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Bella rushed though dinner with Edward, giving him the excuse of needing to head back to the lab to finish up some work. She had a reason for why it couldn't wait, why he couldn't come, and why she couldn't meet him at his place when she was done.
Half an hour later, she was on the fifth floor heading towards Professor Cullen's lab. Her body felt like a live wire — it'd been two weeks since they had been alone. When she entered his office, he was behind his desk reviewing paperwork. Wordlessly, she straddled him, kissing his mouth hard, gasping into his mouth as one hand slid to her breast.
All thoughts of dinner with her boyfriend were gone until his lips closed over her earlobe and her very expensive earring. He twirled his tongue around it before pulling back. His hand reached up, fingers playing with the gaudy, diamond loop earring.
She hated the earrings, hated them from the moment Edward gave them to her. She only wore them when she was with him because it made him so happy. He practically crowed when he saw them on, but she never wore them when she was with Carlisle. She always took off all remnants of her other life before she comes to him.
When she was with Carlisle, she wasn't Isabella Swan. She wasn't the perfect daughter of a prominent politician. She wasn't the perfect girlfriend to the perfect boyfriend. She wasn't worried about keeping the family image intact. She was just Bella — a college student in love with a professor twenty years her senior.
But now, as his hands played with them she knew real life had burst their bubble. He stared at her — eyes full of lust and anger — and underneath, very far underneath there was hurt. She'd hurt him and she hated herself for it.
So she said nothing as he reached up and removed one earring, then the other. He held them in his palm before reaching over to put them in her pocket.
She stopped him and took the earrings from him. She looked in his eyes, at the question in them as she pushed the office window open. Taking a deep breath she tossed the earrings out — tossed as far as she could so there was no chance she could change her mind and come back tomorrow to find them. The earrings were gone and so was the ghost of hurt in Carlisle's beautiful blue eyes.
She kissed him before he could speak. She wasn't ready to speak. Not ready to give up her perfect life.
But she was getting there.
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