A/N:

Okay so first of all let me say thank you for being so nice with the reviews. I'm afraid that yall may have turned me into a review whore cause I have to have them now… it's like a drug to me….(my own personal brand of heroin!) lol! I just couldn't resist! Also I would like to thank you all for being so patient with me and waiting this long for the chapter. You guys are the best and I absolutely adore each and every one of you. Well I think that's all I have to say for now, so here is your chapter… enjoy!

Chapter 8

Crumbling Walls

BPOV

Dinner was silent. The only noise in the dinning room was the sound of forks scraping against the china and the fire crackling and popping.

Mr. Cullen as usually had arrived late to dinner and never once looked at me as he took his seat. I could tell he was still upset about earlier.

Instead of the interview questions helping to decipher the mystery of Edward Cullen, it only made it seem worse and more complicated then I would have ever imagined. New questions have been raised with the now answered ones. This was like an on going soap opera.

The silence was unbearable, but tonight I was just going to have to endure it. I knew that if I allowed myself to talk then my curiosity would get the best of me and the questions would flow like a flood out of my mouth. There are so many that I seeked answers to. Such as: Why do you always close down when I talk about relationships? Or what has you so depressed and withdrawn? Why did you change your last name? What had happened in your pervious relationship that makes you standoffish about your feelings?

But I knew I couldn't. I knew that if I did, it would only make things worse. I was almost finished with my dinner when Mr. Cullen's sudden clank of his fork on his plate grabbed my attention.

When I took my eyes off the fettuccine that was in front of me and looked up at him I seen that he was in deep thought. He ran one hand in his sex hair and looked perplexed. I knew he was about to say something, but whether or not I wanted to be here to listen to it was a whole different story.

I made a move to push my chair back and get the hell out of dodge, but before I could make my get a way he cleared his throat and called my name.

"Miss. Swan?"

I had no choice but to answer. I hesitantly settled back into my chair and looked at Edward.

"Yes Mr. Cullen?"

He took a deep breath and then began to speak.

"I am sorry Miss. Swan. When I set up this interview I did not realize it was so close to the holidays. With that being said I don't want to take time away from you and your family. I want you to know that you are more then welcome to go home to your family for Thanksgiving. We can reschedule the interview for a later date."

When he finished he got out of his chair and went to the fire place and started messing with the burning wood using the long metal poker.

That was really nice of him to think about the holidays… and me going home to my family, but the truth was I had no where to go.

Renee and Phil are on a cruise and Charlie and Sue are out of town on there honeymoon. I guess I could always go over to Alice's house, but lord knows her cooking is not the best and I would rather eat my shoe then that burnt thing she calls a turkey.

"Mr. Cullen thank you for the offer, but I would rather stay and get my story…. If you don't mind. However if you have plans then I don't mind rescheduling the interview for a later date."

EPOV

When she said that I stopped poking around with the fire and set the metal rode back on the stand. I slowly turned and looked at her and walked back to my seat.

Sitting down I noticed that she was still caddy cornered in her chair and was facing the door. Was I really that horrible to be around that she wanted to run out of here the first chance she got?

But then if that was the case then why didn't she take me up on my offer to go home to her family? Maybe she was just ready to get this over with so she could get out of here and never have to come back to me.

I didn't want to lose her. It was hard to believe, but even though I had only known her for a short amount of time I felt a connection.

"No Miss. Swan I don't have any plans." It wasn't a lie because I had already told my mother that I was not coming or rather that I would try to make it… I would just have to finalize it with her that the answer was no.

"Well then it looks like we will have Thanksgiving together." Bella said in an angelic voice and stood up. I quickly glanced at my watch and seen that it was 8:30. I bet she was wanting to get ready for bed.

I quickly gave her the dismissal she was looking for by nodding my head once and picking my fork back up. She gave me a grateful smile and walked out of the room into the hall to a waiting Mrs. Cope.

"See you in the morning Mr. Cullen."

As she said that I found myself for the first time in years ready to see the coming day and actually be excited about it.

"Good night Bella." By the time I responded back it was a hushed whisper low enough to where neither her nor Mrs. Cope could hear me.

When I could no longer see there two forms I started to eat again.

This day had been filled with so many different emotions. I had a hard time controlling all of them. I didn't know which were stronger. My attraction to Bella or the pain that arrived with the questions. My need to have Bella's company or the want to lay with her…. So many and so confusing.

I was taking my last bite when Mrs. Cope had walked back into the dinning room.

She went straight over to Bella's area of the table and started stacking all the dishes on one another to bring to the kitchen for washing. In between her stacking Mrs. Cope looked over at me.

"Well I have to say that Mrs. Swans seems like a very pleasant person."

"That she is." I knew where Mrs. Cope was going with this and I didn't want to hear it… so like Bella I tried to make a quick escape and like Bella I was called back down.

"Edward Anthony Cullen you get your butt back in that chair and listen to what I have to say!"

I sat back down in the high back chair with a sigh. It was like I was five years old all over again.

Mrs. Cope was the only staff member of mine that was allowed to address me as Edward, she only called me Mr. Cullen in front of company or the other staff members out of respect.

The reason I allowed this was because she had known me from when I was a child. My mother had hired her to take care of me and Emmett up until we were in our teen years.

Once I got out on my own I had hired her back as a nanny only to find out later that I didn't need her service after all. It was then my mother stepped in and asked her if she would look after me and feed me. She had agreed and that's why she is here now.

"Edward I know that you like Bella, I can see that."

I looked up at her and just stared… there was no point in denying it.

"The question is Edward…are you going to act on it?"

Looking down and unsnapping the button on my cuffs I answered.

"Its not that easy."

Mrs. Cope left the piled dishes on the table and walked over towards me and pulled out the chair that sat beside me. Sitting down she took my hand in hers.

"Edward I'm not your mother, but I have been with you long enough to know that you will take my advice as if I were… I know that it has not been easy for you these past few years, but I believe that you are the one that's making it complicated by not letting go. Just think about that."

With that she patted my hand, got up and went back to the dishes.

She was right. I was the one making it complicated. I got up and was about to walk out of the room, but Mrs. Cope had stopped me on her way back in the dinning room to collect my dishes.

"Oh and Edward I asked Mr. Crowley not to start Bella's fire for her…. I told him you would be more then happy to."

She let out a low giggle as I realized she had meant it to come out in two different meanings. I shook my head as I walked out the door. Who knew sweet Mrs. Cope would have such a mind as that.

Well here goes nothing. I walked to the lift and hit the button for Bella's floor. When I got to her room I lightly knocked on her door and waited for it to open.

BPOV

I was laying my night clothes on the counter in the bathroom when I heard a faint knock coming from the other room. I hurried out of the bathroom and to the door. When I opened the door standing before me was Edward. Thank God I was dressed this time.

"Miss. Swan I'm sorry to bother you, but Mrs. Cope informed me that Mr. Crowley never lit your fireplace and I don't want you to get cold tonight."

"Oh" oh? That's all you can say Bella? Really?

Internally debating with myself I stepped aside and let Edward walk in. He wasted no time and went straight to the fire place to get started.

Though I never walked over to him I stood in the same spot by the door and watched him work.

Before he began he ran his right hand through his unruly hair and pushed his long sleeves up to his elbows to where I could see the muscles in his forearms, then he kneeled down and grabbed the wood out of the rack that someone had filled and threw it in the fire place.

When I felt my breathing pick up speed I decided it was best to turn and walk away. I went to my dresser and just to have something to do started digging through my shirts.

I was losing my mind. I can see how hurt this man is and all I can think about is wanting to touch him…. for him to touch me.

What kind of person am I? Had I no shame?

I must have been arguing with myself for a few minutes because I heard a throat clear and when I turned around to look in the direction of the noise Mr. Cullen was standing by the door.

"Well Miss. Swan that fire should last through out the night, but if you need anything else please let me know."

Hmm…anything?

My mind then went off the deep end with fantasies swirling around in my head like an angry snowstorm. All the fantasies were nice…and when I say nice I mean fan-fucking-tastic considering that that's what we were doing in them. I quickly shook my head trying to sweep them aside so I could answer him.

"Thank you Mr. Cullen I actually do have something to ask you."

Oh no! What was I doing? Had my fantasies been that powerful to where they had taken over my mind and is choosing to lead me in a direction that will make me look like a fool?

"Anything you need." He smiled at me waiting for me to continue.

"Well I was wondering if you could show me your library?"

Wow that was unexpected. I thought I was going in a totally different direction.

"Sure Miss. Swan I would be happy to. Would you like to go now are tomorrow?

I had already skimmed through the channels on television and knew that there was nothing good on tonight so I decided to go with the library.

"Well if its not to much trouble I would like to see it tonight."

"Its no trouble at all just follow me. He walked to my still opened bedroom door and gestured with his hand for me to walk out before him. When I got out into the hallway I waited for him to lead the way.

We had to take the elevator back down to the bottom floor. The ride down you could feel the electricity in the air and every now and then I would glance up out of the corner of my eyes to look at Edward.

He seemed to be cool and he never looked at me.

Maybe I didn't have an effect on him like he did me. I was stupid to think I did. I should have known that his type was the long legged blonde girl with big beautiful blue eyes. Not a short girl with stringy hair and dull brown eyes.

Well we cant win them all now can we?

The elevator dinged and the doors opened to a long hall with several closed doors. Mr. Cullen stepped out and I followed behind him until we came to a stop in front of double doors. Mr. Cullen then pushed them open letting them fall back till they softly hit the wall. What I seen next I wasn't prepared for. Mr. Cullen library was spacious. I stood in awe as I took it all in.

The room was enormous. The walls in front of me had a large stone fireplace and on either side of it were shelves of books. The walls to my right and to my left all had books covering every inch of them. There was a second story open loft looking area that was accessible by a spiraling staircase and had even more books up there. For the books you couldn't reach down on the bottom floor there was one of those old timely sliding ladders on the wheels

In the middle of the room set two large oversized white sofa's that faced each other and was placed in front of the fire place. There was a large bear skinned rug in the middle of the two sofa's and coffee tables on both ends of both couches with reading lamps sat up on them. There were to matching recliners at the head of the sofa's.

The library had an old musky smell to it, but there was no dust anywhere to be seen.

Some of the books had to be at least hundreds of years old. I walked in further and turned to see that Edward had followed behind me.

"Well?" He asked. "What do you think?"

"It's incredible." I couldn't help but hear my own excitement and awe in my voice as I did a quick spin to look at all of them. This room had more books then a school library.

Edward simple chuckled to himself.

"Please Miss. Swan help yourself, feel free to look around."

At this point I was thinking that he was going to leave me in the library by myself, but instead he walked over to the shelves and started looking.

I followed his example only instead of going to the same bookshelf I went to one that was across the room. I picked up one of the books on the shelf and flipped it open to the title page. I wonder why he had bought all these books. It wasn't like he could read them all and if he did it would take the rest of his life and then some.

I couldn't take it any longer… inquisitiveness got the best of me.

I looked over to see Edward fumbling thru a book he held in his hand. "Mr. Cullen?"

"Hmm?" Edward responded without looking up as he flipped the page of the book.

"Well I was a little curious as to why you would buy all these books. There's no way you could read them all."

Still looking down at the book and not up at me he responded.

"Miss. Swan I didn't buy all the books. Some of them… well in fact most of them where already here when I bought the house. I only have added a hundred or so books to this rather large library. You see the gentlemen who lived here before me was quite a reader himself."

Hmm I wanted to keep Edward talking. Even though it was about his house I still found it fascinating simply because it had a connection with Edward and I felt as though he decide to open up a little bit.

"So what happened to him?" I asked as I went through the shelves and started grabbing books with titles that caught my attention.

"Well he was an elderly man who just slowly started shutting down. That's why the house was in such disarray when I bought it. The old man just couldn't take care of it anymore nor did he have enough strength to make his staff do there jobs. His name was Mr. Banner."

"Well didn't he have a family to take care of him and help him out?" I asked as I looked back over at Edward.

He then shut the book he was holding and put it back in its place on the shelf. He put his hands in his pockets and walked over to me. He stopped just a few feet from where I was and leaned his shoulder up against the bookshelf.

"He did have a family, but his wife had passed away a few years before he did and his kids" Edward shook his head and let out a sigh. "his kids where only wanting his money and the house. They never bothered to call and check on him, let alone take care of him. They only seen fit to visit him when he was on his death bed. I guess they thought it was there way of securing themselves in the will. Anyway after he had died the kids sat down with the lawyer thinking they would get his estate only Mr. Banner had other plans for that money and his home."

A slight smile came to Edwards lips.

"So what did he do with it?"

"Well when the lawyer started reading off the will to the kids it turns out that he left them each with a note and nothing else, all of his money went to various organizations and charities and in his will it stated that his house be put on the market and that the money made from it be put in a fund to start a scholarship for teens."

"So what did the notes to the kids say?" I couldn't help my curiosity.

Mr. Cullen looked at me with an amused look.

"Well when the kids opened there letter inside of it was written 'I'm taking care of you as well as you took care of me' apparently the old man wasn't as far gone as the kids had thought.

Mr. Cullen then let out a light carefree laugh and I was so happy to see it that I had to join in. After a moment or two of laughing Edward looked up at me.

"Well do you think you will be good on books for a while?" he asked while he was looking over the abundance amount of books I held in my hands.

"Yeah this should last me for a few days anyway."

"Well then if your ready I will walk you back to your room."

I simply nodded my head yes and went to walk to the door, but as soon as I started to Edward grabbed the top of my arm and slowly slid his hand down all the way to my hand. All to soon he released it.

"Here let me carry these books for you." He gathered the books out of my hands and easily tucked them under his arm. Where he had dragged his hand along my arm it left a trail of fire. Oh how I wanted to feel more of his touch. Afraid of not trusting my own voice at the time all I could simply do was shake my head yes and follow him out the door and back to my bedroom.

I don't know what happened tonight, but it seemed to me that Edward was starting to let some of his walls crumble…. The questions to me though was, was I willing to climb over the ruble.

I didn't have to think twice about it to know what my answer was.

Yes, yes I was!

A/N:

So whatcha think? Thank you so much for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it! I'm really sorry that it took this long to get the chapter out. Work is finally starting to slow down so I hope I can go back to updating once a week like in the past, but no promises… I have to wait and see for sure before I give my word on that anyways please, please, please leave me some reviews…. I really do read each and every one of them and write yall all back to thank you! Thanks for reading!