The First Drop Of Rain

Chapter Thirty Two

I was trapped, and the scream wouldn't rise in my throat, the tears stinging my eyes as I kicked fruitlessly against the immovable force. "Edward!" I screamed finally as my lungs flooded with air. My face was hot and red, my ears rang, and my lungs pricked with pain on every inhale. Finally, it stopped, Edward had stopped tickling me. It was my own fault I had gotten into the situation, I had been teasing him mentally the entire drive back to Forks from the airport. Now we sat in my room, I had abandoned the act of unpacking just moments before he had launched himself across the room. My father wasn't home, he was away at work with Maddie, and I wasn't set to meet Gi for another two hours. This combination of details had led to this brutal attack launched by Edward. The air around us seemed to glow, his hand was still on my side as we laid on the window seat, the mid afternoon light filtering through the dense blanket of clouds.

"Do you concede?" He asked, his face barely a foot from mine, his eyebrows raised in a playful challenge. I studied his face, enamored by it being so close to me. His eyes had deepened into a warm amber, I found myself lost in them for just a moment as they held my own gaze. I felt the cold velvet touch of his fingers against the nape of my neck. Something about it all made me aware of how in deep I was with this man. I also realized that he was as lost in my eyes as I was in his, and that he wasn't paying much attention to the gears that were turning in my head. I started moving slowly, not enough for him to really register in the moment.

"I don't know," closer, "do I?" Closer.

"I would say it was in your best interest." His words were quite, drawn out, like it took an actual effort to say, but I moved closer nonetheless.

"Oh, so you are an expert on the best interest of humans now?" Closer yet again.

"I did study the medical sciences, you know." A coy smile played on his lips, he was still staring unblinking into my eyes, and I took the jump. I closed the last bit of distance, leaving only an inch between his lips and mine. Our nose's bumping softly.

"In what? The sixties when lead paint was still widely used?" My breath mingled with his deliciously at this distance.

"Ara," Edward's voice was caught between a whisper and a groan.

"I'll never concede." When he didn't pull away immediately I took that as a green light and moved forward, just brushing my lips against his, letting him take the final move forward. Edward. Kiss me. I knew that I would grab his attention more by thinking his name first, and I was right. His breath hitched, his fingers tangled in my hair, and his face closed the barely discernible distance between kissing and not. The exchange was intoxicating, and I realized how much I wanted to kiss him more. I was undoubtedly trapped by the feeling.

He broke back from my lips after a moment, a small laugh breaking his silence. "Only you would successfully sneak up on a vampire."

My head was swimming with euphoria, but that wouldn't stop my teasing for even a moment. "A mentalist vampire nonetheless." I tipped my chin towards him, brushing my lips against his once again. "Now what's the hold up buddy? Get back over here." My voice was barely a whisper, not even the strongest ears could have heard me across the room, human ears that is.

"Yes ma'am." He chuckled again, his voice taking on an almost husky tone to it. My hands found their way into his hair, twining themselves gently into the bronze locks. When he brought his lips down to me, my euphoria continued again. No struggle that would come in the following week would break the feeling I had now. This was what so many of the greats had written about, why Romeo would kill himself for Juliet, and then Juliet herself for him. This feeling was what drove Elizabeth and Darcy to marry, what consumed Cathrine alive for not allowing herself to love Heathcliff. Suddenly all the sappy romances made sense, and I knew my twelve year old self would find me disgusting for the thought. The image of twelve year old me sitting on my bed staring at my current self in disapproval made me laugh against Edward's lips, my cheeks reddening, and the grip on his hair loosening as I jostled with laughter.