The doorman tipped his hat towards Edward as we entered the building. "Mr. Cullen," he greeted.

Edward nodded in acknowledgement as his left arm remained wrapped around my waist. I glanced around the place and when the elevator opened, he tapped a key card from his pockets on the censor before pressing the floor button. He then keyed in a four-number password and the elevator started to move. I stared at him from the corner of the elevator and he turned to face me. Memories of us in the casino elevator attacked my mind and I shook my head. My eyes found their way to his lips.

His lips.

My skin tingled as I remembered how they felt on my skin. I took a step forward unknowingly and held his arm, glancing at his lips again. He looked down at me and wrapped that arm around me again. Tip-toeing a little on my black heels, I pressed my lips against his softly. His moulded around mine and my hands were on his shoulders. The elevator chimed and almost immediately, we pulled away.

The doors opened to reveal a full black and brown family room. There was only one vase of white flowers to complement the masculinity of the place. Leather and wood was the main materials that adorned the penthouse.

"Welcome to my place," Edward finally said. He looked at my face to search for anything, but all he probably found was nothing.

"You brought me to your place?" I asked. "Why?"

"I thought you needed some place to escape to. Your parents and sister are probably trying to find you and obviously, the first place they would go to is your home." He explained, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. "They don't know me, so—"

"Edward, my whole family are spies. They can get anyone's information just by one phonecall." I deadpanned.

He smirked. "Now, that is where you are wrong. In order to keep my enemies away, I have this house under one of my aliases. The house with my actual name is in Manhattan."

I folded my arms, pursing my lips. "I still don't understand why you brought me to your place instead of somewhere else."

"I figured that maybe you'd rather go to someplace where you can stay. If you stayed at a hotel, your family will be able to track you down just by one swipe of your credit card." He looked at the ottoman leaning against the wall and back at me. "You can take a seat."

I walked over to the ottoman and complied. Edward went into the open kitchen and bent down to look through the small wine cellar he had. "What's your preference? Scotch, cocktails, rum—"

"I can't take alcohol." I told him. "I, uh... I'm recovering."

"But you were drinking just now—"

"It was to see whether my parents cared, but they didn't." I admitted.

He sighed, going over to the sink to grab a cup and fil it up with water. He placed it in front of me on the coffee table. I gratefully took it to wash down the aftertaste of the mojito I had in Crystal. He took a seat beside me.

"So..." I started awkwardly.

He laughed. "You don't need to make conversations, Bella."

I sighed in relief inwardly.

"Do you want to watch TV?" He offered, picking up the remote and holding it out to me.

"I... thought you said you wanted to show me around." I reminded him.

He raised his eyebrows. "So you really want to look around?"

I shrugged. "I don't mind."

He stood up and I copied his action. He showed me every room in the penthouse, including his bedroom. Every single room was filled with dark colors, and I kind of loved that. In his bedroom was a black glossy piano at the corner, together with a violin on its stand. An artpiece hung above the headboard of the bed and a wooden door to the wardrobe was attached to the wall. White bedside tables were at each side of the bed together with lamps.

I walked over to the violin in the stand and looked at him in disbelief. "You play the violin too?"

He shook his head. "I don't. That is just a decorative piece that my mother thought would be a complement to the piano."

"May I?"

He nodded.

I picked up the violin and wiped the dust off the strings with my hand. With the French bow that accompanied the instrument, starting to play Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty theme. I took deep breaths, steadying my hands in order to not make a mistake. When I was done, I kept the violin under my chin on my shoulder.

"Are you sure you don't really play the violin? How long have you been playing?" Edward asked in astonishment.

"It's been ten years." I replied. "I started when I was six. The only reason why I posed my answer as a question in the car was because I wasn't sure if I could still play... I guess I still can."

He chuckled, shaking his head side to side. "What else have I not known about you?"

"Well, alot." I retorted. "You know, letting a stranger let alone a spy into your house is really... gullible. Okay, I don't even think you're cut out to be a mafia boss." I laughed. "Do you let just about anyone in?"

"Only you." He responded.

I frowned. "Really?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. My family members don't like coming in this house. They say that because of the black walls here, they're always bitten by mosquitoes because they can camouflage but so far, no mosquito bites on me."

"Should I be worried?" I arched an eyebrow at him.

"No. Not at all." He paused, his eyebrows crunching up together. "You can stay here for as long as you like. I really don't mind."

"I can't stay here. Hell, I don't think I can even sleepover for a night. I gotta go home—"

"Look, do you live alone or with a friend?" He asked.

I hesitated about telling him such details. "Alone." I blurted.

"I'm assuming that you don't even have a curfew, so come on," he took a step towards me, pulling my hand that held the violin into his. "Stay."

I sighed. "Okay, fine. Gosh, you're so persistent."

He grinned. "Glad to know."

I pushed him away at his shoulder, laughing. "Oh shut up. So if I'm staying here, I need to go back home and grab my overnight bag—"

"There's no need for an overnight bag here." He interrupted.

"Then what the hell am I supposed to wear?" I told him. "This until tomorrow morning?" I pointed at my formal dress.

"Obviously not," then his voice lowered, "but I don't mind you walking around here naked."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "No. Edward, I already told you the last time we met that we aren't gonna sleep together the next time we see each other which is basically now."

"Fuck that." He whispered. The next thing I knew was that the violin was out of my hand and on the floor. Edward grabbed me by the shoulder as his lips captured mine in a heated kiss. I tried to push him off, but all I got from him was a command: "Stop fighting me," he mumbled against my lips. I complied immediately.

I felt the zipper of my dress go undone at my back as he pulled me to his body closely. My hands were on his chest, ready to push him away for more air if I ever felt the need to breathe but it seemed as though I was the air he needed to breathe— his need and hunger for me vibrating through the air intensely. His fingertips traced down my bare back and I whimpered at his touch. I could feel him smile as he kissed down my jawline to my shoulder. I felt him pulling me to his bed and when I fell on it, I could hear waves of water. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Bachelor beds.

"Why do you have a waterbed?" I asked.

He chuckled darkly. "It's great for other uses than sleeping." Before I could reply him snarkily, he already had my dress off in no time. We were soon just naked limbs tangled together in a haze of pleasure shared among the both of us. His kisses burned through my skin as he whispered words that were considered cheesy to me but somehow for him, it worked on me.

I woke up suddenly from my sleep. Edward's arms and legs were hooked over my body as I faced the left side of the bed, making sure I couldn't leave. I heard something vibrating incessantly. Making sure Edward didn't wake up, I lifted my purse off the bedside table and took out my phone. The screen was lit up due to the recent text that just came. I glanced at the time on the phone. 2349 hours. Well, fuck.

33 missed calls from Alice, 27 from Rosalie, 11 from Emmett and 5 from my mother were highlighted in red on my call log. The texts were the ones I wanted to avoid the most, but I just had to see them.

Bella where are youuuuuuuuuuuuu? Call me when you get this AY-SAP.

Alice

BELLA MOM AND DAD ARE FREAKING OUT. AND WHO WAS THAT GUY YOU LEFT WITH OMFG IF YOU DON'T TELL ME I WILL KICK DOWN YOUR DOOR.

Alice

Rosalie said she tried to call you but couldn't reach you. WHERE ARE YOU OMFG YOU HAVE TO ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW OR I WILL HOTWIRE YOUR CAR AND MAKE SURE IT FALLS OFF THE NEAREST CLIFF IN NEW YORK.

Alice

ROSALIE SAID THE GUY YOU LEFT WITH WAS A MOB BOSS! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? BELLA, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU GET YOURSELF INTO? CALL ME BACK.

Alice

BELLAAAAAAAAAAA WHY DIDN'T YOU TEXT ME WHEN YOU SAW EDWARD CULLEN? YOUR SISTER IS FREAKING OUT ON ME AFTER I TOLD HER WHO HE IS WHEN SHE DESCRIBED HIM TO ME. ARE YOU GUYS FUCK-BUDDIES OR SOMETHING?

Rosalie

MOM AND DAD ARE ONE PHONECALL AWAY FROM FINDING OUT THAT THE GUY YOU LEFT WITH IS A MOB BOSS. I'M TRYING TO DISTRACT THEM FROM THEIR CELLPHONES SO THAT THEY WON'T MURDER HIM BECAUSE OF THIS. CALL ME. NOW.

Alice

I massaged the bridge of my nose as I read the most recent text message. Stressed out and motivated enough to calm Alice down, I removed Edward's arms and legs off me. I walked to the piano and sat down, dialing Alice's number. She picked up before the first tone could even start.

"Bella, I will stab the shit out of you if you don't tell me where you are right now." Alice hissed into the speaker.

"I... I'm at his house—"

"You mean the mob boss's house?" She interrupted. "Are you sleeping with him?" She gasped.

"If you mean now, no."

Her breath hitched dramatically. "Why the fuck are you sleeping with him? He's the leader of a mafia, for fuck's sake! He will kill you if he knows what you are!"

"Alice, stop cursing at me or else I will cancel your credit card." I warned. "And well, he... He knows."

"Bella, I seriously feel like tearing your hair out before tearing mine but I can't because I don't know where exactly you are." She told me, horrifyingly calm. "Mom & Dad put me in charge of getting through to you. They are letting you off the hook for leaving us with some hot guy and they promised me they won't even search through that guy's information."

"Why would they care anyways? Why would they care if I'm sleeping with a mob boss when they barely even care about us?" I snapped.

"Because they're our parents!" Alice replied in the same tone. "Look, they may have done a lot of wrong in their personal lives, but they're still our parents and we still need to treat them with respect. The fact that they're gone almost all the time is the reason why they don't know how to act around their teenage daughters."

"Whatever. I have to go." I sighed. "I'll call you tomorrow when I reach home."

"You better." She said before hanging up.

I walked back to the bed and slid back into the position I was sleeping in before I left the bed. Unfortunately, I wasn't careful enough since Edward woke up from my movements.

"Where are you going?" His voice was heavy with sleep which I found extremely adorable, weirdly.

"Nowhere." I assured him. "Yet."

His chest rumbled as he laughed softly. "We're never going to leave this bed."

"I will and you won't." I retorted.

His arms tightened around me. "No, you're not going to leave me on this bed alone."

I stretched up to give him three soft pecks on his lips. "Fine. Only because I can't seem to get enough of you."

A small smile emerged on his face victoriously. "I am going to remember that line forever."

As I waited for him to go back to sleep, I found myself staring into thin air as everything was repeating over and over in my mind. Reflecting on myself, I didn't think of what others might have thought of everything going on in my life— my younger sister telling vulgarities at me, my dysfunctional parents kind of showing that they cared about me and my third time sleeping with the leader of the mafia ruling New York, probably tarnishing my reputation as a Swan. With the way Edward was being towards me, I could add a little assumption that could even be true— him falling in love with me.

Either way, I was screwed to the depths of hell.

Sigh. Anyways, you guys are lovelyyyyyyyy. The fact that I updated five hours earlier is proof that I love ya'll. *grins*

Scarlett