AN: As always, these characters do not belong to me, they belong to Stephenie Meyer, and I appreciate the fact that she allows us to use them.
I hope everyone enjoys this chapter, and I wish to thank everyone who has taken the time to review this story.
Rose's Idea – Chapter 7
After we entered the bathroom, I came up behind Rose and wrapped my arms around her waist, and then I nuzzled her neck and shoulder. "Rose, you smell great." And I meant that. I liked the smell of the pine needles in her hair.
I had always loved the smell of the woods, even as a human. Maybe that's why I enjoyed Forks. There were trees all around; all I had to do was step outside to inhale deeply of the woodsy fragrance that filled the air. The scent especially thrilled me after a good rain. Rose may not have always enjoyed it, but the fragrance of the trees, leaves, and pine needles was one reason why I would lure her into the woods at times just to play. Whenever I could coax her into loosening up and making out on the grass, I would make sure she would be covered with as much scent of the woods as possible.
Standing behind her with the scent of pine needles and leaves filling my senses excited me, so I made sure our 'cleaning up' process took an extended amount of time. I may not speak elegantly like Edward and use words as persuasively as Jasper, but with Rose, I didn't need words. With Rose, I could use my hands and lips to coax her slowly into following my lead. It always amazed me how touching her excited all of my senses. The feel of her skin, the taste of her lips, and the heat we seemed to create as we came together always increased the pleasure of our intimate moments. Edward might talk about the heat he felt from Bella because she was human, but the heat of passion was much more thrilling to experience than the heat of a normal human. Poor Edward, he still did not understand what he was truly missing.
That evening helping Rose to 'clean up' proved so enjoyable an event that although it began in the bathroom it finally ended up in the bedroom. As dawn eventually began to break, my thoughts turned from Rose to the dilemma I was facing with Bella. There had to be some way I could learn to catch her at a moments notice without harming her. I knew we could monitor and regulate our strength; the problem for me seemed to be timing. If I didn't have enough time to think about what I was doing before I did it, then I didn't think about how much force and strength I was using.
"Emmett," I could hear a protest in Rose's voice. "What's distracting you?"
I hadn't realized that I had suspended my actions as I thought about my problem. I chuckled a little at the realization that Jasper was right when he said I could only focus on one thing at a time even though I was a vampire and vampires were suppose to be able to focus on multiple thoughts at one time. I never really believed him when he first told me that a few years ago. Maybe that's because I never had two pressing matters to focus on at one time. Now I did have two pressing matters, Bella's motorcycle lesson, and Rose's physical pleasures.
"Sorry," I offered, "I was thinking."
"Obviously not about me or what you were just in the process of doing," she shot back.
"I am sorry, Rose. Yesterday just popped back into my thoughts, and there just has to be some way I can work out the problem I have with using too much strength."
"You're thinking about 'her' again. What about me? I feel like I'm being forgotten." Rose pouted.
I looked at her lying beneath me and noticed how milky white and smooth her skin looked and how tempting her physically features were. I wondered how I could have been distracted from her alluring beauty and tempting delights to think about anything but finishing what I had started. I smiled at her as I began to resume our activities of a few moments ago, and I whispered softy, "I'll never forget you Rose. My mind may wonder, but my senses and emotions are fully focused on you at this very moment," and she moaned softly as I caressed her. Fleetingly I wondered how much strength did I use when I touched Rose sensually, but then I was caught up in my actions and her responses that my mind once again focused only on her and my enjoyment of her.
As mid-morning rolled around and Rose was running her hand up and down my arm while I was holding her close, she said, "Emmett, it's time to get up."
I was so enjoying her touch that all I managed was a murmured "humm."
Rose stopped her hand mid-way up my arm. "I'm serious. Edward and Alice are gone and you promised Esme you would go to the store for her."
I groaned slightly; I had forgotten that promise.
Rose wrenched herself from my arms, quickly left the bed, and shot over her shoulder as she headed to the closet to get dressed, "Come on Emmett. Don't keep me waiting."
I was up and across the room with my arms wrapped around her waist in an instant. "Are you coming to the store with me?" I kissed her soft neck as I waited for her reply.
"Yes, and we'll stop along the way because I have something I want to try." She was pulling away from me again, but her comment did help me focus on something other than her tempting body.
"Like what?"
"You'll see," she replied as she began dressing.
I noticed she chose a pair of tight fitting jeans and one of my shirts. It was unlike Rose to dress in my clothes, unless she didn't want to get hers dirty. That made me wonder what she had in mind. "Rose, what do you have in mind?"
Rose had finished dressing and headed out of the room as she said, "The sooner you're dressed, the sooner you'll find out," and then she walked out the door.
I was dressed and downstairs at the same time she was. She had perked my interest and I wanted to know what she was planning. It was times like this when I thought it would be helpful to have Edward's ability to hear people's thoughts, but from the look on Rose's face, I knew she would wait until she was ready before she would tell me anything.
"Esme." We had all learned over time that the fastest way to find anyone in such a large house was just to call out their name.
Esme's reply came from the kitchen. "I'm glad you both decided to leave the confines of your room. I'm beginning to wonder who you're hiding from, but then I have a guess already." She smiled at us both as we walked into the kitchen. "I have the shopping list all made out. It shouldn't take too long; there's just enough to make people less curious about how I could have a house full of teenagers and not visit the grocery store more often."
"We might be a little while before we get back because I have an errand to do, but we'll make sure we go to the store after the errand is completed. I wouldn't want any of the food to spoil." Rose commented as she took the shopping list from Esme.
Esme just smiled as she said, "Well, have a good time and I'll see you when you get back."
Once again, I wanted to ask Rose about the errand she had in mind, but she was out the door before I could ask her anything, so I just quickly followed her.
I notice Rose made a detour to the garage, but I had no idea why. Once inside, I notice she was standing by the motorcycle.
"Well, don't just stand there, put the motorcycle in the back of the truck," she ordered. Then she quickly turned and left.
I had no idea what she had in mind this time, so I did as she ordered and carried the motorcycle outside and placed it in the bed of the truck. Rose was already in the cab waiting for me, and as I climbed in, she gave me directions to where she wanted to go. My curiosity was peaked, and I wanted to ask what it was all about, but the set of her mouth and chin told me she wouldn't tell my anything until she was ready. I knew that look; I had seen it before, and I didn't need to read her mind to know she wouldn't have let any stray thoughts slip out if Edward had been around.
The drive took a little less than twenty minutes, but we ended up on a dirt road deep in the forest. After I parked, and before I could exit the truck, Rose said, "Take the motorcycle out of the back and I will explain what we'll do today." Then she got out of the truck.
As quickly as possible, I placed the motorcycle on the road beside Rose, and then waited for her to fill me in on her plans. She pulled a hair clip out of her pocket, as she began to speak, and began to gather her hair in a bun on the back of her head. "What I propose for today does not involve throwing eggs." Her comment only provided with a temporary sense of relief for she continue, "Instead, I thought I would pretend to be Bella and you just have to catch me before I fall off the motorcycle and damage myself but remember to monitor your strength. I thought this would be more realistic than the eggs, although that was fun." She laughed as she added the last.
I couldn't help but smile because even thought I didn't enjoy the egg throwing part as much as she did, I did enjoy its aftermath. "For you maybe." I replied. "I never liked eggs much as a human and I definitely like them even less after yesterday. I like this idea better. I don't think Bella is as fragile as those eggs were. Besides, when you're on the motorcycle, I'll be able to see ahead of time when you might fall off."
Rose's smile widened, and it made me think she was hiding something from me.
"Rose, what aren't you telling me?"
She ran a finger down my cheek sending pleasant sensations shooting through me. It never failed to surprise me how even her lightest touch could arose such feeling in me. "You'll find that predicting what's going to happen isn't as easy as you think it is," she finally said, and with that, she mounted the motorcycle.
Rose was right. The first time down the dirt road, she began to tip, and thinking she was actually tipping over, I rushed over to catch her only to discover she had intentionally leaned to the side to make it look like she was about to wipe out but then righted herself at the last minute.
We spent the next two hours with Rose falling off and almost falling off the motorcycle. She would do it in such a way that I was unable to tell if she was falling until it actually happened. Rose was extremely good at deception; unfortunately, I wasn't very good at catching her gently. Well, it was gentle for her, but she assured me it would not be gentle for Bella. No matter how careful I tried to be, all I could think about was Rose getting hurt, and in order to prevent it, I would grab her as quickly as possible without thinking about how much strength I used. I was discovering that this was not going to be as easy as I first thought it would be, and then I wondered if maybe we should have stuck with the egg tossing.
It was a good thing Rose couldn't be hurt easily, or I would have taken her home bruised and possibly broken. That was something I could not afford to do with Bella when it was her turn on the motorcycle. She had assured me she had learned to ride it, but knowing Bella, I was positive she would fall off a few times before she managed to keep the bike upright for any prolonged period of time.
Rose finally called a halt to our activities. "Emmett, I commend you for the effort you're putting forth, but I wonder if it was wise of you to offer your help."
"I'm not backing out now Rose. I made a promise and I'm going to keep it. I just have to find some way be more careful around Bella."
"Well, I say let's call it a day for now. We can come out tomorrow and try again. Besides, we still have to go to the store for Esme."
"You're right, and I think we had better be home when Edward arrives, or else he is going to pick my mind for why I'm hiding from him. I just have to stay focused on something other than Bella's lesson."
Rose smiled, "I think I have a solution for that. Come on, we'll need to get home before he does because I'll need a little time to get ready."
As Rose climbed into the truck and I stowed the bike in the back, I began to wonder what she meant when she said she had a solution but needed time to get ready. I was going to ask her about it when I got in the truck, but she stopped me by pulling out Esme's grocery list and deciding we would divide it up so we could do the shopping faster.
Rose was right about dividing the list in half; it took less time and we arrived home in plenty of time for her to get ready. In fact, she spent the next half hour in the bathroom, and when she came out, I knew the wait was worthwhile. She had fixed her hair, applied makeup sparingly but in all the right places, and the short shorts and skimpy plunged neckline top she wore kept my mind pleasantly occupied with visions only of her. When Edward and Alice arrived home, they found us on the sofa, Rose in my lap and some sappy movie on that Rose had chosen. I wasn't even sure what we had been watching because my eyes had been busy staring at Rose rather the television screen.
Edward's first words as he entered the living room were, "Emmett, if you could take your mind out of Rose's cleavage for a moment, I have something I want to ask you."
I just smiled as I looked up and Edward and imaged what Rose would look like as I slowly removed that sexy top. I knew that would keep Edward out of my mind. I wasn't sure what Rose was thinking, but I saw a smile spread across her lips as well, and Edward just rolled his eyes at us.
"Ask away, little brother. I'm all ears."
Rose laughed as Edward replied, "More like all eyes and eventually hands."
"Well, she's my wife, so I have rights in that area," and under my breath but into Rose's ear, I whispered, "more than some people around here have."
"Yes, well, she's my sister and it's rather disgusting to know what you're thinking. And by the way, I heard that," he shot back.
"Then stay out of my mind." I decided he was wasting time, so I added, "What was it you wanted to ask?"
"What is Bella planning, and why were there broken eggs on the lawn yesterday?"
I had almost forgotten about the eggs, and then I remember what Esme suggested. "I came up with a new challenge for you, but before I presented it, I wanted to practice. I thought the next night you decide to grace us with your presence, we might try it out." I wasn't sure if he bought my story, but I didn't care because I thought it would be a good idea. Maybe he would be just as bad as I was at catching eggs, but maybe I had practiced enough that I would win a competition against him.
"And Bella?"
"No, I don't think Bella would like this game." I replied, as my eyes must have wondered back to Rose.
"Emmett, focus on what I'm asking and stop looking at Rose." He growled.
I hadn't realized I was staring at her. I looked directly at him so I could focus for a moment. "What was the question again?"
"What is Bella planning?"
I laughed as I thought, 'maybe she's planning on what I'm planning.' Of course I knew that wasn't true, but I didn't want Edward to hear any thoughts about the bike. "I didn't know she was planning anything. I haven't seen Bella since . . ." I paused as if to think about when I saw her last, and then finally concluded, "well, when she asked me to take her bike home with me."
I added the unspoken words, 'And just what are you planning to do with her?' just to irate him, but if he answered, I planned to give him some very good suggestions about what they could do together, but it would require Edward to give Bella what she wants – a life together forever.
Edward only growled as he left the room and I turned my focus back on Rose.
"I guess it worked," she said just before she kissed me passionately.
AN: Edited and revised chapter 8/09/08
