Thank you to EliseShaw for the beta :)

Something New

Chapter 1 - Sunkisssed Ideas

If there was one human sensation I regularly missed since becoming a vampire, it was the simple feeling of the sun's rays warming my skin. I'd spent countless hours trying to recreate the same feeling in my new body decades ago, before giving up; in the grand scheme of things, it didn't play a vital role in my wellbeing anymore anyway. Though we vampires were required to avoid the sun or else run the risk of exposure to humans, I'd cultivated a habit of sitting out on bright clear days such as this whilst in the privacy of our home. My family found this little quirk of mine rather bemusing, though Emmett had been the only one to openly tease me about it in all our years as a family; they all knew if I wasn't painting or sketching, they'd find me out on the private balcony that branched off from the bedroom Carlisle and I shared, allowing the warm light to pick out the diamonds of my skin.

On this particular occasion, I lay on one of the pair of oversized loungers, alternating between closing my eyes in an effort to conjure up phantom feelings of the bright sunlight warming my face, and studying the sway of the tall evergreens that surrounded our home on three sides. I readjusted the thin white wire trailing from the buds in each ear to the tiny blue iPod lying flat on the table beside me. I considered picking up the discarded novel I'd set down next to the little gadget some time ago, before deciding against it, instead sitting back and closing my eyes once more.

During a conversation earlier in the day, I'd happened to mention in passing to Jasper that I missed the sound of piano music playing in the house since Edward didn't live with us anymore. My compassionate son had promptly shot a careless grin my way, his hand immediately going to his back jean pocket and producing the little blue object now occupying the table beside me. Though I'd had Emmett insist on giving me a very long lesson in how to play a games console a few years ago, I'd never had enough interest in listening to music in solitude to warrant asking one of my children how these music players worked. Jasper had kindly explained and shown me the entire music library we had available on his laptop, allowing me to choose the selection I was currently listening to.

So far away was I in my own head, I almost missed the movement beyond the glass doors behind me, causing me to turn to the antique French doors separating the bedroom from the balcony. I felt a smile automatically tug at my lips at the sight of my unnaturally beautiful husband; arms folded, shoulder propped up against the vacant doorframe and staring at me with a spark of tender fondness in his topaz eyes.

Pulling the ear buds from my ears in a single motion, cutting off a violin piece mid-bar, I smiled and held out a hand in his direction, wondering how much time I must have spent out here if Carlisle was home already. "Hello, my love."

Taking my hand in his larger one, Carlisle leant over me to settle his lips over mine in a lazy, gentle kiss. "I should have guessed you'd be out here in this weather."

I smiled again at his affectionate teasing, watching my husband turn to pick up the music player and peer at the screen, presumably curious what I had been listening to. "Jasper introduced me to the world of electronic music this morning." I explained.

Whilst keeping that amused little lilt to his perfect lips, Carlisle turned back to me, allowing me a moment or two to study the play of the early evening light on his golden hair. Then he was rounding my lounger, gracefully moving to lie down next to me. Curling one arm beneath my shoulders and placing the other over my waist, I let out a giggle as his nose nuzzled the sensitive skin below my ear.

When his teeth nipped playfully at my neck, I shifted on to my side so I could see the mischievous grin breaking out on his handsome face. I treasured moments like this when we could just enjoy each other's company alone; away from all the worries that reality and living with a house full of vampires brought with it.

I gathered my long hair in one hand to spread it more comfortably behind me before burying my nose in Carlisle's shirt. His scent was always intoxicating to me; invoking a brilliant sense of comfort and safety and warmth. I smiled into the dark cotton fabric covering his chest as I felt his arm beneath my head move, angling his wrist to thread his fingers into my hair. If I was capable of sleeping, I felt sure this would be a fast way to achieve it.

"Do you suppose Jasper is expecting his music player returned to him?" Carlisle breathed huskily, his cool lips moving against the side of my forehead.

"Are you accusing me of something, Doctor Cullen?" I responded, injecting some mock indignation into my tone.

"Simply offering to buy you one tomorrow if you'd like, my darling," he laughed, pressing another gentle kiss to my hair.

I tilted my head back a little so I could see his impossibly handsome face, admiring the way the weakening evening light defined his high cheekbones. "Always so generous, my husband," I informed him softly. "Did you enjoy your class today?"

Carlisle had been attending a pre-med program at the local university since we'd moved here six months ago, with a view to maximize the possible length of our stay. Both Alice and Emmett had refused to even consider reliving the high school experience again so soon; so as far as what little the locals knew of our six children and grandchild, was that old Cullen money had bought a massive woodland house on the outskirts of town where several cousins and their partners fresh out of high school were currently deciding what to do with the rest of their lives. As it turned out, this new guise my family had adopted attracted far less questions than our usual adoption of a group of teenagers story. Apparently old money enabling eight young adults to live an easy life was just a lot easier to believe.

I knew my husband preferred to present himself as a fully or very nearly qualified doctor when we moved to a new location, so as to be able to walk straight into a job where he could directly help people, but after the last few years in Forks, we'd all decided we'd like to remain here as long as possible in order to bring ourselves some sort of normalcy again. The pre-med program gave us the opportunity to present ourselves as even younger than our human ages; Carlisle playing the part of a well-bred twenty year old descended from a long line of doctors bearing the same name, and I, his twenty-two year old newly-wed bride.

He began to tell me of a new text they'd studied in his class that afternoon, going on to enthuse about research being conducted over in Europe. I usually didn't grasp much of the topics my husband liked to share with me from his classes, but I found his facial expressions fascinating as he recounted various new techniques or procedures; centuries in one profession had failed to dull his passion for medicine.

Dropping a kiss to my nose, his intelligent eyes captured my gaze, staring at me softly. "I missed you today."

My lips quirked upward at his tone, sensing there was a story attached. "You did?"

His mouth covered my own for a moment before he set his caramel irises on mine again. "A girl in class today was a little blunt about her disbelief in my being married, so I explained how you and I had dated for four years during high school, then after my graduation I proposed."

The sincerity in his tone and the tenderness with which he looked at me left me with no doubt that he'd have done that very thing should our circumstances have been those in our cover stories. The man had no idea what the intense honesty he held in his eyes reeked on my fragile heart when he caught me in one of those gazes. I closed the narrow distance between our lips once more, deepening our kiss as I shifted my body upward, ever closer to him. I now lay more on top of my husband than the lounger as we were progressed rapidly to making out like teenagers when his arms encircled me.

Finally Carlisle found some semblance of the restraint I lacked, pulling back long enough to fairly pant, "Are we alone?"

My hands continued to explore the bare skin of his flawless chest where I'd slipped them beneath his striped black polo shirt. "Rose left with Alice hours ago," I replied, faintly surprised I was also breathless, "but Emmett and Jasper were downstairs-"

A loud banging of the back door immediately preceded Emmett yelling from somewhere below their balcony; "We're going hunting, Mom! You're traumatizing Jasper by doing... that."

Carlisle laughed heartily, our outspoken son never failing to express his displeasure at our continual 'PDA' as he liked to call it. At least we were out of sight, though I hadn't thought to consider poor Jasper's gift until his brother had complained.

"Have fun boys," I called back, already wondering how long we'd have until our daughters returned from their shopping trip. As I turned back to my wickedly grinning husband below me, my traitorous mind chose that exact moment to remind me of the idea I'd been pondering secretly for nearly a month. I'd spent most of that time trying to decide if I was foolish to even consider it, unwilling to share my thoughts with him until I was sure of what I wanted. "Carlisle?"

His alternate nipping and sensuously kissing a path down my neck was already re-clouding my head with lust; "Yes, Esme?" he breathed in that sexy almost-British lilt his voice obtained when we made love.

I bit back a long sigh of pleasure as my husband's lips found the ridiculously sensitive hollow of my collarbone, exposed to him in the low-necked violet sundress I was wearing. Summoning every last ounce of self-control I could muster, I pushed gently at his broad shoulders, disconnecting his wandering mouth from my skin before I could change my mind. "I've been thinking... about us living here-"

Carlisle's face sobered in an instant, sitting up a little underneath me. "You're not happy here? Esme, I thought-" his alarm caused my immediate regret at my poor choice of words. I was so unused to keeping thoughts from my husband for any length of time that I found voicing them at a later time was a struggle.

"No! I love it here, you know that." I smiled brightly, hoping to reassure him.

His darkened-gold irises scanned mine for a few seconds, as if convincing himself I was telling him the whole truth. When his expression finally softened a little, his hands moving over my spine atop the cotton of my dress again, I ploughed on before I could reconsider.

"I've been thinking that maybe... maybe I might apply for a course at the University in the fall? I know we decided I'd stay home and work on extending the house, but I thought maybe I'd do some writing or art classes, maybe something in design." I was rambling and I knew it, feeling a little foolish for even mentioning it now, suddenly unsure if taking on classes by myself in a room full of humans... I'd attended a few evening classes over the years, mostly to pass the time while Carlisle worked the night shift, but the material had never been anywhere near University level.

"My darling, how long has this been running through your head? I think it's a wonderful idea," he responded enthusiastically, a full grin spreading his mouth to show his perfect white teeth as he cupped my face in both hands.

"Well I know the courses are expensive, and it wouldn't really be for anything like yours is, and you know I don't like spending your money unnecessarily-"

"Our money, Esme," he scolded gently. It wasn't a subject we really agreed on, and though we never really spoke directly about money often, I rarely spent money on items that weren't destined for the house or groceries to keep up appearances with the locals. The two credit cards in my name didn't really have the same activity as our childrens' did, which caused my husband to occasionally enlist Alice's help in forcing me to go spend some money on myself. He didn't like me calling it his money, but in my view, he'd worked long, hard, sometimes emotionally draining hours to earn that money, and it wasn't like I ever needed anything anyway. Only him.

"You really think it's a good idea?" I asked tentatively, my doubts starting to dull in the light of his seemingly instant acceptance of the idea.

"I'll help you look through the courses online, if you'd like? I think of you every time I pass the arts building so I can at least tell you they have good facilities for those courses," Carlisle offered with a sweet smile, busying his idle hands by smoothing the shorter strands of my hair from my face. It occurred to me then that I was going to have to learn how to use a computer if I seriously wanted to do this. A strange anxious excitement began to spread through me at the realization that my little ambition to learn something new, to challenge myself, could become reality.

Almost giddy at the prospect, I grinned happily at his expectant expression. "Later," I purred in as seductive a voice as I could muster. I pulled on both sides of Carlisle's collared shirt, initiating a provocative kiss in an effort to pick up where we left off.

An uncharacteristic growl erupted from my husband as he suddenly flipped us, pinning me to the lounger. "Temptress," he accused playfully, nipping gently at my throat whilst he held my wrists either side of my head with his superior strength. "How will I keep the college boys away from you?"

His lips covered mine possessively, tongue demanding entrance which I gladly gave. Red hot lust began to cloud my vision once more as I barely managed to breathe, "I'm sure you'll think of something."