Hi, I was very much encouraged by your reviews of the last two chapters and so I have decided to treat you with two updates! Please enjoy this next instalment to The Science of Love.

Chapter 10

I froze as I took in the view before me. There was a guy sitting on my bed, with his legs crossed at the ankle and my laptop placed on his lap. He was deathly white and he wore a black t-shirt and jeans which made him appear even paler in comparison to his clothing. On his face he wore a humoured expression with a crooked smile placed on his inviting lips. The smile seemed to reach his eyes, which glowed a fluorescent topaz in the dimly lit room.

I watched as his gaze travelled away from the screen of the computer and towards my frozen form. His eyebrows rose and he cleared his throat, averting his gaze.

"It would seem that I've caught you at a bad time."

I suddenly snapped out of my thoughts, as my mind processed the situation; I was standing in the presence of an irritatingly attractive vampire with my hair dripping wet and nothing but a towel covering my body.

'Ground, please, swallow me whole; I swear I won't object.'

I quickly retreated back into the bathroom, only leaving the door slightly ajar so I could poke my head out of it and glare at him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed, totally surprised and bloody-well frustrated.

Edward smirked, placing my laptop beside him and lithely lifting himself from my bed. His movements were smoother and, if possible, more cat-like than before. He silently walked towards the other door and for a moment I thought he was going to leave. But instead he leaned a shoulder against it, his hands tucked into his front pockets and his legs crossed causally; like it was normal to be in a girl's room and invade her privacy whilst she had a shower.

I felt a growl persist in my throat when I realised that not only was that door my only exit, other than the wide open window, but it was also right beside my wardrobe which held a set of fresh new pyjamas.

"You know, you seem to ask me this question more often than not." He said, his teasing gaze piercing my gut.

I gritted my teeth, "That's because you keep popping up in weird situations; you do realise that my window isn't actually the entrance to my house right? That would be downstairs, the first thing you see; you know… the white rectangular thing, it has a handle and a bell that you can ring…"

"Ah, yes." Edward said sarcastically with a nod. "I believe it's called a, um… door? Yes, I'm familiar with it."

"Good, then start using it. Seth already knows you're tutoring me; you don't need to sneak into my room. Besides, he's starting to have suspicious towards what we're actually doing…" I trailed off embarrassed. Surely that was a sentence too far.

Edward merely smirked with amusement. "Oh really? And what does he think we're actually doing then?"

An embarrassing, awkward answer had already formed in my stuttering mind, but then I paused as a wave of annoyance invaded my emotions.

I glared at the smug Cullen. "Get me some clothes from my wardrobe before I throw something at you."

Edward chuckled, but obliged, rightly guessing which pyjamas I had intended to wear, and handing them over to me through the small gap of the door. I quickly took the clothes and slammed the door shut in his face. I padded over to the chest of drawers, silently thanking the heavens when I found some spare underwear and a bra.

In the bathroom I moved quickly and quietly, desperately avoiding any further humiliation as I speedily changed into my night gear. I looked over at a hanger behind the door and found my only other blessing; my dressing gown. I once again thanked my lucky stars and made an urgent mental note to purchase some pyjamas with long sleeves and full-length trouser legs.

When I returned to my dimly lit room, Edward was still leaning against the door; however he now held my biology text book and was flicking through the pages passively. He looked up when I entered, his eyes conveying mild humour as he absorbed my girly purple dressing gown.

Another one of Rachel's brilliant ideas.

"You never answered my question." I mumbled, sitting on my bed. I drew in my knees and rested my elbows upon them.

Edward raised brow, a small smirk appearing on his lips.

"You never answered mine."

I rolled my eyes after recognizing what he was referring to.

"What are you doing here Edward?" I asked, completely disregarding his last comment.

Edward expression became serious and his eyes slightly solemn.

"We've reached the near end of your course. There only a few pages left." He murmured, looking down at the book in his hands. He held it sparingly, as though it was made of molten rock and it was burning his flesh. He frowned at it and placed it on that wooden desk.

"Oh, that was fast…" my mouth moved automatically, but my mind was in shock. I hadn't realised how far we'd progressed. We'd covered so much in such little time, but I'd never thought of what would happen when the course ended and I no longer had an excuse to see him.

Edward nodded and slowly joined me on the bed. I felt my gut churn, and butterflies invade my stomach at his sudden proximity.

"I came to give you this."

Edward handed me a sheet of white paper embedded with lines of his flawless script in black ink. I read the page, slightly confused.

"They're revision notes. I'm giving you a test, to ensure that you're ready for the retake."

I looked up at him, a frown etched on my lips.

"You said we had a few more pages to get through."

Edward shrugged, "It's nothing really; we could get through it today without a problem. You know most of it already."

I hesitated, my grip on the page tightening and my back straightened as a million thoughts ran in my mind in a single moment. From the day that we'd started, Edward had assured me that all of my thoughts were kept to myself after a year of almost perfecting his shield for his mind reading ability in order to control which thoughts he could read. But now that my mind was running loose, I doubted that he could block every thought that screamed at him.

I swallowed.

"I don't want to do it today, I'm too tired; maybe next time." I said folding the page back into its original square and placing it on my bedside table, doing all that I could to avoid his gaze.

For a moment, the room was filled with an unbearable silence before Edward cleared his throat and spoke in a quiet and somewhat dejected voice.

"My family have returned."

I turned to face him.

"Oh… really?"

He nodded.

"So I guess its back to happy days then?"

He chortled bitterly.

"Hardly. When I was alone, at least I knew no one else would be affected by my actions. But now that they've returned…"

"On comes the fake smile and humourless laugh, right?" I nodded in understanding.

Edward sighed, "It takes so much effort to forge a happy conscience and good mood, they're my family and my grieving hurts them. Especially after a year, they expect me to somehow move forward and when I don't show any signs of that, it only serves to worry them further."

"I know what you mean." I whispered, suddenly words hurt my throat and speaking became difficult.

I wrapped my arms around my knees and rested my chin upon them. Swiftly my mood had sunk from sad, to utterly miserable. Thoughts of my father rushed through my mind, and memories of his happy smile and cheerful laugh echoed into those thoughts.

It was a laugh that I would never hear again.

I felt a warm liquid race down my cheeks. They were drops. One went down, followed by another and another. I rubbed my eyes and found that I was crying. The warm salty tears impaired my vision, making it hazed and foggy as teardrops invaded my line of sight.

I felt cold, strong arms wrap around my waist and lay me down on the bed. My head came in contact with a hard cold surface that almost immediately cooled down my rapidly increasing temperature. The arms remained wrapped around me as I quietly sobbed into a soft black shirt.

Time passed by as I wept into Edward's chest. I cried and cried and his shirt absorbed all of my tears. I cried until there was nothing left in me, at which point my eyes began to flutter with fatigue. It was then that I heard a heavenly sound. I felt the vibration in Edward's chest as he beautifully hummed a melody that I'd never heard. It was sorrowful, and yet I could imagine it being played at the most happiest of days. The tune flowed perfectly with his voice and I felt my mind go blank with utter bliss as his pitch heightened and lowered.

"Shh, Leah. Sleep." He murmured.

I frowned, torn between listening to the rest of this beautiful song, and surrendering to my tired body. In the end it was my body that won, but it had not been an easy victory. My very soul had been reluctant to tune out of the wonderful sound of Edward's voice.

Ok so, let me just make you aware of a few things: 1. Yes, I was tempted to make their first kiss happen here, but that would be way to fast so yeah sorry. 2. I'm happy their getting closer slowly rather than rushing. 3. Personally I like the sarcasm and cheek Edward has in this chapter. BTW when he says; "You never answered mine." He means this question: "Oh really? And what does he think we're actually doing then?"

Well thanks for reading, please review!