Author's Note: Thank you as always to AgoodWITCH for her beta work, as well as my WC ladies who commented, as well as TwilightMommyof4Girls/callmemrswrite who I had to let pre-read these next two chapters! BTW, we will be seeing our first lemon in the next chapter, which will be posted sometime later this week, once I have written chapter 14…and I was in a wacky mood when I wrote it, so it's probably the most humorous chapter thus far in this story as well.

Chapter 12

Our date night with Alice and Jasper was so great that we ended up doing several more over the next couple of weeks. School was intense this semester, taking up a lot of our time. It really sucked that we only had one class together.

Between study groups, classes, homework, and research, all we had left were stolen moments here and there. Our favorite place for a little alone time was the study room where Edward revealed his problems the week of finals. On Wednesday, I had a class in the building, while Edward had one during the same slot at a nearby building. The study room was dark, quiet, and a perfect place to steal a few clandestine kisses before the call of another obligation pulled us apart again. Having to sneak around cut into our time together, even more than the classes would do in and of themselves.

It was our third Wednesday utilizing our make out room, two weeks before our big reveal. We decided we would go home the Friday night before the big Valentine party, sit Emmett, Mom, and Pop down, and just get it all out in the open. Normally we were really careful, keeping any groping over the clothes, but due to circumstances beyond our control, and Jasper's visiting cousin, we had gotten no alone time since classes started and we were both getting frustrated.

This, of course, led to the one time we get caught, being the first time to date that Edward managed to get my shirt off in the make out room. We were getting our grind on while Edward suckled my right breast, which he'd managed to free from my bra without removing the whole thing. It felt amazing after all the cockblocking we'd been enduring, our brother unwittingly being the most accomplished of them all.

I was leaning on my hands, my head thrown back, my legs wrapped around Edward's hips, helping me leverage myself against his clothed hardness in order to create better friction while he nibbled and sucked at my chest when there was a rattle of the door knob. We had locked the door, but still froze and hurriedly went to put my shirt back on. Our struggle grew more dire when we heard the unmistakable sound of a key in the lock seconds before the door swung open.

Billy Black stood there like a deer caught in headlights just as my head popped out of the tight neck hole of my turtleneck, before Edward yanked it down over my belly to hide me. I was shaking in a combination of embarrassment and fear for a second before Billy's shocked expression morphed as a deep rumbling chuckle rose from his chest.

"Well, this certainly wasn't how I expected to discover this relationship, but I can't say I'm surprised to find the two of you together. Finish collecting yourselves and come to my office please. We need to have a bit of a chat."

I was shaking as we grabbed our things and straightened ourselves out before making our dead man walking trek to Billy's office. I knocked on the door and waited for him to call us in. Once we were seated, he leaned forward with his hands folded on the desk before him.

"Well, isn't this quite the prickly pear? I'm assuming that the reason you are utilizing the reading room for your intimate tryst is that this is a relationship of a clandestine nature?"

I gulped before nodding as Edward reached between us to hold my hand. We weren't sure what would happen next, but laughing was certainly not amongst the list of reactions I had anticipated. He started laughing harder when he looked back up to see the bewilderment that was painted across both of our faces.

"For Heaven's sake, you're not even blood relations. Don't look so panicked. I know that in Forks this will be tantamount to a scandal, but in Seattle this is one of the least scandalous things to take place in the last hour, much less the past month! While I do understand that you must tread carefully with Bella's older brother, I do not think it as dire a circumstance as to disrobe in my building. I will not mention this to anyone of authority or your parents, but I sincerely suggest you procure better locations for your little rendezvous. Are we in agreement?"

I felt my body melt with my sigh as I began thanking Billy repeatedly. He just chuckled and shook his head. "I'd always hoped you'd end up with my Jacob, but alas, he's gone the way of the philanderer. I have heard tell that Mr. Cullen had a similar reputation in Forks. I do hope your ways have reformed since then."

Edward jerked at my side, his eyes wide as he nodded. "Y-yes, sir, completely. Bella has always been the measure to which I held all others. I would never dream of..of.."

Billy laughed again, raising his hand to stop Edward and shaking his head. "Don't hurt yourself, Cullen, but she is my best friend's daughter. It's my duty to do as he cannot."

I smiled, my eyes swimming with my unshed tears as I thanked Billy again before dashing out with Edward, both of us feeling an odd sense of trauma and relief. We jogged to the end of the building and paused by the door to slide into our heavy winter coats. Just as I finished and turned toward the door, Edward stopped me.

"He's right, you know. Only in Forks would what we have be wrong. I'm really looking forward to having everything out in the open. Honestly, I don't give a rat's ass what the rest of the town thinks, just Mom, Dad, and Emmett."

I nodded, curling my fingers tighter with Edward's as I stared up at him. "I agree. Maybe we should start breaking him in slowly."

Edward looked down at our joined hands and back to my face with a bright smile before pushing open the door and walking straight and tall along the sidewalk with me. I took in a deep, cold, breath and smiled beside him. It was a small first step, but I was happy to make even this tiny claim. I was terrified of telling our family, but I knew it was something we couldn't escape.

The weekend following our ambush, Jasper and Alice joined us for another date night. It was actually becoming a sort of tradition. This night, for whatever reason, we had decided to go to the boys' room instead for a change of scenery. Yeah, that wasn't our brightest decision ever, but well, hindsight is twenty/twenty.

We had all settled in on the floor to watch the movie, Alice and Jasper curled together so insanely that you had to look closely to discern which body part belonged to whom. Meanwhile, Edward and I were settled on a pile of pillows on the other side of the room. Edward was lying behind me, his arm curled around my waist under the blanket, his fingers already trailing up under the hem of my shirt behind the chenille cover, while he nosed through my hair and kissed by my ear. He had just pulled away and propped his head on his hand when Emmett flew in, jabbering a mile a minute.

"You guys will never guess what I heard. I guess a couple of kids got busted making out in the reading room at Hamilton earlier this week. The prof who caught them didn't turn them in, but word got around anyway thanks to a security guard who was about to bust them when the prof walked up. Can you believe it?"

Jasper and Alice started howling with laughed while I felt my entire body burn almost painfully in my embarrassment as Edward made a type of choking sound behind me. Emmett stared down at the giggle octopus of mismatched limbs in confusion before glancing over at Edward and me. His brow furrowed for a minute, and I thought sure he was going to flip out any second, but instead he shook his head like he was shaking away a bad memory before settling down in the middle of the floor and stealing my bowl of microwave popcorn.

"So what are we watching, kids?" My heart ached as he smile so wide his dimples popped out, his eyes looking so happy. I felt like a total bitch.

"The new Star Trek," Edward said from behind me, his hand staying still, but remaining flat and unwavering against the flesh under my shirt just above my belly button. "Jasper bought the bluray this week, so we thought we'd check it out in all its digital HD glory."

Emmett fist pumped, shouting out a 'sweet' before inviting himself to join us. With a sigh, I smiled at my big galoot of a brother before reaching over and stealing my popcorn back.

"This is mine. You want some, go back to your room, and get your own."

Emmett rolled his eyes before reaching his hand over to steal another bite.

Two hours later, my lug of a good hearted, if not oblivious brother, was still sitting around, cracking jokes and having fun at our expense while he waited for Rose to get off of work. Normally it wouldn't have bothered me, except the whole point of date night was for Edward and me to get to be free with our friends. Emmett's presence was unknowingly disturbing that time for me.

I had never been more relieved than when the knock finally came that indicated Rose had gotten off of work. That relief was extremely short lived when she entered the room and her eyes flashed to mine with anger and unspoken venom. She played it nice in front of Emmett, but I could tell my friend Rose was going to read me the riot act soon. After the night I thought she saw us, I waited and waited for the other shoe to drop and it never did, but apparently that didn't mean we had dodged the bullet after all.

Emmett cuddled on Rose and I felt myself sighing at the lovely freedom to be able to do that. I'm not sure what Rose saw there, but it was enough to inspire her to ask me to walk with her to the girl's floor to go to the restroom so she could give me something from her room. Emmett found it odd, but shrugged it off quickly, promising to meet Rose back at her room in a few minutes.

The second the elevator doors closed, Rose rounded on me, intent on giving me something all right…a piece of her mind.

"What the hell are you and Edward doing? Don't you realize you're going to break your brother's heart? How can you to carry on like this? You've been siblings since you were ten. It's so weird!"

I pointed at her with a sigh. "And that would be why we haven't told anyone, yet. Nobody cares that we're not blood related. Nobody cares that if fate hadn't have stolen his mom and my Dad that we might have ended up years ago. All anybody can see is that we were step siblings for eight years and thus it makes it gross. I never really felt that brotherly connection with Edward that I feel with Emmett. It has always been different. The same was true for Edward. Fate played a cruel joke on soul mates, Rose. Does that mean we can never be together, 'cause this is real and I would never recover if that's true."

Her eyes softened and her brow furrowed deeper. I think she was expecting some kind of hormonal teens in lust situation, not actual love.

"I hate hiding It, Rose," I said as we stepped out on her floor and proceeded down the hallway. "I hate never being able to hug him in public. I hate watching girls flirt and not being able to assert my claim as his girlfriend and tell them to buzz off. Most of all, I hate hiding this from Emmett, but I don't know what else to do. We're telling them all the weekend of the Valentine's Day party. We want to tell him the same time we tell Mom and Dad, that way he doesn't have to deal with the burden until we can tell them, or doesn't have to tell them himself."

Rose sighed as she shoved open the door of her room. "Okay. You have two weeks, but if he doesn't know by the time we climb into the car to come home from Forks, I'm telling him everything."
I grabbed her in a hug, thanking her for understanding. "You have no idea how much this means to us, Rose. I'm just trying to save Emmett any more pain than absolutely necessary."

Rose sighed again, wiggling her nose like that chick for Bewitched. "I'm not so sure he'll agree with you, but I guess you're doing the best you can. I won't say a word until that weekend."

I nodded, thanking her again before dashing out of her room and back to the elevators. As they opened, they revealed Emmett and Edward. I couldn't help but smile at Edward as his eyes twinkled down at me. After a moment, I glanced back at Emmett who was looking confused again before shuffling past me.

"Well, I'm off to go find my Rosie. See you both later. Let's do supper out one night this week."

I nodded before the door closed, blocking off our view of the small lobby on Rose's floor. Once they closed, we both melted back against the wall next to each other, our hands immediately finding one another in the space between us.

"He's noticing things, but I think he's not willing to believe them," Edward mumbled as he ran his free hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I saw that too. Valentine's weekend can't come fast enough. The sneaking around is kind of fun, but I think I'm getting too old for this."

Edward laughed as he tugged me to his side and kissed the top of my head. "I agree. I want to be able to hold you close whenever and wherever I want. I can't wait to be able to hug you and kiss you in public."

The door opened to my floor and we stepped out, walking hand in hand to my room and earning a few dubious looks. I glanced at Edward who rolled his eyes and smiled. "Screw 'em." He mumbled close to my ear as I started to fiddle with the lock on the door. I nodded before opening up the room and stepping inside, Edward following me so we could have a rare night alone.