A/N: We passed the 500 mark for comments! Thank you to everyone whose shown this story support so far. And for everyone whos been reading and not commenting, I see you, I love you, and I am you. This week, we'll finally learn exactly how bad Tanya was (and maybe finally earn that M rating). If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, i posted my Eras Contest entry this past week, Pranks For Nothing, which won Host's Pick. If youd like deets on this story and future ones, come join us over on my fb group, hmerdan's fiction spot. And of course, thank you to kneon for beta'ing this and everything I've been working on. To my fellow Canadians, happy Thanksgiving! To my fellow Jewish people, Shanah Tova and g'mar chatimah tovah! And to everyone else, please enjoy chapter twelve!

EPOV

We didn't stay much longer after our talk in the courtyard; just long enough to say goodbye to some of my teammates and their significant others. Everyone reacted the way I expected - Jane and Irina had an attitude; Kate, Charlotte, and Maggie were welcoming; Gianna was brisk, but she was also running around the event working; Victoria and Heidi were just happy to have a newer girlfriend on the team. We managed to avoid Tanya for the rest of the night until we finally took our leave.

The trip back to my condo was silent with the just sounds of Coldplay coming through my speakers. While traffic was congested around the banquet hall, thanks to the media event and two weddings going on, it was fairly clear once we made it to the Gardiner, and we were pulling into my parking spot within ten minutes. I couldn't figure out if the elevator was quicker than normal, or if I was just nervous about what was about to happen once we made it to the fiftieth floor and into my unit.

Even opening the door reminded me of Tanya right now. I could still remember the argument when I signed the paperwork…

"Do you want anything?" I finally piped, tossing my jacket and discarded tie on the kitchen island. "Water? Juice? I have some of that wine you like in the fridge."

"I'm good," she assured me as she pulled off her heels. She padded over to me and placed her hands on my chest. "Edward, this isn't going to change anything. I just want to know more about you."

The conviction in her voice was so overwhelming that I needed to feel her lips on mine right then. I poured every emotion I was feeling into that kiss as I pulled her in as close to me as possible while she threaded her hands into the hair at the nape of my neck.

All too soon, Bella pulled away from me as we both gasped for oxygen. "If we keep up like that, we won't talk at all," she giggled and grabbed my hand. "Come on, let's get the tough stuff over with."

I sighed and followed her to the living room, taking a seat at the end of the couch with Bella tucked in beside me, sharing the chaise. "I guess I should start at the beginning," I sighed. "I already told you I came out here during my sophomore year. I lucked out with finding Beau to take care of my business interests, but otherwise, I didn't know anyone. I got close to Em and Rose pretty quickly, but when a nineteen-year-old single guy's only good friends are a couple? It's rough."

"I get that," Bella nodded in agreement. "Ang and Ben, Leah and Sam… Chronic third wheel syndrome."

"Exactly! It was fine early on since they were just dating. They still liked to go out frequently, and it's not like I was going out with the intention of hooking up, so it worked. I dated a bit, but I was focused on my career. So, in our second year with the Marlies, there was a string of injuries on the Leafs, and Em and I ended up being brought up. Being a farm team player in the NHL was amazing, but being put on a line with THE Garrett Brownrig?" I let out a whistle. "It was a dream come true. So, imagine how amazing it was when Carlisle said he wanted to bring us up permanently the next season! I went from a two-year contract worth seventy thousand per season to a five-year contract worth almost nineteen mil! At twenty-one, that was a huge ego boost." I couldn't help but notice the look on Bella's face at that number, and I shrugged. "Sorry, I know we haven't really talked numbers."

"It's fine, I've heard them before," she coughed out. "Seth, Dad, and Sam are always talking about athletes and their salaries during trade times. I'm still wondering when Tanya comes into play."

"I'm almost there," I assured her. "So, I played the first season, and I was on a huge high that year. I also became friendly with a few other guys on the team. A group of us had been chatting, and it came out that I never had a real nineteenth or twenty-first birthday - you know, the first big legal drinking birthday. So, a few of the guys wanted to go big on my twenty-second. They ended up arranging VIP bottle service at Rebel. That's where I met Tanya." I took a deep breath as I prepared to get into the rougher portion. "She was a promoter and VIP hostess assigned to us for the evening. I was young and drunk, she was hot." God, I felt like such a douche when I said it like that."

"Hey, I know what twenty-two-year-old guys are like," Bella giggled. "It doesn't bother me. Go on."

"Thanks," I smiled softly at her. "Anyway, we flirted a lot that night and ended up exchanging phone numbers. Since the night at the club had been boys' night, I didn't introduce her to Em and Rose as my girlfriend for a few months." I let out a humourless laugh at this point. "Rose hated her! Apparently, Tanya already had a reputation amongst Toronto's young elite. Especially athletes! She tried warning me, but I was still having fun."

"So, when did fun turn into something serious?"

"About a year later?" I shrugged. "Jasper was traded to the team during my second season, and ended up hanging out with me and Emmett all the time. That was also the year Em and Rose got married. They decided to move out of her condo to a house up in Thornhill. They passed on the real estate bug, and I started looking at buying my own place, too. I loved their house and was thinking of doing something similar, only smaller. You know - leaving the downtown core, having some outdoor space, maybe even getting a dog. But then Tanya convinced me that wouldn't be conducive to my current lifestyle, and I ended up in this box in the sky."

"She talked you out of the kind of house you wanted?"

"It wasn't all her," I insisted. "Jas and Ali were also looking at buying and went with a townhouse in King West. I thought my lifestyle was more similar to theirs than Em and Rose, and decided that maybe downtown was better at the time. Of course, Tanya had been pissed that I didn't buy the place she wanted - the Four Seasons Private Residences in Yorkville." I rolled my eyes at the memory of the whining that went down when I settled on this penthouse. "She only got worse when I contracted Carlisle's wife Esme to design the space. It didn't matter that Esme was a trained interior designer, Tanya had expected that I'd hand over my Amex and give her carte blanche over the space."

"That's pretty presumptuous. Was Tanya even moving in?"

"Presumptuous is Tanya's middle name," I chuckled. "And I hadn't planned on it at the time, but she seemed to think so. About ten months later, her landlord had conveniently ended her lease, and I let her move in then. She made a few changes to the place, mostly in the guestrooms, but I'm pretty sure she was still hoping I'd sell this place and move to Yorkville."

"Geez, if she was so fucking obsessed with the Four Seasons condo, why didn't she move there on her own?" Bella grumbled.

"Well, on the low end, it costs about six-to-seven grand to rent a one-bedroom. And even if she made enough on her own, she doesn't want to pay to live there. She just wants the status of being involved with someone who lives like that," I laughed. "So, last year I got offered a new contract. That's when I decided to get the Aston Martin. Tanya had other plans."

"Move to the luxury condo and become a kept woman?" Bella asked.

I shook my head. "Worse. She wanted us to get married."

Bella let out a puff of air. "I guess I'm not surprised. You'd been together for a few years and were living together. That seems like the natural progression."

"Yeah, except we had never talked about marriage," I explained. "I didn't know it was on her radar seriously until Rose told me!"

"How did Rose find out?" Bella questioned. "You said they didn't get along."

"They didn't, but part of Rose's standard practice is to do a financial check on any of her clients. Even though she knew me, she still did the check for my file. It came back clean, but she saw something strange and asked me about it."

"What was it?"

"A forty-eight thousand dollar hold at Tiffany," I answered, earning a shocked expression from Bella. "She asked what I was buying for that much money at Tiffany, and I had no clue about the hold. Don't get me wrong, I bought Tanya expensive jewellery, but I never placed a hold. So, I called them and found out it was a twenty percent deposit for a platinum engagement ring with a two-and-a-quarter karat diamond."

"Wait, wait, wait," Bella interrupted, waving her hands. I could see the wheels in her head working. "It was a forty-eight thousand dollar hold, which was worth twenty percent of the ring. She put a hold on a two-hundred-and-forty THOUSAND dollar ring???"

"Two-fourty, five-hundred," I shrugged. "I rounded it."

"And that was with no talk on marriage at all?"

"Nothing concrete," I clarified. "It had all been more abstract. Like when Jas proposed to Alice, she said she didn't want a proposal as cliche as theirs, since he proposed at the Eiffel Tower. Or when she said that Rosalie and Emmett replacing the cake with a donut wall was cheesy for a winery wedding."

"So, basically, the only wedding talk was when she was being a bitch about other weddings?" Bella deadpanned, and I nodded in agreement. "For the record, I think the donut wall sounds cute, and I'm suggesting it to Leah and Sam when they finally get married. Sam's obsessed with donuts." I laughed at how casual she sounded over that. "So, that was the end of it?"

"Yeah, it was," I sighed.

"I have one question. If she has a thing for athletes, why are you surprised she was there? Almost every athlete in the city was there."

"She basically only tries to date celebrities and pro athletes from the top leagues - NHL, MLB, NBA. At some point, before we started dating, she hooked up with Drake, so none of the Raps would touch her. And since we broke up, none of my teammates will give her the time of day. I figured MLB would be her only chance, and they're not a part of our organization. I guess she couldn't hook any of them and settled for a CFL player," I shrugged. No way one of those guys would get her into the Yorkville condo of her dreams. "Anyway, that's everything. After her, I was worried about getting too serious with another gold digger and stuck to the occasional puck bunny out of town. Which is why I was so rude to you that first night."

"Edward, I'm way over that. I know you're a kind and decent man," she insisted, crawling into my lap. "I hope you know I could care less about your money or your status. I don't need Edward Masen, Leafs' Centre. I just want Edward Masen the man."

"Bella, I know you are. You're different. You've shown me what it's like to truly care and support someone. It's why… I've fallen in love with you."

"Edward…" she breathed out, a smile gracing her beautiful face. "I'm in love with you, too."

I couldn't hold back any longer, and brought my mouth to hers, pouring all my love into that first kiss as we finally declared ourselves. "You don't know how happy that makes me to hear that," I murmured against her lips.

"I bet I do," she replied as she shifted towards me, straddling my lap.

I had no idea how long we stayed like that, our lips exploring each other as my hand ran the expanse of her back. As I moved from her lips to her neck, working the sensitive spot right below her ear that I had become so acquainted with, she let out a soft mewl. "Edward…"

"God, Bella…" I breathed into her neck. "The things you do to me."

"Why don't we move this somewhere more comfortable and I can show you what I can do," she moaned, her eyes dark with lust.

She didn't have to ask me twice. Grabbing her under her thighs as she wrapped her legs around my waist, I managed to get off the sofa without disentangling us and made my way to the bedroom as quickly as I could. Once I had her lying down on the bed, I stared down at her for a minute, simply taking her in. She was absolutely breathtaking with her chocolate curls surrounding her like a halo and her deep mocha eyes penetrating my soul. This wasn't our first time, but I could already feel it was like no other time before. It was more. I wasn't going to waste this moment by rushing ahead and just trying to make her feel good. No, this was something special, and I wanted to make her feel every bit as amazing as she made me feel.

"Now, should I let you show me what you can do, or show you what I can do?" I asked as I unbuttoned my dress shirt.

Her breath hitched as she took in my now-bare chest. "Oh, I know exactly what you're capable of, Masen," she replied coyly before wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me down to her. "Why don't you remind me?"

"With pleasure," I answered and captured her mouth with mine once again.

My tongue swiped across hers as I began to kiss my way down her body. I placed tender kisses on her neck as I lowered the straps on her dress. With a slight push, she sat up, giving me access to the zipper on the back of her dress. Taking the hint, I lowered it before gently pulling down the bodice, revealing her naked breasts to me. "No bra, Miss Swan?" I asked, gently rolling one of her rosy nipples between my fingers.

"It didn't work with the dress," she answered breathily.

"I'm not complaining," I stated before taking the other nipple in my mouth and lavishing it with attention from my tongue. Her fingers raked through my hair and she let out a soft moan as she bucked her hips to get closer to me. "Damn, woman," I muttered as I lifted myself up and shimmied the dress off of her.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It is," I said as I looked down at her bare body. The bright red tips on her areolas matched the colour of her cheeks. "You're perfect."

"So are you," she gasped as I lightly bit down the peak in my mouth. "Do I need to prove it?" She ran her hand down my bare chest to my erection which was straining against the zipper of my pants.

"Anything you want," I muttered, not wanting to release her from my mouth. "Anything, baby. It's yours."

Instead of telling me, she decided to show me by working the buckle on my belt before undoing the button and zipper of my pants. I hastily pushed off my suit pants and socks before joining Bella back on the bed where she quickly moved back to straddling me like she had on the couch.

"Anything?" She asked, running her hands slowly down my chest. When she grabbed my still-covered cock in her hands, I thought my heart would stop beating.

"It's yours," I vowed with a groan. She moved her hands to the waistband of my boxer briefs, and I raised my hips, so she could work them down. Once they were far enough down, I kicked them off and pulled at the tiny straps of the thong she had been wearing all night. Instead of manoeuvring us, I decided I could always replace them. Hell, I'd buy her an entire Victoria's Secret if she wanted. I tore away the tiny scrap of fabric, leaving her exposed to me.

"Edward," she moaned as I reached down and rubbed her clit with my thumb, causing her to buck her hips, pressing her sensitive bud against my palm. "I thought I was supposed to be doing this to you."

"Nothing stopping you," I murmured, sucking on the pulse point under her ear. She didn't need any more encouragement and took my cock in her hands. I hissed out a breath as she stroked the length of me and teased my head with her thumb.

"Edward, don't stop," she whimpered, and I nearly came right then and there.

"I need to be inside you," I growled, using all my willpower to hold back my own release as she came all over my hand. "How do you want me?"

"Just like this," she answered as she eased me into her, slowly impaling herself. "Yes," she cried out as I pushed all the way in.

"That's it," I encouraged as she moved on top of me. I met each of her movements with thrusts of my own, and we were both on the edge in no time. We rode our orgasms together as she came around me, her screams echoing in my ears. As soon as she started coming, I followed close behind her, and when we finally finished, I felt completely spent.

I fell back on the pillows behind me, pulling her down with me, needing to keep her in my arms. "God, Bella… you don't know how amazing it is to finally tell you how much I love you. You're everything."

"I have some idea," she smiled up at me, twirling my light chest hairs in her fingers. "I don't know what I'm going to do when you go to Chicago in a few weeks."

Despite not talking to my parents, I still remained close to my old triple-A team and liked to go down during their summer sessions to provide some mentorship to the future of hockey. "Come with me," I offered.

She looked at me in shock. "But… seriously? What about work?"

I shrugged. "Is there enough time for you to request time off?" She was silent for a second, before giving me an unsure nod. "Well, if you can, I'd love you to come with me. Show you my old haunting grounds."

"If I can get the time off, I'd love to," she offered, and I'm sure the smile on my face showed how excited I was at the prospect.

"I really hope you can come, Bell. There's no one I'd rather share my hometown with than you."