A/N: I suck, I know.

Footprints in the Sand

Chapter 14

"I know, I humor her," I say attempting to make light of what I'm not even sure is an awkward situation.

Am I overreacting? Over-thinking is usually the consensus for me, but I feel suddenly complicit; the same way I felt when Edward caught me in his mother's house watching Disney with his daughter.

Is it weird that I kept Addie's drawing on my refrigerator? Addie's picture of me, her and Edward that a child normally draws of her family. At the time I didn't really think about it, but now... Does this look weirdly obsessive from Edward's perspective?

God, what am I doing?

"When did she give it to you?" Edward asks after plucking the paper from under the magnet and examining it. There's a slight smirk on his lips, but I'm beginning to think it's his default expression and means absolutely nothing.

"Um... a couple of months ago," I answer, but I know exactly when it was; the day he slammed his mother's door on my face. "When you thought I was imaginary," I add as another cover for my growing uncertainty.

"She always draws me with this face," he murmurs, and after a strange kind of bemused scoff, he places the drawing back in place and turns to me. "I've figured out something else about you."

"Hmm...? What's that?" I ask, turning my back to him as I stir sugar into two coffee mugs with hopelessly trembling hands.

"You're neat," he answers with a definite tinge of humor behind his voice.

"I am," I acknowledge over my shoulder with a sheepish smile.

"I can't say the same," he mumbles, his grin wry as I hand him a cup of extra sweet coffee. "That's what maids are for, I guess." I barely hear him this time, and judging by his expression I'm almost convinced his confession embarrassed him.

"Hmm... well..." With half a shrug, I take a sip from my mug as my eyes subconsciously find Addie's pseudo family drawing now hanging askew.

"Does that bother you?" Edward asks, his head tilting in the same direction, but I'm not exactly sure of the context behind his question.

"I-I mean, it's... awkward..." I stammer with a frown before deciding not to elaborate.

"Why is it awkward?" he presses undeterred, turning his body squarely to face me.

"She included me in her family..." I speak the last word to the floor. "Anyway, I promised her I'd put it on my fridge," I feel the need to further explain, and I hate myself for it. It's something I always seem to be doing lately.

"Bella..." he attempts to grab my attention, sounding troubled, but I refuse to meet his gaze. With a sigh, he takes my coffee from my hands, places it to the counter and wraps both hands around my upper arms. "I have a confession to make."

"Oh?" I glance up just in time to witness his smirk pull back into effect.

"I knew you were real before you came to my house."

"...You did?"

"Mm, my mother asked me why I bothered to invite you to Addie's birthday only to leave out my contact details. I told her you were Addie's imaginary friend, and she laughed and explained how you were her neighbor. I figured you'd think I was just humoring Addie and leave it at that..." He rubs his chin as his smile turns self-conscious.

"You were humoring Addie," I point out.

"I was," he admits, "but I would have never written an invite like that otherwise."

"It's fine," I reply before realizing what I'd just spoken. "Don't say it," I mumble ruefully.

His laughter pushes gently through his nose before he reaches out and tucks several strands of my hair behind my ear; leaving his palm grazing against my cheek. "Bella..." he begins, his voice taking on a husky tenor.

"Hmm?" I reply in barely a whisper.

"Are you okay with this?" he asks, his eyes momentarily flickering away from mine to his daughter's drawing, and jesus, I wish I knew what the hell he was thinking about it. At least then I wouldn't feel the need to sink into the floor.

"This...?" I utter like a complete moron, because what else would he mean? But I'm flustered—to put it mildly—and my face is steadily flushing with heat. "I mean," I shake my head hastily in an attempt to pull my thoughts together, "I invited you back here, didn't I?"

An edge of confusion tugs his frown back into place, and his smile is just as uncertain. He glances briefly down to his socked-feet. "You did," he agrees when his eyes return to mine, before taking a single step toward me.

He's at least 6'2, and he towers over me to the point I wish I could put my heels back on.

"You're tall," I note as I strain my neck to see his face.

"Hmm..." he hums as his palm returns to the side of my face, his thumb gently grazing my cheekbone. "Bella...?"

"Yeah?" I reply softly, unsure whether he even spoke my name as a question.

He leans toward me a little too slowly for me to reconcile with, and just as our noses make contact he pauses. "What you heard tonight..." Those intense eyes of his are becoming dark and hooded, and I realize I'm losing my head far too quickly.

"What I heard...?" I echo practically without sound.

His lips touch mine tenderly and then again fractionally longer, before he once more draws back. "That was the last time..." He doesn't finish, but his meaning is clear and my eyes immediately widen.

He hasn't had sex in five years? This gorgeous man who makes women swoon at just the sight of him?—myself included.

For a moment I'm speechless, and it takes me a little too uncomfortably long to find the right words to put him at ease. "Oh... well, that's okay."

"I just... wanted to warn you," he explains behind a heavy sigh, and before he can pull back, I grab his sweater, rise on my toes and press my mouth against his.

"And you want me to rectify that, do you?" I murmur against his parted lips before I merge them repeatedly with mine.

"...Fuck, yes..." he all but breathes, bathing me further in the heated thickness of his breath.

He kisses me fully then, with a little too much emotional charge that almost knocks the both of us off our feet. I stumble backwards, taking him with me until I find myself backed against my refrigerator, and Addie's family portrait.

Breaking only minimally, he turns me around, taking the brunt of the fridge doors because I'm beginning to suspect he's a complete and utter gentleman. And all I can think is I'm in the arms of a man. For the first time in my life I'm in the arms of a man, and I don't ever want to be out of them again.

I had no idea just kissing Edward in my kitchen could be such an aphrodisiac. Maybe it's the sound of our lips connecting and reconnecting, and the rushed sound of our breath echoing off the tiles. Not to mention, I'm fairly certain he's attempting to undress me where we stand – and having trouble with the fact there is no zipper at the back of my dress. I can feel him becoming distracted by it until he pauses and his mouth over mine closes.

That's when his pants start to vibrate and he breaks away with a barely audible groan.

"I'm sorry," he quickly apologizes, and pulling his phone from his pocket, he glances at it briefly before placing it to his ear. "Addie... Why are you awake?" A smile appears almost subconsciously on his lips as his voice notably softens with open affection.

"Daddy, I had a scary dream," I hear her high, chirpy voice through the receiver.

"Go and tell your grandparents." He sighs patiently even as he drags a set of tense fingers back through is hair.

"But they're asleep."

"It's okay to wake them up. They won't mind," he assures her.

"But... there's a monster in the hall," is Addie's reply, as I break into an impulsive grin by how adorable she is.

"Didn't I tell you there's no such thing as monsters?"

"But it's dark out there, and what if you're wrong?"

"I'm not wrong. Do you want me to call them for you?"

"Will they get mad?"

"Of course they won't get mad. Addie—"

"Daddy, will you come and get me?"

"I... can't. It's late," he replies, but he definitely hesitated.

"But, Daddy, I had a scary dream and I can't sleep!" Her voice grows higher-pitched and wavers with tears.

"Addie..." Edward complains, running his palm down his face. "I'm not at home right now—I'm calling your grandparents."

"But..."

"No more stalling. I'm hanging up..."

"Okay... I love you, Daddy."

"Love you too, tiger."

"Did you have dinner?"

"Yes, now get in bed." While his voice hardens it's overshadowed by the tenderness behind his tone, and I realize when it comes to his daughter, he's a completely lost cause.

I get it now, why so many women were in love with my father when I was growing up. Fatherhood adds so many dimensions to a man, and it's sexy as sin.

"I am in bed."

"Okay, I'm going now—"

"Are you gonna call Grandma!?"

"Of course I am."

"Okay. I guess you can hang up then. Goodnight, Daddy."

"Night, baby."

With a sigh Edward ends the call before going into his contacts and making another one. It picks up after several rings, and as he greets the woman on the other end, he turns his back on me.

I listen as he briefly explains the situation with Addie, his voice low and slightly restricted – making it obvious that he's not comfortable talking with this person – before he hangs up.

When he turns back to me, he opens his mouth to, no doubt, apologize again, but I don't allow a single syllable to pass his lips.

I practically jump him, and it's pure reflex.

Without severing his mouth from mine, he hoists me in his arms and moves blindly, and clumsily, forward.

"Bathroom, Edward," I say, my muffled chuckling in tune with his, after he barges through the wrong door.

"Right or left?" he draws back to get those three words out before I impulsively pull him back.

"Right," I manage to utter against the coarseness of his several-hours-old stubble, but my god, I have never been so turned on in my entire life like I am right now.

He makes it to my bedroom, releasing an arm around me to fumble for the light switch, but after multiple mishaps, he eventually gives up and sets me down on my feet before him in the semi-darkness.

It's me who drags his sweater over his head before I attempt to make similar work with his tie. It gets delayed multiple times because the instant his lips return to mine, I immediately become lost in the distraction of them.

He might be five years celibate but this man definitely knows how to kiss.

He eventually pulls back to plant those hot lips of his to my jaw and curve of my neck, then turning me – almost roughly – around until my back's facing him, he once again feels around for the non-existent zipper in my dress.

"It opens from the front," I inform him, breaking into breathless laughter as I turn back to face him.

"I should have known that," he mumbles, looking adorably sheepish in the moonlight.

It's all I can do not to smile as he tenderly plants his lips to mine, and tugs on the ties at the waist of my dress.

It falls loose, and slipping his fingers beneath the material he slides it off my shoulders where it gathers in a heap at my feet. I'm left standing in nothing but my underwear, and thank god I let Alice hamstring me into wearing my most seductive pair.

It's black, lacy, very skimpy and slightly itchy, and from the very discernible dilation of Edward's pupils as he appraises me, he definitely approves.

I'm sure the fact that my heaving chest that's practically spewing forth my bosoms has something to do with it, but his expression is almost comical. In fact, he's like a teenage boy copping a feel for the very first time.

"Do...you like?" I ask, fighting the compulsion to break into laughter and needing to bite down on my bottom lip as further prevention.

His eyes slowly track from my lace covered breasts to rest on mine, and I feel every second of it. "I like," he replies, his smirk briefly reappearing, and sliding his palm to the side of my neck, he guides me to him. "You're incredibly beautiful, Bella, and amazingly sexy," he practically growls against my earlobe as my insides turn to water.

I expel my breath a little too audibly as he encircles me against him and once again covers my mouth with his.

After successfully removing his tie, and managing the two top buttons of his shirt, Edward scoops me up into his arms and lays me with him on my too-neatly made bed. His firm, long body is heavy over mine, so heavy I begin to feel crushed, but before I can react to it, he pulls himself into a straddled position over me.

He removes his shirt, a lot faster than I would have liked, before pulling it from his shoulders, revealing a broad, semi hairless chest and a set of defined abdominal muscles that I did not expect to see.

This man works out, and holy shit.

"Do you like?" he echoes me, a very familiar expression encompassing his face as he tentatively places my right hand over his heart. It hammers against my palm behind his burning flesh, but for some oddity I cannot pull my gaze from the slight sprinkling of golden brown hair across his chest.

"Thank god you don't shave your chest," I say practically without volume and like a complete lunatic, and just as the laughter reflects behind his eyes, I yank him back down until he's flush against me.

I've never had sex where I enjoyed every second of it, but I suspect this moment with Edward could be the exception.

I'm overrun by a rush of emotion I can barely keep up with, while Edward – in all his recent inexperience – sets a pace that perfectly balances it. It's rushed, heated, and clumsy all at once.

We attempt to remove the rest of our clothes without getting vertical and end up in laughter several times. Edward's laugh, thick with arousal, is an aphrodisiac all on its own, and there is something so very boyish about him that I never noticed before. It's as though he's able to let go of all his inhibitions, and in turn all of that intensity and intimidation about him melts away.

I don't get another look at him before he drags me, fully naked, beneath my bed coverings with him, but that's when he slows things down. And while I'm positive I could kiss him until dawn, I'm torn. My body's screaming out for release it's beginning to tremble, and every moment of delay feels like it's at the expense of my cognition.

I'm completely losing my head.

And then he misses...

He really is as rusty as he implied, and I'm suddenly finding him as adorable as I do his daughter.

"Jesus, I'm so sorry," he says, exhaling against my skin before we both descend into laughter despite our bated breath.

Pulling himself a little more upright, he takes himself in the palm of his hand and attempts to guide himself inside me.

Only to miss a second time.

At this point we've both figured out what the problem is. Either he's larger than what I'm used to, or I'm smaller than what he is. It also doesn't help that we're both glistening with sweat and slipping hopelessly against one another.

Gorgeous man with a giant cock is way too much of a cliché, but it's definitely not quite right. He's not enormous, he's...

After the third miss, he moves himself back to his knees over me, and that's when I get a look at what I'm dealing with.

While he's circumcised, I'm relieved to know he's not a cliché, but he's bigger than Tyler and that seems to be the problem. My body's not accustomed to his size.

"Okay, how are we going to do this?" he puts to me, wrestling with as much frustration as he is evident arousal. "Your body's been doing a lot more than running, Bella," he adds as a cagey grin tugs on his lips, and for the life of me, I have no idea of his meaning.

"What...?" I question before it dies on my lips, and just as he pulls me upright with him until I'm straddled over him. "Like this?" I gauge with raised brows.

"I don't think you're letting me in any other way," he says, his sweaty brow sliding over mine.

"Missionary is boring anyway," I whisper, placing a hand to the side of his face as my smile quickly pulls in tandem with his.

I don't miss.

It's simple enough to draw myself up and then ease myself down over him, and all I can say is, thank the heavens women are multi orgasmic.

He's a lot bigger than I'm used to, or maybe twenty years of running really has restricted my pelvic muscles to the point I can barely tolerate a man of adequate stature.

The sound that erupts from me is somewhere along the stratum of pleasure and pain. It steals the air from my lungs as I instinctively suck in my breath and tense.

Edward's eyes immediately widen in alarm.

"Oh my god—how big are you!?" I exclaim before he can get the chance to articulate his concern, and I'm fairly certain I've just verbalized every man's dream.

"I'm not that big," he immediately counters, while the vein bulging at his temple looks as fit to burst as I am. "I mean... I—you're... really tight!" he attempts to salvage it behind a restricted voice as we both descend into laughter. "Jesus, Bella, don't laugh!" he groans, unable to hold off his own as I flop myself against his shoulder and completely lose it.

As my laughter jerks and shudders from my lungs, so does he within me, even as his matches the tenor of his moans and he pleads with me to stop.

And somewhere along the way I forget that we're meant to be having sex.

He falls to the side, taking me with him, practically folding in half inside me as my muscles continue to flex around him.

"Please stop laughing," he begs me, while losing the battle himself.

"Oh my god, I'm exhausted already and we haven't even done anything," I say with amusement firmly fixed behind my voice.

Since when is sex supposed to be this...funny?

"Bella, you keep on surprising me," he says behind closed eyes as he rolls himself to his back. "And you have to let me rephrase that," he tacks on after a moment where we both struggle to catch our breath.

"You don't have to convince me," I assure him, turning fluid against his chest as his heart rebounds heavily through it.

He groans long and languidly and curls his arms around me. "You're as tight as a virgin, woman." For whatever reason it threatens to hurl me back into the throes of laughter, and in doing so he slips from within me still fully erect as a guttural-sounding pain-filled utterance escapes him. "Oh Jesus..."

"Oh god—I'm so sorry," I hastily appeal to him, propping my elbows up against his chest. The poor man looks thoroughly spent. "Edward...we have sex like we text."

His laughter this time is beneath his breath because I honestly don't think he has the energy for anything more. Still, it's as smooth and rustic as he speaks, even as his eyes remain closed. "We have sex like everything about us. We don't quite mesh, but you still make every other woman pale in comparison." His voice softens, but he's beginning to confuse me.

I pause for a moment. "I... I'm not sure how to take that," I admit honestly.

"I have to work at it with you," he elaborates, placing a large clammy palm to my cheek, "but you make me want to get it right."

"You're exactly like Addie, you know that?" I say with too much affection behind my tone.

"Am I?" he asks unconvinced even as his grin pulls broad.

"Exactly like her," I reiterate before sitting myself fully upright on top of him. "I don't think we're going to master missionary tonight."

He moans lowly to himself even as the smile remains fixed to his expression. "I prefer this view, anyway. I got something wrong about you, Bella..."

"Hmm?" I'm sitting flush on top of him and he's just as hard and twitchy beneath me. I need to put the poor man out of his misery before he ends up with some kind of erectile dysfunction.

"I thought you were shy."

Chuckling lightly, I shake my head. "No, not really."

"Reserved..." he amends, sliding both his hands over my thighs. "Careful."

"I think that's you," I point out, and wrapping my hand around the back of his neck, I pull him up with me. "Tell me what else you've figured out about me."

"You talk a lot during sex," he guesses, angling his head to kiss me.

"...Not... really..." I echo in a mumble against his lips.

"You're better at sex...than I am," he continues, as he drags his nose and mouth down my neck to my shoulder, inflicting me in goosebumps as he goes.

"Too early...to tell," I close my eyes as a wavering sigh shudders from me even as I tilt my head to better accommodate him.

"I... give up..." His voice practically loses all volume, then gripping both hands around my hips, he maneuvers me up and over that intimidating length of him.

This time neither of us miss, but I know what to expect, and as I lower myself down, I do so a lot more gingerly.

Okay, he's definitely not small. I'm fairly certain that's all me, but I'm all but splitting at the seams. There's not an ounce of room left within me; he's taking up all of it.

Releasing his hands from around me, he leans partially back on them, leaving the pace up to me. I go slow, testing my limits and tolerance levels until I steadily begin to adjust to the size of him.

After, there's nothing left to do but to struggle to contain the onslaught of overloaded senses coming at me from every angle. This is when Edward sits himself fully upright—his body pressed against mine—one hand around my waist and the other running up and over my right breast. His skin's burning, his breath short and shallow and becoming almost gravelly as he kisses every point of my face and throat.

To be honest, I'm surprised he's able to hold on as long as I have, but there's also something incredibly submissive about his body language as well, and that surprises me even more so. As he rises the peaks with me, he appears to completely surrender and allows his head to fall against my shoulder. I immediately react to him, tangling my fingers through that mess of thick hair of his as he turns to press his entire face against my neck.

It's the sensation of his incoming five o'clock shadow dragging over my delicate flesh and the feel of his fingertips imbedding in my back that eventually pushes me over the edge.

My breath draws sharply and my head falls back as that hot expanding energy from deep within me implodes and rushes to every extremity in my body. It washes over me like a tsunami, completely wiping me out, but that's when I realize Edward's not quite finished.

In the next instant I find myself flat on my back with his tall, hard body pushing further over and into me. His fingers thread with mine and gone is all that submissiveness from only moments ago. His eyes are squeezed closed, his forehead knotted with what almost appears to be pain, but I'm intimately aware it's the last thing he's feeling.

I don't get a reprieve, and just as I recover from my freefall, I'm rising again, achingly full as he draws every molecule of that still erupting energy from me.

We began wholly out of sync with each other, but we end in harmony. As that second wave takes me by complete surprise, my back arches, and Edward's arms quickly enfold around me. He holds me against him, enclosing my quivering body in his equally trembling embrace as the charge slowly dims between us.

I struggle to come down, my thoughts completely scrambled and racing several paces ahead of my hammering heart. Nothing makes sense right now. Everything is in a total upheaval and I'm a complete and utter physical mess, and yet I can't stop grinning to save myself.

Edward sighs, appearing to expel every last fragment of air from his lungs, and all but collapses on top of me.

"Fucking hell, Bella," his voice barely emits sound even as the rapid rate of his pulse drowns it further out. "What are you doing to me?"

The latter he spoke more or less to himself so I don't reply. In truth, I don't know what the hell just happened, only that I'm fairly certain I just had the best sex of my life. No matter how awkward it started, and the amount of times we ended up in laughter, it flowed so effortlessly deep. I'm not sure how we arrived at this point tonight given how awfully it began, but this path we've somehow found ourselves on is one I don't want to get off.

A/N: This is as explicit as I get, which wouldn't even be considered explicit in the loosest sense of the world, but eh. I just don't write smut.
Halfway done with the next chapter, so I won't make you wait again. Just know that whatever fic I start, I will always finish.