Disclaimer: All recognizable Twilight characters belong to S. Meyer. I however own 'White Carpets and Wall Sconces.'
A/N: Thanks so much to my fabulous editor Adrena, and of course to Blynn because she begged, pleaded and kept me (somewhat) on track.
My aplogies for this one taking so long.
Edward's Point of View
I opened my eyes and blinked. She was still there. I blinked again. Still there. It wasn't a dream. I had a gorgeous angel in my bed, naked, still draped over me, fast asleep, her breathing a rhythmic in and out. Her dark curls were a mess, and her face was pressed into my chest. I pulled the covers up, over her and placed one hand on her back, rubbing gentle circles. I felt her move slightly and sigh, before slipping back into her deep slumber.
I could hear the beat of the party, even over the music I'd turned on. It had to have been going on for a while, and I was surprised Alice hadn't come pounding on the door. Or maybe she had and I hadn't heard her. I wondered if I really needed to go down there. I had promised to be present for this party; however that was before there was a beautiful woman asleep on my chest.
I couldn't help but think back to how she'd gotten there. How had I gotten so lucky? I knew now, though I was terrified to admit it, even to myself, that there was more to Bella Swan than met the eye and that I had more than just sexual feelings for her. I knew that I could spend a lot of time with her, just getting to know her better, or like I was at that precise moment, watching her sleep, listening to her breathe.
In fact, I could almost imagine turning down the heat to get to know her better. I wondered how long it would take to learn all there was to know about Bella Swan.
She gripped her fingers into my side and sighed, readjusting her body in relation to mine, before relaxing once more. Her face had a complex look of relaxation and bliss and worry painted across it. I wondered how one person could show so many emotions while still fast asleep.
Learning all there was to know about Bella Swan could be a very long process. I quickly took back my vow to slow things down. I would go crazy.
I was going crazy just having her in my bed. It was taking all my concentration to keep my breathing even. I paced myself to hers and continued to rub her back, playing with the end of her hair at intervals. I could barely remember a time when I felt this at ease.
I tried to remember the last time I let a girl fall asleep after sex and didn't practically shove her clothes into her arms and send her out the door.
I thought back to that conversation I'd had with Alice, the one after the run in with Rose's friend Tanya. Was she right? Was this just like it was with her? I forced myself to think her name. Charlotte. I took a deep, steadying breath and pinched the bridge of my nose to calm myself. I didn't like thinking about it. I didn't want to go back there again. The pain of the entire thing shot through my body like lightning and I took another deep breath, causing Bella to stir.
She looked groggily up at me, a small smile creeping across her face, and then she blinked, and her smile disappeared. "What's wrong?" She rolled off of me and sat up, keeping the sheet around her.
My throat was thick and my ears were ringing. "Edward?" She looked torn, like she wasn't sure whether to stay or leave.
"Nothing," I choked, pinching the bridge of my nose again and blinking against the burning in my eyes. I reached a hand out and placed it on her knee, trying to show her that everything was alright. I took another deep breath and tried again. "I was just…thinking?"
Her face was still concerned, but her body relaxed visibly. "What about?" Her voice sounded hurt. Did she think I was upset with her? She seemed to pull herself further away from me, hiding more of her in the sheet.
I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say. I wasn't ready to tell her the real reason; I wasn't even sure what the real reason was.
"I'm not mad at you," I told her, sitting up to face her, reaching my hand out to brush it along her cheek.
"I couldn't be mad at you."
"Should I go?" She leaned over, searching for something. I watched as the sheet slipped from her shoulder, revealing more of her milky skin. I itched to touch it.
"What? No. No, of course not." I forced myself to smile as I reached for her hand. "Bella, I'm sorry. What's wrong?" What could I possibly have done? I dropped her hand and went to turn off the stereo before returning to the bed, sitting as close to her as I dared. "Bella, what's wrong?"
"Maybe we should go down to the party." Her voice was hollow. I thought everything was going so well. I watched intently as her face was crinkled with hurt.
"Let's have our own party." I tipped her chin up to face me. She was silent for a long time, her eyes wide and sad, her mouth pursed. I couldn't read her face. I didn't know why she was so upset. Was she having second thoughts? She really didn't like me as well as I thought. Was I just easy sex that had turned awkward? I didn't want to believe it.
"What are you doing, Edward?" She readjusted the sheets and leaned back against the pillows.
"I'm trying to figure out why you are so upset." This was what I hated about girls. They got upset about everything. I reminded myself why I didn't go the relationship route. This is why I sent girls out or left while they were sleeping. I was not good at dealing with the after effects. Why had I thought Bella Swan would be different? Was I that stupid? But she was. She was so different.
"I'm upset because you're upset." My heart pounded in my chest. Did that mean she cared? She lowered her eyes to stare at her knees. "Why are you upset Edward? I mean…I thought everything was okay. I thought maybe…we…you and me…I thought we were doing pretty well." She blushed red and closed her eyes.
We, Bella and me, we. I liked the sound of it more than I should have. I barely knew her, and she knew too much about my past. How could this even happen?
"I told you," I said with a sigh. "I was thinking…" She gave me an angry look and crossed her arms over her chest. At least she wasn't leaving. "About something that happened a long time ago." I felt the hot sting of tears in the corners of my eyes and blinked furiously. I was Edward Cullen. Edward Cullen did not cry. Especially not in front of anyone. Especially not in front of Bella Swan.
"You know Edward, it isn't very good for the ego when you wake up to some guy looking like he's in pain."
I sighed. "It's nothing. I'm sorry."
"You can talk about it if you want." Her voice was quiet, shy. Back to the Bella that first barged into the bathroom just over a week ago. "I won't say anything." She looked down at her hands. Her fingers were twisted together; the way she did when she was nervous, or uncomfortable.
I shook my head slowly and reached out to take her hands. "Not now," I told her quietly, squeezing her hands lightly.
"When you're ready then, perhaps." She let me keep her hands in mine but she wouldn't meet my eyes.
"You're sure you don't want to go down to the party?" No, I didn't want to go to the party, Tanya would be there, smokin' body and big smile Tanya, who had been texting me all week long. I was going to kill Rosalie for giving her my number.
"Not really," I responded, pulling her closer to me. "I'd much rather stay here with you." I pecked her on the forehead and searched her face with my eyes. She still looked sad, and she wouldn't look me in the eyes.
"Can we go for a drive?" Gulp. "To the harbour?"
"Won't you be cold?" I wasn't ready to leave the warmth of my bed yet. I also wasn't ready for her to put her clothes back on. I reached out and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her tight to my chest and laying back. "It's nice and warm here."
She shook her head. "I need to think." Think. What did she need to think about?
"Are you okay?" I was getting seriously worried. She'd been fine all day. She only nodded and kissed me chastely on the lips. "Do you want me to come with you while you think?"
"Oh, I think you'd better," she said sweetly. My Bella was back. Wait, my Bella? I had no claim over her.
Did I want to lay some claim to her? I mentally gave my head a shake. Maybe I did, but she probably didn't. I was Edward Cullen.
She ran her finger down my chest and then rolled off of me, searching for the light switch.
"Any idea where my other sock is?"
She held up a little pink ankle sock and grinned. I shook my head and reached my hand out to pull the sheet from her body. She squealed.
"What's the point, Bella? I've already seen it all." I stood and pushed her back on the bed so she was sitting, looking up at me, smiling a coy little smile.
Her fingers slowly crawled down my stomach, and I felt all the muscles clench. She flared her fingers over my hip bones and pressed them into me. I was getting hard. Correction, I was hard. Very hard.
And then…she laughed and slid off the bed, kissing me hard on the mouth and then resumed looking for her clothes. Fuck.
"I want to go to the harbour, Edward." She looked over at me, her eyes wide and pleading. "Please." Fuck. Why did she have such an…effect on me? Could I deny her nothing?
"I'm going to dress you, and then we can go." She looked up at me, surprised, before finding her bra and sliding it over her shoulders.
"Dress yourself." She threw a pair of boxers in my direction. She missed by a mile.
"Good aim," I joked, pulling them over my legs and yanking a sweater from my drawer.
"Alice is going to kill us," I told her as I shoved my head through the neck of the sweater and dug around for a pair of jeans.
She only shrugged and started looking for that stupid sock again. She was still way too naked for me to ignore.
"Where are my pants?" She seemed to have found her socks. Pink ankle socks and a satin bra…I wanted to devour her.
"I think you're missing something." She shook her head, pulling her sweater over her head and sticking her tongue out.
"We're five?" She only nodded.
"Pants?" She looked at me expectantly and I pulled them from the chair where they'd landed.
"Thanks." She pulled them on. Did I need to mention that she'd forgotten her underwear? I decided against it.
"Ready?" I asked, offering my hand. She took it and stood on her toes to kiss me on the cheek.
"You don't mind missing the party to freeze your ass off at the harbour?'
"Nah, it's actually preferable." I wanted to avoid Tanya. Tanya and her texts that I'd never responded to. She was…eager…if nothing else. Eager and hot. I was so stupid.
I looked down at the cute brunette holding my hand. Her eyes were shining; her hair was trailing down her back. Her hips swayed as she walked and her tiny hand was warm in mine. Maybe I wasn't so stupid.
"How did we not notice the floor was shaking?" She squeezed my hand tighter as we descended the stairs into the mob of people.
I raised my eyebrows and then winked. "Never mind." she said with a giggle.
We pushed through the crowd. "There you are!" Shit, not Emmett. "We've been looking all over for you! Look at this, Jasper got a fuckin' keg!"
He held up beer cups in both hands. Bella laughed at him. "Bella Swan…I'm so glad you're here. You know Edward needs someone who's got more than air between their ears."
He winked and gave her a big grin. "However little bro', there is someone looking for you. Friend of Rosalie's, keeping my woman away from me. You know she's still on about the damn baby?"
He winked again. "Tall, blonde. Sure you know what I'm talkin' about." I cleared my throat and Emmett lumbered off, careful not to spill his beer. Bella looked at me curiously.
"Ready to go? Let's leave before someone else stops us." I took her hand and pulled her toward the front door.
"Edward!" The sweet voice I'd been hoping not to run into assaulted my ears and I tensed. "Gosh I've been looking everywhere for you." She brought her face close to mine and hugged me tightly, ignoring Bella. I felt her drop my hand and step away.
I patted Tanya awkwardly on the back and she stepped away, tracing my jaw line with one, perfectly manicured finger. "Did you not get my texts? My messages?" She was pouting. I hated to see girls pout.
"Sorry," I said, shuffling my feet awkwardly. "I've been busy."
"We should catch up. Gosh, I mean, last weekend was just the beginning of something great. I mean, I'm so sorry I interrupted you, and I mean, obviously you've been busy. I mean, I totally understand."
I wondered how many times it was possible to say "I mean" in a sentence.
"But, I mean, like you're here now, and I'm here now and I mean, we could like totally finish what we started." She winked, and ran her fingers down my arm, causing my body to tingle.
That wouldn't be a bad idea. She was gorgeous, willing, and eager even. This is what I was used to. She threw herself at me. I'd be a fool not to accept that offer. I felt her nails softly grazing the muscles on my neck.
Fuck, Bella. I looked to my right and she was no longer there.
"I need to go Tanya; maybe I'll see you later."
"Oh, Edward, there's no need to go yet. Will you call me?" She was still clinging to my wrist and I was still scanning the room for Bella.
"Yeah, yeah maybe, sure" I told her, gently unclasping her fingers from my wrist. "Why don't you grab another drink Tan, we'll catch up later."
I forcefully pulled myself away and turned my attention to the rest of the room. Alice was standing talking to a couple of girls in the corner, sipping on her signature red wine.
"Alice, have you seen Bella?" I was still scanning the room, trying to see her dark curls amongst the crowd.
Alice shook her head. "I thought she was with you." I rolled my eyes at her and jabbed my thumb in Tanya's direction.
"Oh, shit Edward. See if her coat's still there. Maybe she headed outside." It's a good thing one person in the family had a brain; I'd never have thought to check for a coat.
Bella's jacket was definitely no longer in the hall closet and her boots were gone, so I decided I'd better find her. We were supposed to go to the harbour after all.
I grabbed my keys off the ring by the door and squeezed through the crowd of people smoking on the front step. I needed a smoke, I realized as I passed through the haze. I pulled one out of my jacket pocket and lit it, meanwhile looking left and right to see where Bella went.
"Has a girl gone past? Brown hair, black coat?" Great description, Edward. That could be any girl here.
One of the smokers nodded. "She went left, said she needed some air. She moved pretty quick though."
I thanked him and hurried down the street. She couldn't have gotten that far, she seemed to be pretty clumsy and I hadn't talked to Tanya or Alice for that long.
"Bella" I called, rounding the corner to see her dark form hunched from the cold. Her hair was whipping around her face in the wind.
"Bella" I said again, jogging to catch up with her. She never looked back. "For Christ's sake, what the hell is your problem?" This was ridiculous. How did one person's mood change so frigging often? I wanted to shake her. I grabbed her shoulder and spun her to face me.
"Polite" was her snippy remark. Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
"What the fuck? We were supposed to go to the harbour. You made me get out of the mother fucking bed so I could take you to the god damned harbour, then you run off in the dead of winter and make me run after you. You're right, I am polite. I'm fucking polite."
I crossed my arms over my chest and she mirrored me. "Why the hell am I bothering? You wake up and you're pissed off about god only knows what, and then we get past that and now you're pissed off again."
"I was going for a walk," she said, stomping her foot. I nearly laughed. I took one last drag of my cigarette and crushed it under the toe of my boot. "I didn't want to intrude on your life anymore than I already have."
Her eyes were fierce, but I could have sworn I saw tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Shit, crying girl is way worse than pouting girl.
"Are you crying?" I didn't manage to keep the scorn from my voice. I heard a distinct, yet very quiet sniff.
"No," she argued shakily. She looked angry. She wasn't ready to be defeated yet.
"Can we go to the harbour now? I'm dressed, out of bed and already freezing my ass off. I'd rather do it and look at boats."
"I suppose," she said stiffly, starting to walk back toward my house.
"Are you going to talk to me?" I jogged to catch up.
"In the car. It's cold out."
