Readers, it's good to be back. Sorry for the late update, I've been working and flying which doesn't leave time to write. This is unedited so please forgive mistakes; I don't have time to edit.

Thank you for all the lovely reviews to last chapter; it's a wonderful feeling when someone reviews with some kind words.

Just a quick one, by the end of Chapter 15 I'm hoping for 300+ reviews. I just want to know if you're all still interested in the story. Thank you.

Disclaimer – Original characters belong to Stephenie Meyer, plot lines and characterizations, all belong to Aurora, copyright July 2010.

Last time…

Later in the evening, sitting with Sheila and a coffee after having had a long bath, I felt infinitely better. Rosalie left me a message saying that she had catalogued all of the clothes, even some more things that she picked up this morning. She was really quite incredible. I settled in for the night, desperately looking forward to tomorrow, because no matter what clothes I was wearing, I knew that Edward would be there.

Chapter 14 – Undisclosed Desires

I was feeling unusually optimistic as Sheila and I climbed the steps at the front of the CGB building. I was coming in much later than usual, and it was noticeably noisier in the foyer than at my usual half past five. I'd relished in the chance to sleep in a little bit, something I would never normally do. I smiled as I listened to the sound of my heels clicking along the marble floor in contrast to Sheila's padding alongside me. Truthfully I was excited, nervous too, but definitely excited.

Jake was surprised and grateful when I rang him last night to tell him to not bother picking me up until nine. I suddenly felt bad because although it was Jake's job to drive me around everywhere, maybe other people didn't like getting up at the crack of dawn, I thought back to Rosalie and my guilt solidified. I prepared an apology to give him as soon as I sat down in the car this morning but was interrupted by him choking on something.

"Shit Bella, wow, I mean Christ, I didn't know…wow."

"Do I look ok? Don't let me walk in there looking like some sort of clown."

"I think if all the clowns looked like you the circus would be much cooler."

I almost snorted at how ridiculous that sounded.

"I'm serious Jake; do I have to get changed?"

"Nope, you are just fine. Very fine. Let's get in the car before you get harangued by whistling men."

His approval made me feel a lot more comfortable, I knew Jake was telling me objectively what he thought. And besides, two seals of approval were better than one.

I thought back to a conversation with Rosalie when she suggested coming in a bit later every Monday so I wouldn't be starting the week with an early morning, making myself tired. I didn't think much of it at the time, I'd had the same routine for years and it honestly wasn't that bad. So I was surprised when I woke up feeling really good this morning, better than usual, maybe it was just the product of a good night's sleep.

Or maybe it was the mind blowing visit from Dreamward in the middle of the night. Just thinking about it was enough to make my toes tingle and a blush spread over my face.

I stepped confidently out of the lift and proceeded to make the short journey to my office, only to be interrupted by my favourite voice whispering in my ear.

"Isabella? I think I'd like to see you in my office. Now" I felt his breath tickle my ear and the heat of it was making me feel like I was on fire. I tried to imagine his lips as they moved when he was talking, but found myself unable to concentrate. His voice was firm and commanding, making me bite my lip in anticipation. I've been pretty much sexually repressed for as long as I can remember, but certain parts of me were very eager to make themselves known after hearing that.

With much more energy and speed than I was used to have in the morning I walked, or rather ran, Sheila to my office with my things. My breathing was shaky as I closed the door and I jumped when I felt his strong fingers firm at my hip, his arm around my back, guiding me to where we both wanted to be. I revelled in his warmth and the solid feeling of safety that his strong arm was providing. The previous heat I felt from his touch was nothing compared to the inferno he was leaving behind as he sensuously trailed his fingers in excruciatingly slow circles on my hip.

I knew the moment we moved from the hallway to his office because I was pushed firmly, but not roughly, against a wall. I felt his hands on the side of my head on the wall and his forehead pressed against my own. His ragged breathing matched my own, his delicious breath washing over my face and teasing my lips in the most seductive way. I wanted to drown in it, in him.

"What are you doing to me?"

Nothing compared to what I want to.

When his hands moved around to cup my face I gave up on trying to form words, it just wasn't going to happen. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest, I was panting like some kind of deranged animal but couldn't find it in me to care less.

"I want you so badly."

Hearing this I let out some kind of inhuman noise somewhere between a moan and a gasp. As he spoke to me, his voice thick with need, I felt just how much he wanted me. The bulge between his legs, his cock, pressed right against the aching apex of my legs. I started to throb in such a way that was almost painful, I didn't even know I could ache…down there. It seemed like all the pulse points in my body had relocated themselves at that point.

To further emphasize our mutual need his hands traced my sides, moving ever so slowly past my breast and my ribs, flowing over my waist and my hips around to my bum. He squeezed the soft flesh and that time a harsh moan escaped my mouth, which I desperately wanted to be covered by his. Not only because his hands were touching me, but because he had pulled me closer to him and now I was even more aware of his dick between my legs. The once seemingly large bulge could now only be described as huge as it pressed deliciously against my sex.

"I fucking love your ass in this skirt." He practically growled the words, making me melt in his arms. Somehow my powers of speech momentarily returned to me, allowing me to utter two words to reveal my desires.

"Kiss me." The breath was knocked out of me by Edward's answering squeeze of my bum. I must have sounded beyond desperate, fuck it, I really, really was.

"Oh Bella, I'm going to do so much more than that." His words had a sinister, dark seductive edge that only served in arousing me even more. I felt his breath on my face like before, only this time, I could feel him coming closer, so close to me. His lips brushed against mine for the shortest time I thought I could have imagined it. I reached out to pull him closer but there was nothing but air in my hands.

I'd woken up around two, gasping and frustrated, my heart making a champion effort to claw out of my chest, my sex aching as in the dream. And because I knew there was nothing I could do about it at the moment, I'd gone back to sleep.

Setting my folders and spreadsheets down on my desk, I was determined not to be disappointed as in my dream, although certain aspects of that dream had been extremely fulfilling. Ok, so I'd stepped out of the lift and Edward hadn't tried to kidnap me and drag me back to his proverbial cave, but a girl could dream. Besides, I hadn't even seen him this morning, he might not even be in, he could be in a meeting, or any number of places.

As it was, my day passed at an unusually slow pace. I felt like I was literally counting the minutes until our afternoon tea meeting. Last week I'd been dreading it, I knew they wouldn't have done everything I'd asked of them and I really hated being put behind schedule. But I knew Edward would get the chance to see me, I was excited for his reaction to the 'new me' as Rosalie had put it. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting an onslaught of passion as in my dream, not that I'd object of course, but a little surprise would be nice.

After all, when Rosalie had come by this morning on the way to a photo shoot, she'd said I looked completely different, but in a good way. Mind you, any change from my customary black trousers and white shirt was bound to look drastic. I wasn't usually shallow, but I delighted in the thought that Edward might look at me, I mean really look at me, like he did other women, because he found me attractive. Besides, I really did miss him.

Get over it; you spoke to him on Saturday. Cue blush.

My newfound optimism stayed with me throughout the morning as I flitted between offices collecting weekend status reports. It wasn't something I normally enjoyed doing, it was more than common to hear that project managers just hadn't had adequate time to collate data over forty-eight hours. I laughed at how many times I'd had to listen to that kind of bullshit excuse. One too many I tell you, one too many. So naturally, I was surprised when I managed to acquire six reports, handed over, albeit grudgingly, but on time.

Even Mike Newton, someone I'd sensed wasn't much of a grafter was prompt with handing over his. Poor guy was obviously coming down with something though, as soon as I walked into his office I was met with a coughing fit, he was practically gasping. I gave him a sympathetic pat on the back; I knew how awful it was to be at work when you weren't feeling your best.

"Thanks Bella, it's so great to be working for someone like you."

"Hold onto that when we get to deadlines, I promise I'm a bitch."

I took the whole morning as a sign, a very good sign that other things were going to go well today.

I practically jumped on the spot when Angela asked me, albeit nervously, to hand over the reports to Edward, apparently she was swamped already. It was obvious she didn't have the time to run through them with him. I was more than happy to help her out.

I breezed confidently into his office since it was open, if he was on a conference call or something else important, he would have closed his door.

"Hi Edward, Angela asked me to give you these, they're all here which is good. You want to run through them now or later?"

The silence in the room made me think he hadn't heard me, but surely he'd seen me come in. How odd.

"Edward…did you hear me? Is everything ok?"

"Shopping with Rosalie was productive then?" His tone indicated that everything was most definitely not ok.

Now I was nervous, my confidence nowhere to be found.

"Uh yeah, she found my wardrobe to be…lacking."

"I see." Now his tone was flat, as if they were just words rather than actual thoughts.

A couple of the most awkward minutes in history passed and I honestly had no idea what to say or do. Normally by this time, Edward would have hugged me or guided me to a chair. And he would certainly be much happier and eager for conversation. He didn't appear to have moved; at least he didn't make a sound when he did.

"So…where do you want those reports?"

"There's a small desk to your right, they're fine there, thank you." Now this was strange to the extreme, he was never this formal with me.

"Is there anything on the floor? You know I really don't want to fall flat on my face." I spoke as I manoeuvred my way carefully over to his desk, which was not the main one he was sitting at. I had to think for a second, maybe I smelt bad, like really bad. Impossible, I knew of all things that I'd remembered to put deodorant on this morning and I washed my hair as usual.

But I had put some of that coconut body butter on my arms, maybe he was allergic or something, oh shit, I could be causing him physical pain with my vanity. Before I could rein in my speech I was asking him.

"Are you allergic to coconut?"

"What? No, I'm not. Why are you asking me that?" He just sounded downright confused now, stupid mouth, stupid Bella.

"No reason."

Great cover up, because that's not weird or suspicious at all.

Yeah, that was probably not one of my best moments.

"Are you sure there isn't anything I could trip over? These heels don't exactly help my clumsiness."

"No, *cough*, uh, no, I'm sure you'll be fine." Now he sounded condescending, I hated this change in him. I didn't know this Edward. My Edward would have said something like 'I won't let you fall' or 'I'll always be there to catch you'. That was the man I knew and dreamed about, frequently, not this unfeeling doppelganger.

"So…is there anything -"

"If I need something I'll ask Angela."

"I'm not talking about work stuff. I was just going to ask you if there was anything you wanted to talk about. You seem really…different. What's wrong?"

My hands hung uselessly at my sides, I wanted to touch him, even now when he was being a grouch, and I wanted to be close to him, to be able to feel him, even with the most innocent of touches.

"Wrong? No, not at all. Nothing's wrong. Everything's fine, just fine."

And that was a normal answer?

I couldn't get over how strange this all felt. We were in the same room but I suddenly felt like he was a million miles away. There was none of the playful banter I was used to, he wasn't trying to make me laugh, even his voice sounded weird like this.

I resigned myself to accepting that maybe Sunday had been really bad for him, or he could have had a terrible morning. I knew I'd done nothing wrong, but I was also one hundred percent certain that something was not quite right, this just wasn't him.

"Look I'm not stupid. I know there's something wrong. You can tell me if you want to, or don't. I guess I'll see you for lunch anyway."

I didn't get a response; I think I was almost afraid of what he'd say. Today he was like the polar opposite of the man I'd had dinner with Friday night. Maybe when we went to lunch he'd be different, maybe relax a bit, even though he was extremely grumpy today. I was still looking forward to it. The last time, last Monday had been nothing short of fantastic. I wasn't about to forget what he could be like if he wanted to.

One o'clock came and went and I was feeling guilty for being late, I hadn't heard from Edward so maybe he'd assumed I didn't want to go. That would be the biggest lie in the world. I had a ton of legal emails to listen to that I'd been included in on. For what reason, I have no idea.

"Edward, hi, I'm really, really sorry I'm late. Caius sent me through a load of emails; I'll be ten minutes tops. Shall I meet you downstairs?" I crossed the fingers on the hand that was holding the phone.

Please don't be a jerk, please.

"Sorry I can't uh, not today, there's a lunch meeting."

"Oh. Maybe tomorrow then?"

"Actually this week is pretty crazy, no real free time. I won't really be able to get out; can we take a rain check?"

"Sure, whatever, have fun."

I held the phone in my hand for several minutes after I'd hung up. I wanted to call him again and ask what the fuck he'd done with Edward Cullen, because this wasn't him.

A while later, having got over my initial disappointment I paged Angela to come and collect some contracts for Edward to sign. He'd told me he was busy in a meeting, so it was probably best to leave them with her so he could get them later. I told Angela as much.

She fiddled around for a moment, probably checking her schedule.

"He should be free actually. Thank God for that. I always dread telling him about lunch meetings, I worry he's not going to go to them, because he's always trying to get out of them. I guess this must be my lucky week."

What the fuck?

"So does he have any lunchtime appointments this week?"

"Nope, which means I get a guaranteed lunch break for five days. And it's a three day weekend, bank holiday Monday, I can't wait. I haven't had a week this good for a while."

Lying pig.

"That's nice. Are you going to see Ben?" On the inside I was fuming so I tried to keep my voice light and conversational.

"How do you…?"

"It's kind of obvious. And besides, he's up here three times a day to update my computer which I know very well can be done from downstairs. Plus whenever I say your name he starts to stutter, it's adorable."

"Really? Ben? But he's so…wow." She sounded so shocked and so…happy. I was glad to be able to giver her some good news. It put a brightener on my fucker of a day.

"Honestly. You should spend as much time with him as you can. Just keep it to lunch times during the week ok? Weekends you can go crazy."

She laughed at that, and it reminded me how so desperately I wanted to be happy today.

"Oh don't worry, I'll be careful. I don't want Edward pissed off anymore than he is already. He really is in a foul mood this morning." And didn't I know it.

"I see. I'll talk to you later Angela, have a good afternoon."

Unexpectedly she gave me a quick hug and whispered a fervent 'thank you' in my ear. In all honesty I was quite taken aback.

So he was ignoring me was he? It was obvious to me now that I'd done something to upset him. Well let me show him how upset I am.

I left Edward a rather curt voicemail and felt much better afterwards.

"Oh hi Edward, I just wanted to tell you that you can go fuck yourself with your 'rain check'. Enjoy all the 'free time', lying pig."

After a while I thought that maybe it wasn't the best idea to call my boss a lying pig and tell him to go 'fuck himself'. But what's done is done, and Edward had severely disappointed me, he'd just have to deal with the consequences.

The rest of the week only confirmed my fears. Each day I wet through a cycle of having renewed confidence in the morning after a vivid dream which Edward starred in, which quickly turned to frustration when it was confirmed he was still not talking to me. Then I was upset and tried to convince myself that the last couple of weeks hadn't been some kind of fantastic dream. I knew because each night I dreamt of all the time we'd spent together, and all the things we could do in the future. Except in my dreams, the days were longer, it was like we were spending months together at a time, quite frankly it was wonderful.

The dreams transcended through to my working day and more often than not, I'd find myself supposedly listening to the speaker, when I was really playing my Edward's voice over in my head, again and again. It was much more interesting anyway.

Fortunately he couldn't avoid me completely, my position at the company made it impossible. If it was a meeting in the morning and I was frustrated and angry, I'd sit there opposite him and hum I'd Rather Be With You, at which time he'd cough and ask if he had my full attention.

How ironic? I've not been able to think of anything but him for the whole week. My head was literally filled with Edward Cullen. If he knew he couldn't possibly ask me if he had my attention.

I was convinced that his phase of ignoring me had come to an end on Thursday afternoon when he called me into his office. I was overjoyed because I knew it wouldn't be about work, no meetings were scheduled and if it was just a simple question, then he would have called me. As it was I was practically bouncing into his office, only to be met with the feeling that something was wrong.

I had no idea how I knew, I just did.

"Close the door please Bella."

Yes! Maybe this is the part where he gives into his feelings for you in an uncontrollable display of passion and lust.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Hmm. Would you mind explaining to me why I received this box today?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Edward. I didn't send you anything."

"Really? So why is my office listed as the alternative address if you were not available?"

"What the hell are you talking about? I didn't have anything sent to me at the office."

"Well the box clearly says your name, and the company address. Why don't you come and feel what's inside."

Now I was extremely confused, and unsettled by the eerie calm tone of his voice. His hand was at the small of my back guiding me forward before I even knew he'd moved. He placed his hand on top of my own and if I weren't so worried about what would happen next, what I'd find in the fucking box, I would be enjoying the close contact, the feel of his body against mine.

My fingers came into contact with something soft, and silky, and then lace and oh…

Well fuck a duck.

I could feel all the lingerie I'd bought with Rosalie from Agent Provocateur.

Which means…

Shit! Shit! Shit!

My lingerie…Edward's office, his hand, my hand, touching said lingerie.

But how?

Rosalie Hale was dead, so dead. Supermodel or not.

"So Bella, are these yours?"

Don't lie, just tell the truth, this was all a huge misunderstanding, just apologise and be done with it.

"Yes but Rosalie -"

"Is there any reason why these delicate items have been delivered to me?"

I fully understand that this was meant to be a serious conversation and that giggling was totally inappropriate what with my boss standing with his hand in a box of my newly purchased lingerie. I just couldn't help myself.

"De-...delicate *giggle*, delicate items? Are you serious?"

"Do I sound like I'm joking? I can't believe you would show this much disrespect for your workplace. This isn't funny."

My laughing stopped as I realised that he was actually serious.

"Edward do you honestly think I would send you my lingerie, a whole box of it, when you've done nothing but ignore me this week? That seems a little backward to me."

"I haven't-"

"Yes you have. And don't worry, Rosalie filled out the delivery forms when we went shopping, she probably thought it'd be funny. I'm not lying to you."

"I can't believe you -"

"Don't worry it won't happen again. I'd hate for you to have to feel so disgusted." As hurriedly as I could I collected my things, including the troublesome box and made my way out.

"Bella you dropped a pair of…"

"Keep them. I dare you."

I slumped down in my chair and for a good half hour, reached new levels of mortification over what I'd just said and done.

This has got to be the worst week ever; I've insulted my boss, ruined any chance of reconciling with Edward, and forced a pair of lacy boy shorts on him.

I was just getting ready to leave when Renee picked up a call from Esme.

"Oh Bella dear how are you?"

"Hi Esme, um great, I'm good. I'm just getting ready to leave the office."

"So late, you work far too much. My son hasn't been working you too hard as he?"

Well he's certainly not working me the way I want him to.

"No, I haven't seen much of him actually; we've both been pretty busy."

No need to tell the whole truth.

"Then you'll be able to come to the house for dinner tomorrow night. We both miss you and you'll have time to talk with Edward."

"Edward's going to be there."

"Yes, I'm not letting him out this time; he sounded so grumpy when I spoke to him today."

I bet he did.

"A nice home cooked meal will fix him."

"Se Bella, that's what I told him. I'm so glad we're on the same page."

Esme always had a curious sense of logic, it usually involved saying anything to get her own way, which at this time, was to see her son. Usually I found it was better to go along with it.

"Yeah."

"So you're coming? That's lovely; I'll tell Edward to drag you out by five if he has to."

He's going to want to lock me in the building to keep me away, not drag me out.

"You do that, see you tomorrow."

"Bye sweetheart."

Well this was going to be interesting.

All will be fixed very soon, I promise.

In the mean time, what did we think?

I hope you all have a great weekend and see you soon for an update.