Perdition Chapter 22

BPOV

“Edward!” I call his name to get his attention, but he ignores me. “Put that down, I’ve got it!” I rush to his side, grabbing the last box from the truck and bumping him with my hip.

His smirk is quick, his responding kiss a little slower. “I’m not helpless,” he reminds me as he releases my mouth.

As if I need him to remind me of that. Physical therapy has done its job and then some, and I take in the straining muscles beneath his clingy t-shirt as he tries to snag the box from me. He’s back to full-strength, no doubt about that.

“I want to. It’s my box, anyway. My crap in it, I’ll haul it.”

“Hiding something interesting in there, are we?” He tries to pry the flap open as I run from him, attempting to not drop the whole box as I streak into the living room.

Edward’s personality is back as well, the laughing, happy man that I always loved. It’s impossible not to fall for that crooked smile. I drop the box a little clumsily as he catches me around the waist and spins me, landing the both of us onto the couch we just bought three days ago.

“That’s the last of it, woman. Relax.” He grins again, nipping at my throat before looking back at me, huge smile in place.

“Thank Christ. My arms are sore.”

“Poor baby,” he murmurs, though not in a derisive manner. No, not my Edward. He rubs my triceps, stroking and igniting without any effort.

“Shower. Dinner. Remember?” We have plans tonight. Though my brain is currently focused on the way Edward’s body feels on top of mine.

“Screw them all,” he growls, pushing me flat to the sofa cushions and hovering over me. “Shower. Sex. Maybe I’ll feed you if you’re lucky.”

“God, you drive a hard bargain.”

His laugh is giddy and evil. “That’s not all that’s hard.”

Fucks sake, there's no way I can deny him any longer. We’ve had to abstain for months while his skin grafts healed and he endured physical therapy. His skin wouldn’t flex in the direction he was intending it to move for the longest time.

But now? I moan as he moves lower, dragging his mouth down to my belly. “Maybe I even like you dirty,” he teases.

“Ew, no. Please let me shower off the dust and sweat.”

Edward pops up, seemingly unaffected by our foreplay, unlike my racing pulse. “Deal.” He offers his hand and hauls me up when I take it, pulling me to the stairs and practically dragging me up them.

Naked, with steaming hot water sluicing off his broad shoulders, Edward does his damn best to make me die of pleasure before we ever finish washing. His hand cups me, fingers slipping inside like the memory is mapped in his brain. How and where and what pressure to use to send me flying, gasping against him as I bite his wet shoulder. Struggling to stay upright, I gladly allow him to sweep his arm behind my knees to carry me to the bed that I just made up with new linens hours ago.

Laying me on it, spreading me out like a buffet, using those hands again to stroke and tease and tickle, Edward and I reconnect in ways we haven’t been able to for years. And I find myself crying with the surrealness of the moment.

He pulls away from me and wipes at my tears with the pads of his thumbs. “What’s all this, baby?” he asks gently.

“I just can't believe we’re here. It’s been what, five years? I never thought we’d find our way back, or that it would be like nothing had ever changed between us.”

“It changed, but it changes constantly. Loving you was never hard. Living without you was hard, but loving you again? That's the easiest thing I’ll ever do. I’ll love you every day of the rest of my life.”

“In the kingdom where nobody dies,” I murmur. When he frowns adorably, I smooth my hand over the spot and smile. “That’s what I picture, is that we can live forever in our hearts and the hearts of those that love us.”

When Edward leans down again, I push aside thoughts of life and death and just focus on loving him physically.

I return his kisses tenfold, moving my tongue against his and sharing his breath. My mouth knows his taste, but my fingertips have to relearn his planes and the smoothness of his taut skin. I need to feel the difference in his steel length, enough to have him begging me to let him fill me completely. And god, does he ever fill me, so full that I can’t remember ever feeling so complete before now.

“Fuck!” I cry as Edward moves inside me, pulling back and slamming forward, reminding my body what overwhelming pleasure feels like.

“Bella,” he moans my name like a prayer, and his movements are quick and almost frantic.

Primal need builds in me, the need to find that elusive place where the stars explode behind my eyelids. The push and pull of our bodies is extremely satisfying, like nothing and everything we’ve ever experienced together before. I find myself wild for him, wild for the lust of his hungry mouth, to feel the strength of his body pinning me to the bed, to the very earth. Climax after climax slam into me like battling tidal waves until I’m gasping for air.

When he moans and curses, stilling with his firm body pressed into mine, I swear my vision washes red. My desire is only temporarily sated, but for now I can’t think when it might kickstart again.

“God, I’ve missed that,” he murmurs in a throaty voice that does things to my insides that should be illegal in my current state.

When he rolls off me and flops like a landed trout onto the bed next to me, I find enough energy to laugh. “I’m thrilled you and I never found other distractions in the time we were apart.”

“That’s an awfully polite way of saying you’re happy I never fucked anybody but you in my lifetime.” He chuckles half heartedly into the rumpled bedspread.

I shove at his shoulder until he opens one eye and stares at me unblinkingly.

“Okay, yes,” I admit. “I never fucked anybody besides you, and I’m happy about it now that we’re finding ourselves full circle.”

“I love how you speak,” he says offhandedly.

“Okay,” I laugh.

“I love fucking you. It’s been five years too long, and I was feeling blue and desperate.”

I laugh more loudly, covering my face with my hand. I look at him over the tops of my fingers, just look, as the afternoon sun slants in through the window across the room. It simultaneously illuminates and creates shadows over his back and that finely sculpted ass. It makes me happy to see that his scarring is almost invisible now.

“Well, as much as I’d love round two, our friends and family and our daughter are waiting for us.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbles but gets up anyway. I merely sit on the bed for a few seconds and admire the sight of my husband walking unaided into the bathroom of our new house. From heaven to hell and back again, we have everything we’ve ever wanted.