Chapter 8 – The Game

The Following Day

Edward Cullen POV

Holy… shit, it was early.  It had to be. 

It felt like pre-dawn early and when I felt the bed move it hadn’t registered that I should be alarmed.  I was too drained… too tired and too confused to care so I just couldn’t… or wouldn’t bother to open my eyes to see who or what it was that was apparently climbing their way up next to me.

Or rather… on top of me?

And it was dark.

With the heavy curtains that lined the windows in my room closed the way they were, you couldn’t see your own hand in front of you much less anything else, so it really should not have been any surprise to me that I couldn’t get a make on my intruder.

“Good morning,” came a voice that was sultry.  It was more like a whisper than anything else though.  Like she didn’t want anyone to know she was there, despite the fact that we were alone… like it was our little secret.

Something for only us to share.   So I made sure to whisper back, but before I could get a word out, her hand was over my mouth.  “Shhhhhhh.”

I nodded in compliance and then her lips were at my ear.  “I just needed to…” she trailed off, as though stopping herself from giving too much away.  The heat from her breath against my neck as she spoke made me hard instantaneously.

As if it would take much more from her.

I was afraid to open my eyes.  Afraid she’d leave, from the sound of her voice.  It was so unfamiliar… so determined… but also innocent, and fragile.  Like one wrong or sudden move and she would run… like she was… scared… so I kept them closed as her other hand slid under blankets, looking for that hardness.

Yes… fuck yes.  Keep going.

Under the covers… over the boxers, and my breathing is coming out a little rapidly.

Enough to give me away.

To give everything away.

She murmured something I could barely hear then… something about the size of my dick and I vaguely remember wondering if she was impressed… or disappointed.  It didn’t seem to matter though, as she continued her assault, whispering little nothings… so softly…  so quietly… so… goddamn needy.  It was too much.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t too much.  Yet.

“Do you like this?” she asked while her fingers moved up and down along the shaft as though she was measuring me up, and I nodded again as I swallowed.

“Do you want more?” her voice rasped in a very sexy, dangerous sort of way and again, my head moved to let her know I approved.  Then her hand pulled at the waist band of my boxers and tugged them down a little.  My hips moved to help her get them over my ass and my dick sprang free as the prize for dilligence.

I made to slide a hand or two of my own against her to find some areas of interest but then she suddenly stopped and instructed me, “Don’t move,” ever so quietly.  Ever so demanding.  “Be very still.”

The whispering was killing me.

It was all killing me.

I did as she said, though.  I was mesmerized… like I was in the middle of some sort of drug induced high.  All I could do was attempt to control my ragged breaths as her hand engulfed my hard on, allowing a couple of fingers to graze my testicles every few strokes.

Mother of god that feels good. 

She feels so good.

Part of me wondered in the midst of it all, if this was it.

Was she gonna slice my balls off finally?  Or was she…?

But as her own breathing became shallow, I knew it wasn’t about slicing my balls off… this was about something else.  About what both of us had gone to bed the night before wondering about.  All I wanted to do was feel for her heat… to see if she was there too.

If she was wet… was she aching for me the way she had me aching for her?  Or was this just some additional attempt to fuck with me?  A way to get a handle on our situation somehow?    Was she that afraid of letting go or was it just that she had become addicted to being the one in control?

She made no other sounds than inhaling and exhaling, though, as she stroked me.  Gentle at times, greedy at others, her thumb rubbing the pre-cum around the tip when it showed itself.

I tried my best to do as she’d told me… to be still, but my pelvis had a mind of its own and it rocked into her hand when I could no longer control the urge to move as my mind raced with the fantasy of her hand being her mouth instead… maybe even her…

Shit… not helping.

She had urges too, I’d noticed.  She didn’t want me to notice, but I had… they were subtle gestures, I admit, but still, I caught them. 

Every once in a while, I could feel her pressing herself up against me a little more, or her teeth would just barely take my earlobe in between them, wanting to bite down… wanting to, but not quite following through.  Not allowing that type of indulgence.

And her tongue.

Jesus Christ, her tongue.  The way it would jet out just far enough to let me know it was there and then, just like that, it was gone again.

Rubbing… harder… please… harder.

Fuck me.

If I could just tell her…

“Cum for me,” she whispered, realizing my desperation… stroking harder at all the right moments… in all the right places and I let my hips go as my breathing sped up and my brow furrowed, feeling the onset of the orgasm she’d requested.

“Yes,” she said, softly, and I moaned against the palm of her hand that still kept me from speaking a single word.  “Let it go, Edward, do it for me.”

And then suddenly, with those words, almost as though I wanted nothing but to make her happy, I jerked and twitched and came into her hand, holding my breath, desperate to grab her and kiss the hell out of her… to taste her and feel her like I wanted to feel her… like I needed to feel her.

And when I was done, she simply purred, “Good boy… now count to ten… slowly.” 

I shook my head. “You’re just dreaming anyway, Edward,” she told me, her voice fading. Confused, I did as she told me, and at the end of the count, I let my eyes open, knowing I wouldn’t see her there by then, but looking for her, none-the-less.

She wasn’t there, of course.

I breathed.  I breathed deeply and purposefully and quite frankly, I let myself enjoy the release she’d given me, wanting her even more than I had the previous night, on the floor in the hallway off of the kitchen because that… was the hottest goddamn hand job I’d ever experienced in my entire…

Hold the phone.

“What the fuck?”

I pulled my hand out from under the blankets, noticing the sticky feeling between my fingers.

I was still half asleep.

I could have reached for myself in the absence of her hand. 

I could have, I thought as I woke up a little more.

Or was she right?  Had I just dreamt that she was there and given myself a hand job in my sleep?

“Shit.”

I threw the blankets off of me and got out of bed, looking for a sign… anything to prove to me that she’d been there, and when I didn’t find anything, I thought, doesn’t mean anything… she’s fucking sneaky like that…

I headed for a shower and the entire time I was second guessing myself.

My second guesses were second guessing themselves.

I was quadruple guessing myself.

Going back… and forth… up and down… sideways, wondering if it had been real or not.  I mean hell, it could have been a wet dream, but… it sure fucking felt real. 

Could just ask her for crying out loud, I told myself as I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair.

No, she’d deny it.  Otherwise why would she have so…

Fucking sexy.

Shit.

Holding her hand over my mouth like that?  I don’t know a lot of women who’d pull that shit… Hell I don’t know any women that would pull that shit, much less pull it off as fucking foreplay.

Goddamn.

I wonder if she had the heels on.

As I dressed, I decided I’d feel her out, watch her reaction when I saw her downstairs before beginning another day as man and wife.  However, any sign that she might have visited my bedroom that morning was unable to be seen when she greeted me, half annoyed, half impatient as I entered the kitchen a little while later.

“Morning,” I said to her as chipper as I could without giving away my cat like curiosity, making my way to the fridge to see if there was any food actually left after the previous night’s war with food.

Nothin’.  Damn.

“Morning.”

Hmmm… well, she didn’t exactly sound like someone who’d just helped a guy get off in his bed… that’s for sure.

“You uh… sleep okay?”  I asked, grabbing a bottle of water in lieu of breakfast.

“Great.”

I narrowed my eyes at her and took a drink of the H2O as she wiped the counter down.  

Evasive.

Short, one word answers.

I figured it could be that she was avoiding eye contact because she knew I’d read her.  But then again, it coulda been she was maybe uncomfortable after our play time the night before… it was a tough call. 

And she was good with the poker faces.

Before I’d gotten my next question out, she beat me to the punch.

“I thought you were going to clean this up last night.”

Uhhh… not what I would have expected, but okay.  “I did, can’t you tell?”  Couldn’t she tell?

“Really?  Then what’s this?”

I leaned over the island to see what she was pointing at with the sponge in her hand, scratched at the hardened substance and then put it into my mouth. 

“Mm…” I nodded, sucking the substance through my teeth. “Definitely dried spaghetti sauce.”

“Right… do you know hard it is to get this shit up after it’s dried?”

I laughed at her a little bit.  Something about the snark was just so fucking adorable now that I knew what lay under that whole bad ass façade of hers.  “Okay… I missed a spot, ya got me, relax.”

“Relax?”

And now… she’s looking right at me.

Definitely nothing uncomfortable about that look.

“RELAX?  We have approximately eight hours to get ready for… game night… where it’s going to be imperative that we act like we actually like each other so these people will be more comfortable around us and hopefully OPEN UP about Whitlock, so we actually have something to give Marcus the next time we update him…. Edward… how would you like me to relax when that’s looming over our heads?”

And at this point, I’m thinking… there’s no way she was in my room earlier… which was depressing that I had to chalk up the best hand job ever to my own doing.

I mean, how sad is THAT?

I was staring at her incredulously and she threw the sponge down into the sink. “What?”

I pointed at her with a waggling finger. “You know you have this vein smack dab in the middle of your forehead that looks like it’s gonna burst open when you get all riled up like that?” 

I’d noticed it at the airport in Baltimore and had thought it was pretty funny then too, but now it just seemed… endearing.

She closed her eyes for a minute and took a breather.  “Let’s just… try to do some recon today, okay? And not get distracted with the childish shit again?”

She attempted to do the walking out on me thing again and I just couldn’t stand it anymore.  I felt like we’d gotten somewhere the previous night and now we were moving backwards again.

It could’ve happened.

Maybe she just wants to see if I’ll call her out.

Maybe she doesn’t want me to call her out.

Maybe she just wants to forget it.

But we don’t play that game.  Do we?

 “Were you in my room this morning?”  I blurted it.  It was best, trust me.

She stopped short for a beat or two before turning back to me.  “Excuse me?”

Ouch.  I’d forgotten how much I absolutely despised hearing her say that.

“I was just wondering because the weirdest thing happened earlier, that…” 

“Edward,” she stopped me. I made myself comfortable because I already knew that look in her eyes… the one that said this was gonna be a doozy.  And it was.  “I have no reason whatsoever to be in your room. I can’t imagine what would be so intriguing about your room that would lure me there, and I certainly don’t have the time to sit here and hear about the weird things that go on in your room, so…”

Then she left with a curt wave of her hand at me.

Shimmy and all.

But don’t think for one minute that I didn’t catch the fact that she hadn’t actually said that she wasn’t in my room.

You caught that, right?

Wasn’t gonna push it though.  Not at the moment.   Far be it from me to push a woman with the ability to slice my dick off piece by piece.  No matter how good of an imaginary hand job she’d already given that dick.

Anyway… I’d reluctantly agreed with my inner pursuit for the truth to let it go for the time being. Bella and I spent the remainder of the day learning a few things about our neighbors, trying to come up with interesting conversation that could be turned into covert inquisition type questions, but more importantly, the tension seemed to rise to a whole new level.

Nothing I did was right.

Nothing I said was taken the way it was meant, no matter how hard I tried to smooth things over.

I know, what else is new?

She was wound up about something and, to be honest, even though I wanted to be pissed off at her, I couldn’t help but wonder what it was that had gotten her so focused on… well, focusing.

She insisted on following Alice Brandon around for awhile to see what her interests were… and we didn’t skip our good friend Whitlock, who managed to “coincidentally” bump into Alice a few times throughout the day. I found it amusing that we were tailing a guy who was tailing a woman who he may or may not have had a neighborhood crush on.

Bella was clearly making mental notes about things and I was right there with her, making my own mental notes on her.  She literally looked like she might snap in two if one interrupted her thoughts.

Didn’t stop me from revving her engine, though.  I took the opportunity to dangle a carrot out in front of her at one point, when she seemed like she was deepest in thought.  “Ya know, if you were in my room this morning… and I’m not saying you were… but if you were… I wouldn’t exactly be complaining, you know.”

She sat in the passenger’s seat, stone faced as ever, and when I realized she wasn’t gonna answer, I turned to look straight ahead, watching the road as I sang under my breath with a glint in my eye.

“Doin’… the hand… jive… baby….”

“Edward.”

There… we go.

“Mmmm?”

“Shut.  Up.”

I tried not to laugh.  Really I did, I mean clearly she was distraught about something and I don’t like to stir the pot, so to speak… so yeah, I stopped singing.

I hummed instead.

The day pretty much went on like that as we ran a couple of errands for some good wine to take to our hostess for the party later and picked up a game of our own to take with us.

It was a mish mosh of comments from yours truly about the fit of a good glove, trying to bring up the timeless debate of whether or not size really matters and of course, Bella shooting death glares and raised eyebrows my way.

Whatever it was she was keeping locked up in that head of hers was not coming out.  She’d thrown whatever it was that she’d let me see a side of the night before into the vault and then swallowed the key.

Good times.

About half way through the day, a random thought might have crossed my mind somewhere in between my debates on whether to push the whole, was it you who gave my dick release this morning or not, subject.  I wondered if it might have been possible that it was something to do with her father… that maybe she’d had another phone conversation with him and that maybe that was what had upset her, but by the end of the daylight hours, I’d managed to remind myself of all the reasons I was even in this situation to begin with.

It wasn’t like this was my first career choice… Marcus had made damn sure I didn’t have any other options though, and the more I thought about him, the more spiteful I became.

I was done trying to be the understanding type dipshit fake husband.

It wasn’t my job to make her feel better, right?

I wasn’t there for her.  I was there for me.  And if being there in the same house had happened to encourage her to walk my dog spontaneously, then so be it.  Who cared if she wanted to fess up or not, right?  So she liked to remain anonymous about that shit.

That didn’t give her the right to compensate by being a female version of a dick, did it?

By the time we were getting ready to head over to this Rose lady’s house, I was definitely over her virtual claw like scratches up and down my ego.

And once I’d heard her bellow for me one last… irk provoking time, I’d stormed out of the laundry room after pulled a few things out of the dryer to throw on before we left and she was cocking one of her fucking eyebrows at me again… the way she always did when she wasn’t approving of something I’d done… or said… or breathed… or hell, who cares, all I had to do was exist in this bitch’s opinion to piss her off.

“What?  What now?”

“I was just…”

“What?  My shirt’s wrinkled?”  I pulled at the shirt a little and crumpled it in my hands. “My hair’s a mess?”  I ran both hands through it, making it unruly.  “What?”

“Ya know, you…”

“Forgot to brush my teeth?  Should I manscape my fucking eyebrows?  Shave again?  Spit it out Beelzebub.”

She glared at me and I silently celebrated getting one over on her for a goddamn change that day.

She’d deserved it and she knew it, but fuck if she’d admit that shit.

She just closed her mouth finally and then said, “Nothing,” fake smiling as she grabbed a jacket and her bag. “Let’s go.”

As we made our way over to Rose’s house, or rather, as Bella stalked and I tried to keep up, I realized I was just making the situation worse and there’s really nothing like a couple that shows up for game night that’s fighting right off the bat.  Right?

“Look I’m sorry, I’m just…”

“It’s quite alright,” she interrupted me, staying just a little ahead of me and then finally I caught up with her. 

“Look, I’m exhausted here… think you could maybe cut me some fucking slack for once?”  I nearly demanded, raising my voice a tad louder than normal and she stopped when we were at the front door to glare at me.

“You’re looking at me funny, do I look like shit?  Because seriously, if I look like shit, I’ll go home and change.”

She eyed me up and down and then looked me straight into the eyes.  “Great… you look… great.”  Which should have been a compliment, except for the fact that the smile she was donning made me think that maybe she was trying not to laugh. 

I was just about to ask her what was so funny when the door opened on us.

There stood a tall blonde with a bad hair dye job whose expression went from all smiles and welcome to my home, to shocked, well beyond even what I could comprehend.

“What the hell?”

That wasn’t exactly the nicest introduction now, was it? 

I peeked over at Bella, who’s no longer making eye contact with me… or anyone actually… then I found Jasper, who was standing a little behind our hostess, eying me funny.  “You’re missin’ a little somethin’ there, aren’t ya Edward?”

“What?”

Emmett, who’s over to the side, is trying to cover his laughter by shoving food into his mouth, but at least he’s trying to give me a goddamn hint as to what the fuck is going on. 

His eye lowered to my groin area and at first I’m thinking, did I peg this guy wrong or what, but then I heard Alice Brandon. 

“Should Rose have specified that this is a pants required sort of party, Edward?”

I laughed. “What the hell are you….?”

“Well, they do like their sex games,” Emmett added.

I looked down.

 No pants.

Right.

And… fuck me.

I breathed out, eyeballing Bella as I did it, trying not to appreciate her sense of humor and revenge tactic after I’d blown up at her back at the house.  “Be right back.”

I jogged over to mine and Bella’s fake prestigious home, keeping an eye out for any other innocent bystanders, half chuckling at the fact that that woman had let me walk to our neighbors in nothing but my skivvies.

I shook my head at the pants that still lay folded across the ironing board and slipped them on, in complete disgust with myself at how I was just seeming to let this woman distract me from the simplest of tasks.   Then headed back over to Rose’s.

But not before I stopped in front of Whitlock’s, momentarily.

Everyone was at the party that I could see… which meant… “no one’s going to be out…side,” I mused to myself as I slinked over in between the houses to see what kind of trouble I could get myself into before making my second appearance at Ms. Hale’s house.

Dressed of course.

I noted the security cameras and stayed out of their ranges, keeping mostly up against the wall of his next door neighbor, just trying to get a look into the house through windows.

I don’t know what I was looking for, hell I just hoped for something that would end this goddamn case so I could stop playing these stupid fucking games… no pun intended… and get back to what I was hoping would be a new life for me.

Away from Marcus Volturi, away from Bella goddamn dick tease Swan, and most importantly, away from this bullshit con-artist type life once and for all.

Whether Marcus said so or not.

Boxes seemed to line what looked like Whitlock’s dining room wall and other than that, he didn’t appear to have a whole lot of furnishings… at least in that area of the house.

I was stretching my body forward a little to see what else I could catch when I heard the hum of one of his cameras.  It was moving… and it was also going to catch me on film if I didn’t move my ass, so I snuck back into the shadows and made my way back over to our game night hostess’ house, going through the possibilities of what could have been in those boxes.

He was in the secret service right?  Could be illegal arms dealings…

Bombs, maybe?

Money?

Nah…. That’d be one hell of a lot of money…

The door was open when I got there and I had to shake my head at the trust these people had in others. 

Leaving your door open like that? 

Anyone could just… walk in and take advantage of you.

Anyone who was very non-trustworthy.

Anyone like me.

“I still can’t believe neither one of you noticed he didn’t have any pants on.”

I didn’t know the voice, I realized, as I followed the sounds to where everyone was now gathered.  It was unfamiliar and I made an estimated guess that maybe it was our hostess.  

“Oh I noticed he didn’t have pants on, but he’s been kind of a dick today… needed a little taming, if you know what I mean.”

And I’m pretty sure that was the most I’d heard Bella talk all day.

Figures it wasn’t to her fake husband, but rather to a bunch of fucking strangers that we’re supposed to be grilling for information… not confiding in.

“You have the most colorful language, Bella,” Alice Brandon told her and I chuckled silently before rounding the corner into what had to have been the largest living area I’d ever seen in my entire fucking life.

“Holy shit.”

“Oh,” Alice said, noticing me there. “You too, of course, Edward.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled, making my way over to the crowd.  “I was being rushed by the little lady tonight, seems I forgot to fully dress after our…” I waggled my eyebrows at Bella. “Afternoon delight…tah.”

Alice blushed, Emmett chuckled lively and Whitlock just did what Whitlock did… he took it all in.

“Well, you’re dressed now,” Rose announced, desperately trying to change the subject as she held a hand out to me.  “I’m Rose.”

See?  I was right.

“Glad you could make it back, Edward, we were just deciding on partners for the evening.”

“I volunteer to be Edward’s partner,” came a voice I did know.  “Since Bella’s taken already, that is.”

I didn’t even bother looking at Jessica when she’d announced that Bella had another partner already, I immediately wanted to know who the hell that partner was.

And when I saw him.  And yeah, I said him… I didn’t know whether to laugh or punch the guy. 

He was this, young, buff, happy go fucking lucky little shit who was sitting a little too goddamn close to my fake wife if ya ask me.

I think I was scowling.

I was definitely scowling.  My forehead hurt too much for me to not be scowling.

Voices were a little muffled around me as I began my stalk over to the piece of shit to tell him to get his goddamn hands off of my goddamn…

“I don’t fucking think so,” Bella was saying as she stood up, putting herself in between me and the man-boy.  At first I thought she was talking to me, but then…

“Jess? What, you don’t wanna be my partner tonight?” someone asked and I was starting to get it.

It was her husband that was talking and it was Jessica that Bella was speaking to.

A hand was on my arm then but it wasn’t Bella’s, it was too big to be Bella’s.

I looked over… and then up. “Emmett.”

“I wouldn’t get in between a cat fight if I were you Ed,” he warned me as Jessica was rebutting Bella’s threat and I’m thinking, cat fight? When Jessica starts in again.

“Oh we’re all friends here… let’s… mix it up a little tonight.”

“I’m down,” the husband said, but Bella was still… not… quite… on board as she took another step toward the neighbood ho-bag, ignoring me of course.

“Take a seat next to my husband and you can say goodbye to those things you like to call tits dangling around your torso.”

My eyebrows shot up on that one and I could hear Emmett, as he cupped his mouth, whispering, “Oh, snap.  She is bad… ass.”

I couldn’t exactly disagree with him, so I just nodded.

“Hey!  These are real and anyone who wants to question that can…”

“Settle down, Jessica, we draw names, you know that… and you’ll draw a name just like everyone else has tonight, and just like any other game night,” Rose told her under no uncertain terms.

After gathering her senses, she said with a smile, “Fine then, we’ll just let fate decide who we… pair up with then.” 

She didn’t pick my name.  Thank God.  That coulda been ugly.

She did pick the older woman from two doors further down who lived with cats.   

I ended up with Emmett, which I had to admit, was… interesting as the night wore on. He was a decent partner during Pictionary and I got a kick out of watching him hone in on our hostess for the evening, who was partnered with Mike Newton, Jessica’s husband. 

He didn’t seem to like that.

Whitlock seemed to be the only guy who had actually ended up with the person he wanted to be partnered with… Alice Brandon.  And I found that highly intriguing, considering the odds of that happening.  I was convinced he’d done some finagling, but there was no way to prove it.  He was definitely talented at covert operations.  That much I knew.

The question was, what else was he manipulating that we didn’t know about?

At first, as everyone began to get to know the new kids on the block, I thought I was gonna be able to put the morning’s activities behind me… forget about it for a while but then I noticed every time it was mine and Emmett’s turn up at bat, we seemed to be getting clues to a very specific genre of movie titles.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

Hands of a Stranger

Cool Hand Luke

Die Hard

Something Wicked This Way Comes

The Italian HAND Job for Christ’s sake?

And okay, I’d added hand in there myself on that one, but come on; it was simply how my mind was working by then.  It was making me a little jittery and I couldn’t stop staring at Bella half the night, but she didn’t seem to have a problem with any of it. In fact, she was more interested in the man-boy she was partnering with than anyone else in the room.

Oh, they laughed and she giggled at some stupid jokes he was telling and leaned into him just a little further than necessary, in my opinion, when he’d whisper something and they got ALL of their hints that they gave each other during the game. I was trying to dig through all of the frustration I was feeling when it hit me.

And trust me, when it hit me, it hit me hard.

I was jealous of the smiles she was throwing him.

Those were my smiles, I’d earned them the night before, and she was just… sharing them freely with this little dipshit that was probably half her fucking age.

Luckily, we all took a break for a bit before I completely lost my temper and strangled the guy, and I took the opportunity to chat Emmett up about Whitlock.

At least, it had started out about Whitlock.

I had good intentions.

Really.

He brought me back a beer from the kitchen, after chatting up Rose Hale for a bit, and when he sat down to go over more Pictionary strategies, I said, “So, Emmett… what do you know about Whit… I mean, Jasper over there?”

“What do I know about him?”

“Yeah, you know… he seems very evase… I mean…”  I shook my head. “Stand offish…”  except with my fake wife that is.

“Well I… know he’s… really into the…”

“I mean who does he think he is anyway?” I swigged the beer Emmett had given me.

He followed my glare, then asked, “Are we still talking about Whitlock?  Or do you wanna know about Seth?”

I finished the swig and laughed bitterly. “Seth.”

“He’s just the lawn boy, Ed.”

“Lawn boy! HA! That figures,” I said, realizing my beer was empty. 

“Wanna another?” Emmett offered.

“Aboslutely.”

As I stared down the lawn boy and Bella, Emmett handed me another alcoholic beverage and I chugged it before he finally said to me, amused at my jealous raging, “Ya know he’s harmless, just a good kid. His parents live down the street and they never really come to these things anymore, but everyone’s kinda grown attached to him…”

Oh he probably wants them all to think he’s a goody two shoes… but I know his kind… he probably fucks every single woman on this block.

“Uh huh.”

He nudged me, laughing as Rose called the game back to order, and I focused on a way to get that guy alone… outside… in the dark corners of someone’s back yard maybe. 

Someone who had a pool.

Or a creek in the back.

When it was Bella’s turn to give her clue to … Seth… I watched them as Emmett muttered shit into my ear about something of no consequence.  It probably had to do with our game plan… or Rose Hale… or Mike Newton, who was apparently eye fucking Rose Hale… but I didn’t give a flying fuck.

“The Proposal!” Seth had cried out within fifteen seconds of Bella drawing some lame ass stick figure and I actually cocked my head sideways, because hell if I would have gotten that from the bullshit she’d drawn on the white board we were given.

“Good… boy,” Bella purred to her partner as she ruffled his hair and then… suddenly… everything seemed to stop for me.

While laughter erupted from our fellow game players and drinks were being drank… drunk? … whatever… The entire room slowed as my focus zoomed in on Bella, who seemed to be taunting me from across the room.

I had tunnel vision as I watched her and everyone else became shadows and muffled noises around me.

Did she say those actual words?  Or was I just hearing them wrong? 

What I wanted to hear, maybe?

And if she did say them, did that mean she actually had been in my room this morning?

Was she telling me… she’d been there?

Or had I just heard her say that same phrase before and then proceeded to insert it into my dream?

“Edward?”

“Hmmmm… What?”

I jerked my neck to see who was looming over me, finally.  It was Rose.  And she was looking at me expectantly.  “Another beer?” she was asking, holding her hand out to take my empty bottle.

“Um…”  I peeked back over at Bella, but she was now engrossed in some new conversation with Whitlock; her teasing words forgotten.

I was losing my goddamn mind, that’s what was happening. She was trying to drive me mad.  But why?

“Sure, thanks Rose.”

“Hey speaking of proposals, how did you do it, Edward?” 

Alice Brandon.  For the love of God.

“Yeah, tell us that story.”

Who was that?  Oh… Jessica.  Awesome.

“Oh,” Bella smiled politely, “You don’t wanna hear that boring old story.”

“Yes!” Seth begged her, “Come on Bella, tell us, you tell great stories!”

Say her name again, dipshit.  And what stories is he talking about?

I sincerely thought she’d blow them all off until she made eye contact with me, as though she’d remembered something of great importance… and then she smirked and said, “Sure… I’ll tell you, Seth.”

And why was I not looking forward to what was about to come out of her mouth?

I tried to steer the conversation in another direction.  “Hey Rose, where’d you get that whiteboard… that is a nice…“

“Edward was always very sensitive, you see.”

Oh boy.  Here we go…. And seriously?

“He never did go the route most men would have gone with… you know… flowers, romantic dinners… no,” she said, looking over at me with something I was unfamiliar with in her eyes.  “Too boring for Edward… he’s always been a one of a kind, kind of man.”

Twitch.

Shit.

It was back.

Guys elbowed each other and the women giggled… all but Jessica Newton that is, who was now back over by her husband, looking bored as ever while Bella continued her assault on my manlihood.

“Well, he’d told me he was surprising me with tears in his eyes, almost,” she told them, sitting herself down for the tale.

I think I might have sneered at the tears bit, adding, “There weren’t, tears, in my…” but she cut me off. 

“But when he blindfolded me, I have to admit, I had become a little scared about what was in store for me.”

Two can play that game, Miss Swan.

“You thought we were going back to that BDSM club again,” I spat.

Rose said, “Now that’s a marriage proposal,” to which Emmett let out a snort.

I shrugged. “It was a Christmas present one year… Bella’s very… experimental.”

Whitlock, who’d been leaning against a wall near Alice Brandon, seemingly uninterested until that point, said, “I think that’s debatable,” and I narrowed my eyes at him as Emmett handed me beer number… something, wondering what in the mother of fuck that was supposed to mean.

“Well,” Bella cleared her throat.  “It certainly wasn’t the BSDM club again though, was it, Edward?”

“I’m guessing no.”

“No, it wasn’t,” she told me, as everyone put their listening ears on for the best gossip they’d probably heard in the existence of the neighborhood.

I waved the beer in my hand at her. “By all means… continue.”

“Well,” she raised her eyebrow at me and I adjusted my dick, thinking no one saw me since I was behind a chair but, looking back, I’m pretty sure someone probably did.  “We were driving for at least an hour, and…” she looked at me ever so fake adoringly.  “He played his favorite music…. You remember don’t you Edward?  The Captain and Tennille?  From that show they used to have?”

I choked as she looked around at everyone, clutching her heart.  “He loved that show.”

“Not as much as you loved Charlie’s Angels,” I added and won a few chuckles of my own.  “You used to fantasize about a three way with Bosley and Farrah, remember?” I added, then told Whitlock, for good measure, “Kinky little fucker.”

He smirked.  I went back to eying Bella.

“Yes, well,” Bella interrupted me, stopping me short from taking away from her ever so fucking embarrassment of me.  “Once we arrived at our destination, he removed my blindfold in a burst of glory to show me he’d taken me… to a dude ranch.”

That last part fell flat if you ask me.

“Oh!” Alice burst out, “I… love! Horses!”

“Yes, well, not me…” Bella told her lovingly.  “I’m allergic you see, something our dear Edward had apparently forgotten.”

Not likely.

“And I got really sick being around so many of them like that.  But I didn’t want to ruin whatever it was that Edward had in store for me, so I purchased some Benadryl and we got on those horses and he took me to a spot that he’d picked out previous to our excursion.”

Laughter and gasps of delight filled the room, but Whitlock wasn’t amused, giving me a look of disappointment that I’d done such a horrid thing to the woman I love. I rolled my eyes, taking more of the beer into my system.

“Were you okay?” Rose asked her.

“I can’t believe you, poor thing. That must have been…”

“It was so romantic,” Bella told them, unexpectedly. 

I stopped drinking for a moment to see what the hell she was getting at when I caught the tail end of a look she’d been giving me. 

That same unfamiliar look I’d gotten earlier and I had to admit, even I was intrigued at that point.

“He helped me off of my horse…. Whisper was her name… he wiped the snot from off the side of my face and handed me a box of tissues to blow my nose with… then he pulled a box out of his pocket and my breath was taken away.”

“Oh my God, keep going,” Alice begged, shoving h'ordeuvres into her mouth.

I’m still trying to figure out what the punch line is when Bella went on to say, “When he opened that box and knelt down onto one knee, I just didn’t know what to say to him.”

“Was he crying?”

“Were you crying?”

“Ohmygod.”

Women.

“He was…kneeling...” she told them, as though she was touched beyond the heart, nearly choking on her words.  “…in horse shit.”

“Wh… What?”  I laughed.  I couldn’t help myself.  She had quite the imagination, Bella Swan did, and her story was just getting more and more bizarre in my mind.  When I noticed everyone was staring at me due to my outburst I took another chug of my beer.

“Ewwww!” cried Alice Brandon.

“You poor dude,” Emmett told me, smacking me on the back.

“What us men’ll do for love,” Whitlock added and I had to eyeball the guy out of pure principal.

“Did he give up?”

It was Seth; the little shit was desperate for the end of the story.

So I gave it to him.

“I don’t give up, Seth.  Not my nature, kid,” I told him and he turned his child like attention to me then. 

“What’d you do?”

I looked to Bella and gave her a taste of her own medicine.  “I pulled the ring out and held it up to her, told her I’d throw myself off of the cliff we were standing next to if she refused to be my wife… that life just wouldn’t be the same without her in it.”

And lord knows that was the goddamn truth.

“Oh my god, you have to be the most romantic sex addict I’ve ever met,” Alice nearly cried, holding both hands to her chest as Whitlock chuckled and Emmett put his big head into a hand to hide his own laughter.

“Then what?”  Seth asked.  “Did she say yes?”

What was he a fucking idiot?  Was she not playing the role of my fake wife was we spoke?

“Yes, Edward,” Bella interrupted.  “Finish the story,” she told me with slight amusement in her eyes and an arch of her eyebrow that said, bring it on.

“Well,” I breathed.  “She took the ring from my fingers and held it cautiously in her own hand, looking at it as though it wasn’t real… as though she was inspecting it to make sure it was actually happening, ya know?”

Nods and urges to continue followed.  So I did.  “And then…”

“She said yes!” someone hollered out.

“I bet she turned his ass down the first time. Bella’s a hard ass,” Emmett said, to which she giggled and winked at him for his appraisal.

“Not exactly,” I told them and then Bella’s head tilted in this… cute as fuck way, like she was literally on the edge of her seat to hear what I was about to add to our little lie.

“What!?  For the love of all that’s good in this world, Edward, don’t keep us waiting!”  Alice screamed at me when she could no longer take my hesitation.

Bella and I locked eyes.   And then I answered.  “The horse… ate… the ring.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?”  Most of them yelled together as Jessica snickered and Whitlock shook his head. 

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Tell me you’re joking.”

“Unbelievable!”

“Did you get it back?” 

I shook my head as Bella held my gaze, grinning at her just a tad.  “Nope, never did.”

“That has got to be the best proposal story… ever,” Rose said to whoever as the crowd broke up a little.  Bella still wasn’t breaking our stare and there was no way in hell I was about to at that point, even though I didn’t know exactly what it was all about.

“So then what?” Seth the lawn boy asked. “I mean, obviously you got married, right?” 

“Right,” Alice added, “Where’d you hold your service?”

“We didn’t,” Bella told her, finally looking away from me with something like regret in her eyes, I thought… but then, what in the…

“What do you mean, you didn’t?” Alice interrupted my thoughts.

Bella told her, “We eloped.”

“Eloped?  But why?” 

“It was her dad’s fault really,” I added.  A two-fold reasoning of the introduction of Bella’s father gave me the drop on her that I needed.  She hadn’t seen that coming, I could tell by her reaction.

“My dad is…”

Yeah yeah, I know…  “Not a big fan of mine,” I joked and everyone chuckled. “See, he didn’t like that fact that I was taking Bella away from him… across the country.”

“Oh?  Where did you live, Bella?”  Rose Hale asked her and I waited, giving her the old, gotcha look. 

She was uncomfortable about answering as she looked a few people up and down curiously and then landed on me again.  “Forks,” she choked out.  “Forks, Washington.”

Forks, Washington?

This woman?  Who hacks on demand at shoe shops and can un-crash my laptop at the flick of her wrist?

Could be lying… it’s what she does, I thought, but then no… I could tell it was the truth.   I don’t how I knew, but I knew and I knew that she knew I knew, too.

And she was not happy with me.

“It’s beautiful over there,” the old lady who lived with cats said out of nowhere.  We hadn’t heard from her all night but for Forks, she pipes up. 

Go figure.  “Went by Forks for part of mah honeymoon years and years ago with Donald…” she said, remembering something fondly from long ago.  Then she stood herself up.  “Well, I have to be going, way past my bed time, thanks for the fun, Rose… wonderful story you two,” she told Bella and I.  “It’s stories like that, that hold a marriage together, for a long… long time.”

Yeah.  Too bad it was falsified.

As people took their cue from the old woman down the road and started to leave, Rose was saying her goodbyes and somehow Whitlock had snuck away from us again… I was scanning the place for him when I heard Seth saying goodbye to Bella with a huge bear hug and then Alice inquired about Forks some more.

“What’s it like there, Bella?  Tell me more about your family.”

Yes, Bella, tell us, I thought, hoping for a clue about her past but then, suddenly, she got really itchy and eyeball twitchy and told Alice with a short laugh, “Ya know I just remembered, I really have to get back to the house, I left… the um...” she swallowed, giving herself a few seconds to think of something.  “I left the sprinklers on and I’m pretty sure the bedroom windows are open.”

“So soon?” Alice whined. “I was hoping you’d stay a while.”

“I’m… sorry,” Bella told her and I furrowed my brow at her as she whisked passed me and out the door, then told our hostess, “Thanks for the invite, Rose… I’m just gonnna…” I thumbed over my shoulder and then just like that, darted out the door after my nemesis… once again.

“Bella,” I called after her, into the darkness of the street, unable to ignore my concern for why she’d gotten so upset all of a sudden.

She ignored me, rushing off toward the house.

“Bella!”  I called out again, louder that time, but she just picked up her pace, so I ran after her to catch up.

My mind raced, not really so much about the job or her attitude anymore… and I didn’t care about whether or not this had anything to do with her hiding her intentions from me, or playing me for a chump… and I certainly didn’t give a rats ass about whether or not the hand job in my bed that morning had actually happened or not, anymore.

What I cared about was moving forward, getting some sort of response from her, whether it was, “fuck off Edward,” or “take me up to the master bedroom and fuck the holy shit out of me now because I can’t wait any longer.”

Before I could question myself or second guess my own intentions, I’d caught up to her and had reached out to grab her by the arm, spinning her around to face me.  “Why are you always running away from me?”

“I’m not, I’m…”

“Bullshit,” I told her and she didn’t rebut it.  Which I hadn’t expected, so I wasn’t too sure where to go from that point.

So we just stood there, our eyes fixed on each others, out in front of the house like that for a minute or  two… ten, whatever.  Bella questioning me silently, me debating whether or not to just… let it go.

She looked angry and expectant and I could have sworn I saw tears beginning to well up in her eyes but then just as quickly as they’d appeared… they were gone again.  

I instinctively pulled her a little closer and reached a hand up to wipe something away that wasn’t there.  Then I hesitated, letting it set there against the side of her face for what felt like a split second and then, like it was written in the cards… or given as an order that one couldn’t just ignore… I kissed her.

I kissed her hard and passionately, catching even myself off guard a little and to my surprise… I liked it. 

It didn’t taste like evil, like I’d previously thought it would… whatever it is evil tastes like… and it wasn’t hard and cold like I had imagined. On the contrary, it was… soft and warm and inviting… and she was inviting… like in the bed that morning… maybe, anyway… her hands were at my chest and they felt good there… and God, her tongue, when it played with mine… it was…

Pulled away and out of my mouth harshly and unexpectedly.

My lips reached out for hers again and then… “Ow… shit!” I yelled out as a hand found the side of my face.  “Get… off of me!” she screamed, but I held her tight in my grasp, despite the pain in the side of my head after that smack she’d given me.

“No.”

“Edward, I’m warning you…”

“Yeah, yeah, princess…” I told her, “…slice my balls off… yada, yada, yada.”  I was frowning down at her, frustrated, still holding on to her as she tried to wriggle her way out of my arms.  “Ya know what I think?” I added as I wrestled to keep her there.  

“I don’t care what you think, Edward… now get…. OFF,” she told me.

I mumbled, “Trying to.”  Or… something like that to which she stopped and gave me a look that suspiciously resembled Mr. Potato Head’s angry face.

I mirrored the look she was giving me and the breathing on both our parts was now ragged and quick as we tried to kill each other with glares alone… and just when I thought the moment could have been slit with plastic cutlery, her hands flew again.  This time, to my neck. 

And not to choke the living shit out of me, either.

No, no… not Miss bad ass, nobody gets to me, with an attitude… not this time… instead she pulled herself into my lips, harder than I’d expected, and she pushed her tongue back in to meet mine as though they were long lost lovers that had forgotten each other existed. I pushed forward, throwing the two of us up against the hood of her Beamer, trying to get some friction going, out of pure want and need for her.

A leg hitched and a whimper escaped her as I let my hands roam and grab and learn where she liked them, and I was convinced we were gonna disamantle that fucking car until Emmett’s voice was behind us.

“Dude…. Get a room,” he said teasingly.

I pulled away from Bella, but not entirely, telling him, “Goodnight, Emmett.”

“Night guys,” he said, as he walked up his front walk and entered his house.

Bella’s eyes searched mine for a few seconds before she seemed to be thinking way too much about everything that had just happened… and then she licked her lips a little and nudged me off of her.  “I’m gonna… go to bed, now,” she told me, fixing herself. I made to go with her, but she turned, holding a hand up to stop me, unwilling to look at me just yet. “Don’t follow me.”

Slowly her eyes crept up to meet mine finally and she added one word for me.

One word that tore at my chest a little to be perfectly honest with you.

“Please.”

I nodded, not really knowing what to say. I mean, this shit was new territory for the both of us and I’d just crossed a line I had distinctly thought I agreed not to cross.  So I took a deep breath and just decided some fresh air was gonna be my best bet.

Something to clear my head and make me go over exactly what the motherfuck it was I thought I was doing with her.  What I was letting her do with me.

I heard her from the front door, before she went in.  “Edward?” she said, in this, soft, vulnerable voice that barely sounded like the woman I’d met in Baltimore, Maryland. 

I twisted my body to make sure it was Bella.  She was leaning against the door jamb, looking over at me, almost sadly.

“Yeah?”

She smiled a little for me.  “Thanks for calling me Bella.”

I thought about her words.

Had I?

I laughed, hardly able to comprehend letting that one slip by me. “Sure,” I told her, and then she disappeared into the house… up the stairs… just like always, and I sat there, staring at nothing before going in myself.

That was the night I first admitted it to myself.   That I might be falling for her.

That I was falling for Bella Swan.

And as they say in the best of tragic love stories… I was officially fucked.