Chapter 9: Jack and Kiss
Alice appraised me with curious glances as we stood in the kitchen; she was opening a fresh bottle of wine as I pulled down a pair of long-stemmed glasses from the cabinet. Outside, on the back deck with a view that overlooked the ocean, the boys were passing the time, taking shots of the Jack Daniels Emmett bought, while Rosalie had already made her exit for the evening, saying something about being worn out from the long day as she lumbered sleepily up the stairs after passing out in the back of the Tahoe on the drive home.
"Why do you look like your puppy just died, Bella?" Alice asked while her right hand twisted the manual corkscrew into the bottle of Pinot Grigio.
I battled with myself internally for what seemed like an eternity. Should I tell my best friend in the entire world that I had been mere centimeters away from kissing Edward until Emmett interrupted us, or do I keep it a secret just a little bit longer?
Choosing secret, I answered, "I don't have a dog," and hoped that would appease her for the moment because I knew that if she badgered me continuously, I would spill my guts to her and I hadn't decided if I wanted to go down that road yet. I found that I kind of liked flirting in secret, knowing it could possibly lead to more with Edward. That no one else knew about it was kind of …thrilling.
She giggled, rolling her eyes. "You do know that whatever it is, I'll figure it out eventually, right?"
"Mmhmmm," I answered wordlessly, picking up the newly opened bottle from where it rested on the counter in front of her and poured a liberal amount into my empty glass.
Alice followed suit before daintily picking up her glass, and looping her arm through mine. With a gentle pull, she led us through the house in the direction of the back deck. Realizing that we were headed outside, I whisked the bottle of wine off the counter and into my free hand as I passed by it.
"Good Lord," she said in awe as she slid open the glass door to find the boys in the midst of throwing back a row of shots that they had balanced on the railing. At first glance it appeared that there were three tiny glasses for each man. "Jasper is going to be a pill to deal with later tonight."
I pitied her briefly; Jasper and whiskey weren't the best of friends.
Emmett grinned cheekily at us when he heard the door slide open.
"Ladiesss," he slurred a little bit. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Edward roll his eyes.
"Emmett," I greeted him in a clipped tone. He was still a little bit on my bad side from his ill timing earlier on the beach.
The big oaf noticed my cold greeting. "Swan, why so frosty?"
I licked my lips and set the bottle of wine on the ground, glancing quickly at Edward before answering. "No reason."
Edward quirked an eyebrow in my direction that seemed to say, 'the hell there wasn't' and I took a big gulp of my wine. I couldn't handle the dark shade of green his eyes had become since our near-kiss on the beach without a little bit of liquid courage.
"We're doing shots, baby," Jasper said as he ambled over to Alice, his arms flailing awkwardly as he stumbled towards her, tripping briefly over a lounge chair on his way.
She crinkled her nose at him. "I can see that, Jazz." Oh, he was in the doghouse.
"Are you mad?" Also, he was possibly drunker than he had been in a very long time.
A forced smile appeared on Alice's lips as she tenderly reached up to brush the hair that fell into his eyes out of the way. "No, I'm not mad," she said, "but just know that when you get sick later this evening, you're on your own."
He pouted down at her, the look in his eyes similar to that of a young boy getting scolded by his mother for eating too many cookies after dinner.
"I'm gonna sleep and head on," he said, mixing his words with a small headshake.
Alice nodded up at him, silently telling him that she understood his jumbled statement as she placed a tiny hand on his cheek. "I'll be up in a bit."
He grinned and walked over to the sliding glass door, fumbling with it clumsily for a few seconds before he finally pulled it open. Slipping inside, he didn't bother to close it behind himself.
"Night man," Edward called to his retreating figure with a small wave.
It seemed the Hale twins were having a hard time keeping up this evening; both of them were out of commission before eleven.
"Emmett," Alice bit out as soon as Jasper was out of earshot and Edward marched over to shut the door, "you are so not on my good side right now."
Edward snorted as he slid the door close, his back to the rest of us. I turned to him and he craned his neck to meet my gaze and winked. Oh, he was still a little pissed at his beefy friend.
And that brings the tally to three Emmett-haters for the evening.
Emmett's eyes widened innocently. "We were just having a little fun, Al," he defended himself. "Jasper is a big boy."
Alice smirked. "I know that he is, but damn, Emmett, you know how he is when he drinks whiskey. It makes him sick and girly."
"Girly?" Edward and I asked in unison, our eyes meeting when we realized we both spoke at the same time.
She glared at us, seemingly having forgotten that the two of us were there. "Yes, girly, he starts moaning on and on about emotions and feelings and his hair."
Everyone but Alice doubled over in laughter. "Oh, shut it," she scolded, "don't act like you don't all have your blackout vices."
Edward straightened and smirked at Alice, his face growing serious. I knew what memory was coming to his brilliant mind and bit my lip to keep from laughing.
"That we do Alice," he paused to toss back his still-full shot glass, "remember what you used to tell people?"
xXx
Alice POV
February 2007, Freshman Year
(301): please quit telling ppl youre Alice Cullen when youre drunk
"Vodka," I said in a pouty voice from the futon in our dorm room, "I need Vodka."
It was Valentine's Day and I, for the first time in my life, was upset that I had no one to share the day with. It hadn't bothered me in high school, being alone, but now that it seemed like everyone around me was pairing off for a weekend full of romance and flowers, I was.
"Quit bitching," Rose said as she pulled curlers from her long, blond locks and fluffed it endlessly. "You know that if Jasper would get off his ass the two of you would be spending the weekend together swooning and whispering sweet nothings."
I felt my face flush. "What are you talking about?"
She turned to glare at me. "You know what I'm talking about," her eyes rolled, "all the two of you do is make googly eyes at each other when we're all together."
"That's not true," I protested. Was it?
Bella burst through the door, tossing her messenger bag on the floor as she entered. "It is," she confirmed as she stalked over to her closet and pulled a bottle of vodka out of where it was hiding in her laundry basket amidst her dirty clothes.
I pouted some more and folded my arms across my chest. "Well, even if it were true, he wouldn't act on it…ever."
"We know," Bella and Rose said in unison.
I huffed. "Give it," I said, reaching out a hand for the Vodka.
Bella relinquished the clear liquid, but only after taking a long pull of her own. I took the bottle into my hands and took a long, burning chug.
"Whatever…screw Jasper," I zoned out, thinking of literally screwing Jasper before puling myself back in. "Let's just go out and do a lot of shots."
"That's the spirit," Bella said with a grin as Rose nodded her head eagerly.
Several hours later, the three of us toasted to being single for the fifth time that evening around a table at Temple Grille in downtown New Haven. The boys were on their way to meet us and Edward was bringing his leech, Tanya.
We all hated her.
"Bella," I slurred as the boys entered. "Why don't you date Edward so that we don't have to deal with that monster?"
"T-Monster?" she asked, gigging wildly in her drunken stupor.
I nodded happily, bouncing a little at the nickname she had just made up. "Ohmygosh that's perfect! Yes, T-Monster," I screamed a little too loudly, "let's get rid of her."
"Okay," Bella agreed, "but should I date him? Won't that be…weird?"
A vision of the two of them, dancing together and whispering into each other's ears as they twirled around a dance floor, flashed through my mind. I blamed it on the alcohol and pushed it away.
Too much Vodka.
"Uh…maybe not?" I said, secretly hoping that the vision in my head would maybe one day come true.
"Yeah, I'm going to go with no, because it would definitely be weird," Bella said with a firm nod of her head. "What else could we do to get rid of her?"
"Oh, I know!" What seemed like a brilliant idea at the time popped into my mind and I jumped off the stool quickly.
Rose and Bella looked at me with wide eyes and I placed my arm on the tabletop and slid all the shot glasses to one side. "Help me up," I said as I climbed into the chair and placed a heeled foot on the table, feeling much more stable in my 3-inch heels than I probably was. "I have a brilliant idea."
The looks on their faces told me they were nervous about what I was going to say, but I ignored them. I was determined to get T-Monster out of our lives, no matter the cost.
"Excuse me," I yelled as I stepped onto the table and saw the boys plus one blonde bimbo enter. "I have an announcement to make."
Six pairs of jaws below me dropped. "My name is…Alice Cullen."
My theory: maybe, just maybe, if I could convince people that I was Edward's secret wife that no one knew about then T could be kicked to the curb. My loopy, Vodka-filled thought process didn't see the gaping loophole that was the fact that I had been friends with most of the people in the bar for months.
The bar fell silent. Looking in Edward's direction, I saw his eyes harden as he moved quickly towards me. Within seconds, I was being pulled off the table and tossed over his shoulder.
"What the fuck, Al?" he asked in an angry voice.
Oops.
"I, uh…uh," couldn't come up with a good excuse.
"She's had a lot to drink," Bella defended me as Edward placed me on my feet.
I nodded once I was upright again. "Yeah," I slurred, "I've had lots of shots. Ooohh that rhymes."
Both of the Edward's standing in front of me were blurry as I swayed back and forth.
"Shit, how much has she had to drink?" Jasper, oh, Jasper was at my side. I think I purred.
"Jazzzzz," I was so happy to see him. "My name is Alice Cullen for tonight."
"And why is that?"
I leaned in to whisper in his near but my mouth landed on his neck. Yummy. "Because," I whispered after regaining my composure, "I think it'll get rid of T-Monster."
"T-Monster?" he whispered back.
I pulled away and giggled, mouthing the word, 'Tanya.' Jasper laughed. I died.
"I see," he said once his usual seriousness had returned. "I don't think it'll work."
I frowned. "Why not?"
Jasper lifted his hand and pointed in the direction of the rest of our friends were on the make shift dance floor that coeds were currently grinding to Get Low on. Edward and Tanya were making out freely amongst the mass of inebriated college students as their bodies gyrated to the music.
Well…damn.
Jasper wrapped his arm around my waist and I turned to him. "Wanna make out?" he asked with a smirk.
I bounced a little and nodded because, even if I didn't have a Valentine, and couldn't get rid of Tanya, I could at least get a little first or second base action courtesy of my crush. Thanks, Cupid!
xXx
I thought back, remembering that night and my reluctance to even consider the idea of dating Edward. With sudden clarity, I realized that in the past couple of days, my mind had changed without my even noticing.
My moment of sudden brilliance was broken by Alice gasping loudly, no doubt remembering the same night that Edward and I were. Stomping her tiny foot against the wooden planks of the deck, she frowned and placed her hands on her hips in defiance.
"That was a long time ago," she said in a defensive tone, "and I only said it once."
"Twice," I corrected with a chuckle, remembering how hilarious it had been at the time. "Don't feel bad, though, Alice. I always make grilled cheese and complain about my love life…or lack thereof…when I'm blackout, or even just a little drunk, to be honest."
She glared at me for a moment before softening her gaze following the end of my statement. "Really?" Her voice was tiny and weak.
I nodded to confirm the truth of my statement. Behind me, I could feel Edward coming closer, fingertips reaching up to dust across my shoulder in a movement so quick I wasn't sure it had happened.
"I'm sorry, Bella," she said, "I didn't realize…God all of us flaunting our love this week must be terrible."
Shrugging, I answered, "It's not that bad." I couldn't help but turn to see what Edward's response to this conversation was. A glance to my left revealed a frown on his face.
Emmett was standing there looking confused. Instead of asking for clarification, he shrugged and poured himself another shot. It was a good thing he was so beefy, otherwise his alcohol intake from the night would be at a lethal level.
Still out of the loop, he interrupted the saddening conversation to dare Alice to chug her wine. Never one to back down from a challenge, she did it.
"Get it girl!" He cheered her on with a booming shout as the wine quickly disappeared.
She grinned at him, the alcohol seeming to take away her annoyance. "I'm still a little bit mad at you." The tone of her voice, though, seemed to indicate that her anger towards Emmett was receding.
"Sure, sure," he said before collapsing onto the wooden floor of the deck with the bottle of whiskey nestled between his Indian-crossed legs and a shot glass in each hand. He looked like an alcoholic Buddha. "Whew, it feels good to sit down."
Alice joined him on the ground after refilling her wine glass and handed the now half-empty bottle to me, a pitying look still etched on her petite features. I glanced down at my own glass. Funny, it was already empty. I quickly refilled it as Edward grabbed my elbow and pulled me onto the other side of the deck.
My eyes widened and I tried to silently tell him to be careful, because the two biggest loudmouths in our group were less than ten feet away, but he ignored me and pointed in their direction. Emmett goaded a now-giggling Alice into taking a shot with him, it seemed. I released a deep breath, knowing that neither of them would be paying attention to us.
"Bella?" Edward asked once we reached the dark shadowy railing on the other side of the deck. He turned to face the ocean, his arms folded across the edge as he looked out at the crashing waves that were hidden by the darkness.
I mirrored his stance. "Hm?"
"I've been thinking," he began. Instantaneously, I worried that he had changed his mind about what the kiss-that-almost-was on the beach.
"Okay…" I proceeded with caution in my voice. Please, please, I begged mentally, don't regret getting close to me. Oh, I wished he could read minds.
Sliding my eyes to the left, I saw that he was in deep thought as he carefully selected the words he would use to form his question.
"I was thinking that maybe, if you wanted to, we could go to the wedding together?" He sounded nervous, his question rushed, and the only thing on my mind was that he didn't say something along the lines of, 'I changed my mind.'
"We are going to the wedding together, Edward. In case you forgot, we're both in the wedding party." I mean, duh. He had only had a couple of shots…right?
He laughed nervously. "I meant as, uh, dates." The fingers of his right hand ran through the messy mop on his head.
Dates? Edward was asking me on a date? To the wedding of our best friends? I wasn't sure if I was thrilled, or shocked, or both. I was certain it was a combination of both.
He took my silence as a bad sign. "I mean, we don't have to, if you don't want to. I just figured, you know, since we were both here alone and, you know, on the beach, we came so close to…kissing…" I never heard him stutter like he did just then. Where was the self-assured, sexy, heartbreaker Edward that I'd known since I was eighteen?
I reached over and grasped his nervously twirling hands in mine. "Edward," I said in hopes of getting him to shut up, "I would like nothing more than to be your date on Saturday night."
He turned to me, his eyes bright and happy and so very close to the danger shade that made my heart quicken. "Yeah?"
I nodded and smiled. "Yeah."
A yelp from Alice broke our moment and, surprisingly, I was glad. If she hadn't, the possibility of me leaning in and kissing him right then and there was extremely high.
"Get it out, Emmett!" Alice squealed and I turned to assess the situation.
Edward was standing so close behind me that I felt him laugh. I inched closer to our still-sitting friends to see what was crawling, or resting, on Alice that made her flip out.
"It's his spit," Edward whispered into my ear in explanation. I tried not to whimper at the feelings his breath brushing across the back of my neck.
I turned to him. Spit?
Good God, he was licking his lips. "Emmett tried to spit, the wind caught it, and it flew into Alice's hair."
All I heard was something about Alice's hair, my eyes fixated on his tongue and the wetness of his lips as he spoke.
Alice broke my Edward-induced haze by brushing past us and into the house, her eyes full of fury because of the noticeable wet, glistening glob in her hair.
"Emmett," I barked, turning to face him, "Gross."
He didn't seem affected by her anger of the accusations of his nastiness. In typical Emmett fashion, he seemed pleased with himself.
I turned to Edward. "I'm going to go check on her," I told him, knowing that she would probably be dealing with sick Jasper and the mess in her hair at the same time.
He nodded his understanding and gently squeezed my hand before I headed towards the door leading inside. A final glance outside as I slid the door shut revealed Edward taking Alice's place on the ground and picking up a shot glass.
An hour later, I left Alice with clean hair and Jasper curled around the toilet, a pillow beneath his knees and a blanket lying across the vanity for later. I was oddly proud of her for standing her ground and leaving her fiancé on the cold tile of the bathroom alone. From the hall as I exited, I had heard him whine that in five days she would have to stand by him in sickness and in health, to which she responded, "Pretty sure that doesn't include whiskey vomit."
In fact, I didn't think I could love her more.
Once in my room, I quickly changed into my favorite pair of silk pajama shorts and a ribbed white tank top that was worn, a little bit see-thru, and frayed at the ends. Letting my hair out of the ponytail I had pulled it into while helping Alice remove Emmett's spit wad, I sauntered into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
Toothbrush hanging from my mouth, I wandered back into the bedroom to remove my earrings and watch, only to find something, well someone, I hadn't been expecting.
I gasped and jumped as I noticed the surprise visitor standing in my doorway; it was a miracle I didn't choke on my toothpaste. He looked indescribable leaning against the doorway, his hair disheveled from the sea breeze and his hands casually tucked into the pockets of his khaki shorts. The light blue button up he was wearing had been unbuttoned a little at the top, revealing the dusting of hair that covered his chest.
Perfection.
"Edward!" I exclaimed, my voice muffled by the toothbrush. I held up a finger, telling him to wait, and rushed back into the bathroom, completely mortified that he had barged in on my nightly routine. As I finished cleaning my teeth, I fluffed my hair and smoothed out my clothes.
Emerging from the en suite again after rinsing my mouth out, I was half expecting him to be gone, vanished as if he had been a figment of my imagination.
He was still there and the lustful look on his face made me wish that I were wearing a bra under my thin tank top.
"Hi," I whispered in an awed tone as I approached him, a small grin forming on my lips in response to the smirk that his were making.
"Hi," he echoed, taking a step forward in my direction to meet me halfway.
"What are you-" he cut me off as he stepped directly in front of me, his movements had been much larger than mine, and placed a finger on my lips to quiet me.
I looked up at him, questioning his intentions with my eyes. A lopsided grin appeared and I felt my knees go weak from the combination of it and the warm feeling of his fingertip against my lips. If I wanted, I could have opened my mouth and pulled it inside; it took every ounce of my willpower not to. Without speaking or removing his finger, he grabbed me by the waist and pulled me towards him.
"Shhh, Bella." His voice was deep and husky, the same tone it had been on the beach.
I nodded in understanding as he removed his finger from my lips to trail it up my jaw line before his entire hand came to rest in the hair at the nape of my neck. He leaned in, his eyes the same shade of dark green as they had been earlier in the day, and his breath breezed across my face.
"Where's Emmett?" I asked breathlessly before I got my hopes up. If he interrupted us again, it was likely that I would just sit him down and make him watch, even if I had to put duct tape across his mouth for the rest of the trip.
I felt the vibrations from his chuckle in my chest as he wrapped the arm that was resting on my waist tighter and pulled me flush into him. Oh, it felt nice. "Passed out on the deck," he said in a serious tone.
I leaned back and glared up at him. "Edward," I chided. Yes, I was still a little pissed at Emmett, but surely he hadn't just left him out there.
"Relax," he smirked, "he's on the couch."
After swatting him playfully across the chest, I closed my eyes and allowed my head to return to its previous position, no longer meeting his gaze as I focused intently on the muscles in his chest that were defined by his thin t-shirt.
"Bella." My name came through Edward's lips like a caressed prayer and I lifted my eyes to his. "I'm going to kiss you now," he said as if I needed a warning. Probably, I did.
Gently, teasingly, he pressed his lips against mine as if to test the waters, to insure that this step was okay. Flavored with whiskey and what I could only describe as Edward, the kisses were soft and short and left too much to be desired. It was obvious that he was trying to be a gentleman, to carefully take the leap from friendship to something more tantalizing.
I, however, had no self-imposed code of chivalry to follow and desperately wanted him to claim me, make me his, if only with his lips and tongue. My hands, which until this point were hanging limply and awkwardly at my sides, lifted to his shoulders, sliding up over his strong neck, and into his hair that I had been dying to touch for the past three days.
The copper locks were as soft as they looked. After running my fingers through the strands as he continued with the painfully slow kisses, I gripped onto his scalp and took control, deepening the kiss myself as I pulled him towards me.
His reaction was immediate, almost as if he had been waiting for me to give him permission to give up the formal act and lose control. I scratched my fingernails against his scalp, and he groaned into my mouth, pulling the hand that had been resting at the nape of my neck away, and moving it to rest on my hipbone. Our kisses turned desperate and rushed.
One fluid moment later, I was sitting on the edge of the dresser with Edward standing between my legs that were dangling loosely around him. Moving his hands slowly, methodically, down my thighs, he grasped behind my knees and lifted until my lower limbs were wrapped tightly around his waist, all the while claiming me with his lips.
I gasped into his mouth and felt myself mold against him perfectly, his lips leaving mine to trail short, wet kisses along my jaw before moving on to my neck. I paid little attention to the murmurs of adoration coming from him between kisses, but the effect they had on me was a different story. I felt a familiar ache begin to develop in the pit of my stomach.
Seconds later, Edward's lips were on mine again. This time his kisses were longer, more intense and full of promise, our tongues danced together and his hands blazed a burning trail from my knee to my hip, back and forth in a teasing circuit. When it became necessary to breathe, he pulled back and rested his forehead against mine. Our eyes met, both on fire.
"I couldn't sleep without feeling your lips first," he murmured, his voice husky and deep and his breathing labored. The deep, sexy tone had visions of us, our limbs tangled together as we moved together beneath the sheets, swimming through my head.
I smiled broadly. "And?" It seemed as if he had more to say.
"And, fuck, why didn't we do that before?"
I giggled, my head falling back without realizing the opportunity I presented to Edward. He growled deeply in his throat and attached his lips to the column of my neck. Gripping my thighs, he pulled me forward so that our hips met and I let out a soft moan at the delicious contact.
"We were otherwise spoken for," I somehow managed to choke out in a weak tone despite his distracting lips and their descent towards my collarbone as his hands moved from my thighs to my hips, his fingers playing with the hem of my tank top.
After placing gentle kisses all the way across my collarbone, from left to right, he pecked his way back up to my chin. "Right…that," he mumbled before adding, "I like this tank top."
"Mmhmmm," I agreed, the connection between my brain and tongue lost when his addicting kisses spread like wildfire, his teeth biting gently onto the sensitive flesh of my earlobe.
His large hands slid beneath the bottom on my tank top and splayed out across my stomach and sides, his fingers kneading and exploring as his lips made the return trip across my jaw and onto my lips. I gasped briefly at the feeling of warmth that sparked through my body as he explored my skin, his long fingers brushing the underside of my breasts, before his mouth met mine again.
Three more kisses and he pulled away slowly, catching his breath. "I should go," he said in a pained, forced voice.
"Okay," I murmured, pulling my lip in between my teeth again. I fleetingly realized that if this nervous habit kept up, I would end up chewing it raw before Alice's wedding and she would be pissed if I had chapped lips in the photographs.
Looking up into his lustful eyes, I wanted nothing more than to force him onto my bed and beg him to stay. I knew, though, that that would give him the upper hand and I desperately wanted to keep that for myself, to let him think he was wooing me, when in fact I was the one having to restrain myself whenever I was in his presence.
He unwrapped my legs from his waist and slid me off the dresser so that he was standing between my legs. Lifting his right hand, he cupped my cheek. "Thank you for agreeing to be my date," he mumbled, his eyes searing into mine.
I nodded numbly. "Mmhmm."
"And for letting me kiss you…" His voice took on a velvety tenor and I melted. I briefly rethought my plan of keeping the upper hand.
I grinned happily at him, my hands lifting up to caress his face. "I assure it was my pleasure."
"I hope you realize it'll be happening again."
My hands slid into his hair. "I hope so," I murmured in response.
He smirked down at me with a dazed look in his eyes, his hands still resting loosely on my hips. "Goodnight." No move to exit was made.
"Night Edward," I giggled, realizing he was still directly in front of me, not a single inch closer to the wide open door.
He shook his head a couple of times as if to bring himself back down to Earth. "Right, sleep."
"Yeah," I bit my lip again. Damn. "Sleep."
His hands fell from my waist and I reluctantly removed my hands from his hair, quickly brushing my nails against his scalp as I did, just to tease him. A quick peck against my lips and what I think was another low growl in the bottom of his throat, and he was sliding through the doorway leaving me very hot and bothered.
A/N: Edward POV of the kiss can be found in the outtakes for this story. Link on my profile.
