Because I know you're too good to be true,

I must have done something good to meet you,

…there is not a thing you miss,

And I could get used to this

-I Could Get Used To This by the Veronicas

Are You Gonna Be My Girl?

Chapter 5

Edward's POV

"So when's your angry wife going to pop up and yell at me for hogging you?" Bella's soft voice reached my ear. It was like even sweeter that music – and that meant a lot, considering music was my number one favorite hobby. A beautiful smile appeared on her face as she awaited my answer

I took my time, playing with her a little and for some reason, I felt happy as she grimace thinking of me with another woman. If only she knew she was the only I'd ever one. She was everything I wanted and more than I could ever hope for. She looked absolutely adorable – worried I'd be thinking of someone else – I had a hard time keeping my expression serene.

"What wife?" I asked, making my voice a tad bit softer for her. If only she knew…

"Oh, please, Edward. Someone as…you know, someone like you must already be taken,"

Only if you'll take me, I responded in my mind.

She rolled her eyes and her face relaxed a tiny bit at my disownment. Someone like me, those were her words. Of course, I knew what she meant – at least I hoped I knew what she meant.

"Someone like me?" I pressed my lips together to stop her from seeing my smirk. I wanted to hear her say it; hear the words come out of her mouth.

"Yeah, someone as beautiful, compassionate, understanding, smart and just overall perfect as you, Edward." She looked down embarrassed and self conscious.

"I'm none of those things, Bella," I chuckled. She had it all wrong – she was the one who was beautiful and smart and compassionate. She was the one who was too good for me and the one who deserved better.

"So….no wife?" She asked with a giggle – she looked beautiful, so carefree and…relieved? Why would she be relieved I have no wife?

"Nope," I said.

"Oh, I get it," She laughed and slapped her forehead, "So where's your girlfriend?" She asked and looked around the room.

"Never had one," I shrugged. It's not that I hadn't had…willing volunteers for the role of my girlfriend – I just never found her. The girl I would marry in a heartbeat, the girl I would live for, the girl I'd die for. I'd never found Bella.

Her beautiful creamy face turned serious, though there was humor in her eyes. "Edward, I think it's time you settle down," She winked.

If only she knew…

"You're right," I whispered as I got lost in her eyes – they were so deep, you could look on and on and never get bored. I would settle down – now that I'd found her. She was my everything, and it scared me to death not knowing if she felt the same way.

The sound of three pairs of Manolo Blahnik's and a pair of Converse hitting the ground reached my ears. I watched Bella's eyebrows pull together in confusion, creating an adorable expression on her face.

Eddie, Tanya's voiced called to me.

I shuddered. This could not be happening to me – not now. I thought about not answering the door, keeping silence but I knew she could hear me already – creepier yet, she could probably smell me.

Reluctantly I stood up straight, looking at the door and knowing that as soon as I opened that door it could go either way. Things were starting to look up with Bella but I knew that we couldn't keep our relationship balancing on the point of a knife. We would fall down one way or the other, together or apart.

Come out, come out wherever you are, Tanya sang in her head. This was worse than I'd imagined, I know you're in there, Edward.

I felt sick to my stomach – if that was even possible. Trapped, I felt like I was Dakota Fanning in that Hide & Seek movie at the end, waiting in the flooded, dark cave…waiting for her nightmare to show up...knowing the worst was yet to come.

The doorbell rang again, indicating that it was too late to run away – she was here and she thought I was alone. That could only mean one thing in Tanya's mind, she was already thinking of ways to get her sisters to leave, so she could get some 'Eddie & me' time. A shudder ran down my spine as her vile thoughts quickly attacked my mind. It was at times like these that I truly hated my ability to read minds.

Reluctantly, I turned the knob on the front door and pulled the door open. There, standing in all their beautiful glory, was the Denali Clan. I'd actually grown quite fond of them – most of them, anyways – the rest of Tanya's family, her two sisters and Carmen and Eleazar, were incredibly nice to us. They were the closest thing we had to family, outside of our own, and they had been there in our times of need.

And it wasn't that I hated Tanya…I simply strongly disliked her. She wasn't a bad person and she never did anything bad to me – depending on how you look at it. The one thing that truly bothered me about Tanya was her infatuation with me. Of course, this problem had surged up with hundreds of girls, everywhere we moved – but it was different with Tanya. She believed no man would ever refuse her, so when I did she didn't take it lightly. She kept hopelessly trying, pushing herself onto me to the degree that I started to avoid her like a plague.

"Eddie!" I cringed internally at the nickname. That was another part I didn't like about Tanya – she never took no for an answer. I'd mentioned repeatedly that I didn't like the nickname, yet she always called me by it. She wrapped her arms around my neck in a way I knew she thought was alluring and leaned in for a kiss. These were the times I thanked whatever higher power there was out there for my mind-reading ability. In a way, it was as if I looked into the future – I could see what they were about to do the second they thought it. Which is how I'd had time to twist my head slightly to the left so her mouth ended up touching my cheek instead of their original destination – my lips.

"It's Edward, Tanya." I almost growled at her, which in the end did no good – she was turned on by it. I attempted to smile, yet I knew it looked forced or like a grimace instead – the many years of lying and acting to keep up our perfectly put up façade for the humans could not help me hide the disgust I felt towards her.

I pulled her away with slight force and when I heard the rejection wash through her and stain her thoughts I simply placed my hands on her small shoulders and looked at her, as if I was admiring.

See something you like, Eddie?, her soprano voice sang in my ear.

Great, here I was trying to spare her feelings and she took my actions the wrong way. I couldn't say I was surprised; after all, it was Tanya I was talking about.

"You look good," I said nonchalantly. I didn't need to boost her ego even more.

"I know, right?" Tanya said in a very Mean-Girls-Regina-George style. She giggled like a little school girl as she licked her lips slowly – if only there was a way for her to read my mind so she could know how repulsive she seemed to me. She stood on her tiptoes as she slowly twirled around, pushing her…assets out a bit – as if that would lure me to her. Her girlish giggles resumed and then she pulled me to her. "Ah, Edward, I've missed you," Her voice lowered and became rough. The girl would not give up easily.

"I missed you, too, Tanya. You've always been a great friend," Emphasis on the word friend, I added mentally.

"You know I'm better at other things," She leaned in to whisper in my ear – not one person in the room missed the insinuation. I shuddered, and not in a good way, as her fantasy filled thoughts attacked me again.

I wished for Jasper to be there. He'd get a good laugh out of it, of course – playing with her emotions, turning up the lust a little bit to drive me insane, but then he'd calmed her down. Now that it was only Bella and I, I wasn't sure how I was going to get rid of her.

Bella.

My eyes quickly searched for her – she'd been very quiet this whole time and I panicked that she might think there was something between Tanya and I. A part of me knew why I was afraid of her thinking I was in any form of relationship with another person – I was just too scared to admit it.

You think she's gorgeous, you want to kiss her, you want to hug her, you want to love her, you want to smooch her… It was like a broken record in my head. Just this once, it wasn't someone else's annoying thoughts attacking me – they were my very own. I knew we shouldn't have watched Miss Congeniality the night before – now all I could hear was Sandra Bullock mocking me in my head.

Her crimson eyes locked in on mine from across the wide room and I was in a trance. My breath caught in my throat and my eyes probably darkened infinitesimally. I saw an expression on her that I had not seen until now. She looked…jealous. For some reason, a reason that I knew deep inside, I was happy. Happy that she felt that way.

Only Tanya's wandering hands made me snap out of it. I stepped back a bit and I did the only thing that came to mind.

"Help me?" I mouthed to Bella. Her beautiful face filled with humor as she analyzed my situation. I watched – as usual – as she thought deeply about something before she nodded very slightly and looked back at me.

I stood there in awe as she made her way towards me, her eyes on mine and only mine. Her hips moved left and right with each step and she had me in her hands. If I was going to be honest with myself, she had me from the first time she set her eyes on me – she had me at hello. Did I believe in love at first sight? Not before Bella.

That overconfident smirk I came to love made its way onto her face as she took my hands in her small ones, causing electricity to flow through me like never before. She stretched up on her toes and pulled me gently at the same time towards her, covering the 10 inches of height difference. As my face came down to her eye level, she did the one thing I never expected her to do. She kissed me. My first instinct, with anybody else, would have been to pull away, but this time it wasn't. Instead, my first instinct as I felt her soft lips make contact with mine was to pull her closer to me – with a mind of its own, my hand began to move down her back and I pressed our bodies together. Our mouths moved together as we both explored unknown territory – neither one of us had been kissed. Her small, warm hands crawled their way slowly up my chest and found their way onto my hair, pulling slightly at the roots and my body reacted with a shiver. At that moment, it was silent in my head as the rush of emotions took over my actions. She moaned slightly into my mouth when I subconsciously pulled her even closer to me – not a millionth of an inch between our bodies.

"Ahem," Tanya cleared her throat – I was this close to growling at her for interrupting the best, most intimate moment I'd ever had…yet. That thought confused me – was I expecting more of these moments? Was this just to make Tanya back off or was there a meaning behind it?

I could feel her reluctance to let go, she moaned into my mouth once more before she slowly began to pull away. The couple of inches of space she'd put between us bothered me to an extent that probably wasn't healthy.

Before I had the time to think about what I was doing, my arms instantly wrapped securely around her slender waist. My heart felt like it would explode out of my chest when she sighed and leaned on my chest, as if we did this every single day.

"Oh," Bella looked around the room as if she had just become aware of their presence – I, of course, knew better. "I'm Bella, and you are…?" Her eyebrows pulled together and she pouted slightly – I had to admit it, it was adorable.

Kate, one the closest friends I had in Denali stepped inside and made herself be noticed. "Hello, Bella. Edward," She smiled wryly at me and I knew she'd want to talk later. "I'm Kate and these are Carmen and Eleazar," She introduced them to Bella, which I deeply appreciated.

"I'm Tanya," Her strawberry blonde curls bounced as she practically stepped right in front of Bella with a look that was supposed to be intimidated. A soft giggle escaped Bella's soft, kissable lips and I held onto her tightly.

"Eddie! You didn't tell me you had friends in Denali!" She giggled and smacked my arm with the slightest force – it didn't escape my notice, or Tanya's, that she'd put and emphasis on the word friends.

"Sorry, Bella," Her breathing got a little ragged as I whispered lovingly in her ear, "I guess I was too busy thinking about you," I leaned down to whisper tenderly in her ear and then pressed my lips to her forehead , hoping I wasn't taking this too far. She stiffened the tiniest bit before her arms tightened around my waist.

Eddie!? She gets to call you Eddie? You never let me call you Eddie! What's going on, baby? I thought we had something special!, Tanya decided now was the perfect time to have a silent, one-way talk with me. If anything, it made it harder to keep from laughing at her jealous expression. After I ignored her, she gave up, Fine – be that way, she threatened.

"Oh, Edward," She walked over to my other side and placed her hand on my arm. "Carlisle mentioned you had an accident," She turned to Bella accusingly. How dare she? I felt Bella tense and the growl growing in her chest made her vibrate under my arms. I crushed her to my chest gently and kissed the top of her head – it was the only thing keeping me from going psycho on Tanya.

"That's none of your business," Bella growled.

"Feisty," Tanya raised an eyebrow toward me as she looked at Bella skeptically, "You were never one for feisty ones, Edward." She nibbled on my ear and squirmed, trying to get away from her.

"I mean – no need to worry, Tanny-kins," Bella said. Tanya grimaced and Bella laughed half-heartedly as she back-pedaled. "Edward and I talked it out and everything's perfect now,"

That's my girl, I thought as I pressed my lips to the top of her head, breathing in her sweet, freesia scent.

"Oh, if you're sure, Izzy," Tanya smirked, waiting for an angered reaction from Bella but I could tell she wasn't bothered by it at all. "But, I mean, you talked it out? Just like that?" She left the thought unfinished and what she insinuated was quite obvious.

"Well, Edward and I are alone in this house for the next month or so…and we're making the best of it…" Bella winked at me. That girl would be the death of me. "Though I guess you're right – there are better things to do than…talk." I felt like I was about to spontaneously combust as her small hands started to aimlessly roam my chest and then she started fiddling with the top buttons of my shirt.

Edward?, Irina thought skeptically, I thought he was gay!, I pressed my lips together to stifle a laugh. Of course, back in the day when we first met, they were all baffled when I politely turned them all down and the only conclusion they came to was that I could possibly be gay…yet that didn't stop them from making any further attempts towards me.

Aw, Edward. She's adorable, Kate gushed in my head.

Tanya muttered a word that ladies shouldn't say and then grumpily tried to compose herself before she spoke, "Oh. Well, we just came by to see if you needed any help!" She giggled in all her obvious fakeness and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her childish behavior.

"Aw, thanks, but we're great," Bella rushed the words as she realized this could be the moment they'd leave; "Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" She smirked at Tanya as the latter silently fumed.

"You know where to find me, Edward," Tanya whispered in my ear and then pulled away only to blow me a kiss – some people just didn't get the concept of unwelcome. What bothered me even more than usual was that she was only doing this to upset my Bella. I placed my hand on the back of Bella's long neck and pulled her in for a passionate kiss that could rival Rosalie and Emmett's.

I would have gladly kept kissing her, since neither one of was needed the oxygen, but I didn't want to scare her away. Slowly, I pulled away, kissing her chastely on the lips once more and then resting my forehead against hers as our breathings slowed down.

My mind barely registered when the rest of the Denali said their goodbyes and left – the last thing I head was Kate telling was to have fun and shutting the door behind her. That's when the panic set in – I shouldn't have done it. For all I knew, this could ruin our relationship forever…for eternity.

Or it could strengthen your relationship – you know what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger…and technically, you're already dead, I realized again that I was talking to myself in my mind. Hearing voices was never a good thing – especially if they were as sarcastic as the one I heard.

We stood there gazing into each other's eyes, both filled with panic, as we waited for the Denali to be too far to hear us. Why was she panicking? Did she regret doing what we did?

Out of nowhere – my Bella never did what I expected her to do – she started laughing. It was all bells and chimes, of course, it was a vampire trait. Yet it was different, it was beautiful. The most beautiful sound, apart from her voice, I'd ever heard. She looked at me for a fraction of a second and inevitably I joined her. Maybe we were hysterical, maybe we really did go crazy, maybe we were simply stalling…whatever the reason was, I was soon doubling over and clutching my stomach with the laughter. I gently twined my fingers with hers and led her to the couch on the living room. She couldn't stop the giggling then, as I watched her sit. I caught my reflection off of one of Esme's vases on the table nearby and I could see I had the widest grin plastered on my face.

Unthinkingly, I put an arm around her waist and pulled her to me, tucking her small head under my chin and sighing into her hair. I tensed for a second, what was I doing? That thought went out the door when she leaned in, sighing contently and moved closer to me. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. She didn't know yet, but I was falling in love with her. In only one month, she'd managed to make her way into my heart and make it hers and I'd gladly given my heart to her – it was hers now, whether she wanted it or not, it would belong to her for eternity.

"Thank you," I leaned down to whisper in her ear, doing as Tanya had done many times, and lingering by her ear. I was going to fight for her.

"Hmmmm," Her breathing picked up as she muttered something about stupid dazzling vampires, "For what?" She whispered.

"For saving me back there," I was still whispering in her ear, laying my chin on her neck, "I'm sorry about Tanya. She can be a handful sometimes," Absentmindedly, I lightly trailed my finger along her arm, repeating the same cycle over and over again as I marveled at the softness of her skin.

"Sometimes?" She muttered sarcastically. "And I'm sorry," She hid her face in my chest and I could hear her intake of breath – she was breathing in my scent.

"For what?" What did she have to be sorry for?

"For what happened back there – you know, for getting carried away. I shouldn't have – but she's just so…and I couldn't…I was this close to…yeah, I'm sorry." She sighed and then tried to pull away, averting her gaze from mine. I didn't understand – she seemed fine with it just before. Did she really regret our kiss? Our first kiss?

If I was going to hell, I was going to do it thoroughly.

I reached down and gently stroked her cheek with my fingers before i reached down to her chin and lifter her face with a small force for her to look at me.

"I'm not." I whispered softly as my hand cupped her cheek and pulled her softly to me, closing the unbearable distance that separated us.

Bella's POV

"I'm not." He whispered tenderly as he leaned in, closing the small distance left between us.

His warm, safe hand cupped my cheek gently as his breath fanned over my face, intoxicating me with its sweetness. He leaned in and his warm lips pressed softly on mine, moving slowly at first and then the kiss grew passionate. My body reacted on its own as one of his hand made its way to the nape of my neck, twisting into a loose fist around the roots of my hair – my hand moved on to memorizing his sculpted chest and then laying limply on his shoulders as his mouth moved tenderly in synch with mine. This time, it was different, I could tell. It was unlike the other kisses, the ones in front of the Denali.

This kiss was for me.

He was gentle with me, loving, even – every touch, every caress, every moan practically spelled out those three words I'd thought before: I love you.

A/N: I, for one, absolutely loved that last line. It was really sweet :)

Hello, Sweeties. I don't know if you've noticed but I'm trying to come up with as many nicknames for you guys...so if you guys have any ideas, tell me.

Thank you so much for reading my one and only story :) This chapter has been rewritten – yay! It took me an unbelievably long time!

Good or Bad? Hit or Miss? Love or Hate it? REVIEW :)

Love, Alex