Just A Kiss Chapter 9

“You’re finally home,” Rose snickers as I enter the door in my so, so dreamy post Edward haze.

“Brown chicken brown cow!”

Sigh.  Emmett.

“Why are you here?” I grumble.

“What do you mean?  Why wouldn’t I be here?”

“Because you have an apartment.  So, again…why are you here?”

“Because he loves me.  Can’t live without me.  And I really wanted to be here when you got home,” Rosalie explains.

Why did I introduce them again?  Oh, yeah…’cause I’m trying to earn more feathers for my angel wings.

“You mean because he needs some gossip to take back to Tex-ass,” I state.  That shit’s fact and you know it.

“Come oooonnn,” Emmett begs.  “I’ve been waiting on this for weeks.  Give it up…or wait…did you already do that?  Wait, no!  Don’t tell me if you did.  That’s just…no.” 

Buzz already killed, tingling that lingers in my fingertips notwithstanding.

I flop across my bed and groan.  I suppose I should tell them…a little bit anyway.  They obviously helped.

“No, idiot, I did not give it up.  What do you take me for?  We just…had pizza and talked and then he walked me back to the dorm.  It was…really nice.  Better than nice.  He’s just…”

“It?” Rose interrupts.

I loll my head in her direction and there I see the softer side of Rosalie looking back at me.  As much as I love it when she sets me straight, I love her sympathetic side just as much.  She’s hard and soft, bitter and sweet and truly my best friend.  She nods and raises her eyebrows, knowing what I know and just daring me to acknowledge it, too.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“That’s it?  He’s ‘it’?  You gotta give me more than that, Bells.”

I kick my shoes off and roll over, cuddling my pillow to my chest, trying not to let his need for details chase away my serious case of the happys.

“That’s enough, Em.  Go home.  It’s getting late anyway,” Rose says, pulling him up off of her bed and pushing him towards the door.

“Babe…you’re kicking me out?  What happened to…”

“Later.  Now go.  Love you.”  She kisses him; short and sweet, sure and familiar. 

I want that.

“Love you,” he mumbles against her lips.  Then he leans down, growls and playfully bites her neck, making her giggle before he trots off down the hall.

That’s why I put up with him.  He’s like a damn teddy bear.  One that’s been with me through everything.

The bed dips behind me and Rosalie snuggles in like only best girlfriends or sisters can do.

“You really like him, don’t you?  Not just a lust-crush anymore?”

My grin is automatic and too wide to contain.

“Yes.”

~*~

“Hey.”

“Oh, shit!” 

“Shhhhh!”

I clasp my hands over my mouth and squeeze my eyes shut, dying from a mixture of fright and embarrassment.  Slowly I open one, then the other to see a very amused Edward propped on one arm, leaning on the desk in front of me.

Cutie McSmirkerson…in the flesh.  In a grey Under Armour shirt.  Mercy.

“Sorry,” he mouths, just like he does every day, except this time I can see that he’s obviously not.

“Hey,” I peer over the desk, looking at his non-cleated feet.  No wonder I didn’t hear him.  “New kicks?”

“No.  But I have your attention, now.”

Lip.  Bite.  His and mine. 

“Talking would have worked, too.”

“We’re talking now.”

“So we are.”

We can’t stop grinning.  I’m leaning on the desk, inching closer to him by the second, like I’m a fish and he’s just reeling me in.

“You know…you didn’t give me your number before you left last night.”

“You didn’t ask.”  I could play this cat and mouse game forever.  It’s a little thrilling to be honest, him coming after me.

“What if I want to talk to you more than the few minutes we have in here?”

“Do you?” 

“You know,” he levels, leaning in closer. 

God, he smells like sunshine and good and boy.

“Give it,” he demands, laying his palm out and curling his fingers.

I’m a whore for him.  That’s what I know.

I hand over my cell phone, allowing him to program his number in and then he dials it, giving him mine.

“Now I can get a hold of you whenever I want.”

Oh, panties…would that I could change your wet selves.

I shake my head at his flirtiness.  He wins.

~*~

Moments later I feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket.

Edward’s name appears on my screen after I unlock it, with a message so simple and honest it makes my heart race.

B~Just so you know, I’m still thinking of you.~E

Finally I know what Rosalie must feel like, because now, I have the giggles.  I peek over the top of my phone, looking towards his usual chair.  He winks and kills me a little bit as he does.

I decide to be a big girl and make a move of my own.

E~Me, too.  How about dinner again tonight?~B

I watch his eyebrows raise as he reads my text, showing every bit of his surprise at my newfound boldness.  But again, with two simple words…he wins.

B~Every night.~E