A/N: I do not own Twilight, SM does and bless her for sharing her dream with us all. Meanwhile, I am having fun with my own ideas for these characters. Thanks to my patient beta Gooseonline - mistakes are my own because I like to reread and tinker (oh and I am Australian so our 'English' is Australian English, just sayin')

Chapter 2 ~ interesting and complex flavours

Riding back to the office in the back of the limo, sipping my coffee with the delicious smelling croissant in a bag on my lap, I resolved to go back and find out more about my delectable Isabella.

I arrived back to the office a good deal calmer than I had left it earlier that morning. I was back in control and I knew what had to be done. I dropped the bag with the croissant onto my PA Jessica's desk, asking her to warm it for me and then to call in Emmett and Alec. It was time to decide our next step.

"You seem calmer. How the hell did you know that James had betrayed us?" Emmett hadn't even sat down before he began his questions. "Tanya," I said flatly.

Alec looked lost and Emmett looked surprised.

"What does that vapid, sorry Edward but she really is, bitch have to do with anything?" I chuckled as I noted that he apologised for calling my girlfriend vapid but not for calling her a bitch. Of course that was because it was widely known that she was a bitch. It was part of her appeal initially, that take no prisoners, don't give a fuck attitude so like my own. Vapid was right too, though. Now I knew she was double dipping as it were, I had a few more names for her. Thank God I always followed Carlisle my adopted dad's advice. 'Always keep it under wraps kid,' he told me when I was fifteen when he handed me my first packet of condoms.

I met Tanya at one of Alice's events. That should've been the warning flag right there. The woman is a fashion nazi, Tanya, not my sister Alice. She was always trying to tell me what to wear and where the fashionable places were to be seen and Tanya certainly liked to be seen. It never bothered me, I never did anything, wore anything or went anywhere I didn't want to anyway. I always do just what I want. Tanya was eye candy to take to events. She kept her mouth closed when I was talking business and her legs open when I took her home; her home, which I paid for, never to my home. Tanya was, I am ashamed to admit, convenient. I probably should feel guilty about saying that but I don't. Fuck it, the arrangement suited her too. I told her from the get go that this was a relationship of convenience and she was always quick to assure me that she was okay with that. I was always generous with her and she got to be seen at fashionable places, wearing fashionable clothes, talking to fashionable people. Our photographs were in the society pages and she gave good head. What? I'm a guy we like getting head, so sue me. But she knows I don't share and now that I know she's being doing James on the side and playing me for a putz, well I don't feel guilty and that's for sure.

"When I took Tanya home last night she offered me a nightcap while she slipped into something wicked." I sneered as I remembered her attempted seductive voice. "I went over to the bar to pour myself a whiskey and there was an unopened bottle of Connemara Cask Strength Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey."

Alec sighed and Emmett laughed. Yeah, they all remember that night. Last week the boys and I were out celebrating closing another successful business deal, a high profit venture too, so I took them to a whiskey bar. I love whiskey and I particularly like the unusual labels, the ones that others overlook. Yes, I love the known luxury whiskey brands but it is fun to find the unusual small distillery brands. It's a hobby, anyway I had bored them to death with stories of this brand and that brand but my new favourite was this Connemara whiskey. Not expensive, certainly not by my spending standards but oh such interesting and complex flavours. Irish, of course. But I digress as no doubt I did that night. Alec argued that if I wanted peat whiskey then the Isle of Islay whiskeys were the best, Emmett argued that beer was a man's drink and that I was a pussy for knowing about 'interesting and complex flavours'. I didn't even respond to that! James ... well James drank whatever I put in front of him and listened like I was giving the sermon on the mount. I thought it was a mentor thing but I was wrong. I told him that it was the best and wherever possible you should always have the best. Yeah, pretentious, I know. I was a few drinks in and we'd had a good day, sue me!

"So did you ask her where it came from?" Alec asked. I could see he was not surprised at all.

"She said she always wanted the best for me and 'wherever possible you should always have the best.'"

Emmett and Alec both threw their hands up and shook their heads, they knew. Yeah she repeated my words to James straight at my face like I was a fiddle she was playing. I knew right there that James had been indulging in pillow talk and I wondered what else he'd shared about my business other than my choice of whiskey.

"So I put down my drink, made my excuses, not even noticing her something wicked lingerie and high tailed it back to the office to check things out and confirm my suspicions."

"I spent all night going through files, looking through the share sales reports on the last few large Venture Capital deals we've done with James on board and it was all there glaring out at me. Not illegal trading but damned questionable. Denali Investments has been shadowing our activity just one step behind us and one step ahead of the market. I'm not sure yet who is the money or the brains behind Ms Tanya Denali's sudden healthy investment portfolio but James is definitely the leak."

I was wild with frustration and anger when James strolled into my office early this morning for our morning briefing meeting. Ignorant of how I had spent my evening and what I had learned he stupidly joked to Emmett and Alec about me not having a home to go. I looked up from my desk and fixed my eyes on him.

How did I not see it? How had I been fooled by my idiot cousin? My lack of sleep, my anger at his betrayal and Tanya's slutty behaviour as well as my frustration for being taken in by this deception converged and I lost my carefully crafted control.

I leapt from my chair, strode towards him and punched him so hard right in his mocking face that I knocked the fucker out. I stormed out and left the building walking to who knows where until I stopped outside Bella's bakery.

The memory of the beautiful Isabella and the soft touch of flour on her cheek, her chocolate eyes and her warm smile combined with the delicious aroma filling my office from her warm croissant, which was now sitting on my desk, made me sigh softly and calm.

Emmett and Alec looked at me with matching quizzical expressions and I realised that once again Isabella had mesmerised me.

I lightly shook my head as I refocussed on what needed to be done. I passed Emmet and Alec a copy of the draft summary report with the data I collected overnight.

"Emmett, we need to get James off our books cleanly. I don't want any HR bullshit, I want him gone for good. I think Angela is ready to step up, she's been 2iC in James team for a year and I like her take on new venture proposals." She's probably been doing James' work all along. I'll need to set up a meeting with her later today to talk with her.

"Alec I need your team to review this asap. I need to know that Cullen & Masen Inc hasn't been compromised."

"What are you going to do about Tanya?," Emmett asked as he tried to steal my croissant. I wasn't having that shit and knocked his hand away. I think I may have growled at him. Why did I growl at him over a pastry? At that moment my iPhone rang with Tanya's ringtone. I smiled at the guys as I waved them off dismissing them both. Speak of the devil.

A/N: Well I hope you are enjoying this so far. I would love to hear from you. I have other chapters written and will update soon. Thanks for reading. Cheers!