Hello again. I've worked super hard this morning and got both chapter 11 and 12 edited for you. I hope you are enjoying it. I have one more chapter I need to edit, then from chapter 14 and on I had a great beta for this story, so it should be a little easier to get them posted for you after that. thanks for the patience.

-Margo

Chapter 12 –

"What's wrong with a feature on Tanya Denali?" Angela asked. "You asked me to look into her, and I think the story would be good for the article. Little rich girl who leaves home and builds herself a successful modelling career only to have it fall apart on her. We can start with that, then highlight her moving home and sorting out all her problems hopefully leading up to a big comeback."

"What do you mean fall apart on her?" Bella perked up for a second.

"Why she left New York," Angela replied sounding a little confused.

"We don't know why she left New York." Bella noticed that the other three women in the room were also interested to hear the outcome of the conversation.

"Her father—I think—tried to hush it up for her. I guess she took the Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton path and lost all the shoots she was scheduled to do because she was showing up late either drunk or high. After a couple months of it, her agency dropped her completely. It took a lot for Jessica to dig this up—it was covered extremely well. What we were thinking is that you could talk to her and explain that we are interested in doing a piece on her struggles and how she's brought herself back on the straight and narrow."

Bella snorted slightly.

"Bella?"

"I'm not being a part of this. That woman is psycho! She has been making the entire Cullen family miserable since she returned. Straight and narrow my ass—sorry." She added for the swearing.

"Bella she spent almost three months in a rehabilitation center before returning home to Denver—apparently she's pretty much clean." Angela sounded a little irritated with Bella.

"That's bull, because I've seen her drinking since she's been here."

Alice hurried to stand right next to Bella, trying to hear what was going on at the other end of the conversation.

"Maybe she's learned to control her drinking, or maybe she was mostly at the facility for the drugs. Regardless, I want you to pitch the story to her, she can verify with the Cullen's that we will write it with the utmost respect." This was manager Angela; Bella knew she had no choice when Angela talked like this.

"I cannot pitch that story to her." She tried to get out of it. There was a slight possibility Angela might want to send someone else to deal with it.

Alice was quickly filling in Rose and Esme. Bella could see all three of them trying to assess the situation with Tanya

"Bella, it's your job to do whatever jobs I tell you to do—that' why I'm the boss. Besides, from what Jessica dug up, it doesn't seem like one single member of the Cullen family is upset about her being back."

Bella took a deep breath, she could not freak out on her boss. "Angela, did you not hear what I said? She is making all of their lives miserable. If we print both these stories we will have to lie in one of them—by writing a happy upbeat feature on Tanya and her struggles to become a good person we would be completely be stretching fact. If her actions here are any indication of who she is then…" Bella paused and thought for a minute about the situation. She had a brilliant idea. "Actually, Angela, this might work." Three sets of eyes locked on Bella as if she grew a second head. "I will pitch it to her, but I will not write the article. In fact, I think that the magazine should fly her out to Miami and do everything there. Can I pitch that to her?"

Angela sighed in relief. "Yes, that's fine. Thank you Bella."

"Yeah, we'll see. I'm going to go now—do you mind sending me Jessica's research? Just so I have an idea of the best way to pitch it to her."

"Sure, I'll email it."

"Thanks. Anyway, I'll talk to you later?"

"Bye, Bella."

Bella closed the phone and the other three women stared at her.

"Bella, sending her to Miami to do the article won't solve anything, she'll be back in a couple weeks."

"Yes, but Angela is going to send me the research, so I'll know all her dirty little secrets. Blackmail works in both directions," Bella replied with a smile.

Rosalie grinned and Bella could already see the wheels turning in Alice's head.

"I don't know if this is a good idea, she still knows about you and Edward…" Esme began.

"She has no proof about Edward and I. Besides, I think the promise of a second chance at her career would be a bigger draw than the blackmail on Edward. It makes sense now—she is trying to use Edward to get her career back. Dating a high profile athlete gets attention, and that's what she wants. If we give her this story, she can get her career back, and she won't need Edward to do it."

"I still think it is risky—things like this tend to come back at you," Esme replied sounding worried.

"Then it's a good thing that karma works in both directions. It will bite her in the ass before it comes back to us," Alice replied. "But first, Bella finish taking that dress off and let's go for lunch.

Bella didn't tell Edward any of the details of her plan. She wanted him to worry only about his game that night and the upcoming road trip. They ate a quick dinner together before he headed to the arena. When he left, Bella went straight to her computer and hammered out a rough draft of what she wanted to write. She printed it off and threw it in her purse for once hoping that Tanya would show up at the game.

She didn't, but that was alright, Bella had plenty of time to deal with this.

The national anthems began—first the Canadian because they were playing the Edmonton Oilers, a division team; then the American National Anthem followed.

Bella sat silently, it was getting really hard to watch games and see Edward struggle so much. She'd seen so many clips from previous years—and she saw him in the preseason where he was flawless, but so far in the season it just wasn't the same. She hoped for something different this evening.

The puck dropped and play began, Edward was no longer playing on the first line, so he hadn't started. He was on the second line though, and he'd probably go out in the next minute or so.

Colorado had control of the puck, they shot it in to make a change and Edward's line was on the ice. He skated into the zone and behind the net, where the goalie had just passed the puck from. He followed the player who had the puck and caught up to him quickly. In a quickly move, Edward knocked the puck away from the opposing team member, turned it around, and took off with it.

There were two Edmonton players right behind him, one got his stick out and tripped Edward, and he began to fall to the side of the net. As the ref was blowing the whistle to call the penalty, Edward hit the puck with his stick and it went in under the goalie's pads while Edward slid over toward the boards.

The room erupted, and Edward got up and was enveloped by his teammates. His first goal of the regular season.

Bella and Alice both jumped up and cheered. Alice turned to Rose. "It wasn't really a pretty goal, but who cares, it went in!"

Rose just laughed, and Bella joined in.

The mood in the box lightened significantly; it was clear how worried everyone had been about Edward's mediocre playing through October, and that this one goal made it better. There wasn't even a guarantee that he was back on top of his game, but it didn't really matter in that moment.

Bella watched in awe of the game. This was the Edward she'd heard about since she'd arrived; before the first period was done he'd scored again. In the second period, he got an assist on a goal scored by Emmett.

There were twenty-five seconds left in the game, and the score was 3-2 in favour of the Avalanche. Edmonton had pulled their goalie and were pushing with the extra attacker very hard in the Avalanche end of the ice. Jasper was working overtime. Bella noticed that Alice looked as focussed as she herself felt.

Jasper made a stop and the puck went to his left. Edward was able to get it and moved toward the blue line; he weaved by the Oiler's defence and got out in the open ice. He took a shot from just passed the center line, and it went straight in.

Bella and Alice jumped up, and Bella was shocked as tons of fans began to throw their hats onto the ice.

"What are they doing?"

"He got a hat trick—he scored three goals in the game. Whenever a home team player does that, people throw their hats on the ice."

"Isn't that a waste of hats?" Bella asked but smiled at the entire atmosphere.

"Well, they aren't really all that stylish, so no big deal," Alice replied causing Rose and Bella to chucked.

After the game, Bella got a call from Edward. "Hey, I just wanted to call and say we'd probably be late tonight. So I was thinking, if you and the girls want to meet at After Hours to celebrate, we can go there afterward."

"Yeah, sure, even if they don't want to, I'll meet you there. Congratulations Edward, that was amazing!"

"Thanks beautiful,"

Bella blushed. She was glad he was not able to see it.

"I'll see you in a little while," Edward added.

"Bye," Bella replied.

Alice was next to her. "He just invited you for drinks—how did my cousin manage to make you blush like that?" she joked. Before Bella could even think up an answer, Alice continued. "Oh, and Jasper called me, and yes I'm going to After Hours as well. We should get over there quick. That way we can at least have first pick of all the food—once the guys get there we will have very little chance of getting any."

"Okay, sounds good. Are Rose and Esme coming?"

"Rose is, but Mom is going to go home—something about leaving it to us young people."

"She just wants alone time with your dad," Rose chimed in.

"I don't want to think about that," Alice replied cringing. "Let's go, then."

The girls arrived at After Hours and took a booth in the corner.

"So, Bella, this is where you met Edward right?" Alice was eyeing her. "You never did tell us that story."

"Oh god, please don't do this! I feel like we're in high school," Bella replied.

"So? This is the most interesting thing to happen to the family since Rosalie and Emmett got engaged. We need a little excitement in our personal lives."

Bella shook her head and told them the story. They ordered their food as she continued.

"And we always wondered why he never had girlfriends. Clearly it's because his pickup skills are terrible. 'Loyal clientele' at least he bought you a drink though," Rose said with a laugh.

"Don't tell Emmett he has bad pick up skills—Edward will never hear the end of it," Bella quickly interjected.

"No more than he deserves," Rose joked. "But girl talk is private—Emmett won't hear anything."

"Oh, food's here!" Alice said happily. She took the plate of nachos from the waiter, and he set the wings and fries on the table.

"Thank you," Bella replied.

"More drinks?" The waiter asked.

"Bella will have a long island iced tea," Alice said with a grin.

"I'm fine with my Pepsi," Bella quickly replied.

"No no, Bella, you want a long Island Iced tea," Alice said again.

Bella just shook her head, but agreed.

Bella was only about 3/4 finished her long island when the waiter came with another one. "From the gentleman over there by the bar," their waiter told her.

Bella shook her head, laughing as she did.

"Oh Edward," Alice sighed.

They looked, and Edward was not at the bar, which confused them all.

"Uh, which gentleman?" Alice asked for Bella.

"Hi." A young man that Alice recognised approached the table. She stifled a groan.

Bella turned around. She looked at him for a second; he was smiling at her.

"I'm Jacob, Jacob Black. I thought I'd come over and introduce myself. My teammates and I were just admiring you three from afar." He nodded to a group of young men sitting in another booth. "We just wanted to buy you ladies a drink."

"Does that usually work? Just approaching random girls at the bar and hoping they'll hook up with you?" Rose shot out of nowhere.

Alice stifled a laugh. Bella's eyes widened.

"Thank you, for the drink, but..." Bella began, trying to diffuse the situation.

"But they're taken." Another voice appeared behind him. Emmett stood behind the much shorter younger man looking very menacing. Edward and Jasper were next to him. Jasper had the hint of a grin on his face, and Edward just looked calm, almost uninterested in the situation. "Of all the places around Denver, why'd you and your line mates end up at our usual bar hangout?"

"We read a good review of the place," Jacob replied. "We didn't realize it was private."

"It's not private," Jasper replied. "But certain clientele are not as welcome as others."

"Come on boys, let's turn the testosterone down a little bit. I know there was all that drama at the world cup last year, but let's just enjoy our night out. This place has good food, good drinks, and we can all enjoy ourselves." It was Alice; she smiled then looked to her brother and boyfriend. "So Emmett, Jasper, stop trying to play the big tough guy role. The players from the Oilers are just here to eat. And Black, I know you knew who we were when you came over here. We've met several times at functions. That was pretty low."

"Maybe I was interested in someone else at the table—it's not all about you Alice." He looked to Bella and smiled. She looked away.

"I think you need to go back to your table Jacob," Edward finally spoke.

Emmett laughed.

"Alright, I'm going," Jacob replied. He looked one last time at Bella. "Enjoy your drink." He winked then walked away.

"I don't like him," Edward said as they all sat down.

"Funny, because I vaguely remember you going on about how I was too harsh on him at the World Cup last year," Emmett said with a grin. He and Jacob had been thrown out of the game after fighting; in international hockey, fighting was not acceptable.

"You he was not in your class as a fighter—it was completely unfair," Edward shot back.

"Maybe, but I also vaguely remember you getting all territorial at a dinner in Sweden when Mike decided to sit next to a certain brunette named..."

"Shut up," Edward replied punching his cousin on the arm.

"You two are terrible—and Bella is blushing—so leave her alone," Alice replied.

Bella just took a big drink of her Long Island Iced tea.

"Anyway," Bella finally cut in. "Why don't we get on with our celebrating?" she suggested. "You were amazing tonight." She smiled at Edward.

"He was alright," Emmett added. Rosalie punched him in the arm and shook her head.

Emmett pouted after being punched twice.

"Thank you," Edward said to Rosalie as he put his arm around Bella and grabbed himself some food.

The group talked and joked for the evening; there was no more drama with Jacob and the other Oilers players. Alice noticed that Jacob glanced over at their table far too often, but she seemed to be the only one who saw it. The other players, including the Captain of the team, Sam Uley, nodded towards their table in a sign of respect.

Bella quickly consumed both of her long island iced teas, and the entire table did two Alamo shots—half tequila and half Jack Daniels—which definitely was not a good idea, but Emmett had insisted.

"Ready to go?" Edward asked Bella, knowing she was exhausted. She just nodded.

They walked quietly back to their building and through the foyer. They were careful not to act too much like a couple. His family might know, but there were still a lot of factors that required them to stay secret. They got into the elevator, and Bella leaned her head on Edward's shoulder.

She pressed the button for her floor and the elevator began to move. "I'm tired. And I think I'm a little drunk."

"I think you are too. But you're cute when you're a little drunk." He put his arm tightly around her. The elevator door opened and Bella took a step forward. Edward held her back. He pressed the close door button and pulled her back to him. He lifted her chin and bent down to kiss her.

She felt the elevator moving. She tried to pull back from him, but he just moved with her. He had her pinned against the wall of the elevator and his mouth was on hers as his hands were running through her hair.

Before she could think straight, she heard the elevator door open, and she forced him back, worried their kiss would be witnessed by the entire lobby. She looked and saw that they were on an apartment floor. The number said 15.

She looked to him.

"Tonight is special. We don't have to hide from them anymore." He ran his hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. "After that game, all I could think about was getting you back to the apartment—my apartment—not that there is anything wrong with yours, but I love having you in my space."

"I know—I get it," she replied smiling up at him. "Tonight is special."

Edward closed the door behind himself when they arrived at his apartment. He held her close. Everything about the evening felt different. He'd always known how Bella fit with his family as a friend and colleague to them, but after his amazing game and the snacks and drinks afterward, he saw how she fit with his family as his girlfriend. He couldn't help but love it.

Bella took her coat off and dropped it on Edward's couch. He did the same. "My room—we never quite made it there last time." He kissed her neck as he came up behind her and lightly pushed her forward.

"I'm glad."

"What?" he asked.

"I'm glad that it's today—not then," she replied. He held her tighter as they walked to his room.

When they got into his room, he turned her and sat her down on his bed. He bent down and pulled her shoes off, then kicked off his own. He kissed her, cupping the back of her neck. With his free hand, he reached down and undid the button on her jeans, then unzipped the zipper. She lifted herself up a little and slipped them down. Somehow between the two of them, they got them off without taking his lips off her. He smiled against her lips when he saw that she was not wearing any underwear.

He continued kissing her but moved down to her neck. Briefly, he broke the kiss to pull her shirt over her head. Her bra was off immediately afterward, and he lifted her enough so that he could get her up at the top of the bed.

When there, she rested her head back on the pillow and he began to kiss his way down her body—stopping to pay close attention to each of her breasts. He gently opened her legs and kissed the inside of both thighs.

She wiggled in anticipation, and he smiled but steadied her. He licked her core up and down finally stopping at her nub, which he began to tease slowly at first. He put more pressure with his tongue and she began to buck her hips, he held her down with one hand while the other moved between her legs.

He ran one finger up and down her while he continued licked and playing with her clit. He began to slide his finger inside her. Bella moaned and began bunching his sheets in her hands.

He continued for a few minutes longer, and when he could tell she was getting really close, he lightly bit down on her and pushed a second finger in.

She cried out, but cut herself off as she came. She was pretty sure the sheets would never become unwrinkled, and she really didn't care as he continued his ministrations and let her ride out her orgasm.

She collapsed back into the pillow, and he climbed up next to her. He could see that she was spent. He pulled his pants and dress shirt off and curled up next to her. She turned back to him and reached under his shirt.

He stopped her.

"What?" she asked.

"You're tired, and still a little drunk Bella. I can wait," he whispered into her ear.

She pulled back and smiled at him touched at his compassion, but she shook her head. "So what if you can wait. Maybe I want you to make me come again. Ever think about that?" She reached inside his boxers and wrapped her hand around him.

"Shit!" he whispered through clenched teeth. "Alright then," he added then slipped his boxers off.

He rolled with her until he was on top of her, but made sure not to put too much of his weight on her. She spread her legs so that he fit perfectly in between them. His hands ran aimlessly up and down her sides, and she lifted her hips up to him telling him that he needed to hurry up. He smiled then knelt down and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and her legs around his hips.

He entered her then—slowly and completely. They were both still for a few seconds, and they caught each other's eyes. "Bella," He whispered as he bent down again and kissed her.

He moved inside her quicker now, and he took one finger and began to tease her clit again.

He could feel her getting closer, and he was pretty sure they'd finish extremely quickly.

He was right. Bella began meeting his strokes even stronger and pushing him even closer each time.

When she did come, he was pretty sure she yelled out his name, but because he was finished at the same moment she was, he wasn't entirely sure he heard it or just imagined it.

He pulled out of her and rolled off. She turned to her side and tucked herself closely up to him. He manoeuvred the blanket over them and very quickly, they fell asleep.

For the second time after an evening with Edward at After Hours, Bella woke with a horrible headache.

"Good morning," Edward whispered in her ear.

"Not so loud," Bella replied

"I was whispering Bella."

"Oh."

"But now I am going to go get you some Tylenol and water. You don't drink well."

"Yeah I'm a lightweight. But Alamo's are a terrible thing." Edward just nodded and laughed quietly. He kissed her cheek and got up to get her the hangover treatment.

It really did not help. Bella felt horrible for the entire morning. She went slowly around Edward's apartment, and after he needed to leave to catch the team bus to the airport, she took a nap in her apartment.

Alice would have none of that though, and around ten she was at Bella's, insisted that Bella get up, and get over the hangover. She made the headache worse by turning on the blender and Bella was ready to kill her. She handed Bella a drink when everything was finished.

"What is it?" It was a dark brown and looked like a beef smoothie.

"You don't want to know, but it works," Alice replied. "Drink up, because we need to get going soon. There is a game in Detroit tonight."

"I know. Why do they do that?"

"Back to back games?"

Bella nodded.

"Uh, yeah that's because the people who do the scheduling suck and personally hate us," Alice replied casually.

An hour later, they were ready to go and met up with Esme and Rosalie to go to the airport.

Bella took some gravol before the flight, and slept through most of it. She still felt like hell when they arrived, and Rose took her straight to the hotel and let her sleep. After she had Bella settled, Rose went to meet Esme ad Alice who were going down to a press conference Carlisle was doing.

"She still really sick?" Edward asked Alice when they arrived and Bella was not with them.

"Yeah, Bella and alcohol don't mix. Emmett owes her for making her do those stupid Alamo's," she replied eyeing her brother who was whispering with his fiancé.

"Yeah, we can guilt him into feeling bad," Edward smiled. The press conference was about to begin, but Edward didn't really feel like sitting around listening to it. "Want to wander? Jasper is around here somewhere, and we've all heard this speech before."

"Several hundred times," Alice replied. The two walked by Rose and Emmett who just nodded in their direction, and then they headed down the hall.

After only a few minutes of wandering, an unwelcome voice came from behind them. "Well look who it is. Denver's little superstar—choked much lately, Cullen?"

Edward turned to see probably the only person in the pro hockey world that he absolutely hated. James Stanton, the star forward of the Detroit Red Wings stood in front of them with a satisfied grin on his face. Edward had hoped to avoid seeing him until they were both on the ice. He and James had competed for everything in juniors and it always killed James that Edward won the award for best Rookie the year they both entered the NHL—especially since Edward was two years younger than he was.

"Aw, and you brought little Alice with you. She and I have unfinished business you know."

Alice's eyes widened.

Edward was about two steps from punching the guy out, but Alice stopped him, She didn't want to deal with the repercussions. "It's not worth it Edward. He can't hurt me anymore," she said quietly to him. "Let's just walk away. Ignore him." She steered him down the hall away from James, he just laughed behind them.

ok...so I know introducing James and Jacob is a little weird since I haven't resolved anything Tanya related...but don't worry I have not forgotten her. :) It will be dealt with!