CHAPTER 4
It was sunny outside. So naturally, the entire population of Forks was out enjoying the beautiful summer day. Everyone but me. My day had been spent on wedding planning. I was exhausted and grumpy. Alice roped me into answering a million questions and making twice as many decisions about the wedding. She insisted that I approve every little detail. I didn't even know how there could be so many options for napkins. To his credit, Edward made most of the decisions. Because he actually knew the difference between silk and crepe-silk apparently.
Even a shower hadn't helped with my exhaustion. The warm steam and water just made me more tired. I flopped onto my bed and buried my face in my pillow. As soon as Charlie to fall asleep, Edward would be here and all would be well. I closed my eyes and starting thinking about all the wonderful things I could practice with Edward tonight. We were making so much progress, and yet it still felt slow as snails. I'd love to get my hands on him without any restrictions...
I opened my eyes and my room was dark. I was sprawled across my entire bed with my arms and legs splayed over opposite sides of the mattress. I gathered in my limbs and sat up stiffly, stretching my neck. I must have fallen asleep, and now it was the middle of the night. But I still felt so tired.
I looked for Edward out of habit. He sat in the rocking chair by my window with an open book in his lap.
Instead of my usual smile, his head tilted to the side and his eyes narrowed.
"Hi," I said.
"Are you awake?"
"Umm, yes?" What a weird question to ask.
"What's your name?"
"Bella." I raised my eyebrows at him.
"What is eight plus five?"
"Am I dreaming? This is the strangest conversation we've ever had."
Edward smiled and moved to sit next to me on the bed. I started at him in confusion. If I asked him to pinch me, and I was dreaming, would I feel it? On the other hand, if this was a dream, maybe I should ask for a kiss instead. "Why are you asking me all these questions?"
"I thought you were awake last time. I just wanted to be sure."He leaned in and kissed me on the lips.
"What do you mean 'last time'?" My throat went dry. "Oh no! What did I say?"
"It's more what you did..."
"Did?" My eyes went wide. Panic was rising.
He looked away sheepishly. I swear he'd be blushing if he could.
"What did I DO, Edward? Tell me before I imagine something worse than what happened. It's bad, isn't it? Just tell me!"
He ran his hands over my shoulders, but I wasn't calmed. "I should start by saying that, in my defense, I had no idea you could be asleep and have your eyes open and moving around. It took me a long time to realize you were still sleeping."
I groaned. It must have been bad.
"When I came in, you were already asleep. You were clearly exhausted from a long day of wedding planning, so I didn't want to disturb you. But you woke up when I laid on the bed next to you." He clasped his hands in his lap. I swallowed, dreading whatever he was about to tell me. "You started kissing me. Your aggressiveness was a bit unusual, but I was willing to go with it."
"There's more?" I asked horrified.
He nodded.
"Go on." I buried my head in my hands, waiting for the worst of it.
"Your hands started, um, roaming. You were saying the strangest things. That was when I first started to wonder if you were fully aware of what you were doing. When I pulled away from you, you started removing your clothing. I successfully stopped you, but then you started on mine."
"Oh God." I smacked my forehead. Make it stop.
He gathered my hands in his own, presumably to keep me from hurting myself.
"Eventually, I realized that you must be in some kind of sleep-walking state because your actions were so out of character. I held you in my arms and eventually, you fell back asleep. I think it was stress induced. I've been sitting over there ever since, making sure you didn't wake up and do anything rash."
"Edward, I am so sorry. I haven't had a sleep walking episode since I was seven at Amber McNeill's slumber party. My mom made me go and I was strung out on too much sugar and not enough sleep. It was so embarrassing, but this is so much worse. I am so mortified."
"I'm sorry I let you get so stressed that this happened to you. It won't happen again, I promise. I didn't know this was a potential side effect of a day spent on wedding planning."
"Me either."
"Well, it did prove one thing." His lips were curling up in humor.
"What's that?"
"I'm apparently not going to smoosh you after all."
I smacked my forehead again for good measure. This was like finding out you had an evil twin. "I don't remember any of this."
"I know," he smiled. His eyes were alight with mischief. "I must admit, it was fun to hear your thoughts all uncensored. You were quite eager to tell me what was on your mind."
I closed my eyes, willing this to be a dream. A really bad dream that I could wake up from right now. "Are you going to tell me what I said?"
He shook his head and motioned zipping his lips closed. He threw away the key over his shoulder. Now he thought he was a comedian. Perfect.
"You're just going to torture me with this forever?"
He nodded, smiling.
"How do I know you're not just making this all up, then?"
He put on a look of injured pride. "Seriously. This doesn't sound like me at all."
He pointed to the floor next to the bed. The bra I went to bed in lay discarded on the floor. I kicked it swiftly under the bed and crossed my arms over my shirt, suddenly aware of a lack of support. "I could have just done that on my own."
"Oh, you did. All on your own." He smirked at me. I gulped. I decided it was time for a graceful retreat.
"Fine. I believe you. This is so humiliating." I face flopped into my bed, burying my red-faced shame in my pillow.
"I thought it was rather enlightening, actually," he whispered in my ear.
I growled at him through the pillow.
He chuckled. "If I promise to put my ill-gotten knowledge to good use, will you forgive me?"
Now that sounded interesting. I turned over to see where he was going with this. "How do I know it won't just be more embarrassing 'Evil Bella' moments?"
He leaned in to whisper in my ear. "I liked Evil Bella. She was quite the temptress." I held my breath, eager for whatever he was planning. He leaned in and kissed my forehead. "I think it would be prudent for me to work on earning your forgiveness another night. This one has already been quite eventful." He released me and moved away from the bed. "Sleep well, my temptress."
AN: I hope you all enjoyed this humorous little evening. Thanks for the reviews! Makes my heart happy and my fingers fly...