Chapter One: Morning

I awoke by the soft kisses leaving an icy trail down my throat, making me shiver in excitement. I knew the face I would see as my eyes opened, and I was so eager and greedy for the sight. But I had to wait. Abstinence is key, I thought, laughing inwardlyat myself. With the suspense building up, the reward would only be that much sweeter.

"Bella," Edward moaned in his angel-like husky voice. He could keep speaking as long as I could fight the urge to look; I lavished in the sound. "I know you're awake. Don't deprive me of our time together…" Another groan then and he continued, "There's that sly smile on your face. Do you enjoy torturing your fiancé?"

I couldn't help myself. I giggled, breaking the charade. So I willed my eyes open and gasped at the familiar Bottecelli Angel before me.

"Edward," I pronounced his name with a smile.

His cool hands wound around my waist as he pulled me closer and into his stone hard chest.

"Mm. Bella," He breathed into my hair. "Good morning, my love."

Between deep, focused breaths, I managed to utter out. "So what do we have planned for today?" I tried to make my tone as seductive as possible. Unfortunately, I didn't have the power to 'dazzle' people in one glace, like Edward. Besides, I couldn't even look into his eyes the way he held me so close.

I tied to wiggle my way out of his grasp, to no avail. He just buried his head into my shoulder and breathed in my sent.

After our last discussion in the meadow, all the boundaries Edward had set up for our physical relationship seemed to have fallen. This made it hard for me to keep my resolve in tact. We would wait till after the wedding to try. But Edward had made up his mind as well: he could wait, now. With desires reaching an all time high; it became increasingly hard to keep him at bay.

"Edward, what are we going to do today?" I asked again.

He snapped out of the reverie he found himself in and responded, "Alice wants to discuss the idea of a 'bachelorette' party with you. I'm supposed to have you back at the house in a half hour. But if you had any other plans…" He trailed off suggestively.

"No, that sounds fine." I pushed myself out of his arms and to my closet, noticing the disappointment on his face, much to my enjoyment.

I changed to a conciliatory tone. "Oh, Eddy. You know it's not much longer till the wedding. And where's the gentleman façade you always wear? Putting your guards down today, are you?"

He sat up on the bed and smiled mischievously. "A vampire can hope, can't he?" How long ago was it when I was saying those very similar lines?

But in the short amount of time that had passed, we found a lot of things changing. For one, I wasn't so opposed to a wedding anymore. That was probably the most noticeable one; besides the one I was privy to this morning. Well, the fear Renee had raised me with about matrimony hadn't entirely faded, but after calling my mother down in Jacksonville with news of my engagement, everything afterwards just came easily. Renee wasn't pleased by my call at all.

She was at first, until I brought up the subject for calling. Then she was starting to scream, shouting things like: "You're too young!" "Think about what you are doing!" "You're throwing your life away!"

A few points were right. I was tossing my life away, but for a much longer one with the man- vampire- I loved. I was young, yes. But soon, anyways, age would cease to matter to me. Think about what I'm doing? Oh, no! If I let myself get to in depth with my thoughts I might start to second think things through. But I knew this was inevitable. I would spend eternity with Edward, and if being his bride was the way to do it, so be it. Having Edward tied to me wasn't such a bad idea. Having this beautiful creature at my side through all triumphs and failures was a very pleasing thought.

Bringing myself out of my thoughts, I quickly showered and dressed into the basic attire of jeans and a tee shirt.

At the bathroom sink I looked for the hairbrush I usually left perched on the counter. I checked under the counters and in the cabinets, sorting through the cleaning products, towels, and other necessities.

Dejected, with my hair in a towel dried mess, I retreated to my bedroom.

"Looking for these?" Edward asked me, holding up a brush and several hair bands in his one hand.

I nodded my head and skipped over to take them from him. But he pulled them out of my reach.

"Sit," he commanded. I gave him a weary look and obliged, sitting beside him on the coverlet.

He brushed my hair for me, softly, and much more gently than Alice had ever done. When he finished his grooming, my hair was divided into two long brown braids behind my ears with a perfect side part. There was even a sparkling clip at the top of one braid.

I gasped, "Edward, you didn't!" There was outrage in my voice that he would be able to hear. Knowing that my love was a Cullen, the gems on this barrette had to be real diamonds.

"Relax, Belle. Alice is lending you this from her personal collection today. I promise you don't have to keep it." His snickering was poorly concealed.

I sighed. "This doesn't work well with my outfit."

Edward's breath lingered on the back of my exposed neck. "Nonsense; I think you look marvelous in anything, matching or not."

With his opinion or not, he had pretty much agreed that my clothes did not match with the new accessory. So I dragged myself over to the closet and pried apart the folding door from the wall.

Hanging on the middle of the hanger-bar was a sequined, silver baby-doll shirt that I would probably never wear out of my own will. –Alice's doing- She knew I would feel out of place in my casual jeans ensemble. Curse Alice for her future seeing abilities.

I changed into the sparkling shirt, not caring that Edward was still in my room. In fact, he probably liked that. I rolled my eyes just for thinking about that.

Edward may be a boy, but he was still the perfect gentleman with a hero complex. He wouldn't let anyone hurt me, even himself.

"Edward," I said in a condescending tone. "Shouldn't we get going? If I know Alice, and I do, she doesn't tend to get a bit testy when I take too long…"

"Breakfast first."

"I'll just grab something and go-."

"No, I don't think that will do. Either way, Charlie's downstairs. He cooked you a complimentary breakfast. I believe he wants to talk about something. Which means…"

"You need to leave." I frowned. Obviously, I didn't like, more like hated when Edward had to leave. But there were always those times: sunshiny days, and days when he had black eyes, and the rare occurrences of Charlie actually home in the mornings.

"Well, if I have to eat breakfast, Alice needs to be lenient and give me at least an hour-."

My rant was interrupted when Edward's cell phone buzzed. He drew the small silver phone out of his back pocket and it was at his ear in a flash.

His voice was barely audible. "Alice-." There was a pause. "No… fine. Alright, then… bye." And then the phone disappeared altogether, probably back in his jeans pocket.

"Alice called. She says forty minutes at most."

I laughed, perhaps too loudly, because I could hear Charlie running up the stair steps.

"Soon, Love," Edward bade me a farewell with a quick kiss on my forehead before leaping out my window.

Charlie bust through the door with a wheeze. "Phew, Bells. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, just peachy. I just realized I was wearing to mismatching socks before I changed them a moment ago… it was pretty funny…" I lied, dragging out my words so my poor skills at being deceitful didn't show.

"Well, okay." He started to leave the room, but not after informing me, "I made some breakfast if you're hungry."

"Sure, thanks, Dad." I gave him a weak smile.

Finally, after smoothing my shirt and reexamining Edward's handiwork with my hair, I carefully made my way down what could possibly be a very dangerous staircase, for a klutz like me, and joined Charlie for breakfast.

I picked up my fork to stab some sausages and poached eggs out of the frying pan on the dining table. Nonetheless, with my Dad's cooking expertise, the sausage was burnt and the eggs were dry, but I ate them anyways.

Then he spoke. "Renee called…"