SM owns.

Many thanks go out to beta extraordinaire, cocoalvin, for revising this chapter. Although she did a splendid job, any typos or grammatical errors are mine alone.

For all of you waiting for the revised versions of chapter 5 and 6, they are now up!

Edward

I doubled over laughing as soon as I was outside the bar. I couldn't believe that Jasper had tricked me. Well, actually I could. What I couldn't believe was that he was so intent on fucking me. If he was the man-whore that Rosalie made him out to be, he should have moved on to easier pickings a long time ago. I hadn't seen or heard from him in over a week, and then all of sudden he plans a grand scheme to meet me at a bar? It was ludicrous, and I was done with throwing myself at every man that showed the slightest bit of interest in me. The look on Jasper's face had been priceless when I walked out on him. Probably, just as priceless as mine when he'd appeared in front of me practically out of thin air. I was in the parking lot of Monk's, about to get in my car. Except, he was leaning against the door.

"Jasper!" I exclaimed in pure shock.

"What the hell!" he exclaimed right back. "You can't just walk out on a person like that! You agreed to having a drink with me!"

It was a lame argument, and we both knew it. He just wanted more time to try and seduce me. I decided to give him a break and not call him on his shit though.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I agreed to having a drink with Rose. You are not Rose, and I've already had my drink. You can go back and have yours alone," I told him.

I couldn't help but smile as his fist clenched at his side. He sighed heavily and shook his head in frustration. Once again, I was wrong in thinking he'd just walk away.

"Come on, Edward. I've seen the way you look at me. I know that you want me. What are you afraid of?" he asked, closing the space between us.

A part of me knew that he was just taunting me. He was just grasping around until he found which buttons were the right ones to push. I hadn't even known implicating me as a coward was one of my buttons until he said it, and I was furious beyond measure. I pushed him away from me a lot harder than was necessary. His back slammed against my car making a loud thud echo in the empty lot.

"I'm not scared of anything," I growled. He didn't seem fazed at all by my anger, which of course just made me angrier. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and spun us around until it was me with my back against the car. The length of his body pressed against mine, and it did not feel hot and fantastic. He smelled so fucking good though. All musky man, everglades, and rain. Underneath it all though was something sweet like warm sugar and cinnamon. It filled me with the urge to taste him and it was only because I was breathing so heavily that I noticed his scent, just in case anyone was thinking otherwise.

"Then why do you keep denying yourself? Think about all the things we could do together. All the places my tongue and fingers would explore on your body. It would be a night dedicated solely to you and your pleasure. Why would you want to turn that down?"

There were so many reasons why I wanted to turn him down, but would you believe I couldn't even think of one? Jasper was a bad guy. Of that, I was absolutely certain, but he smelled so good. His body was strong, hard, and warm as he pressed against me. I liked the way he felt, and I wanted to feel more. I wanted to touch his skin, hair, and feel his lips on mine. I wanted everything Jasper wanted with me, but I also wanted more. I wasn't cut from his same cloth. If I slept with him, he would walk away feeling proud. I would walk away feeling ashamed.

I looked into his beautiful blue eyes, and I wanted to say yes. I really did. I couldn't though. I opened my mouth to turn him down again, but he abruptly pulled his body away from mine and fisted both his hands in his hair.

"Okay, let's not think about that for a while. You just broke up with your boyfriend. Can we just go back inside? I'll buy you another drink, and we can just talk. How does that sound?"

"Perfect," I responded instantly.

I don't know what caused his sudden change of heart, but I didn't care either. I wanted him to prove me wrong. I wanted him to make me see that I'd judged him too quickly. He sighed in relief at my reply and grabbed my hand. He towed me back into the bar where we resumed residence at the table we were at before I'd walked out. A waitress came to the table, and Jasper ordered two Coronas with lime. We sat at the table quietly waiting her return. In the past, it had always been me that was nervous. Now, it seemed our roles had reversed. He was nervous, and I was perfectly calm, if not excited.

I had to stifle a snicker as I watched him wring his hands as his eyes darted around landing on everything but me. When the waitress returned with our beers, Jasper took a long swig from his. He glanced at me and then quickly back down at the table.

"You know this isn't a date or anything, right?" he asked. "This is just us having a drink."

"Why are you so nervous then?" I asked, tilting my head.

His eyes finally locked with mine as his mouth opened in shock. He quickly closed it again and cleared his throat before taking another pull from his beer.

"I'm not nervous," he finally replied. "I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page."

"We are."

"Good."

I grabbed my beer and took a sip before deciding to change the subject. I wanted to talk to Jasper and get to know him. I needed him to be his usual cocky self for that to happen though. Not this nerve wracked person before me now.

"So Rose tells me you write porn," I said.

I was elated when he burst into laughter. The sound was deep and rolling, like subdued melodic thunder.

"It's called erotic fiction," he corrected me with smiling eyes.

"Oooh!" I said, nodding my head. "So it's glorified porn?"

He laughed again and shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, I'll give you that one," he conceded.

"Is that always what you wanted to do?" I asked.

"Sort of," he answered. "I always wanted to be a writer. When I was younger, I thought I wanted to write young adult novels, but then as I got older that genre didn't appeal to me so much anymore. When I was in college, I got really into the Alex Cross series and wanted to be the next James Patterson. I only majored in English, and it would have taken a lot of research for me to write that type of book realistically. I'm pretty lazy though, so I moved on from that pretty quickly. Then one day I was going to buy some new porn-don't judge me," he said, pointing a warning finger at me. I chuckled and raised my hands in surrender. Satisfied that I wasn't secretly labeling him as a pervert, he continued, "So, I'm in the store, and I see that there's this whole section of books. I'm flipping through some of them, and a lot of them were just awful. I instantly decided that I could and would do a better job," he told me.

"Classy," I remarked.

"You're judging," he said with mock anger.

"I'm sorry," I replied. "I'll buy the next round to make it up to you."

He smirked at me, and I realized that, by allowing another round of beers, I had inadvertently given him more of my time. I felt my cheeks redden, but I was determined not to mess up the easy conversation we were having. I liked talking to him and wanted to hear him laugh again.

"So what happened between you and Royce," he said. My eyes widened in shock as hot searing pain lanced through me. I doused it with the last of my beer and signaled for the waitress to bring us two more.

"I just didn't want to be with him anymore," I said, hoping my voice didn't sound as broken to him as it did to me. I chanced a look at him and saw the pity I'd hoped I wouldn't in his eyes. He must have realized I didn't want to talk about it though because he quickly moved on to another subject.

"What brought you to Chicago?" he asked. "Rose told me you're from Washington state."

This guy sure could pick 'em. He moved on from one bad topic to another. I let out a bitter laugh and ran my fingers through my hair. My mind raced as I tried to come up with a non-sob answer. I didn't want to see my father look at me with disgust in his eyes anymore? I was tired of hearing my mom cry and tell me that I was just going through a phase? I couldn't deal with people treating like I had a fucking disease anymore? Those were all light and easy responses, right?

"Don't answer that!" Jasper exclaimed, breaking me from my thoughts. "I don't want to turn this into something ugly."

"Me either," I said, shaking my head and finishing off my beer. Jasper had slammed his first beer, but he was taking his time with his second. I ordered another beer for myself anyway though.

"Okay, tell me this," he said. "What's your favorite color?"

I nearly choked on my beer as I laughed at his elementary question. "Seriously?" I asked.

He chuckled but nodded his head. "Yeah. Lately I just can't seem to choose between emerald green and bronze," he told me. I sighed in exasperation and shook my head at him.

"Too cheesy?"

"Way to cheesy! So cheesy, in fact, that I've decided to take it as insult!" I exclaimed, slamming my fist on the table. Jasper laughed again, and I couldn't help but laugh along with him. It was ridiculous how much I loved that sound already.

"Okay, okay, okay," he said as his laughter died down. "My favorite color is actually that color in the sky just after sunset, when it's that pinkish, purplish, bluish color. It always calms me when I see it, especially after a long day. Even though it's technically only twilight and not the end of the day, it makes me feel as if it's all over and I can finally relax," he told me. "So now what's yours?"

"Well shit! Now, I don't want to tell you!" I exclaimed.

"What? Why?" he asked in amused confusion.

"Because you gave that really deep answer that totally makes up for the fact that the question was silly!" I said. "Now, my answer will just seem really lame and bland."

"Just tell me, Edward."

"Black."

We stared at each other for a few seconds before he finally broke the silence. "That was bland. I'm bored to tears over here! Can't you even be a teensy bit more creative than that?"

"Oh, fuck you!" I retorted playfully. "It was a dumb question to begin with!"

The banter between Jasper and I kept on into the early morning hours. I was glad that I'd decided to stay and talk with him. He kept slipping in suggestive remarks and tossing flirty looks my way. They didn't bother me though. After a few more beers, they actually started to go both ways. The drunk me was clearly uninhibited and just as saucy as Jasper. By the time we decided to head home though, I was unsteady on my feet, and Jasper refused to let me drive myself home. He'd stopped himself at his second beer while I'd just kept going. I was a sloppy and slurring mess when he poured me into his back seat. All I could remember from the ride was staring at the starry night sky through the back windshield as he drove. When the car finally stopped, I was sleepy and seeing in double.

"This is not my apartment, Mr. Hale," I slurred, falling into his chest his as he helped me out of his car.

"I know," he responded. "This is my house."

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