CBWR? Chapter 65

Authors’ notes:

This chapter is all the fault of your twitter people encouraging me to do stuff I shouldn’t.  You know who you are.  It probably ought to have been beta’d.  I’ll fix it tomorrow.

 I knew it wasn’t right.

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Chapter 65:

Bella was still pretty groggy when we got to Paris.  I half walked/half carried her into the lobby and sat her down in an overstuffed chair while I checked in.  The hotel I had chosen was just down the street from the Eiffel Tower.  I remembered how she had looked at it when we were here before, and I asked for a room with a good view of it.  At first, the lady at the desk tried to discourage me – those rooms were expensive.  Once I set her straight on that deal by handing her my shiny black credit card, we got the pick of the entire hotel.

When we walked into the room, Bella was instantly awake.

The hotel had an odd, triangular shape to it – very modern for the rest of the area we were in.  Our room was on one on the angles, and as you walked in, the suite doors opened into the bedroom, which was two whole walls of glass, meeting at an angle on the far side.  The bed was in the center, and the lights of Paris were shining through the windows and making the whole room glow with light.

The view of the tower was nothing short of spectacular.

Bella went to the window and looked out at the giant landmark with the light from the setting sun making it glow in the distance.  I ran my hand through my hair and just watched her as she marveled over it.  She turned back to me and her eyes were glowing.  My heart started to beat faster, which was really starting to make me wonder if I didn’t need a complete physical once all this was over.

“It’s beautiful,” Bella said.  She walked back over to me and tossed her arms casually around my neck.  It felt…weird.  Good weird.  Like they were supposed to be there, but since nothing else was ever supposed to be there before…well, I didn’t understand it, but I liked it.

I put my arms around her waist and gave me a half smile.  I tried not to focus on her lips too much, though I really did want to kiss her again.  I was also kind of wondering if she hadn’t wised up on the trip over here, and would maybe tell me she didn’t want anything to do with me anymore.

Actually, I kind of waited for her to tell me that about every thirty seconds or so. 

Maybe she wouldn’t say anything.   Maybe I’d just come back from getting ice or something and she just wouldn’t be here anymore.  For some reason, I remembered my mother fiddling around with the rabbit ears on top of the television in the trailer the day I went to school in the morning, and when I came back that afternoon she gone.  She didn’t say anything to me as I got my book bag and walked to the bus stop, but I remembered her yelling at the TV.  It was the last time I saw her.

“Why do you look so sad?” Bella suddenly asked. 

“I’m not,” I replied.

“What were you thinking about?”

“Um…my mom, I guess,” I said with a shrug.

“What about her?”

“Nothing, really.”

That answer apparently wasn’t good enough, because she kept on me until I told her more.

“I was just thinking about the day they left,” I finally admitted.

“Why?” Bella asked.  “What did she say?”

“Nothing,” I told her.  “She was trying to get the TV to work.  She didn’t say anything to me.”

“Did you ever see her again?”  Bella’s eyes had narrowed and her brow was all furrowed up.  She looked like she was upset, and I didn’t want her feeling that way.  Not about me.  It just wasn’t worth it.

“I didn’t have to share the TV all afternoon,” I said with a smile.  Bella did not return the smile, but instead, her hand reached up and brushed over my cheek.

“There was something wrong with her, Edward,” Bella said softly.  “Not you.  You were just a kid.  Moms aren’t’ supposed to be like that.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything.  I never really noticed anything wrong with her.  It was just a shit situation – we didn’t have any money or anything, so she did what she could, I guess.   That’s why I started running guns in the first place – the money was fucking incredible.  It still was.

I kind of wondered if I had gotten a job before they left and brought in some money…well...maybe they wouldn’t have gone.

Bella’s eyes dropped down to my lips, and a moment later she had risen up on her toes to reach me.  I let her tongue run over mine as my hand ran up her back, holding her close to me.  We stood there for a moment, just kissing gently and holding each other.  It was strange, like Bella throwing her arms around me was strange.  I had just never done something like this – just kissed.  I never would have even considered it before.

Before her.

Her arms slid down to my shoulders and she pulled at me until her she sat back on the bed.  She looked up at me and smiled the most incredible smile I had ever seen.  It was beautiful, and sexy, and lovely, and just…just…joyous.

I crawled into the bed after her, crawling up her body as she lay backwards on the bed.  My mouth found hers again, and she tangled her fingers in my hair and pulled me close to her. 

I knew it wasn’t right.

I knew it wasn’t good.

But I really, really wanted it, right?

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Chapter end notes:

Thanks to all the tweet peeps who reminded me the word I wanted was LANDMARK.  I appreciate that.

Why does Edward in this always make me think of the Nine Inch Nails Song “Kinda I Want To”?

CBWR? Chapter 64

Author’s notes

O...k...I'll try posting it again!  LOL 

Here’s another one for ya!

If you are not getting alerts, make sure you check your junk email.  Also make sure you didn’t just sign up, but clicked the link that was sent to you in the first email, too.  If you didn’t get that, try it all over again. Hehehe

I sucked at this.

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Chapter 64

I made my third pass around the train, and I still didn’t see any sign of the guy who had been following us before, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think he couldn’t have any friends.  We changed trains when we stopped in Stuttgart and headed to Luxembourg.  We bought multiple tickets again there, and switched again at the last possible minute to head back to Paris.

I had to practically carry Bella to the train car, she was so tired.  It was afternoon, and we hadn’t slept all night.  As soon as we entered the private car, I shut the door, pulled the shade down to block out the sun, and let her lay down on the seat with her head in my lap.  She was out about thirty seconds later, leaving me to think.

I was doing a lot of thinking lately, and I didn’t like it.  Not at all.

I kept thinking about some of the things Bella has said about me and trying to wrap my head around them.  I didn’t want to just tell her she was wrong, but I was pretty sure all I had really wanted was sex, because jerking off sucks and I was tired of having to deal girlfriends who were expecting more from me.  I never wanted more.  I didn’t want to take women out to movies and dinner and shit like that.  There was no interest on my part to go tour a fucking museum or go watch some concert with a woman.  I didn’t have any desire to walk in the park or go dancing.

I ran my hand over Bella’s shoulder, and she sighed in her sleep.  I remembered dancing with her…well, if you could call what we were doing dancing.  I recalled how she felt in my arms, and wondered if I would take her somewhere where there was actual music to go with it.  Of course, I didn’t really know how to dance, but I might be willing to just hold her and sway around a bit again, even though I would look like an idiot in the process. 

Maybe if I just got some decent music in a hotel room, it would be good enough.

I sucked at this.

Emmett called, and I answered quickly and quietly so it wouldn’t wake up Bella.

“Harry said he’s never heard of the guy,” Emmett told me.  “Seth either.  We’re looking for the name, but so far we got nothing.  Probably not his real name at all.  Got a picture?”

“It was dark,” I told him, “but you might be able to get an image off the security cameras.”

“I’ll get Rose on it.”

“Thanks.”

“She wants to talk to you.”

“How is Bella?” Rosalie asked.

“Sleeping.”

“Not what is she doing, how is she doing, you idiot.”

“I don’t know,” I answered.  How was I supposed to answer that?

“Tell her to hang in there – she won’t have to put up with you much longer.  Let her know we’re close on the chip.  Maybe another week.”

“Okay.”  I hung up.

Another week.  Still four days past her birthday, but at least it was close.  Bella rolled slightly, and I had to keep hold of her so she didn’t fall off the bench all together.  She didn’t wake up, and I was glad.  She needed the rest.  I put my head back and closed my eyes for a minute.

One more week, and Bella could go back to her family and I could go back to my business.  As much as I wanted her to be with her family again, I hated the idea.   I didn’t want her to be nearly a whole freaking continent away from me.  I wondered what it would take to relocate to Seattle or something.  I started mentally listing all the crime businesses in the area, thought about some of the names and wondered who I would have to fuck up to make it happen.  The list in my head wasn’t bad, at least.  I’d have to do a little more research.

Research.

I pulled my phone back out, went to Google, typed in “being romantic” and hit the search key.

There was a freaking “wiki” on it.  When I was done reading it, I felt like I knew even less than I did before I looked.

I tried another one.

It didn’t help.

Frustrated, I tossed the phone on to the bench and closed my eyes again.  Everything seemed to be assuming you were in a real relationship, not that you had recently married your ex-master and were now hiding from unknown villains as you traipsed across Europe.

I picked the phone back up and Googled that, but nothing that came up made any sense at all.  One was about vampires in books, and another about Nazis.  Yeah, not working.  I sighed, wanted to just say fuck it and forget the whole thing, but then I looked down at the girl in my lap.  For once, I wanted to do something the right way.  I wanted to give her the wedding night she dreamed about, sex or not.  I wanted to make her feel wanted…cared for…lo-

No…fuck, no.  I couldn’t think like that.  It was far too fucking wrong.  Still, I wanted to do something for her.  At least get a decent hotel room and maybe some flowers and Champaign.  That seemed so trite though, and I didn’t want her to be disappointed because it was kind of boring romantic, either.  On the other hand, we’d had a little too much excitement lately.

Maybe boring was the way to go, right?

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Chapter end notes:

Go ahead and google the whole sentence – “had recently married your ex-master and were now hiding from unknown villains as you traipsed across Europe”.  You know you want to.  You really will find shit about vampires and nazis.  At least, I did.

Next update – probably tomorrow.

CBWR? Chapter 63

Author’s notes:

Ready for some action?  Well…sort of.  LOL

Within about two minutes, I saw a car behind me.

Chapter 63:

For the longest time, we just looked at each other.  I contemplated the phrase making love, and wondered if I was even capable of doing such a thing.  I knew fucking, but I hadn’t watched enough chick flicks to understand how they were different.  Bella would know, though, but I didn’t want to ask her.  I wanted to…prove I could do it.  For her.

So what made it different?

It should be slow, I figured.  And it should be someplace nice, and someplace where she was safe, and I didn’t have to worry about someone showing up in the middle of the night.

Lee.

Shit.

“Bella, we have to get out of here,” I said.

“Why?”

“That guy who was here – he was probably just a customer, but having anyone know where you are isn’t safe.  We need to get out of here.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

I leaned in and brushed my lips over hers once again.

“I will give you the wedding night you want,” I promised her.  “I’ll make it good – I swear I will.  Just not now and not here.”

Bella’s eyes studied mine for a minute before she nodded.  I dragged us both out of the bed and started throwing shit into the suitcases we had brought.  I watched Bella carefully tuck the little castle snow globe in a nest she made out of one of her shirts.  She also packed what looked like a white shirt box into her bag.  I remembered it from the hotel in Paris, but hadn’t thought to ask about it.

“What’s in there?”

Bella smiled and bit down on her lip.

“You’ll see,” she responded cryptically.

I narrowed my eyes at her, but didn’t really have the time to get into it.  Maybe I’d ask again once we were in the car.  I threw the rest of my stuff in my bag, holstered my gun under my jacket and started putting things in the car.  Bella followed me out with her bag, and we headed down the driveway in the dark.  Once I got to the main road, I looked around and didn’t see any more cars, which made sense at four in the morning.  I pulled out and headed towards the train station. 

Within about two minutes, I saw a car behind me.

I’d been going at a pretty decent clip, and they would have had to be going faster to have caught up with me, but once they were in my sights, they stayed about the same distance behind me.  Not good.  I grabbed the phone and called Rosalie.

“I just got out of the shower and I’m going to bed,” she quipped over the phone.

“I’m getting Bella out of here,” I told her.  “We had a visitor, and now I’ve got a trailer.”

I told her about Lee Stephens, and she agreed she had never heard the name before.  She yelled to Emmett to contact Harry Clearwater and see if he really knew him or not.

“I need the train schedules for Dilsberg,” I told Rose.  “Whatever one will get us out of Germany the fastest.”

I looked back behind me.  The headlights were still in plain view – no closer, no farther away.

“Make that two trains heading to two different countries.”

Rose gave me the info, which I repeated to Bella and she wrote down.

“I’ll get the tickets ordered for you,” Rose told me.  “Once we hear back from Harry or Seth I’ll call you back.”

She hung up, and I increased my speed.  The headlights went out of view, but only for a minute before they were back again.

“What do we do?” Bella asked, sounding a little panicked.  I reached over and grabbed her hand.  Her fingers wrapped around mine.

“We get on one train, hope whoever is behind us gets on it, too, then we get off and get on the second one instead.  We’ll have to move fast.”

I saw her nod in my peripheral vision.  I sped up again, and we were rally flying now, but the car remained the same distance away from us.  I slowed down, and they didn’t get any closer.  We rode in silence the short distance to the Dilsberg train station, and I parked the car right up by the front door, where we abandoned it.  The other car passed us up, turning slowly into the parking lot.

“Come on,” I said as I took Bella’s hand and dragged her through the station.  I bought both sets of tickets, using some of my more colorful German words when the guy in the booth asked why I was getting tickets to two countries on trains that were leaving five minutes apart.  He backed down, gave me the tickets, and we headed towards the platforms next to the lines of trains.

I scouted out the train that left second and would head to Switzerland, finding it already waiting four platforms away from the first train, which would take passengers to Lichtenstein.  We had about twenty minutes until the first one was scheduled to take off, so I walked Bella slowly up and down random platforms – watching for anyone who might have been following us.

He wasn’t hard to find.  There weren’t a huge number of passengers looking for transportation at this time of night, and he stood out just because he wasn’t looking around at train schedules or even carrying a bag.  Amateur.

It wasn’t Stephens, because he was way too short and lanky.  I considered finding a place to just off him before we left, but there really wasn’t time.  I doubted he was going to actually follow me into a men’s room anyway.  I led Bella to the train heading for Lichtenstein, and we boarded at the very front of the train, which was the farthest from the station, and then began walking slowly down the cars until we reached the back.  The guy was still behind us, leaning over the edge and smoking a cigarette, but watching us closely. 

Damn, I wanted a cigarette.

We stopped at the second to last car, standing just outside the little siding door to the area when you could sit and relax.  Yeah, we were doing a lot of relaxing right now.  Bella hadn’t said anything, but she knew I was watching the guy, and she kept twisting her fingers around themselves and biting her lip.  I leaned over and kissed her lightly, whispering that it would be all right, even though I knew it wasn’t the very best of circumstances.

The conductor announced that the train was leaving.

I grabbed Bella’s hand and raced to the edge and the stairs that led off the train and back onto the platform.  I glanced behind me and saw the guy toss his cigarette down and start running towards us.  With Bella’s hand in mine, we jumped from the train just as it started to move, landing on the platform below just as the conductor started yelling at us.  Bella stumbled, and I had to drop the bag I was carrying to keep her from falling.  I looked over my shoulder and saw our trailer arguing with the conductor, who was holding him back as the train began to leave.  He shoved the conductor hard, and I started to run, leaving the bag behind me with all mishit in it, mentally taking note of what was inside and figuring none of it really mattered.

We raced up the platform to the middle of the station, over to the platform of the train for Switzerland, and got to the first car just as the conductor was starting to shut the gate.

It was all going to be good now, right?

Chapter end notes:

See?  He does know what he’s doing…sometimes!

I should be able to get one more update out today.