Dine&Dash Chap12 (Part 5)

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, quotes, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners and are simply used under 'fair use'. The original characters and plot are the property of the KittyTylz author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement intended. This story is written for the legally recognized adult population. 

Dine and Dash

*~*~* Chapter Twelve - "Echoes of Demons" *~*~*

‘With a fierce action of her hand, as if she sprinkled hatred on the ground, and with it devoted those who were standing there to destruction, she looked up once at the black sky, and strode out into the wild night.’ (Charles Dickens)

I would've done it too, take a swing or seven at his pretty head.

But I can't do that upside down. And that's where I find myself. "Come on, I have something for you," he says when I'm swung over his shoulder caveman-style, the corners of his lips twitch and I don't fight him because I'd kill to keep him in this mood. Carefree is a good look on him.

Shit. I'm so far gone for him.

"What?" I snap, folding my one arm to place it under my chin as I dangle off my evil boyfriend's shoulder.

He turns his face and bites down on the side of my ass through the towel. I yelp and try to jump away, which makes him laugh harder. He continues down the hall towards his room. "Stop acting like you're not enjoying this. I can still smell you." To emphasize his point, he runs one hand up my bare thighs to the bottom of the towel that, from this position, barely covers my ass. He almost touches where I need him to but then drops his hand back down, dragging with him the wetness he's gathered from my thighs and smearing it low enough for him to lick off my skin. It's sexy as hell and I squirm restlessly on his shoulder when his hand stops and the tip of his talented tongue peeks out with one quick circular lick behind my knee, before he goes back to normal like nothing happened.

"EDWARD?" My voice just does not sound like my own. I squeak! It's filled with disbelief and merciless burning and it's too high pitched. I know all this teasing is punishment for my statutory rape quip. Me and my dumb fucking need to win an argument.

He barks out laughter and I can practically see the crinkles around his eyes and then the furrow in his forehead when he speaks again, "you're gonna be begging and sweating for it before I fuck you again,  minor." He promises, like I needed the confirmation.

Fuck Bella! I curse myself venomously. You and your big mouth!

My mind fills with an erotic picture of my mouth wrapped around his glorious, thick length. I wonder if he'd like it. What would it taste like? Would I like it? Right now it sounds so good because he won't touch me. I stop my train of thought abruptly, not wanting to torture myself and find Edward looking at me over his shoulder with an indecipherable expression.

"What are you thinking?" He asks, cocking his head to the side.

I let his velvet voice coat me and I look at him, fisting my hands until my nails dig into my palms to stop myself from rubbing my thighs together. "You said I can have anything I want," I shoot pointed daggers at him. I know my neck's going to throb from the awkward angle, but I refuse to look away.

"You can," he admits nonchalantly, lifting me up and placing me delicately on my feet when we're inside his room, "but you'll hate me for this later." I guess he's done torturing me because he moves lower so that he can look me in the eye. His green orbs are clear and crystallized in the morning light, making them look more beautiful than I think I'd ever seen them. "Think about it baby," I know by his tone he's trying to manipulate me, but I can't seem to fight it. He knows exactly how to play me. Oddly enough, I find that more comforting than frightening than I would if it were happening with anyone besides him. "If I take you now, it's gonna hurt a fuckton more than when I pushed my fingers inside you," he reasons, looking me in the eye.

"We got time, baby. Lots of it." He says. His voice is a soft and velvety whisper that I listen to. He's serious as a heart attack. It's both promise and statement.

We're together.

Following his footfalls, I look to the right and see him going to his closet, stopping at his bed and coming back. I'm in too much of a daze to decipher what he's doing until he's standing in front of me. "I'm gonna shower quick. There's stuff downstairs if you're hungry."

I lean up on my toes and peck the corner of his mouth, smiling at him widely. He winks and walks out the room. I finally turn to the bed. What I see makes my heart bleed that unnamable feeling for him infinitely more powerfully.

It's a black and teal dress... It's the same black and teal dress…

~.~.~D&D~.~.~

Standing in his house feels weird now. I'm sitting on the couch flipping through channels absentmindedly while eating toast, because I'm practically setting my face on fire every time I look at the pool table or the kitchen. Both feel too familiar to me since my rendezvous. In my head I've now categorized sex with surfing. It's one of the most thrilling experiences I've had, it makes me feel beautiful, in control and happy, and my God if I don't love it.

Placing the empty plate beside me, I finger the lace at the bottom of the dress. I still can't believe I've got it on. It fits perfectly, my exact size. I'd bet my ass it's the exact same one I threw on the counter when I ran from James.

From his behavior and some of the things he's said, I know that Edward's been watching me for a while, but its surreal knowing he got me the dress I chose the first day I encountered him. I'm not sure if I have Toria or James to thank for giving him the information, but I sure as hell wanna thank him. I haven't been able wipe the smile off my face since seeing it and after the dream from hell and the subsequent fight it caused, if that's not a miracle I don't know what is. "Edward Cullen… Can I keep you?" The happy buzz in my stomach is cut off by the buzzing sound behind me.

I snatch up my now fully charged cellphone off the kitchen counter fast and look at the lit screen as it vibrates again. It had been Jared calling before my phone died this morning and I still haven't responded to his 3 missed calls so I'm surprised when I see the name flashing on my screen now. "Rach?"

"Yeah babe it's me," I hear, through loud chomping, "where you been? I've been calling home for ages," she says, through her chewing.

It takes me a second to grasp what's going on, then I quickly jump out of my momentary haze and remember  where  I am and  who  I'm now on the phone with. Thus reenters my reality, Bella Swan and the Tag-o-War of La Push and Forks. "Home!" I exclaim, then quickly rein it in with a mental palm to my forehead, "Oh, yeah, sorry Rach, I'm at my friend's place for a project. Sarah must be out." I dart a quick look at the staircase when I hear the bathroom door open upstairs.

"Makes sense, "she jokes, laughing and I know that's my cue to stop rambling. It's not like she needs justification, she has no idea as yet that I'd ever have any reason to lie to her! "You gonna be done anytime soon?"

When Edward appears in the kitchen, I decide I don't even want to know what's going on in his head from the expression he's wearing. "No," I answer Rachel, looking at Edward, "there's still a bit more we need to discuss."

Edward grins condescendingly, giving me an indication that he gives not a flying fuck about the Wolves or anything dealing with them. Thankfully, he gets distracted by his phone, digging it out his pocket and disappearing to a dark corner of doom! Okay, it's just the fireplace and he looks rather edible standing there dressed in dark Shadow colors, bracing his hand against the mantel while having a serious conversation with whoever's on the other end of the line, but I'm pissy because I know for sure that we need to have a serious conversation about the Wolves if we're gonna make this work. And he's not going to make it easy.

Regardless of the mutual dislike between them, I need to be smart about this if I'm going to stop this whole thing from blowing up in our faces. There was already too much working against Edward and me. For now, I needed to buy time until I found a way to solve our problem.

Ha! Problem? My inner Bella scoffed. There's the understatement of the century. The chances of two feuding gangs letting this go were non-fucking-existent!

She was right too. Bugger.

"Crap," I hear Rach exclaim and I start paying attention again quickly. I hear her ringing up the till then the chime of the front door to the shop. There's a pause before she's back on the line. "Okay, cool. Look, I'm out early today. Lee and I are having a girl's day to mourn her latest train wreck love life." There's a loud smack. I laugh when it's followed by Rach cursing the said monster out.

"Don't listen to her!" Lee yells in the background. Then I wish I couldn't hear her voice. "She's just pissy 'cause Paul's not around to give her any!"

"Ew!" I gag. Loudly. "Jesus —too much info, Leah!" I scream thunderously, enough for her to be able to hear from wherever she is, which garners me an odd look from Edward and a pained shriek from Rach.

"My ear, bitch!"

"Sorry," I snort out an apology, directing it to both her and Edward, who sniggers having heard Rachel's response across the room.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I didn't need that one anyways," she dismisses easily. "What the hell are so many people doing here today?" she gripes her thoughts out loud.

"Car shopping," I deadpan, "I hear it's a common trend at beauty shops."

"You're a riot," she drawls, failing miserably at hiding her amusement. One of my favorite traits of Rach is that she can never keep a straight face, unless she's pissed, in which case, I race Seth and Jake out the room. "Anyway, if you free up, give me call. We'll hang out. I can't handle the shrew alone." There's another smack in the background, but this time it's Leah that yelps. "HA! Blocked, ya skank," Rach deepens her voice, "K. O."

My snigger's out before I can stop it, "I'll see how it goes." I butt into their banter, calling her attention back.

"Great," I can hear the smile in her voice, "See you when I see you. Lee say's hi."

"Tell her hey back. Later, Rach," I cut the call and find Edward watching me quizzically.

"What?" I ask self-consciously.

He shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly and goes back to spinning his phone between his knuckles. "You smoked for a while."

I don't know if it's a question or a statement but I answer for the heck of it because it's the same either way. "Yes."

He nods. I should know better than to think he'd miss anything, even me inconspicuously ducking my scalded hand behind my back but I do it reflexively.

His orbs look to my arm then back to me. "I'll make a deal with you," he speaks in his usual deep, velvety voice as he pushes off the stony side of the fireplace and moves towards me with even footing. He lights up a joint and holds it temptingly before my face. "If I let you do this," I know he's not talking about actual 'permission'. It's more along the lines that he won't moan about it, he'll ignore it like he does with everyone else, which works just fine for me. He takes a huge drag and smoke puffs out between his teeth as he speaks, "you stop that." He takes another pull and jabs his head toward my arm.

I fist my burned hand behind my back. "I already said I would," I snap defensively.

He narrows his eyes, "Sure," His voice drips with sarcastic malice, his temper quickly making its appearance. "Here's to hoping you remember that this time round."

Telling defiant Bella to shut the fuck up I shrink back, getting his meaning. I'd given my word on this to him before. When I remain quiet, he pinches the bridge of his nose and exhales, heavy streams of smoke out his nostrils, trying to calm down.

Once he's got himself in check, he looks down at me with lethal somber eyes, "Deal?"

"Deal," my voice is small and my promise is tentative because I don't know how good my word is anymore.

"Good girl." The warm, bruised lips on my forehead are enough for me to understand that he knows exactly what's going on in my head right that moment. "It's hard, Bella," He speaks seriously, but there's a softness in his voice that's almost imploring, "just focus on this," he demands quietly. I grab onto his shirt tightly and he moves closer, letting me ground myself to him. "I'll destroy anything that hurts you baby. You've got nothing to worry about. Just focus on this till that doesn't matter."

I stay locked to him for a long time. I don't know what to say back. It's a bittersweet relief that he gets me, because he's the one person I don't have to pretend with, but he's also the one person on the planet I want to be perfect for.

"What's wrong?" I ask when I feel him stiffen.

He's staring at the screen of his phone with severe intensity as it starts to ring again. "I've got to go out," he bites out in annoyance, his brows pulling together. I can tell it's for something important, because I seriously doubt Edward would cut this short for anything.

"Then go," I shrug.

His eyes scan my face, checking if I'm serious, skeptical I'd give in that easy. "I'm sorry," he frowns broodily, just to make sure. It's cute in a warped way. I wanna bite him. "I'll be back as soon as I'm done," he swears, but he doesn't have to because I can see it clearly on his face. Just like how I recognize the look that says whatever it is he's got to leave for may require a large bit off his time. I'm used to that second look. I've seen the Wolves wear it on countless occasions. "I'll drop you at Rose's if you don't wanna hang here."

His offer makes a light bulb go off in my head.

"Actually," I swing my legs off the counter and leave them hanging on either side of his hips. His hands automatically fall to my thighs, holding them unconsciously as we speak. "Can you drop me off at a friend's place?"

The conflict in his eyes only serves to confirm my suspicions that he's not sure how long he's going to be away. With great reluctance, he simply nods. "Where?" He asks meaningfully.

I give him a scowl. Would I seriously ask him drop me off at one of the Grey Wolves' residences. Call me crazy, but I'm not  that  bloody mental!

My answer comes out weighted from both disappointment at our weekend coming to a close and fear for the next words out my mouth. "Wood Street," I answer, before I can consider a more neutral place than the actual street Rach rents the small space for her beauty salon.  No. No, Bella, what the fuck are you thinking!  "Next to Wood Street," I amend.

He folds his arms and cocks his head to the side predatorily, asking me with his condescending air to continue bullshitting him. "Let me get this straight."

My mouth snaps shut immediately, not liking the tone in his voice. It's a tone that tells me I haven't given him enough credit.

"You want me," he jabs two fingers towards his chest and smirks wickedly, distaste coating his words, "to drop you 'away' from that mutt Paul's chick's place, so you can… What?" he leers, " Protect  her from me?"

"Stop," I feel my own eyes narrow at him. Despite my best effort, I can't keep the hiss out of my voice. "Look, I want this," I gesture between us, "and I'm giving it my all." My lids shut tight for a millisecond at the magnitude of what I'm saying. "You have no idea how much everything is fucking with my head."

It's the truth. I've got to come clean about my past, stop hurting myself and figure out that blasted photograph. I'm not a damsel, I don't need saving. I can deal with answering him in a few days. But I have to find a way to deal with all that while still juggling my two lives of Wolf sister and Fang girlfriend. A little help from the one side that, actually knows about it, would be appreciated.

"You don't like them. They don't like you," I digress, "but fuck you both cause that leaves me in the middle. I didn't start the warfare but I'm now stuck between you, the rock, and them, the hard place. From the two gangs, you guys are the ones who know about us so you're the only ones who can help me out a bit. I'm taking you Fangs and all so a little cooperation from you isn't asking too much. You don't have to do any fucking jobs with them. All I'm asking is that you understand that they mean something to me. They mean the world to me." I'm not sure why I've given in to the verbal vomit but now that I've broached the topic, it's like my filter just flew out the fucking window! I almost regret the way I'm going about this.  Almost.  "If they find out about us, I could lose my family, Edward."

For some reason, my voice picks up instead of falling when I feel the defeat wash over me. It's this very second that I acknowledge this isn't a fairytale. I  will  lose them in a sense once the shit hits the fan.

"I'm going to lose them." Now my voice falls, before the angry tears start biting at my eyelids. "They're family. You may not understand it, but it's not a gang for me. They're part of my family that just grew up and became the Grey Wolves." I keep my chin from trembling but chew on my bottom lip. "If they find out about us, it's going to be on their own. I'm not going to help speed up the process." I clutch his hand in mine, "And please, Edward, I need you not to help it along either. So for appearances and, in your case, to prevent a war, we're just going to have to keep up the usual charade around them. I can't be bothered with big, bad Cullen and you hate me, the little sister grouped as a Wolf. "

I need this… Whatever time I have left with them I want… the only thing as hard as leaving them would be leaving you. Both are an unbreakable part of me.  I add in my head.

All that can be heard is our breathing and the voices of Kanye and JayZ low in the background as MTV continues to play on the TV. When I reopen my eyes, I'm shocked when I don't see any anger… I don't see anything. His usual temper is suspiciously missing. He's just looking at me… really looking at me… trying to figure something out.

"Fine," his face remains stony and his voice is clipped, but it sure as hell isn't what I was expecting. My mouth snaps shut abruptly, the defense I was preparing to give apparently unnecessary. "Let's go."

I grab his hoodie off the back of one of the chairs and follow him towards the car. I can't help but feel apprehension build in the pit of my stomach. What the fuck was he planning?

He holds open the door for me. "For the record, I never hated you Cappuccinetto," Edward whispers down my ear as I get in, "I posed a threat." He shuts the door and moves around to unlock the garage.

I watch him the entire time, trying to figure out what's going on. My instincts tell me I've made some kind of mistake. I know he won't just give in. Not without some kind of fight at least and yet here we are, backing out into the cold driveway of his place. He hops out the car again to lock the warehouse. The screeching of the metal feels like the mental train speeding through my mind, all leading up to one specific question. What now?

I couldn't fight the nagging feeling at the back of my mind that he was going to make me change my mind.

~.~.~D&D chap12 cont~.~.~