CUTTING EDGES

Author Janna

Book Twilight

Genre Romance/ Business

Pairing Edward Masen X Isabella Swan

Rating M

Disclaimer

I do not under any circumstance own the cast or characters of Twilight saga. Sole property rights go to Stephenie Meyer. Go talk to my lawyers if there is a problem ;P

I own only the plot and the new characters introduced during the course of the story.

I'm just a poor person trying to create my story with the existing characters from Clamp's show, Card Captor Sakura. (wipes tears) Sole property rights go to Clamp. The standard disclaimers apply.

PLEASE JUST GIVE ME EDWARD!!!!!!!!

I don't want anything else!!!!!!!

Please just give EDWARD to me pwease!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glare at everybody and wipes tears angrily. All I want in life is Edward. Is that too much to ask??

Apparently it is. :'(

Summary

Edward is a renowned multi- millionaire business man, Bella is a pauper. His dad gets an attack and is almost on his deathbed. He sees the two together and is sure that they were going to marry. Bella is forced to spend weeks with Edward and his dad on a remote island against her wishes. Will Both continue hating each other or will love intrude?

CUTTING EDGES

CHAPTER ONE

I'VE FOUND HER, Edward. The woman of your wildest dreams. And she's the earthly version of a goddess incarnate.

Hearing the sound of his father's breathless voice, Edward Masen interrupted his conversation with the ambassador to US and turned.

'Found who?'

The fact that his father had made an effort to come tonight was a good sign if there was one. A few depressing months ago he had been a broken man once again, unwilling to leave his isolated villa after his second painful and costly divorce in six years.

'Who you ask? The perfect woman for you that's who.'

His father shook his head in incredulity, but the corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled. The smile brought his face a new glow, which had not been there for a long time. He actually looked a decade younger. Edward felt his heart constrict with love.

'Sometimes I wonder if you're really my son or whether you were exchanged at the hospital. This place is full of gorgeous, beautiful and sensational women and what do you prefer to do? You talk to boring old men in suits. Honestly, where did I go wrong with you?'

Seeing the surprise in the ambassador's eyes and the raised eyebrows in amusement, Edward smoothly excused himself and drew his father to one side. 'Dad, For me, tonight is like every other day. Everything is about business. I hold this ball every year. The purpose is to part the rich and famous from their money. Business is the only method of day light robbery, in the most legal way possible.'

'Business, business, business. That is all I hear from you twenty four seven. Show some mercy Edward.'

Visibly exasperated, his father almost raised his hands in despair.

'Does business keep you warm at night? Does business love you? Does business look like a sight for sore eyes? Does it cook you a scumptuous dinner? Does it raise you your children? Always with you it is business and more work, Edward, and already you are a multi billionaire! You have enough money. You don't need any more money. What you need is a good woman.'

Several heads turned in their direction, but Edward simply laughed at the irony of it all.

'Dad. I have a woman to keep me warm at night even if she is not my wife. Business does love me' Edward looked pointedly around the charity fund raiser he had organized, the location alone would have cost a small fortune. He was dressed in an impeccable Armani suit which fit him in tailored perfection.

'And why would I need her to cook when I could just go out to a restaurant easily or when I could just hire a brilliant chef ? I'm still too young to be tried up with children. But tonight I'm not making money. I'm giving it away. And you're shocking everyone. Behave yourself,' he said with mild humour, 'or I'll tell Security to remove you from the building.'

But it had been such a long time since his father had summoned enough energy to nag him about marriage that he felt nothing but deep intense relief.

'And I don't need you to find me a woman.'

'Why not? Do you find one on your own? No of course, you don't. Not a proper one. You spend your time with whores - who would not make suitable wives. Don't you understand?'

'Why did you think I pick them?' Edward murmured candidly, but his father frowned his disapproval after hearing it and dismissed his brutal comment with another wave of his hand.

'I know who you pick! The whole world knows who you pick, Edward, because the stories are in every god damn newspaper. One week it is a Gracia who absolutely lacks grace in manners, the next it is a Sheila, and the world should probably be shielded against her vicious clutches and then Bridget, who is anything but the earthy princess her name describes her to be and… I'm running out of memory space keeping up with the list of names in your little black book—never the same woman for more than a night, and always they are thin, thin, thin. Did I say thin? I meant thin.'

His Scottish accent thickening his words laced with sarcasm, Edward Masen Sr. made a reproachful noise.

'How can you be happy with a woman who doesn't enjoy her food Edward? Does a woman like that cook for you? No. It would be a big thing if she even vaguely recollects the word kitchen inside her scattered brain covered with glorious hair styled expertly which would have cost the US her entire treasury. Does she enjoy life? Nada, of course not. How can a woman take pleasure in life when she is starved and famished? The women you pick have the legs and the hair, and they are like athletes in the bedroom, but would they care for your children in the least?? No. Would they even bother—?'

'Father. I don't need a woman to cook me my food. I have staff for that purpose.' Edward Masen Jr again remarked wryly interrupting his father's tirade. He wondered briefly whether inviting his father to this particular function might have been a mistake after all.

'And also I don't have any children for a woman to care for.'

His father gave a snort of exasperation. 'I know you don't, and that's why I want you to have children. That is the point I am making! You are thirty-one years old and how many times have you been married? None. I am sixty-three and how many times have I been married? Three. It is time you started catching up, Edward. Make me a grandfather soon and or else I won't live to see them!'

'Alice has already made you a grandfather thrice.'

'That's an entirely different issue. She's my daughter and you are my son. I want to hold the sons of my son in my arms and look at you smiling like there is no tomorrow, your arms wrapped around a lovely lady who can cook and also eat the food placed in front of her.'

'I'll get married when I find the right woman, not before.'

Edward drew his father onto the balcony that circled the gigantic ballroom and refrained from pointing out brutally that his father's last two attempts at marriage only had created more emotional and financial devastation and wreckage and not even an ounce of happiness to both him and his family in compensation.

There was no way he was making that mistake ever.

'You won't find the right woman by dating the wrong ones! And what are we doing in France? Why can't you hold this ball in US? What is wrong with New York? Or even England?'

'The world is bigger than the States and England dad.'

Edward concealed a yawn as the exchange shifted onto another proverbial issue.

'I happen to conduct business all over the globe.'

'And I never did understand why! Did I have to leave London to make my first million? No!' Edward Sr. peered into the ballroom his aged eyes scanning the people dancing around. 'Where has she gone? I can't see her.'

Edward raised his eyebrows in question. 'Who are you looking for?'

'The goddess I mentioned, the one with the body with an ounce of flesh. She was… perfect. And now she has disappeared. She was all eyes and curves, demure and soft-looking. Now, that girl would make a good mother. I can almost imagine her with your children snuggled on her lap and food ready for you after a long day's work, laid expertly on your table with a variety and spice.'

Edward glanced at his father with blatant amusement.

'I suggest you don't tell her that. These days it is heresy to make that sort of statement to a woman. They invariably end up to have quite different aspirations.'

'The women you pick have different aspirations.'

His father's voice was fierce with feeling in retort as he searched the room with his eyes. 'Believe me, this one was built to be a mother. And if you don't want her, then I might be interested myself.'

All trace of amusement left him cold and Edward inhaled sharply.

'Not again!'

Didn't his father ever learn?

'Promise me father that this time you'll just take her to bed. Don't marry her,' he advised, taking a glass of orange juice from a passing waiter and swapping it for the glass of champagne in his father's hand without him noticing.

'You only think about bed and sex, but I have been brought up to give more respect for women than that.'

'You need to develop a more skeptical approach to the opposite sex, as they have you wrapped around their fingers,' Edward advised. ' After all what respect did Victoria show you when she left you after three months, taking with her enough loot to keep her going for life, settled in the Rivera?'

His father's knuckles whitened as he gripped the stem of the glass. The jab had found its target.

'We both made a mistake and we have learnt from it.'

Mistake? Edward ground his teeth. He was sure that as far as Victoria was concerned the marriage had been a roaring success. She was now an extremely rich young woman. She had won the lottery. And that too, quite literally.

His father dispirited before his eyes, his vulnerability exposed a fraction.

'She was very mixed up with her feelings. She didn't know what she wanted. She was young.'

'Oh. She knew exactly what she wanted believe me—' Edward broke off, caught between the alternative of offending his father still further by highlighting the ruthless competence of Victoria's campaign, or of letting the topic drop and risking the likelihood that, even after two such costly divorces, his still ever trusting father still hadn't learned the lessons that needed to be learned.

Who was the father and who was the son? Heavens help him!

Edward Sr. sighed. 'A relationship between a man and a woman should be about love and caring and sharing, not the theory which you believe should be followed.'

Edward winced at this over schmaltzy approach and dangerous observation and made a mental note to order his high tech security team to monitor all women showing the slightest interest in his father in order to protect him from further deceitful and unscrupulous individuals.

'Didn't your last two marriages teach you anything about women and their motives?'

'Yes. They taught me that you can't trust a thin one.'

Edward Sr. regained some of his spirit.

'They want to be size zero—but why is it called that? Because they are zero use to anyone! They are too thin and hungry to live the life a woman is supposed to live. Eating is one of life's biggest source of pleasure. Next time, when I marry, I guarantee that she will be a proper shape with an appetite of a hungry lion both inside and outside the bedroom.'

'After everything that has happened over the past six years, the nightmares of marriages with false faced gold-diggers and a very expensive divorce with each of the two, you still believe that love exists?'

His father's face fell. 'I was in love with your mother for forty years. Of course I believe that love exists.'

Cursing himself for his lack of tact, Edward put a hand on his father's shoulder trying to comfort him.

'Then you should stop trying to replace her,' he said roughly, his voice gruff with emotion at the memories which rushed past his mind. 'What you had was rare. Mother was a gem of a woman. There will be no one else like her in the world, no matter where you search.'

So exceptional and so unique that he'd given up hope of finding the woman for himself.

And he wasn't willing to risk settling for anything less.

'And I will find it again.' His father's voice shook with emotion.

Even if he could find it, it would not be before it had cost the family a fortune in divorce settlements and mental agony. It was not going to happen if Edward could help it.

Frustrated by his father's injudicious sanguinity about the female sex in general, Edward ran a hand over the back of his neck.

'Stay single. It's much less complicated.'

'I'm not staying single. I hate being single. It isn't natural for a man to be single. And you shouldn't be single, either. Its morally wrong.'

Seeing that his father was on the verge of launching into another lecture in favour of the shapely woman, Edward decided that the conversation had gone on long enough.

'You don't need to worry about me dad. I'm right now seeing a woman.'

It wasn't the relationship that his father was hoping for, but he what he didn't know won't hurt him right?

His father raised his eye-brows at him disbelievingly.

'Is she a proper shape?'

'She is a perfect shape,' Edward drawled with a smirk lining his mouth, thinking of the A list Hollywood actress who had spent one exceptionally electrifying night in his bed the week before.

Would he be seeing her again? Possibly. She had the legs and the body and she was definitely an athlete in the bedroom.

Was he interested in marrying her? Absolutely not. They would bore each other to death within a couple of weeks, let alone a lifetime. He controlled a shudder as the thought of marriage to that woman was enough to almost make him send her packing.

But hope was already sparkling his father's eyes.

'And when will I get to meet her? You never introduce me to your girlfriends.'

With good reason at that. Introducing a woman to his father would deliver the exact message he was so careful never to send. Marriage, commitment and love was something he considered off- limits. His father sprouting dreams into the woman's head definitely did not help the situation.

'When a woman becomes important to me, you will definitely meet her,' Edward promised smoothly.

'And now I want to introduce you to Angela Weber. She's my Director of Public Affairs and is in charge of the offices here in France, Paris being the headquarters, and she definitely loves food. I know you two will have a lot to say to one another.'

He guided his father towards the trustworthy and dependable Angela, made the necessary introductions and then turned back to the ballroom to continue networking and business.

And stopped straight dead, his attention caught by the woman walking directly in front of him.

She walked past with an unexplainable grace, as though she owned the place, with a gentle sway of her womanly hips and a faint smile on her glossy lips, as if something or someone had amused her into doing it. Her gorgeous brown hair was piled atop her head and her vivid blue dress provided a stunning splash of colour amidst the humdrum uninteresting and ever present black. She looked like an exotic and unknown tropical rain forest bird let loose among a flock of crows. The thought made him smile.

Instantly forgetting the Hollywood actress he had waiting in the side lines, Edward watched her for a moment and then gave a slow, satisfied smile of his own.

His father would be pleased on two counts, he mused, as he moved forward decisively towards the mysterious woman whose name he didn't know.

Firstly because he was about to impede thinking about business and work for the night and turn his attentions to the pursuit of hot pleasure, and secondly because the source of that pleasure absolutely, very undeniably, had curves , all in the right places.

Not that he required her to perform the variety of familial functions that his father had enlisted, of cooking and serving and eating.

Despite his father's understandable anxiety for him and his future, he wasn't interested in a woman's capability to cook, clean or raise his children.

At this point in his life all he expected from a woman was distraction and entertainment and the woman before him looked as though she'd been designed for precisely that reason.

To be continued…

A/N :

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Thanks for reading the fic,

Janna.