A/N:

I just want to say a huge thank you to you all for sticking with this story up until now. I've gotten to know a lot of my readers through this fic and am honored to see a bunch of you following me to my other fics.

I know the last chapter might not have been what you all expected or wanted because Bella did end up leaving, but I hope by the end, you realized that she wanted to be with Edward. Anyway, here's the epilogue. See you at the bottom.

~*AXIOM*~
*BELLA*

"Meet me in the office in three minutes," Edward whispered huskily into my ear, and kissed my cheek before making a dash across the club floor.

I casually sipped on my French Green Dragon, appearing as if I wasn't affected, when in actuality, my heart rate had skyrocketed unhealthily. Mentally counting to one hundred and eighty seconds in my head, I watched the club-goers as they all danced to the beat of the rhythmic music. It was a full house tonight, which had been nothing new for the last few months.

When Edward had asked me to be a co-owner of his club, I was a bit hesitant at first. I loved running Touch&Go, but I didn't think I could move onto another club that wasn't even mine from the start. But because Edward assured me that it would be a collaboration and that I wouldn't just be adding my name onto the co-owning list without bringing something to the table, I finally agreed. Emmett loved the idea of me co-owning, and before we knew it, Rose was a co-owner, too. We'd tried to get Alice on board, but she said running Touch&Go had caused her way too much stress. So, Rose and I resigned ourselves to the fact that she'd be simply our best friend instead of partner, as well.

I finished counting off one minute and sighed as I fidgeted in my seat anxiously. Only two more minutes to go…

It'd been five months since I came home from Key West and reconciled with Edward. Completely starting over seemed to be our only option, considering how much damage we'd done to each other while we had been pretend-dating. The wounds, obviously, hadn't been healed, but we took our relationship a day at a time, assuring the other that we were dedicated to being open and honest. As a reminder of that, we'd decided to rename Satyr to The Axiom, which meant a self-evident truth.

"Did you want another French Green Dragon?" Jake asked me with a smirk from behind the bar counter.

I slurped up every last drop and handed him the empty glass. I'd already had two and I was feeling light-headed, in a good way. Even though I craved another one, I knew I had somewhere to be in exactly ninety seconds.

"Nope, maybe later," I answered, suppressing a grin.

I was glad Jake was here, especially if that meant more French Green Dragons for me.

When Edward had turned down Aro's offer to sell, Aro became quite pissed and basically let us know in laymen terms that we'd better be prepared for some heavy competition. He wound up taking Touch&Go and turning that into his own glitzy, expensive club. All in all, we held up pretty well against him. He'd also managed to take all of Edward's employees, except for Angela, who stayed on as our manager.

As part of our deal as co-owners of The Axiom, Rose and I brought over half of our male bartenders. We'd wanted to bring all, but Emmett and Edward refused to have a bunch of hot guys running around serving our customers, so we compromised for the sake of their egos and they hired several female bar staff to make it even. However, every Tuesday, we'd still get a bunch of women stopping around and asking where all the half-naked men were. Because of that, we agreed to bring back Testosterone Tuesday in a different fashion. All of our staff, both male and female, would wear skimpy outfits and we changed the name to Tease Tuesday, instead. It worked out for me, seeing as I still got to look at half-naked men…even though I only had adoring eyes for Edward now.

Okay, I still looked at the nakie guys. Sue me.

I only had one minute left until I needed to head over to our office where Edward was, no doubt, waiting for me. I snickered to myself mischievously, remembering the deal we'd all made when we launched The Axiom.

Emmett had made it a point that because we were two couples teaming up, that we couldn't go around having sex in the club. He'd brought it up because Rose and Emmett had busted Edward and I screwing behind the bar one Sunday afternoon. It wasn't like anyone was around! We wouldn't even be open for several hours and Edward was pretty much a master at getting me off quickly. Nevertheless, they got angry and demanded no sex in the club. Of course, Edward and I didn't listen at all. For a few months now, we'd been sneaking off to the office and having quickies without anyone knowing. And in thirty seconds, I'd be with Edward, hopefully having multiple orgasms as fast as we could manage before Emmett or Rose busted us.

I stood from the stool, straightening out my mini skirt as I prepared to join Edward—most likely an already naked Edward. That image alone had my mouth salivating.

Taking a look around, I kept an eye out for Emmett and Rose, but they were missing.

"Bella!" I heard a man's voice yell out, which was slightly muffled over the club music.

I glanced towards the familiar voice and my eyes widened when I saw a flash of dirty blond hair making its way over to me.

Holy shit! It was Midge! Wait…no…Mark!

Fuck, it was MIKE!

I briefly pondered whether I could dive over the counter and hide, but my legs wouldn't move. Remaining frozen, I held my breath as he practically sprinted over to me, dodging people left and right. He looked on a mission, his brow furrowed.

Oh my God. Is he going to murder me?

My body went rigid at the thought. Shouldn't my life have been flashing before my eyes right about now?

No more than a few feet away from me, he reached into his jacket pocket for something. Oh shit! He's got a gun! But then he pulled out a small velvet box and fell to one knee in front of me, his chest rising and falling rapidly, clearly out of breath.

"Bella," he panted heavily for an uncomfortable amount of time. Goodness, he was out of shape.

Finally, after calming down, he opened the velvet box.

Fuck!

My eyes zeroed in on the large honker of a diamond ring, sparking under the colorful lights.

"I've been looking for you for months!" he exclaimed desperately, staring up at me with puppy dog eyes. "After that one magical night we spent together, I found that you were gone the next morning. The only logical explanation was that you were kidnapped!"

Dear Lord, please save me from this insane man I slept with. And please make sure to erase the image of his small dick from my memory, too. Amen.

"Um, Midge," I said warily, and then shook my head. "I mean, Mike. I really think you—"

"Wait, I wasn't finished!" he snapped, looking almost deranged. I instantly shut my mouth and discreetly eyed around the club for anyone I knew to tell our bouncer we had a loon in the house. "I went to the police and filed a missing persons report, but they laughed at me because I didn't know your last name or where you lived, so I hired a private detective and it led me here. And now here you are in one piece!" He held up the ring closer to me and my face drained of all its color. "Bella, you're the love of my life. Marry me."

"What the fuck is going on here?" an angry voice shouted in question.

I turned my head swiftly and saw Edward storming over to us, his face red and his eyes wild as he stared down Mark—Mike. Edward grabbed him by his collar and forced him to stand up.

"Why the fuck are your proposing to my girlfriend?" Edward asked venomously, and then turned to me, his expression never wavering. "Who is this guy?"

"Your girlfriend?" Mike questioned, his eyes flashing back and forth between Edward and me. "But we're meant to be together, Bella! Didn't you think so that night we made passionate love?"

Gawking at Mike, I fought the urge to punch him in the nuts.

"Bella," Edward said quietly, but I could tell he was seething, "is there something you want to tell me?"

Although I'd told Edward that I'd slept with a fair few men, I hadn't exactly been specific. It wasn't like I thought I'd ever see any of the guys ever again. Even so, I could see the doubt in Edward's eyes, and I was certain that he was wondering if I'd been lying to him all this time.

"He's one of the guys I was with before you," I assured, and then turned back to the moron. "Mark—Midge—Mike, whatever the hell your name is, I'm not going to marry you. I'm in a relationship."

"But," Mike started, looking like I'd just taken away his favorite toy, "you're meant to be Mrs. Newton."

"Alright," Edward growled, appearing fed up, "get the fuck out of here before I fucking shove that stupid ring up your ass."

Mike squared his shoulders and attempted to glower at Edward, but there was definite fear there. "You—you can't make me go. I've spent months trying to find Bella, and now that I've found her, I'm not going anywhere."

Edward wrapped his arm around my waist and brought me into his side a bit roughly. "If anyone's going to be fucking proposing to her, it's going to be me, so fuck off."

I nearly choked on air and tried to not physically acknowledge he'd just said that, but the sentence was now burned into my brain forever. I didn't think I was ready for marriage with Edward, but the idea that he was at least thinking about it had me internally ecstatic. I'd say yes to him in a damn heart beat, and I was sure he knew that, especially since he found out just how obsessed I was with him in high school.

The bouncer finally walked up and grabbed the back of Mike's shirt, trying to haul him towards the exit, but Mike put up an impressive fight.

"Bella!" he shouted as he was carried further away. "We're meant to be together! I'll find you again; I promise! I love you!"

When Mike had finally gone, Edward turned to face the bar with an angered expression. "Fuck," he cursed.

I sighed and slithered my arm to loop with his. "You okay?" I questioned.

"That asshole was proposing to you," Edward growled, refusing to look at me.

I knew that my sexual history bothered him. In a perfect world, neither one of us would've been with other people, but that was just the way it was. It just sucked that someone from my past had to show up and mess with the foundation of trust Edward and I were trying to build.

I stood on my tiptoes and planted a brief peck on Edward's cheek. "I love you and only you, Edward."

He turned to me and wrapped his arms around my back. In turn, I locked my hands behind his neck. "Will there be any more of those douche bags coming around?"

I laughed. "I hope not," I answered.

He groaned. "Better not. I went into the office and you didn't show, so I came out to look for you only to see some ugly asshole proposing to you."

I smiled devilishly. "The ring was pretty nice, huh?" I questioned teasingly.

He glared at me.

"Kidding, babe," I said, and pressed my lips to his.

He inhaled through his nose as his lips responded to me, and then pulled back. "Do you still want to take a trip to the office?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows.

I chuckled and pushed my hips into his, already feeling his hard-on. "Meet you there in a minute?" I queried.

He shook his head. "Oh no, no. You're coming with me this time," he ordered, and grabbed my hand as he began to tug us away from the bar and across the dance floor speedily.

I smiled to myself, glad that we'd managed to get to this point where we were actually a couple now. Of course, we weren't perfect.

Edward very recently decided that he wanted me to move in with him. I loved that he wanted me to, and I really did want to, as well, but I didn't think it was fair to leave Rose and Alice with one less roommate and more rent to pay. They could always find someone else, but we were best friends and I couldn't separate us like that. Edward tried his best to change my mind, even to the point of bribing me with tons more sex than we were already having, and it was very tempting, but I still held firm. This, in no way, stopped him from bringing it up every chance he got, though.

In the mean time, we were still getting to know each other more. I'd even taken Edward with me over to my parents' house a few times. My dad was stubborn as hell and refused to even talk to Edward civilly. He still held a grudge against him, and I didn't think that would change anytime soon. Edward handled it all very well and tried to be as respectful as he could, knowing that I didn't want any arguments between them. But I also knew that Edward was a bit scared of him, especially because my dad would purposefully set his gun out in the living room so that Edward could see it. Edward would always eye it and swallow hard, trying to avoid my father's "don't fuck with me" stare.

My mom, on the other hand, took a liking to Edward almost straight away after he complimented her cooking. He was lying, but hey, my mother didn't need to know that. After that, Edward was my mother's best friend, and I swore I caught her checking him out a few times. I was just glad she'd finally gotten off the Jasper bandwagon.

Jasper and I had gone back to normal. I was happy about this, because I didn't really think I could lose his friendship. He was important to me and I made sure he knew that. Alice and he were still going strong. Jasper was even talking about proposing to her lately and started to ask me for advice on how she'd like to be proposed to. It was so hard trying to keep it from Alice, but I knew that in the long run, she'd be glad that it was a surprise.

Edward began to walk faster, and I was having a hard time keeping up.

"My goodness, what's the rush?" I asked, out of breath.

We arrived at the office, and instead of answering me, he pressed me up against the door and brought his lips to my neck, sucking and biting at the skin feverishly. I moaned breathily and fisted his shirt, trying to bring him even closer to me.

"If there weren't so many people here, I'd take you up against this door," he whispered raspily into my neck.

"So, are you saying that you'd prefer to take me if there were only a few people here?" I questioned, dazed as his tongue trailed a wet path to the hollow beneath my ear. Somehow, I still managed to be a smartass.

He snaked his hand under my shirt, inching towards my breasts. "Don't test me, Bella Stork," he said as he grazed his fingers over my hardened nipple.

I groaned out of annoyance and pleasure. "Will you ever stop calling me that?" I asked. I was starting to think he preferred calling me Bella Stork to Bella Swan.

"Nope," he said casually, and wrapped his hand around my breast. His other hand fiddled with the door knob until he got it open. He moved me backwards into the office, keeping eye contact with me.

"Oh shit!" I heard behind me.

Edward's eyes went wide as he looked over my shoulder. "What the fuck?" he yelled, and removed his hand from under my shirt.

I spun around and saw Emmett with his pants and boxers down around his ankles with Rose on her knees in front of him. My eyes zeroed in on Emmett's bare ass…and it was hairy. That alone made me scream.

"Oh my God!" I shouted, and moved behind Edward to shield myself from the horrific sight. I could hear them scuffling around frantically.

"That wasn't what it looked like," Rose said, her voice surprisingly calm.

Edward laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, right. So, you weren't just sucking on my brother's dick. Let me guess; you were checking to see if he was circumcised," Edward quipped sarcastically.

He's definitely not circumcised.

"Bella, you can stop hiding behind Edward. We're dressed," Rose assured.

I narrowed my eyes and moved half of my body from behind Edward, enough to at least see if they were telling the truth. "I can't believe you guys," I started angrily. "You ragged on us for having sex here, and then you go and screw in the office. What kind of sick people screw in an office with everyone just outside?"

Edward began to quietly laugh, and I pinched his side so he'd shut up. He flinched and cursed under his breath.

"You think we don't know you guys sneak off almost every night you're here?" Emmett questioned.

Busted.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "No, because Edward and I come in here to…play cards," I said off the top of my head.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Then where are the cards?"

Fuck. "Obviously, we didn't bring them tonight," I answered haughtily.

"What do you usually play?" she asked.

My eyes turned to slits. "War," I replied.

"So, why are you both in here now if you don't have any cards?" she asked with a smirk.

I tried to rack my brain for another excuse, but couldn't come up with anything. "Shut up!" I yelled finally. "The point is that you both are hypocrites." Rose rolled her eyes and walked past us with Emmett in tow, leaving the office. "Admit it, I'm right!"

Edward kissed the top of my head, then grabbed my hand as we followed after them. "Remind me to call someone in to sanitize the entire office tomorrow. Who knows where his hairy ass has been," Edward whispered to me.

We all made our way over to VIP where Alice and Jasper were already sitting, waiting for us. They'd gotten our usual drinks, and we each grabbed them as we sat down.

"So," Rose started, looking excited, "Emmett and I have some news."

"Oh, I know. 'Ugly Bare Ass Blinds Unsuspecting Couple,'" I teased.

She glared at me. "Anyway," she said, ignoring me completely, "we're moving in together."

"What?" I questioned.

"Oh! That's great!" Alice exclaimed. "Oh my God, Jasper and I are moving in together, as well!"

"What?" I asked, my tone louder.

"Yeah, Bella and I are, too," Edward chimed in with a smirk.

"What?" I shouted. This was a fucking blindside!

"Don't worry, Bella," Alice assured, "we'll take care of the lease."

"But we just re-signed," I stated.

"So we break the lease. Big deal," Rose said nonchalantly.

I groaned. "But won't we have to shell out money for that?" I asked.

Edward gave me a fake pouty look. "You don't want to move in with me?" he questioned.

"You and I will talk later," I barked at him. He wasn't going to get away with trying to trick me into moving in with him.

"It doesn't matter if we have to pay to break the lease. I really want to move in with Emmett," Rose admitted.

I sighed in defeat. "Fine. Whatever. Then you can stop using the club as your personal sex playground," I quipped.

Suddenly, there was a sound of glass shattering nearby. Looking towards the noise, I saw Seth pushing some guy who had obviously dropped his drink.

"Hey, watch where you're going, freak!" Seth growled, and stomped over to us. "I'm going out now. Bye." He spun back around, but Edward was quick and grabbed onto the back of his shirt.

"I don't think so," he said. "Pick up the glass off the floor and you also still have ten minutes until you can go."

Seth groaned and moved out of Edward's hold. "This is bullshit!" he snapped. "Your stupid car is already fixed. You don't fucking need me anymore. Plus, I got a fuckhot date that I need to get to."

Seth had started seeing someone from his school, who was equally as annoying as him. It was good for me, because now he didn't tail after me all the time. In fact, he'd try to avoid me as much as possible now, especially because I liked to give him as much work to do as Edward did.

Payback was a bitch.

Plus, he really did a good job with the toilets, to be honest.

"Better pick up the glass quickly, then," I suggested, smirking.

He huffed and stormed off, muttering expletives along the way. I managed to catch that "Cullen better watch his balls" because he'd castrate him when he could afford to buy a chainsaw.

"Alright, we're heading out," Jasper announced, and stood with Alice.

"Us, too," Emmett said. "You both going to be okay here?"

"Yep," Edward answered, and slung his arm around my shoulder.

As soon as they left, Edward grabbed my face and began attacking my mouth with his lips. "I seem to remember you said we'd talk later," he said in between kisses.

"Hmm?" I questioned dumbly, responding to his kisses enthusiastically.

He placed soft pecks along my jaw towards my ear. "About moving in with me."

I sighed, taken out of my lust-filled spell, and pulled back minutely to look at him. "You really want to move in together?" I asked.

He shrugged. "You're already spending almost every night at my place, so why not? Plus, I sort of like having you around…preferably in my bed." He winked.

I rolled my eyes. "So, I'll just be your bed buddy, basically."

He scoffed, as if I offended him, and then grinned. "Yes."

I shot him a glare.

He laughed. "I'm joking," he affirmed, then softened his expression. "You'd be my girlfriend making your boyfriend the happiest man alive by wanting to take the next step in our relationship."

I pursed my lips. Did he have to go and be all sweet? I had to admit, living with Edward was something I fantasized about occasionally, but it just felt a bit pre-mature. We'd been together for six months now, but it still seemed like we were in the early stages of our relationship, especially considering as we could barely keep our hands off each other. Shouldn't people that were moving in together be able to control themselves? I mean, if we moved in with each other, we wouldn't ever leave the bed, I was sure.

"You don't think it's too soon?" I inquired.

He furrowed his brow. "Do you think it's too soon for Emmett and Rose?"

He did have a point there. They'd gotten together the same time we did and it seemed like they should've moved in together ages ago. "I guess not," I answered, fiddling with the hem of my skirt.

Edward took hold of my hands and rubbed his thumbs over my knuckles. "Do you even want to? I don't want to force you," he said solemnly.

"Of course I do," I reassured. "But what if things don't work out?" I didn't want to sound like I didn't have faith in our relationship, because I did, but I also knew that things happened sometimes and I was definitely afraid that for whatever reason we'd end up being apart.

"But what if they do work out?" he questioned positively. "What if we move in together and then we get engaged, then married, then have kids one day? Obviously I can't predict the future, but I know that I want us to move forward towards all that."

I tried to fight back a smile. "You think about that kind of stuff?"

He chuckled and looked down shyly. "Probably more so than considered cool for a guy."

I squeezed his hands. "What kinds of things do you think about?"

His eyes flashed to mine, a bright intensity swimming behind his green pools. "You really want to know?"

I nodded. I honestly did want to know.

He pulled me towards his chest as he leaned back against the sofa. I rested the side of my head against him. "When we get married one day, I'd like a small ceremony back in Forks with only our closest friends and families there. Then we'll honeymoon in Europe for a month, unless you have somewhere else in mind. After that, we'll spend a couple more years in Seattle until we move outside of the city so we can have children and raise them. If we're lucky, you'll have twins—a boy and a girl, and we can have a puppy, too."

I blinked several times, unsure if I'd heard him right. He thought about all of this? I didn't even think past moving in with him. I was a mixture of stunned and in awe, but I was in no way afraid of what he wanted, because I found that I wanted all of that, too. Very much so.

"Let's move in together," I said suddenly.

"Really?" he questioned excitedly, and I nodded. He hugged me to him tightly and kissed the top of my head. "I love you, Bella Swan."

I smiled and snuggled into his side. "I love you, too," I said in a sigh, looking forward to my future with the only man I'd ever wanted.

A/N:

Well, that's it. There won't be a sequel to this, unfortunately. However, I will most likely write up some outtakes in the future, which will be posted in Hate Me Outtakes that's on my profile. There's a poll set up on my profile where you can vote for which outtake idea you might want to see.

Thanks for reading, and my new story My Perfect Mr. Imperfect is a few chapters along now, so check it out. It won't be as bumpy or messy as this story, but it's still worth a read if you enjoy and trust my writing.

Until next time!

Twitter: xrxdanixrx