Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or its sequel New Moon; I just like playing god with the characters. XD

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Bella stretched out across her bed, languidly allowing her foot to rise and fall, making it thump against the bed on the down-stroke. She was trying to make her time under house arrest pass more quickly by studying calculus, but math only holds interest for so long – soon her 4s were monopods come to invade the 3s in the land of cosine. The 2s in sine were peaceful enough, but a 7 living amongst them in exile decided to fight back for his fellow odd numbers, disguising himself as a 4 to win back his lost love… whom he LEFT to protect her. She snorted. Stupid, self-righteous types.

Bella glanced at the clock. 6:20. She sighed and pressed her face into the pillow to scream and whimper with annoyance that time couldn't be sped up. Since the motorcycle incident, her demon of a father hadn't allowed Edward inside. He was allowed to be chauffeur since the keys to her truck were locked away in a dark, lonely place where she couldn't get them, but past the daily rides and time at school she had been banned from having any contact – human or otherwise – outside of short phone calls.

"I wish Edward was here… AAHHH!" Bella spun in surprise at the light, cool contact of fingertips under her shirt and fell to the floor, gracefully landing flat on her butt. Her unearthly beautiful lover fell over onto his side, shaking and clutching his sides with the strain of trying to keep his laughter silent. Bella flopped back onto the floor and let out a wheezy sigh of exasperation and relief that it was only Edward. "I hate you."

"Oh, Emmett would be rolling on the ground if he could have seen that," he chuckled without remorse. " Oh, God. Aha! Bella, dear, you are too cute." She tried to glare at the perfect smile gracing his already-radiant face and knew she had not managed to infuse the look with enough anger. He stood, containing his amusement as best he could and gracefully lowered himself to her side. She shut her eyes and tried to block him out so her heart would slow its frantic pace. She felt him press against her and kiss her cheek lightly in apology.

"Whatever. You suck," was all she could manage, sounding more like a petulant child than a grown teenager as she rolled onto her side, refusing to look at him. That's right. Feel the wrath of my rapier wit.

"Please don't be angry. I never meant to startle you," Edward claimed as he reached across her to twine their fingers together. He nuzzled her ear and whispered softly, "Won't you forgive me?" Bella opened one eye to cast what was meant to be a glare over her shoulder at him.

"Oh, come now. Don't be angry with me because you weren't paying attention. You said you wished I was here and I had no choice but to obey." He kissed her fingertips with a sultry glance up at her through his eyelashes. She looked away, already feeling the blush spread across her face. "I came early, doesn't that make you happy?"

Bella shifted onto her back, caught by his ocher eyes, obviously displaying the answer to his question the way she looked longingly at him. He smiled his crooked smile that was her favorite and leaned down to press his lips to hers, sliding an arm around her hips as he shifted his body lower, so when they broke he could lay his ear to her slowly-calming heart. It picked up its former sprint when he snuggled close, accidentally grazing her falling breast. He pretended not to notice the cause of the spike and "innocently" nuzzled against her chest, letting his nose graze the outer rim of her nearly visible peak. She inhaled sharply, but quietly at the contact, thinking Edward was unaware of how close he was coming to breaking his own physical boundary rules. But he quieted with a small smile, breathing deep to take in her lovely scent. Her momentary anger past, she ran her fingers through his coppery hair, glad to be so close to the man she loved.

After a while, she shivered a bit, chilled by the prolonged contact with his icy, marble-like skin even through their clothes. He immediately sat up and apologized, but Bella shook her head and placed her hands on his neck and cheek, meaning for him to come back down to her. Edward flashed a grin and easily lifted her back onto the bed. He was halfway through pulling the covers over her when a slight frown creased his otherwise smooth forehead.

"Charlie's home, correct?" he asked, looking past her, concentrating.

"Yeah… he should be. What's wrong?"

"I don't hear anything." He gave her a meaningful look, all light gone from his darkening eyes. She slowly sat up and stared at her lover in dawning comprehension. He couldn't hear Charlie's thoughts either. Bella jumped to her feet and ran to her bedroom door, flinging it open and starting right into a pale, rock-hard body. She fell back with a surprised yell, but Edward was there to catch her, calmly staring at his adopted sister as he restored his human girl to her feet. "What did you see, Alice?" he asked solemnly

She gave a little half-smile and stared into his eyes. His frown deepened and he quickly turned to Bella.

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course," she responded at once. "What's going on? Where's –" he silenced her with a kiss and scooped her up into his arms.

"Just trust me." And he leapt out her window with Alice quick on his heels.

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I know I know, it's been way too long. But I ran out of books to read and I'm almost done with the college semester, so I'll have plenty of time to write over the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. I'll be updating more frequently with the exception of exams week, and hopefully I'll have the patience to run this story for a bit more than 3 or 4 chapters. Thanks for stickin with me!

firedroplett