A/N: For the record, yes of course I know that the Haunted Mansion cars are called Doom Buggies. I'm just skirting the line between the people well-versed in Disney and people who have never been there (which almost all of my prereaders happen to be). I omit some lingo on purpose.

Bella stared at the blurry photo in her email for a long time, shivers rolling down her spine that ran hot instead of cold. That had been the name of the game all day at Disneyland. A glance made her tremble. His touch set her alight. Her body was alive, her skin aware. She'd never wanted to touch someone so much, to kiss him.

The photo had been taken on the Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters ride. It was an interactive ride, where you were meant to be shooting at lit-up targets along the track. Edward and Bella had both gotten a solid score of 0 because the pods, like on the Haunted Mansion ride, were for two riders; the track was dark, and they were relatively hidden from the other riders. For the five minute ride, Bella couldn't even remember breathing. She knew nothing but Edward's lips on hers.

At some point on the ride, your picture was taken. It was the only photo where stations were set up outside the ride allowing you to email the photo to yourself, free of charge. Holding her hand, Edward had sent her a secretive smile when they first saw the photo—the only one on the screen where the riders were lip-locked instead of pointing their blasters at the evil Emperor Zurg.

Bella started as her phone trilled with a message. As though he'd read her mind from across town, Edward's message wound desire even tighter in her. She licked her lips, discovering the true meaning of hot and bothered.

Edward: I couldn't get enough of the way you tasted today.

The kisses they'd shared that day, when they could steal a moment away from his family, were deep. The way his tongue felt, stroking against hers, was sensual, and even the memory of it made Bella's nipples taut. She was so crazy for this man.

Disneyland kisses—churros and Dole Whip.

Bella's eyes flew open, and she gasped out loud. It wasn't Edward's voice she'd heard in her ear just then; it was Jasper's. It had the effect of ice cold water on a flame. She shivered for much different reasons now.

The trip to Disneyland had been surreal on many points. Her feelings for Edward, desire strong among them, had been consuming. But, she couldn't pretend she didn't have a romantic history at Disneyland. There was muscle memory there she couldn't ignore, like the way her body had waited, during the fireworks, for Jasper to pull her into his arms, to circle her from behind, his arms around her waist, his broad chest against her back.

Edward had stepped to her side, his arm around her, his fingers stroking gently at her hip. Things were different with Edward, especially because they were sharing this first time to Disneyland as a couple with his family, but she couldn't pretend the place wasn't plagued with almost a decade worth of memories.

Bella dialed Edward's number. He answered after the first ring.

"If we do this over the phone, my brother is definitely going to hear us."

There went that shiver again. Bella had to bite her lip to stop from moaning. His voice was gravelly, full of promise. She opened her mouth, but the only thing that came out was a strangled squeak.

"Bella?"

She laughed—an almost maniacal sound—and pressed her palm to her flushed cheek. She was lying in bed, and it would be so easy to imagine stroking her hands down her body, touching herself where she most wanted him. "I never was good at phone sex," she said wryly.

He chuckled. God, she loved the sound of it. "I wasn't kidding about my brother, anyway. He's not a good sleeper, and I'm on the couch."

Bella closed her eyes, trying to pry her mind away from the gutter. She could easily imagine him there, and considered asking him whether he slept with a shirt on or not. This was important information to have, after all.

"Bella?" Edward asked again.

"Sorry." She breathed in and out slowly. "I was beating back my libido with a stick."

"Uh huh." She heard the sound of what she imagined was his tongue sweeping over his lips with a light smack. "And, why are we doing that?"

She rolled her eyes skyward. There was a wicked voice whispering in her ear, telling her how quickly she could have him where she wanted. It wouldn't take much to convince him to come. Her place was family-free, and she was positive her bed was more comfortable than his couch. They could be as noisy as they wanted. Sure, he might have to do the walk of shame back to his place, but he was a big boy. No real shame in that game, right?

"I was thinking maybe your family did us a favor in the long run," Bella said.

"You think?"

She took a shaky breath and smirked to herself. "You know that sex kitten who showed up on your door with no clothes on?"

"I'm not going to forget her any time soon."

"Yeah, well. I'm not sure where she came from." Bella twisted her blanket in her finger, blushing all over again. "I've only been with two guys. And the first one hardly even counts. Four minutes on prom night."

"You want to take it slower," Edward said as though putting it all together.

"Hell no. Are you kidding? You got me thinking with my dick, Cullen. What I want is to ride you into the sunset."

He groaned. "Bella."

She bit the inside of her cheek. So, so easy. "I don't mean to be so hot and cold with you. This thing with us is like a snowball coming down a mountain, just gathering steam. I want you, Edward. I'm not trying to say I don't, but I'm not ready for it to be a foregone conclusion yet." She rolled over, burying a groan into her pillow before she raised her head and put the phone back to her ear. "Am I making any sense?"

"You'd rather this be about us dating than about how fast we can jump into bed."

"Yes," she said, letting out a breath with a whoosh. "God, why was that so hard?"

"Well, it can't be as hard as other things I can mention," Edward said.

Bella rolled her eyes. "Is this the part where you give me the blue balls argument?"

"That would make me a manipulative bastard truly not worth your time."

She threw her head back on the pillow. "I'm giving myself blue balls."

"Not for nothing, Bella, but in one conversation, you've referenced your balls and your dick. Just what am I going to find when I finally get you out of your clothes?"

"Are you afraid mine are bigger than yours?"

He snorted. "Oh, honey." His tone dropped to a low, sultry tone. "I'm not worried about that. At all."

Bella whimpered and then laughed at herself. "Fuck me."

"Didn't we decide against that?"

"You think you're funny, don't you?"

There was that chuckle again. It sent delicious tingles down her spine. Bella sighed, letting the warmth of it spread over her.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asked.

He hummed an affirmative, and Bella stared at her ceiling. "You broke up with a woman you planned to marry not that long ago. Why are you so much more relaxed with all this?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "It does make me seem like a flake, doesn't it?"

"I didn't say that."

"I was just thinking out loud." He sighed. "Dating is a weird thing. Let's call a spade a spade—when you date, you're holding tryouts for the person you're supposed to end up with forever. So, if the date goes well, you have fun; you go on another date.

"Maybe I never picked up the social cue on when that's supposed to stop. Kate never gave me a reason to break up with her. We got along. Our life together was good. We were happy. I still think we could have had a happy marriage."

"You weren't devastated when she left you?" Bella asked, closing her eyes at the raw ache at the center of her chest.

"I was angry, sad, and confused," Edward said. "But no, not devastated. Which, in retrospect, I think has a lot to do with how much work I put into the relationship. It's not that I wouldn't have put in the effort. I just didn't have to work for what we had."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Maybe it can be. But, what I'm saying is, if you're comparing your relationship with Jasper to mine with Kate's, you and Jasper had much more of a shared history. There were things you had to overcome that brought you together."

"Yeah, and ripped us apart," Bella muttered, still bitter.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring him up. We were talking about me and my potential fickleness."

"I don't think you're fickle," Bella said quickly. She ran a hand over her eyes.

"I don't think I am either." He sounded thoughtful as he spoke. "There are too many variables to compare what I had with her with the potential of what we have. For one thing…."

Bella sat up in bed, her brows furrowed at his silence. "For one thing what?"

He sighed again, this one soft. "For one thing, what I feel for you is more."

Bella's heart skipped a beat. "More what?"

"Just more."

She bit her lip hard, fighting a goofy grin. More.

Edward cleared his throat. "In any event. I think the reason we don't have a clear answer is a matter of data."

"Data?" An amused smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, and Bella pulled the blanket up around her, hunching down in her bed. She shivered again. It was almost as though he were spooned up behind her, murmuring in her ear.

"It's like I said: too many variables at play here. We need to gather more data before we can find an hypothesis to the age old question."

"Which is?"

"Why us? Why you and me? In a world of seven billion, that's a very specific combination."

"Hmm." Bella reached up to turn off her light. "And why would we work when our other, ah, combinations haven't?"

"Exactly." He hummed low in his throat. "If there is a science to all this, maybe when we met isn't bad timing after all?"

"How do you figure that one?" Bella asked, her tone gentle. She wanted to be less confused about all this. Moving on would be so much easier if relationships could be wrapped up in a neat box, whole and complete, that could be buried in the backyard.

"Well, if there's a science to the combination of you and me, then the fact we met when we were both single eliminates one off the biggest hurdles. That we were free to find each other."

She laughed. "Our shirts were like a biological marker. Like peacock feathers."

"Are you trying to mate with me again, beautiful Swan?"

"Oh, man. That was so bad."

"Happy to be of service." He sounded chipper. "But back to the science. We need to gather more data."

"You know, people who aren't gigantic nerds call that dating."

"Well, it's not the scientific method, but I'll take it." He paused a beat. "And don't pretend you're not a gigantic nerd too. You're a scientist same as I am. I'll bet you love spreadsheets and parameters and exposing the animals you're studying to various environmental stimuli."

"Oh, baby. Talk dirty to me," she said in her best 900 voice.

It worked. He groaned. "Bella."

She sighed, her eyelids getting heavy. "It could all end in tears, you know," she mumbled, not all the way awake.

"It could, but they could be happy tears."

The thought sent warmth through her chest and a trickle of fear across her skin. "Okay," she said around a yawn. "Then I'll pick you up at seven on Thursday. In the morning."

"Wait. What?"

"You're off on Thursday, right?" She was so sleepy, she knew she was mumbling now.

"Yeah, I'm off Thursday. But where are we going?"

"A date."

He laughed. "Yeah, I caught onto that, Bella. But where? Where can we possibly go at seven in the morning on my day off?"

"Just wear comfortable shoes. I'll tell you later."

"Do I get a choice here?"

Even though he couldn't see her, Bella opened one eye . "Of course. Go ahead and stand me up if you want to."

A beat.

"Do you want to?" she asked.

He laughed. "My schedule is clear for you."

"Good deal." She closed her eyes again.

Bella couldn't remember actually ending the call. All she remembered were his far away words like a caress against her ear, "Good night, Bella," and her final, vague thought that it was nice to fall asleep to his voice.

And it would be really nice to wake up to it.

A/N: Don't worry, my blue-balled darlings. We'll get there. Stop thinking with your dicks. ;)