Control.  I am in control.  I will not harm Bella, my life and my love.

As she reached me, seemingly oblivious to my dilemma, slipping her lovely, silken arms around my waist as I set up on the bed, I knew that I would not leave.  I was a selfish being, but I was not weak.  I would not leave, but I would not harm her, either.  I had promised myself that I would make myself safe for her, and I was not about to let something as mundane as her menstrual cycle undermine my efforts.  I would simply have to make myself immune to it.

Swallowing back the venom, I gently wrapped her small frame in my arms, placing a kiss on her still-wet head and forcing myself to inhale deeply.  I could do this.  I was in control.

“Edward,” she murmured against my chest, causing my lips to pull up in a tender smile against her hair.  No matter how recently we’d seen each other, she always greeted me as if we were reuniting after a particularly extended separation.  It was something I would never tire of.

“Bella, my love,” I replied with a low chuckle, pulling back so that I could peer at her face.

She was gazing up at me with that look that I had come to know as her “dazzled” expression, all wide eyes, slightly parted lips, and hitched breathing.  And I merely had to say her name.

We gazed at each other for one pregnant moment before she impatiently stood on the tips of her toes, pressing her soft lips against my marble ones.  I responded, tightening my arms around her ever so slightly, returning her kiss, molding my lips more fully against hers.

Her scent was intoxicating; overwhelming.  She was intoxicating, and in more than one way.  Gently, hesitantly, I pulled my lips from hers, carefully extracting her arms from around my waist.  If I continued to kiss her I wasn’t sure how well my resolve would hold.  I couldn’t afford to make any mistakes – not with Bella.

I could see the disappointment in the way her lip pouted out slightly as I gently distanced myself from the heat of her body and the scent of her blood.  That pout would’ve been my undoing if she’d still been pressed against the length of my body.  “Let’s not test my limits tonight, love,” I said with a low chuckle at the petulant look on her face.