Here's the next bit. There was no natural break for me, but I thought it best to have it as two shorter chapters because the whole thing was over 10,000 words, and that just seemed like overkill. Either way, hope you enjoy!
Cold Sweat- James Brown
Jolene- The White Stripes
Edward slept uncharacteristically long, not even stirring until midmorning when both Alice and Charlie had been up and about for hours. He stretched out on the bed, scrunching his face up and keeping his eyes closed against the grey morning light.
"So you're just going to lay in bed all day?" I asked finally, gently poking him between his ribs so he cringed and fought a smile.
"It's Sunday. I'm s-supposed t-to s-sleep in."
"Sunday also means pancakes at the Cullen house, if you're interested?" I knew just the thought of Esme's cooking would get him out of bed, and his eyes popped open as his stomach rumbled in demand. I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing aloud and alerting Charlie of my presence in his foster son's bedroom.
I slipped out of the window as Edward sleepily padded upstairs for his shower. Instead of running home as I usually would, I darted around the house to the front porch. I pulled my hair from my mussed braid and combed my hair through it so it fell in loose curls, and I brushed out the slight wrinkles in my clothing. One of the small but notable perks of our biological difference was that vampires don't produce oil or sweat, so I never had to worry about greasy hair or foul-smelling clothes when I didn't shower or change for any period of time.
Charlie greeted me at the door when I knocked, peering behind me as I stepped into the foyer and shrugged off my light rain jacket.
"Hey Bella, how's it going?" he asked, taking the jacket and hanging it on the coatrack for me.
"I'm well, thank you. How have you been, Charlie?"
"Oh, fine," he said gruffly, a soft sprinkling of blush coloring across his nose and spreading over the apples of his cheeks. I smiled at the response, loving how utterly sincere and clear-cut Charlie was. "Where's your car? You didn't walk here, did you?"
"I did walk, but just from the hospital. I was helping my father with some paperwork this morning," I lied smoothly, my lips twitching up slightly when I referred to Carlisle with a paternal label.
"Oh, come in and get a cup of coffee or something then. Warm you up," he said, leading me into the kitchen where Alice was perched at the counter with a driver's ed book and some highlighters propped in front of her.
"Good morning, Bella!" Alice greeted me cheerily, jumping up to pour me a cup of tea from the kettle on the stove.
"How's your dad, Bella?" Charlie asked, sitting across from me at the small, cluttered kitchen table as I gripped the hot mug of floral tea.
"He's good, just a bit backed up on his charts."
"Good for colleges, I'd imagine. Having that kind of stuff on your application."
"Yes, I suppose," I hummed, faking a sip of tea so the bitter liquid coated my lips.
"You got any plans for college?" He wasn't very subtle in his direction of questions. In my periphery, I noticed Alice cock her head towards us from her seat at the counter, obviously listening for my answer.
"I'm going to wait to see how I do on the SAT before deciding." It was a solid excuse, I figured. In fact, I hadn't given much thought to the importance of Edward studying for a college admissions exam if he wanted to go to college. Perhaps it was good that Charlie brought it up- it would serve as a natural opening for such questions. We had discussed the future in such broad terms, but I wanted Edward to have all options available to him. "Speaking of paperwork, though, what are you working on? Is there some big case?" I asked teasingly, shuffling some of the papers in front of me aside.
"Ah, not a case," he began collecting the papers into a pile, stuffing it into a large binder. "I only got a temporary, emergency foster license. I've got to take an exam to get a permanent placement."
I froze, looking down at the papers with newfound urgency. It was incredibly important that Charlie pass that exam, though I didn't know how difficult it would be. I'd imagine it wouldn't be too easy, since it decided who raised children. However, if monsters like James and Victoria could acquire one… "Well, if you need any help, I'm sure Esme or Carlisle would be more than happy to help. They've been through all of this before." It was, of course, another lie.
"Might be nice for some of this bureaucratic stuff." He was looking down at the booklets, flipping the pages nervously with his forefinger.
Charlie seemed unsure and lacking in confidence- not a good sign. I would have to have Esme access the state site for CPS to check his score and change it if necessary after he completed the exam. I couldn't risk having Edward and Alice removed and placed into a new home possibly anywhere in the state. While I wouldn't mind following Edward to the ends of the globe, the Swan household was nice, and safe, and most importantly both Edward and Alice seemed happy and comfortable here. Not only that, but Charlie had grown more than fond of both Edward and Alice, and I couldn't stand to see him lose them.
"Here are their phone numbers," I offered, scribbling Carlisle's and Esme's cell phone numbers on the corner of a page of scratch paper. "You can call them any time. I remember how confusing some of this can be from when they adopted Emmett and Rosalie."
"Yeah, guess they have done this before, huh?"
"We're all adopted, so yes, absolutely."
Charlie pursed his lips, his chin dimpling with the pressure. It seemed like he was thinking something over, only flipping through the binder before him as a way to occupy his hands, though I couldn't be totally sure. "Do you mind if I ask what happened to your real parents?"
"Biological parents," I corrected lightly, personally unbothered but aware of the importance of not invalidating someone like Charlie as a somehow less-real parent. "And it's fine. They passed away years ago, and Carlisle found me when I was basically abandoned and alone. When he married Esme, I found my mother."
"And your… siblings?"
My lip quirked into a soft smile. I was unsure what Charlie could be fishing for. I knew he had looked into our family when we first moved to Forks. It was understandable, what with three adopted teenagers to very young parents settling in his small, sleepy town. But our story was airtight, and had been repeated around town by the gossips in the administrative departments at the hospital and high school enough that he should know it by now.
"Rosalie is Esme's niece. She was in an accident and lost her whole family, so Esme took her in. And Emmett's story is much the same as mine, though he joined us a bit later."
"I'm sorry about your parents," he said sincerely, unable to quiet hold my gaze and staring at my ear instead of my eyes.
"It's fine. Carlisle and Esme are, for all intents and purposes, my parents."
Charlie seemed uncomfortable, and was certainly contemplating what I told him. I was confident in the lack of gaps in my story, so I couldn't be quite sure what he was thinking about. I chewed on my bottom lip in worry, waiting for a follow-up question to break the pregnant pause, when I heard Edward padding downstairs. His steps were quick, and his heart was thumping quickly, and I couldn't help but to smile in anticipation.
"Hey, Bella!" Edward greeted me excitedly, his hair dark and wet and pressed to his forehead. His skin was still pink from the heat of the shower, and he was dressed casually in a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, but he already had his shoes on and seemed ready to go. I laughed, knowing that in the moment it was more about Esme's pancakes than wanting to spend time with me.
"You kids heading out somewhere today?" Charlie asked, forgoing asking whatever other questions he had for me. Edward paused next to Alice, cocking his head and staring curiously at Charlie with furrowed brows.
"I think we're just going to my house," I said slowly, studying Edward before he blinked rapidly and turned to look at Alice's notes on the kitchen counter. "I know Emmett wants to talk about their camping trip."
"Oh, yeah. When were you guys going on that, again?"
"Not me," I promised, "It's a boy's trip, so just Emmett, Carlisle, and Edward. And I think they were planning on going next weekend?" I looked to Edward to confirm, but he just shrugged. He had said he was leaving the details up to Emmett, though I didn't think that particularly wise. Emmett tended to not think everything through, and he certainly didn't know how to adequately take care of a human.
Charlie looked a bit relieved, and was certainly less tense in his next question. "Do you guys need a ride? Or Bella, maybe you want to take the truck? Let me know how it drives?"
It was exactly the question I had been hoping for in my decision to not run home and retrieve my own car. This way Rose could check over the truck and make necessary emergency safety adjustments, and Charlie would be none the wiser. "That would be great, actually. Thank you so much, Charlie."
Charlie stood up with me, and I crossed the small kitchen to slip my hand in Edward's, internally sighing at the contact. Even when he was in the same house, or the same room, any measure of distance wasn't exactly comfortable.
"Here," Charlie said, rifling through his pocket for the key to the truck. I took it from his hand carefully, making sure to not make contact with his skin. The old metal was warm and scratched, but seemed as sturdy as the truck appeared to be. "Drive carefully. You gonna be back for dinner, Edward?"
"I d-don't know?" He answered, turning to me for an answer.
"I think Esme was making eggplant parmesan for dinner, if you'd like to join?" I figured it would be safer to take as much time as we wanted for the evening. I knew Emmett would be pushing for time with Edward, and he could become so consumed with video games that he could easily drag Edward into playing with him the whole day. Edward nodded, accepting my invitation. He and Alice shared a look I didn't understand- some kind of mysterious twin telepathy- before saying goodbye.
The truck was as horrific on the inside as it looked from the outside. The leather of the cab was old and worn, and the radio had to be an original because the two stations it picked up were fuzzy and almost inaudible. At least the engine started easily, though it did rattle a bit. I wasn't familiar enough to know if the sound should be worrisome, but whatever it was, Rose would take care of it.
"What w-were you and Charlie t-talking about when I came d-downstairs?" He asked, clicking through the radio stations futilely.
"Hmmm, me, I guess."
"Ah, my f-favorite topic," he joked, and I snorted out a laugh.
"I had offered Esme's and Carlisle's help with his foster's license exam, and he ended up asking about how Emmett, Rosalie, and I were 'adopted'," I explained, catching Edward's hand at the radio and threading my fingers through his. It was obvious we wouldn't be listening to any music in this antique.
"Oh, that m-makes s-sense," he mumbled, more to himself than to me but of course I heard him easily.
"What do you mean?"
"I d-don't know how to explain," he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand.
"Try?" I begged hopefully, trying to unravel some of the mystery of my mate.
He sighed deeply, his mouth twisting as he seemingly searched for the words. "Do y-you remember what I t-told y-you about that night at the bonfire I went t-to?"
"When Jacob Black told you about my family?" I clarified, and Edward nodded. "I remember."
"D-Do y-y-you remember what I s-said about… knowing Jake was k-keeping something f-from me?"
I hummed in confirmation, understanding dawning.
"I j-just knew that Charlie w-was th-thinking about… adoption. I d-don't know. And I th-thougt… I th-thought maybe…"
"Is that something you would want? To be adopted by Charlie?"
"I th-think I'd like to h-have a permanent family l-like that. Officially." He stroked the inside of my palm with his index finger, tracing the lines back and forth in a delicious path of heat.
"I know it's not the same, and if that's something you'd like to pursue, I'll help in any way I can with Charlie and with the state. But you are, by vampire standards, officially a Cullen."
A delightful blush deepened on his cheeks and blossomed down his throat. I followed the alluring trail, curbing the urge to lick the heated skin at the curve of his defined jaw and instead keeping myself firmly in the driver's seat. It was a slow-going trip in the ancient vehicle, especially with the constant drizzle slickening the roads. I didn't know the state of the tires, so I was taking it easy on the old truck.
"I am?"
"Absolutely. You're as much a Cullen as myself."
"Does th-that mean… Well, d-do y-you have any plans t-to, you know, m-make m-me like you?"
"I wouldn't make any plans without involving you. Do you think that's something you might like to happen someday?" I tapped the wheel nervously as I turned onto our driveway, the gravel crunching loudly under the weight of the truck.
"Forever with you?"
"Forever with me," I confirmed.
"I can't even i-imagine f-f-forever."
"Honestly, neither can I."
"Really?"
I pulled into the outer garage where Rose had space, the gearshift whining as I put it in park. "Sure. The idea of something with the potential to be genuinely endless isn't easy to wrap the mind around."
"And the n-not aging thing?"
Emmett materialized at the passenger side door, yanking it open so roughly in his excitement that the hinges almost came off. "You get used to that after a while. You don't really remember your human friends very much, and everything kind of just moves on. Besides, you're not really yourself that first year or so anyways," he explained, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waited for Edward to unbuckle his seatbelt and jump down from the cab.
"It won't necessarily be like that, though," I promised, exiting the truck and quickly joining Edward. "I didn't give up my family when I changed, nor was I out of control like others."
"That's because of your gift, though. That doesn't count," Emmett said dismissively, rolling his eyes. I shot him a glare. I was trying to assuage Edward's worries- abandoning Alice, and to a lesser extent Charlie, had to be on the forefront of his mind.
"What?" Emmett asked, completely oblivious to the layers of the conversation.
Rose graciously interrupted, zipping into the garage and staring at the truck with her hands on her hips. "That thing is a beast."
"That thing is slow," I complained.
"Do you mind if I take a look?" She asked Edward, hand on the rusted hood. His ears flushed and the pink spread down his neck, but he shrugged affirmatively. I resumed my glare at Emmett and flung a wrench at his head, though he easily plucked it from the air before it could hit him.
"What?" He asked in bewilderment.
Rose perused the engine quickly, pulling Edward's attention from us while removing pieces and flicking through parts. "Whoever worked on the engine didn't do a terrible job. Do you see this?" She stepped to the side to make room for Edward, who walked over and looked down into the engine. "This is the distributor, which connects to the sparkplugs."
"Be a little more sensitive," I hissed. Emmett scoffed and rolled his eyes dismissively before launching the wrench back at me with a greater degree of strength than I had thrown at him.
She began walking Edward through the important parts of the engine and basic maintenance while adding oil and cleaning the pistons. I pelted a hammer at Emmett, which he crushed in his hand and retaliated with a crowbar that almost clipped Edward as it spun in the air.
The growl was instinctive as it ripped through me. All I was asking for was a modicum of physical and emotional security for Edward, and Emmett was expecting to take him to the middle of the forest alone? I twisted the crowbar so the metal warped and resembled a thin boomerang, and tossed it at Emmett lightly as I swung around and grabbed a spare tire. Holding it like a disk, I flicked my wrist and hurdled the tire at his torso, the rubber connecting with his midsection.
Normally, that would be nothing. But Emmett had drunk a gallon of milk, and the curdling dairy was still sitting heavy in his stomach. The impact caused him to hunch over and slide back as he absorbed the blow, and if a vampire could turn green, that was Emmett in that moment.
"That's it!" Rose shouted, pointing towards the door. "If you're going to behave like children, do it outside and without destroying my tools!"
Emmett and I spent the rest of the morning zipping around the yard, mostly as I chased him and tried to punch or throw various trees and boulders into his stomach. I could still hear Rose and Edward in the garage, where Rose was quietly showing Edward how to change a tire and check the oil. She had asked for permission to work on the car a bit and replace some worn parts, which Edward granted, but I would make sure more was done. The truck needed airbags, a new radio, a total engine replacement, and maybe even a paintjob, but she would have to do it slowly over time so Charlie wouldn't be suspicious and Edward uncomfortable.
Esme reigned us in by calling Edward in for lunch, and Emmett immediately capitalized on the distraction by luring Edward into a video game marathon.
It seemed to stretch on for too long- not that I didn't keep myself occupied. Emmett was on the couch next to me, but Edward was sitting on the carpeted floor, resting back against my legs as he struggled through the game. I ended up braiding his hair in tight sections, struggling to get the silky strands to cooperate until he complained of a headache.
Esme set out a plate of fruits and crackers and cheeses on the coffee from which Edward snacked on throughout the afternoon, though he, too, was engrossed in the game. All I knew was there were several levels and a lot of shooting, but I didn't find any compelling storyline or underlying narrative that was occasionally presented in video games.
That left me softly raking my fingers across Edward's scalp. His hair was lovely, but I also knew exactly where to massage to relieve whatever headache I might have caused from my playful braiding.
I rubbed his temples down the side of his head very gently, always mindful of just how fragile he was. I then trailed down, working the tense area at the base of his neck stretching the knotted nerves there. He leaned into my touch in tacit permission, and I continued to the trapezius between his shoulder blades, eliciting a soft sigh.
"Shit," Emmett hissed, yanking me out of my trancelike massaging. He had crushed the video game controller in his frustration with some complicated level, the plastic crumbling unevenly in hands.
"Get a hold of yourself," I hissed, a snarl growing in my throat.
Emmett seemed surprised by my reaction. "What the hell is your problem?"
"If you could curb the violence around the human, that would be great."
Emmett flashed over to the drawer in the entertainment console in which he kept the numerous spare controllers. "'Curb the violence around the human'?" he exclaimed, voice climbing an octave. "You know you're the one who swung a tire at me a couple of hours ago in front of said human, right?"
"That's different," I defended, "It wasn't as if I was going to miss and hit him accidentally."
"Why are you being so dramatic? It's not like I was gonna hit Edward with it." He tossed the scraps of the destroyed controller into the wastebasket on the other side of the room, starting to again play the game. Edward had been playing through the game, though he was continuously killed off and respawned. But he reached across his body to rub my knee for just a moment, removing his hand when he again died. It was the grounding I needed to regain my calm, and I again played with the hair at the nape of his neck to occupy my hand and at least one train of thought. It really was the softest substance I had ever felt.
"My issue," I sighed, steadying my voice, "is that you'll be essentially taking care of him for days without me. And you're not exactly known for your tactile control. I worry about you getting carried away and there being some kind of accident."
"Bella, c'mon! I'm not going to hurt Edward! There's a huge difference between a piece of plastic and my brother!"
I could feel the heat from the back of Edward's neck as the blood pooled at the surface of his skin, offering an enticing enhancement in his scent. The smell of honeyed sunshine was cloying and heavy with his blush.
"You know how easy it is for you to get carried away. One bad bet…" I trailed off, leaving the scenario open to his imagination as I didn't even want to put the thoughts into words.
"Carlisle will be with us. You know he would never allow anything to happen that would put Edward in jeopardy. Not that I would either." Emmett was still playing the game, though he wasn't looking at the screen. His amber eyes were piercing in their sincerity, but my anxiety was still sitting on my chest.
"And if there's some kind of an emergency? You have to carry Edward, or he falls and you try to catch him. One wrong touch, one momentary lapse in caution is all it takes."
"I'm never going to win, am I?" Emmett sighed, pointlessly crushing his new controller and tossing it into the trash.
"You're w-winning right now," Edward offered, punching angrily at one of the buttons as he tried to diffuse the tension. Emmett wasn't one to hold on to any sort of anger for more than a fleeting moment, and he immediately boomed out a laugh while connecting his new controller. Even with the lapse in time with Emmett destroying two controllers in a row, Edward was too far behind for Emmett to be worried.
"That's true," Emmett chuckled, leaning back on the couch and watching Edward's avatar battling it out on the bottom half of the screen. "You know you lost, right?"
"You think?" Edward retorted just as he died again.
"You're really not great at this," I laughed, ruffling his hair playfully. "It's nice to know, since you're so good at everything else."
Edward snorted and flicked off his controller, setting it down on the coffee table. "Are w-we going to t-talk about c-camping?" He asked, looking over to Emmett. The grin on Emmett's face was widen than I had ever seen, the dimples in his cheeks deep and his eyes sparkling. He darted up the stairs and was back before Edward could blink, carrying maps. He spread them out on the coffee table in front of Edward and gracefully folded down to sit on the floor next to him.
"I was thinking we'd camp out here," he started, pointing to a spot on the map deep in Glacier National Park. He began excitedly detailing all of the various activities they could do- swimming in an untouched basin that Emmett had discovered when we had lived in Montane a few decades back, hiking up mountains, finding waterfalls that would be active during the dry summer months.
Esme brought out a plate of sandwiches cut into triangles for Edward to snack on as he listened. I reminded Emmett that he should take Edward to see the Grinnell Glacier, which was one of the last of its kind in the park, and was rapidly receding. Emmett bobbed at the mention, pointing on the map to the glacier so Edward would know where they would be, then telling him about a fishing spot near there. This steered the conversation in the direction of other wildlife- particularly bears. Emmett wanted to bring a bear out so Edward could see one up close. It wasn't as if a bear would otherwise approach them- they were keen animals which sensed the presence of an apex predator.
"What about, y-you know, t-tents, food, water? Bathrooms? Sh-showers?" Edward asked, brushing the crumbs from his fingertips as he finished the plate off. He had been picking at the food nervously the whole time, and now I understood why.
Well, we've got some tents stored out in one of the garages," Emmett started.
"We buy camping equipment every time we move somewhere new, to drive in our cover story for hunting," I explained.
"But I don't know what kind of camping that's for. Maybe we should stop by Newton's and get new stuff, just for this?"
"That might be a good idea," I confirmed as Edward nodded, though he was still tapping his index finger on the table in a rapid pattern.
"And th-the other stuff?"
"Esme's got food and water covered. Worst case scenario, if we run out, it's easy enough to catch and cook something. There's plenty of wildlife there."
"Eh, it's real man stuff. You pee on a tree and clean up in a river. I used to do that stuff all the time when I was human."
"You did?" Edward asked curiously. I hadn't told him much of anyone's past but Carlisle's, and that's only because it was so interwoven with my own. Everyone else had their own story to tell, and it would be up to them how much they wanted Edward to know.
"Sure, I grew up in rural Tennessee right in the Smoky Mountains. Spent most of my human life out camping, though it wasn't anything close to as fancy as people do it nowadays. I think we slept outside a lot. And I know we were big into hunting and drinking." Emmett paused and smiled conspiratorially, his grin impish, "We were big into women, too."
I choked on a laugh and nudged Emmett with my foot as he guffawed, holding the sides of his stomach as the milk sloshed around in his stomach with the rumbling motion. The blush brushed out lightly from Edward's ears across his cheekbones at the mention of teenage impropriety, but Emmett had already moved on to their new plans.
"So we'll head over to Newton's in the next couple of days and pick out some solid stuff for next weekend. We'll even take it for a test drive before we leave, how does that sound?" Emmett asked, but continued on talking about Esme going grocery shopping and whether he should join her.
"I've never been to a grocery store, you know? Not since I was a human, and we didn't even have actual grocery stores then. They were more like markets, and you had to go to separate stores for meat and bread and stuff. But this is like hunting for you, so maybe I should know what I'm getting us into. I mean, Carlisle will know what everything is for, and obviously you'll know all the different foods, but I think I should learn for myself. Even though the smell in there is going to be horrendous. I don't know how you stand it."
Emmett continued babbling on about his plans with Edward and me as his dedicated audience, humming and nodding when appropriate. Even over dinner, Emmett kept on with his excited planning, only stopping when Rose pried him away for their nightly alone time, rolling her eyes at me when he started relaying everything that had happened that day as if she hadn't been listening while tinkering with the truck.
"Are you forgetting something?" I asked before they could skip up the stairs. Emmett cocked his head curiously, but I could see Edward grin crookedly as he quickly caught on.
"Well, if you want to stay full of milk, you're welcome to it," I goaded, raising my brows. Emmett stopped dead in his tracks, whirling around and darting right back down the stairs and out the front door.
"Not in the garden!" Esme warned from her office, not wanting to engage in any part of our betting. She thought it would set a bad example, or that it would somehow encourage our behavior. In actuality, nothing was likely stop us. We were, after all, just kids. We had to at least act the part.
Emmett expelled the curdling milk at the tree line, far enough away that we weren't going to smell it from the house as it soaked into the soil and spoiled. I slung Edward across my back to lope across our yard quick enough for him to catch the show. He watched on in abject horror and what seemed like equal fascination as the milk kept coming out.
At last, Emmett swallowed thickly and righted himself, placing one hand on his abdomen satisfactorily. "That's much better," he sighed, rubbing his now-empty stomach. "Hey, Rose! Let's go hunt so I can get this taste out of my mouth!" he shouted up to the house.
Rose was at his side in a flash, leaning up on her toes to nestle up to his ear. "I know a better way to cleanse your palate," she whispered huskily, biting at his lobe. Emmett's brows shot up under his thick curls before he smiled down at her, now completely wrapped up in his mate. I understood the feeling. He curled his arm around her, and while murmuring to one another about what they planned to do they headed off into the dark night just as the rain began to fall again.
I looked up at Edward, wanting to get him out of the drizzle but unsure of whether he wanted to be carried quickly to the garage or walk there himself. I was never wont to assume, and I didn't want to violate his boundaries or trigger any emotional responses.
But he didn't even seem to notice as the droplets dripped down his forehead and gathered in his brows, rather he was looking out in the direction Emmett and Rose had left, though they had curved around to run towards the coast.
"What are you looking at?" I asked, studying the area. Everything was hazed in a blueish glow of the early night. The delicate and dense leaves rustled in the gentle rainy wind. I could hear as the nocturnal creatures began to emerge from their burrows with squeaking and cawing, though I doubt Edward's ears were so sensitive.
"They s-seem really happy," he said finally with a sigh, though it wasn't sad. I tried to place his tone. Longing? Wistful? Maybe jealous? Rose was, after all, the single most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I wouldn't hold it against Edward if he coveted my sister and envied my brother.
"They are," I confirmed, trying to keep the smallness from my voice.
"And th-they've b-been together for d-decades."
"They have," I again confirmed.
"Th-that c-could be us, one d-day." There was no question in his voice, rather it was an acknowledgment of reality. I shifted my weight out of habit and sucked my bottom lip in to worry it with my teeth, pressing down enough to almost pierce the solid skin.
"I would like that."
He looked down at me, the water that had almost soaked his hair dripping down his nose. His eyes were impossibly dark, almost as if the pupil had consumed his iris, but I wasn't concerned about it medically. I recognized that look.
Want. Need. Desire. Love.
He leaned down to capture my lips, pulling my bottom lip from my teeth and sucking it into his own mouth. The night faded away with the glide of his tongue against mine and the pressure of his soft teeth pulling at my lip, and we were encased in the beginning of the downpour as we pressed against each other.