Chapter 25

Edward dropped me off at my apartment on Sunday night but didn't stay over, as we both had work early the next morning. We parted with another lingering kiss and a light shining in Edward's eyes that I hadn't seen before.

I caught the train to work the next morning and got the coffee machine going before Angela arrived. She came in a few minutes after I turned on the computers, looking cheerful and relaxed.

"Hey, how was your weekend?" I asked and Angela beamed at me.

"Amazing. Ben took me to this spa place, it was fantastic. What did you do?"

"Um…" I bought myself a few seconds by pouring us each a cup of coffee, sitting on the corner of her desk as she putsher bag in the desk drawer, "I went to Forks."

"Oh cool, how's your dad?"

"He's good. I… I took Edward with me." I hopped off the desk and back to my own before I could see her reaction. When I looked around, she was grinning widely.

"How am I only finding out about this now?"

"Because if Charlie shot him, I wanted you to have plausible deniability." I said dryly. Angela winced, opening her emails.

"It went badly?"

"Not too badly." I said softly. Charlie's gentle, affectionate goodbye had almost brought me to tears. I suspected that he and Edward might have had a 'man talk' at some point over the weekend, but neither would admit it to me.

We settled down and it was only when I saw that it was ten past nine and Victoria wasn't in that I started to suspect that something wasn't right. Angela seemed to realise it at the same time as me and we stared at each other across the office.

"Shall we call her?" Angela asked but at that moment, Victoria strode through the office.

"Angela, call my 9:30 and cancel. Reschedule for Wednesday and then cancel my one o'clock. Bella, talk me through the Collins manuscript." She said abruptly before closing her office door. Angela and I exchanged a look that said 'here we go'.

Victoria was clicking through her emails when I slipped in, taking a seat in front of her desk.

"I need to get everything I can done this morning. My solicitor will be coming in at one." She said brusquely and I hesitated. Victoria tapped her fingernails against her desk, looking distracted and eerily calm.

"Is everything OK, Victoria?" I asked, not sure if wanted to know the answer. Victoria turned her pale eyes to mine and I saw pain their depths. I'd seen that kind of pain before and knew what was coming before she said it.

"James wants a divorce. He gave me the papers this morning." She said quietly, "We talked for a long time this weekend and I thought… I got the impression that we were going to try again, to make it work but apparently he had other ideas."

She sighed heavily and rubbed her eyes. She didn't have any make-up on. Her hair was slightly greasy. She looked tired and her usually immaculate suit was slightly wrinkled.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Keep it to yourself," She said quietly, "and give me the information on the Collins manuscript. I have my doubts but they're raving about it upstairs."

I did my job and Victoria made notes as we talked. She took my scribbled-on copy of the manuscript and scanned some of my notes. We weighed up some pros and cons of the book as whole and it ended with a tentative agreement to send the manuscript to our advertising department. If they could think of a really good way to sell the book, it might just make a profit, but it was a dicey one.

By the time I left the office, Victoria had put on some mascara and tied her hair back into a chignon, typing away at the computer furiously and looking a lot more like my boss.

"Bella, take Angela out of the office at quarter to 1 for an hour. I'd rather not have an audience when my solicitor comes in." She said as I made my way to the door.

Hey Bella, why was 6 afraid of 7?

I don't know, Edward. Why?

Because 7 8 9! I know you're laughing at that one. It's OK to admit it, because I know that I'm hysterically funny.

You got me, I'm practically wetting myself with laughter.

I knew it. Dinner tonight?

Sure. Where do you feel like eating?

Somewhere with steak, I'm feeling manly today. I'll pick you up at 7?

Sounds good. See you later.

What happened at dinner wasn't important. Edward and I ate, laughed, compared lame jokes. He asked about my day, I asked about his and we were as happy as any other couple in restaurant.

We had just walked out of the restaurant when Edward groaned.

"I left my wallet on the table."

"Idiot." I said warmly, "Go get it, I'll wait here." He darted back into the restaurant and I rolled my eyes, walking a little way down the street. I'd decided to be all womanly and wear a skirt, a decision I was fast regretting as the night air hit me. A passing guy knocked my shoulder and I glanced around briefly.

"Sorry."

"Bella?"

I froze.

Jacob stared down at me. The tall, dark-haired woman on his arm blinked at me in surprise.

My stomach twisted painfully. Jacob and I stared at each other and then he offered me a brief smile, his teeth white against his dark skin.

"Bella… Jesus, it's been so long."

"Hi Jacob." I said weakly. I was stunned, I didn't know what to do, to say. Jacob looked at the woman with him and she released his arm with a smile. He stepped forward, his arm reached in my direction and I moved forward, giving him a brief hug.

He was taller than I remembered and what had once been a smell of wood and pine needles now just smelled like cologne. His hug was too tight, a little too… I don't know. Just not… right.

I stepped back just as Edward came back out of the restaurant again. He came to my side immediately, looking at Jacob curiously.

"Everything OK?" He asked and I nodded, not quite trusting my tongue, secrets hiding on it.

"Hey, I'm Jacob. Bella and I knew each other in college. This is Vanessa." Jacob introduced himself and they shook hands. A shiver went down my spine as the wind blasted and in an instant, Edward's jacket was around my shoulders.

Edward's jacket smelt of fresh laundry and warmth and my pulse beat a little faster.

"We have a reservation." Vanessa murmured to Jacob with a kind smile and he nodded, giving me one last smile.

"Good to see you, Bella. Glad you're… glad you're doing well." He said and there was a genuine tone to his voice that made me nod before Edward's fingers laced through mine and we turned away.

The drive back to my apartment was silent. Not uncomfortable but I was so busy mulling everything over in my mind.

Seeing Jacob again… it had been years. Before I'd met Edward, every thought of Jacob had been filled with anger and pain, twisting in my gut and bringing me nothing but emptiness.

But now… just now, it had meant nothing. Just someone I used to know, someone who had meant something, everything now meant nothing.

Such was the power of the imprint.

Edward's hand was resting on his thigh and I reached over, taking his in both of mine as we pulled up outside my apartment. He looked at me curiously.

"Coffee?"

"Sure." He said.

When we got inside, I flicked on the kettle and turned to see Edward looking at me with a curious expression.

"So… you knew Jacob in college?"

"I loved him and he imprinted on someone else. He left me." The words tumbled out and Edward closed his eyes, as though this explanation made all the sense in the world, explained everything he knew about me.

"I'm sorry… that must have been painful for you tonight." He said quietly and there was more pain in his voice than there had been in my encounter with Jacob.

I ignored the boiling kettle and moved towards him, twining my arms around his waist and pressing a soft kiss to his chin.

"It really wasn't. I mean… I thought it would be. It hurt so much when he left but just now, I barely felt anything." I said quietly as he closed his eyes, "I don't know. The relationship that he and I had was so desperate. It was almost angry. We were both fighting so hard. Maybe if we'd stopped fighting we would have realised that we didn't want each other half as much as we thought we did. Maybe that was why he gave in to the imprint so easily."

"And why you fought so hard against it." Edward said and I stood on tip toe to kiss his jaw by his ear. His hands went to my hips, steadying me as I breathed in his scent.

"I'm not fighting anymore." I reminded him and I felt his chuckle rather than heard it.

"Yes, you are. You were born a fighter, Bella. What you're doing isn't giving in. It's what you wanted the whole time. It's you choosing what you want. And I'm just so glad that it was me that you chose."

We forgot about the coffee.

I pulled Edward towards my bedroom and we tripped and fell towards the bed. Edward's eyes were wide and warm and he kissed me hard.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." I'd replied before he'd even finished his sentence, pulling at his shirt. It was gone in seconds, followed by mine and Edward mouth moved down my neck as we wrested with pants and skirts and socks and underwear until it was just skin between us, soft and warm and smelling so good.

It didn't last long for either of us. We were too desperate, too eager to touch everything and kiss and we moved together so perfectly and I couldn't look away as Edward came, his forehead pressed against mine, his breath warm on my face.

He was so beautiful and before I could make any move to shift away, he turned so that he was on his back and I lay across his chest, sweaty, warm and utterly sated.

"Would this have happened tonight if we hadn't seen Jacob?" Edward asked a little while later and I shifted my head to look up at him.

"I don't know. Maybe not tonight, but soon."

"Oh really?"

"Well, you're kind of hot." I teased, running my hand over his smooth stomach as he laughed.

"Are you going to give me a straight answer?" He asked and I sighed.

"This would have happened. Seeing Jacob… like I said, it didn't mean anything. I don't feel anything for him anymore."

"And what do you feel for me?"

He sounded scared and I sat up, shifting so that I was straddling him and leaned in to kiss him.

"What I feel for you… well, I can certainly feel you." I grinned as he hardened beneath me and he laughed again, throwing his head back. I laughed too, kissing him hard as we began to move again, twining arms and legs.

I really hoped that he didn't notice that I hadn't given him a straight answer.

"You had sex."

"Good evening, Rosalie." I said as we walked up the steps to our building together the next day, "I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"I saw Edward leaving this morning looking way happier than a man should at seven in the morning. You finally caved, didn't you?" She grinned at me and I couldn't help smiling back.

"Yes, Edward stayed the night and yes, we had sex."

"Good sex."

"Amazing sex."

"About time. I hope you dusted down there first."

"Bitch. I'm making chilli tonight." I offer by way of invitation.

The week passed quietly, Edward staying over another night midweek. Thursday night he had a family dinner and I declined my invitation.

"Another time. It's been a long day and…" Edward didn't seemed to mind, kissing me.

"It's fine. But you'd better agree to come soon or my mother might disown me."

"I will. Want to come over for dinner tomorrow night? Rosalie said she'd make a cheesecake."

"Sounds good." He said.

I got off the train on Thursday evening. I'd worked a little later than usual and the sun was low as I walked down the street to my apartment building but I hesitated, pulling out my earphones as I noticed someone sitting on the steps. He stood, brushing down his suit and offering me a smile.

It was James.

A/N: Well, I'm sure that's fine. No problems to come at all.

If you've ever read any of my other stories, you'll know that I don't write lemons. Not real lemons anyway. And the few attempts that I've made, I've been quite tipsy first. Apologies if you were hoping for a proper schmex scene!

Oodles of love

Katie