EDNAPPED

[Part, III]

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As I turn to try and see if I have to protect myself, or whatever, my heart stops beating altogether at the sight of the woman before me, for one glorious moment. And then, my impetuous heart starts backup again in such a volatile rhythm that I am afraid she might hear it and mock me. Blinking excessively, I stare at her and try to come up with a befitting attribute to describe her because she is –beautiful? No, the word beautiful doesn't do this woman justice, because she is something more... Someone sublime.

The more I take in the sight of her, the more I think she must be a figment of my imagination… and I feel myself tremble as I properly admire her. This sublime creature is wearing a charcoal grey 'V' neck sweater with sleeves that stop just over her elbows and hugged her breasts in an attractive and appealing manner, before becoming loose just bellow the bust line.

Meanwhile, her undershirt is a cobalt blue that contrasts exquisitely and perfectly with both the charcoal grey of her sweater and the ivory parlor of her skin, hidden bellow those layers of clothing that I am beginning to think are unnecessary for someone like her. Next, my eyes travel the length of her body and my eyes hungrily catch a silver of ivory skin above the waistband of her navy blue skinny jeans, which outline her every curve and the firmness of her long legs, drawing out her form as they disappear into grey combat boots.

Gulping as I fail and try to swallow, my Adam's apple bobs excessively along my throat as I brace myself and taking in the sleekness of her mahogany locks, seek out this sublime creature's eyes. The moment our eyes meet, a clash of doe chocolate brown eyes to jade-green, I find myself exclaiming expletives under my breath as silently as possible, when I witness a charming blush taint her high cheeks on her heart shaped visage –and right then, I know my heart can't take any more mete and is about to give out on me.

Then, when I think my heart is sure to burst, she opens her sanguine cherub mouth and I am honored the opportunity of listening to her ethereal voice, a voice that in its impossibility convinces me it cannot belong to a mere mortal.

"Um, do you have any idea as to what's going on?" she asks sheepishly of me, her gaze utterly abashed as she clears her throat and averts her eyes from mine.

Instantly, my heart falls pass my navel and splatters at my feet. Have I offended her somehow, with all my blatant staring? Or is it that she finds the sight of me unappealing? I seriously hope not… Because, honestly, it would be just my luck that she would end up being the first woman not to throw herself at me…

Agh! I sound like a pompous jackass too full of himself and a madman! Now my thoughts are so full of myself that I'm even wishing for someone, such a sublime woman, to throw herself at my feet? What is wrong with you, Edward Anthony Masen?

"No, actually, I was about to ask you the same question," I say and my heart stops for the second time in her presence as she lifts up her head and fixes her chocolate eyes on mine at the sound of my dusty voice.

"Oh," she says simply, looking only slightly disappointed, and then, smirks with a knowing smile as her eyes appraise me for signs of the truth behind my words.

"Yeah… so…"

Now that I think about it, I've always been of the opinion that women look pathetic when they try to act coy or smirk, but that smirk on her… looks too damn sexy. Momentarily breathless, I try to breathe in raggedly and let out a quivering breath. For her own good, she shouldn't smirk like that around me. Especially in this lightly lit, enclosed space, I mentally add, and I think I feel myself beginning to hyperventilate.

She smiles widely at me, which I return with an uncertain crooked smile of my own, before inhaling sharply, opens her mouth, and startling me the bejeezus out of me, suddenly bellows, "Mary Alice Brandon, if you do not open this door this instant, you'll be in so much trouble you won't know what's coming to you, young lady!"

Muffled laughter from the other side of the door meets her outburst and as I watch the glorious sight of the woman before me with her cheeks all flushed, her eyes wide and luminous with barely restrained anger, I can't help but think that she looks even sexier when angry.

"Sorry, Bella, but no can do," Rose singsongs from the other side of the door, snickering.

"You see, Swan, right now we're playing a little game, yourself included, in which a person has to kiss whomever they're trapped with…" Alice, ever so helpful, chimes in, "it's a bit like seven minutes in heaven, I suppose!"

My heart pauses and picks up its pace at the mention of this sublime woman's name and that's when it hits me; I now know her name! Her name is Bella! How befitting for such a creature to –wait a damned minute, did Alice say kiss? Is Alice trying to get me killed on the very first night we've met?

Looking at Bella, to see what her reaction to this outrageous new piece of information might be, I see that her eyes have gone as wide as mine and that we are both furiously flushed and that she's been looking at me all along.

"Alice," Bella growls through clenched teeth as she averts her gaze from mine. And, yeah, I think I just got turned on… "You listen to me right now and open this damn door."

"I already told you, Bella, darling," Alice chirps, "no can do."

There's more laughter and suddenly, I get the feeling that Jasper and Emmett are also behind this plot to make my –to make Bella uncomfortable as I hear their quiet but rougher laughter reach my ears. "No kiss, no freedom," Rosalie adds helpfully, chuckling darkly.

Bella rounds on me and I'm almost afraid to look at her, thinking that she's about to start screaming at me for being stuck in here with her, but since I can't help myself, I do meet her eyes and see that she's just offering me an apologetic smile. That look, wrenches my heart in the process and melts it.

That's when I realize that despite the fact that my heart is still beating an unhealthy tempo, it no longer aches… And that's about the same time that something else crazy occurs to me. Only Bella and her nearness can make the pain in my heart go away, it's the only explanation. Therefore, only she should have the right to adhere to my wish, and right now, I'm wishing she were holding my heart. However, for something like that ever coming to fruition, I have to do something to spear Bella this total humiliation.

"Jasper, Emmett," I say sternly. There's total silence on the other end. "I know you two are out there and are listening, so don't even try the silent treatment and hurry up and open this door."

Bella is looking at me like she's wishing me good luck, her gaze filled with sympathy but no conviction, or faith, for that matter. I grimace. Still, there is silence and then…

"You heard the ladies, Edward, we can't do that," stupid Jasper replies. Suddenly, I feel like a total jackass because his words make me feel aggravated and beyond elated at the same time. "You just need to kiss the lady you are with," he adds airily, "and then, you'll be free."

"Simple as that, Eddie," interjects Emmett, ever the optimist.

Now, it's my turn to look at Bella apologetically. "Sorry," I mouth but she just shrugs and runs her fingers through the hair at the nape of her neck. "Emmett," I hiss at the door and kick it, ready to try any other methods that we haven't tried yet.

"Oh, my," sighs Alice, dramatically, "looks like you two might have to stay in there all night."

To my horror and elation, I can just hear the distinct sound of their retrieving footsteps. Bella pushes me to the side and presses her ear to the door and listens, her eyes growing wider and wider with the realization of their retreat. As charming and ideal as the notion of being trapped in here all night with Bella might seem, I don't want to play any part in this little sick game Alice, Rosalie, and my boys have orchestrated. Especially when I know that it makes Bella uncomfortable. And not when I have the nagging suspicion that I might be the one that makes her feel the most discomfort.

"Alice!" Bella tries again, sounding defeated and muttering something that sounds suspiciously like 'I can't believe I'm locked in within my own home' with a lot of expletives in between, while banging her head against the door repeatedly.

"I'm sorry," I interrupt, incredulous, "did you just say that this is your home?"

Lifting her head from the door and massaging her forehead, Bella glances over her shoulder at me, looking sheepish due to her behavior. Once our eyes meet, I feel the air change as she looks across and with a slow nod Bella allows a small and playful smile to spread over her lips, curving them invitingly. "Yes, Edward," out loud, she answers, "this is my home."

God, now I can die happily. Just the sound of her voice and the sight of her lips uttering and forming my name do wander to my internal organs –just listen to my heart! It should have stopped working a long while ago and yet, here it is, beating erratically and trying to jump out of my chest. Somehow, it beats for her… it is as in awe with her as I am.

"Bathroom… TV…" Bella nods patiently. "Sink… here…" I hear myself mumbling incoherently and fumbling along as if from afar.

As I listen to my voice and realize that I'm nowhere near making sense, horror seizes my heart and I know I've done it now. Any remote chance I ever had with Bella, I just flushed down then the metaphorical drain with my awestruck nonsense. Surely, Bella now thinks I'm an idiot.

However, as I start to inwardly panic, picturing many different scenarios in which Bella wants nothing to do with me and tells me something or other than ends up in her telling me to keep away from her, I hear something unexpected and glorious. Like a whip, my head lifts up and I stare at Bella, watching her with her head thrown back against the back of the door as her charming laughter fills the pantry.

The sound of Bella's laughter is like the ripple of an ancient song that must have been played long ago on a harp during nights of euphoria, and it quickly fills me, becoming my favorite sound in the world. Laughing along with her, I quickly decide that I love the sound of our laughter harmonizing.

A few moments later, we are still laughing and by then, we are laughing so hard that we are on the floor and gasping for breath with merry tears glistening down the corners of our eyes. It had been such a long time since the last time I laughed this hard, that I can't remember when I had. Looking at Bella, I shuffle a little closer to her and instinctively, my hand moves, fingers outstretched, to catch a single merry dangling from her flushed cheek.

My breath hitches as my fingertips make contact with her ivory skin, sending a wave of warmth up my arm and through the rest of my body to gather somewhere bellow my navel. Before this moment, I never knew such warmth existed. Obviously, my laughter died down the moment Bella's warmth started flaring within me and so does Bella's as I switch my gaze from her cheek and my fingertips to her eyes. Though I try, I fail to understand and grasp at the emotions passing through the chocolate windows to her soul.

"Edward," breathes Bella, bringing my attention to her lips. They are full, sanguine, and inviting. Never have I seen a pair of lips more inviting and beckoning than Bella's as they part and form my name, as if praying for my lips to meet hers.

"Bella." As I utter her name, my voice doesn't sound like my own. Somehow, it is huskier and dustier than usual. My eyes travel momentarily from her lips to her eyes as if asking silently for permission and I feel myself being drawn to Bella as if by invisible fingertips pulling at strings.

A fraction of a second later, I am but a hair's breadth away from my lips engaging Bella's in a dance as old as time itself and I pause, watching as Bella's eyelids flutter shut with surrender, while a blush tints her ivory skin, and she too begins to lean in as if I have the same pull on her that she has on me –a final invitation.

Our lips finally touching, caressing, brushing, parting, molding together, my heart goes from systole to diastole to asytole and I know nirvana. Because that is what kissing Bella is like… idyllic. Soon after, my heart contracts as Bella's lips part and the sensation is like a cardiac massage, and my heart goes volatile, speeding up to a frenetic rhythm.

Then, nirvana and everything idyllic about our tender kiss shatters as Bella ignites the embers of passion with a swipe of her tongue against my parted upper lip and desire for more and more and more... blooms and takes a hold of us. For a hot-white moment, I know insanity and I know that Bella is the poison and the antidote to this madness as long as I keep exploring her mouth and the warmth of her flushed, ivory skin.

Suddenly, this pantry is like a combustion chamber and I feel like I am about to instantaneously combust as my fingers tangle in Bella's mahogany locks and she draws my bottom lip into her mouth as she tugs at it with her teeth, a sweet and slow torture. Hence, I hear myself groan against her mouth and grabbing Bella by her waist, I pull her into my lap. Readily, she complies and straddles my hips, tugging at my hair as her kisses turn hot and crazy…

With a shudder, I feel her lips leave my mouth and she's placing kisses along my jaw line, my five o'clock shadow bristling against her swollen lips. Meanwhile, I'm trying to catch my breath as my hands blindly try to find that silver of ivory skin I had spied earlier and the moment my fingertips makes contact with the dimples on the small of Bella's back, my palm follows.

Bella shivers above me then, a slight sound between a sigh and a moan escapes her parting lips as she throws her head back, and all I see is her neck, arching invitingly. Inevitably, I kiss the column of her throat with an openmouthed kiss and Bella places a hand on my shoulder as the fingers on her other hand tangle in my copper hair to keep me close, while I explore the contours of her throat to her protruding collarbones. Lastly, I kiss the hollow between her collarbones before I seek out her mouth again.

As I make the torturous ascent to Bella's mouth, she catches my heated, jade-green gaze with her chocolate bedroom eyes and she smiles seductively with her lips swollen and red from our kisses. Momentarily, I forget how to breathe and placing both palms on either side of my face, Bella brings her mouth to mine and she teaches me how again as we trade breaths and unspoken promises. Assurances of a tomorrow and a future are uttered in every moan, sigh, grunt, and swivel of hips against hips…

Until, the need for oxygen puts a stop to our kissing but not the inferno of our moment of passion as we hold each other close and breath each other's air with our eyes closed, our cheeks flushed, and our foreheads pressed together. Stuttering after stuttering breath later, our breathing returns to normal and I open my eyes to see Bella opening hers and watching me.

As we stare at each other, the moment isn't as awkward as I thought it would be, considering that I just made out and groped a stranger. In fact, it is a comfortable and companionable moment that lasts for a brief moment. But in that singular moment, I understand everything that Bella isn't saying and she understands everything I am not.

And then, the door to the pantry was pulled open and four heads with devilish smirks were looking in with very smug and satisfied looks on their faces.

"What do you think?" begins Jasper.

"The kissed?" finishes Emmett. Bella flushes. I hold her closer, trying to comfort her and hid the undeniable evidence between my thighs that attests to just how well we kissed.

"Hmmm…" says Rosalie and Bella and I scowl at her, but she continues, saying, "Rumpled clothing, chaotic hair, smeared lip gloss, boy wearing said smeared lip gloss…"

Feeling my ears redden, I wipe at my lips, trying to remove Bella's lip gloss and she assists me, giggling slightly as she blushes a brighter shade of red.

"Flushed faces," adds Alice and Bella groans. "Bella sitting on Edward's lap…"

"We get the picture Alice!" Bella hisses but there's no real anger there and I smirk up at her, and glad that she's still straddling my hips, I give hers a little squeeze. Bella squirms, giving me an admonishing look. I pout lightly just as–

"I say the kissed," the four of them say, their tone sage and their faces totally satisfied.

"Okay, yeah, we kissed," I sigh dramatically.

"Happy now?" Bella finishes for me.

"Very!" chirps Alice.

"That was a rhetorical question, Alice," Bella mutters and Alice blushes, while the rest of us laugh.

"Well, you guys can come out if you want," says Rosalie, smirking so wide it must hurt.

Bella makes to stand but I hold onto her hips, keeping her in place and she looks at me questionably. Ears growing hotter and redder by the second, I avert my eyes from her face to stare at my hands on her hips. "Edward," Bella whispers after a moment of my being too quiet and placing two fingers under my chin, tilts my head up to look at me. "Talk to me?" she beseeches.

Taking in a shuddering breath, I let it out and nod. Apparently, Bella will continue to let me experience many firsts… and being nervous around a woman is definitely a first for me. "Merry me?" I ask and Bella's eyes widen and so do mine as I blush furiously. "I– I," I stutter and Bella giggles, soothing me. "What I meant to say is," I say, clearing my throat and continue, "Will you do me the honor of, please, going out with me?"

Bella bites her bottom lip and I have to avert my eyes before she distracts me, choosing to content with her twinkling, chocolate eyes, I wait nervously for her response. Thankfully and mercifully, she puts me out of my misery quickly.

"What exactly are your intensions, Mr. Edward?" she asks seductively and I gape.

"Cullen," I whisper.

"Well, Mr. Cullen?" she asks again, raising a brow. "What are your intentions with Miss Swan?"

"To ravish you?" I answer and though I meant for the words to be cocky, they come out uncertain.

"Are you asking me or letting me know?" she asks flirtatiously.

I gulp. "I want to know you and I want to marry you," I confess and I see the amusement leave Bella's eyes, but not the glint of mirth.

"Well," she begins, "luckily for you, Edward Cullen, I like when a man knows what he wants."

"Is that a yes?" I breathe.

"Only if you promise to make an honest woman out of me," she wagers.

"I'll try my damnedest," I vow.

And that is how I met my wife and the love of my life and with her help I got back at Emmett and Jasper for kidnapping me over the years, slowly… torturously. Let's just say, I got the better end of that sticky end.

Signing out, Edward Anthony Cullen –the wife is calling.

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A/N: So this is the end to this short story, thank you for reading, I hope you guys liked it! Pleas Review! I would love to know your thoughts about the story.