Playlist:

I Want You – Erykah Badu

Love on the Brain – Rihanna

Halo – Beyonce

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the words. Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight series, and the songs belong to their respective people.

*HARD R*


I Want You


Neither Edward nor Bella noticed their bodies' movement into the cave, though Bella registered when their family left, bright specks of color distancing themselves from her mind. Edward shared her sweet affection for their family - the pride, trust that was unbreakable. There was no room for jealousy here, and the love Bella held for his kin was different than the love-want-need that sang through her for him.

As the last of the drug faded from Bella's mind, Edward-and-Bella were baptized in hellfire; they clutched to each other roughly as they were thrown back into their own bodies. Edward could still feel the golden presence of Bella in his mind, but her thoughts were distant: muffled and more suggestion than clarity.

Bella's back arched and Edward threw himself over her form, sheltering her from mental pain with his cool stone flesh. When Bella opened her eyes to look at him, her eyes were doe-brown, the neon-blue fading away from her irises like water down the drain. Her eyes flared, consumed with golden fire before settling once more.

Edward relished the sound of her heartbeat slowing in the surreal space, backed by the sound of water rushing. He was finally content in her safety, though he knew things were far from over. The arch of Bella's back had brought her hips into glorious contact with Edward's pelvis, and Edward couldn't stop the possessive growl that rumbled through him at the flash of heat and intimacy. Bella's doe brown eyes focused on him with difficulty, still flashing a quickly-fading gold.

Edward registered the heat of her gaze less than a second before Bella rolled her hips into his once more with intention, gasping and clutching at his shirt over his shoulders. Her heartbeat sped slightly, and it pulsed in Edward's ears as their desperation faded into sultry desire, fire that didn't burn.

"Bella." His voice was hoarse, weak and begging.

"I'm sorry, I can't...I want you. You're too far away."

Edward couldn't help but agree, missing the clutch of Bella's mind to his like a severed limb. He couldn't: They weren't married, Bella was fragile. Her eyes flashed a weak black briefly.

"Please- Edward. Make it stop. Edward—Edward."

Her hips stuttered and rolled, seeking more heat to combat the sting of the Master's closeness. Her nipples brushed his chest where he was braced over her, and Edward could tell they were pebbled and hard. His mouth went dry. Bella's heartbeat seemed louder in his ears.

"Bella." he begged desperately, already shifting his weight to run a hand down her face. "I can't, Bella. You'll get hurt."

"No-magick. Be my first."

The memory of Bella's seductive damnation in the music room lit Edward up like kerosene. Their glorious mental contact had faded into too-much distance, always too-much. The adrenaline faded, but Edward could perceive the scent of Bella's arousal in the air. He groaned, reaching for her and twisting so that she was pressed into his front on her side, her back to him, but he could still see her face over her shoulder.

"Bella- don't. I'm too close here."

His treacherous stone body was betraying him, and he wrapped his arm around Bella's waist, pressing her to himself lightly and letting her feel his hardness. Bella's eyes grew mischievous and teasing, and she rubbed her ass against him, a spike in the scent of her want.

"Edward-" her voice was a persuasive purr: a request. "I want you to." Her voice grew rougher, seductive. "Please, Edward. I can beg, if you like."

Edward couldn't stand it. Not one more second of the sound of her voice, the words she spoke, the feel of her body, that scent. He growled, flipping her onto her back in a quick, rough movement and bracing himself over her once more. His hand was sliding along her ribs to her waist and across her navel. It moved without his permission.

"Bella. I am not Atlas, my love. I cannot carry the world as you do."

"Touch me, Edward. I want to feel you."

Her command was half-pleading; Bella was unable to keep her calm. She reached for his face, planting a light kiss on the corner of his mouth as she tugged him closer with the opposite hand on the back of his neck. She was sliding her body to brace against the curve of the stone under him, forcing his hand closer to her core with her movement. His vampiric sensitivity allowed him to feel the damp heat rising from her panties on his fingertips through her dress. It was enough to break him.

He was silent, his focus every-inch on her, feeling the new shard of golden presence in his mind flare in joyous understanding at the edge of his perception. He slid his hand slowly down, relishing every moment. He went past her hips to the hem of her dress, tracing the inside seam of her thighs.

"Bella. My Bella. My love."

The path under his fingers was warm, soft and smooth. Until as he hooked his hand under her skirt and skated his fingers upward he felt the bumps of scar tissue; the bite mark on her thigh. The gold flared in alarm, but Bella pulled herself closer to him with the hand at the back of his neck.

"Don't stop, please. I want you Edward, don't stop; don't let him steal it, stay."

Edward closed his eyes for just a moment, motionless, save allowing Bella to pull his forehead to hers.

"Stay, Edward. You'll never. I know you; I know you wouldn't. Touch me, please. I want you to. I want it, all of it, all the time. You are my lover, my only. My Edward."

Edward surrendered. He kept his eyes on hers, though he wanted to watch the path of his hand, wanted to see her most intimate place. There was time. He slipped his hand up her thigh and rubbed her through the lace of her panties. Bella inhaled sharply: scent, heat flaring. She was so warm, even softer here, silk under lace.

The need in Edward was rising and want was too. He battled them back with love, affection and kept his pace slow, tucking his head into the junction of Bella's neck as he sought protection from the heat. It was a mistake: he should've realized. Her jugular was pulsing with her heartbeat centimeters from his lips. It was louder in the quiet space now. She tilted her head to give him better access and clutched at his back as his hand moved.

"Oh God." The words were a half-dirty prayer Edward hoped would never be answered as Bella rocked her hips. He squeezed his eyes closed, panting for unneeded air just to have her scent coat his lungs.

He could feel her dampness now and pushed harder, grinding the base of his palm into her heat and sliding his fingers back, parting her through the lace, opening the door. Bella moaned wantonly, her head falling back on her neck. Her legs spread to accommodate him, welcoming him closer.

"My Edward, please, mine. I trust you, love; please. Touch me."

He couldn't last one more second away from her, needed more than the damp on his fingertips. Her panties ripped as he tore them from her, plunging his fingers into her in a quick but careful movement and grinding the base of his palm against her clit. Bella arched, her pebbled nipples stiff against his cold chest. She cried out, almost a scream. Her eyes flashed gold when she met his. He lowered his head and clutched her to him, licking at her collarbone where it showed beneath the skimpy dress.

"This dress, my Bella. You know you wear this dress all the time? What even is this fabric? It's sin, that's what it is."

He pumped his fingers: softly, slowly. Teasing.

Bella whimpered at him, soft mewls beginning to escape though she tried to hold them back. He traced her bare chest through the scoop of her top with the tip of his tongue, lightly bit down on a hard nipple in reprimand through the slinky glittering fabric that had been his own private torture.

"Let me hear you, love."

She cried out again at the sharp pressure of his teeth, something in her voice growing. Edward wanted the sound, wanted to hear nothing else for the rest of his days. She was soaked now, and Edward felt the slide of her tightness against his long fingers smoothly as her hips lifted and fell with his steadily faster thrust into her passage.

He was losing it, losing his control to the pound of her heartbeat, giving it away to her care.

The reward for the decay of his control was realized when Bella slid her small hand down his chest; she moved past his stomach, cupping him through his pants lightly. She was asking permission that Edward couldn't help but give, and the jerk of his hips increased the pressure of her hand against him. Her hand moving on him through thin cloth was delicious, something to be relished in secret at night.

Edward snarled as hunger appeared in his mind briefly, drowning it out with LoveLoveLove. A ragged inhale escaped Bella as his fingers began to approach immortal speed, her passage clinging to him; her muscles tensed as she perceived his struggle and chose to trust him anyway.

Edward pulled his fingers away from her core like ripping a suture from a wound, manhandling her into a half-sit and tearing that sinful cloth away from her body over her head as she gasped at the loss of his touch.

"Please, lover. Let me see you too, Edward."

Edward had even less patience for his own clothing; Bella could materialize him one of those fancy suits anyway, after. As soon as he was bare, he clutched her close again and the feel of skin-against-skin was heavenly. Edward had a flash of distant memory- himself watching Bella in her bed in Forks from the rocking chair; she was in her ratty sweats and long sleeves, mumbling his name in her sleep. She would never wear clothes in their bed again if he could help it. He pulled back, denying the want of his hands to indulge his eyes.

Dear God.

Bella was slim, nubile. Her breasts were a perfect handful: round and heavy against her chest, her nipples dusky pink and peaked. A memory of his hands on her chest while they danced in the Borderlands flashed across his mind as he watched her take a breath, her hands flexing as she gripped him harder over his thighs. Her waist narrowed under ribs before flaring, curving gently outward at her hips. Long lines of bone created a soft barrier around her lightly shaded core before her thighs began. Her ridiculously long legs stretched to tangle with his, pressing pretty feet into the back of his knees where they bore his weight against the floor.

His vision blurred as she rose to meet him and ran her fingertips sweetly down his jaw, his chest, his hipbone. Her eyes trailed to follow the path of her hands before swinging up to meet his gaze—still innocent brown irises but shimmering in sultry gold that glittered in the soft light. For the first time, Edward had the space to think of privacy, of aloneness. None other would ever lay eyes on his Bella like this ever again.

A soft rumble echoed in his chest like a purr.

She wrapped her small hand around the base of him, applying only the lightest of steady pressure between her index finger and her thumb. It was a thin band of sensation, the warmth of her hand. Her eyes were consuming him where they met his own topaz gaze, calming but somehow not as adrenaline began to filter into his mind. His rush was answered eagerly by the gold in his mind.

An invitation.

He pushed his lips to hers in a soulful kiss as he trapped her hand between their bodies and pushed her back into the ground beneath him, pressing himself in between her legs. She responded by bringing her legs up to wrap his waist, ankles crossed, trapping him there. Bella swiped the tip of her tongue across his lips, a playful demand for entrance. Edward happily opened to her, tasting her mouth.

As his tongue tangled with hers Edward had an impression sent to him from the shard of gold in his mind, an unintentional echo of a thought: his tongue in a more intimate place. Oh, dear god. She was going to kill him, and he would die a happy man. Their kiss had been fairly equal, but now Edward bore down further, taking everything he was being freely given as his protective possessiveness grew, tinged with just a touch of jealousy.

Bella surrendered to him, took the burden of his control fading away; she gave hers to him. She pressed her breasts against his stone chest, coming ever closer and seeking collision. Edward supported his weight with one arm. So-desperate-want-want-need-everything—It was rising in him, backed by the adrenaline and lust. He backed off just enough to free her hand, to allow his hips to pull back. Each centimeter cost him, air and space unwelcome here.

He thrust forward, rubbing his member against her clit in a quick, firm stroke so that it was dragged along the underside of his hardness. Bella arched helplessly, a half-scream leaving her throat before she bit it back. His hand met the base of her neck where it met her chest, a firm reminder as he growled out the words. "No, Bella. I want to hear you love, don't hold back."

Her eyes met his, almost entirely consumed by gold now. She whimpered constantly as her hand wrapped around his wrist at her throat, the other clutching into the soft green moss next to her hip nervously. Edward felt a beat of innocent surprise when she pressed on his hand, increasing the pressure on her own throat. She mewled her pleasure and groaned out quick, rushed words, rubbing her core against him greedily.

"Edward, lover, please. I want you, need you. Inside- give it to me Edward please please please..."

Edward swallowed against his suddenly dry mouth, in that moment falling in love with her golden gaze as much as he had always been with her doe-brown one. He couldn't have refused her if his life had depended on it. The half-second space of air between him and her as he pulled back again was hateful, made him angry.

He thrust himself into her. Wonder and awe captured him; emotion stilling his movement as he was buried into her to the hilt. Bella's eyes were wide with wonder as her flesh stretched and twitched around him, adjusting to his size; her fullness. Edward couldn't bear to end the long moment and couldn't bear the stillness a moment more. He might be damned, but heaven had nothing on this.

He couldn't decide, couldn't choose between lust and love; he couldn't choose between awe and heat, so Bella chose for him. She pressed her breasts against his chest tightly and scratched her nails down along his shoulder blades as she pulled back until only his tip was within her, bearing down and encompassing him again. It was the creation of a new world, a rebirth—and Edward moved.

His thrusts were unsteady at first, pausing at the hilt. A beat would pass as he mentally struggled to force his hips away from her again. But soon he caught the rhythm of it, the clutch and release. His thrusts became smooth circles, Bella meeting him eagerly, faster and faster now.

Edward caught fire. He lost control completely as he began to burn higher, dissolving into ash blown by the wind. Fae-speed was far superior to a mortal, but they were nowhere near a vampire's speed; Bella struggled to meet him, her own face growing desperate.

The gold in his mind was glowing brighter, coming closer—it was reaching for him, fighting chains. Their lips met sloppily, panting into each other's mouths. Something was building between them now, the flare of fire's edge and deep earthquake, the rush of floodwaters.

The physical release, the fall—The two of them expanded into starlight as the runes on the walls of the cave flared. It was swept up and carried on a physical rush of air that ruffled his hair and caressed his skin, but it was meaningless to him. He lost his mind, his individuality, as Bella climaxed with him. It was bursting through her like the flare of magic. The gold in her mind consumed his crimson as his crimson consumed her gold in a never-ending circle. Love.

But Edward was a vampire. The rush drove him to break the kiss, to wrench her head to the side as his opposite arm gave out and his weight trapped her to the floor. By the time Bella was fully pinned beneath him, his teeth were already sinking into her neck.


Love on the Brain


Bella's ragged, broken moan broke his heart and shattered his soul as he jerked away from where her blood poured into his mouth, leaving the red fluid to stream enticingly down the length of her neck. It took all his strength of will to pull himself free of her. He licked the wound to close it with his venom.

"Bella- Bella- No. God. No, I'm so sorry, Bella. Fuck, I'm- I'm sorry."

He jerked himself away from her angelic form, leaping the narrow crack in the floor to throw himself backward against the cool stone wall of the space until he was as far from her as he could get. The runes burned like fire when he touched them, so he pushed his back into the wall hard. The pain was a self-flagellation for breaking this wondrous thing. He had betrayed her.

It was hell.

Bella had collapsed hard, her arms reaching into the open space where he had been. She lowered her arms slowly, like in a trance. After a moment of panting to catch her breath, she drew herself into a sitting position. Somehow—Edward swallowed, hard. Somehow the sight of the vivid red stream of blood that dripped from her neck and off the swell of her breast was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The horror raced through him. He couldn't meet her eyes as he awaited her judgement.

"Wait-what? Edward, what the hell are you doing? Get over here."

Everything in him screamed at him to acquiesce. Edward steeled himself against the comforting temptation of touching her again and shook his head violently at the floor.

If he cast himself into the flooded abyss, would it kill him? Possibly.

"Edward, whatever the hell you are thinking right now, I want you to stop. Immediately."

The words were a Queen's order: an expectation to be followed without question. Did she want to force him to live on, to exist without her? If she willed it, he would try. He would last as long as he could, try to protect his family from his sin, his insanity. He would lose, he wouldn't be able to go on, but he would try. Trust Bella to think of her precious people over punishing her betrayer.

"Edward! Stop—those runes will burn you, they're really powerful."

She jumped to her feet, walking the long way around the crevasse. Edward shoved himself into the wall as hard as he could, the pain welcome as her scent neared him, as he watched her glorious body's movement.

"Stop! Edward, what are you doing? You're scaring me, stop it."

She would not allow him the release of physical pain? Okay. He could do that; it wasn't helping anyway. He stepped away from the wall, carefully maintaining equal distance from her approaching form, but she came to him quickly. Her touch was an undeserved benediction as she grasped his shoulder to turn him, to see his back.

"You look alright. Vampire skin, wow. You guys heal faster than anything."

Edward hated his skin. He wanted Bella to step away; as if that could stop him from infecting her. He wanted her to be able to grip him hard enough to leave an everlasting bruise. The blessed-damned blood was still on his lips when he drew tortured breath. The scent of arousal and blood -Bella's blood- filled the air.

"Edward? Edward. It was the most amazing thing to ever happen to me too, but I'm not mute and neither are you. I admit, the afterglow was a little short. Hey, it's ok, it was perfect otherwise and I'm certainly not going to complain. Just next time, maybe—why aren't you talking?"

Bella snapped her fingers in front of his face, and Edward finally managed to process that she wasn't writhing on the ground in pain from his venom. His voice was halting, dripping with regret and shattered hope that was painful. "Bella. Bella, you're not...I'm so sorry."

Bella's eyes narrowed at him, and she removed her hand from his shoulder stiffly.

"Edward." Her voice was deadly soft and full of dangerous vulnerability. "What are you apologizing for? Be specific."

Edward couldn't understand how a confession could make it better. He was afraid to break this fragile moment where Bella still cared for him. But Bella needed him to say it, and he could never deny her. His voice was a broken breath of bloody air as he croaked the words. They were half bitten off through clenched teeth, and they tasted like poison on his tongue.

"I-I bit you."

She raised an eyebrow at him, the insecurity gone. "Uh, yes? I know, I was there. Is that why you're freaking out? Magick, Edward, remember?"

She flared a small flame in her hand, and Edward flinched. Would she burn him herself? It was too generous, the ending of his existence with fire from Bella's hands. At his flinch, Bella grew suddenly serious, protective; she extinguished the small flame immediately.

"Edward? Edward, what's wrong? Are you okay? I don't understand, tell me, let me help you."

Help him? She wanted to help him? He had bitten her, betrayed her in the worst way. He had hurt her. He deserved only the harshest treatment, immediate death if possible. He told Bella as much, and her eyes widened in shock and alarm. Her words came out panicked and pleading.

"What? Edward—Edward, love, no. I'm fine, you didn't hurt me, honestly. I told you in the music room, I thought you understood. Edward. Edward, lover, I wanted you to bite me. I thought you realized that. I didn't mean to...ohmygod Edward. I didn't mean to make you snap if you didn't want to, I'm so, so, sorry. Please forgive me." Now, her face was horrified.

Was it a delayed reaction?

Wait, she wanted his forgiveness?

What? Edward forced his mind to slow down, pulled himself out of his emotional panic and despair. Bella took a deep breath to center herself, an inhale. Her exhale was tinged with the scent of blood. She had bruises forming on her neck where he had gripped her tightly.

She reached for his hand, tangling her fingers with his and pulling him to sit on the moss at the base of the wall opposite the burning runes.

"Let's back up. Are you saying you are upset because you bit me when you came, and that's why you were hurting yourself, why you were thinking—whatever you were thinking?"

"Upset? Bella, I betrayed you, betrayed your love, your trust. Please don't make me live with the knowledge of what I've done, what I've destroyed."

"Okay. First, you didn't answer my question, so I still don't know what exactly it is you think you've done. Second, I know betrayal, intimately; and whatever that wondrousness was, that wasn't it. Not even close. Different stratosphere. And third, if you ever hint at me killing you ever again, I will lock you in this cave for all eternity and only come down to give you blood and sex."

"Edward, you bit me. I wanted you to bite me. I cast the spell, the one I told you about in the music room that makes it where I don't turn. I knew you would stop before I was hurt. I liked it. I love you, you idiot, and you're a vampire. Why wouldn't I give you what you wanted? I've been curious about it, sort of. When I let myself think about it, I could never picture it. I wanted it, Edward. I thought you did too. That's why I need you to forgive me. I didn't know you didn't want to. Sometimes, I push people too far, beyond what they can handle. I never meant to do that to you. I'm sorry."

Edward's thoughts picked up again, rushing like the water over the cliff's edge. Bella wanted that? Her ragged moan took on new meaning in his mind, and he suddenly pressed into the memory, instead of away. "You want that? You liked me drinking from you?"

"Uh - well, yeah. I liked it a lot, actually. But you don't have to, again. If you don't want to. It's not essential."

And that was the crux of it. It wasn't essential. Bella loved Edward, and he loved her. To her, her blood was a pleasure: a gift she could give him, one she enjoyed giving. She thought no more of it than that.

"Again?" Edward's voice was ponderous and horrified and musing, all at once.

Bella liked it. It brought her pleasure. His mind began to lighten, something in him changing. He didn't want to resist it, but he did anyway. It was like the first time he had heard Bella mumble his name, an unstoppable change sweeping over him, leaving him different than before, like sand caught in the waves on a beach.

"You-you want me to do it again?"

"Edward, really you don't have to, if it freaks you out. I've always liked things...um. Well. Intense- in that way. I like the loss of control with someone I trust; but I get when something is too good, so wanted it's deadly. You told me I'm your brand of heroin, right? I always sort of thought my blood was like the Glow for you. So good, it's bad. It's not, like, a requirement or something. I mean, you don't have to. I'll always want whatever you want to give me, and no more."

Edward had never thought that Bella understood what it meant to be a vampire. He hadn't thought she could understand the pull, the deadly desire, that hunger in his mind. But Bella always meant the words she said.

What was it she had said once—If he held the whip she wouldn't mind?

Edward would never desire Bella's pain; he was horrified at the mere thought of it. But he couldn't deny the thought of his marks on her skin excited him. Her blood had always been a part of her draw on him, though that part was overshadowed more each moment. Edward had buried it, left it to die and fade away. Now Bella was telling him he didn't have to, that he could have all of her, that she could give it to him, that she wanted to. Wonder grew in him once more, and he finally met his lover's eyes.

She arched a fine, curved brow at him. "Okay, lover. The muteness is getting really old. Say something, please. At least you look a little less like I have to worry about you around sharp objects. Edward. Speak."

Sudden joy rocked through Edward as the transformation completed in his mind, in his heart, and in his soul. Bella knew he was a vampire. She had always known it, always understood it. She loved him anyway. She loved him not in spite of it, but because of it. If Bella could love the vampiric side of him, he could too.

Instead of speaking, Edward pulled Bella towards him, into his lap. He twisted her so her back was to him—both of them were still naked from before. He kissed her, teasing her with his tongue at the seam of them before he pulled away as she overcame her hesitation and opened beneath him.

"I am so incredibly in love with you, Isabella Swan. I am never going to let you go. You are mine, my lover, my only. Always."

"You're not going to freak out again, are you? I demand copious cuddling for what I missed earlier."

He licked the blood from her neck from collarbone to ear as she spoke, sucking hard on the curve of the sensitive flesh, and Bella arched her back, ground her ass into him. He was already beginning to harden. He grinned as he reached the impression his teeth had left on her flesh.

"No freak-outs, just you- " He melded his mouth over the wound, laving at it to close it completely; he had done a poor job earlier. "- and me. And utter privacy. Where are we anyway? Is this heaven?"

Bella was writhing under his attention, her muscles tensing and releasing as he played with her pink nipples, watched them pebble under his fingertips. "Hmm, what? Oh, this is the panic room, the crack in the back of the cavern. I can't cast to the outside from in here. We won't be disturbed for a while, and I can tell when someone is COMING. Edward!"

He had pinched her nipples hard, both at once, as soon as he understood their privacy would last. He held to them as her chest arched away from him, not letting up the steady, heavy pressure between his fingers. Bella mewled, tossed her head against his shoulder. She muttered his name.

"Louder, Bella. What do you want?"

"You. You. Let me. Please, you have to let me...I want to taste you."

Edward's brain stopped, his adrenaline coursing. He pinched her slightly harder than he meant to before he released her. Bella cried out in response; her voice was heavy with want at the sharp pleasure-pain, and she ground back into him. He was fully hard now, curved back and almost leaking at the thought of her mouth on him there.

"Bella. Yes. Oh yes, please."

That was apparently all the permission Bella needed and she scrambled up, offering him her hand though she knew he didn't need it. He took it anyway, the loss of contact as torturous as before. She settled them against a portion of the wall with no runes etched into it. It was her turn to push herself close, to trap him.

"Edward. It wasn't very nice of you to run away. I expect full recompense. I've dreamed this, you know. I could never imagine the wonder of you inside me properly, could never see it. But this?"

Her lips traced the shell of his ear, her hands gripping at his waist, his shoulder. Her voice turned sultry; a half-whispered moan Edward heard greedily. He wanted to drink the sound from her lips.

"I'm not an angel, Edward. Every time you went hunting, every time you left me alone for the night, I'd think of this. I couldn't help it. I'd touch myself and think of what you might taste like."

Edward knew it. He had returned sooner than expected before, smelled hints of her arousal in the air of her bedroom. It had always made him hard. She had thought of him. God, he would never hunt again, never leave her alone.

The thought of Bella touching herself in her intimate place- even with the image of him in her silent mind- drove him nuts, and not entirely in a good way. "Mine." He growled. "No more imagining. No more touching. My job, my privilege. Reality."

He heard Bella swallow hard.

"Yours."

She murmured the word against his lips, her half-lidded eyes on his, and then she touched him. A moan wrenched itself from his chest. He watched her eyes grow wide in response to the noise, rewarding him with one quick stroke from base to tip.

"There's your voice. I missed it." Bella teased.

She stepped closer still, dropping to her knees, working him lightly with one hand. She glanced at his face from under her eyelashes as she gathered her hair over her shoulder. Edward couldn't think through the long pulls, the steadily increasing tightness.

The feeling of her warm breath on his tip was ridiculously intimate. Bella surprised him, moving past his tip to where her hand was wrapped around his base. Then, she followed the long upward stroke of her tightened hand with a stiffened, flat tongue- along the underside of his member from base to tip.

Edward felt his hands come to grip Bella's shoulders roughly, but he couldn't have stopped them if he had tried. He moaned as his stomach muscles contracted and a shudder went through him. His eyes were on her face, and he saw pleasure race across it as she tasted him.

Oh. Oh, God forgive him, he didn't care about anything at all but what would happen next.

Bella loosened her grip slightly as she ran her hand down him. Edward didn't notice, too caught up in the heat of her mouth following her hand, taking him as far as she could in one long swallow. He cursed robustly and made his hands release her shoulders. One of his hands was treacherous, tangling itself in her hair instead of digging into the stone behind him. Right- Ancient cave, powerful runes. He didn't care. The whole place could have come crashing down around them and he wouldn't have even noticed. She sucked, hard, just as her hand released him and reached underneath, tugging lightly on his sack. Edward's vision was blurry again, and he shouted. It was his turn to arch wildly. His toes curled.

"Bella!"

She hummed around him, and the small vibration was more than enough to make him lose control. Bella had said he could; she wanted him to. He tightened his hand in her hair, warning her. When she glanced up and took a long breath around him, he rolled his hips, expecting to meet the back of her throat.

As he rolled his hips forward, Bella pushed towards him. Instead of stopping at the entrance to her throat, she took him all the way in, her lips nestled at his base. It was electric shock, lightning in his veins. His unstoppable moan shook his bones. He thrust harder. Bella choked but didn't stop, gasping around his tip and sucking him down with each thrust, tugging lightly underneath him each time her lips touched the base of him.

She had done this before, in crueler circumstances.

The realization made Edward still, motionless for just a moment as he had been at the scar on her thigh. He tore his eyes from hers, took in the scars on her back with hatred and possessive fury. Bella pulled away from him with a question in her eyes.

"Edward? It's okay, I'm okay. I'm great, better than. Show me, let me help. Don't let him take it away."

Adrenaline and fury rose in him at the thought of anyone trying to take this away. The emotions were strong and unstoppable. There were so many who would try, who already had and already were.

He would undoubtedly hurt her, but her eyes were heated and wanting. Each motion of his hands was careful as he removed the hand that was tangled in her locks. He traced her face with the barest brush of fingertips from her cheekbones to her lips, swollen and red and centimeters from his tip. She was just as sinfully tempting as she always was. She had to know. God, she had to know how precious she was.

He continuously ran his hand across her bottom lip in a gentle swipe, as though she was made of sharp-edged glass. He released his grip on the wall, replaced one hand with the other in her hair, gripping hard as he tilted her face up to meet his gaze directly. Gripping painfully. She must understand this.

"Never again, Bella. I will kill them on the spot of they even think it, do you understand? Mine. My Bella. It hurts to think of it, like almost nothing else. I will never hurt you like that."

"I know." Bella's face was serene, happy, trusting; and then a slight shadow crossed it. "You don't...you know, mind?"

His control over his fury snapped.

"Mind? Bella. God, Bella, how could I mind? They're evil. Nothing but. You are the bravest person I know. I love you. They could never understand that, never even begin to comprehend it. They will never, ever change that, or anything about this."

Bella's eyes grew awe-struck. He hated it, hated that her fascinating mind could even dream up the concept of him refusing anything she had to offer, because of them. He gripped her jaw roughly, his voice vampiric and commanding.

"No more talking."

They started slowly, cherishing the gift of the experience. But soon enough they caught fire again, and Edward did not let her go even when she choked, did not release his tight hold on her hair as he thrust into her mouth. As he got closer to the edge of flame, his lust and his anger somehow merged, and he kept his eyes on Bella's face, monitored her breathing as he yanked on her hair, pushing and pulling, taking what she would give him freely once more.

She was deep throating him with every stroke now, her neck completely relaxed as he controlled her speed, never faltering as she sucked him in over and over. He couldn't hold it, couldn't stop himself as his speed approached immortal and Bella's eyes watered, overtaken by gold.

He was so close, riding the edge when Bella suddenly re-took control, sucking hard, bobbing down to swallow around him greedily, squeezing him gently underneath and tugging at the same time.

His vision went white.

"Bella!" She suckled gently at him, swallowed every drop of his cum, bobbed with him as his hips jerked through the aftershocks.

If this was hell, he wasn't going anywhere.


Halo


"Can I try that?"

Edward had calmed now, had pulled Bella up to his level and kissed her. Tasting himself in her mouth mixed with the sweet tang of her blood still on his lips had been a surprising pleasure, soothing his possessive side.

He was supporting Bella completely, his hands under her bottom and around her waist. They were leaning against the wall with her legs wrapped around his hips. He was sated completely but aware of a dreamy pulse of heat from the gold in the back of his mind.

"Well, you'd probably have to get some ribs removed, which I understand would be a challenge, given your skin's hardness. But I wish you could, it was completely fantastic."

"No, silly girl. On you."

"Oh." Bella's eyes were wide as she canted her hips and leaned back so she could see his face. "Um, you want to?"

"A fair amount, but not if you don't want me to. You were thinking of it, earlier. It made me curious."

"No, I mean yes, I want you to. It's just, it has been a very long time since that."

Edward grew serious, feeling his heart crack in his chest, fury fading to sadness. "Why?"

"Um, well. You sure you wanna talk about this? Now?"

She squirmed against him, a request to be let down. He tightened his hold.

"Bella."

She sighed in defeat, but it was a long moment before she relaxed against him, her decision made.

"I mean, okay, so my pleasure wasn't exactly high priority during the less pleasant encounters I'm more...used to. None of them would, I wouldn't... there were some times. You just give up, do what you have to do regardless of the cost." Her voice was sad, lost.

Edward clutched her closer, his grip tightening to almost-painful. She wouldn't meet his eyes; she buried her head in his neck. She reached up and behind her neck absentmindedly, scratching at the brand on her shoulder. Edward grabbed her arm and pulled it away smoothly. It was nothing at all to redirect her to petting his hair; she didn't even notice.

"But I couldn't let them, I'd fight. Hard. Addy used to do that, she really liked it. And Fiore would. A long time ago."

Grief for her fallen lovers ravaged her face as she lifted her head to take in his reaction.

"I can't even really remember what it was like. I didn't realize I'd forgotten."

"My Bella, never again. Why didn't you want to tell me that?"

"In the music room, you seemed angry about them. It was different, I was different. But I cherished them, and still do. I don't want you to feel like you have to compete with them, that I somehow love you more or less than I love them. Is that okay?"

Edward paused and took a moment to gather his thoughts. He needed to be clear, here. This was important.

"It's okay. They loved you. They were in love with you, you with them. You are who you are, partially because of them, and I'm in love with who you are. Watching those echoes was the worst sort of torture, not because I was jealous, but because I knew how it ended. I knew that it would break your heart, hurt you. But I can't hate them, can't compete with them. I don't even want to."

He brought his hand against her jaw.

"I know what it's like to love you, Isabella Swan. How could I envy someone something so perfect? You were beautiful together."

Bella's relief made her sag, her full weight on his chest as he sank to the floor. She curled against him like a child, like gold in chains and afraid of the dark. He smelled her tears before he felt the wetness against his skin. He rocked his lover gently as she cried her grief for the loss of her innocence, her grief for the loss of her lovers.

When she mumbled his name against his shoulder, he realized she was asleep and pressed a kiss against her forehead before he adjusted her to a more comfortable position on his lap. There was time.

Heaven, Hell. It didn't really matter.

They were in love.