Chapter 6

BPOV

I don't know when but lightning cracked over my head. I jumped and I felt an arm was holding me. Edward said, "Calm down, Bella. You're dry and with me in my sleeping bag."

"What the hell? Let me out!"

"Ok. But Emmett and Jasper are bigger than me. Though Emmett would love to have you in his sleeping bag."

"Fuck. What am I doing in here?"

"It's raining outside. Listen." I lie there quietly and hear the rain hitting the tent.

"You couldn't put me in my own sleeping bag."

"It was still wet, and this was easier with Emmett and Jasper's help. If you want out, I'll actually get out. You can use my sleeping bag and I'll use the damp one."

"No, that's fine. We can share." I tried to move away from Edward but the zipper was cold.

"Bella, you're fine. Nothing is going to happen. Just go back to sleep. You made it perfectly clear about your feelings earlier."

"What do you mean?"

"Sure. You have had fun running the river with us and climbing but you want nothing to do with us. We are just paying clients that you'll forget about next week."

"Edward, that isn't it; please believe me. I am just too independent. When this trip is over, I have another trip to do with another group of people and that's what I do all summer. I see a new group of people every week; I like being out in the woods by myself and observing new people every week. I won't forget you three guys ever or your names; on the other hand from the stories I told you, I don't usually remember names or the whole week-long experience."

Then Edward silenced me and said, "Bella, I'll never forget this week ever."

"Edward, I've never shared a sleeping bag with anyone, especially a male. I've never slept with a man holding me. My step sisters and I slept this close when my father died; but even that has been a long time ago. But I can say I kind of like it, especially since it's with you." I rolled back to my other side and my knee must have brushed near his manhood or balls because I heard a cringe.

Then Edward said, "Well, I can't say never; but this is the best it has ever been." Then Edward started humming a song for me; who knows what it was, but I got back to sleep finally.

I again woke up early even being in Edward's sleeping bag. I needed to get away; I was getting way to comfortable with these guys. So I tried to get out of the sleeping bag quietly, Edward trapped me with his arm around my waist and I could feel something poking into my lower back. I thought back to my biology and sex education class and I knew I needed to escape. I unzipped the zipper and rolled away from Edward. He just moaned and I zipped the bag back up and left. Eventually, the boys came out of the tent to a beautiful day thanks to the late night storm. I quickly escaped from Edward as he tried to walk up to me and he said, "Good morning. Are you okay, Bella?"

"Thank you. I'm fine and sorry." Then I finished up breakfast for all of us ignoring Edward.

After a quiet breakfast and packing up the raft, we went into our last set of rapids for a couple hours. We had lunch at our exit point. After lunch we sent our gear up in an old elevator system I had set up and together we climbed the side of the cliff. It was great fun and the guys had learned a lot from me and I from them. I grabbed my gear and left a note - Bye boys I had fun. Hope you did too. Gotta run Bells.

EPOV

We reached the top of the cliff and Bella was gone

We went back to the start of the run and she was gone. All signs of her. Even the website was down now. I said, "I'm staying to look for her. She said she had another run this week."

I talked to other people on the river about me and they knew Bella, but every lead failed to produce anything. On Friday of the following week after nothing turned up in finding Bella, my cell rings, "Hey Jasper, I'll be back tomorrow."

"Can you catch the flight in four hours? We think we know who she is. I thought she looked familiar."

"Who is she?"

"Wait until you get to the airport, use your air card and go on to your secure email. I'll send you the file."

"Fine."

I drove the rental car as fast as I could and got to the airport in record time. Once at the gate, I went onto my secure email and opened Jasper's email immediately. I opened the two pictures and I knew it was Bella. I read the captions - Princess Isabella Cisne. Finally I read the file; I still had time before the flight.

I connected the three of us on a conference call. "Holy shit, she's supposed to be dead and why is she hiding on the rivers of Oregon? How could she just disappear?"

"I have no clue; but Edward, she doesn't want to be found," Jasper said.

"I see that."

"Edward, you took pictures of her didn't you?" Emmett asked.

"Yeah, I did. Hold on I'll send them to you and you can do some matching. Fuck, she's good."

"What Edward?" Emmett asked.

"She got my camera and deleted them."

"That's what I was afraid of, she did the same thing to us. The only one Emmett has of her is her ass climbing that one day. It's like she left that one to spite us," Jasper said.

"She probably did."

"I guess we'll never see her again," I said.

"I don't think so; see you in a few hours, Edward."

A/N I am going to torture you here; please give me guesses as to where I might go with this.