A/N: After that chapter was done, I took about a ten minute break before I started on the thirteenth chapter. Unfortunately, I lost what I had typed up before originally, so I had to start this all over again. It's very sad isn't it? Doubt you all care since you all get your chapter anyways.
Words: 5059 words
Disclaimer: Do I look like I'm rich? Do I look like I would turn out the crap that was published recently? Uh, that would be a lie. I would be more creative then that; I wouldn't resort to ripping off fanfiction to write a novel. I have more pride then that.

Chapter 13: Be Our Guest

The next morning, the butterflies had come back. They were fluttering around in my stomach and causing havoc with the rhythm of my heart and my own emotions, the fact that Edward could hear my thudding and erratic heart beat didn't help either.

Edward's arms were wrapped comfortably around me, the familiar cold feeling helping to reassure me somewhat, though my heart still hammered. I wasn't sure why I was so nervous about Edward's family not accepting me, it had nothing to do with the whole 'same-sex' nature of our relationship (if they had a problem with that, then Alice and Bella wouldn't be in a relationship), I guessed it was just me feeling insecure.

Oh hell, I had no idea.

"Did you sleep well?" Edward's fingers casually threaded through my hair, untangling the strands. I sighed contentedly and melted against him; alright, I didn't want to get out of bed.

"I guess... I thought you said that you'd be there while I slept though," my fingers lightly pressed against the fabric of his shirt. It was wrinkled and was riding up, exposing his pale muscled stomach; my heart skipped a beat. Almost timidly, I let my fingers graze across the bare flesh.

He gasped at the contact, his head resting on my shoulder. I hesitated for a moment before I pressed down a little firmer, this time tracing the outlines of the muscles with much more confidence then before. I continued my mapping out the muscles of his torso, committing each detail to memory; there were a few scars that marred his pale skin, I noted that they were in the shape of bite marks.

As my fingers lightly traced one that was just below his left pectoral, his hands came up, grasping my wrists and gently pulling them away. There was a noticeably dark gleam in his golden eyes as he looked at me, and I felt my heart flutter and I shivered from the intensity of his stare.

"Edward...?"

"As wonderful as your touches are, I'm afraid that if I hadn't stopped you that I would not have been able to control myself."

I blinked at that, confused, before realizing what he meant, "... oh." My face warmed up right away, Edward chuckled at that.

"Don't be so shy." He sat up, pulling his shirt down as he did so before leaning down to kiss me; I had already leaned up, so we met halfway. Edward smiled into the kiss, he obviously liked my starting to take the initiative. I have to admit, it made me happy too that he accepted my advances.

I sighed wistfully when he pulled away, breathing heavier then I had been before; Edward always leaves me breathless.

"If I'm going to introduce you to my family, then you had better start getting ready. Renée and Esme left earlier for a little day trip down to Port Angeles, I believe that they will be back late this evening."

Shooting up, I nearly bounced my head off of Edward's face, my blush immediately fading as the butterflies came back tenfold. Wordlessly, I threw my arms around his neck, pulling me flush to his body; I needed the reassurance that only he could offer. There was confusion in Edward as he wrapped his arms around me in response, but he didn't say anything about it until I finally had my pulse back under control and the nerves had faded. All it took was a little confidence, I could do this.

After I'd finished reassuring myself, Edward slipped off after a kiss and a promise of coming back later. I climbed out of bed and made my way to the bathroom for a shower and to clean up for the day. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed that I looked a lot happier now then I could ever myself having looked.

Finishing up in the bathroom quicker then usual, I rushed back into my bedroom and started digging through all of my clothes looking for something, anything, that might be even somewhat appropriate for meeting my boyfriend's family. I wanted to make a good impression, a really good one. After digging through my closet for a few minutes, I finally found something that I thought would do. Pulling the only pair of black dress pants that I'd brought with me out of the back of my closet where I thought I'd never have to pull them out from. Those were followed by the only slightly dressy clothes that I'd brought with me.

A simple three-quarter sleeve length, white collared shirt and an argyle patterned sweater vest that was light blue, dark teal, and black. I pretty much didn't have any dress shoes, so once I'd gotten dressed I pulled on a pair of socks before running down stairs to get some breakfast.

I dug up some cereal, as always, and spotted the note that Esme had left me. I raised an eyebrow at her messy cursive that was scrawled at an awkward angle over the paper; honestly, Esme was a bit like a kid in a lot of ways. But she was my mother, so I loved her despite that. She had Renée now, so she didn't me to constantly look after her now like she had the few times that I'd come down for vacations. Now she would have someone who would be there for her, someone who was pretty much indestructible.

Just as I was drying the dishes, I heard a loud thud from the hall and froze. Edward had been in my house enough and could move through it with such almost unnatural grace that he wouldn't knock into something or knock something over. Slowly, I placed the dishes to the side of sink and cautiously turned around.

There was no one there, and when I walked out and looked down the hallway there was no one else there either. Confused now, I walked down the hallway towards the family room and the front entrance. Again, it was completely deserted, there was no one there. Now I was completely confused, the table near the front door had been knocked to the side, that was what had caused the thud that I'd heard, but there was no one around that I could see who had knocked into it.

Fixing the table, I was just about to check upstairs when there was a soft knock at the door. Straightening up, I made sure that my clothes were pulled down flat and weren't wrinkled before going over to open the door. Edward was standing there, a slight frown on his face, when he saw me, though, he smiled warmly.

"Hello Jasper."

"You don't have to knock you know, the door was unlocked," I reprimanded, opening the door wide.

"No one was over while I was gone, was there?"

I frowned, "No, why?"

Edward looked to be lost in thought for a moment, "... I thought I heard someone's thoughts..."

"I thought you-"

"It wasn't you, it didn't match your 'voice', and I can't hear your thoughts anyways," Edward's eyes narrowed, and he sniffed the air. "I don't know... your scent is overpowering anything else..." Suddenly, Edward's arm swept around my waist and he whispered into my ear, "Get your shoes, we're leaving."

"Uh... okay." The emotions in Edward's voice sent my heart thudding and my mind racing to figure out what had gotten him into this mood. The moment I'd finished putting my shoes on, I was pulled tightly to Edward's side and escorted out of the house. He only stopped to lock the door, with my keys I might add, before he walked me right to the passenger door of his Volvo. Edward opened it and I climbed in, the door shutting firmly behind me. The moment Edward had climbed in the other side, he had his cell in his hand and was already listening.

"Rose, get Riley... I need you to go to Jasper's... no, he's with me right now... Yes, I know your feelings on this matter, but I don't want Renée to possibly come home to a surprise... I only got a glimpse, but I'm almost positive that someone else was there... I want you and Riley to make sure that there's no one there, and if there was try and track them... No, just far enough to where you know they're unlikely to come back..."

I was surprised that Edward was so sure that someone had been inside my house and that they might have hurt me, but I thought that he was just maybe overreacting, just a little. And I knew that Rosalie had maybe some grudge against me, or maybe she just didn't like me; but Edward was asking her to help me and my mother out? I was confused.

The phone snapped shut with a sort of finality and I snapped out of my thoughts. Edward's eyes were hard and on me now, "I'm sorry Jasper, I'm being a bit... overprotective, aren't I?"

"Not really... I thought that there might have been someone in the house, the table in the front hall, someone had knocked into it," I replied evenly. I shuffled as he pulled out onto the street and started driving out of town.

"Please tell me that you didn't go investigate." I looked out the window almost immediately, that gave enough of answer. "You did. Please Jasper, please, don't do something idiotic that could possibly bring you harm. Instead of going to investigate, you should have gotten out of there, as fast as you could."

I still didn't look at him as the town started to blend into forest, the houses now farther apart then they had been before, "It was on the way out, and I didn't see anyone there, so I just thought that it was nothing..."

A hand came out and ruffled through my hair, I looked back to Edward and there was a thoughtful look in his eyes behind the love that was in them. He continued driving until there weren't anymore houses at all, just forest; we were still on the highway, and I was wondering just where he lived. Maybe he lived in a cave?

There was a turn off of the highway just a little farther up the highway, it led onto a dirt road that twisted through the thick forest. The turn-off had been so obscure that I doubt I would've noticed it without someone having pointed it out to me; it was a good thing Edward was driving.

"You guys live awfully far from Forks," I remarked, looking out the window at the passing forest.

Edward smiled, "This far out there's no one around who could possibly see us in the sun. You've seen me, how I look, just imagine what would happen if other humans saw us."

"That does make sense."

"Plus, we prefer it out here, it's calm and peaceful. Easier to hunt from out here too."

The forest started to thin out, before opening out onto a large clearing. I blink, today wasn't a sunny day and the sky was overcast, but something about this clearing seemed brighter then the forest. In the center of this clearing was a house, well 'house' was putting it simply, this was big more like a mansion, and it looked to be probably around a hundred years old; it could have been, or it could have been built to look that way. There was a veranda that wrapped around the front of the house and one of the sides; the house itself was painted a warm cream color with dark wood accents around the doors and windows. All in all, it was a very beautiful home.

"What do you think? Beautiful isn't it?"

I nodded, noticing several exquisitely rendered sculptures of what I guessed to be Greek gods and goddesses placed at strategic points throughout the clearing. "It's amazing. And the sculptures... it's beautiful."

"Yes, it's Renée's work, her best. Of course, for her, traveling the world to see art and sculpture is what she has done, but I think she would have enjoyed it more if she had someone to enjoy it with her. These are all replicas that she had made of sculptures she has seen during those travels," Edward told me as he pulled up the driveway and parked near the front of the house. His car was the only one in sight.

"I know that you sent Rosalie and Riley to my house... but why?"

We climbed out of the car and Edward automatically took my hand in his; that was becoming a habit of his. Not that I minded it. "Forgive me for that, I'm a little... overprotective, I suppose. But what I did hear is not something that I would have expected to have heard from a human. This is just a precaution, but if Renée and Esme come back and there's another of our kind there... it wouldn't be good to surprise them like that."

"It has to do with me too."

"Yes, there's that as well. Let's just say that I want to protect you, even if I have to go to what would seem to be extreme lengths to do so," he led me up the small set of stairs onto the veranda and to the large, heavy-looking, double wooden doors. He pushed open one of them easily and escorted me inside, closing the door behind us.

Inside wasn't precisely what I had expected. For one thing, it was incredibly open; most of the walls had been knocked down, creating one huge open space and the far wall was completely made of glass. To our right on a raised platform was a huge grand piano and a case for what I guessed was a cello.

"Hello Edward," I recognized Doctor Swan as he came out of a room that was tucked off to the side of the huge room we were in. His golden eyes lit up when he saw the two of us, and he smiled warmly at me. "Welcome to our home Jasper."

I couldn't help but blush, "Th-thank you... this is a really beautiful home Doctor Swan."

"Please, you don't have to call me that, Charlie is just fine." I smiled back at him, feeling much more at ease now, and nodded.

"Sure, alright."

There was a blur on the stairs, someone called out, "Edward!", and then I was nearly knocked off my feet when I was pretty much tackle-hugged by Alice who had seemingly flown down the stairs. Her arms weren't nearly as thick or muscular as Edward's, but there was definitely a strength to her that her seemingly fragile appearance seemed to disguise.

"Hi Jasper!" She gushed out as she pulled away, a huge grin on her face. My face was bright red at this time and I stared at her, eyes wide.

"Alice..." Edward's voice behind me was a little exasperated.

"Um... hi Alice..."

I nearly missed Bella's entrance if she hadn't spoken as she came to the bottom of the stairs, "Alice, please behave!" And then she too was suddenly in front of me at Alice's side and I was looking at two of the most beautiful women that I had ever seen.

Bella turned to me then with a warm smile on her face, "Hello Jasper, I'm sorry about Alice's behavior, that's just how she is."

"Oh um, it's fine." And it was, I was just a little embarrassed by the warm welcome that she'd shown me. I wondered if Esme ever came here if she'd receive the same warm welcome that I had; I guessed that they would express the same sentiments.

Charlie had dragged Edward away to talk to him about something, leaving me to the mercy of the two vampire girls. I swallowed.

Alice was walking around me, apparently looking me over, which didn't help the blush that I was guessing would be permanently tattooed onto my face by some point today if I didn't stop. She stopped in front of me, a series expression on her face, "You know, you are much cuter in person Jazz."

"Um... thanks..."

She giggled, "And that's a very nice ass you got yourself there. Gonna let Edward have a go at it?"

"Alice!" Bella reprimanded, smacking her butt. I turned redder then before, and Edward and Charlie looked over at us with confused looks, before diving right back into whatever serious issue it was that they were discussing. Alice giggled, clearly not at all repentant for her little... outburst.

"That's... hardly something that I'd talk about..." I managed to get out. Then, suddenly, a pair of icy hands were around my wrists and I was being pulled out of the room and up the stairs. "Wha - Alice?!"

"C'mon! I have some stuff that I wanna see you in!" Bella smiled and shook her head, following along behind us. I shot one look back at Edward, who was still talking to Charlie, but there was an amused smirk on his face; he clearly knew what was going on.

"A-Alice!"

It was a little late for me to get away, for one thing, Alice already had a firm grasp on my wrists; secondly, it's pretty much impossible to escape from a vampire when they've got you firmly in their grasp. This was just the first instance that I learned that. So by the time that Alice let me go, we were already what I assumed to be her room.

There was a green leather couch pushed up against one wall, and across from that was a desk with a very nice laptop on it and floor to ceiling bookshelves that were practically crammed with books. Grouped around the couch were a number of bags from stores that I didn't recognize the names of, as well as (shockingly) what looked to be several bags from designer's that I had heard of and knew were extremely pricey.

"Um... Alice...?"

She giggled and pushed me into the desk chair, before going over and starting to dig into the various bags and pulling out clothes. I stared in open-mouthed shock.

Bella came over and stood beside me, an amused look on her face, "Sorry about her, Alice tends to go overboard with almost everything. This is just her way of making you feel more welcome and at home."

"... she doesn't have too... I mean..." Okay, I had no idea what I meant. I was pretty much overwhelmed by this point in time.

Alice was bustling around, laying out what looked like an outfit to me, and something that I would never even consider wearing. I quit paying attention the moment what looked like a pair of skinny jeans made their appearance. My least favorite thing in the world, and Alice had bought me what seemed like tones of them from the looks of the contents of those bags.

All of a sudden she was pulling out of the chair, and get this, pulling my clothes off. I stared in near abject horror before grabbing at my pants as she tried to pull them off.

"ALICE! STOP THAT!" I stumbled backwards, tripping over the desk chair and nearly thwacking my head against the edge of the desk. "No stripping me!"

Her face was that of absolute innocence as the door opened and Edward peeked in, smirking, "Now, now Alice. You know that I'm the only one allowed to strip him."

"Not you too Edward!" By this point, I was still somewhat wedged under the desk and was bright red like a tomato. Do you know how mortifying it is to have your boyfriend's sister try to strip you, and then having your boyfriend come in and say that they're the only one allowed to strip you? Yeah, today everyone seemed to be trying to embarrass me to the point where I'd never want to see them again.

He chuckled and came over, pulling me out from under the desk and straight into his arms. He scooped me up bridal style with a huge grin on his face; Alice giggled and Bella smirked. "I guess that I'll be prince charming and you can be the fair princess who I have come to rescue from the evil machinations of the wicked witch."

Alice cackled and placed her hands on her hips, "I'm not a witch though Edward! How about dastardly vampire?"

Bella jumped into the conversation now, "Yes, the vampire prince charming coming to rescue his fair human from the clutches of the dastardly vampiress who is intent on removing all his clothes and stealing his virtue!"

My cheeks were flaming and I was sure that Edward could feel that against the icy chill of his skin from where I'd buried my face as they spoke as if this was all just some really weird, demented fairy tale. I chose to stay out of it.

"But that virtue is mine to take," Edward was saying now.

"Yes, yes. Go and deflower your fair maid," Bella was saying as she shooed us from the room. "I have a wife who needs a firm lecture; you come back later and we will bestow our welcoming gift upon your beautiful princess."

"Then I shall see the two devilish young ladies later?"

"Very funny Edward, get going."

The door closed behind us with a firm thud, and then I heard giggles and muffled shrieks. Some lecture that was.

"So sorry about that," Edward was saying as he carried me down the hallway to another set of stairs at the other end; just how many floors did this place have? I'd counted three from outside, but there could be an attic too.

"Moving on from the fact that your adopted sister was trying to strip me and shove me into different clothes... I didn't know that Bella and Alice were married."

"Technically speaking they're not legally married here in the United States, but we did live up in Canada for a few years, and when it was legalized there, they immediately rushed off and planned a lavish wedding. All Alice's plan of course," he was smiling here; it was obvious that while he was very fond of Alice, that her antics were sometimes amusing to him.

"A lavish vampire wedding?"

"Oh yes, for the small ceremony that we had, it was quite opulent. It was just our family and the coven that resides in Alaska; but Alice made sure that it was quite the spectacle. It's in her nature to go overboard on anything that she can, you are no exception."

I sighed at that, "She went and spent a fortune on me... didn't she?"

"By your definitions, yes. By our standards, what she went out and spent for you is not considerably very much. When you live for as long as we do, money has a tendency to stack up; since you don't really have to meet the commodities and needs that humans do."

"... I can imagine."

Edward was already halfway up the stairs when I thought to ask, "Where are we going?"

"To my room, I thought that you would appreciate seeing it. There's a rather good view of the forest from there, and I do have the entire third floor to myself for the moment."

"What do you mean, 'for the moment'?"

"Renée doesn't live with us, if she did, then her room would be up here along with mine. Although, she does keep a studio in the basement, but the third floor is mine, with the exception of a room reserved for Renée and three guest rooms."

This made me think a little, so I asked, "If I... let's go with theory here, so if I moved in with you, once high school is finished, I would get one of the rooms up here then?"

"That's right, though I don't see why any human would ever want to move into a house full of vampires."

"Well not every human happens to feel very safe with their vampire boyfriend's vampire family," I replied. He set me down on my feet once we reached the third floor landing; looking around, the hall looked the same as the rest of the house's interior had. There were rich mahogany floors with almost black wood trim as the baseboards and as crown molding; the doors were also that dark, almost black wood, while the walls were a very warm peach shade.

All in all, it felt very safe and comforting.

Really, it didn't feel at all like this was the home to a group of vampires who drank animal blood to sustain themselves. Maybe that of a reclusive author or artist, but not vampires. All those movies had been very far off.

"Here, my room is the second door on the right." He gently guided me to said door, his hand holding mine again. He opened the door to his room and let me go in first.

Against the left hand wall was, just like Alice's room, floor to ceiling shelving; only one half of this shelving was devoted to CDs, while the other half held a massive amount of books. Some of which looked to be very old; they would probably go for a lot nowadays, but I was impressed by the amount of volumes he had.

The walls were painted a very rich shade of burgundy, and there was a couch and coffee tabled situated in front of the huge floor to ceiling, wall to wall windows so that you could look right out over the forest. Edward hadn't been lying, the view was beautiful. I could see the full stretch of the forest and the backyard of the house; just like the front there were sculptures all over, but the focal point was a gazebo with what looked to be very comfortable and luxurious outdoor lounge furniture.

Back to Edward's room. The empty wall on the right was dominated by a huge abstract painting, while the wall with the door had a very sophisticated sound system that looked to be worth more then Esme's house. Really, the entire place could have been a loft, not a bedroom.

"I spend a lot of my time here when I'm not with you or downstairs at the piano," Edward explained softly once I'd finished admiring his room. I looked back to him, meeting his gold eyes.

"Really? You play the piano?"

"Yes, I do."

Gently, I let go of his hand and drifted over to the huge collection of CDs, I noticed that the entire bottom two shelves of one section were completely dedicated to jazz music, "I play too. Not the piano, I quit that after a year, but I play the saxophone." I let my fingers trail over the cases, looking over the titles as I did so. His room had a better selection then most music stores.

"Really? What made you stop?"

"Well, Carlisle really didn't like my practicing, and you can't actually practice playing sax in an apartment complex. He never bought me one even though I did ask for one multiple times, so I had to make do with the ones that the school rented out. I played up until I transfered here."

There was a thoughtful look on Edward's face when I explained that to him, and I wasn't sure whether or not it boded well, "Edward? What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I was just thinking."

"You seem to be doing that a lot lately," I replied airily as I continued to examine his extensive collection; there were bands and artists that I had never even heard of. I wondered just how much music he actually had here. Probably more then my old, thirty gig iPod could handle. Not even the one hundred and sixty gig one could hold all of this, I was sure.

Cold hands came to rest gently on my shoulders before I felt cool breath ghost across the back of my neck, I sighed contentedly as Edward breathed in my scent, "... as delicious as the first time I scented you."

"Which got us into this entire situation."

"Mmm... I suppose it did. I guess that if you had not smelled so desirable, I wouldn't have taken the interest in you that I have, and we wouldn't be here like this." His hands slid down from my shoulder to rest on my upper arms, holding them firmly as he pressed himself against my back.

We stood like that for several long moments, just welcoming the presence of the other. I hadn't noticed that Edward had turned his stereo on until the soft crescendo of some sonata that he'd put on reached my ears. I sighed happily and leaned back into his touch.

The spell that had seemingly fallen over us was broken when there was a soft knock at the door. I started, and Edward pulled me to his side, wrapping his arms around me and holding him close as he called out quietly, "Enter."

Bella swept into the room, a troubled frown on her face, "Rose and Riley just got back. There was someone there, another one of us. They think it was just a wanderer who was curious about the scent of our kind being centered around that house, but they can't be sure. Whoever it was was long gone when they got there. They tracked them farther up the coast but lost the scent when they went into the ocean."

"Alice didn't see anything?"

I listened to the conversation, not involving myself even though it did involve me. Bella shook her head, "No, she wasn't watching the house or Jasper, but she will now. There's the chance that they might come back now that they're curiosity has been raised."

"There was a vampire in my house?" I asked quietly. Bella nodded wordlessly and Edward's arms tightened around me.

"Not one of us though, not one who abstains from the blood of your kind," Edward whispered. I swallowed, trying to control the fear that was now raging through me at the thought of what just might have happened had Edward not shown up when he did.

I could have been dead by now.

"And they might come back?"

Again, Bella nodded.

"Yes, but now we'll be on the watch for them. Esme and yourself are now in danger, in case they are one of those who look for a challenge in what they hunt; but we won't let them get to you. This I promise you."

I turned in Edward's arms and threw my arms around his neck, taking comfort in his presence and embrace. He gave a small nod to Bella who quickly and silently left the room; I wouldn't have noticed if the door hadn't given a soft 'click' when she closed it behind her. This left Edward and I all alone in his room together.

"Would you like to hear me play?" He asked after a few minutes of silent comfort. I nodded.

"Yes, I'd love that."

.:-o-:..:-o-:.

There, you all get your finished chapter. You can thank Jenn who annoyed me to no end until I finished this, and I did. So you all should give your thanks to Jenn for annoying me so much to get this done. It's done now, and my updates are most likely going to be suffering seeing as school's started up once again and I have a rather hectic year ahead of me.

In other news, if there are any chapters or parts of this story that you would like to see from another characters point of view or something that was omitted because Jasper wasn't there, feel free to leave your requests in a comment or review, and I'll see what I can do about it.

Please leave me some nice reviews?

Twilight.