Title: Forbidden Attraction

Author: MarieCarro

Genre: Drama/Romance

Rating: NC-17

Summary: To Edward Masen, Bella Swan was nothing more than his daughter's best friend, but that all changed when they both applied for the same weekly writing course. Suddenly, she didn't appear to be the young girl that had played with his daughter since her family moved in next door. What will Edward do when he realizes that he's developing a very forbidden attraction for a woman twenty-five years his junior? AH

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Word Count: 2, 585

CHAPTER 12

"I was wondering something," Bella said softly the next morning as she traced light patterns on my chest with her index finger.

"What?"

"I don't want you to freak out or anything, but I just had a thought and wondered if you could ever see yourself getting married again?"

I tensed up slightly but did my best to calm down again. "Why are you asking?"

"Obviously, I'm not talking about the near future, but let's say in five or six years? Is that something you'd ever be willing to do?" she whispered out.

"Honestly?"

"Mhm..."

I inhaled sharply. "Right this moment, no, I can't see myself going through that again. My divorce from a twenty-four-years-long marriage was finalized just three months ago. I can't say I have much faith in that constitution right now."

Bella nodded. "I can understand that."

I looked down at her and stroke her hair. "Is that something you would really want someday?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen it as a necessity, and I can't say that my parents have been any poster models for marriage, but I wouldn't exactly be against it either." She shifted so that she could look at me. "The thought is still very romantic, and I guess I am a bit hopeless in that department."

"Would you be sad if you and I never took that step?" I asked her carefully.

"Not at all," she replied and smiled sweetly at me. "As long as I get to keep you and know you're mine, I don't care if a paper says that or not."

At that moment, I had never been more certain that Bella and I had been created for each other. In that single moment, I couldn't have cared less that she was twenty-five years younger than I was because as I looked at her, nothing in my life had ever felt as right as she did.

I captured her mouth with mine and scooted down so that we were level with each other and I could deepen the kiss.

I trailed my hand down her body, reveling in the softness of her sun-kissed skin, and when my fingers reached her swollen center, I swallowed her moan. As always, she was already ready for more, and when I probed deeper with two digits, she threw her head back.

"Oh, fuck, that feels good."

I started to suck lightly on her neck, as I'd found out that she really liked that, and when scraped my teeth over her pulse-point, a shudder went through her entire body, and I knew she was close.

I used my thumb to rub her clit as I continued to rhythmically thrust my fingers into her, and only a few moments later, she clenched hard and let out that amazing sound that she did when she came. It was a kind of whimper mixed with a moan that instantly made me solid, and she more than willingly allowed me to roll on top of her and push myself into her still-clenching center.

"I don't know how you do it," she breathed out as she grabbed a hold of my upper arms to anchor her to something.

I could barely focus on her words as the sensations of her ebbing orgasm caressed me as I thrust deeply. "Do what?" I groaned out.

"Make me come so fast," she replied and arched her back, which made her feel even tighter. "I can never do that by myself."

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh."

She wound her legs around my waist like a vice and pulled on my neck so that she could kiss me, and as I sucked on her bottom lip, her lower muscles once again tightened up, and I couldn't stop my own orgasm even if I'd wanted to.

I rolled over onto my back and immediately pulled Bella close to my side. Both of us were breathing harshly and our bodies were slick with sweat, but neither of us wanted to move away from the other.

We didn't have a whole lot of time left to be together like this, and I was going to savor all of it.

"Baby, please, don't cry," I said and wiped away the tears that were stubborn enough to fall down her cheeks anyway. "It's only seven weeks, and we'll talk every night on the phone if that's what you want."

She sniffled and swallowed. "Yeah, but as I said, it won't be the same. This week with you was everything, and it physically hurts that I have to go back to New York without you."

"I know. It hurts me, too. But at least, we'll go back, knowing that we love each other. No more uncertainties between us."

A small laugh escaped her. "There's that at least."

"And if you want to tell your classmates and college friends about me, I am fine with that," I reassured her.

"Really?"

I nodded. "Nothing thrills me more than to be talked about as your boyfriend, and I wish I could go home and tell everyone of the amazing week I've had with the woman I love and that her name is Bella Swan, but I'm gonna wait, even though I really don't want to, until you can be right there next to me. The people at your campus will have to do for now."

She smiled. "Yeah, I guess testing the waters is a good idea before we announce it to the world."

"I believe so."

"For passengers of Flight 791319 to Newark airport, New York. Please proceed to Gate H12."

The message repeated over the speakers, and Bella threw her arms around my neck. I held her equally as tight against me, and when we pulled apart, I gave her one last kiss that I never wanted to end.

"I'm gonna miss you so much," she said against my mouth, and her sweet breath washed over my face. I breathed it in like a drug and had to forcibly pry my hands away from her body.

"Same here," I told her and then took one agonizing step back and away from her. "I'll see you in seven weeks."

She grabbed her bag and backed away from me, her eyes so sad it tore at me, and then she gave me a small wave before turning around and hurrying down the airport toward her gate.

"Ain't she a little young for you?" a woman in her thirties asked me accusingly as I gazed after Bella's retreating form. I turned toward the woman who was sitting on a bench nearby, and I simply smiled at her.

"Age is but a number," I told her and started to make my way toward a different waiting area and my own flight.

I knew it was my job to start and lay down the foundation for everyone so that it wouldn't come as a complete shock when Bella and I came out with our relationship, and that was mainly what I did during those seven weeks of agonizing wait when I wasn't working or talking to Bella over the phone.

I started with those who were the easiest. Those of my friends who had no idea who Bella was, and when I told them that I'd started dating again, they were only happy for me. A few of them had the same reaction as Felix when I told them of the age difference, but most of them said that as long as it was a consenting relationship between two adults, who cared about age.

My most immature friends, however, had the reaction I should have anticipated. They wanted to know how willing she was to do whatever I asked in the bedroom, and how epic it was to have sex with a twenty-year-old. Some of them joked around and said I had to be careful so that I wouldn't break my hip or something like that.

I brushed them off and told them it was none of their business, which had them protesting loudly, but I didn't care. What Bella and I did when we were alone was only between us.

When there were only three remaining weeks until Bella would come back home, Felix approached me and said that he'd heard "through the grapevine" that I was telling people about my new, young girlfriend.

"So you decided to pursue it fully?" he asked as we ate lunch together at Frank's.

I chuckled. "I didn't really have a choice," I admitted. "When I first told you about her, I was already in too deep to back away."

"I saw that, and I can see you're even deeper into it now."

I nodded. "We went away together for a week, and it helped a lot and made a whole lot of things so much clearer."

"Such as?"

I looked at him but took a gulp of my drink before I answered him. "We both realized that we love each other."

Felix rubbed his chin and scratched the stubble on his jaw. He was in need of a shave, but it wasn't my place to tell him that. "Seriously?" he asked.

"Yes," I said without hesitating.

"Ed, are you sure? How can you love her? I mean, how long have you known her? Two, three months?"

I inhaled deeply. Here goes nothing. "Actually, I've known her for years."

He frowned. "How is that possible? Do you make a habit of hanging out with teenage girls or something?"

"No, I can't say I do, but being around teenage girls have also been kind of inevitable as well," I told him cryptically.

"How can it have been inevitable? I mean, you're not exactly—oh!" Felix interrupted himself and then his features smoothed out completely as he realized something. "No," he groaned. "Don't say it, man. Please, please, don't."

I looked at him as if I didn't know what he was talking about and the look he gave me was so pleading but also resigned it was almost comical.

"It's one of her friends, isn't? Alice's?" he asked, and I silently took a bite of my food, which was enough confirmation for Felix. "Holy shit, this is messed up. It's more messed up than it was before. It's beyond messed up, like, I just can't—"

"It's Bella," I told him, and he completely froze up, and remained that way for almost a minute.

"Bella? As in your neighbor Charlie Swan's daughter? That Bella? Alice's best friend?"

"Yes."

He exhaled and puffed his cheeks. "Wow, man. Just wow. I am fucking speechless."

"That must be a first," I joked, but Felix stared at me seriously.

"How can either of you believe it will ever work? Because I sure as hell can't."

"That's because you don't understand how Bella and I are together. When things started down that road, everything clicked, and no matter how hard I fought it, it was impossible to resist." I thought back on how many times I had pulled away from Bella and how many insecurities I'd installed in her because of that. "You know I don't believe in things like fate, but Bella is the closest thing I've ever come to feeling like such a thing actually exists."

Felix shook his head. "C'mon, man! Really? Are you gonna give me that crap? 'Cause in my head, that doesn't justify anything? It's still Bella you're talking about. Hell, I've met the girl myself!"

"I know you have, and what else do you want me to say? It is what it is, and it's too late to back away now."

"Fuck that, it's never too late to back away," he continued to push. "You're ruining her entire life, Ed!"

I frowned and clenched my jaw to keep from lashing out at my best friend. "How so?"

He blinked at me as if I was insane. "H-how so? You're actually asking me how you're ruining her life?"

"Yes, I'm asking you that because, apparently, you have more knowledge of her life than she does."

"What?"

I looked at him silently for a moment. "She loves me, Felix. She has said it herself several times that she wants to be with me."

He scoffed. "She's only twenty. She doesn't know what she wants yet."

"So just because she's young, her feelings can be discarded? Is that what you're saying?"

"Well..." he said and scrambled for words. "...yeah."

"Mary and I got married a month before I turned twenty," I pointed out to him.

Felix opened his mouth to say something but stopped himself for a second before he tried to wave that fact away. "Things were done differently back then. You two were going to college together and—"

I shook my head. "Don't play that card, Felix. Just admit that it's not her age that is the problem."

He threw his hands out, exasperated. "Okay, yeah, her age is not the problem. Yours is." He leaned forward on his elbows. "You're almost twenty-five years older than she is. You've lived your life. You've done the whole wife and baby and the suburban house shebang already, and you've said yourself that you're too old to start a new family. Do you really think it's fair to her that you're depriving her of all those things?"

I sighed. "Bella and I have talked about all of this. Believe me, Felix, I beat myself up like crazy at first, asking myself those questions over and over, convincing myself that she'd be better off without me. But then I asked her, and she said that she doesn't want all of that, so who am I to argue with her?"

"She says that now, but what about in five, six, or seven years?"

"We'll have that talk then, but no matter what all of this will result in, in the end, it's between me and Bella."

Felix hung with his head. "That's where you're wrong, Edward. It's between you, Bella … and Alice."

"No," I disagreed. "Alice turns twenty-one in July, and I have realized that Mary and I have babied her too much, but she's an adult, and she needs to grow up as well. She should know that love isn't always planned."

"She will hate you. Both of you."

I nodded. "Most likely, and it will be her choice if she wants to cut me out of her life completely. I will always respect that choice. Had it only been my feelings, I would've discarded them without a second thought for Alice, and you know that," I told him. "But it's not just my feelings. It's Bella's too, and if I walk away from her now, I can guarantee you that she will walk around with deep scars in her heart for the rest of her life, and I can't do that to her. I love her too much."

Both of us were silent for a long time, and then Felix stood up and grabbed his jacket. "Hell, I'm gonna need something stronger after this. Let's grab a beer at Murphy's, and possibly a shot of tequila."

I wasn't slow to follow him out the door because I felt that a beer was just what I needed right then.

A/N:

I just want to tell all of you that in my mind, even though Bella has Endometriosis, the pain she can sometimes experience during sex is mild enough for her to not have a problem with spontaneous sex. Having said that, I don't have Endometriosis myself, and I do not know how it feels, so I'm not gonna claim myself to be an expert in the area.

If someone out there who reads this story happens to have this condition, and there is anything that you think is totally absurd, try to simply see this as a work of fiction that hasn't gone through any editing besides my own, and all mistakes are mine!

I hope I won't offend anyone by stuff that you feel are untrue because that is not my intention at all.