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.

Don't Look / No Promises

Seven

Bella

He showed up at the perfect time.

Right when she was finished with her lipstick, pale peach this time. Right when her father had finished berating her about her messy room and her short skirt and her forgotten books. Right when she’d pulled on a shirt and pulled up her skirt and fastened it all together. The roar in the driveway was unmistakable. She could feel it in the ball of her foot, the grumble of that beast underneath it, and ran to the window.

It was the Bird.

Alive. Breathing. Belching in the driveway and he was standing beside it, hand on the roof and that fucking smirk on his face like yeah I did it, and here I am, so come and get me.

She flew down the steps. Blew past her father and his questions and she ran all the way to the car, flinging herself up against the door with a grin on her face that she just couldn’t keep to herself.

“You did it!”

“I did. I keep my promises.” He winked at her and ducked into the driver’s seat, pulling her inside and taking off before she even had the door closed. He had his hand on her leg and cigarette between his lips and a wicked smirk on his face like he had something planned.

“Where are we going?”

“Right now, I’m just driving.” He squeezed her leg. “Later, I’ll find somewhere to stop for a while but, right now, I gotta just feel this, ok?” He put both hands on the wheel and straightened his arms, flexing his fingers.

“Just drive then,” Bella said, kicking her sandals off and putting her feet on the dash, letting her hair blow out the window and her arm reach across the seat all the way to Edward, fingers twisted up in the hem of his shirt. He smiled at her. A real one. Not a sexy one or a cocky one or the one he used when he was sweet-talking her. Just a smile. Pure and plain and simple and she was kind of spun on this boy and the way he manhandled the car. Palmed the gear shift and stroked the gas. Urged the beast into a coast, the one that felt like floating, and Bella threw her head back to let the wind kiss her face. She was so stuck there, wild and lost, that she forgot where she was until he was pulling to a stop in a wide grassy field.

Edward threw the key and the beast churned to a stop. He tugged a flask from his back pocket and spun the top open.

“It smokes, but does it drink?” he asked.

“Yes, please.” Bella nodded, taking the flask and a solid swig.

Edward took the flask back and drained a mouthful. “Ever shoot a gun?” he asked.

“No.”

“Wanna?”

Bella nodded her head eagerly. Maybe a little too eagerly. He gave her a worried look and she hopped out of the cab, watching in fascination as he opened the trunk and laid out his weaponry in the grass. He gave her ear plugs and lessons on bullets, calibers, loading and safeties, how to not lock your shoulders too tight or your knees too much because it needed nothing except a gentle touch. A breath let free and then a squeeze. Both eyes open.

“I want to shoot that one.” She pointed out a big thick black one, one that looked imposing and serious and was far bigger than anything he’d let her get her hands on yet.

“No fucking way. That’ll knock you right on your ass, doll. I ain’t taking any chances.”

“But that’s the one I want.”

“Can’t kiss you if your mouth is busted up.” He smirked at her.

“Is that your plan?”

“That’s the beginning of it.”

---

Edward

He was buzzed. Maybe it was the sunshine, the heat or the late afternoon spin or the sexpot with a pistol in her hand, but he was drunk. Mouth watering and fingers itching and she was baring her shoulders and her good aim. Picking it up too fast for his liking. Looking downright deviant with that Mag in her hands and her legs spread wide to keep her footing. Edward took the gun after she unloaded it into a far off target. Tossed it aside, empty now anyway. He pushed her all the way up the to trunk of the car and slammed it closed.

“The things I want to do to you,” he panted.

“Tell me.” Her palms hit the metal, bumper hit her knees.

“You’ll run. Screaming.”

“I don’t scream.”

“You wanna bet?”  

He nudged her feet apart before he dropped to his knees between them. Tossed her skirt and groaned. “You girls and these fucking ridiculous panties,” he grumbled. Bella wiggled her ass at him, wrapped in blush colored lace, cut high and deep and, fuck him, he moaned right into the soft wet spot there between her thighs. She squealed and wiggled some more and he had two hands on her trying to keep her still but she was impossible.

“Keep still,” he mumbled.

I can’t believe you’re-” she gasped, his fingers prying aside the lace and his face burying into her. “I can’t-”

Edward palmed her ass cheek and pulled it aside, wrenching his face away to get a good glimpse and, fuck him, it exceeded every expectation. Just pink and wet and dark damp curls and he went back in for more, tongue intent on making her break her no-screaming statement.  

“You can,” he said, lips to her crotch and his fingers slipping in behind.

She lifted a foot off the ground, toe to the bumper, angling herself higher and he lurched onto his knees, following, always following, her thighs starting to shake around his cheeks. He let her hips go long enough to fumble with his belt, his fly, his briefs, his cock pulled free. He was stiff, achingly stiff, and it was her fault. Her look and her taste and her moaning which was progressively getting louder. Her skin and her softness and her soft flesh between his teeth . . .

He spilled his load into the dirt between his knees and when he dropped her off at home, her voice was still hoarse.

“My dad’s gonna smell the guns on me,” she rasped.

“Probably.” Guy was a cop, after all. “But he should’ve taught you by now. Every girl should know how to protect herself.”

“That’s why I wear a big ring.” Bella held a fist out toward him, a giant ring with a big plastic rock sitting heavy on her finger and yeah, she could probably break someone’s nose with it, or take out an eye. “Rose says that every girl needs a big ring in case she needs to punch someone.”

“You planning on punching me, doll?”

“Not unless you deserve it.” She winked at him, which was his move, and waggled her ass at him clear up to the front door of her house.

He watched her all the way.

Next

AN: Hadley Hemingway is my rock. I am probably her hard place. ;)