Eclipse - Meyer Stephenie (е книги TXT) 📗

I was wrong.

His mouth was not gentle; there was a brand-new edge of conflict and desperation in the way his lips moved. I locked my arms around his neck, and, to my suddenly overheated skin, his body felt colder than ever. I trembled, but it was not from the chill.

He didn’t stop kissing me. I was the one who had to break away, gasping for air. Even then his lips did not leave my skin, they just moved to my throat. The thrill of victory was a strange high; it made me feel powerful. Brave. My hands weren’t unsteady now; I got through with the buttons on his shirt this time easily, and my fingers traced the perfect planes of his icy chest. He was too beautiful. What was the word he’d used just now? Unbearable — that was it. His beauty was too much to bear. . . .

I pulled his mouth back to mine, and he seemed just as eager as I was. One of his hands still cupped my face, his other arm was tight around my waist, straining me closer to him. It made it slightly more difficult as I tried to reach the front of my shirt, but not impossible.

Cold iron fetters locked around my wrists, and pulled my hands above my head, which was suddenly on a pillow.

His lips were at my ear again. “Bella,” he murmured, his voice warm and velvet. “Would you please stop trying to take your clothes off?”

“Do you want to do that part?” I asked, confused.

“Not tonight,” he answered softly. His lips were slower now against my cheek and jaw, all the urgency gone.

“Edward, don’t —,” I started to argue.

“I’m not saying no,” he reassured me. “I’m just saying not tonight.”

I thought about that while my breathing slowed.

“Give me one good reason why tonight is not as good as any other night.” I was still breathless; it made the frustration in my voice less impressive.

“I wasn’t born yesterday.” He chuckled in my ear. “Out of the two of us, which do you think is more unwilling to give the other what they want? You just promised to marry me before you do any changing, but if I give in tonight, what guarantee do I have that you won’t go running off to Carlisle in the morning? I am — clearly — much less reluctant to give you what you want. Therefore . . . you first.”

I exhaled with a loud huff. “I have to marry you first?” I asked in disbelief.

“That’s the deal — take it or leave it. Compromise, remember?”

His arms wrapped around me, and he began kissing me in a way that should be illegal. Too persuasive — it was duress, coercion. I tried to keep a clear head . . . and failed quickly and absolutely.

“I think that’s a really bad idea,” I gasped when he let me breathe.

“I’m not surprised you feel that way.” He smirked. “You have a one-track mind.”

“How did this happen?” I grumbled. “I thought I was holding my own tonight — for once — and now, all of a sudden —”

“You’re engaged,” he finished.

“Ew! Please don’t say that out loud.”

“Are you going back on your word?” he demanded. He pulled away to read my face. His expression was entertained. He was having fun.

I glared at him, trying to ignore the way his smile made my heart react.

“Are you?” he pressed.

“Ugh!” I groaned. “No. I’m not. Are you happy now?”

His smile was blinding. “Exceptionally.”

I groaned again.

“Aren’t you happy at all?”

He kissed me again before I could answer. Another too-persuasive kiss.

“A little bit,” I admitted when I could speak. “But not about getting married.”

He kissed me another time. “Do you get the feeling that everything is backward?” he laughed in my ear. “Traditionally, shouldn’t you be arguing my side, and I yours?”

“There isn’t much that’s traditional about you and me.”

“True.”

He kissed me again, and kept going until my heart was racing and my skin was flushed.

“Look, Edward,” I murmured, my voice wheedling, when he paused to kiss the palm of my hand. “I said I would marry you, and I will. I promise. I swear. If you want, I’ll sign a contract in my own blood.”

“Not funny,” he murmured against the inside of my wrist.

“What I’m saying is this — I’m not going to trick you or anything. You know me better than that. So there’s really no reason to wait. We’re completely alone — how often does that happen? — and you’ve provided this very large and comfortable bed. . . .”

“Not tonight,” he said again.

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Of course I do.”

Using the hand that he was still kissing, I pulled his face back up to where I could see his expression.

“Then what’s the problem? It’s not like you didn’t know you were going to win in the end.” I frowned and muttered, “You always win.”

“Just hedging my bets,” he said calmly.

“There’s something else,” I guessed, my eyes narrowing. There was a defensiveness about his face, a faint hint of some secret motive he was trying to hide behind his casual manner. “Are you planning to go back on your word?”

“No,” he promised solemnly. “I swear to you, we will try. After you marry me.”

I shook my head, and laughed glumly. “You make me feel like a villain in a melodrama — twirling my mustache while I try to steal some poor girl’s virtue.”

His eyes were wary as they flashed across my face, then he quickly ducked down to press his lips against my collarbone.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” The short laugh that escaped me was more shocked than amused. “You’re trying to protect your virtue!” I covered my mouth with my hand to muffle the giggle that followed. The words were so . . . old-fashioned.

“No, silly girl,” he muttered against my shoulder. “I’m trying to protect yours. And you’re making it shockingly difficult.”

“Of all the ridiculous —”

“Let me ask you something,” he interrupted quickly. “We’ve had this discussion before, but humor me. How many people in this room have a soul? A shot at heaven, or whatever there is after this life?”

“Two,” I answered immediately, my voice fierce.

“All right. Maybe that’s true. Now, there’s a world full of dissension about this, but the vast majority seem to think that there are some rules that have to be followed.”

“Vampire rules aren’t enough for you? You want to worry about the human ones too?”

“It couldn’t hurt.” He shrugged. “Just in case.”

I glared at him through narrowed eyes.

“Now, of course, it might be too late for me, even if you are right about my soul.”

“No, it isn’t,” I argued angrily.

“‘Thou shalt not kill’ is commonly accepted by most major belief systems. And I’ve killed a lot of people, Bella.”

“Only the bad ones.”

He shrugged. “Maybe that counts, maybe it doesn’t. But you haven’t killed anyone —”

“That you know about,” I muttered.

He smiled, but otherwise ignored the interruption. “And I’m going to do my best to keep you out of temptation’s way.”

“Okay. But we weren’t fighting over committing murder,” I reminded him.

“The same principle applies — the only difference is that this is the one area in which I’m just as spotless as you are. Can’t I leave one rule unbroken?”

“One?”

“You know that I’ve stolen, I’ve lied, I’ve coveted . . . my virtue is all I have left.” He grinned crookedly.

“I lie all the time.”

“Yes, but you’re such a bad liar that it doesn’t really count. Nobody believes you.”

“I really hope you’re wrong about that — because otherwise Charlie is about to burst through the door with a loaded gun.”

“Charlie is happier when he pretends to swallow your stories. He’d rather lie to himself than look too closely.” He grinned at me.

“But what did you ever covet?” I asked doubtfully. “You have everything.”

“I coveted you.” His smile darkened. “I had no right to want you — but I reached out and took you anyway. And now look what’s become of you! Trying to seduce a vampire.” He shook his head in mock horror.

“You can covet what’s already yours,” I informed him. “Besides, I thought it was my virtue you were worried about.”

“It is. If it’s too late for me . . . Well, I’ll be damned — no pun intended — if I’ll let them keep you out, too.”

“You can’t make me go somewhere you won’t be,” I vowed. “That’s my definition of hell. Anyway, I have an easy solution to all this: let’s never die, all right?”

“Sounds simple enough. Why didn’t I think of that?”

He smiled at me until I gave up with an angry humph. “So that’s it. You won’t sleep with me until we’re married.”

“Technically, I can’t ever sleep with you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Very mature, Edward.”

“But, other than that detail, yes, you’ve got it right.”

“I think you have an ulterior motive.”

His eyes widened innocently. “Another one?”

“You know this will speed things up,” I accused.

He tried not to smile. “There is only one thing I want to speed up, and the rest can wait forever . . . but for that, it’s true, your impatient human hormones are my most powerful ally at this point.”

“I can’t believe I’m going along with this. When I think of Charlie . . . and Renee! Can you imagine what Angela will think? Or Jessica? Ugh. I can hear the gossip now.”

He raised one eyebrow at me, and I knew why. What did it matter what they said about me when I leaving soon and not coming back? Was I really so oversensitive that I couldn’t bear a few weeks of sidelong glances and leading questions?

Maybe it wouldn’t bug me so much if I didn’t know that I would probably be gossiping just as condescendingly as the rest of them if it was someone else getting married this summer.

Gah. Married this summer! I shuddered.

And then, maybe it wouldn’t bug me so much if I hadn’t been raised to shudder at the thought of marriage.

Edward interrupted my fretting. “It doesn’t have to be a big production. I don’t need any fanfare. You won’t have to tell anyone or make any changes. We’ll go to Vegas — you can wear old jeans and we’ll go to the chapel with the drive-through window. I just want it to be official — that you belong to me and no one else.”

“It couldn’t be any more official than it already is,” I grumbled. But his description didn’t sound that bad. Only Alice would be disappointed.

“We’ll see about that.” He smiled complacently. “I suppose you don’t want your ring now?”