CHAPTER 1

I was currently in the car with my boyfriend Edward, and I was quite nervous as he was taking me home to meet his father, the world renowned surgeon Carlisle Cullen. We had been dating for two months now and his father had finally found a free Saturday evening for a little dinner with his son's new girlfriend. Understandably, he was a very busy man. Edward had said that after his mother's death a year ago, he had succumbed to work and was doing a lot of shifts at the hospital he worked at.

"Why are you nervous? My dad is great, very patient and understanding and he usually likes everyone."

"So every girl you have brought home? How many has there been?" I asked then.

Edward laughed, "You are the second one."

"Oh, right, the first one was Tanya, your first girlfriend." I understood right away. About a year ago he had another girlfriend, I didn't know her, because I had only just moved to San Fransisco. But she didn't go to school with us anymore. After their break up when Edward's mom died, Tanya switched schools. It had been an ugly break up and Edward had admitted that because of her mother's death, he hadn't tried enough to save the relationship.

I was nervous, thinking what the doctor thought of me. I had put on a dress, it was quite modest. I didn't want it to be too revealing, maybe he would think I was cheap and not just right for his son.

"We are here." Edward said and I came out of my thoughts, gaping at a mansion he had brought me in front of.

"This is where you live?" I asked stunned.

"What were you expecting Bella, a little shack in the woods? I come from a long line of doctors. Of course we have a bit of money."

I climbed out of the car and muttered, "A little bit of money, yeah right."

"What's that, honey?" He asked.

"Nothing." I quipped. "Don't worry about me?"

He calmly took my hand and led me up the stairs to the front doors. To enormously big front doors. Stepping in, I found myself in a foyer of some kind. An older lady about 50 years old came to greet us.

"Bella, this is Maria, she is the maid here. Whatever you need, ask her. If she's not moving around, she is in the kitchen area."

"Hello, Bella. Nice to meet you." Her smile was warm and sweet and I thought I would probably like her.

"Likewise." I greeted her back.

"Maria, where's dad?"

"Oh, he's in his study. Told me to take you to the living room, he'll be right there."

"Well, I think I remember where it is, so thank you, Maria." Edward told her.

"Can I offer you both anything to drink?"

I looked at Edward and he said, "A coke for me, what about you Bella?"

I didn't want to make trouble, so I said, "Two cokes then."

"Right away."

When Maria was gone, I told Edward, "Must be nice having servants."

He chuckled, "It's just Maria and the gardener. And they both go home after dinner is served, so it's no like I have it around the clock."

We reached a spacious living room where my whole house could have easily fit in. It was all so light with a lot of white color used in it.

We haven't managed to sit down yet, when I heard him before I saw him.

"Hello." He simply said curiously, it came from behind me and I turned around and found myself face to face with an extremely gorgeous and sexy guy who could no way be 40 years old already. He looked really good for his age. Wearing black pants and button-down shirt, he looked really good. And then I zoned in on his face more and he looked at me with a little smile on but his eyes were raking over me the same way I had just done to him.

I don't know what I was expecting as Edward looked like a supermodel himself.

"Dad, this is Bella. Bella this my dad, dr Carlisle Cullen."

"Please, Edward, there's no need for such formalities." He stepped closer to me, smiling affectionately and gave me his hand." Nice to meet you Bella, please call me Carlisle."

I smiled and gave him my hand to shake but he then did something unexpected. He took my hand to kiss the back of it, like in those movies about older times.

When he had done that, he told us, "I heard you ordered Coke from Maria. I don't usually do this, but if either of you wants something stronger in it-"

"That would be great, dad." He then turned to me, "What about you Bella? We have bourbon, whiskey, rum, you name it.?"

"I'm okay with just Coke."

"Are you sure-" Edward started to say, but his father interrupted him

"Edward, the lady said no, don't push it."

I swallowed hard and thought about the fact that the whole dinner was gonna last at least a few hours. But I felt a little dizzy already. I didn't know what was happening to me, why did Edward's father have such an effect of me, but I clanged to his every word, analyzed in my head every sentence he said as he sat down with us and started asking me questions about me and my life.

"So, your parents are divorced and you came to live with your father who is a police officer?" He asked, his voice seemed friendly and not at all condescending.

"Yes, that's right. My mother remarried and she wanted to go travel with Phil who is a baseball player."

"Oh, anyone I know?"

"He's minor league, so probably not." I smiled.

He nodded and smiled back while drinking what I thought was whiskey or bourbon.

"And Edward tells me that you are a straight A student who loves to read a lot."

"That's right." I smiled.

"That's great. If I could only get Edward to read more, our home library wouldn't collect dust as I'm lately too busy to pick up anything not medicine related."

"Home library? That sounds like a lot of books. Can I see it?" I asked and I didn't know how I could be so bold. He quite literally made me nervous but not because I thought he didn't like me. No, not anymore. It was obvious that he did. And I just didn't want to say anything that would jeopardize that.

"Certainly, it's adjacent to my study, we can show you that after dinner."

Speaking of dinner, Maria then came to announce that dinner was ready.

In the dining room, only one side of it was set for three people. Edward had two sisters too, but Rosalie was in college and Alice who was a year younger than Edward and went to school with us, had something better to do this evening.

Carlisle sat at the head of the table and me and Edward sat on either side of him.

The dinner was filled with polite conversation. Me and Edward talked about me and my life. When it was time to talk about how we met, I was uncomfortable for some reason, it was like I didn't want to talk about my relationship with Edward to his father. So Edward did most of the talking and Carlisle seemed alright with it, he smiled and asked additional questions about it. Finally during desert he talked about his life and his wife and Edward's mother was mentioned. I asked him if he liked his job or he did it because his parents before him had been doctors. He smiled and said that he loves being a doctor, he just doesn't love the paperwork and the conferences etc. that came with the job. But he enjoyed his time at the OR.

After dinner Alice came with his boyfriend Jasper and Edward wanted to hang with them and not be a part of the book talk I was about to have with his father in their library.

I looked at the shelved for about 10 minutes while neither of us said anything.

"Wow, this is a good collection." I finally broke the silence. "A lot of classics but not only."

"Do you want me to recommend something you maybe haven't yet read."

"Please." I smiled.

I looked at the book on my face level as I suddenly was aware of him standing right behind me. He leaned up to take a book from high above my head and he was so damn close to me, I could smell his cologne. I breather in the scent and then held by breath until he put the book in front of me. "Lover" by Marguerite Duras. I swallowed. There was no way he chose this book without ulterior meaning behind it.

"Have you read." He asked standing still very close to me.

"Can't say that I have." I finally managed to say. "I have heard about it, but haven't managed to read it yet."

"Borrow it then. Return it whenever."

I couldn't stand it anymore, the heat that was surging through my body, so I stepped two steps to the side. As if understanding me, he stepped back too and now there was a reasonable space between us.

"If you are sure-"

"I'm sure, Bella." He replied and for a moment I wasn't sure he was just talking about borrowing the book.

"Thank you, Dr Cullen." I smiled and started to leave.

"Carlisle, please." He insisted.

"Thank you, Carlisle. I better go see what Edward and the others are doing."

I turned to leave and felt his eyes on me until I was out of his sight.

I didn't see him anymore that day, we started to leave the house so Edward could take me home, he had been called away by the hospital.