Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to katmom, and Angelinia who beta this story.

Chapter Four

Alone at Last

Edward was at her house before she had returned from dropping off Jacob. He couldn't seem to make himself wait at his house any longer with having to hear all of his family's thoughts on Bella along with his own. So, he left early and now he was trying to decide what the best way of doing this would be. He didn't want to scare Bella when she first saw him. One thing was clear at least: he had to make sure the window didn't groan when he opened it. He quickly dealt with that, and since he was there, he thought it was best to familiarize himself with her scent again. Not that he could ever forget it, but the concentration in the room almost made his head spin again with the power of it. He groaned; he should have hunted before he came here, not that it would have helped much, but it couldn't hurt.

Then he heard her truck, it was more than a mile away but it was so loud he wondered how he hadn't heard it before. Again he wasn't sure if it was better if he was in the room when she first got there or if he should come in afterward. Which one would be less shocking? Alice had said that she was expecting him to be there, he supposed staying in the room was the best.

He heard Bella and Charlie talk when she came into the house. Charlie's mind was on the game when she walked in, but when he noticed her he seemed to take in her expression. Edward smiled, though Charlie's thoughts were hard to read, at least he was able to see Bella perfectly fine through Charlie's eyes. The other thing that made him smile was the fact that Bella looked anxious about something and he noticed her looking up at her room more than once. Charlie noticed that too, however, he didn't think there was anything suspicious about it. In fact he seemed to be pleased by this. Edward saw a passing flash of Bella in the police cruiser, she was looking kind of glum and Charlie's thoughts seemed to echo Edward's assessment. Hm … that must have been a few days ago, Edward thought, and he agreed with Charlie's next thought: that she looked a lot happier now. However, the next words out of Charlie's mouth didn't make Edward feel that good.

"I'm glad that you and Jake have been getting along," Charlie smiled at her. Edward noticed that Bella smiled nervously back, which made him nervous in return, wondering what she was thinking, until he saw her look up at her room. Was she wondering if he was here, listening to this conversation?

"Yeah, we relate to each other really easily," Bella said, "he's a good friend."

"So he's just your friend?" Charlie asked, watching her closely.

"Dad!" Bella said in exasperation. "It's not like that at all."

Edward was pleased to hear that Charlie believed her on that. There was also the added bonus that he seemed to be pleased that Bella didn't like Jacob that way. Hm … that was different than in the book, but he supposed that was only to be expected. Right now, Charlie didn't really want Bella to like anyone; that way he wouldn't have to deal with his daughter having a boyfriend (Edward knew that he wasn't looking forward to that himself …. if and when his own daughter would be in that situation). However, in the book, after everything that he had put Bella through, it must have seemed like Jacob was the better choice, from Charlie's point of view. He was really going to have to try and stay on Charlie's good side in this reality.

Before Edward could think about that anymore, Bella was making her way up the stairs. He could hear her pause at her bedroom door, her heart racing as she took a deep breath. The seconds it took for her to open the door Edward could almost feel his heart beating, too, and his whole body tensed with the anticipation of seeing her again.

"Oh," Bella gasped as her eyes widened as she saw him there. She looked just like she had earlier today when she had opened the front door to find Alice and him standing there. Like she couldn't believe her eyes and yet at the same time there was a knowing look there that said that she had been expecting him to be there all along. "Hi."

"Hello," Edward breathed out, smiling at her, keeping eye contact the whole time. She stayed holding onto the door for what felt like eternity, but in reality it was less than a minute.

"I can't believe that you're really here," Bella finally spoke, breaking the silence that had filled the room. She took a step closer to him and closed the door behind her, never once taking her eyes off of him.

"I couldn't stay away," Edward said.

Bella bit her lip; she didn't know what to make of that comment. He had said things like that so many times in the book, all the while thinking about leaving … not letting her get too attached to him. She had been going over this over and over again since he had left, and she couldn't quite figure out why he had stayed to meet her. She could see the Edward that she had read about in the book deciding never to meet her in person. After all, what better way to make sure that she never gets killed or turned into a vampire was there than by never meeting him in the first place? That way she would never know what she was missing. So why would he be here? She came up with one conclusion: he must know more about this than she did. Now she was wondering how much.

Well, in truth, she had been wondering that during dinner and her drive to Jacob's house and back, but now that she was faced with Edward in her room, all she was thinking about was how beautiful his eyes were. How she could stare into them for hours in utter silence and yet she would never find anything more interesting to look at in the world. He smiled at her, and then looked away. As she took a breath she noticed that her lungs burned a little, she must have been holding her breath as she looked at him. She was going to have to work on that.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Bella asked, trying to remember what she had been thinking before.

"I think it's a good thing," Edward chuckled, and she heard none of the warnings he had seemed to be sending her throughout the book. He didn't seem to be conflicted at all; he seemed to really want to be here and only here. That seemed to confirm her theory. He must know more about what happened than she did. This was good, because where Midnight Sun had ended … well she really wanted to know what happened next … and she was really pleased to find that it probably worked out well.

"What's the matter?" Edward asked, and she looked up to find that he was frowning.

"Nothing," Bella said.

Edward sighed; he was finding it difficult to stand in here, clearly seeing her work something out in her head and not to be able to hear it at all. It was torture, pure torture not knowing what she was thinking.

"Are you alright?" Bella asked a little worried. She didn't say anything wrong, did she?

Edward smiled, shaking his head and then looked down at her, his eyes twinkling with amusement, "I was just wondering what you were thinking?"

"Oh," Bella said, and then she was smiling too, before she started to chuckle.

Edward's laughter joined hers quickly after that; noting that he was going to have to do whatever it took to make that glorious sound come from her as much as he possible could.

"I suppose I'm going to hear that a lot," Bella teased.

"At least twenty times a day," Edward admitted unabashed.

"You seemed more amused than I thought you would be about this," Bella said, "I thought you were annoyed by the fact that you couldn't read my mind."

"Oh, I am," Edward said. "Especially at lunch … and in Biology class. You were acting so strangely I was dying to know what you were thinking. Reading the book didn't prepare me enough to find out how annoying not knowing your every thought would be … you know seeing as I could hear all your thoughts at the time …."

"The book was in my point of view," Bella gasped, shrugged and then groaned.

Edward's mouth went thin; he wanted to laugh but he was also annoyed by what just happened. "You're doing it again. I can't understand your reaction at all."

"Did you read the books with your whole family?" Bella asked his nod confirming what she already knew had to be true. Then she groaned again, "Argh … that's so embarrassing, I can imagine what I must have thought."

Edward chuckled at that. That would explain the first groan, and judging by the look in her eyes, she hadn't been so surprised by this fact … that would explain the shrug. But why had she gasped? She was surprised the book was in her point of view … that was interesting. "Wasn't the book you got from your point of view?"

"Nope," Bella said, stilling looking worried about his family reading her thoughts. "It was in yours."

"I see," Edward said; he was a little shocked about this, though he knew this would be her answer before he asked the question. "That's interesting … how far along did it go?"

"Hm … you said something about it being your turn to ask the questions the next day … it was after …." Bella explained.

"Ah, yes, that would be the day that I first listened to you during gym, and you smacked Mike Newton with your racket," Edward smiled, though he had spat out Mike's name like a dirty word. He didn't really want to mention the other event that he knew happened the night before.

"You would have to bring that up, wouldn't you?" Bella made a face, and Edward smirked. Hmm … teasing her will be fun too.

"How far did the book go for you?" Bella asked and then added, "That was what I was thinking about before, by the way …. I figured you must know more than I do if you're here."

Edward furrowed his eyebrows together, wondering what that meant, and not particularly wanting to tell her that he read about the next two years. Instead he asked, "Why would you say that?"

Bella bit her lip nervously. "Well, you were kind of … conflicted during the book. Trying to be close to me and push me away at the same time. I thought that if you only read to the place I got that you would … um … not want to meet me."

"Oh," Edward sighed, thinking about what he had thought after reading Twilight … and Eclipse, she really had a point there. She seemed to understand him pretty well, and he felt a burning desire to read the book she had. But then he looked up at her and he could clearly see that she was expecting a better answer from him then just 'oh'. "You're right about that …."

"I see," Bella sighed looking down frowning.

Edward felt the urge to go over to her, but he made himself stay where he was. "But don't worry about that, it's never going to happen now …. I'm not going anywhere."

Bella smiled still looking down, and then said, "You still haven't told me how far your book went."

"Um …." Edward hesitated and Bella looked at him a little alarmed, wondering how bad was it. "We got four books …."

"Four!" Bella gasped.

"And it covered the next two years," Edward went on; he wanted to get this over with as fast as he could.

"Two years!" Bella groaned. "Four books … two years … and it was all in my point of view!"

Edward tried to hide his amusement but he didn't think he got away with it because she was glaring at him. "Pretty much."

"Well, that's mortifying," Bella muttered to herself and then blushed, realizing that he could hear her. "But I guess I can't really say anything because I read your thoughts, too. Can I read the books?"

Edward shifted uncomfortably at the mention of that.

"Is it really that bad that you don't want me to read them?" Bella asked, misreading Edward's reaction.

"No," Edward said. "I was actually thinking about my own book … I was wondering how bad it was … I know I must have been … horrendous in the first chapter …."

Bella bit her lip, and decided that she had to be truthful about this, there really wasn't any point in lying to him. "You were a bit scary … and it was hard to hear your thoughts sometimes …."

Edward moaned miserably at that.

"But they were also quite amazing to hear … especially what you thought about me. How you felt about me," Bella whispered blushing slightly when she looked at Edward and he had to smile at her.

"I think I want to read that," Edward said. "I wonder if it's anything like what I'm going through now."

"Yeah, well I really want to read my books," Bella said. "I'm really looking forward to what happens in the meadow."

"Hm …." Edward said, his eyes closing as he remembered what had happened there, trying not to think about the part where he acted like a maniac and just the last half when they had became close. "I think you're going to like that."

"Argh, don't say thing like that," Bella groaned, her impatience to hear it was becoming stronger, she had known that that event had to be a turning point in their relationship and it was obvious that it had turned out well. She just didn't know how well it was. "Unless you're going to tell me more."

"Sorry," Edward opened his eyes and smiled at her. "I think it's probably better if you read it though …." he added because he knew that he needed the extra time to get more control over himself.

"Fine, when can I get my hands on the books then?" Bella sighed, she was sort of hoping for a different answer, but that was okay, reading about it would be okay, too.

"Maybe you can come to my house tomorrow … I know of a few vampires that would like to meet you," Edward said, he was sure how she was going to react to that and he wasn't disappointed.

"What?" Bella said, turning red immediately. It was true that she did want to meet them, but she didn't know if she was ready for that. Besides, after four books and two years who knows what they would be expecting from her. "I don't know …."

"Don't worry, they're all looking forward to meeting you," Edward said softly.

Bella tensed more than ever. "That's what I'm afraid of. What if I'm not what they expect?"

"You don't have to worry about that," Edward said in a sweet voice and Bella looked up at him. They stayed that way for a long time, equally dazzling each other. Then Edward finally continued in his soft musical voice, "You're so much more than I thought … more than I could ever imagine. I thought I was prepared, knowing what was coming, but I had no idea how you would make me feel. How enthralling just listening to your heartbeat is; how deep and meaningful your eyes are … truly a window to that wonderful soul of yours …."

Bella had no words for this, she could hardly make herself breathe as he said this to her. Both she and Edward had been subconsciously moving closer to each other as he spoke and now he was only an arm's length away.

Then, suddenly he was gone! Bella eyes widened and her heart beat painfully in her chest. She looked around the room and found Edward in the corner looking grimly at her.

"I'm sorry," Edward sighed.

"I understand," Bella said, and she did understand better than he thought she did. She hadn't been blind to the fact that he had been standing very rigidly. Still, she couldn't believe how easy it was for her to merely be nervous at the fact that she was talking to the person she liked alone in her room. She didn't even stop to think about the other issue that was involved in this, though she had been trying to give him as much space as possible. It was impossible to remember that when he was looking at her like he was. "It's hard for you to be near me."

Edward groaned at that, looking graver than before. "That's not exactly it."

"What is it then?" Bella asked looking at him curiously.

"I want to be near you too much," Edward said. "I was surprised at how close we were, so close that all I had to do is reach out and touch you."

Edward closed his eyes, he so wanted to just reach out and touch her, he wondered how her hot skin would feel against his. He pictured her moving into his touch, bringing them closer than before … and that was when he ran away. He wasn't ready for that; he could hear how the monster in his head liked the idea of them getting closer. All the easier to make you slip, it thought.

"And that would have been bad?" Bella asked softly, forcing herself to sit on the bed so she wouldn't get too close to him again.

"Right now … I think it's better if I keep some distance … especially when we're alone," Edward sighed. "After all, it took me more than a month to get used to you in the books and I know it's different now … everything's different, but I do need time."

"I really do understand, Edward," Bella said, though she was looking glumly at him. "I suppose this is the down side to us both reading the books."

"What do you mean?" Edward asked.

"Well, I was prepared to have to wait for you before," Bella said. "I knew it would take awhile for you to even be able to talk to me, let alone anything else … but now, knowing that you know everything … argh … it just makes it hard not to try and get close to you."

Edward chuckled at that. "Yes, I do see your point. I suppose I'm just going to have to try harder to get control over myself."

"Well, I think you're doing a good job already." Bella smiled at him encouragingly.

"Yes, and I sure that things will come along a lot faster this way," Edward said, not realizing that he was getting closer to Bella again. He stopped when he reached the middle of the room and sighed. "But I think that I've risked enough for today."

Bella sighed and bit her lip.

She looked so endearing that he wanted to go over to her and hold her. "I think it's best if I leave …."

"Oh," Bella sighed again. "If that's what you have to do …."

"It almost sounds like you want me to stay," Edward said smugly. He liked that idea, and he knew that he wasn't really going to go that far, he just didn't think it was best to stay here, not when he was so tempted to be close to her.

"I wouldn't mind," Bella mumbled and if Edward wasn't a vampire he wouldn't have heard that.

"Hm …. I thought you would have been embarrassed about having me here," Edward said, a little puzzled, but more amused than anything else.

"I am," Bella said and the blush on her cheeks proved that was true. "But I … I like it when you're around."

Edward smiled smugly at that. "Then I'll try to get over myself as fast as I can. In the meantime, take care to know that you're always in my thoughts."

"Right," Bella said, rather breathless again.

Edward then walked towards the window but turned around before he went out. "Oh, and Bella, I think where the book you read left off is the perfect place for us to start tomorrow at lunch."

"What?" Bella furrowed her eyebrows.

"I have a million questions I want to ask you," Edward smiled at her.

Bella blushed. "Didn't you get enough answers out of the book?"

"Not at all," Edward grimaced. "The book skimmed right through that part … you should have heard how Emmett teased me about that."

Bella chuckled. "You must have been so disappointed that you couldn't hear the answers."

"Excruciatingly so," Edward groaned. "But I think it's for the best now, hearing it for the first time from you should make it all the more interesting … I'll be able to see how you react to everything."

"Oh, that just makes me look forward to that," Bella groaned.

Edward chuckled, and sighed, "I just wished I knew one thing."

"What's that?" Bella asked.

"What your favorite flower is?" Edward asked.

"Oh …." Bella said and then answered without thinking about it, "Orange Blossom. They might not be the prettiest flowers, but I just love the way they smell …." she trailed off there for Edward's smile caught her off guard. It was intense and smug, so she raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I've been told that my scent has a hint of Orange Blossom in it," Edward said, looking as if he would be blushing if he could, but it didn't really matter because Bella seemed to be blushing enough of the both of them. "Not to mention, the meaning behind them … it fits …."

"Meaning?" Bella questioned.

"They mean that your purity equals your loveliness, innocence and," Edward said looking at her and then pausing before saying the last meaning with a lopsided grin, "eternal love."

"Oh," Bella said, blushing more. "I see what you mean."

"Goodnight, Bella," Edward said softly, again feeling tempted to just stay there all night, but he couldn't and now he had something in his mind that he should go and take care of.

"Goodnight, Edward," Bella sighed and the next second he was gone. She sighed as she looked out the window, wondering if he was still watching her or if he had left for home. She then looked at the clock and noticed that it was nearly ten and she should be going to bed soon. She supposed it was a good thing he left, or at least that's what she was telling herself as she got ready for bed, but all the same she really wished that he was still there.

However, she had to smile when she got back to her room half an hour later and there was a small vase on her windowsill with Orange Blossoms in it. The scent was already starting to fill the room. She looked out the window as she picked up the flowers, and whispered thank you, though she wasn't sure if he was there or not. She knew one thing; it was definitely nice to have a vampire boyfriend. She was surprised the gift didn't make her feel uncomfortable, but she supposed that was just because she was awed by his thoughtfulness.

********************* You Really Want To Read The Author's Note *********************

A/N: Okay, the next chapter Bella and Edward are going to be talking at school. Depending on how long that takes, I think the chapter after that Bella will be meeting the rest of the Cullens.

Some of you might be mad at me for making Edward pull away here, but honestly, I just felt it would be too soon for him to be able to be around her without being flighty and cautious. I don't plan to keep this up for that much longer, but a day really seemed too fast for me.

And about what I chose as Bella's favorite flower, I don't think it was mentioned in the book so I tried to look up the meaning of the flowers and this one seemed to fit. It also helped that it mentions that this was one of the scents that Alice used during the wedding so I figured I could get away with saying that Edward sort of smelled like that.

Anyway, when I was looking at the meanings of the flowers I also came across another one, Spider Flower, that I thought would lead to an interesting conversation, but I went with the more sentimental rather than funny reaction, but seeing as this is a shorter chapter than the others I thought I would just add the alternate version at the end here. Oh and I hope you just allow that Edward would know the meaning of all the flowers, he had free time to learn things like that right. Hope you enjoy it:

"What your favorite flower is?" Edward asked.

"Oh," Bella said and then answered without thinking about it, "Spider flower."

Edward pressed his mouth closely together and tried with all his might not to laugh, but it was too much for him.

"What?" Bella asked, looking both hurt and angry at his laughter.

"I just think it's really ironic that you would choose that flower," Edward said, this time managing to stop the laughing, but he still looked amused. "Seeing what it means."

"What does it mean?" Bella said, leaning more towards anger now.

"Elope with me," Edward smiled and now Bella looked mortified.

"Oh," was all she could say as her face turned red and then it slowly seemed to drain of color.

"You can see how I would find that amusing now," Edward chuckled again.

Bella looked at him, her eyes going wide in sudden horror, "how do you know … we don't … get married do we?"

Edward sighed as he rolled his eyes, this was probably not the best thing he could have brought up with the completely irrational girl of his. "You'll find out when you read the books."

"Argh," Bella groaned, bowing her head. "I can't believe that … you said it was only two years in the future!"

"Don't worry about it, Bella. I promise, everything worked out," Edward smiled at her. "It was different than either one of us would have imagined but it was definitely better than anything either of us could have hoped for."

"I guess," Bella said. "I just can't believe it …."

"Well, goodnight, Bella," Edward smiled at her, "have pleasant dreams."

"If you think I can sleep after you drop something like that on me, you're mistaken," Bella grumbled.

Edward shook his head in amusement. "It always amazes me how you can take in all the monster stuff like it was nothing, but the normal things … they're the scariest thing in the world."

"Well, I guess I'm just odd that way," Bella pouted.

"I guess you are," Edward smiled. "But honestly, I wouldn't want you any other way."

"Good," Bella smiled at him this time.

"Sleep well," Edward smiled at her.

"Goodnight, Edward," Bella said and seconds later he was gone.