"Alice, oh god, why didn't you do anything when you saw her look at the pictures?" I hissed under my breath when I was outside my aunt's office.

"I didn't see the pictures at first!" Alice replied back. "They were on her table, all laid out for her! Have you forgotten how well-watched our family is?"

"Agent Swan, I know you are outside my office, so come in. The both of you." Siobhan's voice crackled over the speaker in the hallways and we both froze. I glared at Alice and she glared back at me. Knocking on the door twice before coming in, we gave our most decent smiles at Siobhan.

She had her fountain pen in her hand with her reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. Her red hair was up in a bun as she looked down at the paperwork she was doing. "I assume you both know why you are here."

"Well, Miss Swan," Alice started. "I have her here. Am I dismissed?"

She nodded, her head still down. "Thank you Alice. Bella, take a seat please."

Alice smirked at me as she leisurely walked out of the office victoriously. Once the door was closed, I sat down on the leather seat in front of Aunt Siobhan's desk. She placed her pen down and pushed away the paperwork she was doing. I cringed, knowing that she was going to pay me her full attention.

"Another agency snapped these pictures and were on my desk the minute I entered my office," she took out A4 sized pictures of Edward wrapping his arms around me protectively from the night at Crystal. "Thankfully, I took care of them and they are never going to interfere. What do you see in these pictures, Isabella?"

I winced when she called me by that name. "Edward Cullen? And me?" I grimaced inwardly.

She shook her head. "That isn't all of what I see, Isabella. This is a start of a relationship. This is a start of conflict. This is forbidden, and you know that. Tell me— are you interested in him romantically?"

I hesitated. "Probably." I didn't give her a definite answer.

Her eyebrows rose. "Now, tell me how old he is and how old you are."

"He's... twenty-one." I pursed my lips. "I'm sixteen."

"I don't think you will need someone to tell you how far apart in age you both are. I mean, I am fine with the age gap, but what concerns me is that dating an underaged person is frowned upon and in the eyes of the law, sexual intercourse with an underaged person is considered rape, no matter if the underaged person gave his or her consent. I have let you off so many times for all the mistakes you've made, but I expect you to learn from them. I know that you are growing up and trying to find yourself, but you need to know what are the boundaries and when to not push them to the limits. I am talking to you as your aunt and your boss, trying to give you as much useful advice as possible. You are trying to improve yourself and I appreciate that, don't get me wrong, but this relationship cannot go on unless if you really want it to go on, I am forced to give you missions that are not related to gangsters and mafias. I don't mix business with pleasure. You guys are young and I accept that, but don't start a war that both sides will have to end." She sighed. "Will you continue on with this relationship or not? If not, you will never handle gangs and mobs ever again."

"I... I have a date tomorrow, so I don't think this relationship isn't going to end." I admitted.

She gave me a small smile. "Interesting. Keep me updated about your relationship. For now, you are dismissed, Agent Swan."

I stood up slowly, still registering what she said. Interesting? Keep me updated about your relationship? That was just weird. When I was out of her office, I shrugged to myself, not knowing whether she approved of us or not.

A knock on the door made me jolt up from my vanity table. I scrambled from my seat and walked to my main door. I pulled down my blue Yale University cotton pullover and cleared my throat before I opened the door.

There stood Edward in a kind-of-tight gray shirt with the words STANFORD ALUMNI written in red, showing off his ripped chest through it. Blue jeans and a pair of black sneakers finished off the look for him with his hair still wet. One hand was mysteriously out of my sight, behind his back.

I narrowed my eyes. "Did you just take a shower?" I asked, reaching up to ruffle up his already-messy hair.

"Well, yeah. I ran at Central Park this afternoon and then took a shower." He explained. "You graduated from Yale?"

I looked down at my pullover. "Well, yeah. Last year. When did you graduate from Stanford?"

"Last month." He shrugged. "I skipped a grade in elementary school."

"How did we ever end up wearing our college tees for a first date?" I laughed.

"You're the one with the spy equipment— maybe you planted a bug into my penthouse." He smiled.

"Uh, no. Like I will ever do that." I rolled my eyes. "Come on, let's go."

"Wait." He suddenly said. His hand from behind came in view and he held a bouquet of roses. A blush tinted his cheeks. "Here's your very first flowers from me."

I felt the sides of my lips go up and my teeth flashed. I covered my eyes with my hands as I muffled a giggle. He really looked like a shy lovestruck college upperclassman with his t-shirt and the bouquet rather than an intimidating and sexy mafia leader. Well, he still was sexy.

"Thank you." I managed to say with my wide smile that was starting to hurt. I took the roses from him and kissed him on the cheek before running to the kitchen to get a mug filled with water to put to flowers in. After I did that, we headed out to Chinatown.

Edward drove to a Chinese restaurant's drive-thru and took out a menu from the compartment of his car. He gave it to me. "Pick whatever you want."

I stared at the menu. "Dumpling noodles with Pepsi."

He told the person taking down the order what I wanted and he got himself Peking duck noodles with a Dr. Pepper. We got our orders in small little white cartons and Edward paid, since he was after all the one who asked me out. I was about to break the attached wooden chopsticks until Edward spoke up.

"Don't eat just yet."

I laughed, nudging him in the rib. "Are you afraid that I'll be enjoying my food while you're stuck driving?"

"Well, kind of." He answered, a smile on his face. "We'll eat while we walk around the streets."

"Eating while walking isn't good, you know." I chastised playfully.

"Who in New York cares anyways?" He shrugged. "I think you're the only one who does."

He parked at the side of the street and he got out first. I was about to open my door when it opened without me even touching it. Edward was bending towards me, giving me his crooked smile— the one I loved.

I didn't know what this man was doing to me.

He held his hand out and I grabbed onto it, getting out of the car. He didn't let my hand go as we walked down the road.

"What do people usually say on first dates?" Edward asked.

I looked up at him in shock. "You've never been on a date before?"

"Hey, you cannot necessarily blame it all on me. You've never been on a date before either." Edward gave me a peck on my forehead.

"Okay, fine." I rolled my eyes. "I'll start first. I'm Isabella Marie Swan, but I prefer Bella. I'm sixteen this year and I'll turn seventeen when thirteen September comes next year. I enjoy discovering music and practicing my shooting. I graduated from Yale University last year with a degree in chemical engineering and I now have a career in espionage because it's been in my family for as long as I can remember. My best friend is Rosalie Hale, who is also my partner for my given missions. I have a sister named Alice who is a year younger. People say that your favorite color reflects on your personality, and my favorite color is gray. I drive a silver Audi A7 and... I guess that's all." I said.

He raised his eyebrows at me. "That's a lot to remember."

"I don't know what people talk about on first dates. You cannot necessarily blame it all on me." I smirked. Tearing the wooden chopsticks apart, I opened my carton and started to eat. I wrapped my arm around Edward's as I ate.

"If that's how you want to play it, fine." Edward smirked back. "I'm Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, but I prefer to be called Edward. I'm twenty-one and my birthday is on the twentieth of June. I enjoy playing the piano and sleeping in the same bed as you," he then nuzzled at my hair a little in an adorable manner. "I graduated from Stanford University last month with a degree in psychology and now I have a career as the leader of the New York mafia, which is actually a French one. I don't have much friends, but the ones I'm friendly with are my men and associates. I don't have siblings, but sometimes I wish I did. My favorite color varies, but now, I must say it's chocolate brown because it's the color of your eyes and I drive a Volvo S60."

I shook my head, laughing. "You're trying to flirt with me and that whole thing isn't hard to remember. I'm a spy and spies are usually awesome at anything related to memories."

"Then I'll have to find a way to make it an excellent payback." He nuzzled my hair again and I pushed him to the side a little. "Feed me."

"What?" I looked at him with disbelief written all over my face. "Uh, no. I'm not giving you the dumplings."

"I'll give you some of the duck meat. Come on." He said, taking his food carton out of the plastic bag I was carrying. He opened it and slurped up some noodles with his chopsticks. He picked out a slice of meat in his carton and offered it silently. I opened my mouth willingly and savored the way it melted in my mouth.

"Fine. One dumpling and that's it." I told him. I picked out a small dumpling and he opened his mouth, allowing me to feed him. He chewed on it and we turned left when it was the end of the road, continuing our round around Chinatown.

"Have you told anyone else about us?" I asked.

"My parents, but they don't know what you work as." He responded. "You?"

"My aunt, sister and best friend, but my best friend probably told her boyfriend who is also my friend and I don't think my parents even care about what's happening." I said.

"That's a lot of people you've told about us." He commented, taking another mouthful of noodles into his mouth.

I kept silent for a while. "Do you... think that we'll regret everything after we... break up?" I asked quietly, wondering if I used the right words.

"Who said anything about breaking up?" He said nonchalantly. "Why are you even thinking of breaking up on our first date?"

"This is a start of a relationship. This is a start of conflict. This is forbidden, and you know that." I repeated Siobhan's words from the day before.

He stopped walking, and I did too. "Bella, don't torture yourself like this." He said in a pained tone.

"I'm not. I'm just stating the truth." I told him monotonously. "We met while we were doing our jobs— the cause of our own breakup will be because of it also."

"We can... run away," he told me. "We can get out of the country together. We can... finally live in peace without the interference of our responsibilities. We both have enough money to, and you know that."

"Edward, I can't run away from this." I placed my hand on his chest as I leaned into him. "This runs through my family. I may not even like how my choice of career affects my family, but I like my job. I love it."

"Hey, my career affects my family because it runs through our blood too, but I can just leave it to my cousin or something." He looked at me, his green eyes meeting my brown ones.

"That's just being selfish. I have a commitment towards my family and you have yours too, okay?" I told him. "I just cannot leave them alone like that."

He pressed his lips together. "I've always never understood Romeo & Juliet— why they couldn't even avoid meeting each other for the first time even though they knew falling for each other would cause mishaps between their families. I think I know why." He mumbled against my hair. "It's because I can't stay away from you."

After finishing our dinner, we got into the car. By the time my watch had hit ten at night, I was halfway on my way to dreamland. I slept on the way back home in the car and I was so tired that when the car parked at the sidewalk of my penthouse building.

"Bella, wake up." Edward whispered, nudging me.

"No," I moaned sleepily.

He suddenly went silent. "Well, you have two options." He said after a minute. "It's either I carry you up to your bed or I bring down some of your clothes so that you can sleepover my house."

"I like your bed."

He chuckled quietly. "Okay. Where's your keys?"

"Left pocket." I replied softly, my eyelids feeling too heavy to open.

I felt him dig into my black jeans pocket and my keys dragged across the material against my skin. He got out of the car and locked it, but kept the engine on. After fifteen minutes, the car was unlocked and Edward slid into the driver's seat. I didn't exactly count, but the car stopped possibly after a few minutes. Edward carried me up into his arms and walked up to the elevator of his building. After a while, I felt my sneakers and socks come off my feet and I was laid onto a familiar bed with waves of water beneath me.

It was probably half an hour or so that I finally felt Edward get into bed beside me. He put his arms around me and I snuggled closer to him, feeling at home. He probably thought I was a heavy sleeper, because what he said had me caught off guard.

"Goodnight, baby." He whispered, then paused for a second. "I love you."

When I woke up at 0430 hours, I decided to limit my time in Edward's gym to thirty minutes. I had something to do.

"Hey girl," Rosalie yawned. "What's happening?"

"Hey, I just wanted to talk to you about something." I told her, pacing across the family room with my cellphone at my ear. "You just woke up?"

"Five minutes ago. I'm brewing coffee now." She said. "So what is it?"

"I'm at Edward's."

"Again?"

"But we didn't sleep together. Technically."

"What the hell does that mean?" She hissed, sounding much more awake than she was just a few seconds ago.

"We didn't have sex— we just slept next to each other. We had a date last night and I was too tired to go up. He brought me here and we slept on his bed." I explained. "Anyways, that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about— well, partly. When he got into bed, he said he loves me, thinking that I was fully asleep."

I heard something crash on the other end. "Fuck!" Rosalie exclaimed angrily.

"I mean, it's only been a week since we've met and he's saying he loves me. That's just... a little too fast, isn't it?" I asked.

"I don't think so." She replied. "Thank you for making me drop my favorite mug."

"You're welcome." I smiled a little a her sarcastic reply. "Why do you say it isn't? I mean, usually, a week is too fast, right? Shouldn't we be waiting until like, a month or so?"

"He didn't know you're a light sleeper, so I don't exactly think his confession is valid. I mean, he did tell you when he thought you were sleeping." She said. "Do you like him as much?"

"I... I'm not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure? Dammit, he's so hot!"

"But he's the leader of a crime family!" I snapped back. "Aunt Siobhan warned me already, did you know that?"

I could literally hear her roll her eyes. "I thought you didn't care about all these things. Aren't you supposed to be like, the rebel? Since when do you listen to your conscience anyways? You never do, and somehow it works for you because whenever you don't, our missions succeed. Take a chance and don't listen to your gut because it might just work." She advised. "It's your first time off the market— actually, you've never actually been on it since you prefer one-night-stands— so have a little faith."

I was taken aback by Rosalie's advice. It was pretty trustworthy since she's my best friend ever since I was 8, but I had never asked her for relationship advice and her's was really good.

"Well, thanks for the little tip." I said.

"We've never really talked about this but I'm seriously curious," she started. "How big is his dick?"

"Rose!" I scolded.

"What? You can't blame me for being curious. You've slept with him more than once and it's officially your own joystick—"

"What the fuck, Rosalie?" I said. "Ugh, you know what, never mind."

"If you're staying with him, it's obvious that his dick is mighty fine. You owe me information, Swan."

"Stop talking about his dick." I said. "Don't you have a broken mug to clean from your floor?"

"Fine. You owe me big, Swan." She reminded. "Holy shit, that sounded dirty."

"Shut up and stay off the coffee for a few hours." I laughed. "Love you."

"Love you too babe." She made kissing noises through her speaker. "Hugs and kisses."

"Back to you." I smiled, then hung up.

As I grinned to myself, I heard his voice.

"Someone's curious about my dick?"

I pushed past him, not giving him the opportunity to bask under the glory of his own gun.

"Don't flatter yourself there, Cullen." I told him. "I can just tell my best friend yours is the size of a pinky."

"And that is a lie."

"But I can just tell her that." I smirked. "After all, what would she say if a mob boss suddenly runs up to her exaggerating that his dick is the size of beer bottle? Keep in mind that she's had the same training in martial arts as me."

"You enjoy blackmailing, don't you?" He wrapped his arms around my body from behind, his nose running up and down my neck.

"Hey, I'm not blackmailing anyone now but I do enjoy doing that." I told him. "Get off. I need to make breakfast."

He complied as I started walking to the stove of his kitchen. After cooking eggs and bacon, I pushed his plate to him, where he was sitting deliciously on his seat in boxers like the previous morning.

He kissed my cheek. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." I chuckled. I watched him eat his breakfast and thoughts ran through my head as I stared at his face, noticing that he has a faint scar on the skin between his jaw and ear. I felt the need to trace my finger along it, but managed to keep my hands to myself.

This man was going to be the death of me.

HEYYY. One early update and a super long chappie. Anyways, wish me luck for my common tests this week. *grimace* This ain't gonna be pretty. So this is also kind of a notice to all my stories that this week, updates are gonna be slow. :(

Scarlett