"Stop," Bella whined, shutting her eyes tight and wincing. "It hurts too much.''

"Shhh," Edward ran his cool hands over Bella's skin. Bella groaned.

"Will you allow me to rub aloe on your back?" Edward asked.

"Well, considering I know you won't take no for an answer, I guess the answer is yes," Bella grumbled.

She sighed as she felt the cool gel touch the flaming red skin of her back.

'I'm such an idiot.' She thought. 'I should have listened to Edward when he warned me about getting sunburned, even when it's not completely sunny.'

Well, she was paying for it now. Having fallen asleep on the beach earlier that day, she awoke to discover the entire back of her body red and immensely tender.

"You know Bella," Edward inquired, rubbing the soothing aloe on Bella's back, "you need to be more careful about your body. I let you venture to the beach alone, on the sole condition that you would take care of yourself…"

"Edward, you sound like Charlie." Bella interrupted, the sound of her voice muffled by her face buried in the pillow.

Edward chuckled. "Thank goodness I'm not your father, or else we'd be in a completely different situation here."

"Yeah, I guess so," Bella sighed, turning over after Edward was finished applying the gel.

After a few attempts to stand up, and a couple chuckles from Edward, Bella ventured into the bathroom for her "human moment". After brushing her teeth and hair, and changing into pajama shorts and a t-shirt very carefully, she padded back into her bedroom.

"Time for the human to sleep," Edward smiled, pulling back the quilted covers to Bella's bed.

"But I'm not even tired," She grumbled in response before crawling into bed and sighing as her head hit the cool pillow.

Edward lay down behind her, and began gently rubbing his hand in a soothing motion over Bella's sunburned arm.

"That feels so good," Bella noted, her eyes still closed. The coolness of his stone hand felt heaven-sent on the inflamed skin of her arm. "Too bad you can't do that to my entire back."

Edward was quiet for a moment. Breaking the silence, he said, "Bella, if you promise to remain still and not do anything irrational, then I'll try something."

"Um, okay," Bella said, her eyes opening in question. She waited for further instructions from Edward.

A minute later, her eyes opened wide when she realized that Edward was taking his shirt of slowly, being careful to not rub against Bella's sunburnt back.

"Now, take off your shirt slowly, But keep your back to me." Edward instructed.

Bella obliged without concern, struggling a little with removing the article of clothing while in the horizontal position.

Once the shirt was off and had been tossed to the floor, Edward spoke again.

"Now, I'm going to press myself against your back. Don't move. Remember, I'm trying not to lose control, and with you laying in front of me without a shirt on is really trying my senses."

"Okay," Bella answered simply.

Then, carefully, Edward moved closer so the bare skin of his cool chest rested softly against the bare skin of her back, soothing the tenderness.

Bella sighed, and Edward buried his face in Bella's hair in response.

"That feels so good," Bella repeated.

"If you think it feels good for you, then you can't even being to fathom how this makes me feel," Edward whispered.

"I think I could make you feel even better, if only I could turn around," Bella mumbled, already beginning to immerse herself in the sea of sleep.

Edward chuckled.

"Sleep, silly Bella."

Looks like I'll have to get sunburnt more often, Bella thought with a smirk, before falling into a soothing and dreamless sleep.