[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer

[A/N]*Blows confetti into the air* Thanks and hugs to all of you who helped me to achieve my goal of 1.500 Reviews. It means more to me than I could ever tell you.

This chapter here is dedicated to all of you who keep reading and reviewing. Without your support I wouldn't still be here writing this little story.

**Chapter 77**

"It' really pretty here." She mumbled while she circled over the bare skin on my cleavage with her dainty fingertips.

I leaned over and cupped her pretty face between my hands before I planted a soft kiss on her lips. She gasped for air, and I slipped the tip of my tongue between her lips to nudge it against her tongue. A low whimper left her throat and I sucked her bottom lip between my teeth to nibble on it.

"We should probably stop now." I whispered against her mouth when I pulled back a few moments later.

"Why?" she asked me while her left hand moved under the hem of my shirt to caress the skin on my stomach.

"People are starting to stare at us. Look at the dark haired guy over there."

"He's probably the kind of man that likes to watch." she assumed, sitting up to pour me another glass of orange juice that I swallowed down in one gulp.

"I don't like it when people do that. It makes me feel like we're freaks. No one would pay attention if a heterosexual couple would kiss in a park."

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer. Then I kissed the tip of her nose so lightly that my lips were barely touching her skin. Still it was enough to cover it with a beautiful blush only moments later.

"I love you and I'm so glad that nothing happened to you. The thought of losing you is…unbearable for me."

I pulled her closer until she was sitting on my lap and nuzzled my head in the crock of her neck to inhale the delicious scent of her warm skin.

"You won't lose me, ever. Don't you know that there is nothing on earth that could ever come between us?"

She kissed my mouth again and I parted my lips enough to let her suck on the tip of my tongue. For a brief second I wondered if the 'watcher' was still starring at us from the other side of the meadow. Then I figured out that I didn't care.

"Promise me that you never leave me?" she whispered into my ear and there was the strange hint of sadness in her voice that I couldn't really place.

I took her hand in mine and squeezed it gently.

"This is not just about Edward, is it?"

She nodded her head and sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry; I don't know why I'm so afraid of that. Well, actually I do, but it's kind of stupid and I don't want to talk about it."

I leaned forward to put a wisp of her short hair behind her ear. My fingertips caressed its shell before I stroked down the exposed skin on her neck.

"Tell me. Whatever it is, I really feel like I need to know about it."

"Bella...,"

"Don't you Bella me now. Look, if I've done anything wrong…,"

"No, you haven't. You are wonderful, warmhearted and kind and everything that I ever wished for in a woman."

Then she took my hand in hers to blow a tender kiss over the back of my hand.

"But I know how it's like to get hurt, to trust and be betrayed."

"Did Jasmine pull any weird crap when the two of you were together?" I asked her worriedly.

She giggled and quickly shook her head.

"No, she didn't. Jasmine is too nice to break a woman's heart. Our relationship ended because she wanted me to move in with her and I wanted to go to that Fashion School in Paris."

"Hmm, I see."

"Do you remember the red-haired woman we met in Maria's club the first time we went there?"

"Wasn't that he one with the creepy husband? I bet he's also one of those that like to watch."

"Watching is not really enough for James." she murmured between gritted teeth.

"She told me that she loved me and I believed her. God, I believed every single word that came out of her goddamn mouth and each and every one of them was nothing but a lie."

XXXX

I twisted my fingers into the damp curls of her short hair and pulled her closer to me.

"I'm sorry about the rain." I told her while I wrapped a towel over her quivering shoulders.

"It kind of ruined our picnic a little bit."

"Don't have to be sorry, Bella. You should know by now that I like rain, well it's more the whole dancing in the rain thing that I like."

She danced around me like a ballerina and planted a soft kiss on the skin of my neck.

"You need to relax a bit, Bella. Mike ensured Zafrina over and over again that Edward won't be released from jail any time soon."

I sighed deeply and took her hand in mine. Slowly I rubbed the tip of my finger over the metal of her wedding ring.

"Don't tell me that you're not worried yourself, because I know you are. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"A little bit. I was far too busy planning things that are way more pleasant than dealing with my brother and his aggressive issues."

"What kind of things?"

"Well…,"

Jasmine walked into the living room and to my surprise the edges of her mouth didn't twitch one tiny bit when she saw us standing with the arms wrapped around each other. Could it really be that this woman was about to calm down in her ridiculous jealousy?

"Lilly is sleeping now. She has a very vivid imagination…even for a child."

"'Are you going to analyze her now? Because we really don't want that."

"Ali is actually right. You are just supposed to help her deal with that…well with the whole situation."

She chuckled and sat down on the middle of the couch.

"You're full of prejudices concerning my work. I'm not about to brain wash her or something like that."

Zafrina entered the room and smirked.

"It's not that most of the prejudices about shrinks aren't true. I mean shrinks are weird somehow."

Jasmine gave her a dirty look.

"And lawyers are money hungry assholes that have a law code where other people have their heart."

"It's nice that you at least assume that I do have some sort of a heart, Miss Whitlock."

Zafrina chuckled and took a sip from the cup of coffee she was holding in her hands.

"You're drinking too much of that stuff." Jasmine stated reproachfully.

"You're neither my secretary nor my girlfriend, Miss Whitlock; so you don't have to worry about my health."

"I would never consider working as your secretary, Miss Penthes."

"And I wouldn't hire you. You are completely unqualified, Miss Whitlock."

"Too, bad…but as Senna is practically your slave, I probably should be happy that you don't want me."

"She's not my slave. If anyone in our relationship is the slave it's me. For she manages to handle all my appointments and stuff like that, without her I wouldn't be able to do my job properly."

"Are the two of you going to tell us why you were in Port Angeles when Bella called you?" Ali asked them, while I pulled her on my lap and cuddled my face against her shoulder. God, she always smelled so incredibly good.

"We were there to meet someone. Unfortunately she didn't show up, but she called later and said that we could meet again today."

"Whom are you going to meet?"

"Miss Denali. Edward's former secretary. I guess you remember her, don't you?"

I nodded my head and sighed deeply.

"Of course, I remember that…woman. How could I ever forget her? What I don't understand is for what reason you want to talk to her. The divorce is over. We don't need her to witness about her…well, relationship between her and my husband in court anymore."

"That wasn't the reason why I contacted her and you'll find out about that very soon."

XXXX

Her strawberry-blonde hair was cut off into a bob and I instantly wrinkled my nose when I inhaled the artificially sweetness of her perfume. However her eyes looked huge and fearful. She scanned the area around her quickly before she walked over to the table at the end of the restaurant and cleared her throat nervously.

"Hello, Miss Penthes. I'm sorry that I couldn't make it to our last meeting. I had to take care of some…personal stuff."

"No, problem, Miss Denali,"

Tanya turned to me and her mouth twisted in something that was probably supposed to look like a polite smile.

"How are you, Mrs. Cullen. Or is not more Cullen actually? Miss Penthes here mentioned something about a divorce. Would it be inappropriate to congratulate you on it?"

I quickly shook my head and sighed deeply.

"I honestly don't care."

"Hmm,"

"Miss Denali, I assume that you and Mr. Cullen had a professional relationship…well apart from the other one of course." Zafrina stated, pulling out a tablet to write down some notes on it.

"I was his secretary, if you're referring to that, Miss Penthes. Look, I don't know anything that could be useful for you and I already told you that on the phone."

"Oh, I'm sure that you have the information we're searching for."

"You're not planning on stealing off his clients, are you?"

Zafrina giggled and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I have enough clients of my own to deal with. And I'm definitely not interested in working for an oil company in Alaska. I'm a woman who prefers the sun."

"Hmm, I see. What do you want to know?"

"Do you know the passwords for his computer?"

"Yes, I do. But I assume he has probably changed them by now."

"Oh, I forget about that. He fired you, didn't he?"

She nodded her head and growled angrily.

"That was so unfair; like it was my fault that his wife left him. I told that man over and over again that he can't have it all."

"Have it all?"

"Well, you know what I mean. Edward wants everything. The wife, the house with the white picket fences and the ability to stick his…you know what I mean into every woman he wants to fuck."

"Did you make copies from anything in his office before you left it?"

Tanya hesitated for a few moments and started biting her fingernails nervously.

"Well, I…I made some of cases that were not really handled all…well, completely legally. I thought that I might be able to use them against Edward in case he wanted to sue me."

"Sue you for what?"

"I don't really know. He's a lawyer; he could always come up with something."

"Probably,"

"Do you know what the…illegal activities were about?"

"Not exactly, Miss Penthes. He had a lot of mail contact with Mr. Masen about some tax problems. Something about a house he inherited. I can give you the papers if you want them. The whole thing doesn't really make any sense to me."

"Kay, I'll take a look at them later. Miss Denali, do you know how I could contact Edward's new secretary?"

"Can't you just call his office? She must have started working there a few days ago, if Edward didn't change his mind again about her."

"Change his mind?"

She nodded her head.

"The stupid agency did send him so many applications but he didn't manage to make a choice. But then about two weeks ago, he suddenly discovered one that he hired without even talking to her beforehand. I wonder how she managed to convince him. She probably sent him a topless pic or something like that."

"Hmm,"

"Well, he probably had to pick someone rather quickly."

"Oh, Mrs…what's your name now? Swan? You really don't know anything about the way your husband thinks. Edward could have already hired a new secretary months ago. Instead he let me deal with stupid apprentices that almost wet their panties whenever he looked at them longer than two seconds."

"Miss Denali, I assure you that it doesn't interest Bella one tiny bit with whom her ex-husband sleeps now."

"Oh, he's not sleeping with her, at least not yet. Like, I told you, they have only spoken on the phone so far. I'm the one who had to explain everything to her last week. Edward wrote some sort of paragraph into my contract that says I have to train his new secretary."

"Can you give us her phone number? Maybe that woman would to talk to us."

"I can, if you want to have it. She won't keep the job for long anyway, I assume. God, this Miss Mallory is even worse as a secretary than me."