Here is chapter seven and I am really excited to hear what you think about this. I put a lot of work into this chapter because there is finally some kind of relief to the tension that has been building so far. And please read my author's note at the bottom.


7.

I could already hear the airy laughter of many children as I approached Angela's house once again, the steps I took echoing in my head like déja vu.

It was Friday. The relief that this week's work was finished and a calm weekend faced me was enough to heighten my mood. The question of what I was trying to accomplish by going to this party had been more present in my head than the required concentration on my work the entire day.

An entire house full of children and parents, a lot of noise and probably chaos and I was volunteering to help out only to… to what? To stalk a stranger I barely knew? To humiliate myself only because my curiosity outweighed my sanity?

Faster than I expected, I was standing in front of Angela's door, the tip of my finger hovering above the button of the door bell, and my mind racing. I needed more time to think. Yet, I had no idea it would be worth taking another carousel ride contemplating about what had gotten into me.

And so, getting a hold of myself, I pushed my finger down. I breathed in deeply to calm myself and when the door opened, Angela stood there, grinning brightly at me. Still, there was something about her eyes that startled me. I could only describe it as a thin layer of grey clouding her usual happy nature.

She left me no time to examine her further.

"There you are. Come on, come in," she said hugging me, kissing my cheek before pushing me in. She helped me remove my coat in a flourish movement. A colourful blur rushed by in front of my eyes and the only thing I could make out was a blonde pony tail disappearing into the living room. Everything was decorated with balloons in all colours and shapes, garlands and lights. This was perfect and I once again had to admire Angela for how great she was at this. It was like she was made for exactly this.

"Come on, there's plenty of sandwiches to make for dinner," Angela said, the joy in her voice like honey running down my throat, warm and tender. I had already forgotten about the dull curtain of grey.

As I stepped into the kitchen, I was momentarily overwhelmed by the amount of people in the small and narrow place. About ten people were squeezed into the room, mostly women but I spotted one blonde man standing by the window, cutting cheese in strips.

"Hey, everyone. This is Bella, a good friend and she's here to help us a little," Angela said. Everyone's attention suddenly focused on me and I felt the familiar hot blush in my cheeks. I inconspicuously nudged Angela in the ribcage with my elbow.

There was a choir of hello's and hey´s and I smiled into the group before turning to face Angela. "So, what can I do?" I asked, hoping to sound as if helping out here was really the reason for my presence.

"The sink is free so you could wash the vegetables and fruits. I'll get them for you."

Nodding in agreement, I forced my way through the crowd of parents until I made it to the sink.

"Hey," the women next to me said with a genuine smile. She was very tall for a woman and very slender. Her blonde hair showed a little red in the sunlight that flooded through the windows. Her cheekbones were high and her green eyes sharp and focused, but filled with a tender warmth that seemed unfitting combined with her strong appearance.

"Hey," I responded, pushing my palms flat on the surface by the sink, waiting for Angela to bring my work.

"What have you gotten yourself into?" the woman asked with a laugh while smearing butter onto sandwich after sandwich.

"I don't know," I said with a mock shrug and we both laughed.

"I'm Dana," she said, reaching out the hand in which no knife threatened me.

"I'm Bella, although you might have heard that already," I said, shaking her soft hand, rolling my eyes and knew that Dana understood I was referring to Angela's embarrassing introduction of myself.

In the same moment Angela appeared next to me, placing a huge bowl of apples, pears, strawberries, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes and peppers in front of me.

"Have fun," she said, winking before disappearing.

I snorted and Dana laughed.

"You could still run, you know," she whispered, acting mysteriously which made me laugh, as well, rolling up my sleeves and turning on the water in the sink.

"So, you're not a mom? Only collateral damage?" Dana asked casually and I immediately felt that conversations with her were easy.

"Yes, you could say that. I guess you're a mom, then? I'm probably the only non-parent here."

"I'm a mom, yes. And, technically, you're not the only non-parent here. Mike over there is only a step-father."

"I can hear you talking about me, Davis," the only male voice in the room called over the chattering crowd, the noise coming from the living room almost drowning out every conversation.

"Sure, Newton. What's the problem?" Dana called back, laughing. "We work together," she explained at my confused expression. I raising my head a little to show I understood.

"But that makes him a parent, right?" I said, resisting the temptation of the handful of strawberries literally calling out to me, begging to be eaten.

"Maybe."

We fell into a comfortable silence after that, and I started listening to the conversations around me, mother's complaining about everyday trivialities with their husbands, children, pets and work.

I felt like I was stuck in the wrong place, completely not belonging here.

"Excuse me." The familiar deep and husky voice close behind me almost had me dropping the strawberries into the sink

I could barely hold myself together as I felt the familiar shiver run down my spine, tingling in every cell on the way.

"Hey, Jacob," Dana said friendly, stepping aside a little to make room for him.

"Angela put me on watercolour duty," he said casually and I had finally turned my head to face him, standing close behind me.

"Hey, Bella," he said with that warm smile, making the edges of my lips twitch strangely.

"Hey," I managed to squeeze out of my lungs, sounding pathetically breathless.

"I need the sink for a second," Jacob said, holding up three empty glasses. Stepping aside enough for him to fit between Dana an me, I bumped into the black-haired woman next to me.

"Sorry," I mumbled, throwing a short, apologizing gaze in her direction but she only smiled at me reassuringly and so I turned back to watch Jacob fill the three glasses with water.

"Thank you," he finally said in my direction, smiling at me. There was a twinkle in his eyes I could not miss and which left me standing there like an ordered package that had never been picked up, a rush of blood flushing my cheeks.

I managed not to look after him, knowing that it would be very obvious combined with my blush. So I wordlessly continued with my work at hand. Dana soon began another conversation in which I only half-heartedly participated but was thankful for at the same time because it distracted me.

The second time Jacob appeared, only about ten minutes after his first appearance, he chatted with Dana for a few minutes, apparently their children were buddies. Just listening to the calming tone of his voice made me want to step closer to him. When the urge to lean against him had suddenly washed over me I quickly started picking up some dirt from a strawberry in my hand.

"You sure do a very thorough job there," he said suddenly and I once again blushed, cursing silently under my breath at my obvious reaction to him and I only nodded, not daring to look at him, fearing for my sanity. And dignity.

Just when I finally made the decision to calm down and let my mind take things slow, Jacob returned for new water, this time not announcing his arrival and waiting for Dana and me to step aside. Instead he leaned over my right shoulder to fill the glasses. His chest, hard as a stone, was pressed against my back and the warmth that flooded through my veins like a tidal wave of fire made me gulp and shiver at the same time. My hands were slowly retreating from underneath the tepid water to make place for his.

"Thank you," he said, almost a whisper but yet loud enough not to sound conspicuous. He retreated again with the freshly filled glasses, leaving me behind in a mess once again.

When Jacob had appeared for the third time in thirty minutes, squeezing between me and Dana to empty and refill the, by now very smeared, glasses, I silently cursed Angela for purposely putting Jacob on watercolour-duty and pinning me in front of the sink.

"Would you like to switch, Bella? Your hands are all soaked and puffy already." Dana's voice sounded somewhere far away and it took me a second too long to pull myself back into reality. Her neatly plucked eyebrow was raised mischievously and I stuttered before recalling her question.

"Sure. Thanks," I muttered, dropping the clean apple in my hand next to the sink so Barbara, the woman on my left who I had bumped into earlier, could slice it and silently switched places with Dana, starting to smear butter on the sandwiches.

The constant sound of running water in my ears left an impact on my bladder and when my stomach started to clench painfully, I finally surrendered after nervously tipping from one foot to the other.

"Dana? I need to make a short trip to the bathroom, okay?"

"Sure, have fun," she said with a laugh. I snorted as I weaved myself through the kitchen and into the hallway, taking a left turn into another short and narrow hallway where it was relatively quiet unlike the noise sounding from the rest of the house.

As I locked the door of the guest bathroom behind me, I leaned against it, feeling swamped by the entire situation, the feeling of Jacob so close by me still tingling in my cells, putting them on high alert.

My fingers were trembling as they fumbled with the belt on my jeans and I could not tear my mind away from the warmth that had radiated from his body, the solid and secure pressure of his chest against my back, him towering over me in an almost protective way. I chewed on my bottom lip nervously, the irony, salty taste on my gustative nerves doing everything but calming me down.

As I washed my hands - like Dana had said puffy and soaked, the chewed off skin around my short nails white and looking even more dead that normal – I gazed at my reflection in the mirror.

My heart-shaped face was still pale white with flushed cheeks and damp, swollen lips from all the chewing, my eyes gloomy and deep in thought. Strands of my brown hair fluttered loosely into my face and stood slightly frizzy on the top of my head. Only now did I realize that my forehead was damp with sweat.

I pressed the wet and cold back of my hand against my forehead, trying to cool myself, calming my nerves before going back to the waiting sandwiches and a talkative Dana.

As I opened the door, my heart skipped a beat and I jumped out of my skin. Much to my surprise, I was able to suppress a shrieking scream. Instead of being faced with an empty and quiet hallway, I suddenly stood face to face with Jacob, our bodies only mere inches apart in the narrow space and I breathed heavily, my palm pressing almost violently into my chest to stop the furious beating of my heart.

"God," I rushed out, a load of air escaping my lungs with a loud sigh. "You scared the –"

But before I had the chance to say another word and express my dislike of him simply mooching around in hallways, two warm hands had grabbed my shoulders with a firm, but gentle grip and pushed me back into the tiny bathroom. The second I heard the door fall closed, I felt a pair of warm, soft and very demanding lips covering my own.

If my heart had been racing before, it now either went with light velocity or stopped entirely.

Thunderstruck, I just stood there in the tiny bathroom, my left hand dangling in the air uselessly, my right palm still pressed into my chest, feeling my vibrating heartbeat underneath my blouse, my eyes shot open in surprise.

The igniting touch of Jacob's lips against mine only lasted a few seconds. As Jacob felt my resistance he quickly pulled away, dropping his hands from my shoulders and looking into my eyes apologetically and…ashamed.

"I'm…sorry," he mumbled. His gaze now dropped to our feet, only mere inches apart, the tips of our shoes almost touching.

My mind was racing, trying to comprehend what had just happened, what this meant or could mean. My heartbeat sounded bluntly in my ear while I just continued to stand there, immobile and mute.

Before I knew what I was doing, my slightly numb fingers had clutched themselves around Jacob's arms and I had pushed myself on my toes, pressing my lips against his again, my eyes closing the second I felt his soft skin underneath mine.

He responded immediately, his hands returning to my shoulders, his lips smouldering against mine, eager and demanding, yet soft and gentle, once pushing and pressing fiercely and then brushing gently. My breathing grew heavy but in a different way than shock – a heated and dizzy frenzy, my mind foggy and damp like the air I desperately tried to suck in through my nose.

I moved my hands gently across Jacob's arms, slightly gripping to steady myself, my short fingernails lightly pressing into his fabric-covered flesh. When I finally reached his neck, I circled it with my hands, buried my fingers in his hair, the touch of it literally like silk, soft and smooth. My fingertips curled around the strands gently, almost playfully. Jacob pushed me roughly into the tile-covered wall behind me, the stark contrast between the cold tiles against my back and Jacob's warm body pressing into my front making me shiver with delight.

When I felt the tip of Jacob's tongue slipping between his slightly parted lips and brushing against my lower lip, I could not help the strangled moan that escaped me, swallowed by Jacob's mouth moving ferociously against mine. His body pushed me further and further into the wall. His hands were now wandering from my shoulders down my arms, rubbing my skin to the point of pain, before he held me by my waist with a strong grip.

The feeling of his tongue gently tracing the outline of my mouth was entirely too much for me, and reflexively my fingers dug into the nape of Jacob's neck, desperately trying to hold onto something while my legs slowly turned into jelly.

I was eager to respond, my own tongue escaping my mouth and meeting Jacob's halfway as he had took the chance to enter my mouth when I had parted my lips.

Losing ourselves in the battle our mouths fought, I clung to Jacob's body, pushing myself further into him, seeking his warmth and the foreign feeling of security in his arms as he encircled my waist and hugged me close to him. His fingers drew fanciful patterns on my back in an almost gentle way compared to the ferocity of our battle fought on the northern front.

When the tips of Jacob's hand slowly inched underneath my flimsy blouse and continued their trail on my bare skin, drawing lines of fire there, a deep moan vibrated in my throat, reflecting from Jacob whose moan was swallowed between our lips as we slowly, unwillingly slowed down. The swirls of Jacob's fingers became more simple, our tongues retreated, Jacob trailed my upper lip one last time, pressing a peck on my lips before parting finally, however, keeping our faces only inches apart.

I could feel his hot, damp breath fanning across my overheated skin and my eyes opened slowly, looking directly into his black pools.

"I…," I stuttered, not really sure what I wanted to say as I slowly trailed my fingertips away from Jacob's neck and rested them against his arms again.

"I waited for you to get out of that kitchen the entire time," Jacob said instead after realising I wasn't going to continue my sentence. His thumb drew subtle circles on my waist.

"You did?" I asked surprised, this entire situation way beyond anything I could imagine with my scarce amount of imagination.

"Hell yeah, I did," he breathed out, touching his forehead against mine and this simple gesture was so full of tenderness that it almost irritated me more than I already was.

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to… ask you something," he said, his eyes now resembling the ones of a child, nervous still after the last few minutes.

"What would that be?" I asked with a reassuring smile, pressing my fingers into his arms slightly to encourage him.

"I wanted…Well, I wondered…if maybe…Would you like to go out with me?"

My face fell slightly and the shock on my face caused Jacob to immediately look rejected and disappointed, his grip on my waist losing it's gentle force.

"It's okay if you don't want…I was just –" before he could continue I pressed my finger against his lips. Feeling his skin beneath mine elicited the urge to kiss him again.

"I do want to. It's just… I don't ever really… date, you know?"

The relief that washed across Jacob's features and banished the slight worry lines on his forehead calmed my pulse. His fingers started to brush against my waist again, continuing their own masterpiece.

"Can I tell you something if you promise not to laugh?" Jacob asked, his nose nudging against mine playfully, and that trademark boyish grin on his face made me feel fuzzy inside.

"Sure, I promise."

"You would be my first real date," he whispered. If I had not seen it with my own eyes this close to his face, I would have doubted that his russet skin could actually show a blush. But it did.

I felt no urge to laugh, I was just surprised.

"Really?" I asked, dead-serious, drawing my lower lip between my teeth to nibble at it.

"Hm-hm," Jacob murmured before lowering his lips to mine again, sucking my lower lip from between my teeth, nibbling at it himself instead, the gentle sensation of his teeth against my skin eliciting a trail of goose bumps from my neck to my toes.

But before we could get lost in that electrifying rush again, I pulled away, an almost inaudible groan escaping Jacob and his hands gripped my waist a little tighter.

"When do you have time?" I asked, wishing dearly that time would not stretch on forever until I would see him again.

"It's the week-end, so that should be fine," he said, gazing deeply into my eyes, the corners of his lips pulled up in a very faint and caring smile. "You?"

"Any time. What about tomorrow?" I suggested, grinning almost embarrassingly.

"Theoretically. But I don't know if I can get a babysitter by then," Jacob responded, disappointment once again etched onto his features, making him look so much older than he was.

"That's okay. I'm not that outgoing anyway. If you want to you could come to my house and I'll cook us dinner. You can just bring them," I said honestly, my hands now stroking up and down his arms.

"Really?"

"Sure. Would lasagne be okay?"

"They'll freak out. I fail at cooking lasagne but they love it," Jacob grinned. I nodded, mirroring his bright smile in my own way, the feeling stretchy after minutes of using muscles barely ever used.

"Any specific dessert they like?"

"Jello with vanilla sauce. They'll want to move in with you then."

We both laughed and the ease between us after the constant tension during the last days made me feel like I just won ten years of my lifetime.

"That's a deal. I'll write down my address and phone number. I have post-it's in my bag. Would six be okay?"

"We'll be there. Maybe not quite on time depending on what they are up to, though," Jacob said, pressing a kiss on my forehead before taking a step back, releasing us from each other's holds.

"No problem. You have… watercolour on your neck," I said, smiling, quickly moistening my index finger with my tongue before gently cleaning Jacob's neck from the blue smear of paint. I felt him shiver underneath my touch and that shiver was contagious until I pulled my hand away.

We stood there in silence for a few seconds, just looking into each other's eyes, calming our breaths and trying to get a hold on ourselves, before Jacob finally said something to release us from the quiet.

"We should get back, I'm still on watercolour-duty, after all."

I laughed and nodded in agreement, taking a step towards the door, my hand already on the knob when Jacob gently turned me around and kissed me softly on the lips again. No urge this time, just a gentle brush of skin.

"I've never done anything like this before," he whispered and I nodded again, felling dizzy again. This was new to me, too.

We both jumped a little when we heard a loud shattering noise from the direction of the living room.

Sighing, we turned around and I opened the door, checking out the corridor to see if no one would catch us before slipping through the door and sprinting back into the kitchen without looking back to Jacob.

An hour later, while everyone was busy with dinner, I excused myself for another bathroom trip, quickly scribbling down my address and phone number on a pink post-it and slipping it into Jacob's leather jacket hanging on the wall, my heart pumping heavily and my mind chuckling at the sneakiness of this.

Returning to the living room, I smiled knowingly in Jacob's direction who was currently cleaning Finley's face – smeared with ketchup – but still saw me and returned the smile warmly.


So, what do you think? Good? Bad? Too quickly? No fear, they will be taking smaller steps again.

There will not be an update until probably October 8th because I'm going on a 11 day long graduation trip to Barcelona with my class from September 28th to October 8th. But the next chapter is written and I will put in into beta-read while I'm gone so I can post chapter 8 once I'm back.