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, 344

CHAPTER 9

"Bella?"

"Hi," she replied quietly, and I sighed in relief and trepidation.

"Where are you?" I asked to stall for just a few more seconds.

"In my room."

"Are you alone?"

"Yes ... Ashley's spending the weekend with Brian."

"Ashley's your roommate, right?" There was a moment where I could only hear her breathing, and I knew she wasn't going to answer any more of my irrelevant questions. I exhaled harshly and just jumped into it. "Sorry, I'm just nervous," I told her to explain my stalling.

"Why?"

"Because there are a few things we need to clear up before I can give you an answer."

"So, basically, you haven't come to a decision," she stated. "I told you I didn't want to talk to you until you knew what you wanted," she continued sadly.

"I do know what I want," I hurriedly told her, afraid she would hang up the phone. "That's not the problem."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know what you want."

Another moment of silence.

"Of course you do," she finally replied. "I want you and I want to be with you completely. I've always been honest about that." Her tone was defensive and she probably thought I was trying to pass the blame for the state of our relationship onto her.

"I didn't mean what you want right now. I don't know what you want in the future. After college; what you're aspirations are; what kind of life you want to live."

"What does that have to do with us?"

"It has everything to do with us." I knew she hated when I pointed out our age difference, but it was a key point in this conversation, and something she simply had to accept. She could not have the same expectations of our relationship like she would with a guy her own age who had his whole life ahead of him, which they could plan together. That was simply not feasible with us. "Bella," I started carefully. "Are you aware of what you would give up by being with me?"

"Like what exactly?" I wished I could see her face, that she was standing in front of me and we had this conversation in person. All I could hear through the phone was the hint of challenge in her tone.

"Like adventures, wild parties, spontaneous backpacking trips through Europe, summer flirts with guys you won't think about ever again, having a family of your own. Have you thought any of this through?" I asked desperately, because it was out now. If she said that she wanted all of this, there would no more 'us.'

"Are you serious, right now?" she asked, and I could tell that she was questioning my sanity for some reason.

"Yes."

I heard her say a quiet 'oh my god' and I guessed she said it to herself in response to whatever was going through her head.

"I understand now that you really see me as a naïve little girl whose life you think you're about to ruin."

I shook my head. "I was—"

"Oh just shut up, Edward!" she interrupted me, and I closed my mouth and did as she told me. I was a bit amused that I was taking orders from a girl her age, but when it came to Bella, there were only a few things I would never do if she asked.

"First, there are obviously a few things you need to know about me that have somehow flown over your head, so let me explain it to you." I held my breath. This was it. "Adventures for me does not include bungy-jumping off a bridge or rock climbing in Asia. For me, a simple surprise is an adventure, doing things out of your ordinary everyday life.

I like parties just as much as the next person, but I don't require a keg and to get shit-faced every weekend.

I hate backpacking and camping and anything that means you have to live in a bag, so to speak. Do I want to go out and travel once in a while? Yes, but last time I checked, you could be as old as you want to do that. I'm not even going to talk about the flirts you assume I want to have, and lastly I don't even want children."

Everything she said was important, but the last statement was what stuck with me. "You don't?" I asked her stupidly.

"No! I've never wanted them. There is absolutely nothing in me that yearns to have them."

"But if you got pregnant by accident, wouldn't you want that child?" I didn't know why I pressed the issue. I guess I couldn't wrap my head around what she was saying. I thought pretty much all women wanted to have children eventually.

She snorted humorlessly. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen."

"Bella, those things can't be controlled to a hundred percent. Just because you don't want children doesn't mean that accidents don't happen." As I said this, the realization that Bella and I had never used condoms when we had sex came to me. It was reckless of me to just assume she was on the pill, but if she wasn't, I was sure she would have insisted on other contraceptives since she was so sure of not wanting children.

"I'm not denying that all forms of birth control aren't completely safe. I'm not stupid, but thanks for believing that, by the way."

"Bella, please, I—" I couldn't believe that I had put my foot in my mouth again.

"Just relax. I'm messing with you. I know you don't think I'm stupid. What I meant to say before is that an accidental pregnancy won't happen to me because I can't get pregnant."

I frowned in confusion. "And how is that?"

She sighed. "When I was fourteen, I was diagnosed with Endometriosis, and when I was eighteen I got a subtotal hysterectomy through keyhole surgery. It's literally impossible for me to get pregnant."

"Oh," I replied as I couldn't get anything more intelligent out at that moment.

"Does that settle all your fears or do you have any more reasons as to why I shouldn't want to be with you?" she asked sarcastically, and I just had to chuckle.

"Except for the obvious, you mean? No, I don't."

It went silent for the third time, and I knew she was waiting. She wanted to know my answer now.

I cleared my throat. "I'm not going to deny that I'm still terrified, because I am. You bring out feelings in me I didn't know I could feel at my age."

"When are you going to realize that you are not that old," Bella inquired. "You're only forty-five, not seventy-five!"

I laughed softly. "You're right, and if you insist that it doesn't bother you, I won't let it bother me either. I've already told you how I feel about you, and that was never a lie. I'm in love with you and I want to be with you, so if you feel that's what you want, I'm with you completely."

"Really?" she asked, her insecurity apparent in her voice. "Do you really mean that? Please, I'm begging you to not tell me this if you will change your mind next week."

It hurt so much that I was the reason her insecurities ran so deep, and I promised that from that moment, I would do everything in my power to build her up again to become that confident, strong, young woman I knew she could be. "I'm dead serious. I'm yours."

I could hear her sobbing, and I wanted nothing more than to wrap her in my arms and kiss away her tears.

"Why the fuck do you have to be so far away?" she suddenly exclaimed. "I need you here with me! I need you so fucking much right now!"

Her need was tangible through the phone, and I felt the exact same way. I mirrored her every feeling and it tore at me that she was hundreds of miles away.

I knew in that instant that both of us needed to get away. We needed to be together someplace where we didn't have to hide, and my apartment didn't suffice. We would still be in a city where we couldn't be completely free, and I wanted to be able to take her out to dinner without fearing we'd run into someone we knew.

Her spring break was close; only five days away until her classes ended on Friday, and it was the perfect opportunity.

"Baby," I said to gain her attention, and I liked how the endearment came out so naturally. "I think you should tell your parents that you're flying to Cancun over spring break."

She inhaled sharply, and I instantly knew that she was jumping to conclusions, believing that I was already backing out of my promise.

I hurried to correct her assumptions. "I don't want us to spend your spring break holed up in my apartment. I want to be with you somewhere we can go out on a walk together, somewhere I could kiss you in public without worrying about onlookers. I will close the carpentry for the entire break, and we could fly somewhere warm like California, or Florida, or Las Vegas. Just the two of us. You and me, for the entire spring break. What do you say?"

"I'd say, spring break can't come fast enough!"

I looked up from my phone briefly and looked over at the people milling out from the arrivals entrance, but there was no Bella this time either. The flight board said her flight had been delayed, but the time had not been updated since that announcement, so she should have landed by now.

It was obvious that I was nervous and a whole lot of excited to see her again because I continuously rubbed my neck, scratched my chin, and my knee bounced fast with no indication that the movement would stop soon.

My pulse was high, my mouth felt dry, and I was afraid that an officer might come up to me and inquire if I carried drugs or something worse on me.

I checked my phone again, but there were no messages. If she had landed, she surely would have messaged me by now.

Then, I just knew that she was there. I could actually feel her presence, and when I looked up, I spotted her just coming around the corner with her bag in tow. She had put up her hair very messily, and she was dressed in shorts, causing her gorgeous legs to be on display. Even after spending hours on a plane, she still made me speechless.

I rose from my seat, and with the first step I took, her head turned to me and our eyes locked. The smile that stretched across her face was radiant and she instantly started to walk fast in my direction. I matched her pace and met her in the middle where she placed her hands on either side of my neck and pulled me down for a heart-stopping kiss.

Right there; in the middle of the busy arrivals area at Miami International Airport, and the best part was that we didn't care. Nobody knew us here, and we could relax completely.

I deepened the kiss just because I wanted to and could do it, but when she moaned softly against my mouth, I knew we had to stop before we got too carried away in our emotions of finally being together again.

Two and a half months had passed, and the wait had been agonizing and stressful, but standing with my arms around her made all the pain go away.

We parted but I kept my arm around her waist because I wanted to. I was going to keep her close to me for the entire week, and unless she told me to back off, I would make sure that I was always touching her in some way.

Her delicate hand stroked my cheek, and she smiled wide again, showing off all of her teeth. "I see the Miami sun has already gotten to you," she said, and the sound of her voice, clear and not obscured by the speaker on a phone did things to me, and I wanted to do all sorts of things that were more than inappropriate at an airport.

"Yeah," I said and chuckled. "There's not a whole lot of sun at home right now, and my guess is that New York is the same."

She rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me? I was freezing my ass off when I boarded over there, and I actually changed in the toilet of the plane because I knew it'd be hot as fuck here." She glanced me over, taking in my casual clothing of a short-sleeved cotton shirt and linen pants, and then smirked. "I wasn't wrong about how hot it'd be here," she said, and I laughed at her statement.

She bent down to grab the handle of her bag, which had been discarded in the floor with our reunion. "Anyway, you'll have to help me remember sunscreen or I will literally burn to death during this week."

"Don't worry about that. I'll take any chance I get to rub any lotion on your body. Just say the word," I replied and winked.

"I'll hold you to that."

We started walking outside and I led her toward the lot where I had parked the rental I'd fixed for us. I was excited to show her the hotel room I'd checked us into at The Setai right by Miami Beach. It was expensive as hell, but I rarely went on vacation, and the carpentry was rather lucrative lately. I felt that spending a week at a luxury hotel with the woman I was in love with and being able to show my affection for her openly was absolutely worth the money.

We tried to keep up a light conversation during the ride to the hotel and cover everything we hadn't already told each other over the phone. I asked her about college as we hadn't focused our phone calls on her education much, but then she asked me how I was handling everything after my divorce, as well as how Alice was coping, and the lightness disappeared instantly. Apparently, they weren't talking much, only occasional messages on Facebook.

"It can take days before she answers my texts, and I mostly get one-word replies," Bella confessed. "We have been drifting apart for some time now, but I thought she would at least want to talk to me when your divorce was final. Had you not told me, I wouldn't have known when you signed the papers. I had to call her and lie, and say that I heard it from my mom who heard it from Mary."

I nodded in understanding. It was obvious that her derailing friendship with my daughter pained her, but I couldn't really offer any good words of comfort. "Alice isn't taking the divorce very well. She tried to be strong at first, and she calmed down a whole lot with her behavior, but she's not motivated to do anything anymore. As far as I know, she still hasn't applied for any schools, and it worries me."

Bella placed her hand on my forearm. "I'm sorry. I wish I could help, but she never really listened to me. It was always she who held the reins, and I mostly tagged along."

I released the steering wheel with my left hand and intertwined my fingers with the hand she'd had on my arm. "Don't apologize, baby," I told her, once again trying out the term of endearment, and her answering smile told me she liked it. "Alice has always been spoiled, and quite hard-headed, but I didn't want to see it and admit the truth to myself until very recently. I guess I just wish you'd rubbed off on her a bit more while you were so close. It sure would have made my life so much easier."

"What about her boyfriend?" she suggested. "What's his name; Jason? No, wait, Jasper, right?" I couldn't help the smile when she didn't recall his name. "What if you talk with him and tell him that you're worried about her education? Maybe he could convince her?"

I chuckled humorlessly. "I don't think so. I've only met the guy a handful of times, and he has barely spoken a word to me. I don't think he likes me."

It was Bella's turn to laugh. "Give me one example of a single guy who likes their girlfriends' fathers'."

I glanced over at her. "I have nothing against Charlie," I told her, but it only caused her to laugh harder.

"Oh, please! You barely tolerated him when he was your neighbor, and I understand why. There are times when I don't like him that much, but he's my father, so I'm kind of obligated to love him no matter what."

I had to agree with her. "Okay, maybe that's true. Charlie isn't the easiest person to deal with, but, I mean, I've always seen myself as a pretty cool Dad, and I don't under—" I stopped talking when I saw Bella shake her head in the corner of my eye. "What?" I asked.

She held up one finger with the hand I wasn't holding in mine. "First rule is that if the dad thinks of himself as cool, he is the absolute opposite in the daughter's eyes."

I frowned. "Seriously?"

"Definitely," she said and nodded. "The main topic between two young people talking is how embarrassing their parents are, or how unfair, or how they don't understand. Believe me, if Jasper doesn't like you, it's because of what Alice has told him about you, and he probably feels uncomfortable around you."

"Huh..."

It was very interesting and enlightening to hear Bella explaining the mind of young adults. Lord knows I needed to be educated in how my daughter was thinking, and Bella was my best bet at learning, but when I spotted the hotel, and I knew we were getting closer to starting our week together, I knew I definitely didn't want to spend it by talking about the problems I had at home. This week was supposed to be about the two of us truly getting to know each other without limitations, and when I looked at her again, my eyes were drawn toward her bare legs, and I knew where I wanted to start.

"Baby," I said, and once again, her smile became radiant in response to the nickname. I used the hand which was still clasped with hers and pointed toward the hotel. "That's where we'll stay."

"Whoa!" she exclaimed and leaned closer to the windshield to get a better look. "That's so cool. I've never stayed at a luxury hotel before."

"Just wait until you see the suit...and more specifically the bed. It's like sleeping on a cloud."

She tore her eyes away from the building to look at me. "Well, I sure hope you plan on us doing a whole lot more in that bed than sleeping."

I smirked. "Most definitely."

"Good."

A shiver ran through my body as I thought about said plans. "Now I really can't wait until you see the suit," I said, and my voice came out very husky. I was so relieved that I was turning into the parking lot at that moment.

She looked at me from underneath her lashes. "By all means, then, Mr. Masen. Lead the way."

I very nearly forgot her bag in the trunk of the car.

A/N:

So they're going to explore an official relationship now! I know this story doesn't involve a whole lot of sexy times, but there is so much that needs to be covered around the sexual part of their relationship.

We already know they have awesome sex, and I assure you, I will write more of that, too, but there's too much that need to be sorted out before I can focus on that.