Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Author's Note: Okay, I suck at holding things back. I know, I know . . . if I would get ahead a few chapters I would never be late with my updates. I know. I'm like this at Christmas as well, often giving away the presents before Christmas and having to go buy new ones!

I am sick these last two days and coughing and I feel completely terrible and maybe I just want to hear your responses to the chapter to have some contact with the outside world! lol

I'm just getting really excited about the next few chapters. I have them clearly in my head and they are bounding up and down to get out! I'm excited about them like I haven't been excited since Bella escaped from Victoria and Masen was born! Enjoy!

Chapter 109 Scenery

I needed to check on Masen anyway, but for right now . . . I just need to be close to my wife.

EPOV

Morning came. I was lying in the small bed with my wife, her hand wrapped around my length like it had been when we first slept together after her accident. The only difference . . . I wasn't hard. I had been so scared she was leaving me, so worried that I had lost her that anything to do with sex was far from my mind. My need to claim her had resulted in bruises on her soft skin, like the scratches I had caused her in our meadow in Forks. I refused to indulge my needs if they were going to cause her pain.

Still . . . she held me.

I rose from under our warm blanket as I heard my son, his thoughts becoming more demanding as his hunger grew. I changed his diaper and brought him to Bella while she was still not quite awake, opting at Masen's request to forgo the breast shield on his promise that he would remember not to bite his mom. He was old enough to remember on his own and he assured me that he had done it quite successfully last night when he fed before sleeping.

I tucked him in bed next to my wife. She had slept on her side facing me, and Masen latched onto her breast without really waking her, starting to nurse from her. I laid with my chest to his back, my arm over his mom and my hand moving the stray strands of hair off of her face and tucking them behind her ear as her eyes started to open and she realized that the baby was there between us.

I felt her soft lips against mine as she said good morning, her fingers stroking through our sons unruly mop of curls.

"We should trim his hair."

"What?" I answered softly.

"We should trim his hair. He looks too much like a pretty little girl with all these curls down on his shoulders," she suggested, still running he fingers through it as Masen's eyes rolled and he looked at her. "Do you think it will cut?"

"I have no idea, really. I think it could be cut . . . with effort, if you really want it shorter," I answered, my lips never leaving her forehead as we lay there together.

She and Masen were everything to me and I had them both here in my arms. I needed to take better care of them, to pay attention to their needs instead of centering on my obsessive need to be close to her . . . to be inside her, making love with her all the time. I needed to show her that I cared about her in ways other than sex . . . it was just my vampire nature right now to be all but consumed by my need for her. I would have to absolutely refrain for a few days - there could be no half way for me. If I allowed myself to start something, there was no way I would stop.

We dressed casually and the steward brought the breakfast we had ordered . . . eggs Benedict for two. I was going to see if Masen enjoyed eggs as much as he enjoyed eating chicken, and I fed him small bites while Bella enjoyed the magnificent scenery of the Swiss Alps as we passed through them most of the morning.

Bella had put Masen to bed with the teddy bear I had gotten him the day before and he was fisting towards the crib he had slept in, wanting me to go and get it for him. I noticed the unopened chocolates on the table and wondered why none had been eaten.

"Did you not like the chocolates we got you?" I asked, gesturing to the full box.

"No. It isn't that . . . those are my favorite and you know it. I was just too worried about why you weren't answering me to eat. Thank you for getting them for me though," she answered quietly.

Apparently there was no end to the hurt I had caused her. When we had been in the chocolatier's store together, she couldn't stop eating the candy and I had been afraid she was going to make herself sick on them. For her to hot even have opened them . . . well, it just made me realize even more how badly I had upset things.

I retrieved the bear for Masen. He was becoming insistent and seemed as though he was going to actually cry if he didn't get what he wanted momentarily. He had developed quite an attachment for the stuffed animal in a very short period of time. He reached for it with both hands as he sat in his mothers lap, hugging it to immediately and rubbing his face in the soft fur.

"I really like the bear," she smiled, gesturing to the stuffed animal I had just handed our son.

"He picked it out. It's funny . . . I have a fuzzy, vague memory of a bear just like that from my childhood. I love that he has the same bear," I told her as she smiled down at him.

"Would you like to go and explore the train a bit?" I asked when she and Masen had finished their breakfast.

"I would love that! The woodwork even in the hallways is amazing," Bella observed, "It takes coat after coat of lacquer to get wood to look shiny and deep like that, and every hallway I have seen is just the same, perfectly done."

"Yes. These train cars are redone to look exactly like the original Orient Express cars."

"Original? Isn't this the original Orient Express?" she asked as we crossed into the dining car.

"No, actually. The original Orient Express was discontinued in 2009. It ran from London . . . well, Paris, really, to Istanbul. The cars were purchased and refitted and it now only makes that trip once a year, but still services Venice, Rome and some points in Austria and Hungary. It looks much the same as it always did, though."

"So . . . you have ridden this train before?"

"Yes. Not nearly as often as my siblings, but I have ridden it at times over the last century, Bella,"I laughed. "When you've been around as long as I have, you have the opportunity to do and experience lots of things . . . and I can't wait to experience all of them with you," I told her as I bent down and kissed the top of her head as she stood in front of me.

The train came to a halt, stopping at a small station on the border of Switzerland and Austria, and Bella had a great time walking from one end of the bar car to the other announcing which country she was in at the time, then going back to the other end and announcing that she was back. I laughed till I was beside myself at how fascinated she was at just being able to step from one country to another in a matter of a few feet, and Masen was giggling in my arms from sensing the pure delight coming from his mom's feelings. I was happy to see her enjoying herself. We sat and she had hot tea in the lounge area while we watched the scenery and talked about the country side and what she would like to see in Italy.

"Where will we stay next? Do I get to see some of the jointly owned property, Mr. Cullen?" she asked.

"Actually, after we see Venice for a few days, you and I have a house in Bolzano that's about an hour north of Verona."

"Your house?" she asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Our house, sweetheart."

"No, I meant that this is one of the properties that you own . . . like Alice owned the one in Paris?"

"Yes. This one is ours, yours and mine. You can start surveying the marital assets," I laughed.

"I can't wait to see it. Have you had it for long?

"Fifty years or so, give or take. The first house I bought I still have, it's in Ireland," I smiled, "and I can't wait to take you there either.

The town of Innsbruck, Austria, was the next stop and we disembarked for a half hour or so to wander through a couple of shops in the crisp, cold air. It was the dead of winter and we were fairly high up in the Alps.

We were laughing and talking to each other excitedly as we entered the dining car and sat at a table. We had only just ordered when Alice and Jasper arrived and sat with us.

"Well, you two seem to be in great spirits. Have you worked out your little spat?" Alice asked as she artfully dropped her napkin into her lap.

"We have, Alice," Bella told her, handing Masen over the table for her to hold.

"Thank goodness. I would have hated to see it continue any longer. Venice is such a lovely town and Verona is so romantic, what with Romeo first meeting Guilette there and all," she added.

"Alice. Did you not see how this would work out? You didn't know that we would make up by now?" I asked, trying my best to peek inside that brain of hers.

"No, brother dear. There were a couple of outcomes and nothing was decided till last night. This could have gone on and spoiled the train ride completely, as well as Venice!" she added, somewhat excitedly.

"But Alice, couldn't you just have told me what happened?" I asked, confused as to why Alice would allow something like this to be played out - even knowing that I would leave bruises on my wife.

"No, Edward. You, my hard headed brother, would never have listened and you, my ever forgiving sister, would never have stood up to him," she said with a frown, looking at each of us in turn, "You two had to go to the extreme with even just a simple misunderstanding to learn to trust each other."

She stopped for a moment to let me in on her thoughts, never wavering in her conviction as she continued speaking, turning to Bella.

"It nearly killed me not to just end the problem by telling Edward that a woman did your waxing . . . but then he would never have had it driven home so very clearly that he needed to talk to you - and how bad the consequences of not talking to you would feel," she explained as we both sat and stared at her, still annoyed that she hadn't simply stepped in and ended our misunderstanding when she so clearly could have.

She obviously felt how upset we were as a calming wave from Jasper tried to sooth the situation and my sister continued to explain.

"If I had seen anyone physically hurt, even a bystander in that damned building that you destroyed, I would have told you . . . but as it was, it was just the two of you going back and forth till you resolved it. Edward, now you know that she loves you and will tolerate - hell she even cherishes your damned need to claim her, and she's always there for you in that way. And Bella, you stood up for yourself with him and let him know that he needed to get direct answers from you, that your actions in allowing him to claim you are a gift and not to be abused or taken lightly. You needed to accept that he will always come back to you and really see that in action to know the truth of it."

Bella sat still and stared at Alice for a moment before her gaze turned to me. She gripped my thigh with her hand under the table and turned to me.

"You really will never leave me, will you?" she said, her head cocked to one side.

"No, love. I will never leave you," I said as clearly as possible, pronouncing each word distinctly and with intent.

"And I really will always want to be with you. There is no one else. I love you, Edward. I can't wait for you to change me and we'll both know that we can be together forever," she said as she leaned in and kissed me softly.

It didn't matter that my brother and sister were with us or that there was an entire dining car full of people around us. It didn't even matter when Renee walked up and scooted into the seat beside me. For that moment - there was no one on earth besides me and my wife.

"Well, it seems that you two have made up," Renee commented as she sat down and we continued to kiss softly and ignore the rest of the world.

"Good morning, Alice, Jasper," She said, greeting my siblings as the waiter brought her coffee. "How's my best guy today?" she asked, reaching to nudge my son who was still sitting across the table in Alice's lap.

Masen's mind was all over the place. He loved his grandma, but he was starting to really hate the way she treated him like a baby all the time.

"What's so funny, sweetheart?" Bella asked me as I smiled and broke our kiss, chuckling to myself.

"Masen."

"Masen?" Renee asked.

I turned to her, unsure as to how much I should tell her but determined to be as honest as possible.

"Yes. It seems, grandma, that my son thinks you treat him like a baby," I told her with a straight face.

Renee looked at me like I was nuts, her face frozen in disbelief and an awkward silence being broken by the simultaneous laughter of Alice, Jasper and Bella. Masen threw his hands over his cheeks and face and laughed as well.

"But . . . but . . . he is a baby . . . he is barely 6 weeks old for heavens sake and if that isn't a baby I just don't know what is. How in the world else am I supposed to treat him? He needs us to dress him and feed him and change his diaper, and he certainaly isn't walking around and talking yet so I just don't know . . ."

"MOM!" Bella cut her off from her tyre. "Of course he is a newborn and needs care, but he understands us and his intelligence is certainaly not that of a typical newborn, well, not that we know of anyway. Maybe all newborns know what's going on around them and just don't have a mindreader for a father that's capable of understanding them."

"I suppose you have a point, it's just that . . . well . . . ," she said, turning her gaze directly to Masen, "I just love you so much little man, that I want to baby you. You need to get used to it though because it's not going to change and I'm going to be around for a very long time."

Masen clapped his hands, garnering yet another round of laughter from all of us, Renee include. I could only wonder just how long my son could keep his grandmother in his life. There would come a point when it was all just too much to explain, when our not aging or Masen's rapid growth would cause us to remain forever away from her. At this point, we didn't even have a clear idea of whether or not Masen would simply enjoy an extended life - or if he was immortal as well. There were so many questions to be answered. Bella had decided to join me in my world . . . to have me change her into a vampire so that we never had to be parted, and I had agreed. That much was certain. Whatever happened, she and I would face it together.

We lingered in the dining car before returning to out suite, the scenery outside was breathtaking.

"We're officially in Italy," I whispered to Bella, leaning towards her from my seat in our suite.

We were sitting on the sofa, my arm resting on the back of the sofa and occasionally stroking down her hair or squeezing her shoulder as she took in the sights passing outside our window. The alps were beautiful this time of year, snow heavy on all the peaks.

"How do you know?" she turned to me and asked playfully.

"Because," I pointed back at the view of the bridge we had just crossed and the mountains behind it, "we are passing through Brenner Pass and that's the border, love."

The steward brought us tea as we continued to take in the landscape we were passing through. Renee had come in to sit with us and she and Bella appeared to be having a wonderful time looking at everything. The Italian Dolomites were impressive. I snickered as I thought to myself that I had a similar reaction the first time I saw them, years ago. They were, in fact, the reason I had purchased a home here over half a century ago. I loved the fact that my wife seemed just as entranced by them as I had been, and still was.

I got up from my place on the floor where I had spent the last two hours playing with my son and listening to my wife's voice trilling with pleasure over each and everything she saw. Though her mom was with us, there was something I needed to share with her and I moved to kneel in front of her, next to the large glass window in out suite.

"I'm glad you seem to love these mountains, sweetheart," I told her, kissing her quickly and softly, just a touch of our lips really, "I felt the same way about them the first time I saw them and I'm so glad you like them."

"Like them. Edward I love them. I could spend an eternity here just staring at them, much less walking through them!" she said excitedly.

"As you wish, love," I said quietly.

She cocked her head, her hands holding mine in her lap as she stared at me, the reality of what I had said dawning on her. We would have eternity together to do whatever we wanted. Just now, I needed to share something with her, though.

"Look up and to your left as we round this next mountain, sweetheart," I told her, pointing out the window.

She and her mom both strained to see, anxiously waiting for the mountain to pass and whatever it was I had wanted them to see to come into view. Slowly, across the snow covered expanse, it came into view.

"You wanted to survey the marital assets, love. This is the first one."

"Edward! You own that?" she trilled at a pitch that, until now, I thought only Alice could reach.

"No, love. We own it . . . and the mountains surrounding it."

She jumped off her seat so fast that she actually took me by surprise, landing on my lap and knocking me over backwards with her on top of me. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me hard, her exuberance startling me as I hugged her to me and laughed. Masen was now eye level with us and he clapped his hands together and laughed as well at his parents behavior.

My wife sat up, straddling me and rubbed her hands back and forth across my chest as I lightly laid my hands atop hers. We were only talking and playing and her mom and our son were right there with us, but my dick was taking the warmth and friction seriously.

"Edward! I love it! When can we stay there, is it closed up for the winter?" she asked excitedly.

"It was closed, love, but I had the caretaker open it and it's being prepared this week. We're about an hour and a half north of Verona and this is the next house we'll be visiting. I had a crib for Masen sent ahead as well."

"Well, you've thought of everything then. I'm impressed, Edward," Renee added," How long have you had this house?"

I paused, wondering just what exactly I should say to her. I hated to lie, but I could hardly tell her the truth.

"A while, Renee. I fell in love with the area when I first saw it, just as I suspect Bella has," I answered her, my wife winking at me, her back to her mom so that she couldn't see.

"We an get off the train at Porta Nuova Station in Verona, if you want, and go straight to the house."

"What had you planned, love. I've never been to any of these places. I know we discussed it and you asked me what I wanted, but you made the actual plans."

"Well, since your mom is with us and you have never been to Italy," I said, gesturing towards her mother, "I thought we would stay the extra few hours on the train and go to the end of the route in Venice. It's quite a beautiful city, even if the weather is going to be somewhat cloudy and drab for the next few days."

Bella's eyes lit up at that. She hated it when I had to stay indoors to keep from showing off the sparkles in my skin, and Alice had foreseen a few days when we could all go out and about and see the sights.

"Has Alice already made reservations in Venice?" she asked, unknowingly continuing to rub her heated core against the rising bulge in my jeans.

"No. I made reservations. The hotel Cipriani has opened some new suites recently and i thought we would see if we liked them." I told her, trying to maintain clear thoughts as my dick was starting to do the thinking for me.

"Well, I'm going to go pack and get ready! This is so exciting! I'm so glad you let me come with you on this trip!" she said, reaching for Masen and heading towards the door with him as he reached his hand towards us.

She was being nice, giving us alone time by taking the baby, and I told Masen to go along with her, though he had wanted to stay and play with mom and dad since we were right there on the floor with him.

"Hum. Seems we're alone," she said seductively as she ground her hips into mine and leaned down to kiss me.

It took only a moment before I was on top of her, her legs wrapped around me as we kissed passionately there on the floor. I had to get myself in check or I would take her right there on the floor. I stood with her still wrapped around me and moved to sit on the sofa so that she could continue to admire the landscape.

"Why did you get up, baby," she said, her voice husky.

"I didn't want you to miss any of this, love," I said, gesturing out the window.

"What if it's any of this (she said as she managed to slip her fingers under the waist band of my jeans) that I don't want to miss?

"Bella. I hurt you last time, can I not just hold you, love?"

"Of course you can hold me, sweetheart, and I understand, I really do. We had a fight, and it was our first one . . . and your reactions are a bit extreme. You need to know though . . . I like you claiming me. I love knowing that I do that to you, that your feelings for me are that intense and important to you . . . that they affect your entire being. I love you, Edward. Don't pull away from me," she said softly as she kissed the corner of my mouth and ran her fingers through my hair.

She knew.

How was it that she always knew. I was trying not to make love with her, to risk hurting her . . . and somewhere in there I think I might have been trying to punish myself for my own behavior . . . but she wasn't having it. She called me out on it instantly, as I looked into her eyes in amazement.

"Bella . . . ," I whispered.

She grabbed me, unzipping my jeans and grabbing me with both hands roughly, her lips insistent on mine.

Our clothes we gone, I ripped them all away before she blinked an eye and settled into my favorite place as we lay there on the sofa. I could feel and hear myself purring loudly as she kissed me and ran her hands through my hair and down my shoulders. I leaned on one elbow stared into her eyes.

"I love you."

It was all I needed to say. We made love softly, completely consumed by each other as we lay on the sofa, reacquainting ourselves with each and every inch of skin the other possessed. Last night and this morning had been among the only times we hadn't made love before going to sleep and when she woke up in the mornings. I sat up and she impaled herself on me again, her legs around me as I sat Indian style, both of us staring out the window and stealing glimpses at each other as we talked and laughed and enjoyed the late afternoon, sometimes pausing to rock our hips and enjoy the delicious friction it caused.

I ignored my cell phone ringing, too absorbed in my wife to care about anything else and no longer worried about anyone trying to harm her. I should have known better.

"Bella I just . . . ," her voice stopped there.

We had never bothered to lock the door to our suite when she had left and now Renee stood, holding a sleeping Masen against her chest in our now open doorway. I saw us through her mind as she stood there. There was nothing showing that was embarrassing, well, not really. She had seen her daughter naked before, obviously, and there was only my side and crossed legs that showed, the rest covered by Bella's body as she sat with her legs still wrapped around me. I was about to speak when Bella beat me to it.

"Either walk on through to Masen's room and put him down in his crib, or walk back out and shut the door, mom. You don't want either of us to stand and take him from you right now, do you?"

I couldn't believe she said that. She was absolutely calm and seemingly not embarrassed by having been caught in such a compromising position. Her mom closed the door behind her and walked the three steps to the other room, presumably laying Masen down before she left by the door that led directly from his room to the hallway.

"Well, I think that image will be burned into her memory for a long time to come," I told her, our foreheads touching.

"She didn't knock," Bella explained.

I must have given her an odd stare because she continued to explain.

"If you don't knock, you take whatever you get. There was nothing for her to see, Edward. My but was hiding the parts of you that no one else is allowed to see, and it isn't as though we were passionately making love or anything. For all she knew, we were just sitting together naked, she couldn't have known and wouldn't have suspected. It's not something a normal human male would be capable of doing for any length of time, so I'm sure it didn't enter her mind.

"Bella . . . where is this coming from, love? I love how bold you're becoming."

"You're mine and I refuse to be embarrassed about being with you . . . especially if we are in our own room and it's the someone else that's intruding," she told me, grinding her hips into mine and causing me to moan loudly, effectively putting an end to the conversation.

We prepared to disembark as the sun started to set and the train crossed the Venetian Lagoon and pulled into Santa Lucia Station. It was about 6pm local time and I had transportation waiting at the station to take us to our hotel. I couldn't wait to show my wife Venice.