The Learning Curve: Chapter 78

Edward Cullen's Bed

After I finished Edward off, we lay wrapped in each other's arms, kissing languidly. He was already growing hard against me, but there was less urgency for both of us now. We could slow down and enjoy the simple pleasure of being naked together. I'd never expected to enjoy so much the pressure of my breasts against his chest or the firmness of his thigh trapped between mine.

His mouth was warm, wet and coaxing, creating a warmth that had me rubbing against him for relief.

I'd never known it could be like this.

"I love you," I heard myself whisper to him.

He pressed his forehead to mine. "I love you, Bella. So much. It's not like anything I've ever felt before," he confessed, and my heart thrilled at his words. "I feel like I could spend fifty years with you and it wouldn't be enough. A hundred years wouldn't be enough."

Stifling my tears was difficult, but I managed. "I feel the same, Edward, and it scares me," I admitted.

"Don't be afraid." He pressed his lips softly to mine. "We belong together."

With one more kiss, we were in motion. I rolled to my back and pulled him with me. Edward moved between my legs and rubbed intimately against me.

"Now, Edward. Let's do it now," I told him, placing both my hands on his beautiful face.

He nodded and reached silently into the drawer of his nightstand. I watched him unwrap a condom and slide it on in a slightly fumbling movement. Then he looked up at me, and I smiled.

"I'm ready," I promised. We both knew I was talking about more than sex.

Edward's returning smile would be burned in my memory forever.

Slowly, he began to push into me. His arms were trembling with restraint, and I knew we were both shaken with the enormity of this moment. It felt like the beginning of forever.

It felt very tight, almost a burning sensation, but it was nothing like the pain I'd come to expect. I was free to focus on Edward's face as he entered me and on the wonder I felt at our joining this way.

When he was in as far as he could go, his tightly closed eyes opened and met mine. "How do you feel?" he asked tensely.

"I'm okay," I said honestly. He leaned down to kiss me. Absolutely still inside me, Edward let his lips and tongue do everything his lower half wasn't. I held him with my arms around his shoulders and kissed him back with all I had. Before long, I was squirming against him, needing to feel him move inside me, needing any kind of friction.

Edward pulled back smiling, and it occurred to me that he'd just executed his master plan.

"Don't look so smug," I accused, but I was grinning. He laughed and kissed my shoulder, and then he made his first tentative pull and push.

I moaned. "Again."

He did it again. And again and again and again. It still burned a little, but it also felt good, and it was strange and incredible to be so full, and so full of Edward.

"Bella, oh God," Edward groaned, sloppily kissing my neck as he continued to push inside me. I closed my eyes and let myself feel: the brush of his hair against my cheek, the movement of his chest with each breath he took, the tip of his hardness hitting deep inside me.

I listened to Edward panting in my ear, moaning my name, telling me how good I felt to him.

I tasted the shell of his ear, the sinewy line of his neck, his sweet, perfect lips.

And I began to feel something unexpected.

"Edward," I gasped.

He didn't stop, but he looked up at me, hearing something new in my tone. "Bella? What is it, sweetheart?"

He hit a particularly sweet spot and I moaned. "I think I'm going to come."

His hips thrust a little harder. "Really?"

I nodded, digging my fingers into his back. "It feels so good, Edward."

He groaned again, and one of his hands left where it had been anchored beside my head, and I felt his fingers playing at my slippery flesh above our joining.

"Oh – oh."

Edward kissed my neck and brought his lips to my ear. "Please, Bella, oh please. I want to feel you come around me."

And at that, I did. Fantastically. My body caught fire and I saw stars, dots of light blurring my vision as Edward gave me the best thing I'd ever felt.

"Oh, fuck," I heard him grunt, as if from far away, and then he came, too.