Disclaimer: this is a re-write of 'Twilight', I don't have any right to do it, but it is fun.

Last Time: "Your mother's?" I was surprised. "You've kept your mother's ring all this time, and now you want to just give it away?"

"To you," he said softly, "I would like very much to give it to you."

"I am very flattered that you would chose to give me your mother's engagement ring. When I am ready to wear an engagement ring, this will be the one I wear. I promise. Can you wait for me to let the whole thing sink in first?"

He nodded, "it's entirely up to you. If you never want to wear a ring, that's fine with me. We won't be able to keep the whole engagement a secret, though, um . . . my family have a way of working things out. When I get back near the house, Jasper will notice the change in my feelings."

I scowled. When I told him that I wasn't ready to wear an engagement ring I meant that I wasn't ready to be publicly engaged. "Could you try and hide it?" I said, "do you have to tell everyone?"

He smirked at me, "you'll understand when you live with them," he said, "it really isn't possible to keep big secrets from Jasper or Alice."

I filed that away to think about later. I didn't want to consider all the things that I wouldn't be able to keep from Alice.

"Will Alice have seen, um . . . everything?"

He frowned, "I hope not," he said, on this occasion he had more reason than I did for wanting to avoid Alice's all-seeing eyes. "She hasn't called to discuss your dress yet, so I would guess that she doesn't know. Alice is very slightly obsessed with your wedding dress. She started hurling visions of it at me before she even met you! Hopefully she wasn't watching us tonight. We can't hide the fact that we're engaged, though. We'll have to tell them that you accepted my proposal."

That was true. I didn't want it to be a secret forever, anyway, I just wanted a little bit of time to accept it myself before I had to share this with other people. "When we tell your family this story, can we pretend that you were still in your suit?"

"I would very much appreciate that," he said, smiling again, "which does rather beg the question: may I dress again? I wasn't sure exactly what you wanted me to do."

I giggled, what could be nicer than a naked Edward smiling at me and asking me exactly what I wanted him to do?

He glared at me, somehow carrying off a lot more dignity that I would manage to achieve whilst naked, "did you accept my proposal of marriage because of your raging teenage hormones?"

"Of course not! I don't think that you understand me yet. Physical intimacy isn't just about lust. I do have those feelings towards you, of course I do. But the reason I keep pushing to go further and have a fuller physical relationship is much more important. It's about trust. Getting naked together, being fully vulnerable with one another, it's an important step in any relationship. I want to take that step of absolute trust. I want to be with you without any clothing or any pretences. I want to really get to know you. And, I want you to get to know me."

"I'm sorry. You're right when you say that I don't understand. That just isn't the attitude that was taught to me when I was a child and it isn't the attitude that my family show today. I can't help thinking of physical intimacy as an imposition on a woman. I don't want to be disrespectful towards you."

"And I don't want you to hold back from me."

He nodded. "I realise that I've been absurd. It can't possibly be more respectful to disregard your wishes. There are other things to be considered, of course. I could kill you. We'll have to be incredibly careful and we'll have to build up slowly."

"You're changing your mind?"

He shook his head, "not exactly. I've always been entirely at your service. You've just asked me to do something new. Before you were asking me to risk your life in order to scratch an itch. It was too big a risk for too small a pay-off Now you're asking me to let our relationship progress to the next level by doing something that's important to you."

"I'm asking you to do the same thing that I asked you to do a year ago."

"But you've explained a new and more satisfying reason for wanting me to comply."

"Are you saying that, had I explained this to you a year ago, you would have given in then?"

Images flashed through my mind, like the final pictures of a drowning woman. I couldn't avoid picturing what might have been, had I been able to phrase the question properly before now. The summer that we could have spent, lying in the sun, his cool body pressed against mine. The swimming we could have done. The cuddling in front of fires. The experimenting with warming gels and electric blankets.

Had I known the right words to say, I could already be familiar with the taste of him. I might know whether his chest was as smooth as it looked. I might have already traced my tongue around those paths that his rib-cage made on his chest, followed them to the end of the line. I might have already felt his thighs clasped around my waist, or his hair against the sensitive skin on the back of my knee.

What sweet moments I had missed. How I wished that I had known the magic words earlier.

Edward, irritating vampire, quirked his eyebrow at my glazed eyes. "You couldn't have told me a year ago that our relationship had now progressed to a point where you felt that by maintaining artificial boundaries I was holding part of myself back from you. It wouldn't have made sense a year ago, but now it does."

He grinned boyishly and added "I'm also rather more chastened than I was a year ago. I am now painfully aware of how often you're right and I'm wrong. That makes me rather more likely to accede to your wishes."

"Wow. This is amazing. I've seen you naked, and you're admitting that I'm often right. I wasn't expecting this to go so well. What do we do next?"

He didn't laugh. Instead he looked slightly nervous, as if he was expecting me to leap at him here and now, and commence exploring his most intimate areas. He took a step back, and actually held up his hands in surrender. I had never before thought of my sexual desire as a kind of weapon.

"Would you mind if I took a bit of time to think? There are quite a few different things that couples do and um . . . I think that it would be best if our first attempts at greater intimacy were . . . um . . . planned. I need to make sure that I don't lose control, so it would probably be better if we knew exactly what we were going to do, and I prepared for it. I'm not confident enough to risk spontaneous intimacy."

"You would like to write a script first?"

He grimaced, "I'm sorry," he said, "it's just that I can't be like a human boyfriend. I have to keep a tighter reign on my instincts."

"Actually, it sounds kind of sexy. Can I have editing rights?"

Didn't he know that anticipation is half of the fun? To read a description, in Edward's beautiful script (come on, he wasn't going to type this), of precisely what he wanted to do to me; then, to run through it with a blue pencil, make a little adjustment here, add a little nibble there; that would make any situation a hundred times more delicious.

"Whatever you wish. Am I allowed to put my clothes back on now?"

"Of course, have you been standing there waiting for permission? I'm sorry, I didn't think about it. Are you cold?"

He shook his head slightly, "I didn't want to risk you withdrawing your acceptance of my hand."

"Get dressed so that I can kiss you. Try not to worry too much. I love you and I want to be with you forever, so I'm not going to change my mind about marrying you."

The big grin was back on his face in an instant and his clothes were replaced almost as fast. He curled up next to me and took his promised kiss. To be truthful, he took more than the one kiss that I had promised him. But he returned just as many, so I think that I broke even.

It was a perfect moment, I was snuggled on soft pillows, with my breathtaking boyfriend in my arms. Then, as I always did during perfect moments, I ruined it by being that little bit too human. Edward pulled away from kissing my lips to let his mouth trail down my arm, and I yawned hugely. I tried to cover it up, but you can't conceal things from your vampire boyfriend. He panicked that he'd kept me out far too long, scooped me up and ran us back to the car.

Being in his arms was less blissful this time, because I knew that we were soon going to be apart again and I couldn't help wishing that he wasn't rushing to take me home. Edward seemed less happy too, he asked me several times if I was alright to drive and seemed quite distressed that he had allowed me to get tired. I tried to explain that my tiredness was no fault of his, it was a natural side-effect of humanity, but I was unsuccessful. At least he didn't complain at the speed of my driving.

There was, to my surprise, nobody waiting on the steps for us when we returned to the Cullens' house. I dropped off Edward and the car, returned to my truck and drove myself home. I really wasn't too tired. It had been a perfect date. I fell asleep still content in the knowledge that I was engaged to the perfect guy.

I woke up to a full blown panic attack.

I had got engaged last night!

It was ridiculous, absurd, stupid. I couldn't believe I'd done it. It was so unlike me. A glimmer of light shone through the panic: maybe I hadn't done it.

After all, if I was really engaged, wouldn't Alice be on the phone already, trying to plan the wedding? If I was really engaged, wouldn't my mum have sensed it from Phoenix and driven over here to demand that I came to my senses? I was in my bed, the phone wasn't ringing, my parents weren't yelling. There was no way that I could be engaged. I must have dreamt it.

As I began to think along these lines, I realised how sensible that really was. The date had been utterly perfect: Edward had been sweet, and flexible, and naked. There was no way that really happened. I could never be that lucky. I dreamt the date and I dreamt the engagement. Secure in my new-found knowledge, I got up and dressed.

It was Sunday today, and I had no plans yet. I was hoping that I would be able to spend a full day with Edward, but I wasn't really sure of the terms of his 'night release'. Maybe he would be expected to pay back the time in some way. As I made, ate and washed up my breakfast, I considered calling Edward, then Alice, then Rose, then Edward, then Rose, then Alice again. Then I wondered if I ought to go to a more official channel and just call Jasper. I didn't want to ask to see Edward and then get him into trouble if he was supposed to be spending the day home alone, making up for the evening he'd spent out. But, I didn't want him to be offended if I called Jasper, as though I saw Edward as a small child who couldn't make his own plans for the day.

Just as I was beginning another round of debate with myself, my mobile rang and Alice said, "stop it, you're giving me a headache. Are you calling, or not?"

I laughed, "well, I don't need to now," I told her, "since you just called me. Are you doing anything today?"

"That's not what you want to know. Yes, you can come and see Edward, and he won't mind that you talked to me rather than him. He's having second thoughts about showing you our home movie, but that's Emmett's fault. Well, Emmett's and yours and, in a round about way, mine, I suppose. You're still going to see the movie, though, and it'll all work out for the best."

"Um . . . ok," I said. It was difficult to know what to say to Alice sometimes. It was a bit like being expected to comment on a weather report. She seemed so sure of what she was forecasting and I had no way of seeing how right she was. She could be pretty cryptic at times, too. I guess she didn't want to give me too many clues in case I changed a future that she wanted to see. Still, there was nothing that I could do about that, and she normally seemed to be on my side. So it was best just to accept her advice and wait to see what was really going to happen.

Alice giggled and said, "alright, Bella, since you slept so badly, I'll come over and get you. I would have come right away, but you seemed kind of freaked out if I came without talking to you first. I'll see you in ten minutes."

"Ok, bye Alice."

"Bye, Bella."

She rang off and instantly my phone beeped to show that I'd received a text message.

'Good morning, Bella.

I haven't told anyone what you said last night.

Alice doesn't know yet.

I thought that you would appreciate knowing this before you came over,

so that you wouldn't panic.

If you've changed your mind,

I will understand,

please don't hide from me.

Edward.'

So it was true, I was engaged to Edward. Somehow it didn't seem quite so scary now that it was definitely real. I knew that I didn't want to back out of it. I knew that, though it was a huge commitment and pretty daunting, it was what I wanted. I wanted Edward forever.

To my slight surprise (I guess I didn't know myself as well as I thought). The text message didn't make me feel panicked at all. It made me feel sad. I was sad to see how insecure Edward still was, even after I'd accepted his proposal.

I sighed, wondering which was sadder: Edward worrying that I would change my mind only a few hours after agreeing to marry him, or Edward thinking that he needed to put his name at the end of text messages that he sent to me. Surely he knew that his number was programmed into my phone. I thought briefly about calling him, but then I remembered that his family would hear every word that I said, even if they were in different rooms. This wasn't a conversation that I wanted to have overheard.

Instead, I sent him a text message back: 'I love you and that will never change. There is nothing that I said last night, which I would like to unsay this morning.' Worrying that I was being a bit soppy, I added on to the end 'BTW I do have your number programmed into my phone, you don't actually have to sign your texts. Bella!'

Actually, now that I'd done it, I rather liked the idea of being engaged. I loved the way that he felt like mine now. I had always loved him passionately and needed him desperately. But lately there had been this amazing shift in our relationship: I had learnt that he loved me and needed me in just the same way. It was amazing. It made me feel much more secure and, though it seems absurd to even think it, almost as though I was Edward's true equal. I know that he's a musical genius and mind-blowingly gorgeous, and charming and suave, and knows almost everything, and is a bona fide glittering, strong, quick-healing, self-controlled vampire. But, none the less, he loved me, and that made me, in a way, his equal.