Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or its characters.

The MuFu Agreement

An hour later, Edward wakes me by gently kissing my fingers until I open my eyes.

"I hate to wake you, but I need to do a little work this afternoon," he says, dragging my body up in the bed until our mouths are even. He kisses me gently, lingeringly…stroking his tongue over mine again and again as he cups my face with his hand.

"Ok, let's go. I'm too sore for another round right now," I laugh, pulling away when his hands start to wander. He chuckles back and whispers that he's sorry to which I reply that I'm not.

I pull on a flowy summer skirt and t-shirt, then call a cab to take us back to the bar where we both left our cars. When we get there, he walks me to mine and opens the door for me after I use the remote to unlock it.

"Bella, I don't remember the last time when I had so much fun," he says, turning to smile crookedly at me.

"I had fun, too. Well, hopefully you figured that out for yourself. Otherwise I need to work on my communication skills," I say, smiling back up at him.

He laughs before he answers. "Your communication skills are excellent…and sometimes loud. So, I'll pick you up at seven?" he asks, bending down to kiss me.

"Ned, that sounds suspiciously like a date. How about I meet you somewhere instead?" I say. I really like him, but I was serious about the no-dating thing, too. I'm not in romantic relationship mode yet. But I'm definitely in sex-buddy relationship mode, especially after last night. Especially with him.

"Okay. Why don't you come to my place and we'll walk to the restaurant from there? I can text you directions if you give me your cell number," he says. That wasn't exactly what I meant, it still sounds date-ish, but what the hell. He's seen my place, after all.

"Check your phone. I already added myself to your contacts…for business purposes, at the time," I tell him, smiling cheekily.

"Oh, really? You're a sneaky little thing, aren't you?" he asks.

"Hey, that's what you get for giving almost-complete strangers your passwords to everything," I laugh. "I added myself right after I called you an asshole."

"Semi-asshole," he reminds me, smiling.

"That rating is subject to change without warning," I tease, pleased when he laughs again and reaches for my hand to squeeze it.

"So I'll see you around seven then?" he asks, his green gaze relaxed…happy.

"Sure, Ned. See you then," I reply, getting into my car. I start it and pull away, purposely not watching him get into his car, suddenly uncomfortable at how much I don't want to leave him for the next few hours. Time to go home and regroup…and sleep.

After some lunch and a two hour nap, I am ready to face my neighbor. I pick up the phone and dial Angela.

"Hello? Bella?" Angela says, picking up almost immediately.

"Yes, it's me. He's gone," I say.

"I'll be there in 20 seconds," she says loudly, then hangs up. I think it's more like ten seconds when she comes bursting through my apartment door. She kicks the door shut with her foot and hurdles over the back of the couch to sit at the opposite end from me.

"Spill," she demands.

So I do. I tell her an abridged version of the sordid tale of Nedward and me. She chides me briefly for sleeping with someone I don't know and for letting him stay so long, concerned that I may have gotten mixed up with a burgler or serial killer.

"Angela, his salary is probably several million dollars a year. I doubt if he's going to steal my $99 watch or my Crate and Barrel stemware," I argue. "Besides, if you saw him, you'd gladly risk your life for the chance to have him in your bed."

"Good-looking, huh?" she asks, her eyes bright.

"Good-looking doesn't begin to cover it," I sigh. Suddenly, I remember that I have the magazine with his picture in my messenger bag. I get the magazine and quickly flip to the page with his picture then hand it to her, smirking.

"Yeah, right! Very funny, B," she laughs, tossing the magazine back at me.

"Hey, don't wrinkle him," I say, frowning as I smooth the page back out.

"That's not really him," she says. I look pointedly at her. "Is it?"

"Angela, look at my face. Do I look like I'm shitting you? Does he not look like he could make a woman scream the way he made me scream during the 13 hours he was here?"

"Fucking shit! Give it back and let me look at him again," she says, grabbing for the magazine.

"Don't grab. You'll rip him," I say, then giggle when I realize we sound like a couple of tweens arguing over a picture of the Jonas Brothers. I may never completely forgive Jasper for making me go with him to take his two nieces to that concert. At the very least, he's paying for my hearing aids when I'm old because I know my hearing was damaged that night by the shrieking eight-year-olds.

"So are you dating him?" she asks.

"No. I would be open to fucking him repeatedly until he gets tired of me, though," I say, smiling.

"Bella, you know those kinds of arrangements never work out," she says, looking skeptically at me. Everything is black or white, good or bad, right or wrong in Angela's world. Sometimes she's right, though. She's probably right now, but I'll take a few nights of fun and sex over the last year and a half of crying, boring nights, and no sex.

"I know it won't last long-term, but really, Angela, look at him. Would you kick him out of your bed? I don't even know if he wants to continue or not. We're going to dinner tonight, but it might just be a 'thanks, but no thanks' thing."

"He's taking you to dinner?" she asks, brightening. "Where are you going? What are you wearing?"

"I don't know. I forgot to look to see if he texted me directions yet," I reply, going to grab my phone off the charger. I have four new texts: two from Jasper and two from an unknown number.

Jasper's first one is from last night and just wants to know if I'm home safe. At midnight. Yes, J, I was home safe having safe sex.

The second from Jasper is from this morning.

*Where r u? Dinner 2nite with Em and me? J

I decide to answer him quickly before I read the unknowns, who I assume are Edward's.

*Can't do dinner. Drinks at 5:30? B

He answers back immediately, telling me to meet them at a bar near Emmett's condo.

Finally, the moment of truth. I have a short moment of panic when I think he could be giving me the kiss-off via text message, but I can't not look. I open the first one from the unknown number, vaguely aware that Angela is still sitting on the other end of my couch, still studying the picture of Edward – or maybe reading the article. Riiiiight.

He opens with 'Stella', which makes me smile and then gives his address and directions from my apartment to his…house. It has to be a house. In Green Lake. Nice. I will have to google-earth it in a minute.

The second text came soon after the first.

*Stella, hoping to see your spectacular ass in jeans tonight.

I giggle, not realizing that Angela is peeking at my phone screen until she starts talking.

"Who's Stella?" She sounds confused.

"Me."

"Why does he call you Stella?" she asks, still perplexed.

"Because I call him Ned," I answer. I explain why I call him Ned because I know that will be her next question, but I don't tell her about my Ned-clamation during sex…even though she might have heard it through her wall anyway.

"Oh my god. Not even 24 hours and you guys already have little pet names for each other. That's just about the cutest fucking thing I've ever heard," she says.

"It's not like that," I mumble, feeling myself start to blush.

"Okay, whatever. Let's go find you some jeans for your spectacular ass," she says, hopping up and heading toward my room. "Coming?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna just answer him real quick. I'll be right there," I call to her.

*Ned, u were drunk. No spectacular ass here.

As soon as I get to my room, I get another text from him. Angela looks at me, grinning, with raised eyebrows.

*Trust me. It was spectacular in the skirt and out of it.

*Shameless flattery makes me suspicious. What do u want?

*You. Bring an overnight bag? Please?

Shit…what do I do? Is it too slutty if I agree? Oh, hell, who am I kidding? I let the man give me 12 orgasms last night and had sex with him four times. I'm already in this far, might as well go for the royal slut flush. I ask Angela for her opinion.

"Before I saw the picture of him, I would say no…definitely no."

"And now that you have seen the picture?" I ask, biting my lower lip.

"I'll pack for you," she laughs.

*OK, but no guarantees about staying.

He answers immediately.

*Not everyone comes with a guarantee like I do. See you soon.

I laugh, but don't reply, putting my phone away and heading to the shower while Angela really does pack my small duffle bag for me.

Angela stays to oversee my appearance for tonight, helping me choose the dark jeans and black sleeveless, boatneck top I'm wearing. It's clingy across my chest and at my hips but not tight anywhere else. Angela says I look tempting but not trashy. I'm unsure about wearing it, afraid I'll look like I'm trying too hard. I want to look casually sexy, not overtly trampy, even though I probably passed the tramp threshold 12 times last night. Maybe I should get a tramp stamp tattoo to make it official. Angela watches me with amusement as I fidget in front of the mirror, then I finally give up and announce I'm ready to leave. She opens the door for me, smiles at me and hands me my overnight bag, like a mom handing her child a lunchbox on the first day of school.

Fifteen minutes later, I walk into the bar to meet Em and Jasper. I stop inside the door and look around for them, then hear Em's whistle from across the room. I turn and walk toward them, smiling.

"Baby Swan, you're lookin' hot tonight," Jasper says.

Emmett is looking at me appraisingly with narrowed eyes. "You had sex," he states.

My eyes widen. How does he do that? My resulting blush basically confirms his assertion and they both start laughing at me.

"Do you have some sixth sex sense or something?" I mumble, sitting on the stool in between them.

"Naw. You just look all content and glowy. The same way the ladies look after leaving my bed," he says, smirking. "So, who's the lucky guy?"

"Not telling," I say. "It was random, but he was hot."

"Were you safe?" Jasper asks. "Do we need to get you a morning after pill or anything?"

"Jesus, Dad," I hiss under my breath, rolling my eyes. "We were safe, I was careful, it's no big deal."

"Is he the reason you can't hang with us tonight?" Emmett asks.

"Yes," I answer hesitantly. "We're having dinner."

"So you like him," Jas states, nodding and smiling at me.

"Yes, but we're not dating. We're just fucking. You guys know I'm not ready to date," I say. "Aren't either of you going to get me a goddamn beer?"

"On it," Em says, getting up. "You get details," he tells Jas as he walks away.

"You heard him. You've got to give me something to tell him," he laughs.

"Hmmm. Well, he stayed 13 hours and it was the best sex I've ever had," I answer.

"Hell, Baby Swan. Then date the man," he exclaims.

"I'm not ready to put my heart out there again, Jas," I say softly. "It's not an issue for him, anyway. He doesn't date either."

"Oh, good, you're perfect for each other. Two idiots avoiding relationships," he says, teasing me…I think. I raise one eyebrow at him, but don't reply.

Thankfully, Emmett comes back with my beer then and the conversation shifts to business. He asks how the meeting went at Hale yesterday. I respond that I didn't get to meet with Mr. Hale, but met with the executive vice-president and I was able to answer all his questions. Emmett is looking at me funny again.

"Fuck, Swan. It's him, isn't it?" he asks. It's like he can freaking read my mind tonight.

"What's him?" I ask, trying to look innocent.

"He's the random but hot guy. Damn. You never just do anything the easy way, do you?" he asks, shaking his head at me.

I am momentarily afraid that they will be pissed at me for sleeping with someone who has the potential to make or break this burgeoning business relationship, but, instead, they both think it's funny.

"It's not funny, you guys," I say, but I can't help laughing a little myself.

"Well, he must have really impressed you to get you to sleep with him the day you met. I've never known you to do that in the seven years I've known you," Jasper chimes in. "Hell, you were practically engaged to Jake before you let him down there. How many guys have you even slept with in your life?"

I know I'm blushing again. I hate talking about this shit with them, but they'll only tease me more if I try to change the subject.

"I am so not talking numbers with you, and Jake and I weren't engaged when we first slept together. I just wanted to wait until I was sure…then I learned you're never sure so I might as well just do what I want. And I definitely wanted to do random-guy-from-last-night," I snicker.

"Name?" Emmett asks. I just look at him. "You know I can get it off their website. You might as well save me the trouble."

"Edward Cullen," I answer sullenly.

"Oh, I just heard something about him….he's from a really wealthy family, but doesn't get along with his father or something. His family owns a company that makes microchips, I think, but he won't have anything to do with it. Did he say anything about that?" Jasper asks me.

"No, Jasper. We didn't bond over our mutual fucked up families. We just screwed until we couldn't walk," I answer.

"No need to be sarcastic, Baby Swan," he chides me, looking at me strangely.

"I wasn't. Did you miss the part where I told you how long he stayed? We didn't sleep that much," I say.

"Okay, I think I've heard enough about your overactive night," Emmett pipes up. Jasper is still looking at me funny.

"What?" I say to him, sounding kind of snotty.

"You're being exceptionally crude and sarcastic, Bella. What are you hiding?" he asks.

"Fucking nothing, Jasper. Why don't you give it a damn rest?" I say testily.

"Because you only act like this when you're avoiding something. How much do you like this guy?" he asks, searching my face with his laser beam blue eyes.

"Enough to be his fuck buddy, which is more than I like you two dickheads at the moment….well, I don't like you two that way ever…that doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean," I seethe. Emmett mumbles something about not doing anything wrong.

"More irrational behavior. You're definitely concealing something," Jasper says, nodding at me.

"You didn't sign some contract to do all the ad work for free, did you?" Emmett asks. I know he's kidding, but they are seriously pissing me off now. Tears spring to my eyes – side effect of Jake. I used to be tougher than this, but once my tear ducts started flowing after the broken engagement, they never wanted to stop.

"What is wrong with you two? You've been bugging me to sleep with someone for a year now. I finally do and you just give me shit about it," I say, trying not to let the tears escape.

"We've been bugging you to date someone, not to just screw someone. You're letting Jake control you – again – by turning off your emotions," Jasper says.

"I'm not ready, Jasper," I whisper, looking at him intently with my teary eyes.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Let's drop it," he says, leaning over from his stool to kiss my cheek.

Emmett steers the conversation back toward safe subjects, and tells funny stories until both Jasper and I are laughing hysterically, forgetting our earlier tense conversation.

An hour later, I drive to Edward's following the directions he texted me. Jesus, I love this neighborhood.

I'm glad I got to have a beer with my boys. I think I would have been a nervous wreck otherwise by this point. Instead, I feel oddly calm. I find Edward's house easily. It's a refurbished Craftsman – with a front porch and a huge bigleaf maple tree in the yard. I don't even make it up the front porch steps before he's got the door open, smiling at me, looking even hotter than last night in jeans and a dark green button down shirt. I smile back.

"Nice place, Ned," I say.

"Thanks. Come in," he answers, stepping aside so I can enter. As soon as I'm in, he grabs me around the waist and kisses me hard. I kiss him back, thinking about how it's only been seven hours since I saw him, but I kind of missed him, which is ridiculous since we're only screwing and not dating. And I really don't know him at all.

"It's only been seven hours since I saw you, but I seriously forgot how pretty you are. You look great, Bella," he says, almost echoing my own thoughts. I blush and mumble a thank you, as he chuckles and pulls me into a hug.

"So, I made margaritas – do you even like margaritas? I can fix you something else, but I thought we'd go eat Mexican food and maybe margaritas would be good to have here first, so I could show you around the house," he says, apparently having caught my diarrhea of the mouth disease. I didn't know it was contagious.

I laugh before I answer. "I like margaritas. And I'd love for you to show me around," I answer calmly. "What are you so nervous about, Ned?"

"I don't know. I feel better now that you're here, though," he smiles. "Come on, kitchen first."

He takes my hand and leads me into the kitchen, passing through the living room on the way. There are a few framed pictures around – several of a little girl with long blonde curls and big blue eyes. There's a dark-haired woman in some of the pictures with her. I try to slow down and look at them, but he keeps walking and pulling me along behind him.

In the kitchen, he pours us both margaritas while I look around. A set of French doors lead into the backyard and I walk over to them to look out. The yard is enclosed with a six foot privacy fence. A hot tub and a fire pit are on the large patio and a cute playhouse is farther out in the yard. It's like a miniature version of this house, even painted the same forest green color with tan trim. I feel my heart drop into my stomach. Pictures of a little girl…a playhouse in the yard….Edward is a DILF.

"How old is she?" I ask quietly, planning my escape. Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" is running through my head. Should I slip out the back, Jack? What if there's no gate? Make a new plan, Stan.

"How old is who?" Answering with a question. Clever avoidance tactic, but I won't be deterred.

"Your daughter?" I ask, annoyed.

"My what?" he asks, sounding confused. "Oh! You mean Riley."

"Riley," I repeat. Cute name. Cute kid. But I don't want to be involved with a daddy, no matter how much magic he can do with his fingers and tongue. Children scare the everliving fuck out of me. I can tolerate Jasper's nieces and nephews, but that's only because I love him so much. And because I only see them once or twice a year when Jasper drags me to his parents' ranch in Texas for a visit.

"She's not my daughter. She's my niece," he says, stepping up behind me and reaching around to hand me my drink.

"Thanks," I say, feeling stupid now for questioning him…especially in the tone I used to do it.

"You're welcome. You think I wouldn't have told you if I had a kid?" he asks.

"I don't know what I thought. I jumped to conclusions. I've only known you one day and we didn't talk about your life all that much. I was just surprised that you wouldn't have mentioned it, I guess," I say.

"Well, I'm not a dad, but I would like to think if I was, that I would tell everyone about her…or him."

"You have a playhouse at your house for a niece? I mean, that's sweet and all, but seems a little over the top," I say.

"She lived here. Her mom, my sister, and her. They lived here from when she was two until about four months ago."

"How old is she now?"

"Four. She'll be five in June. We have the same birthday," he says. I can hear the smile in his voice. I suddenly want to see the smile, so I turn to look up at him, smiling myself when I see how wide and proud it is.

"Can I look at the playhouse?" I ask, wanting to make amends now for my DILF snob behavior. I think if Edward was a DILF, I might have to make an exception for him.

"Sure," he says, unlocking and opening the doors. We walk outside and I glance at the fire pit; it's stocked with wood. A teak couch and four teak chairs surround the fire pit, all loaded with dark green cushions and tons of green and blue printed pillows.

The hot tub cover is padlocked. I look up at him quizzically.

"I was nervous with Riley here. Alice – that's my sister – said I was overprotective and overreacting. That's partially why she moved out. She's very laidback in her parenting style, although not in any other aspect of her life. I was making her crazy," he says, smiling like he's a little proud of that fact.

"So you enjoyed making her crazy?" I ask, grinning up at him, as we start walking toward the playhouse.

"Not as much as I enjoyed making you crazy last night," he says quietly. That woke the girls. I wonder if I can get dehydrated from expelling so much moisture down there yesterday and today. Maybe I'd better drink extra water at dinner.

"And this morning," I say, sipping my drink and purposely not looking at him. "Can I go in?" We are stopped in front of the playhouse. It looks like it's two stories, but when Edward opens the door it's just one, but one that an adult can stand in.

"After you," he says, letting me go in. I duck down to go through the short door and then stand up inside. It's one large room with a little table in one corner and doll bunkbeds built into another wall. Two plaid picnic blankets are neatly folded underneath. There are several giant floor cushions propped in another corner.

"This is adorable! Did you have this custom built?" I ask excitedly.

"Kind of. I built it," he says.

I look at him disbelievingly, but can quickly tell that he's being honest. "Ned, you are a man of many talents," I say, looking up at him and smiling.

He smiles back and bends down to kiss me.

I pull back and step away. "Hang on," I say, lifting my glass to my lips and finishing my drink. I set my glass down on the floor and step back toward him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling his lips back to mine as he chuckles.

"If we don't go to dinner now, I'm not going to want to," he says, pulling back to smile at me. "You still okay with walking? It's not supposed to rain tonight."

"Yup. Let's go, Ned," I say, bending down to get my empty glass.

As I'm stooping down to go back through the playhouse door, he reaches out with one hand to grab my ass. "Thanks for wearing the jeans, Stella. Your spectacular ass looks fantastic in them," he says huskily.

"Ned, if you keep talking to me like that, there will be consequences," I say, turning around to look at him, desire coursing through my body.

He steps toward me and reaches his hand into my hair, gripping it and pulling gently as he lowers his mouth to mine again. He licks along my lower lip before thrusting his tongue into my mouth. I tangle my tongue with his as I wrap my free hand around his back, pressing hard between his shoulder blades. He lets go of my hair and slowly slides his hand down my back, stopping right at the top of my ass and pulling my hips closer to his.

"Fuck, Bella. I want you…I've never wanted anyone this much before," he murmurs against my lips.

"I want you, too," I say, moving my hand around to his chest and then sliding it lower.

"Shit…if I let you do that, you'll never get dinner," he says, grabbing my hand with his and leaning back to smile at me. "Let's go eat and then maybe we can revisit this conversation."

"You're going to walk around with that?" I ask teasingly, rubbing myself against the front of his jeans a little.

"No, I'm going to think about my cleaning lady, Mrs. Cope, for a few minutes and that will take care of the problem," he says slyly.

"What's wrong with Mrs. Cope?"

"Nothing, except she has a 'stache…and a hairy mole on her chin," he says, trying not to laugh. I laugh, too. "See? Problem almost solved." He leans down to quickly kiss me – lips firmly closed.

I put one arm around his neck to hold his face close to mine. "That's good. I probably shouldn't tell you then how completely fucking wet you make me and how I don't know if I can possibly wait until after dinner to have you," I say quietly, my lips touching the shell of his ear. "No, I definitely shouldn't tell you that." I let him go and turn to start walking back to the house.

He catches me in four strides and slides his arm around my waist. "You are evil and you will pay for that later," he says, smiling down at me.

"I'm counting on it," I reply, putting my arm around him, too.

We walk the five blocks to the restaurant, talking and laughing, but not touching anymore. I don't know what his reason is – maybe he doesn't want to look like he's on a date…because we're not – but my reason is that I really can't stand it. If I touch him, then I'll want to kiss him and if I start kissing him, I'll be dragging him into the bushes before we make it to the restaurant.

We stick to fairly safe subjects: where we each went to college (he went Ivy League, not surprisingly), what books and movies we like, favorite and least-liked foods. When we get to the restaurant, we are seated in a small semi-circle booth.

"I want to sit close to you. Scoot over here," he asks, scooting toward the middle. I roll my eyes but scoot toward him. He pulls me to his side and leaves his arm behind me on the back of the booth.

We order drinks and dive into the chips and salsa. He leans over to kiss me a couple of times and I have a fleeting thought that this really fucking feels like a date, but I guess as long as neither of us considers it a date, it's okay. Right?

"So, I know you have a sister now. Any other siblings?" I ask. "I'm not trying to pry or anything. You don't have to answer."

He smiles at me. "It's okay. I don't mind answering questions. You revealed some stuff last night so I should, too. And I don't have any proposal-only questions limitation tonight with you, do I?"

I shake my head, smiling at him.

"I don't have any other surviving siblings. I had a younger brother, but he only lived a few hours. So, it's just Alice and me," he answers. "What about you?"

"Just me. My parents decided they couldn't stand each other when I was a few months old, so that was it," I say, swallowing and then taking a drink of my margarita. And a big drink of water…rehydrating for later.

"Are you close to them?" he asks, looking intently at me.

"Not really. I mean, my dad, I guess more than my mom. She's pretty content to see me once a year and talk to me on the phone or email once in awhile. My dad at least calls me every week to check in, even though the conversations only last a couple of minutes," I say. "Are you close to your parents?"

"I don't get along very well with my dad, so no. My mom passed away a long time ago," he answers.

"Edward, I'm so sorry," I say, putting my hand on his leg under the table.

"It's okay," he says, putting his hand on top of mine and intertwining our fingers. His thigh flexes beneath our hands and it's 'Girls Gone Wild – Seattle Edition' in my pants. The girls are incorrigible tonight. I don't know how to get control of them again now.

"You're close with your sister, though, and Riley," I prompt, reminding myself that we are in public and I can't molest him under the table…or can I?

He smiles. "Yes. Alice and I were always close, but we got even closer after Riley was born. Honestly, it killed me a little when they moved out. I was so used to having them in the house…having the noise, seeing Riley every day. They didn't move that far away, but it's not the same. They come by a lot, though."

I try to move our joined hands up higher on his thigh, but he holds my hand in place, raising his eyebrows at me.

"What?" I say. "I was listening to your story. You miss having your sister and niece live with you."

"Yes, I do. Do you miss having your fiancé live with you?" he asks.

"Well, that's certainly a mood killer question," I say, pulling my hand away from his and removing it from his leg. "Can't a girl get in a little under-the-table groping in peace?"

He laughs and leans close. "Be patient, Bella. You didn't answer my question. Do you miss him?"

I purse my lips to the side, trying to figure out the answer to that one. "Hang on, I'm evaluating. I rarely make myself think about this shit."

"Take your time," he says, laughing, his green gaze soft. He grabs my errant hand and re-laces our fingers, resting them once again on his leg.

"I don't miss him. You know what I miss? Don't look at me like that. I'm not talking about sex. I miss someone being there at night to talk to – even though he was never very interested in what I was doing. It's boring eating dinner by myself most nights, you know? But that's not likely to change anytime soon, and I'm kind of used to it now. I really like my neighbor and if her boyfriend isn't around, we spend the evenings together. Em and Jas are around some. And I usually work late once or twice a week. But I really don't miss Jake, I never really did – which is weird and sad and a little pathetic since I almost married him."

"Did you love him?" he asks quietly, watching my face intently for my answer.

"Yes," I answer hesitantly. "But…I don't know how to explain it. We had another couple who we hung out with a lot. They were constantly touching, and the way they looked at each other – they were so intense, so devoted. They always had fun together. Jake and I didn't have that. I envied that other couple. God, I'm rambling again, huh?"

"Yes, but I like it. Keep going," he says.

"Plus, Em and Jas didn't like Jake. They never said all that much, but Jake really didn't want me hanging out with them and that bugged them. And Emmett told me I didn't fall in love with Jake – I slid. He thinks love should be all-consuming, passionate – and we didn't have that. We had each other because neither of us had found anyone else we liked more."

"What about now?"

"Now I don't believe in that shit anymore. I thought I knew so much about love and relationships, only to discover I didn't even know what was going on in my own fucking bed. It was heartbreaking and humiliating in a way that I'm not sure I'll ever forget. I'm not sure I want to forget," I answer, trying to keep the bitterness out of my tone.

"Bella, you're beautiful, intelligent, funny. There would be a thousand guys lined up to date you if you'd let them. You deserve that – to have a guy who can love you passionately. That's why I'm hesitant to ask you if you want to continue with me – because I can't give you those things," Edward says softly, looking down at our joined hands on his leg.

"I don't want those things. I want no-strings, fun, sexy times. If we continue this," I say, pausing to wave my hand between us again like I did last night in the cab, "I don't expect or want any of that hearts and flowers crap from you. You know, if we want to hang out, see each other, we can. If one of us is busy, no big deal. The only thing I don't want is to be one of the harem. If there are going to be other women, I'm out."

"There won't be anyone else," he says, looking back up and gazing at me with those intense green eyes.

"Well, if we're really going to do this, I think we should agree to be completely honest, then, and if one of us wants out, no hard feelings. If one of us meets someone else or something. I promise I will be honest with you. You can trust me," I say, feeling tingly all over that he wants to continue having hot, crazy sex with me.

"I promise I will be honest with you, too. And you can trust me," he says, smiling crookedly at me.

"So we agree? Monogamous fucking until one of us calls it off?" I ask.

"Agreed," he answers, leaning in to kiss me again.

A/N: Thanks for reading – please review and let me know what you think.

Next chapter should later this week – with citrus.