Update - The Appointment - Ch 22 - Signs
The Appointment
By miztrezboo80
Chapter: 22. A Stitch in Time
Genre: Twilight - Drama / Romance
Characters: Bella, Jasper
Rating: MA/NC17
Warnings: Strong Language, Sexual Content,
Beta'd By: Ilsuocantante
Summary: "Bella had the perfect life. The perfect husband to love, the perfect house, the perfect job.. everything perfect. Until one night the shutters came up and the perfect movie life she thought she was living came crashing down around her. Enter... The Sexy Bella.. After shenanigans in the tool shed go awry, Bella's forced into sex therapy with one hot looking doctor. But when he can't handle her, he calls the only person he knows who can ... A series of unusual sessions, admissions and out and out seduction become the norm for her Tuesday Appointments. But will Bella ever get any better? "
Disclaimer: All things Twilight not mine.. songs mentioned.. nah, I'm not that clever. Silly plot and situations, yeh, I'll claim that :D
Chapter Twenty Two- A Stitch in Time
"Words will break us down, where you can't make a sound"
Morning Benders - Stitches
Things were different.
Edward… was different.
He was attentive. He was smiling. He was calling me baby. He was laughing a lot more.
He was happy.
He was… different.
I wasn't sure what I was, or how I felt about the different.
I was… indifferent.
I didn't know how to respond to the new Edward in front of me. I didn't know how to react when he asked for my opinion on the new home we could build together in Miami. I wasn't sure what to do with the moments of silence between us when he waited for an answer.
I nodded a lot.
I smiled.
I agreed.
I had no idea what I was agreeing to, as long as he ended up smiling at the end - then I felt I'd done my job.
He'd surprised me that night, that equal parts amazing equal parts confusing and upsetting night that we'd rocked not only the surface of or twelve seater table, but who I'd thought he was-and we were- to the very foundations. We'd sat there - me on his lap, my arms wrapped round him as he held me close - and talked.
Really talked.
As in… for the first time I could ever actually remember since even the beginning we talked. Edward opened up about how he felt. What hearing that I'd actually really left him meant. That - just like I had figured - he hadn't thought I'd left the house, let alone virtually moved in with someone else.
He said that admitting that I had been with Jasper - that I had stayed there and slept with him - had absolutely crushed him. He knew when he had found Jasper and me kissing at the party that there was something more. All the way back to when I'd been out drinking with Ang before Maggie arrived, he'd always thought that Jasper was interested in more than just my mental health.
Yet again, he forgave me.
And when I'd asked him why…
"I love you, Bella. When you love someone like I love you, you have to forgive them. I can't not have you in my life. My time away from you made me realize that even more. You're the only woman I've ever loved. The only one I want, and if I have to make some changes to make myself more available to your needs. Then I'll do it. I love you, baby. It's only ever been you."
I'd cried.
I cried because they were the words I'd wanted to hear from him in so long. That I mattered to him. That I was more than just this person he had next to him in his life. That I was needed and wanted. That I was something he couldn't live without.
When I'd finished shedding more tears, his lips met mine and the reconnection resumed between us. It was slow and sweet and with every kiss, with every murmur between us, it was like all the pieces of us that had turned to dust were cemented back together. It was his name I whispered onto his sweat-slickened skin as I came. It was my name he grunted as he pulsed inside me.
It was Edward's embrace I was wrapped in that night - neither squishing me to the bed nor too far apart - He just held me and I sank into his warmth and didn't come up for hours.
When I finally opened my eyes the next morning, it was to a pair of bright moss-green ones staring right back at me. He smiled and let his fingers say everything he wanted to once more as they played over sensitive skin. His lips professed the love he had reassured me with as they met mine, his green eyes saying so much more than words ever could as our mutual moans and sighs filled the spaces between us. Every touch was, 'I'm sorry.' Every caress was, 'I still care.' Every press of flesh was, 'Never again, it won't happen ever again.' Every blink and shared look was the 'I love you' we'd taken for granted.
Everything slipped back into place between us. All the wrongs were still raw and bruised but they meshed with the rights, and as the days passed and the hurts lessened, we began to fit once more. But it was better than what I remembered. It was the same and yet different; it was more.
He didn't leave my side for three weeks.
At first, I thought he was keeping an eye on me. Making sure I wasn't going to go back… there - back to seeing him - or falling back into old patterns that no longer mattered.
He was right to worry. Jasper was still a massive part of my every day routine. His voice still echoed in my heart at the strangest of times.
When I was putting on panties, his slight twang was asking me why I was bothering when he'd only rip them off later.
I threw out all the pairs I'd worn while I'd been with him.
When I was washing my hair with the same shampoo and conditioner I'd used for months, it was his strong fingers massaging my scalp.
I changed brands the next day.
I couldn't even look at bagels the same.
He'd ruined so many of my every day moments, things that I had taken for granted… were now tainted with Jasperisms.
If Edward noticed… he didn't say anything. He was busy with organizing his replacement at the hospital. He held phone conferences with Peter and his wife and included me as they discussed his role within their practice. A practice, I then found, now half belonged to Edward. Or in his words - our practice. He wanted me to work there at reception. Peter's wife, Charlotte, was their anesthesiologist and they hoped to keep it a family-run business. Charlotte's cousin had previously run the office, but she was moving on and Edward thought it was almost like fate that there was not one but two job opportunities in this great 'change of landscape' that he'd figured out for us.
I wasn't too sure, I'd never really done any book work before or manned phones and kept appointments. But for Edward, for us, I would try.
What else was I going to do?
As Edward became more caught up in finding us a place to live that wasfitting for both the lifestyle we were apparently going to have in Miami and our new business schedule - I had more time on my own.
More time to look at my phone and will it to ring.
To check my email and find nothing but spam and crap that I wasn't didn't interest me in the very least.
To arrive early for my appointments with Garrett, just in case I'd see him in the hall.
My therapy remained a bone of contention between Edward and me.
He was still happy and keen on me going. He just wasn't exactly thrilled that I wanted to continue with Garrett in the same building that another doctor with more personal information and physical understanding of his wife still worked.
I understood his hesitation.
Yet, I refused to give up on Garrett.
Or give up the fact that going there meant I was close to the other one that had broken my heart and forced me to rebuild it without him.
It was stupid and it was probably torturing myself for no good reason. But I figured if it hurt me to go there, to be on the same floor, breathe the same recycled air as him and have him know that I was doing all those things too - then it was equally awful for us both. Days moved on, turning into weeks and every time I saw Garrett, I thought about Jasper less and less. The heart however, can fall hard and fast, but take a lifetime to heal after being broken. I was just lucky that Edward was providing the filler to all the cracks that Jasper had left behind.
Edward, combined with my anger at how Jasper could give up on us so easily, had the slivers and discarded shards of that once fit to burst organ slowly pressed back together until the raw ache inside my chest lessened. The pain eased with every "I love you," Edward murmured, the burn dimmed with every "baby," and question he asked and wanted to hear an answer to about our new life. A month later my time with Jasper, and what I had felt beginning between us, was so far back in my mind it was like I had imagined it.
At least that's what I continued to tell myself.
There was one day I was sure he'd be there when I turned the corner. I could sense that he was close, my body hummed with his presence. The hair on my neck stood on end as I breathed in his scent, that cinnamon and Jasper smell that I thought I'd forgotten.
As if I could forget.
But he wasn't there - well not visibly, anyway.
So I pushed his memory further down and talked to Garrett about the services available in Miami, and getting a referral for when I moved down there.
Because I was leaving Seattle.
Leaving everything, and everyone here, behind.
Leaving behind shadows.
~8~
"Mother, it's not that far to travel."
I let the magazine I'd been pretending to read the entire time he'd been on the phone to his mother slide down a little. Just enough, so that I could see over the top and watch Edward pace back and forth, tugging at his hair every so often. I was trying not to stare at him, but the man had come home still in his scrubs-something he hadn't really done since his resident days-and he was looking edible.
"I'll come back and see you all the time… and Father."
Huh, not we… I. Maybe things were changing for the better. He knew I hated his mother, and he knew that she didn't like me. No need to force unwanted company on each other, now was there? This whole moving to Florida far, far away from Mother Dearest may have been the best thing yet for us both… for us all.
"I've told you, it's an opportunity to work my own hours, spend more time doing the things I want to do. I'm tired, Mother. I'm tired of the long hours and plane rides and hotel rooms. I'm tired of being without Bella."
My whole body warmed with that last part. He'd missed me. He'd said it nearly every day since our reconciliation, he'd apologized for being so vacant from our lives. That if he hadn't been so closed off and concentrating on things that didn't matter, like a career he wasn't even happy with anymore, that things between us would have been different.
That we would have been different.
I liked hearing that. I liked hearing him acknowledge that not only had I given up, but he had checked out of our marriage and this partnership and the possibility of making it work a long time ago. Yes, my part was due to more than just not having the Edward I had thought I'd fallen in love with around; I had deeper issues that factored into a lot of the problems that existed between us.
But Edward admitting that he had a part in this, too made me feel a little better.
"Mother. She's my wife. How many times do we have to go over this?"
Edward had stopped pacing; his knuckles were turning white as he gripped the phone hard against his ear. His tone had changed and I'd never heard him speak like this before, especially to Mother Masen.
"Enough!" he shouted and I dropped my magazine. "I've had enough of this. You can't keep pitting the life you wanted for me against the life I have chosen. I'm a grown man, Mother. Bella is my life. Not you, not work. Bella. I may have only just realized how important that fact is, but I'm not willing to let it go. Not for you. Not for anybody."
He was quiet and I watched as his chest moved calmly in and out - in complete contrast to the way my heart was now beating.
"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way," he murmured as a tear rolled down his cheek, followed by another and another. I stood up and went to his side, taking his free hand in my own and squeezing it lightly. His eyes, glassy and dark-almost vacant yet full of pain-looked back into my own.
"Goodbye, Mother."
The phone dropped from his hand and he just looked at me as it bounced with a dull thud over the Persian rug under our feet. His hand slid along my jaw, his fingers entangling into my hair that hung loosly down my back, and he tilted my head up toward his.
"Edward," I spoke softly, not sure of what else I could possibly say to make this better. To convey what it felt to me to hear him finally stand up for himself. For us. For me.
"I'm so, so sorry, baby." His voice broke over the words as a loud sob forced its way out of his throat. His hand was shaking in mine, his grip never loosening as he crumbled in front of me, falling to his knees and taking me down to the floor with him.
Edward sobbed again and shook when I wrapped my arms around him, being the anchor he needed as he broke down completely. I ran my fingers through his hair, a mass of knots and tangles from how often he'd tugged at the ends, and let him cry against my shoulder. His grip on my hips tightened, almost as if he needed to feel that I wasn't leaving him. Then he was muttering something against the skin of my neck, his words lost in between harsh breaths and sniffles and it was only when I shifted my face closer, turning my body into his that I could make them out.
"Don't … me… don't… please… don't… me… baby… need…"
I pulled back, clutching his face between my hands and watched his shiny red lips tremble as the words poured out so fast I still couldn't make them into an understandable sentence. Those telling jade irises ringed with red, spider webbed with tiny crimson veins that almost covered all the white of his eyes as tears continued to roll down his rosy cheeks.
"Edward," I shook my head, swallowing against the lump in my own throat to see him so broken. Looking so lost and in pain. It physically hurt me to see him like this.
"Edward, I can't understand what you're saying."
"Please." His hands left my hips, pressing over my own where I still held his face, stopping my thumbs from wiping at the wetness that spread across his shook his head lightly from side to side. "Don't leave me. Please, baby, I can't lose you. I love you so much."
"I'm not going anywhere, Edward," I said, not understanding where he was coming from. I was here, holding him and yet it felt like it wasn't enough.
"I love you, Bella. I love you so much and how close I came to losing you… I can't lose you. You're the only family I have. The only one who knows me. You're all I have now." His hands left mine to cup my own face the exact same way I was holding his. His grip tighter and almost painful as his words registered in my mind.
He loved me, he didn't want to lose me, even after everything that I'd put him through… the affairs, the cheating - emotionally as well as physically. The utter contempt in which I had previously held his feelings for me, all because I took it for granted that he would one day disappear from my life. But he hadn't, he never had.
It was me that always pushed him away. Me that had made it harder and harder for him to stay. Yet, stay he did. Just like he always had.
He'd always been there for me, from the moment he'd cleaned me up in front of the club where I'd fallen down, he had been there for me. He had wooed me with flowers and chocolates and grand gestures and I'd loved every minute of it. He'd tried hard to get to know my family when they had been around. He had tried to make me a part of his world and somehow found that balance between the two that worked for both of us. He'd been there when my father died and held me when I'd had to let Marcus go.
Every time I'd needed him, he had been there for me and I had only pushed him away time after time. He'd been a steady rock with his love for me and I had been the waves crashing around it, taking when I needed and stripping him down when I didn't. I took and took and now, when his world was turning upside down, he needed me to reaffirm what in my heart of hearts I already knew. The three words he needed to hear. The three words that I hadn't spoken to him properly-honestly-in such a long time.
"I love you, Edward. I love you and I'm not going anywhere unless it's with you."
His lips met mine with such force, I toppled backwards onto the floor, the thick carpet thankfully absorbing the shock of my fall, but his lipswere unmerciful. It went on and on, this pressure surely bruising my skin until my lungs burned with lack of oxygen. He broke away, both of us breathing raggedly as I felt the weight of his body on top of mine in all the places I needed to feel it. He tipped his head back and laughed so loud and so heartily, it was as if he had never been crying before. The sound so joyous and full of mirth it made me smile too.
"Oh, Isabella." His grin was so wide and pulled so tightly over his features that a dimple formed on the side of his cheek. "Bella, Bella, Bella. I've waited so long to hear you say that. So fucking long." Then his lips were on mine again, laughter bubbling between us as his tongue slid inside my mouth, teasing my own.
My heart broke with the way something so simple had changed so much between us. I realized, as his hand swept down my neck, ghosting over my chest and ended lying on my hip, that I hadn't said it since I'd come back home. Since we had basically gotten back together.
This was what he'd needed to hear.
"I love you, Edward. I love-" My declaration was swallowed once more with his mouth when he growled playfully and his lips burned a trail in the same path that his hand had previously traveled. His leg was between mine and his thigh brushed hard against the seam of my pants, pressing right against that wonderful spot that had my skin tingling. His fingers that had been lying on my side were now working their way under my shirt and plucking at an already hard bud at my breast over the thin fabric of my bra. I moaned and arched into his touch.
"Say it again," he whispered, the tip of his nose barely grazing my own. His eyes were bright, not with tears anymore but with happiness and I could feel this moment between us… this change filling me from the tips of my toes to the ends of my hair. He loved me, and I loved him.
I held his face once more, my hands leaving the warm expanse of his broad shoulders to softly brush the wayward hair from the sides of his face, tucking them behind his ears. "Edward, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you." He smirked and kissed me quick.
"God, it feels so good to hear you say that, to hear you say it and look into your eyes and see that you mean it. I've missed you." And I knew when he said that he missed me, he meant me saying and meaning that I did.
And I did love him.
He was my Edward, and I was his Bella.
It was right.
I felt my shirt being pulled up and off my body and I propped myself up to give him the room he needed to remove it. I watched, tugging loose the tie that held his pants on with my fingers as he reached behind his head, pulling off the navy scrub top in one quick, fluid movement. Then he was kissing me again and I could feel his skin on my skin and it was perfect. He was perfect. We were perfect.
A tiny crack, the small, infinitesimal sound was loud only to my ears, but heard none the less. The last part of my heart had fallen into place. No more breakages, no more holes, no more tears. Just a whole me. A whole me with nothing but love to fill the spaces where hurt and worry had once lived. There wasn't any room for what I thought I had shared with Jasper. Edward's constants had smoothed them all away. Edward, who he'd told me I should be with,was here and wanting me and making me feel and that's all that mattered. All that should matter.
"You're so beautiful. I don't think I've ever told you that enough," Edward said with a crooked smile as he bit his bottom lip. I felt his fingertips at the fly of my jeans, slowly easing it down one metal clink at a time.
Then his lips were charting a course down the valley of my breasts. His tongue whirling over my navel and lower as my pants were tugged down my legs. When Edward finally got the material free from my feet, he sat back on his knees, raising my left foot in his hand and pressing his lips to my ankle.
"I've missed you like this."
I propped myself up on my elbows, and was rewarded with the sight of my husband between my legs with a rather large smile on his face, his cock jutting out over his scrubs, hard and thick against his stomach. I licked my lips and felt that familiar ache between my thighs only rise in intensity.
"Like what?"
He nodded to the pile of clothing that surrounded us, and at the one article of clothing I was still wearing. "Like this, jeans and a shirt. Cute panties and a plain bra. This was you nearly ten years ago at your apartment. This is the Bella I fell in love with. Not the satin and lace that you started wearing." I must have looked a little confused because his cheeks flushed. "Not that you don't look sexy in those either, baby. But this, this is you. This isn't you trying with me or being someone that you're not. This is my Bella. This is the woman I love."
I was so overwhelmed by his statement. He recognized something as small as me changing my underwear to get his attention, to gain others' attention and that all I could have been doing, should have been doing was just being me.
Who would have thought that Target's best t-shirt bra and some simple low-rise panties with a few bows would have him reacting like this?
"But," he mumbled against the inside of my knee after shuffling in closer, "I'd rather see you without them on right now."
~8~
We made love right there on the antique Persian rug that some member of Edward's family had bought many years ago. Then he took me upstairs and I rode him in the Jacuzzi. Later in our bed, I gave him a little wake-me-up head after our nap.
Even though we would have officially been together for ten years at the end of this year, it was as if we were newlyweds again.
I wasn't sure if it was the new job, the new house that we were looking at building - yes building - or even if it had to do with finally severing the poisonous relationship we had with his mother, but something had changed in our dynamic, and it was all for the better. Every morning I either woke in Edward's arms or he'd wake me to tell me he was leaving for the day. He would call at lunch and ask what I was doing. He was even home on time - something I hadn't been used to in quite a while.
Once details for Edward's replacement were set in place, we boarded a private jet that Peter had chartered for us, and took off for what I'd called a 'business meeting.' Edward had told me I was wrong, that it was going to be a proper holiday for us, and I nodded and rolled my eyes. He'd taken care of all the arrangements for while we would be down there so when we stopped at the gates to a private community, I gathered we were going to meet up with Peter and his wife.
The drive through the streets with tall palm trees and perfectly kept lawns was nothing unlike what we had lived in back in Seattle. When he turned the car into one of the driveways and entered a pin number without buzzing in, I figured Peter had given him the code. It felt a little rude, and when I asked Edward about it, he just shrugged and gave me a coy smile. His eyes were sparkling with mischief and I was starting to wonder just what I'd got myself into.
The house we finally pulled in front of, was beautiful. No, beautiful wasn't even the right word. It was amazing. It had this timeless, elegant feel with its giant arches, white washed walls and clay tiled roof. If I hadn't of been welcomed to Miami when we stepped off the plane moments ago, I would have sworn we were somewhere in Hollywood at some movie star's villa. I could picture someone classy like Lauren Bacall or even Cary Grant walking out to welcome us, martini in hand.
But no one came out. It was just Edward and me in the whispering air conditioning in the safety of the Audi R8 he'd rented. Something he'd always wanted to own but had never let himself spend money so frivolously on. Our mode of transport was another thing I'd been shocked by when it had been waiting for us at the private airport.
Edward turned in his seat, unbuckling his belt and then my own before taking my hand in his from where I was tapping my fingers anxiously on my leg.
"So?" he asked, that same mischievous glint in his eye now echoing in the tone of his voice.
"What?"
He shrugged and laughed almost nervously. "So, the house? What do you think?"
I looked back through the windshield to a home that I had always dreamed of living in, had always talked to Edward about when we'd watched old black and white movies like Casablanca and His Girl Friday.
"It's beautiful. It reminds me of when we went on that Home of the Stars tour around Beverley Hills."
He squeezed my hand and brought it to his face, pressing his lips to my knuckles. "Our first anniversary. When you had that really bad case of food poisoning-"
"From the Chinese you told me smelled funny but I ate anyway." I laughed, remembering just how sick I had been and how well Edward had taken care of me. "You thought I was pregnant remember?"
"Yes, and you took ten of those home tests, which you made me go out to the drug store to get at four in the morning."
The cool interior of the car filled with warm laughter as we reminisced. I refused to let him call the concierge for some, stating that somehow it would get back to his mother and I was freaked out enough as it was.
"They were all negatives, though," Edward said, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb.
I nodded, my mirth disappearing as I remembered how awkward that night had been. Waiting for the results. Neither of us speaking about what we were going to do if I was pregnant. Just sitting there together on the edge of the bathtub, his hand in mine and my foot tapping nervously on the cold tiled floor.
It wasn't something we had wanted then. It wouldn't have been the right time and even when we'd talked about it afterwards, it was obvious we'd both been relieved. Edward thought it was for the best. He was busy with his career taking off and working long hours. I wasn't prepared for anything like motherhood, I'd only just become legally able to drink. Motherhood? Being called mommy when I'd just started feeling okay with being a Mrs? That I had not been ready for.
We hadn't been ready then, and as the years passed and events changed in our lives, we'd never really discussed having a child as a possibility. First, I'd beentrying to cope with losing my dad and brother. Then it was feeling so disconnected with myself and Edward that a baby wasn't even a blip on the radar.
"Bella?" Edward's voice broke into my reverie and I forced a smile on my face and my eyes to focus on his.
"The house, baby, what do you think?"
"It's beautiful, Edward. But don't you think it's weird that neither Charlotte nor Peter are here to welcome us? It feels a little rude."
Edward smiled, another smirk really, and his lips twitched at the side.
"What? What aren't you telling me? You look like you're hiding something, Edward," I asked as he leaned forward, kissing the corner of my lips while I spoke.
His hand left mine to brush his fingertips softly over my jaw before pushing my unbound hair behind my ears. "There isn't anyone coming to greet us, because there isn't anyone here."
I leaned into his touch, letting my lips move softly with his in a slow dance that calmed my nerves but seemed to do nothing for Edward's. He was almost bouncing in his seat and I still had no clue what it was about.
"I figured that out on my own, Holmes." I slid my tongue over his plump bottom lip and into his mouth, deepening our kiss now that I knew we weren't going to be interrupted. I twisted further into his touch, turning my body so that I could run my hand up the inseam of his pants and over the bulge that was evident beneath a crisp linen covering that did nothing to hide his arousal.
Edward groaned and fervently pressed his lips to mine, once, twice then pulled back. My disappointment at our impromptu make-out-in-the-car ending must have shown in the pout on my face. He traced my lips and pressed his to the tip of my nose before taking my hand once more.
"This isn't Peter's house."
"Well whose house is it then?" I asked, feeling a little nervous that we sitting here in front of some stranger's home. This was so unlike Edward.
His gaze never left mine, but his cheeks flushed pink and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was nervous. Edward didn't do nervous. He was steady as a rock, both in the surgery and out.
"Well, you know how you wanted to build this time?" I nodded, not exactly seeing where he was headed with this considering the land here wasn't vacant.
"When I was looking online for something suitable, I came across this, and well…"
"Edward? Do we own this?" There suddenly didn't seem to be enough air in the car. He'd bought us a house? Where was I in this decision making? Had all the progress I'd thought we had made as a couple completely gone backwards before we'd even had a chance to start this whole new chapter of our lives?
I slid back into my chair and started to pull my hand from his. "Edward," I shook my head, all the playfulness that had been between us dissipating as I realized nothing had really changed at all.
"No, no it's not like that at all," he started, squeezing my hand tight.
I snorted. "Well what is it like then because-"
"You didn't let me finish, Bella," Edward interrupted; softly stroking the back of my hand with is thumb once more. "When I was looking online for property, this was on the same page and well, I remembered how you've always loved those older styled homes, the ones with character? And then I saw it was for rent and well. I just thought..."
I raised my brows, encouraging him to go on.
"I just thought that well, this is such a big thing for us. This move. This trust we're building together and I thought we could have something special."
I shook my head, "I still don't understand, Edward. This house, it looks lovely but... we're here for a week. Nobody rents a place like this for a week. It's just - " I paused, and reality set in. "You, you did rent the house. For one week. Edward..." my mouth opened and closed and his smile only widened.
"Holy shit, Edward! You did! How did you? How much? What?" I spluttered and his lips crashed into mine, stopping the flow of my rambling.
"It doesn't matter, it wasn't that much." I stopped him with a look, and he tilted his head to the side, his hand cupping my cheek. "Fine, it was a lot but I told them that we might be interested and the owners were unsure if they wanted to sell or rent anyway, so..."
I couldn't help but laugh. He'd rented us this amazing place and it was all from something I'd talked about with him so long ago. Again, I was forced to realize that he did know things about me. That he did remember so much of the little things, when here I was thinking that he'd never noticed me at all. I reached up to place my hand over his on my cheek and squeezed his fingers.
"I love you, you silly man. I really love you."
His eyes shone and there was tears pooling on his lower lashes.
"I love you, too." he murmured, his voice breaking over what should have been such simple words between a married couple, but were so much more for us.
"Do you want to look inside?"
"As long as the first stop is the main bedroom."
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a/n much huge love to the ones who right my words, ilsuocantante & AmeryMarie. They talk me down from ledges and kick my ass when needed.
Pretty Porn Contest - Link to theLUSTorium dot net on my profile.
I know I said the carlisle/bella one shot was coming.. it is.. soon
So is the Mad Men inspired jasward slash... and in the next few days Subway Strangers (Rose/Em) chapter three will be posted.
MUCHO GRACIAS for all your support and words of wonder at how this is going to end.. and for sticking with it for so long.
Two to go.
Boo
By miztrezboo80
Chapter: 22. A Stitch in Time
Genre: Twilight - Drama / Romance
Characters: Bella, Jasper
Rating: MA/NC17
Warnings: Strong Language, Sexual Content,
Beta'd By: Ilsuocantante
Summary: "Bella had the perfect life. The perfect husband to love, the perfect house, the perfect job.. everything perfect. Until one night the shutters came up and the perfect movie life she thought she was living came crashing down around her. Enter... The Sexy Bella.. After shenanigans in the tool shed go awry, Bella's forced into sex therapy with one hot looking doctor. But when he can't handle her, he calls the only person he knows who can ... A series of unusual sessions, admissions and out and out seduction become the norm for her Tuesday Appointments. But will Bella ever get any better? "
Disclaimer: All things Twilight not mine.. songs mentioned.. nah, I'm not that clever. Silly plot and situations, yeh, I'll claim that :D
Chapter Twenty Two- A Stitch in Time
"Words will break us down, where you can't make a sound"
Morning Benders - Stitches
Things were different.
Edward… was different.
He was attentive. He was smiling. He was calling me baby. He was laughing a lot more.
He was happy.
He was… different.
I wasn't sure what I was, or how I felt about the different.
I was… indifferent.
I didn't know how to respond to the new Edward in front of me. I didn't know how to react when he asked for my opinion on the new home we could build together in Miami. I wasn't sure what to do with the moments of silence between us when he waited for an answer.
I nodded a lot.
I smiled.
I agreed.
I had no idea what I was agreeing to, as long as he ended up smiling at the end - then I felt I'd done my job.
He'd surprised me that night, that equal parts amazing equal parts confusing and upsetting night that we'd rocked not only the surface of or twelve seater table, but who I'd thought he was-and we were- to the very foundations. We'd sat there - me on his lap, my arms wrapped round him as he held me close - and talked.
Really talked.
As in… for the first time I could ever actually remember since even the beginning we talked. Edward opened up about how he felt. What hearing that I'd actually really left him meant. That - just like I had figured - he hadn't thought I'd left the house, let alone virtually moved in with someone else.
He said that admitting that I had been with Jasper - that I had stayed there and slept with him - had absolutely crushed him. He knew when he had found Jasper and me kissing at the party that there was something more. All the way back to when I'd been out drinking with Ang before Maggie arrived, he'd always thought that Jasper was interested in more than just my mental health.
Yet again, he forgave me.
And when I'd asked him why…
"I love you, Bella. When you love someone like I love you, you have to forgive them. I can't not have you in my life. My time away from you made me realize that even more. You're the only woman I've ever loved. The only one I want, and if I have to make some changes to make myself more available to your needs. Then I'll do it. I love you, baby. It's only ever been you."
I'd cried.
I cried because they were the words I'd wanted to hear from him in so long. That I mattered to him. That I was more than just this person he had next to him in his life. That I was needed and wanted. That I was something he couldn't live without.
When I'd finished shedding more tears, his lips met mine and the reconnection resumed between us. It was slow and sweet and with every kiss, with every murmur between us, it was like all the pieces of us that had turned to dust were cemented back together. It was his name I whispered onto his sweat-slickened skin as I came. It was my name he grunted as he pulsed inside me.
It was Edward's embrace I was wrapped in that night - neither squishing me to the bed nor too far apart - He just held me and I sank into his warmth and didn't come up for hours.
When I finally opened my eyes the next morning, it was to a pair of bright moss-green ones staring right back at me. He smiled and let his fingers say everything he wanted to once more as they played over sensitive skin. His lips professed the love he had reassured me with as they met mine, his green eyes saying so much more than words ever could as our mutual moans and sighs filled the spaces between us. Every touch was, 'I'm sorry.' Every caress was, 'I still care.' Every press of flesh was, 'Never again, it won't happen ever again.' Every blink and shared look was the 'I love you' we'd taken for granted.
Everything slipped back into place between us. All the wrongs were still raw and bruised but they meshed with the rights, and as the days passed and the hurts lessened, we began to fit once more. But it was better than what I remembered. It was the same and yet different; it was more.
He didn't leave my side for three weeks.
At first, I thought he was keeping an eye on me. Making sure I wasn't going to go back… there - back to seeing him - or falling back into old patterns that no longer mattered.
He was right to worry. Jasper was still a massive part of my every day routine. His voice still echoed in my heart at the strangest of times.
When I was putting on panties, his slight twang was asking me why I was bothering when he'd only rip them off later.
I threw out all the pairs I'd worn while I'd been with him.
When I was washing my hair with the same shampoo and conditioner I'd used for months, it was his strong fingers massaging my scalp.
I changed brands the next day.
I couldn't even look at bagels the same.
He'd ruined so many of my every day moments, things that I had taken for granted… were now tainted with Jasperisms.
If Edward noticed… he didn't say anything. He was busy with organizing his replacement at the hospital. He held phone conferences with Peter and his wife and included me as they discussed his role within their practice. A practice, I then found, now half belonged to Edward. Or in his words - our practice. He wanted me to work there at reception. Peter's wife, Charlotte, was their anesthesiologist and they hoped to keep it a family-run business. Charlotte's cousin had previously run the office, but she was moving on and Edward thought it was almost like fate that there was not one but two job opportunities in this great 'change of landscape' that he'd figured out for us.
I wasn't too sure, I'd never really done any book work before or manned phones and kept appointments. But for Edward, for us, I would try.
What else was I going to do?
As Edward became more caught up in finding us a place to live that wasfitting for both the lifestyle we were apparently going to have in Miami and our new business schedule - I had more time on my own.
More time to look at my phone and will it to ring.
To check my email and find nothing but spam and crap that I wasn't didn't interest me in the very least.
To arrive early for my appointments with Garrett, just in case I'd see him in the hall.
My therapy remained a bone of contention between Edward and me.
He was still happy and keen on me going. He just wasn't exactly thrilled that I wanted to continue with Garrett in the same building that another doctor with more personal information and physical understanding of his wife still worked.
I understood his hesitation.
Yet, I refused to give up on Garrett.
Or give up the fact that going there meant I was close to the other one that had broken my heart and forced me to rebuild it without him.
It was stupid and it was probably torturing myself for no good reason. But I figured if it hurt me to go there, to be on the same floor, breathe the same recycled air as him and have him know that I was doing all those things too - then it was equally awful for us both. Days moved on, turning into weeks and every time I saw Garrett, I thought about Jasper less and less. The heart however, can fall hard and fast, but take a lifetime to heal after being broken. I was just lucky that Edward was providing the filler to all the cracks that Jasper had left behind.
Edward, combined with my anger at how Jasper could give up on us so easily, had the slivers and discarded shards of that once fit to burst organ slowly pressed back together until the raw ache inside my chest lessened. The pain eased with every "I love you," Edward murmured, the burn dimmed with every "baby," and question he asked and wanted to hear an answer to about our new life. A month later my time with Jasper, and what I had felt beginning between us, was so far back in my mind it was like I had imagined it.
At least that's what I continued to tell myself.
There was one day I was sure he'd be there when I turned the corner. I could sense that he was close, my body hummed with his presence. The hair on my neck stood on end as I breathed in his scent, that cinnamon and Jasper smell that I thought I'd forgotten.
As if I could forget.
But he wasn't there - well not visibly, anyway.
So I pushed his memory further down and talked to Garrett about the services available in Miami, and getting a referral for when I moved down there.
Because I was leaving Seattle.
Leaving everything, and everyone here, behind.
Leaving behind shadows.
~8~
"Mother, it's not that far to travel."
I let the magazine I'd been pretending to read the entire time he'd been on the phone to his mother slide down a little. Just enough, so that I could see over the top and watch Edward pace back and forth, tugging at his hair every so often. I was trying not to stare at him, but the man had come home still in his scrubs-something he hadn't really done since his resident days-and he was looking edible.
"I'll come back and see you all the time… and Father."
Huh, not we… I. Maybe things were changing for the better. He knew I hated his mother, and he knew that she didn't like me. No need to force unwanted company on each other, now was there? This whole moving to Florida far, far away from Mother Dearest may have been the best thing yet for us both… for us all.
"I've told you, it's an opportunity to work my own hours, spend more time doing the things I want to do. I'm tired, Mother. I'm tired of the long hours and plane rides and hotel rooms. I'm tired of being without Bella."
My whole body warmed with that last part. He'd missed me. He'd said it nearly every day since our reconciliation, he'd apologized for being so vacant from our lives. That if he hadn't been so closed off and concentrating on things that didn't matter, like a career he wasn't even happy with anymore, that things between us would have been different.
That we would have been different.
I liked hearing that. I liked hearing him acknowledge that not only had I given up, but he had checked out of our marriage and this partnership and the possibility of making it work a long time ago. Yes, my part was due to more than just not having the Edward I had thought I'd fallen in love with around; I had deeper issues that factored into a lot of the problems that existed between us.
But Edward admitting that he had a part in this, too made me feel a little better.
"Mother. She's my wife. How many times do we have to go over this?"
Edward had stopped pacing; his knuckles were turning white as he gripped the phone hard against his ear. His tone had changed and I'd never heard him speak like this before, especially to Mother Masen.
"Enough!" he shouted and I dropped my magazine. "I've had enough of this. You can't keep pitting the life you wanted for me against the life I have chosen. I'm a grown man, Mother. Bella is my life. Not you, not work. Bella. I may have only just realized how important that fact is, but I'm not willing to let it go. Not for you. Not for anybody."
He was quiet and I watched as his chest moved calmly in and out - in complete contrast to the way my heart was now beating.
"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way," he murmured as a tear rolled down his cheek, followed by another and another. I stood up and went to his side, taking his free hand in my own and squeezing it lightly. His eyes, glassy and dark-almost vacant yet full of pain-looked back into my own.
"Goodbye, Mother."
The phone dropped from his hand and he just looked at me as it bounced with a dull thud over the Persian rug under our feet. His hand slid along my jaw, his fingers entangling into my hair that hung loosly down my back, and he tilted my head up toward his.
"Edward," I spoke softly, not sure of what else I could possibly say to make this better. To convey what it felt to me to hear him finally stand up for himself. For us. For me.
"I'm so, so sorry, baby." His voice broke over the words as a loud sob forced its way out of his throat. His hand was shaking in mine, his grip never loosening as he crumbled in front of me, falling to his knees and taking me down to the floor with him.
Edward sobbed again and shook when I wrapped my arms around him, being the anchor he needed as he broke down completely. I ran my fingers through his hair, a mass of knots and tangles from how often he'd tugged at the ends, and let him cry against my shoulder. His grip on my hips tightened, almost as if he needed to feel that I wasn't leaving him. Then he was muttering something against the skin of my neck, his words lost in between harsh breaths and sniffles and it was only when I shifted my face closer, turning my body into his that I could make them out.
"Don't … me… don't… please… don't… me… baby… need…"
I pulled back, clutching his face between my hands and watched his shiny red lips tremble as the words poured out so fast I still couldn't make them into an understandable sentence. Those telling jade irises ringed with red, spider webbed with tiny crimson veins that almost covered all the white of his eyes as tears continued to roll down his rosy cheeks.
"Edward," I shook my head, swallowing against the lump in my own throat to see him so broken. Looking so lost and in pain. It physically hurt me to see him like this.
"Edward, I can't understand what you're saying."
"Please." His hands left my hips, pressing over my own where I still held his face, stopping my thumbs from wiping at the wetness that spread across his shook his head lightly from side to side. "Don't leave me. Please, baby, I can't lose you. I love you so much."
"I'm not going anywhere, Edward," I said, not understanding where he was coming from. I was here, holding him and yet it felt like it wasn't enough.
"I love you, Bella. I love you so much and how close I came to losing you… I can't lose you. You're the only family I have. The only one who knows me. You're all I have now." His hands left mine to cup my own face the exact same way I was holding his. His grip tighter and almost painful as his words registered in my mind.
He loved me, he didn't want to lose me, even after everything that I'd put him through… the affairs, the cheating - emotionally as well as physically. The utter contempt in which I had previously held his feelings for me, all because I took it for granted that he would one day disappear from my life. But he hadn't, he never had.
It was me that always pushed him away. Me that had made it harder and harder for him to stay. Yet, stay he did. Just like he always had.
He'd always been there for me, from the moment he'd cleaned me up in front of the club where I'd fallen down, he had been there for me. He had wooed me with flowers and chocolates and grand gestures and I'd loved every minute of it. He'd tried hard to get to know my family when they had been around. He had tried to make me a part of his world and somehow found that balance between the two that worked for both of us. He'd been there when my father died and held me when I'd had to let Marcus go.
Every time I'd needed him, he had been there for me and I had only pushed him away time after time. He'd been a steady rock with his love for me and I had been the waves crashing around it, taking when I needed and stripping him down when I didn't. I took and took and now, when his world was turning upside down, he needed me to reaffirm what in my heart of hearts I already knew. The three words he needed to hear. The three words that I hadn't spoken to him properly-honestly-in such a long time.
"I love you, Edward. I love you and I'm not going anywhere unless it's with you."
His lips met mine with such force, I toppled backwards onto the floor, the thick carpet thankfully absorbing the shock of my fall, but his lipswere unmerciful. It went on and on, this pressure surely bruising my skin until my lungs burned with lack of oxygen. He broke away, both of us breathing raggedly as I felt the weight of his body on top of mine in all the places I needed to feel it. He tipped his head back and laughed so loud and so heartily, it was as if he had never been crying before. The sound so joyous and full of mirth it made me smile too.
"Oh, Isabella." His grin was so wide and pulled so tightly over his features that a dimple formed on the side of his cheek. "Bella, Bella, Bella. I've waited so long to hear you say that. So fucking long." Then his lips were on mine again, laughter bubbling between us as his tongue slid inside my mouth, teasing my own.
My heart broke with the way something so simple had changed so much between us. I realized, as his hand swept down my neck, ghosting over my chest and ended lying on my hip, that I hadn't said it since I'd come back home. Since we had basically gotten back together.
This was what he'd needed to hear.
"I love you, Edward. I love-" My declaration was swallowed once more with his mouth when he growled playfully and his lips burned a trail in the same path that his hand had previously traveled. His leg was between mine and his thigh brushed hard against the seam of my pants, pressing right against that wonderful spot that had my skin tingling. His fingers that had been lying on my side were now working their way under my shirt and plucking at an already hard bud at my breast over the thin fabric of my bra. I moaned and arched into his touch.
"Say it again," he whispered, the tip of his nose barely grazing my own. His eyes were bright, not with tears anymore but with happiness and I could feel this moment between us… this change filling me from the tips of my toes to the ends of my hair. He loved me, and I loved him.
I held his face once more, my hands leaving the warm expanse of his broad shoulders to softly brush the wayward hair from the sides of his face, tucking them behind his ears. "Edward, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you." He smirked and kissed me quick.
"God, it feels so good to hear you say that, to hear you say it and look into your eyes and see that you mean it. I've missed you." And I knew when he said that he missed me, he meant me saying and meaning that I did.
And I did love him.
He was my Edward, and I was his Bella.
It was right.
I felt my shirt being pulled up and off my body and I propped myself up to give him the room he needed to remove it. I watched, tugging loose the tie that held his pants on with my fingers as he reached behind his head, pulling off the navy scrub top in one quick, fluid movement. Then he was kissing me again and I could feel his skin on my skin and it was perfect. He was perfect. We were perfect.
A tiny crack, the small, infinitesimal sound was loud only to my ears, but heard none the less. The last part of my heart had fallen into place. No more breakages, no more holes, no more tears. Just a whole me. A whole me with nothing but love to fill the spaces where hurt and worry had once lived. There wasn't any room for what I thought I had shared with Jasper. Edward's constants had smoothed them all away. Edward, who he'd told me I should be with,was here and wanting me and making me feel and that's all that mattered. All that should matter.
"You're so beautiful. I don't think I've ever told you that enough," Edward said with a crooked smile as he bit his bottom lip. I felt his fingertips at the fly of my jeans, slowly easing it down one metal clink at a time.
Then his lips were charting a course down the valley of my breasts. His tongue whirling over my navel and lower as my pants were tugged down my legs. When Edward finally got the material free from my feet, he sat back on his knees, raising my left foot in his hand and pressing his lips to my ankle.
"I've missed you like this."
I propped myself up on my elbows, and was rewarded with the sight of my husband between my legs with a rather large smile on his face, his cock jutting out over his scrubs, hard and thick against his stomach. I licked my lips and felt that familiar ache between my thighs only rise in intensity.
"Like what?"
He nodded to the pile of clothing that surrounded us, and at the one article of clothing I was still wearing. "Like this, jeans and a shirt. Cute panties and a plain bra. This was you nearly ten years ago at your apartment. This is the Bella I fell in love with. Not the satin and lace that you started wearing." I must have looked a little confused because his cheeks flushed. "Not that you don't look sexy in those either, baby. But this, this is you. This isn't you trying with me or being someone that you're not. This is my Bella. This is the woman I love."
I was so overwhelmed by his statement. He recognized something as small as me changing my underwear to get his attention, to gain others' attention and that all I could have been doing, should have been doing was just being me.
Who would have thought that Target's best t-shirt bra and some simple low-rise panties with a few bows would have him reacting like this?
"But," he mumbled against the inside of my knee after shuffling in closer, "I'd rather see you without them on right now."
~8~
We made love right there on the antique Persian rug that some member of Edward's family had bought many years ago. Then he took me upstairs and I rode him in the Jacuzzi. Later in our bed, I gave him a little wake-me-up head after our nap.
Even though we would have officially been together for ten years at the end of this year, it was as if we were newlyweds again.
I wasn't sure if it was the new job, the new house that we were looking at building - yes building - or even if it had to do with finally severing the poisonous relationship we had with his mother, but something had changed in our dynamic, and it was all for the better. Every morning I either woke in Edward's arms or he'd wake me to tell me he was leaving for the day. He would call at lunch and ask what I was doing. He was even home on time - something I hadn't been used to in quite a while.
Once details for Edward's replacement were set in place, we boarded a private jet that Peter had chartered for us, and took off for what I'd called a 'business meeting.' Edward had told me I was wrong, that it was going to be a proper holiday for us, and I nodded and rolled my eyes. He'd taken care of all the arrangements for while we would be down there so when we stopped at the gates to a private community, I gathered we were going to meet up with Peter and his wife.
The drive through the streets with tall palm trees and perfectly kept lawns was nothing unlike what we had lived in back in Seattle. When he turned the car into one of the driveways and entered a pin number without buzzing in, I figured Peter had given him the code. It felt a little rude, and when I asked Edward about it, he just shrugged and gave me a coy smile. His eyes were sparkling with mischief and I was starting to wonder just what I'd got myself into.
The house we finally pulled in front of, was beautiful. No, beautiful wasn't even the right word. It was amazing. It had this timeless, elegant feel with its giant arches, white washed walls and clay tiled roof. If I hadn't of been welcomed to Miami when we stepped off the plane moments ago, I would have sworn we were somewhere in Hollywood at some movie star's villa. I could picture someone classy like Lauren Bacall or even Cary Grant walking out to welcome us, martini in hand.
But no one came out. It was just Edward and me in the whispering air conditioning in the safety of the Audi R8 he'd rented. Something he'd always wanted to own but had never let himself spend money so frivolously on. Our mode of transport was another thing I'd been shocked by when it had been waiting for us at the private airport.
Edward turned in his seat, unbuckling his belt and then my own before taking my hand in his from where I was tapping my fingers anxiously on my leg.
"So?" he asked, that same mischievous glint in his eye now echoing in the tone of his voice.
"What?"
He shrugged and laughed almost nervously. "So, the house? What do you think?"
I looked back through the windshield to a home that I had always dreamed of living in, had always talked to Edward about when we'd watched old black and white movies like Casablanca and His Girl Friday.
"It's beautiful. It reminds me of when we went on that Home of the Stars tour around Beverley Hills."
He squeezed my hand and brought it to his face, pressing his lips to my knuckles. "Our first anniversary. When you had that really bad case of food poisoning-"
"From the Chinese you told me smelled funny but I ate anyway." I laughed, remembering just how sick I had been and how well Edward had taken care of me. "You thought I was pregnant remember?"
"Yes, and you took ten of those home tests, which you made me go out to the drug store to get at four in the morning."
The cool interior of the car filled with warm laughter as we reminisced. I refused to let him call the concierge for some, stating that somehow it would get back to his mother and I was freaked out enough as it was.
"They were all negatives, though," Edward said, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb.
I nodded, my mirth disappearing as I remembered how awkward that night had been. Waiting for the results. Neither of us speaking about what we were going to do if I was pregnant. Just sitting there together on the edge of the bathtub, his hand in mine and my foot tapping nervously on the cold tiled floor.
It wasn't something we had wanted then. It wouldn't have been the right time and even when we'd talked about it afterwards, it was obvious we'd both been relieved. Edward thought it was for the best. He was busy with his career taking off and working long hours. I wasn't prepared for anything like motherhood, I'd only just become legally able to drink. Motherhood? Being called mommy when I'd just started feeling okay with being a Mrs? That I had not been ready for.
We hadn't been ready then, and as the years passed and events changed in our lives, we'd never really discussed having a child as a possibility. First, I'd beentrying to cope with losing my dad and brother. Then it was feeling so disconnected with myself and Edward that a baby wasn't even a blip on the radar.
"Bella?" Edward's voice broke into my reverie and I forced a smile on my face and my eyes to focus on his.
"The house, baby, what do you think?"
"It's beautiful, Edward. But don't you think it's weird that neither Charlotte nor Peter are here to welcome us? It feels a little rude."
Edward smiled, another smirk really, and his lips twitched at the side.
"What? What aren't you telling me? You look like you're hiding something, Edward," I asked as he leaned forward, kissing the corner of my lips while I spoke.
His hand left mine to brush his fingertips softly over my jaw before pushing my unbound hair behind my ears. "There isn't anyone coming to greet us, because there isn't anyone here."
I leaned into his touch, letting my lips move softly with his in a slow dance that calmed my nerves but seemed to do nothing for Edward's. He was almost bouncing in his seat and I still had no clue what it was about.
"I figured that out on my own, Holmes." I slid my tongue over his plump bottom lip and into his mouth, deepening our kiss now that I knew we weren't going to be interrupted. I twisted further into his touch, turning my body so that I could run my hand up the inseam of his pants and over the bulge that was evident beneath a crisp linen covering that did nothing to hide his arousal.
Edward groaned and fervently pressed his lips to mine, once, twice then pulled back. My disappointment at our impromptu make-out-in-the-car ending must have shown in the pout on my face. He traced my lips and pressed his to the tip of my nose before taking my hand once more.
"This isn't Peter's house."
"Well whose house is it then?" I asked, feeling a little nervous that we sitting here in front of some stranger's home. This was so unlike Edward.
His gaze never left mine, but his cheeks flushed pink and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was nervous. Edward didn't do nervous. He was steady as a rock, both in the surgery and out.
"Well, you know how you wanted to build this time?" I nodded, not exactly seeing where he was headed with this considering the land here wasn't vacant.
"When I was looking online for something suitable, I came across this, and well…"
"Edward? Do we own this?" There suddenly didn't seem to be enough air in the car. He'd bought us a house? Where was I in this decision making? Had all the progress I'd thought we had made as a couple completely gone backwards before we'd even had a chance to start this whole new chapter of our lives?
I slid back into my chair and started to pull my hand from his. "Edward," I shook my head, all the playfulness that had been between us dissipating as I realized nothing had really changed at all.
"No, no it's not like that at all," he started, squeezing my hand tight.
I snorted. "Well what is it like then because-"
"You didn't let me finish, Bella," Edward interrupted; softly stroking the back of my hand with is thumb once more. "When I was looking online for property, this was on the same page and well, I remembered how you've always loved those older styled homes, the ones with character? And then I saw it was for rent and well. I just thought..."
I raised my brows, encouraging him to go on.
"I just thought that well, this is such a big thing for us. This move. This trust we're building together and I thought we could have something special."
I shook my head, "I still don't understand, Edward. This house, it looks lovely but... we're here for a week. Nobody rents a place like this for a week. It's just - " I paused, and reality set in. "You, you did rent the house. For one week. Edward..." my mouth opened and closed and his smile only widened.
"Holy shit, Edward! You did! How did you? How much? What?" I spluttered and his lips crashed into mine, stopping the flow of my rambling.
"It doesn't matter, it wasn't that much." I stopped him with a look, and he tilted his head to the side, his hand cupping my cheek. "Fine, it was a lot but I told them that we might be interested and the owners were unsure if they wanted to sell or rent anyway, so..."
I couldn't help but laugh. He'd rented us this amazing place and it was all from something I'd talked about with him so long ago. Again, I was forced to realize that he did know things about me. That he did remember so much of the little things, when here I was thinking that he'd never noticed me at all. I reached up to place my hand over his on my cheek and squeezed his fingers.
"I love you, you silly man. I really love you."
His eyes shone and there was tears pooling on his lower lashes.
"I love you, too." he murmured, his voice breaking over what should have been such simple words between a married couple, but were so much more for us.
"Do you want to look inside?"
"As long as the first stop is the main bedroom."
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a/n much huge love to the ones who right my words, ilsuocantante & AmeryMarie. They talk me down from ledges and kick my ass when needed.
Pretty Porn Contest - Link to theLUSTorium dot net on my profile.
I know I said the carlisle/bella one shot was coming.. it is.. soon
So is the Mad Men inspired jasward slash... and in the next few days Subway Strangers (Rose/Em) chapter three will be posted.
MUCHO GRACIAS for all your support and words of wonder at how this is going to end.. and for sticking with it for so long.
Two to go.
Boo