AN: I don't own…

Summary: Sequel to Cupid Painted Blind. Edward and Bella are starting a new stage in their lives. Will the changes affect their relationship? AH/AU OOC. Rated M for lemons.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date...

~William Shakespeare~

BPOV

Today's the day.

Finally. Weeks and weeks we've dreamed about this moment and now it was finally here.

We were both giddy to the extreme, although we had to contain our excitement for a little while longer. Carlisle had insisted on traveling along to Stanford, even though there was nothing left for him to do. We had come here last month, putting everything in place, our traveling bags were filled only with the last of our stuff that was yet to be moved. But both Edward's parents and my dad had said to be more at peace if Carlisle saw with his own eyes to our safe arrival.

They would have to grow out of their worries soon enough. We would fend for ourselves from this day on and travel back and forth to Forks a few times a year without supervision. I guess this is a huge step for the parents as well. So we let him come along.

Edward squeezed my hand as the taxi drove us from the airport to our apartment. I could tell that he was nervous. He doesn't like change that much and I know he must pull great comfort in me going along with him. I can't believe that we thought, up until a little over two months ago, that we would be living in different states. Even if we hadn't discovered our love, that would still have been unbearable.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and moved closer to him, resting my hand on his thigh and squeezing down in what I thought was a reassuring gesture. We tried to play it cool for our parents and I think we would only fully realize we were going to live together alone once Carlisle is back on his way home, a couple of hours from now.

Edward's arm snaked around my shoulders, his hand underneath my hair, fingertips caressing my neck, as if I was the one needing the comfort.

I leaned against him anyway and let him kiss my temple. As I felt the familiar shiver, caused by his feather light touch run down my spine, I recalled that same feeling from our first day together. He had touched me so many times before, but that day it felt differently. We were different.

I put down my phone, feeling utterly confused. What on earth could make Edward so impatient at this time of day. He knows I like my morning routine so he wouldn't just barge in without legitimate reason. I really hoped nothing was up with our college plans. I eased my mind telling myself he didn't sound sad, more excited, while I rushed into the bathroom to brush my teeth and comb my hair.

As soon as I turned the light off, I got downstairs, knowing that he would rush over, and I smiled when I heard his footsteps outside. I had to admit that I had missed him tonight, more than I wanted to, and the thought of having him near me as soon as I wake up made me happy. More than it should.

I hushed him because dad was sleeping, more amused than worried, and strolled over to the kitchen to get a drink, pretending not to be dead curious about his very important news.

But then, instead of spilling his story as he always does when excited, he surprised me by asking in a low voice "so Bella, how is your crush?"

I quickly put down whatever I was holding as my brain raced through the ups and downs of telling him the truth or lying. How was my crush? It was wonderful. He was here with me, wasn't he, how could it not be wonderful?

But somehow that's not what he wanted to hear. We had 'agreed' that it would be over as soon as we got back home, so we could be best friends again.

I stuttered something that mustn't have sound too convincing. He stepped closer and repeated his question, asking if I was still in love with him.

Why would he tease me like that? If I would have been balancing on doubt, his seductive voice might have pushed me in the wrong direction again. Luckily there was no doubt whatsoever. I was in love. And loving it too. No matter what my mind said or wanted.

It was my mind speaking however, giving another attempt to tell him we were fine.

In vain of course. He backed me up against the counter, his eager body against mine, as if he was testing my inhibitions. My will to keep my hands away from him, to keep my arms from holding him tight.

And then he decided to torture me some more by running his fingers over my neck.

Now why on earth would he find such pleasure in this game? That smug little… Mmmm. I hardly registered what he said as his tongue was now tickling my neck. What did he say? Trembling? Do I really need to answer that?

I wish I had the power to push him away and stop this making fun of lovesick little Bella. The news he should be bringing was long out of my mind.

I lost my control when he started sucking my sensitive skin, I think I groaned his name, no longer hiding the effect he had over me.

And then… then he turned my world upside down. Admitting feeling everything I did, all these wonderful sensations that consumed me when I was with him, he claimed to have those too.

I didn't know what to say.

"I'm here Bella. I finally see. It's always been you."

I must be dreaming. This isn't happening. I took a deep breath, smelling his familiar scent and wondering if dreams have aromas too.

"I love you Bella…"

Those words... I hardly registered anything after that, simply started returning my profession of love, letting it all out. This moment was too much of it, and somehow I knew I needed to remember this for the rest of my life. With my fingertips on his face, I felt his smile and I knew it must be true, he must feel exactly the same I was feeling.

And we kissed. For the first time channeling love. I had once before but feeling it being returned made it all the more wonderful. He roped me in, so mesmerizing, so hypnotizing...

Even when dad interrupted us, leading to a slightly embarrassing moment, all my thoughts were directed towards his lips, to feel them again. Moving with him. And to hear him say he loves me.

As soon as we were alone again, he was pressed into me, and I was sure that he felt like making up for all the time we could have been doing this. Simply loving and adoring each other. All that time we were scared and hiding behind our benefits.

Somehow I believe I've always loved him, especially now in this moment, I can't imagine it ever being differently, in the past or in the future. And I never wanted to let him go again.

I woke up from my reverie by Edward squeezing me tight against him in the backseat of the cab, telling me that he could see our building already. His enthusiasm was rubbing off on me, although my own was pretty high up there to start with.

"You kids go along," Carlisle said, no doubt enjoying our excitement, "I'll bring your bags."

I wanted to offer to share the load, but Edward was already pulling me from the car and rushing towards the building.

Instead of walking me straight to the hall, he first brought me to a stop light that was beeping quietly. This was going to be my orientation point to find my way home. I held my left hand against the brick wall, my right arm around Edward's waist and we measured the distance towards our building. All these little things were Edward's ideas, he knew moving would be scary for me, and he wanted to make me comfortable from the start. And independent as well, aware of how important that is to me.

Three weeks ago we put everything in place, all our cheap furniture and most of our stuff. What I didn't know was that Edward had made pictures of every corner of the apartment and then had a small remake done for me to 'feel' every detail. Getting used to the new place would take me a couple of weeks, but he wanted to help and it was the sweetest gesture. He never took pity of my disability, just sort of liked to be my personal hero, without having me depending on him.

He handed me my key and let me open the door. In the elevator he let me feel which button had a three and as soon as the doors closed, he pressed his body against mine and kissed me sweetly on my lips.

"Finally a place of our own," he whispered, "I can't wait to have you all to myself."

His words made my stomach flip, more than the fast moving elevator could.

This last week we had been saying goodbye to family and friends, and our parents, over and over. We hardly had had any privacy and I had to admit I was really looking forward to our first night here. And not just because of the apartment 'baptism' that would certainly take place, but for the infinite amount of time we would have in each other's company. Classes didn't start for five more days. We told our parents we wanted to check the area first, but in fact we planned to have a little honeymoon in our new love nest.

When the elevator came to a halt, Edward nearly sprinted out, tugging me along with him. This time he opened the door and then lifted me up in his arms swiftly. Bridal style. And he carried me inside.

"If my dad wasn't coming up any minute, I'd carry you straight to our bed and worship you," he murmured. Instead he kept still in the doorway and kissed me deeply. My arms clung around his neck and I answered the kiss by softly stroking my tongue over his. He slowly let me down, without breaking the kiss, so we were now both standing, my arms still around him.

When we heard the elevator door open again and seconds later Carlisle's soft cough, we broke the kiss. We weren't ashamed, they had seen our displays of affection more often than they wished and we always retorted any comment by saying we needed to catch up on lost time. At the moment, we could wait since a few hours from now we would have plenty of alone time.

"Alright honey, show me the way around," Edward said, hoping that his little remake wouldn't have been in vain. And it wasn't. I had memorized every thing, even had asked him to describe the look of it all to me, so when I made my way around, touching all furniture, I said "red telephone, landscape painting, white cupboard, leather sofa, flat screen TV, dark red curtains, yep, it's all here."

I was still moving around very carefully, needing to grow accustomed to the actual distances between stuff, but soon enough I would feel right at home here.

Carlisle wanted to help us unpack, but we insisted to put everything in place in "our" room ourselves, which took a little longer than it could have because we kept interrupting our work with hugs and kisses. I could hear Carlisle snicker and then walk back to the living room, switching on the TV and flipping through the channels.

When finally everything was in place, it was time for us to do some major grocery shopping. We had a fridge and a freezer to fill with food and drinks and some cupboards with cleaning products and more food. It took us hours to find everything and put it in place and after that, we were pretty exhausted, so we spoiled ourselves with a huge cheesy crust pizza after calling up Esme and Charlie to say we were all settled.

It wasn't long after this, that Carlisle bade us farewell, and left us to our new home. Alone at last.

"So," I said while I yawned and stretched my arms above my head, "I don't know about you, but I'm dead beat and I'm ready to pass out."

"Oh," he said, and I suppressed a chuckle while I found my way to the bathroom, hesitantly still.

Of course his different plans for me weren't a surprise, we had spent hours in each others arms dreaming about having our own place and being able to make love as long as we want and wake up together. During summer we had plenty of sleepovers, but hardly ever had the place to ourselves so cautiousness was needed. I craved the alone time as much as he did, but enjoyed taunting him a bit.

He followed me into the bathroom and started brushing his teeth, not pushing me to change my mind. He must have figured we would have plenty of time together.

I decided to continue my evil little game and started undressing, right in front of him. The only times we saw each other naked had always led to sex, even when we were just friends with benefits, and even though now would not be different, he didn't know that and I noticed with a grin that his tooth brushing had faltered as his eyes were undoubtedly on me.

"I'm just gonna have a quick shower. Wanna join me?" I asked as casually as I could, before stepping into the shower and turning on the water.

I didn't have to say that twice, I heard him rinsing his mouth in record pace and pulling off his clothes. When he stepped in, he must have noticed my sly smile and saw through my game. After all, he does know me best.

"Damn Bella, you can't do that to me, you know," he groaned as he pulled me close against his naked and very aroused body, "don't expect me to just let you sleep if you go walking around like this."

"Well I live here so I can walk around however I please," I answered teasingly, but my body gave in to his touch and my hands slid over his now wet torso. He pretended to bite my neck as my head fell back, and his hands moved down to cup my ass and pull me hard against him.

I heard a moan escape, but instead of giving me more, as he usually does whenever I urge him on, he released me and said "well, I'm pretty tired myself, so while you shower, I'm off to bed, goodnight babe." And with a quick peck on my lips, he was out of the shower and out of the bathroom.

I decided to wash my hair tomorrow and grabbed a towel before moving along the wall towards the bedroom, still dripping wet.

"Come here gorgeous," he said seductively, and I dropped the towel and stepped closer to the bed. His hand found mine and he playfully pulled me so I toppled over and fell on his chest. He didn't dry off either and I smiled as I ran my hand over his wet skin.

"Now exactly how tired are you?" he asked, while he turned us over and started kissing my neck.

"No where near tired enough to resist you," I answered and then my lips were caught in a passionate kiss. I love feeling the weight of his body on mine, and wrap my arms and legs around him, to keep him close. As if he would be going anywhere in this state he was in. Nevertheless, after a few minutes of grinding and kissing, he pulled back and started kissing down my chest. I protested by scratching his back and lifting my head to capture his mouth again in a new kiss.

"I won't last long, Bella, let me take care of you first."

"No, no, I don't care for that. Just make love to me. This is our love nest and I just want to be as close as I can to you."

"Me too," he whispered and he positioned himself at my entrance, groaning when feeling the wetness that wasn't shower water.

He moved himself back and forth a few times, but I urged him on as I wanted his body on mine again.

He gave in and steadily pushed himself inside, both of us moaning, loving the feeling of being connected like this.

And while our bodies molded into each other, in between loving kisses, I sighed "Welcome home, babe."

AN: This is how college life starts for Edward and Bella. I haven't written anything more, please let me know what you think about hte story and the possibilities...