He bowed slightly and opened the passenger door for me. I got in and snapped the belt around me. He watched me, as though making sure I did just that, gave me a sexy crooked smile that made my heart flutter, and then closed the door.

From irate customer to roving predator in the bat of an eye. This was going to be some night.

Chapter 4

The next thing I knew, I was riding in a spotless silver luxury car next to an equally spotless perfect male specimen. This was definitely one of the last places I'd expected to be when I woke up this morning.

"So," I started, "this is where the magic happens."

He chuckled softly. "No, not really. Maybe where it starts, though."

"Ha!" I retorted. Wow, was that the best I could come up with?

"What? Don't you feel something?" He asked, locking onto my eyes. I felt my heart rate increase dramatically in response. Oh, I felt something alright.

"I...uh..." Just then, my stomach growled. Rather loudly.

His eyes registered shock, and then he laughed. A nice loud laugh that filled the car; it was a lovely sound.

"Food first, magic later," he replied, still smiling at me. I smirked and looked back towards the road. He continued to watch me a little longer, and then returned to watching the road.

After a few minutes of driving, he pulled over to a meter on the street and parked.

"Does pizza sound okay?"

"Yes, sounds great."

I unhooked my seatbelt and he did the same. We opened our doors at the same time to get out, but he was over to mine in a flash to hold it and close it behind me again.

"It's just this way," he said as he gestured to the left.

We walked in the direction of a place with a sign that declared it "Luigi's," and he held the door open for me. Very good manners, that's for sure. He was a crafty one.

He walked right up to the hostess podium, which had a blonde girl about my age behind it. She was studying her nails, seemingly bored. Sensing we were there, she looked up.

"Welcome to Luigi's, how may...Edward, how divine to see you again!" Divine? Who the hell says that?

"Hello, Lauren." He seemed friendly enough, but unimpressed. I wondered how he knew her name. And she his, for that matter.

"A booth for you? I get off in about a half hour, so I can join you when I'm done if you'd like."

Edward cleared his throat and I somehow took that as my cue to scurry up next to him.

What an odd reaction, I thought.

The hostess's eyes got big and she looked confused for a second. Or maybe this was her normal face, I couldn't be sure. I scanned her over quickly, much faster than she was taking the time to gauge my appearance. She had on too much makeup, and I didn't notice anything pinned to her top. Hmm, she's not wearing a name badge. It was probably best not to think about that too much more if I was going to enjoy my dinner.

"Actually, we'll be needing a table for two, if that's okay."

"Sh...sure," she said, shooting daggers at me with her glare. "Right this way."

She grabbed two menus and silverware wrapped in napkins from under her podium and took off. I had to sprint a little to try to keep up with her in the dimly lit restaurant, and somehow managed to snag my shoe on some carpet that had wrinkled up. I started to fall forward and automatically closed my eyes tight and put up my hands to brace myself. The contact never came, though. I opened my eyes and then realized what kept my face from meeting the floor. Edward had caught me by the waist in his big, strong arms, just in time.

"Whoa there, Grace!" He chuckled.

Argh, that does it. I put my hands on his to try to unhook myself from his grasp, and spun around to make some smartass reply for the new nickname, but all of a sudden I was at a loss for words. His face was inches from my own, and his mouth was so close that I could feel his breath. I inhaled and caught the scent of mint and something else that made my mouth water. He smelled amazing. On impulse, my eyes went down to his lips, then back up to his eyes. There was something new in them looking back at me, and I could only guess that it was reflected in my own eyes just then.

"Hem hem."

We broke our staring match and looked in the direction of the sound. It was the hostess again...I think her name was Lauren?

"Your table?" She looked very impatient, and I was surprised she wasn't patting her foot.

I blushed furiously, muttered a "thanks" to Edward, and he let me out of his kung fu-like grip. My body heaved a little sigh at the loss. It really had been a long time since I'd felt a man's arms around me.

The blonde hussy dropped our silverware and menus, grumbled "enjoy", and strutted away back to her podium. I went to take the seat on my left, and Edward was there to hold the chair out for me.

"Thank you, again."

"Of course," he said. He took off his coat and smoothly hung it over the back of his chair before sitting down across from me. I marveled a bit at how well the shirt fit him, clung to his well toned arms. He had muscles, not like Emmett and not too big, either; just the right amount to suit me. I started to daydream about how the muscles in those arms would flex when he took that shirt off and how good his bare chest must look when I heard, "Earth to Bella." That quickly jolted me out of the imaginary striptease I had Edward doing in my head.

"Huh? I'm sorry, did you say something?"

He smirked at my flustered response, the cheeky bastard. "I asked if you wanted to get a large pizza to split or order something else from the menu."

"Pizza, oh yes. Pizza's good. Pizza sounds fine." I sounded like a blathering idiot.

"Shall I get a bottle of wine?"

"That'd be fine, too."

Embarrassed and slightly afraid to look directly at him after my fantasizing and verbal diarrhea that followed, I chose to look at my surroundings instead. It was a nice little restaurant, decorated with an obvious Italian theme, but I couldn't help but notice that some of the female waitresses were giving me the stink eye. All this from just being seen next to Edward Cullen? I looked over at him and he was reading over the wine menu, seemingly oblivious to all the commotion generated by his presence. I felt a little out of my element, but also a bit of pride at being the one on a date with him.

Date, there's that damn word again. This is not a date, Bella.

Our waiter, Kyle, came soon after with some glasses of water and to take our order. He thankfully didn't seem to have any interest in Edward, so that was one employee that didn't seem to have a grudge against me already in this place. Edward ordered us a bottle of red wine and a pizza, and Kyle went to go place the order.

"So, Bella."

"So, Edward," I countered, sipping on my ice water.

"You're the one that messed up my order, then?"

"Well I...you see...the thing is..."

He was smirking at me again. I'm sputtering and he finds it amusing. Great.

He laughed that lovely laugh again. "Well, at least I know that Emmett is a real person, though I can hardly hold him responsible for the mix-up."

"You were so angry and mean looking; I didn't want you to yell at me. Well, more than you already were. All that talk about your distress, and that bulgy vein in your head thing you had going on."

"Did I frighten you?" he asked, his eyes serious for a second.

"A little," I admitted.

"I didn't mean to." He gave me a warm smile. "You did mess up, though. And it did cost me."

"Cost you? What exactly?"

"Time."

"Ah, the lawyer and his precious time."

"Yep," he said, much nicer than I'm sure he would have forty-five minutes ago.

"Are you going to bill me for this time we're spending together right now?" I asked teasingly.

"Nah, this is strictly pleasure."

Didn't expect that response at all. "Oh, really?" I said, my voice going a little higher. I really hoped he didn't notice that.

"Well, I certainly hope so."

He looked into my eyes again, and I swear my knees went weak under the table. I was never so thankful to be sitting down. I was sure he was using those green eyes of his to put me under some sort of magic spell, but I was also starting to wonder if that would have been such a bad thing.

The pizza came out a few seconds later, and the spell was temporarily broken. I had nearly forgotten how starved I was until the delicious smell hit me. I grabbed a piece right away and blew on it before taking a bite. It was hot and slightly burned the roof of my mouth, but so tasty. I had to hurry and take a drink to cool down my mouth, and then took another bite.

"You don't believe in wasting any time, do you?" He was watching me with amusement.

"Nope!" I smiled, chewing away.

"Me neither," he said, smiling that crooked grin of his again, the one that made my heart overreact. I wondered if we were talking about the same thing as I took another bite of my pizza and tried unsuccessfully to calm my insides down.

We ate and talked about a little bit of everything. I found out that he was an only child who'd lost his birth parents at a young age, but had wonderful adoptive parents that he adored. I told him how I was also an only child, and about my dad, crazy mom, and stepdad. This led to a talk about where we grew up, then favorite films, movies, books, music and so on. He told me how he got his law degree here, went down to California to try to make a name for himself, but got sick of living down there. He had come back here about six months ago and was now living in a condo uptown. I told him that I shared a house with Alice, and that we rented it from a nice older man who had a bit of a crush on her.

"Jasper doesn't mind this?" he asked, amused by this tidbit.

"I don't think he knows, but he really has nothing to worry about. He's a sweet old guy, but Alice likes her men young, strapping and, you know, not on Medicare."

Edward laughed at that. "I guess Jasper does have that going for him, at least."

Before long, it felt like talking to an old friend, not someone that I thought was going to bite my head off earlier in the day. I told him a bad joke Emmett had told me the week before, and he laughed even though it was really bad. I noticed that he would get this little twinkle in his eye when he laughed like that. I made a mental note to add that twinkle to the list of reasons why I needed to make him laugh as much as possible. I didn't know how much time I would get to spend with this gorgeous man, but I intended to maximize what little I probably had.

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Thanks so much for the sweet reviews you guys, they really do keep me going. :) Next chapter is done and beta-ed, so will be up very soon.

And, thanks of course to my great beta!