Although lady_vyxen looked this over, please let me know if you spot any errors.
Even though time began to pass and blur as Bella continued to get closer to Edward, she never once forgot that she was only doing this as a part of her assignment. Somebody had ordered a hit on Edward, and it was Bella's job to make sure that Edward was killed. But still, she had completely no idea how it was that Rosalie could take on job after job like this; it was emotionally draining. When Victoria handed her the name of some guy to kill, Bella's interactions with them were exceptionally limited. She never got to know them on such a personal basis like she was with Edward.
After the mystery thing that Edward had picked up at the night club, Bella hadn't noticed anything strange about his behavior. And the bugs that Bella had planted all over Edward's hotel suite slowly over the course of two weeks had revealed nothing. The most interesting thing had been the first 12 hours that she'd first placed the bugs in Jasper's room.
Thus far, the past three weeks had been nothing but going to the opera and occasionally to some strange rave-like party that Edward would drag her to. All-in-all, it was turning into a very boring job.
Of course, Bella knew that this couldn't last. She hadn't heard from Victoria since the disastrous events at the second party with Edward. She hadn't received any new orders other than to make Edward fall for her. But, Edward would leave New York and return to London in a few days. And Bella couldn't possibly imagine that Victoria would want for her to actually go to London.
Very early one Saturday morning, Bella was awoken by somebody pounding on the door of her apartment. Bleary-eyed, she padded through the living room and opened the door to find Victoria standing there. Her mentor didn't wait for an invitation inside and just pushed the door open the rest of the way and marched inside.
"Yes, please, come in," Bella said. "I wasn't sleeping at 4 AM or anything."
"Oh good, I'm happy to hear that you were already awake," Victoria said simply without a hint of sarcasm. "I know that you are very busy with your job and I am busy running a criminal empire, but Mr. Cullen will be returning back to Europe in a few days. I wanted to come by for a status update." Bella blinked with some surprise— she'd been certain that Victoria had come by to deliver the final hit order.
"Um… everything is going well, I think," Bella said. "Edward and I have been spending a lot of time together."
"Good, good. And has he told you that he loves you yet?"
"What? I'm sorry, but what sort of bodice rippers have you been reading?" Bella asked sharply. "People don't fall madly in love with others in the matter of two and a half weeks."
Victoria waved this tiny bit of logic away with an irritated hand gesture. "But surely he must have given some indication to you," Victoria pressed. "Especially while the two of you are in bed." Bella pressed her lips together and couldn't meet the red head's eyes. "You foolish fuck-up! What the hell have you been doing these past three weeks if you weren't sleeping with him?"
"I hate to break this to you, but jumping into bed with a person as soon as you lay eyes on them isn't exactly a healthy start to any sort of a relationship!" Bella rounded on Victoria.
"I'm not paying you to be in a healthy relationship with him! For fuck's sake, you're hired to fucking kill him! Does that sound healthy to you?!" Victoria countered.
"Okay, first of all, you specifically told me to make him love me. And Edward is definitely the 'love them and leave them' kind of guy," Bella argued. "And exactly how long do you think that Edward would have stayed around if I'd had sex with him the first night that he came to New York?" She paused, but Victoria did not reply. "And instead, we've been enjoying one another's company the entire time that he's been here. And I think that you knew that Edward wasn't looking for an easy bang, or else you would have assigned him Rosalie instead."
"He's going to leave in a few days," Victoria went on without comment. She pulled something out from her purse and tossed it to Bella; it was a passport, with Bella's name and picture in it. "Make sure that you're invited to visit him in London. Call me when that happens. And for fuck's sake, you silly girl! Sleep with him!" She left without another comment.
After Bella had locked the door, she went into her bedroom, but was much too wound up to even begin to think about going back to sleep. It was barely 4:30; too early to call Edward.
She fretted about becoming intimate with him. Despite the fact that she was now much closer to Edward and had started to become more relaxed around him, she still had panic attacks every time he tried to initiate something with her. Victoria hadn't seemed to give any indication that she knew what was really holding up that side of their relationship… but mostly because Bella had never told her about it. After all, Victoria had stood outside the room while Bella and Jacob had had sex both times, so she probably thought that Bella had somehow managed to overcome it on her own.
Bella went over to her closet and threw the doors open. Well then. If Victoria wanted her to have sex with Edward, then she was just going to have to recreate the feeling of safety that she'd had with Jacob as much as she possibly could.
"Hey you," Edward said once he'd opened the door to the suite and found Bella on the other side. "I know that I said that I wanted to see you, but it's barely 7. I haven't even showered or had break-" Bella cut him off with a kiss.
"I know that you've probably only just woken up, but I just had to see you," she explained, her lips barely a millimeter away from his.
"If this is how you're going to greet me every morning, then I'd be happy to let you interrupt my morning ritual," Edward replied before he pulled her in for another kiss. They only pulled apart when the elevator in the tiny hall dinged. "And that would be my breakfast. Maybe we shouldn't stand out in the hall?" Bella nodded in agreement and went inside the suite while Edward greeted the lady who had come up with a wheeled cart. Jasper came into the room as Edward brought the cart inside.
"Good morning, Bella," Jasper said curtly.
"Good morning," Bella replied. Awkward silence followed.
"I just got back from my morning run, so I'm a bit sweaty right now," Edward said with some hesitation.
"I don't mind," Bella said quickly. Her eyes darted over to Jasper. "Would you mind if I spoke to you alone?" Jasper quickly disappeared after a quick glare from his employer.
"Of course not," Edward said quickly once Jasper had left. He picked up a watermelon square and bit into it, and then picked up a napkin as the juice ran down his chin. "What's up?"
"It's just that you're going to be going back home in a few days," Bella started.
"Don't remind me," Edward said as he put the last of the fruit into his mouth. "I've been having a really great time avoiding all of Alice's calls under the guise of being on holiday. I'm actually going to have to start talking to her once I get back." Bella gave him a dry look, and Edward's smile quickly faded. "But I'm going to miss you a lot, too. I've… sort of gotten used to getting to see you every day."
"Me too," Bella whispered softly. Edward picked up another piece of watermelon and offered it to Bella, but when she went to grab it, he pulled his hand away. He did this twice more before Bella, with a stern glare at Edward, closed her eyes and tilted her head back slightly. Edward placed the fruit against Bella's lips. Bella took a bite, and then pulled back with some surprise as the juice ran down her chin.
Then, Edward leaned forward and slowly ran his tongue up Bella's chin to lick up the sticky mess that he'd inadvertently created. A shiver went down Bella's spine, although she couldn't quite say if it was from nerves or eager anticipation. She moved her lips slightly and they brushed against Edward's lightly until he caught them in a proper kiss. She shivered again as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her him closer to him.
"Are you sure?" he whispered.
"This is something that I want," Bella replied. Edward tugged on her hand and lead her over to the staircase. They walked hand-in-hand upstairs and into Edward's bedroom, where he closed the door behind them, but didn't lock it. Although Bella had spent the past couple of hours mentally psyching herself up, she was glad for the little gesture on Edward's part. She knew that it was just a simple lock— all she had to do was to twist the knob from the inside and it would unlock— but that wasn't the point.
"I don't want to make you uncomfortable at all, so if you want to stop, just say the word, and I will," Edward said. Bella nodded in agreement and went to sit on the edge of the bed. Edward sat next to her. He cupped her chin gently with his hand and tilted her face over so that he could kiss her. They were both at rather awkward angles, so Bella moved so that she was sitting fully on the bed. Edward's hands were gentle against her as he wordlessly encouraged her to move closer.
His fingers scrunched up in the fabric of her blouse. Even though they were clenched, Bella could still feel the slight, nervous tremors. This was okay. She was okay. This was like with Jacob, with the nervous anticipation, rather than with Him, who had been experienced. Never once during any of those encounters had His hands shaken like Edward's were doing now.
Bella gently pressed against Edward until he tipped backwards and eventually fell against the pillows. She crawled over him, and gently pressed her lips along his strong jaw. Edward reached up and gently pulled the hair tie out from her hair, and she shook her hair out until it cascaded down around their faces. She offered him a hesitant smile and he pulled her down for a kiss.
Edward's hand smoothed out the wrinkles that he'd made on the back of her blouse, before they ran down the fabric until he reached the end of it. Bella gave a slight start at the feel of his overly-warm fingers against her lower back. "Okay?" Edward asked with some worry.
"I'm fine," she reassured him before she kissed him again. Edward pressed his hands gently to her back, warm, warm… too warm. Unease crept up into Bella, but she pushed it down. She tried to think of her assignment. Of how completely disappointed that Victoria would be if she failed this one, simple thing.
But as Edward's hands moved higher and higher, the unease in Bella grew more and more. Finally, when Edward's fingers gently touched the clasp on her bra, she snapped. She jerked away from him, a wild look of panic in her eyes. "Bella?" Edward whispered hesitantly. Bella surged to her feet and ran from the room. "Bella!" Edward called out as he ran after her, but she was already halfway down the stairs by the time he even got out from the bedroom. Bella ran from the suite, and chose to go to the emergency staircase instead.
She lost track of how many flights that she ran down, but eventually she stopped in the middle of the stairs and just swayed on the spot. A cry-hiccup bubbled past her lips against her will and then she started to sob in earnest. Something was very wrong with her. Normal people did not have panic attacks over the thought of making out with somebody. Normal people did not run crying from the room every time somebody tried to reach second base.
Bella leaned against the wall as she dried her tears with the back of her wrist. But normal people were not trained assassins, she reminded herself. There was literally nothing normal at all about Bella Swan.
But, it still was rather upsetting that she couldn't even do this one thing. To Bella, this was no longer anything that had to do with Victoria or the job. This was about proving to herself that she could have a healthy, sexual relationship with another person. And maybe she was using Edward to get the results that she wanted before she killed him. So what? Edward would be dead in a while, and Bella would be free to seek out somebody on her own terms.
Bella took a deep breath and stood up straight. She smoothed out her blouse, and tried to fix her hair. She had no idea what had happened to her hair tie, but it was probably lying on the floor in Edward's room. She never let her emotions get the best of her on other jobs, and this was a job. She would not let Him prevent her from completing this job, no matter what it took.
She walked down to the next floor, went out into the hall, and called up the elevator.
"Oh, Ms. Swan? Some more flowers came for you," the doorman said as Bella walked up to the building. Bella pondered at how fast that Edward had gotten the flowers delivered; he must have the florist on speed dial or something. Unlike the first time Edward had given her flowers, these were downright subdued. A dozen red rosebuds. "He must really like you."
"He likes me more than I like myself right now," Bella said as she accepted the beautiful display. As she rode up to her floor, she pulled the card off.
"I hope that you can forgive me for messing everything up again," it read. "I made a reservation at The Vanilla Groove for 8 tonight. If you don't show up, then I'll completely understand."
Like the first card, this one was also simply signed with E.
Bella met Edward for dinner at the restaurant. They did not talk about that morning.
The next day, they spent aimlessly wandering the streets, hand-in-hand. They joked with each other, window shopped, and Edward signed autographs and posed for pictures for the dozen or so fans who stopped him. They still did not talk about the previous day. There were two days left.
Bella awoke on the morning of Edward's last day in New York and felt like she'd swallowed a cannon ball. She'd tried to sleep with Edward, and it had only ended with her running from the hotel suite in tears. She wasn't going to try that again, no matter what Victoria might say.
She rolled over in bed so that she could grab her phone. One new message from Edward.
"I have something to do today, but will you come over to the hotel around 8 tonight? Ask at the front desk for me." It was a strange and oddly cryptic message. It was puzzling to Bella because she'd thought that he would have wanted to spend his last day with her. But there wasn't anything that she could do about that.
Instead, Bella threw on some clothes, picked up a cap and stuffed her hair through the hole in the back, and went off towards the Towers. She went into the cafe across the street from the hotel, bought a cup of coffee and a newspaper, and then sat in the booth in the back corner by the window.
She knew that she spent too much time at the cafe over the past month, but it was the best spot for watching the front door of the hotel. Besides, it was a busy part of town and had a lot of customers. Even if people did remember her, she was just some lady who came in frequently and read the newspaper in the corner. Nothing usual about that.
Around noon, she saw Edward and Jasper get into a cab. Bella called up the taxi commission, but before she was able to get a real person, they came back. Both Edward and Jasper were carrying an absurd about of red, pink, and white roses. Bella felt her face heat with awkward embarrassment. She drained the last of her coffee and left the cafe. Whatever Edward was doing, it wasn't suspicious. At least not this time. She didn't want to ruin what little surprise that there was now that she'd seen the flowers, so she went back to her apartment.
Exactly at 8, Bella walked into the lobby of the Towers and asked for Edward at the front desk. "Ah yes, Ms. Swan," the receptionist greeted her with a knowing smile. "Mr. Cullen has reserved the rooftop for the two of you tonight. I'll call up to let him know that you're on your way."
Bella's heart was pounding as she rode the elevator all the way up. Even though she knew what she would find, she was still nervous as hell. This was Edward's last night here, and obviously, he had wanted to do something special for it.
The elevator didn't go all the way to the top, and Bella had to walk up a flight of stairs to reach the rooftop door. She pushed the door open with shaking hands, and couldn't help the gasp that fell from her lips.
A trail of pink, white, and red rose petal lead to a small terrace, where Edward stood at the edge of a blanket. A picnic was spread out, and white tea lights were clustered around the far edges of the blanket. Somebody had set up a portable canvas tent with gauzy, white fabric that billowed with the wind; fairy lights were wrapped around each of the support legs.
"I wanted to do something special for our last night together," Edward said as Bella walked up to where he stood.
"It's wonderful," Bella said with a small smile. She didn't know what else to say. Edward gestured for Bella to sit on one of the overly plush pillows that were clustered around the blanket. Bella sunk down onto her knees and Edward sat next to her.
"I hope you like fondue."