Good news. The dogs were found. Hooray! And that means you get another chapter. :D Double yay!

Bella shook her head. "No. No I'm not doing that." Her hair hung in her eyes as she stared at her fingers twisting together. Edward had to stop this. He had to stop questioning her, he couldn't help her. "You can't help me, Edward. I have to do this alone."

She needed to distract him from this line of thinking.

Bella's hands stopped their twisting act and grasped a hold of his hands again. Slowly she slid them up his arms, her eyes meeting his. "I know you care. I know you do…" She inched closer, her body leaning across the couch toward him. Her eyes flickered to his lips.

"I would do anything for you." Edward's voice was low, his green eyes smoldering. "You just have to ask."

"Thank you," her eyes lifted to his for a moment before drifting back down to his lips. She wanted to thank him. She was in front of him now, her body pressed against the side of his… She leaned in, closer. Edward wasn't stopping her.

Her lips touched his so lightly. Tentatively. And when he started to kiss her back she nearly moaned and her eyes fluttered close as she pressed herself harder against him.

She needed his contact. She needed his comfort. She needed him.

Bella had always been good at distracting him. But the way she chose to do so this time, quite frankly, took him by surprise. Edward felt her lips brush against him once, twice tentatively before he couldn't hold himself still any longer and wound one strong arm around her waist, pulling her body flush up against his.

He tried to go slow, tasting her upper lip then moving down to her full bottom lip but it was hard for him to restrain himself when she was pressing herself so eagerly up against him like this, stifling her moans against his mouth. With Bella so close to him like this, Edward was reminded that with the exception of the football shirt she wore – his football shirt – she was completely bare underneath it.

And that more importantly, if he weren't careful, this kiss would soon spiral out of control.

Bella's fingers trailed over Edward's chest and downward toward the hem of his shirt where she skillfully maneuvered her hand so that she was touching the flat planes of his stomach. Edward's hands were around her body pulling her closer, Bella moved easily with his direction. Her bare legs straddling his waist as she kissed him harder.

Her tongue traced his bottom lip and his mouth parted for her allowing her entrance. "Mmm…" she moaned as she tasted him.

Edward's hand reached out to cradle the back of her head, kissing her deeper this time as Bella eagerly leant forward, pressing herself against him. He groaned and fisted his hand in the dark strands of her hair, crushing her lips to him. Jesus, she tasted so good…

His hand which remained chastely around her waist twitched as he waged the continuous war within him for the control he desperately wanted to keep versus the freedom to touch Bella the way he had been dreaming of since forever.

"Bella." Edward managed between kisses. "We can't… we shouldn't…"

She was squirming against him now, sliding her arms around his neck and drawing him closer to her. But Edward pulled abruptly away. The sight of Bella's brightly flushed cheeks and tousled hair only made his throbbing erection worse and he wanted nothing more than to scoop her back up in his arms and take her on the sofa right here, right now.

But he wouldn't. Not yet. Not tonight.

Edward ran his thumb across her pink swollen bottom lip, his eyes dark with longing even as he spoke. "You can't imagine how much I want you right now."

"I want you too…" she murmured, she could see the dark lust in Edward's eyes. Her own ones mirrored them. She backed away, her feet finding the ground as she took his hand and tugged toward him. Edward followed although it looked as though he wanted to stop her. She pressed herself to him again, her body molding to his perfectly as she reached up again to kiss him.

Bella somehow managed to have Edward guide her toward his bedroom, once the door closed behind them, she took the hem of his shirt that she was wearing and pulled upward. Revealing her to him, even if it was nothing he'd already seen before. But she was offering herself to him in a different way tonight. She wanted him; she wanted him to see her this way.

Edward drew a sharp intake of breath as Bella easily shed his shirt, exposing herself again to him. It was one thing to have her reveal herself to him in the hazy strip club of Indulgences and another thing completely to see her naked by her own admission, the soft curves her body illuminated by the bare light of the waning moon. In his bedroom.

He reached out to touch her face, stroking the smooth flushed apple of her cheek with his thumb before letting his hand sensuously brush against her breasts and slide down the curve of her bare waist where it rested at her hip. Edward closed his eyes and expelled a shuddering sigh.

And then he reached down to scoop up his discarded shirt from the floor, pressing it into Bella's hands as he kissed her again more gently this time. "I want you. Make no doubt about that. But we can't do this, not tonight. Not like this." While there was no mistaking the husky note of male hunger in his voice, Edward was completely serious. "When I take you – and I promise, I will – I want it to be more than just some hasty fumble in the sheets."

His gaze met hers steadily. "I want you. And not just your body, Bella. All of you. And until you can learn to trust me like that… we shouldn't do this. Not yet."

Can I hear a collective 'awwwww?'

Also, I've posted a bunch of extras on my profile page. You should check them out. :)