(A/N): An Early Update! Yay! :D
Thanks to RandomatGedz, my awesome beta!
Disclaimer: Anything Twi-related in this story belong to Stephenie Meyer
Living Royal
Chapter Twenty Four
Bella stood frozen staring at Edward as he stared at the woman standing across the room.
Who the hell was Irina?
She was dying to ask that question but was too afraid to know the answer.
"Bella? Are you okay?"
Alice, God keep her, straight to the rescue.
"Um, yeah. I just need to use the restroom. Show me where it is?" Alice nodded slowly looking extremely confused. She led Bella through a hallway to where the bathroom was. They left Edward standing where he was, still frozen in place.
"Okay, what's going on here? You've been here before, Bella. You know where the bathroom is." Alice wondered.
Bella just pulled her inside the bathroom and shut the door behind them.
"I know," She sighed. "I just needed to get out of there for a second."
"Why? What happened? Did you and Edward fight or something?"
"No. Not yet, anyway." Bella muttered dismally.
"What is it then? You guys looked really happy when you walked in, what happened since then?"
"Irina happened." Bella muttered again scornfully.
"Irina Volturi?"
Bella's head snapped towards Alice in surprise. "You know her?"
Alice snorted, "Who doesn't? Besides, this is my party. I know everyone here."
"Who is she?" Bella asked impatiently, wanting Alice to get to the point already.
"She's the heiress to the Volturi fortune. Don't tell me you've never heard of Irina or the Volturi's?"
Bella shook her head, "Obviously not, Alice. Get to the point." She'd never heard of anyone with the name Irina before.
What kind of name was Irina anyway? She thought bitterly.
"Okay okay. Well, you know that Jazz's family is a big deal in the royal court, right? They're very rich and powerful and very close to many of the British nobles." Bella nodded. She knew most of that before. She was always surprised that Jasper was so down to earth, coming from such a rich family, but after meeting Edward all of her preconceived notions have been shot to hell.
"The Volturi's and the Hales are very close. So Jasper and Irina practically grew up together, he never liked her though. He says that her family are a bunch of snobs that do nothing but take advantage of heir connections to make more connections. But Jasper still has to act nice to them for his parent's sake. We bumped into Irina a couple days ago and she said that she was staying in town for a few weeks, so we had to invite her. I'm so sorry, Bella. If I knew that she would cause any trouble for you, I would've made Jasper…"
"It's alright, Alice." Bella interrupted her. "It wasn't your fault. Actually I'm not sure what is going on exactly."
"If you're not sure, then what are you doing in here instead of out here enjoying the party?"
"If you'd seen the look on Edward's face when he saw her you would've understood why I needed a few minutes to regroup before I head out there and rip her fake hair extensions right off." Bella hissed.
"Ooh, feisty Bella." Alice teased her. "But shouldn't you just ask Edward about her instead of sitting here freaking out?"
"I'm not freaking out!" Bella almost yelled.
"Yes, you are."
"Am not."
Before their fascinating debate could continue a knock sounded at the bathroom door.
"Bella, are you in there? Baby, can you please come out?" Bella's heart skipped a beat like it always did when she heard Edward's voice.
He was still calling her baby.
That's a good sign right? At least he hadn't run off with that skank yet.
Stop it, Bella! You don't know what's going on yet.
"Um, I'll be right out." Bella called out through the door.
"You'll be out now!" Alice whisper/yelled at her while she opened the door effectively pushing Bella out of the bathroom and into Edward's arms.
"Hey there." Edward looked down at her with Bella's favourite crooked smile. Alice slipped out from behind Bella, waved at Edward and quickly retreated to rejoin the party.
"Hi, uh, sorry I needed to use the bathroom." She stuttered.
"And you needed Alice with you?" Edward looked skeptical.
"Don't you know that girls always like to go to the bathroom together?"
"I thought that only applied to public bathrooms."
"What are you a detective now? It applies to all bathrooms!" Bella yelled.
"Alright, whatever you say." Edward held his hands up palms forward, a sign of giving up. "Now do you want to tell me why you were hiding out in the bathroom?"
"I wanted to give you some alone time with your girlfriend."
Edward frowned, "My girlfriend?"
"Irina Volturi? Ring any bells?"
"Actually, yes, it does. She went to the same school I went to. She and her sisters Kate and Rebecca were absolute nightmares, I can't believe Jasper and Alice invited her."
"Wait, that's why you froze up when you saw her, because you hated her?"
"Yes, pretty much. Why were you jealous?" Edward winked playfully.
Bella slapped him hard on the chest. "You bloody asshole! You scared the crap out of me!"
Edward hugged Bella trying to stop her attack. "Sorry! Is that why you ran off like that? Bella I thought we spoke about this…We said that we're going to talk instead of…"
"Yes, I know. But I'm allowed to freak out when a woman who looks like she belongs on the cover of Vogue starts making googly eyes at you." Bella pouted knowing that Edward thought she looked cute when she did that.
"Irina flirts with every guy she meets, it's nothing. She's usually harmless."
"Oh, that's comforting." Bella rolled her eyes.
"Besides, I spoke to Irina just now and you don't need to worry. She'll be leaving as soon as possible."
"You did what? What did she say?"
"Apparently she was sent by Tanya. She thought she was helping me. She thought we were making a mistake, moving too fast."
"Are we?" Bella breathed, getting chocked up. "Are we moving too fast?"
"What? No! Of course not! Look, Tanya had no right to interfere in the first place. She might've been my closest friend once but she just crossed the line. She doesn't know anything about us, about what we've been through, that's why she assumed that she was doing me a favour by sending Irina over here, like I would somehow see the light when I saw her again." Edward snorted. "Like that could ever happen."
"Hey," Edward lifted Bella's head up with a finger under her chin when she remained quiet after his explanation. "You're the one I'm engaged to, you're the one I want to marry. You're the one I love. Nothing is ever going to change that."
Bella sighed and rested her forehead against his. "I know. It's just sometimes I can't help it and I start thinking that sooner or later you're going to think that this is a huge mistake, that you could obviously do better."
Edward scowled, "I hate it when you talk about yourself like that. Bella, you're everything to me. Actually ,we couldn't be more perfect for each other if I'd picked you out of a catalogue."
"Really?" Bella asked, softly.
Edward stroked her cheek and smiled, "Really."
"Ugh, I wish all of the drama would just stop for a while. When can we just be together without having to worry about anything else?" She rested her head against his chest letting the thrum of his heartbeat calm her nerves.
"How about next week?" He asked cautiously.
Bella raised her head to look up at him, "What?"
"This was supposed to be a surprise but I guess now's a good time. I want to take you to France next week for the summer holiday. We don't have to stay there for the whole summer, just until we get bored. My family has a place in the south of France; it's beautiful there this time of year. We can go to Paris too. See the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre…so, what do you think?" He took a breath and held it, waiting for her answer.
Bella smiled widely, "You had me at next week."
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Bella spent the next week preparing for the trip to France. To say that she was excited would be an understatement. She had never been there before but had always dreamed of going. She'd just never had the chance.
The only problem that dampened Bella's enthusiasm was Irina.
The woman could not get a hint. She continued to call Edward incessantly even though he never answered her calls. He had to block her number after the thirtieth time she tried calling him, which relieved Bella more than she was willing to admit.
Thank God, they'd be going away for a while. Bella knew that this wasn't a permanent solution and that escaping wouldn't exactly fix anything, but she knew that Edward and she really needed this break. They had more than earned it too.
Alice took Bella shopping, of course. She insisted that Bella needed a bikini for the trip and would not let her back out of buying one. She also helped her buy something 'extra special' for their sexy time. Bella never understood how Alice got away with speaking like that.
Queen Esme called a few days before they were set to leave for France to wish them a safe trip. She wanted to thank Bella too about going with her to the Hospital the last time she and Edward were in London. Bella's last visit to the children's hospital was largely talked about in the media. Everyone was trying to guess if Bella would be as good a Queen as Esme when the time comes. Bella was terrified by the thought of becoming Queen in itself. Queen Esme was just happy that Bella helped her get attention to the cause itself. She told Bella that she was a natural when it came to charitable causes which would help her a lot when she became Queen.
That helped ease Bella's worries. Just a little.
Bella called her parents after that to tell them that she wouldn't be spending the entire holiday with them. The news was met with a bit of grumbling from Charlie but with a lot of squealing from Renee when she found out exactly where they would be going.
She reminded Bella to take a camera and take as many photos as possible so she would be able to see them later on.
Bella really wished she could take her mum with her. She knew that Renee had always wanted to get out of Forks, but she stayed for her and Charlie. She knew that Charlie loved Forks and would never leave it and she was willing to stay for him, because she loved him.
Bella knew she'd do the same for Edward and that he'd do it for her too. Not because love is blind or all that stuff they sell in the movies, but because love makes you willing to do what it takes for two people to stay together. It takes work and determination and it's not easy, but the moments when you realize that you are loved and wanted make it worth it.
God, she was getting mushy. She never thought like that when she was with Jacob. He always expected her to do what he wanted and she was ashamed of the fact that most times she went along with it. The only thing she never budged on was coming to St. Andrews and Jacob had actually ended up following her, which made her quite proud of sticking with her decision.
Turns out it was all for nothing anyway. Last she heard about Jacob he had transferred back to a different college closer to home. At least now there'd be no chance of bumping into him again.
"Hey, what's the serious face for?" Edward voice snapped Bella out of her thoughts. She'd stopped right in the middle of packing and had been staring off into space for a while.
"Um, nothing." She smiled at him. "I just spaced out."
"Well, come on. We have to hurry. France awaits ma petite." He wrapped his arms around her from behind.
Bella giggled. "Your French accent sucks."
He gasped pretending to be horrified, "And here I thought I could seduce you with my extensive knowledge of the language." He pouted acting dismayed.
Bella turned around in his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck leaning into him.
"Don't worry; you definitely don't need to speak fluent French to seduce me. You have other, um, attributes."
Edward nuzzled her neck, "I do, huh?"
"Yup." Bella breathed.
"Then let's put them to good use." He started kissing her neck.
"What about the packing?" Bella moaned.
"Forget the packing. I'll buy you new clothes when we get there."
They spent the rest of the day busy…with each other. But the packing still got done just in time for them to leave for the private air strip where the Royal private jet awaited.
Talk about Living Royal.
(A/N): Next Chapter - FRANCE! :D
Thanks for all your amazing reviews…but I did notice that I'm getting way more alerts than actual reviews :( Just thought I should mention it :) But seriously thank you guys so much for reading this story…I'm sending BritishWard to everyone for the night ;) take care of him for me, ladies! :D
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