Disclaimer: Not mine

A/N: Many thanks to Dalloway5906, who LOVED this chapter. Hope you all enjoy it as much as she did! More at the bottom!

Chapter 9

Emmett was still waiting for an answer. As if playing Halo could be better than cuddling with this beautiful creature.

Thankfully we were saved from having to make a decision when Carlisle and Alice returned from calling Charlie. Esme, Jasper and Rosalie all followed, eager to hear how the conversation went. I pulled away from Edward's embrace, shooting him a shy smile. I was still reeling, wondering how I was so lucky to have snagged this heart-breaker.

"How did it go?" I questioned.

"It went great." Alice responded. "Charlie only laughed when Carlisle explained about your broken wrist. He said that you had a huge collection of casts in your closet. Gross, by the way." She cringed. "He wanted you to let him know how you were doing. He was going to have your truck towed back to his house."

I sighed in relief, grateful that at least one thing could be so easily resolved. Trying to figure out how to circumvent the contract from Volterra, now that was not going to be as painless.

I looked over to see Edward and Carlisle having some sort of silent conversation. Edward would shake his head yes or no to whatever Carlisle was thinking. It was really frustrating.

"Hey," I said, hitting Edward's chest with my cast, "That is really rude."

He looked apologetic, but again shook his head minutely towards Carlisle.

"I am a big girl. I understand that this shit is going to get heavy, and we will have to find some way to get around these demands. But, if you don't trust me enough to talk about it with me, then how can I trust you to keep me safe?" I implored. There may or may not have been some pouting.

" I am sorry Bella." Carlisle said. "We are used to communicating in the quickest way possible. We forget about how it can exclude others around us. I promise in the future we will attempt to be more verbal."

That would have eased my mind, except Edward was slowly shaking his head again, looking at Alice this time.

"Stop," I yelled, roughly grabbing his face with my hands, which would have been fine except I forgot about the cast. It ended up slamming him in the jaw, and causing pain to shoot up my arm.

"Shit," I yelled, holding my poor broken arm against my chest.

Edward put his hands around my waist to set me on the counter. I only had a second to appreciate how his hands felt wrapped around my waist and the ease with which he lifted me. Oh hormones please calm down.

Carlisle came over to see if I had caused any further damage to my wrist with the face bashing. He decided it was fine and walked out of the room, pulling Esme along with him. He was mumbling something about children and gray hair.

Alice took pity on me and started to tell us what she had been thinking.

"Carlisle has done some research about the Volturi. It seems that they have a huge collection of vampires with gifts like ours. They must have someone who can disrupt my visions. That is the only explanation I have."

"So if we can't rely on Alice, can we count on you Edward?" Emmett asked, picking up the burnt dish from the sink and tossing it out the door and into the woods.

I must have made a face, because he looked over at me.

"Sorry kid, that shit smelled awful." He said.

Ignoring Emmett's dramatics, Edward continued.

"As with Alice, I found Felix's thoughts to be …. fuzzy. They were much clearer when he looked at Bella. I think that when there is some emotion involved, whatever is protecting them is disrupted." He had moved to my side as he said this, rubbing his pinky finger along the outer seam of my jeans. I knew hearing Felix's thoughts had really upset him. As much as I hated to admit it, I liked his possessive behavior.

"So, why don't we just go to this Volterra place and get them all angry. Then short stuff over there can see what is going to happen." Emmett suggested.

"Yeah Emmett, that sounds great. So when my visions reappear and show us all getting slaughtered, what will we do then?" Alice snapped.

"I think that we need to try and get Edward close to them." I suggested. "You never know, maybe he will hear something that can help us. We have at least a month before we have to do anything…. drastic."

They all turned and looked at me. I did not have to be a mind reader to know what they were all thinking. They must have thought that I would just go with the flow, and let them decide how to proceed. That would have been smart being that I had only 19 years of experience, while they had been "alive" for a combined 575 years. The only person who was not looking so thrilled was Edward.

"Who will take care of you if I leave?" He whispered in my ear, his moist breath curling around the shell of my ear.

"Edward, look around. There are 6 other super powered vampires here. I think even I can't get into too much trouble." I said.

He still looked hesitant, and I knew it was not doing much for his ego to have me dismiss him so easily. But I knew if we were going to figure out a way to keep me from having to go back to Volterra we needed to use every advantage we had.

"We don't have to do anything now. We have lots of time before the deadline." Alice said. "Why don't I show Bella to the guest room? She can get cleaned up and I will snag her some more clothes."

I hopped off the counter, narrowly avoiding landing on Edward's toes. I grabbed one of the plastic grocery bags off the counter and started to follow Alice.

"Hey Bella, what is the bag for?" Emmett asked.

Ugh, Emmett you are quickly becoming my least favorite person.

"If I am gonna take a shower, I have to have something to cover my cast with." I said, raising it up as a reminder. "Can't get this thing wet or else it will get all soft and gross."

Emmett started laughing and Edward put a hand over his face, no doubt embarrassed about what Emmett was thinking about.

I was thinking how happy I was that I was not a mind reader when Emmett's boisterous voice interrupted. "Hey Bella, not everything gets soft and gross when it gets wet."

Ah, wet naked Edward. Now that is a nice visual to take into the shower!

Alice and Rosalie took me up into a spare bedroom down the hall from Edward's. It had a spa style bathroom, and I was looking forward to taking a nice hot shower. I was surprised to see a queen sized bed in the middle of the room. With no one in the house being able to sleep, I figured there would be no beds. I was not going to question it, I was happy I did not have to sleep on a couch.

"I'll head into Esme's closet and see what else I can get you to wear. Since we don't sleep, I can't offer you any pyjamas, but I am sure I can find something for you to wear to bed." She said with a grin. I was sure it was not going to be something I wanted to wear in mixed company.

"After you shower we can get on my laptop and order you some new clothes, that should be fun!" She laughed.

Rosalie just rolled her eyes, having had years of dealing with Alice's enthusiasm. I am sure she was happy to have someone else for Alice to play dress up with.

They left the room and I headed into the bathroom. I wrapped the bag around my hand and stripped, walking into the glass walled shower. There were shower heads all over, even on the ceiling. I closed the heavy glass door and turned every knob on high. I was startled when the water came streaming out freezing cold.

"Holy shit," I screamed, trying to adjust the water temperature with one hand.

I heard the door open, slamming into the wall. I was distracted trying to stop the water from giving me hypothermia, and just assumed it was Alice or Rosalie who had come to help me.

"Oh God, please help. My skin is starting to turn blue." I yelled over the noise of the water.

The shower door opened and I expected to see blonde or black hair reach around me to turn the knobs. Imagine my surprise when I saw water droplets coating rust colored hair, and thick, sinewy forearms cover my hand to turn the lever.

The water immediately started to warm up, and I was left standing naked next to a soaking wet Edward.

"I heard you scream. I was worried you were hurt." His voice was rough in the enclosed space.

With the water warming the air around us, his smell was intensified. It was like cool cucumber, limes and vanilla. I was instantly regretting that I had not shaved in over a week. My plastic bag wrapped wrist was pressed against my chest, hoping to keep the girls covered.

Edward cleared his throat and pulled away, closing the shower door behind him. I risked a glance and caught him staring at my back. I could have cared less. He was soaked through, his grey shirt clinging to the unyielding muscles of his chest. I could have used his abs as a xylophone, they were that defined. His black slacks were weighed down by the water, and it was obvious that he was aroused by our naked staring contest. I'm not saying I was not as well, I was just thankful that mine was not as apparent.

He cleared his throat again and pulled his gaze up to my face. I was caught staring this time, and quickly averted my eyes. He mumbled something about a towel and was out of the room faster than my eyes could process.

I turned my face into the water, trying to get my heart rate back to normal. I was startled by another throat being cleared.

"Well, that was just redonkulous." Rosalie laughed, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "You should have seen him running outta here like his ass was on fire!"

Well, his ass IS super hot!

A/N: Remember.... reviews get you an EPOV from this chapter. I will tell you that there will be water involved! Thanks for reading.