NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED! Any recognizable characters or plots belong to SM


I groaned, rolling over, feeling around on the bed for my boyfriend. Usually, when I woke up before my alarm sounded, he'd still be wrapped around me from our nightly escapades. But for some reason, the bed was cold this morning. I opened my eyes slowly, in hope that I was just not stretching far enough to reach him. But, alas, he was nowhere in sight. Sighing, I let my eyes wander to the clock on his side of the bed. I bolted up, eyes opened wide, as I saw the red numbers. 12:27? How the hell had I slept that long?

I jumped up and began to run around the apartment. I didn't have any time. I'd missed my first two classes and was going to be late to my next one if I didn't get my butt in gear. Not having time for a shower, I quickly dressed and sat down at my computer in hopes of making up for what I had missed this morning. I sent out four emails. The first two were to students in my first two classes asking them for information on what we had done in class this morning and asking if anyone would be willing let me copy their notes. I didn't know if anyone would respond, but I needed to try. The next two emails were to my professors apologizing for the fact that I had missed class this morning. I knew that I wouldn't get a response to those ones, but I needed to do it none the less.

After I shut down my computer, I ran over to grab my phone, book bag, and keys. I flipped open my phone, hoping to find a message from Edward to make my day a little sweeter, but it was dead. I groaned. No wonder I had slept in. My phone must have died at some time during the night. Shoving it into my pocket, knowing it was useless but feeling strangely naked without it, I made my way out of the apartment.

I was practically running. Not the smartest idea for me, but I wanted to get some chips or something before class. I hadn't had anything in over twelve hours, and my stomach was snarling. The Student Union was in my sights. I sighed in relief as I realized that I was going to be able to get a little food in my stomach and have some energy for class. Maybe today wouldn't be a total waste.

Why, oh why do I have to be me? My toe caught on a crack, and I went rolling across the sidewalk. My books spilled out in front of me, and I could feel the grit beneath my hands and my knee. I breathed heavily as I lifted myself from the ground, nobody jumped forward to help me to my feet or with the random supplies and books that were now spread around me.

Quickly gathering my belongings, I made my way to the closest bathroom to make sure that I looked presentable. Catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I nearly screamed in frustration. I was a complete mess. My hands were scraped up, and I could see tiny dirt-like pieces of rock sticking out of them. My new jeans were ripped at the right knee, and I was bleeding, staining the material.

Hiking my leg up on the counter, I grabbed a paper towel and wet it before setting about trying to clean myself up. But no matter how much I scrubbed at the jeans, the stain wasn't going anywhere. It looked like my brand new jeans were now going in the trash. Growling in frustration, I threw the bloody paper towel in the trash and washed my hands. There were a few shallow cuts, and they stung a little under the soap, but it was nothing compared to what my knee felt like. And I knew that it was just going to get worse as the day went along.

Now, with the time that I'd spent in the bathroom, I didn't have time to get anything to eat.

I ran as quickly as I could, trying not to limp, so that I could make it to my class. I slipped in behind the professor and quickly took my seat, hoping that he hadn't heard me running down the hall behind him. My breathing was erratic, and I felt like I was going to pass out from a combination of the physical exertion and the embarrassment over the way the other students turned to look at me as I tried to calm my too loud breathing.

"Okay, students," Prof. Marcus said as he began to pull things from his bag. "Today I'm going to be handing tests back that you took last week. Some of you did quite well. But the majority of you need massive improvement." He shook his head not looking up at the class. "I was quite disappointed."

Prof. Marcus began to walk around the room, handing tests to students as he passed their desks. As he reached me, he dropped my test on my desk and shook his head. "I'm quite disappointed, Miss Swan," he whispered, repeating his words which he'd said to the whole class, only now he'd personalized it just for me. Without sparing me a glance, he moved on to the next desk.

I looked down at the test in shock. I'd gotten a D. How had that happened? I had spent more than a week studying for this test, and I'd thought I'd aced it. Edward had even helped me study. We had spent three nights before the test studying Reiman's sums rather than doing more enjoyable things. I growled and slumped into my seat as I realized just how much this put me behind. I wasn't going to pass if I continued on this path.

Prof. Marcus took his place at the front of the class again after passing out all the tests and began his lecture. I couldn't believe that he was just going to start on the next lecture rather than going over the test that we'd apparently all done so poorly on. Instead, he simply turned toward the board and talked to it as if he were trying to give his lesson to the blackboard rather than to the class who only ever saw his back.

At the end of class I approached him. "Prof. Marcus, I was curious if I could set up a meeting with you. I have a class in a few minutes, but I would really like to go over this test with you."

"No," Prof. Marcus said without looking up.

"But, please," I said quietly. "Sir, I really need to pass your class, and I want to understand what I did wrong."

"Miss Swan, what you did wrong was assume that this was going to be a class that you could pass with an easy A. If you had actually studied for that test, we wouldn't be having this conversation now." He picked up his bag and started to walk away from me. "I will not waste any more time talking to you when there are so many others who actually want to learn what I'm teaching them."

I followed after him into the hall quickly, trying desperately not to let the pain in my leg hold me back. "But sir…"

He turned to me abruptly, and I nearly fell backwards as I bumped into him. "No, Miss Swan." He seethed down at me, not bothering to keep his voice neutral for those who were walking past us. "Either drop my class or fail it. I don't really care, but either way, this is the last conversation we will have. I don't need girls like you in my class. If you want to stay, stay, but I'm not going to waste any more time on you." He turned away from me again, and I could feel the tears burning behind my eyes as he began to walk away from me.

Sniffing against my tears, I began to make my way to the last class of the day. I could feel the day weighing heavily on me as I slipped into the class. Dr. James walked in a few minutes after me and began his lesson. I couldn't really concentrate on what he was writing on the board, as my vision began to blur around the edges.

I don't know when it happened, but my eyes closed, and I drifted off to sleep. I just couldn't handle it anymore. My body was shutting down.

I was jolted awake by my desk being jostled. I looked up into the angry eyes of Dr. James. On my desk sat a pile of very heavy books that had not been there moments before. "Miss Swan, you will stay and talk to me after class." He didn't wait for me to respond or remove the books from my desk, instead, simply walking to the front of the room to continue his lesson.

I tried to walk past him as he dismissed the class, but he caught me up by the arm, his grip far too tight, preventing me from leaving. "Miss Swan, if you are going to fall asleep during class, you might as well not come at all. I will not have you snoring in my class and disrupting those students who actually came to learn."

I bowed my head in both shame and pain. He really was holding my arm far tighter than was necessary or even appropriate. And yet that wasn't the worst part. This was the second time today that I'd ended up having a professor berate me. I didn't understand what I'd done to have this kind of day, but I hoped it would all be over soon. I couldn't continue to have these kinds of verbal beatings.

"Miss Swan," Dr. James hissed at me in irritation. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir," I whispered without raising my head. I waited for him to let me go, but it was several moments before his hold on me even began to loosen. When his hand finally fell away from my arm, I slipped out of the room and began the walk back to my apartment. I couldn't wait to crawl back into bed and pretend that today had never happened.

Today had been the absolute worst of days. How could a day like today even exist? If I hadn't just lived through it, just barely, I wouldn't believe that it actually happened.

I walked up the steps of the apartment that I'd been sharing with my boyfriend of the past four years. I closed my eyes, leaning against the wall for a minute to rest my sore knee and smile. Edward. Edward would be able to help me get over my craptastic day. He always knew just what to do to make me feel better.

I couldn't suppress the smile that spread across my face as I realized that Edward was now exactly one floor above me and all I had to do was climb the last flight of stairs, and I'd be in his arms, the world would be perfect again.

Not being able to spend another moment without him, I bounded up the rest of the stairs, feeling as if I was floating on a cloud, which I must have been not to take a nose dive onto the landing. I jingled with my keys for a moment, trying to find the one that fit into the door of my apartment. It didn't take long. There were only three keys; the key for the apartment, the key for my truck, and the key to my father's house. I placed the key in the lock, pushed the door open and froze.

Tears blurred the image in front of me, but it would be forever ingrained in my mind. There, in the middle of the kitchen, our kitchen, the kitchen in which we had cooked all our meals, the kitchen in which we'd made love against every surface, the kitchen in which we'd sleepily kiss each other goodbye every morning, was Edward engrossed in a very leggy raven haired woman that I'd never seen. Her long tanned arms were wrapped around his neck, but she was tall enough that he didn't have to bend over to press their lips together. His hands were placed firmly on her hips, in a gesture that I knew he'd use to draw her closer.

My bag and keys dropped, hitting the floor with enough force to cause the girl to startle and turn to look at me, but I couldn't stand there long enough to see the features of the woman who had stolen my Edward from me. I quickly turned back toward the stairs and started to run down them, praying that I didn't trip and end up in the hospital. I could hear Edward behind me, but I tried to ignore him. "Bella wait!" I could hear him nearly growling, "Let go of me, Leah. You've already done enough."

I reached the bottom step, hearing the clumping of Edward's shoes meaning that he was close behind me. I needed to run faster because he was going to catch up to me with his long legs and superhuman-like speed. There was no way that I was going to be able to get away from him, but I had to. Even the pain in my knee from falling this morning wasn't going to hold me back.

How could this be happening to me? How could my day have gone from the worst day of my life, to the worst day that had ever existed?

I threw back the front door only to realize that in the few moments that I had been upstairs, it had started to pour. Great, now I was going to have to run in the rain. As if I wasn't already impaired enough by my own imbalance, now I had to try to make sure not to slip while I was running.

"Bella, wait," he called to me again, but I was already running outside, trying to put as much distance between us as I possibly could. Of course, that wasn't really a possibility

I felt a steel grip wrap around my wrist, pulling me to a short stop. He pulled me back, tightening his grip so that no matter how I shook or turned my arm, I couldn't get away from him. "Bella, you have to listen to me. It's not what it looked like."

Turning toward him quickly, I could feel the anger rising in my system. "It's not what it looks like? Is that really what you're going to say Edward? Can you even contemplate how cliché that is?" My breathing was ragge, and I wanted so badly to push him, hit him, anything to cause him even a hundredth of the pain that he had caused me. "I saw you. You had your hands on her waist and you were kissing her. I'm not stupid Edward, you can't lie to me."

"I'm not lying to you," he growled. "I love you, Bella, and you know it. I would never do something to upset you like that."

I tried to glare up at him, but it didn't work because the rain was coming down directly into my eyes, preventing me from looking up. It was probably for the best. If I could see his eyes, I didn't know if I'd be able to keep a straight head. He'd somehow be able to convince me that I hadn't seen what I'd seen and then I'd let him take me back upstairs as if nothing had ever happened. Well it wasn't the way it was going to work this time. He had fucked up, and it was over. "Edward, let go of me. I'm not going to let you stand here and lie to me anymore." I shook my arm and twisted my wrist, but it was a waste of my energy. He wasn't going to let me go.

"Bella, I'm not lying to you. Will you please listen to me?" I didn't make any move or response. I wasn't going to be able to get away so I was going to have to stand here until he was done. "Bella, I didn't make a move on her. I was trying to get away from her. What you saw, my hands on her hips, was me trying to push her away. Please, baby, you have to believe me. I would never do something like that with anyone but you."

He brought his free hand up to my face, but I flinched away. Did he think that was going to be enough for me? Did he really think that I would just let his lame excuses work? "Baby," he whispered, "I know that this looks bad, but I need you to believe me. I told you that I was going to have my bio lab partner over to study with me. Leah's my partner, and I think she got the wrong idea."

Reaching out again, he brushed aside the bangs that were plastered to my face from the rain, and I didn't move away this time. Even though I didn't want to, my body was slowly moving toward his again. We were like magnets, and it was getting hard to deny the pull. "Bella, I love you with everything that I am, you know that. We have been through everything together. You were there when my parents got in that car accident when we were little and I had to move in with my Aunt and Uncle. I was there when your parents got divorced and your dad would barely look your way because he said that you looked too much like your mom." His hand curved around the side of my face and his thrum brushed the moisture of both my tears and the rain from my cheeks "We went to every school function together, even before we got together. And then, when the time came, you were my first and will be my only."

I stifled the sob that tried to escape, trying to remain strong against the urge I had to wrap myself in him. But I was slowly breaking. I could almost feel the truth of his words as he spoke. We had been everything to each other growing up. And now, as Juniors at U-dub, we'd decided that it was time to move in together. It had been Edward who'd asked me to do it. The man that I loved wouldn't do the things that I thought I'd seen him doing in the apartment upstairs. "Bella, love, I would never do anything as stupid as to cheat on you. There are hundreds, no thousands of guys out there that are sitting around watching, just waiting for me to screw up. If I did one thing wrong, you would be gone forever, and I could never live without you. You are all I want, and no one else would be enough for me. Please, baby, you have to believe me."

My body fell into his, and I could no longer hold in the sobs that were now shaking my body. Warmth surrounded me as he wrapped me in his arms. "Oh, thank God," he whispered into my hair. "Baby, I am so sorry that I upset you. Nothing happened, and I'm just so glad that you believe me." His voice cracked, alerting me to the fact that he too was crying.

I buried my face in his chest, "I believe you," I choked out. "I'm so sorry. I just had the absolute worst day and I thought that I'd lost you and I couldn't handle it." I rambled on, feeling myself drown in Edward.

Edward rubbed my back, soothingly, up and down. He pressed a kiss into my hair, and simply said, "I love you, baby." I couldn't help but relax into him. We stood there for several minutes, just getting more and more drenched, but I didn't care. In this moment, I was okay. Moments ago, my world had been wrecked. My world revolved around Edward, and I had watched it crash down around me in those few moments. Now, I just needed him.

As if reading my mind, Edward pulled away just enough so that he could turn my face up toward his. He stroked my bottom lip, and I thought I felt his hand tremble slightly. Once his thumb left my lip, my tongue immediately darted out, trying desperately to create some of the pressure that his thumb had placed there. Edward groaned as he watched my tongue, then his lips descended on mine. When our lips touched, it wasn't gentle. He pressed down on me with almost bruising force. I could taste saltiness in our kiss, but due to the massive amounts of rain soaking both of our faces, I couldn't determine whose tears I was tasting.

Edward's grip on me tightened, dragging me closer, but it wasn't enough. I needed to be closer to him, and there was no way that I could be out in the middle of the street. Edward, always the mind reader, quickly brought me up so that I was on eye level with him. I wrapped legs around his waist, allowing me to feel just how desperately we needed each other. After making sure that I was securely wrapped around him, he began to carry me as quickly as he could back to our apartment.

Allowing him to see where we were going so that I didn't end up on my back on the stairs, I moved my mouth to his neck and his jaw line. I kissed away every droplet of rainwater that dared to separate me from Edward's skin. I could feel his legs lifting below me, letting me know that he was climbing the stairs while also providing the most torturous form of pleasure. Every time he lifted his leg to the next step, and it appeared that he was taking the steps two at a time, he would rub my jean clad core.

"Bella," he groaned as he shifted me higher, slowly working his way up the stairs. "God, baby, I need you now."

I couldn't help but smile against the mark I'd just made on his neck. I loved that I had this sort of affect on Edward. He was an amazingly beautiful man who could have any woman that he wanted, hence the leggy, raven-haired woman upstairs in our apartment. Yet, I was the one who was able to get this reaction out of him.

Hearing the door slam alerted me to the fact that we had reached our apartment. Edward must have left it open when he chased me down the stairs, and I loved him all the more for it. Edward, who never left a door unlocked, even when we spontaneously jumped each other. Edward, who constantly lectured me on keeping myself safe by locking the door behind me. My OCD Edward had left our apartment door wide open just to make sure that he didn't lose me.

Edward growled, shocking me out of my revelation. "Get out." I looked over my shoulder and realized that the woman that I had seen Edward with was still standing in the middle of our kitchen, looking at Edward expectantly. It boggled my mind that she could honestly think that she was going to get anywhere with him after he ran after me like that. And it made me want to rip her hair out as I remembered the way that she'd tried to wrap herself around my Edward. I watched her as she slowly made her way around us to the door. After she reached the door, she turned back to look at us. I scraped my teeth across Edward's neck possessively, causing his bulge beneath me to twitch. She glared at me, but finally left.

As soon as the click of the door was heard, Edward was moving again. He laid me on our bed before running back to lock the door, making me smile. He would always be my OCD Edward. Then he was back. He clasped our hands together, intertwining our fingers, pinning our hands above my head as he stretched himself over me.

He reattached his lips to mine, still full of passion and need, and so much more. "I love you," he murmured against my lips. "I love you so much, Bella." He moved his lips from mine, creating a searing trail across my jaw and down the column of my throat. "You are everything to me, and I would never do anything to ruin what we have because I can't live without you."

"Mmmmm," I moaned as Edward found an extremely sensitive spot and paid particular attention to it. "I love you, Edward." My breath caught in my throat as he bit down sharply, marking me as his.

Hoisting himself up so that he was straddling my hips, Edward reached down and pulled me into a sitting position as well. Reaching down, he found the hem of my wet t-shirt, and pulled it over my head. The shirt made a slapping sound as it landed somewhere in the room. I felt Edward's hand slide across my skin reverently. Then his hand came to rest on my forearm. "How did this happen?"

I looked down to see the bruise that was starting to come in, completely encircling my arm. I winced as I realized what it was. "Dr. James grabbed me as I was leaving his class." I couldn't bring myself to lie to Edward, even when I knew I should. "I accidentally fell asleep in his class, and he wanted to make sure that I understood that there were other students who didn't need me to distract them by snoring during his lesson."

Edward's thumb brushed feather soft over the bruise causing me absolutely no discomfort. He brought my arm up and dragged his lips across the bruise. His eyes locked with mine, and I could only see love and concern in his eyes. "Has he ever shown such physical tendencies to you before?"

I shook my head and he sighed. "We're going to complain about that. He shouldn't touch you, EVER."

Edward leaned in and brushed his lips across mine softly before continuing his exploration of my body. He moved at a much slower pace now, making each touch apologetic and loving. He caressed my body with his lips. Unhooking my bra, he pushed the straps off my shoulders, his lips following their path. When he reached my hands, he brought the palms up to his face and kissed each of them before looking at me questioningly. "I fell on the way to the Student Union this morning," I said in answer to his unasked question.

He nodded in understanding. This was common place enough, and was not something for him to get worked up over anymore. He made a move to remove my pants, but I wanted something else first. I pushed his hands away lightly and began to work on the buttons of his shirt. Leaning in, he pressed his lips to mine as we worked together to rid him of the shirt.

Once his shirt was thrown across the room, he went back to work on removing my clothes. Unbuttoning my jeans, he pressed my shoulders back into the bed gently so that he could lift my hips off the bed and pull the jeans away. Looking down at the skin that was now revealed to him, he leaned down and brushed his lips across my right knee before looking back up at me. I sighed, "It was a pretty bad fall."

Edward swallowed visibly as his gaze remained connected to mine before leaning back down to apply more attention to my injured knee. Though I loved how he wanted to take care of me and take away all my pain, what I needed right now more than anything else was to be with him. Reaching down, I tangled my fingers in his hair and tugged until he left my knee and brought his attention back to my lips.

I wanted to growl as he lifted his lips away from mine again. Opening my eyes, I was greeted by his questioning ones. "What else happened today, Bella?" he whispered.

So badly, I wanted to lie to him and say that nothing else happened, but I knew that he would see right through my lie. He always could tell when I was lying. So instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck and looked deeply into his eyes. "I got a D on my Calculus test and when I tried to set up a meeting with my professor, he refused. He said that I was going to fail and that I needed to either drop the class or just go ahead and fail, but that he wasn't going to put up with me either way."

Anger flashed through Edward's eyes, but he made no move away from me. I had expected him to fly across the room before leaving to get the man fired. Instead, he remained in his position hovering over me. Slowly, as the anger faded, he leaned down to brush his lips across mine again. "I'm sorry, Baby. I can't believe that you've had such a terrible day. Tomorrow we are going to talk to someone about the way that your professors treat their students. But right now," he said as he looked down at me with his now forest green eyes. "I need to be with you, and I'm not sure that I can wait a moment longer"

I swallowed thickly as a fresh wave of liquid pooled between my legs. I pulled Edward back down to me so that I could connect our lips more permanently. "Please," I whispered against his lips.

One of Edward's hands wrapped around the base of my neck, holding me captive to his sweet, tender lips. When I was sure that he wasn't going to pull away again, I unwrapped my arms from around his neck and let my hands trail against his skin between us. Edward arched away enough so that I could work with the button fly of his jeans without losing the heat that radiated from his body.

Edward growled as my fingers brushed the bulge through his boxers as I pulled the zipper down. I would have smiled in amusement of his reaction to me if I was not mesmerized by his size. No matter how many times we were together, I couldn't get over how his body reacted to mine.

"Bella," Edward groaned, bringing me back to reality. I realized that I'd stopped trying to remove his jeans and was now just stroking him through his boxers. "You're going to kill me if I can't be inside you soon."

With new vigor, we removed the remainder of both his and my clothing. Finally bare to each other, Edward positioned himself at my entrance. Foreplay completely forgotten, he pushed into me. We both groaned, finally being together the way that we needed to be.

Edward's lips trailed down my neck as my nails dug into his back. But other than that, we made no movement. Sometimes I thought he was trying to drive me crazy. I wiggled my hips, trying to get him to move, but he only bit down lightly on my shoulder. "Not, yet, baby," he groaned. "I just want to be like this, with you, for a little while. Once we move, I'm not going to be able to stop myself, and it will all be over. Just give me this."

I hated being torn. He was right, I wanted to stay like this, connected to him, forever. But there was nothing more torturous than him not providing the delicious friction that I craved from only him. After a few more minutes, there was nothing I could do to prevent my body from trying to force a reaction out of his.

Complying, Edward began a slow slide of our bodies. My eyes rolled back in my head as he reached a pace meant purely to torture me with pleasure. All the while, Edward's lips continuing on their journey down my body.

I almost came off the bed as Edward finally reached my breast. He took my right nipple into his mouth, sucking on it gently at first before scraping his teeth up the hardened peak. I gasped, tangling my fingers in his hair as the sensation jolted through my body, nearly causing me to release instantly.

I couldn't control the whimper as he let my nipple fall from the warmth of his mouth. But the sound soon changed to a moan deep in my chest as he moved to the other nipple, giving it the same treatment.

"Bella," he growled around my breast before pushing into me more roughly. I wasn't prepared, and my body reacted instantly, imploding with extreme force, clamping down on his, trying to hold him as close as I possibly could. Edward smiled against my skin, clearly proud of the reaction he'd gotten from me.

Returning to his slow pace, he worked me through my orgasm and prolonged the aftershocks that followed. When my legs had stopped trembling, I dragged his face up to mine and delved my tongue into his mouth before our mouths were even pressed together. I wrapped my tongue around his, trying to stir sensations in him to make him move.

"Edward," I groaned as he remained at an ever slow pace. "I need you to move, now."

His lack of response made me growl. I wrapped my legs around his waist and dug my heels into his backside. He groaned, disconnecting our lips and looking down at me. "Bella, why do you want me to move? You deserve to be loved."

I blinked away the tears as I realized what he was saying. He was doing this for me. He wanted to make love to me in the most thorough way possible. I brushed a piece of hair from his forehead. Arching up, I brushed my lips across his lightly. " I know that you love me, Edward. But right now, I need more. I need to feel you lose yourself in me." I brushed my lips across his again. "Please."

A groan ripped through his lips as he pushed into me quickly. Pulling out and pushing into me quickly again, he dropped his forehead to the crook of my neck. Latching his mouth onto the spot where my neck met my shoulder, Edward began to mark me both inside and out. He pushed into me so hard and so quickly that I would forever be branded as his.

I could feel him begin to twitch within me. His hands slid between us, finding the tender bundle of nerves and putting pressure on it. "I need you to come for me, again." He groaned, grazing his teeth over my skin.

"Edward," I whimpered as I felt my body coiling, winding itself so tightly that it was painful. "Please."

A sharp pinch to my clit was all that I needed. My walls tightened around his, pulling him farther into me, holding him so that he could never get away. Following quickly behind, Edward growled out my name. My name falling from his lips was almost enough to push me over just one more time.

Collapsing on top of me, he tried to control his rapid heartbeat and erratic breathing. I couldn't resist the temptation of running my fingers through his hair. The texture was like a drug, so soft that I found my hands gravitating toward it of their own accord.

Picking up his head, Edward pressed his lips to the skin just above my heart. "I'm sorry today sucked, baby."

I giggled as I continued to run my hands through his hair. I shoved on Edward's chest until he rolled onto his back, taking me with him. I pressed my lips to his, sure that when I looked down at him he could see the canary feathers on my lips. "I could think of a few ways for you to make it better."