A/N: Hey, happy new year, everyone. I hope you enjoyed the holidays. Personally I'm glad it's over, but anywho. This chapter is 2K words longer than usual, but I didn't want to have another two wedding chapters, and there was a lot that needed to happen this chapter. So...
Chapter 28 shouldn't be delayed either. I already have most of it written. Finger's crossed for me after that, though.
A quick head's up that none of these chapters are edited. I have no beta right now, so what you see is 100% me, and what can I say? I'm imperfect.
Lastly, FFn now default your alert settings to off after 90 days. I didn't realise and thought everyone was suffering mass writer's block. What a stupid asf thing to change, but just a quick reminder to make sure you keep your alerts on. I now have a ton to catch up on.
Hope you enjoy :)
Footprints in the Sand
Chapter 27
Alice's reception is taking place at Kelley Farm in an historic, wood barn built at the turn of the twentieth century in the countryside east of Tacoma.
After we arrive, we're led to a large, adjoining powder room to freshen up before the reception officially starts. All of us are wind-swept and sand-splattered from the wedding party photos, and Addie's completely exhausted.
She fell asleep in the limousine, and I carry her inside dozing in my arms. She's barefoot and her curls are completely blown out.
Her vow not to get wet was only semi-successful. In between photoshoots, she and the boys ran along the shoreline until the bottom of her dress and her stockings ended up drenched. I was smart enough to bring a spare pair, and after Alice's wedding stylist puts me back in order, I rouse her long enough to wrangle her into them.
"Where are we, Bella?" she asks sleepily, rubbing her eyes as Jess twirls a strand of her hair around the curling iron.
"We're at the reception," I answer, buckling up one of her white Mary-Janes. "You hungry?"
She ponders it for a moment, before nodding. "Uh-huh."
"Okay, we're about to go in. You're going to sit with your daddy, okay?"
She nods again and tilts her head. "Are you going to sit with me and Daddy?"
"I'll be seated on the table with Alice and Jay, but I'll come and sit with you and Daddy soon, 'kay?"
"'Kay," she echoes, flashing me a sunny smile.
Alice being Alice, no one's allowed inside less than perfect. That means reapplying Addie's lip gloss and glittered cheeks, and as we gather to enter the reception, you'd be none-the-wiser that only a few moments before, Addie was a half-wet ragamuffin, her hair a tumbleweed.
One of Alice's uncles announces each member of the wedding party, and while Addie was initially meant to enter with Riley and Garrett, she refuses. She walks in hand-in-hand with me as I clutch the arm of Jay's best men; my bridal partner.
The reception room is beautiful—it's dimly lit and all hard wood, with vaulted, beamed ceilings. White drapes interwoven with gold fairy lights branch out in every direction from the center of the room above the iron chandelier, with actual wax candles burning within, and rustic, curtain-less windows offer multiple views of the open countryside with horses and grazing cattle.
Over all, it gives off a warm, romantic ambience, and I have to hand it to Alice, she has a definite eye for these things. I wasn't exactly sold when she'd first shown me the brochure.
As I enter to the room, I almost immediately pull from the best man with a quick apology, and make a short detour to take Addie to her father.
Edward's sitting between Mike and Ben at a round table with Emmett, Rose, two faces I don't recognize—that I believe are Jay's cousins—and Garrett and Riley.
Flashing me a quick, charming grin, Edward props Addie on his lap as I make my way to the front of the room to the table for the wedding party.
The bride and groom enter last to an eruption of cheers. Jay carries Alice over the threshold, and when he sets her back on her feet, he dips her. It's clear Alice wasn't expecting it, and losing her footing, she all but lands flat on her back. It's a moment the photographer captures as the two of them descend into laughter, but it's perfectly them, and I'm glad to see Alice is finally relaxing.
Once everyone is seated, drinks are passed around. Champagne for the most part. I take a glass as I chat to Jess and Angela. Occasionally my eyes raise to seek out Edward; often times almost without conscious thought. He appears comfortable enough engaged in conversation with Ben and Mike, but he's not drinking. Then I remember that he was drinking last night and one of us has to drive home.
He's allowed Addie to run about with Riley, Garrett and two other kids in attendance, but he keeps a close eye on her all the same. She flits about the room, running in and out of my periphery every so often, and that's when she doesn't stop to scramble on my lap; usually out of breath as she gives me a rundown of what the twins are up to.
The last time, she decided to stay put, happily chatting away as Jess plays with her hair. She's buzzing. I was positive she'd crash before dinner was served but the short nap she had on the way here definitely gave her a second wind.
Appetizers are served, and this is when Edward comes to collect her, but not before I feel the heated tenderness of his lips plant briefly to the curve of my neck. Addie giggles before she's hauled into her father's arms back to their table. It leaves me surprisingly breathless, and in full view of Jessica's ever-cynical gaze.
"So, Alice's description of him was that I'd want to either jump him or hide from him," she recaps with a canny smile. "Unfortunately, I don't think Mike would be on board with me jumping him." She chuckles lightly and takes another sip of her champagne. "Not drinking?"
"You know me, I'm not a big drinker. If I do, I'll most definitely jump him, and then, no doubt throw up over him," I say dryly.
Jess laughs again as her tone turns fractionally more sedate. "He looks serious about you, Bells."
"Yeah," I say with a small, indiscreet smile. "He's not the sort of guy who does things by halves."
To say the least.
Jess only hums, and finishes off her drink.
"How are you and Mike?" I ask after a few moments of eating my shrimp cocktail in silence.
"We're good," she answers simply. "His parents are opening a chain in Port Angeles in July. We're moving next month."
"Well, you're half way there," I tease her.
Jess has wanted to leave Forks since elementary school.
"More like one-eighth of the way," she amends good-naturedly.
"You really want to have baby number four?" I put to her.
"Hmm... I really want a little girl, but I'll no doubt end up with another boy. Boys are everywhere on Mike's side."
"There's methods to increase the odds, I heard," Angela pipes up from beside her.
"So have I," Jess admits with half a shrug. "We'll see, I guess."
"Daddy says this is for you, Bella!" Addie's suddenly before me, holding up a plastic wrapped single long-stemmed rose with a huge cheesy grin on her face.
"Awww," I burst, my heart instantly warming before glancing up to search for Edward through the crowds. He's sitting with his back to me chatting to Mike, and turning back to Addie, I take it from her, and draw her close. "You tell your daddy from me that I love it, and I love him, too."
"And me, too?"
"And you most of all," I promise her, playfully tugging one of her curls.
She giggles, and immediately returns to her father, singing out for half the room to hear before she reaches him, "Bella says she loves you, Daddy!"
"Okay, I'm going to need to know the names and numbers of the gods he bribed to get that little girl," Jessica jokes. "She's off the charts adorable!"
"She's lucky she's so adorable," Alice inserts with a rueful grin. "She completely upstaged the bride."
"She is," I agree, because it's undeniable.
"So..." Alice adds, leaning closer to me to speak in confidence against my ear, "I gave the bartender a fifty to limit drinks to the leggy blonde escort at table five." She snickers, referring to Rosalie while I almost choke in a poorly concealed effort not to join her.
"Alice," I chide not even remotely serious as my grin mirrors hers, "you're terrible."
"Aren't I? I'm a bona fide Stepford wife now."
"In what universe?" I question dubiously, laughing along with her. "How does it feel to be Mrs. Whitlock?"
"A-maz-ing," she says, turning to tug on Jay's sleeve. "What are you going to do to me tonight, my husband?"
"Knock you up, my wife," he answers with a wink and a devilish grin.
"Can't wait, lover," she replies in a teasingly seductive voice, before turning back to me and elaborating. "Not really. No babies quite just yet, but we're going to do a lot of practicing."
"That really is more than I need to know," I say wryly before grabbing her hand. "I'm really happy for you, Als."
"Ditto you and Mr. Personal Injury Lawyer, Belly," she says warmly, because in Alice's mind, Edward and I are already married.
I can only sigh and shake my head, turning toward the personal injury lawyer himself. Addie's seated beside him on her knees, waving a fork with a chicken nugget attached to it practically in his face.
"Um, I got no such sentiments after my shotgun wedding," Jess feigns offense, and my laughter this time is early and wholly directed at Edward and that little rambunctious scamp feeding him off her plate.
. . .
Once we get through all four courses of dinner, the lights turn up, and Alice's uncle, working as her Master of Ceremonies, announces the speeches are about to commence.
As Alice's Maid of Honor, I have to give one as well, and after Alice's father and Jay's Best Man, I'm up. I'm led to the microphone in the top corner of the room, and am almost blinded by the spotlight shining in my eyes.
"Hi, Bella!" Addie's high-pitched voice sings out above the crowd to the immediate sound of laughter.
"Hi, sweetie!" I reply, my voice echoing loudly through several walled-speakers, despite the fact that I can't see her, or anyone who's not within six feet of me.
I don't have anything written or memorized. Instead, I tell the story of the evolution of Alice's wedding planning from nursery school to the present, as well as semi breaking the girl code by recapping a watered-down version of her first impression of Jay that she told me in the strictest of confidence, and by the time her husband steps up to give his speech, he's still in laughter.
Alice only hugs me, and I'm glad I can finally laugh about it. I'm honestly not sure what I'll do with myself now that there'll be no more hysterical midnight phone calls about table toppers and floral arrangements.
Jay's speech is sweet and funny, and reduces the two of them to tears all over again. Alice falls spectacularly apart, and it takes several moments for Jess and I to pull her back from the brink before we hand her over to her husband.
The lights dim again, and somewhere in the room Alice's uncle announces the first bridal dance. Taking her hand, Jay leads Alice to the middle of the dance floor. The song choice is one Alice turned herself inside out for months over, but in the end, she decided on Perfect by Ed Sheeran.
It really is.
After, Alice dances with her father, and that's when I lose the fight to contain my emotions. Barely before I'm aware of them, tears begin to choke me, and just as I'm on the verge of excusing myself to the ladies', Edward leans over me, his palms resting gently on my shoulders.
"Sweetheart," he murmurs against my ear.
"Hmm?" I say softly, turning to face him and quickly inhaling back the tears before they can be unleashed on me.
"Come and sit with me," he speaks, his voice barely audible, and before I can answer, he takes my hand and draws me out of my seat against him.
Without a word, I nod and allow him to lead me to his table.
Addie's sitting beside him again, and so without a spare chair, Edward pulls me on his lap.
"Hi, Bella," Addie says brightly before she immediately pauses and gauges me closely, and because she's just as perceptive as her father, she completely outs me. "Are you sad?"
"No... I'm just sappy when it comes to weddings," I joke in an attempt to assure her, but she's not buying it.
Either is Edward, and when I attempt to pull myself off him a few moments later, when I'm positive I'm not going to fall apart in front of the leggy blonde escort three seats away, he prevents me.
"Stay put for a while."
With a small, internal sigh, I relax and curve my arm around his shoulders.
"Thank you for the flower," I speak up after a moment of enjoying the dizzying aroma of him.
"My pleasure." His lips twitch with the barest hint of a smile.
I nudge him in response. "Where'd you get it?"
"They were selling them just outside before we came in," he explains, tightening his arms around me.
"You're sweet, Edward," I mumble to myself warmly just as Addie shoves a spoon overflowing with melted chocolate ice-cream inches from my mouth.
"You want some, Bella?"
"I'm fine, sweetie."
"You're not fine." Edward's voice this time is all but a growl against my earlobe.
"I am," I insist in a whisper, shushing him.
An instant later, he pulls the both of us to our feet.
"Let's dance," he answers my unspoken question before practically dragging me after him.
I'm not exactly dexterous in the art of it, after all.
The dancefloor is already crowded with guests dancing to cheesy Nickelback songs; the bride and groom at its center.
Taking me into his arms, Edward moves me slowly back and forth in tune to Never Gonna Be Alone.
He's not nearly as clumsy as I am, and each time I collide with his feet, his smirk broadens until he's practically laughing at me.
"I wasn't aware you were so uncoordinated," he leans down to me and teases. "You hide it well."
"Only when it comes to dancing," I concede as he edges me closer to his chest.
Taking a breath, he expels it into a deliberate hum, and for the next several moments we continue to move together to the music.
"Do you think you can get a couple of weeks' vacation in August?" Edward asks, breaking the silence that fell over the both of us.
"I'm sure I could," I answer, tilting my head to the side in contemplation. "Why?"
"Do you want to come with me and Addie to Florida?" he puts to me, almost moving the two of us to a standstill.
"...are you sure?" I ask, filling with uncertainty, but what he's asking me is no minor concern.
He wants me to come to Disney World with him and his daughter.
"I wouldn't ask you if I wasn't sure," he points out, both brows raised.
I nod, because with this man, it goes without saying. Edward makes speaking in absolutes into an art form. "In that case, I'd love to."
"Good," he speaks more or less to himself before drawing me flush to him.
"I'm terrible on rides, just an F.Y.I," I fess up, resting my chin against his shoulder.
Muffled laughter immediately breaks from him, rocking gently from his chest. "Bella."
"Hmm...?" I reply, knowing he didn't say my name as a question.
"Since you asked," he speaks lowly and gruffly against my temple, "before this night is over, I'm going to fuck you somewhere out in the open."
I pull back, my eyes wide, my mouth falling open, unsure what I'm about to say, but it sure as hell isn't to contradict him. "You are so—"
"Forward?" he beats me to the punchline, breaking into a self-assured smirk.
I shake my head, biting on the inside of my bottom lip as an inferno kindles to life within me. "Smooth," I correct him, but it's all a cover. I was going to say forward and he knows it.
"Three smooths today," he notes, leaning closer to me until the scent of his aftershave begins to compromise me. "I can promise you, smooth is the last thing it'll be."
"Oh my god..." I mumble. Another cover, because that burning ache welling up inside me is beginning to throb.
. . .
When we return to Edward's table, Jess and Angela have made their way over as well, occupying the boy's seats. I take Addie's, as Edward searches for his daughter in the opaquely-lit room.
She's running about, chasing after one of the twins, with her long hair flying behind her, and with a short sigh, Edward sits himself beside me.
"Do you want a drink?" he asks, turning to me and noticing I'm without one.
I shake my head.
"I'm...alright," I correct myself on the eleventh hour, returning the smirk to Edward's lips.
He takes my hand, squeezing it gently in his own, before he turns his attention to Emmett.
Rose is absent, I notice, not that I really care, but as I sit, quietly observing Edward's conversation with his brother, I noticed Emmett's gaze intermittently wander to various women around the room.
Edward all too soon becomes aware of it, and leaning toward me, he says something incredibly cryptic against my ear. "I'll explain later."
"Hm?" I reply, uncertain of his meaning, when Addie suddenly cuts me off.
"Daddy! This is Riley," she announces, as the two of them stand before Edward, hand in hand.
"Is that so," is Edward's pointed reply before he very meticulously motions Riley closer.
"Yes, sir?" Riley enquires, immediately complying, and releasing Addie's hand, he comes within a foot of her father.
"You're Riley, are you?"
"Yes, sir," Riley repeats in answer.
"I hear you want to marry my daughter."
Riley hesitates, his gaze shifting nervously to his father.
"Hey, eyes on me," Edward instructs him, and again, the young boy obeys, even as his eyes widen in evident fear.
"Well..." Riley mumbles.
"How old are you?"
"Eight."
"You're too old," Edward decides.
"But... Dad says I have to marry a girl younger than me so she doesn't push me around like my mum does to him," Riley outs his father just as Jess breaks into snickering.
"Dude!" Mike protests, and judging by Edward's expression, he's fighting the obvious urge to laugh himself.
"Have you got a job?" he asks Riley.
"No, sir."
"Any money?" Edward continues to interrogate him.
"Well...I have $15.47 in my money box."
"You're going to marry my daughter with $15.47?"
"Well..."
"Have you got your own place?"
For several moments Riley gazes at him in growing confusion. "...I live with my mom and dad."
"When you've got all those things I mentioned, then maybe we'll talk."
Riley looks to Addie this time, who only clamps her palm over her mouth and giggles, before he turns back to Edward, the confusion even more ingrained into his expression. "But I'm... eight."
"That's no excuse. In some countries eight-year-olds are taking care of their entire families," Edward says, and if he means to intimidate him, he's succeeding.
The poor kid is almost breaking into a sweat.
"But, I'm—"
"That's my final offer," Edward interjects, folding his arms over his chest in conclusion.
"You're silly, Daddy," Addie says with a laugh, before tugging on Riley's hand and pulling him away.
"Your dad's scary!" I hear Riley exclaim as the entire table bursts into laughter.
Closing his eyes, Edward groans lowly to himself and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Are you okay, Daddy?" I tease him lightly, smothering my laughter beneath my breath.
"Not even remotely," he replies, inhaling his breath stiffly through his nose.
"Oh, dear," I say, carefully tucking a wayward strand of his hair back in place.
Edward takes it all in good humor, he even manages to smile when Jess asks him what he charges by the hour, but I know he's bothered by it more than his perpetual frown alludes.
Fortunately, not long after, Addie begins to slow down, before she climbs onto my lap and promptly falls asleep.
Within minutes she's out cold, and this is when Edward leaves the table, returning with a small Moana-themed fold-out sofa and helping me to lay her onto it.
"My mother had the foresight to bring it," he says, after tucking the matching blanket to Addie's chin and gently tugging her thumb from her mouth.
"Hmm... You know how much she looks like you when she's asleep? She likes to wake me up several times during the night, like someone else I know, as well," I add ruefully, as the shrewdness steadily returns to his expression.
"Hey, guys, thanks for coming," Alice speaks up from behind us, stonewalling Edward's reply.
Her and Jay are making their way through their guests, and after stopping to chat to everyone individually for a few minutes, they move on to the next table while I turn to head in the opposite direction.
"Where are you off to?" Edward queries, catching my hand.
"Ladies' room. Would you like to accompany me?" I answer coyly.
"Too public," he says slyly with half a wink. "Don't be too long."
"So needy," I tease him, tugging on his tie playfully.
He's wearing suspenders beneath his suit jacket, and goddamn it, that man. He really is trying to kill me.
Jess intercepts me almost the instant I exit back through the powder room door, and veers me toward the bridal table where she left her phone. "So, who's the blonde?"
"Hmm?" I ask blankly.
"The lush at the table with our guys," Jess clarifies.
"Oh. It's Edward's soon to be sister in-law—slash—cousin," I answer, smiling secretly to myself.
"Huh?"
"Long story. Why?"
"She asked Edward to dance, and let's just say he was less than receptive to her."
This piques my immediate interest and ducking my head closer, I grill her for more details.
"He told her to dance with her fiancé, but it came out more like a threat," Jess relays, lowering the tone of her voice in emphasis. "I thought it must be some kind of ex type of situation."
"She wishes." I snort caustically, glancing on impulse toward Edward. In the second that our eyes meet, he tilts his head and flashes me a warm smile. I come infinitely close to moaning out loud, while reminding myself that I've barely drunk a drop of alcohol tonight. I'm under the influence of nothing but that beautiful man's charm.
Emboldened by Jessica's gossip, and with my grin growing broad, I walk straight up to Edward, plant myself on his lap and practically bite his earlobe. "You'd better fuck me out in the open soon, stupidly handsome."
This time it's him who pulls back, his eyebrows quirked in slight amusement, even as his pupils rapidly dilate. "Did you drink a bottle of champagne in the last five minutes?"
I open my mouth without a single idea what to say, when he cups his hand to my cheek and briefly covers my mouth with his. "After my parents take Addie home," he promises in a husky whisper.
That occurs roughly half an hour later. Edward and I are back on the dancefloor, when Addie suddenly attaches herself to my leg.
"Bella, I don't want to go home with Grandma! I want to go home with you and Daddy!" she exclaims, staring up at me and looking adorably half asleep, only her eyes are wide and beseeching.
"Sweetie..." I begin as Edward kneels down and lifts her into his arms.
"Hey, didn't we talk about this?" he reproaches her, only his voice remains gentle and soothing.
"But—"
"It's too late for you to be up as it is, baby," he attempts to insert reason, but Addie's well beyond overtired for it to be effective.
She bursts into tears and wraps her little arms around her father's neck for dear life. "Please don't make me go, Daddy!"
Edward only sighs and momentarily bows his head to her shoulder.
"Want me to walk you out?" I tentatively offer, noticing his parents waiting patiently off to the side.
"Yeah," he says quietly, and hoisting Addie higher, he takes my hand.
Addie's sobs her heart out, begging and pleading with her father every step of the way to her grandparent's car at the back of the parking lot, and it's obvious how much it's wearing Edward down. When he told me he's a pushover when it comes to Addie, he wasn't lying.
"Hey! Look at me!" His voice turns firm. "Addie, stop crying."
"No..." Addie continues to sob uncontrollably, the tears spilling effortlessly down her already blotchy face.
"If you go home with Grandma—"
"I don't want to go home with Grandma!" she declares loudly, mere moments from a full-blown tantrum, and it's a side of her I've never seen before.
"Sweetie—"
"Bella!" She reaches for me, something Edward allows, as I gather her in my arms. "I want to stay with you. I want to go home with you and Daddy. Please, B-B-B-B." Before my name passes her lips, she breaks into a shuddering yawn and plops her head against my chest in complete exhaustion, but her tears don't stop.
"Hey," Edward decides to change tactics and barter with her, "if you go home with—"
"No, D-Daddy, I d-don't—"
"If you go home with Grandma," he starts over, impatience seeping into his tone for the first time, "then tomorrow Bella and I will take you to get your ears pierced."
Addie immediately pauses and straightens up against me, her mouth opening and closing as she considers it, before turning to me for validation. "Really, B-Bella?" She hiccups.
"Really, really," I assure her.
Like the sun breaking up storm clouds, a smile edges on her lips and she nods her head. "Okay," she relents in a small voice, a long-winded yawn again erupting from her as her eyes dip sleepily. "I'm sorry, Daddy."
"Come on," he says behind a weary-sounding breath, and taking her from my arms he leans inside his parent's car to buckle her into her booster seat.
Addie hugs and kisses her father one final time, and is asleep before Edward can close the door behind her.
"Goodbye, Bella dear." Mrs. Cullen hugs me in farewell, before offering the same sentiments to her son, as Dr. Cullen kisses my cheek and pulls himself behind the wheel of his midnight blue BMW.
Edward and I watch as they pull away, and only when the car disappears around the long, winding drive, does he turn to me.
Taking both my hands in his, he draws me fractionally closer but for the longest moment he doesn't say a word.
"Edward—"
"Up against the back of the barn," he cuts me off, a grit suddenly behind the tenor of his voice, "against my car, or inside it. Your choice."
"Oh..." I pause for a moment to ponder it as the fire he lit earlier immediately rekindles. "Against the barn might be slightly abrasive on my back."
"I'll shield you from it," he says, taking a step closer to me and bending down to trail his warm lips along my throat.
"Edward..." A gushing breath leaves me as I tilt my head to better accommodate him.
"Hmm?" he hums rustically against my tingling flesh as his hands release mine and snake slowly around my waist.
"Where's...your car...parked?" I just manage to articulate, but I'm fast succumbing, and when it comes to Edward, I don't have an ounce of self-control.
"My car?" he echoes vacantly, rising to kiss my jaw and every point of my face before he finds his way to my lips.
Turning my head and breaking from him, I search blindly for his car among the scores of them surrounding us, but I'm two seconds from losing my head and everything else along with it.
"It's off to the side," Edward says, clearing his throat softly.
"Inside."
"Inside," he repeats, his smirk twitching to the surface as he half releases me to pull his keys from his pocket.
After locating his car, Edward unlocks it and slides himself into the front passenger-side, and the instant he pulls me on top of him and slams the door, I completely surrender myself to him.
It's rushed, heated, clumsy, and noisy. So noisy, but I can't nearly contain myself and neither can he. I'm absolutely deluged by arousal. It shoots along every limb, every extremity, while burning hot at it's center, and completely stealing my breath.
I grip the sides of his face between my palms, angling his head back as I let him conquer me with his mouth, while his hands run along my thighs beneath this contraption of a dress I'm wearing, and tear a little too forcefully at my underwear.
"I'll buy you more," he utters against my lips to the sound of the cotton straining, as we both descend into laughter.
His breath floods me, prickling my skin and heightening my senses, but laughter has always been a component of our sex life, so needless to say, it doesn't break the momentum.
It's a good thing, too, because I realize I'm trying to free him from behind his zipper, flying completely blind, while his belt is still buckled tightly closed.
"Let me, woman, fucking hell..." He practically groans, severing from my lips to jerk at his belt with my awkward assistance, and eventually pulling himself free.
With my panties now in pieces and hanging limply from my hips, there's nothing to obstruct him, and grabbing me by the waist, his fingers imbedding into my skin roughly, he guides me over him until he's deep inside me.
The noise inside his car increases; the sound of our heavy, failing breath; our lips as they merge and release repeatedly behind tender, malleable flesh; the protests the leather of the seat makes beneath us; and the almost primitive utterances that spills from Edward and I both. They're words, unintelligible, breathless, impassioned words that run together and get lost against our mouths, our skin, and behind the energy multiplying within us.
The energy that peaks all too soon, taking us to extreme heights before we're freefalling back down with it.
Edward swears a lot more than I've ever heard him, his voice already so compromised and guttural it's almost hoarse, but an aphrodisiac on its own.
I close my eyes as color explodes from behind them, leaving me hopelessly gasping for breath as I grip the collar of Edward's shirt so tightly, I'm almost certain it's going to end up as collateral damage with my underwear.
"Oh...my...god," I burst past my heaving lungs before I let myself go completely limp against Edward's chest.
Edward's sweaty brow drops to my shoulder, a long languid moan vibrating along his throat and between his lips, as his heart hammers from every pore of his skin and echoes behind his labored breath. "Sweetheart...you're...killing me."
"I'm...killing you?" I might be incredulous, if I wasn't so positive I was about to suffer some kind of seizure, anyway.
He chuckles, at least I think that was his intention. He sounds disjointed at the very least. Then raising his head, he presses his lips to my face as his entire body of flesh trembles beneath me. "Are you...o-okay?" His voice hitches, and this time he lets his head flop back against the seat's head rest.
"I'm not...sure yet," I answer, keeping my face buried against his neck. I'm beginning to feel woozy and light-headed, and that burning need he constantly brings out in me, has yet to be fully quelled.
It's going to be a long night.
It takes us a lot longer than it really should to pull ourselves together. We're both beyond obvious, and as I button up the top of his shirt and straighten his tie with hopelessly shaking hands, he attempts to salvage my hair.
Then comes the awkward moment of removing my torn underwear while I'm still straddling Edward's legs.
"I'm going commando for the rest of the night, it seems," I say lightly, swinging them from my index finger.
Grabbing them from me, Edward leans us both forward, pops open the glovebox and shoves them inside.
"That's very cliché. What if your wife finds them?" I play along as Edward's laughter breaks from him again, still sounding so lusciously thick and gravelly.
"My wife's dead."
. . .
"Okay, I'm going to need a restroom immediately," I say with a small internal groan the instant Edward and I pull ourselves from his car. I'm beginning to ooze with him along my inner thighs, and while I'm wearing no panties, there's nothing to stem it.
We still look obvious. There's no taming Edward's sex hair, and one look in his rear-view mirror confirmed my suspicions; I look as ravaged as I feel.
Naturally, Edward's reaction is one of amusement, because for the first hour after sex he's so relaxed all that intensity about him melts away leaving him practically a limp noodle.
Switching on his alarm, he curves his arm around my shoulders and turns us in the direction of the reception, and when we enter, no one appears to have noticed our extended absence, making me wonder what I expected.
"Okay, I'll be back in a moment," I say, turning to him as he drops his lips to my brow, and while Edward takes his seat at table five, I head immediately for the ladies' room.
Rosalie's by the vanities, a glass of red in hand, as I exit from the stall, and by the looks of her she's well past the parameters of tipsy.
"Hello, Be-la," she slurs, and the condescension behind her tone is not lost on me.
"Rose," I say with indifference after a moment or two of deliberating whether to say anything at all.
I glance at myself in the mirror. My cheeks are ruddy and my eyes are a little too bright, but I suppose it could be easily explained away by dancing. Pushing it from my mind, I turn on the faucet to wash my hands. This is when Rose moves closer to me, and all I can really focus on is the fact that she brought her drink into the ladies with her.
Who the hell is that tacky?
"So... have you figured it out yet?" she asks after scrutinizing me for an extremely uncomfortable pause, and judging from her expression, she knows exactly what Edward and I were just doing.
"Have I figured out what yet?" I say with exasperation as I squirt soap into my palms from the dispenser above the vanity.
"Why Edward's with you."
Ignoring my better judgement that's currently warning me to walk out of the room without a backward glance, I stupidly decide to engage with her. "Why's he with me?" I demand as each word I speak bleeds with sarcasm.
"Because you remind him of his wife the least," she answers, continuing before I can offer her a response. "She was blonde, you're brunette; she was tall, you're short; and she was beautiful, and you're...well, not." She snorts and sways on her feet, but none of it has the desired effect on me as she no doubt intended.
If she meant to upset me, she failed, but I'm still angrier than I can properly comprehend.
"I think the real question here is have you figured it out yet," I retort, turning fully to face her.
"And what's that?" she counters, arching a single arrogant brow.
"Exactly how many times are you going to be rejected by your boyfriend's brother before you find some class," I snap as something starts behind her expression and her eyes narrow, but I'm not nearly done with her. "But then, considering you're a fall down drunk, I'm pretty certain that ship has already sailed."
"Bitch!" she blurts, slapping me across the face so hard my head swings to the side and I come very close to losing my footing.
I right myself, instantly enraged as my breath pulls through my nose stiffly. The corner of my eyebrow is suddenly stinging, and on impulse I place my palm over it, only to discover it's bleeding. Whatever grotesque jewelry she has on her fingers, she cut me with it.
I stand, frozen to the spot, glaring at her as she sneers down at me. I'm honestly unsure what my next move is going to be, when before I can decide on it, Jess and Angela walk into the room and stumble across the two of us.
"Bells—what the fuck!" Jessica bursts, and as a girl raised in a small town, she is not above getting physical.
"I'm fine, just get me the fuck out of here, and make sure Alice doesn't see this." I jerk my finger in reference to my eye as Angela takes my elbow, and she and Jess guide me swiftly out of the room.
Avoiding Alice is easy, but what I quickly discover is, it's everything but with Edward.
I keep myself in the darkest corner of the room as Jess and Angela tactfully attempt to stem the bleeding of my cut eyebrow, while avoiding eye contact with him at all cost. I fail on several occasions and when my gaze meets his, he motions me over to him. I only smile and hold up my splayed hand, indicating soon, but the man is entirely too astute to keep in the dark for any length of time, and all too quickly he's striding across the room toward me, that frown of his knotting deeper than usual.
"Oh god, he's coming and he looks like he's about to commit murder," Jessica forewarns me of what I'm already aware of as I pull myself reluctantly to my feet to face him.
He notices the condition of my eye almost immediately, before taking my chin to angle my face to the side so he can get a better look at it.
He doesn't utter a single word, but as his expression steadily becomes what I can only describe as lethal, he turns his attention in the direction of where his brother's fiancé is sitting still nursing her red wine.
"I'll be back in a moment," he mutters darkly, and I watch with bated breath as he makes his way toward her.
"Shit, is he going to kill her?" Jess says more or less to herself in what sounds like disbelief, and I'm not at all certain he won't.
Rosalie looks up as he approaches, speaking something, no doubt, snotty, before Edward grabs her elbow and yanks her roughly to him. This appears to surprise her, but whatever he's telling her makes her face completely pale and become almost anxious, before her cold, calculating eyes turn scrupulously to focus on me.
A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed.