A/N: Greetings all from just outside Dublin, Ireland! I'm having a brilliant time here with 13 of my students, my mom, aunt, and some new good friends. I'm still writing, though in my free time at night and long treks on the bus. I just finished chapter 10 and sent it off to Marina to be beta'd. The good news is that there might be 11 chapters. Chapter 10 went to a place that I never expected.
But here I present to you chapter 9. Please read and show me your love in the form of a review. I appreciate all of you who have hung in there. We continue Bella's (and Jake's) journey towards a stable and healthy relationship.
I won't let you pull me down
"Jake! Stop it!" Bella screamed as he continued to tickle her. When she snorted, he increased his efforts to get her to snort again. "You're going to hurt my wrist," she predicted.
"Quit using that as an excuse! Your wrist is healed," Jake nudged her sides causing her to squirm. He crawled over her.
"Jake," she tried to pout but it came out as a squeal. "Stoooop!"
"Come on, Bells, say it." Jacob sat astride her on the bed easily dodging her flailing arms. "Say 'my Kung Fu is the best!'"
"My Kung Fu is the best! My Kung Fu is the best!"she quoted obediently. That made Jacob snort and roll off of her because he was laughing so hard.
"You were supposed to say that MY, Jacob's," he poked his thumb into his chest through his chortles, "Kung Fu is the best. But, that was good! You are the best, Bells!" Jacob admitted.
He nuzzled into her neck and hair inhaling her scent. The past few weeks had been sweet relief after the excruciating tension of Edward's kidnapping. It made Jacob realize he didn't want to waste one more moment of time to things that didn't mean anything. Bella was everything and anything he did was going to be to secure her safety and happiness. It'd brought them closer than they had ever been before. He wanted everyone to know. He wanted it to be permanent—official.
"You're going to marry me right?" he said after another long inhale. Bella could feel his lips tremble against the soft skin of her throat as he spoke the words. Then he pressed them there in a lingering kiss as he exhaled. It warmed her. It soothed her. It excited her.
It scared her.
She didn't say anything. He'd said it like it was a forgone conclusion—like it was the next inevitable step in life. Why would he want to ruin what they had? They hadn't even had sex yet and he wanted to ruin it? Now, she didn't know if she could have sex with him. It would hurt too much if she finally let him in that way and then everything fell apart. And she wanted Jacob.
Still she said nothing.
Jake pulled his head out of her neck and looked at her. "Bells?" She saw fear in his eyes and her heart sank because she'd put it there. She tried to look away, but as always, his gaze held her captive. His eyes searched hers, for the truth behind the hesitation. He had no doubt that she loved him.
"Jake…I can't…" she tried to pull away but he wouldn't let her.
"You can't what?" he asked his eyes still spanning between hers. She could still see fear and she needed to fix that. He'd done so much for her, given up so much, changed so much.
"Marriage ruins everything," she finally said. "I don't want to ruin us."
"Bells, marriage doesn't ruin anything. People ruin marriage." Jake sat up and pulled Bella into his lap and she wrapped her legs around him again. They'd decided this was their favorite talking position.
"I don't want you to feel trapped or shackled to me. I'm royally fucked up, remember?" Bella said. Jake's hands were on her hips and ran soothing lines up her side. "And I've never seen anyone, who's been married, actually be happy." she added, burying her face into his chest.
"Bells," he chuckled, "you're royally fucked up because Renee never took her commitment to your dad or to you seriously. She left your father, who was happily married to that flake you call mother, for that…that…"
"Fucker," her voice was mumbled but at the same time rumbled deep in his chest.
"Literally." Jacob was pleased that Bella had started to finally display anger towards Phil instead of the debilitating shame that caused her to lose her meals and her appetite.
"Well, there were a few before him," she pulled back and looked at him again. She was ready to have this conversation, now. Still scared of the implications that marriage held for her, she knew Jake would listen to her. "She's standing by him now for whatever fucking reason. Seriously? He rapes her daughter and she stays with him. And the man who is the sweetest, kindest—albeit gruff—man on the planet, she leaves? That doesn't make any fucking sense!" Bella was in full analytical mode now.
"You're right," she went on, "Charlie was happy despite how flighty she was. He would have done anything for her. He'd do anything for me." Jacob's warm hands still ran soothing tracks up and down her sides. "He let you sleep with me in high school. He allowed that," she trailed to think about why her father would let a developing teenage boy sleep in the same bed as his adolescent daughter. "He has a badge and a gun."
"I wasn't as much of a man-whore then," his grin brightened her mood a little. She slapped at his chest.
"You made the dreams stop, like you do now. He let you because he didn't know what else to do." Bella knew that Charlie loved her and that he was just really bad at showing her. Maybe that's why Renee left. Because Charlie didn't know how to show Renee how much her loved her in a way that Renee understood it. Did Renee think she deserved love the way Phil showed it? Did Renee feel unworthy of Charlie the way Bella felt unworthy of Jake's love sometimes? Was Renee as fucked up as Bella was? She'd have to be for her stay with a man who fucked her daughter. She suddenly saw Renee in a different light as well.
"Hey," she instinctively looked up at him now though sometimes she tried to resist it, "you are not Renee and I am not Charlie or Phil. We," he motioned between the two of them, "are Jake and Bells. We're going to be awesome!" Bella could help but smile at his optimism combined with that smile of his. He believed in it. She almost could, too.
"Okay," Bella went on, "Explain Edward's marriage. That's fifty shades of fucked up."
"So you finally realize that?" Jake smiled at her. "I don't even want to consider him long enough to know why he is the way he is or why his wife lets him be that way. She obviously has issues of her own. Let their rich parents pay for both of them in their posh institutions."
Edward and Tanya were both committed to 'care facilities' in lieu of pressing charges against them. Tanya had gone ape shit when she found out that Jacob had kicked the living daylights out of Edward. She tried to run him down on his motorcycle. Both Bella and Jacob, at the urging of the Cullens and the Denalis, refrained from pressing charges if their families promised to ensure that both Edward and Tanya would receive mental help. Rosalie's father was a lawyer that drew up the paperwork and she made sure that there was a clause guaranteeing that neither would get out of the facility until credible, documented progress had been observed by a panel of doctors.
"So you want us to be that way?" Bella asked Jake. "Because I don't."
"We wouldn't be that way, Bells. We'd be like we are right now." His hands gestured between the two of them. "But marrying you would be a promise, from me to you; that I am yours and you are mine. I will be legally bound to provide and take care of you. Jake and Bells."
"But people don't keep their promises. Haven't we just been discussing that?" Bella whispered.
"My parents kept their promises. Harry and Sue kept theirs. You father kept his. Angela's parents kept theirs. There are just as many good examples if you are going to bring up all the bad ones," Jake reasoned. "Hell, even Dr. Cullen and his wife are good examples of deep love for each other as well as to that fucked-up douchebag they tried to raise."
"We can be one of the good examples," Bella tried it out shifting on Jake's lap. His eyes watched her face carefully. "I'd be Bella Black. That almost sounds like a stripper name." She giggled a bit at that and Jake just smiled. "Bella Swan-Black?" Her face puckered at that one. "Isabella Black? Isabella Black-Swan?" she paused after each one she posed as a question to see how the sound of each resonated in the air. "Jacob Swan?" she giggled. Jacob loved it when she giggled.
"Something to consider." He pulled her in at the waist for a hug and nuzzled his nose in the crook of her neck again. "Does that mean you might want to marry me?" he asked again.
"You'll want me for the rest of your life?" Bella asked her voice unsure and waving just a little. Jake pulled back suddenly, as if she'd slapped him with her question.
"You're all I've ever wanted. We've talked about this." And they had. In the month since Edward's attack they'd spent many nights discussing everything, from favorite brand of jeans, to the deepest topics Bella only discussed with Dr. Gerandy. Jake had gone to a few more sessions alone and they had gone to a few sessions together.
"I know," Bella looked down at her hands which had fallen into her lap, "but who's to say that you won't meet someone better later?" Bella tried to lighten the mood a little. "You have to admit that there are a lot of fish in the sea."
"Bells," and he waited. She knew he wanted her to look at him; he had that tone. She knew, so she looked up him. Those sweet chocolate eyes were filled with so much love it melted her heart over and over and over again. "I'm to say that will never happen," he said, pointing to his own chest. "I choose you. That is what marriage is about. It is us, you and me, publically declaring before our friends and our family that we are going to be there for one another no matter who else comes along." She kept her gaze steady on his. "We are going to work because we have this." Again, he motioned between the two of them. "Whenever we have a problem or a fight, or an issue we are going to sit just like this and work it out."
"Even when I'm fat after pushing out your puppies?" Bella smirked up at him.
"Especially after you push out my puppies." Bella noticed how his fingers gripped her tighter on her hips. She wondered if that was excitement in his eyes. "There will be more of you to love."
"We're not having a litter for a while," Bella warned. She wasn't quite ready to think about the implications of children much less talk about them. She's not even sure where the came from other than she knew that was another large part of her fear. She'd have to add to her list of topics for Dr. Gerandy.
"Good. I want to be just Jake and Bells for a while."
"Oh, Jake!" she cried and wrapped her arms around him. "I want to try. I do. I'm just so scared!"
"I know, Honey." He soothed her and shushed her and was content just to have her in his arms considering the possibility.
They sat like that for a long while. Jacob really would be content just to have Bella like this for the rest of the day, but it was Wednesday and hump-day activities needed to be done.
"Come on, Honey," Jake gave her another squeeze, "we're going to be late." Bella didn't want to go either and she could tell that pleased Jake.
"Do we have to?" she asked. "Being grown up sucks." She smiled because Jake had said a few weeks ago when Dr. Gerandy's therapy bill came in the mail. Bella had gone back to work at the diner for a second part-time job just to make enough money to pay it. Aro found out though and would send Demetri and Felix to eat on the few nights she had shifts. They were good tippers. The tip jars no longer existed and each server cashed out to the owner, Alec, at the end of the night.
"You working tonight?" Jake asked kissing her neck, making her want to leave even less.
"No." Her breathless whisper made him smile.
"Good. I won't invite Embry over for dinner."
The rest of Bella's day seemed to drag on forever. She liked Dr. Cullen's class still, but she didn't know how to act in front of him anymore. She was the reason that his son was in a mental institution. He still lectured with great passion and he made the books they read come alive. She stayed in her original seat in the second row.
"So, great discussion, folks. Your research papers on Alice Walker or Mya Angelou are due Friday night by midnight," Dr. Cullen reminded. "Ms. Swan, may I speak with you a moment?" Bella was startled. She pulled her bottom lip inbetween her teeth.
"Uh, sure." Bella's stomach churned as the nervous energy built. She concentrated on not falling down the step from her row in the stadium lecture hall.
He waited for the rest of the classroom to empty before he began. When the door closed behind the last student Dr. Cullen's whole demenaor changed. He slumped and looked utterly defeated.
"Bella, I don't even know where to begin. I am so sorry." Bella looked up at his watery blue eyes. They were so different from Edward's green eyes. In fact, the more she studied Dr. Cullen's face the less they seemed to resemble each other. Slowly the nervous ball in her stomach started to unravel.
"About what, Dr. Cullen?" Bella asked. She'd thought a lot about this. "You didn't do anything. Edward did. And, if I hadn't been so...needy I wouldn't have been so open to...his...influence."
"Bella," his voice was gentle and kind and worried, "Edward is the son of my first wife who only married me for my money—which I did not have much of at the time. When she left me, she left Edward, too. He was only five. I tried very hard to show him that I wanted him and to be enough for him. But, when I met Esme two years later, she already had Emmett and Jasper. He saw my marriage to her, with those two boys, as a betrayal. He has been very angry ever since. I have tried my hardest to do what I thought was right, but I indulged him too much. I felt guilty that his mother left him and I overcompensated, I fear." Bella had not known any of this. She was shocked. Dr. Cullen continued, "Tanya is the spitting image of his mother and I think that is why he stays with her. Even now," he finished shaking his head.
Bella didn't know what to say. She was stunned. And, she didn't quite know why he was telling her all of this. There was a sense of relief that settled on her knowing the reason he refused to give up Tanya. She had felt it was because Edward didn't see her as being good enough to marry.
Bella's inhale was sharp as she realized her true aversion to Jake's semi-proposal this morning. She didn't feel worthy of it. Between Phil, and the high school boys who only used her for sex, and then Edward who hated his wife but refused to leave her—she never felt like she was worthy of being bound to the rest of someone's life. But Jacob thought differently. He loved her. Edward's issues had nothing do to with her. Period.
Dr. Cullen cleared his throat, it sounded like it was foggy with emotion. "Well, I wanted you to know that we are sorry that he pulled you into his altered reality. I hope you don't mind, but Rosalie explained to us that you probably had a history of men treating you poorly in the past. If that is the case," Bella felt the blush rise up her neck, "then she said that Edward probably sought you out. I don't know all the particulars and Rosalie is adamant that Edward seek help for those behaviors." Bella smiled inspite of herself. She'd been ignoring Rosalie's phone calls and texts. She didn't want to have any association with that family outside Dr. Cullen inside a classroom.
"I should probably text her back," Bella admitted.
"She would probably like that. She's a little spit-fire and she is very concerned about you." There was pleasure in his tone and Bella just nodded. "Bella, are you seeking professional help? I know that is extremely personal, but I actually think it is helping Edward," Bella flinched at the mention of his name. She and Jake just referred to him as the douchebag or Fuckward, "and if you wanted to, I would compensate you for it. I just feel so responsible and I want to help."
"Dr. Cullen," Bella's voice was kind, but very resolute using the speech style she'd cultivated with her professors and boss, "I am seeing a professional and have been for some time. I appreciate the offer, but I must decline. I work hard for what I have and that gives me both a sense of purpose and pride in myself. I have a been a victim for far too long and I am taking control of my own life." She chuckled a little at herself. "That is something that I have learned in therapy."
"Oh, Bella," Dr. Cullen gushed, "you don't know how happy that makes me. When Edward left, I watched you wither before my eyes and lately you have been looking so much better. Your writing is better, your analysis is better. I didn't want to see a regression and I felt if that I could do something to prevent that from happening, I needed to offer. But now I understand and I am happy at your refusal."
"Thank you, Dr. Cullen, for confiding some of," she gulped, "Edward's history with me. It will help me heal knowing that he has his own issues to deal with. It helps me figure out what I need to work on and what I couldn't have changed. Thank you. I do hope he gets better. There is a part of me that loves him. Or, at least his potential."
"Bella, you are a rare gem. If there is ever anything I can do for you..." Dr. Cullen just let the sentece hang.
"I'll be sure to ask, Sir. I'll be sure to ask. I have to get to work now though." Bella hiked her backpack onto her shoulder.
"Tell Dr. Hough I say hello," he said as he opened the door for her.
"I will. And thank you for saving my job that first week. I appreciate the discrete way you handled that with him," Bella was referring to the emails to her boss and professors while she took a week off to recover from her injuries.
"It was the very least I could do."
Bella knew Jake would be home any minute. Vivaldi's Four Seasons echoed through the small apartment as Bella swayed around the kitchen. She'd made lasagna again, using the good prosciutto instead of just deli ham, and both her red and white sauces were homemade. No jar stuff for Jake tonight. Besides, Demetri had tipped excessively well last night after returning his food twice to the kitchen. They could afford a little indulgence of $10/pound meat. Once.
"Who comes to an all-night greasy spoon and orders a steak, Demetri? Cut the man in the back some slack," Bella chided.
"I like my steaks rare. That's a cold, red center. Tell him to put it on the grill and wait five seconds, flip it over and wait about fifteen seconds and slap it on a plate. I want it to bleeeeeed when I cut into it." It was the first time Bella felt nauseous in almost a month.
"If it's not right next time, you're getting an omelette," Bella said. "End of discussion."
"She told you," Felix snapped his fingers three times in the air in a "Z" pattern. "I still like her so much."
"Yeah, me too." Bella didn't hear the rest of the conversation. She had to go face Alec again about the steak.
Bella smiled at the memory. She knew that their generous tips were more than what they pretended it to be. And they made her work hard for them. They drank more iced tea than anyone she had ever waited on before. And, they were the pickiest when it came to sandwiches and salads—all extra this and hold that. They were worse than two old women with irritable bowel. But they showed up without fail on every shift she worked.
She'd just put the built lasagna in the oven when she heard the door open and Jake's keys land on the table. Her stomach flopped in anticipation. She looked at the clock because it needed a good hour to bake and thirty minutes to set up. She set the oven timer to turn off automatically. Their furniture may all be second hand, but the landlord had upgraded all the appliances right after Jake moved it. Not top of the line, but pretty state of the art.
Bella stood up from checking the oven light when she felt Jacob's arms wrap around her from behind. "I have missed you so much today," he said, his voice a soft rumble as his lips brushed the side of her temples. He swept her hair from off her collar, the other hand spreading across her stomach as his lips ran down her neck. She hummed her agreement with him.
"Is today different from any other day?" she asked coyly as she turned in his arms to face him. Her back leaning into the kitchen counter and he pressed into her. His body running along hers, flickers of light and heat at the contact. She stopped his answer with a kiss that he eagerly received. When they broke he had an answer for her.
"You're thinking about marrying me. That has got to be the sexiest thing ever," growled right under her ear. Bella took his hand after she ducked out from under his arm and pulled him towards the hallway.
"Where're we goin'?" Jake asked when she turned around to walk backwards and sucked that bottom lip between her teeth. He smirked when she pulled her t-shirt off and she was wearing a lacy black bra that, while it supported her bounty, did little to conceal them. He almost drooled on himself.
"To your room," she beckoned his with her crooked finger. They hadn't had sex yet, and since the incident—Dr. Gerandy's term—Jacob really didn't want to push her. He knew when she was ready she'd let him know. The amount of time he spent in the shower made Bella giggle, though.
"What about dinner?" Jacob asked. Bella was standing on the bed, which was just a box spring and mattress on the floor, made her just a little taller than he was. He walked up to her and pulled her in close for a hug. His fingers kneaded up and down her back. He liked feeling her skin. "Will have I have time for a shower?"
"We have over an hour and you won't need one," she murmured and pulled his shirt over his head. She set about attacking his lips while her fingers unbuttoned her jeans. She guided his hands towards her waistband. "Take them off me, please," she directed.
Jacob did as he was told. With a smirk on his face he complied with her wishes, but he did it slowly. He looped his fingers into her belt loops as his lips skimmed the top of each breast and then down her flat, creamy white stomach. Her fingers wound in his hair and her head dropped back. A moan escaped her lips when Jake's tongue swirled around her bellybutton. His fingers tugged the belt loops bring her pants over her ass. Jake sounded his appreciation at the sight of the barely concealed flesh of her ass, exposed by her lacy black G-string that matched her bra.
He ran his fingers up over each cheek, gripping them, before moving his hand under the falling denim and slowly sliding them down her legs. When his mouth reached the apex of her thighs, Bella heard him inhale deeply and plant the softest kiss on top of her panties. "Oh, Bella." His words dripped sweetly with love and desire, like thick maple syrup.
Bella used Jake's shoulders for support as he freed each ankle from the tight fabric. She needed the support even more as her knees weakened by the look in his eye as his gaze raked up her body, making the slow journey back up to meet hers. "You are so beautiful." She believed him. She could see it in his eyes. She could feel it in his touch. He thought she was beautiful and he loved her.
"You're sort of beautiful, too," Bella said as her eyes dropped to his hardened, muscled chest covered in copper skin. She liked that he had almost no body hair to speak of. She didn't want to think about the reasons why at the moment, but she was so glad he was almost the polar opposite of everything she had ever experienced. It was going to make this hurdle so much easier. "But you need to take those off." Bella pointed to his jeans.
"As you wish," Jacob winked. They'd just watched The Princess Bride last weekend. Bella caught the reference. He made quick work of his jeans and work boots leaving her momentarily to put them in the corner and walking back to her in his black boxer-briefs. Bella giggled. "This is not an appropriate time to giggle, Ms. Swan," he gorged himself on her lips. When he'd finished he asked, "What was so funny?" Bella bit her lip.
"We match." She pointed down. Jacob ran his hands down her ass again and lifted her up. Bella wrapped her legs around his waist while he climbed onto the bed and pushed her into the mattress.
"We are completely compatible in every way, Bells," he mumbled into her mouth.
"I want you, Jacob," she breathed, "I want you inside me now. No more foreplay." Jake was taken aback. That was not how he wanted their first time to be.
"Bells, I don't want," she cut him off with a rotation of her hips.
"I know what you want, Jake. Now give me what I want." Her hurried lips seized his before he could speak again.
Jake pulled back a little so he could finish his sentence, "I don't want this to be a fuck, Bells. I want to make love to you. I want to show you how I feel." Jake rolled of her and onto his side. She followed him keeping one leg hiked on his hip.
"I know that, Jake." She burrowed into his chest and just enjoyed being wrapped in his skin for a few moments. "That's why I was able to start this." She looked back up at his face which was as patient as ever. "And we're going to finish this," she grinned, "tonight." She kissed his chin. "But I've realized that it's the foreplay that gets me all tied in knots, Jake."
"What do you mean?" he asked scooting down a little so their eyes were level and he could look into them as they talked. He liked that she got to the point where they could seamlessly go from hot heated passion to talking about what was bothering them when something was triggered.
"Well, foreplay for everyone I've been with was just to…loosen me up," Bella explained. "It was disingenuous and a ploy for what they really wanted. Phil wanted control over my body, the Brat Pack just wanted sex and knew how to touch me to get it, and Edward wanted someone to want him and be dependent on him. They used foreplay to get that. I don't want foreplay with you. I don't want you lumped into their category." Jake took a few moments to process this information. It seemed logical when he looked at it from her point of view.
"But Bells," he said after he'd thought about it a little, "it kinda gets the juices flowin', ya know?" He moved his hand down to her pussy that was rather wet.
"Yeah, and that's important," Bella cringed at a memory of when she wasn't quite ready, "but when I say it's time, can it be time?" She looked into his eyes and he could see her vulnerability and fear. She was going out on a limb here to have this conversation. He realized that she was trying to give him what he wanted and needed and desired. "I'm not saying forever, Jake. Just until we figure this out and I get past some of this shit."
"Sure, sure, Bells." Jake smiled that smile again. He knew that put her back at ease most of the time.
"But that doesn't mean we can't make out on the couch," Bella clarified. "I really like that. And no one has ever done that with me before—just sat with me and made out with no other purpose in mind."
"Really?" Jake asked and then he thought about it himself. He hadn't really made out with anyone since before Bella came back to live with Charlie. When he found out how to get girls to have sex with him that was the main goal. "Me neither." His hands pulled her on top his him and then snaked behind her to unclasp her bra.
"You're really good at those hooks, Jake. I'm impressed." Bella smirked her temperature rising again as his hands ran up her bare breasts.
"I'm a natural," Jake said, not wanting to bring attention to his years of vast practice. "So, no foreplay? You ready?"
"Yeeees!" Bella moaned, "I've been waiting for you all day." Jake was pulling down her panties and tickled her thighs and calves all the way down.
"You've known since this morning that we were going to do this today?" Jake asked grinning.
"It's hump day," Bella giggled back. Jake pulled of his briefs and crawled back on top of her and Bella's face turned serious.
"I've known since you convinced me that we were going to have the bestest, awesomest, marriage anyone's ever seen." Her eyes smoldered. In the background, Bella's Vivaldi CD was on repeat and the first movement, Spring, filled the air. "Jake, this is me accepting your proposal. I would love to be your wife. I want to be Bella Swan-Black." She kissed him hungrily. "Serenade's over, climb the trellis already."
That was enough foreplay for Jake. In one smooth movement his length filled her heat while his lips claimed hers, pushing in his tongue to claim her there, too. His proposal may not have been so smooth, but her acceptance made up for it. Bella's response to his heat, desire, passion, and joy was equally matched.
The pair moved in synchronized waves of appreciation. While the lovemaking was passionate, it was not rushed. Jake's smooth thrusts were slow and measured, gradually increasing as Bella's moans indicated her pleasure. Never breaking contact Jake rolled them up into a sitting position where Bella was able to kneel over him and set her own tempo. Seeming to enjoy Jacob's largo, Bella's accelerando only led them to an andante. Their hearts kept the beat and their breaths punctuated and accented the passion. The countermelodies of moans and loving whispers continued to escalate the composition as a whole.
"Jake, please, I'm getting close," Bella's eyes found his after she'd closed them briefly to concentrate on the pleasure his thumb created by massaging her pearl. He rolled back over on her inciting his own accelerando past the allegro and into presto. He'd paid attention to each of her gasps and moans, learning a new language that told him what her body liked more. He played her body, making it sing like a master of any instrument could. He tested each touch, stroke, and lick rehearsing until he pulled an orgasm from her so intense, she had cried out his name which hung in a tenuto that only ended with Jacob's release of grunted 'Bellas.' Over and over he called her name until, finally spent, they lay in a jumbled pile of sweat and limbs. Nothing but the sound of their pants echoing the room and the soft harmony of Vivaldi coming from down the halls both attempted to comprehend what had just happened to both of them.
"Bella, I never…"
"Me, neither."
Their eyes met.
Smiles filled with mesmerized awe were exchanged.
Fingers traced soft, loving patterns on skin.
He kissed her lips softly and gently. "I love you."
"I love you more."
"'Bestest and awesomest?' Aren't you an English major?" Jacob smiled at her.
"Literature. I don't give a fuck about grammar," Bella retorted.
"Obviously."
"That was the first time anyone has ever made love to me, Jacob Black." A tear spilled down Bella's cheek. "And you will be the only man who ever will." Jake wiped the tear away.
"Ditto."
The oven timer sounded from the kitchen and Jake's eyes grew wide as he finally noticed the smell that permeated the apartment.
"You made lasagna?"
Bella grinned as she chewed excitedly on her lip. "It's your favorite."
A/N: So, tell me what you think. Jake's Kung Fu is best. I'd marry him.
