On to the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Twilight and DWTS…not mine. Ok. Moving on.

EPOV

I was anxiously watching the clock in the dance studio. Bella should be here any minute and it wasn't soon enough. You would think I hadn't seen her in days, yet it was only hours. I had texted her this morning reminding her that Tyler would be arriving at the studio around 10am to start setting up the camera and sound equipment. I then, subtly, (ok, maybe not so subtly) reminded her that if we wanted any time to ourselves then she might want to get there early.

She texted "good idea" in response and I hadn't heard from her since. It was nearing 9:45am and she still wasn't here.

I slept fairly soundly, which was great, but when I woke up this morning you would have thought I didn't sleep at all. I was fidgety and couldn't get out the door fast enough. Any 'rest' I had gotten quickly went out the window.

I kept listening for a car to pull up, but heard nothing. I went back to the stereo in the corner one more time to make sure I had everything when the door opened. I spun back around so fast that I got a little whiplash.

The light from outside framed her in the doorway in a glow. She looked like an angel, haloed in the light, which I know sounds ridiculously cheesy and poetic, but it was true. She took my breath away.

For a fraction of a second, I wondered where the old, focused Edward had gone, the one who only cared about winning and who's focus was on getting through the competition on top. Because wherever he was, he was long gone from here, and I can't say that I missed him. At least, not at the moment.

"Hi," Bella said softly, stepping inside and closing the door behind her.

I quickly crossed the floor to her and held her face in my hands, kissing her swiftly but gently.

"Hi," I said back, once I released her lips from mine.

She giggled and pulled herself into my arms for a hug.

"That was a sweet welcome," she said, sighing lightly.

"I missed you," I admitted, kissing her forehead as her head was still against my chest. I tightened my arms around her as she gripped me tighter around my waist.

"Same here."

We stood there, holding each other in the middle of the room, swaying softly to no music and feeling no pressure from our surroundings. Time must have sped up, however, because before I knew it, I heard a car door slam outside the studio. I glanced up at the clock again and it was five till ten. Tyler must be early. Of course.

I looked down at Bella, and she looked up at me. Our time was up, for now. I leaned down and planted another kiss on her lips, deeper than the first. I couldn't get swept up in this kiss as much as I wanted, because time was not on our side. Bella made it difficult to pull away though. With one final peck on her lips, I withdrew myself from her arms and headed to the stereo, while she stepped to the back wall of the room to put her bag down.

Tyler entered the studio, completely oblivious to the affection that had just taken place.

"Hey guys! How are we doing today?"

Yup, completely oblivious. Now, to just keep him that way.

"I think we're good," I said, glancing over at Bella briefly, who just nodded in response. "Tyler, let me know when you are ready to go and I'll start working with Bella. I want to break down what today's going to look like, and I know how you like to get those shots."

"Sounds good, Ed." Tyler moved off to his corner of the room to place all of his equipment down and get started.

Focused Edward was back, but relationship Edward was still following Bella's every move at the back of the room. She met my eyes and gave me a flushed smile in return. I had to look down to hide my own smile in case Tyler was watching.

This might be tougher than I thought.

Tyler mic'd up myself and then Bella. I clenched my fists at my side as I struggled to hold myself back from stopping Tyler from touching her. I knew she was mine, but very few other people did, including Tyler. I knew he wasn't interested, because of his own girlfriend, but that didn't stop me from wanting to place myself between her and some other guy.

Quick flashes from yesterday's run-in with James played before my eyes, which didn't help.

Before I knew it, Tyler was finished and moving back to the camera. I puffed out a loud enough sigh to catch Bella's attention. She looked back at me, apologetically, as if this was her fault. I know we both want to keep our feelings to ourselves for the time being, it didn't quell the desire to shout from the rooftops that she was mine and I was hers.

"Ok, Edward. I'm ready. I'll need both of your testimonials at some point today, but for now, feel free to start your rehearsal."

"Great," I said, rather shortly. Tyler wasn't at fault here either. He was doing his job, and he was damn good at it. I need to let this go. Shaking myself from my funk, I continued. "Thank you, Tyler. I appreciate it." Trying to make up for my abrupt behavior shift seemed to be in order, whether Tyler noticed it or not.

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I centered my focus on the rehearsal and tried to push everything else to the back of my brain. When I opened my eyes, I locked eyes on Bella. I needed to be focused on her and her dancing.

I crooked my pointer finger at her, gesturing for her to join me in the center of the room. She followed quietly.

"Ok, Bella. We've made some significant progress in the last week, which I'm proud of. You should be too."

"Yeah, I didn't step on you yesterday," she added quietly, but still with jest. I chuckled at her.

"You're right, you didn't. And on that positive note, I want to start working on the choreography for our first dance."

I watched as her eyes started to widen. I knew her internal panic mode would be setting in, so it would be up to me to keep her calm.

"We will start slowly, I promise, but you've proven to be capable of learning these steps. Your posture has improved, your confidence in your steps has grown. You've done the technical work, and obviously, we will continue to work on that. Now we just need to put the steps in a specific order. We'll start small, and build up to a full routine. I know you can do this."

At some point during my speech, I took both of her hands in mine, and I rubbed the back of her hands with my thumbs to drive the point home. She wasn't alone and I was there for her. It was a simple gesture, and nothing that would give my feelings away, I hoped, but it would hopefully help ground her.

"Ok," she said simply.

"Ok," I repeated. "Let's do this." I squeezed her hands and dropped them to grab my phone on the stereo.

"So, we are going to start learning our Foxtrot piece, and when we first spoke about this dance we talked about Fred and Ginger, right?"

"Right…?"

"So that's what I want us to do with our dance." I held up my phone to her, showing her an image from Swing Time, of Fred Astair in a tuxedo with tails and Ginger Rogers in a white satin gown.

"Those are big shoes to fill, Edward. I don't know about…"

"We aren't copying their dances or anything like that. Do you think I can tap dance in roller skates?" Granted, that wasn't from the same movie, but they did it, and I didn't think I was capable of that. The thought made me laugh, but not Bella.

"Maybe? I mean, you seem to be good at anything!" Bella huffed, aggressively putting her hands on her hips. I had to force my eyes to stay on hers and not follow her hands down to her hips. I softened for her.

"We just want to evoke the feeling of Fred and Ginger. A beautiful ballroom dance in the style of old Hollywood glamor. They were the pinnacle of that time and we can take inspiration from them."

Bella's face set into a frown. I could see I would need to try a different tactic.

"Do you trust me?"

The frown released from her face and she gave me an incredulous look.

"Of course," she said, definitively. I smiled at her in return.

"Ok, then trust me when I say we can do this."

I held out my hand for hers, and after a moment, she took it and I glided her into our first movement.

"So, Bella, how do you think rehearsals are going?" Tyler asked Bella in her testimonial.

"Well, I haven't maimed Edward yet, so I guess that's a plus."

Ha! My girl was becoming a comedian with her deflection. I watched her out of the corner of my eye while she was speaking. Since we were doing the testimonials in the studio during breaks, there wasn't anywhere else to go while we waited for each other to finish up. Bella's was first. The angle in which Tyler was filming allowed me to see her, but not be seen by her or the camera. I just made myself look preoccupied with my phone, but in actuality I was hanging on her every word.

"How do you think you stack up against the other competitors?"

Tyler's question piqued my interest. Last night Bella nearly choked when it was broached that Alice thought she and Emmett would make it to the finals.

"Honestly, I don't know. We rehearse separately, so I don't know what they can all do, and obviously it's still really early to know for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing them all dance though. I've started to get to know Mike and Emmett and they are both nice so I hope they do well. But I can only speak to myself and say, I'm still standing. Hopefully I'll be standing after the first week of competition."

My girl also had a way with words, being rather diplomatic about our 'competition.' I know she was a bit camera shy, especially when we first started rehearsals, but she's relaxed a little in the testimonials since her first one. It was fun to watch.

"You're over a week into the process. Is it what you were expecting?"

"No, not at all. In some ways it's far better than I was expecting, and in other ways, it's far worse."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Well, this certainly hasn't been easy and it's just the first week. I can only assume it's only going to become more difficult as time goes on. I knew it would be hard, and for someone like myself, with zero coordination, I was expecting that. But I'm sore as hell and exhausted at the end of every day. I wasn't expecting that! However, I think the people involved have been very welcoming and I'm finding the dancing isn't all that bad. Once I stopped stepping on Edward, thank god for that, I've actually been finding it fun. More fun than I ever thought possible."

"Speaking of Edward, what's it been like working with him?"

"Ummm…" she said, faltering for the first time in the interview. It was like she was struggling for her words. "It's been good."

"Just good?" Tyler questioned.

I looked up at her and even though I could barely see the side of her face, I knew she was blushing.

"I mean, he's been really patient with me, which is nice because I'm a slow learner. We get frustrated with each other from time to time, but that's mainly because he's a perfectionist and I'm hopeless," she quipped with a laugh.

Unfortunately, I knew that she really thought that she was hopeless, and she's proven, to me at least, that she's more than capable.

"Come on, I know you haven't been that bad." Tyler was shaking his head behind the camera, urging Bella to continue.

"Ask Edward to see his bruises," she said shyly. "I'm fairly positive he's got them, and that they are from me."

I shook my head in response as I stood from my spot against the wall. Time to set the record straight.

"Ok, little miss. Enough negative talk," I said, startling her, and moving into view of the camera lens. "You want to know the truth?" I asked, looking into the camera. "She's been amazing to work with. She is kind, and as you can see, she's funny, and above all, she's hard working. I know this isn't easy, and yes, she's a tad accident prone, as I've had the privilege to witness on more than one occasion." As I speak, my mind wanders to both incidents in and out of the studio.

"But she's determined. She comes back day after day and puts forth her best effort. That's all I can ask for." I turned to look her directly in the eye. "I have the best partner this season and I'm very lucky to have her."

Her blush is back in full force and she's absolutely stunning. Her eyes are glassy, holding in so much emotion. I glance down to her lips quickly because I just want to kiss her. Badly. I hold back, knowing this isn't the time and place. I move my hand to her shoulder and give it a quick squeeze of support before continuing.

"Sorry for interrupting," I say back into the camera, winking at it and Tyler, before walking back to my spot against the wall and resuming my position on the floor. I could hear Tyler's voice

"Any comment, Bella?"

She was quiet for a moment before speaking.

"Yeah," she spoke, turning her head in my direction. "I think I'm pretty lucky too."

I locked eyes with her and smiled at her. She turned back to the camera.

"Lucky that Edward needs glasses apparently."

We all burst into laughter after her comment. I was loving how carefree she had been today. I don't know if it was me, or the relaxing dinner with everyone last night, or just that she got a good night's sleep. I don't care. I just love being around her like this. It was contagious.

"You two are hilarious," Tyler said in between laughs.

"Well, I'm glad you think so. Maybe we'll get the comic vote, right Edward?"

I watched as Tyler reconfigured the camera angle so he could get me in the shot. I was still laughing, but I shrugged my shoulders against the wall.

"I don't know. I think Emmett may beat us there."

Bella pondered my response.

"Mmm, true. He's 'slapstick' funny. Well, damn. I guess we're outta luck."

"I'm sure we'll find some way to get votes. We may even have to resort to dancing, huh?"

"Well, damn, there goes my plan to avoid that."

All three of us laughed heartily again, each of us struggling to catch our breath.

"Ok, I think that's a wrap for now." Tyler, still laughing, stopped recording on his camera, and walked up to Bella to snag her microphone, before moving to me to collect mine. Without the camera, or Tyler's eyes, on me, I could fully take in Bella. She was flushed from her laughter, and her eyes were bright. She made eye contact with me and her breath appeared to stall. I knew I still had a goofy grin on my face, which only grew as I watched her remember to breathe. She licked her lips, which only drew my attention down to her mouth.

Once Tyler finished packing up the equipment, he turned to the two of us, calling our attention back to him.

"Ok guys, I'm going to head out for lunch. Do either of you need anything?"

Yes. Bella. Alone.

"No thanks," I said with a dismissive wave.

"I'm good. Thank you, Tyler," Bella said, her eyes flicking to me quickly, then back again.

"You sure?"

Was it bad that I just wanted him to get out of here so I could touch Bella?

"Yeah. We'll figure out lunch ourselves and see you back here this afternoon," I said, hoping to not convey the desperation I felt.

"Sounds like a plan. Ed, I'll get your testimonial when we come back from lunch, ok?" I nodded at him. "Alright, I'm starving. See you later!" He called, walking out the door.

I listened for Tyler's car door and ignition to start, before I glanced over at Bella. Once I heard the sound of his car start to drive away, I was over to her faster than I thought I was capable of.

Once I reached her, my lips were on hers in the blink of an eye and I barely stifled the moan that wanted to erupt from my throat. Bella's hands quickly came up and got tangled in my hair and even though my eyes were closed, I knew they were rolling to the back of my head with the sensations.

My own hands found their way to her hips, pulling her against my body. I opened my mouth to her, and her tongue caressed mine, and suddenly, we weren't close enough. Bending down, I slid my hands down her hips, grazing her backside, and settling on the backs of her legs, before gripping them, and hoisting her up in my arms.

She wrapped her legs around me, as I held her at my waist, to avoid any embarrassment on my part, because I knew a specific body part was actively reacting, but damn, I needed her as close to me as humanly possible. She had to know how she made me feel, right? It seemed to be the same for her. My heart beat tripled as I thought that we could be feeling the same feelings for each other. We hadn't voiced that much about our feelings, other than wanting to try. But this was undeniable. This was deeper.

I pushed her back up against the wall, careful to not hurt her, but solidly enough to give me some leverage with my hands. I pulled away, giving us some air, and moved my hands back to her waist, rubbing her sides with my thumbs.

"You're certainly becoming more forward," she breathed.

"And you're becoming more irresistible." Pressing into her again, my mouth found its way to her neck. Her intake of breath was sharp, but the resulting sigh spurred me on. I was at least conscious enough not to suck hard enough to leave a mark. I didn't think she would appreciate that.

"I'm not doing anything, Edward," Bella moaned, slurring her words slightly.

I pulled away, looking at her directly in her eyes.

"And that's what is so amazing about you. You are just being you and I love it."

I love you.

Edward, slow your roll.

I composed myself with another breath and continued.

"I really am lucky though, to have you as my partner." I hoped the sincerity of my words were amplified by my eyes so she would have no doubts about that. She smiled at me with such ease and found myself smiling right back at her.

"Me too," she agreed.

"Because I need glasses, yeah yeah yeah. Because I don't really see you, right?" I smirked at her, shaking my head at her earlier comment.

"No," she said, still smiling, and raising her hand to my face. "Because you do."

It felt overwhelmingly intimate. The closeness of our bodies, and the heartfelt words she didn't say, yet I heard. She took my breath away. Leaning in, I kissed her again, but instead of the lust-filled passion of the earlier kiss, this one was filled with such deep emotion I could almost feel tears come to my eyes.

I was never letting her go. Not if I could help it.

Ugh, they are so stinking cute. Thoughts? As always, I'm happy to read reviews!