Don't Look / No Promises

Eleven

Bella

Edward parked the Bird and turned to Bella, a sly smile on his face.

“I gotta run inside. I’ll be fast.” He kissed her mouth, squeezed her leg, and loped into the building across the lot, sexy in those jeans and that hair and the swagger. Bella toyed with the radio and stuck her feet out the window and imagined Edward kissing her between her legs. So far, that was her favorite thing of all the things he did to her. He did a lot to her, actually, and it all felt good, better than before, better than ever before every single time, but his mouth on her pussy was beyond it all. Way beyond. There was a spot on her down there, a spot that he seemed to know about, and he toyed with her until she broke and was smashing his head between her thighs, crying out, clawing the sheets, the car, the grass, his hair.

She was pretty sure she was in love.

Something moved at the building entrance and she expected him, it was him, but he wasn’t alone. A spill of one, then four, then nine, then more boys spilled out of the doorway, all of them already locked in battle, some of them already bloodied. A roiling sea of fists and feet and the broken off legs of chairs tumbling into the parking lots, screaming and yelling and faces hitting the concrete.

Bella scrambled upright, breathing fast.

Someone smashed right up against the driver’s side door, a boy bleeding down his face. His eyes went wide when he spotted Bella and he reached in through the open window to grab for her foot. She screamed and kicked him in the nose. Fresh blood, but it didn’t deter him. He wrenched the door open and dove inside, Bella screaming and kicking with her back up against her own door and nowhere to go. He got a grip on her ankle and was about to pull her loose when he went limp and still instead, head heavy in her lap. Bella squirmed, wrenching the door handle and all but falling onto the pavement. She scrambled to her feet and Jacob was panting on the other side of the car.

“Get outta here. I don’t even know why he brought you,” Jacob hissed and Bella yelled just in time for him to miss a swing from some polo-shirted asshole coming up behind him. Jacob ducked and Bella knew for sure then that these were Newton’s boys. That Edward and his boys had gone after Mike and his cronies.

For Rose.

A yell to her left, a blur of color, and she barely had time to react.

She swung.

---

Edward

Edward was beating the shit out of some blonde kid with a tiny green alligator patched onto an ugly blue collared shirt when he heard her scream.

His girl.

He sprung to his feet, holding that kid up by the shirt and punching until he went still and limp. He looked around for her, scanned the rough and tumble that was being beaten out all around him. Seth was on some dude’s back, clubbing him in the neck and yelling that old war cry his granddaddy taught him when he was just a kid and still kind of cared about being an Indian. Paul was just along for the ride, the fun, always one for a little exorbitant violence and he was taking on two guys at once, knocking their skulls together hard enough to send them stumbling to the ground. Jacob was near the Bird, beating down some skinny kid with an Ivy League haircut and there she was. Bella. He caught sight of her just in time to watch her swing that little tiny fist of hers and flatten a guy twice her size. He fell limp at her feet and she looked at her balled-up hand, her face full of awe.

Edward gave the kid in his grip one last blow for good measure and let him drop. He sauntered through the brawl, right through the mess like he was Jesus, and these low-lifes were just water. He nudged aside a duo locked in combat, ducked a swinging fist, eyes on her like she could lead him right through hell if he just let her. She looked at her fist again and gave him a wondrous smile and he grabbed her by the collar. Looped his fingers in the neck and tugged her roughly up against him, to scoop her off her feet and kiss her, fuck his swollen nose or his bloody lip or his aching ribs.

He couldn’t breathe, but it wasn’t his busted rib’s fault. It was hers, this girl who got his blood all over her face when he kissed her.

“You are so stupid,” she said.

“Can’t you just get over it and thank me?” he smirked. “We won.”

He was right. Newton’s boys were painting the pavement and Edward’s crew, kids off the Rez with the blood of warriors running through them, were standing around looking bored. Bella pursed her mouth up and shook her head at him.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” he teased.

“For leaving Newton in a pile.” Her eyes darted over his shoulder and he glanced back at the blonde alligator kid, still slumped in a puddle of blood.

“That’s him?”

“That’s him.”

“Get behind the wheel, doll. Let’s run him over.”

“You can’t go to jail.” She shook her head. “I’d miss you too much.”

“You’re the one driving,” he teased. “I’d bail you out.”

“How? You couldn’t afford my bail.” She tugged his hair, blushing.

“I’d sell the Bird.”

“You wouldn’t,” she gasped.

“I would,” he said, honest. “In a second.”

Next

Author's Note: This chapter was inspired by my favorite scene in the entire series of the television show Skins. (The British version, not the MTV crap/abomination.) The doomed relationship of Luke and Franky. 

Click HERE to watch this particular inpiration/scene.

As ever, Hadley Hemingway holds the key to my heart.

Don't Look / No Promises

Ten

Bella

A week later, Bella and Edward stumbled up the stairs and into her bedroom, sealed together at the mouth, hands frantic and feet tangled. Edward was half undressed, his shirt forgotten on the front step and his belt undone. Bella’s dress was yanked down around her waist and her lipstick was smeared across her face, more of it on Edward than her. Her father was gone, some work thing in another state that he’d forgotten to mention until late last night. He warned her to stay out of trouble before he left that morning and Bella thought the house was empty, ready for the taking. She was ready. Ready for more, always more, some sort of unquenchable dehydration that could only be cured by Edward in her bed and his body filling up parts of her she didn’t even know had holes to fill. He had her by the tits and she had him by the hair and they would have done the deed right there, right then, right on the floor, forget the whole world, but her room was already occupied.

Alice glanced up from the bed when the duo tumbled through the door, her hand on Rose’s shoulder as Bella tore herself off Edward and shifted her dress up over her nipples.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked.

“Hi,” Alice said.

“Hi back. Long time no see,” Bella grumbled and Edward slowly threaded his belt back together, the sound of the metal buckle the only noise in the room. Roses’ shoulders shook and Bella glared at her two friends. “What’s wrong?”

“We got caught last night.” Alice looked away as Rose looked up and Bella’s hand flew to her mouth.

“Holy shit, Rose.” Bella exhaled heavy and darted to the bed, using a gentle hand to examine Rose’s face. Her eye was blackened, swollen shut, a bruise purple and red splotched down over the socket and her bottom lip was busted. Her cheek was rubbed raw and scabby, like she’d been grated across rough asphalt. Bloody knuckles and broken nails and Bella feared the very very worst.

“Did they-”

“No,” Rose choked, dropping her chin back to her chest. “At least not literally.”

“Who?” Bella asked, looking up at Alice.

“Newton’s boys,” Alice said. “We were by the lake. They were drunk.”

“What did they say?”

“Nothing really, they just burst out of the trees.”

“And?”

Alice sighed heavily. “They made me watch.”

“What the fuck?” Edward growled, all three girls turning to look at him, all three of them only now remembering that he was there. He balled his hands into fists and scowled. “Who are these guys? I’m gonna kill them.”

Bella said, “No, Edward,” at the same moment Alice asked, “You really would?”

---

“They beat up a girl?” Seth licked his ice cream, sounding like Edward was trying to tell him a fairy tale. Unbelieveable, too ridiculous to contemplate. Dragons and witches and shitheads who would dare lay a finger on a woman much less a fist or a boot and, yeah, that shit was pretty fucking unbelievable.

“They deserve to rot. I’m gonna make that happen.” Edward slammed a fist into his palm. The memory of that girl’s face, the girl with the name of a flower, beaten to a wilted pulp all because she didn’t want some asshole’s dick made him sick. He dropped his strawberry cone into a garbage can two licks in and was choking back the urge to vomit.

“Hell no, you aren’t.” Jacob shook his head. “I’ve heard about them. Those kids run in a group of twenty.”

“And I run in a pack of three. Maybe five, if I can talk Peter and Sam into it.”

“Setting us up for slaughter, man,” Seth lamented.  

“Those pansies? Tell me we haven’t dealt with more,” Edward barked. Seth and Jacob both shook their heads.

“Dude, you wanna wave a banner, that’s totally chill,” Seth groaned. “But why over some chick you don’t even know? This is for Bella, isn’t it?”

“Don’t you dare bring her into this,” Edward snapped.

“You don’t gotta prove it to her, man. That girl is balls deep, ok? She gets it.” Jacob was still shaking his head. “You’re batshit for her and she knows it, you don’t gotta go off and play the hero to get her attention.”

“This isn’t about her.”

“Sure it’s not,” Seth argued. “You’re just gonna go off and pick on guys we don’t even have beef with over a couple of lesbians.”

Jacob’s face twisted a little. He glanced at Seth, then at Edward. “How bad was it?” he asked.

“Damn near busted that eyeball right outta her pretty face,” Edward hissed. “Rubbed her up and down the dirt real good, fucked up her mouth.”

“Did they . . .  take her?” Seth asked, gulping.

“No. But they held her girl there and made her watch them kick the shit out of her.”

“The girlfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s so fucked,” Jacob muttered.

“With me now, boys? Are you getting me?” Edward asked. “These lowlifes deserve a spanking and we’ve got the upper hand here.”

“And what’s that, exactly?” Seth asked.

Edward stood, dusting his hands down his jeans and slicking back his hair.

“They don’t know we’re coming.”

Next

Don't Look / No Promises

Nine

Bella

She let him take her virginity before the party, not after.

She wasn’t a complete cliche. Just sort of one.

Toeing the line. Tugging on the ropes. The good girl, falling in with the wrong crowd. The straight A student who got a boyfriend and started smoking weed and was all of a sudden bringing home C’s that she didn’t show to her father. She wore her purple ruffly girl pajamas to bed and then changed into black before she slipped out her window and ran down the street to where the Thunderbird was idling with the headlights off at the end of the block. She climbed back into bed at daybreak, drunk on kisses and groping and maybe some alcohol too, but mostly just Edward and his mouth and his curious fingers and his Bird.

He taught her a lot in that car.

He taught her how to lick his cock, panting yes, no, not like that, like this, yeah harder baby, faster, suck it, suck it deep, hold on doll, good girl, fuck yes. Taught her how to pull his hair, scratch his face, bite me baby, bite me everywhere, I want all those other girls to know that I belong to someone, to you, bite me, bite me again. Taught her how to sit in his lap and grind on him, skin to cloth to cloth to skin, and get off on me doll, rub that sweet pussy of yours on me, fuck, fuck, god you feel so fucking good, ride it baby, ride it.

She had bruises on the back of her hips from the steering wheel behind her.

Bruises on her nipples from his teeth and his hands.

Bruises on her lips from his mouth.

So, when she tried on her dress, the one she bought two months ago with Rose and Alice at some store in the mall, the one that matched theirs and they’d all looked so perfect together, everything was sore and achey and it wasn’t her wearing the dress at all. The girl who bought that dress was gone. The woman in the mirror, the one wearing it now, she was new. Almost a stranger.

“You can’t wear that.” Her father was leaning in the doorway, glaring at the dress.

“I have to. It’s all I’ve got.”

“You have a closet full of clothing. Find something else.”

“Dad-”

“You heard me. That Cullen kid coming to pick you up?”

Bella nodded.

“He treating you decent?”

She nodded again, this time a little more enthusiastically. Was he ever.

“Well, that’s good. But no boy is gonna mind his manners while you’re dressed like that. Change. Now.”

Bella huffed loudly and barely resisted stomping her foot. Her father shot her a sharp eye.

“Don’t make me arrest him. It’ll ruin your whole night.”

Bella was changed and waiting on the front step when Edward showed, pulling the Bird up to the curb. She was in the car before he could even make it out of his door.

“I ain’t meeting the old man tonight?” he asked, sitting back down behind the wheel.

“No way. He’s in a mood.”

“We still going to this dreadful thing? Or can I change your mind?”

“We have to go. I want to show you off.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. You clean up nice.” He was wearing a black suit jacket and a crisp white shirt and had his hair oiled back and that one curl flopping in his face and a massive belt buckle sitting right over his crotch. A long skinny black tie and he’d shaven, looked older, leaner, suave with that suit on.

All black. All guy. All putting her to shame.

Jaws were gonna drop.

“Drive slow,” she commanded. “I gotta change.”

“That so?” he asked.

Bella pulled the short silver dress out of her bag and crawled into the backseat, eyeing Edward through the rearview.

“Don’t look,” she said.

“No promises,” he laughed.

---

Edward

She stripped down naked in his backseat and expected him not to look.

She obviously thought a lot more highly of him than she probably should.

Before she even got that new dress on over her head, he had the car parked somewhere dark and shaded and off the road just enough to kiss the shit outta her for a little while. He dove into the backseat and yanked the dress out of her hands, tossing it aside, reaching for her to feel around on all this new naked skin of hers. The way her ribs shifted and her hips twisted and her blood pumped thump thump thump in her wrists as he drug her closer.

“You feel motherfucking incredible,” he groaned as she sat in his lap. “How’d I get so lucky?”

“Chance,” she said. “One in a million.” She undid his belt.

“I’m such a bastard.”

“No,” she sighed, tugging his zipper tooth by tooth.

“I am. A lucky bastard.”

“Wanna get lucky, bastard?” She smirked at him, digging him free and toying with the elastic the of her underwear, tugging it aside.

“God, yes.”

“Then get lucky,” she whispered, rubbing her soft and wet on his hard and hot and oh fuck, he didn’t want to hurt this sweet little thing, but he wanted to eat her too. Swallow her whole, but maybe fondle her a bunch first. His blood was racing and his hands were shaking and he wanted to be gentle for her, wanted to be tender, but he wanted her too bad to mind his manners and he was a savage. A bastard. A lucky fucking bastard.

He stopped her just before she could impale herself on him.

“It might hurt,” he panted.

“I don’t care.”

She was heaven. A hot mouthful of blackberry cobbler. The sweet, creamy melt of ice cream. The kiss of the wind when you hit sixty. The golden highway that led to Oz, or hell, or that big pearly cloud in the sky where the old bearded dude gave you a solid clap on the back like atta boy, get that girl and don’t you stop until you got her tight enough to keep her and don’t you ever let go son ‘cause you stumbled across a miracle by accident, total accident, but I’ll let you keep her only so long as you hold on tight.

Bella cried a little when he finally got in. Cried and urged and begged him to go, just go, and don’t stop. He made it quick. Got there fast. For her. For him. She couldn’t take much and he couldn’t last long, not after weeks of pawing her tits and slobbering all over that gap between her legs. He’d taken it slow, real slow, but now was not the time for slow so he was taking it fast. He hoisted her to her knees, pumped strong and quick half a dozen times and tugged out before he spilled, stroking himself with a tight fist until he came all over her bare stomach and her tits.

“Sorry, he grunted, “didn’t know what else to do.” He searched for something to wipe her down, the skirt she’d been wearing when she got into the Bird, and she laughed at him as he cleaned her up.

“You make the cutest face when you-”

“Don’t even start. You should see yours. In fact . . .” He grabbed her, tugged her close and slipped his hand underneath her ass, between her legs. “I wanna see it again. A couple of times.”

Just once, right now. He was saving the others for later.

When they pulled up in the Bird, everyone was staring. Groups of suits and dresses, all eyes, all whispers, all hiding their mouths behind their hands and none of them blinking. Didn’t want to miss a second, those gawkers.

“They’re staring,” he whispered in her ear as he pulled her from the car, tugging the hem of her dress lower ‘cause he didn’t want any of these fuckers getting a glimpse of what he’d just had his hands all over.

“Let them.” She took his hand and marched right through the crowd, parted that shit like this sea was red and she talked to God on the direct line. She was glowing. Like, really glowing. The sex glow girls get when they’ve gotten off a few times and are in love with the guy who did it to them. That guy was him and it put a grin on Edward’s face he didn’t even care to wipe off. He tugged her out onto the dance floor, not much for dancing, pretty useless at it actually, but he was using every excuse he could lately to get his hands on her.

“I’m falling hard for you, doll. Fast.”

“Freefall?” she asked.

“No ‘shute.”

Next

AN: I got so many flailing comments from Hadley on this chapter, I'm pretty sure it's her favorite. I'm kind of partial to one of the approaching chapters though, wait for it, wait for it . . .

Don't Look / No Promises

Eight

Bella

Bella busted Alice and Rose at the soda fountain. They had their heads tucked in low together, whispering secrets, tangled fingers, and Bella stomped right up to them on the verge of a fit.

“What’s even going on with you two? I haven’t seen you for days and now I get this? Last time I saw you, you were ready to kill each other,” Bella grumbled. “Now you look like you’re . . .”

Rose looked at Alice and Alice looked at Rose and Bella just stood there while they stared at each other.

“It’s complicated, Bella,” Rose said, still not looking at her.

“So say it simple,” Bella snapped.

“It might be love,” Alice whispered.

“Might?” Bella asked.

“Might,” Rose repeated, nodding.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

They both shook their heads.

“Fine!” Bella threw her hands in the air. “You’ll be happy together, you’re the two most infuriating people I know.” She turned and stomped away, still on the verge of that temper tantrum. Her dad had taken his car fishing that morning so she had no other option but to foot it and she walked blindly, not even caring where she ended up. By the time she reached Ash Street, she was all cried out and moving on to anger.

The blue Bird crawled to a stop beside her.

“Hi there, pretty girl? Ever had a real man before?” Edward grinned the cocky smile at her, lowering his glasses to undress her slow and sure and calm right there on the sidewalk with nothing but his eyes.

“Nope.” She kept her mouth tight and her brow arched. His mouth fell open.

“Well, that’s gotta be fixed, doll.” He leaned across the seat to shove the door open. “Get in baby, I’m taking you for a ride.”

“Who says I want to be taken anywhere?”

Edward’s jaw tightened. “You just tell me who put that look on your face and I’ll go beat the shit outta them.” He was glaring at her, at the furrow between her brows.

“You can’t hit girls,” Bella sighed.

“Who’s this?”

“Alice and Rose.”

“Your two chicks? With the jackets?”

Bella nodded.

“They been ignoring you for boys?” he asked.

“Not exactly.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Girls, then?”

“Each other, more like it.”

“Well, damn. You ever thought about it, doll?” Edward bit on his bottom lip like he was anxious for her answer.

“No, and I’m not going to. I have a thing for a five o’clock shadow and, sadly, girls only get those on their legs. Not their faces.”

“I’ve got a thing for stubbly legs,” he laughed and revved the engine. “C’mon. You’re stalling.”

---

Edward

They were parked on the bluffs. The cliffs that overlooked town. Eating candy and smoking weed and drinking tequila. He was flat on his back on the ground, grass tickling his ears and sunshine tickling his face and something that felt warm and fuzzy fluttering in the space between his lungs. He was on the hook. Wiggling. Snowed in, and she was the blizzard. Cranked way up high, as high as he could go and this girl was too much for him, maybe.

Maybe he was falling harder than he thought he could.

Bella sat up, her cheek imprinted with the denim pattern of the vest, fingering the patch on his chest. “Who is Jasper?” she asked.

“My brother.”

“And Emmett?” She glanced at the other patch.

“My other brother.”

“They’re dead? Both of them?”

He nodded, unable to actually say the words.

There had only been a shy six days between them, not even enough time to get over Jasper, before Emmett took himself out too. Part of Edward didn’t want to believe it, but his mother swore that it was Emmett’s depression, the little black raincloud that followed him around from day one like it was tied to his wrist, never far away, always in periphery. Those two boys had less than a year between them and were tight, never far apart, always together, even in death. Edward was twelve years younger than they were, the annoying kid brother who could just never quite break into their circle and they were gone before he was even old enough to appreciate them. He was freshly sixteen, had a shiny new driver’s license and he got two lessons, right in a row, about just how dangerous driving with a fucked up head could actually be.

Jasper had been drunk. Emmett had been sad.

Jasper drove his bike right into a retaining wall. Emmett wrapped his truck around a tree.

“Jacob said to take it easy on you.”

“Yeah, well, I’m kind of a mess,” he admitted.

“I like messes. They’re a sign of genius.”

“Oh, really?”

She nodded.

“You saying I’m smart?”

“I’m saying that I’m not scared of you.”

“Even when I drive too fast?”

“Even then.”

Next

AN: There are Betas, and then there is Hadley Hemingway. She is a whole different sort of creature. A unicorn, and the rest are just horses in costumes.