***Thanks to Jessica0306 and JulieGirl my fantastic betas whom without you would be reading a grammatical mess!

***Thanks to nowforruin, my twilighted beta.

***Disclaimer: Twilight and all things related, including Bella. Emmett, and Edward (sigh…) do not belong to me.

Chapter 11- Library Rendezvous

Bella sat on the couch in her living room, her recent term paper clenched tightly in her fist. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she took a deep, shuddering breath. She was a failure. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't do well in this class. She was either going to have to drop it or risk failing. Neither choice was a good one; she didn't want to have to repeat the class again next semester. It was a requirement and she didn't want to fall behind.

Dr. Banner had torn the paper apart, picking at every little detail. There was absolutely nothing that the man had liked about it. Tears leaked from her eyes again and she brushed them away, frustrated.

She looked up when she heard the door open. Emmett walked into the living room, taking in his crying girlfriend, and frowned. He rushed to her side and sat down, taking her hand in his. "What's wrong?" His eyes full of concern met hers and she burst into tears. "Bee…" he pulled her close and cupped her chin, his thumbs tracing the tears on her cheeks. "…what is it?"

Unable to speak through her sniffling, Bella thrust the paper at him. Emmett took it and sighed heavily at the grade written on the top - 60? "Oh, baby, I'm sorry. You worked so hard."

"Not hard enough apparently. It sucked. He hated it." Bella pulled back from him to look down at her lap, her face filled with sorrow and confusion. "I don't know what else to do."

Emmett couldn't stand to see her cry and thought about what he could do to help. He knew nothing about what she was studying. An idea hit him - he may not know about it, but his brother did. "Maybe Edward can help? Didn't he have this class too?"

Bella nodded and looked up at Em, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Edward had offered his help… he had also stared at her ass. She bit her lip and thought. She could really use his help, but was he attracted to her? Did it matter, when she was this desperate? She decided not. She could deal with Edward's inappropriate looks if he would help her through this class.

"I'll call him now." Before she could offer any form of protest, Emmett had his cell pressed against his ear. He stood and walked across the room "Hey, Edward…"

-xx-

Edward nervously tapped his fingers along the top of the library table. He shifted in his seat and glanced at the door again. What am I doing here? What in the hell am I doing? He should let Bella deal with another tutor. It would be the right thing to do, before he fell any deeper into whatever this thing was with her. I can help her better than they can. I have experience with Banner. That was why he was here. "Damn lie…" he muttered

aloud. Who was he kidding? He was here to see her.

He glanced up at the wall clock again for the twentieth time in the past ten minutes. She wasn't late - he was early. He had been too anxious to wait and had shown up thirty minutes ago. He tried to curb his impatience, but he felt like a small child waiting for Christmas morning.

He swallowed heavily when he caught her coming across the room. Damn, she looks beautiful. He felt like he was caught in some bad slow motion effect as he watched her walk towards him. Her hair flowed around her, and her eyes came up to meet his as a smile formed on her face. His eyes traveled to her shoulders and widened at the sight there. The shirt she was wearing fell off her shoulders exposing them to his hungry gaze. Softly sloping, smooth, and bare - he'd never wanted to touch something so badly in his life. He licked his bottom lip as his hands clenched into fists. "Fuck…" he swore, the sight of her enough to undo any form of restraint he might have had.

Bella sat down across from him and smiled. Inside, her stomach twisted and heat trailed up her chest and over her cheeks at his intense gaze. His grey eyes were swimming with green flames that were shooting out at her. Unconsciously, she leaned back away from him, fearing the burn. "Thank you so much for helping me." How she managed to sound so calm when he looked at her like that was beyond her.

Edward started at the sound of her voice and jerked his eyes away from her shoulders. He cleared his throat and put on a nice smile, before looking into her face. "It's no problem."

Bella sat there, stunned by the angelic smile he threw her way. Just a minute ago he looked like a demon ready to devour her and now he… she was so confused. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and tried to remember why she was here in the first place. Oh yeah, Banner. Her smile fell and she pulled her paper from her notebook. "I suppose we should get started since we only have a few days."

While Bella filled Edward in on her class and where in the book they were, Edward took some time to pull himself together. Slowly, he relaxed. The ideas and theories she was presenting interested him and took a front seat in his mind. She was brilliant, and he had no idea how she could be doing so poorly in class.

When she handed him her paper, his fingers brushed against hers. He closed his eyes briefly at the slow burn traveling up his arm. Bella pulled her hand back and stared at it as if it were a separate entity. Her fingers tingled. She shook her hand, trying to remove the disturbing feeling and looked up to watch Edward study her paper.

After finishing, he rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. "It's not bad. Certainly worth more than the grade he gave you, but I think I can see where you made your mistake."

Bella leaned forward, her attention completely focused on his words, taking in every detail and every bit of advice. She nodded and hummed as he pointed out things to her.

"We'll need to do a bit more research." Edward stood and walked away from the table, toward an aisle of books. He turned and cocked an eyebrow at her, wanting her to follow him.

There were shelves and shelves of law books. Bella had no idea where to go and followed closely behind Edward, who stopped at a kiosk with a computer. After scrolling through pages of material, he found what he wanted and quickly jotted the information on two scrap pieces of paper. "Here, you go down that aisle and look for these and I'll be over there." He pointed to the aisle next to hers and disappeared around the shelves.

Bella read the paper and began her search. When she finally found one, it was way out of her reach. Exasperated, she looked around for help, but of course there was no one there. Stretching up as far as she could and standing on the very tips of her toes she could just reach the book's binding. Before she could get a good grip on it, she lost her balance and stumbled backwards.

Strong hands encircled her waist, steadying her. "Whoa there, stretch. Take it easy before you kill yourself."

Edward's hands tightened on her waist as the warm smell of cinnamon washed over him and Bella turned to face him. Her eyes came in contact with his chest and suddenly she burst out laughing.

He released her and took a step back, his brow furrowing in confusion, wondering what she found so funny. "Nice shirt. Do you always wear pictures of naked women?" Her laughter tittered off as her finger came in contact with his chest and he looked down.

Heat radiated out from that one digit and flowed through his chest. He backed away, nervously running a hand through his hair before flashing a cocky smile. "Not usually, no." Reaching up, he plucked the elusive book down from the shelf. "I think we have everything to get started."

She walked in front of him on the way back to their table and he couldn't help but admire her ass again. "It's art, you know?" he pointed out.

Bella turned to glance at him in confusion and shook her head. "The shirt. It's a photograph by Jody Schiesser."

Edward sat down at the table again, piling the books in front of him. "Maybe you should sit here so we can look at these together." He pulled the chair out next to him and gestured for her to sit down. He kept his eyes glued to the books in front of him, turning the pages. "I have more at home if you like it."

"Books?" She asked, once again unsure of what the hell he was talking about.

Edward pointed to his shirt. "No, the photographs. She is really an incredible artist. I have a book showcasing her work."

"Ummm... I think I'll pass," Bella muttered, trying to imagine looking at photos of naked women with Edward. Her face flushed and she grabbed at the book in front of them. "So what did you want to show me in this book?"

Edward began to talk, and as the facts spilled from his lips, Bella unconsciously leaned toward him. She was resting her chin in her palm, her eyes studying the book as he pointed out varying sentences and facts she could use in her paper. Her pink tongue slid out to run along her bottom lip and he had to stop speaking for a second as his heart leapt to his throat. He pulled another book over to cover for his distraction.

The closer Bella leaned into Edward, the warmer she got. Her mouth was dry and her hands sweaty. She wiped them on her jeans and looked up from the book at Edward. He was leaning down, concentrating on reading the words in front of him. She noticed the strong jaw line he had, the strength in his profile. His eyes met her and his mouth curved into a small smile.

Hours had passed without either one of them noticing and they seemed to be at a lull as they stared at one another. Bella's heart raced when Edward reached forward and touched her ear, his finger running along the shell and grasping her earring lightly. "You like butterflies?" he asked, his voice deep and husky.

Her eyes were wide and startled, and he released her ear, looking away from her and back to the books. "You know the turquoise stone stands for strength and protection." He looked back up at her again. "Do you need protecting, Bella?"

She licked her lips again and his eyes dropped to her full, pink mouth. He wanted so badly to kiss it - she was so close. He leaned in a little as if to do just that.

Bella gasped and stood up from her seat, looking much like a startled doe. Her movements were frantic as she gathered up the books. "I'll just go put these on the return shelf. I think we have enough info for now." She stumbled away, her breathing erratic. Had he been about to kiss me? After depositing the books on the cart, she turned to see Edward following her across the room. He reminded her of a lion stalking its prey and she wondered if she did need protection from him.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she reached in to answer it. "Hi, Em. Yeah, we're just finishing up. I'll see you in a minute." A deep feeling of guilt washed over her. All this craziness with Edward and Emmett was home, waiting for her. What the hell was going on? Why was Edward Cullen doing this to her?

Edward stopped in his tracks at the sudden ferocious glare that Bella shot his way. She looked livid and very upset. Tears were welling in her eyes as she made her way over to him. Grabbing his hand, she yanked him out of the library and out onto the street.

"What the hell is up with you? Why do you look at me like that? Did you almost kiss me in there? You do remember that I'm dating your brother, right?" She stood glaring up at him, her pulse racing and her body vibrating with energy. She was so angry with him, but more at herself. Why hadn't she stopped it right away?

"I really need your help, Edward, but not if it means this. It's not worth it." She let go of his hand and with one last glare, ran. She ran like her life depended on it.

***Has it really been a month since I posted? So sorry for the lag, but I lost the writing bug for a bit. It's back though so I hope to keep posting more regularly.

***I love answering my reviews and I hope to hear more form you lurkers out there. I know you're there. Let me know what you think.

***I would love to start rec'ing fics. So… if you are an author let me know so I can go check out your story! You all already know about . Hate Me » by xrxdanixrx . You should check it out if you haven't read it yet.