All characters are owned by Stephanie Meyer.
I’m just borrowing them.
Alice returns to Bella's room after hunting, to talk about what happened before she left.
Takes place during the summer at the beginning of “New Moon”.
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Alice stood by the side of Bella’s bed, watching her as she slept. She had no memories of sleep having no memories of her human life, and now, as vampire, she was incapable of it, which was probably why sleeping humans had always fascinated her so much. She hadn’t had much opportunity to observe humans in slumber, but she did know enough to know that Bella shifting restlessly, muttering into her pillow and frowning meant that her sleep was troubled.
Alice sighed deeply and wondered if she was the cause of Bella’s restlessness, if Bella’s dreams were filled with images of her, teeth glinting, eyes as black as coal, as she gleefully ripped her throat out.
Alice looked away from Bella’s sleeping body.
She shouldn’t have come back to Bella’s room, she knew this now. But as she had fled from the younger woman earlier, the question Bella asked her had reached her ears (even though she had disappeared from sight), and she felt she owed it to Bella to return and talk to her about what had happened between them, if that’s what Bella wished.
Now that she was back in the room however, returning seemed like a spectacularly bad idea because all she wanted to do was to go to Bella, to hold her as she had while they were in Phoenix. Her instinct was to wrap Bella up in her arms and hold her tightly, kissing her cheek softly as she had done so many times before. But her instincts were not to be trusted. Her instincts had almost caused her to make a mistake so grave that just the thought of it would have brought tears to her eyes if she was capable of it. When it came to Bella, her instincts were bad.
She should go. She should leave. Bella wasn’t even her fruit to be tempted by. One Cullen struggling against her powerful allure was enough for any human to deal with, more than enough really. Bella didn’t need her obsessing over her as well as Edward.
She knew that she should go. She knew that she should leave. But she continued to watch.
“Alice?” Bella questioned a few minutes later. Her voice was groggy with sleep and her eyes were unfocused as she stared at the small, blurry figure beside her bed.
“It’s me,” Alice said softly, instinctively moving to sit on the edge of the bed.
“I’m glad you came back,” Bella said, struggling to clear the haze that was clouding her mind. “I was worried you wouldn’t,” she said sitting up. “Thank you for coming back,” she went on, placing a warm hand on Alice’s shoulder.
“I don’t know if you should thank me for that,” Alice said, looking down at her lap. “It’s probably the worst thing I could have done.”
“Don’t say that,” Bella whispered, her voice pained. “Please, don’t say that.”
“But it’s true,” Alice insisted, sounding utterly and completely ashamed of herself. “I’m a menace. I had no business coming back here,” Alice continued, her voice pained. “I nearly bit you, Bella,” she finished, her voice now no more than a whisper.
“But you didn’t,” Bella said, moving closer to Alice until she was sitting behind her. “You didn’t,” she repeated softly, tentatively wrapping her arm around Alice’s waist, hugging her from behind. “It’s okay.”
“You’re far too understanding, Bella,” Alice sighed, relaxing back into Bella’s embrace.
“No,” Bella disagreed, “I just know you,” she continued, resting her chin on Alice’s shoulder.
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Alice responded softly, her tone sad and morose. “I don’t seem to have much control around you.”
When she had climbed through Bella’s window for the second time that night, she had told herself that she would stay at least a meter away from Bella at all times. But, the moment she had heard her voice she had moved closer, and now she was lounging in Bella’s arms, Bella’s scent and warmth all around her.
“What?” Bella exclaimed sounding absolutely flabbergasted. “The only person with more control than you is Carlisle. From the moment we were introduced you’ve been able to be near me. It even took Edward longer than that, it took him a month before he could stand to sit beside me without shaking with hunger,” Bella continued, her voice thick with emotion. “You’re amazing.”
Alice sighed again. She felt like all she was doing was sighing.
“Bella, it’s … I have to tell you, it’s getting harder for me to be around you,” Alice admitted, her head hanging down as she spoke. “The more time we spend together, the harder it gets.”
“I don’t understand,” Bella said softly, a hint of a whine in her tone. It would have charmed Alice at any other time, but Alice was trying very, very hard not to be charmed by Bella at the moment. “It’s supposed to get easier with time, isn’t it? Edward says it’s easier now. And time is how Carlisle was able to become a doctor. How can it be harder now that you’re used to me?”
“Because,” Alice said, “I … I feel so much more for you now than I did at the beginning. I always liked you. I liked you from the moment I saw you,” she said smiling turning her head a little to the side so that she could see Bella’s face. “And in Phoenix I knew that we would be great friends, and that I would forever be grateful to Edward for bringing you to us,” she continued. “But I’ve come to care about you, so much more than I thought I would.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Bella asked pressing her cheek against Alice’s, scared at the direction the conversation was heading.
“Not when it makes me want to bite you,” Alice said, her body going absolutely still for a moment before she moved out of the circle of Bella’s arms and stood up.
She started to pace.
“But, you all want to bite me,” Bella said somewhat exasperated. “Well, not so much Carlisle, but still. I mean, you’ve always kind of wanted to bite me, right? I just don’t understand why it’s so hard for you to resist now.”
Alice shivered and looked out the window. She had hoped that Bella would catch her drift. That what had happened between them before she fled earlier on would have given Bella an indication of what the problem was. She didn’t want to say it out loud, but she realized that she would have to.
“Arousal.”
Bella blinked.
“What?”
“Arousal,” Alice whispered once more, forcing herself to meet Bella’s eyes this time. “I don’t just want to bite you,” she continued. “I knew I shouldn’t have started wrestling with you, or tickling you, but I just had to touch you. And then, you were lying beneath me, sweating, and your heart was pounding, and blood was crashing through your veins and I knew I should flee, but I just couldn’t,” Alice went on. “I wanted to bite you Bella, but I wanted to kiss you too,” she said, the memory of her tongue licking Bella’s throat causing her to turn her head away, in order to calm herself down. “I wanted you naked, and sweating, twisting underneath me, wet and desperate as your blood flowed into my mouth.”
Bella sat on her bed and stared at Alice, her mouth agape.
“Alice!” She finally whispered. Her voice was almost inaudible, and she thought that she sounded scandalized and vaguely horrified, but she didn’t think that she was actually any of those things.
It was true that Alice’s words surprised her; the rawness of them, the eroticism of them, took her by surprise. She had never heard anything like that directed at her before (in fact, she’d never heard anything like that directed at anyone before). Edward had certainly never said anything remotely like that to her, and she had a hard time fathoming him ever doing so. The truth was that she sometimes felt like an oversexed manic for touching his chest or tangling her fingers in his hair when they kissed. So, to have Alice admit to thinking about her naked … and sweating … and wet, was almost overwhelming.
Bella shivered. If Alice wanted her wet, she’d be very pleased with what was going on her pants at that moment.
“I know!” Alice said, dropping her head into her hands. “I’m horrible,” she continued, her voice nothing but a pained moan. “I’ll leave. I won’t come around again. I just wanted to explain,” she continued, speaking quickly now, her eyes darting to look at the window again. “I just wanted you to know that you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Neither did you!” Bella called out, her voice and her words stopping Alice as she prepared to climb out of her window.
“What?” Alice asked sounding a little dazed as she turned to face Bella once more though she remained close to the window.
“You … you didn’t do anything wrong either, Alice,” Bella said softly. “You’re just … I think you just may be more honest.”
“Honest?” Alice asked sounding genuinely perplexed.
“I let you,” Bella whispered, her eyes focused intently on Alice. “I saw your eyes, I knew that it was dangerous, but I wanted you to keep touching me. And when you … when you were licking my neck,” Bella continued blushing, “I knew I should have said something, that I should have tried to stop you, but I just tilted my head back and made it easier for you,” she went on, licking her lips. “And just now … what you said, I mean what you said you wanted to do, it …” Bella looked down at her lap and unconsciously shifted her legs. “It made me,” Bella said, blushing even more severely than before. She wasn’t sure she would be able to get the words out of her mouth. It was so embarrassing. “It made me really … hot,” she said, the last word barely a whisper though she knew Alice’s superhuman ears would pick it up.
Alice didn’t say anything right away, so Bella looked up and over at her again, only to find her shaking like she had been before she went hunting. Alice’s eyes were their usual honey colour however, so Bella wasn’t worried that she was tempting Alice’s resolve again. No, she was worried by Alice’s silence and was about to open her mouth to inquire if Alice planned on saying anything, when she suddenly Alice was beside her on the bed.
“This is such a monumentally bad idea,” Alice breathed out, her head angling towards Bella, breathing in.
“Such a ‘monumentally bad idea’ that, it just might work?” Bella asked breathlessly, her lips curving up into a smile and her body relaxing when Alice began to chuckle.
“You’re so weird,” Alice murmured, affection suffusing her every word.
“Weirdly wonderful,” Bella responded, smiling as she unconsciously leaned back against her mattress as Alice’s body moved closer to towards hers.
“Is this going to be your new thing?” Alice asked curiously, a touch of amusement in her voice through her eyes were busy tracing the contours of Bella’s face, her expression studious as if she were trying to etch every detail of Bella’s face into her memory.
“Maybe,” Bella said, softly now, her voice light though she her heart was starting to race beneath her breast. “If you still think that it’s cute.”
“I do,” Alice said quietly, her lips curving up into a tender smile.
And then, a moment later, Bella gasped as Alice’s cool lips pressed against her own.
Bella moaned and instinctively curled her body towards Alice’s, her hands moving to encircle the vampire’s waist, holding Alice tightly to her as they continued to kiss. Alice growled softly against Bella’s lips, and her tongue peaked out, begging entrance into Bella’s mouth. Bella clutched at Alice, and parted her lips, eagerly accepting the raven-haired beauties tongue, her hand running up and down Alice’s back – and in a bold move over her ass – as Alice deepened the kiss.
“Mm … no,” Bella moaned when Alice pulled away from her, reaching out for Alice’s retreating form as soon as she registered that Alice’s form was retreating, but she came up empty.
“Edward’s right, you have absolutely no sense of self-preservation,” Alice murmured staring down at Bella with dark, hungry eyes. All she wanted to do was get back on the bed and place her hands and lips back on Bella, but for possibly the first time that evening she was in control of her actions instead of her hormones running the show, and she resisted the temptation.
Bella flopped back against the mattress, looking at Alice closely. As much as she would have liked to continue, looking at Alice she could see that the vampire was correct and that it would be a bad idea to test her self-control any more that night. Alice looked absolutely ravenous, and if they indulged in each other lips any longer, kissing Alice might have been the last thing she ever did.
“No snuggles, either?” Bella asked, just barely suppressing the urge to pout.
During her convalescence, Alice had spent quite a few nights in her bed watching over her, and even afterwards they had had sleepovers on a few occasions when Edward was forced to be away from her.
Edward.
Edward.
Bella’s face fell.
Oh god, Edward.
She had just … with Alice … with his sister … she had … Bella squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
Alice noticed the panic that began to enter Bella’s eyes and when Bella squeezed her eyes shut, she knew exactly what the cause was. Bella was remembering that there were more obstacles between them being together then Bella’s scent and Alice’s hunger.
“No snuggles,” Alice sighed, drawing Bella’s attention over to her. “I should go,” she continued taking a deep, fortifying breath. “You need to think. We both do,” she added, her thoughts turning to Jasper and the myriad of complications that her evening with Bella had just created. “I just had to kiss you, at least once,” she finished softly.
“I’m glad you did,” Bella responded, meaning it even as anxiety and worry began to crash over her.
Alice smiled sadly.
“We’ll see how you feel about that in the morning,” Alice murmured, taking one last longing look at Bella. “Goodnight.”
“Good,” Bella whispered, knowing even as she started speaking that Alice would be gone before she completed the word, “night.”
To be continued …
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