I don’t know what comes over me, but I bring my mouth closer to her ear, I can hear her breathing, I can almost feel her. She doesn’t move, she doesn’t say a word. I know what I want to do, but I’m a fucking coward. Do it.

“I want to do with you

what spring does with the cherry trees.”

She doesn’t move, she doesn’t say a word. Just the other day she told me I wasn’t allowed to quote Neruda to her under any circumstances, because the first time she would let a man do that he’d have to mean it. She knows I mean it. She wants that man to be me. I reach out to touch her hand, and caress her fingers with my own. She leans back and rests her head on my chest. I’ve never felt more alive in my life. This isn’t about an erection anymore, or Chilean poets. My mind and body have finally met and are telling me, Bella.

Thank God that’s all it is. I let out a loud sigh and Edward smiles at me. He loves me more than anything in this world. Eeep! Yes, and Alice too. Ugh, he likes Alice like a little sister. Great. At least he didn’t hear anything. Phew. Ummm… wait. There was something else he said.

“Backstreet Boys?”

“Bella, glad that’s all youtook away from my little speech. Are they not cool anymore?”

“Ummm, Edward, no.”

“It’s the Jonas Brothers now, Edward. Keep up. Also, I’m NOT playing later,” Alice explains.

“Thank God. B, are you into the Jonas Brothers?”

“No. I barely know any of their songs. I’m sure they’re awesome because everyone loves them but I wouldn’t know.”

We eat. It’s great. Bella has long removed her hand from my crotch. They’re all discussing what dessert to share and I see my phone just hanging out on the table. I think about her last text and smile.

I bring my hand to her knee. She jumps a little, but nobody seems to notice. My hand goes higher, and higher. Then back down to her knee. Bella is bright red, squirming in her seat, staring intently at the dessert menu. I keep my hand on her knee, because I want her to feel comfortable, just brushing it with my fingers here and there. She brings her own hand and pushes mine up a little higher. I continue caressing her leg with my fingers. She looks at me, smiles. I smile back and squeeze her thigh a little. She puts her hand over mine again, this time bringing it higher. Much higher. I feel the dampness of her panties and my breath hitches, so does hers. I run my finger over them once, then promptly remove my hand.

Must. Get. Home. Now.

"Edward, I don't even know where to begin right now. Have you been sleeping with her?"

"No."

"Edward, I'll ask you one more time."

"No. But I know I will. The age of consent is 16 here in Washington."

"You disgust me, son. You are giving me information about the age of consent? What, the fact that some legislators wrote a law saying you can sleep with a child just because she turned sixteen and not have to face any legal consequences makes you think that this is ok? You may not remember, Isabella but I do. She was a toddler when you were going out for ice cream with girls in your sixth grade class. The idea that you have even laid a finger on her disturbs me. I understand girls these days are having sex, I'm not here to play morals police. But you're my son and you know better. She probably seems mature. Ready and willing. Let her be ready and willing with someone her own age, on her own terms. She is your intern. You have a responsibility towards her. Not to mention that her father trusts you enough to leave her in your care. You are betraying that trust."

"Right. And the fact that I'd do anything for this girl, that I absolutely adore her is of no significance. I disgust you? Dad, I'm gonna go now, I can't do this. Don't tell mom, or tell her, I don't care at this point.

"You really aren't thinking rationally. Nothing I said worries you?"

"Dad, I've been torturing myself for over a week – "

"A week. A whole week of torture, son?"

So all of these things.. all these parts that at one moment I found myself ZIPPING through wanting to read more, then wanting to read on to get past the icky feeling like this was just wrong on so many levels. Yet read on I did and I can say that I'm virtually addicted. I'd equate this fic to a road accident, you drive past and can't help but look.. even though you don't feel comfortable doing it. For me, I think I'll continue reading just to see where Mylittlesecret takes it.

Just how far will she push this barrier of acceptability and what will those around Bella, those closest and who are responsible for her react. If anything, Mylittlesecret is doing an amazing job at providing us with a realistic look at such a strange age pairing. From Edwards family's reactions, to Charlie's when he finds out what his "friend" has been up to with his little girl, to the outsiders views that are more than often given. This one pushes the envelope and.. I think I like it.

Now onto Bendingmirrors portion of the review.. to give you two sides of this interesting story...

I have to admit that I was a little worried about this one just from the title.

The first few chapters are quite short, as she starts to set the scene and introduce her characters and to develop the crush that Bella has on her new boss. In chapter 4 we get our first glimpse at Edward's point of view, and this was where the story started to lose me. The age difference seemed fine from Bella's p.o.v., but as soon as we switch into Edward's I started to squirm. At this point, even though Bella has googled the Age of Consent, it still seems pretty innocent on her part, but Edward's p.o.v. is anything but, and emphasises the age difference. The switch back to Bella's narration moves her crush from innocence to awareness, but by this point I was already squirming.

I was more comfortable with Bella's p.o.v. in the chapters than I was with Edward's, from her perspective everything was hot, and the chemistry was great, but each shift back to Edward reminded me of the age gap, and the very young age of Bella. The UST in the Bella chapters that I read was good, and if she had written this about an older Bella with the same age difference between them I would have kept reading the story, but I just couldn't deal with such a young Bella with a much older Edward (and in this story the maturity levels are very different between them). At times the story was able to suck me in a bit and I would forget how big the difference between them was, but then she would drop another reminder and I was back to uncomfortable again.

Unfortunately Bella's age proved to be too much of a stumbling block for me and I had to bail on the fic before anything much happened. I stopped reading at the end of chapter 10, so the story may have developed into a great read, but I'll never know, I can't get past her age.