A/N - So...we have a little bit of lightly sweetened lemonade in this chapter. This has been an epic week, what with the leaked BD pics and my pre-reader, jodadsobad, becoming a fandom legend. Thanks, Fanny, for taking time out of your busy schedule of ruining the lives of 12-year-olds in order to pre-read my little story and offer me advice and encouragement. Thanks also go to 107yearoldvirgin for being fawesome and to athome jo for knowing me as a teenager and still finding a way to love me today. Jo knows the right questions to ask me in order to point this baby in the right direction.

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer has not given up the rights to Twilight to me...yet. I keep praying that the day will come.

Chapter 10

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth

until the hour of separation. - Kahlil Gibran

Jasper stops me on my way to the elevator Friday evening and says, "Hey man, Emmett and Rose are staying with us tonight. You want to come eat dinner and hang out with us?" Although I'm not terribly excited about eating Alice's cooking, I do want to spend time with my brother and my friends. I can swallow whatever she brews together in exchange for one evening of fun.

"Sounds great, actually. Thanks for keeping me busy, Jazz. I appreciate you not letting me wallow." Truly I am grateful. If I had stayed home tonight, I would just sit around and stress over why I can't seem to make relationships work. And then I'd think, ok, obsess about Bella. Which would lead to nowhere good. "Can I bring something?" I ask.

"Umm…How about you pick up some drinks? Can you do that?" Jasper suggests.

"Absolutely, I'm going to stop at home to shower and change and then I'll head over. Em texted me earlier to tell me that he and Rosie were already hanging out with Alice, so I guess I'll see you in a few," I say before I press the elevator button.

The hot spray of the shower warms and relaxes me. I'm looking forward to hanging out with Emmett and Rosalie. You never know what to expect from Em, which makes my mother nervous, but always makes me smile. As I rinse the suds from my hair my thoughts once again drift to Bella. She always loved Emmett. She said he was like the brother she never had. When Emmett and Rosalie first started dating, there were many times that I expected Bella and Rose to come to blows. Bella did NOT approve of Rosalie. She thought Rose was a stuck-up bitch, and Rose thought that Bella had too much interest in Emmett's relationships. Eventually, Bella discovered that Rose has a hard exterior, but inside she is perfect for my brother. Rose soon found Bella's protectiveness for Emmett to be endearing and rather sweet. They grew quite close before I broke-up with Bella. I don't know if they've even kept in contact with each other or not. God, I'm such an idiot. How did I not think about all of the things that would be affected by breaking up with Bella?

I stopped at a liquor store on the way to Alice and Jasper's and picked up a couple of six-packs of Heiney. I may still be thinking about Bella, because Heineken was Bella's favorite beer. I know Emmett likes it too, so I convince myself that I bought it for him.

Emmett opens the door when I knock. I am assaulted by my brother's arms and the tantalizing aroma of some sort of Asian dish. Alice must have ordered in because I know neither her nor Rose could come up with something that smells so heavenly. After removing myself from Emmett's hug, I step up to kiss Rose on the cheek. Behind her, Alice has her arms open waiting for a hug. I wrap my arms around her and she whispers, "Be good," leaving me completely confused. I hand Jasper one of the six-packs and follow him to the kitchen. After crowding the Heiney into the icebox (and humming a little Weezer to myself) I turn and realize that Jazz and I are not alone in the kitchen. Bella is stirring some vegetables in a wok on the stove. Well, at least that explains the appetizing dinner.

She shyly smiles saying, "Hello, Edward. I hope Bulgogi and stir-fried veggies is ok with you."

I shake my head and answer, "Sure? I guess. What is Ba-go-gy?" I move a little closer to the stove, but stop when I notice Bella eyeing me warily.

"It's Korean BBQ beef. It's thinly sliced beef that's been marinated in soy sauce, sugar, and some other things. This is just vegetables here. The Bulgogi is out on the grill," she says, pointing to the patio door.

"Oh, shit," Jasper exclaims, running out of the door.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't be dinner with Jazz and Alice without something being burned," I laugh and nudge Bella with my elbow. She laughs, smiles up at me, and then shoves me out of the kitchen. I wander back into the living room to chat with Alice, Rose, and Emmett until dinner is ready.

Bella brings the vegetables and a large bowl of steamed rice to the table as Jasper sets the meat tray on at potholder. I look around at everything, rub my hands together and announce, "This looks and smells amazing, Bella. Thank you for preparing it for us."

"Forget that shit," Emmett says. "Let's dig in," and he begins loading up his plate.

Bella must've noticed the worried look in my eyes, because she places her hand on my arm and whispers, "Don't worry, Edward. I have more in the kitchen. I know how much he likes to eat." Then her brows draw in slightly and her eyes settle on her hand grasping my arms. She sucks in a quick breath and hastily removes her hand to her lap.

The food is delicious. The company is fun. The conversation is… well, its just ridiculous, but that is to be expected, given the members of this group. I learn that Bella and Rose have been able to continue their friendship. They get together every Sunday either before or after the Cullen family gathering. It turns out that Rose is the one who introduced Bella and Alice, encouraging Bella to help Alice with her grand opening.

After dinner, we all help clean up in order to get started on the movie. The girls decided on the latest Johnny Depp movie. While it wasn't my first choice, it really doesn't bother me too much. It's been a long week and I'm really too tired to pay attention and properly enjoy a movie, anyway. Jasper and Alice are curled up together on the loveseat. Emmett is stretched out on the couch with Rosalie snuggled up in front of him. Bella chooses the floor and places her pillow and blanket in front of the coffee table. I have a choice between a large chair over in the corner, or pulling up a patch of carpet near Bella. Can you guess what I choose?

"Mind if I join you down here?" I ask. "I don't want to sit any place where I can see Emmett. I've been witness to my fair share of intimate moments between him and Rose and I don't want to ruin Alice's carpet or insult you by losing my dinner," I joke, hoping she doesn't see through my lame excuse.

Whether or not she guesses my motives, she agrees and scoots over a little. She even offers to share her pillow with me. Laying beside her is torture. She smells delicious. I've always wondered how she smells like sugar cookies. She even loved making sugar cookies. For every holiday, she would make them and decorate them. I used to "help". So, maybe my help came in the form of licking the mixer paddles and disposing of any of the broken cookies that couldn't be decorated.

"Do we have a cookie theme this year or are we just doing random Christmas decorations?" I asked after I've licked the mixer paddles clean. "Because, you know, I'm thinking we should just do a reindeer theme. We could give everyone eight distinct reindeer cookies. I'm pretty sure that I could take care of Rudolph's nose. "

Bella pulled a tray of cookies out of the oven. I couldn't help ogling her ass while she's bent over. It truly is a luscious ass. While she was distracted placing the cookies on a cooling rack, I bent down and sunk my teeth into her delectable backside. Bella spun around and snapped her dish towel at me. "Back," she squealed, "you stay back." She was laughing, even though I know she takes her cookie decorating VERY seriously. "I have 3 more trays to cook tonight. You WILL let me finish," she demanded, waving her hand in front of my face.

I couldn't help but chuckle and declare, "Your Jedi mind tricks will not work here. My mind is too far into the gutter." I began backing her into the corner as she giggled and pushed against my chest. Little did she know that her little shoves and wiggles were only turning me on more. After I had her flush up against the corner cabinets, I leaned my head down and ran my nose from her chin up her jaw line to her ear. She sighed deeply and then moaned as I gently nibbled on her earlobe. Bella's hands began to roam and soon she was trying to climb my torso. I placed my hands behind her knees and ran them up to grab that juicy bottom that I had so recently taken a bite from. I lifted Bella and sat her on the edge of the counter. My lips moved to her throat and my teeth gently grazed her collarbone. Running my hands up her thighs I lightly pushed to spread her legs and make room for my body to slide in between them.

I looked up to see that Bella's eyes had darkened, making it nearly impossible to distinguish her irises from the deep chocolate that is usually found there. I slowly rubbed my cock into Bella thigh and slid my hands up under her shirt. She scoots closer to the edge of the counter enabling me to grind my dick right into heated seam of her jeans. Her hands slid up into my hair and she was continuously pulling me closer, ever closer. I licked my way back up to her mouth. I gathered her bottom lip between my teeth. I sucked that lip further into my mouth and licked it. Then she opened her mouth further, allowing me to slide my tongue in to dance with hers.

Bella groaned and clutched my shoulders. She trailed her hands around to my chest and began unbuttoning my shirt as I continued my attack on her lips. I has to pull back when her nails scraped over my nipples and a hiss was forced from my throat. "Be-lllaaa." I moaned.

"Ed-warrd," she responded as my grinding became more frenzied and my hands frantic.

"Yessss, Bella," I hummed as my fingers traced the scalloped edge of her bra, skimming along the silky skin just above where her nipples were threatening to cut through the cotton containing them.

"Oh Ed-waaaarrrrrdd," Bella's voice deepened and I rubbed us closer to oblivion.

"Yes. Yessssss," I reply. I couldn't keep quiet if my life depended on it.

"Edward! Wake up before you embarrass yourself."

"Mmmmm... What?" My eyes pop open to see Emmett's face hovering upside down over mine. "What are you doing, Em?"

"Saving you a mess in your pants and a sexual assault charge," he says, patting my cheek. It is at this moment that I realize that Bella's head is laying on my chest. Her leg is tucked in between my legs, her thigh pressed up against my unyielding dick. "We gotta get up, man. Mom is expecting us. Rose took our car and already went to the house. They are waiting for us to come set up the new bed, so that Rosie and I have a place to get busy, I mean, sleep tonight."

"God, Emmett, I do not need these images in my head," I whisper, trying to disentangle my limbs from Bella's without waking her up.

"Yeah," Emmett snorted, "like I needed the image of you dry humping my sleeping 'little sister' in my head."

It is at this moment that Bella decides to wake. Her eyes are huge as her thigh rubs against my aching erection while trying to move herself off of my chest. Her cheeks swiftly flush to a deep scarlet. Bella stands, muttering and looking anywhere but at me or Emmett. She mentions something about a shower and rushes off to the guest room.

I gather the blanket and pillow from off of the floor. After struggling to fold/roll the blanket into submission, I deposit it on the back of the loveseat. I finally turn to see the smirk plastered on Emmett's face.

"She's not really your sister, Emmett. You know that, right?" I say, just to break the silence.

"Oh, I know, Brother. That is abundantly clear, given the fact that I am allowing you to live after your inappropriate display in there," he responds with a devilish grin.

I shake my head and grab my keys, saying, "C'mon douche bag. Let's go see mom."

A/N- Thanks so much for reading. I have a playlist for this story at Http : /www . mixpod . com/playlist/78579113 (removing the spaces, of course).