Chapter 22

EPOV

Jessica and I had spoken on the Monday night. This conversation definitely sounded more upbeat than the rest and I was holding out hope that it meant her grandmother was getting better.

"You sound a lot better Jess. It sounds like your stuffy nose has cleared up?"

"Yeah, finally."

"So how's your grandma?"

"Oh, she's actually on the mend now."

"Does that mean you're coming home?" Please, please, please!

"My, my Edward it sounds like you're eager to see me?"

Not the response I was looking for.

"Uh...well, you've been gone for weeks."

"Well, as a matter of fact I'll be home Sunday afternoon. So I was thinking," she drawled, "maybe you could come around on Sunday night and we could catch up," Jess said suggestively.

"Yeah, um...that would be good." Come on Cullen get some balls. "I think we have a lot to catch up on... um...we should talk?"

"Oh, I know we have a lot to catch up on," she started before I'd even finished my sentence, I couldn't be sure whether she'd heard my "we need to talk" comment. "I have something I can't wait to show you, you're just going to love them!"

"Uh..um...really?"

"Oh yeah. Anyway baby, I really need to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow K."

"Okay."

"Ciao."

I groaned as I hung up the phone. This was going to be harder than I thought, and I had already been finding it difficult. I had subtly been trying to indicate to Jess over the phone that all was not right. I didn't want to see her as soon as she got back and break up with her with no warning, but I was starting to think she hadn't seen how I'd been pulling away from her during our phone conversations. I barely called her, she always called me. I cut our phone calls short, and I shared very little about what was actually happening with me. I was kind of hoping the "we need to talk" comment would make it pretty fucking obvious. But I don't think it was. And if she had been picking up on it, it meant she was ignoring it meaning she was in denial and this could get quite ugly if she refused to talk. I had to be prepared to put my balls on the line and confess my feelings for someone else if that was the case. But I didn't particularly like the idea of putting Bella in the firing line. She's been through enough already, she didn't need Jess on her case as well.

Despite all of that I was ecstatic that Bella had finally given into our inability to keep our hands off each other. The week was full of silent, hopefully subtle, flirting, quick kisses, the occasional grope and lots of "we shouldn't be doing this," breathed between each other. I wasn't entirely sure we hadn't been busted by Alice, but I was pretty sure she and Jasper were now aware there was something going on between us. Whether they'd seen something I wasn't sure, but they were both already aware of our previous history so it wouldn't have been hard to catch on to something little, like the way we regularly glanced sideways at each other at the lunch table, invariably smirking, or I picked up her bag for her at lunch.

The whole Mike Newton debacle was putting a slight dampener on Bella's spirits though, but for some reason I found the whole thing slightly amusing. I know Bella wanted to murder me over it, but I couldn't help but laugh knowing that Mike had been unlucky several times when it came to the girls. There'd been rumours that he had bad breath and clammy hands, so I was pretty sure I was safe. But poor Bella still had to go through with the whole charade. She was none too pleased with me over it all, but it was kinda cute to see her all riled up so I let it go on.

On Friday night I got ready for the dance. Alice had laid an outfit on my bed for me and then disappeared, saying she'd meet me at Emmett's at 6pm. By 6.15 I wasn't the only one who was getting impatient for the girls to arrive. Emmett was the only one who didn't seem to be looking at the front door every time a car drove down his street, probably because he and Rose had been together a while. I was the only one who had no excuse to look anxious given that I had no date, but I seemed to be ringing my hands more nervously than any of them. Even Mike looked a little calmer than I did for some reason. Probably because he thought he had the girl.

A car pulled up and all three girls came in, lead first by Rosalie, then Alice, then my beautiful Bella. They were all still in their coats so I couldn't see what she wore underneath. As she took her coat off and revealed the not quite knee length baby blue dress she was wearing underneath I was almost certain that our cover would be blown sometime within about the next…oh….35 seconds. I figured that was probably long enough for our friends to notice the seemingly inappropriate way I was ogling her. I was unable to look away and I was pretty sure she was feeling the weight of my stare based on the shy way she glanced at me, smirked slyly, blushed and then looked down at the heels she was wearing.

Mike stood by eagerly awaiting her to acknowledge him. I wanted to slap him. I knew he had no claim on her, either did I for that matter, but there was nothing in her heart for him, I could see that in the way she subtly gravitated in my direction and every so often would look up at me, whilst trying to keep as far away from Mike as possible.

As there were seven of us we ended up in two cars, mine, with Alice and Jasper, and Emmett's with Rosalie, Mike and Bella. I wasn't sure what was worse, that they were in a car together, or our separation. At least I didn't have to watch them together...in my car.

As we made our way to the diner Jasper and Alice chatted away about I don't know what, whilst I kept an eye on the two people in the back of the Jeep in front of me. They were on opposite sides of the car, thank God, but I couldn't see what their hands were up to, that annoyed the shit out of me. And as we arrived at the diner I found myself getting more and more jealous by the second as he placed his hand on her back as we walked inside. She didn't seem to do anything to shake it off.

All I could do was run my hands through my hair in frustration as I walked directly behind them and watched him with his hands on my girl.

I knew the round booth we had booked for the seven of us would only seat six, just. Given there were seven in our group and Jasper, Alice, Emmett and Rose were already situated I knew if I muscled in quickly before Mike and Bella that hopefully she'd slide in next to me, and Mike would be left to pull up a chair at the end of the table. As I sat down Bella took the bait and slid in next to me, while Mike looked around awkwardly and pulled up a chair, edging it slightly closer to Bella's side of the table.

My hand itched to slide along her thigh, or take her hand, or possessively snake its way around her shoulder to pull her into me and claim her as if she were my own. Which of course, she was not. But it didn't stop me from wanting it with a desperation that was starting to gnaw away at my insides.

Mike sat at the head of the table like he was king fucking shit and constantly vied for Bella's attention. Much to my surprise Bella moved her left hand and I could feel it gently caressing my thigh…..I think. She could have just been stretching her fingers, or maybe she had sweaty hands and she needed to wipe them on something, maybe Mike was making her nervous. Shit.

To arrest my fears I moved my hand underneath the table and made subtle, but unmistakable contact with her hand with my little finger. Hers twitched in response and all of a sudden I was sawing again as she moved it slowly into mine.

Alice threw me suspicious looks from time to time as she watched my moods oscillate. But for now I was the life of the party as I got to actually hold hands with the girl I had been desperate to just hold hands with since the first time we met.

Dinner was over quickly and Bella and I had little contact again until we were at the school dance. We had to be on our best behavior there. Not only was Mike already looking at me a little suspiciously, I mean why would you turn up to a dance without a date and Bella had shown me more attention at the diner than she'd shown him. But Jessica's minion's were everywhere keeping an eye on me. Lauren kept looking over in our direction, but her attention seemed mostly to be on Jasper as she gave him the stink eye every time he had Alice near him. It was kind of odd actually, while she did pass her eyes over me every so often she seemed obsessed by the two of them, and kept watching Alice like she was trying to figure something out.

The night was a complete clusterfuck of Bella running away from Mike. If Mike wasn't actually a decent guy I would have found the whole thing completely amusing, but I kind of pitied the guy a bit. I watched as they bumbled their way through a couple of dances together. Thank God the music was mostly inappropriate for close one on one dancing. Teachers organised that shit on purpose.

Towards the end of the night I couldn't stand it any longer. I told Bella to meet me out in the corridor. As she came out a minute or so after me I grabbed her hand in mine and lead her down the hall slightly. I probably wasn't being overly careful about our location on purpose. I think deep down I wanted to get caught, so this whole charade could be over and Bella and I could get on with our lives.

Without saying a word to her I had Bella's back up against the wall, my mouth on hers as she drove her hands into my hair and pulled me tighter. Our breathing grew heavier as my insatiable need for this girl made me lose my grip on all reality. Her tongue was insistent, her moans only encouraging me further in my entirely inappropriate behaviour. I wanted and needed her in a way I didn't know could exist, it was bordering on obsession and I needed to get a grip before I tore us apart with my need to consume her.

Then reality came crashing back down. A throat cleared behind us. Shit.

Pulling my mouth away from Bella's I rested my forehead against hers as I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for the inevitable confrontation with whoever was standing behind us. Please be Alice or Jasper, please be Alice or Jasper!

I manned up and turned around to see a decidedly fierce looking Rosalie standing there, arms crossed, foot tapping in anticipation of the explanation she clearly felt was her due. She simply raised her eyebrow at us while we both breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't someone like Lauren standing there.

"Hi Rose," I almost squeaked, unsure whether to be nervous about the shit storm coming our way or angry that she'd interrupted us.

"So, how long as this little...thing, been going on?" She motioned between the two of us as she asked.

"It's none of your business Rose," I responded quickly.

"Well, you're right about that. You're just damn lucky it was me who noticed you two sneaking off together and not one of your girlfriend's little friends. But I gotta tell you, I can't wait to get back to Emmett's tonight to hear about this," she smirked knowingly. Little bitch had been playing us. "Poor Mike, I warned Emmett not to push it." She turned on her heel and left.

Turning back to Bella I caught the tail end of her apologetic shrug and once again placed my forehead against hers.

"So, that was a little bit close," she breathed before kissing my lips quickly.

"Yeah, I know."

"I got to admit though. The idea of getting caught is kind of making me all...hot and bothered." Did she seriously just say that?

"Really?"

"Really."

"Wanna get outta here?" I asked

"Now?"

"Yeah, I have my car, we could go back to my place. Mom and Dad aren't there tonight."

"I can't just leave Mike."

"Tell him you're not feeling well."

She bit her lip in contemplation and then nodded briefly, "okay."

"Okay then."

I couldn't believe I was finally going to be alone with Bella, in a house, with a bed. She disappeared for five minutes to let Mike know she wasn't feeling too well. I texted Jasper to make sure they all got a lift home with Emmett because my car was no longer available. I mentally ran through a check list of things as I waited for her. Clean sheets – relatively; condoms – definitely; tidy bedroom – yep; no porn floating around – nope; no obvious 'I'm obsessed with Bella' evidence in plain view – don't think so; clean underwear – yes. Okay, I think that covers it all then.

She met me outside at the car and it was a fairly quiet trip back to my place. The house was dark as we ascended the front stairs – a stark contrast to the last time we'd been here intimately. The front door closed with a loud hollow bang as the darkness enveloped us. Bella's little hand was still in mine as I pressed her into the back of the door and kissed her oh so slowly. One side of me wanted to carry her up stairs and just take her, quickly. But the side that was winning out knew that I had to make this better than last time. Don't make it a meaningless fuck, let her know through my actions that I was madly in love with her. So I slowed the pace considerably, which she seemed to respond to.

But I still wasn't going to wait all night. I pulled my face away from hers and rested our foreheads together, placing my hands on either side of her face, "So…..is this the first time we've been alone together since you've been back, I mean, completely alone?"

"Hmmm, I think perhaps it is. What do you have in mind?"

"Tanking complete fucking advantage of it," and then I added as an afterthought, "and you!"

Making it all the way up the stairs to my room was not an easy task but somehow me managed to get there. I kept having to remind myself to slow down. We were alone and we had all night.

Bella had never really been into my room before, so she looked around inquisitively. I stood with my hands in my pockets watching on as she looked at books and photos on my desk and shelves. When she was finished she turned and walked towards me. Standing with barely an inch of space between us, she looked up at me and oh so innocently asked,

"So, now what?" But there was a suggestive little glint in her eye that was my undoing. Control Cullen, control.

I took a small step towards her so that we were now flush against each other without moving my hands from their pockets. I was so close that she had to take a small step back to steady herself, but we were still flush against each other. Shame she had to take that step towards my bed.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Alice has a game of Scrabble stashed under her bed, I could go and get it if you want?"

"I'm so not thinking about Scrabble right now Cullen," Bella replied, before snaking her arms up around my neck.

"Either am I Swan," I replied as I finally pulled my hands out of my pockets placing them on her hips and gently pushing her back towards my bed.

She looked nervous all of a sudden, "we're finally going to do this aren't we?"

"I sure hope so," I said before tentatively taking her lips in mine.

Hands started to wander as we gently kissed. Tongues caressing, but not yet pushing too far, or too fast. Just a tentative exploration, almost as if they hadn't been there and done this dozens of times before.

Bella's little hands were pulling at the sides of my shirt, untucking as she went, and I realised at that point that this was the first opportunity either of us would have had to see the other completely naked. So I figured I could probably speed up through this bit, the more time I got to spend with a naked Bella, the better.

The zipper on the back of her dress was down in seconds, and she was already undoing the buttons on my shirt. Her hands caressing down my chest as she slowly went back up. She smirked as I felt her hands slide along my shoulders, my shirt shifting away from my chest and falling down my arms, landing in a heap on the floor.

"You've…..you've filled out since Summer."

"How do you know that?"

"I can tell, I didn't get to see any of ….this," she gestured towards my chest. "But you've….grown, filled out since then." Hopefully she meant I'd become more of a…..man. God Cullen, get over yourself. As I was basking in the glory of Bella's comment I noticed her face fall, and she pulled away from me just fractionally as if pulling into herself. This was the new Bella, not the old Bella I met in Summer.

"What is it B?" I asked as I extracted my hands from the task of undoing her bra strap. It was as if she all of a sudden remembered something.

"Don't….I um…when you take my dress off," she looked up at me pleadingly, hurt shadowing her eyes. "Please just….please don't ask any questions okay."

I was too confused to answer, but I could see from the somewhat desperate look in her eyes that questioning her about what the hell she was talking about was part of what she meant.

"Oookkkay?" I replied reluctantly. The relief on her face was instant so I could tell my reaction was the right one. I just had no fucking clue what she was talking about. But I guess I was about to find out. Bella's hands came up to the neckline of her dress, and ever so slowly she pulled the dress down letting it fall to the floor. Under other circumstances I would have found the move sexy as hell, but the way Bella did it it was more like she needed to reveal herself to me for some reason, rather than me pull her dress off her. I didn't understand any of it, but I wasn't going to question it, as per her request. She stepped closer to me, almost as if preventing me from seeing her in her almost naked state. All I could do was wrap my arms around her protectively and try to reassure her that I wanted her more than anything.

I was just about to tell her we didn't have to go any further if she didn't want when I felt her hands unbuckling my belt, undoing the button on my pants and then down went the zip. Ever so slowly she moved them down over my hips. Apparently Bella wasn't wasting any time. If that was the case then neither should I. Reaching around I unclasped her bra and gently pulled it down her arms and away from her body. After the previous comment I was expecting Bella to be shy about revealing so much of herself to me, but this didn't seem to be bothering her. On the contrary, she was confident, almost proud of her breasts, and it was hot as hell. And she definitely had a lot to be proud of. Not that they were huge or anything, but they were incredibly pretty. Hopefully I'd be seeing a lot more of those.

"Cullen?...Cullen?" she repeated my name slightly louder the second time.

"What? Sorry. Just got a little distracted."

"I can see that. I guess we've never seen each other like this before have we?"

"Not quite," I replied as I slid my hands down her rib cage, over hips and as I went to slide them around to her backside my thumb slid across a bumpy, slightly raised surface near her hip at the top of her thigh. Bella stiffened as I felt it and I immediately knew this is what she was talking about. My hands continued the path they were on and she relaxed once more. But I knew that to get her to relax completely I would need to be very careful about where and what I touched. All I could think of was it was scar tissue. From the accident most likely.

I was almost frozen with fear of making the wrong move, but I knew that's exactly what would hurt Bella the most, so I knew I had to continue as if nothing was wrong. So I made the pass again, only this time I let my hand move further down her thigh as I whispered into her ear, "you're so beautiful Bella." She nuzzled her face into my neck as I repeated the word beautiful as I explored her body with my hands, not avoiding the scars, but paying them as much attention as if they weren't there at all.

"Would you like me to turn the lights out?" I asked her quietly. I wasn't sure whether this might help her or not?

She looked up at me quickly before shaking her head from side to side. I couldn't help but smirk. She wanted to see me as much as I wanted to see her. Ever so slowly she lowered herself back onto my bed, leaning back on her elbows. I couldn't help but smirk as I looked over her entire body for the first time, not lingering on the nasty scarring on her upper left thigh. But shit it was bad. Crawling over her I rested slowly on top of her body, my breath leaving me as I finally felt the bodily connection with someone that I had always craved. This was different. Different from anything I'd felt with any other girl. I just hoped that Bella understood the depth of my feeling for her, and I prayed to God that she felt a fraction of what I was feeling.

Her hands were feeling the hot skin on my back and across my shoulders as our mouths met. She moaned lightly and I relished in the sounds she made. So beautiful, so perfect. I was never going to let her go. Please Bella, please be feeling what I'm feeling. My aim was to worship her body and take all night doing it, so I lavished her skin with my lips and memorised the taste and the sounds of her. As I made my way down her stomach, my hands with a breast in each, I couldn't help it, and I couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I love you," I mouthed over and over. She couldn't hear it, I didn't feel right saying it out loud yet. But soon. Soon I would profess myself to her openly.

I managed to get a good look at the scarring on her left leg, one long, straight incision about three inches long, a couple of shorter straight ones, and then some nasty looking jaggared marks. None of that was there in Summer, this presumably was a life lasting impression of the night her mother was taken from her.

Fingers brushed against the most sensitive skin just under the leg band of her panties and her back arched off the bed. I wondered if she'd mind if I tasted her. I desperately wanted to, and as my lips made my way to her sensitive lips I wondered if she'd stop me. Should I ask permission? I wasn't sure. Better to be safe than sorry.

"Bella, I want to taste you?" The movement of her hands on my shoulders stopped as her head popped up and she looked at me. "Will you let me?" Her reply was a simple nod of the head. "I've never…..I've never done it before, tell me if I'm doing anything you don't like."

"No one's ever….Ja…he never…" she shook her head from side to side. Wow, James had never gone down on her? What a loser. What the hell did she ever see in that jerk? While I'd never been down on Jess, she and I hadn't been going out for a year, and I didn't profess to love her.

I didn't wait for any further conversation before pulling her underwear down her legs and tentatively flicking my tongue over her lips. She responded immediately, her body jerking involuntarily. I repeated the action before making my way to her clit and then back down. She tasted amazing, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to get enough. I could do this all god damn day if I got to taste her and hear the moans of pleasure she was producing. She became more vocal as soon as I pushed a finger inside her, her back arching in pleasure.

"Edward, jesus, yes. That's so good."

Score one for Cullen. I was pretty fucking happy with my progress when I felt a tugging on my head.

"Edward, come up here. I want you up here with me."

What? Why stop now? I made my way up her body, wiping away the evidence of her on my mouth on the sheets as I went. I wasn't sure how much she'd appreciate the taste of her on my lips.

"I want you inside me. I'm so close. I want you to be inside me when I come with you the first time, since, well...you know?"

Anything you want baby.

I smiled widely as I balanced myself above her, my hands on either side of her head, brushing a stray hair from her blissful looking face. With my weight on one arm I managed to remove the only piece of fabric that lay between us. The tip of my cock slid roughly between us and I couldn't help the guttural moan of pleasure as I felt the heat and wet between her legs. Fuck, this was the closest to heaven I'd ever gotten and it was taking everything I had not to just push into her.

"Condom?" She reminded me. Good thing too because my brain wasn't functioning on enough blood at the moment, all reserves were keeping my cock hard as a steel fucking rod. Reaching over to the draw beside my bed I grabbed a condom, ripped it open and had it on in the blink of an eye.

I touched my forehead to Bella's and kissed her pretty lips gently, her warm, sweet breath fanning out over my face. "Are you ready for this?" I asked tenderly, the tip of my cock already at her entrance, begging for me to hurry the fuck up.

"For so long Cullen. So long," she replied as I felt her hand slide between us and guide my cock to her entrance. Before I could push forward I felt Bella's hips shift forward taking my tip into her. As I pushed forward in response I watched her eyes roll back and her chest arch up into me. She groaned in what I hoped was pleasure as I slowly pulled out and then pushed in further this time until our hips met.

"Fuck, Bella," I cried as I almost came right there and then. Feeling her body under me, her breasts pushed into my chest, her lips against mine, my cock inside her was enough to make me come on the spot. Calming myself down and thinking about my grandmother I managed to pull myself together long enough to start moving inside her again.

Bella's fingernails scratched lightly down my back as I moved slowly. Her legs opened wider and I felt them wrap around my hips. Sensing her need for me to be deeper I lifter her right leg slowly, testing her flexibility, pushing it up between us and watching her reaction as I began to plough into her deeper and faster. Her noises became more high pitched and her fingernails dug a little deeper with every thrust.

"Fuck, Edward. This feels amazing," she whispered huskily. Her eyes shut tightly as her hands slammed against the sheets. "Keep going, please just…..ughh." With one hand now gripping her hair she opened her eyes and moved the other to her face where she smiled at me before I felt her fall over the edge. Her breasts thrust up towards me, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, her mouth forming that O shape I remembered from last time.

Moving slowly, taking my time I revelled in the feeling of once more being inside Bella. It was exquisite, and pure torture at the same time. I knew that if she was ever taken from me again I would never get over it. And it was so much better than last time. Nothing hurried, no need to keep ourselves quiet. No nervousness.

I couldn't wait to wake up to Bella in the morning. I'd done it once, but this would be different. Mom and Dad weren't due back until after lunch. And hopefully Alice would be wrapped up in Jasper over at Emmett's place.

AN: So, Next Chapter is ready to go. Reviews might motivate me to post it today (it's morning where I am as I post this), just sayin'.