A Deathbed Promise

Chapter 5—Some People Bring Out the Best in a Person….Others the Worst (Living it Up)

An: I'm back. And I'm back when I said would be! Thank goodness. I want to thank all the people who have followed/favorite this story. It makes my heart feel happy. But I really want to hear from the people who were originally here with the story in the beginning. I just want to know that I didn't chase you off. No reviews but there are more chapter and that will change. This is a pretty short chapter with Emmett and Bella. Emmett just returned and looks like Bella may find a backbone. Just read and join me at the bottom.

By the time Emmett lowered her to the floor, turning her in his arms to face him, Bella's shock had turned into outrage. What in the hell did he think he was doing was more like it, scaring the life out of her like that? And what was he doing home anyway? He wasn't expected for another couple of hours.

But she said nothing, glaring up into angry blue eyes with angry eyes herself, her lips pressed firmly together in mutinous silence for fear that this time her temper might take her run off at the mouth with decidedly unwise words.

Emmett wasn't similarly reticent. "I thought have Anthony's baby meant the world to you," he flung at her. "Whatever possessed you to get up on that ladder? You might have fallen."

Hurt that he would imply she would recklessly risk Anthony's child drove her to protest. "I was perfectly safe," she flung back, "till you grabbed me and dragged me off into thin air. That nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Which was no exaggeration, Bella realized. Why, her heart was going so fast that a heart attack was still on the cards!

Suddenly aware that his hands were still around her waist, she brushed them off in a type of panic and hurriedly spun away from him, almost tripping over the ladder in the process, knocking her shin against one of the legs. The sharp pain, plus her uncharacteristic clumsiness, made her mad as a hatter and she rounded on him.

"Now look what you've done!" she snapped.

His sigh had a martyred sound to it. "I haven't done anything, Isabella, except try to look after you. Anthony put your welfare in my hands. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I let him down where you were concerned."

Bella's dismay was instant. She was the one letting Anthony down. Here she was again, acting like a bitch and generally being a right pain in the ass. Underneath, she knew she'd been a bit silly getting on that ladder. Maria had warned her not to do anything of the kind but she'd thought she knew better. Remorse mingled with guilt and an undermining awareness of her own stupidity.

"I'm sorry," she said in a voice raw with emotion, her eyes dropping to the floor. "I won't do it again."

"I hope not," he grumped. "But I'm still going to give my mother and Maria firm instructions the next time I go away. You obviously can't be trusted to use common sense when it comes to passion you have for cleaning."

Her eyes jerked up to his, alarmed at the thought she might have caused trouble for Maria and Elizabeth. "Oh, please don't say anything to them," she begged. "It wasn't their fault. Truly. They didn't even know what I was doing. Maria was busy in the kitchen and your mother was lying down."

His expression was disbelieving. "You mean you sneak around this house, cleaning things while no one is looking? What is it with you? Is cleaning some sort of secret addiction of yours? Are you one of those maniacally house-proud females who can't walk past a surface without running their finger along to check for dust?"

"No, of course not! But I do like to see a job done properly. Maria had the whole house professionally spring-cleaned while you were away, and I was thinking how great everything looked. When I noticed all the dust in the ceiling fans, I just had to clean them."

"She just had to do them," he repeated drily.

Bella's chin lifted in defiance of his sarcasm. "Yes," she shot back. "My passion for cleaning got the better of me!"

"Well well," he drawled, one eyebrow lifting in surprise at her counter-attack. "Not such a frightened little kitten after all, are you? I've noticed you've also finally got over that infernal stammer, thank God. Can I hope it's permanent?"

Bella glared at him. "I certainly hope so," she bit out.

He folded his arms and leaned back against the desk behind him, a drily amused smile tugging at his lips. "So, have you decided I'm not such a monster after all?"

Bella couldn't help staring at him. Not once, in all the time she'd known Emmett had he smiled at her in any way, shape or form. It quite transformed his face, bringing some warmth to his coldly handsome features, his cruel mouth softening to a sensual curve, his icy blue eyes actually glittering with a surprising degree of humanity and humor.

It threw her to be suddenly confronted with the Emmett. Anthony had once described to her, but which she has never seen for herself, the Emmett who wouldn't have to work too hard to have women throwing themselves at his head. Or was it his feet?

For a few disarming seconds, she felt the pull of his physical appeal before a bitter resentment surfaced, totally obliterating any vulnerability to such a superficial and strictly god-given charm. Anthony had been worth ten of this man!

"I've never thought of you as an actual monster, Emmett," Bella said stiffly.

"You could have fooled me," he said, his smile widening.

Bella's heart fluttered anew under its impact, her stomach immediately clenching down hard in dismay. Surely she couldn't be attracted to Anthony's brother. She just couldn't!

But it seemed she was…

"Some people bring out the best in a person," she snapped in self-disgust. "Others the worst."

The smile faded. And so did the charm. It was like a light being switched off, and Bella was flooded with relief. It had been a momentary lapse, that was all. How could she possibly feel anything for Emmett like that?

He straightened abruptly, his arms falling to his sides, his large chest rising and falling with a ragged sigh. Suddenly he looked and sounded very tired, his bleakness dredging up some of Bella's earlier sympathetic feelings for him.

"Yes," he admitted grudgingly. "Anthony had that talent. I'll give him that. He made people love him, despite his obvious failings. I have no idea how he managed it," he added, shaking his head.

The word "failings" evoked a fierce, maternal-style protectiveness in Bella. "You're always implying Anthony was a failure and a loser," she accused. "But he wasn't. If success is measured by how much a person is truly valued by others, then he was the greatest success of all time."

Emmett stared straight at her, yet through her, his eyes oddly dead. "You could be right, Bella. You could be right." He turned and walked around behind the desk, flopping down into the large leather chair and briefly leaning back with his eyes closed before opening them again and glancing over at her.

"Go and tell Maria I'm home, will you?" he asked rather wearily. "Dinner at seven, if possible. I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on tonight."

"Would…would you like me to bring you a cup of coffee?" she offered hesitantly as a type of apology. The last thing she wanted was to be at odds with Emmett all the time.

"Right now, you mean?"

"Yes."

"No, thanks. I need something a little stronger than that. I'll get myself a proper drink in a minute. Oh, for God's sake, don't go picking up that damn ladder!" he suddenly roared, snapping forward on his chair. "And for pity's sake take off that ghastly scarf. You look like , the cleaning lady."

Bella blushed as she realized she had forgotten all about the scarf. She whipped a hand up to drag off the offending scrap of plaid, feeling mortified at having looked silly in front of Emmett, who was always in the picture of tailored perfection, his expensive business suits never creased, his shirt as dazzlingly white as his teeth, his black wavy hair never out of place.

"There's no need to yell," she said unhappily. "And there's no need to make me feel awful."

His sigh carried self-irritation. "I wasn't trying to make you feel awful. If anyone feels awful around here, it's me."

"I don't know why," she muttered. "You're the one who's been away, living it up on the Gold Coast."

"Hardly living it up, Bella. I was there in business."

"Oh, yeah, sure."

They stared at each other, Bella with obvious cynicism in her eyes and Emmett with shock.

But he wasn't shocked for long, his face growing hard and resentful as cold blue eyes raked over her. Bella gulped, already regretting her foolhardiness at revealing she knew the purpose of his little trip away.

"I don't understand your attitude," he bit out. "All I ever promised you was that I would be discreet. I was. Very. And I will continue to be till we're divorced. Meanwhile, don't you ever sit in judgment of me. I won't stand for it!" He thumped the desk with his balled fist and glowered at her. "I certainly won't be made to guilty when I have done nothing to feel to feel bloody guilty over! So I spent a couple of nights with a woman? Big deal. What did you expect me to do in these conditions? Satisfy myself like some schoolboy? God, girl, grow up! This is real life here and in real life, real men go to bed with real women. Comprends?

She shivered under the force of his quite terrifying fury. "Y-yes," she said in a small, quavering voice. "I…I…understand."

His face twisted into a grimace at the sound of her stammering again. "Go," he ordered with a groan, waving an impatient hand as he slumped back in the chair, his eyes closing. "Just go…"

She went.

AN: So was Emmett an ass again? I think that he needed to tell her how it is. Remember, Bella is only about 19 in this story. She is really young and naïve. I know this is a really short chapter, but there is a reason for it. The next chapter will be a bit long and has a lot of seriousness in it. You will learned of Bella's past. How she ended up with Anthony mostly. You will see a softer side of Emmett that you wouldn't think possible. Bella and Emmett get a lot closer together. So the next chapter will be really good. But you all will really hate me at the same time.

I'm hoping to update this weekend. If not, then sometime next week for sure. Please review. I need to know what you all think about this.