Chapter 18
"No," she sighs. "Here goes nothing …" she says as she reaches for the phone.
My thumbnail goes into my mouth as I watch her nervously slide her finger across the screen to answer the call.
"Hello? … Yes, this is Bella."
She's quiet for a few moments as she listens to whoever is on the other end of the phone. My eyes are on her face, looking for any kind of clue as to what the news is, but her expression remains stoic.
She chews on her bottom lip before finally speaking. "Okay, thank you for calling and letting me know. I'll look for it next week. I appreciate your help, Mr. Jenks … You, too."
Her hand is shaking as she ends the call and puts the phone down. When she turns to me, her eyes are glassy. My heartbeat picks up and jumps into my throat while I wait for her to tell me what happened.
"He got a call from the court earlier than he expected," she says in a shaky voice. "It seems the judge didn't wait until the last minute to enter his ruling. My petition has been granted."
I let out the breath I was holding while I watch the tears slide down her face. "It's done?" I ask, slightly stunned.
"It's done," she states as a smile graces her face. "I'm free. We're free!" she amends. The tears are still flowing, but they are clearly happy tears.
I scoop her up in my arms and nuzzle my head in her neck. "That's wonderful news, baby!" My voice cracks and is muffled by her hair, but she's nodding her head so I know she understood. "I'm so happy for you." My own tears are burning my eyes.
A sob escapes her chest. "I can't believe it," she forces out. "God, I'm so happy right now, I want to scream." She laughs at herself and I join in.
"Go ahead and let it out, Angel."
She shrieks and kicks her feet against the sofa, still laughing with tears on her face. She's so beautiful in this moment and I hope it never ends.
When she finally calms down a little, she hugs me again, sighing into my neck. "God, I love you, Edward. Thank you for sticking with me while I fixed the mess I made of my life."
"I love you, too, Bella. And, there's nowhere I'd rather be."
I lift her face off my shoulder and kiss her passionately. She returns it tenfold. It doesn't take long for us to get lost in each other. My hand threads through her hair and holds her to me while her fingers dance up and down my back, scratching lightly through my shirt.
Needing to feel more, I reach behind me and pull my shirt over my head. Bella gets the idea and removes her own. My hands cup and explore her bra-covered breasts while I kiss along her jaw, finding the spot behind her ear that drives her wild.
She rakes her fingers up and down my chest for a while, humming in appreciation as my tongue swipes at her earlobe. Reaching between us, she deftly opens the button and zipper of my jeans, freeing my aching cock.
"I want you, babe," she says before taking the skin of my neck between her teeth.
I hiss and buck into her, and then stand up with her body wrapped around mine. I toss her down on the couch then remove my jeans and underwear, watching Bella do the same with the rest of her clothes. While she finishes undressing, I reach into the drawer of the end table and grab a condom, slamming it closed with a little more force than necessary in my haste.
"How do you want me?" I ask lowly, licking my lips as I enjoy the sight of her naked flesh. I quickly tear open the condom and roll it on, and then approach her like a lion stalking its prey.
"Sit down," she orders, moving her feet to indicate where she wants me. I comply, knowing that there is no bad position, as long as I'm with Bella.
She scrambles onto my lap and immediately sinks down on me, causing me to groan when I feel her tightness and heat. Her arms wrap around my neck and mine go around her waist so I can feel every inch of her upper body pressed tightly to mine. She begins moving over me and her nipples rub against my chest with every pass.
"Oh, god," I moan in between licks and sucks of her collarbone.
"Yes," she hisses out as I start meeting her movements from below.
I pull back slightly from our embrace and look into her eyes. "I love you," I tell her sincerely.
Her eyes close momentarily from the force of my last thrust, but then open and lock with mine. "I love you, too … so much." A few moments later, she looks at me again. "Edward, I need you to fuck me … hard."
"Oh, baby," I coo, standing up and depositing her on the floor. "Gladly."
I step behind her and carefully push her upper body down so her forearms are resting on the seat of the couch. Her ass is in the air and on perfect display for me. I slide my hand through her folds a few times to tease her, gathering her arousal on my fingers. I push three inside quickly and she moans out her approval. I tap her g-spot a few times, causing her to twitch, before I remove my fingers and slam my cock back into her.
"Fuck!" she yells.
"Is this what you want?" I ask as I thrust into her swiftly. "You like it like this, don't you?" My hands roam her pert ass.
"Yes," she says mid-moan. "More," she whimpers.
"My pleasure," I tell her, leaning my body over hers and kissing down her spine. When I stand back up, I slide one of my arousal coated fingers into her back entrance while I maintain the deep, hard thrusts of my cock. She moans long and low as her hips begin pushing back against me with each thrust. "That's it, baby. Take what you want."
We keep up the pace until I feel her walls begin to flutter around me. I decide to give her a little boost, so at the same time that I begin rubbing her clit, I add a second finger to her ass.
"Oh, fuck! Edward!" she screams as her pleasure takes over.
The feeling of her squeezing my cock sets me off every time, and I willingly follow her into oblivion, erratically thrusting my hips until I'm completely empty. I hug her body tightly around her waist as I collapse over her back. When her knees buckle, we fall to the floor, still connected with Bella's upper body lying on the couch.
She turns slightly and hums as our breathing begins to even out and I kiss her lips lightly. I may be considered in my prime at twenty-two, but I doubt I'll ever get enough of her.
After a nice, long nap to recover from our celebratory activities, Bella calls Esme and Rose to share the good news. I don't know who she's talking to at the moment, but her laughter fills the apartment, causing me to smile.
I think about her words from earlier. "We're free," she had said. My mind focuses on the "we" part. She is finally free of Jasper, but we are now free to move forward. I can't help but wonder where exactly she wants to go from here. No matter what, we'll be able to do it together.
I hate that my thoughts automatically drift to marrying her, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about that since we had the discussion about having a baby together. Not that marriage is a necessity in this day and age—I just think that it would make everything that much better.
But, Bella is literally just coming out of a divorce. I don't know if she'd ever even consider marriage again. What's the appropriate amount of time to be divorced before getting remarried? I'm guessing there's no right answer to that, and like the rest of our relationship, we'll do things our way anyway.
I push those thoughts to the back burner for now, intent on just enjoying the night with my girl. I'm taking her to Port Angeles for dinner to celebrate.
Bella calls out to me from her bedroom as I'm in her bathroom trimming my beard down to the stubble that she loves. "Babe, when you're done in there, can you get my red heels from the top of my closet? I think they're on the far right side."
"Sure," I respond. "I'll get them in a minute." I don't know why she insists on keeping her shoe boxes on the top shelf when she can't reach them. This is not the first time I've had to retrieve shoes for her.
I finish in the bathroom and clean up all the little hairs around the sink, stowing my beard trimmer under the sink. I still marvel at how much of my stuff has slowly merged into Bella's room and bathroom. It wasn't planned, but we tend to shower together a lot so it made sense when my trimmers and other toiletries ended up staying in here.
Bella's closet is in the hallway between her bedroom and the bathroom, so I stop on my way to get her shoes. I've already learned that each box needs to be put back facing out in order to see the shoe description and easily locate what she's looking for. I shake my head at the number of shoe boxes lining the shelf.
Looking in the far right corner, I see two boxes that say "red" on them, each picturing a different type of shoe. I reach up to grab the one farthest to the right, assuming that's the one she indicated. As the box moves forward when I start pulling it down, the contents shift and I hear rattling inside. It doesn't feel like a pair of shoes.
"Sweetheart, I don't think this is what you're looking for," I call out as I pull the box down.
"No, wait! Don't …" I hear her yell, but I've already opened the lid and I freeze when I see what's inside.
I look up to see her standing at the end of the hallway with wide eyes and a red face.
My cheeks turn up in a smirk. "Well, well, well … somebody's been holding out on me," I taunt, my eyes devouring the contents of the shoe box.
"Oh, god," she sighs in resignation. "It's been a long time since I needed any of that. I forgot that box was there."
"You may not have needed any of it, but I certainly think we can have fun with it," I say, holding up a small vibrator. I drop that back into the box and then pick up a purple dildo, turning it in my hand to examine it before replacing it and fingering through the remaining items. "Oh, yes. We'll definitely be using this shoe box later."
A/N: I hope everyone is happy that Jasper is finally out of the picture! Let me know what you thought of the chapter. I am loving your reviews for this story.
Don't forget that I post teasers and more on Facebook (Kitchmill Fanfic) and Twitter (at kitchmillfanfic). The next chapter will post on Tuesday, with a teaser on Fictionators on Monday.