Disclaimer: Twilight = not mine

A/N: Thank you all so very much for the reviews. I can't tell you enough, how grateful I am to you for taking the time to review. This chapter gave me a bit of trouble. I struggled and struggled, and rewrote this chapter a gabillion times. Okay, so maybe I rewrote it once or twice. Make that three times. *sigh* I'm still not completely satisfied with it, but it's not as bad as it was.

Design For Life

"The universality of tattooing is a curious subject for speculation." ~James Cook

BPOV

Lying in Edward's old bed that night, I couldn't help but think about everything that had just happened. I had known that Caius was dangerous, but I hadn't realized how dangerous. The fact that he sent two men to break into our house and do God knows what to us really solidified the fact that we were dealing with an extremely dangerous man. Just thinking about what could've happened to the two of us was enough to make my blood run cold.

I looked down at the bronze hair that was lying against my chest and let out a little sigh. Gently, I ran my fingers through his hair, so very grateful that nothing bad had happened to him. I knew for a fact that I couldn't live without him. I wouldn't even want to try. He was my everything. After Caius was caught, and I prayed to every God out there that he was, I was going to ask Edward to marry me. I never wanted to spend a single day without him by my side, and I was positive that he felt the same.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice soft and sleepy.

"Not really," I told him.

He lifted his head off my chest and pulled me to him. Wrapped safely in his arms, it was my turn to let the dam break. Tears that I hadn't realized I'd been holding back, came spilling out. I have no idea how long I cried, but I felt exhausted afterwards.

"We'll get through this," he told me, and I knew we would.

I was just afraid that we wouldn't get through it without someone getting seriously hurt. Poor Jason had to go get fourteen stitches in his head because he was watching out for us. It could have been worse. They could've killed him and that was a terrifying thought.

I didn't sleep worth shit that night. Edward had managed to doze off, but I couldn't stop thinking. I wanted Caius gone. I wanted to go back to my life the way it was before. I began to think that maybe I should use myself as bait. That's what they did in the movies, right? Used someone as bait to capture the bad guy. I didn't want to be bait, but if it meant catching Caius quicker, then I was willing. Making up my mind, I decided to discuss it with Mark next time I talked to him.

At around five, I gave up any pretenses of sleeping and slipped out of bed. Throwing some old clothes of Edward's on, I headed downstairs. I was heading to the kitchen for a cup of tea when I heard soft voices coming from the living room.

"I'm so worried, Carlisle," I heard Esme say.

Peeking around the corner, I saw Esme curled up in Carlisle's lap on the couch. Her head was tucked against his shoulder, and he had his arms wrapped around her. It was a beautiful and sweet sight. Not wanting to interrupt them, I tiptoed into the kitchen and began to make some tea. A few minutes later, Esme came in.

"Bella, dear. What in the world are you doing up at this hour?"

"Couldn't sleep," I told her.

She gave me a warm hug before shooing me over to the table. We made small talk as she cooked and before long the scent of bacon and eggs was in the air. I dug in when she put a plate in front of me, not realizing how hungry I was. I was halfway through my breakfast, when a warm kiss was placed up on my head. I'd been so focused on my food that I hadn't noticed Edward come in.

"Hey, sweet girl. I was wondering where you went."

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep, and I didn't want to wake you up," I told him before kissing him lightly.

"I didn't like waking up without you," he whispered in my ear.

After breakfast, I called Jake and Seth and let them know everything that happened. I told them that I wasn't feeling up for coming into work.

"Of course you don't. Even if you showed up, I'd just send you back home," Jake told me. "Take the day off to spend with your family."

I truly had the best bosses and friends in the world. Edward and Emmett took the day off as well. The three of us spent the day just hanging out. Emmett attempted to keep my mind occupied by forcing me to play video games with him. I was horrible at them, but not nearly as bad as Edward.

"Seriously, Edward? Seriously? That's like, the tenth time you've killed one of your own guys. How in the world can you be so bad at this?" Emmett questioned.

Edward gave Emmett a scowl. "You know I hate shooting games. Why the heck do you insist I play them?"

"Dude, they're awesome!"

Edward tossed the controller on the floor, crossed his arms, and refused to play anymore. It was sort of funny to see him acting all put out and childish.

"I can think of something that's way more fun than playing video games," I whispered in his ear.

A blush rose up on his cheeks before he flashed me a sexy grin.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

To Emmett's surprise and laughter, Edward hauled me up and tossed me over his shoulder before climbing the stairs.

At around six, Esme knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to come down for dinner. Edward groaned, knowing that we were going to have to face his family after having spent a majority of our day in bed.

"Emmett's going to embarrass me. I know it," he grumbled as we climbed out of bed and headed toward the shower.

"Of course he will. That's what Emmett does. Just ignore him. Or fight back," I told him, handing him the shampoo.

After our shower, which had turned into a quickie, we got dressed and headed downstairs. Emmett was waiting for us at the bottom.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to come out of their room. Did you have fun?"

I grinned at him. "Most definitely."

Edward just smiled and shook his head at Emmett before following him into the kitchen. It seemed that Alice and Jasper had decided to join us for dinner. Once dinner was over, we were all sprawled around the living room listening to music and relaxing. It was nice to forget the outside world for a while. However, my bliss was interrupted when Mark knocked on the door.

"Hey, gang," he said as he came into the living room with Carlisle behind him.

Instantly, I sat up and grabbed Edward's hand. Mark's eyes were tired and he looked haggard. He took a seat on the couch next to Edward and I.

"I'm here because we've learned some things from the two men who broke into your house. Their names are James Victor and Eric Yorkie. As I'm sure you've figured out by now, they work for Caius. He sent them here to find the drugs and to do whatever was necessary to get them back."

I swallowed the lump of fear that was in my throat and gripped Edward's hand tighter. His thumb rubbed over the top of my hand in an attempt to soothe me. Surprisingly, it helped.

"Caius truly believes that you have the drugs. I know that you would never willingly hide drugs for anyone. Could it be that Laurent hid the drugs in your house after it was broken into the first time?"

"I—I guess so. I never even considered that."

"Would you be willing to let us go in with a drug dog and search the place?"

"Of course. If there are drugs in our house, I certainly don't want them in there."

"Thank you. We'll get that setup for later this week. Yorkie informed us that Caius is expecting a call from him tomorrow night. We're going to trace the call and see if we can't pinpoint a location for Caius. Yorkie claims that he doesn't know for sure where Caius is, but he thinks that he's in the Seattle area."

I couldn't hold back the shiver that came over me.

"We'll catch him, Bella. I swear to it."

I believed him. Before Mark left I pulled him aside. I wanted to talk to him about my idea.

"Mark, I was thinking—what if I offered myself up as bait?"

"What? No! I refuse to let you do that!" Edward said from behind me.

I hadn't realized that he was there. I knew that he wouldn't think too highly of my idea which was why I hadn't said anything to him.

"Bella," Mark said. "I'm with Edward on this. I won't let you use yourself as bait. It might work in the movies or on TV, but I'm not about to risk the life of a civilian. Understood?" he asked sternly.

I nodded. It probably was a stupid idea. Mark excused himself to go talk to Carlisle and left me to face Edward's wrath. Edward was furious. There was no other word for it. His face was red, his arms crossed over his chest, and his eyes were spitting fire. Okay, not really. But it felt like it. I was ashamed at myself for not having talked my stupid idea over with him.

He unfolded his arms and pointed toward the stairs. Meekly, I started trudging up to our room. I really wasn't looking forward to our conversation. Once in the room, he shut the door and locked before turning to face me.

"Bait? You were going to offer yourself up as bait?" he shouted.

I cringed. I'd never seen Edward that upset, and it upset me to know that I was the one that had caused it.

"It was a stupid idea," I said quietly.

Edward began pacing around the room like a caged tiger.

"You have no idea. How in the world could you think that I would be okay with something like that?"

"Uh ... I didn't really think it through."

"No? Really? Obviously, not. If you had been thinking, you wouldn't have thought about doing something so ... so stupid!"

He stopped pacing and sat down in his desk chair, hunched over, hands in his hair.

"I cannot believe that you would offer yourself up for bait. What if something went wrong? What if you were hurt? Or worse, killed? What then, Bella? I couldn't survive if something happened to you."

Tears were falling freely from my eyes. He was right. I sat down on the edge of the bed and try to wipe the tears away, but they kept falling.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," I mumbled.

He let out a heavy sigh. "I know you are, sweet girl. Come here."

Immediately, I was cuddled on his lap, presses being kissed to my hair.

"No more stupid ideas. Or if you have one, at least let me know. Please," he begged.

"I promise," I told him.

There was a knock on the door a few moments later.

"Everything okay?" we heard Carlisle ask from behind the closed door.

I got up, wiping my eyes, and opened the door. I gave him a wobbly smile.

"Yeah. Things are okay."

Jake and Seth made me stay home for the remainder of the week, which was only two days, but still. Thankfully, I had some customized sketches to do, and the boys were paying me to do them. Edward had gone back to work to help train the new person who was replacing him. He would start at the comic book store, Wolf Men Comics, on Monday, and he was super excited. When asked why Jared and Paul named it Wolf Men Comics, they explained that legend had it, the Quileutes descended from wolves. Hence, Wolf Men Comics. I thought it was cool.

I was propped up on our bed finishing up a sketch that I had started, when Edward came home.

"What's that?" he asked after he climbed onto our bed.

"Oh, a sketch that I'm doing for one of my customers. She wants a customized tattoo."

"I really like it," he said.

"Thanks. I've put a good bit of work into it. I just hope that my client likes it."

"How could they not? It's gorgeous and you're so talented," he said, leaning down to plant a kiss on my lips.

I felt my heart swell. He was so freaking sweet. I returned the kiss and was really getting into it when a throat clearing in the doorway interrupted us.

"Hey, kiddos! Am I interrupting?" Emmett asked as he threw himself down on our bed.

"Yes," Edward growled against my lips.

Holy fuck, I loved it when that man growled. It was so fucking sexy and made me want to do nothing more than throw him down on the bed and ravish him. Only problem with that, was that our bed was currently occupied by a giant pain-in-the ass brother.

"Emmett?"

"Yes, Bella?"

"Was there something you wanted?" I asked, peering over Edward's shoulder.

"Not really," he said, crossing his arms behind his head.

"Are you planning on leaving us alone any time soon?"

"Why? You and Eddie want to get your groove on?" he asked, thrusting his hips in the air.

Oh, God. I didn't need to see that.

Edward had buried his face in my neck and was muttering about how he was going to slowly and painfully kill Emmett. I'd gladly help. Finally, Edward turned around to face Emmett who was lying on the bed grinning.

"Leave!" he barked at him.

Emmett made no move to leave, just got himself more comfortable, snuggling up to my pillow. Edward's face was turning red and his eyes were filled with annoyance and a hint of anger.

"Nah. I think I'll stay for a bit," Emmett said, goading him.

I let out a sigh. I had a feeling things were about to get ugly.

"Emmett. Get the fuck out of my room!"

Whoa! Edward said fuck. Emmett's eyes widened a bit, but he still made no move to leave.

"Why?" Emmett asked yet again.

"Because I want to fuck my girlfriend!" he roared.

Oh, holy fuck! If I hadn't been turned on before, I sure was then.

"That's all you had to say, little bro," Emmett said with a grin, getting up and heading toward the door.

"Emmett?" I called out before he closed the door.

He turned to look at me.

"There's nothing little about your brother," I said with a smirk.

Emmett gave me a smirk back. "Of course there isn't. He's a Cullen."

I locked the door once Emmett closed it and turned to face Edward. His bright green eyes were smoldering and he had a sexy smile on his face. He motioned for me to come to him, which I gladly did.

Sauntering toward him, I climbed onto our bed and sitting on my knees, leaned up to kiss my man. He cupped my face in his hand before planting a long, hot, wet kiss on me. Within moments I was hotter than hell and desperate for air. Edward broke the kiss, only to start planting kisses along my neck while tugging my shirt up. Once my shirt and bra were gone, he tugged on my pants. I helped him remove them, then watched as he stripped out of his clothes. I let out a sigh. He was beautiful.

"So …" I began. "How do you want me?"

He gave me a cocky grin, but didn't answer me. Instead, he tugged me closer to the edge of the bed and began to run his hands down my sides. I stifled a laugh as his fingers pressed into the soft skin along my ribs, tickling me.

"No tickling," I told him.

Again, he gave me a cocky smirk before gliding his hands up my ribcage toward my breasts. His thumbs slid over my nipples, rubbing them gently causing moans to fall from my lips and my head to fall back. All too soon, his hands left my breasts and came to rest upon my shoulders. Gently, he pushed me down until I was lying on my back on the bed. His warm hands trailed down my shoulders, over my breasts and stomach to my knees. Holding my knees, he began to push them apart, and I gladly let him. I watched as he lowered his head to take a nipple into his mouth. I loved when he sucked on them, but all too soon he left my nipple and began to press kisses down my stomach.

Finally, he made his way to the junction between my thighs. He breathed softly on my center and sent shivers through me. I was so fucking turned on. Slowly, almost too slowly, his tongue began to drag along my slit. I felt my eyes roll back in my head. He was so fucking good at that.

His hands slid under my hips to hold me in place as he continued his ministrations. My own hands slid over my breasts, squeezing and plucking my nipples, before making their way into his hair. His tongue danced over me, flicking lightly before sliding inside and thrusting gently.

My hips began to rock against his face as I held him tighter to me. I was so fucking close to loosing it.

"So close," I panted out.

He hummed against me, causing my hips to buck again. My man knew exactly what he was doing to me. One more thrust of his tongue inside me and a gentle nibble to my clit had me flying apart.

When I finally came down from my high, I found Edward hovering over me, a pleased look on his face. I drew him down for a kiss, not caring that I could taste myself on his lips.

I reached down and wrapped my hand around his cock, stroking it a few times. A low moan graced his lips as his hips thrust into my hand.

"I can't wait, sweet girl," he whispered against my lips.

"Take me. Fuck me."

His eyes darkened, and he let out a growl. His hands came down to grip my hips before he slammed inside of me. We both let out moans of pleasure as he withdrew and did it again and again.

"Oh, fuck ... that feels so good ..." I groaned as he continued to pound into me.

One of his hands let go of my hip and reached down to rub my clit. The combination of his fingers and his cock caused me to explode once more. I was a mass of pleasure. Edward braced both arms over me and began to thrust erratically. His arms quivered and let out a shout as he came before collapsing on me.

I managed to wrap my arms around his shoulders, but that was about it. My body felt like liquid, and I hoped I wouldn't have to move anytime soon. Slowly, Edward rolled off of me, and tugged me into his side.

"I love you," he said, his voice soft and sexy in my ear.

"I love you, too."

On Saturday, Edward, Emmett, and I were hanging around the house with nothing to do. Esme and Carlisle had gone into Port Angeles for a day of antique shopping. Esme had been super excited about it. Poor Carlisle, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to shoot himself.

"Dad hates antique shopping," Edward told me. "He swears Mom drags him along because she knows how much he hates it."

I snickered. "Of course that's why she does it. Why doesn't he just tell her he doesn't want to go?"

Emmett and Edward both barked out laughs.

"He tried that once. It didn't go over so well. Mom told him that if he didn't want to go antique shopping with her, than she didn't want to cook his dinner," Emmett told me.

After a few rounds of poker, which Edward lost spectacularly at, we decided to watch some movies. We had just gotten comfortable on the couches when the doorbell rang. I refused to get up to get it, so Edward and Emmett rock, paper, scissored it out. Emmett lost.

A few moments later we heard Emmett.

"What do you want?"

Edward and I looked at each other. I think we both knew who was at the door. The voice we heard confirmed our suspicions.

"I wanted to talk to you," we heard Rosalie say.

Edward and I got up and went to the foyer. Rosalie was standing on the porch, while Emmett stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I think we've said everything we need to say to each other," he told her.

Rosalie spotted me behind Emmett and narrowed her eyes. Oh, I hoped that she tried something. I was itching to hit the bitch.

"You!" she spat out, glaring at me. "This is all your fucking fault!"

"What are you babbling about?" I asked, glaring right back at her.

"Everything was fine until you came along. You've got this whole fucking family under your spell!" she seethed.

I opened my mouth to reply, but didn't get the chance. Emmett beat me to it.

"We had problems long before Bella came along. She just helped open my eyes to them. I was content to ignore your bitchiness because of my love for you. But once Bella came along, you showed yourself for what you truly are. We're done, Rose. Unless you can truly change and prove that you've changed."

Rosalie stood there with a shocked look on her face. I think she thought she'd be able to come over and persuade Emmett to take her back. I was glad to see that he was standing strong.

"So unless you've come to apologize you need to leave," Emmett told her.

Snarling, she stomped off the porch to her car. The minute she was gone, Emmett shut the door and leaned back against it. There was so much sadness and pain in his eyes that I couldn't help but lean over and give him a hug.

"Thanks, sis."

"You going to be okay?" Edward asked.

Emmett nodded. "It hurts, but I know that our separation is for the best."

I couldn't even begin to imagine the pain I would feel if Edward and I were to split up. Deciding I didn't want to think about that, we headed down to the den to try and cheer Emmett up with some video games. It seemed to work considering he kicked our asses.

Later that night, I went looking for Esme and found her reading a book in the solarium.

"Hey, Esme? Do you have a moment?"

"Of course, Bella."

I sat down and handed her my sketch pad. "What do you think?" I asked as she stared intently at the design.

"It's beautiful. I love the colors and the flow of the flowers."

I smiled, glad that she liked it. Esme had stopped by the shop on Monday and surprised me. I had been in the back room on my break, texting Edward, when Seth told me I had a visitor. I walked out and saw Esme waiting for me. I'd been thrilled to see her. I always was. She was like the mother that Renee never was

"Esme," I'd said, after returning her hug, "what brings you by?"

"I want to get a tattoo," she'd said, shocking the hell out of me.

"Really? That's awesome! Do you have something in mind?"

We'd sat and discussed what she'd wanted. She'd seen the hibiscus flowers that I had and wanted something similar, but with different flowers. I got to thinking about what Mark had said about flowers having meanings. Doing a little research, I found several flowers that I felt best described Esme. The jasmine meant grace and elegance which I thought described Esme dead on. But I wanted the design to have more than one kind of flower. I kept looking and found that the gladiolus meant strong character, the ranunculus meant radiant, and the orchid meant delicate beauty.

"This is just perfect, Bella. Where do you think I should put it?" she asked.

"Honestly," I told her. "I think either your shoulder or on your back below your shoulder. It's up to you though."

"I think I'd like it on my shoulder. When can we do it?"

"When can you do what?" Edward asked as he passed by.

"Nothing," we called out.

Not believing us, he walked into the room.

"Is that your sketch?" he asked, seeing the sketchbook in my hand.

I couldn't lie to him, so I nodded.

"I'm getting a tattoo," Esme told him. "But don't you dare breath a word of this to anyone. I want to surprise your father."

Edward's face broke out in a silly grin. "Bella will have us all tattooed before we know it."

"Oh, hush. She came to me, not the other way around," I told him, swatting him with my sketchbook.

"All you need to do is tattoo Dad, then you will have tattooed the whole family," Edward said with a grin.

Little did he know that I had plans to tattoo Carlisle next week. Carlisle had approached me a few days ago and asked if I could tattoo him. He'd handed me a copy of the Cullen family crest and told me he wanted it tattooed on his upper arm. I'd finished my drawing of it, and I was positive he would be pleased with what he saw. Carlisle, like Esme, had asked me to keep it a secret and so I would.

Monday morning, Edward and I carpooled for the first time, to our jobs. He was super excited, but a tad bit nervous.

"I have no idea what to do. What if I screw things up?" he asked me as I drove us into to Port Angeles.

"You'll be just fine," I said, reaching over to squeeze his hand.

We pulled up in back of Wolf Men Comics and got out. Edward kept running his fingers through his hair, making it stick out in all directions. The back door opened, and we were greeted by Jared.

"Hey, you two! Come check out the place," he called to us.

We walked in the back and after Edward put his stuff away, we were given a tour of the building. It was a bit on the small side, but the they had used the space well. There were posters of superheroes on the walls, TV showing different movies, and rows upon rows of comic books. It was nerd heaven. It really was. There was a long counter with two cash registers and several locked cases holding super special comic book hero collectibles or something like that. Standing in the middle of the room in his Iron Man shirt, it was obvious that Edward was meant to be there.

Taking a glance at the clock on the wall, I realized I had to get going. I walked over to Edward, planted one on him, and told him I'd meet him for lunch.

"Love you. Have a great day," I told him, ignoring the smoochy noises that Jared and Paul were making.

"Love you, too," Edward told me, taking one last kiss.

Waving goodbye, I got in the car and headed to Eclipse. I walked in the door and found Seth waiting for me.

"What? I'm on time."

He flashed me a grin. "Edward get off to work okay?"

"Yes."

"Well, c'mon. We've got a busy day. Lots of appointments. And several of them requested you."

I was a bit surprised, but got to work. A few of my appointments were from people who had seen my work at the expo months ago, and I was thrilled that they wanted me to tattoo them. I was so busy that I almost lost track of time. Before I knew it, it was time to meet Edward for lunch. I couldn't wait to hear how his morning had gone. I headed out the back and walked toward the Volvo. Edward had insisted that we take his car, what with all of it's safety features and whatnot. I had tried to argue, and I'm pretty sure I called him a stupid shiny Volvo driver, but he refused to go anywhere in my truck. Finally, I'd relented. It was that or be late, and I couldn't have him show up to his first day of work late.

I had just fished the keys out of my bag when I heard footsteps behind me. Thinking it was Seth, I turned around and found myself face to face with the man in my nightmares.

"Isabella Swan. Such an honor to finally meet you," he said.

Just as I opened my mouth to scream, a horrible pain exploded in the back of my head and everything went black.

a/n: Perhaps this chapter wasn't as awful as I thought. We got some sexy times, got some info, a bit of drama. Let me know how I did!