PenName: OMGMyWhangsOnFire (a collab penname for: Olevia1977 and Bella's Executioner)
Image # Used: 10
Title: Hit Send
Word Count: 5,797
Rating: M (mature language and situations)
Summary: Think you know who you're dealing with? Hit send and find out the truth. Don't judge a book by its cover. You never really know where desires are hiding till you let them out.

"Human sexuality is part of the social life of humans. Social sexuality is ruled by social norms. These norms dictate the ways in which sexuality can be expressed."

Bella hid a yawn with the back of her hand. She was daydreaming while doodling again—never all that interested in what Professor I-think-tweed-makes-me-look-old-enough-to-have-my-PhD-Cullen was talking about in this class.

She thought it would be interesting. Sociology 42: The Sexual Experience in Society. She'd never been so wrong in her life.

"Is that even relevant in today's society?" some girl behind Bella asked.

"What do you mean?" Professor Stiff-shirt countered.

"Can't people just…not be themselves and get away with acting on impulse?"

"Yeah," the hottie sitting next to Bella chimed in. "I have a twitter account for my dick, Dr. Cullen."

A wave of snickers and giggles floated over the room. Bella couldn't help but blush as she spied the blond god sitting to her right. He sat reclined in his chair with a casual charm that was pure sex.

Bella bit her lip and tried to focus on the lecture—hopelessly imagining what his dick's twitter name was.

"Settle down…this is a college class and not junior high," Dr. Old-man-slacks pointed out.

"This brings up a valid point. Society tells humanity how to behave in order to express sexual desires. But does that mean we have to follow these rules?"

Mr. Cutie-goes-to-college sitting next to Bella laughed under his breath. She wondered what kind of rules he was willing to break.

"And what lengths are we willing to go to get around said conventions?"

Dr. Cullen looked at his watch. "It's time to leave," he announced. "Your assignment tonight, study humanity's willingness to create a façade to encourage sexually deviant behavior in public."

Bella scowled at the front of the class as everyone started packing up their bags to leave.

She had no clue what he was asking them to do.

"Don't hurt yourself darlin'," yummy blond boy drawled.

Bella blinked up at him.

"He meant go to a bar and take note of how stupid we act to attract the opposite sex... especially when drunk." Mr. Pretty smiled and started to head to the front of the class.

Bella saw an opening—like her father always told her to do, she was gonna jump in and grab it. She hopped out of her seat, following him.

"Um…hi, my name is Bella," she said in a breathy whisper. She extended her hand, hoping miserably that he didn't notice that it trembled with the proof of her nerves like a leaf in a hurricane.

He retained his smile as he shook her hand. There was amusement dancing in his eyes that she didn't notice since she was too busy trying to seductively peer up at him through her lashes.

"Name's Jasper," he offered.

"So…uh…you wanna work on our assignment together tonight?"

Jasper chuckled. "You mean you wanna meet me at a bar?"

Bella blushed and nodded.

"Sounds good to me. I'm planning on being at the Pub…'round ten."

"Here," the girl squeaked. Jasper could tell she was losing her courage the longer she stood in front of him.

He scanned his eyes down her body as she pulled out a piece of paper from her notebook. She had a nice body-everything was good and in all the right places. But she wasn't his type. And he was in a very happy and committed fucking-ship with his…possible girlfriend, even if she was.

Bella handed him a slip of paper with her name and number on it.

"Why thank you….Darlin'.'' He made sure to exaggerate his southern accent since he could tell she liked it.

Bella blushed and giggled turning and bolting from the room. Jasper laughed as he joined Professor Fuddy Duddy at the front of the class.

"You know, when you told me you were teaching a class about sex I was interested…when do you think you'll get around to that?" he joked.

Edward Cullen was a man of hidden layers. The one he wore for his job left him irritated easily with his former college roommate's humor.

"You have a twitter account for your dick?" he asked, removing his tweed jacket. The damn thing scratched his neck the entire time he wore it. But it made him look older than his students—which of course he technically was not.

Jasper smiled. "Yeah, The Flaming Whang," he announced holding his hands up like he was presenting the next act in a circus sideshow.

Edward scowled. "That makes you sound like you have a venereal disease, Jas."

Jasper laughed and shrugged. "Doesn't seem to bother the ladies."

Edward snickered and grabbed his briefcase. "You mean the perverted old men who have twitter accounts posing as women for kicks?"

Jasper didn't join Edward in his mirth at that thought. "So… when was the last time your whang was on fire?"

"Deflection, how original," Edward mumbled as they headed to the parking lot.

"My whang," Edward echoed for emphasis, "has never been on fire. And my sex life is not any of your business."

Jasper spied a yellow sports car parked at the end of the lot. Alice, his would be girlfriend, long-time bed bunny, and unfortunate younger sister of one tweed-wearing-wet-noodle Professor, Edward Cullen, was sitting behind the steering wheel.

"How's 'bout you join us all at the Pub tonight? Could be a funny social experiment. See if you're like Clark Kent with that damn suit. The girls might even think you're human." Jasper rambled more the closer they got to Edward's car. He was desperate to get Edward in a good mood before he found out where his baby sister was sleeping at night.

He remembered all too well the rants that Edward threw over his sister's boyfriends in the past. He'd had a man arrested for being caught near her one Saturday night before she turned eighteen. There were also the stories of the time he had a man fired, a man forced to file for divorce and a distinct probability that he had Alice's last boyfriend, a nice Italian boy named Alec, deported.

Though, that last one was partly Jasper's fault. He had his sight set on Alice the first time he met her. Telling Edward about the possible questionability of Alec's residence here was to his benefit.

Edward was the smartest person Jasper had ever met. He took advanced, accelerated courses all of his life. Jasper started college at the age of eighteen and was shocked to find the sixteen year old Edward Cullen as his roommate. Even more floored to watch Edward complete his college career in less time than it took for Jasper to finding parking in the morning before class.

Edward was loaded not only from his family's wealth but the money that he made from being a genius author and exceedingly young owner of two PhD's.

And he was brutally over protective of his baby sister.

Jasper didn't look forward to the possibilities of how Edward would ruin his life if he ever found out Alice had landed in his old roommate's arms.

Alice had mentioned it'd been months since Edward brought a girl around the family. Maybe a little heat in his bedroom would keep his eyes off Jasper's.

"It's enough of a social experiment watching the students stumble into class, Jas. I'm…selective with my women."

Edward had said that many times when they shared a room back in the early days of college. Jasper always assumed it had something to do with how young he was…That is, after he excluded the idea that what Edward might have meant was that he was homosexual and had his eyes set on Jasper's ass instead.

Jasper remembered a certain pair of brown eyes and a blush spreading across a sweet face.

"Let me guess….quiet girl who won't embarrass you in front of the good doctor and his wife?" Jasper teased-testing the waters for the idea of one Bella Swan to be Edward's new distraction.

Edward just smirked and shrugged as he put on his sunglasses. He got into his expensive European car and drove off.

Across town, the woman that Jasper was putting all of his hopes of keeping his horizontal Mambo practicing with one Alice Cullen a relative secret was getting ready to go out.

Bella Swan wasn't the kind of girl who caught anyone's attention with her looks. She'd never stop traffic- except for that one time that she tripped while trying to tie her shoelaces and fell ass up in the middle of a busy intersection.

Bella stood back from the mirror in her bathroom and fiddled with the hem of her shirt.

She bit her lip- a nervous tick that her father warned gave away what she was thinking.

Bella didn't much care at the moment that someone could tell she was nervous. So long as she wasn't projectile vomiting she was fine.

Bella's stomach turned and she made a beeline for the kitchen to find something to help calm her worries. The bottle of vodka tucked safely away in the freezer of her fridge was just the liquid courage that she would need to help get her out the door.

Bella was not the kind of girl to make the first move. She never took the initiative and told a guy that she was interested. She preferred to sit back and let him come to her.

Hence, Bella was eternally single. She lived a life full of fantasies of men who would one day just show up at her door and do all the things she'd never spoken out loud before.

And, of course, she was horny as fuck.

Bella headed downstairs and hopped into a cab, giving the driver directions to the Pub near campus. All of the students went there on Friday nights. It was said to be the best place for people Bella's age to find a hook-up.

Naturally, Bella had never been.

She wasn't notorious for being studious. Bella would never be accused of skipping out on fun nights at bars because she was at home hitting the books.

She was just shy.

Miss Swan was a walking cliché as she stepped into the Pub that night—mildly buzzed from her pre-night-out drinking, dressed like the ABC Family version of in-style, and practically shaking from nerves.

She felt like a bottle rocket that would shoot off at the first hint of a spark.

And the inferno was ignited when she spied the blond hottie across the room.

Jasper sat against the far wall with a short dark-haired girl straddled across his lap. Their lips were locked and his hands were squeezing her ass.

Bella's confidence plummeted. She was early. It was only nine p.m. Not only had he lied to her about the time of his arrival, he failed to mention he would not be coming alone.

She had two choices: Go home and wallow. Cry into a pint of Chunky Monkey and hope that Prince Charming would finally show up at her door. Or she could stay. Maybe try to do the normal college kid thing?

She gulped and looked around. Some people were dancing to the loud music playing over the speakers. Guys were hitting on girls standing at the bar. And a row of lip-locked couples were holding up the wall in the back. She kept glancing over at Jasper and his lady friend and finding it an oddly attractive sight.

All in all, she was intrigued.

Deciding to stay was going to require a lot more guts in the form of burning alcohol.

She bolted to the bar and downed the first drink she ordered. She didn't even remember what the drink was. After the second drink - that she was not in any way delicately nursing, as was recommended with hard liquor - she was lightly swaying on her kitten heels.

She kept throwing glances towards the wall where Jasper sat. Her blood was pumping hotter through her body as she watched his girlfriend start to lick his neck.

There was loud music thumping like the pulse in Bella's chest. She couldn't help but move to the beat.

The awkward gyration of Miss Swan's hips caught Jasper's attention from across the room. For a brief moment he thought that perhaps she was having a spasm-maybe a fit brought on by the flashing lights and loud sounds. Then she raised her glass to her lips and finished off her drink in one long pull.

He wasn't sure if it was alcohol induced, but it seemed that the girl had no rhythm whatsoever.

He snorted a laugh that made Alice pull her head back and glare up at him. She was slung across his lap, facing him and sucking on his neck. Jasper was sorry he laughed since her attention was pulled away from his skin.

"What's so funny?" she probed, raising her eyebrow.

He shook his head, winking and nodding toward Bella.

Alice looked over her shoulder just in time to see Bella twirl in place. She was a mess of arms and jerky moves.

Alice giggled.

"Oh the poor girl needs a cab like now."

A serious look crossed Jasper's face. Alice again questioned him with a quirked brow.

"She…uh…she's in my class…uh Edward's class. You think…maybe he would…" Jasper shrugged as he stammered around the question of Miss Bella-I-dance-to-my-own-beat Swan ever being Mr. Edward-I-like-my-girls-from-a-secret-society Cullen's type.

"Jas, you really can pick them can't you? I thought the point was to have Edward not pissed at you," Alice taunted, knowing exactly what he was trying to say.

Jasper shook his head, laughing along with Alice as Bella missed her stool and fell ass first on to the dance floor.

"We'll keep our eyes open for others," Alice promised. She went back to appreciating Jasper's flesh with vigor.

Some time later Jasper and Alice were moaning and playing tonsil hockey like it was the playoffs and they were planning on being champions.

Jasper was tempted to punch the owner of the hand that suddenly slapped his shoulder, until he turned his head to find that it was none other than spastic Bella Swan.

"Hi," Jasper mumbled, flustered that Bella looked less perturbed that he had mislead her and more interested in staring as he and Alice sucked face. Alice glared between the two of them.

"Can I help you?" she spat at Bella.

Bella flinched back slightly from the tiny woman's attack. She'd been watching Jasper all night and it was pretty apparent that they were an item. Bella couldn't really feel angry about it. Jasper never promised her anything.

In fact she had found the show rather entertaining. The two were inspiring pretty kinky fantasies in her heavily intoxicated brain.

"I just wanted…thank you," Bella slurred.

Alice looked like a Rock 'em Sock 'em Robot that was ready to pop her lid. She didn't like being interrupted.

Bella stood there for a minute with the small dark-haired girl fuming and the blond pretty boy trying to figure out how to calm her down without losing his wild night of fucking with her after they left the bar.

All at once Alice hopped off Jasper's lap. "Join me in the Lady's," she told Bella with a sickeningly sweet smile. She led the clueless brunette to the back of the bar.

Jasper sat confused and ordered a beer while he waited for whatever devious plan Alice was cooking up.

Minutes later the two returned, arms locked together like they were childhood friends. Jasper shook his head in amazement.

"What the?" he asked.

Alice shook her head as if to tell him he was the crazy one.

"Jasper, I want Bella to hang out with us tonight," she informed him as the girls took seats on either side of him.

For a fleeting, fucking hot minute he considered the possibility that what Alice meant was a three-some.

As the night wore on, however, he learned that what she meant was she found a gal-pal and suddenly he was just arm candy. He sat trapped between the two while they downed drinks and swapped stories about shaving legs.

"I like her very much Jasper. I think you should give Edward her number," Alice whispered as Jasper was wondering if he was ever going to get laid again.

Alice left to use the restroom one more time before they headed home.

"I feel so stupid for giving you my number now, Jasper," Bella told him, blushing as she always did. "I was just hoping for a fun night out. To have a good time coming to a place like this for once." Bella pulled her phone out of her purse and was fingering it while she talked.

Jasper saw an opportunity to finally get the brunette off of his ass. He grabbed her phone from her fingers and offered up a prayer that this would be a happy mistake.

"I've got just the number for you if you want a good time, darlin'," he informed her as he flipped open her phone and opened up her contacts profile.

Maybe Edward would find it funny?

Perhaps Bella would pass out before she could use the number and no one would be the wiser?

Either way he was just ready to get the hell out of this place and go home and pound his girlfriend into oblivion.

He dialed Edward's cell number into her phone, saved it under the name Good Time and smirked to himself.

He was going to give Edward her number the next day anyway, now that Alice had given him the okay. Maybe she would make the first move this way. Maybe that was the kind of woman Edward liked.

Alice joined them just as he was handing her phone back to her.

"Here ya go sweetie," Jasper mumbled and winked at the inebriated girl.

"Now if you don't mind," he said standing up and holding his hand for Alice. "I'd like to take my girl home."

Alice glared up at him. Bella bit her lip to keep from laughing. Jasper looked positively petrified.

"Since when do you tell me what to do?" she barked at the blond God.

Jasper sat back down and pouted beside the girl who was half his size.

"I really should go," Bella said. She was feeling pretty blitzed from the alcohol and suddenly very ready to be home alone after the little display of dominance between Alice and Jasper.

"Be careful," Alice told her.

Bella flashed them a shy grin and waved goodbye as she stumbled out of the bar. A cab was waiting just outside and she made it back to her apartment without any trouble.

The entire ride home Bella pictured Jasper and those plump lips of his. His toned arms and broad shoulders. She remembered the way he looked when little Alice told him what to do.

What would it be like to have that kind of control over a guy? A guy like that- powerful and seductive. Sexually confident and strong. To have him drop to his knees at your feet and be at your command.

Bella stripped once she was in her apartment. The Pub had been hot and sticky and she found herself growing hotter by the second the more she thought of the power Alice had over Jasper.

She rubbed her legs together as she flopped back on her bed.

These were new fantasies taking over her mind. She'd always been too reserved to picture herself as anything but the lady in waiting. She'd thought that what she wanted was a gentleman to take care of her.

Her mind was screaming at her that she had it all wrong.

Now her visions were filled with thoughts of restraints and ropes. Riding crops and safe words.

And to her very pleasurable surprise, she was the one in control in the dreams.

She stepped on something hard as she was wandering from the bedroom to the kitchen. Her clothes were scattered on the floor and she realized that there was something in her pants. Pulling the object from her the pocket and saw that it was her phone.

Jasper had taken it from her in the bar. She had no idea why or what he did with it.

She scanned through the call logs, text messages and such and found no hidden messages from him. She did find a new contact number that intrigued her.

Bella pulled the bottle of vodka from her freezer and returned to her bedroom. A number listed as A Good Time was sure to be fun.

She sent a text to say hello. When she got no response she just started listing all the things that would make tonight a "good time".

When the alarm started blaring the next morning, Bella cursed the very invention of alcohol.

She remembered nothing from the night before other than arriving at the Pub. Her mouth felt dry and her head was pounding like a marching band had set up practice inside it.

"Saturday classes are of the devil!" she screeched, heading into the bathroom to puke and shower.

Arriving across town to class - exactly ten minutes before his students were scheduled to arrive- was the very bothered Edward Cullen. He pulled his Blackberry from the breast pocket of his signature tweed jacket and laid it on the podium at the front of class.

Students began arriving. The over-eager ones that sat up front and took extra notes after reading every piece of the material. As usual, Edward ignored them and looked over his notes. If he stuck to the lesson plan, today's lecture would be no less boring than yesterday's.

He had wanted to teach something very different in his classes. Edward had experienced many sides of sexuality and social displays of it over his young life. But he was only a first year professor. He wasn't allowed to set his course material just yet.

"Morning, Professor," Jasper said, grinning like that cat that ate the canary.

Edward wondered if his old roommate seriously believed he was fooling him when it came to who he was banging every night. He let Jasper live for one reason—he liked to watch him squirm.

"I have something for you, my friend," he said before Edward could respond to his greeting.

"I've found a nice girl for you, Edward. I think you should call her and at least attempt to have a life." Jasper tried to hand him a note card with what Edward assumed was a name and number scribbled on it.

"I have…" he tried to explain as he refused to take the card.

"Selective taste…yeah, yeah, I know. Just think about it," Jasper sighed exasperatedly.

Edward feigned interest in watching students arrive as a not so subtle hint to Jasper to drop it. The brunette who always looked lost during his lectures stumbled in with dark sunglasses on.

Edward rolled his eyes. Saturday classes were the stupidest invention known to man.

Not a man who ever saw the value of taking hints, Jasper walked beside his friend on the way to his seat and slid the card into the pocket of his tweed jacket.

"Today," Edward began, drawing the attention of the students. "I would like to talk about sexual fantasy. Specifically fetishes and role play." He wrote on the board words that created a collective gasp from the class.

Punishment.

Submissive.

Dominated.

He was a taking a gamble. This was off book, but it was all that he could think about. Edward remembered the texts he'd received early this morning. The first stuck in his mind like gum to the bottom of his five thousand dollar shoes.

I want to control you.

Looking over the class, he noted there were mixed reactions to these controversial subjects he'd just brought up. Even Jasper seemed confused by the direction he was going in.

Bella was more lost than ever.

"Please pull out a piece of paper and write down your darkest desires. What you believe to be sexual taboo."

This wasn't like him. Edward had prided himself on sticking to the course outline implicitly. From the first day of class he had repressed the desire to talk about more sexually deviant subjects in the effort to earn his place amongst his colleagues as a respectable professor.

But after the messages he'd received this morning his mind was controlled by a very different desire.

While the class was occupied with their own predicament of unlocking and facing the desires that they suppressed for the sake of society, Edward pulled out his phone and tried to figure out who was behind the conversation.

First he had thought it was Jasper. It was something his old roommate would find funny. But then, the idiot valued his dick above his life and he would never risk being able to fuck Edward's sister by doing something so stupid.

Edward had interest in only one kind of woman.

Even Jasper would never have been lucky enough to stumble upon the right combination to his lock as these texts had.

Taking a deep breath, but showing no outward signs of distress, he composed a message back to the mysterious sender.

I'd like that very much.

He hit send, masking any evidence that he was excited or even interested in what he was doing.

A phone started beeping three seats back from the front of the class.

"Swan, Isabella," Edward said immediately. The brunette squeaked in shock to find that it was her phone going off. "You know the policy of cell phones in class," he reminded her with annoyance. He was in no mood to deal with insubordinate students today.

The girl looked miserable and for a second he considered feeling sorry for her. But he was tired of being the teacher. Edward's darker side was peeking out as he waited for a response from the mysterious owner of the thoughts in his phone.

He was tired of being in charge. Ready to hand over control to someone else for a while.

Bella hid behind her hand and fought with her phone to shut up, having no idea why it was making noise to begin with. She usually set her phone to silent and must have forgotten to do so the night before.

She really couldn't remember doing anything the night before…other than getting shit-faced.

Bella opened her phone to find a very confusing text. She read it over and over. She had no idea what it meant. Furthermore, she had no idea who the sender was other than that she had the number listed under…

"A Good Time?" she stage-whispered.

Jasper started coughing next to her and she ignored him. She had no clue what was going on.

She noticed that the text was in reply to one of her texts. Having no memory of sending any texts recently, she scanned through her logs to see if there were any answers to the mystery before her.

She nearly fell out of her chair.

I want to control you? She read over and over in her head. She had no idea what that meant. She scrolled through all texts finding that they were sent only hours before. No matter how hard she tried her brain refused to bring up memories of last night.

She read through the messages.

I'd tie you down to my bed and make you beg for my whip.

Bella's eyebrows rose. She felt her cheeks flush and she tried to hide completely behind her sunglasses.

You'd like that wouldn't you? For me to spank your ass so hard you screamed for more.

She choked and suddenly felt sick to her stomach. What possessed her to say these things?

I'd reward you for being a good boy.

She closed her phone and took a deep breath. She couldn't ever remember feeling so…ashamed of herself. And yet…there was a part of her that was kind of turned on by what she read.

She had no idea she could be so…commanding.

She yelped as her phone buzzed in her hand and she flipped it open with mild anxiety.

Please tell me you still want me. I know I want you.

She bit her lip. This Good Time person was either a horrible joke that would come back to bite her in the ass…or a rather intriguing development in the nonexistent sex life of Bella Swan.

Feeling confident for the first time in her life, Bella wrote a response and hit send.

A second later her phone buzzed again. She felt butterflies in her stomach at the response.

Meet me at 1901 E.C Street at four o'clock.

Bella swallowed while closing her phone. She spent the rest of class dancing on the edge between nervous and frustrated. She was feeling a buzz in her body that made her desperate to get to that place as soon as possible.

And she was also covered in a blush that proved her innocence in such relationships.

Class finally ended, and Bella sped past her fellow students to get to her car as fast as she could—she barely registered the sight of Professor Cullen pulling a note card from his pocket and reading it.

Twenty minutes later, Bella was standing in awe of the ritzy apartment complex across town. Apparently A Good Time was well stocked.

"Miss Swan?" Edward Cullen asked as he walked up behind her.

Bella jumped to hear the voice of Professor Tweed-knickers. She was on edge from the very idea of what the conversation stored within her phone implied and to find Dr. Cullen standing here…she wasn't sure how to react.

Her heart pounded in her throat. This was her teacher—not some hot guy who looked like the cute boys at the Pub last night. This had to be some miserable joke.

Jasper. He'd put the number in her contacts list. He was playing games with her.

Bella felt sick to her stomach. She was most definitely not going to be passing this class. With any lucky, Professor Cullen would end his punishment with kicking her out and hopefully not bring the content of the texts to the school Administration.

Edward watched as a myriad of emotions danced across the girl's face. He realized suddenly that she was not the person he thought she was. Isabella squirmed in front of him—clearly on edge with the prospect of having to talk to him.

That didn't fit at all with the commanding voice of the messages he'd received.

"Uh…hi," Bella croaked. She bit her lip as he regarded her with intense eyes.

She couldn't help but keep peeking up at him. She really had never given Dr. Cullen a second glance before. She knew he was young, probably even younger than her. But he was just the boring teacher who talked about stuff too complex for her to understand.

Standing this close to him she could see that he was actually…quite handsome. He wasn't stocky like Jasper, but he was tall and she could tell that under his confining tweed jacket was a fitted t-shirt that hugged a well toned chest.

His hair had red hints in it that she would never have noticed if she hadn't seen him in the sunlight. And his eyes…they were emerald in color and solid with emotions.

He watched her quietly, saying nothing. The longer they stood there, the more comfortable Bella was starting to feel being around him. At first she had been terrified that her teacher was here to reprimand her. But now… she noted the way his shoulders were slouched slightly. The tiny pout of his lips. His eyes, though hardened with hidden secrets, were almost sad—like he was expectant of something from her.

Edward sat amazed as she slowly transformed before his eyes. She was new—brand new, no doubt, to this world that he would be welcoming her into. This surprised him. He'd never been interested in inexperienced girls before.

But there was a fierceness hiding inside of her. One that she had shared with him through words. He would help her discover that voice within.

As if he finally found the answers he was looking for, Edward smiled and started walking towards the building. He made no motion for her to join him, nor did he speak to her. There was no exchange of confirmation that he was even the person that she was here to meet.

It surprised neither of them that she followed him to the elevator.

They didn't speak on the ride up to his apartment…or rather, no conversation was held with words.

Their bodies buzzed and the air around them hummed with their promise of what was about to happen. Bella shifted back and forth enough that Edward knew she was not unaffected by his presence. And Bella could feel the barley contained hunger that she caught a glimpse of in his eyes.

It was empowering to think a man like Edward Cullen could want her.

She thought back to the texts.

She gasped as the elevator doors opened.

Edward unlocked the door to his home, welcoming Bella inside with the same detached communication that he had downstairs.

She marveled at the expensive surroundings but stumbled down the hall behind him in anticipation of what they would find.

Edward unlocked a door at the end of the hall, pausing in the doorway to finally look at her and speak.

"I don't let just anyone into this room, Isabella. It's the most private place in my world."

Bella's heart was practically beating out of her chest. She looked him in the eye and nodded that she understood. She felt a rush of pleasure at the way he bowed his head slightly to her and smiled as if he was elated that she was happy with him.

He stepped back and let her enter the room of secrets.

Bella was a sheltered girl. She'd never been on any big dates or held any long-term relationships. But she wasn't naïve enough to not know what a playroom was.

Her mouth popped open as she gaped at the gadgetry hanging from the ceiling—the assortment of crops and floggers displayed on the wall.

She was gripped with fear for a second.

What the hell was she getting herself into?

She turned to Edward for answers only to find him fall to his knees in front of her.

Bella had never known any emotion as strong as the one that coursed through her as she watched him look up at her, submissive and expectant.

"Please make good on your promises…Mistress."