(Bella's POV)

It was the middle of November and the weather had turned very cold. It had been three weeks since Edward arrived and twice a week I'd bravely conducted the torturous meetings with C-CORP. It was the only time I saw him. I'd made sure of that. Not since the day Vaughn came to take me to lunch had Edward attempted to talk to me outside of the office. I kept trying to tell myself that was a good thing and that it was getting easier. But on the days I knew I would see him, my heart would start reacting long before our meeting. And on the days I didn't see him, I was restless and gloomy.

There was going to be another meeting this morning. By 5 am I was up and running through the park. Leaves crunched under my feet as I pushed myself harder and as the miles stretched behind me, my legs grew weaker and my lungs burned from the frigid air. But I still feared that no matter how hard or how far I ran, it would never feel like enough.

As I approached the conference room, I gave myself the usual pep talk.

No matter what Edward does, do not get angry. Do not let him see you react. Be calm, Bella. Just be calm.

It wasn't that Edward was actually doing anything in the meetings. In fact, for the most part, he had remained distressingly silent in the conference room, but I certainly wasn't so naïve as to believe that his silence by any means meant that he wasn't active. He was always so watchful. That brilliant, perfect mind of his was always maddeningly alert. If I had just met him, I would be impressed and amazed. I would probably also spend my time staring at him like all the female assistants that somehow kept finding excuses to attend the meetings. Each time I found one flirting, I removed them immediately. A few of them were so ridiculous that they'd found pink slips in their cubicles at the end of the day. I had trained my team as well as could be expected without actually telling them there were two vampires in the room. But sometimes it seemed like I was meeting opposition from both fronts.

Just as I turned the corner to the conference room, I got a text message. I looked down at the screen and for a moment or two, my tension melted away.

"Hey Bells. Just wanted to say Hi. Miss you."

It was Jake. I hadn't talked to him since he'd called on my birthday. I walked into the room as I closed the screen and when I raised my head, I saw a full table of eyes staring at me. It took me a moment to realize why they all looked so surprised. It was because I was smiling.

Inevitably, my eyes turned to Edward first. He wasn't looking at me. Instead, he was staring intently at my phone.

Don't tell me you can read phones too, I thought.

All traces of my smile dissolved. I pushed my phone down into a pocket of my briefcase and as I sat down at the head of the table and grumbled out a terse greeting, I noticed that Harry Banks' face was a deep shade of red. The vein in his forehead was bulging more than normal and he was in a fury.

"Ms. Swan," he seethed. "What is the meaning of calling the head of production in the EMROSE-Corp Belgian branch and offering him a higher position if he stays on after the takeover?"

"Does that upset you, Mr. Banks?" I asked innocently.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "It amounts to bribery, Ms. Swan."

I laughed condescendingly. "Bribery? I'm sorry, but I believe you have the word bribery confused with strategy. He is an able employee and I want to see the business continue to succeed after we acquire it."

"Moving a little fast, aren't we, Ms. Swan?"

That velvet voice raced through me.

I froze for a moment, letting the sound linger in the air, the sound that made all other voices sound weak and coarse by comparison.

Remember our little pep talk out in the hall, Bella! Please Remember. Please.

I enunciated every word as I glowered at him. "I don't have the luxury of moving slowly. It isn't like we're going to live forever now, is it Mr. Cullen?"

I heard Jasper's exasperated sigh as Edward stared at me without saying a word. His eyes held me riveted to my spot as the electric current passed between us and refused to fade.

Thankfully, at that moment the conference room door opened as assistants wheeled in several carts filled with danishes, muffins and juice. I'd forgotten that I'd ordered breakfast as a goodwill gesture meant to throw off the opposition.

The assistants were spreading everything out on the buffet table, when one of them dropped a glass. She dove for it, but it hit the floor just as her hands reached out to break her fall. She landed on the shards of glass, cutting her palm badly.

The blood began to flow, and I panicked. All I could think about was that Jasper was in the room and that this was way worse than a stupid paper cut. Before anyone else had a chance to react, I grabbed a linen napkin and lunged at the girl's hand. Wrapping it tightly, I took her by the arm and started to run out of the room, half expecting to hear growls and furniture being turned on its end behind me, but when I swung around to survey the damage, Jasper was still sitting down. He was staring at the floor and his hands were gripping the armrests, but there was nothing that would have alerted the room to anything out of the ordinary. I saw that Edward had stopped breathing, but his eyes were calm as he looked at me and gave me a subtle, reassuring nod.

My jaw went slack with the shock.

Two assistants were suddenly beside me and taking the girl by the arms, they hurriedly led her down the hall. I stared dumbly for a moment, then once my shock at Jasper subsided, I realized I was still holding the blood-soaked napkin. I hurriedly threw it in a nearby garbage can, but it was too late. The sickening smell of salt and rust hit my nostrils and it felt like everything I'd eaten in the last two weeks was heading straight up my throat.

I tried taking large, measured breaths, but I felt green clear to my toes. The world started to get blurry around the edges. I heard voices coming towards me, but they seemed so far away, as if they were in a tunnel. I told myself I could make it to the bathroom, but as soon as I moved forward, the hallway tilted sideways. I fought for control. With a last ditch effort, I reached out to the wall for support, but just as everything started to go black, I felt two cold marble arms catch me and pull me close.