Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Day Ten Stranded

Edward

I woke with a start, Bella's voice serving as my alarm. The weather had warmed greatly compared to the night of the front, and now it was rather enjoyable—not too hot, not too cold. The only thing I didn't enjoy was that Bella's clothes had dried.

This was my favorite time of the day, my most enjoyable moments of being on the island—waking up and watching Bella sleep. It was always so funny to watch and listen to her. The best time to watch her was early in the morning, when she was about to wake up, because if she were too deeply asleep, no words would escape her lips. The first time I had discovered that she talked in her sleep was the morning after our first kiss, the best morning I had ever had, as far as I was concerned. She had said my name repeatedly, and it woke me up. I thought she had been trying to get my attention, but when I looked at her, her eyes were closed and rolling behind their lids.

"Edward," she said. She sighed happily, and then moaned my name again. That definitely got my full attention and made me wide awake.

What is she dreaming? I wondered. Then her face turned sour, and she said, "Damn crab…cock blocking crab."

I gasped in astonishment at her mention of the word "cock". Bella always seemed so proper and I never heard her curse. Now I really wanted to know what she was dreaming. She turned over in my arms and quieted.

When I asked her what she had been dreaming about, after she woke up, she merely blushed and asked what made me think she was dreaming anything special. I just shrugged and said she seemed fitful in her sleep. She chuckled and blushed more.

Three days had passed since our first kiss. We were starting to get along perfectly, and she was finally opening up to me. I learned that her full name was Isabella Marie Swan, and that she had been born in Phoenix, Arizona, but grew up mostly in Jacksonville, Florida, where she had gone to college and started working for a magazine company. She had almost no confidence in herself, yet she had accomplished any and every thing she had set her mind to. Her favorite food was pork roast with rice, and it reminded me of her—simple and a classic, not to mention tasty.

I stole kisses from her every chance I got, and when provoked, she could be quite the flirt herself. The eighth day of being stranded wasn't as bad as I thought it would be; if someone had told me before I got on the plane that I was going to get stuck on a deserted island and actually enjoy myself, I would have deemed him or her crazy. But it was the same day as my sister's wedding, and Bella could tell something was wrong.

She traced the furrow of my brow gently, asking me why I seemed so upset.

"Today was supposed to be my sister's wedding," I said sadly, trying to reign in my feelings, for I did not want Bella to misconstrue them.

"Oh," was all she said. She tried to get up, probably thinking I wanted privacy, but I grabbed her leg and pulled her back down.

"What do you think they are doing right now, Bella? Your family?" I asked her. She sighed and looked at the sand, tracing hearts into it.

"I don't know, Edward. I try not to think about it because I know that they are sad, but I will be with them soon, so when the day comes that we are together again, I will try to make it up to them. I guess I just think there's no point worrying about it; worrying doesn't change anything. I just want to focus on getting back to them," she said. I agreed with her—worrying did not help at all.

"I just feel like I ruined my sister's wedding day with my supposed death," I said. "And I was supposed to call my mom when I got off the plane. She must have been so worried."

"Edward, when your sister sees that you are alive, the last thing she will be thinking about is her wedding. I'm sure of that. And your mom will forgive you," Bella said. I smiled at her and pulled her to me, kissing her cheek and making her giggle. I loved that I could make her this carefree.

The idea of my family's suffering still bothered me, though, and I wondered if perhaps anyone had sent a helicopter to search for survivors. I doubted they even knew where the plane had crashed, since it sunk so quickly, but there was still a little chance that hope wasn't lost, right?

And what would happen when we were found? I would go back to Chicago and Bella would return to Jacksonville? I shuddered at the thought. No, I would make sure we could be together somehow. I knew it was absurd, but after being with her 24/7 for ten days, I knew I could never be without her again. Sure, my life wasn't bad; I had money, I had my family, and I was a well-sought after bachelor. But being here on the island had changed me. Bella had changed me. Something just told me that if I returned to the money, my family, and the popularity without her, I would be twice as miserable as I had been before I met her.

An old friend I'd had in college dated a girl for two years until she broke it off with him. He had been depressed, and, thinking nothing of it, I told him that he had lived happily without her for twenty years, and he could just go back to the way his life was before her. I thought it was no big deal, and I couldn't understand why he was still so depressed over her. But I understood now. Once a man had a taste of happiness, the kind of happy that money couldn't buy, he wouldn't want to let go of the reason for his joy…wouldn't be happy ever again without it, no matter what he had to make up for it. That was how it was with Bella. I wondered how it would be to take Bella on a real date, to a restaurant…to have her sleep next to me in a bed, to wake up next to her and not have to scrounge for our own food every morning. To make love to her. My head spun at the last thought. I'd never made love to a woman, and I'd certainly never woken up next to any. Could a man make love to someone even if he didn't love her? How did a man know when he was in love anyway? Did he just realize it at a specific time? Did a light bulb go off in his head? I knew I wanted to fall in love with Bella. Did that mean I was already in love with her?

Ugh. This is so confusing, I thought, and I don't think it's possible to make love if you're not in love…

What I had done with those few girls in my life could definitely not be classified as making love, and I suddenly wished I had never had any casual sex. I was drunk three of the four times anyway, and couldn't remember most of what I had done. But in all reality, I didn't know one twenty-four year old man who was still a virgin. I looked over at Bella's sleeping form, wondering if she had ever… Jealously stretched through me, and I recognized the feeling as the same one I had felt when we had been floating in the ocean, the same feeling I had when I looked to see whether she had a wedding ring on. Maybe my body knew that I had feelings for her before my mind did, since I hadn't realized why I seemed so angry at the thought of her being taken.

All these thoughts occupied my mind while I waited for Bella to talk in her sleep as she had done the mornings before. She had rolled to her back sometime during the night, so I only had one arm over her waist, and she had flung her right leg carelessly over mine. It was such an awkward position, but she seemed comfortable.

"Edward," she hummed. Ah, there it was. A smile was starting to form on her sleeping face, and I leaned closer, waiting for more. "You're so pretty." Pretty? I scoffed. She thought I was pretty? I'd heard Emmett use that term enough to describe me. He always called me 'Pretty Boy'. Couldn't she have said handsome or hot, at least?

"Bella, I'm not a girl. I'm not pretty," I whispered, laughing silently. She smiled wider, and I wondered if I was in her dream with her.

"Prettiest boy ever," she continued. My eyebrows shot up. She thought I was the prettiest boy ever? Well, I guessed I could deal with that, so long as I was the prettiest to her. My ego gained about four pounds just listening to her, and I worried for my masculinity.

"Well, Bella," I whispered, feeling a bit stupid for talking to a sleeping girl, "if I am the prettiest boy ever, then that makes you the most beautiful girl ever." I leaned into her face, kissing her softly on her full lips. "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," I breathed against her mouth.

Her eyes opened steadily, gazing at me with their deep chocolate pools. "Good morning," she said, yawning and stretching her arms. She leaned up to kiss me, biting my lip as she pulled away.

"Mmm," I said, "it is a good morning." She giggled and slapped my chest playfully. "You're so much different now. It's like you took some happy pills or something…what happened?" I asked. "Is it me?" I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively.

"No. I just think your face is funny."

"Oh, really? I thought I was the prettiest boy ever," I said. She gasped and looked at me, wide eyed. Shit. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I wished I hadn't said anything. I didn't want her to know that she talked in her sleep, and if she did know, I didn't want her to know that I frequently watched her do it.

Her expression turned to one of suspicion. "How did you know about that?"

I sighed; there was no way to hide it now. "Uh, you said that."

Her eyebrows shot up in confusion. "When did I say that?"

I looked at her in shame, shame for invading her privacy and getting caught. I just hoped she didn't get too mad at me. "In your sleep," I confessed. To my utter surprise, Bella laughed.

She got up and headed for the beach. "I figured this would eventually happen. I've always talked in my sleep."

"You wouldn't mind telling me what you were dreaming about, by any chance?" I asked.

She turned around and looked at me as if I were crazy. "Nope. No chance, sorry." Then she turned back and walked farther away. I watched her hips naturally sway as they moved. She knew she was teasing me. I'd opened a really big can of worms when I kissed her. It was like her confidence went from minuscule to gigantic. A feeling of pride swept over me as I thought about how I had been the reason for that. I wondered what else I could bring out of her.

I followed her small footprints in the sand, and we each grabbed a banana for breakfast.

"Ugh," Bella complained as we sat down on her boulder, "I'm so sick of having sand in my pants. It's like I can't get away from it. I mean, I live on a beach in Florida, and I've never seen this much sand!" I chuckled.

"You live on a beach?" I asked curiously. Bella nodded and started to explain what her apartment looked like. From how she described it, it seemed small and lonely, but still cozy. She only lived there to be closer to work, and she rarely even went to the beach.

Her talk of home got me thinking about my own house. It was large and just a few streets away from my parents' house. It was two stories, complete with four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, and a huge but scarce kitchen. My parents had helped me pay for it, and at first I absolutely loved it, but after a while I felt like it was pointless. It was huge—and empty. I didn't even sleep in my bedroom upstairs anymore because I found that if I slept on the couch downstairs, I could pretend there wasn't another story, and the house felt a bit smaller with just the downstairs, and I didn't feel so lonely.

I thought of the piano that was gathering dust in the middle of my living room. I hadn't played it in so long. I used to write music, a song here and there, but I never went further than that with my musical talent. My mother loved listening to me play. Suddenly, as if I were present in my home and on my piano bench, a tune came to my mind, a tune so beautiful and powerful that I could feel my fingers itching to touch the keys and bring it to life. I wished I was home and that Bella was with me so I could try to play it for her. Maybe when we got off the island, I could bring her to my house. The image of her running around my kitchen, wearing an apron and sweating from the heat of cooking was unbelievably hot.

And then I could ravish her on the marble counter…

Slow, Edward, slow. Take things slow! I reminded myself mentally.

"Hey! Earth to Edward!" Bella called, snapping her fingers close to my face. I looked up at her, and the song appeared in my mind once more as my eyes met hers. She was my inspiration, my beautiful muse. She smiled and said, "You looked a little lost for a second!"

"Sorry, I was just thinking about my piano." And things I'd like to do to you right next to it.

"You have a piano?" she asked. I nodded and proceeded to tell her about my own house and old family memories. We talked for what seemed like forever, and the rest of the day passed quickly. Before I knew it, the sun was going down again, and we were eating dinner.

I'd had no luck on catching another fish, but I wasn't really complaining after how Bella had reacted. I didn't want to hurt her feelings again. I started another fire and opened another bottle of wine by breaking the top on the rock. We shared it, and before long, I noticed Bella was extremely tipsy.

She started flirting with me, blushing profoundly, and I knew she was going to have a bad headache in the morning.

"Baby, you think I'm pretty?" Bella asked, trailing her finger in the valley of my chest, over my heart, and making me shiver. I cocked an eyebrow. Baby?

"Bella, you're drunk," I laughed out, taking the bottle from her. She made a sound between a moan and a groan, and I tried to ignore my arousal.

"You didn't answer my question," she said in a singsong voice. I kissed her softly, tasting the alcohol on both our breaths. Hers was worse than mine, and I was surprised I hadn't realized how much she had been drinking.

"I think you're beautiful. And you don't even have to try," I told her. She smiled, her unfocused eyes lingering on me. She abruptly got up and swayed to the edge of the beach.

"Dance with me, Edward!" she cheered. I gaped at her, my jaw hanging in awe.

"Bella, I thought you hated dancing." I remembered her telling me how much she despised being on spotlight, especially because she was "uncoordinated". I'd noticed it was true, too, after seeing her trip so many times in the last ten days. She didn't answer me, though, and waved her hand for me to follow her to the shoreline. I got up and went to her.

She grabbed one of my hands and wrapped it around her waist, taking my other hand in her own. She winced in pain from her hurt toes colliding with mine. I couldn't have that.

I picked her up and set her feet on my own so that I wouldn't step on them, and so that she wouldn't feel any pain. I started dancing with her, which wasn't easy as Bella was more like deadweight that an actual partner. Bella giggled.

"What?" I asked. She giggled more.

"There's no music," she whispered as I twirled her carefully. A thought occurred to me.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to make some," I said. She simply stared at me.

I started to hum the tune that had come to me earlier. It was soft and sweet, calming and different. It reminded me of the girl in my arms.

She looked at me with wonder in her doe eyes. "What is that? It's beautiful," she said, swaying slightly and giggling as I dipped her.

I didn't answer her, because I wasn't really sure what it was. It didn't have a name, but it reminded me of a lullaby, and I knew that since Bella had inspired it, the song needed a special name. A special song for a special girl.

I hummed to her for a little while longer, and she snuggled her head into my chest and fell asleep standing up. I carried her back to the shaded trees and laid her down on her stomach so that she wouldn't suffocate on her own vomit if she started throwing up.

I watched her sleep for a long time, thinking about how in the hell we would mesh our lives together when this was over. I was determined to make it work, but what about Bella? Things were so up in the air. I hoped she was willing to give our relationship a real try once we returned. My family was in for a big surprise when I got home.

I smiled as I thought of how Emmett's face would look when he realized I had a…girlfriend? I guessed that's what I would call her, but it seemed like such a petty way to describe Bella. Maybe soul mate was more appropriate.

Look at you, thinking about soul mates, an inner voice said, You surely weren't thinking about anyone that way two weeks ago, or the last twenty-four years before that. I chuckled. Only Bella could turn me soft and caring in ten days. Only Bella could make me fall in love.

"Edward," she murmured. Her face looked stressed, and I was sure she must have been feeling the after effects of the wine by now. I spooned beside her sleeping body and rubbed her back.

"Shhh, silly girl. You shouldn't have drank so much," I said. She still seemed tense, so I started to hum Bella's lullaby again, hoping it would calm her. "You will be the death of me, I swear." She smiled lightly, and my heart felt like it could burst with emotion.


All pictures are taken from either Google or Deviantart.