14
I tried to enjoy the water, the warmness of it lapping against my cold body, but it was Bella's body that commanded my attention.
Remain in control,
I ordered myself
. Nothing that causes even the slightest hint of pain.
My free hand flexed into a tight ball and my frame tensed. I was checking my resolve.
Bella's blood smelled even better in this hot, humid climate. It was a good thing I'd just spent 12 hours locked into a plane beside her, with her blood and the blood of the other passengers recycling around me and building in potency. Otherwise I wasn't sure if I could stand to be this close to her, so unprotected by clothes or distance.
As it was, the scent torched my throat, but it wasn't anything I hadn't learned to live with for months. My muscles coiled for attack, and my stomach contracted, but it wasn't just for her blood. No, there was something else, something dancing with my killer instinct, a deep, crushing need I had kept bottled all those months I'd unfurled myself from her desperate embrace when the desire to kill her became stronger than my love for her... They had all prepared me for this night, for this moment, when my new bride and I would touch, whole body to whole body, for the first time.
The new hunger built in me. As soon as I said I would try--just
try
, as I had promised--I unleashed it a tiny bit. I gave in to the hope that the faith she and Esme and Carlisle had put in me might be justified. I looked at her now, her milky white skin rippling below the clear, tranquil water off Isle Esme, and the fire grew stronger in me. Again I was mesmerized by her bravery. Anyone else would not bring their naked, pulsing body anywhere close to to me. And yet, here was my wife, pushing up to float on her back, slipping past me, eyes closed and relaxed. Thank God for that, I supposed.
The water rippled upon me from her movement, breaking below the surface against my stomach, my member, my whole body shuddering. And then to gaze upon her: Her translucent skin glowing in the moonlight, her bare breasts-- I caught my breath. I had imagined them every time I'd held her close, every time she had pressed into me, every time she gasped at our kisses. I had memorized the sensation of her breasts pressing against my chest. They had left a shadow behind them, burned themselves hotly into my chest.
But now she was leisurely breaking the surface of the water, her eyes closed, reaching behind her to languidly propel herself along. Her breasts moved higher upon her ribcage when she did it. They seemed even more translucent than the rest of her, laced through with delicate blue veins leading up to dusty brown and then rose pink nipples. They were small but strained away from Bella's body. As she passed me, I saw how the water glinted up from her belly button, and then clung to the soft chestnut hairs leading to the cleft in her legs.
I swam under her, using the fact that I didn't need to breath to my advantage. As I passed, I reached up shyly and ran my fingertips gently across her hamstrings, her soft buttocks, her arched back. It felt remarkable, glistening through my hand and flooding my body. I swam quickly ahead her and turned to catch her. She gasped in surprise and then curled into my waiting arms.
"You're right, the water's wonderful," she whispered, her eyes sleepy with desire. Her arm wrapped around me and stroked the hairs on my neck.
I was tense. Shy, despite the longing that was making me braver by the second. I arranged my face into a soft smile, and looked down at her. I had a 50-50 chance of doing this without losing control. I could already feel it faltering. And then the caress of her bare breasts against my chest sent a hitch into my breath. I automatically pulled her closer. I gently pressed my lips to her, determined to maintain as much civility as I could for as long as I could.
As ever, Bella had other ideas. She wrapped her legs around me. I froze. She had done this before, but there had always been a quilt, a blanket, a jacket between us, protecting her from my chilly body. To feel her body pressed tight against me, the only thing between us an infinitesimally thin layer of water, made it feel as if I'd never held her, not really. As if we had never embraced, if this is what it could feel like. Suddenly her pulse felt like it was inside me--not signaling the monster in me but feeding my growing need. I wrapped my arms around her closely. We kissed deeper, but still as gently as I could manage with my breath coming shorter and more irregularly.
And then I couldn't help it, I pulled my lips from her face and ran them along her chin to her delicious-smelling neck down to her breast. Ahhh. It fit perfectly in my mouth. I opened wide and sucked almost all of it in, breathing deeply the baby-powder scent of her skin and the blood pulsing underneath. Bella murmured, an incomprehensible series of syllables that sighed into a coo. She ground herself further into me, wrapping her arm around my neck to pull me closer, her lips nuzzling into my wet hair. To be enclosed in her scent was heavenly and unbearable.
I made the executive decision to end the midnight swim. I had to see at my wife's beautiful body, again. Carefully, I shifted so that one hand was underneath her, providing her a seat. She didn't seem to notice except for scooting close to me and pressing her breast further into my mouth. I suddenly found my fingers playing along one cheek of her buttocks. The sensation sent little ripples of pleasure up my hand and through my body. Remarkable. As we left the water, as we left the water, one area of wetness and heat burned my stomach, where her legs parted and met my body. My breathing quickened.
I eased down to my knees and placed her gently on the sand. Reaching up to kiss her face, I gasped her name.
"I need to see you," I said roughly.
Hesitantly, I released her from my grasp and sat back on my heels. And there she was, a gift from the fates. Her translucent skin stretched softly over her ribs and hips and thighs. I drank her in greedily with my eyes. First her deep, chocolate eyes, wide, but with a different expression than I had ever seen. She wasn't dazzled. She wasn't holding her breath. She wasn't blank. She was here, and her eyes were determined, focused in a way they'd never been.
She watched me and her eyes silently encouraged me on. Her face was red and she pressed her teeth down upon her full bottom lip in a way that told me she was holding something back too, being patient with my resolve. Her breathing came quickly between her barely parted lips. Then her neck, which had been part of my daily regimen of pleasure and pain as I allowed myself to become desensitized to her scent. Her arms, strong, and her hands, clasping and releasing the sand around her, as she writhed lightly under my gaze.
And then again, her breasts. Her soft, small breasts pooled upon her ribs so exquisitely, so invitingly. Her nipples strained toward me. Bella breathed deeply and the movement pushed her breasts up toward me further. Her ribcage gave way to a delicate waist and then gave way to full hips. And there, below her hips was a barely visible trail of soft chestnut hair that expanded to a tuft, wet and dripping with water from the ocean.
My lips parted. I wanted to speak, but there were no words strong enough to describe the beauty of her body. I merely breathed deep and tentatively placed my hands lightly on her ribs. She sighed and her breasts heaved. I leaned down to kiss her between her breasts. I kissed her again, running my nose up to her soft breast, placing one nipple in my mouth. She gasped and I pulled away.
She rolled her eyes, flinging her arms toward me and beckoning me back. "Good sound, Edward. Very, very good."
I complied. I sucked a nipple into my mouth, swallowing the brine of the sea water and tasting the milky, baby-powder scent of her skin that mingled with the floral, almost sweet scent of her blood. My other hand came up to gently press into her other breast, and Bella's back arched beneath me. She wanted more. Her legs spread and rose to wrap around me again.