Chapter 14

"Bella" He looks at her getting dressed.

"Yeah?" She feels exposed so she dresses more quickly. Her head is spinning, not in a hugely terrible way but it is spinning.

"I…"

She waits and waits. "What is wrong with you, you have never been at a loss for words" She frowns tugging at her shirt.

"It is just" He looks at her standing fully dressed now.

"Edward I will talk to you later, I need to get to a meeting, but first I need to shower and change" She slept there with him the whole night.

"Sure" Edward nods.

"I got your suit, it is being delivered today"

"You did not have to do that"

"Really? Last I checked it was my job" She rolls her eyes at him. "All of this" She motions her hands around his bedroom, it still smells of sex. Good sex. But it smells of sex. "We need to sort it out, but not before tomorrow" She tells him.

"Yeah we do" He fully and whole heartedly agrees they need to talk about what has transpired between them. But also what transpired between him and the shareholders and board members.

"I will see you tomorrow for sure" She is not sure about the rest of the day.

"I will be there"

"Oh I almost forgot" Bella touches her cheek smiling. "The community center people will be coming" She grins.

His face is unchanging. "Bella"

"Hold that thought" She pulls her cell phone out. "Hello?"

"Bella I have the files you wanted and a Mr. Andrews said to call him about the job without pay" Jenna speaks into the phone. She really like Bella, on her A-game and handles everything really well.

Bella smiles. "Thank you" She hangs up. "I need to call Alistair; I need to go, later?"

"Sure" He stays on the bed and watches her dash from the room and exits his place. "Oh fuck" Edward hangs his head.


Alistair smiles and stands. He actually hasn't seen her as much as he would have liked. The business was exchanged and he will be there tomorrow night to document it on film (camera film).

"Hi" Bella greets him.

"You seem relaxed"

Her mind flashes to her body grinding against Edward's, releasing all of that tension that was there over the past few weeks of awkwardness with him and the past week of her being slightly stressed out due to the planning. "Yeah, I am okay"

"So I wanted to throw some quick ideas at you"

"Oh, I trust you without you running things by me"

"Well let's just say I wanted an excuse to meet you again"

Bella is taken back. "Oh" The thought of this is frightening.

"Don't look so worried"

"Well, I'm not, I'm not" She repeats. Forcing a smile she shrugs. "We will be working together"

"One night, I am not a mixing work with pleasure kind of guy"

Bella cringes inside. She was not that type of girl until a few weeks ago, and last night. "Right, me either" She lies with a smile.

"So how about it?"

"How about what?"

Alistair laughs. "Okay you be my date for this event you are pulling off with great skill"

"I won't have time to..." She trails off when she is cut off by him speaking again.

"Unofficial date, if anyone asks I will say I am with you, and you do the same. But you both of us actually will be so busy so there won't be any pressure"

Bella smiles at the idea because it is really sort of cute. "Okay" She agrees with a quiet voice. "Yeah"

"Yeah?" Alistair arches his eyebrows with excitement.

"Hmm" Bella nods a bit looking at him. He is a very attractive guy, and seems really nice. It might be nice to get to know him a little better.


Her eyes look and they run over Edward's lean but firm body which is decorated in the amazing, she suspects expensive suit. Biting her lower lip she pulls back a sigh. She knows his body rather well at the moment and when his hand comes up to touch his chest/stomach she shivers. His hands are large and strong; she can almost still feel them from yesterday running down her back to the curve of her ass.

"Hi" Edward greets.

"I didn't think you were here yet" Bella admits to him, she is actually happy he is here.

"Yeah" His voice is tender. "Of course I am here, you just looked busy before"

"I was"

"Hello" Alistair comes up his large camera around his neck and being held in his hand.

Bella smiles at him. "Got any good ones?"

"Well I haven't gotten any of you yet"

"OH so all good shots then"

Alistair laughs. "Mr. Cullen, nice seeing you again"

"Edward, please" He says. Not liking this guy for some reason.

"I just wanted to say hello" Alistair tells her.

"I am glad you did" She gives him a kind smile.

"Gonna get back, enjoy it, it's your moment"

She smiles as he heads off.

Edward looks at Bella. "You look really, very" He stops. "Can I continue?"

"Ha" she says in a soft voice.


"Edward told us what you had planned; we all think this is amazing"

"It is really wonderful, such a great cause, to find a cause" She tells him. She has met Martin once; he is a board member in Edward's company.

"We are all sad it did work out for the community center, but the dynamics of how business takes place is really what it is all about"

Bella wasn't listening to him but she turns her head and looks him dead in the eyes. "Pardon?"

"You know, a lot of money can't just go to waste because of a little promise, deal, and agreement. We all put a lot of money into that property, you understand I am sure" He says in a carefree tone.

"No you must be mistaken the community center…"

"Is going to be blocked, a shame but" He trails off with another carefree shrug.

"What?"

Martin looks at Bella confused. "It went before the board, the agreement was unanimous"

Bella stares at him her head shaking a bit. "Please excuse me."


Edward is talking to Jenna. She has worked for him for some time now and this is really the first time they have spoken about something other than a email, call or photocopy. Nice woman.

"I need to talk to you" Bella comes up suddenly on the two, she looks at Jenna and then Edward.

"Me?"

"You, yes" She feels her heart start to race and her cheeks get warm.

"Excuse me Jenna, sure" He follows her because she starts off quickly ahead of him. He watches her body sway as she walks into the actual dining area. Everyone is still in the cocktail section enjoying and greeting before they are seated for dinner. He hasn't seen this room done. "Wow it looks amazing in…" He feels a sudden and unexpected slap across his face.

Bella glares at him.

"What the hell?"

"Community center" Is all she says, she watches behind a blazing angry face at him. "How long did you know?"

"Um"

"Just tell me" She demands.

"A few weeks ago" He feels the slap right as the words come out of his mouth.

Bella glares. "You-you lied to me"

"I didn't know!"

"Liar!" She yells at him. "You knew, and you let me believe otherwise"

"I found out and I was going to tell you"

"Were going to tell me, they are here tonight, when were you going to tell me, when the first stone was laid?" Bella's eyes race around his face in serious question. "When, a few weeks, before or after Italy?"

"After, after" He says quickly.

"Before or after we had sex?"

Edward says nothing.

"What?" She wants to cry. "Why, w-why would you?" Willing herself not to cry, she is angry and needs to keep that feeling not be sad she was used by another man. The words are being caught in her throat and chest. "No" She shakes her head.

"Bella, I am"

"Don't" She points her finger at him. "I don't want to hear anything from you, you are liar and a user, you, you used me"

"I didn't"

"No?"

"No, I didn't use you" Edward says softly to her, almost pleading for her understand and he waited too long for that.

"Just don't, you lied to me, then had sex with me twice knowing, knowing that all of this was not going to happen, the reason I started working for you was moot"

"Bella I didn't know how to tell you"

"You tell me, you just do it, how could you let me invite these wonderful people here and they don't even know, they don't know" She shakes her head with her arms out to her side in wonder. "How-I-I don't know what to say" Bella quickly places a hand on her stomach. "Oh god"

"Please Bella" He moves closer to try and hold her.

"No" She warns him stepping back. "Don't you touch me!"

Edward looks at her, she isn't crying but he can see she is trying very hard not to. "Everything we did together"

"Shut up!"

Edward shuts his mouth.

"I want to forget everything we did, and forget you, and I will once this night is over" She glares at him storming out of the very large room.