Epilogue: A year later

22. Edward

"Merry Christmas, Mr Cullen!"

"Have a good holiday, sir!"

"Don't eat too many mince pies, Mr C!"

As much as I loved my school and my job, I couldn't wait to start the Christmas holidays. I was so eager that I was actually standing at the school gates in the freezing cold, waving the little blighters off. They were nearly all out when two of the Year Eleven* girls, Lauren and Jessica, wearing Santa hats and sucking on candy canes, stopped to chat.

"What are you going to do over the holidays, sir?"

I glanced over their heads to see Bella getting out of Old Bertha, carrying a red paper cup from Starbucks. Volturi Academy had finished for the Christmas break the previous day, so she had the day off, but being the beautiful sweetheart she is, she had texted to tell me that she was bringing me my favourite Christmas drink, Gingerbread Latte, to help me get through the last of my paperwork. I didn't want to have any work hanging over with such a busy holiday coming up.

"The usual, eating lots of food and chocolate, spending time with my family ... oh and there was something else I was going to do ... something really exciting ... hmm ..."

"What?" asked Lauren and Jessica eagerly.

"Can you keep a secret, girls?" I dropped my voice conspiratorially. I knew that they were the biggest gossips in school and would never be able to keep quiet about the titbit I was about to give them. However, this was news I was happy to share now that term was over.

"Of course!"

"You can trust us, Mr Cullen!" I motioned for Bella who giggled and walked around to my side. "Miss Swan?"

"Hi girls."

I placed my hand in the small of Bella's back, and she smiled up at me. It was fairly common knowledge amongst the students that we were together; York wasn't that big a place, and we were spotted a few weeks after Christmas having dinner in what I thought was a secluded restaurant. However, we had kept our pending nuptials quiet.

"You see, Miss Swan and I are getting married on Christmas Eve, and after spending Christmas with our family here, we're seeing in the New Year on our honeymoon in New York City."

"Oh My God! That's so cool!" cried Lauren.

"Oh, wow, congratulations! You'll have to bring in photos, sir."

"Thanks, girls, I will," I told them, genuinely. "Have a great holiday, and don't eat too much sweet stuff!"

"Bye Mr Cullen! Bye Mrs Cullen!"

They skipped off, and happy that the school was empty of kids, I signalled the caretaker to close the main gates. Bella and I walked back to my office, her arm tucked into mine.

"Holy crap, it looks like a bloody Santa's grotto for grown-ups in here!" she cried when she spotted the mountains of gifts I'd received from students, parents and some of the staff.

"Yeah, it's quite the loot."

I mainly received chocolate, sweets and booze, although there were a few other ones in there too. I tended to keep a few and give the rest to the admin and estate staff, or to charities.

"I'm sure Volturi parents aren't this generous," she replied. Bella was still working at Volturi Academy and thriving there. We had discussed the possibility of her returning to Meyer High, but so far, no suitable positions had come up. We were confident, however, that should she get a job at Meyer in the future, we would be able to work together.

Bella spotted the one box of chocolate truffles I'd opened.

"Oh, yum!" She placed one on her tongue and rolled it around in her gorgeous, full mouth, leaving her with a tiny cocoa moustache. Adorable.

I leaned forward and kissed her chocolatey lips.

"When we get home, future Mrs Cullen, I'm going to do such naughty things to you," I whispered into her ear.

"You don't have to wait until we get home, you know ..." she murmured coyly, running her warm, little hand over my ass.

"You're such a tease, sweetheart," I told her, my voice rumbling and hoarse. I'd been thinking about her all day, which was usual, but for some reason I'd been particularly preoccupied with my desire for her. "I don't think I've got much control left."

"I don't want you to have control."

"If we get caught ..."

"All the students are gone. The staff room was pretty deserted when we walked by, and the caretaker will be going around the grounds locking up."

She looked up at me pleadingly, and I lost it.

I went over to my windows and drew the blinds. Then I walked back to her, nudged her backwards and pressed her against the wall.

"We're good with walls, aren't we?" she murmured, clearly thinking of our first kiss.

"Mmm-hmm ..." I couldn't even say anything before the need to feel her mouth against mine took over. As our tongues danced, I ran my hand over her spectacular body, caressing her long neck with my fingers, releasing wafts of her delicious scent. Her skin broke out in patches of heat and faint goose-bumps, and as I made my way over her dress, I felt her nipples harden into pebbles.

My hand crept up her thigh and into her tights. As soon as I got hold of an inch of lace, I yanked it down and then repeated the action on the other side. Bella wriggled the material down her legs to assist me, and she fingered the fly of my trousers.

"Off."

Her nimble fingers swiftly undid my fly, and before I could blink, my trousers and shorts were around my ankles, and my rock hard cock was slapping my abdomen, leaking and desperate to find her heated centre. I took hold of it and glanced back at her stunning, flushed face.

Without further preamble, she placed her hand over my hand and guided me into her scalding hot, dripping pussy.

"Bella, so perfect ..." I moaned into her neck as I filled her as deeply as I could. "So wet, so tight, so good ..."

"Oh, oh, oh ..." she mumbled, curling one of her arms around my neck and yanking at my hair. "More …"

My hands drifted to her waist, over her delectable, juicy bum and down her thigh, pushing her dress up to her middle. I drove into her faster, using all my effort. She pressed her other hand in between us, dipping into her moist slit to rub her clit. I loved that she was comfortable enough with her own sexuality to take what she wanted. In private, she was unabashed about the joy she found in sex, but otherwise didn't feel the need to talk about our sex life to all and sundry, even to our closest friends. It made me even more enamoured of her.

I pressed my fingers into her hair, totally messing up her hairdo, but she didn't seem to mind.

"My sweetheart, my future wife ..."

"Ah, Mr Cullen, ah…" she bit down on my shoulder as she came, and her tight walls clamped around me.

"Bella, I love you, so much."

"I love you, oh, Edward ..."

Hearing her say my name in her sweet, sexy voice, and feeling her hot pussy milking my cock, totally ended it for me. I released, all the while peppering her beautiful face and neck with kisses.

"Happy, sweetheart?" I said after catching my breath

"Ecstatic," she replied. "Sorry to distract you from your work."

"Well it's probably a good thing I got it out of my system so I can concentrate."

"Yep, make sure you do it all, husband-to-be. I don't want anything to distract you."

"Bella, I promise you that nothing will ever distract me from you." I sat down on one of the chairs in my office and took her onto my lap. "You are the most important part of my life, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my days with you."

She pressed her lips to mine and curled her fingers into the hair at my nape.

"I am so in love with you," she whispered. "And I can't wait to spend the rest of my days with you."

"Me too, sweetheart."

We had officially moved in together six months after that fateful Christmas Eve. Bella moved into my apartment as it was bigger, and I owned mine, whereas she was renting, although she had pretty much lived with me since last Christmas, so inseparable were we. We had made the decision to look for a house when we returned from our honeymoon. Bella and I wanted children soon.

As much as we loved the place, Holly and Ivy Court was a place for singles and couples to live, not young families. Alice had moved into Jazz's after just a month of moving into Holly and Ivy. Mr Wibbles, who never did get on with his cat flap, even when Alice fixed it so he didn't need the magnetic collar to return, much preferred Jazz's house. Jazz and Alice were already married; we all flew over to Vegas in the summer for their small, but lavish wedding at the Venetian.

Alice and Jazz's house was close to where my brother and Rosalie lived with my gorgeous baby niece Sadie-Lee. Therefore, Bella and I were going to look in the same area. Esme and Carlisle, in a complete whirlwind of activity, completely renovated Carlisle's house in the countryside, got married there, and Esme was now seven months pregnant with a baby boy who was going to be called Andrew.

Bella kissed me one last time before standing up.

"Right, I'm going to scoot. I promised I'd watch Sadie for an hour so Rosalie can get her Christmas bikini wax. Call me when you're done; I may still be at their place."

"How does a Christmas one differ from a normal one?" I asked. "Actually, don't answer that. It scars my brain just knowing that Rosalie gets bikini waxes."

Bella chortled at me.

"You're so funny, Head Teacher Cullen."

"Glad I amuse you so much, Mrs-Cullen-in-four-days." I kissed her one last time. "See you later."

"See you, love."

I watched her sashay out of my door and then sat back in my chair for a moment to enjoy my contentment.

I still credited a letter, a slightly grumpy cat and a festive-named apartment complex with granting us the Christmas miracle of a future together, even though nearly all our family and friends tried to tell me that between all our connections and the magnetic pull between Bella and me, we'd have gotten together eventually. I, for one, was glad things worked out the way they did.

My moment of contemplation over, I popped a chocolate truffle into my mouth, took a big gulp of Gingerbread latte and got back to work.

Fin

-cc-

*Year Eleven = sophomore year of high school.

All done!

Thank you so much, dear readers for all your reviews, comments, story recs and general good cheer.

A few of you have asked what I've got coming up next. I'm trying to finish all the half-done stories on my computer before starting work on new plot bunnies. First up is the expansion and continuation of The Fox, the one-shot I wrote for the Taste of The Forbidden II Contest months and months ago. I'll be starting it in late January.

Hope you have a great day today! Happy Holidays!

CC xxx