A/N: My Loves! Hi! I'm so so so so so so so so sorry that this took me forever. I went through a time where I had to take a step back and reassess where this story was because I know where I am going with it, but didn't know exactly how I was going to go about it at first. And these next few chapters are the real turning point in the story so I had to get them exactly right. Thanks for staying with me and because you waited so long, ill be putting up not only this chapter but the next two as well all THIS week! So pay attention and don't skip a chapter! You'll notice you've missed something, I'm sure. And then the chapters will be back on a once or twice a week basis. Thank you, my lovelies!

Love!

Jake's POV

I laughed. Was she serious? If she was willing to give me gold stars, I'd line my bedroom walls with them like they were trophies. Frat boys did with girls' panties, I'm cool with gold stars. What are those for, Jake? Oh, this one's from when we were in the kitchen, this one's from in the shower, this one's from outside up against that tree…

I'm not sure how the guys would take that, but I would display them with pride, undoubtedly.

"I think you need a few moments to rest, Boo."

"I do not! You don't want anything in return?"

I just smiled down at her and then rolled off of her body, lying next to her naked body, keeping her warm.

"Is that a yes?" She turned her head and raised an eyebrow at me.

I grinned. "Sweetie, you really don't need to. Not right now, at least."

She sighed and looked back up at the ceiling. "All right. And uh… what's with the new nickname huh?"

"What?"

"You've called me 'Boo' twice already."

"Oh… Well, you don't like 'Bellyboo' so I thought 'Boo' would do the job," I explained, brushing my finger over her face and moving a piece of hair out of her eyes.

"What happened to 'Bells'?" she asked, turning her head back towards me, staring into my eyes like she was genuinely concerned about my change of nicknames for her. I almost felt bad for changing it.

Uh… think here, Black. Think. No no no she'll never buy that … think of something GOOD.

"I called you that when you weren't my girlfriend. It just seems weird to call you that now."

"So you'll never call me that again?" She pouted.

Fuck. Don't pout. Please? I just gave you oral sex and let you cum all over my tongue and then decided NOT to pleasure myself and fuck the shit out of you… PLEASE don't do that beautiful thing with your lips that we call a pout.

Damn it. Little Jakey just woke up.

It was like putting a very fussy toddler down for a nap after an hour of trying to get them to sleep and then leaving the room but accidentally slamming the door and waking them up again.

DAMN IT!

"Of course I will. Around our dads and friends and stuff."

"Oh. Okay. Well… I gotta come up with a name for you that I don't use around our dads and friends."

"Anything you want, Boo."

"How about Ralph?"

The awkward silence only lasted a few seconds before we both busted up laughing so hard so that I fell off the bed onto the floor. This, in turn, made Bella laugh even more, her body shaking with giggles.

"Oh god… oh god that was so good!" I heard her say in between breaths as the laughter was cooling down.

"No fair that you laugh at my pain!" I said, climbing back onto the bed, and on top of my Bella.

"I'm not laughing at your pain… just your clumsiness." Bella tapped my nose after she said that and leaned up to give me a quick kiss.

It only took a few seconds of silence, but the romantic feel was back in the room and I closed my eyes, leaning my forehead down on hers.

"I love you, Bella," I whispered, not knowing anything else to say to explain how I was feeling.

Bella nudged her nose against mine before she opened her eyes. One of her hands ran through my hair and she sighed, closing her eyes again. I had opened mine, but closed them again too.

"Please say something, Bella. It's like my heart is holding its breath."

"Jacob… I wanna make love to you."

Well Little Jake is not just awake, but now throwing a tantrum because he's so frustrated.

"Boo-"

"No no- wait. Jake, I love you. More than I ever thought possible. And I can't just let you do … that… to me and not give you something in return."

"Baby, you do give me something. You tell me you love me. That's all I-"

"For goodness sake, Jacob, I can feel that that's a lie."

Feel? Bella moved her hips up a bit and grinded into my now half-hard erection. Damn it, Little Jake, I'm gonna have to put you in time-out for this! No taking advantage of Bella! No matter how much she begs for it!

"It doesn't matter, Boo. You turn me on all the time, am I supposed to make love to you every time I'm turned on?"

Yes. Fuck yes. That would be awesome.

"Well…" she started, looking down now.

"I'll answer that for you … No. Boo, you'd be naked twenty-four/seven."

Her eyes widened as she looked back up into mine. "You want me all the time?"

"Well, first off, I AM a guy. Secondly, I'm a wolf. Now, all men want is sex and all wolves think about is protecting what's theirs so they can … reproduce. So, I guess I'm thinking about sex all the damn time. And you're the only thing I want so… yes. I want you all the time."

"I'm quite a sexual person, Jakey, I could satisfy you."

I laugh at how innocent her voice sounds.

"Aw, Boo, thank you. But I don't expect that. The thing is, even though I am a guy … and a wolf, I have my girly tendencies. And sometimes I just wanna cuddle."

"You're a bad liar."

"I know I am. So you should notice when I'm not lying." I took my body off of Bella's and went to her dresser. "Where's your pajamas?"

"Jake you know I just sleep in a t-shirt and underwear."

"Yeah, but I never understood that.," I said, grabbing a t-shirt that looked like a pajama shirt from one of her dresser drawers. "I mean, you sleep with your window open most the time and it's fucking freezing at night … for humans, that is."

"Well you see, there's many times when I wake up and find this warm presence next to me. Or that my sheets are really warm. After a few months of that, I had to go for just the underwear."

I smiled over at her, throwing her the pajamas I'd picked out for her. So she had noticed. I thought I was being very careful not to wake her or let her know that I'd been in her room at night, especially since that would remind her of that fucking stalker vampire boyfriend she used to have, but I guess she'd figured it out.

"When did you figure that out?" I asked, sitting on the side of her bed as she sat up to pull her shirt over her head.

"I'd say… the night I saw you leaving my bed and jumping out the window at about four in the morning. You were cursing Charlie for waking up early." She laughed and looked down at her hands.

"Well it scared the shit out of me! Could you imagine what would happen if your dad caught us in bed together?"

Bella looked up at me and smiled. What, did she WANT him to find us?

"What are you smiling for?"

"He wouldn't mind it as much as you think, Jake. He adores you."

"Ok, you make sure to remind him of that when I'm staring down the barrel of his shot gun, probably naked after being in bed with you." I rolled my eyes and got up, stretching and yawning.

"Jake, c'mon, you know he'd never do anything like that. He'd be more embarrassed than we would! He'd probably just leave the room and then call Billy for advice."

"Oh god…"

"And then our dads would sit us down for a sex talk."

"OK THAT'S ENOUGH!" I screamed, placing my hands on my head.

"What?" She looked up at me from her spot on the bed, looking so confused.

"You really wanna have a sex talk with BOTH our dads? Fuck, Bella, they'd castrate me!"

"My dad wants grandchildren and so does Billy. I'm sure they wouldn't do that."

"They'd mention adoption at that point, I'm sure."

Bella laughed and jumped up off the bed. "You wanna take a shower?"

"You just got into your paj-"

"I wanna take a shower." Bella smiled up at me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

I sighed, giving in to that gorgeous smile. "Ok, but no funny business."

"I thought you were a guy and a wolf that never stopped thinking about sex," Bella retorted, turning and leading the way to the bathroom, my hand in hers.

"Exaclty. Which is why I'm trying to be careful," I said, following her.

"Jake, I'm older than you. I control this situation." She said while motioning between the two of us.

"Really? Because I think I was pretty controlling a few minutes ago…"

"Shut up," she said, stepping into the bathroom right before me and stripping her pajamas off. She put them on the counter then stepped into the shower.

I sighed dramatically. I didn't want to get into trouble here, but I wasn't sure if I could watch a naked, wet Bella caress every part of her body, without losing control and taking advantage of the situation.

"C'mon, Jake, join me," Bella said from inside the shower right after she turned on the water.

"I dunno, Boo. I don't trust myself."

"Well I trust you."

I smiled at that, putting my hands in my pockets. "I'm glad, honey, but I think I'll just leave you alone for-"

"But you said you were gonna love me tonight."

"I DO love you. And I thought I showed you that…"

She sighed. "You have. And it was wonderful, Jake, but I guess I'm just excited for more."

"I don't want to rush things," I said, about to explain to her that I didn't want our first time together to be in a shower.

"I guess I do."

That caught me off guard. She WANTED to rush things? I tried to shake from my mind that she was just using me, telling myself over and over that she was in love with me and that we were supposed to be together. This was not just sex. She wanted it, yes, but she said she was in love with me. She liked just holding my hand and kissing me and being close to me and she loves me. She loves me, she loves me, she loves me, she loves me, she loves me.

"Jake?"

"She loves me."

"What?"

I guess I had been thinking too long and hard about this. "Uh… I'm gonna go set up some stuff for tomorrow. I'll meet you in bed in a bit."

"Uh…. Kay."

I ran out of that bathroom and literally shook my head of these bad thoughts I was letting fill my mind. To get all this crap even further out of my mind, I went downstairs and went into housewife mode. I don't know how long I was working, but I made the entire first story of the house absolutely spotless. I even vacuumed. It was really late and I'm sure Bella was confused when she heard the vacuuming, but I am glad she was respectful enough to give me some space and time to myself just to think.

After the last pillow on the couch was put into the right place, I made my way upstairs. Bella was lying on her side in her bed, under her comforter with the blankets pulled up to her chest. She looked adorable as she smiled up at me when I entered the room.

"You don't just clean for fun, Jake. You wanna talk about it?"

"Actually… no."

"All right. Well… c'mere." Bella scooted over in her bed and I took off my shirt and pants before climbing into bed with her.

It was cold tonight, so I would easily get away with holding her close to me, but my heart jumped when I realized that neither of us had to use the excuse that she was cold in order to cuddle anymore. We could finally be open with each other and just be close because … we wanted to be.

As Bella snuggled into my chest and my arm wrapped around her back, playing with her damp hair, I closed my eyes, suddenly exhausted.

"You SURE you don't want to talk about it?" She whispered before yawning.

"No need. I guess I just needed a breather from all the teasing you were doing."

"It wasn't teasing, Jake," she tilted her head up to look at me. "I really wanted it."

"Well I don't want it yet so anything you do from now on to try and seduce me is going to be called TEASING."

Bella's head moved back down and she placed a kiss to my chest. "All right."

When I heard her sigh, I knew I needed to explain something to her so I put my pointer finger under her chin and lifted her head back up so I could look into her eyes.

"Bella… please understand this. I wanna make love to you more than anything else in the world. No… that's a lie. I wanna love you more than anything else in the world, but showing you how much I love you through physical pleasure is something I've been dying to do for… well, for years now. I fantasize about you… I dream about you… you know I think about you non-stop. I want you so bad. But I love you more than I want you. I know this sounds so cliché and romantic and crap, but I really want our first time to be something we're both ready for. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Please don't push this. Because you pushing it and wanting to rush things just makes me feel like you want me physically more than you love me."

Bella stared at me for a few seconds with her mouth slightly open with the look behind her eyes telling me she was obviously contemplating what to say.

"Jacob. Do you think I'm using you?" I could tell tears were filling up in her eyes.

"I don't want to believe that. I will be honest with you, it HAS crossed my mind, but in all honesty, no. I don't think that."

"Jacob Black, don't you DARE think that I would use you for sex. Or for satisfying my curiosity as I said last night. Yes, I'm curious. Yes, I enjoyed discovering your body last night. Yes, I quite enjoyed myself tonight. But the best moment in the past two days was not any time we were sexual. It was that moment in the woods when I took your hand and you smiled bigger than I'd ever see you smile before. Jake, please don't think I just want you for sex. I love you, ok? I love you."

My lips had to smash into hers at that moment because nothing I would say could explain how I felt at that moment. Relief, comfort, excitement, warmth, certainty, love.

I slowly pulled away and when she snuggled her head back into my chest, I laid my head on top of her and kissed her hair. "I love you too, Boo."

Sleep overtook both of us quite quickly, probably due to how incredibly long the day had been for us. Little did I know that the next day would be even longer.

I woke up to the sound of rocks hitting the window. What the fuck? I'm in Bella's room so that means I can't be outside throwing rocks and I am pretty sure I'm the only one that does that …

My eyebrow raised and I slowly moved my arms off of Bella's body before stretching and getting out of the bed. I yawned as I ran a hand through my hair and made my way across the room to the window. Peeking out slowly, I realized I had probably lost my mind. No one was there.

Wait. Is this like one of those creepy ghost story shows where I'm going to turn around and Bella is going to be standing there staring at me possessed by some rock-throwing demon?

I took in a deep breath before quickly turning around and exhaled once I scanned the room. Bella's still sleeping. Phew.

You're such an idiot, Black. I mentally slapped myself then looked out of the window again just in time for a bird to fly straight into the glass. I jumped back and gasped before falling right onto my ass. This caused Bella to wake up.

"What the fuck? Jake are you okay?"

"Fine!" I said, sitting up and looking over at her with a 'No I didn't just get scared of a bird and fall on my ass' look.

"What was that?"

"Uh… something just startled me."

"You're a wolf. You don't GET startled," she said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Apparently I do when I'm in my human form," I yawned again, standing up and moving to the bed. "So I guess today's the day! We should start getting some decorating done before your father comes in and wonders what we were doing all night needing the house to ourselves." I grinned at my Bella and she just shook her head, pulling the blankets off of her and heading for the bathroom. "You do that!" She said from behind the bathroom door. "I'll start cooking once I'm ready."

"Breakfast!" I jumped up and ran to the bathroom door.

"Well maybe I'll make you something small but I've got a lot more cooking to do if this is really going to be a party, Jacob."

"Right, right… hey, Boo?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you open the door?"

"Why?"

"Just… please?"

"Uh… okay."

Bella looked almost annoyed when she opened the door and stared at me. "Something up? I just gotta pee and brush my hair and-"

I pulled her body to mine and shoved my nose in her hair, breathing her in and running my hands up and down her back. A second later I'd pulled my head back, tilted her chin up to me and leaned down to kiss her softly. Her lips felt so good against mine and I could barely grasp the fact that I was kissing Bella without getting punched in the face. I could get used to this. My lips played with hers for another minute before I finally pulled away and sighed, keeping my eyes closed and leaning my forehead down onto hers.

"Good morning."

Bella smiled and looked up at me through sleepy eyes. "Good morning to you too. Thank you, Jake."

"I just couldn't let you go without your good morning kiss, now, could I?"

Bella raised an eyebrow at me. "Does that mean I get one EVERY morning?"

"If you'd like."

"Oh, I'd like." She giggled and leaned up to kiss me quickly before letting go of me and grabbing her hair brush. "I have to clean my room of all those petals and candles then I'll cook you something. Just go get started decorating."

"Aye aye captain!"

I could sense Bella rolling her eyes as I ran down the stairs, looking for what the hell I was going to start decorating with. I'm a guy. I don't do this shit. This one moment was the only moment in my life where I actually WISHED a certain Cullen was around to help.

I take that back. Really. I do. I fucking take that back and you NEVER heard me say it. Nope. Never.

Cullen? That one little crazy pixie with a talent for decorating? Bella never told me about how that tiny little bloodsucker set her up a birthday party with way too many extravagant decorations and how she would come in handy if there was ever a party that needed to be thrown together quickly. What? I don't know what you're talking about. Nope. NEVER.

Bella came downstairs still in her adorable little pajamas and smiled at me like she KNEW I was stuck in a dilemma. "Breakfast will be made in a few. I have a feeling you'll need the energy to think today."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, following her into the kitchen.

"Uh… decorating? Not exactly your thing. Remember how you couldn't even decide how to hang three pictures on your bedroom wall last year? And I ended up doing it?"

"That has nothing to do with my ability to decorate! I can… hang … streamers and … shit."

"Uh huh. Well then go for it!"

I just stared at her with a look of uncertainty on my face and after she rolled her eyes again she handed me the phone. "What's that for?"

"I think you know who you need to call."

It took me a minute but I figured it out.

I ran into the living room to give Bella some space in the kitchen and dialed the familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Miss Emily, my dear, loving, caring, wonderful, beautiful, amazing-"

"Jacob what do you want?"

"Oh.. Geez… sorry I didn't know you were in bad mood today-"

"No, Jacob, I am in an amazingly wonderful mood right now but your phone call is about to destroy the wonderfulness if this conversation goes much longer so what do you-"

"Oh uh… um…" I tried not to think about what Emily could mean but hearing her breathing get a little deeper kind of distracted me.

"Jacob?"

"I need some decorations."

"Jake I don't… uh…. ugh… um…" A slight moan escaped another throat in the room Emily was in and I knew what I had just interrupted. Holy shit, this early!

"OK ok, never mind, I just thought you might have some streamers or banners or confetti or some shit for Charlie's birthday 'cause we're decorating the house but if-"

"I might Jacob but-"

"No no, just … call me back real soon if you find any. Ok? Ok thanks. Bye."

I hung up the phone and shook my head quickly trying to free my mind of the visuals I got from that conversation. I do not need to be thinking about my Alpha and his imprint like that. I am actually surprised Sam let Emily talk that long once he found out it was me on the other end. Perhaps he just couldn't get Emily off the phone. She DID love talking on the phone. And Sam WAS supposed to always give in to what she wanted. I wonder how they have that kind of energy in the morning. I wonder if he woke her up like that. I wonder if Bella would like to be woken up with me going down-

The phone rang.

I snapped out of my daze, thankfully, and answered it.

"Swan residence."

"Jacob. I'm so sorry honey, it's uh… early. My mind was elsewhere. And um… actually… I have quite a bit of decorations just sitting in a box in my closet and I've been wanting to throw them out since we haven't had a use for them in a few months and they've just been taking up space-"

"That's great!" I told Emily, excited to finally have something to work with. "I can go get them in a few-"

"No no, I have to go in to Forks today and it might as well be early so I'll just drop them off in about forty-five minutes?"

"That would be great, Em. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now… is anyone else invited to this shindig or…"

That got me thinking. Hey, why NOT have everyone over for Charlie's birthday? That WOULD take the attention away from Bella and I quite a bit. Bigger crowd. More people to talk to. Less girlfriend's father trying to hound you about how you're touching his daughter since he'll be too busy talking to Sue Clearwater anyway. Genius.

"Yeah! Yeah uh.. actually, everyone's invited. It's gonna be a lunch thing so I think everyone should get over here at, like, one. Could you spread the word? I've got tons of cleaning and decorating to do while Bella's cooking. Oh. And make sure Sue can come."

Emily chuckled. "Sure, honey. I'll tell everyone. And I'll be there in just a little to give you the decorations."

"All right. Thanks again, Em."

"You're welcome, Jacob. Bye."

"Bye!" I hung up the phone and ran to the kitchen. "Boo!"

"Aaaah!"

I stood there confused for a second then started laughing. "That wasn't meant to SCARE you, Bells. Geesh!"

"Well then maybe I need a different nickname."

"Oh, stop it," I said, wrapping my arms around her waist as she set some things on the stove. "Just so you know," I whispered into her ear, "Everyone's coming. For lunch. Thought it might be nice for Charlie to see everyone and everything."

"Did you invite Sue?" She asked, not looking away from some bacon she was frying.

"Yup," I confirmed, kissing Bella's temple.

A few seconds passed before she let out a content sigh. "You know what's weird?"

"Hmm?" I asked, letting my lips move to Bella's neck and place soft kisses all over it.

"I feel so horribly terrible about Harry, but I find it wonderful that Sue and my dad find comfort in each other."

"For sure, baby," I agreed, still nuzzling and kissing her neck.

Bella softly laughed.

"What?" I asked, pulling away from her.

"You just sounded very uninterested in whatever I was saying right now."

"Well that smell in your hair is intoxicating."

Bella exhaled loudly and turned around to me. "You're not going to act like this around everyone are you?"

"Boo…" I sighed, looking down at my feet, "Why do you hate the idea of us?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well… I mean… you don't want anyone to know how involved we are and how… in love we are. It honestly … kinda bugs me."

For the first time ever, Bella didn't argue with me on this. She actually looked guilty and upset as she, too, looked down at her feet before stepping forward and putting her arms around my neck. "I'm sorry." Her lips met the tip of my nose before she continued. "I don't want to get ridiculed, that's all. I'm scared of the comments, Jake."

"Everyone loves the idea of you and me. Don't you see that?"

"I do. But I just don't know if I'm ready for my dad to know about this yet. I still want my nights with you."

I rolled MY eyes this time. "There you go again. So you're blaming all this on the fact that you think your father won't let me stay here at night once he finds out we're together."

"Um… yes and no."

"Could I have an actual answer, please?" I ask, annoyed.

"Jacob, give me a month. As much as I know my dad would LOVE this announcement for a birthday present, I'd rather not tell him in front of a lot of people or while you and I are in an interesting place in our relationship, okay? I want us to be more solid when we tell him-"

"More SOLID? What does that even MEAN Bella?" My arms left her body and I turned around, finding a chair and pulling it out to sit in.

"Jake, please don't turn this into a fight. Maybe I don't even KNOW why I don't want to tell him yet, but-"

"Because you're having second thoughts," I interrupted her, folding my arms as I leaned back in the dining room chair.

"No. Not at all."

"You're lying."

A staring contest ensued and I knew at that moment that Bella really was having second thoughts. Why does she always do this to me? Still, I gave in to the seduction and let her sit on my lap when she crossed the kitchen to do so. She straddled my thighs and put her hands on my biceps.

"This right here is always going to have me nervous because you know how broken I am," Bella started again with the sob story. Frankly, I was getting sick of it, but I let her continue. "Yes, you are helping to fix me. My broken heart is almost healed because of you. But that does not mean I'm ready to jump up and tell everyone how excited I am to be in another relationship again. I don't want the onslaught of questions about how we decided to be together to happen just yet, Jacob. Especially at my dad's birthday party. Plus, I think if we told Charlie that we were together after spending a night alone with each other, he'd get the wrong idea."

"It wouldn't be THAT wrong of an idea," I smirked, kind of patting myself on the back for that comment.

"We didn't have sex," she pointed out. Yeah… I know. So… you gonna give it up NOW? On the kitchen table? Hmm.

After licking my lips at the wonderful thought of a naked Bella on the kitchen table, she hit my arm and snapped me out of it. "What? Yeah I know we didn't have sex."

"YOU were the one that said you wanted to wait until we were both perfectly ready for it," she pointed out.

"Ok ok, fine. Yeah. Just… promise me you'll think about telling everyone soon? I mean, I won't be able to keep it out of my head so the guys are gonna know soon enough, anyway."

Bella just nodded her head and quickly kissed my lips. "Let me finish breakfast."

"Yes! Finish! Please!" I shoo her off and just watch her walk back to the stove, my mind racing with exactly what just happened. Did Bella say she wanted sex and that I was the only one saying we should wait? And that she was thinking about not telling anyone about us for a month? Was she planning on breaking up with me in a month? No, she loves me. She loves me. And I said that to myself again as she set down a plate of pancakes and bacon in front of me.