Taste of Innocence Chapter 6
Bella looked so entirely fuckable that it took all of my strength not to just launch myself off the door and just tackle her to the floor. It might work, it might not, but it wouldn’t be winning the way I wanted to win. I wanted her to look at me with eyes filled with desire and ask me to fuck her in that breathless voice she used when I had her completely turned on. There was no better sound in the world as far as I was concerned and I would hear it again.
“You did that on purpose,” she hissed, clearly not using the voice I wanted to hear more than any other right now. Well, she was fucking pissed, what a damn shocker that shit was.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I picked up the packages and thrust them toward her, avoiding stepping any closer at the moment since it looked like she wanted to take a swipe at me. She stepped up and yanked the bags out of my hands, tossing them back on the floor. Alright then, it looked like it was time for her to have another fucking hissy fit. Should be fun.
“You purposely spilled blood down the front of you so that I would attack you like that.” She punctuated each word with a jab of her finger. I wondered idly how she’d react if I lifted her finger and put it into my mouth and worked a little magic on it with my tongue.
To lie or not to lie, that was the question. Fuck, what did I have to lose? “Oh, that? Well of course I did.” I mean, I wasn’t some savage that was incapable of eating without making a giant fucking mess. Bella knew that much about me at least.
Her finger stopped attempting to puncture my rock hard chest and she put both hands on her hips. “Why? Why would you do that to me?” Why the fuck was everything I did wrong in this girl’s eyes? And why did she make me feel strange every time she looked at me with those disapproving red irises?
I smirked at her and she hissed in reaction. Damn, she was so hot when she was pissed off. Maybe that’s why I messed with her so often. “Why did I spill blood down myself? Did you see your fucking reaction? What guy wouldn’t want to be mauled the instant he walked in the door by a horny, hungry, sexy woman?”
She let out a scream and started stomping around the room. It was hilarious and I didn’t try to contain my laughter. She whirled around and glared at me. “Is that all this is about with you, Edward? Sex? You could get sex anywhere you wanted, why in the hell are you so obsessed with getting it from me?”
My laughter died down at her words because I didn’t have an answer to that fucking question. I had to try to look at it logically. We’d been together once and it had been fantastic. I’d had fantastic sex before but there was something more with her that I couldn’t quite define. Thus, I’d decided that I wanted to keep her around and bit her. Now here we were, just a few hours after she’d woken up and I was already running around town being her little bitch and panting after her like a dog in heat. What the fuck was my issue? Was it because she wouldn’t let me have her? Was I that fucking stubborn that I had to have her just because she wasn’t cooperating?
Then there was that fucking bullshit connection I felt every time I touched her. Like I should always be touching her and she me. Like we belonged together like some ridiculous couple from a fucking cheesy romance novel. That shit was not my style and why the fuck I even thought of them in relation to her just pissed me off.
And then there was the fact that I actually enjoyed her in a purely nonsexual way. Okay, sex was never far from my mind when it came to Bella but even when she was being contrary as fuck and trying to change my life in unacceptable ways I still found her interesting and likable. What the hell was that about? She’d been so damn cute watching her stupid vampire show and teasing her about it was completely amusing.
“Well?” she was tapping her foot and watching me with those judgmental eyes. Fuck, what did I say to appease her? What was true and what was just supposition? I didn’t understand my reaction to her and I sure as fuck didn’t know how to explain it to her when I couldn’t explain it to my own damn self.
“I just like you,” I blurted out, the words erupting from my lips before my brain even processed what the fuck I was saying. Holy shit, was that it? I liked her? Liked her liked her? Like a fucking twelve-year-old chick who doodles the pimply faced class president’s name on her fucking notebook? What the fuck had she done to me? I pressed my hand to my groin and found that I did still have my fucking balls; Bella wasn’t holding them in her purse or anything insane like that. Jesus Christ. I liked her. That felt right even though it sounded completely ridiculous.
Her eyes got impossibly wide and she gasped. “You like me?” I just shrugged; there was no point in saying anything else because God knew what fucking slop would pour out of my mouth if I tried to speak again. Would I start spouting Shakespeare’s sonnets at her? Maybe a flowery love poem from Robert Browning? Fucking Christ, she’d probably like shit like that, lit major that she was. Well that shit was never going to happen.
“But you don’t even know me,” she pointed out, all logical and shit. And that was rather fucking insulting because while I might not know every little thing about her, I knew plenty. I knew how much she loved her father and her flighty bitch of a mother and that she clearly only saw the good in them because she didn’t hold her mother’s reprehensible behavior against her when she foisted her off on her father at age seventeen. I knew that she had bad taste in TV shows and that her eyes lit up when she laughed and that she was smart but naïve at the same time. I knew how soft her skin was and what it sounded like when she was at the peak of passion. I knew just how quickly she got angry and even how quickly she could calm down and be logical. Don’t fucking tell me I didn’t know her. I knew her better than I knew anybody save for myself, although I didn’t really know my fucking self at all right about now, did I?
“I know a lot about you and what I don’t know already, I will learn over time. That’s why I kept you around.” That seemed like something safe to say. Only it wasn’t because her eyes got bright and her nostrils flared again. Fuck.
“Oh yes, that’s why you made the decision to end my life and give me your eternal gift, right? Well I’m so damn thankful that you like me, Edward, really! I’ll sleep quite well at night knowing that someone cared about me enough to take me away from everyone I knew and loved!”
“Crap, are we really going there again?” I demanded, pissed that we had to discuss the same shit over and over again. She was so fucking…ugh! I didn’t know what the fuck she was but she was trying my patience every second of the day. She just glared at me some more. “Fine! I fucked up by not talking to you first. Of course, if I had, you would have run screaming in the other direction and I would have had to kill you anyway so you didn’t out me to the world. Don’t you get it? It was a last minute decision. I was supposed to kill you and for some fucking reason I couldn’t. Do you not feel it every time we touch? Surely it’s not just me?”
I reached out then and ran a finger over the edge of her jaw and there it was. That fucking spark that drew me to her like a moth to a flame. What the hell was it with this girl? Why couldn’t I just walk away? Why didn’t I want to, despite all the fucking grief she gave me? She pressed her cheek against my hand and her eyes fluttered closed. She did feel it! I knew it couldn’t just be me. Thank God.
I breathed a sigh of relief and her eyes opened, looking slightly glazed. She shook her head and stepped away from my outstretched hand, the electric hum fading as soon as I wasn’t touching her. I felt strangely empty when she moved away from me. “Yes, I feel it,” she admitted. “I don’t know what it is.”
I tucked my hand in my pocket and grimaced at her. “Neither do I. I’ve never felt anything like it before. Can you blame me for wanting to figure out what the fuck it is?”
She shook her head, her little brown curls moving over her shoulders. They fucking fascinated me for some reason. “There had to have been a better way.”
Damn it, did she ever fucking listen? “What better way, Bella? If I told you the truth, you would have left me and we both know it.” The panic threatened to well up again at the idea of her leaving me and I squashed that shit down before it could start.
“You could have taken time and we could have gotten to know one another and then you could have told me what you were,” she suggested.
Right, because that would have gone over so fucking well, just like every revelation did with her. “Then you would have been a thousand times more pissed at me for lying to you for however long that took,” I pointed out. Her little face scrunched up and she opened her mouth but nothing came out. Ha! She couldn’t deny it because it was true. Tells me I don’t fucking know her…I sure as shit knew what would piss her off, didn’t I?
“Well there had to have been a better way.” Christ she was so fucking stubborn.
“When you come up with said better way, you be sure to let me know,” I said, walking over to the couch and plopping down with a sigh. Talking with Bella always made me feel like I’d fought a thousand men or something. She exhausted me and I didn’t have the luxury of…oh yeah.
“By the way, you don’t sleep anymore.”
She blinked at me in confusion. “What?”
“Earlier, when you were yelling at me, you said you’d sleep well knowing that I cared about you enough to take you away from everyone you knew and loved.” She winced as I repeated her words back to her. “We don’t sleep.”
“Why not?”
“Fuck if I know. Our brains just don’t still enough to allow us to rest. We don’t need sleep to function. All we need is blood.” I snickered a little as I heard that to the tune of the Beatles “All You Need Is Love” in my head. John Lennon would probably roll over in his grave if he heard my version of his little ditty.
Bella dropped onto the other end of the couch, just out of reach yet again. “No sleep. Blood…ugh. What exactly is so great about being a vampire?”
“Well you seem right fond of them in your silly little shows. Speaking of that…” I got up and grabbed the Best Buy bag and shoved it at her. She opened it and burst into giggles as she saw the DVDs I’d bought for her. Her laughter made me smile.
“Edward, I know you hated Buffy. Why would you buy me all seven seasons and then these other two shows as well?”
I sighed. Telling her I hoped it would let me get into her pants would just get her pissed again and I was too tired to bother with it. “I knew you’d like them and we’ve already established that I like you even though you don’t think I fucking know you.”
“Alright, you know me a little, clearly enough to get me three shows that I enjoy. So thank you.” Finally, some gracious acceptance of a gift. In time she’d thank me for the rest of them, I knew it.
“You’re welcome. I don’t suppose you’re going to spare me from having to watch them with you as a way of thanking me, are you?”
She shook her head and smiled at me, her whole face lighting up. I wanted to kiss her. Fuck. “They’re all quite different and I can’t wait to watch them with you! We have all the time in the world now, right?” How about that, she was joking about eternity. More progress all the fucking time. This was more like it.
“That we do, Bella.” I gave her a smile of my own, grateful that she wasn’t fucking yelling at me for once.
“Edward?”
“Yes, Bella?”
“Was me attacking you the only reason you came in with blood all over you?” Oh crap, back to that again?
“No.”
She tilted her head at me. “What then?”
I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. Bella leaned over and took it in her own. I smiled as I looked at our joined hands and felt the buzz again.
“You’re just going to get fucking pissed at me when I tell you.” She would, too.
“I promise that I won’t. I’ll listen, okay?”
That would be a fucking first. “Alright, then. Yes, firstly I hoped that it would have the effect that it did on you and you’d be all over me. That worked out rather nicely, I think.” I smiled at her and she frowned and tried to tug her hand from mine but I held firm. “Oh no, you said you’d listen,” I reminded her.
“Fine, go ahead.” She sounded all pissy again. It was hilarious. I squeezed her hand in delight.
“Second, I wanted to show you what you reaction to fresh human blood would be. You don’t remember attacking Jacob, but it was just like that. Instinct took over and ruled you in that moment. I was just reiterating the fact that you really can’t leave and go wandering the city anytime soon.”
She didn’t look too pissed at that, surprisingly. She just watched me for a minute and then nodded her head slowly. “I admit that I thought you were exaggerating things, trying to keep me here until you won your little game.” Well of course I wanted that too but she didn’t need to know that.
“I’m glad you didn’t try to leave and find out the hard way.” There, I was a fucking hero, allowing her to attack me instead of her beloved humans.
A look that could only be described as guilt came over her face. I reached out with my free right hand and cupped her face. “Bella? What did you do?” She hadn’t left, that much was clear, so what could she feel guilty about?
She bit her lip and I felt my cock stir again. Damn it, did she know what that move did to me? She probably fucking did. Manipulative woman. “Bella?” I spoke firmly, letting her know I wasn’t playing anymore.
“I may have, sort of, tried to use the computer to contact my dad.” Is that all? I fully expected her to try but she wasn’t going to guess my password.
“And were you successful?” Unless she was a master computer hacker, there was no way in hell.
“No.” She tried to look away but I held on to that beautiful stubborn chin of hers.
“Then why are you feeling guilty?” I was insanely curious as to what had her looking like a chagrined child.
She bit her lip again and this time I didn’t suppress the groan. Her eyes flashed up to mine in surprise and then her mouth curved in a tiny little smile. Fuck, she knew that got to me now. The woman had entirely too much fucking power over me already, if she learned how to wield it I was a fucking dead man. Well, a deader man than I was already. “I got sort of mad when I couldn’t get into it and I might have smashed the keyboard into the computer screen,” she said all in a rush.
I laughed. “You might have?”
“Okay, so I did! I couldn’t help it, one second I was pissed that I couldn’t use it and the next the keyboard was sticking out of the monitor!” I pulled her to her feet and walked into the computer room with her hand still in mine and sure enough, the keyboard was in the dead center of the monitor. At least she hadn’t fucked up the hard drive. Looks like I’m going back to Best Buy tomorrow.
Bella eyed me nervously. “I’m sorry. I know you told me you’d help me contact him sometime but I really hate that he thinks I’m lying in a ditch somewhere. He has to be so scared, Edward.”
I pulled her to me and she actually came willingly into my arms and let me hold her. “I know you’re worried about him, Bella, and I will find a way to let him know you’re alright. But you can’t try emailing him. That can be traced and you know what would happen if he came here. You saw an example of that tonight, and that was just a small amount of blood minus the tasty human attached to it. If you trust me on nothing else, at least trust me on this; you can’t be around a human right now.”
She nodded and kept her face pressed into my shoulder. I leaned my head against hers and breathed in that lavender and freesia scent that was purely hers. It was fucking addictive. “I’m sorry,” she pulled back and I fought the urge to yank her against me again.
“Don’t be. I needed a new monitor anyway.” She laughed and shook her head.
We made our way back into the living room and I picked up the backpack and took out the packets of blood. “I need to put these in the refrigerator.” I should have done it right when I got home but I got distracted by Bella, as usual. She followed me into the kitchen and sat down at the little wooden table I had in there while I stored her disgusting packaged blood. I pulled out a chair and sat next to her, watching her. Something was going on in that busy little head of hers.
“So, did you just kill some random person because you wanted to teach me a lesson?”
I smiled. “Don’t forget, I also wanted to get your lips on mine again. Mission accomplished!”
She huffed at me and put her head in her hands. “I’m being serious, Edward. I can’t believe you would kill a human being just to have me all over you.” I would do many fucking things to have her all over me. Countless, unspeakable amounts of things. I didn’t think she wanted to hear that right now though.
“I didn’t kill a human being. I killed a depraved bitch. I would have killed her with or without your being here waiting to jump me.” I chuckled at the irritated expression on her face. “Bella, I have to eat too, you know, and I’m not going on your special diet. You should be happy that I kill people like her.”
“I could never be happy that you killed people, Edward. And what do you mean, people like her?”
“Vile vermin that beat up their children, Bella. She abused her own child. She smacked him and twisted his arm and was planning on using a belt on him when she got him home. Should I have just let her go? I saved a life by taking a life and the life I saved was far better than the life I took. People like her don’t deserve to live.”
“She hit her child?” Her voice was filled with disbelief. She was a protected, sheltered child with a police chief father. He must not have ever brought his work home with him.
“She didn’t just hit her child, Bella. Hitting is too tame a word for what she did. She beat him. She abused him. He’s eleven years old and afraid of his fucking shadow. He should be out raising hell with his friends but instead he’s cowering in his bedroom every night, afraid he’ll fucking do the wrong thing and piss his mother off and get beaten some more.” My voice was filled with the bile and rage that overtook me every time I thought about parents striking their children.
She looked at me, her red gaze piercing. “You speak like you know a lot more about it than just what you hear in people’s heads.” She was too fucking perceptive. I shook my head in automatic denial but her little hand shot out and caressed my face this time. She fucking knew what her touch did to me and now she was using it against me. Damn it all to hell. “Did someone do that to you, Edward?”
“Bella, I’m unbreakable, nobody can hurt me,” I scoffed, avoiding her penetrating look.
She tilted her head and kept those all-knowing eyes on me. “I don’t think that’s true, but I’m talking about before you became a vampire.”
Part of me wanted to pull away but another stronger part of me that craved her touch demanded I stay right where I was, with her tiny hand sending sparks down my entire body. “Things were different back then,” I muttered.
“That doesn’t mean they were right. Did your mother hit you, Edward?”
“Esme? She didn’t have the time of day for me. She was more interested in procuring her next bottle of booze and going to her next garden party. She was a social climber but hardly abusive.” Maybe that was enough for her.
“Your father?” Of course it wasn’t. He would have had to have been around to raise a hand to me.
“No, Carlisle and I fought like cats and dogs but he never hit me. Not even the time I lost my cool and punched him. He was a doctor, an important man and rarely around. We didn’t like each other overly much.” That was a fucking understatement. Dear old dad thought I was a waste of time, rich and entitled and too busy screwing around to do anything important with my life. I was fucking seventeen, that’s what I was supposed to be doing. What the fuck ever.
“Who then?” Damn it, why couldn’t she just let it lie? Her eyes remained steady on mine as her hand stroked my cheek.
“My grandfather. He walked with a cane. Do I need to paint you more of a picture than that?” My voice was harsh, bitter. I was pissed that she was pushing me to talk about something that I had no interest in remembering. It was over ninety years ago for fuck’s sake and had nothing to do with my life today.
She gasped and shook her head but kept right on touching my face. It was heaven and hell at the same fucking time. “I’m so sorry, Edward.”
I pulled back then, her touch was burning me and the memories of that old bastard should never be tainted by the beauty of her hands on me. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It was a long time ago and I’m over it.”
Her hand fell to the table but she kept it close enough that I could reach down and touch her without much effort. I resisted the urge to do just that. “You’re not though, or you wouldn’t be so angry about that woman and her child now.”
I snorted at that. “Really? It wouldn’t make you angry to see a woman manhandling her child? I don’t think my past has anything to do with it. My grandfather, abusive fuck that he was, left me his fucking company. It’s thanks to him that I have a fortune today, so I guess he atoned for his sins monetarily anyway.”
Bella shook her head, her eyes big and sad. “No, Edward, no amount of money makes up for that.” She was right but I wasn’t going to fucking tell her so. I was over this conversation.
“It’s irrelevant, really. She was evil and she needed to die. End of story.”
Bella sighed and moved her hand out of reach. Moment of kindness apparently over. “Who are you to decide who deserves to die? What if she could have gotten help?” she sounded almost accusatory for some unknown reason.
“People don’t change, Bella. At least not people like her.”
“How do you know?”
“I believe we’ve just established that I know from fucking experience. You don’t know shit about it. Has anyone ever struck you in your life?” She flinched at my angry words and shook her head. “I didn’t think so. Should I have just walked away and let her beat her kid? Would you be applauding me for showing restraint then?”
“No, of course not!” she shouted, pushing back from the table and standing up.
“Then what would you have me do?”
“Go tell a policeman!” she put her hands on her hips and positively glowered at me. I burst into laughter at both her words and her expression. It was priceless.
“Holy fuck, Bella, are you serious?” She let out a huff and nodded.
“So I should go up to a cop and say what exactly? Hi, I’m a vampire who also reads minds. That lady over there is abusing her son. Go arrest her.” If she didn’t realize exactly how fucking ridiculous that was there was truly no hope for her.
“Of course you couldn’t tell them about being a vampire but surely you could tell them that she was an abuser.”
I laughed sarcastically. “Right, Bella, he’s just going to take my word for it. You know nothing about it. Her son wouldn’t say a word against her, for fear that she wouldn’t get charged with anything and she’d take it out on him even worse when he got home. You lived in your little glass bubble where the dark side of life never fucking touched you. You don’t know shit about it!” I was yelling now but I didn’t fucking care.
“My father would have listened!” she shouted right back at me. “There are a lot of good people in the world, Edward, not all of them are like that woman or your family. People care about one another.” She was quite worked up, gesturing all over the place. It would have been cute if she wasn’t so fucking naïve.
“People look out for number one, Bella. I know that better than anybody.”
“Edward, you can see into people’s minds. Surely you hear some good thoughts along with the bad.”
God, she really was a child. “Occasionally. The bad tends to outweigh the good, though. People often think things they don’t have the balls to say.” Not that I had that problem, except when Bella was holding them apparently.
“So how can you be sure what you’re hearing is someone’s reality rather than just their fantasy thoughts? I’ve said I wanted to kill or hurt someone before but I didn’t mean it. What makes you the judge of who lives and who dies?” she demanded again.
“Bella, I don’t go after people just having a random shit fit about wanting to kill someone. I am damn sure about the people I kill. I see them thinking about the lives they took, the people they hurt. It’s not a passing thought, it’s their reality.”
“How can you be sure you’ve never made a mistake?”
I raised an eyebrow at her. Was she fucking serious? “I don’t make mistakes.”
“Really? Are you 100% sure that everyone you’ve killed, with the exception of me, of course, was evil and incapable of change? They couldn’t have gone in for counseling and come out a different person?” I nearly smiled at her snarky comment about the exception of her. She was so fucking adorable.
“I am 100% certain that the people I’ve killed all needed killing. I can’t speak as to whether any of them could have been rehabilitated but it’s doubtful. Once a person has given themselves over to the dark it’s hard to go back into the light.”
She smiled triumphantly. “But that’s not true, Edward. People change all the time.”
“People have to want to change, Bella. Few of them actually do.” God she was a pain. A cute, sexy, sweet pain in my ass.
“But still, you don’t know if any of the people you killed could have been one of those people, given time and counseling.”
I chuckled. “And we come back to that again. How, exactly, would you recommend that I get the people counseling?”
“You’re a vampire; you could scare them into going.”
She was so fucking hilarious I couldn’t stand it. “Bella, you’re adorable, really. You’re so refreshingly kind that you can’t comprehend that most of the people in the world are nothing like you.”
“Don’t make fun of me, Edward.” She was frowning and crossing her arms again. Which made her breasts rise up again, which made my dick get hard again…damn it, there was a pattern here.
“I’m not making fun of you. I’m trying to tell you the world is not black and white. There are many shades of gray, some way darker than you can even comprehend.”
“And some even lighter than you can comprehend,” she pointed out with a satisfied smile.
“I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one, Bella. I’ve saved way more lives than I’ve taken and I am pretty proud of the fact that I choose to kill the people who are unworthy to walk this earth. No other vampire that I’ve run across is nearly as discriminating as I am. You should be proud of me instead of judging me.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’ll give you this much, I’m glad that you go after the people you consider to be bad. I don’t agree that you should be the judge of that, but if you’re going to kill people, then I’d rather you kill that kind.”
“Thank you, it’s about fucking time!”
She smiled sweetly. “That doesn’t mean that this conversation isn’t coming up again or that I’m going to give up on you joining me in my diet.” I fucking groaned at that. I’d be hearing about this shit for years, wouldn’t I? Unless I wore her down and got her to give into the bloodlust. It would be fucking hot when she did. And she was foolish if she thought it would be easy for her to live her special lifestyle.
“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?” She smiled confidently and I rolled my eyes. “Speaking of your ridiculous diet, do you want any of this blood that I worked so hard to get or are you satisfied with that which you licked off my delectable body?” Fuck, just thinking about that got me hard again. I wanted to get her naked and roll her around in some blood and lick it off her, work my way up her body until I was inside her, fucking and sucking on her at the same time. I was going to make that fantasy a reality if it fucking killed me all over again.
She growled at the mention of her attacking me and I laughed. “No, I seem to be satisfied right now,” she said. I was glad one of us fucking was. My dick was going to fucking fall off if I didn’t get some action from her soon.
“Edward, where did you get the blood?” She eyed me suspiciously, as if I was going to give her more from the bitch I drained earlier.
“I got it at the NYU Med Center,” I told her, trying to keep the sarcasm out of my tone but sort of failing miserably. She was so fucking distrustful. What had I done to earn that? Well, you turned her into a vampire without her permission, you got her kill a guy she knows and then you came home covered in blood so she’d tackle and hopefully fuck you. Failed there, didn’t you big guy? Fuck, I thought that mouthy mother fucker had been silenced and there he was again. I was going to perform a lobotomy on myself if that judgmental prick disguised as my inner voice didn’t shut the fuck up.
“Good, how did you get it?” I sighed; she would want to know that. Then again, maybe I should tell her.
“I flirted with a nurse and she got it for me,” I said with a winning grin.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you did.”
I chuckled, delighted at her reaction. “Well, to be honest, she reminded me a lot of you.”
She frowned at that. Good. “How so?”
“Brown hair, brown eyes, didn’t think a lot of herself, totally into me…” she snorted at the last. “What, you know you are; you admitted as much. Anyway, she was flattered by my attention but suspicious that I was just toying with her to get the blood I needed. Sound familiar? You thought I was making fun of you when I followed you and told you I was interested in getting to know you better.”
“You were lying to me so you could get me back here to kill me,” she glared.
“That’s true, but I also was not lying in that I was interested in getting to know you better. And the more I got to know, the more I liked and then I couldn’t kill you.”
“So you flirted with this poor girl and got her to get you blood and then what?” Bella shook her head. “Said thanks, see ya? Or did you kill her too?”
I was slightly insulted by the question. “I most certainly did not kill her. She was a nice girl. She only undressed me in her mind once. Most of her thoughts were quite sweet. She wanted to go out to dinner with me on a yacht and have me propose to her wearing a tuxedo. It was a refreshing change from the usual sexually depraved thoughts that involve me. Though, if you wanted to share some sexually depraved thoughts you’re harboring about me, I’ll be more than happy to listen and then enact them with you.” I waggled my eyebrows at her and she smacked my arm, sending a resounding thwack through the kitchen.
Fuck, that almost hurt. “What?”
“So you left that poor girl dreaming of all the romantic times she could have with you?”
“What’s wrong with that? I’m going to send her flowers in the morning, to thank her.”
“That’s not enough, Edward! If she’s really like me…” she broke off and sighed.
“What?” Fuck, why couldn’t I read her damn mind? Probably because her mind was so fucking convoluted and she made no sense to herself so how could I make any sense of the nonsense up there?
“Then she has major self esteem issues, right?” Isn’t that what I fucking said? Maybe not in so many words but I thought I was pretty damn clear.
“Yes, she couldn’t believe I could ever be interested in someone like her.”
“Well then, you only reinforce that by disappearing after she gave you what you wanted. She’ll beat herself up over it for days and will have major issues ever opening up to a guy again. Trust me on that.”
I glared, annoyed by her words. “Who fucking hurt you?” I demanded, more than ready to go kill any mother fucker that made my Bella feel unworthy.
Her eyes flickered and then a mask slipped over her face. “Nobody worth talking about.”
“That’s bullshit, Bella, who hurt you?” Tell me so I can do to him all the things I didn’t get to do with the stalker cockblocker.
“Edward, it was a long time ago and it doesn’t matter.”
“Like hell it doesn’t. You’re the one who just told me that shit that happened to me almost a century ago was still relevant and we both know you haven’t had decades to get over whoever hurt you. Now tell me!” I wanted to pound on the asshole that dared hurt her.
“It’s not important right now, Edward. I will tell you, someday.” Yeah, after the mother fucker is already dead. I knew she was protecting the prick. I’d get it out of her a lot sooner than that; mark my fucking words.
“Alright, Bella, we’ll discuss it another time.” Like in a day or two.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Now, I really think you need to do something about this girl.”
Christ. “Like what?”
“Well, what did you tell her to get the blood?”
“That I needed it for my hematology test and that if I failed I was going to get kicked out of school and sent back to Chicago.”
She smiled. “Well good, this won’t be that complicated then.”
“What won’t be?”
“You can take her out one date and tell her that you failed your test and have to leave. That way she won’t think you’re dumping her because you’re not interested.” What the fuck did she just say? I gaped at her for a minute or two before I could form the words to ask her.
“What the fuck do you mean; take her out on a date?”
“Just what I said. If she has self esteem issues, you need to build her up a little. Let her have her dream date with the handsome guy that she thinks she can never have. Take her out, flatter her, make her feel like she’s beautiful, like you did me. Then, instead of killing her, tell her you have to leave. She wouldn’t believe you if you told her that without the date but if you take the time to take her out before you go she’ll think it’s because you did legitimately like her.”
“You want me to go out with her?” What the fuck, was she serious? She had to be fucking with me. The look on her face, though, was not joking. Jesus Christ.
“Yes, one date. Call her at the hospital and ask her out for…what day is it?”
“Tuesday.”
“Friday night then. You take your test on Wednesday and find out you failed on Thursday. You have to head home on Saturday or Sunday. It works perfectly.”
Holy shit. She really wanted me to do this. “Why the fuck do you care about some girl you’ve never met?”
She frowned. “I’ve been that girl, Edward. The girl who would do anything for the handsome guy and then finds out he’s using her. I’m not going to let you hurt her at my expense. You got the blood from her for me so the least you could do is go out with her for me.” That fucking logic astounded me.
“So, let me get this straight. You are actually telling me to take another girl out on a date? You don’t care?” That was fucking irritating. She shouldn’t want me to be with other women.
“Well, of course not. I know you don’t actually want her but she doesn’t know that and if you do it right, she’ll never know that. It sounds like she could use a self esteem boost. Will you do it, Edward? For me?” Christ, she was looking at me with those pretty red eyes, pleading with me. How in the hell had I ended up with a do-gooder? Where was the bad girl that should be at my side? Fuck.
She threw in an actual fucking lip bite for good measure. She was going to kill me, she really fucking was. “Fine,” I bit off, irritated that I was giving into her once again.
Her whole face lit with a smile and I had to fight the urge to kiss her again. She leapt into my arms and gave me a bone crushing hug. “Thank you, Edward. I know that there’s good in you.” Well hell, if she was going to hug me every time I did something with another girl I could surely accommodate her. What would my reward be for fucking another chick?
I squeezed her back. “Are you sure it doesn’t bother you at all?”
“Of course it doesn’t, why would it?” She smiled up at me and I narrowed my eyes, irritated all over again. I’d cut off my dick before I suggested that she go out with another guy and here she was happy as a clam that I was going to take another girl out on a date. Something was just not fucking right about that.
Well, she might be okay with it now but I’d make damn sure she was not okay with it by the time I returned home from my date. A little fucking jealousy never hurt anyone, right? Bella wouldn’t know what hit her by the time I got through with her.
Leave a comment