Disclaimer: I don't own the series or any of the characters in Twilight.

By CullenLove

I hope you enjoy, and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

BPOV

Edward and I were curled up on the plush loveseat in the Cullen's downstairs lounge. Actually, you couldn't really call it curled up. He wouldn't even let me sit on his lap.

He was being increasingly finicky these days, not letting me kiss like we had before, or curl up against his tempting marble form, or do anything really except hold his hand. We were now sat the regulation ten centimetres apart. Every time he insisted upon this distance I felt a little more rejected, a little more unloved... and it was really getting to me.

It was something else that was getting to him, I was sure of it. He didn't seem bothered at all by this cautious distance— in fact, he upheld it like our lives depended on it. Maybe it was the weather... unusually hot for Forks, hotter than ever recorded. It was a constant joke that the only time Forks was ever going to be warm was this Christmas. I mean, who had ever heard of a Christmas where it felt as hot as Death Valley at noon on a summer's day? Why didn't we have the snow that usually fell in heaps around Forks at this time of year?

I stared out the window blankly, (thinking damn global warming) and watched the sun blaze the sky as if it was determined to split it in two. Even though Esme had changed the air conditioning so that it blared out freezing air, in my shorts and tank top I still felt sticky and damp. In the presence of such overwhelming beauty as Edward, I felt small and very human. He never sweated. He looked the same even though the degrees ticked away and the temperature rocketed.

The house was empty today, free of the bundle of sprightly energy that was Alice, who had taken the others out for a walk in the woods. They couldn't go to the beach, as their skin shone like diamonds had been embedded in their skin, yet I knew they all longed to. Apparently Alice had spotted a little mountain lake where they might replicate the experience.

"Edward," I murmured, looking back at him. He was lounged across the loveseat, still managing to take up half the space and still uphold the ten-centimetre rule. He glanced up at me, his topaz eyes catching the light from the window and trapping it so that when he looked at me his eyes were pure, liquefied gold. I was dazzled momentarily by the way the sunlight hit his skin and made it shine like a fire was burning within him and trying to escape through his exposed marble arms and face.

"Yes, love?" he replied.

I reached out a hand and traced his sparkling cheekbone, and he flinched but allowed it. In fact, he laid his cheek against my hand and sighed deeply, through his chest.

"It's so hot," I moaned. Perspiration was sticking at the back of my neck, and the mass of my hair hanging down my back was like a radiator.

"I know, love," he murmured soothingly, "I know."

I wanted him to take me into his arms, yet he sufficed with laying his freezing hand against my cheek like I had to him a second ago.

"Why won't you hold me?" I mumbled, my cheeks heating up in a telltale blush.

"I can't, Bella," he replied softly, just as I had expected.

"But I feel faint, Edward," I answered, and it was the truth.

This worried him. His eyebrows creased over those golden eyes and his straight jaw tightened in worry. "Did you drink enough?" He didn't wait for me to reply, but stood up, about to run and get me a glass of ice water. And though there was almost nothing I wanted more, I moaned in reply.

"Don't leave me, Edward," I murmured, my throat dry, "I'm too hot already."

"I'll only be a second, Bella," he reminded me of his vampire speed. I stood up, about to grab onto his hand to stop him going... but I'd stood up too quick and already feeling faint I had a blood rush to my head. I only stumbled for a second, but Edward had me in his arms before I could blink.

I sighed in pleasure as his cold skin came into contact with my overheated body.

"Oh, Bella," he murmured into my hair, stroking through the heavy mass of mahogany waves.

I clutched my arms around his neck like a vice. If he was going to let me go, he was going to have to prise me off him. With content I felt him sit back down on the sofa and leave me on his lap, draped over his body. I felt his hands travel from my shoulders to wrap around my waist, and as usual, my heartbeat stuttered. I waited for his hands to draw back, and for him to tell me that I was getting overexcited, too eager, that it was never going to happen... but he didn't let go. I felt him lay his head on top of mine and cling onto me just as hard as I was clinging to him. His lips touched my forehead like the whisper of a feather.

This was more action than I'd had in weeks, and I was reminded of his frustrating distancing.

"Edward," I whispered, my voice sounding hurt, "You haven't touched me in weeks," my voice wobbled and a lump rose in my throat, "Why?"

Edward was silent, so I twisted around on his lap to look at him. His face was anguished, and ashen with shame. "Oh, Bella love... I wanted to so much, every second of the day... I wanted to feel your skin so much it felt like physical pain."

"Then why didn't you?" I asked, unable to comprehend.

"Don't you remember what happened last time we tried?" he asked, his voice filled with ancient sadness.

I was immediately thrust back into a date about two months ago, where Edward had tried to uphold his promise about 'trying' it. It had been our wedding night. I remembered in vivid detail his worshipping eyes as he took my clothes off, and then nervous eyes as I removed his. We made it to kissing, me lying on top of him on the bed, limbs entangled... and then I had shifted on him, and he had stiffened, his eyes frozen wide... and then the look of awe turned into one of hunger, so raw and primal that I had been unable to move, trapped atop his body... And his mouth had descended on the crook between my shoulder and neck, and his tongue had ran across it once, leaving behind it a trail of fire so that my skin tingled hotly. Later, Edward had told me that it had been venom that had touched my skin. At the time, though, he only just managed to stop himself before his teeth broke through the skin of my neck, and yanked himself out from under me, jumping out the window. I had ran over and managed to spot him disappearing at a sprint into the trees. He hadn't returned until the following morning, and hadn't got close to me either, since then.

"Yes, I remember," I whispered. I had so wanted for it to work, so believed that it would... and when everything fell apart, I had waited for him all night, tears streaking down my cheeks in dismay and disappointment.

The brush of Edward's lips against my neck brought me back to the present. His cold breath came fast against my skin, and his lips were somehow hungry. His hands tightened around my waist, and one shifted the set of my legs so that I was straddling him. I sunk down against him and his breath left him with a pant.

"I couldn't hurt you," he panted, "Wouldn't let myself."

"But you're touching me now," I pointed out, and then tried to take it back. What if it reminded him of his stupid rules and made him go back to them? How much more of an idiot could I be?

"Yes," he whispered, and with a sigh one of his hands moved to cup my neck. My pulse was surely thudding wildly under his fingertip. "I shouldn't," he breathed, and his lips came so close to mine that I could taste his breath, and it made my breathing come faster in return. "It's just, I haven't touched you for so long..."

"Don't stop," I replied, and I buried my hands in his mass of bronze hair. It felt soft and shiny under my fingers, like silk.

"I don't think I can," he murmured, leaning forward and pressing his lips gently to mine. Yet when our lips touched, it was anything but gentle. With a startled gasp, I threw myself against him with as much force as I could muster and knocked him against the back of the sofa. We were half reclined, half on top of each other, my hair flared out across his chest like a blanket, his eyes sinful...

He breathed my name as he attacked my lips in a frenzy. He'd never been like this before... and it startled me. He was showing me how very much the last few weeks had been torture for him, how every glance at me in my tiny shorts and tank top had sent warmth flooding through him like an avalanche, how he had barely been able to contain himself, had fought continuously against his bad side which told him to take me, ravish me, never return me...

"Edward!" I whispered when he gave me a break from his hungry kisses.

"Bella," he whispered, his hands resting now on my hips. He rocked me against him, the better to access my lips, but didn't anticipate my gasp as I felt his hardness press against me.

I stared at him with wide eyes, shocked. This was Edward Cullen, the vampire with the strongest self-control I had ever met! He was untouchable, untastable, and most of all unaffected!

With a wild gasp he drew me back to his lips with renewed vigour, and I felt myself being lifted into the air and recognised the flying feeling to be him running me upstairs. Oh. To his bedroom? Well this was new!

My heart was practically bursting out of my chest it was beating so fast, as Edward set me down on the bed. He hovered over me, his arms supporting his weight, until I nodded at him and he lowered himself carefully onto me. I felt his body align with mine and sighed in satisfaction. We'd never been this close, never. Was the heat getting to his head?

"Mistletoe," he murmured as his lips swept across the neckline of my top. I was too distracted by his hand, which was travelling upwards from my hip to register his words. "Mistletoe," he repeated.

I looked upwards in confusion, and noticed the little lone sprig of mistletoe hanging from the top of the four-poster bed.

"Alice," Edward murmured in answer.

She must have seen this happening, I thought, That must have been why she cleared out the house. She's such a— ooohhh...

My thoughts were interrupted as Edward's lips descended on my neck and before I could muster any fear, his tongue was moving the strap of my tank down my arm. He then moved his lips across my body, skimming the top of my breasts, to my other arm. This time he peeled back my top like he was opening a present, and then whipped it off over my head.

A deep sigh of released breath swept across my skin as he reached around my body to unclasp my bra. He had little difficulty, as was expected, and my bra was gone within seconds. However, he was still fully clothed.

"Edward," I moaned, "Can you take your clothes off too?"

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and impish smile. I practically had to drag the shirt off him. But when I did, it was all worth it... his beautiful chest was unmarked and golden in the glare from the sun. I knew his arms almost as well as I knew his face, but the rest of his chest was unseen territory. I followed his collarbone into the hollow of his neck, and then down between his strong muscles to his abdomen. My hand followed the path of my eyes, running softly over his skin. His eyes flickered closed and an expression of utter ecstasy was on his face, almost as if he had already been satisfied. I guess the warmth of my hand on his cold, marble skin penetrated right to his bones.

And then when my hand reached his lower abdomen, I spotted a trail of fair hair running from his belly button down into his jeans. Entranced, I followed it with my finger until it reached the buckle of his belt.

"Ah, Bella... stop," Edward murmured, his voice a mix between torture and pleasure. His hand halted mine before I could undo his jeans.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, worried I had overstepped his carefully placed rules.

"I just... need a minute," he panted, his voice unusually rough. I was surprised at the texture of it, but decided I liked it this low and almost growly. "This is... new for me, too."

"I understand," I murmured, and waited while the dangerous excitement for blood dimmed in his eyes. It was replaced by lust, which I had never seen in his eyes before. His gaze was making my body hot and my cheeks fill with blood.

"God, I love it when you blush," Edward replied, pressing his lips to my cheeks and breathing in deeply. "The smell... Bella, you don't understand how good you smell to me."

"I think I can imagine," I answered, taking a deep breath of his distinctive smell. It was sweet, too sweet to pull out and name the different flavours... yet I could almost smell the honey, feel the sun-warmth on my skin, taste the raspberries... and somehow it managed to be all these flavours while still being him.

And because I was noticing his smell, I realized when it shifted. Now it wasn't the sun and honey and raspberries... now, he smelt sweet and musky, a soft but overpoweringly delicious scent that made my body come alive.

"Ah, Edward, you smell amazing," I breathed against his chest. I wanted to wrap myself up in him and breathe nothing but this new scent until I died. For some reason, my words embarrassed him. Although he could not blush, I recognised the look from feeling my own face twist into it so many times. "What is it?" I asked him.

"Vampires... smell like this when... um," he didn't continue, but gestured towards both of us. "Its just another one of our attractions to humans, though normally vampires don't mate with humans and so they don't really get to smell, um, their arousal..."

I looked up at Edward, my eyes wide. I could feel my body aching to be joined with his, my skin yearning for his to be moving against it. My hands shakily undid the button of his jeans, and pulled the zipper down. I'd seen my share of boys dirty magazines left on desks in my old school in Phoenix, and even here in Forks, but nothing prepared me for the real thing. I pulled his jeans off, feeling nervous but achingly alive and ready for him.

He was wearing black boxers, just simple, with white piping around the waist, yet he managed to look like an underwear model for Calvin Klein. Before I could stare for too long, he was on top of me again, pulling down my jeans. And before I could blink, I was left only in my lacy black panties. Alice had given me them to wear this morning, and silently I thanked her mind-reading abilities for being able to predict how much Edward would like them. He sighed my name in awe as he worshipped my body with his eyes, and then with his cold hands. It was amazing how those icy hands could make me burn and smoulder underneath him.

"I want you," Edward growled. Lowly. Sexily. He pulled my panties slowly down my legs. When they were off, he kissed me softly and then stroked my hair. His tongue swirled with mine in a hasty fight for dominance, and of course, he won.

"You can have me," I whispered, dipping my fingers below the waistband of his boxers, and teasing him (but not daring to go any lower).

He paused for a second, and I knew by his face what he was thinking...

EPOV

She looked so tempting under me, right where I wanted her— almost begging for me to take her. Her soft curves and the gentle swell of her breasts were begging to be licked and tasted and loved, and her mahogany hair was laid like silk over the pillow. She was more beautiful naked that I could ever have imagined, and imagine I had. Every night in her bed— trapped while she squirmed against me, my head filled with the smell of her... I had been unable to remedy how incredibly aroused sleeping in the same bed as her had made me. And when she had sex dreams... that was even worse, for her quiet moans filled the room and fuelled my imagination like nothing else— and all night I imagined loving her like she dreamed.

But now, this topped it all. I had her right underneath me... her luscious body pressed against mine, and I knew this time I would give in. I felt the hardness straining against my boxers and was filled with yearning, almost painful, to bury myself inside her. In encouragement, her small hands pulled down my boxers and I heard a shocked gasp. Her face flickered through too many emotions to read, but the last one I knew, for it was pure unadulterated desire. Warmth swept through me in tingling waves, leaving me breathless, yet still I wanted more.

"Bella, I can't wait any longer," I growled out, my erection pressed against the soft skin of her stomach. A few inches downwards and...

"Then don't," she moaned, "Please, Edward."

It was the way she said my name that did it— so breathy and low that my erection hardened and lengthened even more, if that was possible. I took a deep breath, and then lowered myself into her, sliding in slowly and gently in one thrust. Her head pressed back into the pillow and her eyes flickered closed, and expression of tortured pleasure on her face. I waited for her to feel the pain, but it didn't come.

I drew back just as gently, and pushed myself in, and this time it was both of us who exhaled hard in a moan. She was so warm around me, so tight... and the friction between us as I thrusted again was so delicious but unsatisfying at the same time that she begged for me to go faster.

I increased my speed, barely holding my own against the pressure and pleasure and feeling that I was rising and rising and rising— and Bella whimpered under me when I sucked on her nipples and stroked her breasts and stomach, and even more when I rubbed her clit in little circles and drew circles in her wetness...

She wrapped her legs around my neck and dug her heels into my back, thrusting me deeper inside of her. The new angle brought even more waves of pleasure to both of us, and now we were moaning loudly, my pace was quickening in some unknown urgency... her little hands grabbed my hair and scratched down my back, and inside she tightened and tightened until I couldn't think of anything but how good it felt—

—But I needed more, always more... faster, deeper, harder! she begged. My long pianists fingers played against her skin, making her climb so high that she almost didn't have the air to breathe. I moaned her name, this time in awe, this time in ecstasy... and finally I felt her walls closing in on me, surrounding me in wetness and heat, and my fingers on her clit quickened. Her pants grew shallower, and my eyes rolled back in my head with the sheer rapture of her, and what I was feeling. Soon it was an overload, too much to bear— and her walls clamped down on me and tightened and relaxed so quickly, and she was groaning my name and clinging onto me... and then with a few more fast, deep thrusts, I was falling through such pleasure my eyes couldn't stay open and turned black as night. The muscles in my neck arched, my face buried in her hair, my lips open and panting. When I finally descended, I felt weightless, and pleasure still washed through me; yet more important was the feeling of intense satisfaction and love I felt when I looked at Bella and saw her crying in joy.

Ok. FanFic officially hates me. Is anyone else having problems with the editing??? It won't let me CLICK... Ughh.

Anyway. Sorry this is late, I was christmas shopping :D Yay. Not that I got much, and it was packed, but still, it was funny...

So, advent shape from yesterday - (Can't remember if I already di it, but just in case....) a cracker

Advent shape from today - a bag of presents XD

Tomorrow's Author ... BeatlessHeart (Lucy) *IF SHE FINISHES IT. YES LU. THIS IS A HINT. STOP PROCRASTINATING.*