"You should tell the police," Bella told him as she cracked the eggs into the frying pan, pretending she was cracking Tanya's head. So, it really wasn't very mature of her but she was pissed and wanted the bitch to pay. A slap in the face and some spilled wine weren't nearly enough to compensate for how she felt.

"Tell them what? That my PA made a pass at me?"

"It was a little bit more than a pass and you know it. She accosted you when you were unaware," she bit out. "If some guy did that to me -"

"I'd kill him," Edward said without hesitation.

"I'm being serious."

"So am I."

"What if she tries to turn it around and slaps you with a sexual harassment suit? Then what?"

"She won't. She can't. I'd bury her before her lawyer made his first query."

"You sound so sure."

"I am. My office has security cameras installed which record during non- business hours. What she did is clearly documented, trust me."

Bella nearly dropped an egg on the floor. "You've looked at them?"

"No," he said horrified, "and I don't intend to. I lived it. I don't want to see it from a camera's point of view. I had security pull the tapes and lock them in a safe, should I need them."

"Which brings me to my original point, if you have proof, go to the police."

"I will if she tries to take it any further. I just don't want that kind of publicity. Nor do I want you to suffer from it either."

"How would I suffer?"

"Do you honestly not know the speculation that would go on? What could be said? The media circus? No, I want to keep this a private matter."

Frowning, she thought about what he said as she served them both breakfast. No, she didn't exactly want to see a sex scandal with Edward's name attached, saturating the headlines. She knew how devastating that would be for him, for his charity and all those kids. However, now that Tanya had failed, what was she going to do next? Bella did not think this was the end of it but it was the last time, she was going to let some bitch put doubt in her mind.

Edward watched Bella pick at her food, deep in thought. He had been such an idiot and that idiocy could've destroyed them. If he had just been honest with her, trusted her and himself, expressed his fears and concerns, Tanya would've never been an issue even if he was glad to be rid of her.

"Bella, we really need to talk. About everything."

"I know," she sighed heavily and put her fork down.

"How about we take a drive somewhere?"

"Where?"

A small smile flitted over his features. ""Somewhere you've been wanting to go for a long time."

They left the skyscrapers and the permanent fog that seemed to cocoon the city behind them. The attached homes and apartment buildings of Brooklyn and Queens gave way to the tree-lined parkways of the Southern State as Edward navigated expertly through the traffic typical of a late Sunday afternoon morning.

He was glad to be driving, doing something with his hands, keeping the temptation to ravish her at bay. This wasn't the time for that. He switched the stereo off, trapping the car in silence, signaling he was ready to talk.

"Are we headed to the Vineyard?" she asked him, noticing they were traveling east.

"Not today. I have somewhere else in mind and it's a bit of a drive. I figured we can talk on the way." He took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts before he spoke again. He had to explain this right. "I'm not looking to justify my actions when I say this but you have to understand that my last relationship was with you ten years ago, hell, my only real relationship was with you, so I need a bit of a learning curve here. I don't even know if I ever did it right with you in the first place."

"You did, Edward, you did," she tried to reassure him. "Even though, we had our problems towards the end, we could at least talk. But now? I feel like every time we take a step forward, we lake two giant leaps backward. The only time we're completely honest with each other is when we're angry. This past week, I felt like you were only using me for one thing and if you couldn't have it then, what was the point for you?"

"No, that wasn't it at all. You have to believe that."

"Then what was it? Help me understand what was going on in that head of yours."

"Every time we spoke, it...it killed me a little inside, knowing I was being so cold and I wanted to be with you so damn much. It was fear that kept me away."

"Fear of what? Failing Eleazar's expectations?"

"In part," he hesitantly admitted. "I was terrified that if I couldn't do it, achieve what Eleazar wanted from me, then you would lose hope that I could be the man you felt would keep your heart safe, instead of the man I'd become. It felt like our relationship hinged on my success and if I failed, I would lose you and I couldn't cope with that. So, I thought, and stupidly so, that if I kept our contact to a minimum, I would heighten my chances of succeeding, that the temptation to revert to that part of me that scares you would be lessened."

"What scared me was that it was so easy for you to stay away."

"Easy?" he chuckled bitterly. "There was nothing remotely easy about it. I nearly caved so many times. I held my breath every time we spoke, wondering when you were going to break, to confront me, to force the issue and then I would have no excuse to stay away. But you never did."

"Don't pin the blame on me. I knew you were struggling with it and I didn't want to be the cause for you to fail. You are so out of control with being in control, I knew if it happened it might set you off even worse. Then when Demetri and then Tanya-"

"Demetri?"

"Uh, yeah." Her face flamed. "You know, he was doing what he always does, likes to plant little seeds and watch them take root. It's not a big deal."

"It is to me. Tell me, did Demetri do anything else beyond plant seeds?"

"He asked me to dinner but I declined. That's all." She stole a glance in his direction and saw that tell-tale muscle tick at his temple and his jaw locking. "Let it go, please. This conversation is not about anyone else but us. Let's keep it that way."

"I'll concede. For now."

"Thank you. You know, I love you, all of you."

"Even the damaged parts?"

"Even those," she said without hesitation. "I just want...to be treated as an equal, to be able to express how I feel without worrying if you're going to go all alpha-male on me. I want to not to have to walk on eggshells around you. But most of all, I want us to be able to be open honest with each other no matter what. We're both going to make mistakes but not communicating is when they mushroom out of proportion."

"I can't promise I'm going to change overnight."

"I know that, but at least you're being completely honest with me…and you're calm so, that's a start."

Her words hit home and he knew he wasn't being completely and totally honest with her in everything, not really. He had kept his meeting with her ex secret and he knew if he really wanted to prove himself, he had to tell her. But just as he was about to open his mouth to confess the last of his sins, he saw the sign on the parkway signaling where he had to exit.

Later, he promised himself. He would tell her later.

The wooden signpost read, "Brigham Farms" and beyond the farmhouse store front, she spotted row upon rows of apple trees with parents and their children running about filling baskets.

It was an apple orchard. He had taken her to an honest-to God, real life apple orchard.

"You remembered," she whispered in awe, thinking of the time he had driven nearly two hours on a quest to find an apple orchard in Florida. He had sworn up and down that he had found one.

"Are you sure you found an apple orchard?" she had asked dubiously.

"That's what the website said. My baby wants to make apple pie from apples she picked herself, I'm going to make sure she does.

As it turned out it wasn't an apple orchard at all but an orchard that had apple pears. She couldn't even make pie from it but it had probably been one of the most carefree times with Edward she ever had.

Edward took her hand her hand and skated his lips across her knuckles. "Bella, every moment I shared with you has lived vividly in my memories for the past ten years in a constant loop. And," he gave her a saucy wink with a smile, "today you're finally going to get to make that pie."

They had scoured the orchard on Bella's quest to find the perfect mix of apples. He held the ladder for her, watching her delectable butt as she climbed it to pick the fruit from the trees and they even joined the hayride that took them around the farm with other visitors. He carried her basket with one hand and held her hand with the other and at one point he set their fruit in a wheelbarrow and gave her a genuine piggyback ride while she laughed joyously. He couldn't recall the last time in any recent memory that he had so much carefree fun.

Now, Edward couldn't believe they were actually making pie at nine o'clock on a Sunday night. Well, Bella was making the pie; he was more or less covered in flour after his flawed attempt at rolling dough. There was something so right in the domesticity of it, which made him fight to breathe. This…this is what he wanted. This, right here with Bella; this is what filled the empty spaces within him. The feeling was so strong and so intense, he almost asked her to marry him as she was putting the pie in the oven.

Not this way. Not yet.

"Stay with me tonight," he said instead. When she bit her lip in hesitation, he gently cupped her cheek with the palm of his hand. She leaned into his touch and sighed. "I just need you with me, just to know you're here," he went on to explain. "I don't need anything else right now." It shocked him that when he said the words, he found they were actually true. Of course he wanted to make love with her, he always would but being with her, having her next to him where he could feel the warmth of her body and her touch, that was what he needed.

Bella's mouth plundered his but it felt all wrong somehow. She kissed different, tasted different, even her lips felt less plump against his own. Yet even as red flags raised in his mind, his body reacted.

"Bella," he groaned out and felt the body above him stiffen even as his hips surged upward, seeking. His hands fisted in coarse waves. That's when he knew for sure. His eyes sprang open to meet the tawny gaze of his PA. Becoming instantly aware, his cock became flaccid as the rest of him became stiff with anger. "What the fuck, Tanya!" he said giving her a shove off of him.

She landed backward on the other end of his office couch, her skirted legs spread open revealing she wasn't wearing any underwear. When he thought of what could've happened, what had been so close to happening when he wasn't aware, made him want to be violently sick. At least his dick was still in his pants although his shirt was undone.

Not wanting to be near her he scrambled up and swiftly buttoned his shirt, not even wanting to look at her.

"I want you, Edward."

"I'm giving you exactly five minutes to pack up your desk and get the fuck out of here. Consider yourself unemployed."

"Good." She sounded triumphant. "Now none of those pesky HR rules can get in our way."

"Don't touch me." He jerked his head away when he felt her hands on him again. Never in his life had he been tempted to hit a woman outside the boundaries of consensual sex but he did now. He decided to play it smart. Picking up the phone he dialed security to come up and physically escort her out of the building. "Security's on their way. I suggest if you want your personal effects, you better get them now." At this point, he didn't care if she was able to pack her things. He'd dump them all over the lobby come Monday morning if she wanted them badly enough.

"Two years," she approached him again, invading his personal space and all he could do was try to avoid her. "I waited two God damn years for you. And you… I've seen how you look at me with lust in your eyes. You can't say you haven't wanted me too."

"You're out of your mind." He shook his head in disbelief." I'm in love with Bella. I've always been in love with Bella."

"Bel-la." Her name dripped off Tanya's tongue with such vile disgust, Edward felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise. Why did he have to say anything? "This is her fault, isn't it?" Tanya paused, and her face changed. A determined resolve came over her features. "If she wasn't around, you'd be mine."

"You're wrong. The sight of you makes me sick. You assaulted me, here , in my own office. I could never want you."

"Assault?" She threw back her head and gave a sharp cackle before fixing him with her gaze again. "Now Edward, we both know that's a lie. You enjoyed every minute of it. Your cock told me so. Poor, poor Bella. She's going to be quite broken up over this, isn't she?"

Security was there before he could respond. She struggled in their grasp and he watched them take her away.

"I guess we'll find out," he heard her say when she was finally out of sight. Was she talking to him or the guards?

The recent memory morphed into something less definable but infinitely more terrifying. He was running through a maze…no, not a maze…the halls in the lower floors of Dante's. Moans of ecstacy reached his ears from behind the closed doors. He screamed out Bella's name, repeatedly until his voice grew hoarse from his desperate cries.

A door at the end of the hall opened slowly. He ran towards it but the floors turned to a substance that swallowed his feet and slowed him down. When he finally reached the open door, he wished he hadn't.

Bella was hanging from the ceiling, naked, manacled and bloody. Her lips were tinged blue, her neck at an unnatural angle and her eyes wide open with a death stare. Surrounding her, were the gleeful faces of Laurent, Sam and Sam's father, Joshua, each with a whip in hand.

"NO!" he shouted, falling hard to his knees.

"I told you, she'd be broken up," he heard the voice of Tanya behind him. "You should've listened."

Edward startled awake, his breath coming in quick pants, his body slick with cold sweat.

It wasn't real. It wasn't real. He reminded himself over and over as he wiped his shaking hands over his face.

"Edward? Are you all right?" Bella asked him, her voice filled with sleep but the brows over her drowsy eyes furrowed with concern.

"Yeah, baby." He pulled her closer, spooning his body around hers and kissed her temple. "Go back to sleep."

She looked at him questioningly.

"I'm fine," he lied, conjuring up what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Mm, kay," she mumbled incoherently as she snuggled back against him.

He listened for her breathing to even out again in slumber, soothed by the sound of it. She was here and she was alive. It was just a dream, a fucking awful dream. Well, half of it was anyway

Jesus Christ, he didn't know if he would be able to get that image out of his mind long enough to go back to sleep. Would Tanya harm Bella? Was that what she meant when she said Bella would be broken up? No, it couldn't be. Bella had already been broken up about it when Tanya, the bitch lied to her about what really happened. That's all Tanya meant, wasn't it?