A/N: Hi guys. Glad that you're back for chapter 2. Thanks to all of you, who have favorited this story or put it on alert and thanks for the reviews. I was overwhelmed with the reaction I got. Unfortunately, I couldn't reply to the guest reviews. I'm sorry about you all so much.

So, I'm not going to keep you for long before you can start reading. I just want to say my thank yous to my betas TDS88 and EdwardsMate4ever and the moderators from Project Team Beta as well as to my friends and pre-readers Vampgirl79 and Thepurplebookworm.

Now, enjoy chapter 2. See you at the end.

Disclaimer: It will not come as a surprise to you that I don't own Twilight. But I love Stephenie Meyer for creating these wonderful characters that I enjoy playing around with.

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Chapter 2 – Unforeseen encounter

My week went by slowly. Being a self-employed photographer, I had busy periods as well as times when business was slow.

After college, I had started out making a living mostly by photographing weddings and other events. I'd made enough money to pay the bills, but business really picked up when, three years ago, Jasper decided to move to Seattle to finally be with Alice, after a four year on-again off-again long distance relationship. He had been offered an important position in an advertising agency there, and because he liked my work, I was freelancing for his firm nowadays.

Currently, there were only some comp card shootings for a modeling agency I used to work with.

So, when Saturday came, I was excited to go to the party at Alice and Jasper's house.

"We're hosting this to introduce Jazz's new co-worker to some people. He's just moved here from Chicago, and he doesn't know anyone yet. But he and Jazz have been friends since high school," Alice reminded me when she led me to their spacious living room.

There were about forty people in the room. I knew most of them, considering that they were either friends of Jasper and Alice's or worked with Jasper at the agency.

Most of the furniture had been pushed out of the way and hidden behind the stairway in the back of the room to clear enough space to serve as a dance floor. Along one of the walls, Alice had set up a bar which was operated by a professional bartender. As usual, everything was thoughtfully decorated with indirect lighting, sparkling lights, and drapes throughout the room, covering the walls. Party planning had always been one of Alice's hobbies.

I headed straight to the bar after Alice left me to check on the snacks in the kitchen. "A martini, please," I said when the bartender looked at me to take my order. He smiled and turned away to fix my drink.

Once again, I marveled over Alice's wonderful decorations, when someone approached me from my left.

"Hey, Bella. How come a beautiful woman like you is alone on a Saturday night?" I squeezed my eyes shut at the lame line he tried to feed me. I vaguely knew the guy from the agency. I'd never had a normal conversation with him. Whenever he spoke to me, he was hitting on me, which happened pretty much every time I met him. And when he was not getting on my nerves like that, I always caught him undressing me with his eyes. I was dressed in black skinny jeans, black stilettos and a tight, sparkling black tank top. It was sexy but not too revealing.

"James, if you take a look around, you'll see that I'm not alone at all. There's at least thirty people in this room." I tried to smile at him without encouraging him to further engage me in some boring conversation.

"There's only one person I'm interested in, and she's standing right in front of me."

When he winked at me, I wanted to throw up. His hair was slicked back with gel, his face clean-shaven and his skin was unnaturally tan. He was tacky and creepy. The fact that he was the only guy in the room wearing a tie added to his overall sleazy appearance. As his eyes were wandering up and down my body, nothing short of eye-fucking me, I had to suppress a shudder.

Finally, the bartender came back, setting my drink in front of me, so that I could end this uncomfortable conversation.

"Thank you," I said as I turned to scan the surroundings for someone to escape to. A smile spread across my face when I spotted Jasper's assistant. "Hi, Kate," I shouted, as I waved hello to her across the room. "Excuse me, there's someone I need to talk to." I took my leave as I hurried away.

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I spent the next two hours struggling to escape James. Every time I went to talk to someone, eat something, or dance, a few moments later he magically appeared in close proximity. When he finally started grinding up on me, I rushed away to the bathroom.

After staying there a few minutes, I made sure the coast was clear and ran over to hide behind the staircase to watch the scene in the living room from there. For the moment, James seemed to have found another unfortunate victim.

"I thought I was the only one who would need the sanctuary of this convenient little hide-out. But you're welcome to join me," said a velvety voice behind me. This corner of the room was unlit and quite dark, so I hadn't noticed that someone was here.

I turned around to find my gaze captured by the most beautiful, shining pair of green eyes I'd ever seen, as the stranger stepped toward the light. The lopsided smile the tall, handsome man flashed me almost took my breath away. His bronze hair was disheveled, which only added to his charm. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a white button-down shirt with short sleeves that allowed me a peek at his perfectly toned biceps.

"Uhm, some sleazeball has been close on my heels all night, and I needed to get away from him." It was kind of hard to speak a coherent sentence while he was looking at me with those beautiful eyes.

He came closer to me to look into the room, where the other guests were dancing, drinking and talking.

"Which one is it?" he asked, intrigued.

"That man with the tie, over there by the bar." I pointed my finger in the direction.

"Oh, James Hunter. Well, I can see why you wouldn't want to spend your time with him." He laughed humorlessly.

I was surprised the stranger knew tie-guy's name. "You know him?" I asked, raising my brows.

"Yes. Unfortunately, I have to work with him." He pressed his lips together tightly in what seemed like frustration before the smile reappeared. The sight made my insides melt.

"So, you work with Jasper?" Now I was confused. I thought I knew most of the people from the agency, but obviously, I was wrong.

"Yes, I do. I have to apologize for not introducing myself properly. I'm Edward Cullen." He extended his hand, waiting for me to shake it. His name actually rang a bell.

"Uh you're the new acquisition from Chicago. Nice to meet you. I'm Bella Swan," I said as I reached out to shake his elegant, long-fingered hand. The touch of his skin felt incredibly good.

"Then you're Alice's best friend, the photographer. And I think we'll be working together, too." He seemed delighted at that thought. Actually, so was I.

"Yeah, we probably will. But why are you hiding out here? You're like the guest of honor tonight."

He chuckled briefly before he answered my question. "For the same reason you are." He let go of my hand he had still been holding and placed it lightly on the small of my back, to turn me in the direction of the dance floor. His closeness sent jolts of excitement up and down my spine. Then he pointed his finger at an all tarted-up girl in her mid-twenties. "Barbie there has been hitting on me for over an hour. And to phrase it nicely, she's not really my type intellectually."

I knew what he was talking about. Jessica was an intern at the agency and everything that came out of her mouth usually sounded stupid and childish.

"You should pray that she won't be assigned to you. She's an intern. It must be a coincidence that you haven't met her officially yet."

He looked annoyed before he sighed and the smile returned yet again. "I'll talk to Jasper. After all, I've known him since forever, and he still owes me for a lot of things."

That was right; he was a friend of Jasper's. "So, as long as we seem to be stuck here, why don't you tell me how you know Jasper?" I suggested as we sat down on one of the sofas that were stored in our corner. Although it was very wide, he sat down quite close to me, which inexplicably made my stomach flutter.

"Jasper and I go way back. In high school, back in Chicago, I dated his sister Rosalie for a while before she dumped me for my brother Emmett." He grinned, a little embarrassed. "The two of them are married by now and we all stayed friends." I laughed lightly about the nice story. "And you? How do you know Alice?"

"We've known each other since kindergarten. We both grew up in Forks, a sleepy little town about three hours from here. We've been friends ever since."

A noise from the living room caught my attention and made me break our eye contact. But there wasn't anything to see.

"So, what do you think? How long will we have to bide our time here?" I asked as I turned back to look at him again. His beautiful face stunned me each time I laid eyes on him.

"I don't care. I'm in no hurry to leave. The company is much better in here than it is out there." His smile was inviting, and I immediately forgot everything outside of our little hide-away. "The only downside is that I had to leave my drink at the bar and now I'm unable to retrieve it."

"Huh," I beamed. "I can help with that. This house is almost like home to me, and I know where Alice and Jazz stash their booze. Just stay where you are."

I went out and came back a minute later with a bottle and two tumblers. "Voila. I hope you like whiskey. I couldn't find anything else without heading down to the basement." He took one of the glasses out of my hands and I filled both before I sat down, putting the bottle on the floor.

"What shall we drink to?" he asked, raising his brows expectantly.

"Why don't we drink to new beginnings," I suggested.

"I'm certainly hoping for some things to begin, maybe already tonight," he said meaningfully as he clinked his glass to mine. "To new beginnings."

We talked for what felt like hours. It was unbelievably easy to talk to Edward, just like we had known each other for years. I learned a lot about him. He was single, thirty years old — two years older than me — born in Chicago and very close to his parents and brother. Moving to Seattle had not been an easy decision for him, but it was a big promotion that had brought him here. I felt that there was more to it, but I didn't press him to tell me. Anyway, he was happy to be able to spend time with Jasper again, and hoped that he would soon feel at home in Washington.

I didn't miss the way he was flirting with me when he asked me about my family, my job and my relationship status.

We had finished half of the bottle when I caught a movement in my peripheral vision and, all of a sudden, Edward's lips were pressed to mine. I was stunned and a warm shiver ran through my whole body. After a second, he parted his lips and took my lower lip between both of his. Although I didn't know what had brought on this sudden attack, I gladly played along, moving my mouth with his. He felt warm and soft and his wonderful scent, cologne mixed with his natural musk, made my head spin. Before I could make up my mind whether to give in to my impulse to add my tongue or not, he suddenly pulled away.

I shot him a disappointed look, secretly longing for more.

"Sorry about that, but James was passing by and I had to improvise to keep you hidden from him." He smirked at my obvious puzzlement.

"I wasn't going to complain. In fact, I wouldn't mind if he'd pass by again." I bit my bottom lip, ashamed of my blatant invitation. The mere presence of this man made me dizzy.

He chuckled lightly before he slowly moved his face closer to mine. "So, you don't mind me doing this?" he whispered as he touched his lips to mine, this time more cautiously than before.

"Uh-uh," I answered, shaking my head infinitesimally, unwilling to part from him.

This time he opened his mouth further, and his tongue first trailed along my bottom lip, before it slowly entered my expectant mouth, nudging my own tongue invitingly. I responded willingly, caressing his tongue with mine. He tasted like whiskey and pure sex. Never before had I felt this excited, just kissing a man. Usually kissing was only a gateway to sex, and I didn't particularly enjoy it. But right now, I was reveling in the way our passionate tongues and lips were moving together, and I would have been happy to stay like this forever. Something about Edward was different from any man I'd ever met before.

What started out a little teasingly became gradually more urgent. A short time later, we were engaged in a full-blown make out session. My fingers were tangled in his soft, perfect hair. His hands were all over my body. We had shifted our positions until I was lying on my back with Edward on top of me. His warm weight made me want nothing more than to feel his skin on mine.

His right hand cupped my cloth-covered breast, stroking my nipple with his fingers, making me moan out with pleasure. I could feel his erection against my thigh when his lips let go of mine and started to caress my neck.

"You make me crazy. We have to stop this before people notice," he breathed against my ear while his teeth gently bit my lobe.

"Or we could take this somewhere more private, if you'd like." I almost groaned as another shudder of arousal shook me. My panties were soaking wet as my core was aching for the man I'd just met to fulfill my need. Although I mostly slept with strangers, it was always only about getting laid. I had never wanted a particular man as desperately as I wanted Edward right now.

"Where?" was all he choked out while he was grinding his hardness against me.

"The guest room," I whispered before his mouth captured mine again, sucking my upper lip into his. Then he let go of me and, grabbing his hand firmly, we rushed up the stairs toward the bed that awaited us.

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A/N: Hi again. So, how did you like Edward's first appearance? I'd really love to be in Bella's place, here. I hope I'm keeping you interested in what's going to happen next. Here's a little teaser for chapter 3.

...Pictures of last night flashed up in my mind. Images of me and Edward making out heavily on the sofa, his glorious body on top of mine, his hard member inside me. Memories of that forceful last orgasm made me shudder...

So, anyone interested in chapter 3? It seems like it's getting hot. See you next Tuesday.