The person caught and held me before I hit.
Crap.
I glare at my captor and opened my mouth to scream. A hand flew up and covered my mouth.
And then I took a look at the man in front of me. The figure was familiar, I realized and closed my mouth.
The strong but trim build. The wild hair. The sharp angles of his jaw and cheekbones. The smell. His glowing eyes.
My heart-rate escalated dramatically.
"First you claim you aren't afraid, then you plow head-on into someone who may or may not have a weapon. Bella, what am I going to do with you?"
I fainted, shocked.
"Bella! Wake up."
I found I had been relocated to my bed.
And then I remembered what had happened.
"Edward?" I opened my eyes slowly, already knowing it was him. Only one person had a voice that sweet. Gentile. Angry?
"Are you okay?" Edward asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," I muttered, sitting up. "What are you doing here?"
"Actually, I've been keeping an eye on you," he confessed. "I didn't want you to hurt yourself somehow."
"Oh," I said, suddenly feeling cheated. "But you didn't talk to me?"
"Really, you weren't supposed to know I was in here," he said. "I was only checking up on you. I didn't think you would notice if I stayed a while to see you, but clearly I was wrong."
"What about school?" I asked.
"I came down with a terrible case of the stomach bug," he said, grinning impishly.
I sat up and crossed my arms. "So, did I do anything amusing?"
He laughed and closed his mouth tight, shaking his head.
I glared. "What did I do?"
He managed to compose himself, but the twinkle in his eye was a dead giveaway.
"Please tell me?" I begged.
His eyes widened. "That's unfair."
"What?" I asked, confused.
He shook his head. "Nothing." He frowned. "The question?"
I just stared at him for a moment.
"What was it that I did that was so amusing to you?" I asked again.
"Not so much you, more towards your music," he laughed. "Poison?"
"Huh?"
"The CD," he said, pointing to the player.
"Oh! I just grabbed a CD," I told him.
"And singing to it," he murmured.
I blushed. "Was I that bad?"
"No, Bella, of course not," he said. "It was just the song."
I blinked up at him, thoroughly confused. "What's wrong with it?"
He raised his eyebrows.
And then I got it. Talk Dirty to Me. Exactly what I want my boyfriend to hear me sing. In the shower. Not.
I hid my face in the pillow, turning away from him. I'm sure he would have smelled the blush from a mile away.
He laughed and I felt the bed shift as he sat down on it. He turned me back to face him again and smiled gently. "You shouldn't be so embarrassed. It's only a song."
"Bit late for that," I muttered.
"No matter," he said. "We have time to talk about it.
"I don't want to talk about it," I pouted.
"You're quite cute when you do that," Edward murmured.
"We all have our moments."
"I don't think 24/7 is counted as a moment," he said.
I was no longer paying attention. His eyes were holding all of my attention at the moment. "Hmm?"
I hadn't realized that I was tracing his side until he grabbed my hand and hissed in a breath softly, pulling my arm around his body. He put his hands covered the sides of my face then.
His lips covered mine, and I leaned into his kiss. He trailed his fingers up the side of my leg and on to my waist possessively, marking territory.
Alice jumped in the window. "Hey, there, Bel-la…Whoa," she giggled. "Didn't see that one coming."
Edward sat up and locked his hands firmly together.
Jasper jumped through the window too, followed by Emmett.
"Hi, Bella!" Emmett said enthusiastically.
"Hey, guys," I said, blushing and glancing at Edward.
"Okay, she's seen you now. You can leave," Edward said.
Jasper made a strange noise deep in his throat. "Alice, we should go. Now. He's…I'm…let's go." He grabbed her arm and ran out the window with her.
Emmett raised an eyebrow. "Is he-"
"Yes," Edward cut him off curtly.
"And that means you're-"
"Yes," Edward said, cutting him off again. "Would you mind leaving?"
"And go where?" Emmett asked.
"Your room," Edward growled.
"Fine," Emmett said. "Be careful with her, Edward. If you hurt her, I'll have to hurt you." It sounded like a threat, but then he grinned. "Night, Bella. Hope you aren't sore in the morning."
Edward ran at him and he jumped out the window.
"Do I want to know?" I asked carefully.
He shrugged and walked back. "You might not."
"But I'm curious," I muttered.
"And that isn't always a good thing. Curiosity killed the cat."
"No one ever timed how long it took for curiosity to kill the cat, so I might be safe," I said, smiling.
"Ah, but no one knows how the cat died, only that curiosity killed it. And beside's. You're a danger magnet," Edward added, sitting back down next to me. "I think it's time for you to go to sleep."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Stop trying to distract me. It's not going to work. What's going on?"
"Well, I don't see why you want to know so badly," he said, trying to pull my attention in a different direction again.
"I think you of all people can understand that," I said. "Please tell me? I promise not to laugh or anything."
Edward hesitated and cleared his throat uneasily. "I was a bit…well…you see," he hesitated before he rushed on so that his speech was almost too fast for me to follow, "Alice wouldn't have come if she had seen what was going on -that was a bit of an accident-, but she didn't because what I did was spontaneous and it was just by coincidence that they came at the time that I started that. When she came in I was…I was a bit shocked, seeing what I was doing through her eyes. And Jasper came in after Emmett and he felt what I was feeling and the arousal fired back at me, doubling and shot right back at him and that's why he left with Alice so fast. I kicked Emmett out because he would just tease about it like he did. Don't worry, though, I'm under control now."
One word had caught my attention.
"Arousal?" That was something I never expected of Edward.
"Yes," he said, sighing. "I'd say I felt bad about Jasper, but at least he can run off his problem with Alice. I, on the other hand…"
I started to protest that when he cut me off.
"No, Bella. I could hurt you. I've explained this before. It would be too dangerous to you if I were that close, you being human still. I won't take any-"
"Edward!" he stopped and stared at me, surprised at my outburst. "I get it! You don't want to."
Feeling thoroughly embarrassed, I turned away and lay down, covering myself in a blanket.
I felt his cold body slide up behind mine. His breath tickled my ear. "You're wrong," he whispered. "I do want to. It just isn't possible right now. It might be best to just leave it at that."
I decided not to push it and turned to face him. "Okay."
He put his arms around me. "Now then, I think I can blame you for what happened though," he teased softly.
I frowned. He never blamed me for anything, for some strange reason. "Why's that?"
He grinned crookedly. "You started it."
"How?" I asked confusedly.
He sighed. "Never mind."
"Besides. You started it, really," I muttered.
"How's that?"
"You dazzled me. Something was bound to happen, I was just surprised it came from you and not me…well until later," I said, blushing.
"Ah, but you were the one who was doing the tempting. That touch," he groaned.
I frowned. "Do you mean this?" I asked, slipping my hand beneath the fabric of his shirt before running my now trembling fingers over his side again.
He stopped me. "Yes."
"I'll have to remember that," I murmured.
His eyes locked onto mine and I forgot what I had done. I was never going to win, was I?
