A/N Forgot to highlight the lemons, edited...
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Things were a bit strained at the main house all day. Everyone was trying so hard not to upset Bella. When Esme had got home from dropping them off she had sat them all down and told them what had happened. She had warned Alice that it could cause the family to split again, and this time it wouldn't be reparable. Alice had promised to rein in her penchant for making people do what she wanted and as soon as she did the visions had shown that Bella and Edward didn't leave.
All of this happened within Edward's range so he could hear what each of the participants were thinking.
Emmett was angry that Bella had been pushed to such an extreme and hoped he could help make her decide to stay. He loved her, she reminded him of his youngest and favourite sister from his human family, and he promised to do everything in his power to make her happy.
Rose felt guilty for forcing Bella to endure Girl Time when it had been obvious right from the start that she didn't really enjoy it. She had never had much to do with any other females, as she was so self absorbed usually, she had used the beauty time as a way to connect with the girl. She didn't feel insulted that Bella didn't want to have manicures and things, she just didn't understand the mindset that Bella had that rejected such things. She promised to herself to find common ground with the girl and help her become more confident in herself.
Esme too, felt guilty for the manicures and hair styling they had virtually forced onto her. Bella was more of a daughter to her than either Alice or Rose, who had both come to her when full grown. Only Edward, in Esme's eyes, was on a par with Bella. Both of them were still children to her, even though Edward was actually only six years younger than she was if you went off birth dates. To himself he admitted that he did react as a 17 year old a lot of the time and he really didn't mind her efforts to mother him and he doubted that Bella would, once she got over Renée and her influence. It may take several years but Bella had lots of them in front of her.
Carlisle still felt most guilt over not rescuing Bella earlier in her life and not noticing that she was so uncomfortable with the way the family treated her that she would risk her health to escape. He promised to rein in Alice more and take a more dominant role in the household, rather than allow the visions to dictate the family's every move.
Jasper felt that he too should have reined in Alice slightly, he, more than any of them had realised how close to the edge Bella was, and how fragile her control was. He had actually planned on an intervention but things had come to a head before he expected and so his plans were moot. He knew she needed emotional support, especially when she found out what had happened with her mother, and he planned to be by her side as long as she needed him.
Alice felt worst. Edward had half expected her to be sulking because she wasn't getting her own way, but she wasn't. She was genuinely upset that she had made Bella cry and truly hadn't realised just how domineering she was. Yes she knew she usually got her own way, but that was because she could see the different futures and picked the one that was best for the family. She never deliberately picked a result in her favour if it was to anyone else's detriment. And Esme's random thought that she had deliberately left Bella with her mother so that she was more malleable was false, she truly believed that it was the only way for things to work out for the family.
What she had never told anyone was that though she had known that Mike Newton was never really a threat, she knew that someone WAS. She just had never been able to see who it was that Bella had fallen in love with and had assumed, as she had seen Bella on a date with Mike, that it was him. Fuzzy visions of a young pregnant Bella had faded to brief glimpses of her at parks and parties, but Alice had never seen the man in her life, or the child. Now, with her knowing about the wolves interfering with her vision she wondered whether it was one of them that Bella would have gotten attached to so much that she would avoid the Cullens entirely, making the mating bond not form.
She did regret throwing Bella's things away and more, cursed the fact that she hadn't seen how much it would upset the girl. She genuinely loved her like a sister… more than a sister really… even more than Rose who she did not connect with much. She never wanted to fight with Bella, and she definitely didn't mean to upset her.
Charlie left the Cullen house just before 9 that night and Edward and Bella left soon after. He drove her to the cottage and she let out a sigh of relief as they got out of sight of the main house.
"That was tense." She said, "I feel awful, Alice seemed afraid to talk to me."
"It will all be alright soon, you just have to both find your feet."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"It's been sort of a power struggle, you just have to both find a place you are comfortable with each other and things will settle down." He took her hand. They felt the charge of electric run through them and she seemed to remember something.
"When I was on the reservation, where were you?" she asked.
"I stayed at the cottage and waited for you to come home." He told her, wondering where she was going with it.
"But that's almost 16 miles by road from the village." He frowned, wishing for the thousandth time that he could read her mind.
"Yes, actually it's 17 from here to the La Push beach, though only 14 in a direct line, why?"
"So why didn't the bond hurt?" she asked. He thought about it for a second or two, now that he thought of it, he hadn't felt the pain of the bond (except when she threatened to leave him) since the night she had been attacked.
"It could have something to do with us finally… making love." He guessed, sure as he said it that that was the reason. "I'm sure the bond grew stronger when we were together, maybe that means that we can stand being a bit further apart now, it sort of knows we aren't going to part."
Bella blushed brightly, he smoothed a finger down her cheek. Though he looked forward to the time when she was a vampire and more durable than she was, he admitted that he would miss her blush. The flood of blood beneath the skin was absolutely beautiful.
"Maybe we should try strengthening it again?" she suggested, peeking up at him through her eyelashes. He groaned as his body immediately reacted to the suggestion.
Just at that moment the cottage came into view and Edward spun the car into its space and grabbed Bella up from her seat. He was out of the car and inside the cottage in less than 3 seconds. Bella half laughed and half squealed in fear as he jumped straight up over the banister railings into the bedroom rather than using the stairs.
He held her tightly against him as he kissed her with everything he had. Eventually he had to allow her to breathe though, and pulled back infinitesimally.
"I love you, Edward!" her heart was pounding in her chest and he could hear the blood speed through her system. He could also smell the arousal which her body was producing seeping out of her.
He moved to take her clothes off but she stopped him with a raised hand. He frowned, but then nodded when she pushed him backwards and started to undo the button on her jeans.
"I don't have so many clothes I can afford for you to tear them." She told him. He watched fascinated as she slowly (to him) stripped her clothes off her beautiful body.
He could swear the temperature in the room rose as she toed off her sneakers and then lowered her jeans down her long legs. Every inch of skin that she exposed was scrutinised minutely. He could probably have told her how many pores were on her skin if she had asked.
He almost cursed the shirt that had started the argument with Alice as it was long enough that when she took her jeans off it fell to mid thigh and hid the very place he most wanted to see.
He never thought he could view such an ugly piece of clothing as sexy, but when she slowly undid the buttons of the shirt he almost panted with anticipation. The pale pink camisole top she was wearing under it was the personification of innocence. It was such a little-girl thing to wear. She slipped the shirt down her arms and it fell on top of the jeans. He licked his lips as the white cotton panties she was wearing came into full view, his enhanced sight could track the spread of moisture on the innocent cloth. He licked his lips again, the venom tingling as he watched the blush from earlier travel all the way to the top of her pretty breasts. She lifted the camisole off and he groaned as the skin of her stomach was exposed to his eyes.
She stood, the firelight behind her danced like a halo around her figure as he drank in her perfection.
"Beautiful!" he breathed. She was stood in a plain cotton underwear set. There was nothing fancy about either the panties or the bra, but he had never seen anything sexier… unless he counted her naked.
"Edward?" she asked, he realised that she was uncomfortable with the way he was staring at her, he pulled her back into his arms, she shivered as electricity danced over their skins, stimulating their arousal even more.
"You are so beautiful!" he kissed her softly. She made a derogatory sound, but he didn't bother to address it. His lips travelled to her jaw, then her neck, she tilted her head to give him better access and he kissed all the way down to her shoulder, nudging the bra strap down as he went, his hands meanwhile weren't idle. One cupped her full breast and the other held her to him tightly and felt the swell of her ass. The power of the bond pulled them together and wrapped around them, he could almost see the sparks jumping from his fingers to her body, her flesh rose into goosebumps in response to his touch. She moaned, such a sexy sound. He lowered her onto the bed, his fingers slowly lowered the panties down her legs.
She was soaking wet. He kissed her leg, then her knee, then her thigh. The fluid on her inner thigh called to him. He had briefly tasted her before, from his fingers, but now he wanted to taste her properly.
"Edward?" she wasn't sure, he knew she wouldn't be comfortable with this just yet, he was sure she was feeling exposed. It was only a couple of days ago that she hadn't wanted him to see her naked in the shower.
"Shhh, let me." His tongue traced to her inner thigh. Her taste exploded on his tongue. She was delicious. He doubted that even the best human blood, even HER blood, could taste as good to him as this did.
She was musky and salty, rich and creamy. He travelled swiftly to her inner core. As soon as his tongue stimulated the bundle of nerves above her warm wet tunnel she cried out. Her body arched and she clamped her thighs together. Not to stop him touching her, but to fasten him in place and not allow him to stop. Her hands gripped his hair and held him to her flesh, not that he had had any plans to leave. More moisture flooded from her and he drank it all. His tongue lapped her over and over and he drank up every drop of liquid she produced. He penetrated her with his fingers, helping to push her even higher, he could feel the sparks travelling into her from him, more and more moisture flooded from her as he pushed her higher and higher towards the goal.
"Edward, Edward, please!" he heard her panting, as he twisted his fingers inside and gently sucked at her clit. "Oh God! PLEASE!" her back bowed again off the bed as tension grew in her.
With infinite gentleness he ran his tongue over her clit while keeping a gentle pressure on it with his mouth, as she got close to fulfilment he applied a little more suction and twisting his fingers in her depths, finally he allowed his inner beast to speak and gave a low growl, the vibration of his sound, and everything else he was doing to her pushed her into a screaming orgasm. Every muscle in her body spasmed as she flew over the cliff edge and floated off. He raised his head quickly to watch her. Her face was absolutely beatific! Shudders ran through her body as he felt every muscle inside her grip his fingers, pulling him tighter and tighter into her body.
His clothing disappeared as he stripped in less than a second and he plunged into her. She was so tight! So hot and wet, that he felt as if he was being boiled. He felt like he should pause and check that she was ok, but he couldn't. He couldn't even open his eyes, he was in heaven as his body moved in and out, thrusting powerfully, but not too strongly, into her. The thick liquid of her coated him as he moved, making the smell in the air even more overwhelming as it mingled with his own scent.
"Mine!" he growled as he pulled her tighter to him.
"Yes." She breathed, her hips lifted to him, helping him get even deeper inside her. He opened his eyes at last, she was looking at him with so much love it was almost unbelievable. He pulled back slightly and lifted one of her legs over his arm, opening her even more. The deeper he went the more he needed to get even deeper. His inner animal delighted in the mating urge and pushed him to get closer to her than ever. Without plan or thinking, he withdrew and lifted her. He turned her over and placed her on her knees on the bed. He thrust into her from behind. The beast roared as he felt the maximum penetration. Edward leant over her as his body thrust into hers, the electric danced down her spine and into his front as he reached around and lightly pinched her clit. She tightened again. He would not have thought it possible that her body could grip him so hard, yet the velvet tunnel felt so good, as she came again he felt the rings of muscle pull and squeeze, forcing him to let go of the pent up feelings that had built in him. He flooded into her, coming and coming until she was filled and more. He could not stop, the orgasm just kept on, he pushed deeper and deeper as the liquid pushed its way out past him and coated her legs, the beast roared with satisfaction at marking her in this way and he felt the orgasm falter just as Bella cried out again, she was coming once more and that stimulated him again, her inner muscles were holding him tighter and tighter as he came over and over.
Eventually his inner beast was satisfied and roared aloud once more, releasing its grip on him and allowed him to stop. He felt enervated in a way he never had before, and they both collapsed onto the bed. He made sure not to fall on top of her, as he felt her shudder beneath him over and over, the electric charge of the bond added to the force of the orgasm had caused them both to overload. He blanked out for a split second, that shouldn't be possible, but he knew as soon as he started to recover that time had been lost. He looked down at Bella, words of love on his lips until he realised she wasn't moving, at all.
He turned her over. Panic gripped him for a moment as he saw she was unconscious, but he was reassured by the sound of her heart, rapid but regular. If he did not know better he would say that he was exhausted too. Even he, the (according to Emmett) perpetual virgin, knew it wasn't normal to come for as long as he did. His scent was thick in the air, he looked down, the thick white venom-laced cum was leaking out of her. He made his way to the bathroom, totally exhausted and got a cloth and towel to clean her up. At least he didn't have to worry about feathers this time.
"What…" She woke as he was cleaning her, but she was groggy and uncoordinated. He slipped the hand towel that he was using under her as it was obvious that there was still quite a bit of liquid to evacuate. "Stop it and come and go to sleep Edward." She mumbled, he smiled but then she pulled his arm until he complied and lay back down beside her. She snuggled into his side and sleepily pulled the duvet over them both. He was afraid she would get cold. For all the heat that the fire kicked out it was still only 35 degrees outside and his body wasn't that much warmer. Suddenly he felt warmth, his senses quickly determined that someone had put an electric underblanket on the bed, probably on a timer. Alice. Even with all the arguments she was still looking out for Bella and him. He silently mouthed 'Thank You' and wrapped both his arms around his sleeping wife.
"Remind me never to go shopping with Edward for a new car again," she grumbled as she staggered into the Cullen house the next evening.
The day had been an irritating mixture of annoyance, amusement and disgust. Every car sales dealer they had gone to had started the same. The salesmen had all watched them carefully every time they approached a car, but none of them could be bothered to actually enquire as to why they were there. When Edward went as far as to open the door to a car though, someone was always quick to scamper over and point out that the car he was looking at was very expensive… didn't he want to look at something cheaper, or was his father going to arrive to buy him a new car?
Each time Edward just stared at the salesman until he broke out into a sweat, at which point he brought out his wallet and showed his licence and the shiny black credit card in his name.
As soon as that happened the whole atmosphere changed, suddenly the salesmen could not do enough for them. They were hustled to the expensive and fast looking toys that sat closest to the manager's office, at which point the manager usually came out and asked the salesman what he was doing, showing the expensive cars to such a young boy.
Bella had hated every minute of the day, though the few seconds around the time of the revelation of Edward's independent wealth amused her. The mix of shock, horror and greed had been repeated on every face at every showroom. The mild amusement wasn't enough to combat the embarrassment of constantly being watched, or the disgust at the fawning of the sales people. In the end Edward had called someone on his cell and the deal had been done in the privacy of a manager's office, rather than on the showroom floor.
"Why? What did you get?" Rose came into the room from the garage, wiping oil off her hands with a rag.
"Erm, you know, I can't remember, except it's black?" She shrugged apologetically.
"It's black!" Rose looked at her disgusted.
"Hey! It isn't my fault. We must have looked at more than 100 cars!"
"Where is he?" Rose looked around.
"He went to hunt. Carlisle was just getting home when we pulled up so they went together, I said I would be fine here." She was actually quite nervous but felt that she needed some time with the girls to repair their relationships.
"Alice!" Rose said in a voice not much louder than the one they had been talking in, Alice appeared at the top of the stairs.
"You bellowed?" she asked with a grin.
"Get down here!" Rose threw the dirty cloth and it landed in the bin for rags in the kitchen, over 15 feet away. Bella grimaced, she would have been lucky to hit the bin if she was stood over it.
"Edward has bought her a new car… it's black." She laced the last two words with utter contempt. Alice laughed, Bella was happy to note that the tension she had felt being in the Cullen house the day before wasn't there anymore.
"What's wrong?" Esme walked into the room from the back garden where she had been planting bulbs for a display later in the year.
"Evidently Bella's new car is black." Alice said. Esme frowned.
"Well, that's… nice?" she obviously didn't know what Rose was complaining about, or maybe she didn't know Rose was complaining in the first place.
"I didn't want it in black," Bella protested, "but they said that it was the only colour available."
"What, like the Model T?" Rose sneered.
"The Model T came in a wide range of colours, it's a myth that Ford said that." Esme said, busy digging dirt from under her fingernails she missed the look Rose gave her.
"I know, Esme!" Rose said, "I was just pointing out that cars don't only come in one colour nowadays."
"Well, that's what the salesman said." Bella protested. "He said they only have 4 of them and they are all black."
"Well why didn't you order another colour from somewhere else?" Rose asked patiently.
"They are importing that one from Germany as it is. I didn't mean the car dealership only had 4, I mean he said that there were only 4 of them available anywhere at the moment."
"What?!" Rose looked at Alice. "Ok, Pixie, I give up, what the hell has he bought?"
Alice grinned. "He hasn't bought anything," she said, "he made a deal with the head office that Bella could 'borrow' a car for a few months and then he would buy her another."
"He called it my 'before' car." Bella said helpfully.
"Before what?" Esme asked.
"Before I become a vampire. He insisted that I have it and that I could have any car I wished after my change, but only if I accepted this one for now."
"So what has he got her?" Rose was losing her temper, Bella shrugged and all three women turned to look at Alice.
"A Mercedes Guardian." She grinned at Rose slapped her forehead with her hand.
"Of course he did." She said.
"Why?" Bella asked.
"It's top of the range, and it's got every single safety device known to man, up to and including missile-proof glass and four thousand pounds of body armour. The paint isn't just flame retardant, it's flame proof and it isn't available for sale for another five months, and even then it will be a limited production and will probably have less than 100 made, that's why there are only 4 of them and all black."
"Missile-proof?" Bella swallowed, it wasn't like she hadn't expected Edward to go overboard, she had. But she had thought he would have bought her a little sports car, or that Audi coupe that he had talked about before. This though, was going more than a bit overboard. "If it isn't yet for sale, how did he get hold of it then?" she asked.
"We have a few shares in the parent company, Daimler." Alice grinned.
"A few?" Bella asked, groaning as she did so.
"17% of them." Alice laughed.
"How come you own all these shares in all these companies, doesn't anyone realise that you own so much?" Bella asked.
"Well, we own several companies… ok a couple of dozen companies… that own the shares, to be more precise, there are all sorts of ways to hide who you are, especially if the companies are old ones, set up before computers came in. We hide a lot of our holdings like that, we have several hedge funds that seem to allow certain others to invest, but all the investors are us by other names. We also own several pension funds, who don't have any pensioners, things like that, and, of course, we have holdings in almost every country as well. It's an easy way to hide money." Alice said. "Most of the companies know that a certain Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones, or the like, have the power to vote on a bulk amount of the shares, so anytime we want anything Messers Smith or Jones comes out of hiding, gives the password, and the companies jump to do our bidding." She grinned evilly as Bella hid her face.
"Did you lose a lot in that crash thingy the other year?" Bella asked suddenly.
"Not really, we had to lose SOME, of course, it would have been too suspicious if we had withdrawn and holed up entirely, but overall we lost less than 5% of our income, and we have easily made it back and more, just on interest alone, since 2008."
It really made Bella's mind spin, she could not get her head around the numbers they used.
"So, let me get this right, you own enough of Daimler that they have loaned you their brand new, not-even-available-yet, car for a few months at no charge and they will take it back later without any questions?"
"Yes." Alice said simply, Esme and Rose nodded. Bella shook her head.
"I give up." She said.
"What type of car are you thinking to get after?" Rose asked to change the subject slightly.
"I have no idea." Bella said, she turned her head so Esme and Alice could see her give a small grin, but Rose couldn't, "I was thinking of a red one." They all laughed when Rose made a disgusted noise again, and after a second Rose laughed too.
"That reminds me, Edward never did get me that Porsche," Alice said, she lifted her phone from the table and stabbed out a quick text.
"He owes you a Porsche?" Bella asked.
"Well, he didn't know that's what I wanted, so I just told him." She paused and her eyes lost focus, she smiled. "Ohh that's nice! He got me the latest one!"
Rose flashed away and back and on her laptop screen she showed Bella several sporty looking cars. "Any of them take your fancy?" she asked.
"Not really." Bella frowned. "Edward said I could have a sports car, but it's not something I ever wanted." She clearly remembered the girls at her old school in Phoenix. The better the car they drove the nastier they were. Somehow she equated owning a vehicle like that with that sort of personality. It was different with the Cullen's they owned normal cars as well and didn't tend to flash their cash… well, not in public anyway… except for the designer clothes that was.
Alice, Rose and Esme all sat on the leather sofa with Bella between Esme and Alice. Each of the vampires pulled the specifications for car after car onto their screen, but Bella couldn't say she was impressed, in fact she was bored of the subject before they had passed a minute at it.
"We are doing it again." Alice sighed and looked at Bella apologetically. "Bella isn't interested in this." Bella winced and shrugged.
"I'm sorry, I'm just not that interested in shopping, of any kind." She apologised.
"What would you like to do?" Esme asked. Bella didn't know. She had never had friends so had no idea what friends usually did. Her eyes filled with tears. She had been such a bitch to them all, but when they gave her the choice, she had no idea what to suggest. Esme pulled her into her arms, she felt comforted by her embrace, but still had no idea what she wanted to do. "I'll tell you what I do have, the latest Jane Eyre on DVD, would you like to watch it?"
"Sure," she smiled through her tears, her stomach ached, oh right, she was due on again any time now, that would go some way to excuse her recent behaviour.
"There's supplies for you in the bathroom attached to Edward's old room." Alice said, Bella blushed brightly, at least the boys weren't around though.
"Can you, can you all smell it, me… when I'm…" she gestured.
"Yes, but don't worry about it," Esme tried to reassure her, "It's natural and nothing at all to be ashamed of." It didn't stop her feeling uneasy that the other men would know of her condition though.
She used the bathroom and travelled back to the living room, unsure whether to stay or head back to the cottage. If Emmett mentioned anything when he got back she would die!
However when she appeared in the living room it was obvious the girls thought she was staying. Esme had produced a pint of cookie dough ice cream (Esme was determined that she was going to try every single flavour of ice-cream before she was changed!) and a tub of popcorn. She settled on the sofa and curled up ready to watch the DVD. Esme sat to one side and pulled Bella in to lean on her, Rose sat on the floor by her side and Alice lifted Bella's legs onto her lap, she grabbed a throw and covered Bella up.
"I love Toby Stephens," she said, digging into the ice-cream, it was still solid, but tasted wonderful. "Mrs. Middleton had DVD's of The Tenant of Wildfell Halland Onegin, and while I wasn't keen on Onegin as much, I think he's a great actor. Mrs. Vaughn told me he was staring in a BBC version of Jane Eyre just before she died, she never got to see it." Tears filled Bella's voice as she tried to stop her eyes from shedding them.
"He isn't in this." Esme said, patting her gently on the shoulder.
"I thought he played Mr. Rochester in the latest adaptation?" Bella said, she leant over to the table and picked up the DVD box, but the cover was blank.
"It's the newer one, it's only premiered this month at the cinema," Esme explained. Bella raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on that, she didn't want to know how many movie companies they owned.
"Oh, so who are the stars?" she asked.
"Michael Fassbender is Rochester, and a relatively new actress Mia Wasikowska is playing Jane."
"Ohh good! I like it when they use new actors and actresses, they give everything to the role." Said Alice. Bella nodded in agreement.
She didn't need to say that as she hadn't watched much TV, let alone go to the cinema she didn't know most of the actors in any production anyway. She didn't remember ever going to the pictures except the one time Charlie took her when she was almost 7 to see A Bugs Life when it was on the Saturday morning special at Port Angeles.
Esme touched a remote control and the massive back wall picture windows were silently covered with blackout cloth, the lights dimmed and the huge screen filled with the opening scenes, and Bella was swept away to Victorian England.