The Other Way : Eighteen

Mildly Drunk And Completely Wasted On Temptation 

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Alice pranced right up to Edward, naked as all get out, with not nearly enough hair to cover much more than the tips of her ears. Edward’s eyes roamed appreciatively over her as she approached but soon found her face and stuck firmly there, mouth pulling laboriously into a smile as she plucked the half empty bottle from his hand. I wondered if this was common for them, half naked and mostly unfazed. Alice took a healthy gulp from the bottle as Edward turned away, stepping into the kitchen and rummaging for two glasses in the cabinet, offering me a three second glimpse of his back.

He was bracketed by two giant telephone poles, from shoulder to hip that disappeared completely into his waistband. The pole on the right was a bit taller than the other, the wire draped between them weighted down by a single, wide-eyed owl.

I blinked and his face was back.

“Bella? Care to join us?” He tipped one of the glasses at me, eyes searching my face, looking like he fully expected me to decline.

I nodded mutely and padded toward the countertop, trying to forget that I was naked except for Jasper’s earrings and in the presence of the two people who confused me more than anyone else in the world. I stepped over the pool of my storm-cloud dress as Edward set the two glasses down. Alice poured a fair dose into each, offering me one and clinking the edge of her glass against my own in salute.

“Where’s your glass?” I asked Edward, holding mine out to meet his.

“I’m more of a bottle type.” Edward winked at me and knocked the bottom of the bottle lightly against my glass. He pressed the open mouth to his lips, tilted his head back, and took a deep swallow, lip rings tapping the glass. Smooth and unmoved by the throatful of fire. Just like Jasper.

I took a stinging gulp from my glass in suit, kicking back my nerves.

“You abandoned me in the middle of my song.” Alice narrowed her eyes at Edward and his mouth tightened, gaze finding me for a split moment before launching back to her.

“I had to get of there. Sorry.”

“Where’d you go?” Alice asked just before she tossed her drink back in one mouthful, wincing around it before she swallowed, and Edward rolled his eyes, managing to avoid my gaze.

“This island is too fucking small. I walked the entire thing twice before I ended up here.”

“And you chose to wait?” she pestered and fascinatingly enough, he reddened around his ears.

“The trail of clothing.” Edward’s eyes fell to the floor which was littered with a breadcrumb path of discarded clothing, my bra dropped right on top of Alice’s. “I figured I’d bide my time.”

Alice reloaded her glass, I finished off my first, and Edward took three more solid gulps from the bottle before he apparently couldn’t take it anymore and finally turned the full force of his laser-beam stare on me.

“Why did you let him go tonight?” He sucked in his cheeks, chewing on his lip rings and gripping the neck of the bottle so tightly I was worried it would shatter in his hand.

“He wants it,” I shrugged, head swimming and eyes firmly on his hand wrapped around that bottle.

O. P. E. N.

“And you comply so willingly.” Edward shook his head, sounding amazed, which was probably accurate considering that I’d been fighting him since we met.

“I’m flexible.” My retort was flat and hesitant, as though I didn’t really believe it even though I wanted to.

“Is that really so?” He asked skeptically and I nodded far more enthusiastically than I felt, firming up my face in an attempt to be sincere. Edward rounded the countertop, fingers skimming the granite as he headed toward me and I would swear to you that the full-body mark he left on me yesterday burst back into flames, combusting internally. I was so stoned off the seawater, head gone so gooey from the liquor and Alice’s kisses that I could do nothing but stand there and helplessly watch his advance. He stopped right in front of me, set his hands to my hips and lifted me to the counter, my feet in the air and my ass to the cool granite before I had time to react, looking me sternly in the eyes.

“In that case, I want you to do something.”

“You always want something,” I stumbled, trying not focus too much on his mouth and those lip rings or the ink dancing around his collarbones and crooked buildings tumbling down his arm. He made it nearly impossible, abs covered in a mirrored pattern that looked haphazard and important, symbols strung together in an intricate dotted pattern that danced along the v of his hips.

“True,” Edward nodded, not even bothering to try to deny it.

“What is it this time?”

“Kiss her.” Edward’s eyes darted to Alice and then back to me. Still gripping my hips. Still pulling in his cheeks and still burning me with his gaze. Tendrils of leafy vines around my eyes. Delicate flowers blossoming down my neck.

“You make it sound like a demand.” I tried not to squirm, skin on fire.

“It is.”

“You have no right to do that.” Alice grumbled, arms crossed over her chest, eyes zeroed in on Edward hot enough to scald.

“This is for her. Not me. Not you,” Edward spoke lowly. “Besides, you’ve been doing just that in your secret lagoon for days now. It’s not like I’m asking you to do anything that deviant.”

“That doesn’t change anything,” she snapped. “I know you.You’re a taker. You’re not the type to just sit there and watch.”

“You have such little faith in me. It’s kind of insulting.” His fingers dug into my hips and he glared at her, jaw hardening. “I got you off twice before you even realized it. Your words,” he hissed. “How many times was it after that?”

Alice scowled at him. “Four.”

“Four?” He arched his brows, looking pleased with himself. “And yet you call that taking.”

They stared hard at each other for a moment, the arches of my feet brushing the fabric of his pants and his hands still firm on my skin. This was the second time he’d held onto me like this, tight and deep, as though he was unsure what his fingers might do if he released his grip.

He smelled like browned butter and pink sea salt.

Alice finally rolled her eyes, breaking their staring contest and Edward glanced down at me again. I kept my eyes firmly on his chest, the trailing limbs of his octopus and the dancing pattern of dandelions seeds.

“Bella?” he asked, breath falling across my face. “I’m not asking to be involved. At least not tonight.”

“Why?” I shook my head in confusion, trying to ignore his palms nearly burning my skin, trying to focus on the dandelion seed tucked into the hollow that dipped in his collarbone. “I don’t understand.”

Edward shot me a devious sort of smile, his lips curling in the corner of my vision. “Because I’m fascinated. And angry. And so fucking spun on you. What I said before still stands. I just want to look.”

“Anything else?” I huffed, finding some small amount of courage and finally looking him in the eyes. He was so close I was sure he could hear my heart skittering around in my chest, thumping wildly and stopping all together just long enough to make me worry that I was dying.  

“Just one more thing,” he said, voice softer than it had been all night and his tongue found his lip rings again.

“Just one?” I asked, still trying to sound cynical but probably sounding breathless.

“Kiss me, first.”

I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth out of pure gut reaction and his eyes plummeted along, going soft and blurred behind his lashes. There was the faint hint of his five o’clock shadow sprouting along his jaw line, throwing the edges of his face into sharper relief and I was pretty sure I was stoned stupid by now. Mildly drunk and completely wasted on temptation.

Terrified to want him so badly.

Unable to help myself.

He was obviously just as good at reading my face as Jasper because he fell on my mouth without really bothering to confirm my compliance. He sucked my lip out of my mouth, rough stubble with a nearly painful bite from the rings through his lip, bruising mine between metal and bone. My breath caught in my throat and he held on hard for just long enough to be thorough before softening, going pliable and warm, licking the sore spot he’d left behind. Pushing his breath into my mouth and finding my tongue, stepping right up to the edge of the counter to hold my face still.

My heart wasn’t beating at all.

Silent and still for far too long before kick-starting itself into a manic sort of overdrive, putting spots behind my eyes. Dizzy and grounded. Spinning though I was motionless.

He pulled his lips from mine slowly, hovering just over my mouth for a moment before straightening, removing his hands from my face and then my ass. My lip was throbbing and hot, sore to the touch, and he glanced at it with a tempered grin, sucking his lip rings into his mouth for a moment as though he was trying to hide the weapon before he spoke.

“That looks good on you.”

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