A/N: So very sorry for the late update! It's simply inexcusable. Hope you like it though.

Never had anyone done this for her. Soft music from a string quartet surrounded the crisp salty air. Tiki torches surrounded a platform where a round candle-lit table stood. She gasped softly as she looked at the quaint cottage in the background, as she alighted from the sea-plane.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I'll find you speechless." Mark chuckled, guiding her toward the table. "You like it?"

"Like it? I love it!" Impulsively, she kissed Mark on the cheek. "Thank you."

Mark laughed and seated her. "You're thanking me? We haven't even started yet."

It was true. Isobel Stevens had hardly been wined and dined in her previous relationships before. She had always been the giver in her previous relationships. Always being able to give more than to receive, Izzie had never learned to ask, or even to complain. She had always been a strong-willed, independent woman. In effect, needy insecure men were attracted to her like a moth to the flame. This was a novel experience for her.

Izzie frowned slightly. "I'm thanking you because you obviously prepared so much to make this special. I appreciate it," she added simply.

Inwardly, Mark was slightly taken aback. No woman has ever said thank you to him and meant it. And to think, he hasn't even given her anything yet, much less dessert. He was so used to being around women who obviously wanted one thing or another from him: money, fame, or sex. Mark felt the heat creeping up his neck. He suddenly felt embarassed. "Ahem."

A man clad in a tuxedo materialised from thin air and filled their glasses with wine while another man in a white apron and tall chef's hat served them dinner.

Mark and Izzie ate in companionable silence. Each lost in their own thoughts. After their delicious dinner of lobster thermidor, they brought their wine and glasses inside the cottage. Izzie admired the tastefully decorated blue-and-white cottage. She sat down on the plush rug on the floor. "This cottage is beautiful. Whose is this?"

Mark remained standing next to the window, his arm resting on the windowsill. "It's mine. My family's actually, but my parents are deceased already. I'm an only child." He took a sip of his wine and studied Izzie under the dim yellow light.

A subtle look of sympathy crossed Izzie's features. "When did they pass away?"

He smiled at her concern. "It was a long time ago. I was just around twenty years old at that time. They died in a car crash." Mark's parents had both been rich, spoiled rotten, and had married young. Having a son never stopped his parents from going about their reckless lifestyle of spending too much, relentless partying, and nonstop drinking. Ironically, it had been the cause of their deaths as they were driving home drunk one night when their car plunged into a deep ravine. He grew up alone; often being adopted by the huge, boisterous Shepherd family on special occasions.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Shifting uncomfortably, Izzie was not used to being around this other side of Mark Sloan. Gone was the arrogant, cynical, world-renowned plastic surgeon. Here, he was simply Mark. She couldn't help but notice how handsome he looked clad in his blue shirt which he had rolled up. Izzie blinked back trying not to imagine how strong those arms would feel when they encircled her.

"Don't be. I was already an adult by that time." He set his wine glass on the window sill and looked out the window. He never felt at such ease talking to someone as he did right now with Izzie. For him, the fact that he ever mentioned his dead parents was already an achievement. He never even mentioned them again, even to Derek, after he buried them. He was that poor in communicating.

Izzie stood up, unable to fight the temptation of consoling someone, and went to Mark. His face was devoid of any emotion. "I don't know what kind of childhood that you had, though it most probably was a very comfortable one. I wonder what led you to become so emotionally shut down." It's all a cover-up, I get it. That shell you've enveloped around yourself is so thick, I bet you never gave anyone a chance to come near it.

Mark chuckled at Izzie's assumptions, which did hit the bull's-eye. "Stevens, you make me sound like a patsy." He took a sip of champagne and looked at her through lowered lids. "However, I am guilty as charged. I never liked talking about myself to people. I'd rather listen to them talk about themselves." Mark comically wiggled his eyebrows. "Chicks love it and it's part of my seduction algorithm."

Despite her groan, she was grateful for the shift in mood. She was still adjusting to seeing this vulnerable side of Mark Sloan. "You're incorrigible! Is that all you ever think about? Sex?" She laughed, taking a sip of her champagne and leaning on the wall.

His eyes held hers for a few seconds, and she felt butterflies in her stomach once more. "You know much more about me now without so much as uttering a word,' he replied meaningfully. Mark cocked an eyebrow at her and stood in front of her, bracing his hands on either side of her. "How come that's all you ever talk about whenever you're around me?" He whispered dangerously close in her ear. "Now, who's preoccupied with sex?"

She took a sharp intake of breath and the scent of his cologne filled her senses. Suddenly, the coziness of the dimly lit room, the close proximity of his lips, and this facet of Mark Sloan that is so foreign to her, became too much for her. Izzie closed her eyes and whispered. "What do you want from me?" She felt him step back and opened her eyes. "What's this all about," she motioned to the whole scene with her hand.

Mark creased his forehead in contemplation and decided to be blunt. "We're on a date, remember? And I'm trying my best right now to seduce you." His hand caressed her face and he whispered once more on her ear. "But you're being so stubborn, as per usual."

"So we're officially dating, with the occasional casual, no-strings-attached sex," Izzie consented.

Frustrated, Mark gave up and sat down on the rug, stretching his legs. "For the meantime, yes we are dating. I'll have to work harder on the casual sex thing. Goodness, Stevens! Isn't it obvious what I want from you?"

Izzie crossed her arms and laughed quietly. "I don't know. I see this whole new side of the abominable Mark Sloan and realize he's not that abominable, although a one-track-minded person regarding sex. It seems like I'm just beginning to get to know you."

Mark leaned back on his elbows. "I'm not as horrific as they say I am. I had friends in New York, you know. Before this incident happened with Derek and Addi, I was doing fine. My practice was successful. I was respected and loved by my peers. I dated one woman at a time, mind you." He sighed. "Before I came here, I had already been branded as the bastard who ruined his best friend's marriage and was out to come after Addi to lure her back to New York. I became the resident manwhore who slept with most of the staff in the hospital and would even accept booty calls from Addison whenever Derek would reject her for Grey. I knew I was just a substitute, but it was better than nothing." He laughed bitterly. "And yet I'm still stay in the damp godforsaken city of yours which abhors my presence."

Izzie frowned in anger at the injustice of it all. "Why do you put up with it?"

Mark smiled at her. "I didn't, at least with Addi. We made a pact to go for 60 days without sex with anybody. The deal was if that we could make it through the 60 days, we'd make a go in trying a real relationship. But I caught her with Karev, postcoital, coming out from the call room. Then that's when I decided to let her go."

Izzie's heart skipped a beat. "Have you really? Decided to let her go?"

"Yes I did. I told her I had sex with another woman to let her off the hook. I would have been happy for her had it not been for that asshole Karev."

"Hey," Izzie interjected. "He's my friend! He may be ass around other people, but once you get to know him, he's not so bad. He's loyal. I think they make a great pair. Addison definitely looks happy with him."

Mark looked surprised. "You knew about them?"

"Of course, I see them exchange those looks all the time when they think no one was watching them," Izzie scoffed. "It took time for them to get together, maybe thinking about what others would say about them. But they look happy with each other." She looked at Mark admiringly. "That was very noble of you, to let her go without making her feel guilty about Alex."

"In a way, I knew she wouldn't be happy with me anyway." His eyes darkened with pain for just a moment and he just shrugged. "With regards to the women, they come to me for comfort sex. Now, who am I do deny them of their comfort?"

"Why are you still punishing yourself for staying here?"

Mark laughed heartily. "You ask me why, Stevens? Because when I got back to New York, I realized that I'm missing this certain woman who would call me up with my BS, adamantly refusing to do what I ordered her to do, and who looks like a goddess when she's enraged." He winked at her. "So I came back the second she called me in New York."

This is part 1. Sorry for the long wait and for stopping here. Will update soon! Please read and review!