EPOV

I sat against the headboard of her bed as I watched Bella do her homework, her bare feet moved back and forth beside me as she listened to her iPod. I had to smile at her carefree nature while she worked.

Bella was a lot of things, but to me she would always be the love of my life. Every time I saw her lips say I love you, I knew she meant it. Though I would never hear her say it, I knew she meant it. When I was a kid, I'd heard Lizzie say those three words to Eddie every day, but I don't think she knew what they meant or represented.

I knew. As I watched Bella, I didn't need her to say those three words to know that I would always be in her heart and she would always be in mine. Jesus, maybe Emmett was right. I'm a complete fucking lovesick fool.

Bella's head was bopping to whatever she was listening to while she studied. It took me months to convince her it was all right to listen to music in front of me, especially on her iPod. I knew she loved music and I didn't want her to give up something she liked because of me…because I couldn't enjoy it.

As she moved, my flannel shirt she was wearing over her tank top started to slide off her shoulder. I grinned, leaning forward, biting gently into her soft flesh. Her lips quirked up as she turned to me slightly, still moving her feet in time with her music.

"Hey," her lips said.

"Hey," I repeated.

I still felt weird about talking, but for Bella I would. She would get this smile every time I spoke to her; it was my smile, one she only gave to me. It was like every word I said was the most important thing she had ever heard. She heard me, really heard me, and I liked it.

In the beginning, I'd had Carlisle help me with my words so I didn't sound like a complete idiot around her. I guess I must have done something right because she's still with my ass.

"What are you doing?" I asked, brushing my thumb against her cheek.

"Finishing up my Physics," she shrugged.

I kind of envied that she was in advanced classes. Bella was brilliant; of course she was in those classes. I loved helping her with questions that she wasn't sure on, though. It was stuff I didn't primarily see. The workbooks Mrs. Cope put together for me were at a sixth grade level, which was slowly killing me. I let them think I couldn't do the work; I didn't want the attention. That was the beauty of moving to a small town that had an understaffed high school. No one knew ASL there. When I first moved here, the state education board wanted Esme to move me to Port Angeles where they had an ASL instructor, but I didn't want to inconvenience her as much as I already had.

My boarding schools also complained about my behavior and poor attitude towards learning in my transcript, which helped me in some ways. Luckily, it helped me convince them that I could understand Mrs. Cope enough to keep up. What I actually did was stay out of Mrs. Cope's hair while she worked with the kids who really needed her assistance.

There were only four other kids in my class. Peter, a freshman that had Asperger's, junior twins Jane and Alec who had Down Syndrome, and a senior named Kate that had developmental problems. I mostly kept to myself, but I liked to talk to Peter. He knew ASL and used it with his family when he wasn't comfortable communicating with them. At times, it was hard to gage where he was for the day. Like me, he was way more advanced than the curriculum, but he had a specific schedule everyday. I think that made it more bearable for him.

Jane and Alec always became more frustrated with everyone in our class as the day wore on. Alec was the timid one out of the two, where Jane would act out more. She didn't like me because I wouldn't talk to her and she absolutely despised Peter for not playing with them. One time, she tried to take his hand in hers to show him something and that was when all hell broke loose. Peter ended up hunched in a corner pulling at his hair. I had to help Mrs. Cope with the twins while she tried to calm him down. Her aides weren't even that much of a help.

The only one that was good with our class was Angela. She absolutely had the patience of a saint and I could tell that she would one day go into a profession that involved helping special needs children.

I was brought back to the present when Bella's lips touched mine. She slowly crawled her way up my body until she was straddling me. I grinned before deepening the kiss, wrapping her tightly in my arms. I loved how she felt pressed up against me. So perfect and right.

I could feel the noises she was making vibrate against my mouth. With each nip and lick her breathing would hitch and her palms would run up and down my chest. After a few light pecks I pulled away, taking in her freshly kissed face, all pink cheeks and swollen lips. I loved her.

No one will be home for a while. She signed.

What do you have in mind? I replied, raising an eyebrow.

She never let me get very far below her belt, unless it was with my mouth. I was allowed down there for that, but since Rosalie came and shit all over that, Bella had been more reluctant to do anything with me.

I watched as Bella slid my flannel off, letting it fall to the floor. Next off came her tank until she stood in front of me in her little shorts. She closed her eyes, puffing out a breath as she stood there. I let my fingers brush her sides, slightly squeezing her where her ribs rested under her breasts. Her eyes fluttered open and I saw the brown I loved so much.

I smiled up at her before taking her nipple in my mouth. I felt her fingers scratch at the back of my head, telling me she liked what I was doing. Taking that as a good thing I slid her shorts down. Now she stood completely naked, just how I loved seeing her.

She started pulling at the material resting against my back, until it was over my head. Before I had any time to think, I felt Bella's wet center pressed against my stomach as she held me down on her bed. Her tits were right there, just hanging in my face. Christ. She was going to be the death of me, I just knew it.

"Bella?" I found myself saying.

She froze, turning a very deep shade of red and the embarrassment on her face screamed at me. I always initiated anything sexual in our relationship, so this threw me off. She was mostly confident when it came to friends and school, but her insecurities rose when we were intimate. This was the first time she had ever sat on me completely naked.

She was really wet and I could feel her warmth against my skin. I felt the strain in my sweats and knew she had to feel it also. Bella was mumbling and trying to scramble off me, so I grabbed her ass in my hands, pushing her further down on me. Her head fell back as her chest heaved.

"Bella," I said again.

This time I had her full attention. "What?" her lips asked and I could tell by the look on her face she was irritated.

"What is this? What are we doing?"

Her bottom lip started to tremble and she tried moving away.

"No," I told her.

She wasn't escaping this. If she wanted this kind of intimacy, I would give it to her but I wanted her to be sure. She was always so sure.

"You'll be eighteen in a couple months," she said.

"Okay?"

"You'll be eighteen and I'll still be sixteen until September," she cried. She was crying now and I almost didn't understand want she was saying.

I saw where this was going. Alice had been hanging around her more and since Jasper came home, Alice had been convinced that they belonged together, insisting that Bella help her. Hell, Alice changed her appearance for him. I thought it was ridiculous because Jasper was nice to her, but that was it. He didn't give her any signs that he was interested.

Alice was sixteen and Jazz was almost twenty. Her parents were hardly around, but if it got around town that Alice was with Jazz, I can guarantee there would be trouble. Their relationship would become a full blown scandal in our town. It was simple to see that Alice and Jasper were not me and Bella.

"So you want to have sex because of our ages?" I asked carefully.

"I… don't…" That's all I got as she started to sob.

I ran my hands up her back as she hid her face in my neck. Her tears tightened my chest, but I tried my best to comfort her. As badly as I wanted sex with Bella, I didn't want it like this.

I moved her until she was lying beside me and I let my fingers drift slowly down her body. Her eyes popped open, staring at me while my fingers found the place other parts of me were dying to be. One finger slid in and then a second. She started gripping my fingers tighter and pulling me in closer, squirming as I pumped them in and out of her. Her nipples were brushing against my chest. This felt right. As much as I wanted to feel myself sliding into Bella, I could never enjoy it knowing she was acting out of fear or doubt.

I felt her finally tighten around my fingers and I had to watch her face as she came apart. She had this tell tale come face. It was amusing and sexy as hell to watch what only I could do to her. Her eyes remained closed, but her nose would wrinkle and her mouth formed an 'o' shape. It was hot and so damn adorable all at once.

Bella's warm breath puffed out against my face as she rode out her orgasm. She kissed me when I withdrew my hand.

"I love you," I felt against my lips.

Her hand snaked its way into the waistband of my pants, causing a sigh of my own to fall from my lips. All rational thought left my head while she gave me the most fucking amazing hand job of my life. As we lay there in mutual satisfaction, I glanced at the clock and noticed we didn't have much time left until someone came home. Bella noticed too and started to pull her clothes back on, much to my disappointment.

"I can't wait until we have our own place," she pouted, sliding her top over her head.

It was my turn to freeze. Had she really thought that far into our futures? I knew we were young and Bella had two more years left of school, but what would we be like then? What would our families do? Support us? Be against us?

I think what shocked me even more was that Bella thought about having a life with me. I knew she didn't like to think of things that far ahead because of what happened to her father, but this was the first time she spoke of it. Excitement and anxiety raced through my veins as I thought about our life together, excitement winning out in the end when I realized she wanted me just like I wanted her. Forever.

I kissed her head, nodding in agreement with her because after she graduated, I would make sure that it would be just me and her.

An hour later, I was back home eating dinner with Carlisle since Aunt Esme was working the night shift at the hospital.

So how was school? Carlisle signed.

I shrugged.

Okay, so how is Bella? If he wanted to talk about relationships, that was fine with me.

Good, so when are you going to man up and propose? I asked raising an eyebrow.

You don't get how tedious a proposal is. He insisted, shaking his head.

I know if I could I would already be engaged to Bella.

Yeah, okay. I saw him laugh.

I'm being serious. When she graduates, I'm going to propose.

And you'll still be a kid.

So, I'm not saying we'll get married right away, but she'll have my ring on her finger. You wait and see.

He stared at me as if he was gauging my reaction. He thought I was all talk, but I knew what I wanted and that was Bella. She made me want to be the kind of man that deserved a woman like her.

Fine, we'll discuss this again at that time. Carlisle signed.

And at this rate, I'll be married before you. I couldn't help but adding.

I smirked while he mumbled looking down at his plate. I just wished that he would come to his senses and make Esme happy. After cleaning up the kitchen, we moved to the living room. I started flipping through the channels as Carlisle worked on his laptop. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him moving next to me and his face looked frustrated.

"What?" I asked.

He looked up frowning. "I think my hard drive crashed."

I stood, running up to my room to get my equipment. When I sat back down next to him, I took his computer from him and began to work. He was right. His hard drive was fried, a lot like Bella's was a couple of months ago.

It took me a couple hours, but I was able to build on to what was salvageable of the old hard drive. I rebooted it and handed it back to him. He blinked at me, not saying anything, but I thought I saw him say, "She was right." I just brushed it off.

Mythbusters was on so I settled on watching that, especially since it was an episode I hadn't seen yet. Carlisle kept staring at me and then his computer, a strange mixture of disbelief, pride, and frustration on his face. I would have thought it was weird, but he had been the King of weird lately so I just went with it. I guessed it was the ring in his pocket driving him crazy. I made a mental note not to draw out Bella's proposal. I knew I wouldn't be capable of walking around with a ring for that long anyway.

A/N: That was Chapter 17… Things seem to be progressing, right? Let me know your thoughts! This chapter was beta'd by Dolphin62598 and rainydays23, which is greatly appreciated.