Chapter 14 – The Fun

The next day

Austin Texas Fair Grounds

Edward Cullen POV

“Look at me.”

“What are you doing to me?”

“Do you love Bella, Edward?”

Yesssssssss.

Words and sounds wrestled inside of me, tangling themselves up in each other.

I might have slept pretty fucking soundly at first, the night Bella and I… well, you know… but for some reason my dreams were all over the place later that night.  I tossed and turned eventually and as I started to wake up, they changed from dreams to memories. 

“Where’d you learn to sail?”  

I was well into my fifth lesson with Marcus’s latest target when I realized how much I’d been enjoying it.  I was trying to prolong the “hook” until all twelve lessons were up.

Something about the ocean.  To experience it like that.  It just has this way of making you feel… free.

 “I grew up in the Keys,” he’d told me, as though the reason should have been obvious.  When I didn’t pick up on what he was trying to say, he made it into a joke.  “If you didn’t know how to sail down there, you were considered a leper.”

“What’s it like down there?”  I was honestly curious at that point.  Not just making lame idle chit chat to distract him into becoming soft and vulnerable.  You know… Easy pickins.

“Edward, you haven’t experienced life if you’ve never been to the Keys at LEAST once.”

I stared blankly at him. 

“Not once?” he asked and I shook my head at him, helping tie the sails back.

I wished now that I’d never gone.  It was so different down there.  Another way of life, another way of living.  And I’d tasted it.  Wanted it.  Was going to extend that craving into something more and now it was gone.

It was one thing to go through life as one of Marcus’ lackeys, not knowing or understanding things you were missing out on… it was another to know exactly what you wanted and have it always just out of your grasp.

Speaking of which… I rolled over onto my side and reached out for Bella but got a hand full of sheets instead. 

My eyes blinked open and sure enough, not there.

Looked around the room, one-eyed.  Nothin’.

Oy. Not the fuck again.

I kicked the blanket off of me and trotted down the hallway to the master suite where I found her, sitting on her bed, talking into one of her cell phones.

She saw me and I leaned up against her door frame, waiting respectfully, wondering which phone it was she was using.

She gave a slight smile and then turned her back to me again.  “Okay, I’ll call later.”

Once she ended the call, she stood up and started putting on some accessories.  “The door is great.”

I scowled. 

“Everything okay?”

“Great,” she repeated.  Almost as though she had forgotten she’d said it.

“Yeah, you said that.”

She pushed her hair back out of her face while she smirked a little and my dick twitched.  Then she looked over at me.  “Sorry about leaving, I didn’t want to wake you, so I just…”

“Left me in a cold bed all alone after some of the most mind blowing sex you ever had?”

She laughed even though she didn’t want to.

“Figured you’d most likely have more mind blowing sex this morning and you were afraid that if you actually had said mind blowing sex again, you might fall head over heels for the guy you’re having mind blowing sex with?”

She arched my eyebrow for me. “You want head over heels, huh?”

“Or head under heels… whichever you prefer.”  I waggled.  She twisted her mouth.  Then walked over to where I was leaning. 

When she stood in front of me like that.  With eyes that saw through me and lips that spoke without moving… she really took my breath away.  For some reason though, my mouth wouldn’t open up to tell her that.

Defense mechanisms.  Tricky bastards.

“Thank you for last night,” she said honestly as she placed her hand against my chest in this very soft…  very grounding sort of way.  Her words felt earnest, nothing conniving or fake behind them but my brow, it still jerked a little.

 “Thank you?”

She nodded. “You were very… thorough.”  She said the word as though she’d given it an enormous amount of thought.

“Thorough.”  Not exactly what I was hoping for with regards to my performance, but…

She rolled her eyes – but only slightly.  “Would you stop repeating everything I say?”

“Sorry, it’s just…” I chanced letting a finger trace her arm a bit and she smiled.  It was one of mine, thankfully.

“We don’t have time for fun and games right now.”

“We don’t?”

A shake of the head and, “We’re meeting Whitlock and company at some country… rodeo, or something.”

Rodeo?

Was she kidding me?

I looked at my watch. “It’s nine-thirty.”

“I know, we really lucked out.  I happened to see Whitlock outside this morning when I was out trying to clear my head and…”

Woah woah woah woah woah…

“Clear your head?”  What did she need to clear her head about exactly?

“Yeah, and he…”

“What were you clearing your head about?”

She shrugged me off.  “Stuff.”  What stuff?

“Stuff.”

“You’re doing it again, Edward.”

“Doing what?”

“Repeating everything I say.”

Oh.

I peered into her eyes.  This time it was me, trying to see into her soul.  Trying to get a read on her.  Anything. I’d take anything she’d give me.   Or maybe it was best I gave her something instead.

“Listen, I…”

She put a couple of fingers to my lips and looked at them.  My lips.  For a few seconds before catching my gaze again.  “You need a shower; I’ll meet you downstairs in fifteen.”

“But….”

She was gone though, down the hall, then the stairs, yelling, “We’re taking the Beamer!” over her shoulder as she went.

“To a Rodeo?” I called out, but she couldn’t hear me already.  The front door had slammed, telling me she was outside for whatever reason.  I honestly had no idea what had gotten into her, accepting an invitation to a Rodeo, but it at least seemed to have something to do with our target and hell… at least we weren’t spending the day inside or some other lame capacity like… hiking.

I hoped.

When I finished cleaning up and trying to dress appropriately, I hopped down the stairs, took a look around for Bella, who was not there.  Inside, anyway…

She was however standing outside, leaning against her Beamer, in what appeared to be Rodeo garb that included everything from the girlish cowgirl hat she wore on top of her head to the mini-skirt of jean material… and damn, she’d even replaced her sacred Jimmy Choos for…  yep… cowboy boots.

And I’m pretty fucking sure the underwear was probably missing.

But damn.  Cowgirl looked good on her.  It’d probably look even better off of her…

Of course, when I managed to pull my stare away from the legs, and my imagination away from what may or may not be under that skirt, I noticed what she was holding in her hand for me. 

I shook my head at her as I walked down the front walkway.  “I don’t think so.”

She donned a sexy, sneaky smile for me.  “Oh come on, Edward…”

I had to chuckle at her standing there like a real live Texan and shit and then she did this twisty, turny, flirty thing with her feet and her eyes and her finger… spinning that fucking hat for me.

And yeah, I took the damn thing.

I didn’t put it on, though.

Screw that noise.

About an hour later, we were finally fucking parked and I cursed Bella for taking the damn Beamer. We were what felt like knee deep in dirt and pebbles and I just knew that shit was gonna leave chips on her paint job, but as she pointed out so eloquently, “Not my car.”

“Put the hat on, Edward, please?” she pleaded for the umpteenth time as we paid for our entry. Eventually I gave in because seriously, Bella begging me… for anything… just… stab my fucking heart, will ya?

I slipped it on as we walked our way over to the horses and completion ring, then tilted it forward just a tad and did a little Clint for her, grinding my teeth and squinting my eyes.  “You feelin’ lucky… punk?”

“Oh God.”

Bella’s face went from shock to blank stare to ready for puking in two point two seconds.

“What?”

She looked away, trying to avoid eye contact.  “I changed my mind, take it off.”

And now I’m becoming amused, pulling at her perfectly ironed, pristine white button shirt to get her to look at me again.  “Why?”

Finally she told me, “You just ruined my cowboy fantasy with a really bad Clint Eastwood impersonation.”

I chuckled at her. 

“I’m serious, take it off.”  She reached for my cowboy crown, but I swatted her hand away, and then teased her.

“You want me to take it off?”

“I want you to take the hat off,” she corrected herself, backing away from me as I started toward her, but it was too late for that.   I started to unbutton my jeans and she turned as red as a tomato. 

“I think there’s some privacy behind that announcer’s booth, if you wanna…”  I nodded sideways.

“Edward,” she tried to warn, but it really just came out as more like a purr.

Twitch.

I unzipped my fly and bounced my eyebrows for her.

She couldn’t help herself, her eyes dipped to eye my boxers and I was thinking this could happen.  I mean it was all in fun… kinda… but we were oh so very rudely interrupted when Whitlock called out to us. 

“Hey guys! Over here!” he yelled and I zipped back up quickly. 

Damn.  That was gonna be interesting too.

Fucking Whitlock the cock block.

Bella shook her head in a semi playful way and started past me toward her southern speaking savior of sorts, and I just reveled in the glory called making Bella blush.  “Unbelievable,” she mumbled.

“Hi guys!” a smaller person called out by one of the horses that was being restrained for his preparation to be… I dunno… competed against?

“Seth, what are you doing here?”  Bella smiled over at him and I rolled my eyes… to which she elbowed me and I grunted in return.

The kid brushed the horse’s mane and smiled wide for Bella.  “Just helpin’ out.  Jasper got me the gig.”

“He’s doin’ a bang up job, too,” Whitlock added as he joined us along with Alice Brandon who was apparently giddy in love with the guy.  Whitlock, I mean… and holding on to his arm like had she let go, she might… fly away.

Wishful thinking.

“Hey Bella, wow… you look fantastic!”

She sparkled in response and Whitlock just had to add, “A regular Annie Oakley.”

I let out a sharp guffaw type sound and corrected him.  Clearly he didn’t understand the game.  “More like Belle Star.” 

They all looked at me blankly except for Bella, who was shaking her head with just the tiniest bit of amusement. 

“The Bandit Queen of the mid eighteen hundreds?”

Nothin’.

Just giggling suddenly, from Bella.

“Known for rustling?  Horse stealing?  Bootlegging?  Hellooooooo.”

What, was I the only one who knew my western outlaws?

We dropped the subject.  Or rather, Seth changed it after a few awkward moments of silence.

“You signing up for the competition, Edward?” he asked me vigorously but I shunned that idea off, adjusting my hat.   “No way, Seth, these feet were made for something else entirely.”

“Well then, I suppose ya’ll will just have to root for yours truly, then,” Whitlock joked and then excused himself to go sign in, telling us to enjoy the show as he took his arm trinket along with him.

I looked around us then out of pure habit, noticing there were an awful lot of… more smallish people around us.

Kids.

Seth seemed to notice my noticing things and told me, “Jr. Rodeo is right after the big guns.  They help out with stuff then ride… Jasper helps coordinate it.”

Huh.

He said it like he was bragging, but I took it to mean something else, becoming deeper in thought, wondering if I’d misjudged my misjudgment of Whitlock, after all, with regards to child porn or possibly trafficking.

Still doesn’t make sense.

Seth gave Bella and me a wave, taking his horse elsewhere to get him ready, and my cohort nudged me, nodding over at a group of people.  “See that guy over there talking to Whitlock?”

I peeked over my sunglasses to take a gander.

Gander.

Jesus Christ.

Then I went back to watching the clown inside the arena get his ass kicked.

“Uh huh.”

“Jack Nichols.  One of the most successful bankers on the West Coast.  He’s very powerful.  Very wealthy.  Lots of contacts.”

“And probably under Marcus’ thumb, then.”

“Highly doubtful.”

“How do you even know any of that?”

“I invest.  Clearly something you do not do.”

“Hey, I invest,” I insisted and she gave me a look of doubt.  “In myself,” I added, grinning like the Cheshire cat once again, leaving Bella Swan with nothing but a smile on her face.

“So… what now…”

“Hey guys.”

I spun.  Bella didn’t flinch a bit.

Weird.

“Emmett.”

“Rose wants to go ride the Ferris Wheel.  Wanna blow this taco stand and come with?”

Bella glanced over at the fair grounds.  At the rides and the people meandering.  She seemed… intrigued… or something by it all, and I scowled at her.

“Tell me you’ve been to a fair before, Bella,” I nearly whispered, but she just avoided eye contact and went back to watching Whitlock with his investment broker friend.

McCarty and his… date? were waiting and I only gave it a few minutes of thought before deciding what needed to be done. 

I tugged at her hand a little. “Let’s go.”

And this elicits a jump from her.  Not McCarty sneaking up on us… but talk of rides and games?  Oh yeah.

“What?  We can’t just…”

“Sure we can, Jasper and Alice will still be here when we get back.”

“Edward…”

“Come on.”  I smiled down at her, pulling at her hand a little more.  “It’ll be fun.”

“Fun.”

“Yeah, you know… a break from the real world.  Use our free time productively.”

“Free time.”

And then I really smiled. “Stop repeating everything I say.” 

Throwing her words back at her like that was just enough to make her forget a brick or two of the well fortified wall she was trying to build suddenly.  So I pulled her along and the four of us headed over to the ticket booth area. The whole while, Bella was insisting it was a bad idea and I was ignoring every word she said.

I splurged, getting us both the twenty dollar wrist bands that allowed us free rein over the rides and would no doubt lead to possible puking, but I’d be damned if I was about to let Bella miss out on one of life’s tiny treasures that just had to be experienced.

The county fair.

It was highly appropriate that we’d started with the Ferris Wheel, I figured, since that was the icon of any fair and although Bella’s facial expression when she looked up at how high that thing was insinuated she had some ridiculous fear of heights, I had to assume she’d get over it quickly.

She just wasn’t the type to let stupid shit get in her way.  Ya know what I mean?

“You didn’t have to do this, you know,” she insisted as we waited in line behind McCarty and Hale… who were making out like school kids and I wondered, when in the hell did that happen? But seriously, to each his own and I guess even McCarty and his cinch bug obsessed self deserved a little sexin’ every once in a while.

Anyway, what did I care?

I let a hand slip around Bella’s waist.  “Sure I did.”

“This thing is up to code, right?” she asked the ride mechanic wearily when he helped her into our basket of terror.  The thing was creaky and wobbly looking and you just knew it was only a matter of time before it fell down onto itself, killing hundreds, during one of its runs, but that was always part of the county fair charm, right?

Taking your life into your own hands with those rides was part of testing yourself. 

Your bravery.

It was a rite of passage.

“It’s fine, Bella,” I whispered assuredly to her as we took our seats and the ride began.

I kissed her hair and she huddled into me a little at first, but the more we went around, the more she relaxed and even seemed to be day dreaming off into the horizon when we neared the top.

“It’s quite the view,” she said to the clouds.

“It is,” I answered, trying to maybe keep the openness of our chit chat going. 

“Funny.”

“What’s that?”

“You wouldn’t even know any of it was happening down there.”  She glanced downward at the ant sized people milling around.  “No chaos, or lies, or…”

She trailed off and I nodded, silently agreeing with her.  “It’s like that out on the ocean, too.”

We were on the down spin then, circling around for another turn when she asked, “Do you think you could take me sometime?  Sailing, I mean?”

It sounded like such a simple question but the weight of it hurt my chest.

I had absolutely no idea if I’d ever get to sail again.

I told her yes anyway.

It was a nice fantasy, thinking of me and Bella… out on my Beneteau, nothing in front of us, everything behind.

I smiled at the idea and the machine took us upward again.

“I used to break out of the boys home when I was little and come to these things whenever they were in town,” I mused.  I don’t know what had made me say it.  Maybe it was the memory of hitching rides on old Ferris Wheels, sneaking on for extra turns… I don’t know.   Things were just simpler back then.

“The priests didn’t take you?”

I shook my head.  “They didn’t dare spend their precious money on shit like that.”

“How did you afford it?  I mean you didn’t…”

I laughed. “No Bella, I didn’t steal… much…” I teased. “Actually, I usually scammed some older girl,” I told her, peeking down at her sideways and she ribbed me.  “Hey, I didn’t leave ‘em short changed, they got a fun night in return… I wasn’t that insensitive.”

I let the insinuation hang out there.  Wasn’t much sense in detailing it and Bella understood because well… she’d been there… in her own way.

Memories.

Fuckers.

I changed the subject… sorta… when we stopped clear up on the arch of the circle.

 “Ya know, it’s supposed to be good luck to kiss at the top.”

She snorted.  “Right, Edward, how many older girls did you tell that line to?”

“No seriously,” I told her with as much sincerity as possible.

She asked, “Don’t we make our own luck?” 

I wasn’t letting her off the hook that easily.  “A little extra never hurt, right?”

I waggled the eyebrows for good measure and Bella smiled.

I already had an arm around her, lying comfortably on the back of our cart.  The rest was easy. 

I leaned over and into her, letting my free hand slip behind her neck like it belonged there.  I placed a soft kiss against her lips at first.  Then I mighta gotten a little carried away, moving a bit more urgently against her, rocking the cart a little too much, but she didn’t care anymore about living or dying on that Ferris Wheel.  She let her hands move too, around me, against me, through me even, and when my dick hardened, she felt that too.

She giggled against my lips and it vibrated.

Felt good.

I even forgot who I was for a short while.

“Down boy… I am not having sex with you in this cage of death.”

She had a point.  I guess.  No sense ending our lives on a whim of lust.  Right?

“Fine,” I told her, letting a few more kisses pepper her lips… her neck even.  “But I don’t know how I’m gonna make it through this day with you dressed like that.”

“You like the role playing, huh?  Do I need to get me a Sherriff’s badge and some hand cuffs?”

My eyebrows shot up at the mention of those cuffs in her bedroom.  “Well you already have…”

I had to stop myself, ‘cause… Woops.

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing.”  I made to kiss her again but she stopped me. “Edward… when were you in my room?”

I tried to turn it around on her.  “Why do you have handcuffs?”

She wasn’t having it.  “When… were you in… my room.”

Damn.

“You mean other than that time I almost groped you during your sleep?”

She didn’t answer.  She just arched the eyebrow.

“Um…”

The ride started again and she grabbed at me, holding on for dear life.   Handcuffs forgotten.  For the time being, anyway.

I distracted her by asking what she wanted to do next and she wasted little time, pointing toward the game booths.  Emmett and Rose apparently had a mission, so we split up until lunch time, taking temporary separate paths for enjoyment and I was okay with that.

Alone time with Bella.  Not on the clock. Not really anyway.  Just fucking enjoying ourselves?

Pure. Win.

There was no downside to this in my mind.  Marcus would never know and we could just… get to know each other on another level outside of cons and walls and memories of past lives.

It was easily in my top ten best days ever, hanging out with her like that.

She jumped up and down with the excitement of a child when I won her an oversized, over stuffed panda at the basket ball hoops.

A beautiful, sexy, innocent child who matched only my own cartoonish animation at things like winning un-winnable cons at carnivals and fairs.

Then she won an oversized over stuffed panda at the basket ball hoops.

We looked like yin and yang with those things until we found some bummed out kids who hadn’t won shit and handed them off, feeling like the gods of Austin, Texas.

She ate an entire stick of cotton candy on her own and then downed a funnel cake, chased with a gallon of diet Pepsi and still proceeded to finish off a turkey leg when we met up with Emmett and Rose for lunch.

We laughed and joked with our counterparts, and I made note of the fact that McCarty wasn’t all that bad a guy when he wasn’t being the Yoda of yard work.  Rose wasn’t half bad either.

Later, Bella sat on my lap in the photo booth, wiggling her ass against my dick like the tease that she was, while the camera flashed, recording our kisses and desperate touches for ever after.  She made me get two sets of pictures so we wouldn’t have to cut the strip in half and she carried that thing around the rest of the day, staring at our faces every once in a while when she thought I wasn’t looking.

After we’d ridden every ride… twice… and eaten the fair out of house and home and it was getting to be dusk, we made to find Emmett and Rose. 

While Bella was waiting out in a more open area in case they passed by, I took a piss in one of those gross ass “Porta-Potty” crap machines.  As I was washing up, a cool voice shocked me into a fixed position.

“Nice day for an outing, Eddie boy.”

I didn’t answer him but I did manage to start moving my limbs again. 

I rubbed my hands with soap slowly, casting a short glance toward where I knew Bella should have been.  She wasn’t there but that didn’t mean anything.  I hoped, anyway.

“Don’t think this was on the agenda, though… Marcus will find it very… intriguing.”

I ran the water over my hands but didn’t look for him.  I knew he’d be somewhere no one else could see him. 

“Marcus wanted info on Whitlock, Whitlock is here, therefore… so are we.”  Seemed simplistic enough for his idiot brain to keep up with.

He chuckled.  “Well, he may be here but you’re most definitely not.”

“What the fuck does that even mean, Felix?”

I wiped my hands and threw the towel away, looking around finally, but he was gone already.  For a big guy, he was a stealthy motherfucker.

“Ed!”

“Jesus.”

Fucking Emmett.

“Sorry dude… you alright?” he asked, taking in my expression.   I looked around one more time.  Felix had rattled me.  It’s what he’d wanted to do, but what rattled me more was… how the hell did he even know we were there?

“I’m good, Em…”

He didn’t seem to be exactly buying it, but he let it slide and we caught up with the girls, and watched the last bit of the  demonstration Japser had been doing. I took an opportunity I was given at the end of the night to try and wrangle some information out of our good friend, the Texan.

“So all these kids…” 

We were walking alone; Bella had taken my hints and was herding the others away so I could try to get Whitlock to open up a little.

He smiled for me.   “I know, right… tons of ‘em, just waitin’ for someone to snatch ‘em up and give ‘em the what for… if ya know what I mean.”  He tried to make light of what he was saying, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the undertones where telling me.

Uh…  “Yeah,” I laughed.  “I couldn’t agree more… they’re very…”  I started, trying to remain vague, still not knowing what the frick he was into exactly. 

I wondered incoherently if I even wanted to know sometimes.

“Green.”

“Yeah, green.”

“You seem pretty interested in the uh… same things I am,” he said, thinking it over, making sure no one was in ear shot of us.  “Ya know, I’ve been tryin’ to make up my mind on a larger scale, when it comes to you, Edward.”

“Meaning?” 

“Meaning there are times I think I could use a partner… just haven’t found the right one… you know, that would… understand the things I’m into… but….”

He was packing up his gear into the back of his truck and I helped him, encouraging the conversation onward. “I’m always looking for new investments, Jasper, the ages of these kids seem…”

“Ripe for the pickin’s ey?”  He winked and elbowed me right where Bella had earlier and I realized, she’d fucking bruised me.  “Ow.” 

I rubbed it out and he chuckled.  “Tell ya what, you sleep on it… if it’s somethin’ you think you can stomach, maybe tomorrow I’ll introduce to you to some of my more… secretive friends around town.”

I stared at him.

Did it just happen?

Did I really just bag this motherfucker?  Finally?

I forced my mouth to work. “I don’t need to sleep on it, Jasper… I’m in.”

And he grinned, putting a hand out for me shake. “Well alright then… tomorrow it is.”

“Tomorrow.”

He slammed the truck bed closed and Alice ran over to join him on his ride home when he waved her over.

I sat there, staring like a complete dolt, dumbfounded that we’d finally broken the guy when Bella moseyed up next to me.

Oy.  Did I really just say…

Nevermind.

“So?”

“I…”

I blinked.

“You got him.”

I turned my head to look down at her. “I fucking got him.”

She smiled. 

McCarty and Hale had left and we were free to celebrate, which we did.  Until the sky opened up and the rain poured down onto us, that is.

“Shit!”

We ran for it to the Beamer and jumped in, taking cover, but when Bella started her up, something happened.

Or… didn’t happen that is.

The wheels spun and the engine revved but we didn’t budge.

Not one fucking inch.

“Oh no.”

I let out a huff and shook my head at nothing. “I told you not to bring the Beamer.”

“You never said not to bring the Beamer.”

“I totally said not to bring the fucking Beamer… right when you said you were bringing the Beamer.”

“Edward, you never told me….”

“Okay, listen.”  I rubbed at my face and threw the hat into the back seat.  “I’m gonna get out of this car, and I’m gonna push her from behind.  You give her gas when I tell you to give her gas and we’ll be outta here in two minutes flat.”

“You’re going to…”

I nodded sarcastically.  “Push her from behind….”

“Okay.”

I opened my door, and then reminded her, “Give her gas when I say to.”

“Okay, gotcha.”

It was fucking pouring outside and I wondered out loud, “Where in the hell did this even come from?”  but it was no use, the sky wasn’t listening. So I took my spot behind the car and tried to get some bearings in order to push when all of a sudden, the wheels started spinning and mud flew up in to my face non-stop.

I screamed for Bella to stop punching the gas and the wheel spun faster.

I stood up, when I realized she wasn’t listening worth a shit and went to Bella’s door.  When she finally saw me, the wheels stopped spinning and she just stared out of her window at me, shell shocked a little at how I probably looked.

She rolled the window down and I tried to wipe some of the mud off of my face.  “Did you… forget that I said give her gas… WHEN I FUCKING SAY SO?”

She pursed her lips, trying hard not to smile.  Then she had to cover her mouth to hide it and I pulled at her door handle.  “Alright, that’s it.”

“Edward!” she squealed when I pulled her out of that nice, dry car to join me in the rain and muck and disgusting fucking clothes I was wearing.

“Oh my god let go of me!”

“I don’t think so little lady!” I told her, barely able to hear even myself over the sound of the thunder that was rolling in.  And I picked her up and spun her around and when I set her down again she was laughing so hard that not a sound escaped her. 

Or me.

And that did it.

I pulled her into a kiss right there, I couldn’t help it.  She was just too goddamn kiss worthy.

Drenched in mud and cowboy boots and, trust me when I tell you, her lips were never warmer.

We fell, leaning against the side of her Beamer for support, grabbing and stroking and kissing each other with nothing but time on our hands.

There was a point when I was convinced we were gonna fuck right like animals there in that mud filled parking space as she pulled at my jeans and I tasted her neck, but then my cell phone buzzed. I pulled away from her instinctively, swearing internally that it was like Marcus was watching our every goddamn move, making sure we never got any further than he wanted us to.

Then I realized, both of our cell phones had buzzed.

“Marcus?”  I asked through sheets of rain.

She nodded.  “Wants to see us pronto.”

I threw mine into the car, defeated in a way.   “So much for free time.”

Bella, as always, put it all in perspective for me with her next few words.  “It’s never free, Edward,” and then we went back to getting her car unstuck.

It was… interesting, arriving at the Driskil Hotel that night. 

We’d managed to take quick showers before heading over, so at least we weren’t covered in mud, but we were quite disheveled looking when we got there anyway, and scored loads of curious looks as we made our way down the lobby.

We knew where we were heading at least; it was the same conference room where we’d met up with Marcus our first night in town.

I wanted to laugh at the memory and where we’d stood with each other at that point, compared to where we stood with each other now.

Where I thought we stood with each other, anyway.

I watched Bella’s walk, staying just a tad behind her so I could enjoy the view, and I licked at my lips a little, trying to fight the urges she pulled out of me.

Just before the conference room, though, where I knew she’d become someone else, I needed her.  I needed the Bella that smiled and bit and tugged and breathed sexy shit into my ear one more time.

I eyed a couple of doors.

Supply closet or bathroom.

Is one of those sexier than the other?  I wondered and even knew the answer… comparatively speaking that is… but I figured, where the closet might supply us with the darkness we needed… that represented and contradicted us… the bathroom had more room.  I was sure of it.

Glancing around to make sure no one spied us, I pushed the door open and pulled Bella inside with me.

“Edward,” she almost laughed.  Okay she did laugh.  It was one of those huffing through your nose laughs, like, what the fuck are you doing laughs.  Ya know?

I didn’t answer her.  Not really. Instead I pressed her up against the door while locking it behind us and told her with a kiss.

A very desperate, very anxious kiss that she understood, responding to said kiss with a mirrored anxiousness of her own.

Maybe she felt the same about who we both knew we’d become in that conference room.

Maybe she just needed to feel something other than the dread of becoming that person again for Marcus.

Either way…

Her hands were at my jeans and my hands were…. just… all over her.

She didn’t seem to mind though.

She freed my dick… I freed her tits and life was good in that overly ornate bathroom.

When she stroked me ‘til there was just no further hardness to be, I spun her around and, with a slight look of shock on her face, she eyed me through the mirror she was facing all of a sudden.

She smiled and I surveyed it.

Mine.

Then I bent her forward and she braced herself against the sink while I hiked her skirt up and fuck me, sure enough… no goddamn underwear was to be seen.

My lips tightened and I shook my head in what felt like some sort of anger toward her.  Only it wasn’t exactly anger so much as it was me, wishing I’d have explored that possibility a little fucking earlier. 

My fingers wasted no time.  We didn’t have any and Bella’s hips bucked a little as her eyes closed and her teeth bit down onto the only thing they had to bite down on… her lips. 

I leaned forward with her, watching her… taking in everything about her and then I whispered into her ear.

“You do this on purpose.”

She let out a very quiet, yet very Bella-esque moan.  “Maybe.”

I found her clit.  It was wet and warm. “Why?”

And she let out a satisfied sigh. “Why do you think?”

Why my big lug of an annoying neighbor popped into my head at her words, I’ll never know, but Emmett’s wide grin appeared in front of me then and his burly shoulders bobbed as I heard him inside my head, snickering, Told ya Ed. 

I kissed her shoulder.  “How do you want it?”

“Quick and dirty, Marcus is waiting,” she told me and I had to smile at the woman for knowing what she wanted… when she wanted it.  Even if it was in a room with toilets not too far from where we stood.

“Hold on, then,” I told her, standing myself up straight again.  I lined myself up, then pushed into her hard.

Her back arched and her eyes opened slowly, finding me staring back at her.  “Yes.”

I grabbed ahold of her hips while I pulled out some, then pushed into her again and she held on to that sink, locking eyes with me the whole time. 

“Harder.”

When she said it, I worried on some level, this was going somewhere dark for her.  “I don’t think…”

“Just do it, Edward.”

Okay.  I pushed.  Harder.

“God you feel good.”

“You feel…”

Perfect.

Shit.

“I don’t need to cum,” she told me, as I pumped in and out of her over and over again, knowing I was trying to hold out.  Feeling that there was just no way I was gonna.

I grunted. “Don’t say shit like that, Bella.”

Harder.

“You can make it up to me later.”

“Jesus.”

Harder.

“Fuck me.” 

That was me, not her.  I came.  I came hard and she stood up, slipping her hands around me to grab at my ass and we stood like that.  Me kissing her neck, her tilting her head, encouraging me to all the right hot spots.

We didn’t want to leave.  Neither one of us and my hands wrapped around her, holding her securely.

Then a toilet flushed.  And both Bella and I shot looks to the same place, locking on each other through that fucking mirror and I could see a stall door swing open behind us. 

We were frozen, Bella and I.  Just standing there, half dressed with my semi-stiffened dick still in her when this little old bitty of a woman came walking slowly up the aisle.

She seemed to ignore us and part of me wondered if the woman was blind or deaf… or both as she turned the spigot on another sink, then washed her hands, humming a soft tune all the while. 

She pulled a soft, white cloth from the dispenser and dried her hands while Bella and I shared a look that begged the question of each other what the fuck do we do now?  But seriously, what was to be done at that point? 

So we stood there, like frozen sex statues in that bathroom as the older woman passed us by and unlocked the door to let herself out.  Just before she pulled the thing open to leave, she stopped and turned slowly toward to the two of us.

She eyed Bella, then me, then Bella again and said with a nod, “Keep that one honey, he’s built like a Stallion.”

Bella’s face reddened as she choked on any resemblance of an answer she might have given but I doubted the woman even noticed as she disappeared out into the lobby hallway.  Then I couldn’t take it anymore.

I let out a silent, side splitting chuckle.  Then Bella lost it.  And there we were, two half naked, sex driven idiots, laughing our asses off in a public bathroom at the Driskill Hotel not three doors down from the conference room we were supposed to meet Marcus in at any moment.

We pulled ourselves together and left, knowing he’d be impatient about our timing and when we walked in to the conference room, I took note of two things. 

Felix.  And Felix.

And okay, he’s really only one thing, but his size pretty much counted as two.

He didn’t acknowledge us as we passed by and found our seats.

Marcus ignored us at first, answering a text message he’d gotten, then asked a few questions about our day as he busied himself, looking through his briefcase.

I tried to gear up for project “act like I hate Bella” as she made a few smart ass remarks about working with me.  It was hard to jab back, considering the bathroom sex we’d just had, but I managed it. 

I thought things were going pretty good too, until out of the blue, Marcus seemed agitated.

Bella and I were trying to silently discuss what we thought might be wrong with him when his voice rang out over all thoughts and suspicions.

“Isabella.”

She blinked her eyes away from mine to find Marcus.  I kept mine fixed on her.  She seemed different.  Everything about her really.  The way she eyed him, the posture she took, even her smile wasn’t the same for him anymore. 

I got the distinct feeling she wanted to run.

As far away from him and what he represented as possible.

“There is a package at the front desk for me that I forgot to retrieve, would you mind very much…”

She wasted no time taking him up on his offer for her to distance herself from him.  “Not at all, Marcus.”

When she made to leave, Felix held the door open for her.

Me?  I literally had to hold on to my chair to keep from going after her. 

I had no idea if she’d be back.

I was still staring off in the general direction she’d left us when Marcus interrupted my thoughts.

“She is still difficult, old friend?”

I couldn’t look at him.  He’d read it all over my face if I had.  “She’s… Bella,” I shook my head a little annoyed with him.

Okay a lot annoyed.

“Of course she is.”

Silence hung in the air.  It was uncomfortable.

“I have become increasingly concerned with her attitude over the past few years.  And this…”  He spread his hands, insinuating he was referring to this “job”. 

I could only vaguely pay attention to what he was saying until…

“I may let her go.”

And that snapped me to attention.  Because when Marcus “let people go”, it usually didn’t mean he was giving them a pension package.

“Why would you do that?” I spat without thinking.

“She is… Bella,” he told me.  “Difficult to control… frustrating to train….”  He curled his lips down.  “As a matter of fact… Felix,” he said, inspecting his fucking fingernails of one hand, while the other flicked behind him.

I barked a nervous laugh. “Marcus, you can’t… let her go…” I was flailing.  I hated flailing.  “What do I tell our neighbors when I get back to the house without a fucking wife?”

“Pish,” he blew me off. “You will think of something… she left you… she is visiting her mother…”

He said it like he was comparing ways to pronounce “tomato” and I thought to myself, what a fucked up comment to make… considering her mother was dead.

He made another motion toward Felix, commanding him to take care of the situation.  My head reeled and my eyes darted from him to Felix, who nodded and started to go.  “Wait.”

I’d stood up without even realizing it, my chair, on the ground behind me, my hands pressed firmly against the table’s marble surface.

Felix stopped and took his position by the door again.

Marcus… smiled.  Then nodded approvingly.

And I wanted to stab myself in the eye with a knife… because I’d just blown it.

The entire day slammed into me and I couldn’t breathe.

“Ah, yes…” he mused. “She is most certainly, Bella.”  He let me sit there, wondering what the fuck had just happened… even though we both knew that we both knew just exactly what had happened.  My breathing increased, I could feel it.  It was uncontrollable.

I didn’t respond to him at first, but then I felt a compelling urge to try and right the situation, bleak as it seemed.

 “I didn’t say…”

He tsked me.  “You have to ask yourself this question, Edward, before you go risking your livelihood again…”   He was referring to another time and another place where I’d let something like this happen.  Not on this scale of course, but still… you’d think I’d have learned a lesson.

Then he leaned in to the table, putting his elbows in front of him, tilting his head just so.

“Does she even want to be saved?” he asked me and I just kept repeating to myself, trying to convince my psyche that this was different…this was different.  It was…

“And even if she did, Edward…” He only whispered the next part, as though it was our little secret.  “…is she worth it?”

“You think you know things…”

“I think I know you, my young apprentice.  And I know love when I see it.”

My head moved but I couldn’t answer him.  I couldn’t deny it. 

He didn’t argue with me.  He didn’t need to.  He just grinned up at me as my face contorted into callous bitterness about the situation I’d put myself in. 

Put her into.

And anger toward the man who had the gall to sit there and use the term friend with me.

“I am certain we don’t really want… or need to let Isabella go, do we?” he asked me and I picked my chair back up off of the floor and sat in it, swallowing the bile, staring at nothing.

His grasp on me was flimsy at best before.  He had me now.

He was officially holding Bella over my head and I had nothing.  Nothing to gamble with.

“Things do not always have to be so tense with us, do they, Edward?”

I glared at him.  Completely limp dicked for a come back.

“Everything… okay?”  It was Bella, she’d returned, handing the package Marcus sent her to get that was no doubt bogus.

“Ah, Isabella is back, now for our update. Live… and in person, among friends and family… this is good.”

Bella smiled politely as Marcus spoke and I wanted to throw up, looking over at her.  Knowing even if I wanted to, I couldn’t turn my back on her. 

Because Marcus was right.

Whitlock had been right.

Emmett and all his cryptic cinch bug bullshit… even he was right.

I loved her.

“You okay, Cullen?” she asked sarcastically and I tried to grin for her, nodding as best I could.

“Excellent,” Marcus announced and with that, he wanted details on our day, what we planned to do in order to bag Whitlock and, most importantly, when we expected our little journey to be over.

We made false promises and mostly guesstimates on time frames, but I didn’t bother trying to put on the despising act toward Bella anymore.  Marcus had seen through me.  Whether it was back at the house in West Austin, or if it was tonight, when I’d made to stop Felix from leaving that room… it didn’t matter anyway.

He knew.  That was all that was important.

During the drive home, I was quiet.

At the house, I locked up and turned lights off and then headed up the stairs.

Bella took my hand and drew me into her, continuing a kiss we’d started what felt like a lifetime ago.

I let her guide us to the bedroom.  Mine again.  We didn’t speak a word of consequence to each other as clothes were removed and hands roamed.

We fell into each other on that bed.

I grew hard and she grew wet and when I slid perfectly into her, she closed her eyes for only a moment before opening them up again, holding my soul in her stare as I pushed and pulled, and she rolled her hips.

I kissed her hard and long and promised her without words that Marcus would never harm a single hair on her head even if I meant I had to die instead of her and when she came, she spoke my name.  And  she breathed easier and put her lips against my neck, whispering something I couldn’t quite make out.

When I came, my lips found hers again.

We entwined ourselves for while.  I let my fingers find her nipples and her lips found my arm.

And just when it seemed like the night would get away from us, Bella moved, propping herself up onto her elbows so she could look at me.  “It’s sad, don’t you think?”

I furrowed my brow some.  “What is?”

“Living like this?  Like we were… not really having anyone to share things with, or… go to Rodeos with?  Someone you could potentially… care about?”

I thought about it.

I also thought about what Marcus had said.  What he’s asked.  About Bella being worth it.

And memories of another someone who I thought had cared about me became muddied with the someone who was currently at the very most… potentially caring about me.

“Better than stickin’ your neck out only to get it chopped off, I guess.” I tried to laugh at what I was saying, but it came out as more of a pained injured bird sound to me. 

Some holes just never close up, I guess.

“So who was she?” she asked. 

Women’s intuition maybe?

“Who was who?”

“The girl.”

She was always doing that lately.  Seeing right through me.  I hated that.  And I didn’t think I wanted to share that story just yet.  I still wasn’t even sure if lightning was about to strike twice or not.

Then Arianna’s voice sounded in the back of my mind.

“Run away with me, Edward.”

“How?”

“All we need is Marcus’ money.”

It made me look away from Bella, that memory, and I hated that it still felt so painful even after so many years had passed.  That I still felt like such an idiot for being so fucking gullible.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I told her and hell, even I wasn’t convinced.

She lay her head back down onto my chest at that.  “It’s okay, you know.”

“What is?”

“That you don’t want to talk about it.”  Her fingers circled soft designs on my chest.

“I didn’t say I…”

“Edward, we all have our own crosses to bear.  There are things I don’t think I’d be comfortable talking to you about yet either, so… it’s okay.”

Yet.

She said yet.

Which meant she planned on talking about something with me in the future.

Which is a huge word in our line of work.

Future.

Little things like that, things I wasn’t keen to pick up on when I was younger, they were the things that were telling about people’s motives.   Things that could make or break your career… or your life.

Bella’s motives?  Appeared to be true with that one miniscule word.

It was just an idea, really.  But it felt right.  It was bold and bright with hope laced around it.

And I clung to it.