As always, a huge thank you to my beta and muse, Mr. Bigg. Thank you for listening and believing in the words. Your proofing and practicing of the chapter details are always inspirational.

All characters are the property of Stephenie Meyer. No disrespect or copyright infringement is intended.

Epilogue: Drive

As I drove down the Olympic Peninsula, I hummed a tune that had wrapped itself around my thoughts. It was a song of Bella, her scent, her heart, her skin. I felt warmth spread through my crotch as I relived our brief and illicit honeymoon, my length growing with each remembered caress. The memory of her tongue, pink, hot and soft, drove my erection into the steering wheel.

I had been lost in my thoughts of our lives together, daydreaming about the each new day with Bella. She seemed to be similarly lost, gazing out the window, a gentle smile playing about the corners of her mouth and an unprovoked rosy blush painting her cheeks at odd intervals. Though I'd always wished to read her thoughts, I was at peace understanding the source of the blushes from our honeymoon night. It was good, comfortable, enchanting; it gave rise to my daydreams, prurient and otherwise.

It was more embarrassing than I'd imagined it would be, my uncontrollable hard on. Each time I tried to think of some other subject to suppress my desire, each thread seemed to lead me back to her tender flesh and the taste of it that now teased my need.

I didn't see her gaze shift back to me.

"A penny for your thoughts?" She watched my face, her eyes searching my expression for clues as she did so often.

"Oh, I was just daydreaming."

"About?"

"My wife, of course." I reached over and ran my forefinger along her jaw. She shivered, sending an electrical impulse to my cock once more. I shifted back into my seat, trying to lean over the steering wheel a bit to hide my erection.

"Yeah, I was thinking about our marriage, too," she said, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. "What are we going to tell Charlie?"

I felt the confusion knit my brow. "Bella, I thought the point of the exercise was to keep it from Charlie." A tiny shrug rolled off her shoulders, her eyes pulling her gaze through the front windshield.

"Well, I guess I'm not as opposed to marriage as I thought I was," she said softy. "I mean, this sleeping together without guilt, um, I kind of like that."

She had my full attention. I gazed at her with hope, fear, and disbelief. "Really?"

"Yes, really, and could you please keep your eyes on the road!"

"You know I've been driving for ninety years and never had an accident," I said in my gentlest voice as I turned my eyes back to the road ahead to ease her worry.. "And you really can't drop a thought like that and not expect me to react."

"I know," she said, pulling her lip between her teeth again. "It's just that, well, for me, anyway, the sex was…"

Her voice trailed off, and the petal blush brushed against her cheeks again. I waited a moment, anxiety seizing my nerves, unrest growing in my chest. She appeared to be lost in thought once again. "My darling wife, would you mind terribly finishing that thought before I go completely insane?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry," she apologized quickly. "The sex. Right. It was… good?"

"Good?" Again, dread seized my breast. I tried to keep the disappointment and worry from my voice, but truly, good was all she could muster?

"Well, okay, great. The sex was amazing. I didn't realize it would feel that good. Remember, I don't have any frame of reference."

"Nor do I, Bella. We were both virgins." The memory of taking her maidenhood did nothing to calm my straining erection.

"I know, but you've heard what others think, right?"

"Yes, but that's a great deal different than first-hand knowledge."

"Still," she continued. I didn't understand where this was going. "Since you've heard what others think, how did this, um… compare? Is it like that for everyone?"

I struggled with the thought for a moment. On one hand, it didn't seem gentlemanly to divulge the all the years of inadvertent eavesdropping I'd had, but this was my love, my mate, my partner, who needed to know how she measured up. "That's a difficult question to answer, since I can't read your mind. From what I've heard, there are different levels of pleasure, but none seemed to reach the level I felt with you." I picked up her hand and held it in mine. "For a long time, I thought people were exaggerating after the fact, romanticizing their lovemaking and their partners abilities." I cut a glance to her face; she was attentive and curious. "What I experienced with you was deeper and more exciting than any thought I'd ever heard before."

"Really? Was it that good?"

I leveled my gaze at her. "Bella, it was astounding. You are astounding. It blew my mind."

Bella smiled with self-satisfaction. "Your mind isn't all I blew." She flushed crimson.

"No, it wasn't, love," I whispered. I felt my gaze darken as my cock forced its way above my waistband. At this point, there was no longer any sense in trying to hide it. "The softness of your lips, your wet tongue… It was beyond description. I can barely believe I wasn't dreaming, living out some fantasy."

Bella smiled. "Really?"

"Yes, Bella, really." Suddenly, the anxiety I'd felt earlier returned, stronger, more needful. I kept my gaze straight ahead, trying to keep the unease from my expression. There was a feeling of unraveling, loosing and flaying my nerves. I wanted her. I watched the road ahead, green from side to side, blue above, and all of it, all of it, meaningless. The need to possess her, to take her, was painful, a saw slicing me open, so that I was raw, ready, wild. I wanted her too much, and this new excess kindled the fear that my desire would harm her, break her, kill her. It was not a love day; it was not simply need and want. I was unsure what it was.

I rolled my clenched hands against the leather-wrapped steering wheel, just enough to make it squeal in response.

Bella released her seat belt and turned to me with mock surprise. "Why, Edward Cullen, is that your cock sticking out of your pants I see?" She looked up through her lashes, coy and coquettish, with a naughty half-grin unseen before today playing on her lips. A low growl rolled up my body from that same needful spot, bubbling through my parted lips. The stress and unease I felt from the fact that she was not strapped in was burned away the wildness I felt inside, responding to the taunt of her playful sexuality, every nerve and fiber in my body strung tight with excitement.

"Your seat belt…" was all I could manage to croak out in a voice almost unrecognizable to myself. Her heartbeat skipped, and she bent to my lap, her fingers tugging at the button of my pants.

"I trust you," she said, smiling seductively. "Try to keep your eyes on the road."

I felt abraded and sensitive, afire with her provocation. She shouldn't tempt me, challenging my self restraint; my control was in short supply, and I wanted nothing more than to pull to the side of the road and plow recklessly into her hot, soft folds. I steeled myself, focused on the road, the road, the grey asphalt, coarse and consuming, like the fires consuming me.

I could stand it no longer; I had to have her. I broke my focus away from the unending black road just as her hot mouth descended over the head of my cock. A sharp intake of breath slid between my clenched teeth. She moved slowly down my length, teasing, tormenting me, and I wanted more. I needed more. "Bella." There was nothing more to say, nothing that could compare with her. Each stroke of her soft tongue down my throbbing member burned against my skin, blistering my aching shaft.

She lifted her head, looking up at me as she stroked my shaft. "Edward, talk to me. Tell me how it felt for you. Tell me while I suck your cock." Her lips were slightly swollen and smiling, and she seemed to me to be the very essence of raw sexuality.

I took a deep breath to calm myself. Words would not come easily in my current state. I returned my gaze to the outstretched highway before me. "Bella, I have walked in darkness, alone and apart, the night sky having no sway over me. I've witnessed life and death, birth and separation, beauty and joy, and nothing, nothing prepared me for the passion and need I felt for you on our wedding night," I said, my voice rasping in jagged breaths. She hummed as she descended over my rigid flesh again. "Your body called to mine, your need was mine, heightening every need for release I'd ever felt. I couldn't stop myself from taking you. The idea that I could not be inside you caused me pain." My breath was labored and rough.

Bella ran her teeth down my cock, and a fleeting, momentary fantasy flashed across my mind, her teeth chipping on the marble of my skin. The moment passed as she slowly dragged them up, then nibbled playfully on the head. I knew my flesh was unyielding, but the sensation was not. Each stroke, each nip, each suck sent wild desire down my legs, and I struggled against the need to push deeper into her. She pulled her head up, gasping for air and whispered, "More."

"Bella, I don't know if I can…" I had to swallow my words as she plunged down my shaft, then swirled her tongue in a spiral as she pulled back up, only to plunge down my length again. "Your scent has mesmerized me from the beginning, and your skin slides deliciously against mine. I am enthralled, rapt, possessed – all by you my love. All by –" I lost the ability to speak as she rubbed the head of my burning cock with the flat of her tongue.

My hands gripped the wheel tighter, and I felt the leather give way, every ounce of concentration fighting the need to pump, to come, to claim her with passion and violence. Images flitted through my head of ravaging her, taking what I needed without regard for the frailty of her human form. I shook my head and inhaled sharply though my teeth, trying to regain control, remember who I was, remember that this was my beloved, my soul mate…

I needed a diversion. I could not tell my loving wife what was happening without causing her emotional pain, but if I could not control myself, her physical pain was certain. I forced my gaze out the windshield, my eyes unseeing as I focused my will on prolonging the moment without hurting her. I willed my thoughts away from the car, into the woods, to the road ahead. The trees and bright sky shifted into a red tinge as I held on, Bella's head now pumping and slurping with purpose. Each movement of her tongue, the rub of the inside of her cheek, the trickle of saliva oozing down my length into my pubic hair, it all melted into a world of sexual ecstasy and demand I could barely contain. The road before me became the world of restraint, and a crimson curtain descended over my view. My nerves were blazing, my need consuming. "Bella, I'm, I'm going, I'm going to –"

I felt my orgasm shoot ferociously through my cock and into Bella's eager mouth. She sucked on, swallowing and gulping my release. My member hit the back of her throat, firing fully and copiously. I stopped breathing, clutching the wheel, unable to move lest I disturb the perfection of the cum, or damage her in the lust for more.

Her movements stilled as I came, until at last, she pulled away. The shock was immediate and overwhelming; violence ran through my limbs as the red cloud began to pulse and deepen. I closed my eyes for a moment, willing myself away from whatever transcendent heaven where I had been transported, back to earth, back to the car, back to reality. I opened my eyes, and watched the world regain its normal character and color.

Bella sat up silently, watching my face as I calmed myself. I moved slowly, unbreathing, adjusting myself and buttoning my pants. The red film slowly faded, and my senses returned. As the world bled back to me, I looked at my willing bride. She seemed smaller, more withdrawn and human than she had ever seemed before. Clearly, she was unaware of the fading frenzy that had seized me. As my eyes met hers, she smiled coyly and dropped her gaze. She pulled the seat belt over her shoulder and fastened it with a quiet click.

"Are you alright?" Abruptly, the care and concern that had colored my feelings for her returned, alive and anxious, waiting, needing her to be safe.

"Are you?" She still looked at her lap, but her expression was smooth.

"Bella?" I reached over to bring her face into full view. As my hand released the wheel, the leather wrapping on the steering wheel flapped, uncoiling and peeling away. Her chin was warm, soft, so Bella. I lifted her face cautiously. Her eyes rolled to mine, carrying a weight that had not been there before. "What is it, love?"

"You just seemed… I don't know," she whispered, her eyes searching mine as she spoke. "For a moment, I…"

"What, Bella? Please tell me. This is torture."

"Edward, where did you go? You were there, and I thought you liked what I was doing…"

"My God, Bella, like? It was beyond my wildest fantasies –"

Her words stopped me. "I felt that. I did. But, I-, I don't know how to describe it. It was like there was someone else here, as if you were here, but not here, too."

"I was here, my love," I whispered, softly stroking her cheek in reassurance, trying to hide the knowledge of the violence that had gripped me. "Everything's all right, everything was perfect. You are perfect."

I pulled her closer, and she scooted toward me, resting her head on my shoulder. "I love you, Edward."

"I love you more," I said, and bent to kiss her hair, still holding her. I resolved in that moment that she would not share my unrest. She took a deep breath, and we drove on, quietly, content in each other's company, until she drifted off to sleep.

I pressed my foot to the floor, and the Volvo shot out down the open highway. I needed to get home and talk to Carlisle. Something wasn't right.

A/N: And so Blue Edward makes way for… *drumroll* Crimson Edward! Please review and stay tuned in the new story, Crimson Edward!