Author's Note: This is our last chapter for what I guess will be at least a couple of weeks, if not more. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks to AGW who had this done, and had thought she sent it…I don't know if she was remembering wrong or the net ate it up, but I have it back now and so here you go!

Please no hate PM's when it takes a while for the next chapter. I'm looking at tangible deadlines now for my original and they are a little sooner than I had anticipated. This means almost all my writing energy will be pouring into it for the time being. Thanks in advance for your patience! -Jen

I woke up to soft knocking on my door. I called for whoever it was to come in, but instead Edward's voice floated through the door.

"It's locked, Bella. Come open up."

I sat up, feeling the chill of the morning. I yanked my comforter with me off the bed as I shuffled to the door, unlocking it in confusion before slowly opening the door.

"How did that get locked? I never lock my door."

Edward smirked down at me before glancing over his shoulder down the hall. "I locked it on my way out when I left this morning. Good morning by the way." He leaned in to kiss my lips gently, sending warmth straight through my body all the way to my ice cold bare toes.

When he pulled away far too soon for my liking, I stole a glance down the hall, yanking him into my room and closing the door behind him after seeing it was empty. His eyes grew wide in surprise before they glimmered with excitement as I opened my arms and pulled him into the comforter with me.

"I know this is odd to say since we really only started this in the wee hours of the morning, but I missed you."

His deep green eyes gazed down at me in a way that made my insides go squirmy again. "Nowhere near as much as I missed you," he replied as his hands slid around behind my back as his mouth lowered to cover mine.

I sighed into his mouth as he gently probed my lips and teeth with the tip of his tongue while his fingers danced along my spine. Even in the light of day, it all still felt like a dream.

After a few delicious minutes, he pulled away, resting his forehead against mine as he sighed. "As much as I'd love to stay up here all day with you, Emmett's been up whining about being hungry for a while. I offered to come get you, but if we're gone too long, he's going to come looking."

I pouted a little, at which Edward's eyes grew dark and his breathing rough before he grabbed my face pulling my lip between his and sucking gently before kissing me deeply, making me moan and arch a little into him. As I did so, I froze, my eyes popping open at what I happened to discover quite by accident.

Edward eyed me warily as a blush took over his cheeks. "Sorry, uh.."

I lifted my hand to his mouth, covering it to stop him from continuing. "Is that…um…because of…me?" I wanted to die a little bit as my voice went all high pitched and squeaky toward the end of the question.

He sucked in a slow breath, watching me closely as he slowly nodded. I dropped my hand, still staring in wide eyed surprise. "Seriously?"

Edward's worried eyes drew up slightly with humor, his lips pursing a little to suppress the chuckle I knew he wanted to release. Once he regained control, he shook his head slowly at me, a smirk on his lips.

"So innocent, little girl…so very innocent. Yes, because of you." His eyes cut to the side as he blushed again before slowly beginning to speak again, but his hesitation was clear. "Uhm…you know that box that I flipped out over when you were helping me unpack?"

I crinkled my brow, eyeing him warily. "The porn?"

He cleared his throat before replying. "Well, it's not strictly porn in the traditional sense."

My brow crinkled further in absolute confusion as I waited for him to reply.

He licked his lips and took in a deep breath before continuing. "Um…that was my Bella box. I keep my…um…favorite pictures of you in there as well as a few other special keepsakes."

I jerked back in surprise and Edward looked hurt, but my reaction was more just shock than anything. "What kind of…what pictures? I mean…what?"

Edward stepped closer again, his hands raised in front of him in surrender. "Come sit down and I'll explain. It sounds a lot worse than it really is. I mean, it's not like you're naked or anything, but, um, they are just pictures that held a, um, special appeal."

I let him guide me to the bed and sat down heavily, pulling the comforter closer to my body. I never dreamed that there were pictures of me anywhere out there like that. Suddenly I felt sort of exposed and dirty.

"Are they like, I don't know…bad?"

He chuckled shaking his head as he stared at the little area rug beside my bed. "On the contrary, they're amazing. They're really not a big deal. They're mostly vacation pictures. Remember Acapulco? St. Maarten?"

I nodded, cocking my head as he smiled at me through his lashes. I could tell this was awkward for him as he fidgeted with the hem of his tee shirt.

"Yeah, well, uh, there were a ton of pictures of all of us on the beach from both of those trips. I stole a bunch of the doubles of you and us playing around while you were in the blue bikini with the gold buckle in the middle of the top. Oh and the red one from Acapulco, too."

I blinked owlishly at him for a bit before a slow smile spread across my face. "Seriously? You took the pictures of me because you liiiked them?"

He smirked at me as he cocked his head in my direction. "I more than liked them."

"So did you ever…uh…ya know…to them?"

His face went scarlet before he ducked his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose. I felt my heart start to flutter and a tingly sensation take over between my legs. I should have been furious, but instead, the fact that he liked looking at me, had liked looking at me for a long time, and kept a box of pictures of me hidden away made me feel a level of excitement and pride that I'd never thought possible.

One second I was sitting next to Edward on the bed, and the next I had hopped across his lap, wrapping my fingers in his hair and attacking his mouth with my own. Edward moaned and shifted, the problem in his pants that had gone into hiding thanks to his confession instantly started coming back to life against my thigh. I whimpered a little, shifting my body so I could feel more, loving that it was me causing the reaction.

Edward moaned before grabbing my waist, pulling me off him and standing up with his hands in the air again, as though I were holding him at gunpoint. His eyes looked pained and panicked as he stood before me. "I'm sorry, Bella…more sorry than you'll ever know, but we have to stop this, like right now. Our whole family is waiting downstairs for us, and if I don't stop now, I won't be able to. Not only would that be the worst timing ever, but you deserve a lot better than this. I have to do better by you than this. It's just…"

I smirked up at him, wrapping the blanket around me again. "Napalm."

His eyes grew wide before he nodded. "Exactly."

I smiled and stood up, walking slowly toward him. I stayed behind the safety of my blankets as I leaned up to kiss his lips gently. "I'll see you downstairs in a few minutes. I need to freshen up."

He nodded, walking toward the door before pausing with his hand on the knob and turning back to face me. "Um, Bella?"

I smiled as I faced him. "Yeah?"

"Would you do me a favor and go ahead and put on some jeans or sweats and a sweater? Your pajamas have always been a struggle for me, but considering…uh."

I giggled, nibbling my bottom lip and feeling a hundred feet tall. "Of course, Edward…anything to help make things a little more comfortable for you."

He thanked me quietly before rushing out and closing the door behind him. I moved to the closet to grab out a pair of jeans and my white angora sweater Mom gave me last winter before taking them with me to the bathroom to clean up.

As I walked past the door, I heard Edward and Emmett talking, as Emmett whined about us taking so long. Edward apologized and made up some excuse, their voices growing fainter as they walked away. I smiled again before rushing into the bathroom to dress quickly and join the fun downstairs. I had to admit that the new knowledge I had of Edward and his box of secrets made me feel powerful… that is until I remembered what he mentioned of other special keepsakes. I hadn't asked about them, but now I was terribly curious.

Once I was dressed, taking the time to comb my hair and even throw a little gloss on before tiptoeing down the stairs. I smiled as I walked into the room, noticing Edward shift a little in his chair. I said my good mornings, and kissed Mom's cheek as I took the plate of warm pancakes she had waiting for me and slid into my usual seat next to Edward.

He glanced over at me and smiled before turning back to his plate with tunnel vision like focus. I had to fight not to giggle. Thankfully nobody else seemed to notice a thing as we tiptoed around each other, fighting simple instincts, like the need to touch just for the hell of it or when I opened Edward's present to me and had to fight hard not to hop right on his lap and kiss the ever loving crap out of him.

He smiled at me as I carefully opened the beautifully wrapped rectangular gift. Once the shimmery blue wrapping paper was put aside, there waiting for me was a long narrow velvet jewelry box. I glanced up at him curiously before slowly cracking open the top. I about cried when I saw the gift resting inside, that he must have purchased days if not weeks ago, shining atop the white satin inlay.

"Do you like it?" Edward whispered quietly as he watched me finger the beautiful platinum heart locket with filigree vines wrapping around it and tiny blue sapphires dotting the front, making it wink up at me with beautiful blue sparkles.

I chanced a glance up at him and smiled through watery eyes. "It's perfect, Edward. Thank you."

He smiled so brightly at me that I thought I might go blind from how beautiful it was. "I saw it and I knew you'd love it. Blue is a really good color on you and you wear it a lot, so I thought it would match your clothes and stuff. I just knew it was you."

I nibbled on my lip with a nod. "Yeah, it's totally me."

We were sort of lost in our own exchange until my mom broke the spell. "Well, what are you waiting for? Edward, why don't you help her put it on while Emmett opens his last gift?"

Edward raised his brows at me to which I nodded, holding the box out for him to take the necklace out before turning my back to him. I reached up to lift my hair out of the way as he settled the necklace round my throat and gently fastened the clasp behind me. He lowered it to my neck, letting his fingers brush my shoulder gently before moving to pull my hair back in place.

I tried to hide my reaction to his touch as I looked down with a smile, positioning the heart in the middle of my chest, just a little above the V of the sweater neckline turning back to him. My mom sighed, telling Edward he did an amazing job and how lovely the gift was before turning her attention to Pop as he opened his final gift of the day.

Once we were done with our exchange, Emmett, Edward, and I cleaned up the piles of wrapping paper on the living room floor as mom rushed out start our traditional post holiday duck. Early on in their relationship, Mom and Pop made a few concessions in their traditions. Mom had grown up eating Turkey on Christmas. It had been a tradition all throughout my and Emmett's early years. Elizabeth had always done a Ham, which was Edward's favored tradition. Meanwhile, Pop's family had duck. Nobody could come to a consensus, nobody wanting to let go of their traditions, which thus led to the current family tradition. As a rule, we would have ham on Christmas Eve before rushing off to be part of all the church activities and midnight candlelight services. Christmas Day, we always served several massive turkeys for the big party Mom and Pop threw. This then left Pop's duck for the day after Christmas, a day we tended to celebrate quietly at home before sleeping for that evening and the majority of the next day to recuperate from the insanity.

As was also our tradition, I went to the kitchen once we were done cleaning up to help mom cook, while the boys and Pop worked to assemble or hook up whatever presents we received that year that needed adjustment. Mom smiled as I walked in, passing me the knife to cut up the potatoes for the scalloped potatoes dish she made every year. We worked in silence for several long minutes before I slid the dish into the oven and turned to ask for something else to do only to find mom watching me with a wistful smile.

"How are things going for you, my beautiful Bella? Has the semester treated you well? I was terribly sorry to hear about Riley and his family. Are you handling that well?"

I sighed, tossing the dish towel that had been draped over my shoulder onto the counter before leaning across from Mom, my arms crossed over my chest. "It went pretty well. It was rough going for a while when Edward was with Tanya, but things were better toward the end."

Mom frowned, mindlessly grabbing my towel and swiping it over the granite countertop. "I did not see what he saw in that girl at all. She was a horrible excuse for a human being. He was so unhappy with her. It's amazing to see the difference now that he's away from her again."

I smiled and nodded until she prodded a bit more. "Do you know if he has a new girlfriend or something? He seems, I don't know, like he's blissful today. I was wondering if maybe he found a nice girl in that last week before you left."

I felt my throat go dry. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to lie, but I also knew I couldn't tell her the truth. Instead, I stuck with vague truth. It would have to do for the time being.

"I don't think he met anyone new. We were so busy cramming for finals that last week, he barely had time to sleep, much less find a new girl to get involved with."

She stared off toward the living room with a distant look before a small smile graced her face, as did a smile. "Well, whatever's going on with him, I'm very pleased to see it. I was very worried around Thanksgiving. That boy was miserable. Now it's almost like he's walking on clouds. I hope he continues to stay this happy."

As if on cue, the soft velvety laughter of Edward echoed down the hall followed by Emmett and Pop's matching chuckles. I smiled warily as I sighed, "Me too."

Nothing else was said on the matter as we worked to finish assembling our large mid afternoon meal. Dinner went smoothly. I watched Mom closely to see if she showed any signs of suspicion, but I saw none. With a sigh of relief, I finished my meal and helped clean up before escaping to my room for the afternoon, torn between wanting my step brother boyfriend to come see me and hoping he wouldn't take the risk of us getting caught.