I bolted upright in bed, feeling groggy with unrest, at first unsure why the pit of my stomach felt slightly uneasy, the way it did when I’d done something wrong and was about to get into a lot of trouble; or when I was dreading something particularly unpleasant.

I stretched, stifling a yawn as my eyes took in the typical clutter of my bedroom. As usual, the light filtering in through the grimy window was overcast and dull, doing nothing to dissipate the dark shadows in the corners of my room. It could’ve been much earlier than seven-thirty, which is what the annoyingly harsh numbers of my alarm clock assured me it was.

I’d just swung my legs over the side of my too-small bed when my eyes caught sight of it: my new blue pajama bottoms, now ruined, discarded in a heap on my hardwood floor.

Immediately, the reason for my inexplicable unease hit me: Edward, scrambling to pull up his pants as he backed away from me. Edward, apologies tumbling from his lips as he disappeared out my window, an expression of absolute sorrow imprinted on his otherworldly handsome features.

He’d left me confused, still trembling from the most extraordinary pleasure I’d ever experienced in my life, and yet wanting more.

I glanced around my bedroom again as if expecting him to suddenly appear out of the darkened corners; bidding me good morning; asking me if I’d had sweet dreams, a telltale smile on his upturned lips as he already had a good idea about the sort of dreams I’d had.

But Edward was not there. He did not emerge from the shadows, and in his absence the audible silence of my bedroom was eerily disconcerting. It was slightly alarming how I’d already become so accustomed to his presence in my life.

I felt desolation steal over my heart then; an intensely concentrated feeling of despair and humiliation that he’d left me after performing such an intimate act on me.

I shivered at the memory of the act itself, a peculiar mixture of excitement and mortification rushing through my limbs as thoughts of the previous night flitted through my consciousness, unbidden.

A jumble of confused images and emotions, broken and bewildering, assailed me: my embarrassment as I’d woken abruptly and realized what Edward was about to do… his beautiful mouth on my most sensitive area, bringing me pleasure… the look of unadulterated lust in his topaz eyes… my heart pounding against my ribs as if it were trying to beat its way out of my chest… my body squirming beneath his tongue in the most intense gratification I’d experienced in my life as Edward brought me to orgasm – the first orgasm I’d experienced that wasn’t of my own doing… the shame I’d felt as he’d literally bolted out of my room…