Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Original characters and plot are the property of the me. No copyright infringement is intended. This story may contain violence and adult themes and is rated MA/NC-17 for a reason, violence and the nature of this story is not recommended to be acted out in real life and is strictly used in a fictional context.

Edward P.O.V

"Edward did you eat yet?" Bella asked, glancing at me quickly. I just couldn't get a read on her; did she have some angle for helping me? If so, what the fuck did I have to offer?

"No," I answered, drumming my fingers while looking out the window.

"Anything you want? We could stop on the way to my apartment," she suggested.

"Uh, McDonald's is fine." It's better than what I've had to fuckin' eat for two years.

Bella nodded, and pulled into McDonald's a few minutes later, placing an order through the drive-in. Afterwards we headed to her apartment, and pulled into the underground parking for Escala. Figure's she would live in a high-end apartment building, I thought bitterly.

I got out of the car and slammed the door a little harder then I meant to, and Bella gave me a dirty look. I just raised my hands and muttered "Sorry," which hopefully avoided her wrath.

A few minutes later, we were on the penthouse floor walking into Bella's place; I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the extravagance. I'll be the first to fuckin' admit I'm a little jaded. I guess if you go from having money to abso-fucking-lutely nothing, that shit will happen... I can't honestly be held accountable for my attitude.

Bella walked through the doors, taking command, like she was the fuckin' leader of an army; I had to contain a snort of laughter.

"Rose, take Edward here to the suite and get started," she said as she waved me forward.

I've been officially dismissed, I quietly laughed to myself. Was I this much of an ass before? Probably—fucking karma.

I walked into a huge master bedroom, with king sized sleigh bed made of cherry wood, with a nice fluffy comforter, and a mountain of pillows with accenting hints of purple. The walls were a crème colour, except for the wall behind the bed that was a light chocolate brown. Across from the bed was a wall of windows that showed the Seattle skyline with a brown leather chaise, facing the windows.

The en suite matched the master bedroom – beige marble tiles, a large whirl pool tub and a spacious separate shower. It had his and her sinks with glass basin bowls. Talk about fuckin' luxury. Rose apparently had a salon set up across the counters and a chair situated in the center of the bathroom.

"Sit," she ordered.

I gave her a dirty look. Did these people ever hear of fuckin' manners? They're so damn bossy.

Rose grabbed a cape and fastened it. "You do know what the fuck you're doing, right?" I asked warily.

"I think I can handle cutting your damn hair," she snapped. "I own a hair salon."

I let out a sigh of relief. "Not too short on the top," I requested.

At that point, Bella came in with a bunch of bags and dropped them at my feet; I shot her a curious look.

"Clothes, toiletries, etc... the guest room where you'll be staying has a closet with clothes for you as well," she smiled before turning on her heel and out the door.

What happened to the hotel room I was staying in? Now I'm staying here with her? As what, her teddy bear? Or did she expect me to read her a bedtime story or what? "Remind me again why I'm doing this," I shot over at my 'saviour' as I was getting uncomfortable at seeing the lengths she was going to in her attempt to even our score.

She sighed deeply, as if she was tired of answering my question. "Because I'll drug your stubborn ass if you don't," she replied as she turned to look at me.

"Wait, so what? I'm your charity case of the week? Do you get off doing this for people or what?"

The corner of her lip curled up as she eyed me up and down. "No, it seems you're my first. How am I doing do far?" she asked as everyone in the room laughed.

I bit my tongue and kept my questions to myself, deciding I'd ask her when we were alone. The last thing I needed was an audience.

x-x-x- -x-x-x

An hour later, I walked out into the living room fully showered with my hair cut and beard looking like a five o'clock shadow. I found a bunch of clothes in the spare room, ranging from dressy to casual—even street clothes, there was quite a few Ed Hardy pieces. I decided to wear a pair of dark washed blue jeans, and a dark grey short sleeved Henley. I couldn't fuckin' believe all this shit; Bella even bought me designer colognes – Prada, Givenchy and Armani. Who does this shit for someone they meet on the streets?

"You clean up well," Alice grinned at me from across the room. "Did you like the clothes?" she asked.

"Uh, thanks," I shrugged. I took a seat on the large dark brown leather sectional. What the fuck was I supposed to say to that anyways? Glad you approve? "Yeah, I do." I turned to look around to see if Bella was close by. "Hey Bella, thanks for the clothes and other stuff," I said. What? I have some fuckin' manners; the girl just spent hundreds of dollars on me.

She looked at me and genuinely smiled; no cockiness behind it or anything for the first time since I fuckin' met her. "No problem," she said as she tossed a box at me. "It's a phone, it has unlimited nationwide minutes as well as text messages," she explained.

I looked down and saw she'd bought me a fuckin' iPhone on top of everything else. I just shook my head, all this in the course of 48hrs – unreal. "Thanks," I mumbled looking down, still having a hard time processing it all.

Bella reached out and placed her hand under my chin, making me look at her. "You needed to catch a break, Edward," she said softly. "I'm just simply providing that for you."

Maybe Bella wasn't as bad as I was fuckin' making her out to be. When she looked at me like that, I felt like she could see right into my soul.

x-x-x- -x-x-x

Bella P.O.V

I could feel Alice's eyes staring a hole in the side of my head, so I slowly backed away from Edward and looked at her. It felt like she was trying to figure out a fuckin' mathematic equation which was eluding her with studying our interactions. It was fucking annoying.

"Bella, can we talk for a minute?" she asked, getting out of her seat, motioning towards the master bedroom.

I followed her back into the bedroom, closing the door behind us. "What, Alice?" I asked, not bothering to hide the irritation in my voice.

Alice glared at me. "Why are you so stuck on helping, Edward, to such extremes?" she asked.

I gave her a bewildered look. "What do you mean?"

"Don't think I didn't notice that fuckin' car in the garage, Bella!" she shrieked. "You never go out of your way for a stranger, even if they've helped you."

I stood there and gaped at her. "I am not self-centered, nor am I incapable of helping others," I said indignantly. "I give millions of dollars a year to charities."

"So then he's right? He's just a charity case to you?"

"Alice, I–"

"So, are you going to lurk in dark alleys every week, and give a makeover to anyone who rescues you now? Why don't you just stop lying to me and admit there's something more here?"

"How am I lying to you?" I shot my friend a warning look. She was pushing it.

Alice raised her hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she said.

"I think it's time to clear out," I suggested, ignoring her apology. I walked back into the living room. "It's getting late; I think everyone should clear out. Thank you for your help today," I said.

Rose looked between Alice and me, raising her eyebrow in question. I just shook my head, no doubt Alice could be heard from out here with her shrieking. It's not like I would actually stay ticked off at Alice, we were business partners after all with Fated Cosmetics, and had been friends since we were little. I just wanted her to stew a little and realize she crossed the line.

Once everyone was gone, I looked at my watch, and noticed it was close to midnight. I planned on taking tomorrow off from the office and just working remotely if needed. I made a mental note to contact Jessica in the morning to reschedule my appointments for the day.

I sighed and turned to Edward. "I'm going to head to bed; we'll get some food tomorrow," I said, as I headed for the master bedroom to change. "Goodnight, Edward," I called over my shoulder.

"Night, Bella," he said a confused look covering his face.

I was about to tell him he better be here when I woke up, but I was too damn tired to explain anything. Besides, I'd already left instructions with the guards, and if he tried to leave – let's just say he'd live to regret it.

Edward P.O.V

I watched as Bella retreated to her bedroom, she was definitely beautiful, but completely out of my fuckin' league. I stilled my thoughts and decided to think about the opportunity I was being handed. I'd never been anyone's charity case, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I needed to figure out a game plan to get back on my feet—maybe I could go back to school. I needed to come up with something concrete, since Bella wasn't going to support my ass forever.

x-x-x- -x-x-x

I woke up early the next morning to the smell of coffee brewing. I jumped out of bed, took a quick shower, and dressed up in a pair of vintage ripped jeans, a black Henley, paired with an Ed Hardy hoodie.

I walk out to the kitchen and laughed. There standing before me was Bella, wearing a black and white Ed Hardy pull over hoodie, and dark jeans.

She turned around at the sound of my laughter, taking in my appearance.

"Great minds think alike?" she chuckled.

God, even her laugh is beautiful. Clearly I was crushing on Bella, which was ironic considering the shit that went down yesterday.

"Coffee?" she asked, taking out two mugs from the cupboard.

"Mm, sounds great," I said, taking a seat at the breakfast bar.

Bella placed the mugs on the bar along with the crème and sugar. "Sorry, there's no food here yet, we can go shopping afterwards," she said, taking a sip of her coffee.

I smiled; it was actually nice to have someone to share these domestic moments with again. "No problem," I said, just as her phone started to ring.

Bella glanced at her phone and rolled her eyes hitting ignore.

"Who was that?" I asked.

She waved her hand dismissively. "No one important," she said.

"Oh!" she jumped up from the counter and grabbed some items out of her purse, setting them in front of me on the counter. "These are your I.D.s, I had my lawyer obtain them for you," she said, sitting back down at the bar.

I looked over the documents: driver's license, social security number, as well as my birth certificate. "Wow, thanks. I lost all of this."

She just smiled at me and nodded. "I kinda figured you might have misplaced them."

I smiled at her and wondered what else she knew about me.

20 minutes later, we were outside in the underground parking of Escala. Bella led the way over to a brand new looking silver convertible. As we got closer I could see that it was a Porsche, Spyder. The fuckin' car looked awesome.

The next thing I knew, Bella was tossing a set of keys at me. I raised an eyebrow at her questioningly; quite stunned she just gave me the keys to that car.

She smirked at me. "Let's drive, pretty boy," she said as she approached the passenger side door. "You still remember how to?"

I laughed and deactivated the alarm, sliding into the driver's seat. This car was amazing; leather interior with accents of silver, fully loaded. I thought I died and went to heaven. I shifted gears and pulled out of the parking lot, while Bella directed me to the nearest grocery store.

x-x-x- -x-x-x

An hour later, we were back on the road. I checked the time and noticed it was almost noon—time flies when you actually have shit you can do, and I was enjoying spending time with Bella. When she actually let her guard down, she wasn't so dominant and pushy—more laid back.

She turned around in her seat to face me. "Hey, do you want to go out for lunch?" she asked, fidgeting with her hands. It was like she wasn't sure if I would want to spend more time with her. "We could drop the groceries off at the apartment and then head over to the restaurant Jasper works at," she suggested.

I smiled at her. "Sounds great." After all, Jasper seemed like an all right guy – really relaxed and calm.

It took us fifteen minutes to get to the restaurant, Canalis, which seemed like an upscale place with a view of the lake.

We walked into the restaurant, where the hostess escorted us to our seats in a quiet corner. Bella whispered into the hostess' ear about something before sitting down. I quirked my eye brow at her, curious about what she'd said.

"I just requested that the chef bring out our order," she said as she shot me a wink.

Pretentious much? I wondered. The waitress approached our table to take our drink orders and laid out our menus before quickly dashing off.

"So what does Jasper do?" I asked curiously as I played with my napkin.

"He's the chef," she smiled.

"Hum, that explains the request," I laughed. I guess I needed to stop making assumptions when it fuckin' came to Bella.

The waitress came back with our drinks and we ordered the stuffed chicken for Bella, and lamb shank with puréed mint and garlic for me.

"So," Bella started after the waitress left. "Care to share your story," she asked, fluttering her lashes at me.

I laughed. She could be adorable at times when she wanted something. This had been her tactic with me all day. "It's a bit much for lunch, maybe later?" I asked. "With lots of liquor," I suggested.

She nodded her head. "Done," she agreed.

Knowing Bella, there would be a shit load of liquor at the apartment later on, she's nothing if not tenacious when she wants information.

Not long after, Jasper came out with our entrées and set them down.

"Hey guys, how's your day going?" Jasper asked, looking between Bella and me.

Bella smiled. "Good, take a seat," she said as she nodded towards the empty seat beside me.

Jasper stayed with us as we ate our meals, he was a good chef; the food was delicious. I found out the Jasper went to the Cordon Bleu cooking school and started working here shortly afterwards around four years ago. He mentioned how he wanted to open a restaurant at some point in the future, but needed to look into the business aspect more. His words got me thinking—why not open a restaurant? I'd have to look into that more, talk to Jasper about the prospects, and then approach banks about loans. I was good at fuckin' business, my down fall was going against my instincts and trusting that fucker, who went behind my back and destroyed everything.

x-x-x- -x-x-x

Later on after we ordered pizza in, Bella had laid out a variety of alcohol on the coffee table: lemon vodka, tequila, peach schnapps, and rum. She also had shot glasses placed on the coffee table by the liquor. We started off playing twenty questions, the person with the most trivial answer took a shot. Needless to say, we were shit faced pretty quickly.

"So, tell me, Eddie," Bella slurred, her head leaning back on the couch.

I sighed. Fuck it. "I graduated from Standford Business School when I was twenty two and was the top of my class. Not long after, I started my own company buying real estate and turning them for profit. I dabbled in both commercial and residential, everything was going great. I was making a shit load of money." I paused to take another shot. "One morning, I woke up to go into the office and the place was empty, I checked my bank accounts and it was all gone. I went to talk to my parents, and found them lying in their own fucking living room dead. The man that did it was one of the investors in the company, and I fuckin' ran... he took everything from me."

"Oh, Edward," Bella sighed. She went to move over to me and almost fell, causing her face to be inches from mine. I leaned in and kissed her, Bella's eyes went wide, but she quickly responded back to my kiss. We were so caught up in the kiss, we didn't even hear the door open.

"Well, isn't that fucking cute," the voice snarled from the doorway.

AN Note: So whats the verdict?

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Major thanks to my beta SouthernLady23 for working on this chapter :D

Bella & Edward's outfit for this chapter is posted in my profile, as well as pictures of the car.

If you'd like preview teasers feel free to add me on twitter: rhapscribbles

Thanks :)