Title: Forbidden Attraction

Author: MarieCarro

Genre: Drama/Romance

Rating: NC-17

Summary: To Edward Masen, Bella Swan was nothing more than his daughter's best friend, but that all changed when they both applied for the same weekly writing course. Suddenly, she didn't appear to be the young girl that had played with his daughter since her family moved in next door. What will Edward do when he realizes that he's developing a very forbidden attraction for a woman twenty-five years his junior? AH

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Word Count: 3, 444

CHAPTER 4

The summer transformed into fall and I watched with a heavy feeling in my heart as the U-Haul truck on the Swan's driveway was slowly filled with Bella's things.

She had told me during one of our many conversations that she would probably attend the local college eventually, and her sudden decision to move out of state left me with the feeling that I was the reason for her flight out of town.

Actually, I was pretty much certain of that point. I know I would have done the same had I been in her shoes.

The idea to do exactly that was very appealing to me.

My decision to place a lid on my feelings for Bella and leave her alone had not caused miraculous improvements in my marriage. Mary and I were still fighting like two male cats over territory, mostly because Alice had not calmed down and was acting out even more than before.

Just last month she had told us that she was not going to college. She wanted to go to L.A. and become a model.

When neither Mary nor I agreed with her, she threw a tantrum fit for a five-year-old and stormed out of the house.

Later that night, she came home sporting a taped-on bandage on the small of her back, and I just about choked on my own spit because I knew immediately what my baby girl had done in her rage.

"Alice Masen, please tell me that's not what I believe it is on your back."

She had smirked at me like the little devil-spawn she acted as. "Well, Daddy, I don't know what you believe it is, do I?"

Mary had entered the room, then, and all hell had broken loose.

Profanities I'd never heard being uttered in my house before exited both my wife and daughter's mouths. The line: "I fucking hate you!" had been followed by running steps up the stairs and a slamming door that caused the windows to rattle in their frames.

Bella exited her house with a box in her arms. She was wearing jeans that hugged her hips sinfully and a jacket that emphasized her waist with a belt. Her long, wavy hair was loose and when the wind caught it, she took my breath away. She didn't look nineteen to me at that moment and my desire for her flared up violently.

A guy on an MC turning onto my driveway pulled me from the vision of my young neighbor. He dismounted the powerful vehicle after killing the engine, but he didn't remove his helmet so I had no idea what he looked like. However, I could see blonde curls peeking out from under it, and even though he was covered in leather from head to toe, it was obvious the guy was muscular.

I frowned when I heard the unmistakable sound of my daughter's feet coming down the stairs, and I understood that the tool outside was waiting for her.

It would be over my dead body that my baby would ever get on that death machine behind a guy that was quite apparent too old for her.

She tried to pass the kitchen unnoticed, but I stopped her.

"And just where do you think you're going, young lady?" I asked to bring her to the attention that I knew what she was trying to do.

I heard her groan before she appeared in the doorway with bad attitude written across her painted face. She was wearing way too much black around her eyes, and the piercings in her lower lip and nose, which had given me an aneurysm when I saw them the first time, were on full display.

"Jasper's band has a gig tonight and he invited me to the pre-party."

I stared at my daughter and wondered, not for the first time, what had caused this change in her. From where had this rebellious attitude come?

"Jasper? Who's Jasper? How old is he?"

"Twenty-eight," she replied with a shrug, and the coffee cup in my hand very nearly slipped from my grip.

"Alice, you're only twenty years old. Don't you think he's a bit too old for you?"

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. She mumbled something under her breath that I didn't catch.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Nothing," she said and then bent down to tie her shoelace that had become untied.

"Honey, you are not getting on that motorcycle with that boy, do you hear me?"

She looked up at me from her crouching position. "Oh yes, I am," she said calmly and straightened out before heading for the door.

"Get back here, Alice Masen!" I called and followed her through the door. She was already sitting behind the boy, her arms around his waist, and he was revving the engine. "Alice!"

I felt my fury fill my body as I helplessly stared after the disappearing vehicle. I was clueless when it came to that girl. Mary and I had done everything we could think of. She got lots of attention from us so there was no way she could feel neglected.

I just didn't understand.

A deep sigh escaped me and I turned to go back into the house. My eyes swept over the neighborhood and locked with dark brown ones.

Bella's eyes were filled with sadness, but when our eyes met, they changed into pools of desire for a short second before anger and guilt became the dominant feeling in them.

She hurriedly broke our connection and bent down for another box and I disappeared inside.

I waited five seconds after the phone began to ring on my desk before I reached for it. One signal had rung four times already before the caller hung up the phone. Once, I'd gotten a 'hello' out before the click resounded in my ear.

When I finally checked the number, I recognized it all too well, and I wondered what drove her to call me, but hang up before I answered. My stomach clenched at the thought of her thinking about me, possibly missing me; her body aching to have me close as mine did for her.

A full minute passed, but she didn't call again, and my heart dropped down into my stomach.

I knew it was wrong of me to cling to the hope that she would discard my words from that fateful summer day in her parents yard, but some days I couldn't bring myself to care about right and wrong, and I wanted to call her as much as she appeared to want to talk to me.

Why would she discard my words, though? She was so young, and while I had been completely truthful at the moment, how would she be able to predict that my determination to fix my family would waver so much after only one summer?

She couldn't, because not even I could. I thought it would be easier than it had proven to be. I thought my marriage wasn't doomed, and I thought my daughter wasn't beyond saving, but here I was in my office, second-guessing all of that.

The signal that told me I had a customer out in the carpentry shook me from my damning thoughts, and I exhaled sharply before reattaching the mask of the character I played whenever I wasn't alone or with her.

However, the mask fell as soon as my eyes landed on the young woman in front of me. Only two months had passed since I saw her father drive her to college with that big U-Haul trailing behind them, but I could tell she had changed a lot. Her dark hair looked matte, she had circles underneath her eyes and she had lost a bit of weight. The changes weren't very noticeable, but I had spent hours of sleepless nights thinking about her, and I was positive I could describe her face perfectly. That was why I saw the changes immediately.

"Hi," I breathed out when she remained quiet.

Bella swallowed and inhaled before opening her mouth. "Hi," she replied quietly, and then she looked down. "It ... fell and broke," she continued. I frowned in confusion as I didn't understand what she was talking about at first, but then I noticed the vanity mirror frame she was supporting on her hip. I recognized it as a mirror frame I had made for her myself when she and Alice were still children. Her parents had asked me to make it for her birthday, and I had gladly done it. I was amazed that she still had it.

Suddenly I felt embarrassed. Of course that was the only reason she was here. It wasn't like she wanted to see me. She needed the frame repaired and since I made it, I was the best choice for it to be done properly.

That was probably why she had called before. She had battled with herself whether to call or to just come here with it herself. As she stood before me now, I realized that she was a lot stronger than I had given her credit for. I would never have been able to stand in her shoes at that moment.

I nodded slowly. "I see that," I said as an answer to her explanation for why the frame was broken. "I should be able to fix it." I walked up to her and took the mirror from her hands. I turned around and walked to my workbench to place it there. "Are you on break from college?" I asked in an attempt at a normal conversation.

"Mhm," she said quietly, and I turned back to face her. She was looking down at her feet, but I could still see the red spots on her cheeks and I wondered what had caused her embarrassment.

I simply looked at her for a short moment, and I knew that I couldn't even try to act ignorant toward her. I could never be anything but honest when it was just the two of us. With that knowledge, I threw all caution to the wind.

"It's good you're here," I started, but she interrupted me with a small smile.

"I'm not so sure about that," she said and looked up at me with dark, vulnerable eyes. They drew everything out of me. Every dark secret that should be kept under lock and key bubbled out before I could stop them.

"I dream about you. I think about you every day, and I have dreams about you like a teenage boy."

Her mouth fell open and then she shook her head while looking everywhere but at me. "There's just no sense when it comes to you, is it?" she asks rhetorically, but I answer anyway with a shake of my head.

"No ... it's not." I walked closer to her and she finally looked at me again. "There hasn't been since I first heard your poems." I couldn't stop myself from placing a stray lock of hair back behind her ear, and then, as if some stronger force than myself told me to, I leaned forward and kissed her neck. Her answering moan caused all reason to leave my head, and I stepped even closer so that our bodies were flush against each other. My hands moved to her hips to keep her close and I felt myself harden further with every second.

"Someone could walk in any second," she breathed, and I had a short moment of clarity when I realized she was right, but my mind was soon clouded again with thoughts of her naked body beneath mine.

"Not in my office," I said, and Bella leaned away slightly to look at me with heavy, lust-filled eyes. She appeared to contemplate something, but then she stepped away from me completely, and I wanted to protest at the cold air that hit me where she was pressed just seconds before.

She didn't leave, though, as I'd thought she would. Instead, she locked the entrance door and turned back to me. I felt shocked and relieved at once, and when it truly sank in that she had no plans to leave, I held out my hand for her to take. This was going to be on her terms from the start. I would never do anything she didn't want.

She willingly accepted my offer and followed me to my office where I closed and locked the door behind us to be on the completely safe side. I knew exactly what I was about to do, and what lines I was about to cross, but when Bella was so close, none of that mattered. Still, it didn't mean that I wanted to put her in a position where we could possibly get caught.

I pulled her toward me and as soon as she was pressed against every inch of me, she stretched up to find my lips with hers. I instantly leaned forward and the pure taste of her exploded in my mouth, spread out to every fiber and made my blood boil as well as rush down south at a speed it made me light-headed.

I tried to touch every part of her through her clothes, over her back and down toward her bottom, tightening my hold on her to keep her against my ever hardening cock. My violent lust scared me. It had never been like that before. Not that kind passion. Not that all-consuming, raging, I-have-to-have-you-now-or-I'll-explode kind of lust.

"You didn't want to," I heard Bella mumble in my ear. "You didn't want this," she said, and the confusion was there in her breathless voice.

"But now I do," I answered her tightly. "I can't even remember the last time I wanted to this much." I snaked my hand underneath her sweater and traced her back until I felt the band of her bra. With just a twist of my hand, I unclasped it, and she gasped. I stopped as I suddenly realized that while she hadn't done anything but show me she wanted this, too, she hadn't actually said it.

I leaned away from her and studied her face. "What about you?" I asked. "Do you want to?"

She didn't answer me with her voice. She only pressed herself against me and it was as if every barrier was just obliterated. Both of us fumbled with the others clothes as we tried to get them out of the way as fast as possible, and all the while, our mouths never lost contact.

I grabbed a hold of her and lifted her up on my desk and moved one of my hands over her thigh and in between her legs. She was soaking wet, and my fingers easily slid inside her hot center. Her moan was loud and her muscles clenched tightly around me.

With strength I didn't know she possessed, she pulled me on top of her and locked her legs around my waist. I pulled my hand away and took support on the desk instead as I pushed into her so hard it caused the wood underneath us to creak.

It didn't last long. Half of a minute at the most. She clenched unbelievably hard around me, and I felt myself swell before my own orgasm exploded.

In the middle of the euphoria, I heard how my desk organizer fell over and everything inside it clattered out all over the floor.

For a moment, the world was perfect.

For a moment, we were in each other's arms, and I just had to kiss her neck, her shoulders, and her soft lips.

"I'm sorry," I said with a chuckle. "I couldn't control myself. You make me feel like a teenager all over again."

She smiled back at me with the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. "You have nothing to apologize for. Nothing at all."

I wanted to remain in that moment, but our choice of place to have sex on wasn't very comfortable, and my back was protesting loudly. With a grunt, I straightened up and pulled out of Bella before helping her to sit up.

As we began pulling our clothes back on, reality slowly came back to me, and I realized what we had just done, and how completely irreversible it was. What would happen now? What did Bella expect would happen now?

In order to give myself some more time to think it all through, I asked her the last thing I believe she expected. "Have you eaten anything?" She shook her head with wide, confused eyes, but I didn't acknowledge her confusion. "We could go to Frank's if you want."

"Sure."

With tense silence, I drove us to the small diner, and we didn't say anything until we placed our orders with the waitress. Bella only ordered a coffee, and I frowned.

"You're not going to eat?" I asked.

"I'm not hungry," she replied, but I wasn't satisfied with that answer. I had noticed when she stepped into my carpentry that she had lost weight, but now it was starting to worry me.

"You've lost weight," I pointed out, but she didn't like that very much.

"Well, that's all on you."

I flinched at her words, and for the first time, I understood what kind of impact I'd made in her life. It made me feel ashamed, and I didn't say anything else. Neither did she, and I lost my appetite. I had only eaten half, but I was already feeling nauseous. I pushed my plate away and gazed through the window. A group of people in Bella's age stood across the street, talking and laughing, and with a surge of sadness, it came to me that I was pulling Bella away from what she was supposed to be doing.

She was supposed to enjoy her break from college by going out with friends; dating guys and partying; making memories that would last a lifetime.

"What are you thinking?" she asked me, and I turned to face her again. With a humorless smile stretching across my face, I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms.

"I was wondering about the mess I've made."

It got quiet again, and I could see how she was processing my words.

"Do you regret it?" she asked.

I shook my head before actually knowing I was doing it, but I also instantly knew that it wasn't a lie. "I can't," I replied. "It's impossible for me to ever regret it. Do you?" I had to ask. There was a big possibility that everything had changed for her now. That she had now realized it wasn't what she had fantasized about.

"No," she said without fail.

Relief flooded through even though I had no right to feel it. "Good."

We ended up spending hours together, and it started to feel like it did before feelings came in and destroyed everything. Back when we were at the writing course and simply enjoyed talking about books and authors, but like every time we allowed ourselves to forget reality for a second, it came back with a vengeance, this time when I drove us back to the carpentry, and I had to go back inside.

Bella stood awkwardly with her hands in the pockets of her jacket as neither of us knew how to proceed from there.

"Now what?" she eventually asked, and I hesitated slightly. I wished I could tell her we could be together, but it wasn't that simple. I was still married, and her best friend was my daughter. Things couldn't get more complicated than that.

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe we should ... take it slow for a while," I continued despite hating myself for it. I didn't want to hurt her, but we couldn't just jump into anything.

I unlocked the door to the shop. "I'll have your frame fixed by next week. It will be as new, I promise." I tried to lift the heavy feeling that was surrounding us, but it didn't help.

"Thank you..." Bella said, but her eyes were unhappy, and I just couldn't stand seeing her like that, so I took a quick look around before I placed my hand underneath her chin and lifted her lovely face up toward me so that I could give her a kiss goodbye.

When we parted, she still looked sad, but not as defeated as before. "Take care of yourself," I said, and she nodded before taking a step back and started walking away from me. I looked after her for a few seconds before I went inside.