Author's Notes: It's been a while (ok a loooong while) but here's chapter 4. A big thanks to my beta JenJenSon for finding time to help me! If any of you are Happy Potter fans or even just fans of marriage of convenience style stories then check out her story Can We Make It. It's good and hot! Also if you haven't already check out my other bella/Carlisle fics!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or the characters and make no money from this story it is just for fan purposes.

Addicted

Bubbles

Bella POV

I felt someone shifting me slightly and blinked a few times. Sure enough I could hear my name being called in the distance...no wait...they were right in front of me. I opened my eyes properly to see Carlisle crouched in front of me on the floor, his hand lightly shaking my shoulder.

"Sorry." I mumbled.

"I did say you'd better rest, it was the blood lost making you tired." He said softly. "Next time listen to the doctor."

"Sure." I groaned, sitting up. I felt better though. Bleeding really was like having some of the pain drawn out of me; it really did feel better afterwards.

"Would you like to go to bed?" Carlisle asked. "I didn't want to leave you too long, sleeping on the floor is not supposed to be very comfortable."

"I'm fine actually." I replied. Taking his hand as he helped me to my feet. "I feel much better now."

"I'm glad, although I can't say I approve of your methods." He replied cautiously.

"I'm sorry if I scared you." I whispered, and I was. "And I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable." He had told me before he was almost immune to human blood, he must be to work in the hospital every day but still I'm sure that sometimes it got hard.

"I have told you that your blood holds very little problem for me Bella." He said, his fingers tracing the bandage on my wrist. "But it is very dangerous for you to cut yourself like this. You could accidently cut too deep, lose too much blood...having vampires feed off of you is incredibly dangerous Bella. Especially groups of them."

"They were good to me Carlisle." I said, unconsciously swaying closer to his body. "I was fine."

"You ended up in the emergency room Bella, that is most certainly not fine." He replied tensely. I realised now how truly worried about me Carlisle was and felt guilty that I had made him worry in the first place. How had I gotten here? Everything was so messed up...I felt like me again here with Carlisle but there was this constant looming shadow that threatened to drag me down again every single time I thought I was fine. To start with I had heard about the money from the club for donating blood and that had been the appeal, I managed to pay my rent thanks to giving up a little blood...but I found that it numbed the pain I was feeling so well that I kept going back not just for the money but for the relief. It was an addiction. I slid my arms slowly around Carlisle's waist and nuzzled my face against his shirt, instantly I felt my eyes prickling with tears.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I'm sorry for worrying you." I meant every word. I felt his arms finally come around to hug me back and we stayed like that for a short while.

"Can you promise me one thing Bella?" he asked after a moment of silence. I nodded, without looking up. He lifted my chin until I looked him in the eye. His eyes were beautiful, paler than any of the others in his family. He must have just hunted before he came home... "Just promise me next time you feel like you are unable to cope come to me first; talking about it may help or perhaps I could prescribe you something to help?"

"OK, I can do that." I nodded, he didn't reply or make any move backwards instead continuing to lock his gaze with mine, pinning me to the spot. I couldn't look away and I couldn't move. I could hear my heart pounding suddenly and licked my lips before blinking and ducking my head nervously. What was that? Carlisle was handsome definitely but I had never been dazzled by him like that before.

"Good." He said, stepping away from me with his usual smile.

Another two weeks had passed and I knew that I was starting to lose it again. If I couldn't get a grip soon I would have to talk to Carlisle like I promised. I was determined though that I was not going to slip. I had spent more time reading and cleaning the house, not that it needed much cleaning but still it didn't hurt and it kept me busy. I had just finished ironing a pile of Carlisle's shirts for work when he came in.

"Bella how many times must I tell you that you don't have to do that?" he asked, hanging his jacket up.

"About as many times as I have to tell you it keeps me busy." I grinned. "If you get to look after me at least let me make sure you have clean clothes."

Carlisle POV

I couldn't help the smile that slid onto my face as I came into the house and found Bella stood with the ironing board again, listening to the radio and almost dancing as she folded my shirt. I told her off of course, she wasn't here to look after me; it was supposed to be the other way around but she insisted that she liked being busy and it did save me ironing my shirts myself even though I could move considerably faster. She just seemed content to clean the house and do the laundry so I let her. Perhaps it had a relaxing affect on her.

"If you are going to continue doing my washing then I think I should cook you dinner." I told her.

"Carlisle it's not a big deal, I have to wash and iron my own clothes anyway and it's not like your clothes even get that dirty." She replied, turning off the iron and pushing the board to one side. "Besides I still have some pasta leftover from yesterday. I keep making too much."

"Very well." I sighed; passing her I leant and kissed her forehead briefly. "Thank you." My only thought on the way up the stairs was that she smelled incredible. Her hair smelled of strawberries...that gave me an idea.

I waited until I could hear Bella washing up her plate after dinner and then started the water running. I found some bath bubbles to add and then gathered a large white towel and a small radio. I didn't have any candles but settled for using the dimmer light above the mirror.

"Bella?" I called, wandering down the stairs to find her. She was still in the kitchen when I found her with a glass of fruit juice in her hand. "Would you please follow me for a moment?"

"Um...ok, sure." She replied. I ushered her upstairs and into the bathroom much to her questioning gaze as I did so. I couldn't help but chuckle wondering what she could possibly think I was doing. "What are you-" I swung the bathroom door open and she stopped to take in the dimly lit room and soft music.

"I think you have earned a nice relaxing soak." I told her. "I apologise if the temperature is not to your liking but obviously I feel temperatures a little different from you." She shyly walked over to the tub and dipped her fingers in.

"No it's perfect." She mumbled. "Thank you." I nodded and excused myself.

Not ten minutes later I could hear Bella humming and singing along with the radio. It was strange to think that even one person could brighten the house. I had moved here because the job was a good offer in a location that had weather suitable to my needs. Since Esme had left me for her true mate and Edward had vanished almost immediately following leaving Forks the family had drifted and I just needed somewhere to go.

This house was the first one I found for sale a suitable distance from the town to allow me wooded areas to hunt fairly close. It was a large house but only had three bedrooms rather than the usual mass of upstairs rooms we had when we lived as a family. To start with the house felt too large for me. I set up my study in the smallest of the bedrooms and placed my clothes in another to act as a bedroom although I failed to use it as much more than a glorified closet. Still I worked as many hours as I could and spent any remaining time hunting or reading.

Now I had Bella to fill my time. She brought the house to life with her constant singing and humming, her dancing around the house and accidently breaking things and falling over. In fact she sometimes reminded me of Alice. Not to say that they were the same, they were actually different in nearly every way but when Alice had first joined our family it was like someone had lit a fuse. She exploded life into us all. Bella had done the same here.

I snapped my head towards the door of the study suddenly. I could smell blood, Bella's blood. I frowned and darted to the bathroom door. I told her to come to me. To talk to me! I swung the door open and then stopped very suddenly. For the first time in many years I felt like an utter fool. Bella had stopped mid motion with one leg in the air and razor in hand.

"My apologies." I said quickly, averting my gaze from the bathtub. "I thought you were hurt."

"I just cut myself shaving. I do that a lot, that's why I tend to shower while you're already at work." She shrugged. "I think I need a new razor. Carlisle you don't have to face the door you know, there are bubbles in this bath."

"I was trying to be polite." I defended turning back towards her slightly. I immediately stared at the source of the blood. A small cut at her ankle that due to the water diluting the blood looked like it was bleeding rather a lot when it was actually tiny. Bella's eyes followed my gaze and she quickly dipped her leg back into the bath to wash the blood off.

"Sorry." She said. "Do vampires have to shave?"

"Very, very rarely." I told her. "Our hair is the only thing that changes about us and even that is so slow to grow that it means haircuts and shaving are very rare events."

"So have you ever thought about growing a beard or doing something crazy with your hair?" she grinned. I moved closer to her and sat on the floor with my back against the bathtub. This meant that I was able to avert my gaze as was only polite and still have a conversation with her perfectly naturally.

"My hair has been slightly longer, that is probably the extent of it. I had considered the beard to make me look older but if I am honest it just didn't suit." I told her. "Jasper has been known to have rather long hair before, a ponytail actually. Emmett cut it off as a joke, Alice was not amused." Bella laughed at this, a sound I would be content to listen to all night.

"Tell me something else." She grinned.

"Like what?"

"I don't know something else cool like that."

"Not all vampires are good at everything." I said, I knew she would be interested in this one.

"Please tell me you're joking." She choked out. "You're all good at everything!"

"Not true." I replied. "Vampires have more time to learn than humans, our brains function faster and our bodies are faster, stronger and so on however there are some things that aren't always governed by those things. Mostly you will find the things that vampires do not always posses natural talents for are singing, music, artwork and poetry. Some vampires just do not have the creativity even if they could have skill."

"Carlisle?" she asked quietly. I simply turned to face her and waited for her to continue. She was now sat up in the bath, knees pulled up to her stomach, head hung low. "Would you ever feed off of me?" She didn't elaborate; she and I both knew very well what she meant.

"No Bella." I replied.

"Isn't that safer?" she asked, still not daring to look at me. "I need it Carlisle and you would never hurt me."

"Which is exactly why I am saying no." I told her firmly. "I will never hurt you intentionally but can't you see that this solution is ridiculous? Dangerous?"

"You said yourself I could cut myself too deep by accident, you wouldn't take too much blood and you wouldn't cut too deep." She reasoned.

"No Bella." I sighed. "We need to find a way to stop this not encourage it." Finally she looked at me only part of me wished she hadn't; tears now followed freely down her face and her eyes looked furious.

"You told me to tell you, talk to you when I couldn't cope and I'm telling you I can't cope!" she cried. "I need the pain to go away. I need it!" I wanted to call Jasper, ask him to be her little dose of pain medication when she got like this but I knew two things...firstly it was again not a permanent solution and secondly with Bella's tendency to be bleeding a lot recently it wasn't fair to tempt Alice and Jasper with it.

"Would you consider some form of medication Bella?" I asked her softly, trying to bring in my doctor voice. She shook her head and just cried.

"I'm done talking now." She sobbed. I turned back around and sigh heavily, dropping my head backwards to thud against the bathtub loudly. She continued to shave her leg where she left off; I could hear the slow strokes between her small sobs. Then I smelt her blood again and snapped my head around again.

"Bella if you keep doing that I'm going to begin thinking it is not an accident." I murmured.

"You do it then!" she huffed, I'm not sure it she even realised what she said, whether she meant that it was deliberate and that I should have fed from her or that it was an accident and she wanted me to try I didn't know but decisively I lifted the small razor from her grasp and leant over the bathtub. I was a doctor, I had seen naked flesh and focused on much more important things than just shaving before so this should be no problem. I reached out my free hand to guide her leg up to rest on the edge of the bath and started where she had left off, slowly running the small blade across her skin over and over, until moments later I adjusted her so that I could do the other leg. In silence I continued and she watched me, I felt her watching me. She wasn't uncomfortable but she wasn't comfortable either...nervous perhaps? I lowered her leg back into the now lukewarm water and looked back up to meet her gaze at last.

"All done." I told her, putting on my beset bedside manner and smile.

Bella POV

I'm fairly certain I had forgotten how to breathe for a moment back there. Carlisle took no time in finishing my handiwork. I was almost disappointed it didn't take him longer, now he was no longer touching me. I tried to open my mouth to say thank you but all I kept thinking was that I was going to shave somewhere else as well and picturing him doing the same. I felt myself flush heavily and then shiver.

"Of course, the water must be cold by now." He said suddenly, breaking straight through my trail of thought, which was probably for the best. "Would you like some more warm water or would you like to get out now?"

"I'll just get out now." I replied.

"Very well, then please call if you need anything." He said standing and disappearing out of the door with a brief smile. I let out a deep breath and took another in. Carlisle Cullen; hot? Definitely. Sexy? As hell! Seductive? More than a melt in the middle chocolate fudge brownie dessert... Aware of it? I sighed and smiled to myself; probably not in the least, he was far too politically correct for such thoughts and behaviour.