33

"Where are we going?" He smiled across at her wondering how she only noticed that they hadn't taken the road to the Cullen house when they hit the river 4 miles north of the turning.

"It's a surprise." He told her, her face set in a stubborn pout and he suppressed the grin that threatened to break out at the sight of it.

"I don't like surprises." She stated, he knew this but he had promised his family that she would see it without him spoiling it by letting her know what they had been working on.

He turned the car down the track that led to the very northern reaches of Forks township. Yet another river ran just to the north of the track, defining the edge of the land that Carlisle had signed over to the couple to go with their new house. Out of the 7 rivers that ran through the local area, 3 of them flowed on Cullen land at some point, and 2 of the tributaries that gave Forks its name were on Cullen property too. Not many people in the area knew just how much of the land to the north and to the east of town the family owned… almost all of it that wasn't national park until you reached Port Angeles or the mountain range. As the tiny cottage came into view to human eyes Bella gasped, he looked at her quickly and was happy to see that she looked pleased.

"Oh Edward, it's beautiful! Who owns it? Why did I never know it was here?" He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the rather oversized key with an Alice-tied pink satin bow fastened to it.

"The family thought you would like a bit of privacy, the cottage has been here longer than the main house, but it was in rather a bad condition. Esme decided to renovate it and it is part of their wedding present to us."

"Really?" she looked between the key in his hand and the building she could see through the windscreen. "Oh wow!" she scrambled to get out of the car, only prevented from falling by him getting to her before she landed. "This is so great!" she ignored the almost-slip and ran to the door, peeking in through the small window at the side. "A real fire!" she squeaked, "Hurry up, open it!" he laughed, glad to see her enthusiasm.

The door unlocked smoothly and opened, the heat from the hearth blasted out of the door. Bella was about to go in when he lifted her into his arms and stepped over the threshold, she blushed as she realised what she had almost done.

He could wait no longer, instead of lowering her to the floor, he held her tightly to his body as he kissed her. The mating bond pulled at him, in fact he believed it pulled them both. But he knew she was not ready and so eventually he broke the kiss and allowed her to stand, only holding onto her because her legs seemed weak for some reason and almost buckled as he let her down.

"I love you, Mrs. Cullen." He said.

"I love you too, Mr. Cullen." She smoothed her hand over his jaw and ran her tiny fingers through his hair. She had to stop doing that! Otherwise his good intentions would go out of the window, it just felt so good.

"Do… do you want to look around?" he asked, trying to divert her before things got any more heated between them, the air was thick with her arousal and it wasn't helping his situation at all.

"I… yes, sure." She said, her voice low and dreamy. She blinked a couple of times as if waking from sleep or a trance and she turned to look at the rest of the cottage. He helped her out of her coat and threw it on the back of the sofa, Bella frowned at him and picked it up again, she carried it in her arms.

It was perfect! The room was almost perfectly square. Instead of the rather cool looking beiges and whites of the Cullen house, the walls and most of the surroundings were in warm shades of muted reds, golds and dark exposed wood. To the right of the door through which they had entered was a small kitchenette, a slim-line cooker, fridge freezer and small sink unit, with small overhead cupboards, just perfect for one human and a vampire. A small breakfast bar separated that part of the room from the rest. The black leather couch that had been in Edwards's bedroom sat opposite the fire in the left hand wall, a hand-made hooked rug covered the stone floor. Bookcases stood either side of the hearth, filled, she was pleased to see, with all the classics as well as some modern books that she guessed were Edwards.

Directly opposite the front door was an interior door, which, when opened, led to a rather extravagant bathroom that was almost as large as the living room. A two person Jacuzzi tub, a many headed shower, a toilet and double vanity units all in black marble contrasted beautifully with the slate grey floor and the pristine white walls. After inspecting this room she moved back to the living room and looked up.

A small neat spiral staircase in the back corner led to the upper floor, if you could call it a floor, just seven feet above the ground. Railings prevented an accidental fall from above, but otherwise the bedroom was almost totally visible from the front door. Up there she found a four-poster bed, with full canopy against the wall with the kitchen, and in the back wall a door led to a small ensuite with just a hand basin and toilet, and a closet. Well closet may be what Alice would call something like this but to Bella it was a huge room full of clothes that started about nine feet tall and sloped at the back with the roof to a series of shoe racks about 3 feet high. She frowned as she realised Alice had shopped even more for her to fill the space, She deliberately dropped her coat onto the floor and dismissed it all from her mind as she turned and firmly closed the door on the horror she had seen.

In the wall opposite the bed was a small version of the fireplace below. A fire sat ready in the grate, but wasn't yet lit. The walls up there were pure but not brilliant white, the floor was made of dark stained wooden floor boards, and the exposed beams of the roof gave a nice contrast to the rather rustic looking plaster job between them.

The canopy of the bed was fixed to the main joist at the peak of the roof, a good 11 feet from the floor, sheer pale blue muslin curtains fell to either side of the bed, the quilted bed spread and the pillows were a deep midnight blue and sheets a pure white, in contrast with the black metal of the headboard. The hooked rugs on either side of the bed were also a deep blue, with white highlights almost looking like the night sky with an occasional star shining. A tiny bedside table with a couple of books and a small lamp were at the side nearest the rear of the building. Bella smiled at the fact that the open railings decided which side of the bed she would sleep on, and then blushed at the thought of Edward joining her in bed.

"So?" Edward opened his arms as if to show off the cottage once again. "What do you think?"

"It's perfect." Tears stood in her eyes as she noted the small details. The books on the bedside table were the Complete Works of Jane Austin and Wuthering Heights, her two favourite books. The lamp was the one Charlie had bought for her bedroom when she had moved in, with a new shade to match the bedding. Photos on the bedroom wall were copies of several that hung on Charlie's living room wall (the non-embarrassing ones!), as well as a few of Edward through the years. There was one of Charlie and her fishing, that must have been 7 or 8 years old, and one of the whole of the Cullen family that must have been taken recently, because Edward was in it. However the one that sat pride of place in the middle of the wall on the chimney breast was the one that Alice had taken at their wedding. Just after they said their vows and were pronounced man and wife, Edward was leaning down to kiss her as she sat in the hospital bed. The look in both their eyes spoke of the way they were feeling. She felt a lump in her throat as she saw the sheer love they had for each other in that split second, and she was thankful that she felt no less now than she had then. Edward's arms came around her as he stood behind her looking over her shoulder.

"It is perfect, it had to be, you are perfect and nothing else would have done." She turned to face him and buried her face in his chest, calming her soul by breathing in the scent of him.

"I love you." She whispered. He kissed the top of her head, she had never felt more loved in her life than she did at that moment.

"I love you too." He lifted her off her feet again and laid her gently on the bed. In seconds the fire was lit and he covered her with the bedspread, removing her shoes as he did so. "Sleep, it's been an exciting day. I'll wake you for dinner." She would have objected but now she was in bed, warm and cosy, she couldn't help but feel tired. She nodded and drifted off to sleep.

"I'm going to ask Edward to change me!" She heard the defensive note in her voice but couldn't help it. She just stopped herself from cringing at what she was expecting to come out of her father's mouth.

"When?" he asked, calmly. Her jaw fell open as she looked at him as though seeing a stranger where she expected someone she knew.

"Is that all you have to say? When?" her voice rose an octave or two. Charlie, propped up by several cushions on the sofa in the Cullen's main living room gave a rueful smile.

"I knew this was coming the day you caught the fever at first beach." Charlie took her hand, wincing as he leant forward a touch too much. Bella sat astonished, she had expected an argument at least! Even though Alice had said that her father would accept it, she hadn't believed her and had spent a restless couple of days planning her argument.

She hadn't told Edward yet, and Alice had promised that she could keep him from reading it in her thoughts. Of course Alice had known as soon as Bella decided to tell Charlie, and had sent text after text assuring her that it would all be ok.

Charlie had been released from the hospital that morning, as Alice had predicted at the start of the week. Carlisle had driven him over to the Cullen house and Esme had settled him in immediately. When Bella arrived to make sure he was alright he was sat with the remote control and access to hundreds of channels on the 54" flat screen that the boys usually played their games on, a cup of coffee at his elbow and a ham and tomato sub with a single bite missing.

"I love him." She said, Charlie nodded.

"I know."

"I love you too, Dad," she sniffed as unwanted tears leaked from her eyes.

"It's time you did what was best for YOU, honey." Charlie said, squeezing her hand gently. "We can keep in touch until you get past that awkward phase, then you can come and visit."

"I can't," she hated the hurt on his face, "You will have to visit us. The treaty with the reservation says that no Cullen shall BITE a human, never mind change one. If the Cullen's stay here after Edward changes me there will be a war."

"Don't worry about the reservation." He assured her. "I spoke to Sam Uley yesterday, according to Billy he is the Alpha until Jacob changes. I told him what was going to happen and that I would not allow any of them to cause trouble when it happened." Bella's mouth dropped open again. "I also had words with Jacob and assured him that it was what you wanted and that it was the only way to keep you safe. I explained about the mating bond and how it is like their imprinting and Jacob agreed that there wasn't any other way around it. Tribal tales tell of what happens when an imprint dies, the wolf goes mad unless he imprints again immediately, which is rare. The pack don't age you see if they phase often, so their mates grow old and die, leaving the wolf as young as ever. Tales and writings from past wolves have assured the pack that there is no worse feeling than seeing your imprint grow old and die while you stay looking like you are in your mid-20's or so. So even though Vampires are the Wolves natural enemies, they know the Cullen's don't kill humans for food, and have given permission for you to change, as long as you follow their diet, that is." He smirked, she looked at him indignant, of course she wouldn't kill humans, and even if she wanted to she intended to make the Cullen's promise to make sure she didn't.

"I will be able to come back?" she whispered, she could hardly believe her ears. Charlie smiled and nodded. "Oh thank you!" she hugged him a little too hard and pulled back horrified when she realised. Charlie laughed and pulled her back towards him, for once they both seemed comfortable with a physical demonstration of their love.

"So, when?" he asked again, pulling back so he could see her eyes.

"I don't know." She admitted, "I keep feeling the sooner it happens the better, ever since the accident with the truck I keep thinking that I am pushing my luck. Maybe my number was up then? Each time the accidents get worse." Charlie nodded, she knew he had been thinking the same thing.

"It's just… Edward wants this honeymoon first, and I don't know what we are going to tell people when we get back. I definitely don't want to go back to school." A shudder ran through them both. "I think we will see after we get back, I'd like to wait until you are fully healed, and I'd like…" she lowered her voice, "Renée, to be out of our lives for good, before it happens."

"How long do you plan on being on honeymoon, Bella?" Charlie asked, a rather quizzical look on his face.

"I thought a fortnight. There's a four hour time difference and a lot of travelling, so I expect that it will take me a couple of days to get over the jet lag, so going for a week seems pointless. Why?" she suddenly asked as she saw his face.

"Have you actually asked Edward?" he asked. She realised she hadn't. But it was obvious that Charlie knew something she didn't.

"Why? How long was he planning?" she asked.

"Well, two months was the figure I heard." He told her. "I should be fully fit by the time you get back." Two months? He wanted to take her away for 2 months! She could not believe it… but then again she could. Suddenly the ache that had been in her chest ever since Edward had set out to hunt that morning in preparation for their flight the day after intensified to the point of pain. She gasped, the throbbing in her heart drowned out almost everything else. She faintly heard Charlie shouting for Carlisle. Both he and Esme rushed into the room, Carlisle had his phone to his ear in seconds.

"Come back towards Forks." He watched Bella closely, the pain eased slightly, back to the background ache she had been suffering for the past few hours. "That's ok. Yes. Bella is fine now. How far out are you?" a frown marred Carlisle's perfect face. "Is that all? Well you will have to stay in that radius. Have Emmett and Jasper drive some food towards you if you can't find anything to hunt that close. Yes I'll tell her. Yes. Bye." He closed his phone.

"How far?" Bella had gathered over the last week that the radius had shrunk quite a lot. At the start of the bond they had not felt any 'separation anxiety' when she had been in the hospital he had mentioned feeling pain at 9 miles, when he had hunted earlier in the week it had been 7 miles.

"He's less than 6 miles away." Carlisle frowned.

"At this rate he will have to take me hunting with him by next week." It was sort of a joke, well half joke half serious, but she was surprised to see the absolute horror on both Carlisle and Esme's faces. "What?" she asked.

"You can't go hunting with him!" Esme told her. "When we hunt we give over to our basic animals. If a human is anywhere in the vicinity when we allow that part of our nature to surface we cannot stop ourselves from killing and draining them. That is why we take so long hunting, we scout the area first to make sure there's no humans about before we actually start to hunt."

"You mean he would kill me?" she asked. Both of them nodded. "But how will we manage in Brazil? If he cannot be far enough away from me to hunt up animals?"

"I can give him some sedative. He can make sure you sleep through it, and he will just have to manage." Carlisle said, his face firm as he looked at her, killing her protest before she could even voice it. "It's the only way Bella." He warned her. "The island is only 3 miles off the mainland and the closest land is actually quite dense forest. He should be able to find some game within the distance to start with. You weren't in a huge amount of pain just now were you?" he asked, she shook her head, unwilling to let them know just how much it had hurt her. "Well then, Edward should be fine. He could even take you to the mainland, to one of the small resort towns and hunt further in land if necessary." She felt relieved. Though she didn't like the thought of being in pain often, she would rather that than Edward starve.

At that second Alice bounced into the room. "Everything will be Ok!" she told her. Bella looked sceptically at her. "I was right about Charlie wasn't I?" she had to concede that. "Don't worry Edward will find enough to drink, close enough that you won't even need the sedatives."

Rose and Jasper entered.

"Are we going to pack her bag?" Rose asked. Bella cringed. She intended to pack a small bag of her own choice of clothes. Alice shook her finger at her and tutted. Charlie laughed, hurting his ribs, as the two girls were joined by their 'mother' and the three of them lifted Bella off her feet and rushed her upstairs to pack from the new things that had just been delivered that morning.

Bella cringed when she saw some of the items that they put into the suitcase. "I can't wear THAT!" she said in horror at the sight of the tiny bikini that Alice held up.

"It will drive him wild." Rose laughed. Bella blushed brightly at the thought. She almost felt physically ill at the prospect of them making love, but it was her honeymoon. Surely Edward would expect physical intimacy?

"I can't…"

"Here!" A paper was thrust into her hands by Alice, as she sped past with another armload of clothes. She unfolded the paper, there was a list of internet addresses on it. She looked up puzzled.

"Research." Alice nodded to the case where she saw a laptop on top of the clothes.

"What type of research?" she asked, blushing.

"Not what you are thinking." Alice grinned evilly at her, making her blush even brighter. "I looked up some relationship sites." She sat on the bed next to the suitcase, her demeanour more serious. "I know you are struggling with letting Edward close, so I thought if you could do a bit of reading it may help you settle in your mind."

"What type of relationship sites?" Bella was sure Alice wasn't talking about eHarmony, a site her mother had tried using a few times over the years before Phil came into her life.

"Advice ones… 'How do I know I'm ready?' 'What do I do when my boyfriend annoys me?' that sort of thing."

"I'm not sure…" Esme started to say.

"I am." Rose said as she moved to Bella's side and put her arm around her shoulders. "You need to learn what to do, but you can't ask us for advice. That's ok, but Alice and I talked about this after Esme told you her story and we think it would be less embarrassing if you could read advice without asking us to help. Emmett has promised to keep Edward out hunting for several hours. When we have done packing then you can go and look some things up, if you want."

"Just don't think that everything they say is right. You have to make your own path in the world. Edward will wait, he loves you and won't push you ever." Esme took her from Rose's hug and pulled her into her own. Bella felt tears well in her eyes. They did understand. It was almost impossible for her to ask for help, she had always been alone and self-sufficient when it came to her emotions. She slipped the paper into her jeans pocket and nodded.

"I love you all." She whispered and suddenly she was surrounded by all three of them, and she found she didn't mind at all!

Edward worried about how he would manage to hunt sufficiently while they were on the island, but Alice was close enough for him to read her. She was confident he would find enough sustenance in a close enough proximity to the isle to keep him healthy and not put Bella through any more pain.

He buried the carcass of the last deer he drained, grateful that Emmett had driven them towards him as soon as they realised what was happening. He felt over full, but knew that it would be some time before he felt safe leaving Bella on the island so he could hunt.

{Wait up, Edward,} Emmett burst through the screen of bushes between them.

"What's up?" he asked. Emmett was busy reciting the periodic table in his mind, trying to mask what he was going to say, he silently cursed Alice for teaching that trick to the rest of the family. Usually he would be happy not to read their minds all the time, but when they started flooding their thoughts with trivia he knew for certain that they were hiding something and that made him annoyed that he could not penetrate their thoughts.

"Before you go off to the isle with Bella, can I give you some advice?" Edward gritted his teeth, he could guess what advice Emmett was talking about. Before he could tell him no, Emmett stopped blocking him and Edward read his mind, knowing that what Emmett wanted to tell him was important and not what he had thought… well not entirely. He could tell it was something to do with sex, but the overriding thought was for Bella's safety.

"What!" he tried not to snap.

"This is something that neither Carlisle nor Jasper would think to warn you about as they were both 'old' when they met their mates." Edward was intrigued, but he didn't probe to find out what he was talking about, he wanted the words to be fully thought out before he heard them so that he didn't try and pull his brother's arms (or something worse) off in anger. "When I first woke, Rose had already started the mating bond, while she carried me to Carlisle." He nodded remembering the vision of a frantic Rose carrying the bloody remains of a man barely alive for over a hundred miles. "When I woke up I sensed that she was… damaged, to put it mildly. The bond drew us together but her past meant she was wary of physical contact. When it eventually got too strong and we… got together… I was still very much a newborn, and stronger than her. Much stronger than her. That first time I got carried away, as my climax approached, my body took over and I hurt her. Not as much as that bastard had, but still. I will never forgive myself for not taking precautions, and you will never forgive yourself if you don't."

"Precautions?" he envisaged condoms, knowing they were of no use to him.

"If… when, you and Bella finally do…" he just couldn't help wiggling his eyebrows! "make sure that you aren't holding her towards the end. Grab the headboard, the mattress… anything in reach, but NOT Bella. I hurt Rose and she's a vampire, how much more fragile is Bella?" gratitude flooded Edward. Emmett really was looking out for Bella after all!

"I see what you mean, but I doubt it will be a problem." He assured his brother. "Or at least not for some time. Bella wants to wait."

"Yeah yeah!" Emmett said mockingly. "You didn't hear what I said." Edward couldn't understand what Emmett was getting at. What had he missed?

"You see the trouble is Carlisle was looking for a vampire/human mating. He didn't even think to ask me." He pointed out. Edward frowned at his brother. "The thing is he and Esme were together relatively shortly after her change, helped by the fact that for the first month Esme couldn't think of anything most of the time except her thirst. Jasper and Alice got together within hours of meeting. I had a different experience with Rose. We didn't… consummate… the bond for almost two months. It became almost unbearable. It was while we were hunting and she had let her inner beast out to feed that it at last happened, but by that time we felt it pulling us if we were any more than a half a mile apart. The bond got to be too much, no matter how much she wasn't ready, emotionally, for a physical connection, the bond would not be denied. It is going to happen."

Edward sat down heavily. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was to force Bella into a sexual relationship she didn't feel ready for.

"How can I prevent it?" he asked his brother.

"I don't think you can." He said sadly. "If it was just you… well you are the strongest vampire I know. I have never heard of anyone resisting their singer, and believe me I tried, for a split second. But it isn't only you! I can sense, just as much as everyone else, that Bella is also affected by the bond. She has already done things that are far outside her comfort zone. The pain will grow until you are forced into such close proximity that you will have no choice. The tension of trying to stay apart will cause both of you emotional pain, and I'm afraid that it won't magically disappear when you DO give in. BUT you will feel better. To be honest, I spent every second of that time either hunting or jerking off, trying to exhaust myself to the point where the bond wasn't making me horny. I didn't realise that vampires didn't tire in that way." He laughed. "And I know you don't masturbate." Edward scowled at him. "Like I said, you're the strongest vampire I know. But the bond is stronger! I would suggest that Bella be on top that first time, but I don't think that will be possible, your beast will take over and won't settle for not being in charge. Just try and keep in mind what I said. Grab anything BUT NOT BELLA!"