A/N: Sorry for not getting this out yesterday. My brain was all kinds of ADD and wouldn't let me concentrate long enough to get more than two sentences out at a time. Enjoy!

Also, no read through on this, so excuse the typos. I'll fix them if I find any.

Note: Stephenie Meyer owns everything. I just borrow the characters. If I owned them, I'd never let Edward come out and play. Edward Cullen does, however, own me.

Campus Liaisons

Chapter 10: Conversations

"Bella! You have to wake up! You're scaring me!" Edward's voice called to me.

What was happening?

Oh yeah, I'd passed out right after I'd remembered the night I'd gotten drunk and slept with a soon-to-be student. Who just happened to be the man who was now holding me. And who I also had slept with again.

That.

No big deal.

I groaned and fought to open my eyes. Well, no time like the present to confront this all head on. Sooner rather than later, they always say.

Did they also have something that was appropriate to say when you suddenly remember a guy you'd had a one night stand with?

What was the etiquette for that?

Sorry I forgot how amazing you were in bed because I was too drunk off my tequila.

I wonder if Hallmark sold cards for that. I'd buy a box of them and send them to Edward, one a day. I'm sure that me forgetting his amazing sex prowess was a huge blow to his ego, not that it seemed he needed any help in that department.

"Bella?" Edward said again.

I finally pried my eyes open and found Edward crouching next to me on the couch, probably where he'd placed me after he caught me when I fell.

"I'm fine," I said, my voice cracking.

He chuckled at me.

"You don't look fine. You look like you just fainted," he said and grinned.

"Oh, shut up, you …. sex god," I sneered lightly.

His grin only grew. He sat back on his heels and laughed at me.

"Sex god? Is that what I am now? I figured with you forgetting me and everything I must not be that good," he commented.

I rolled my eyes at Edward.

"Geeze, do I need to tell you how amazing you are in bed? Do we really need to inflate your ego even more? Well, I'll just leave it at this. I was drunk off my ass that night. Too much tequila and not enough tolerance," I said and groaned remembering the throbbing of my head that morning.

Edward's eyes softened and he placed his hand over my forehead.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look kind of green right now," he said.

I huffed and rolled my eyes again, "Really, Edward. I know you're concerned, but really … I'm okay. I just needed to lie down and catch my breath."

"Damn. I thought I could play the concerned boyfriend card and we could have some hot 'let's see if you're okay' sex." Edward pretended to pout and stuck out his lip.

All the possibilities of that statement flashed through my brain for a moment. I mean, I was already laying on the couch so we wouldn't have to go far.

I looked over at my coffee table and saw the piles upon piles of trash and other miscellaneous stuff. My heart sank when I realized I had promised that I would start grading all the papers today. So as much as I wanted to indulge Edward in his 'let's see if you're okay' sex, the likelihood of this happening as well as getting papers graded was slimmer than pre-rehab Mary-Kate Olsen.

Damn. I really was looking forward to hot health check sex for a minute.

"Shoot," I muttered.

His eyebrows pulled together in a look of confusion.

"What?" he asked.

"I really have stuff to do today. Besides cleaning this obvious pigsty, I have a ton of work to do for class. And then there's the stack of articles Professor Lindstrom asked me to read through," I sighed and sat up. I must have moved too quickly though because I immediately got lightheaded and swayed a bit.

Edward's arms shot out and gripped me on either side of my shoulders, steadying me.

"Whoa there, Bella. I don't want you to pass out on me again," he exclaimed.

I took a moment to breathe in deep while the room stopped spinning.

"I'll be fine, Mr. Superhero. Geeze, you catch a girl from falling once and suddenly you're all concerned about her," I joked.

"I think I have every right to be concerned about you. I mean, we've already had hot sex, what, three times now," Edward said and grinned at me. A little dimple sprouted on the right side of his mouth, making him look a lot younger than his confessed age of 25. It was stuff like that that originally made me think he was much younger.

"If you want to be perfectly correct, yes, we've had hot sex three times. But! I only technically remember two of them in perfect detail since I wasn't drunker than a skunk," I corrected.

Edward leaned his head in near my ear and placed a soft kiss on my jaw. It was such a tender action that the same pull on my heart I'd felt this morning returned.

I still chose to ignore it just yet. This was still too new to go to that place.

He turned and placed his lips on the shell of my ear. I heard his breathe pick up slightly and in turn my heart began to race.

"From now on I intend that you'll remember every single one of our romps. Can you do that for me?" he whispered and pulled his head back.

His green eyes were alight with fire and I could only stare at him, slack-jawed.

Seriously, how did he do that? It was amazing.

"Can you?" he asked again.

I nodded, my mouth still agape.

Edward grinned at me again and stood up.

"Good. That's what I like to hear," he said. I scanned him top to bottom and noticed the tell-tale sign that he did indeed like what he heard.

"Well, as much as I would love to stick around and help you with your work, I'm sure I'll just be a hindrance. So I'm going to go, but there's something else I want you to do for me if it's okay," Edward continued.

"Um, okay," I meekly said, still rather frazzled from his ear-whispering abilities.

"I'd like to hear from you later to make sure you're okay, if that's all right. I don't want to have to worry about you all night."

"Um, okay," I muttered again.

For the seemingly millionth time, my speaking skills seemed to have taken a sharp downturn being in Edward's presence. I briefly wondered if he had this effect on every woman before I shook the idea from my head.

The thought of him and other women stirred something just a little too similar to jealousy.

"Since you already seem to have my number, give me a call later, okay?" he said and motioned toward the Post-It he'd placed on a big stack of papers on my coffee table.

"Sure, sure," I responded.

Edward moved towards the front door and took hold of the handle. He hesitated in opening it and turned back around to me.

His eyes found mine and I could sense he had more to say. He bit his lip lightly, confirming my suspicions.

"Just be safe, okay? I don't want to lose you now that I have you," he said with an air of uncertainty I hadn't heard from him before.

My heart clenched at his words. There was that something pulling at me that I refused to acknowledge was there, even though everything in me was screaming to just pay it its dues.

My heart wanted this just as much as my body did. My brain was the only one lagging behind at this point.

"Okay, I promise to be safe," I returned and smiled.

Edward mirrored my smile, but I noticed it didn't seem to reach his eyes. With that, he pulled the door open and was gone.

As the door swung shut behind him, a part of me wanted to run after him. To get him. To bring him back into my house and never let him go again. Never let him walk away.

I realized then that I wanted to spend as much time with him, despite everything else in my life. I was willing to throw away everything and just curl up with him in bed, just enjoying being with him there.

This was definitely a new feeling for me. With all my previous boyfriends, it was nice spending time with them, but they weren't the center of my world. I always had other things going on, other responsibilities that took precedence over them.

But Edward was different.

On so many different levels.

Maybe he was …

No, not yet. I stopped myself before I could get to the rest of that thought. There would be plenty time enough to get there. Right now was not the moment.

I still had other things to do.

Hauling myself off the couch, I gathered up all the crusty old food and disposed of it. I had noticed Edward's apartment, in the brief seconds I wasn't trying to maul him, was spotless. It put me to shame. I wanted my place to be just as clean as his.

When all the old meals were gone and my work was piled into stacks according to their urgency level, I got down to work. First I planned out specifically what I would be talking about in class for the upcoming week.

Oh, class, I thought. Class with Edward. As my student.

That would be interesting.

And not in that "hey, this is a fun TV show!" kind of interesting. More along the lines of "I just had hot sex with one of my students who was definitely interested in repeating said hot sex" kind of interesting.

To say that it would probably be awkward was an understatement. Meeting his parents would be awkward. This would be monumentally awkward.

Wait.

Meeting his parents?

Where did that come from?

I slapped my palm to my forehead, trying to dispel some of these errant thoughts from my head. I was already thinking about meeting his parents. Who's to say he wanted me to meet his parents? Who's to say he even had parents still?

Dammit.

I was head over heals already.

It was hopeless. I was hopeless.

I tried my best to concentrate on whatever work I had in front of me, but inevitably my thoughts always drifted back to Edward. It seemed like every other line in the stupid papers I'd be stopping and staring off into space for minutes at a time, just thinking about him. About what we had already. About what we seemed to be embarking on.

Needless to say, I wasn't being very productive.

Everything was mashing around in my head and not making much sense. To be able to concentrate, I really needed to make sense of all of this.

But there was only one way I could ever make sense of something this confusing.

I'd have to talk it out with someone.

And who did I always talk out my most confusing situations with?

Alice.

Her name rang in my head and I suddenly realized she hadn't called me all day. The last time I'd walked out of a bar with a guy and not told her, she'd been all over my case. Hell, she'd shown up on my porch demanding an explanation.

This was highly unusual.

I climbed off the couch and found my phone among a pile of clothing in my bedroom. I'd tossed it there when I was trying to find something decent to wear around Edward.

Ah, Edward. His name sent waves of warmth over me and I paused, holding my phone in one hand and probably a dreamy look on my face.

No, shake it off. Concentrate, Bella. Alice. You want to talk to Alice.

I quickly pressed her speed dial and listened to it ring.

"Hello?" Alice's groggy voice sounded on the other end once she finally picked up after half a dozen rings.

"Alice?" I asked.

"Bella?" I heard the sound of rustling fabric in the background.

"Yeah, um, did I wake you?"

I looked at the clock and found that it was almost 3 o'clock in the afternoon. There didn't to be a good reason for Alice to stay in bed that late. She never slept this late. Unless she …

The realization of what she had been doing last night after I'd left with Edward hit me and I gasped.

"ALICE! Are you with a guy? Right now?" I yelled into the phone.

"Um … maybe," Alice said meekly.

I couldn't stop the laughter that came out of me. Little Alice and her hips. She'd apparently managed to snag her own one night stand after I'd left.

"Bella! That's not nice! I really like this guy!" she exclaimed.

I heard a softer, more masculine voice in the background saying "Well, I certainly hope so after the amazing se…"

I cut off hearing him finish that sentence by saying, "Alice, I really think you should come over. I kind of need to talk to you about something and apparently you have some explaining to do as well."

Alice huffed on the other end.

"Alice, you owe me. I was worried when I realized you didn't call me today. What was I supposed to think? For all I knew, you were dead somewhere!" I said, trying to play the same guilt card she'd played on me.

"Fine. I'll be there in 45 minutes. And you really, really owe me for this, little miss. You have no idea what I'm missing by getting out of this bed," she sneered.

"Seriously, Alice. I don't want to hear about your wild sex!"

"God, Bella. Lighten up. I'll be there in a bit. Don't jump out of your skin before I get there, okay?"

We hung up and I tried to busy myself with passing the time. I gave up on grading papers after another five minutes and instead switched to picking up the mess that I called my bedroom. There were clothes everywhere, flung in all directions. I even found some of Alice's clothing mixed in with my own.

When I deemed my bedroom clean enough for Edward's presence, I made myself some food. I was happily munching on my turkey sandwich when I realized it had been over an hour and Alice still hadn't shown up.

I frowned at this. Alice was always perfectly punctual.

Finally, her knock sounded after nearly 75 minutes.

I opened the door and Alice stood on the front steps, not meeting my eyes.

"Alice," I calmly said.

She smiled weakly at me and shrugged her shoulders.

"He wanted to say goodbye," she grinned.

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Whatever, just come in." She followed me inside and collapsed on my couch.

"Okay, Bella. This better be good. I had an extremely hot, naked Southern boy who does this amazing thing with his tongue that …" she giggled.

I held my hands up to stop her before she continued with that thought.

"Alice, please. There's plenty time enough for you to explain why your guy deserves the gold in the Sex Olympics. I have my own issues at this moment," I quickly said.

"Spill it then," she said and tapped her watch. "I'm a very busy woman."

I thought about how I would explain Edward to her and nothing was coming to mind. There didn't seem to be any words to explain him.

"Why don't you start from the beginning if you're so tongue tied?" Alice prodded.

"That sounds … easy enough. Well, yeah. I left the bar last night," I said.

"I figured that when you didn't come find me. Find a hot piece to work on that pole up your ass you had last night?"

I felt my cheeks growing hot from her words.

"Let's just say that he worked on the pole, but it wasn't up my ass," I mumbled.

"Bella! You got laid again? Good for you!" Alice exclaimed and started clapping her hands.

"Before you start throwing confetti and ordering a "Bella got sexed up!" cake, it's a lot more complicated than you think," I sighed.

"What's complicated? You had sex. You enjoyed it, didn't you?" Alice asked.

"Of course I enjoyed it. It rocked my world. Literally, I think my world is different this morning."

"Um, okay. You're going to have to explain that one because I'm confused."

I sighed again.

"To start off, he's one of my students."

Alice gasped and clasped her hand over her mouth.

"Bella! You naughty professor!" she gasped.

"I know, right? I'm a terrible person for it. And worse yet, this isn't the first time either," I grudgingly admitted.

"Uh .. what? Not the first time? Are you holding back on me now? Having some tryst with a nice young boy to make up for lost time?" Alice laughed.

"Alice, that's where it gets complicated. He's not young. He's actually older than me," I said and waved my arms around.

"So what? He's older than you. Who cares? Do you like him?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's why it's complicated. I like. A lot. Probably more than I should. I mean, I'm his professor for god's sakes! Even if he is older than me, all that matters is I'm his professor," I winced.

This was my big sticking point. The fact that despite our similar ages, I was still his professor. I still held power over him. I could still get in trouble for this. For what we were doing.

"Bella, this is probably the dumbest thing I could say at this moment, but I'm going to say it. You like him. He likes you, right?" she asked. I nodded and let her continue. "Well, that's all that matters. If it's meant to be, it will work out. If it isn't, it won't. If there's one thing I believe in, it's destiny."

"But …" I started before she shushed me with a wave of her hand.

"No buts, missy. All this other stuff with him being your student isn't important. Having a connection with another person is what is important. All the stupid other stuff is secondary. It will work out. Just concentrate on him and how he makes you feel. If he stops making you feel that way, it isn't meant to be. You just need to accept that sometimes the heart knows what we need a lot more than the brain does. So I think you should listen to your heart in this case," Alice explained.

She sat there for a second letting everything she'd said sink into my head.

Could I really do that? Could I really let the fact that he was my student fall by the wayside in favor of my feelings for him? Feelings that I seemingly had been fighting all along.

Edward's face as he walked out of my house flashed across my mind then. The way he'd told me to be safe. The way I'd wanted to run after him and keep him there with me.

The way he'd looked last night. So beautiful. So deep. So soulful.

I knew I'd have to try. I would have to try to just focus on him and me and the feelings we seemingly both shared already.

"Can you do that, Bella?" Alice asked quietly. "Can you listen to your heart?"

I looked at her and smiled.

"I think I can, Alice. I think I can." My voice was steady and firm.

Alice squealed and clapped her hands again.

She started bouncing on the couch and exclaimed, "Great! Now can I tell you about Jasper?"

I also wanted to take a moment and pimp out the new Dirty Talking Edward Contest I'm co-sponsoring. Details and an example piece can be found in my profile. I'm looking forward to many dirty entries and some amazing pieces!

Also again ... FF is in major fail and isn't sending out alerts or messages. I apologize profusely for this (even though I can't do much about it...) If you send me a message and I don't respond, try again in a day or so. If that still doesn't work, send me an email. I'll post my email in my profile under the DTE contest details.