A/N Hey guys, me again! I know I haven't updated in a while but arghhh! Exams! GAH! At least I only have two left now, one is eviiiil but the other one (next Tuesday) is ok. Which is why I'm back =] To make up for not updating in around 2 weeks, this chapter is my longest yet. 9 pages on word! Hope you guys like it, it took me like a whole day to write. There's one bit towards the end that I reeeeaaallly struggled with cos it's not what I normally do but I think it's ok.
Okie, thank you time =] UniqueLC, Mistarrannah, NightAngel323, aquarius127, Umbra8191, Elphaba Cullen (the date had only just begun then, this is the reeal thing XD), caradens, ButcWolf, Villemo79 (glad you like the description, took a lot of work), 5x5118, Akasha Ptolemy and Jomahawk2694 (thanks for saying it's amazing).
SkyToucher, your review really made me smile and I can't believe you think I'm an experienced author. A massive compliment, thank you so much.
Ashfisher92, bk, kfc or bella italia wouldn't be classy enough for Alice!
Mrs TMR Potter-Snape, you WILL be educated!
Disclaimer: The only thing involving Alice and Bella that I actually own is this fic (oh and my day dreams...)
This chapter is dedicated to someone special...
She slipped her arms away from my waist and linked her fingers with mine, giving them a reassuring squeeze before pushing the door open and gently pulling me inside..
Well, I'm pleasantly surprised to say the least. I expected a club or something similar because of the way Alice was acting and how the building looked. But no, Alice had led me into a shop. A bookshop. To the left of the doorway that we were standing in were seemingly endless aisles of shelves absolutely full of books. Straight away I could tell that I was going to enjoy this date, as Alice leant over and whispered in my ear that she was determined to spend at least $50 on books for me this evening. God, she knows how to make a first date amazing. Something like this could only really suit me, and I could see from the smile on her face that she'd picked this place purposely for that.
The other side of the shop was different though. I could just about hear some Latin sounding music playing softly in a restaurant type setting. The right side of the shop completely lacked books at all, instead having various tables set up around the room, a couple of which already had couples sitting down chatting and digging into delicious smelling food. The lighting of this part of the shop was low and romantic, but in a corner of the room there was a raised stage that was lit up by spotlights overhead. They cast a glow onto the stool and microphone placed on the stage and I couldn't help be curious about what they were for.
After allowing me to take in my surroundings, Alice let go of my hand and danced towards a pile of baskets that I hadn't previously seen, picking one up and walking to the first aisle of shelves. Noticing that I hadn't followed, she looked over her shoulder and smirked at me before calling my name and giving me the 'come hither' sign. Swallowing audibly, I fought back my instant arousal and made my way towards her, tapping her on her arse as I walked past.
Her squeal of surprise made me chuckle and I turned round to wait for her this time. Our eyes met and I had to hold back a gasp when I saw how dark her eyes had suddenly become. She tilted her head, looking around us to see if anyone was paying any attention before blurring out of my sight. I found myself suddenly pinned up against one of the shelves with a marble figure using their weight to keep me there. Despite the coldness of Alice's body, all I could feel was warmth spreading out from the places that our bodies connected. Which was pretty much everywhere.
Leaning in close to my face, her ragged breaths brushed across my skin and I became aware of how ragged my breathing was too. Embarrassingly so, but neither of us seemed to care as she leant forward to caress my lips with her own. The kiss was aggressive from the start and our tongues instantly came into play, duelling fiercely until I could no longer put up a fight and allowed my pixie to beat me. Not that I minded at all, Alice is an amazing kisser and despite feeling the books pressing into my back as she crushed her body closer to mine, I couldn't find it in myself to care.
We were both really getting into the kiss, and Alice kept growling into my mouth which made me just want to forget that we were in public and do very naughty things to her. Before I could even complete my thoughts on that matter, one of her hands left their position of securing my hands to the bookcase, and started wandering round my body. It reached the swell of my breasts and squeezed gently before Alice pulled herself completely away from me. I whined in protest, looking at her with pleading eyes and she just chuckled darkly, leaning in again. My excitement was short lived however, as she bypassed my lips and instead went for my ear. Nibbling on it gently, she ground out in an incredibly sexy voice "Next time you touch me like that I won't be able to control myself enough to wait until we're away from other people to ravish you. So unless you want the people of Port Angeles to hear you screaming my name as I push you to orgasm over and over again, I suggest you refrain from touching me in inappropriate places until we get back to your house. Okay?"
I think almost came there and then. But she was right; I didn't want that to happen, so I shook myself out of it and nodded my head, currently unable to speak. Closing my eyes, I tried to compose myself and vaguely registered the pressure on my body disappearing. When I had calmed down enough to open my eyes, I found that I was alone, with the basket by my feet. Not worried at all, I presumed Alice had taken a moment to go and collect herself and breathe in some fresh air, so I bent over to pick up the basket and turned round to face the shelves that I had just been pushed up against.
Alice had, probably inadvertently, taken me to the classics section of the shop. Stretching out in front of me were hundreds of classic books, organised in alphabetical order according to author. As I started looking through the books, I felt a puff of cold air on the back of my neck. I sighed in contentment as Alice wound her arms round my waist and snuggled into me from behind, placing a kiss on my neck before pulling away to reach up for a book.
"I know you already have a few of these books, but I have noticed that the ones that you do have for been perused so much that they are practically falling to pieces. So we're restocking your collection and we're going to get you some new titles too. My Bells will be perfectly educated by the time she's read all of these books" with this she giggled, her wind chime-like laugh ringing out around us. I felt the corners of my mouth struggling to quirk up into a smile, but I withheld it and instead turned to her and replied "Who said I'm not already educated?"
She immediately started back-pedalling, frantically trying to apologise to me as I refused to look her in the eye. Finally I couldn't hold it in any longer and the snickers broke out of me until I was full out belly-laughing. The bewilderment on her face was so cute, and I could see the moment when she started to realise why I was laughing so much. I had tricked the psychic vampire. Hehehe.
"Why you little…." Before she could finish the sentence her hands had started reaching all over my body, tickling me evilly until I was a giggling mass in her arms, tears streaming from my eyes as I begged for mercy. I'm so glad I wore waterproof makeup. Her laughter accompanied mine and eventually her hands stopped moving, coming rest on my waist as she rested her forehead against mine and allowed me to catch my breath.
"Evil little pixie" I muttered, fully aware that she could hear. Winking, she reached up one hand to brush a bit of unruly hair behind my ear before placing a chaste kiss against my lips. "You shouldn't tease me Bella dear if you can't deal with the punishment for doing so" and with that she kissed the tip of my nose, grinning at me.
"I love you" I sincerely told her, pressing my lips to hers again, and then I removed her hand from my hair and interlinked our fingers, turning back to the books in front of us. My brow furrowed in confusion as I realised that I had nowhere to put any of the books that Alice bought me this evening. Having a psychic girlfriend came in handy because as soon as the thought had occurred to me, she stiffened up and then turned to me smiling softly. Her vision had obviously told her my question, as she explained to me that while we were here, Emmett and Rosalie were setting up and arranging two bookcases for me; one in my room and one in hers. This end comment made my heart swell, the knowledge that my girlfriend was placing a bookcase purely for me in her own room was such a loving touch that I could feel tears threatening to break free.
Blinking rapidly, I squeezed her hand and returned my attention to the books. By this point Alice had taken the basket out of my hands and she held it out to me expectantly, waiting for me to drop books into it. I knew she wouldn't allow me to hold back, so I started to read through the names. Reaching out my hand, I grasped the first Austen book I'd found and placed it in the basket. My beat up copy of Pride and Prejudice has now been replaced with a brand new version.
Roughly 45 minutes later and we had finally reached the end of our shopping spree. I hadn't even realised it had been that long until Alice pointed it out to me with a giggle. Maybe I could get used to shopping with her more often; she made it so much more enjoyable than it used to be. Several baskets had been filled with books that Alice was buying for me, and each time we had filled one, she had ran it over to the till for the staff to keep safe until we returned to pay. Many of the authors that I had chosen had been ones from the classics section that I had already heard of or read one or two of their books. I now had every Austen, Hardy, Dickens, Brontë, Steinbeck, Waugh and Orwell title that you could possibly think of, amongst others. Alice had spent the time chatting with me, offering her opinion on various titles and even regaling me with tales of her meetings with certain authors. I was fascinated by these stories, and the way her eyes lit up when she thought back to her happier memories made me slightly woozy. She looked so happy and beautiful and I couldn't believe she was with me.
Not all of my book choices were of my own accord though. As we had walked up and down the aisles, Alice had occasionally reached up and pulled down a book, placing it in the basket herself. All books that she 'knew I would love' and I trusted her opinion so agreed to buying them. Two were her favourite books, surprisingly from the Crime section, by an author called Nicci French that she repeatedly assured me I would love. And even if I didn't like them, I had decided that I would keep them in the bookcase in my room so that she had something to do when she stayed with me overnight. Working along this line, I placed every Nicci French book I could find in the basket and the kiss and smile I received for this definitely made it worth it.
Ironically, she convinced me to purchase Bram Stoker's Dracula and I couldn't contain my laughter. She playfully scowled at me, bumping her shoulder gently against mine and distracted me with another book whilst mumbling things about vampires and sucking my blood if I wasn't careful, that caused my laughter to increase and soon she was giggling along with me.
I had a sneaky suspicion that the book shopping wasn't all that Alice had planned for tonight. As we made our way to the tills with our last basket, I allowed my mind to wander, thinking back to the restaurant part of the shop that I had seen when we entered. I'm guessing Alice was taking me there next, and as I decided to ask her about it she turned to face me and nodded. Stopping at the till, Alice placed the overflowing basket on the counter and asked for the rest of our baskets. The cashier quirked an eyebrow at her, obviously taken back that such a tiny person had managed to carry the unbelievably heavy basket with such ease, before turning round to collect our other baskets.
Only expecting to see a couple of baskets, I felt my jaw drop when the cashier returned with 3 other staff members, all carrying two baskets each. One then turned around and came back with another two. Nine baskets! Alice just giggled at my expression and cut me off with a kiss before I could argue about her spending so much money. Leaning over the counter, she charmed the cashier into hiding the cost from me, informing him that "my girlfriend would refuse to allow me to pay for all of this if she were to see a price she didn't agree with, so it would be better to avoid that situation altogether". The cashier chuckled, nodded and started the lengthy process of ringing up all of our books. His fellow employees decided to help and soon all four of them were working frantically to run the multitude of books through their system. Alice was in her element, flitting between each till and collecting the newly purchased books, placing them in bags that started to collect around my feet. I stood frozen to the ground as the bags continued piling up until I physically could not move. I was trapped by books. As though Alice had heard my thoughts, she turned to wink at me before going back to her work.
Eventually all of the books had been rung through and the pixie went from till to till brandishing her card to pay for each set of books. I dreaded to think what figures were showing up on the screens in front of the staff members, but judging by the smiles on their flustered faces this was definitely the biggest commission they had ever had. I think we may have cleared out half of their stock, seriously. Twirling back towards me, Alice pressed a kiss to my cheek before asking the cashiers to help us carry our purchases to her car. I briefly wondered how all of these books would be able to fit into her Porsche, but then felt a large cold hand on my shoulder. Turning round I saw Jasper shoot a smile at me and I threw myself at him, enveloping him in a hug.
He laughed, hugging me back and then placed me on the ground and reached down to pick up some of the bags surrounding me. I followed his lead and saw Alice do the same, likewise with the cashiers. Between the seven of us we just about managed to carry the lot, although with Alice and Jasper's vampire strength I'm sure they could've carried the lot between them if it hadn't been necessary to keep up appearances. Jasper led us back out of the shop, but instead of walking towards the Porsche he turned towards the massive Jeep that he had obviously driven here. Smiling at my expression, he loaded his bags into the car, before taking mine and doing the same.
When the bags were all loaded into the Jeep, the cashiers walked back into the shop all looking very happy with the large tips Jasper had just given then. He then gave both Alice and I a hug before climbing into the Jeep and driving away. As she was leading me back into the shop, Alice explained to me that she had seen that we would buy so many books that we wouldn't be able to fit them all in her car, so Jasper had offered to drive up to meet them and take the books back for her so that she needn't worry. I felt a burst of love for Jasper and decided to thank him for doing that purely so that Alice wouldn't stress out.
My previous assumptions about the restaurant had been correct, as Alice led me over to a table that was slightly away from the rest, with a placard resting on top of it. The words Reserved for Cullen met my eyes as Alice pulled my chair out from behind me and then tucked me under the table once I had sat down. "The perfect gentleman" I joked at her and then gasped as she flicked a bread roll at me and admonished me, correcting "gentleman" to "gentlewoman".
A polite cough interrupted our banter, and I looked up to find a waiter looking expectantly at me. Alice whispered over to me that I should try the paella, and I knew she wouldn't get something like that wrong so that's what I ordered alongside lemonade. The waiter didn't even turn to Alice, merely nodding at her before he returned to the kitchen. My confusion must've been apparent because she explained to me that the waiter knew of her family and knew that they never ate in public.
This section of the shop was a lot different to the book side, and I allowed my eyes to wander as Alice held my hand over the table. I was still enormously curious about the stage area that I could see near us, but I held my questions back as I continued looking around me. My eyes fell on Alice and she caught me staring at her moments later when her own eyes landed on my face. I blushed but maintained eye contact with her, losing myself in her eyes and the feeling of her thumb brushing against my hand. All too soon our attention was diverted when my food arrived.
I was vaguely shocked that my food had been prepared so quickly, but realised that I was dining with Alice so the chef had probably been promised a large tip if he sped up the cooking time. I wasn't too worried as the delicious scent reached my nostrils and I felt my mouth start to water. I forced myself to slow down so as to not appear like a pig in front of my girlfriend, but the flavours were so overwhelming that I couldn't help myself when a moan slipped out. It was just so lovely! Alice raised her eyes at the moan, her eyes darkening slightly and she leaned forward to wipe some sauce from the side of my lip before crushing her lips to mine for a brief but intense kiss.
"Hmm, interesting taste" she giggled as she pulled away, her eyes now back to their original colour. I just scoffed at her, pretending my heart wasn't racing as I returned to my food. I heard the waiter approach again and smiled as Alice ordered my favourite pudding before finishing off my dinner. As I went to ask her how she knew that lemon meringue pie was my favourite, she pointed knowingly to her head and smirked. I nodded and thanked her heartily, before we started talking about random things.
My pudding was placed in front of me and I dug in, aware that Alice was watching me but past caring when the flavours hit my tongue. I think my taste buds just died and went to heaven. I must've been pulling an amusing face because I could hear Alice failing to stifle giggles, and I shot her a playful glare as I continued stuffing my face. I found that I didn't mind her watching me while I ate. With Edward it was awkward and I felt really self-conscious when he watched me. However, with Alice it seemed intimate and the look on her face was one of fascination mingled with affection. The way she would occasionally lean over to wipe sauce from my face, or hand me my drink, or even once when she asked if she could feed me was all so caring and loving that I could feel myself falling even more in love with her even if I didn't believe that was possible.
As I finished eating, Alice busied herself with paying for the meal and then she led me to the side of the restaurant area. I watched as the rest of the couples soon followed suit and soon everyone was lining the sides of the area. Alice stood behind me; resting her head on my shoulder with her arms wrapped around my waist and whispered in my ear to watch what happened next. I did, and saw all of the staff of the shop congregate in the restaurant area as they started collapsing the tables and moving away the chairs. Then they proceeded to bring out stacks of different chairs, ones that looked far more comfortable. They were all arranged facing the stage and I could tell that I was finally about to find out what said stage was for.
When they were finished, Alice dragged me towards one of the front seats and got me to sit down, pulling the next chair closer and sitting on it herself. We curled up together and just as I was about to ask her what was going on the lights in the room dimmed completely and the spotlights above the stage came on strongly. A hush fell over the audience that had seemed to at least double in the time it took for the room to be set up as other people had joined us, and we all looked expectantly at the stage.
A handsome man stepped up onto the stage, and welcomed us warmly to their monthly poetry reading evening. At this announcement I turned to look at Alice with a questioning look but she just carried on focusing on the stage. As then man went onto to explain that you could read some of your own poetry or even just recite your favourite poem from a well-known poet, I noticed how Alice seemed to be fidgeting in her seat. I dismissed the thought because she's a vampire, and vampires don't fidget, right?
Snuggling into Alice's side more I decided to stop thinking so much and just let myself sit back and relax as a procession of people made their way onto the stage. Alice rested her head on top of mine and occasionally pressed a kiss to the top of my head. I was surprised at the variety of people that traipsed up onto the stage. It ranged from the old librarian type reading an epic complaining about the young generation that made us all laugh at the language she used, through to a tough looking teenage boy who described his hate of the world and then onto a little boy whose parents cheered him on encouragingly as he stumbled over the words of a cute little poem by Robert Frost that he'd chosen.
I was thoroughly enjoying myself and found that I was really disappointed when the handsome man reappeared on the stage to announce that the next act was the last of the evening. Groans from the audience signalled that I wasn't the only one that felt this way and the man chuckled. "Well ladies and gentleman, I hope this person won't disappoint. Alice Cullen, could you please come up onto the stage?"
Alice detached herself from me, placing a parting kiss on my lips as she left me to go and stand on the stage. I just stared, dazed, waiting to see what was going to happen. Alice reached out and took the microphone from the man. "Thank you Fred." She bit her lip nervously, a habit that made her seem so human and vulnerable that I just wanted to go and hug her, but I restrained myself.
Looking up at the audience, she smiled warmly at us all and I could hear a few men mutter their approval of her appearance. Pushing my anger to the back of my mind, I shot an encouraging grin at Alice and waited for her to continue. "Hello everybody, I'm Alice!" She gave a cute little wave here and a few people chuckled. "I'm dedicating this poem to my wonderful girlfriend Bella, sitting there in the front row, because she was the one that inspired it. Enjoy!" At her dedication, I felt my face flush bright red and a few people laughed and awed at me. Trying to ignore them, I focused on my girlfriend, wondering what she had to say. Alice took a deep, although unnecessary, breath and closed her eyes, seemingly composing herself before she opened them again, held my gaze and started reciting.
"Chocolate eyes dancing with emotion
Twinkling and sparkling in the light
Cupid bow mouth turned up into a smile.
I will never forget when I first caught a sight
Of you waiting for everything to begin
The impression you left on me from the start
Is stronger than any other I've known.
You effortlessly captured my heart
And kept me your willing prisoner
But my wishes that we would be together
Seemed like they would be on hold forever.
To watch you with him, or other men
Split my dead heart straight in two
I sat by and watched you be happy with another
But your happiness made it worthwhile.
I did everything in my power
To see your breath taking smile light up your face.
The tingles I feel when we touch and the warmth
That your body gives mine still surprise me every time.
With you time ceases to exist
And nothing else matters or is important, only you.
Your compassion is endless, one of the most caring people
I have ever had the luck to know and you inspire
My artwork with your beauty, my muse.
I want to spend every day trying to make you
As joyful as you make me
And I plan on doing so as long as you will let me
If you will let me
My muse, my inspiration, my love."
Her eyes were filled with tears that I knew she could never shed, but I was shedding enough tears for the two of us. It was so beautiful, she was so beautiful and I couldn't believe that she had written that for me. A short pause had followed her poem as she just stood gazing into my eyes. Then someone clapped. And someone else. And soon the audience was filled with clapping people, obviously as moved as I was. Sniffles could be heard from various women throughout the audience, but I ignored them, focusing on the pixie who had started to make her way towards me.
As we met, she hugged me to her, burying her head into my shoulder. Her delicious scent filled me senses and I pried myself away from her so that I could put a finger under her chin and lift it up till I was looking in her eyes. She shyly looked away from and I realised that she wasn't sure whether I liked the poem. I pressed my lips to her briefly, before pulling back and resting my forehead against hers.
"I loved it Alice, it was amazing sweetie. I can't believe you wrote that for me. I don't know what I've done to deserve you but I'm so glad that you're my girlfriend and I'm so proud of you. I loved it Alice, and I love you. So much" At that my voice broke with the emotion I was trying to convey and I think she believed me. A cold delicate finger reached up to wipe one of my fresh tears away and she was then moving her lips gently against mine. Aware of our audience, I kept the kiss chaste, but the electricity even from a kiss as simple as that still took my breath away.
A tap on Alice's shoulder broke our kiss, and then the next 10 minutes were filled with well-wishers and people congratulating Alice on such a wonderful, moving and heartfelt poem. We finally managed to make our escape and Alice grasped my hand, leading me outside towards the Porsche. Slipping in, she turned on the heating so that I didn't freeze and then leant over to press play on her iPod. I pushed the volume right down so that we could talk, and the whole of the journey home was filled with pleasant conversation. Any silences weren't awkward, and I used them to take in her profile and the closer we got to my house the more aware I became of how she was making me feel and how much I wanted to invite her in to thank her properly for the poem dedication earlier in the evening.
I was so immersed in my thoughts that I didn't notice that we'd reached my house until a breeze reached me and I realised that Alice was standing holding my door open. I slid out at gracefully as I could, and she wrapped her arm around my waist, escorting me to the front door. Stopping in front of it, I turned to face her. "Thank you so much for tonight Alice, it's by far the best date I've ever been on and not just because of the company. Everything was perfect, especially you, and I don't think I will ever be able to forget that poem." Wrapping both of my arms around her hips, I pulled her body flush against mine, relishing in the feel of her curves pressed into my own, and leant forward to kiss her.
The intensity behind our kiss increased, and as it did her hands slid up into my hair, twisting around strands and pulling me closer. I nibbled gently on her bottom lip, taking the whimper that she released as an opportunity to slip my tongue into her mouth. A moan left both of our throats as our tongues started dancing and the tingles from our touches were literally setting me on fire. Alice was now pressing me up against the door, growling softly into my mouth as her tongue battled to gain dominance over mine and her hands roamed my body. My own hands were now in her hair, and each time I pulled trying to bring her closer the growls increased. And the growls were incredibly sexy. My panties were flooded and I knew she could smell it as one of her hands started travelling downwards and cupped me as best as she could through my skirt. I gasped, enjoying the friction and tried to push further onto her hand.
A car door slammed somewhere in the vicinity and it brought us to our senses. We jumped apart, breathing heavily, and the realisation hit me that we almost did something very naughty against my front door where anybody could've seen us, even Charlie. "I think I better go before things get more heated, we wouldn't want to give Charlie a show, would we?" I shook my head at her before smiling as she pecked me on the cheek. Being careful was probably a good idea after that. Inserting the key in the door, I gave her one last smile over my shoulder before closing it behind me and heading towards the stairs.
A note caught my eye as I went to ascend the stairs. It was from Charlie and informed me that he had been called in to cover another officer's night shift and wouldn't be back until gone 10 the next morning. The first thing that came into my mind was that I was now home alone, and I grinned mischievously as I reached for my phone. Opening a new message, I started typing, but just as I was about to press send there was a knock on the door. Curious as to who would be popping over this time of the night, I made my way to the front door, picking up a broom to use as protection in case it was some random murderer person, and reached for the door handle. I twisted it and pulled the door open…
Oooh who's at the door? Hope you guys liked this chapter, it took a LOT of work. The poem was really difficult for me to write, I hope you guys thought that it was good cos I'm not sure, I don't normally do poetry =/ Please review, I wana try and reach 200 reviews soon XD Till next time =]