TEAM FOREVER

Disclaimer: The Cullens, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

My stories are being beta'd by dowlingnana and she is doing an awesome job. She also designed the cover for this story. Thanks so much.

And, as her mind wandered in that direction, a picture suddenly popped into her mind's eye of doing a painting of Edward, a collage, really, of him in different poses, doing different things, but, the center piece being of him unclothed and looking sexy ready to make love to the object of his desire; her.

Oh, Bella was starting to want to explore more of this marriage business. It had surprised the hell out of her when he had proposed the idea to her as a means to dealing with the unwanted attentions of Jacob towards her and Irina toward him. It had great merit and was looking as if it would have even greater benefits. The whole thing was worth considering.

At that point she realized the taxi had stopped outside of the gallery. She requested that he return within an hour as she was paying the fare and then went inside to conduct her business as quickly as possible since she would like to return to the hotel before Edward woke up. Certain plans were starting to form in her mind of how to spend the time before they headed home tonight.

CHAPTER 17: ARE WE ON THE SAME PAGE

Edward kept reaching over to the side of the bed where Bella should have been. Where she had been when they had gone to bed dog tired and bone weary in the early morning hours. The day before had been a long but busy one, then they had to catch a flight to London after the showing and a late, romantic dinner he had arranged. She seemed to have enjoyed their time together and the arrangements he had made for their late night dinner date; had even said that she did and appreciated the thought and effort he had put into getting everything done.

Sitting up in bed as he kept coming up with empty air while trying to locate where his wife was; looking over to her vacate space he ran his fingers through his hair while giving it a nervous tug, then looked around trying to find where she might be or have gone. There wasn't any water running in the bathroom, and listening very closely for any faint movement indicating she might be in the living area of the suite, still heard nothing. 'Where the hell could she be' he was silently asking himself. That was when two things happened at the same time; he happened to glance at the clock and remember the reason why they had stopped in London. It was later than he realized and at the same time he felt that fact explained where she had gone; to the gallery. And with that realization he calmed down then made the move to call room service before heading for a relaxing shower and to get dressed for the day.

He wanted to spend some time with his girl without a lot of interruptions from press and fans. This was one of the few times that he resented not being able to walk along the street, appear in a restaurant or an event without someone recognizing him only to demand something from him. His time was precious and limited to be able to convince Isabella that she should give their marriage a proper chance. She needed to have time without pressure to realize they could be good together if she would take the time to get to know him as a man that cared for her instead of the friend that she was accepting at the moment.

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Bella was becoming very frustrated with the situation around her. It seemed that the faster she tried to get through with things, the slower time moved and the more things kept popping up for her to check or do. And the sad part was, she realized, that she was doing it to herself. She had to mentally shake herself to return to the present and deal with gallery business, but, it didn't take long before her mind would return to thoughts of Edward, their relationship, of where she might want it to go and the reasons why she didn't like to do relationships in the first place.

The morning passed and she was finally done checking everything over and was ready to say goodbye to her manager and staff. All things were in order, the books balanced and all of the details for the upcoming show had been covered. She really had nothing to worry about like she had told Edward; this manager was an old hand at handling business, so, she knew what she was doing and Bella could leave everything in her capable hands. So, with everything finished Bella walked out to see that her taxi had returned as instructed and the driver was patiently waiting for her. Getting in she told him to return her to the hotel.

It was during the ride back that Bella truly allowed her thoughts free rein to work through all that she really desired from her relationship with Edward. She thought about the reason why she didn't do relationships and the disappointment their ending always brought her. Either the man couldn't accept the fact that she had a business to run and had trips that needed to be made, which meant she was gone a lot. Her intelligence was extremely high, but, she never used that as an excuse to make them feel less than they were; they did that to themselves. Or, in most cases, the man was there trying to use her, her business and finances as a means to an end; usually their own personal gain and to hell with what it would cost her.

So, all of it soured on her relationships and then add to the mix that her parents weren't shining examples of the happy ever after. Nope that was a whole different picture.

It was as she got to this juncture that Bella realized that none of the normal throwbacks could be said of Edward. He had his own business which included extensive travel, his own money and people that wanted to try to use him for their own ends; the same as was her case in relationships. So, maybe with them being equal in circumstances of past relationships their current conditions might be workable to both of their benefits; maybe a marriage based on the type of friends with benefits arrangement.

As Bella reached this point in her thoughts she realized that the taxi had come to a halt in front of her hotel. After paying the fare plus a generous extra for the driver's trouble since he returned for her. Getting out and heading into the hotel, the elevators and then her suite, Bella still continued to ponder the idea of the relationship with Edward. The only problem she saw on the immediate horizon was how Edward would accept her proposal. She and Edward had agreed to the marriage in the beginning as a way to stall any further interference from Jacob towards her and Irina towards him, but, the thought of how he would react to her suggestion was up in the air and was making her more nervous by the second the nearer she got to their suite and she coming face to face with him after all of the thoughts she has had running around in her mind.

She knew that she had been gone longer than she had originally intended since she had wanted to be back before Edward awoke. After time had gotten late she knew that that idea wasn't even in the realm of reality, so, she did hope that he did realize where she had gone.

Opening the door Bella encountered a laid out table with a cart from room service and their baggage waiting by the door for their departure in just little while.

Edward walked out of the bedroom carrying the last case that Bella recognized as being her makeup case. He came to a stop as he realized that she had returned and was standing still watching him. And, then he saw the most amazing thing without knowing the cause; Bella was blushing without saying a word and he had no indication as to why. Being very much aware of her blush, Bella was thankful that Edward couldn't read her thoughts since she wasn't sure how he would react to what she wanted. Of course, she hadn't fully made up her mind as to going in that direction, but, pros were definitely out weighing the cons. The emotion she wanted to know was what his touch was like. It was that final thought that had deepened her blush.

Edward had stopped just inside the living area of the suite as he had seen Bella had returned, and then observed, while some of her thoughts about something or someone had brought about a heightened blush. Standing there and not saying a word for a few moments he then smiled and continued his intended path towards the door where the rest of their luggage awaited. "It took me awhile to realize where you had gone." He said to relieve the silence that was hanging in the room. "Did you get everything taken care of and made sure all was in order for the showing?" he inquired.

Giving herself a mental shake, she responded, "Yeah, everything looks good and the books are in good shape."

"I ordered lunch thinking you might like to eat before we leave to catch our flight home."

"Thanks. Appreciate the thought since I haven't had time this morning to stop for anything except coffee." Bella told him with a shy smile and then told him she would be back after she freshened up.

Edward continued on to complete his task and then turned to open the door just as room service had announced itself as he had placed the bag down with the rest. The waiter entered and began to arrange the dishes and set about serving everything as Bella reentered the room. Pulling out her chair Edward leaned down and quietly asked, "Is there anything on your mind that I might be able to give you some help with?"

With that question Bella started to choke on the sip of water she had just taken. Her head quickly snapped around with her eyes rapidly finding his while wondering how he could know what she had been thinking. But, instead of remarking about his question she started the conversation about what her plans will be once they return home and then asked him about his plans. Edward followed her lead and they continued talking about general topics.

After they had finished their meal, time seemed to have recharged and moved into fast motion. In no time at all they were in the same car that had picked them up at the airport upon their arrival, the luggage loaded and then on the way to fly home.

The topics never returned to what caused her deep blush, but, that didn't keep Edward from wondering and desperately wanting to know.

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Jacob Black reached out a searching hand trying to find and quiet the steadily ringing cell phone. As he did grab the phone it stopped only to start again. "Shit, what the hell do you want?" he questions the caller without checking to see who was calling. The night he had just spent with Irina had him still needing more sleep since their activities took all night and he had only fallen asleep about two hours before.

"Watch your damn mouth when talking to me. You owe me and at the moment I own you. Where is my money? The deadline is quickly approaching and I'm looking for the down payment that you promised. Do you have it yet?"

A/N: What would be Edward's reaction if he knew how close Bella's thoughts were running to his, but, for a different reason? Sounds like Jacob is in hot water and I'm not sure we want to know what he and Irina was doing during the night.

Your reviews are always welcomed and I will be updating this story every two to three weeks due to the number of open stories I have going at the present time.