Chapter 14
Despite her request, Bella insists on paying for her new shoes, a pair of neon pink rubber things with sparkles on the straps. They look like something a four-year-old would wear, but she looks adorable as she sits on her stool, the sandal hanging off her big toe.
"Mmm, this is really, really good." She talks around the taco shoved in her mouth, the cheese, lettuce, and salsa falling from the end and landing on her plate with a plop. I signal the bartender to give us another round, as her margarita is dangerously low. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're trying to get me drunk."
I waggle my eyebrows at her, before turning lecherous and sliding a hand up her thigh. "And I'd say you're not protesting very loudly about that fact." She giggles and doesn't swat my hand away, so I let it stay there while she takes the last few bites of her food.
We're sitting at the counter facing the street, looking out the open windows in Amigo's, a Key West treasure tucked on a side street behind Duval. The crowd is as noisy as the mariachi music playing over the speakers, and we're definitely over-dressed for the party atmosphere of the small taqueria that Bella insisted upon. I can't say I'm disappointed, as the casual setting is lessening the stress from our argument, and we both seem happy to be letting the alcohol float over us and take away from the serious edge of earlier.
The new drinks come and Bella wads up her napkin, throwing it on her plate before latching onto the margarita straw and taking a big sip. She leans her chin in her hand and smiling tipsily, speaks. "So, tell me how this 'Full' thing works."
My tequila is settling into my brain nicely, so I lean in closer to her, keeping my hand on her knee. "What do you want to know?"
"Is it something you have to do, like a law?"
"No, it's not a vampire law or anything, but it is a law of nature. There's no reason you wouldn't want to become a Full. It's like getting older for you." She slaps me on the arm at that. "It's just something that is destined to be."
"But you get to choose when," she states and I confirm. "How does that work? You get a membership card in the mail like AARP?"
"No, I have to drink from the person who created me."
Bella coughs. "Your father? You realize that's incredibly incestuous."
"Well, no, I hadn't until just now, so thanks for that."
"I think I'll skip that ceremony when it occurs." She makes a gagging gesture but smiles, and I'm thrilled that she's thinking in terms of still being around at that point in my life. "So why haven't you done that already?"
The million dollar question. "I'd like to say that I'm not ready yet, that I still want to live my human life for a while."
"But that's not the reason?"
"No, not entirely," I pause, taking a moment to ruminate on the answer I've kept hidden, even from Emmett. My answer to him is always, 'none of your fucking business'. But the night is too light to get heavy and tell Bella that deep down; I know I've been waiting for her. "Honestly, I don't think I'm quite ready to handle one of the side effects."
"And that would be?"
"My cock would grow another ten inches and be as thick as my forearm." I hold it out in front of her and push up my sleeve, her eyes growing wide. "I just don't think I'm ready for that."
Bella says nothing for a long moment, making me nervous, until she bursts into laughter and hits me again on the arm. "Bullshit!"
Her mirth makes me smile, and I slap her back lightly, shrugging. "It's hard to handle as it is, I can't imagine having an anaconda swimming around my drawers."
She talks through her laughing, something I'm enjoying hearing immensely. "You're an ass."
"Well, could you imagine it? Trying to say hello to your nether regions?" I begin making a punching motion with my fist. "I think your lady bits would sew themselves up upon seeing that monster aimed right for it."
"Stop!" She's doubled over laughing, hanging onto my knees. The position is one I like and have another comment about, but I don't want to push it. Things are going well.
"I think I've had enough." She pushes the half-empty glass away from her, coming down from her laughter with a big sigh and an equally big smile on her face. "What now?"
"You're not tired of me yet?" No, no, no. Please say no.
"Not just yet."
I wave the waitress over and look at the bill quickly, pulling some twenties out despite Bella's protests that she wanted to pay. Her complaint falls on deaf ears as I lead her out of the restaurant, her new shoes making that slapping sound against the concrete. I take her high-heeled sandals and carry them for her, entwining my other hand through hers.
Leading her back towards my hotel, I'm happy when she leans into me, pulling my arm up and over her shoulders as we walk like a couple in love. She snakes her arm around my waist and I feel her hand move into my back pocket. The thrill that little act gives me is immense, and I don't think my heart could be any fuller of Bella.
"It's a perfect night." She's looking up at the dark sky, the palm fronds waving softly overhead riding the light breeze coming from the gulf, but I hope she's referring to our first official date.
"It's not over yet." Once at the hotel, she begins to walk towards the bar, but I steer her away towards the parking lot.
"Not a nightcap? Hmm another surprise, maybe?"
"Maybe." Walking past a series of cars, I stop us in front of one sitting solitary at the end of the lot. She says nothing upon seeing the vehicle. "Or maybe not," I say nervously.
"Oh my God." Her hand leaves my side and moves to join the other covering her mouth. "It's Frankie."
The day I turned seventeen, in June of our junior year, I took the thousand bucks I'd made over the course of several winters shoveling snow and spent it on a broken-down, rust-encased 1967 Camaro. My mother thought I'd made the biggest mistake ever and tried to convince me to return it, offering even on her tight budget to help me buy a more sensible used car.
I wasn't having it.
Bella and I spent the whole weekend spraying the hunk of metal with gray primer to hide the rust spots and the mismatched green and black doors. Yorkie helped me replace the carburetor, a spare part we found lying around the junkyard that I bought for sixty bucks, and gave me an oil change. It was loud, exhaust-spewing, and ugly as shit, but it was mine.
And it gave Bella and me freedom.
It only lasted through the summer and fall, hence the stealing of Yorkie's bus the next spring. The floor rusted out and my funds ran out to fix it, but we made some fucking lasting memories in the car Bella affectionately named Frankenstein because of all its mismatched parts.
Standing in front of it now, I watch her as she runs a hand over the dry, matte paint job. "How? Where?"
"Same place I got the bus the other day."
"You rented it?"
"I bought it."
Bella turns to me, a strange look on her face I don't quite comprehend. "You were so sad when the tow truck came to take it away."
Hearing Bella's words, I shrug, feeling strangely melancholy as I hadn't realized that when I bought this one. "I guess I'm trying to get everything I lost back."
I'm suddenly teetering on my feet as Bella throws her arms around my neck and squeezes me hard. "I'm so sorry, Edward."
Smoothing her hair down her back, I close my eyes and press my head against hers. "What are you sorry for, baby?"
"I've been so selfish in seeing myself as the only victim here. You told me leaving me was hard, but I haven't even given any thought to what was happening to you. How scared, confused… how frightened you must've been. To have to give everything you know up and become something you had no control over. I just… I'm just sorry I've been so caught up in how I feel and haven't taken into consideration how hard it's been for you, in ways I could never imagine. You must be so sad having to relive it."
"Bella." I take her face in my hands. "I know the road here wasn't what we planned; life didn't give us anything that we ever thought we'd have to deal with. But when I'm with you, I can't think about the what if's and the what might've been's, I can't be sad because we're here, now, on this island, standing in this parking lot together." I kiss her tear-stained face on both cheeks, before placing a kiss on her lips. "I'm the luckiest man alive. Rather, half-alive."
She laugh-sobs and I can feel the tension leave her. "I think I'm pretty lucky too. And for the record, I'm really fucking happy my ill wishes didn't come true, that you are half-alive. And here with me."
We stay locked together for a while, listening to the buzz of the fluorescent light above us and the distant sounds of party-goers on Duval. "What do you say we take Frank out for a ride?"
"I say yes!" I walk her to the passenger side and hold the door for her; Bella enthusiastically climbs in and runs her hand over the cracked, black leather of the center console. Sliding in my seat, I start the engine; the loud growl is satisfying as I step on the gas to rev it. I do that three or four times, making Bella throw her hands out the window and shout a 'woo hoo' as I pull out of the spot and take off down the street.
"Another surprise?" Bella's sitting on the hood of the car in an empty beach parking lot, accepting the pipe I just filled, the music from my phone acting as a backdrop. "Can vampires smoke?"
"Sure. If you think regular teenagers are stressed out, think about how stressed a half-vampire teenager is." I hold my breath a beat longer before exhaling, the smoke rising up against the black sky over the ocean.
"Does it affect you the same way? Cause you used to get pretty ripped." She squints against the smoke and holds it, tilting her head back and letting it out.
"Less, which blew. Just meant I had to smoke more back then."
"You haven't done this lately?"
I think about the other secret I'm keeping. "No, I need to stay focused for work." I thumb my chest. "Big, responsible adult, here." But not tonight, because I'm giving a big ol' fuck you with both middle fingers to the handbook.
Bella takes another toke before passing it to me and leaning back on her hands. "Sucks, doesn't it? We were cursed by having such a kickass adolescence."
"We were definitely the coolest kids I knew."
We pass it back and forth a few more times, reminiscing happily, with no underlying animosity or pain from bringing up the past like it had earlier in the week. My head is cloudy in a really good drug-induced way, and I laugh out loud.
"What?" Bella asks, a lazy haze accompanying her smile.
"Remember the time we piled seven kids in the car, you on my lap, of course, only to get pulled over by your father?"
Bella giggles, pointing at me. "You rolled the window down, all 'Hello, Chief Swan, what can I do for you' and he just stared at you like you were on crack. You were too stoned to realize your hand had a death wish and was dangerously sitting on my left tit."
"I truly thought I was going to die a seventeen-year-old virgin because he was about to cut my dick off."
"That would've been a shame," Bella says, looking at me seriously before she slides off the car. I'm disappointed the evening seems to be coming to a close, but it's best to end it on a high note (no pun intended) with the memories being full of life rather than turning to embers. She comes to stand between my knees, propped up on the front bumper and leans in towards me.
"I've forgiven you."
Such simple words, just three short examples of the English language, but nothing has ever sounded better. With a surge of powerful and unquestionable love for the girl standing in front of me, I lean down so I'm eye level with her. "I absolutely love you." She smiles quickly as I kiss her, her hands snaking around my neck and holding on tightly before she pulls away, taking my hand in hers and pulling me off the hood.
"My favorite memory of you and this car? Thursday, August twelfth." She takes my phone and fiddles with it and the beginning notes of our song, the one playing in her kitchen that first day, begins to flow from the tiny speaker. Swallowing, I follow her to where she leads, standing next to the driver's side door. "Do you remember that night, Edward?"
"It was the second best night of my life."
She quirks a brow at me as she opens the door and pulls the lever to move the seat forward. "Second best?"
"I think this is going to top it." She laughs slightly, smiling, and climbs into the backseat. "Are you sure about this, Bella?" The last thing I want is her acting on impulses she has no control over from weed, booze, and memory lane.
"I'm absolutely sure." She holds her hand out to me and I climb in, not as easy as when I was a thin, gawky teen. I hit my head on the ceiling and fall back on the seat. "Smooth, Mr. Cullen."
"I don't remember the backseat being quite so… compact."
"We managed." Bella moves and straddles my lap, her skirt falling on either side of my legs. She reaches back and pulls one flip flop off, then the other, throwing them out the open window and rests her hands on my shoulders. "I'm so fucking nervous," she admits.
"You're nervous? What about me? If you recall, our first time was uh, less than mind blowing. I think I lasted exactly 2.5 seconds. We became experts, of course, but this is like being a virgin all over again."
"Well then, let's go for 3.5." Bella's mouth closes on mine and any hesitation goes out the window with her shoes. It doesn't take long for me to catch up and my hands slide under her dress and up her thighs as she moves. I grab her ass and squeeze, pushing her into my erection over and over. My knees are bumping the seat with every gyration she makes, but I'm so turned on I ignore the discomfort.
"Fuck, Bella, I want to rip this dress off of you." My mouth moves to her neck and sucks, sliding down and licking right above the beginning of her neckline. "You taste so good." She wiggles her hand down between us and grasps my cock through my pants. "Fuck!"
"You weren't kidding about vampire dick, were you?" She laughs and moves her hand around while I basically drool and make inhuman sounds.
"Laughing is never good when talking about a man's dick."
"Then stop me." Doing as ordered, I tug the top of her dress down and bare her breasts to my needy, deprived eyes. They're just as perfect as I remembered. "You haven't changed; you're still the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." She meets my eyes and watches as I move my mouth to her nipple.
"Oooh, Edward." Her eyes close and her head hangs back, her hair falling down to curl on my knees. "Still so good at that." I take her nipple harder into my mouth and roll my tongue around it, giving it all the attention it's been lacking for thirteen long years. Biting down slightly, she jerks against my cock and grinds herself on me harder.
"I'm going to come like a seventeen-year-old boy if you don't slow down," I grit out between clenched teeth; the feel of her heat through the thin cotton of my pants is almost too much to bear. Raising her up and off me, I lay her down against the seat, her head bent against the sidewall. "Is this okay? Kind of squishing you, here."
"Mmm, it's great, just go back to the boob thing. They missed you." My dick tightens at the fact they missed me, and my mouth returns to her tits, sucking and licking while she's moaning and writhing beneath me. Her hands push my jacket off as best she can with the odd angle, and I take it off the rest of the way and fling it out the window. My shirt is next, her fingers moving down the buttons and pulling the shirttail out before pushing that off my shoulders, too. Soon my shirt and pants have joined everything else that's now lying out on the asphalt, and all that's left is her dress which she's shimmying out of with some difficulty.
She sits up and works her legs out of the dress and in the process, hits my head with hers and my cock with her foot all at the same time. "Ow!"
"Oh my God, I'm sorry!" She's stopped moving and in the moonlight pouring through the open windows I can see she's laughing, her eyes bright with amusement and trying to hold it in with her hand over her mouth. I suck in a breath through my teeth and rub my balls. "I guess this was a bad idea?"
My face turns into the demon, a low growl moving up my throat as her eyes widen at the sound. "This was the best idea. Now pick your ass up so I can get this dress off already and fuck you like you deserve."
She grins maniacally and lifts her butt up, my hands moving swiftly to rip the dress off the rest of the way down her legs and that, too, lands out the window. I pick her up under her arms, her tits jiggling in front of my face, so I suck on them while I move her body so she's sitting up a bit more.
"These are going to have to go, I'm afraid." Fingering the lace covering the last part of her that's been denied to me for far too long, she excitedly nods as I begin to tug slowly. She starts to move her thighs back and forth to help, but before I even get an inch down her legs, I pull hard and hear the satisfying rip of material. "That's still the biggest fucking turn on." The underwear gets spared its trip out the window and I place the garment on the front seat of my car. That's a Key West souvenir right there.
"For me, too. I always loved it when you did that." Bella's breathing heavy, the same look on her face as when I'd do that lying above her on her twin bed, on the beach in the moonlight, or between classes in the janitor's closet.
My eyes roam over her naked body, slightly dewy and trembling from exertion and excitement, until they finally land on the rest of her, my heart swelling as much as my cock at the idea that I'm about to be inside my Bella again.
My finger traces the inside of her thigh, and I repeat the pattern on the other side, watching her stomach convulse and ripple. The idea that the slightest touch from me still makes her react causes almost too much ecstasy for one man to take. I watch her face as she watches my finger, slowly moving around her slit and teasing the wetness I can see in the faint light.
I continue eyeing her as I move my body slowly down, settling between her thighs as best I can in the cramped space, and take a long, greedy lick up her thigh, the tip of my tongue barely brushing against the top of her pussy. Saliva collects in my mouth as I inhale her, and I think about the blood lying just under the surface. I imagine I see the vein pulse there, ready for me to drink from, and I have to close my eyes tightly to get the thought of biting into her while she comes from my fingers out of my mind, so I don't jizz all over the leather seat of my new car.
Waiting is sweet torture, but watching her squirm to angle herself towards my waiting mouth is too much fun. Finally, she hits me on top of the head and pushes me down, so I take a deep breath of her, stick my tongue out, and taste every single bit of her in one swipe.
My eyes roll back into my head as I breathe out onto her wet pussy, intoxicated. "You're better than any wine, any scotch. Your taste is better than any blood I've ever had." I'm pleased to see she looks desperate instead of appalled at my admission, so I continue, saying what I really wanted to at her house this morning. "Bella, when I finally bite into you and drink you in, my fingers are going to be just as frantic to have you come on them as my throat will be to have you coat it."
The sound she makes is between a strangled moan and a pleading rumble, so I begin to devour her in earnest, my tongue sliding between her folds and hitting her in all the right spots. Her hands hold my hair and pull; her legs are as splayed as wide as possible between the front and back of the car. She's bucking and writhing, the leather squeaking beneath us as I suck, nip, and lick her into oblivion. She comes quickly and loudly, her stomach folding and her thighs shaking as I continue to taste her, slowing down my movements with her body.
"You sure you haven't done that since me?" She's panting, wiping the hair that's stuck to her forehead.
"I've done that many, many times in my head while getting myself off in my shower." My throbbing cock reminds me that he missed Bella too, and before she can regain her breathing, I hover over her, our mingled breath steaming up the back window despite the open air flowing through the car from the ocean breeze.
It's an awkward angle, but she slides down and I slide up and suddenly, the head of my cock is nudging her open.
As I slip into her, warm and wet and perfect, I dip my head at the surfing waves crashing through me. It all shoots through me in a burst of energy and light, making my skin burn. Everything I've ever lost, everything I never thought I'd feel again.
Bella. Bella is everything.
I move further, going slow, and she curses slightly as I settle into her fully, a nice tight fit, so I stop and let her adjust a bit. "You okay?"
"It's like," she breathes heavy, "like we just… never… mmm Edward, it's overwhelming." She's looking at me with a slight tear in her eyes. "I've just missed you… I've missed us, so, so much."
I thought it was a trait that half vampires couldn't cry. Now, I see, I just didn't have the right reason until this moment as my eyes begin to blur. Kissing her with everything in me, I pull back and wipe a tear from under her eye that's threatening to escape down her face.
"I absolutely love you." It's shaky, barely a whisper, but an exact repeat of how I said it that first time as a seventeen-year-old dumbstruck kid, locked in her arms as she whispered it back. I don't give her time to answer out of fear she won't, so I just move to kiss her until she starts prompting me with her hips to make her feel good the way only I have ever been allowed to do.
We make good use of the seats crowding us, pushing and arching, bracing and holding, our bodies moving together like there's been no distance between them. My cock is harder than it's ever been, sliding in and out of her as she takes every bit of it, and demands even more. Her nails scratch, the bandage on my hand falls off along the way, but nothing matters except the sounds she's making as she watches me pound into her.
"Oh, Jesus, Edward, I'm going to…" She slides a hand down and touches where we're joined, her tongue coming out to lick her lips as her fingers slide against my shaft, coated in her wetness. I'm barely hanging on, wanting her to come first, when she takes that hand and brings it to her mouth, licking the combination of us off of her like a goddamn ice cream cone.
"Bella, you're too fucking hot for words." I grit my teeth and continue pumping into her until she's yelling and coming and grabbing my ass, ordering me to come deep inside her, which I have no problem doing.
Falling on her, I'm too hot and sweaty to move. Bella's arms around me would prevent me from doing so anyway, and when my breathing slows, I look up at her and see her looking at me the way she did the first time we ever did this. There are stars in her eyes, bright and full of everything we are. The only thing that would make this an identical first time would be-
"I absolutely love you, Edward."
That.
I'm floating on air, on cloud nine, without a care in the world and every other clichéd phrase that fits the moment. I'm whistling (whistling!) as I walk through the palm trees to my room, having dropped Bella off despite every fiber of me wanting to stay. She doesn't want to rush this, wants to go slow, which is fine because tomorrow, I finally have to dispose of my problem and even though she's the best distraction in the world, she's still a distraction and I need a clear head to be done with The Jizzjerk (that's a good one, I'll have to share that with Emmett) once and for all.
Opening the door to my room, I let it close behind me with a content sigh and toss my key card on the dresser. I'm about to take off my jacket when in the reflection of a framed print, I see that the closet door is ajar. Knowing I'm meticulous about leaving everything the same way upon leaving a room to ensure noticeable changes, I walk casually to the floor lamp, watching the closet through the reflection as it soundlessly begins to open behind me.
Grabbing my gun from where it's stashed (a new location every day, not in some mangled drywall, idiot) in the frosted glass dome of the upturned shade, I cock it and turn to the side, extending my arm to hold it out towards the intruder.
I'm less surprised at who I see, and I have to admit I'm slightly impressed he recognized me today, and the fact that he got into my room which I thought I'd safeguarded against lowlifes like myself.
"Who are you?" Jizzper (another good one! I'm on a roll!) demands as he stands across the room, his gun aimed directly at me in return.
"Someone who is really fucking angry you've ruined his good mood."
Huge thanks as always to my GIF-loving pre-reader, LayAtHomeMom, and my favorite person/muse/beta, CarrieZM. Without them I am nothing.
And without you, I am just a bunch of unread words in cyberspace.
