Prologue: A Glimpse

Give "In Bloom" by Tristan Prettyman a listen prior to reading this little tale, if you feel so inclined.
It's where the title comes from & it has an awful lot to do with the plot.
www[dot]last[dot]fm/music/Tristan+Prettyman/_/In+Bloom

"What is it about you, Bella?" My hands found the supple, pallid skin of her lower back and laced together there, quaking with the electric current that traversed our skin. Her eyes closed slowly, tears dripping upon her lashes, glimmering in the flickering candlelight, and I kissed the lids, a whispered touch of agony, knowing that my mouth was forbidden from meeting hers. Tender, her delicate hand found the rough plane of my cheek and I pressed into it, turned my mouth against her palm, kissing to try to sway her to open her eyes. More tears fell, dripped down her cheeks and onto the pillow between us, and my chest tightened, smoldered, the knowledge of what I was putting her though too weighty for my mortal heart. "I want you."

"You don't know what you want."

She was correct, I knew she was, but, here and now, in this bed, in this instant, with my hands about her waist and her tears fracturing my heart, I wanted my words to be true, more than anything. So, I said them yet again, my eyes stinging with tears to mirror hers, as the words cracked in my throat, spilled from my lips in a bare whisper, "I want you," and I pressed my mouth to hers, knowing that the inferno of Hell would certainly consume me for doing so.

Chapter One will be posted later tonight.