Chapter 2
Song: Secret – Maroon 5
“He wants to see me again,” I blurted out. My best friend stared at me blankly.
“Who wants to see you again?” Rosalie asked.
“Edward.”
“Which one's Edward?” she asked absentmindedly.
“The married guy. From karaoke night,” I clarified.
Rosalie rolled over to face me, propping herself up on her elbow. “Married guys can be fun,” she said casually.
“Huh?” It was the only response I could manage.
Edward had asked to see me again and before I could really think it over, I had tentatively agreed. I had told myself it was better to just let this guy go and move on, but he had other plans, apparently. Hearing his voice again set something off inside of me. Over the two weeks between the time we met and the day he called, I had worked hard to push all thoughts of Edward out of my mind. The time allowed me to forget the finer details of his face and the seductive inflection of his words whispered in my ear, but a single phone call sent my walls crashing down like Jericho. I truly did not expect to hear from him, so the surprise of his call did definite damage to my resolve. A few simple moments on the phone reignited the fire he lit in me when we first met. I didn’t mean to tell him yes or even maybe, but the words slipped past my lips before my brain could catch up and think sensibly.
Immediately after ending that phone call I got in my car, seeking solace in the one person I knew wouldn't judge me no matter what. Rosalie and I were able to be blunt and honest with each other when it came to all the sordid details of our lives and thoughts. We may not have been the picture of chastity and virtue, but we always accepted each other for who we were, faults and all. I treasured her friendship every day, and I would be eternally indebted to Rosalie for her loyalty.
“It's fun,” she smiled. “You know, the whole sneaking around thing leads to some pretty hot sex.”
I stared at her, completely perplexed. “You've dated a married guy before?”
Suddenly, Rosalie was on her back again, laughing hysterically and kicking her legs against her mattress. Her black lab, Harley, jumped up from her position in between us and started to bark.
“Bella, why do you think Felix got a divorce?”
“Really?” I shrieked in a ridiculously girly manner. “I knew he was married before, but you can't be saying that...”
Rose's head flopped to the right against her pillow and she rolled her eyes at me. “Yep, he was married when we met, and, well, the rest is history now.”
My jaw was hanging open like an idiot. I shook my head back and forth, trying to make sense of this new wealth of information.
“Seriously? How did I miss that?” I asked, wide eyed.
She sighed. “It was during your James period. When did I have the chance to explain all the details?”
I inwardly groaned at the reminder of the two years I’d wasted with James. I had cut myself off from practically everyone in my life at that time, and there were still so many details about Rosalie’s life back then that I didn’t know. When I should have been by her side, I was living like a hermit with a man who criticized me in the same breath that he told me he loved me.
“Oh, right.” A hint of shame laced my words. My tone was much more reasonable now. “I'm so sorry, Rose. I should have been there for you. I was such a friggin idiot.”
“Hey, enough of that shit. We all date our share of assholes and losers. Even I liked James in the beginning. You just had to come around in your own time. There’s no sense dwelling on it now. I survived, and you can see that I managed just fine.” Her smile reassured me, even though I still felt a massive swell of guilt for deserting her for my loser ex. I had stayed with James for far too long, even when all my friends and family were begging me to get out of that relationship.
“So, okay, tell me what happened with Felix,” I said, flipping onto my stomach. “I knew he was divorced, but he got divorced for you? Rose, that's crazy!”
She proceeded to tell me about her relationship with her current boyfriend, from the beginning, sparing no details. I grabbed a pillow to prop me up and settled in as she began the story.
“It all started when Demetri and I were on one of our breaks.” I rolled my eyes because she and Demetri had always been in an on and off relationship. She smirked, as if saying I know, I know before she continued. “So I met Garrett one night when I was out with my cousin, and we started to hang out. You already know that whole situation was short lived when Demetri decided he wanted to be ‘on’ again, but one of the nights I was with Garrett he took me over to Felix’s house. That was the first time I met all the guys, and I also met Felix’s wife. She was friendly enough, but a little detached from the group, you know? She didn’t fit in with all of them the way you and I do. I didn’t really talk to her all that much, and she didn’t make much effort with me, either. After that Demetri and I were back to hooking up again, but not really dating or anything official.”
“The usual,” I chimed in.
“Right,” she agreed. “A couple months later or something, I was working on a weeknight and Felix came in with a group of guys I didn’t know and they all sat down at the bar. I recognized him, but I couldn’t place his face. I didn’t know any of the guys he was with, so I couldn’t figure it out at first. They went back and forth between the bar and the pool tables for a while, and it really started bugging me that I couldn’t remember where I knew him from. I was sure that he recognized me, too, because he kept looking over at me from his group, but he never said anything to me.
“After a while, he left his friends and came to sit at the bar. I got him a beer and went off to fill some other orders. Finally, it was too much and I had to figure out how I knew him. I walked over and stood right in front of his seat. He laughed at me a little and said, ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’ I told him I recognized him, but couldn’t remember otherwise. That’s when he reminded me that I’d been to his house before, and it all came back to me.”
I didn’t interrupt her story, but I readjusted my position a little and kept my eyes on her so that she would go on. I’d never heard all these details before, and it was strange to not know something like this about Rosalie.
Her story continued with more enthusiasm. I knew things would start getting more interesting from here. “His friends, who turned out to be some guys Felix worked with, came and went from the bar for the rest of the night, but he stayed there as I served him beers and shots. We talked in between me helping other customers, and it made my night go by really fast. By the time it was last call, all of his friends had taken off, and he was in no shape to drive. Since I did sort of know him already, I offered to give him a ride home after I closed up.
“In the car, I asked him why a married man was out at the bar so late on a work night. Apparently, that opened the flood gates because he just went off on this fucked up story about his wife. He was still talking by the time we got to his neighborhood, so he told me to park around the corner from his house in case his wife looked outside. He said she probably wouldn’t wake up, but he didn’t want to deal with explaining getting a ride from me if she did.
“Long story short, he told me that their marriage had been in the gutter for a while. They got married when they were, like, twenty because they were high school sweethearts.”
“Wait. Remind me how old he is now,” I interrupted.
“Twenty-nine,” she answered.
“Okay, thanks. Go on,” I encouraged her.
“All right, so they’d been married for a while, and one day he was on the computer and found an email account open. It wasn’t her regular account and he saw a long line of emails from the same address. Curiosity got the best of him, and he started reading them. Basically, she had an internet boyfriend who she was exchanging all kinds of pictures with and talking to all the time. He was totally creeped out and understandably betrayed.”
I interrupted again. “What was his wife’s name? So I don’t get confused.”
“Oh, Melinda. Ugh,” she answered with a scrunched-nose expression of disgust.
“Thanks.”
“So Felix confronted her about it right away and she totally freaked. She knew she had no right to get pissed at him for looking through everything because she was basically cheating. She said she never met the guy in person and she was lonely because Felix worked all the time and that this internet guy didn’t mean anything to her. She erased all her email accounts and chat applications from the computer, and she even changed her phone number. She begged Felix not to leave her, blah, blah, blah.
“He said things were rough after that, but they’d been together for so long that he felt obligated to give their marriage a chance. He told me things were a rollercoaster with them since that happened, but he wasn’t really happy. I just sat there and listened and tried to be sympathetic. I mean, how fucked up is that situation?”
“Really fucked up,” I agreed. “An internet boyfriend? That’s just kind of creepy, right? How did she know he wouldn’t post her nakey pictures all over the internet?” I shuddered at the thought, and Rosalie did the same.
“Gross! Okay, so back to that night. He finished telling me all of that and said thanks for listening, but that he needed to go. Then, kind of out of nowhere he kissed me. I mean, I thought he was hot, but I wasn’t really in that frame of mind, you know? It surprised me, but I liked it.”
“I bet you did,” I teased her. That seemed to lighten her mood, and she proceeded with the story, talking a little faster.
“He came back to the bar about a week later and we talked for a little while, and then he asked for my phone number. After that, things just sort of started happening quickly. He’d call and we’d talk, and he’d come into the bar and see me. He was really sweet to me, and I liked the attention. Demetri was still around, of course, but I was getting so sick of his crap by then that it just made Felix look even better to me. I mean, I knew he was married, but we made a connection.
“Things escalated, and we started fooling around. The sneaking around kind of made it more exciting, but I also liked him enough that I didn’t feel bad about it. I knew he wasn’t happy anymore, even if he was still with her. I guess I thought after all he told me that he would leave his wife, but he never did. That’s when it really started to suck. There I was, pouring my time and emotions into him like a girlfriend, but in reality I was just the other woman. We started fighting about that, and after a few months, I gave up and told him I couldn’t do it anymore. He was just so complacent, and I hated it.”
That made me remember something that had happened while I was still with James. “Is that why you changed your phone number?” I asked.
“Yeah, I was trying to get him to leave me alone after I broke things off – which sucked, by the way – and he wouldn’t stop calling me, so I got a new number.”
“Okay, so you ended it and he didn’t want you to; is that when he left his wife?” I inquired, trying to get the full picture.
“Oh no!” she said with a loud laugh. She shook her head in time with her humored reaction and her golden hair swayed back and forth with the motion. “Four or five weeks went by and I didn’t hear anything from him. Of course Demetri was in the picture again…or still, I don’t know. You understand how that goes. Anyway, one night after closing up at the bar, I went out to the parking lot and there Felix was, leaning on my car and looking all sad and smug at the same time.
“I was so pissed that he would come there to find me, but part of me was really excited to see him, too. The attraction hadn’t gone away, of course. So he grabbed me and kissed me and the next thing I knew, we were in the backseat of my car having wild and crazy animal sex!”
I burst out laughing immediately. “Wild and crazy animal sex?” I howled. “Now that’s romantic!”
“It wasn’t romantic, but it was hot!” she conceded. “Now may I continue or do you need another minute?” she asked with a pointed glare.
“No, no. Go on,” I insisted. I sucked my lips in between my teeth to keep myself from laughing or smiling any more.
“I really couldn’t help myself, but I sent him home right after that. Since he didn’t have my phone number and I didn’t want him stalking me at the bar every time I worked, I decided to call him a couple nights later. He told me how he wasn’t happy without me in his life and how much the last month had sucked for him. There was a whole bunch of other stuff, but you get the gist of it all. More or less, he was saying he wanted me back, but I knew things couldn’t be the same between us. I knew that as long as I didn’t give in to him again I would have the upper hand. Not once did he say he was going to leave his wife, so I told him we could be friends – just friends.
“I wasn’t going to tell him to leave his wife because that kind of thing needed to be his decision to make, but I made it clear that there would be no sex so long as they were still together. He tried to tell me that they didn’t fuck anymore, but I told him that wasn’t the point.
“After a couple weeks, he realized I was serious, and he told me that he wanted me and only me and he would end the marriage. All those feelings were still there, and I wanted to be with him, but it was weird to feel sort of responsible for that kind of thing.”
“But he was already unhappy,” I offered.
“Yeah,” she agreed, staring off at the wall. “It’s not like I went into things thinking that I wanted to break up his marriage or anything. It all just sort of happened. Like I said, parts of it were really fun, but it was hard on him at the same time. He tried telling her that he wanted a divorce, but she kept refusing and saying they could work things out. I couldn’t get in the middle of it, so I just had to sit back and watch it all happen.
“His tactics turned a little unsavory after that,” Rosalie said. Her cheeks flushed at the memory, and I felt myself get a little nervous as I waited to hear how it all went down. “Basically, he decided that if she wouldn’t take his request seriously, he would show her that he didn’t want her anymore. He stayed out with his friends all the time or came and hung out at the bar whenever I worked. I didn’t know it at the time, but he used the song Closer by Nine Inch Nails as my ringtone on his phone. He would leave our texts in his phone and leave it lying around, just hoping she’d go snoop and see something.”
“And it worked,” she sighed. “She got curious about the ringtone, and she looked through Felix’s phone. She flipped out on him, of course, and he not so nicely told her that he had cheated. Honestly, I’m glad I don’t know the details of that fight because he sort of made me the scapegoat, but in the end it served its purpose for us to be together.”
“You seriously don’t care that he admitted you were part of the reason for their divorce?” I asked curiously.
“Yes and no. He wasn’t happy before I came along anyway, so I’m sure he would have left one way or another. Plus it was true. I had been involved with him knowing that he was married. Extenuating circumstances or not, he wasn’t lying to her. I guess I just chalk it all up as a means to an end. It’s in the past now.”
“Wow, Rose. That’s…crazy. I suppose you have handled it the best way you could.”
“Yeah, I suppose so,” she told me with a sincere smile. “No more back and forth with Demetri. Okay, so I did call him that night you met Edward, but I’m not doing anything with him anymore. I just miss that friendship. That’s not the point, though. Let me get back to the rest of Felix’s story.”
“All right, go on,” I said.
“After the big fight, his wife went nuts. She trashed the house and broke a whole bunch of his shit and then she took a knife and slashed up all the furniture and beds. Isn’t that crazy? Oh, and she keyed the hell out of his car!”
“Damn! Talk about walking away gracefully,” I laughed incredulously.
“Seriously,” Rosalie agreed. “She moved in with her mom, and that’s all she wrote. Well, other than getting the divorce taken care of and all that, but those details aren’t worth rehashing.”
“Nah,” I shook my head.
“After that, we finally got to be together!” she said, looking rather relieved to get to this part of their story. “It felt so good not to have to sneak around or hold back on what we wanted anymore because, believe me, he tried very hard to break my whole no-sex-just-friends thing. Granted, we had a whole mess of her issues to deal with for a while, but it was literally like he was a captive set free once it all happened.
“Demetri’s always been my comfort zone, and even with all our bullshit, we had our history that kept us coming back together. I think that’s why I couldn’t completely let him go at first after Felix’s wife took off. But Felix is different from Demetri in so many ways. He’s new – even now – and different and exciting! And I’m happy now, Bella.”
“I know you are, babe. That is like, the story of all stories. I can’t believe you had to deal with all of that without me,” I said softly. “I’m sorry.”
Rosalie wasn’t pleased with me apologizing again, so she punched me in the arm and pushed me off the bed.
I slammed onto the floor, laughing hysterically and she rolled down on top of me to join the giggle fest. Harley joined in with a series of yelps and licks on our faces.
When we finally recovered I sat up and leaned against her dresser. Rosalie was across from me with her back to the bed and Harley's head lying in her lap.
“So you think I should go for it?” I asked.
“Why not, Bells? Have some fun, just make sure you know where you stand. If it’s just about the sex, keep it that way. But if you start feeling something for him you need to reassess and decide if you can handle that.”
“Okay,” I nodded. A huge evil grin spread across my face. “Just for sex. Hot, crazy, mind-blowing sex with a tattooed Adonis. I’m in!”
Rosalie threw Harley's tennis ball at me. “Slut!”
I shielded myself with my arms, but Harley had already bounded over and jumped on me. I patted her down and laughed. “I guess I'm learning from the original.”
Rosalie laughed at that, even though she was the butt of my joke.
“When did we become such amoral whores?” I teased.
“I don't know,” she said with a wicked smile. “But it's good times, ay? Consider it our public service to the men of the Greater Seattle area!”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rosalie’s story about everything that happened with Felix really gave me a lot to think about, but at the same time their circumstances were dramatically different from mine. Felix’s marriage was already a mess and he wanted to get out of it. In that time, he met Rosalie, and she helped him realize he needed to act or things would keep going on and on. Rosalie and Felix wanted to be together, they just had to overcome some obstacles to get there.
My situation was different. I wasn’t romantically interested in Edward Cullen, he was just someone fun…and dead sexy. We had some serious sexual chemistry, and I wanted to explore that. All I had to do was keep it simple and everything would be fine.
I called Edward back later that evening and made plans to do something with him the next night.
We decided to meet in the mall parking lot. It was a halfway point between our neighboring towns and an inconspicuous place to leave my car. He took me over to his friend Mike's house where we wouldn’t have to worry about being seen together in public. His smile during the car ride was drool worthy, and he held my hand as he drove. I hadn't expected that, but I welcomed it. He briefly explained that Mike knew his wife, but was “cool” with our circumstances. When we arrived at the house, I was definitely surprised. It was set back on a long driveway and surrounded by trees, making it invisible from the road. The property held an enormous tan brick house with an even larger detached garage. Parked next to the side of the garage was a semi trailer emblazoned with colorful graphics and logos.
“Umm...” I mumbled when we pulled up. I knew Edward could see the question in my eyes.
“Mike owns several monster trucks. I come over and help tune them up every so often.” Right, Edward had mentioned that he owned a garage in one of the neighboring towns.
After gawking at the house and huge yard surrounded by tall trees, Edward and I went inside to meet Mike.
Describing Mike was difficult. Some words that come to mind included awkward, desperate, and dorky. I’d guess that Mike was edging his way toward forty, but he dressed like a college boy. He was an obvious bachelor, and I couldn't help but see why. I just couldn't find anything physically attractive about the guy. Sure, he was friendly and nice enough, but it was quite obvious that he tries too hard with people. At least he had his success.
The way Mike looked at me made me feel a little uncomfortable. I made it a point to never be alone with him. If Edward left the room to go to the bathroom or get another drink, I'd wander away from Mike, pretending to admire something else in his unnecessarily lavish home. I kept close to Edward as much as possible, which he didn't really seem to mind. I'm not sure if he realized the duality of my affection, though.
After touring the house and getting to know Mike a little bit, we all went down to the basement to play pool. The game room down there was pretty impressive. A pool table sat directly in the middle of the room, and a fully stocked bar covered the far wall. Near the stairwell side there was an air hockey table and behind it was a huge fish tank full of exotic creatures.
We took turns playing pool and mixing drinks while listening to an awesome rock mix on the professional sound system that was wired through the house. After about an hour Mike left us alone to go upstairs and finish some work – or so he said. It seemed to me that he was more than likely just giving Edward and I some time alone together. We finished our game after Mike was gone and laid our cues on the table. When I turned around, Edward pressed himself against me, pushing my backside against the ledge in front of the side pocket. We had been playful and affectionate throughout the evening, but this was the first private moment we had together. My stomach fluttered with anticipation.
“Hi,” he whispered, smiling down on me. The sexy, sultry timbre of his voice sent a delicious tingle up my spine.
“Hey,” I breathed back at him. My lips curled up into a smile, which continued to grow as our contact increased.
I threw my arms over his shoulders as his snaked around my waist, drawing our bodies completely together. It wasn't intentional, but I heard myself giggle as he smiled into my lips and initiated a soft kiss. It was surprisingly tender and sweet at first. His lips caressed mine and his hands ran up and down my back, sliding under my shirt. The feel of his skin on mine sent my heart racing with anticipation and my lips parted naturally. As our kiss deepened, I could feel his excitement build. He didn't need to press his hips into mine for me to notice, but he did anyway.
His attention moved to my jaw, placing open and closed mouth kisses across my burning flesh. I would surely implode if he stopped, and that thought alone was enough to elicit a raw moan from the back of my throat.
“Fuuuuuuck,” he groaned in response. My reaction had obviously affected him, and our actions became frenzied.
We took turns peeling each other's clothes off, taking time to kiss and touch every bit of exposed skin we could find. I kept my eyes open as much as I could, even though each sensation he stirred in me called for my head to tip back and close them. I was enjoying the opportunity to take in his magnificently muscled pecs and six-pack abs. I took the time to admire the placement and art of each of his tattoos, as well. Since our first encounter had been in a public place, we weren't completely stripped down, and most of them were new to me.
Still leaning against the pool table, Edward kept one hand on the small of my back while the other slid down my side and brushed against my thigh. His fingertips traced little circles inward and teased back and forth with light touches on the most sensitive part of my legs. I kissed him furiously because it was not possible to get enough. Each breath that passed between us was ragged and heavy like an animal panting after the chase. He pulled his lips off mine and kept our foreheads pressed together so we were staring into each other's eyes. The brilliant green consumed me almost as much as his agile fingers lingering so close to my burning core. Locked in his gaze, he slid his hand into place and gave me the most incredible crooked half smile I'd ever seen. I gasped at the touch I'd been craving, and he groaned in kind when he felt me clench around his fingers and shift my hips forward.
Moments later he was lifting me onto the table, licking and sucking at my chest and stomach. I had to push our pool cues aside to lie down, and as I did he reached down to his discarded jeans to get a condom.
I tried to catch my breath as I waited for him, and my whole body burned with desire. Overcome with the need to feel him in every way possible, it seemed like hours before he was pressing me down against the green tabletop and sliding into me. There was a moment of instant relief in our bond, but it was briskly replaced with an ache for more.
“So hot and wet for me,” he mused reverently.
“Uuhhh, yes,” I cried out as I pressed my hands into his ass to keep him close and deep.
As he pulsed over me, my back arched and I pulled him in further. I could hardly stifle my moans, which grew louder with each hard thrust. He kept putting his hand over my mouth to muffle the sounds of my pleasure, but the thrill of Edward commanding me in the heat of the moment only turned me on more. I understood his motivation, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I was too overcome with pleasure and lust to concern myself with such things. Surely Mike knew what we were doing in his basement, with or without my personal soundtrack to go along with it.
As he brought me closer to the edge, each move he made became faster and harder. Caught up in the moment of passion, I dug my fingertips into his shoulder blades. Edward slowed his pace and pulled back from me, looking into my eyes again.
“No nails,” he panted.
“Sorry,” I said with a brief frown, realizing why that act of passion was off limits.
The opportunity to over think what had just happened was eliminated when he grabbed my arms and roughly pinned my wrists over my head.
Yes! Dominate me!
I writhed beneath him for encouragement to continue. “I'm so close. Make me come for you,” I both demanded and begged.
Still hypnotizing me with a sparkling gaze, he resumed his speed until I was on the verge. I wrapped my legs around him tighter, locking them at my ankles, and whispered my deepest desires for him to reach his release with me. Our eyes only left one another when he crushed his mouth against mine to quiet my cries of pleasure. Moments after my climax began he drove into me with a loud grunt, holding himself against the slickness he had created while his entire body stiffened. A minute passed, and he relaxed, kissing me tenderly and pressing deeper a few more times before collapsing on top of me. His hot breath tickled as he lay panting in my ear. I smiled and kissed his shoulder.
When his breathing had finally evened out, he pushed himself up onto his elbows and stared down at me. He was still inside of me and I didn't try to separate us. I wasn’t ready for our bond to be broken just yet. The look on his face was almost one of, what was it? Confusion, maybe? That was definitely a post-coitus first for me, and it made me feel a little nervous and uneasy.
“My god, Bella, you are amazing!” he whispered in a husky tone.
Apparently my sexual prowess leaves men disoriented and confused. That’s awesome!
I giggled a little, and pressed my hands against his chest to push him back. “I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
His lips rested against my forehead briefly, then he hopped down off the table and retrieved my clothes from the floor. He handed them to me as I slid off the table and I pulled them on quickly. As he reached for his shirt I stopped him.
“Wait,” I said, staring at his bare chest. He was only in boxers and jeans. “I want to look at your tattoos.” He tossed his tee shirt onto the table, obliging me.
I ran my hands over each one, turning him around like a mannequin as I caressed every inch of skin on his muscular torso. There were at least a dozen tattoos I could see. His left arm was covered in a half sleeve. As I traced the outline of each, I could feel the invisible raised lines they had created.
“Tell me about them,” I requested. There were animals, symbols, Celtic designs, ornate flowers, words, and letters.
He agreed with a nod. “See this one?” he asked as he turned his back to me and looked over his shoulder. His right hand wrapped around him and he pointed toward a detailed fish on his left shoulder blade.
“Koi,” I acknowledged.
“Yeah. That was my first one. My dad let me get it when I was seventeen.”
“Really?” I asked. I had to admit I was a little surprised. Most parents aren’t thrilled about their teenagers getting tattoos. For his dad to allow it while Edward was still a minor, they must have a unique relationship.
“Yep,” he popped the P at the end. “My dad was always working on his koi ponds in our yard when I was a kid. I would sit for hours and watch him dig and run water lines through the yard, or plant gardens around them. He was always changing and improving them. When I was old enough, he let me help and it kind of became our thing. When we weren’t working on them, we would spend hours sitting near the ponds just watching the fish. I actually put my own pond in at my house last year.”
Hearing that story was a really unique insight into Edward’s life, and it was nice to see the reminiscent smile that graced his beautiful face as he told me about the tattoo and his interest.
“Another story, please,” I asked sweetly. My palms were splayed out against his chest now, rubbing up and down over his torso as I waited for the next description.
We stayed there for a long time like that, me running my fingers across each tattoo as he told me the story that corresponded with it. After about five or six descriptions, I traced three small letters that sat alone beside his left hip.
“What are these letters?” I asked, carelessly lost in thought.
“They're my son's initials,” he answered.
“Son? You have a son? You didn't tell me you had kids.” I didn't realize it right away, but my hands had dropped from his hips and my arms now wrapped around my chest. That was news to me, and I suddenly felt a little cold and nervous.
“Sure I did,” he said with a crooked smile.
“No, you didn't. I would have remembered that.” Wouldn't I? Yes, I would, I'm sure I would.
He stepped forward filling the gap I had created between us, and took my hand.
“Well, I thought I did, but does that change anything?” he asked.
I considered his question for a moment. “I guess not…but I would have liked to know before.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” I shrugged. I had a hard time telling if Edward was just being evasive with me in general or if there was some deeper meaning behind the way he hedged around things pertaining to his family.
I didn’t necessarily like the idea that he had a child, but I had already knowingly slept with a married man and I couldn’t take it back. Dwelling on the fact that he was a father seemed pretty pointless, all things considered. It wasn’t as if I could take it back. I don’t know if I would have anyway. The moment had passed, and we could only move forward from here.
“Come on,” he said, changing the subject. He grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head. “Let's go upstairs and watch a movie.”
Still a little bit shell shocked, I followed Edward up the stairs, instantly distracted from the swell of confusion by the view his squeezable ass in front of me.
We settled into a large, comfortable couch and draped ourselves with a blanket. Mike joined us on another couch and put in an action movie I had little interest in watching. Beneath our private cover, Edward and I snuggled close. He had the most incredible scent – a mixture of heavenly cologne and sex sweat. I kept tucking my head into his chest and inhaling deeply. I noticed him do the same to my hair several times.
It was then that I realized how good it felt to be with him this way. The comfort I felt in his presence came naturally, even though we’d only known each other for a very short period of time. While I was very attracted to Jacob physically, this thing with Edward was completely different. His body affected me in ways I had never felt before. All it took was a simple touch and I was a shivering, giddy mess. Everything about him made me crave more. I knew our arrangement could only be based on sex, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t allowed to enjoy the other time we spent together. There was no pressure to be anything or try and say or do the right thing. It was easy to be with Edward, and that was what made out time together so enjoyable. We could just be ourselves, talk about whatever, and that chemistry made the physical connection incredible.
We stayed at Mike’s house until the movie ended, and then decided it would be best for us both to get home. We said our goodbyes, and Mike told me I was welcome to come over anytime. He also joked that I should bring a friend next time, but I didn’t acknowledge that comment. I couldn’t think of any woman I knew who would be interested in him.
Edward held my hand again as he drove, and we spent the ride in companionable silence. When he dropped me off at the mall to get my car, the entire parking lot was empty. He got out and walked around to my side of the vehicle.
“I hope I don't get you in trouble,” I said.
He shook his head and leaned me into my car door. “Don't worry about me, I've got it covered.” Again, the crooked smile appeared and he ran his fingers through the perfectly messy bronze hair I was growing to adore. I reflexively reached up and ran my fingers through it, too, intertwining them with his when our hands met.
I smiled, and he pulled our hands down together to rest between our chests. His free hand cupped my face, and I leaned into his touch.
“Thank you, Bella,” he said, stroking my cheek with his thumb. “I really had a great time tonight. I promise I will call you. If that's all right with you, of course.”
“I'd like that,” I whispered. I pushed myself up onto my tip toes and reached my mouth toward his.
He met me there and gave me a slow, sensual kiss goodbye.
“Good night, then. Be safe,” he said softly.
I unwillingly slid my body away from his and into the driver's seat of my car. As he drove off in one direction, I pointed mine toward Rosalie's house.
No matter what time it was, I was in serious need of some girl talk.
Watch the sunrise
Say your goodbyes
Off we go
Some conversation
No contemplation
Hit the road
Car overheats
Jump out of my seat
On the side of the highway baby
Our road is long
Your hold is strong
Please don't ever let go
Oh No
I know I don't know you
But I want you so bad
Everyone has a secret
Ohh can they keep it
Oh No they can't
Say your goodbyes
Off we go
Some conversation
No contemplation
Hit the road
Car overheats
Jump out of my seat
On the side of the highway baby
Our road is long
Your hold is strong
Please don't ever let go
Oh No
I know I don't know you
But I want you so bad
Everyone has a secret
Ohh can they keep it
Oh No they can't
Maroon 5
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