Falling Dusk

Chapter One, Torn to Shreds
Edwards POV
I couldn’t believe that I had been reduced to this. That she had reduced me to this. I had gone decades without looking twice at a woman, so why was going one week not seeing her tearing me to pieces?

   These feelings for her seemed to come on in waves, so strong that weekly hunting became necessary to endure the time with her I craved so much. Esme joked that I must be due a growth spurt. In truth, the whole family were puzzled by my monstrous appetite. Alice kept kept checking in on my future, worried that something was wrong.

   Something was wrong all right. The effort of being so near her every day and not allowing myself to throw her against a wall and doing unspeakable things to her sapped every drop of energy from me. Every train of thought found it’s way to her. She was some kind of siren, dredged up from hell to torment me. Or rather, for me to be tormented when I couldn’t see her. Touch her. Smell her.

   Oh God. Her smell. The way it leapt at me when her hair shook out, the way it was so sweet my eyes stung, the way it clouded every warning and caution screaming in my head. Letting me forget my control. Letting me touch her. She shrank away when my forearm slid against her wrist bone in the dark.

   That’s when I had to leave. I had felt her pulse throb against my skin, faster then average. And I wanted it that way. I wanted it to fly, her veins to rush with adrenaline, and her lips to swell under mine. I ached to feel her hands scratch at my skin, for her breaths to shake her to the core, for her mouth to call for me, instead of her blood. I had felt this, wanted this, wanted this and I knew that if for one second I let go, it would happen. And her spine would splinter or her lungs would collapse under me or her life source would drain from her into my mouth. So I fled.
   I forced myself to spend a week in recluse, infuriating any family members that questioned my sudden mood change. They left me to myself, accepting that if it were beyond my control I would tell them. That very control was dwindling. Alice worried further, delving deeper into visions for answers.

   That one week took years to end.
Nothing could console me, nothing could pull my thoughts from that heart-shaped face, those mahogany, swirling eyes, that steaming, near-translucent skin. I don’t know how many times I sought distraction in my extensive music collection. Debussy. Argh. Can’t listen to that. I sifted through the CDs lining the walls of my room but to no avail. How many songs are written about love anyway? It was sickening.
     I cannot imagine how many times I looked to lose myself in one of Emmett’s DVDs. That seemed a promising prospect.  I scanned the shelves; Scarface, The Godfather, Kill Bill….Bill. Bella. Kill Bella. Damn it.

    Finally,on Friday, when I tired of counting the amount of times that I was ambushed by the relentless fantasies, I gave up. I went to her.

     I followed her to school. I watched her every move. But she didn’t have a chance of ever seeing me, no-one did. I was sick. I was wallowing in self-loathing when Bella’s path distracted me. She was walking with the other girls towards the changing rooms, swinging her gear bag from her wrist.

     My inner seventeen year old rejoiced at he very notion of Bella’s body uncovered. The other girls weren’t even a factor. I itched to see her. I knew that I would never be caught. But still I hesitated. This was so wrong.

                                              ‘I shouldn’t be doing this’, I repeated in my head. I was disgusted with my own urges. But while my resolve wavered, an image of Bella undressed flashed across my mind. I was already there.

    She was embarrassed changing in front of her classmates, evident from the blood rushing to her cheeks. Her pale hands pulled at her skirt, releasing her smooth, long legs held within. My eyes raked along her shins, her calves, her thighs with such intensity that I half expected the ivory skin there to scorch. A thin layer of cloth was pulled over the tops of her legs as she dressed, leading my eyes upwards, allowing my sight to caress her flat stomach that her rising shirt was showing. It rose higher, revealing a thin, black lace bra, trimmed in green ribbon, which contracted as her arms rose to discard her shirt,her chest tipping over the edge of the garment….

     I was pretty close to the edge too. I felt a familiar tug of energy and was horrified when I looked down towards my zipper. Not again. This is what I get for re-sensitizing myself to her.

     Her chest was covered again all too quickly, but continued to tease me as she jogged out of the room, her cleavage bouncing gloriously as she went.
     The class was doing gymnastics today; the males strutted and grunted artificially, as they flexed on the ropes , and their female counterparts stretched their limbs in a bid to appear graceful. Then she entered, causing an uproar of over-sexed musings in the minds of her classmates.
                             ‘ Oh my God. That cannot be legal.’
                             ‘ She has to know how much of a tease she is…..’
                             ‘ Hot secretary. Porn nurse. French maid. Schoolgirl. Yeah…Bella’s definitely the schoolgirl type.’
                             ‘ Shit. Shit. If I get a boner know how the hell will I hide it?’
    Animals, I thought, disregarding the fact that  I was in a very similar predicament to that faced by the last
contributor.
   Bella was twisting her form on the balance beam, unknowingly resembling a manga-maniac’s wet dream then a P.E. student. The horny chorus groaned inwardly, myself among their ranks.
   The forty minutes passed all too quickly, filled with images of Bella bending, folding, stretching, sweating. Unfathomably sexy. The bell rang out like an electrode through my nervous system, and the class left to re-dress.
   I stayed in my spot, positive that I had absolutely no chance of containing myself if I were to see her undressed again.
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Bella’s POV.
    I was exhausted after gym, stifling yawns as I drove home. Edward had been absent again. Maybe that’s why I lacked enthusiasm.
    The day was so gorgeous. I couldn’t concentrate on the homework that lay in the heavy bag that I flung on the kitchen floor. I gave up on doing anything productive and opened the back door, putting myself directly in the path of the scorching sun.