A/N: OK, sorry for the wait, I know I know, too long, but here it is. I swear I'll try to be faster next time! Again thanks to my fabulous betas.

Disclaimer: All recognizable Twilight characters belong to S. Meyer. I however own "White Carpets and Wall Sconces."

"You look beautiful," I told her, as I held open the passenger door and watched her slide in. She beamed up at me and buckled the seatbelt around her hips. I rounded the front of the car and slid into the driver's seat beside her, turning the key and leaning over to kiss her lightly. "I hope it wasn't too torturous."

She laughed her tinkly, happy, Bella laugh and shook her head. "They were fine, don't worry." Her warm hand covered mine on the gearshift and I nearly jumped at the sensation. I wasn't sure how this girl made me come undone at the seams, but she managed it. "Where are we going?" She sounded genuinely interested.

"It's a surprise," I said with a smirk in her direction. "Good day at school?"

"Not bad. I left early. Alice is very persistent." I chuckled. She had pegged my sister well in the short time she'd known her.

"Alice? Persistent? Never." As usual, conversation flowed freely as I made my way through the snowy

streets of Seattle.

"Why such early reservations?" The curiosity and confusion in her voice were evident.

"I just wanted as much time with you as possible," I told her, turning on my signal and turning the corner.

"I'm not really dressed for ferry watching," she whispered as she realized where we were.

"We're not ferry watching, so that's ok," I whispered back, cutting the engine and hurrying around to help her out of the car. In those heels, walking alone could be treacherous. I took her tiny hand in my large one and walked toward the docks.

"What are we doing?" She hurried her steps to keep up with my longer ones as I pulled her closer to the water, excited to see what her reaction would be.

"Look," I said, pointing to the large, white ferry lit up just off the dock. She gave me a quizzical look.

"Do you mean…?" her voice trailed off, her eyes were wide with excitement. "How did you…? Edward,you shouldn't have… I can't even believe…"

"Shush," I told her, placing my fingers over her lips tenderly. "Come with me." I lead her toward the ferry and we were met by a middle aged woman in a black suit.

"Mr. Cullen," she said with a nod and a bright smile in Bella's direction. "And you must be Miss. Swan?"

Bella looked from her to me and back to her, and extended her hand. "Nice to meet you?" She made it sound like a question.

"The pleasure is mine, I've heard a lot about you from Edward."

Bella shot me a startled look, but I pushed her along by the small of her back below deck. A tiny gasp escaped her lips as she took in our surroundings. It was true, they had out done themselves. I hadn't

even known if the plan would work, but it had come together beautifully.

"It's lovely, Lillian, thank you." I nodded in the woman's direction; I'd been working behind Bella's back with her since before she even accepted my invitation.

"What is this?" Bella asked in a voice barely louder than a whisper. I pulled her tight to my side and kissed the top of her head.

"Happy Valentine's Day," I murmured. "Do you like it?" What if she didn't like it? What if it was too much too soon? What if I loved her, but she didn't love me in return? The very thought of it made my blood run cold. What would I do without Bella? Even thinking about it made me sick. She had become my everything. She was the only thing that was putting the pieces back together.

"It's….." She trailed off, looking around in awe. "It's amazing," she breathed.

The entire interior of one dining room had been transformed. There were candles lighting the wood

paneled walls, setting a soft glow to our surroundings. The table had been set with white linens and plates with gold trim. A bottle of red wine sat next to two long stemmed glasses and I offered her a chair before pouring her a glass. I barely heard the music playing softly in the background.

"It's too much, Edward," she told me, accepting the glass and taking a tiny sip. "You didn't rent the whole ferry did you?"

I threw my head back and laughed. "I suppose I did," I told her honestly. "Only because no one else

decided to though." I set my glass down and folded my hands on the table in front of me. "Is this okay?" I really wasn't sure. I was afraid it was too much far too fast.

"It's perfect," she answered, reaching her hand over to squeeze mine lightly. "Too much, but perfect." She smiled her beautiful smile and I felt a wave of emotion rush through me. I was sure of it. At this precise moment I was sure that I was completely in love with Bella Swan.

Dinner was quiet, but not uncomfortable. The staff out did themselves with the roast beef dinner. Once

Bella had told me that roast beef was her favourite, then I decided that it was the perfect meal for the

hopefully perfect evening I had planned. We finished the bottle of wine and I stood up, taking her hand

and helping her from her seat. Her face was slightly flushed from the wine and the pink in her cheeks

made her look even more beautiful than she normally did. I loved when Bella blushed, be it out of

embarrassment or cold or in this case, wine.

"Where are we going?" She asked as I gently guided her out of the private room we'd had and into a

much brighter area, hung with gold and red decorations. I could just barely hear the wind outside.

"Where are all the people?" We'd gotten used to someone being nearby, a waiter, a busboy or, more often than not, the lovely woman who I owed this entire evening to, Lillian.

"They're giving us some privacy," I whispered in her ear before lifting her fingers to my lips.

"Privacy?" She cocked her eyebrow at me and smirked. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Not now," I told her sternly. I twirled her around in front of me slowly. "I just want to hold you right now."

I pulled her close to me, wrapping one arm around her waist, my other hand holding hers tightly,

pressing her body to mine. I swayed lightly to the left.

"Edward…" she whispered, looking up at me, uncertainty in her eyes.

"Yes Love?" I mentally kicked myself. I hadn't meant to say that out loud. Her face registered shock only for a moment.

"I don't dance."

I chuckled quietly and shook my head. "No," I replied, kissing the top of her head. "But I do." I swayed

again before stepping carefully with my right foot. She followed suit a little too slowly, stepping back and

nearly falling. I bit back a laugh and held her tighter, watching her face glow even more crimson than it

already was. I took another step, and she was a bit quicker this time, my graceful step followed very

closely by her clumsy one. She sighed an exasperated sigh and tried to pull away.

"I'm hopeless," she muttered, watching her feet as yet again, she followed half a second too late.

"Of course you're not. You just need practice."

"Hmph," she grumbled. I couldn't help laughing.

"I have an idea," I told her. She gave me a quizzical look and I grinned. She was adorable when she was

frustrated. I lifted her slightly and settled her feet on top of mine.

"Are you serious?" She laughed and shook her head before kissing me quickly on the mouth. "You're too funny."

I nodded and laughed along with her, kissing the top of her head before spinning us around and listening

to her squeal in embarrassment and delight.

Bella's Point of View

Edward had outdone himself. Whoever would have guessed that Edward Cullen had it in him? Not me,

and I felt like I knew him at least a little bit better than most people.

And now I was all worked up. Whoever the genius was that said dancing was foreplay was just that, a

genius. Even being as terrible a dancer as I was, the close proximity, my chest pressed into him, his arm

tight around my back, his breath on my neck, his whispers in my ear, were all making it very difficult for

Good Bella to focus. More than once she nearly faltered and Bad Bella almost escaped her shackles.

Edward's self control was obviously better than mine, or perhaps I looked a hell of a lot less sexy dancing than he did. The latter was probably closer to the truth.

"What are you thinking?" his smooth voice cut through my thoughts.

"Just about tonight," I told him, watching as he smoothly shifted gears as the lights changed. "I had a

really wonderful time." I smiled at him, hoping to show how much I appreciated what he'd done. He smiled his slightly lopsided grin back and flexed his fingers over the steering wheel.

"I'm glad."

I sighed and settled back in the seat, glad we were heading back to the house where I could get out of the uncomfortable shoes and dress. And into a comfortable bed. Where Bad Bella would take over. I laughed darkly to myself.

"Thank you," I told him quietly, reaching my hand out to run my fingers over the back of his neck lightly.

"It was my pleasure…" his voice trailed off, like he was going to say something else, and I watched his jaw clench ever so slightly.

"Something wrong?" I watched his face carefully, but his expression wasn't giving anything away.

"No, of course not." He smiled at me once more and it melted all traces of the fleeting strain gone. "I just want to get home."

"I couldn't agree more."

The rest of the ride passed in comfortable silence; that was part of what I loved about being with Edward. We didn't need to talk all the time; sometimes it was ok to just be quiet.

The tires crunched quietly as he turned into the driveway and he cut the engine. "Looks like we're the only ones here for now." He winked playfully before appearing on the other side of the car to hold the door.

"Go upstairs and take your clothes off." His eyes were dancing; I wondered what he had planned. "I'll be right behind you."

I laughed at his straight forwardness and hurried into the house, flicking on the odd light as I went. I pulled

my heels off at the bottom of the stairs and continued up, far more comfortably. I turned the corner and

headed down the hall toward Edward's bedroom, once again thanking the heavens that his room was a

bit more secluded than either Alice or Emmett's. I opened the door and closed it quietly behind me,

turning on a light and carefully taking off the dress that Rosalie had leant me, afraid to wrinkle it in case

she needed it. I wondered if I should leave the stockings and garters on but decided against it, having

cursed how uncomfortable they were all night.

Methodically I pulled all the pins out of my hair and ran my fingers through the curls, still slightly stiff from the hair spray. Edward still wasn't upstairs. I wondered what could possibly be taking him so long, but

shrugged it off and decided to look around the room a bit. I'd spent a lot of time with Edward and in his

bedroom, but I'd never really taken a good look around. There had to be more to Edward than he was

showing me. I couldn't shake the conversation between Alice and Rosalie from my head. The cryptic little comments from Alice, the straightforward questions from Rose. Alice obviously knew something, and I wasn't sure if Rosalie knew or not. Whatever it was, it was something I wasn't supposed to know. Something about someone named Charlotte.

Edward's past had never concerned me before now. I knew he had a reputation, but he had yet to give

me a reason not to trust him, and so I was willing to ignore the past in favour of the future. I was very

curious about this girl I was not supposed to know anything about though. She was obviously an ex

girlfriend of some sort, but I wasn't sure why that was such a big deal. We all had exes. There was

obviously something else that I wasn't being told, and I wondered if maybe there was something that

would shed some light on the situation somewhere in his bedroom.

His desk was cluttered with half written papers, and on a small pile some sort of half written music, some

of it scratched out and some of it torn in half, but none of it thrown out. His computer was closed. There

were pictures in frames on the empty portion of the desk and the dresser. Pictures of him and some other guys, a few too many drinks in their systems. Pictures of him with a whole crew of different girls. Pictures of him with Emmett and Alice, and a very attractive older couple who I assumed must be his parents.

And behind all of them, a small frame with a younger Edward, smiling brightly, far more brightly than in

any of the other photos, his arm around a petite girl with a dark tan and long, straight, black hair. She

made me feel like I knew her just by looking at her, her smile drew me in, her eyes were piercing into

mine. The picture was too small to really see what colour they were, but they obviously shone with an

intensity matched by nothing I'd ever seen before. There was nothing particularly extraordinary about her appearance, and yet I thought she was possibly the most beautiful person I'd ever seen.

I finally drew myself away from the picture and continued my inspection. I wondered, again, where

Edward could possibly be, but shook it off. I made my way to the back of the room where his electric

keyboard sat. I'd never once seen it turned on, or even touched in all the time I spent there, but I did

remember that the first time I'd looked, it had a thin layer of dust on it. That dust was gone now, and there was music on the stand. Something without a title and a lot of eraser marks. I gently flipped through it, looking for some clue as to what it was.

Underneath, a few pages down I found another piece of music, obviously a finished one. "Charlotte's

Song" the title read in Edward's slightly tilted script. I pulled the upper pages away and turned the power on, squinting my eyes at the music and quickly finding middle C. I thanked my mother for my brief stint with piano lessons and slowly began to plunk out the melody. I kept the volume low, knowing for sure that my playing was an embarrassment, but even through my stilted fingers, the simple one line I could plunk out, even at the low volume, I could tell the piece was beautiful.

Alice had told me that Edward had a talent for composing, but he'd never mentioned it. I could see now

that his sister was right.

I was concentrating pretty hard, trying to make sense of the double stops and remembering where each

of my fingers were supposed to go. My eyes were almost closed trying to watch as one note after another appeared in front of me.

It was the sound of breaking glass that broke me out of my reverie. I jumped and turned around toward

the door, the last note still singing in my ears. And I was met by a very angry, very hurt looking Edward,

bottle of champagne in hand, shattered flutes at his feet.

"What are you doing?" His voice was barely a hiss, he hadn't moved a muscle. I couldn't figure out why he was so upset.

"I was just looking."

His eyes flashed angrily. "No you weren't, you were playing." I stepped toward him and his hand shot up to stop me. "There's glass," he scowled.

"What's wrong?" My voice came out smaller than I'd initially intended. I was acutely aware of the fact that I was scantily clad. My limbs felt heavy. I didn't know why he was so angry.

"You must never touch that." The expression on his face had yet to change. His eyes were flat and his

mouth was practically nonexistent. I thought that now was probably not the time to ask if the Charlotte for whom the song was written was the same Charlotte that Rosalie had mentioned earlier. I figured it must be though.

"I'm…I'm sorry," I said quietly. "It's a beautiful piece."

"Ha," he laughed coldly. "You wouldn't know. You can't play it." He bent down and began to pick up the broken glass with his bare hands.

"Edward…" I started. "You'll…" He shot me an angry look and put his hand up, a bead of blood forming on the end of one finger. "Cut yourself…" I felt my body flood with cold, hard dread.

He rolled his eyes. "Get out Bella." His tone was snappy. He pointed toward the door. He handed me a

pair of jeans and a sweater from an open drawer. "Just get the fuck out."