Chapter 2

One Month Later

"Don't feed the ducks."

Edward grinned. Bella's sleep-talking had usually died off by this time in the morning. She curled up further into his side, and he rubbed a hand lightly down her back.

"So hot…he's so hot…"

Edward raised his eyebrows. He was about to tease her – sometimes she replied in her sleep, though she never remembered it in the morning – when his eyes flashed to his shut door.

"You're not waking her up, Alice," he said under his breath.

Edward glared at the doorway from where he held Bella on the bed under the white linen sheets. The king-sized bed had been delivered last week, though it had yet to be actually slept in until tonight due to Charlie's cuttingly accurate conclusion that Edward was responsible for Bella being hurt, whatever story they told, and therefore it was his fatherly duty to put as many obstacles between them as possible. A hundred years old and he'd spent the last month complaining that his girlfriend was grounded.

And the less he interrogated that, the better.

"It's my first morning waking up with her in my bed. No." He murmured to the doorway, knowing Alice would hear it.

The door creaked open, and her beseeching eyes peeped around the corner.

"The sun's up. She's been asleep for hours. You're hogging her."

Jasper's head popped up above Alice's. "Can I watch her sleep for a while as well? She feels so peaceful."

"No! I want to cook her breakfast. She has to wake up for that." Alice glared up at her husband.

"Both of you need to leave."

Alice skipped into the room and up to the bed, paying no mind to Edward's feral hiss. Jasper followed leisurely behind, taking a seat on the low, black leather couch that rested against the window which took up the entire eastern wall opposite the bed. The weak morning sun was just warming up the sprawling forest.

"It's 5.30 am!"

Even if Bella had been awake, she wouldn't be able to hear their quiet voices. She didn't so much as stir when Alice leaned over Edward and eyed her sleeping form curiously.

"She looks so sweet."

"Smells it, too." Jasper drawled ruefully.

Edward glared at him. Jasper shrugged and lay down, synchronising his breaths with Bella's, closing his eyes to mimic her sleep.

He sighed. "That's so nice. I almost feel…" Jasper even sounded sleepy.

Edward muttered obscenities under his breath. Alice patted his cheek condescendingly, still watching Bella, quietly mesmerised.

"I actually get this now. I thought you were just being a pervert."

"Alice!"

"I can confirm he's being a little bit of a pervert." Jasper said helpfully.

"I am not –"

Emmett flew into the room, somersaulting into a landing, not making so much as a whisper of noise, before springing up in a defensive crouch.

"I heard something about a pervert?" Emmett asked, cracking his knuckles.

Jasper pointed at Edward.

"The virgin? Typical!" Emmett charged at the bed and dove head first at the couple, but Edward batted him away mid-air with one hand.

It took some impressive acrobatics before Emmett managed to twist and land with only the smallest of thuds on his toes and fingertips.

Bella stirred, and the three vampires froze into unnatural stillness for a moment. They relaxed as the tiny human settled.

Edward let out a long-suffering sigh.

"All three of you need to get out of my room."

All three of them ignored him. Emmett came over to the bed next to Alice, peering at Bella curiously.

"Can she breathe with her face all pushed into your side like that?" he asked.

Edward rolled his eyes.

"I think you should move her. That doesn't look comfortable."

"She can breathe fine, Emmett."

Edward didn't feel the need to inform him that he used to wake her up all the time worrying that she couldn't breathe, and he only stopped when she quite irately made him promise that unless she was turning blue, he would leave her alone.

Bella turned away from Edward's side and rolled onto her back, lifting her arms above her head as she did so. Alice and Emmett looked thrilled at this shocking turn of events.

"Why is this entertaining?" Emmett said.

"I know, right?"

Esme appeared in the doorway looking a little sheepish. "Can I watch her sleep too, then?"

Edward felt wholly betrayed.

"Come join the party," said Emmett before Edward could reply.

Esme flitted over to the other side of the bed, sitting down gently next to Bella, eyes alight with excitement.

"She looks so young like this."

"When I requested that you all act normal when Bella was here…" Edward was fighting a losing battle, and he knew it.

"She likes us for who we are." Alice sniffed at him.

"What's wrong with watching her sleep?" Emmett asked.

"She'll be mortified!"

"Why?"

"Do y'all mind? I'm trying to sleep." Jasper piped up from the couch, eyes still closed.

Alice and Esme giggled. A restful silence came upon them as they all instinctively listened to Bella's heartbeat. Their thoughts slowed down so meditatively that even Edward relaxed.

Esme reached out hand, like she couldn't resist any longer, and brushed a lock of hair out of Bella's face. She beamed at the rest of them when Bella didn't wake up, her mission a success. Edward's frustration melted at his mother's delight, soft man that he was.

"What on earth are you all doing?"

Carlisle was in the doorway in blue hospital scrubs, taking in the odd scene before him with bemusement.

"Finally, someone with reason," Edward grumbled. "Can you get them out of here before Bella wakes up to find hungry vampires looming over her?"

"I think it's too late," said Emmett, grinning.

Edward's head whipped down to Bella. Her eyes were wide awake though she hadn't moved. She frowned. Everyone froze, suddenly not knowing what to do. Edward tensed in annoyance at how embarrassed everyone was in their thoughts now that they'd been caught. Apparently, they were all perfectly aware they were behaving inappropriately by human standards.

Bella slowly sat up, Edward silently reaching out a hand to help her. He didn't know where to start.

"Good morning…everyone." Bella's voice was rough with sleep and confusion.

"Morning, Bella!" Alice roughly pushed Edward back, slamming him against the headboard with a bang, and hugged Bella sweetly. "Edward said we could watch you sleep. Hope you don't mind."

Edward nearly screeched.

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Bella examined the crystal champagne flute Alice handed her in disbelief.

"Is this a mimosa?"

"We're celebrating. You're finally free from Charlie jail!"

"Celebrating with underage drinking at 7.00 am?"

"It's Sunday brunch."

"It is not brunch, but it is a crime."

Emmett came in and took the stool next to her at the kitchen island. "Oh no, not a crime. We can't possibly do a crime." He tugged on her ponytail. "Cute pyjamas, by the way."

Bella had to admit that was true. She was wearing a red plaid set that Alice had gotten her; warm flannel, long button-up sleeved shirt, shorts for her cast. She had really come to appreciate nice pyjamas since she became an invalid with healing ribs, and the sturdy, fitted-enough-to-be-supportive material of the pyjamas left her unselfconscious about not wearing a bra. Alice works in miracles.

It was a ridiculous outfit to be drinking French champagne in, though. With a freshly washed face and a ponytail, she knew she looked all of fifteen. Esme entered the kitchen with a basket of fresh wild strawberries like she walked straight from the cover of a Home and Garden magazine. Bella blanched, instinctively going to hide her illicit substance from the parental figure.

"Here, you should try it with one of these; I've seen it on television." Esme said brightly, holding out a strawberry.

Bella stared at her in shock. Esme frowned, confused. "It's okay, I washed it already in the stream." Esme informed her, still holding the strawberry. Not knowing what else to do, Bella took it. Esme smiled happily and waited, watching. Bella a bit bemusedly plopped it into her drink.

"You're okay with this?"

Edward laughed quietly from where he was seated at the piano in the adjoining living room, flipping through sheet music. It was open so he could see them, but Alice had banished him from the kitchen so she could have Bella to herself.

"Bella, a lot of people in this house are older than prohibition. We can't help but be…flexible about certain human things." Edward informed her.

"And it's barely half a glass of champagne. Honestly, adolescence is wasted on you." Alice threw her hands up in exasperation. "Weird I need to remind you of this, but you had a life-threatening experience literally five minutes ago. Live a little."

Bella bit her lip, smiling. "That is a pretty good point."

She took a sip. Her eyes widened. "Oh. That's really good." She took a bigger sip.

"Yay!" Alice clapped her hands. "This is going to be so funny!"

Bella put down the glass. "What's going to be funny?"

Alice pouted. "Never mind. The future got boring again. Damnit."

"Are you planning on actually feeding her any time soon?" Edward grumbled.

Alice frowned at him. "Back off. It's my time. And of course I am."

She bounced around the kitchen. "I'm making her Eggs Florentine followed by chocolate granola topped with mango and whipped coconut yoghurt. She's going to love it, and I am not teaching you how to make any of it."

Bella perked up. Yoghurt could be whipped? She recognised very little about what Alice said, but it was all very promising.

"She liked it the most out of the three brunch meals I learned. She didn't really enjoy fried chicken and waffles, but she ate it anyway." Alice stuck her head out from where it was buried in the fridge and frowned at Bella. "It's annoying to say you like things when you don't, by the way."

Bella threw up her hands. "You can't be mad at me for something I did in a future that's not going to –" she paused. "My life got strange really fast, didn't it?"

"Sure did, honey," said Emmett, patting her on the back kindly. "Drink up."

Bella did.

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It was the nicest breakfast she'd ever had. She hadn't even cared that the vampires had completely failed not to stare at her as she ate every last bite. They loved the smell of food simply because their sense of smell was so heightened, and Edward had gentled her initial embarrassment over them serving her saying it's just something in their natures to do with feeding. They often catch kills for one another, particularly mates; there's even something of a culture to it.

Regardless, they loved to bring her food – smashingly good food. She was learning to accept it, and she liked making them happy.

And it clearly made them happy. She was fairly certain she'd heard Jasper actually purr when she ate a club sandwich he made her last week. Even Rosalie gruffly handed her an apple once.

She wondered how she could return the gesture. She grinned secretly to herself, imagining what Edward's reaction would be if she presented him with a live rabbit to drink.

Now, she sat curled sideways in Edward's lap on a comfy wicker sofa on the back veranda, full and lazy, her heavy cast stretched across the seat beside them. She felt warm and relaxed from the champagne. They were peaceful, listening to the forest as Edward whispered the species of the birds responsible for the different calls and trills echoing around them, describing what they looked like.

He'd bend his head down close to where her head lay against his chest when he did. His breath on her ear made her shiver. He had to know; she flushed bright red and couldn't help squirming. It was worse each time he did it.

"Something wrong, Bella?" asked Edward teasingly.

"No," she muttered. She pressed her hot cheek to the cool bare skin below his collarbone, closing her eyes tightly. Calm. Down. It wasn't her fault she hadn't had a moment to herself for weeks.

"No one can hear us; they've all left the house for the morning."

A rush of heat raced through her at the news. They hadn't been properly alone in so long, not since before the hospital, really, and not since she'd healed enough for it to matter. The difference their privacy made was startlingly intimate; it was like the air swelled and charged around them.

She lifted up from his chest, shyly meeting his gaze. He was smiling, but his eyes were black and intense with feeling, maybe a little nervous. His arm braced her back, and she felt his fingers twitch where they were curled around her waist.

"You smell so good, Bella. All of you." He breathed out heavily, pulled her tighter against him and then pressed his face into her neck. "Sometimes, it's like I can taste it."

It was new to Bella, how deep she could feel that secret pulsing inside of her.

Edward swallowed, still breathing in the scent of her neck. He shifted his hand on her waist so it slid underneath the flannel of her shirt. The skin he touched just below her ribs felt electrified. Her breath hitched and she squirmed, and his other arm came around to wrap around her too, slipping under her shirt on her lower back.

"Shh, you need to be still." His voice was strained.

Bella couldn't. She whimpered and twisted in his arms, just his breath on her neck making her feel half-mad. She kept trying to reach out to touch him, but her arms were trapped by his and awkward angles. Her breaths came faster. Her skin was suddenly hypersensitive to the point where she was a little hysterical; she wanted his hands off her and everywhere, all at once.

Edward sighed and chuckled mirthlessly once, low and deep with exasperation. His hold tightened around her, his arms restraining her searching ones to her sides, and then he lightly touched his teeth to the base of her neck. She froze. It wasn't even fear, it was like a blank shock that rushed through her, holding her in place. He had never done anything like this before; he was always so careful about protecting her from his teeth. It was as startling as it was darkly thrilling. He bit with only the slightest pressure, barely indenting her skin. Once her pounding heart slowed and she went heavy in his arms, he lifted up slightly from her neck.

"Good girl," he whispered, so quietly she wasn't sure he said it, kissing the spot where his teeth had been.

Bella felt a haze come upon her. She still throbbed inside, but it felt slow and steady now. She'd never so completely trusted a person as she did Edward in that moment.

She just had to be still, and Edward would give her what she needed. The simple certainty of this stunned her.

His dark eyes scanned her hungrily. She never caught him staring at her body; his eyes never shot up guiltily, she never saw him peeking when he thought she wasn't looking. She had learned to breathe through the insecurity and tell herself he was a gentleman from a time when that meant a way of life, and she loved him for who he was.

Nonetheless, it was a relief to finally see him want her.

He took a deep breath and then pressed a hand to her cheek. She stared back at him quietly, pleadingly.

"Isabella," he said, like it explained everything, and he pressed his lips to hers.

It took all her control to keep her arms at her sides, to not try and twist so she could press the tingling tips of her breasts to his cold chest, to just let him kiss her more fervently than he ever had before.

The longer she held still, the more he seemed to let go. He pulled away to let her breathe, his lips barely leaving her skin. He kissed down her jaw, licked and sucked at her neck until she was whimpering helplessly, and then dragged his teeth across the top curve of her ear. The sensation caused her to shudder so deeply she felt it in her bones.

"Do you need me to touch you, Bella?" he asked quietly.

Was he joking? If he didn't touch her now, she'd die.

"Please," she said instead.

Being with Edward in this way apparently severely limited her vocabulary.

He didn't seem to mind. He let out a curse, which was all the more affecting because it was so unfamiliar to hear the harsh word in his voice.

Edward tilted her further back in his lap so her weight was braced more fully against his encircling arm. Smoothly, almost casually, as if he'd done it a hundred times before, he used his other hand to unbutton her shirt with dexterous fingers. Bella tried not to hyperventilate. The two halves of the shirt barely parted and only a strip of skin was revealed. She clenched her hands into nervous fists at her sides.

Gently, he repositioned her so she was sitting upright, turned towards him, and he ran his hands firmly up her arms to her collar, curling his thumbs beneath it to trace circles on the skin beneath.

He paused, and it's as if the forest held its breath too.

He pulled the shirt gently from her shoulders, concentrating as if it was a very serious thing he was doing. He freed her arms from the sleeves, baring her to the crisp morning air. He tossed the shirt aside and his eyes dropped. Bella felt the heat of his gaze like it was a physical thing.

He let out a shaky breath. "You're so beautiful, Bella." He spoke so quietly, she barely heard him. His hands stroked obsessively up and down her arms, across her slim back, until he reached for her hands and unfurled her fists, gently massaging the tension out of her palms. He whispered urgently to her as he did, as if he needed her to understand. "You don't know. So, so beautiful."

Bella smiled a little ruefully. She did in fact know. She was seventeen; her breasts had developed more even since knowing Edward. But still, they had drawn attention to her at a very young age, and she had thrilled in it and resented it and ultimately hid from it. Her mother had dabbled half-heartedly in body positivity before Phil showed up, skewered as Renee was with her own mildly disordered eating. She tried, to give her some credit, to lessen the dreadfully self-conscious girl's anxiety, assuring her the breasts were natural but the attention was not. She would gently tease her throughout the years, Bella already a bra size bigger than she was at eleven years old. Not from my side of the family. But there's no helping it. The schoolyard antics of boys weren't the problem, the grown men were – the uncles, the strangers, the modesty-obsessed Phil. She'll be a heartbreaker, that one. My god girl, you're blooming! Do you want people to think you're a little slut? Give a poor old man a hug. Bella Swan knew intimately what it was to be objectified.

But the way Edward looked at her made her love her own body in a way that was so rare and freeing, and it all came down to trust.

He turned her and leant her back against his arm again. She felt a thud of vulnerability that she was half-naked cradled in his arms while he was fully dressed – and outside, no less – but the uncertainty melted into desire almost instantly. She wanted him to see her. She relaxed against him, keeping still, letting him take her in like this. He purred, pleased with her.

She didn't know why she knew that's what his strange rumbling sound meant, but she did.

He couldn't take his eyes off her. It filled her with a new kind of feminine pride to see this type of hunger for her from him – and to feel it pressing insistently into her side. He skimmed icy fingers down her throat, across her collarbone, before delicately caressing the curve of her breast.

Bella couldn't help but bend into his touch, biting her lip. He sighed tenderly at the weight of her soft skin.

He traced teasing circles back and forth across her breasts so terribly slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, as if she wasn't about to have a heart attack.

He finally brushed a thumb across her nipple, and Bella felt it from her lips to her clit.

"Oh," she said, as if he had shared an interesting fact, and not just touched her in a way that felt better than any shy orgasm she had given to herself when he had barely even touched her at all.

"Are you okay?" he asked, as if he wasn't holding her breast in his palm.

She nodded frantically. "Please don't stop," she said.

He groaned and kissed her, hard and a little messy. He broke away and pressed kisses across her jaw, her neck, the small hollow behind her ear. He flicked her sensitive ear lobe with his tongue at the same time that he swiped a thumb across a nipple again, and she felt him smile against her at her cry.

He continued kissing down her neck, lingering at her pulse point, before reaching the top swell of her chest. He let out a shaky breath.

The arm that braced her back was wrapped around her completely, his hand flat and pressing gently on her stomach, and his pinky began teasing the waistband of her shorts.

She gave up trying to keep still, and instead writhed and jerked in his steel arms as he touched her. He didn't seem to notice.

He kissed her breasts in the same slow circles that his fingers had, cradling them each with his free hand. Bella thought she might scream, breathless with the sensations rushing through her. She had never felt it build like this before, endlessly and torturously until she felt her whole body go taut with tension. He carefully placed his lips around the tip of one aching breast, his thumb pressing gently on her other nipple. Her thighs started shaking. His tongue flicked rhythmically against her, and she cried out. The cold of his tongue against her hot skin was exquisitely jarring. She couldn't stay on this peak for long, but it just kept rising and rising anyway.

And then he bit down gently on her nipple at the same moment that he cupped his hand over her shorts, pressing just enough where she needed him to touch her most, and Bella shattered.

Edward pulled his teeth away quickly at her violent gasp, and he watched her in awe as she rolled her hips against his hard hand as the waves of her orgasm crashed over her.

"Oh, fuck, I can feel you. So good, baby. That's it, Bella." His voice was rough and low and if he didn't stop talking, she'd never stop coming.

Eventually, when the aftershocks died down long after what she ever imagined was possible, she stilled. She slumped in his arms with a wave of languid exhaustion, her head resting heavily against his chest. His hand still cupped her in that possessive and intimate way. She had to force herself to relax her thighs, and he moved a slightly trembling hand to her hip and flexed his fingers.

Edward pressed kisses into her hair, murmuring to her sweetly. When she came back to herself, she sat up, shyly looking down. She felt so deeply happy, but not the least bit exposed too.

Edward grasped both her hands with his. She peaked up at him, biting her lip.

He seemed to be vibrating with restrained joy. When he saw his happiness reflected in her eyes, his face broke into a beaming grin. Bella felt giddiness bubble through her, and she pressed her hands to her mouth to stop the giggle bursting forth.

Edward's smile stretched impossibly wider, and suddenly they were both laughing and Edward clutched her to him. Bella threw her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder.

"God, Bella, are you okay? I didn't –"

"That was amazing, I never –"

"No, you're amazing. That was the most –"

"I didn't know it could –"

"You have no idea what it means to me to make you feel like that and –"

"But what about you? I want –"

"Oh, trust me, Bella, that was for me."

"I love you so much."

"I love you so much."

Their foreheads pressed together as they stroked each other's face and hair, both smiling so big their cheeks ached.

The sun had creeped higher into the sky, and its rays started cutting across the deck towards them. Edward ran a hand up and down her back and pulled away.

"We should go inside."

Bella nodded. Neither of them moved. They both laughed quietly.

He lifted Bella from his lap to his side on the sofa, smiling at her grumble.

"I know," he said. "But we have to sometime."

He ran a finger across the strip of skin on her thigh between her cast and the hem of her shorts.

"Alice should be back soon to help you in the shower," he said, reaching down to the floor for her shirt.

Bella looked at him steadily, saying nothing as he helped her pull the shirt on.

He did the buttons up slowly, as if he had to force himself to do each one. He sighed.

"Bella?"

"Yes, Edward?"

"Would you like me to help you instead?"

"Yes."

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Edward placed Bella on the vintage vanity that was nestled between porcelain his & her sinks, her legs going to either side of his hips. He left his hands at her waist, stroking her sides gently.

Bella loved this bathroom. The intricate Moroccan tiles on the walls, dark green with bursts of warm terracotta; the nearly black stone tiles of the open shower, next to which the floor dropped into a sunken bath; the floor to ceiling window, tinted dark, that looked out over the remote and thickly forested hills; the towering ferns and exotically perfumed flowers that spilled from a mismatch of earthen pots in bright jewel tones. It was meditative, it was charming, she could live in it.

But everything looked different with Edward in here with her; the effect of the room felt decidedly more romantic – even erotic, if she was being a grown-up about it.

And she was trying really, really hard to be a grown-up about it. She had been supremely confident in her ability to be grown-up about it on the porch, and now she had no idea why.

She felt at a loss. Her cast was unavoidably awkward and cumbersome to deal with. Alice handled everything so briskly, and Bella never had time to be self-conscious. She wondered if she had thought this through.

No, she thought, eyeing the deep bath and picturing sticking her leg up on the ledge, she had not in fact thought this through at all.

"How would you feel," he said into her hair, "about another drink to have in the bath?" Edward pulled back to examine her face with a small smile.

Bella quirked an eyebrow at him. "Really?"

He shrugged and grinned. "I just want you to feel spoiled; you make that quite difficult a lot of the time, you know."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Still, it's pretty surprising. I thought you'd be too…"

"Too what?"

Square. "Um…cautious? I guess I expected a lecture on liver disease over a top-up."

Edward snorted. "Remind me to tell you about the 70s sometime."

"O-kay, Woody Allen."

Bella giggled at Edward's indignant growl. He kissed her forehead and lifted her from the vanity, holding her steady as she got her balance.

"Take a human minute, and I'll be back with your drink –"

"Offering illicit substances is classic grooming behaviour, you know."

"…while you try not to fall off the toilet, okay?"

Bella gasped in embarrassment and whacked his too-hard chest, stinging her palm pink with the impact. "Ouch. Edward!"

Edward smirked and pecked her on the lips. "Be back soon, baby."

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It wasn't something he had ever felt, this booming joy reverberating through his chest, and the force of it was vaguely frightening in its implications. What did he know of feeling anything before this?

Edward finished rinsing out Bella's champagne glass from that morning in the kitchen sink, and he put it to the side. Instead of turning the tap off, he held his hand under the cool water, playing with the tactile sensations of the silky liquid against his skin.

A couple decades ago, encouraged by Carlisle, Edward had eavesdropped on a woman with terminal cancer who had ingested psilocybin (magic mushrooms), curious about what the experience would look like to his mindreading. The vicarious trip had affected Edward deeply; it was one of the only instances in his immortal life where he cried.

At first, it was a whirlwind of discomfort as the woman was going into a mild panic as she lost control of her reality. Edward heard her beg the chaos beginning to envelop her, over and over: Please, promise me that I won't feel worse than I did before this. I know I will never feel better, but promise me that I won't come out of this feeling even worse.

Then Edward heard a haunting androgynous voice shatter through the swirling madness of the woman's mind, and though the voice spoke quietly, it echoed with mountains of power.

You think I would harm one of my precious children?

Her mind went white, a celestial tone hummed in her ears, and then it was as if she leapt off a cliff. What Edward witnessed next was indescribable and by the end, he was on his knees, a hand clutched to his dead heart, staring at Carlisle in complete shock at the wonder of the universe.

The woman had been left in awe of how connected she felt – how calm and secure in her place in nature, in the beauty of the life she got to experience. She had tried to feel these things before, but it had never been enough to outweigh the despair and terror at the futility of her illness. A warm spark of hope had been ignited that she thought had been drowned long ago.

He wasn't sure why he was thinking of that now. Perhaps it was the overwhelming relief he felt, like a knot of tension he hadn't been aware of had finally eased. His repression was a running joke in the family, not the least with Emmett, and he took it all lightly. He stood firm on his convictions when they pressed him about it, but truthfully, Edward knew that they were at least partly right. A man doesn't stay a celibate mindreader for a century if he didn't have a complex or two about sex.

But there was nothing complicated about what just happened with Bella. His thoughts had reached a crescendo of panic before he accepted what was going to happen.

She'll break –

Will she let me look at her?

If I don't stop now –

Bite.

There's blood on the hands you touch her with.

What if I can't, if I do it wrong, if –

The scent of her. Will she let me –

Bite.

She's so fucking soft.

Bite.

God, just touch her. Who cares why?

He may not have known exactly what he was going to do, but it was because it was instinctive. He had it in him after all.

Edward smiled at nothing and turned off the tap. He grabbed the champagne bottle from the ice bucket and topped up her glass before heading up stairs, not bothering with the orange juice. It was nice champagne, after all, and he had heard enough thoughts over the years to know that it'd be a shame to waste it on a mimosa.

It's also a shame to waste that gift of a girl upstairs on the repressed, self-loathing corpse that he was, but he's a selfish man. Besides, he can't take what is already his, and though he had been desperately denying it, in his heart, he had taken her as his own long ago.

So of course he can be with her. He and Bella were meant to love each other like this; it's simply the way of things.

What did he ever think was so complex about that?

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A/N

Wow, everyone's having a pretty good time! I hope nothing's about to go wrong.

Also, wouldn't it be so funny if the answer to question in the summary – What's so special about Bella Swan anyway? – is literally just that she's tiny with a big rack?

"God, just touch her. Who cares why?" is a quote of a GREAT lost fanfiction called Roman Holiday by Anna (said by Severus Snape, bahahaha). This is really a love letter to all the fanfic I read as a youngster or during dark times as an adult. I'll point out my little references as we go along.

Also, fun fact, I have never taken magic mushrooms! So, yes indeed, that scene was taken from that Netflix documentary about mushrooms, if you recognised it :)