To make up for taking so long to post up last chapter and because I felt like abandoning my trivial schoolwork (ha!), I decided to sit down and whip up another chapter.

I barely edited & looked this over, but I was hell-bent on posting it. Sorry for any mistakes/sucky writing. This chapter isn't terrible, especially because something exciting happens, but I'm concerned that I literally just wrote it and then posted it.

Oh, well. Don't forget to leave your thoughts.

PS- There is slightly suggestive material in this chapter, though I personally don't find it too raunchy. I decided that as the story goes on and gets a little more serious, I'll write some lemons (separate from the story). Outtakes, if you will. Sound good? Would you be interested in that? Lemme know.

Hope you enjoy!

SPOV

I watched the scene with disgust. Edward and Bella, once again united. How splendid. How precious. How revolting.

Here was the swine that left her susceptible to the Volturi and she was embracing him and kissing him like a blind fool. Did she have no self-preservation?

My lips twitched involuntarily, despite my mood, remembering that she in fact had no survival skills at all. Back when she was human, her boyfriend was a vampire, for goodness sake. Clearly, the girl had no idea what was good for her.

I clutched the tool Aro had given me and just watched them, comforting myself with the fact that it would all be over soon. I only had to bide my time a little more.

BPOV

We walked back hand in hand, never once taking our eyes off each other's faces. I never again wanted to seep back into the despairing darkness and staring at Edward's face reminded me I never had to again. I knew he felt the same way.

Our pace was slow, savoring each second. Soon enough we reached the house and sensed but did not see Alice sitting on the front steps. She hopped up and danced in front of us until we reluctantly turned to look at her.

"I knew it would happen; it was just a matter of time!" she sang. Her eyes narrowed at me an she attempted to take on a stern expression. "It would have happened sooner had a certain someone not been so frustratingly stubborn!"

Edward chuckled. "Enough, Alice. We're together now."

She beamed at him brilliantly. "Yes," she agreed.

She skipped away, laughing to herself.

Edward smiled at me and led me inside to his bedroom quickly. His hand squeezed mine tightly and when he turned around to look at me, his eyes were scorching with undeniable intent and passion. My unnecessary breath sucked in with surprise but I said nothing.

Was he going to make love to me? Was I ready?

I suppressed a giggle with the realization I'd always be ready for sex with Edward.

He opened his bedroom door but turned away from his room to stare at me for a moment. The sadness and torture in his eyes was unbearable.

"What did I do to deserve you, Bella? I have done… so many horrible things… Why do you love me?"

I smiled. "Why do you love me? What did I ever do to deserve you?" I sighed and shook my head, grinning now. "We can go back and forth with this for eternity, Edward, but let's just accept the fact that we're both inexplicably and violently in love."

He smiled back at me, his morose expression gone, and gently lifted my hand to kiss it. "That sounds magnificent."

He pulled me into his room, almost roughly, earning a gasp of surprise. He grinned at that and pushed me on the bed.

His smile faded and he regarded me with frank eyes, roaming over my curves and my face. "Beautiful," he murmured under his breath as he placed himself next to me.

If my heart still beat, it would've been pounding now. He laughed as though he could hear it.

"Relax, my love."

Damn. I guess I forgot to control my pesky expression.

He reached over and pulled me to his chest, tenderly cupping my face with his strong hands. He stroked me with his thumbs, all the while shaking his head in awe.

Slowly but determinately, he leant in to kiss my willing lips. Edward and I had shared some interesting kisses recently, but nothing compared to this. His tongue lovingly but forcefully met mine and he panted and moaned into my mouth. It felt like we were already making love.

His hands slid down to my lower back, pressing me even tighter to his body. He shivered when I hesitantly placed my left leg over his hip, increasing our contact even more.

"Bella," he whispered urgently. "Please."

Please what?

I then felt the tension between our lower bodies and groaned with pleasure. He was asking me to make love. He wanted to make love. He needed to make love, apparently.

I gladly moved my hips, rubbing them slowly but hard against his. He hissed and kissed me again, even more desperate than before.

And then he pulled a total Edward move. It still surprised me, however.

He pushed me away.

"Please," he whispered again.

"It's okay, Edward," I whispered back, moving my hips again and delighting in his anguished but pleasured sob, "I'll give you everything you want."

He froze. And pushed me away even more so that now I was practically lying on the other side of the bed. The hurt I felt then was indescribable and, if I could, I'd have been hysterically crying. I may have been vampire now, with my resilient flesh and my cold, stone body, but I was still the same insecure and easily-wounded Bella inside.

He watched me but did nothing to comfort me. What happened? I felt the fact that he wanted me very clearly just a moment before.

He closed his eyes and groaned. "You still doubt me. I can see it in your eyes."

"I don't understand you," I clarified softly.

"What?" His eyes popped open.

"I thought… you wanted me," I explained pathetically, looking away from him.

He pulled me closer to him again, though nowhere near as close as we'd been.

"Of course I want you. More than you know. It's taking every last ounce of my self-control to not ravish you this second. The need I have for you, the want, Bella- it's almost excruciating. Unbearable. And yet I don't want to ever stop feeling this way." His eyes shut. "Oh, Bella. I want to make love to you. So badly."

I stopped breathing, glad I no longer needed to. I would surely have suffocated. His words aroused me to the point that I very nearly pounced on him. His next words stopped me, however.

"But I can't."

I sat up, not even bothering to hide my agonized expression. "Why not?" I cried.

He smiled, amused, and I nearly dismembered him and burnt him on the spot. How dare he smile at a time like this? The only thing that made me refrain was the fact that I was uncontrollably in love with him.

When he started laughing, I decided that was but a small little detail.

"Bella. I'm not saying I'm never going to make love to you. That would be a sin in and of itself, the way I love and desire you." He poked my nose with his index finger. "Your thought processes are incredibly entertaining sometimes, love. Completely absurd, but entertaining nonetheless."

"I don't get it," I said.

He smiled wider and stood, lifting me up with him. He brought me to the middle of the room and then ran over into his dresser for something.

"This better not be a gift, Edward," I said warily. "It A- won't distract me and B- will piss me off."

He laughed again and came back to me. His eyes held mine and his expression sobered. Eyes smoldering with love, he brought my left hand once more to his lips and kissed the ring finger delicately. His eyes were blazing with such passion that I hardly recognized the significance of it.

"For years I wandered the earth in solitude. Decades. You know all too well I considered myself complete as a single being. And you know all too well how ridiculous that thought was." He looked vulnerable as he continued. "If I were to be completely honest with myself now, I would admit that I knew I was lying every time I said that. Still, I convinced myself that I was whole. It wasn't until I met you, the very purpose I'm sure I was placed on this planet, that I saw how devastatingly alone and fragmented I was all those moonless nights."

He kissed my finger again and knelt before me. I knew what he was doing then. Everything in the world stopped.

"I know you've never been one for theatrics and customs. And I know, too, that we only just once again declared ourselves." His eyes exploded with love and desperation. "But I can't wait any longer, Bella. From the very first instant I saw you, I knew you were mine, even if I didn't know it consciously yet. I want you, in every sense of the word. But more importantly, I want you as my wife, to cement the fact that you truly belong to me as I you." He kissed my finger once more before pulling out a black velvet box that was opened to reveal the most beautiful ring I'd ever seen. It dazzled me almost as much as Edward's eyes. Almost.

"Bella Marie Swan, my own, wonderful angel… Be my wife? Be mine? Marry me."

I said the first thing that came to mind, probably because it was the easiest. And probably because it was truly what I felt.

"Yes."

And all the happiness and love and promise in the world existed in that one word.