AN: Sorry this took so long, I promise it won't take that long again. Also thank you guys soooo much for all your reviews, they really do make me smile.

*Thanks to my beta Kris*

Chapter 3

"Wait a second, who are you?"

"My name is Edward Cullen, and who are you?" he was now eyeing me up and down and it was then that I realized what I was wearing, or really what I wasn't wearing.

"Can I see some identification?" I asked while keeping the knife pointed at him. I had to be absolutely sure of whom he was before I would set my knife down.

He smirked at me while fishing his wallet out of his back pocket. He took a step forward to hand me his drivers license and his scent surrounded me. He smelled like an Aabercrombie store, which made me slightly weak in the knees. I grabbed his license from him and took a look, Edward Anthony Cullen.

"Okay now that I know you're not some crazy killer, can I ask why you are here?" I asked while handing him back his license and setting the knife on the counter.

"Well, I live here," he smirked at me "and now that you are no longer wielding a knife, can I ask you why you are in my apartment?"

"Didn't Alice talk to you?"

"I haven't talked to my sister since I left which was about a month ago," he explained while he assembled a sandwich from the stuff he had pulled out of the fridge.

"I'm going to kill her," I growled while plopping down onto a stool at the kitchen bar.

He snorted, "Ya, that sounds like my sister. Someone always wants to kill her for something she has done."

He came around to my side of the kitchen bar and sat on the stool next to me with his sandwich on a plate.

"So I don't think I got your name."

"Bella."

"It's nice to meet you Bella," he said around a mouthful of food.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to not talk with your mouth full?"

He chuckled, "She told me I was a lost cause when I was sixteen."

"You still haven't told me why you are in my apartment half naked, not that I mind," he said with a smirk.

God that smirk was sexy and so were those bright green eyes, and that messy bed head he had going on made me want to run my fingers through it. Shit, what was wrong with me?

"Well, your sister said I could stay here for a few months since you were in Europe. I thought that she asked you."

"Alice does things in her own time, she was probably gonna going to call me sometime this week and ask me. One year she was making her own Halloween costume and she didn't finish making it until three days after Halloween since she refused help from everyone. So my parents had to call all our neighbors and tell them that Alice was gonna go trick-or-treating three days late."

"Oh my gosh," I was laughing so hard, "how old was she?"

"I think twelve, and as stubborn as she is now," he smiled at me.

"Where were you living before coming to my humble abode?"

"Just down the street with my friend Rose."

"Oh yeah, Alice has told me about her, blonde right?"

"Yup."

"So why did you leave?"

"It's kinda a long story, basically her boyfriend Emmett got kicked out of his apartment and he moved in with Rose and I. It lasted three days and one duck incident before I couldn't take it anymore. That is when your sister offered your apartment for a few months while I saved up some money."

"A duck incident?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yup," I said while nodding my head.

"You can stay here, I don't mind."

"Oh no it's okay. I'll start looking for a new place tomorrow."

"Seriously, it's fine. It would be nice to have some company."

"Are you sure?" I asked nervously not wanting to intrude on his space.

"Absolutely, mi casa es su casa" he got off his stool, "I'm gonna going to go take a shower and go get to bed. I have been on one plane after another for about sixteen hours now."

"Okay," I climbed off my stool and walked down the hallway leading towards our bedrooms. I could feel his eyes on my lace covered ass, so I turned around and sure enough his eyes were rising to meet my eyes. He at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

"What is your last name Bella?" he asked trying to avoid the awkwardness.

"Swan."

That beautiful smirk was back on his face. "Well, goodnight then beautiful swan," he walked into his bedroom and closed his door before I could respond.

I crawled back into bed and tried to make sense of what had just happened.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

The next morning I woke up to the smell of bacon and the sunlight streaming in through the window. I rolled out of bed and slipped some flannel pajama pants on since it was chilly in the apartment. Edward must have turned the air conditioner on. I took a quick look in the mirror and saw pillow lines on my face and a birds nest on my head. I grabbed my hair brush and rid my hair of its scariness. I couldn't do anything about the pillow lines.

As I walked down the hallway and got closer to the kitchen I could also smell coffee. Edward was standing at the stove without a shirt on and black cotton pants hanging dangerously low on his hips. I stood there frozen for a moment watching the muscles in his back while he worked.

I almost dropped to the floor when he turned around, he had the most beautiful chest I think I have ever seen and that includes that hot Italian guy in those underwear ads. His six pack was begging for my fingers to run over them, and the deep V of his hips would feel amazing underneath my tongue, and his happy trail I was sure led someplace that would make me extremely happy.

"Oh good you're up," it took me a few seconds to form words after his spectacular floor show.

"Uh, yeah," before I could embarrass myself there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get that," any excuse to get away from his perfection and collect myself.

"Morning cream puff," Alice was bouncing when I opened the door for her.

"Morning Alice," I held the door open letting her in.

"Oh something smells good Bella. Do you have enough for two? Jazz went to the gym this morning and you know I suck at cooking," she was talking a mile a minute while walking towards the kitchen.

"Edward?" she exclaimed when she spotted her brother at the stove. "What are you doing here?"

"Bella did you know my brother is in your kitchen?" she turned and asked me with a smile on her face.

"Why yes Alice I did," I hip checked her on the way to the coffee pot.

"Hey Al," Edward said while giving her a one armed hug while trying to cook what looked like scrambled eggs.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in Europe?"

"It's a long story, I'll explain later."

He plated three plates full of cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, and buttered toast. We sat at the bar talking. I learned that Edward was a photographer and worked for a travel magazine and that was why he was in Europe. Alice suggested that we all go out to dinner tonight to get to know each other better since I was going to be living with Edward for a while. Also he had never met Rose or Emmett.

"Alright you guys, I have to go get ready for work," I said while taking my dishes to the sink and rinsing them.

"Where do you work Bella?"

"I'm an assistant to an editor at Monroe Publishing."

"Wow, that's a huge publishing house."

"Ya, one day I want to be an editor. But you know you gotta start at the bottom and work your way up."

He nodded his head in understanding while Alice just sat there with a huge smile on her face.

"What?" I asked her hoping she would explain the goofy look on her face.

"Nothing, go get ready for work and we will see you tonight for dinner," she smiled.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

On my way into to work I started thinking about the way I found Edward this morning. He looked so hot that just thinking about it was making me blush.

As I was walking into work I waved to Angela, she was an assistant to one of the other editors, we would occasionally have lunch together, she was nice but quite shy.

I spent the day reading manuscripts and making notes for my boss. You would be surprised how many manuscripts editors actually read and how many assistants to editors read.

By the end of the day I had read at least five manuscripts about vampires falling in love. I was going to slit my wrist if I read one more vampire love story.

I pulled into the parking lot of amore di cibo at seven and ended up parking next to a shiny silver car with none other than Edward in the driver's seat.

"Hey," he said once we were both out of our cars.

"Hi," I smiled at him. He looked good tonight. He was wearing dark jeans and a dark blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up his strong forearms. We were walking side by side when that Aabercrombie smell hit me again, I looked up at his face and strong jaw. He really was handsome. I was wearing heels and he was still towering over me, he had to easily be 6'3.

He held the door open for me to walk in ahead of him, "Well it seems your mama got some manners into you before giving up altogether."

Ugh, that sexy smirk was back. I walked up to the host stand, "How many?"

"We are actually meeting some people here."

"Okay, well you're free to take a look around and if they aren't here yet we can get you a table."

"Thank you."

It took us a few minutes to find them since the restaurant was so large. They were sitting in a U shaped booth in the back.

"There you guys are, I was just about to call you," Alice said while I slid into the booth next to Emmett and Edward slid in next to me.

"So let me introduce everybody. This is my brother Edward," Alice said to Em and Rose.

"And Edward this is Rose and Emmett, Bella's former roommates." Alice was smirking while she said that last little bit. Her smirk wasn't sexy like her brothers, it was just annoying.

"It's nice to finally meet you guys, Alice has told me so much about all of you," he said to Emmett and Rose and then his eyes finally landed on mine.

After placing our orders and getting everyone a glass of wine Alice asked Edward to tell us why he was home so early.

"Well, I was over in Greece in this really small town outside of Athens, which the only way to get to the city was to take a donkey from Athens. So I'm there taking pictures of some local people when my cell phone starts ringing which is just short of a miracle, since I wasn't getting any reception anywhere in Europe."

The waitress had just brought our meals, "Anyway it was my boss and he was telling me to come home because they had decided to pull the article and they had been trying to reach me ever since I got to Germany. So that is why I am home early."

"I'm happy your home but it sucks that your article got pulled," Alice said frowning.

"Its fine honestly, I didn't really want to be bumming around Europe riding donkeys for three months."

After we finished our meals we sat there talking and somehow Edward and I moved closer to each other, so close that our thighs were touching. I was starting to feel warm, just being around him and hearing his laugh and smelling his Abercrombie scent made my head spin.

"I think we need to call it a night, Em and I have to work tomorrow," Rose said while nudging Jasper to get out of the booth.

Rose and Emmett worked at a huge advertising company downtown which is where they met.

We all made our way out to the parking lot and said our goodbyes. I was about to get into my car when Edward said with his smirk, "I'll see you at home darling."

"Yes, you will sweetheart," I smirked back before getting into my car and driving home to our apartment.

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