Thanks to all my readers and reviewers! You guys are Da'bomb!

So I want to apologize for my epic failure in updating, Real life and I divorced and have been on the outs ever since. But now we are in couples therapy and happily working things out ;)

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I want to give a big shout out to my beta Yuki Sakura-Chan. She is awesome. Go check out her stories, they are AWESOME!

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Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Twilight or any of the lovely characters. They belong to the wonderfully talented Stephanie Meyer. I do own the original story line and any original characters. But I do own: All of the books, soundtracks to all three movies, Team Edward t-shirt, Twilight the movie, New Moon the movie and used ticket stubs to Twilight and New Moon.

Last Chapter:

He dropped his sweaty body onto my mine, both of us panting heavily. Our bodies were slick with sweat and I had never felt more complete in my whole entire life.

"I love you, Edward," I said, pressing kisses against his shoulder.

"God, Bella, I can't even tell you how much I love you," he said pushing himself up and kissing my lips softly. He then pulled out of me, both of us hissing at the loss of contact.

Once he was situated next to me, he pulled me onto to his chest, my head resting on his heart.

"Good night, sweet girl," he murmured softly, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

"Good night," I mumbled back before falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*WYB*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Edward and I spent all of Sunday wrapped up in each other. The subject of Tanya and his impending meeting with her didn't come up until late Sunday evening. We had just settled in the kitchen for a late dinner.

"Are you nervous for tomorrow?" I asked in between bites of chicken casserole.

"More anxious then nervous," he replied.

"Do you think that she is going to be difficult?"

"Difficult would be an understatement," he said seriously. "Tanya can be very determined when she wants something. Dissolving our partnership isn't something that she is going to take lying down."

"Well it's not like she can force you to stay."

"No, that she can't, but she can make it very difficult," he admitted. I hated this, I hated that she forced him to do this. Slight guilt washed over me then, I needed to take responsibility for my part in this. I should have just let her pettiness go.

"I know what you are thinking, Bella, and it is not your fault in the slightest that I am doing this. In fact it is something that I should have done as soon as I realized that she had such intense feelings for me…,but I was blinded by my pain and alcohol and well I guess I was lonely. Not in a romantic way of course, but it was nice to have someone there when things got dark."

I felt my heart cinch a little at his words. I knew that I shouldn't be jealous of his relationship with Tanya; as far as I knew it had been purely platonic. But I still had that unease, that dark little voice in the coroner of my mind that was whispering. "You seriously think that he stayed away from such a beautiful woman? Especially one that was throwing herself at him constantly." I cringed slightly at that thought, I was being stupid. Edward told me that he had only been with me; I had no reason to doubt him.

Yeah, expect you have every reason to doubt him; he did take off for four years for some really lame ass excuses.

I needed to stop this, that line of thought would only cause problems. The feeling of Edward's hand on mine broke me out of my dangerous thoughts.

"What's going on in that mind that is causing you to look so distressed?" he asked softly, running his other hand over my brow.

"Nothing," I lied. "Bella, I know that we have a lot of things that we need to work through, but to do that we need to be completely honest with each other."

I stared at him for a minute. I knew that he was right, if we were going to work, then we needed to be able to talk about our feelings and doubts.

"It's stupid," I finally offered.

"If it is causing you so much distress then it can't be stupid."

"Fine," I said, pausing for a second. If I was being completely honest with myself then I would admit that I was truly nervous to bring this up again. "I guess I just don't understand your relationship with Tanya, if you were just friends where did she get this idea of you being together?"

Edward's jaw tensed at the mention of Tanya's name. I instantly felt bad about bringing this up, we had already had this conversation, and I should have just believed him in the first place.

"Never mind, Edward, I'm just being stupid."

"No, Bella, you're not being stupid. I just hate everything that she has done towards you and I can't help but feel like it's my fault. I brought her here; I gave her the benefit of the doubt after she confronted you in that restaurant. I should have dealt with her a long time ago."

"You have nothing to feel bad about, she was your business partner, it's not like you knew she was going to be all crazy," I reassured him. I didn't like when he got down on himself. "But that really didn't answer my question."

"I know," He said flashing me his crooked smile. "In all honesty, Bella, there were probably hundreds of things that gave her that idea. She was my only friend in Chicago, I know it doesn't seem like it but Tanya can be a very loyal person. She listened to me, she picked me up all the time when I was too drunk to drive, and she sat with me in the hospital every day after the accident. I knew how she felt, she made it obvious, I knew that I should have pushed her away from the get go, but I was selfish. It was nice to have someone there, taking care of me. So you see it is my fault."

I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. I knew that they were friends, but I guess I never had dwelt on the depth of that friendship. She basically filled my shoes in every way besides the intimate.

"So you never slept with her?" I asked bitterly. I instantly felt bad for letting my emotions get away from me, but I couldn't help it. The image of Tanya sitting next to Edward's hospital bed, holding onto his hand tightly caused my old anger to come brewing back to the surface. I am sure that she sat there crying as the doctors explained his injuries, they probably thought she was his girlfriend or wife.

"I already told you that I never slept with anyone else, Bella," He answered, his tone laced with hurt and maybe just a little anger. "I thought you believe me."

"I do." Did I?

"No you don't. If you did you wouldn't even ask me that. You don't hear me asking you if you fucked Riley,' He bit out angrily.

I was taken aback by his tone.

"Why, do you think I did?" I asked sharply.

"No I don't. I happen to believe you when you told me that I was the only one. But obviously that wasn't enough for you, I can't prove it to you, Bella, it is just something you are going to have to take my word on."

I stared at him in silence for a minute. He was pissed, I could tell by how that one vein was twitching above his eyebrow. I knew that I needed to proceed with caution; the last thing that I wanted was us to have a big blow out fight.

"Edward," I started, but he quickly cut me off.

"Save it, Bella. I'm going to go before either of us says something that we regret."

I stared at him astonishment as he stood up and dropped his empty plate into the sink, and then quickly strode into my bedroom, presumably to grab his things.

I was pissed. How dare he cut me off and then chose to run away-again. I decided to wait for him by the front door; he wasn't leaving without hearing what I have to say. When he finally came out, duffle bag in hand, I was boiling.

"So you're just going to run away again?" I seethed angrily.

"I'm not running away, Bella. I'm giving us both a chance to calm down."

I narrowed my eyes at him in anger. "I can't believe you, Edward. You just sat in the kitchen telling me that we needed to be honest with each other if we wanted this relationship to work, so I tell you what was bugging me, even though I didn't want to. And you want to know why I didn't want to tell you?"

I stopped there, not because I wanted an answer but I needed to calm myself down for a minute. I took a deep breath before continuing.

"I didn't want to tell you because I knew that this is what was going to happen! You left for four years. No matter how hard we try to get over that, it is always going to be there."

He tried to interrupt me there, but I held my hand up to stop him.

"I'm not finished. It is going to take some time before I fully trust you again Edward. I don't want to believe that you with her, Edward. But step into my shoes for a minute. See it from my point of view; you just sat there telling me that you pretty much led her on, because you were lonely. She is obviously in love with you," I choked out the last part, I didn't want to say it out loud, but not saying it wasn't going to make it go away.

"So I'm sorry if for one minute I let my insecurities get the best of me. This won't be the last time either; this is something that I am going to have to work on. And it is something that you are going to have to deal with because it is a side effect of you walking out on me."

"But if your answer is leaving every time it gets tough, then maybe we are making a mistake here."

I heard him take a sharp intake of breath. I stood firm though, never letting my eyes leave his. I wasn't sure what emotions I was seeing there, they were flickering to fast to get a hold on just one.

"Is that what you think?" He finally asked in a despondent voice.

"About?" I asked in confusion, I wasn't sure what part he was referring to.

"About us. Do you think that we are a mistake?"

I almost sighed in exasperation. I swear this man only hears what he wants to.

"I didn't say that, Edward," I said firmly.

"Yes you did."

"No, if you were listening then you would have realized that I was trying to say, if you are going to run away all the time, then this is a mistake. I don't think that we are a mistake. I just need you to be here, no matter how tough it is," I tried to explain it better for him.

"I'm not running, Bella, I just don't want to screw this up by saying the wrong thing," He said, taking a step closer to me and grabbing my hand in his.

"Well, it looked like running to me, Edward. You told me that you were leaving because you didn't want to say something you regret, well by leaving you would have been doing something that you should regret."

His thumb started stroking small circles on my knuckle; the slow smooth motion was causing my anger to cool a little.

"We are going to fight, Edward. It is unavoidable, but we love each other and that's all that matters. Please don't underestimate me again," I said softly. I think that it was this boils down to, Edward left last time because he underestimated my devotion to him, and I didn't want that to happen again.

"I'm so sorry, love," He murmured as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. That is the way we stayed for a while, me in his arms and his duffle bag at his feet.

"I guess we survived our first fight," I mumbled into his chest.

"That we did."

*~*~*~*WYB*~*~*~*

Monday afternoon couldn't come fast enough. I hadn't heard from Edward all day and I was worried about what had happened in his meeting with Tanya. Part of me wanted to text him and ask, but then I didn't want to come off as untrusting, especially after yesterday.

Just as I was about to give in my phone buzzed.

"Miss Swan?" Emily's cheery voice said.

"Yes, Emily."

"Your mail is here and you have a call on line one," She said.

"Bring the mail in and who is on line one?"

"Mr. Jacob Black."

"I'll take it,"

I waited to pick up until Emily had deposited the mail on my desk, I didn't want her to overhear what was probably going to be another argument.

"Mr. Black," I answered the phone coolly. Turning my chair to face the window instead of the door.

"Come on, Bella, let's not do this," he said in his normal jovial voice.

"Do what, Jacob?"

"Fight, I don't want to any more. You're my best friend, and I hate feeling this way," He answered.

"You said some shitty things, Jake," I reminded him. "You basically told me that Edward was only using me for sex!"

"And you slapped me," He defended himself.

I could feel myself getting angrier all over again. "For saying that he was using me!" I seethed. "And I told you I was sorry for that."

"I didn't call to fight with you, Bells."

"Then why did you call?" I asked in annoyance. I am so sick and tired of fighting. Why couldn't people just except that I am an adult and can make decisions for myself?

"I wanted to apologize," He said softly. "I shouldn't of said those things to you, it was wrong and I was being an ass, please forgive me."

"Well then I want to apologize for the way I acted. I should have told you about Edward sooner and I should have never hit you," I rushed out feeling like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, I never liked fighting with Jake.

"I forgive you, Bella. But I wish that you didn't feel like you need to keep things from me, that is what made me so mad."

"I forgive you also. And I'm sorry for keeping this from you, I wasn't purposely doing so, it was just so new I wasn't even sure if it was real yet," I explained. "Does this mean that you are willing to give Edward a chance?"

"No," He blurted out harshly.

I gripped the phone tighter in anger, here he wanted me to forgive him but he wasn't even going to try.

"What the hell, Jake?" I demanded.

"I don't trust him, Bella. He is a jerk and you deserve better!"

"Then I guess this conversation is over," I said angrily. I was done; I wasn't going to fight with him anymore.

"No it isn't! Why does he deserve a chance, huh?"

"Because he does, it's not your damn choice! It's mine! And not only that, don't I deserve a chance to be happy? Just once? Everyone else gets their happily ever after, the warm body in a cold bed, someone to grow old with."

"Put yourself in my place, Jake. Imagine it was Vanessa that left you, imagine the pain, then imagine after four years of unimaginable pain, you get a chance to have it all again. And you just know that she won't hurt you this time."

"How do you know, Bella?" He asked softly.

"Because he was in pain too, Jake. He lived through what I lived through. Why would he do that to himself again? I know that he did to himself and that is shitty, but life is too damn short to not have everything that you ever wanted."

He was silent then, I'm sure absorbing everything that I had said.

"Okay," He finally said.

"Okay what?"

"Okay, I see where you are coming from. If it were Vanessa, I couldn't be away from her, no matter how much pain she put me through. But if he makes you sad again, I will tear him apart piece by piece." I knew that, that was not an idle threat. Jake would do some harm to Edward if I was ever hurt again.

"I'll let you."

"Fine. I also want to have some words with the jerk," I hissed through the phone at his name calling. "Sorry Bells, he may have wormed his way back into your heart, but I'm not going to be so easy." He chuckled then, trying to lighten the mood.

"Edward already had plans to have a sit down with you," I said, deciding to ignore his easy comment.

"Really?" He asked in surprise.

"Yes, really. He said he wanted you to hear everything from his point of view."

"I'll clear my calendar," He joked.

"Jake," I said with a warning tone.

"Joking, Bella. I promise to listen to what he has to say," He amended.

"Good," I said, then I heard a quiet shuffling sound come from behind me, I swung my chair around sharply.

I gasped slightly when I saw a figure leaned against the side of my desk, a male figure, an Edward figure. He flashed a crooked grin at me, I'm sure surprised-scared, face.

"Jake, I have to go."

"Sure, sure. Tell your pretty boy to call me."

"Kay, talk to you later," I said before dropping the receiver back into the base.

"What are you doing here?"

"Can't a guy come and visit his breathtaking girlfriend at work?" He asked pulling me up out of my chair and into his arms.

"Yes," I answered dumbly.

"Did you mean what you said to Jake?"

"About?"

"About how you trust me not to leave again?" he said softly.

"I wouldn't be with you if I didn't."

"I love you, Bella Swan."

Instead of answering him, I grabbed his tie and pulled him in for a sweet kiss.

"I love you," I panted out after a few minutes of desperate kisses.

I leaned my head against his chest for a moment before something came to mind.

"Hey, why didn't Emily announce you?"

"She wasn't at her desk," He said sheepishly. "I think she ran to the bathroom, so I snuck in."

"Such a sneak," I chuckled. Then it hit me, crap he had his meeting today with Tanya and I hadn't even asked him about it.

"How did your meeting go?" I asked quietly. The mood in the office shifting.

"Crappy," He said as the peaceful look on his face deflated.

"That bad?"

"Worse."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked I didn't want him to feel pressured into to telling me everything.

"Of course, Bella. But could we do it at home?" It didn't escape my attention that he had called my apartment home.

"Yes, just let me clear my schedule for the rest of the day."

After clearing everything with Emily and locking up my office, Edward and I parted ways in the parking garage. The drive home went quickly; thankfully we missed the afternoon rush.

My car slid into the parking spot next to Edward's, he flashed me a crooked grin as he jogged from his car to open the my door for me.

We didn't say much on the way into my apartment building, just held hands and exchanged small grins.

Just as we were about to enter the elevator, the doorman, Seth, stopped us.

"Miss Swan," He called out.

"Yes, Seth?

"There was a package delivered for you earlier. I signed for it, let me grab it for you," He said rushing off towards the attendants' desk.

"Were you expecting something?" Edward mumbled into my ear as he nuzzled my neck.

"Nope, I have no idea what it is." I really didn't, I hadn't ordered anything and if my mom usually called to warn… I mean give me a heads up if she sent something.

"Hmmm…" He said pulling away from me, thankfully because I was about two seconds away from mauling him.

"Here you go, Miss Swan," Seth stuttered out, handing over a medium sized brown package.

"It's Bella, Seth," I reminded him once again. "And thank you."

"You're welcome, Miss… Um… Bella."

I chuckled slightly at his sudden correction. Seth was a nice guy, probably the friendliest of all of the doormen in my building.

We took the elevator in a comfortable silence, just the sound of the cheesy music pumping through the speakers and the feel of Edward's finger tracing small circles on the base of my neck and down the column of my throat.

He was perfect, these moments were perfect. It was times like this that it was easy to forget about our four year separation. It was easy to forget of the hurt and the regret. It was almost like someone paused my life four years ago and now finally pushed play again. The anger and bitterness that use to be attached to that thought were long gone, only a small tinge of sorrow flitted across my heart before I buried it where it belonged.

I shook my head to clear it of these thoughts as the doors of the elevator slid open. I was anxious to hear what Edward had to say, I was giddily curious to how Tanya took the news. Not that she should have been surprised by his announcement, if anything it should have been a little anti-climatic.

I threw my canvas work tote and mail onto the loveseat and drug Edward to the couch, climbing into his lap and settling my head against his chest.

"Comfortable?" He asked chuckling.

"I like to be close to you, sue me."

"I rather kiss you senseless," He breathed out as he ran his hand up the side of my chest, brushing against my clothed breast. I sucked in a breath of air, his hands always had a way of distracting me….just a minute, he was distracting me.

"Not going to work, Cullen," I said sternly, climbing out of his lap and folding myself next to him on the couch.

"What's not going to work?"

"You, distracting me with your amazing hands."

"I have amazing hands?" He asked quirking his eyebrow up at me.

"Shut it."

He chuckled softly before pulling me back into his lap. "I like you here, it keeps me calm and centered."

Well how could you argue with that?

"So you're meeting with Tanya?" I prompted.

"I guess I'll just start at the beginning," He said with a deep sigh. "I contacted my lawyer, Mr. Davis, on Saturday when you were doing laundry, I explained what was going on and he agreed that it was probably in my best interest to withdraw from this partnership. He agreed to meet me at my office first thing this morning. Once he was there, he and I went over the contract that had been in place between Tanya and me. He said that everything looked pretty straight forward."

"It was agreed upon in the contract that if the partnership was ever dissolved that we would split the assets and clients fifty-fifty. The only thing that needed to be decided upon was who would retain the business name; which I conceded to give Tanya and who would keep the office space we had rented. It seemed simple enough."

"But of course it wasn't. Tanya breezed into my office two hours late. She acted like nothing was going on, she came in perched herself on the coroner of my desk; I think trying to entice me with her long, bare legs."

I stiffened with the information. How dare she! I was boiling angry again. Edward must have felt my reaction, because he ran a reassuring hand down my arm.

"I pointed out the presence of Mr. Davis before asking her where her lawyer was. She seemed to think that I was joking or overreacting on Friday. After introducing her to my lawyer she realized how very serious I was. She stormed out of my office, stating that she was going to be contacting her lawyer."

"After what seemed like forever she pranced her way back into the office with her lawyer in tow."

He stopped there; I felt his body shudder with anger.

"What?" I asked franticly as I turned myself around so that I was straddling him. I took in his face, so much anger.

"You'll never guess who her lawyer is."

I thought about it for a second, the only lawyers I know are Jasper and Riley. Neither of them handles business law.

"Who?" I finally asked.

"James Carter."

James Carter? James….Oh shit!

"Riley's brother." I whispered. "Did he say anything to you?"

"No, thankfully he seems to not recognize me from that night. But I know who his is, and that is enough for me to want to do very bad things to him with my fists."

Seriously what are the chances of James being Tanya's lawyer? There are thousands of lawyers here and she just happens to choose the crazy brother of my ex!

"So, what happened next?"

"Well he came in making a big to-do about how I couldn't break the contract without a ninety day, hand written termination letter. After consulting the contract again, I saw that he was correct. So I pulled out a piece of paper and did just that."

"I think that shocked the shit out of Mr. Carter because he started stuttering and shuffling papers. Finally after listening to them hem and haw for another hour, I told them if that was all that I had work to do. That seemed to piss Tanya off even more, she hates being dismissed. She stood up and stated that she was going to sue me for breach of contract."

I scoffed at that. Seriously, she was right there for the reading of the contract and all her lawyer could come up with was that Edward had failed to write her a ninety day termination letter. How the hell did she think that she could sue him?

"I know, I made that exact same sound," He said indicating my snort. "My lawyer broke into the conversation there and told her that she would have a shit storm on her hands if she took me to court. Not only would he drag her name through the mud, he would make sure that I walked away with everything."

"That seemed to shut her up, well that and her lawyer telling her to shut it. We then finally were able to sign the final termination papers that will go in effect in three months or ninety days."

I felt his body relax after getting it all out. I could understand why. Not only did he have to deal with Tanya, but he also had to deal with James.

"So ninety days, huh?" I asked after a minute. I hated that she had some hold over him for another three months.

"Yes, but it's just a technicality. We will spend the next three months dissolving and separating everything. We'll probably finish up some of the stuff we already have in works but outside of that we will be working separately. She is even moving out of the office; since I gave her the name she gave me the building."

"Well at least it's over," I offered, I really didn't know what to say. "But I am sorry that you have to do this."

"Don't be sorry, Bella. I will choose you over everything; never again will I let my fear ruin this." He hugged me closer to him, my chest pressed firmly against his. We stayed like that for a good while, just holding each other.

Edward's stomach growling reminded me that neither of us had eaten.

"You're hungry," I offered stupidly.

"Yeah, I didn't get lunch with everything that happened today."

I regretfully pulled myself from his lap. "Come on, let's get you some food." I said hauling him up off the couch.

Just as I passed the love seat, the non-descript brown package caught my eye.

"I forgot about this," I said picking it up and carrying it into the kitchen with us.

I dug around in the junk drawer looking for a box knife as Edward started to drag things out the fridge for dinner.

"Does grilled chicken sound okay?" His muffled voice came from the depths of the fridge.

"Sounds good," I answered as my hand closed around the box knife. I pushed out the blade and slid it through the tape that held the flaps closed. After slicing through all the tape and pulling the flaps back, I was met with an envelope sitting on a mound of white tissue paper. Setting the envelope aside for later, I pulled out the paper. Lying underneath was a pile of blue lace and silk.

I plucked the material out of the box and was surprised to see a very racy scarp of lingerie. I almost gasped at how indecent it was. It was crotch-less with tiny little pieces of lace that covered the chest area.

"Did you order this for me?" I asked in a shaky voice. Edward spun around, his green eyes taking in the scarp of fabric.

"No," He said in a hard voice. "Was that what was in that box?"

"Yes," I said as I remembered the envelope. "Maybe Alice thought she was being helpful."

"Maybe," He said, pulling the lingerie out of my hands taking a closer look at it. I picked up the envelope, turning it over in my hands- no writing.

"Was that with it?" He asked.

I nodded as I ripped the envelope open and pulling out the plain white paper from inside. Not from Alice.

I about gasped at the realization who this was from. James.

My eyes scanned the note.

Isabella,

I saw this delectable undergarment and you instantly came to mind. It reminds me so much of the dress you wore the night of the banquet. This color of blue set against the ivory of your skin does things to me.

I am beyond hope that you will wear this under your dress on our date. It is coming so soon and the thought of this under your clothing makes my skin tingle.

I will be seeing you.

James.

The paper flitted from my fingers; Edward caught it before it hit the floor. I didn't need to be looking at him to guess his reaction.

"Mother fucker," He roared. "That ass was in my office today, I should have beaten him beyond recognition."

He wrapped his arms around me then, pulling me tightly against him. I didn't realize I was shaking until then.

"Go pack your bag," He said after a minute.

"Why?" I asked in confusion.

"You are coming to stay at my place. He doesn't know where I live."

He was right, but how long before James figured it out. There was only one thing that I could think to do.

I needed to call Riley.

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So I'm gonna pimp myself out, I have another story on here that I am also working on called "The Other Twin" if you're bored and you love me, please check it out. It hasn't gotten a lot of attention and it's feelings are kind of hurt…lol…but in all seriousness if you feel like it, give it a read and let me know what you think.

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Symphiann