears, I would've found a way to cry them. I caught my breath though, pushing my hair back away from my face as if I could push off the darkness that made me so unworthy of him.

"Whatever you do doesn't make my choice any less easy." He fought for my eyes as I calmed down, seeing something in my face that gave him the conviction to say so.

"I would never choose to make you do anything you don't wanna do or anything you're not ready to do. That's the easiest choice in the world. Every time."

I bit my bottom lip, feeling myself shaking with fear and an odd, defensive and bubbling rage.

It was a beautiful arrangement of words. I didn't know if I believed him, but oh how I wanted to.

But for now, I just exhaled shakily, weighing these heavy words in my soul.

"Do you regret kissing me?" He asked plainly.

I clenched my jaw.

"I… I don't know." I swallowed nervously.

This seemed to wound him, but he put it aside for me.

"Was that too much too fast for you?"

He didn't ask to test me. He asked to ask me.

I clenched my jaw, unsure of my response so I just shrugged.

"I don't know." I mumbled under my breath, knowing my mother would've scolded me for being unclear.

"That's okay too." He sacrificed his own ego for me, smiling openly as he brushed a hair behind my ear and kissed me on the forehead. "We can slow down and see how you feel."

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes at the feeling of his lips on my forehead.

It was… safe.

No one but him had ever done that.

"I need you to know I kissed you like that because I think you should be kissed like that, and I know how to kiss you like that - like you're the only girl on earth because… because you are… to me." He nodded assuredly. "I kissed you like that because… Because I wanted you to think that maybe you could love me some time, and maybe… I could love you too."

He spoke candidly, but nervously, a boyish look in his eyes.

My fingers traced over my lips absently as I thought about what he said, the significance of it.

Could we?

But…

How could I get back the safety that I had lost?

How could I move on with Emmett?

How could I feel safe?

How could what was brewing between us ever be healthy?

"I didn't kiss you like that because I wanted to have sex with you. And I'm sorry if that's what I made you think." He spoke tenderly and kindly, looking deep into my eyes. "That's on me. Not you."

"You don't…want that?" I exhaled unable to believe what he was saying.

"No… Well, yes… But, not… rationally… at that very moment…" Emmett answered. "I mean I… do… I mean… I don't know what I'm trying to say…"

He laughed nervously, and it lightened my demeanor slightly.

"I'm just so over the moon that I got to kiss you because… I like you and I think you're the most beautiful person I ever laid eyes on. That was the best kiss I ever had with the best gal I've ever known. I am insanely attracted to you, and you made my knees weak in those pink bloomers - if I'm allowed to comment on your underwear…"

"You aren't." I lightened a little at his humor and all those swoon-worthy comments. "You weren't supposed to look."

"I just want you to be happy, Rose. Honest." He exhaled, tracing his fingers over my cheek sweetly. "That's all I want from you. Do you believe that?"

I didn't say anything in response to his question, but it didn't bother him. I really couldn't find the words, so I just reached for his hand.

My mind tangled and twisted just as our fingers intertwined.

I took a deep breath.

I wanted to tell him that I believed that my happiness was all he wanted from me, but it was still too difficult to honestly admit.

He knew that.

As I ducked into his side, letting him put his arm around me, I knew I'd told him that I was going to try believing it.

He let the air fill with silence.

The silence wasn't heavy though.

I looked up at him, my eyes tracing over his jaw and settling on his totally scarless cheekbone, where I'd started that kiss.

Self-sacrifice was evident in the air around him, and as I thought about this pattern of his, it made me… sad because I knew I'd ask him to do it for me again and again and again.

"I… don't regret kissing you." I finally said, in a tone like a whisper of wind, but he heard me.

I wanted to be more articulate than I was and I hated the discordant arrangement of words as they tumbled out. However, Emmett looked at me like it was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard.

Dimples deepened in his cheeks and his fingers tightened in mine.

"Really?" He said, his tone sincere and full.

I swallowed nervously, but something about that made a grin stretch across my face.

I didn't regret kissing him. I didn't regret his hands on me.

"Really." I breathed.

"We'll do it again when it suits you." He said charmingly, his smile lighting up his face.

I bit my bottom lip.

I smiled.

I felt the butterflies of flirtation in my stomach lightening my heaviness.

I looked up at him, thinking he'd read it in my eyes, but he waited just to be sure.

"It suits me now." I breathed, and before I could even finish my sentence, he pressed his lips to mine again and I tossed my arms around his neck.

He braided his fingers in my hair, the hunger of a second kiss seeming to even multiply from our last.

It was impossible to hold back with him, and regardless of how much I'd intended on kissing him with reservation this time, I couldn't do it.

We couldn't kiss each other with hesitation.

It was like wildfire. We were consumed and set ablaze.

There was no moderation.

I melted into him, his hands now pressing into my lower back. I didn't know what came over me while I was kissing him, but whatever it was felt a little different this time - clearer.

My every cell felt him and memorized him.

I liked kissing him and as he smiled against my mouth, I was made undeniably happy.

He pulled away then, pressing his forehead to mine as he took a deep breath to inhale me, right before he drew a line in the sand.

Emmett did it for me, it was evident in his eyes.

He withdrew.

"I… really… like you, Rosalie." He said, kissing my forehead in a sort of tortured finality.

It was evident he didn't want to pull away, but he did.

I didn't want him to but I needed him to, so it was a curious thing to watch the self-sacrifice in his eyes.

"Do you know that?" He asked me, importance in his eyes.

My throat felt tight as I looked up at him, very nervous again because I saw something in his eyes I didn't understand.

"Yes." I answered in a breath.

I realized that as we danced and as we kissed, I hadn't once gone back to the shadows of Rochester...

I'd stayed here... with him...

Victoriousness charged through my veins like an electric jolt and I giddily kissed him, tasting his lips sweet as honey. I wanted more because... I wanted more of him, not because I wanted less of me.

That was a big difference.

"And I quite fancy you." I triumphantly smiled up at him the truest thing I'd ever said.