CH. 4

BPOV

"Alice, we only have a short time today beca…" a pair of soft lips stopped my explanation, as my jacket was torn off, and my cap knocked to the floor, causing my hair to fall out in a wave.

"Then we better make the most of it." She breathed, pulling me by the hand into the room. This was our fourth get together and I was meeting Alice for a change. We were in a small hotel this time, tucked away in a less crowded part of town. Mark was sitting in a café next door. I had tucked my hair up and wore my largest shades. I even rented a car, so I wouldn't be recognized.

As soon as I sat down on the bed, a warm body filled my lap, and the lips returned to my own. Alice's hands wove their way into my hair, and I let mine move to the small of her back, keeping her close to me. The kisses were passionate and hungry like they always were at these meetings. In six weeks, this was only the fourth time I'd seen Ali. The fourth time I got to feel her in my arms, soft skin warm against my own, wanting blue eyes electrifying my body. Yes, this was only our fourth rendezvous, but I had been speaking to Alice every day, anytime I could get away with it. We kept up an endless stream of communication, either chatting over the phone or texting. And it seemed, with each time we met the conversations following our time together got just a bit naughtier.

After several minutes of Alice dominating my mouth she pulled away for a gasped breath and I ducked my head sucking and kissing at her neck, tasting the skin I had longed for so desperately this last week.

"I missed you." She sighed, letting her head fall to the side for my attentions. She moaned as I hit the sweet spot near her ear. Despite my desire to, we hadn't gone much farther than this. We had occasionally slipped into heavier petting, but even that was over clothes. Like I said, It wasn't that I didn't want to. My body was practically demanding it, and the sexy little texts Ali sent on occasion didn't help things. I had to resort to some desperate means to relieve the tension. It's not easy to find time alone in a palace full of people who have a tendency to follow you around.

I groaned, suddenly finding my breasts grabbed aggressively by Alice's hands. Her head was still thrown away, eyes closed. It was like she was anchoring herself.

"Ali" I panted against her collarbone. She acknowledged me with a sharp squeeze. "We better stop." I forced myself to say.

"Not bloody likely." Ali said in imitation of one of my regular lines, her accent made it sounded silly, though. I started to laugh, but she swallowed my chuckle with a deep kiss, kneading by tits expertly all the while. Despite wanting to just let her have her way, I had to pull back.

"Don't start something we can't finish." I begged, nipping at her lip to soften the blow. She groaned letting her hands fall to my sides.

"Why not?" She grumbled. It took every bit of will power I had not to throw her onto the bed and shag her when I saw the same desire I felt, swirling in her own eyes. Instead I smiled at her, letting fingers trail up and down along her spine.

"It's my Uncle Harry's birthday tonight. I completely forgot when I said we could meet, so we only have about forty-five minutes, thirty now." I explained.

She huffed, slumping against me and I turned so that we fell onto the mattress sideways. A strand of hair fell over her eye and I swept it away, the backs of my fingers drawing a line down her cheek tenderly. Ali was easy to care about. She was sweet and fun, but also beautiful and sexy. It was quite the lethal combination and I couldn't get enough her.

"I forgot to greet you correctly again, didn't I?" Alice said, a blush forming on her cheeks. I smiled adoringly at her.

"Quite." I agreed with mock seriousness, before kissing her pouty lips. "But I think I prefer your improvised version." I said, smiling at her. It was very odd, truthfully. I had always been greeted or addressed a certain way from infancy, and growing up, I came to expect it and knew that it was the proper etiquette. But where Alice was concerned, none of that mattered. She could call me as she pleased. We were equals, and that made me indescribably happy. I smirked as I thought about how she still tried to follow the formal protocol. Her curtsy was getting better.

We spent the rest of our short time curled up together talking sometimes, but mostly trading kisses and enjoying the feel of each other. All too soon we'd be separated again.

Angela's POV

I had been watching Alice for a few weeks now and I knew something was going on with her. Half the time these days you were lucky to get a quick glance in your direction when you talked to her. She was always glued to her phone with a huge grin on her face. Emmett and I were studying at our dining room table when a soft giggle reached my ears. I looked over to see Alice still sitting in an arm chair, legs tucked up beside her. She had a book on her lap, but I doubt if she read a single word from it. She was already clicking out a response to whatever message she'd gotten.

I looked back at Emmett to see him just as flummoxed as me. This wasn't like Alice. She never kept secrets. It was literally impossible for her to keep anything to herself if she found it interesting. And Ali found most everything interesting…enough to share anyway.

I didn't know exactly how to feel about Alice hiding part of her life from us. In some ways it hurt, knowing that she either didn't trust us or didn't want us to know something that was obviously important to her. Emmett and I had spent a few nights already trying to figure out what could be big enough that Ali actually kept her mouth shut.

Then there were the random outings. There were only two times that I remembered, but Alice was never a very good liar, when she even tried. When I asked where she was going she'd say, "Nowhere," an obnoxious smirk plastered on her face. And if I asked what she was doing she'd say, "Nothing," with an equally obnoxious, high inflection of fake innocence. Then she'd giggle and run out the door. It was like she was flaunting her secret with how conspicuous she acted, but wouldn't tell us anything. It was kind of mean, really, and annoying.

And this was on top of the seemingly constant text messages and phone calls that Alice locked herself in her room for. Whoever this mystery person was had turned our friend into a love-sick, secret-keeping, clone of her former self.

Another giggle, this time louder, caused me to break the tip of my pencil on my notebook page.

"Alright! That's it!" Emmett said, slamming his book closed and standing. I followed him over to where he stopped in front of Alice. She actually took her eyes from her phone long enough to look up at us both in surprise, and what looked like apprehension.

"What's going on Ali?" I asked gently.

Edward's POV

My cousin was acting oddly. She had arrived late to my father's birthday dinner tonight, which was not unusual for her. She was rarely on time for any event. But she then proceeded to spend the entire evening texting on her mobile. As much as Isabella enjoyed her fun and "streaks of rebellion" as Uncle Charles called them, she was normally very serious about family affairs. It wasn't like her to ignore a room full of relatives for some text message conversation.

I watched as her expression changed from a smirk to a wide smile. That seemed to be her regular face. If she wasn't grinning, she was either smirking or blushing. Not many things could make Princess Isabella blush, which only intrigued me more.

"She's still at it, then?" Rosalie said, announcing her presence as she came up behind me, where I stood in the doorway of our father's lounge.

"Who do you think it is?" I wondered aloud, turning to my sister when I heard her scoff.

"A lover, of course. See there, look how she's blushing." Rosalie said, gesturing to Isabella who indeed had a delicate pink blush coloring her cheeks.

"Isabella doesn't have lovers." I said confidently. I had never seen Isabella show any romantic interest in a man. I always thought she just didn't want the complications it brought in her position.

"Of course she does. She's probably bonked more twat than you." I stared after my sister in confusion, as she made her way over to Isabella. What was that supposed to mean?

BPOV

I tucked myself into the back lounge, hoping to stay clear of my father at this party. Recently, he had been pushing me to start dating someone. He seemed particularly fond of Jacob, unfortunately for me. So rather than have a fight and ruin my Uncle's birthday party, I decided to resume my earlier conversation with Alice.

I saw Rose approach out of the corner of my eye, giving a shallow curtsy before seating herself on the arm of my chair. I hastily shoved my phone down beside me, smiling up at her all innocence.

"So who is she?" My eyes widened at Rose's casual comment.

"She? She who?" I asked, swallowing the lump in my throat. What did she know? HOW did she know?"

"Whoever this girl is that can make you to blush so brilliantly?" I sputtered at the accusation, even if it was true.

"I…don't know what you're talking about. There's no girl, and even if there was one…"

"Isabella." Rose cut me off softly, looking down at me with a mixture of sympathy and pity. I didn't like it at all.

"What?" I said, daring her to reveal my deepest secret.

"Come with me."

APOV

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to hide my nervousness as I slipped my phone under my leg. I watched both of their eyes follow my movement and I gulped.

"You know what we mean, Ali. You're hiding something from us and we're kind of tired of it." Emmett said. He never was as tactful as Angela. Normally it didn't bother me, because I was known to be a little blunt myself, but right now it was incredibly annoying.

"You're not entitled to know everything about me. If I want to keep something to myself, I don't see why that should matter to you." I responded sourly, crossing my arms in a defiant gesture.

Angela took a seat in a chair beside me, turning to me with a slightly hurt expression. "Alice, we're not trying to be nosey, we're just concerned about you."

"Coulda fooled me." I snarked.

"Don't be such a bitch, Ali." Emmett said moving to rub Angela's shoulders which had slumped slightly.

"Alice, we are worried about you. We're your friends, but you don't talk to us anymore. And then you're dangling this secret of yours in our faces. It's not cool, Ali." Angela said frowning.

"Well I'm sorry. I'm doing the best I can." I pouted. Keeping things to yourself was really hard! It's not my fault my roommates are nosey buggers. I giggled at my use of one of Isabella's words. The more we talked, the more I found her vocabulary slipping into my own. I was always pretty susceptible to that. My mother hated when I started hanging out with Emmett because more swears had made their way into my language.

"Why can't you just tell us? It's not like we're gossip girls." Emmett said, sounding surprisingly gay.

"Because." Was my brilliant rebuttal.

"Because why?" Emmett persisted, his hands going to his hips. I knew he was trying to put some humor into the situation, since the room had grown pretty tense.

"Because she asked me not to." The words slipping out, before I could stop them. I clapped a hand over my mouth, ashamed at my complete inability to just say nothing! Alice, you fucking idiot!

"She?" Angela started to ask, but I was done.

"Stop! Don't ask any more questions! I can't tell you anything, so just leave it alone! Please!" I begged before running to my room. Neither of my roommates were idiots, thought Emmett sometimes acted that way. I could only hope that I hadn't added much fuel to whatever ideas they'd been cultivating about what I wasn't telling them. If I knew my friends, and I did, then they were already in deep discussions about who "she" could be. I threw myself on my bed, muffling a scream into my pillow.

Fuck! If I messed this up, I would be kicking my own ass for the rest of my life. I had to do a better job. I had to try harder at keeping things to myself. And I would. For Isabella, I'd do just about anything.

BPOV

Rose had led me upstairs to her old room, locking the door behind me, and taking a seat on the chest at the end of her bed. I chose to remain standing.

"Isabella, do you really think I am so oblivious about my favorite cousin?" I looked at the floor, unwilling to meet her eyes. "Did you think I wouldn't notice that you danced with girls at the clubs we went to? Not only that, but you enjoyed dancing with girls, where the best a man could get from you was a forced smile?"

I guess she had a point, but Rose danced with women too. That's why I thought she'd just write it off when I did it. Apparently, not.

"That's not even mentioning how many girls you've admired when we're out and at parties."

"Does it…bother you?" I finally got the courage to ask. It didn't seem to, by her tone, but I wanted to hear her say it.

"Of course not. You're my cousin; I'm obligated to love you no matter what you do, but I certainly wouldn't disown you for something like this." She reassured me.

"Does anyone else know?" I asked. Suddenly she looked incredibly guilty and it nearly sent me into panic mode.

"Maybe Edward, if he believed me just now."

"What did you say?" I asked, frowning. Rosalie smirked, shrugging as she repeated her words. "ROSE!" I exclaimed laughing and slapping her wherever I could reach.

"It's true! Isn't it! You dirty slag!" Rose said, slapping me back as we both continued to laugh.

It felt good, finally talking and joking about it. Rose made me feel like it was ordinary and nothing to be worried about. I wish I had opened up to her earlier. I should have known she'd understand. I just wanted to enjoy this moment, because I knew Rose wasn't a good example for how the rest of my family would react. As much as it pained me to admit it about my friend and cousin, I wasn't even sure where Edward would fall on the issue.

A/N How do you feel about Bella having someone to talk to, while Alice doesn't? They are two completely different situations, right? At least that's what Bella's going to argue. We'll see how that works out in the next chapter. You can also expect a lemon or something lemon-like somewhere in the next couple chapters. Don't know exactly when yet, but just a heads up.