It's going on 10 o'clock and Annalise has just finished making herself dinner: roast with potatoes and carrots, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy with a side of green beans.
Her stomach growls as she makes her way into her living area, with her plate and a glass of cold sweet tea.
"Alright. I get it. Hold your horses." She says to her growling stomach as she sits down.
Picking up the remote from the coffee table, she flips to the Hallmark channel and make herself comfortable. Ever since the station aired back in 2001 she's been a huge fan of Hallmark Movies. They're always so very interesting, entertaining, to watch. Watching two people fall in love, or in their case, pretend to fall in love, always spiked her interest. Two total stranger meet, run into each other numerous times, the man finally asks the woman out, she accepts, they realize they have a lot in common, a complication happens, they get passed me complication, they kiss, and then they get married and live happily ever after.
If only that was the way love worked.
When her stomach growls at her, again, Annalise quickly takes a spoon full of mashed potatoes and shoves it into her mouth. "Happy?"
She feels her stomach clench, as if it were wrapping itself around the small bite, before it rumbles in satisfaction. She shakes her head. She really needed to start eating more. Going days, even a week, without eating isn't healthy.
Not twenty minutes later, as she watches the screen in front of her, she took her last bite of mashed potatoes before placing the plate onto the table in front of her. The movie was almost over and she didn't want to miss the ending.
Sarah, a wedding planner, and Nathan, a self-owned billionaire, we're staring into each others eyes while he professed his love to her.
"I never thought I would find someone like you. Someone who could love me, someone who could see me, passed what I have to offer. I always thought I was destined to be alone." He takes a step towards her, closing the distance between them. "You crashed into my life like meteor and you've been a blessing ever since. I know that God loves me because he took out the time to create you, just for me."
A single tear roll down Sarah's cheek as she listened to the man in front of her confess his feelings to her.
"I love you, so much, that it scares me. I've never known a love like this. I've never loved anyone as much as I love you and I never will." He takes her face in his large hands. "I love you, Sarah Evans. I love you and I hope I'm not in this alone."
Sarah shakes her head. "No. You're not alone." She sniffles. "I love you, too, Nathan Hamilton."
And they share a kiss.
~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~
After a much needed shower, and applying sweet pea body lotion all over her warm skin, Annalise dresses in a pair of black thigh shorts with a matching tank top and ankle socks. She sits on her bed, her back against the head board, with the book Me Before You in her hands. She is almost done with the book and was hoping by the time she finishes reading it Edward will have found his way to her house.
That didn't happen.
It is almost mid-night and there is still no Edward and her eyes were growing heavy. She wonders what is keeping him. Maybe he didn't want to see her. Maybe he realizes that his feelings for her aren't as strong as he thinks they are. Or maybe he realizes he has feelings, stronger feelings, for someone else.
The thought of Edward no longer wanting her made her sick to her stomach. Her stomach started doing flips and she has to close her eyes and take deep breaths.
"Breathe, Annalise, breathe." She tells herself as she lowers her head to her pillow and pulls the covers up over her shoulders. "He'll be here."
~~~*~~~
Edward slips through her window, very smoothly and quietly, then closes it behind him. He turns around and a smile spreads across his lips. She is asleep on her back with her blanket covering only her lower half. One arm is raised above her head while the other is resting across her body.
Edward crosses the room and gently lowers himself to her bed careful not to take her. He slowly reaches out and cups her jaw, caressing her cheek with his thumb. Her skin is unusually hot beneath his palm and he closes his eyes as the heat travels up his arm and thought his entire body.
"What are you doing to me, Annalise Cullen?"
He opens his eyes and stares down at her face. Even asleep she is beautiful. Rosalie didn't hold a candle to how stunning she is. She looks so peaceful and at ease when she's sleeping and he didn't want to wake her. But, he remembers her telling him to wake her upon his arrival.
So, Edward lowers his lips to her ear. "Annalise." His voice is soft.
But she doesn't seem to show any sign of waking.
Again, he whispers. "Annalise, will you open your eyes for me? Please?" This time he presses his lips to her temple.
When she stirs beneath him he draws back and watches her eyes flutter open. When her eyes are fully open they instantly meet his gaze.
Edward smiles at her while caressing her cheek. "Hey."
Annalise forces back the joy and relief she that floods her entire being when she realizes he came for her. Instead, of responding with a verbal response, she sits up in her bed, takes his face in her hands and crushes her lips to his. His cold, marble lips feels warm and soft pressed against the own.
Edward hesitates— not in the normal way, the human way.
Not the way a man might hesitate before he kisses a woman, to gauge her reaction, to see how the woman would respond.
Edward hesitates to test himself to make sure he is still in control of his need, his desire, for her. Once he is sure he has full control of himself, he kisses her back. The kiss starts out slow and steady; Annalise's fingers are on his face while Edwards hands are on her arms, everything was fine until Edwards hands slid down her arms and rests on her hips.
Neither of them were prepared for what happens next, for her response to his sudden touch.
She pushes herself up onto her knees while her breaths came in a wild gasps. Her blood is boiling under her skin, burning in my lips and her hands. Her fingers then knot themselves in his hair, clutching him to her. My lips part as she breathes in his heady scent. His grip on her hips tighten, not painfully, and a low growl escapes his lips and before she knows what's happening she is on her back with him hovering above her. His lips are on her neck and she let's out a soft whimper when she feels his teeth gently nibble on her flesh.
With an unknown strength, unknown to Edward, Annalise flips him so that she's on top. Her lips are back on his and his hands are slowly sliding up and down her sides. Annalise, not really thinking about how Edward will respond, makes a trail of kisses over his jaw and down his neck, earning an animalistic growl from Edward. She smiles against his neck before taking it a step further. Again, she isn't thinking about how Edward will react when her tongue darts out to taste him.
Almost immediately she feels him turn to unresponsive stone beneath her lips, beneath her touch.
Suddenly he is no longer beneath him but firmly pressed up against the wall at the foot of her bed.
"Oops," She breathes, her cheeks flushing red.
"That's an understatement."
His eyes were wild, his jaw clenched in acute restraint, yet he didn't lapse from his perfect articulation.
Annalise holds out her hand to him. "Please, come back to me."
He stares at her with guarded eyes. "Annalise - "
"I'll behave myself. Promise."
After a moment or two Edward is sitting on the bed beside her. He gently takes her face and pulls her face in just inches from his.
"Should I... ?" She tries to disengage herself, to give him some room, when she feels him stiffen once again but his hands refuses to let her move even an inch.
"No, just - wait for a moment, please." His voice is polite, controlled.
She keeps her eyes on him, watching as the excitement in them fades and becomes gentle. After another moment, he smiles a surprisingly impish grin.
"There," he says, pleased with himself.
"Is it safe to move?"
He laughs aloud. "I'm stronger than I thought."
"Yes, you really are." Annalise says before her cheeks flush red once again. "I don't believe I can say the same thing."
"You are only human." He says.
Annalise smiles then her expression turns serious. "I can't, I won't, apologize for kissing you, Edward. I've wanted to kiss you ever since that day in the parking lot." Her voice is soft as she speaks. "Evey day since I've been fighting back the urge to reach out and kiss you. I don't believe I've ever had to fight so hard not to do something."
"I've never met someone met anyone who is as stubborn as you are." He smiles while caressing her cheek. "And I'm glad you kissed me."
She raises a brow. "You are? You're not upset that I almost ruined your perfect self-control streak?"
His smile dies down a little but not fully. "I can never lose control with you, Annalise."
"You won't. I believe in you, Edward." She says.
"Be very still," he whispers suddenly.
Slowly, never moving his gaze from her, he leans forward. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rests his cold cheek against her chest, right over her heart. She is quite, unable to move as listens to the sound of his even breathing.
With deliberate slowness, his hands slides down the sides of her neck. She shivers, and she hears him catch his breath. His face the drifts to the side, his nose skimming across her collarbone as he came to rest the other side of his face tenderly against her chest.
Listening to her heart beat.
"Ah," he sighs softly.
Slowly, careful not to startle him, Annalise caresses his cheek, delicately stroking his eyelids as he closes them. She traces the shape of his nose, and then his lips, which he parts under her hand. She can feel his cool breath on her fingertips.
"I wish," He whispers, "I wish you could feel the complexity, the level of emotions, I feel. That you could understand how amazing this feels."
Annalise kisses his hair. "Tell me. Please."
"I don't know how to. I've told you, on one hand, the hunger — the thirst — that, execrable creature that I am, I feel for you. And I think you can understand that, to an extent. But because " — he half-smiles — "you are not addicted to any illegal substances, you probably can't empathize with me."
"But..." His fingers touch her collarbone, sliding back and forth, making her shiver.
"There are other hungers, urges, that I don't even understand, that are foreign to me."
Annalise smiles. "I understand that better than you think."
"I'm not used to feeling so human but with you I can't feel any other way." he says softly. "Is it always like this?"
"No, never, not for me." She pauses. "Never before you."
"Annalise?"
"Yes, Edward?"
Edward draws back to meet her gaze. "I don't know how to be close to you," he admits. "...but I also don't know how to stay away from you."
It is then that Annalise realizes that she has a final decision to make. She has to make a choice; allow herself to fall in love with Edward, like she knows she will, and take on whatever, from her past or his, is thrown at them. Or spend the rest of her existence, alone, fighting not only her past but herself as well.
She knew, as she sits staring into the eyes of the man who she knows can and will love her for as long as she lives, that she'd lost the battle against her heart. Her heart had already made its decision and once that has happened there was no way around it. It's time for her to finally give it. It's finally time for Annalise to start living for Annalise and to stop being afraid of what may or may not happen.
It was time for her to stop fighting.
"Then don't." Annalise says softly as she very slowly leans forward, cautioning him with her eyes, and places her cheek against his chest. "Stay here with me."
"Are you sure?" He whispers. "Annalise, I don't want you to do anything you don't want to."
She nods. "I'm sure." She says, snaking her arms around his torso, pressing herself closer.
Edward puts his arms around her and presses his face against her hair, breathing in her intoxication scent.
"This is enough," She sighs, closing her eyes.