Fire and Ice : The Club
Title: Fire and Ice - Chapter 1, The Club
Author: diamond_sparks
Fandom and Pairing: Twilight, Edward/Bella, also other canon pairings. No Jacob.
Notes: AU, Edward is still a vampire, Bella is still a human. Both have been aged up. Edward died at 22, Bella is 22. Vampires are known to be among humans but feeding on a human to the point of killing them is a crime punishable by destruction. This is a Dom!Edward/Sub!Bella fic. I had had it in my mind for a while and when I was without a computer I hand wrote the first couple chapters. Probably will read as OOC a bit for some. Please Read and Review
Rating: R for this chapter, probably M or NC17 for later chapters.
Edward Cullen smiled slightly as he slipped his expensively monogrammed personal card plus a hefty gratuity into the ready palm of the attendant as he and his adopted brothers paused in the ornate foyer of a barely known and well kept secret establishment known simply as The Club. He cast his gaze back over his shoulder, barely refraining from rolling his eyes at Emmett's extreme amusement at Edward's expense while Jasper wore a now familiar look of near pain.
He appreciated that his brothers still backed him up even when they thought he was ever so slightly crazy. Then again, just being what they were more or less plastered that label on them.
"My specifications," he said in his best quiet but firm tone, "are on the back of the card. So far, you haven't been able to produce anything even close in the last month. I hope you have something to show me tonight."
It wasn't difficult to skim the surface of the man's mind. His thoughts were largely concerned with a mixture of hope, greed and sexual images that Edward ignored as best he could. He was well aware that with Jasper and Emmett flanking him, his normal mien of ever so slight distant intimidation took on a deeper and more terrifying aspect. It was never a good idea to get on the wrong side of any of the Cullens, and this was well-known.
He could "hear" the attendant's thoughts ruffling through the current possible matches for Edward's requirements but Edward didn't focus on the faces flashing by like a deck of cards being quickly shuffled.
"As it happens, Mr. Cullen, I believe we might have something for you."
Edward perked a brow upward, catching a fleeting glimpse of pale porcelain skin glowing with life, luminous chocolate brown eyes and waves of mahogany curls. "Oh, really?" he murmured, taking care not to appear too interested at this juncture. "Show me," he ordered in a cool voice.
As their unctuous guide turned with a gesture that they should follow him, he hitched a brief twist of crooked smile at Jasper. "I hope Alice is right about this," Jasper thought loud and clear
behind him.
"I wouldn't bet against her," Edward replied in a murmur too low for the attendant to hear. He followed the man down the hallway covered in plus carpeting and velvet draperies in a warm shade of tawny gold.
He could hear Emmett huff a laugh behind him as well, knowing his brothers could recognize discreet sound proofing when they saw it. It was good work, even Edward's sensitive ears picked up nothing but the hum of air conditioner systems and light, even breathing.
Even the thoughts of other visitors to The Club seemed muted in some way, though then again Edward had spent years perfecting the ability to ignore thoughts unless he chose to focus on them. A sense of impatience welled up inside him as he, Emmett and Jasper continued to follow their guide down the hallway. Eventually a door was opened for them on what The Club liked to call Viewing Chambers.
He thought cynically that the room was merely a way to whet the buyer's appetite before the offering was even within reach. It was a quiet and luxurious room dominated by a huge flat screen with sofas and chairs set about as if this was some hotel lounge rather than something far less innocuous.
Emmett chortled half under his breath, his thoughts about his "baby brother" finally growing up clearly readable like the pages of a book. Jasper's thoughts were more supportive as he and Emmett took seats to one side and began to talk quietly and quickly together, thereby affording Edward and what he had come to see a little more privacy.
Rather than taking the seat in the central location before the screen, Edward stood behind it and casually tucked his hands into the pockets of his immaculate pinstriped trousers. He directed his cool gaze on the attendant who was almost shaking with greed and excitement.
"This," said the attendant grandly, "is our offering, Mr. Cullen."
The lighting dimmed a little and the screen bloomed with an artful photographic portrait. The subject was wearing a rather modest bathing suit by the standards of The Club, and there was enough of a flush on her pale cheeks to tell Edward that she hadn't been comfortable with the photo session. His lips quirked a little. "File?" he asked, extending one hand without taking his eyes off the screen.
A manila folder was placed into that hand while Edward held the image of the girl's slender shape and cameo lovely face in his mind's eye. He flipped the few pages, checking the age and requirements of the subject before anything else. "Isabella," he mused softly, ignoring the reactions of his brothers for the moment.
Now Edward paid more attention to things like her background and her reasons for being here in The Club as an "offering". Any woman who came here and became an offering was willing. It was the biggest reason why Edward could even consider this. First, she would know what he was, what all of his family was. Second, she would know she had certain desires and needs that could not, would not be fulfilled without some action like this and Third, she was intelligent enough to have hunted down the best and safest establishment to handle this transaction.
All of this put together with her photograph did indeed whet Edward's appetite, enough so that he flipped the file closed decisively and held it out for his guide to take. He turned to his brothers and slipped his hands from his pockets to tuck them behind his back instead.
"Emmett, Jasper, you can amuse yourselves for a short while?" he inquired politely though both of his brothers knew the purpose of this quest and expected to be left on their own for a time.
"No problem," Emmett smiled, standing and rubbing his hands together gleefully. He had plans to spend some time in the adjacent casino while Edward was occupied.
"We're here if you need us." Jasper too smiled faintly while he dipped his head in agreement. "I heard they have decent fencing downstairs now," he murmured.
Two more ushers were summoned to escort his brothers to their chosen pastimes, neither of which had to do with the reasons Edward himself was here. Once his brothers were gone, Edward turned to the original attendant. "Bring me Isabella, mulled wine and a selection of hors d'ouevres," he ordered.
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Bella Swan had known some incontrovertible facts about herself since her early teens. Fact One, the thought of razor sharp teeth and the tug of blood seeping from her veins which could easily put an end to her life like a candle snuffed out by a careless hand was sensuous to her, she found the vampires living in the midst of humans entirely too attractive, and the thought of feeding one was erotic rather than horrifying. Fact Two, she was very obviously different from other girls her age and not only because she suffered from severe clumsiness when she was nervous. She didn't want the modern equivalent of a prince on a white horse to pamper and spoil her. Quite the reverse, she craved someone dangerous, demanding, dominant. Fact Three, the only way she was going to satisfy the fantasies and desires, cravings even that made her dreams restless was to seek out the right vampire.
Oddly enough, the vampires did an excellent job of policing their own and the vast majority of vampires had willingly chosen replacements for human blood ranging from breeding big predators like lions and tigers to creating cloned plasma. For a vampire to kill a human these days was considered a heinous loss of self control and the vampire in question was destroyed in a very old fashioned eye for an eye way without much in the way of due process or trial.
Therefore, Bella knew she had little to lose by pursuing this fantasy of hers. Especially now that Charlie had remarried. Her parents loved her but they didn't need her any more and at 22 she felt it was now or never. She had always been good at research and it had only taken her a few months after she graduated from college with a degree in English LIterature to find what she was looking for; The Club.
It had surprised and relieved her to find that The Club had a whole series of procedures and legal forms worked out for humans in a situation just like hers. Even further, it appeared there were more than a few vampires who were looking for a human with whom to enter into a unique partnership. In some ways, this partnership could be more binding than any marriage.
Now when the soft chime on her room door sounded, she only jumped a little. She'd been viewed a few times already but nothing have come of it, but evidently this time, the viewer wanted to meet her personally. A little shimmer of heat ran down her spine and pooled low in her abdomen at that thought. She glanced at herself in the mirror, approving of the pale purple silk sarong she was wearing which seemed to bring out the darkness of her eyes and the faint red tones in her hair. She'd already recovered from the treatments, meaning a vampire's venom wouldn't kill her now and her blood would be replenished many times faster than normal should this viewer request a taste.
"Miss Swan," a voice called through the discreet little intercom by the door. "Your presence is requested in Viewing Room 26."
"On my way," she answered, trying not to sound too eager.
Her trembling fingers smoothed down the silk against her body and she tilted up her chin, aware of the thin piece of dark red velvet ribbon tied around her neck. It was this ribbon that subtly identified her as what she had come here to be. On bare feet she padded down the hallways of The Club until she reached the designated room. Knocking once, she pushed open the door.
"I'm Isabella Swan," she explained quietly as the door swung closed with a soft but definite click.
"Miss Swan, please step over here and stand there," a cool voice requested smoothly. There was something velvety about it like a cat's satisfied purr or a nearly subvocal growl thinned into words.
Bella did not look up past the exquisitely tailored pinstripe suit with its snowy french cuffs and gleaming gold cuff links. A marble hand extended to designate the spot in question.
Grateful that she was barefoot and less likely to trip over her own feet, Bella obeyed and kept quiet. Her heart began to thump faster and faster while her eyes fastened on a pair of polished shoes and creased trousers.
Those shoes and trousers movedout of her line of vision as the owner of the voice seemed to lazily and lingeringly circle around her, perhaps testing her response to his very presence. Another heated tingle slid down her spine and she bit her tongue to keep from sighing .
"Your heart is beating so quickly," his voice purred behind her and Bella unconsciously tipped her head to one side, both to acknowedge the truth of his observation and to invite him closer. A fiery heat seemed to thud into the base of her spine and it was all she could do not to shift in response to that feeling.
A chill hand gathered up the warm masses of her hair, holding it easily atop her head, baring the nape of her neck to his gaze. Goose bumps popped up on her back and arms. She swayed slightly, feeling captivated by the mere idea that he might even now be pinpointing the hot spot at the side of her throat.
"Stand very still," he ordered in a hushed tone, his cool breath wafting against her ear. More goose bumps sprang up and Bella fought a shiver. Her nipples sprang up to press with embarrassing eagerness against the silk of her sarong but other than the hot flush on her cheeks she strove to hold still as requested.
An icy fingertip glided from the nape of her neck down her spine with wicked slowness. It seemed to take forever and her skin responded achingly to his chill touch. The silk of her sarong suddenly seemed so thin, it was as if he could see and touch her right through that simple covering.
Behind her he stepped closer, his chest and hips coming into delicate yet firm contact with her own warm spine and derriere. Bella's hair was still held in his powerful but gentle grasp, and he used that hold to tilt her head just a bit further to one side.
A tiny sound broke from her trembling lips and her knees felt so weak, Bella wondered how she could still be standing. A fierce, heady and decadent desire was sweeping over her, to brush against him, even though his face was still invisible to her.
His cold lips touched her shoulder and the velvet over granite of his damp tongue swept over the skin of her throat and across her shoulder, pushing silk aside effortlessly. Bella's toes curled into the plus carpeting beneath her feet, and she began to tremble with the struggle to resist her own desires.
She gasped, feeling his talented lips inch with devastating slowness against her throat, easing up towards her ear. Heat flushed her cheeks and swept down to warm the rest of her body with the intensity of her blush. A powerful ache rose between her thighs and she tensed her muscles helplessly.
"Lovely," he breathed against her sensitized and slightly damp skin. "I can smell you, you know. Your blood, your skin, your sex."
His voice was so seductive, his single fingertip amusing itself with barely there circles around first one hard nipple and then the other. It was as if the silk wasn't even there. "You're so responsive, especially for a virgin," he went on, chuckling lightly as this made her flush deeper and hotter.
"I....I..." Bella tried, panting for breath.
"Don't speak," he ordered quietly, sweeping her up high into his arms as if she were lighter than a feather. He carried her towards the velvet chaise set against the wall and sat with her in his lap. There was a rolling cart nearby and he poured her a glass of deep ruby wine, warmed somehow so that the spicy sweet taste brought more warmth to her skin in counterpoint to the icy firmness of his body and arms.
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Edward felt as if he too had sipped from some potent liqueur as he breathed in the scent of this human woman's skin and blood and arousal. He set himself to resist the lure of the blood pounding in her veins, instead noting how easy it was to excite her, how eagerly she seemed to obey him. One source of hunger seemed to pile upon another until even his century old self-control was pushed to the limit.
More importantly, he could read her responses through her body language, her breathing, her heartbeat but not one thought from her reached him. The silence while annoying in some ways was refreshing in others.
He knew from her file that others had viewed her, though none had yet asked to meet her. He could only thank providence or the famous Cullen luck for that. One hint of her intoxicating scent and she would have been gone and lost to him. He tightened his grip on her in response to that thought, careful with her fragile human flesh and bone. Reaching out, he selected a warm tidbit from the array provided and pressed it against her soft deep pink lips. His concentration centering on the motion of her lips and tongue and teeth, he watched her savor the morsel, chewing and swallowing slowly.
Edward could feel himself tightening, his brain traitorously imagining other ways she might use those lips. Raptly he watched her as he fed her one or two more choices, pleased when she made no effort to speak as commanded. He offered her more wine to follow and then lazily shifted her until she half lay across his lap.
"I read your file with interest," he said quietly, drawing his curled palms up her slender arms to her wrists, holding the delicate bones in one hand with just enough pressure to prevent her escape without doing her harm. "Bondage was one of your kinks, I recall."
Edward leaned closer, and tugged with his free hand, tearing the soft silk of her sarong so that her small lovely breasts were bare for him. "How enchanting you would look bound in pink satin, displaying your nude body against my wall. I'd enjoy you waiting for me like the eager pearl hidden within the oyster."
He watched as his words seemed to penetrate her mind, her body going more tense in the attempt to keep still as he'd demanded earlier. He didn't need to read her thoughts to know she wanted to squirm against him, entice him to her.
"You like that, don't you,?" he hissed quietly in her ear. "Answer me. You like the thought of waiting for me, ready and willing, bound and helpless until I choose to give you what you desire."
"Yes, yes," she gasped, a shudder shaking her slim frame in his grasp.
"Delectable. What else do you crave? Tell me. Words on a page are nothing to your pounding heart," Edward insisted, feeling his brain reaching that heated clarity he'd been searching for.
"Control me," she begged softly. "Tell me what you want, make me obey."
"You want to be forced?" Edward pressed, dropping his head to glide his tongue over one of those perked nipples her arched body offered him. The workings of her mind fascinated him as much as the wanton responses of her slender frame.
"A....a little," she replied, trying to turn her face slightly in against his neck and shoulder as if to hide from him but Edward would not allow it.
"Do you desire pain? I can whip you in a way that makes the pain feel like pleasure and the chill of my tongue will heal the burn of your wounds until you beg me to let you have release," Edward hissed, barely knowing where the words were coming from only knowing that each time this woman yielded to him it made him want to press her harder and harder.
"I....I....I think...yes....I..." her high stuttering gasps and the rapid rise and fall of her breasts, along with her pounding heart caused him to back off a little, cuddling her closer as his grip loosned on her wrists.
"Shhhh," he soothed threading his fingers through her luscious curls.
When her breathing began to settle, he again fed her from the tray, offering her more wine to sip.
"Isabella, look at me," he ordered softly, leaning back and drawing her head up with a fingertip under her chin.
Edward waited until she had had time to study the lines of his face, the golden color of his eyes, the shape of his mouth and jaw. Her eyes widened and he wondered if she saw what other humans saw when they looked at him.
"You're beautiful," she whispered, gazing at him as if she'd seen something divine.
"Not as beautiful as you," Edward replied. He waited a moment and stirred. "I take it if I offer you a contract, you will accept?" he asked with a touch of arrogance. Cullens were rarely turned down.
tbc
Author: diamond_sparks
Fandom and Pairing: Twilight, Edward/Bella, also other canon pairings. No Jacob.
Notes: AU, Edward is still a vampire, Bella is still a human. Both have been aged up. Edward died at 22, Bella is 22. Vampires are known to be among humans but feeding on a human to the point of killing them is a crime punishable by destruction. This is a Dom!Edward/Sub!Bella fic. I had had it in my mind for a while and when I was without a computer I hand wrote the first couple chapters. Probably will read as OOC a bit for some. Please Read and Review
Rating: R for this chapter, probably M or NC17 for later chapters.
Edward Cullen smiled slightly as he slipped his expensively monogrammed personal card plus a hefty gratuity into the ready palm of the attendant as he and his adopted brothers paused in the ornate foyer of a barely known and well kept secret establishment known simply as The Club. He cast his gaze back over his shoulder, barely refraining from rolling his eyes at Emmett's extreme amusement at Edward's expense while Jasper wore a now familiar look of near pain.
He appreciated that his brothers still backed him up even when they thought he was ever so slightly crazy. Then again, just being what they were more or less plastered that label on them.
"My specifications," he said in his best quiet but firm tone, "are on the back of the card. So far, you haven't been able to produce anything even close in the last month. I hope you have something to show me tonight."
It wasn't difficult to skim the surface of the man's mind. His thoughts were largely concerned with a mixture of hope, greed and sexual images that Edward ignored as best he could. He was well aware that with Jasper and Emmett flanking him, his normal mien of ever so slight distant intimidation took on a deeper and more terrifying aspect. It was never a good idea to get on the wrong side of any of the Cullens, and this was well-known.
He could "hear" the attendant's thoughts ruffling through the current possible matches for Edward's requirements but Edward didn't focus on the faces flashing by like a deck of cards being quickly shuffled.
"As it happens, Mr. Cullen, I believe we might have something for you."
Edward perked a brow upward, catching a fleeting glimpse of pale porcelain skin glowing with life, luminous chocolate brown eyes and waves of mahogany curls. "Oh, really?" he murmured, taking care not to appear too interested at this juncture. "Show me," he ordered in a cool voice.
As their unctuous guide turned with a gesture that they should follow him, he hitched a brief twist of crooked smile at Jasper. "I hope Alice is right about this," Jasper thought loud and clear
behind him.
"I wouldn't bet against her," Edward replied in a murmur too low for the attendant to hear. He followed the man down the hallway covered in plus carpeting and velvet draperies in a warm shade of tawny gold.
He could hear Emmett huff a laugh behind him as well, knowing his brothers could recognize discreet sound proofing when they saw it. It was good work, even Edward's sensitive ears picked up nothing but the hum of air conditioner systems and light, even breathing.
Even the thoughts of other visitors to The Club seemed muted in some way, though then again Edward had spent years perfecting the ability to ignore thoughts unless he chose to focus on them. A sense of impatience welled up inside him as he, Emmett and Jasper continued to follow their guide down the hallway. Eventually a door was opened for them on what The Club liked to call Viewing Chambers.
He thought cynically that the room was merely a way to whet the buyer's appetite before the offering was even within reach. It was a quiet and luxurious room dominated by a huge flat screen with sofas and chairs set about as if this was some hotel lounge rather than something far less innocuous.
Emmett chortled half under his breath, his thoughts about his "baby brother" finally growing up clearly readable like the pages of a book. Jasper's thoughts were more supportive as he and Emmett took seats to one side and began to talk quietly and quickly together, thereby affording Edward and what he had come to see a little more privacy.
Rather than taking the seat in the central location before the screen, Edward stood behind it and casually tucked his hands into the pockets of his immaculate pinstriped trousers. He directed his cool gaze on the attendant who was almost shaking with greed and excitement.
"This," said the attendant grandly, "is our offering, Mr. Cullen."
The lighting dimmed a little and the screen bloomed with an artful photographic portrait. The subject was wearing a rather modest bathing suit by the standards of The Club, and there was enough of a flush on her pale cheeks to tell Edward that she hadn't been comfortable with the photo session. His lips quirked a little. "File?" he asked, extending one hand without taking his eyes off the screen.
A manila folder was placed into that hand while Edward held the image of the girl's slender shape and cameo lovely face in his mind's eye. He flipped the few pages, checking the age and requirements of the subject before anything else. "Isabella," he mused softly, ignoring the reactions of his brothers for the moment.
Now Edward paid more attention to things like her background and her reasons for being here in The Club as an "offering". Any woman who came here and became an offering was willing. It was the biggest reason why Edward could even consider this. First, she would know what he was, what all of his family was. Second, she would know she had certain desires and needs that could not, would not be fulfilled without some action like this and Third, she was intelligent enough to have hunted down the best and safest establishment to handle this transaction.
All of this put together with her photograph did indeed whet Edward's appetite, enough so that he flipped the file closed decisively and held it out for his guide to take. He turned to his brothers and slipped his hands from his pockets to tuck them behind his back instead.
"Emmett, Jasper, you can amuse yourselves for a short while?" he inquired politely though both of his brothers knew the purpose of this quest and expected to be left on their own for a time.
"No problem," Emmett smiled, standing and rubbing his hands together gleefully. He had plans to spend some time in the adjacent casino while Edward was occupied.
"We're here if you need us." Jasper too smiled faintly while he dipped his head in agreement. "I heard they have decent fencing downstairs now," he murmured.
Two more ushers were summoned to escort his brothers to their chosen pastimes, neither of which had to do with the reasons Edward himself was here. Once his brothers were gone, Edward turned to the original attendant. "Bring me Isabella, mulled wine and a selection of hors d'ouevres," he ordered.
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Bella Swan had known some incontrovertible facts about herself since her early teens. Fact One, the thought of razor sharp teeth and the tug of blood seeping from her veins which could easily put an end to her life like a candle snuffed out by a careless hand was sensuous to her, she found the vampires living in the midst of humans entirely too attractive, and the thought of feeding one was erotic rather than horrifying. Fact Two, she was very obviously different from other girls her age and not only because she suffered from severe clumsiness when she was nervous. She didn't want the modern equivalent of a prince on a white horse to pamper and spoil her. Quite the reverse, she craved someone dangerous, demanding, dominant. Fact Three, the only way she was going to satisfy the fantasies and desires, cravings even that made her dreams restless was to seek out the right vampire.
Oddly enough, the vampires did an excellent job of policing their own and the vast majority of vampires had willingly chosen replacements for human blood ranging from breeding big predators like lions and tigers to creating cloned plasma. For a vampire to kill a human these days was considered a heinous loss of self control and the vampire in question was destroyed in a very old fashioned eye for an eye way without much in the way of due process or trial.
Therefore, Bella knew she had little to lose by pursuing this fantasy of hers. Especially now that Charlie had remarried. Her parents loved her but they didn't need her any more and at 22 she felt it was now or never. She had always been good at research and it had only taken her a few months after she graduated from college with a degree in English LIterature to find what she was looking for; The Club.
It had surprised and relieved her to find that The Club had a whole series of procedures and legal forms worked out for humans in a situation just like hers. Even further, it appeared there were more than a few vampires who were looking for a human with whom to enter into a unique partnership. In some ways, this partnership could be more binding than any marriage.
Now when the soft chime on her room door sounded, she only jumped a little. She'd been viewed a few times already but nothing have come of it, but evidently this time, the viewer wanted to meet her personally. A little shimmer of heat ran down her spine and pooled low in her abdomen at that thought. She glanced at herself in the mirror, approving of the pale purple silk sarong she was wearing which seemed to bring out the darkness of her eyes and the faint red tones in her hair. She'd already recovered from the treatments, meaning a vampire's venom wouldn't kill her now and her blood would be replenished many times faster than normal should this viewer request a taste.
"Miss Swan," a voice called through the discreet little intercom by the door. "Your presence is requested in Viewing Room 26."
"On my way," she answered, trying not to sound too eager.
Her trembling fingers smoothed down the silk against her body and she tilted up her chin, aware of the thin piece of dark red velvet ribbon tied around her neck. It was this ribbon that subtly identified her as what she had come here to be. On bare feet she padded down the hallways of The Club until she reached the designated room. Knocking once, she pushed open the door.
"I'm Isabella Swan," she explained quietly as the door swung closed with a soft but definite click.
"Miss Swan, please step over here and stand there," a cool voice requested smoothly. There was something velvety about it like a cat's satisfied purr or a nearly subvocal growl thinned into words.
Bella did not look up past the exquisitely tailored pinstripe suit with its snowy french cuffs and gleaming gold cuff links. A marble hand extended to designate the spot in question.
Grateful that she was barefoot and less likely to trip over her own feet, Bella obeyed and kept quiet. Her heart began to thump faster and faster while her eyes fastened on a pair of polished shoes and creased trousers.
Those shoes and trousers movedout of her line of vision as the owner of the voice seemed to lazily and lingeringly circle around her, perhaps testing her response to his very presence. Another heated tingle slid down her spine and she bit her tongue to keep from sighing .
"Your heart is beating so quickly," his voice purred behind her and Bella unconsciously tipped her head to one side, both to acknowedge the truth of his observation and to invite him closer. A fiery heat seemed to thud into the base of her spine and it was all she could do not to shift in response to that feeling.
A chill hand gathered up the warm masses of her hair, holding it easily atop her head, baring the nape of her neck to his gaze. Goose bumps popped up on her back and arms. She swayed slightly, feeling captivated by the mere idea that he might even now be pinpointing the hot spot at the side of her throat.
"Stand very still," he ordered in a hushed tone, his cool breath wafting against her ear. More goose bumps sprang up and Bella fought a shiver. Her nipples sprang up to press with embarrassing eagerness against the silk of her sarong but other than the hot flush on her cheeks she strove to hold still as requested.
An icy fingertip glided from the nape of her neck down her spine with wicked slowness. It seemed to take forever and her skin responded achingly to his chill touch. The silk of her sarong suddenly seemed so thin, it was as if he could see and touch her right through that simple covering.
Behind her he stepped closer, his chest and hips coming into delicate yet firm contact with her own warm spine and derriere. Bella's hair was still held in his powerful but gentle grasp, and he used that hold to tilt her head just a bit further to one side.
A tiny sound broke from her trembling lips and her knees felt so weak, Bella wondered how she could still be standing. A fierce, heady and decadent desire was sweeping over her, to brush against him, even though his face was still invisible to her.
His cold lips touched her shoulder and the velvet over granite of his damp tongue swept over the skin of her throat and across her shoulder, pushing silk aside effortlessly. Bella's toes curled into the plus carpeting beneath her feet, and she began to tremble with the struggle to resist her own desires.
She gasped, feeling his talented lips inch with devastating slowness against her throat, easing up towards her ear. Heat flushed her cheeks and swept down to warm the rest of her body with the intensity of her blush. A powerful ache rose between her thighs and she tensed her muscles helplessly.
"Lovely," he breathed against her sensitized and slightly damp skin. "I can smell you, you know. Your blood, your skin, your sex."
His voice was so seductive, his single fingertip amusing itself with barely there circles around first one hard nipple and then the other. It was as if the silk wasn't even there. "You're so responsive, especially for a virgin," he went on, chuckling lightly as this made her flush deeper and hotter.
"I....I..." Bella tried, panting for breath.
"Don't speak," he ordered quietly, sweeping her up high into his arms as if she were lighter than a feather. He carried her towards the velvet chaise set against the wall and sat with her in his lap. There was a rolling cart nearby and he poured her a glass of deep ruby wine, warmed somehow so that the spicy sweet taste brought more warmth to her skin in counterpoint to the icy firmness of his body and arms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edward felt as if he too had sipped from some potent liqueur as he breathed in the scent of this human woman's skin and blood and arousal. He set himself to resist the lure of the blood pounding in her veins, instead noting how easy it was to excite her, how eagerly she seemed to obey him. One source of hunger seemed to pile upon another until even his century old self-control was pushed to the limit.
More importantly, he could read her responses through her body language, her breathing, her heartbeat but not one thought from her reached him. The silence while annoying in some ways was refreshing in others.
He knew from her file that others had viewed her, though none had yet asked to meet her. He could only thank providence or the famous Cullen luck for that. One hint of her intoxicating scent and she would have been gone and lost to him. He tightened his grip on her in response to that thought, careful with her fragile human flesh and bone. Reaching out, he selected a warm tidbit from the array provided and pressed it against her soft deep pink lips. His concentration centering on the motion of her lips and tongue and teeth, he watched her savor the morsel, chewing and swallowing slowly.
Edward could feel himself tightening, his brain traitorously imagining other ways she might use those lips. Raptly he watched her as he fed her one or two more choices, pleased when she made no effort to speak as commanded. He offered her more wine to follow and then lazily shifted her until she half lay across his lap.
"I read your file with interest," he said quietly, drawing his curled palms up her slender arms to her wrists, holding the delicate bones in one hand with just enough pressure to prevent her escape without doing her harm. "Bondage was one of your kinks, I recall."
Edward leaned closer, and tugged with his free hand, tearing the soft silk of her sarong so that her small lovely breasts were bare for him. "How enchanting you would look bound in pink satin, displaying your nude body against my wall. I'd enjoy you waiting for me like the eager pearl hidden within the oyster."
He watched as his words seemed to penetrate her mind, her body going more tense in the attempt to keep still as he'd demanded earlier. He didn't need to read her thoughts to know she wanted to squirm against him, entice him to her.
"You like that, don't you,?" he hissed quietly in her ear. "Answer me. You like the thought of waiting for me, ready and willing, bound and helpless until I choose to give you what you desire."
"Yes, yes," she gasped, a shudder shaking her slim frame in his grasp.
"Delectable. What else do you crave? Tell me. Words on a page are nothing to your pounding heart," Edward insisted, feeling his brain reaching that heated clarity he'd been searching for.
"Control me," she begged softly. "Tell me what you want, make me obey."
"You want to be forced?" Edward pressed, dropping his head to glide his tongue over one of those perked nipples her arched body offered him. The workings of her mind fascinated him as much as the wanton responses of her slender frame.
"A....a little," she replied, trying to turn her face slightly in against his neck and shoulder as if to hide from him but Edward would not allow it.
"Do you desire pain? I can whip you in a way that makes the pain feel like pleasure and the chill of my tongue will heal the burn of your wounds until you beg me to let you have release," Edward hissed, barely knowing where the words were coming from only knowing that each time this woman yielded to him it made him want to press her harder and harder.
"I....I....I think...yes....I..." her high stuttering gasps and the rapid rise and fall of her breasts, along with her pounding heart caused him to back off a little, cuddling her closer as his grip loosned on her wrists.
"Shhhh," he soothed threading his fingers through her luscious curls.
When her breathing began to settle, he again fed her from the tray, offering her more wine to sip.
"Isabella, look at me," he ordered softly, leaning back and drawing her head up with a fingertip under her chin.
Edward waited until she had had time to study the lines of his face, the golden color of his eyes, the shape of his mouth and jaw. Her eyes widened and he wondered if she saw what other humans saw when they looked at him.
"You're beautiful," she whispered, gazing at him as if she'd seen something divine.
"Not as beautiful as you," Edward replied. He waited a moment and stirred. "I take it if I offer you a contract, you will accept?" he asked with a touch of arrogance. Cullens were rarely turned down.
tbc