"What would you like to negotiate?" he asked, a smile in his voice.
I struggled, trying to find exactly the right words to open with.
"Listen to your heart fly," he murmured. "It's fluttering like a hummingbird's wings. Are you all right?"
"I'm great."
"Please go on then," he encouraged.
"Well, I guess, first, I wanted to talk to you about that whole ridiculous marriage condition thing."
"It's only ridiculous to you. What about it?"
"I was wondering . . . is that open to negotiation?"
Edward frowned, serious now. "I've already made the largest concession by far and away - I've agreed to take your life away against my better judgment. And that ought to entitle me to a few compromises on your part."
"No." I shook my head, focusing on keeping my face composed. "That part's a done deal. We're not discussing my . . . renovations right now. I want to hammer out some other details."
He looked at me suspiciously. "Which details do you mean exactly?"
I hesitated. "Let's clarify your prerequisites first."
"You know what I want."
"Matrimony." I made it sound like a dirty word.
"Yes." He smiled a wide smile. "To start with."
The shock spoiled my carefully composed expression. "There's more?"
"Well," he said, and his face was calculating. "If you're my wife, then what's mine is yours . . . like tuition money. So there would be no problem with Dartmouth."
"Anything else? While you're already being absurd?"
"I wouldn't mind some time."
"No. No time. That's a deal breaker right there."
He sighed longingly. "Just a year or two?"
I shook my head, my lips set in a stubborn frown. "Move along to the next one."
"That's it. Unless you'd like to talk cars . . ."
He grinned widely when I grimaced, then took my hand and began playing with my fingers.
"I didn't realize there was anything else you wanted besides being transformed into a monster yourself. I'm extremely curious." His voice was low and soft. The slight edge would have been hard to detect if I hadn't known it so well.
I paused, staring at his hand on mine. I still didn't know how to begin. I felt his eyes watching me and I was afraid to look up. The blood began to burn in my face.
His cool fingers brushed my cheek. "You're blushing?" he asked in surprise. I kept my eyes down.
"Please, Bella, the suspense is painful."
I bit my lip.
"Bella." His tone reproached me now, reminded me that it was hard for him when I kept my thoughts to myself.
"Well, I'm a little worried . . . about after," I admitted, finally looking at him.
I felt his body tense, but his voice was gentle and velvet. "What has you worried?"
"All of you just seem so convinced that the only thing I'm going to be interested in, afterward, is slaughtering everyone in town," I confessed, while he winced at my choice of words. "And I'm afraid I'll be so preoccupied with the mayhem that I won't be me anymore . . . and that I won't . . . I won't want you the same way I do now."
"Bella, that part doesn't last forever," he assured me.
He was missing the point.
"Edward," I said, nervous, staring at a freckle on my wrist. "There's something that I want to do before I'm not human anymore."
He waited for me to continue. I didn't. My face was all hot.
"Whatever you want," he encouraged, anxious and completely clueless.
"Do you promise?" I muttered, knowing my attempt to trap him with his words was not going to work, but unable to resist.
"Yes," he said. I looked up to see that his eyes were earnest and confused. "Tell me what you want, and you can have it."
I couldn't believe how awkward and idiotic I felt. I was too innocent - which was, of course, central to the discussion. I didn't have the faintest idea how to be seductive. I would just have to settle for flushed and self-conscious.
"You," I mumbled almost incoherently.
"I'm yours." He smiled, still oblivious, trying to hold my gaze as I looked away again.
I took a deep breath and shifted forward so that I was kneeling on the bed. Then I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.
He kissed me back, bewildered but willing. His lips were gentle against mine, and I could tell his mind was elsewhere - trying to figure out what was on my mind. I decided he needed a hint.
My hands were slightly shaky as I unlocked my arms from around his neck. My fingers slid down his neck to the collar of his shirt. The trembling didn't help as I tried to hurry to undo the buttons before he stopped me. His lips froze, and I could almost hear the click in his head as he put together my words and my actions.
He pushed me away at once, his face heavily disapproving.
"Be reasonable, Bella."
"You promised - whatever I wanted," I reminded him without hope.
"We're not having this discussion." He glared at me while he refastened the two buttons I'd managed to open.
My teeth clamped together.
"I say we are," I growled. I moved my hands to my blouse and yanked open the top button.
He grabbed my wrists and pinned them to my sides.
"I say we're not," he said flatly.
We glowered at each other.
"You wanted to know," I pointed out.
"I thought it would be something faintly realistic."
"So you can ask for any stupid, ridiculous thing you want - like getting married - but I'm not allowed to even discuss what I -"