Chapter 14 - When it rains, it pours.

It was raining and freezing cold outside. The short walk from the parking lot was anything but pleasant. It left him soaked to the skin and chilled to the bone. The dark, miserable weather fit perfectly with the mood he was in.

Closing the door behind him, Edward stepped into the dense blanket of darkness that covered almost the entire cabin. He fumbled for the light switch, but couldn't find it. He took another few steps inside and tripped over something that fell over and scattered across the floor.

The response was immediate and came in the form of swiftly approaching footsteps. A shadowy figure appeared before him and then there was light...

"Jeez, Edward, wake the whole neighborhood why don't you!" Bella exclaimed with a fierce scowl.

"Would it have hurt to leave a few lights on?" he countered, as he stepped out of his shoes and began peeling his wet jacket off his shoulders.

"I can't sleep if it's not dark." Her hands were on her hips, and she had her 'don't mess with me' look on her face. "Besides it's late. What did you expect, that I would greet you with open arms and a candle-lit-dinner?"

"Why not? That would have been nice. I've had a really shitty day! First the kiddo wonked his head, and then I got food thrown at me. Some obnoxiously demanding woman thought it was a good idea to pass out right at my feet. Anthony thought it was a good idea to barf on my shoes. Alice thought it was a good idea to run away and join the circus. On top of everything else, I just made my momma cry, which automatically means I'm biggest asshole in the world."

He heard Bella let out a muffled snort that sounded suspiciously like a suppressed snicker. A glance her way showed that she was in fact having trouble keeping a straight face.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh at my misery, you heartless woman," he grumbled, rubbing up and down his arms to get some heat back into them.

"Sorry, but it's a bit hard to take you seriously when you look like a drenched rat."

"Yeah, well in case you haven't noticed it's raining outside. Man, even the weather is against me tonight."

"When it rains it pours, haven't you heard? Now is that food you got there?" Bella interrupted him, eyeing the plastic grocery bag at his feet. "Where on earth did you find a store open this time of night?"

"I didn't. I just drove aimlessly for a while to clear my head," he said, taking the bag off the floor, carrying it into the kitchenette area. "I ended up at a gas station with a 24-hour mini-mart. I would have been back sooner, but there is something seriously wrong with that car. The transmission is completely screwed up."

He heard her snort at him again. "Gee, you think so? Maybe it is the driver that is a complete screw up?"

"Touché Swan, Touché... At least I brought home some food. That has to count for something. There is coffee, a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, and peanut butter. They didn't have any protein shakes, sorry. You'll have to survive without them for a day or two."

"I don't suppose you found any chocolate?"

"Eight pints of Chocolate Brownie ice cream. You have to share with the kiddo, but it should be enough to get us through the week."

"Great! Only one problem. How do you plan on storing eight pints of ice cream, when you don't have a freezer?"

"No freezer!"

"Nope," she shook her head and opened the refrigerator to show him. "There is a freezer compartment in here, but I doubt it is big enough to fit all that ice cream."

"Is that a challenge?" Edward asked, walking up behind her to peer over her shoulder. "I've been told I have a talent for fitting big things in small places."

"Whoa, keep it in your pants, mister!" Bella closed the door with a slam. "You're not THAT talented."

Edward arched an eyebrow. "Never heard any complaints before. The last time around you see..."

"Not this again!" She stopped him with a hand on his arm. "We were never a good fit, you and me. Every time we spend more than a few days in each other's company, we get into rip roaring arguments."

"That's what keeps it interesting," Edward shot back without missing a beat, his lips curving in a sly smile. He stepped closer, and she answered by immediately taking a step back. He cocked his head. "On one hand you irk me to no end, but on the other hand our...what did you call them... rip roaring arguments... make me forget time and space. And quite frankly, I wouldn't mind some distraction right about now."

"So you keep me around for distraction? Gee, you sure know how to make a girl feel special."

"You don't need me to tell you that you're special. You know you are," he told her, his voice low and liquid.

He took another step forward, cornering her, invading her space and her thoughts. Her arms were between them, crossed over her midsection, but he still managed to get a lot closer than she was comfortable with. In fact, she could practically feel the warmth radiating off his body; a stark contrast to the stainless steel exterior of the fridge that she was backed up against.

Normally Bella prided herself on her control. She was a trained professional who knew how to act in a crisis. Unfortunately, her hard-won skills seemed to have deserted her for the moment. His face was already inching closer. It was just a matter of time before his lips would claim hers. She knew it as surely as she knew the sun would rise in the morning, yet she didn't turn away. She didn't push him back or even flick an eye.

Looking into that oh-so-gorgeous face, she steeled herself against the inevitable and let him kiss her, thinking to herself that she could handle it, that she could handle him. What harm could one kiss do? Just a brushing of lips...no tongues...no feelings. But even as she thought it, she knew she was lying to herself.

When his tongue probed her lips, not asking, but demanding entry, she gave it without hesitation. He'd always been a good kisser, and this was in no way a tentative kiss. It was a kiss that claimed and marked. It was a kiss that promised torn clothes and hot-messy-kitchen-sex rather than hand holding and whispered sweetness.

When he finally pulled away, he rubbed his nose against hers and grinned. "Distraction of the best kind. Wouldn't you agree?"

Her heart was thumping hard, and her entire body was trembling from it. But she would never let him see that; could not afford to let him see that. Instead she snapped, "Distraction is not always the answer." She wiped her lips with the back of her hand, as if she found the lingering taste of him offensive.

"Is that so?" He watched her for a moment before dipping his head again, this time to take a playful nibble out of her throat. It was a lovely, sexy little nibble that made her knees go weak and a delicious heat rise from a point slightly higher.

Her hands instinctively reached up between them to press against his chest. She wasn't sure if she was trying to push him away or pull him closer, and Edward smirked at her when he pulled back. Damn it! She scowled at him, and his smirk widened.

"I keep pushing your buttons, and you keep coming back for more," he chuckled, letting one hand slide up to caress the side of her breast through the T-shirt she was wearing. "And you can't tell me you don't love it," he teased, brushing his thumb over what appeared to be an already pebble-hard nipple.

No, she couldn't deny the electricity that ran coursed through her body at that very moment. Couldn't deny it, couldn't hide it. He obviously had a point there, but he didn't have to be so damned smug about it. At times, she thought Edward was a relatively decent human being. At other times, she was convinced he was a jerk who thrived on making her life miserable. The real issue, though, was that most of the time she found him so damned attractive she could barely think straight. Damn him!

"Forget it," she shook her head to clear some of the fog from it and said more strongly. "This ends here and now!"

"You sure?" he asked, his hands skimming across her back, dropping down to the curve of her bottom with the intent of pulling her closer, no doubt.

Instinctively and almost violently, she twisted in his arms, using her hip to shield herself from his advances. "I'm serious! Lack of chemistry has never been our problem, but just because it feels good doesn't make it right."

"Why not?" he challenged. "If it feels good, why not just 'go with it?'"

Yeah, why the hell not? A little voice in the back of her mind whispered. Because then he'd know. The more logical part of her mind reminded her. He isn't stupid, one look and he'd know.

She knew she was treading on dangerous grounds. If she let him get too close, if she let him have his way with her, he was bound to notice, bound to figure out the secret she'd been keeping from him. The secret she had planned to keep from him for an indefinite period of time. In that brief moment, she realized that she actually wanted him to know, she wanted him to know and be okay with it. Unfortunately, though, this was neither the time nor the place to let a 'bomb' of that size and magnitude, drop. Sadly, that meant there would be no hot-messy-kitchen-sex happening anytime soon...

Bella clung to the fridge door to stay upright. She needed to compose herself. He was only a man, like any other. Well, maybe not like any other...Uggh, she needed to put some space between them, she needed to regroup. Hell, she wasn't precisely sure what exactly she needed to find the strength to walk away from him. What she got, though, was exactly what she didn't need - the unmistakable physical evidence of his arousal rubbing up against her thigh intimately.

Later, when she looked back at that moment, she wasn't sure if her erratic behavior was due to raging hormones, overwhelming excitement, or some sort of temporary insanity. Either way her response had been immediate and forceful.

To hell with caution! If Edward wanted distraction then distraction was what he'd get!

...

Those eyes, those lips...

Edward lost track of time, lost track of everything, but the sweet sensation of arousal that grew within him.

Like always, he had little to no restraint when it came to Bella. He wasn't even sure why he had started it. He had only meant to take her down a few notches. He hadn't planned to kiss her, it just sort of happened, and now he was struggling with an all consuming need to touch her, to taste her, to love her with, his lips, mouth and hands.

Edward couldn't help himself; he couldn't keep his hands off her. She was wearing a pair of oversized track pants and a baggy t-shirt that had a high neckline - that could not be described as provocative by any stretch of the imagination. But she wasn't wearing a bra, and he could feel her nipples clearly through the layers of clothing separating them. Her breasts were begging for his attention.

He hesitated for about half a second, but his body was moving faster than his brain and his hands were already travelling over the topography of her chest. She had more curves than he remembered...but in a good way...no, a great way, he decided as his hands cupped the swellings of her breasts through her t-shirt.

In between kissing, groping, breathing and everything else, Bella, bless her heart, still managed to throw in a few half hearted protests. Her actions contradicted her words, though, so he didn't take her protests all too serious. A mistake on his part.

One minute he was being groped and kissed by an Amazon, the next she pulled some fancy martial art move on him that put him in a wrist lock.

Dang, she was good at that - he never even saw it coming.

"Hey!" he yelped in surprise. "You sure know how to give a guy a heart attack! A simple 'not today honey, I have a headache' would have worked just fine."

"I just wanted to make sure I had your full attention," she pulled back a bit and waited for him to catch his breath. "I don't want you to misunderstand me, Edward. I do want you... right here, right now," she informed him bluntly. "But if we do this, it has got to be on my terms."

He tested her grip on his wrist with a little tug, to no avail; his right arm was still twisted painfully behind his back.

"Are you listening?" Bella asked impatiently, tightening her grip.

A howl of pain escaped his lips...or was it one of pleasure? He wasn't sure. The raw strength of this woman turned him on more than he ever thought possible.

"I can list several good reasons why we shouldn't be doing this. My strongest argument is the child sleeping in the room next door. My terms or not at all! Do you understand?"

Edward's only respond was a nod, his mood turning visibly more somber at the mention of Anthony.

"The lights stay out, as many articles of clothing as possible must stay on, and it has to be done quietly, alright?"

"Dark, quiet, and semi clothed, got it. Just one question, am I to be tied up and thrown onto the kitchen table?"

He felt Bella smile against his neck. It made him tingle all over.

"I'm just wondering because I don't think my back will survive that."

"You, me, and a quickie against the kitchen counter," she whispered, her tongue twirling on the folds of his ear. "Doggy style..."

And just like that, the tingling stopped, only to be replaced by a full head-to-toe body shiver. Now there was a suggestion worthy of standing ovations.

Bella laid out her terms, and Edward accepted without even a flicker of hesitation.

Being quiet wasn't really in his nature. The logistics of having sex in a confined space was a hassle, and rather than mounting from behind in the ancestral way, he would have preferred to go about it face to face. But hey, this was pretty hot too... in a raw, primal sort of way.

She had him fetch her a pillow, because apparently he wasn't the only one with back issues. Any other time he would have questioned her about it, but all rational thought was lost somewhere in the image of her bending over before him with her gray sweatpants pushed halfway down her thighs.

He drank in the sight of the soft flesh of her exposed buttocks with greedy eyes, as his partial erection grew to its utter fullness.

Needless to say his pants and boxers were dropped in record time.

Protection, must not forget protection He wobbled like a penguin, as he fumbled to retrieve the emergency condom he kept in his wallet. Only he couldn't find it...

It HAD to be one in there. Counting backwards in his head, he quickly came to the conclusion that it had been forever since the last time he had stocked up on those fuckers. Yiikes, when had he become so careless? One paternity test experience was more than enough!

...

Bella could hear the unzipping of his pants and the clink of his belt hitting the floor. Then there was a rustle of clothes followed by cursing, lots of cursing...

Cursing?

He better not be having second thoughts! She felt a surge of conflicting emotions at that thought - surprise, annoyance, frustration, and most damning, disappointment.

She dared a glance over her shoulder just in time to see him retrieve a rectangular foil package from the depths of his wallet.

"No worries, I found it," he exclaimed triumphantly, his eyes glittering in the faint light. "I don't need another kid on my conscience! Not now... not for a very, VERY long time...if ever..."

Bella's heart constricted tightly in her chest as she watched him unroll the condom. It wasn't like she hadn't guessed how he felt on the subject, but it was still painful to hear. Her mind immediately wandered in places she'd rather it not have gone.

Lost in her anguish, she missed the hand that moved briefly over her exposed backside, coming to rest on the small of her back. She missed the tug on her hips; she missed the initial skin-on-skin contact and how snugly he fitted himself against the curve of her back.

What brought her back to reality with a startled yelp, were the fingers that found their way into her most private of areas.

Before she could really grasp what was happening, his fingers were moving in rapid circles over and around her swollen clit.

It felt so wrong... and it felt so right! It felt very much like what she had been craving since the moment he had kissed her, but in truth, it was entirely different from how she had envisioned it.

He was fingering her and he was doing it well. Her hormones were all over the place, as were her thoughts. She moaned in agonized bliss as his spare hand found her tender breasts and fondled them roughly.

Edward clearly didn't understand the definition of a quickie, because he sure took his sweet time with the foreplay. Not that she was complaining. By the time he nudged her legs apart and pushed himself into her glistening sex, she was so wet and so thoroughly worked up, that any conflicting thought she might have had was long gone.

"Darlin'... if this gets uncomfortable..." Edward kissed her neck - his mouth open, his teeth scrapping along her fair skin "...or if this doesn't hit the spots for you, tell me. And, we'll try something else."

She mewed in response, pressing her backside into his groin. Edward took that as an encouragement to bury himself fully in the surging heat of her hot, moist core.

Their movements were erratic, frenzied, at first, but soon enough they managed to establish a rhythm that propelled them both into heights of pleasure that they only ever experienced with each other.

Neither one of them lasted long, their bodies reacting to each other in the same way they had since the very beginning.

They were good together. For whatever reason, the two of them worked, even though they shouldn't.

...

AN:So, was it steamy enough for the wait? Let me know what you think!