Disclaimer: No copyrights infringement intended. I don't own Twilight saga or any of its awesome characters.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, put on alert or simply... read OTC. You guys make my days a little bit brighter. Thank you.

Enjoy Chapter-25 and I'll see you at the end of this chapter! :-)

Chapter-25: Whom Exactly Are You Deceiving?

BPOV

Tuesday morning, I hadn't even fully woken up when I noticed something. My pillow was harder— much harder than the usual one I had been sleeping on since coming to live with Edward. "Did someone change it?" was my first thought. But that didn't make any sense. Because since we got back last night, no one had been inside my room.

A new fact seemed to be registering my sleep-fogged brain. "There's bright light coming from the general direction of where my feet are. Isn't the window behind my head instead of the opposite direction?" That could only mean one thing…

Suddenly it all came crushing back to me. Edward's parents were here for a visit. We didn't want them to know the situation between Edward and me, so we had decided to sleep in Edward's room… in Edward's bed. "Oh God! Edward!" My eyes immediately snapped open at that thought.

The first thing I came face-to-face with was a gray fabric— on which my head seemed to be resting. Wait, what…? Did he have grey bed covers?

Trying desperately to get rid of the sleep-induced fog, I focused my eyes on the expanse of the fabric. It seemed to be stretched by a muscular— really firm and muscular… chest. Peeking furtively a bit higher, I came face-to-face with a jaw— a very angular and very lick-able jaw. I know that jaw!

My brain finally kicked into gear when it grasped the fact that, the hard pillow I was lying on was nothing but my— too-sexy-for-my-good, friendly, yet to whom I was ridiculously attracted to— husband's firm and muscled chest. Well, fuck!

From the rhythmic breathing I could feel against my hair and the steady heartbeat right under my left hand, I decided that Edward was still asleep. I tried to slowly and cautiously, get up from the bed but, as I raised my head slightly from its very comfortable position on Edward's chest, something caught my notice. Something that almost made me want to dig up a hole and crawl into it.

A thin, silvery, stretchy thread was hanging onto Edward's t-shirt, with the other end dangling down from the corner of my mouth. Fuck… fucking… fuck! As I was mentally cussing myself, I took a closer look at his shirt. I could see the still damp circle of spit on the middle of his chest.

"Jesus, Swan! Really? The guy offers you the sole use of his bed and you drool on him? Metaphoric drooling was okay till now, but how can you literally drool on the guy? You're so fucking insane. Better start digging a hole in the nearby ground; you're gonna need it when he notices just how disgusting you are!" It seemed like my subconscious was in a particularly bitchy mood that morning.

I held my breath and extracted myself from his side, before quickly dashing out the door to my 'study' to get a cold shower and dress for the day.

All through my shower, I kept imagining how disgusted Edward would have been when he woke up in the morning. For a fleeting second, okay fine… for many long minutes, my mind wondered off to imagining the feel of Edward's chest underneath my head and the beating of his heart beneath my hand. But one thought of his disgust and my embarrassment, drove all other thoughts out of my head. I am such a fucking idiot!

-OTC-

When I descended down the stairs for breakfast, I decided to make something light, but still impressive for the in-laws and started on my pancake batter. I had just started to put the pancakes on the stove, when Esme came down the stairs, looking prim and perfect. She smiled at me, before hugging me briefly with a "Good morning, Dear."

I returned her hug and greeting, and then turned back to my work. But Esme took my left hand and said gently, "Bella, dear, I'm sure you cook every morning and then go for a long day at work. Why don't you let me help you a bit? You can rest and save up your energy for the day ahead."

I shook my head and smiled to make my rejection softer. "Esme, it's fine. I like to cook. I have been cooking breakfast for my family since I was a junior in high school." Besides, I think cooking breakfast for your son will soften the blow when he realizes I drooled on him.

However, she looked dejected at my answer and I had to reconsider. "If you really want to help me, you could start the coffee. That's what I would need to survive the day ahead."

Esme laughed slightly at my attempt at humor and said, "You are so much like Reneé used to be when we were in college. I swear, that girl lived on caffeine!"

Then, she noticed the coffee maker. "It's a good model you've got, Bella. Doesn't Rosalie miss her morning coffee fix, now that you've brought it with you? Or is she not a big fan of coffee?"

I blushed— unnecessarily, of course— as I replied, "Rose is actually just as much of a coffee-junkie as me. This is not mine, Esme. Edward got it, for me."

Esme's face lit up at my confession and she beamed. "Really? That's good. I'm glad he's taking good care of you. And judging by the tea you got boiling on the other stove, I can say you're taking good care of him as well."

"No thanks to you, for that," I mentally snapped. Actually, a little resentment had been growing in my mind, since the day Edward explained how it should have been for us, and I had realized how much I wanted that.

Disregarding the fact that Esme was the sweetest mother-in-law I could ask for, I was about to open my mouth, to express the feelings of awkwardness that was still present between Edward and me, because of their meddling in our relationship. But before I could say a word, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, which soon were revealed to belong to Edward and his father. I quickly snapped out of my bitchy mood at the sight. What the fuck were you about to spew out, Swan? It's not entirely Esme's fault that you feel awkward around him. Just look at the man. How can you not feel inadequate and awkward in the face of— all that?

Edward had on his usual light blue button down shirt with jeans, which never failed to make me take a second look. However, today my eyes lingered on his chest— I could almost feel his chest under my head again. That thought led to the vision of the wet circular patch of drool I had left on him that morning and I blushed— feeling mortified.

Trying to avoid Edward's eyes, I looked up at his mother and met the sight of his father softly kissing Esme a good morning. I quickly lowered my eyes, unsure of where to look.

Suddenly two strong arms engulfed me from behind in a hug. Well— it looked like a hug, but most of our bodies were not touching, save our forearms. All my senses were washed with Edward's honey and sunshine smell that I had inhaled the very few times we had kissed— not to mention the time I had drooled on him.

Edward brought his mouth close to my left ear and said softly, "Good morning, Bellarina." His breath tickled the skin just beneath my ear and I gasped, before muttering incoherently. Edward seemed to gather my mumblings as my greeting him back and let go of me. I immediately felt cold with the loss of his warmth against my back.

Feeling confused, I turned to meet his eyes. But there was no trace of the disgust I was envisioning to see— no, there was a soft look in his eyes as he smiled at me, making me smile back as well. Maybe he didn't notice the drool! Thank you, God!

After my heart had sufficiently recovered from the close proximity of the pretty boy, I started to set the table for breakfast. But Edward beat me to the table and said to me when I got there with the jar of chocolate syrup, "You cooked, let me set the table. All right, partner?" I smiled at him and let him have his moment of being the perfect host.

During breakfast, we all talked normally and without any awkwardness, for a change. When we told them that we had a double shift from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday afternoon, Carlisle proposed that he and Esme stay with Emmett on Wednesday night since Emmett had been begging them the previous night about it. Then in a stroke of brilliance, I suggested that since we would have next Friday off, we all should go for brunch during the break in Carlisle's seminar. Everyone seemed to like the idea and Esme promised me to make sure to ask Emmett to keep his schedule free for the morning.

She was a sweet woman and I thanked my lucky stars that I hadn't unleashed my unnecessary anger at her. She doesn't deserve to be bitched at. Whatever happened, happened. We just have to make it work for the best.

-OTC-

That day was another hectic day for us. I almost had a myocardial infarction when Rosalie caught me ogling Edward as he walked towards our table during lunch break. He had been joining us— meaning Rose, Jazz and me, for lunch instead of the doctors for the last few days.

It seemed to attract notices at first, but since he mostly sat beside Jasper and talked to him, no one took a second glance. No one but me— I thought— noticed that he somehow wedged his way in between me and Jasper, so that I sat on the other side of him; neither did anyone see the small smile he always gave as he took his seat.

Anyway, back to my ogling. So, I was ogling at him— seeing the tight scrub top stretch across his chest, made me remember the feel of the said chest, again. Oh for God's sake, Swan, stop acting like a hormonal teenage boy! I instantly bushed at my own chastisement, which I tried to cover behind my curtain of hair, but it caught Rosalie's notice.

"Okay, I admit that the guy is moderately good looking, if not a bit lanky. But seriously, Swan, if you don't quit gawking at him, you may start drooling any minute." I didn't catch the usual teasing timbre in her voice and thought of the worst.

I wanted to face-palm as I lamented. "Oh fuck, Rose, where the hell did you hear about that? Did he tell you? I knew my luck would never be this good. The fucker knew it but pretended not to notice. Ugh! I am so screwed!"

Rose's eyebrows went up at my whining. Then she looked from me to Edward and hissed at me. "What the hell are you saying, B? What did you do? Did you…" And then the light bulb went on her head and she gasped. "You did! Oh God! This is so funny!"

She saw the stupid blush radiating through my cheeks and realized that she was right and the next moment, she was howling with mirth. Finally, I grasped the fact that Edward really didn't know any of it and I had willingly walked to the gallows by implying it all to Rosalie.

"Keep it down, will you, Hale? I already drooled on the man. No need to let the entire hospital to know about the drooling mess I am. Promise me, you won't tell anyone about it, not even your Emmett. He'll tell Edward and I wouldn't be able to look the man in the eyes again." My hissy-fit made her stop guffawing.

Rosalie discreetly wiped the corners of her eyes, so as to not make her eye-liner smudge, and then replied, "C'mon, B, I'm your soul sister. I always keep your secrets— even the really good ones that I could easily use for blackmail. Besides, why would I say anything to Emmett? He's not my boyfriend or anything."

I sighed with relief and started to turn the conversation towards Rose and Emmett's clearly blossoming relationship. "Of course, he's not. You just dance like you are about to be thrown out of clubs for public indecency with him, then go to dinner with him and then sleep with him. He's so not your boyfriend." My voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Rosalie took the bait and kept defending the fact that since Emmett did not ask her to be his girlfriend; she would not accept him as her boyfriend. After my limitless coaxing, she finally acknowledged the fact that, yes, Emmett did make her feel like a lady, she felt like he could be something other than a fling. But as long as he didn't make their 'whatever' official, she wouldn't throw herself at him.

Her words got me thinking. They already have everything, just minus being the official couple. On the other hand, Edward and I had the official part all covered, but didn't know jack about each other. This has to change.

EPOV

I tried to ignore the warmth of her body near me, to ignore the slight tingling feeling I got whenever our arms brushed each others, to ignore her voice from infiltrating my brain. But I failed— miserably. I only half-listened to Jasper's excited babbling about a new case he had seen in the ER, when he had gone there for something, and kept listening to the sound of Bella's sweet voice.

It was for her— for a certain urge to get close to her— I chose to sit at this table, instead of with the other residents. Being the perpetual awkward guy, I couldn't gather enough nerve to talk to her in front of all these co-workers; not because I was ashamed of her, because if anything, I wanted to shout at fuckers like Newton that Bella was mine; no— because she didn't want to tell people about us and I respected her wish— for now.

I understood the fact that Bella had been thrown into the whole marriage thing, just like me, and I wanted her to accept it— me… us… without any external pressure. I was still half-listening to Hale, when snippets of Bella's words caught my notice.

She was saying something about a man. The first thought that crossed my mind was, "Who the fuck is that? I'm going to tear him limb from limb, for looking at my Bella. Yes, she was mine… my wife. My friend, my Bella."

But as she continued whispering fiercely to Rosalie, the words became clearer and a light bulb went on in my head. I was the man. I was the lucky fucker she was talking about. Then I remembered the slightly circular stain I had seen on my t-shirt when I woke up in the morning.

Bella said something about drool… oh… ohhh… she drooled on me! Man! That's funny. Wait, she had been on the other end of the bed when we went to sleep last night, and when I woke up this morning, she was already gone. Then how… hmm… sounds like Bellarina had been attracted to me, even in her sleep. Damn! I am a lucky bastard!

I was still grinning like an idiot, when I felt Bella stand up and look over at me and Jasper. Since we had finished our lunches as well, we stood up and joined her, on the way back to the ward, a small smile still plastered on my face.

-OTC-

We were on our way back home, when Bella broke the sound of Linkin Park coming out of the radio in a low volume. She turned to look at me and asked, "I realized something today. I don't know what Emmett does. I mean, I know he works and stuff, since I have seen him drive to somewhere in the mornings, but what exactly does he do?"

I chuckled at her innocent inquiry and replied, "Well, in high school, Em wanted to be a professional soccer player. But he got kicked out of the team, for pulling a prank on the coach. Then in our senior year, he wanted to be a personal trainer. But when dad explained to him it wouldn't be a rapid money-making profession, he decided to take another track and became an architect."

She laughed lightly at my explanation and fell silent. I decided to explain another thing that had been on my mind since the morning. "Bella," I started, "I should apologize to you."

Her perfect eyebrows arched upwards as she looked at me with confusion. "What for?"

I cleared my throat and ran one hand through my hair before answering her. "This morning, the way I behaved when I came downstairs. I don't know… I wanted my parents to see us being close, you know? I wanted them to see us as a happy couple, just like they are. I'm sorry if it was uncalled for."

She blushed and looked down at her hands, wringing them on her lap. She stayed silent for a few seconds, before looking up in my eyes and I saw the determination there when she said, "It wasn't uncalled for, Edward, maybe a bit unexpected? But that doesn't make it a bad thing. I don't regret it or anything that has happened between us. I just wish that…" She faltered.

Without conscious thought, I reached out and took one of her hand in mine, as I kept my eyes on the road. "What do you wish, Bella? Tell me. Friends tell friends everything, don't they?" I wanted to say that I would do whatever it takes to make her wishes come true. But thought it might be overkill and stuck with the 'friend' line.

Bella turned her hand and clasped mine, as she answered me in a whisper-soft voice, "I wish… we had everything you talked about that day. I wish the closeness of this morning was not for someone else's benefit, but for us."

When we reached a red light, I stopped the car and turned to meet Bella's eyes. Then I brought my hand out of her hold and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She didn't flinch away from my touch; rather, she slightly leaned in towards my hand.

I looked into her eyes, as I said, "Bella, we may not have that closeness now but that doesn't mean we'll never have it. And I look forward to the day when we do."

She nodded and whispered, "I do, too." Suddenly some impatient-ass fucker honked the horn from behind us and broke our moment. The rest of the drive we were both silent— probably lost in the thoughts of our future.

-OTC-

The next two days were similar to the first day of my parents' visit. The only thing I had noticed on Wednesday morning, was that though Bella and I had went to bed with more than a foot distance between us, it wasn't how I found us when I woke up.

It was a rare day when I had woken up before Bella, and the first thing I noticed, was the feeling of softness against my side. I turned to look at the source of the warmth and softness and came face-to-face with my wife.

Looked like during the night, we had both moved and now, Bella was pinned to my side with my one of my arms encircling her tiny waist. Her face was turned to the opposite side, with her pink lips slightly parted. Her hair was lying in waves on my forearm.

She looked so fucking beautiful, that I wanted to kiss her silly. But then I took in her dress. She had come to bed wearing a short sleeved t-shirt and pajama pants. Now, her shirt had ridden up a few inches, allowing me a peek of her flat and white stomach. From the sight of her, I knew kissing her right now would be a bad idea for my mission to take it slow.

So I carefully got out of the bed and walked painfully— because of my Bella-radar containing soldier, was already saluting her— to the bathroom. There I didn't dare to jerk off to relieve myself of the tension, in fear of Bella hearing me and thinking of me as a gross, horny man. I did the only other thing I could do in my situation— I took an ice cold shower.

When I had seen Bella again at breakfast, all my hard work went out of the window. I ran my hand through my already messy hair and wondered. "How long would 'taking it slow' take? I don't think holding on is an option for much longer, if she continues to look so… delectable!"

BPOV

Wednesday night, Edward had been called into a clinical meeting for a man who needed emergency surgery, but the resident neurosurgeon was not sure if the patient would survive the procedure. So I was left to have dinner of a Chicken Roll and my usual latte with the Hale twins on either side of me. Hey don't judge me for the latte at night; I still had to endure Mallory and Stanley for another 14 hours!

It was Rosalie who first started the conversation. "B, how's the Cullen parents?"

I looked at her in confusion and replied, "Rose, you met them both before. You know they are nice people. Why do you ask?"

She hesitated a few seconds before spilling her guts. "Emmett invited me to have brunch with them, this Friday. I have an evening shift, so I said I'll go. Do you think it's gonna be weird?" I could hear her sounding a bit nervous and patted her hand lightly.

"Rose," I said, "You are Rosalie Hale. You made boys cry on a regular basis, until meeting Emmett, a few days ago. Don't be nervous about the brunch. It's just a family brunch. Edward and I are going to be there as well."

Jasper, who had been listening in silence jutted in. "I'll be there too. Edward invited me there." I smiled at him feeling a bit grateful to Edward for including Jazz in the family thing. He and Rose were like family to me.

I then turned my attention to Rose once more. "See, even Jazz is gonna be there. Chill out, Rosie, I'll be your lady knight in aluminum foil, if you need saving." Rose and Jasper laughed at my joke and the nerves seemed to ease off Rose after that.

A few minutes later, Jasper's phone rang and he almost jumped out of his skin in his hurry to take the call. We both looked at him suspiciously, but the dork quickly got up to sit at a different table, away from the two eavesdroppers— Rose and me.

Rose quickly seized the opportunity and asked me, "So, how's life with the good doctor?"

I grimaced and replied, "It had been okay till now. No more drooling incidents so far. But now that his parents are here, the atmosphere has gotten a bit strained. I don't like pretending to be something I'm not. You know that about me. We didn't want anyone prying into our personal lives and that's why we decided to put up a front of being the happy couple. But now, it feels wrong— like we're deceiving them."

Rosalie looked at me thoughtfully, before asking, "Are you sure it's them you're deceiving?"

I frowned at the question. "What does that even mean, Rose?"

She smiled knowingly at me and replied, "That means, I'm not blind, B. I see the way you look at the man. I have also seen the way he has followed you to our circle of friends. He looks so intently at you sometimes! I even noticed the fact that he smiles when you smile… without even knowing why you're smiling— simply the fact that you are smiling, is enough to make him smile. Do you think he invited Jazz there so that he could flirt with Alice? No, he invited him, because he knew it would make you happy to have your friends with you. The guy seems crazy about you, B. And frankly, you look like a naked baby with wings has poked you with an arrow, as well. So, are you deceiving yourselves by denying the fact that you're both falling for each other?"

I scoffed at her theory and said in a determined tone, "No, Rosalie. I don't even know the guy properly, for God's sakes! How can I fall for a stranger? It's all in your head. Cupid is not flying around me or him. Maybe you should take a look at yourself, buddy, you're the love-sick one in here." With that I turned back to my food, ignoring Rose's goofily smiling face and head shake.

While I sat at my post in the ward, going through a patient's file, Rosalie's words came back to my mind. I immediately shook my head to get rid of such notions. We haven't even known each other for a month yet! There's no way I can be falling for him… right?

A/N: What do you think, guys? Is cupid flying around them? ;-)

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know your thoughts and leave a review, please?

Take care.

Ann