Bella's POV

J had just finished up lunch when Jasper walked back in. I was kind of surprised. I figured he would hunt more than an hour. "Hey. You're back early."

"I didn't need to hunt a lot. My thirst wasn't bad," Jasper told me as he sat across from me at the table.

"Your eyes were dark," I reminded him.

"No because of thirst. I wasn't thirsty, I was pissed," he told me.

"You were angry? At me?" I asked. I didn't think I'd done anything to anger him and if I did, I certainly didn't mean to.

"No, not you, Darlin'. At Peter," Jasper told me.

"Oh, well, that makes a little bit more sense," I said. I didn't know Peter well, but he definitely struck me as the type to piss people off with ease.

Jasper laughed at my comment. "Yeah, Peter does tend to have that effect on people."

"So why were you pissed at him?" I asked.

"Because his hands were all over you," Jasper said with quite a bit of irritation.

"You mean when we were dancing? Why? Did you think he was going to hurt me?" I asked. That had to be it. The only other possibility would be if he was jealous and that couldn't be it. There was nothing about Peter that appealed to me in that way and he was married. I was spoken for anyway. Even though I couldn't be with Jasper, he was the only one I could see myself with anymore.

"No. He's not that stupid. I was angry because he had his hands on my mate. When I saw the two of you dancing, I wanted to rip his arms off his body and set them on fire," he told me.

"You were jealous? That's ridiculous. Jasper, I can barely tolerate Peter's presence. That was probably one of the few moments since I met him that he didn't annoy me," I told him.

"I know that. Hell, I know Peter would never go there anyway. If not because he loves his wife then because he knows she'd cut off an important part of his anatomy when she found out.

"So then why were you so angry?"

"I saw another man with his hands on my mate. I became territorial," he told me.

"We're not together. We agreed we couldn't be anything but friends," I reminded him. It was something I hated, but it was fact. We'd agreed not to be together for Alice's sake.

"I know. And I thought I could live with that. I thought that would be enough. Peter knew better though. That's why he did what he did."

"What are you talking about?" I asked in confusion. What had Peter done?

"He knew I was nearby. I knew what it would do to me to see the two of you like that," Jasper explained.

"Wait, are you saying he asked me to dance just to get a rise out of you? It was a game to him?" Okay, that pissed me off. How dare he mess with Jasper like that? How dare he use me to mess with Jasper like that?

"According to him, it was a point, not a game," Jasper said.

"Jackass," I whispered irritably.

Jasper heard me of course. "Yeah, that was my reaction. I didn't appreciate being played. But there was a method to his madness."

"Yeah, well there's certainly a lot of madness," I retorted.

Jasper chuckled. "Yeah, there is. Listen, Bella, I really think we need to talk again about this thing between us. Except that this time, we don't deny what we mean to each other."

"I've never denied how I feel about you, Jasper," I told him. True, I'd never actually admitted it out loud either, but I'd never denied to him or myself. "But we both agreed that we couldn't act on those feelings."

"And that's the right thing. I know that. It's the moral thing. But I'm beginning to find that I no longer care," he said.

Okay, that surprised me. No matter what I pictured him saying, that didn't even come close.

"Okay, well, I do care. I don't want to hurt Alice, but we can't keep going on like this. I know I can't anyway. I love you, Bella. I knew that the moment we kissed and that will never go away. This is not a normal human attraction. The bond of mates is one that exists for eternity. It never falters and it never weakens. You're my one and only and I'm yours," Jasper said.

"I know that," I told him. I may not be a vampire, but I did feel the connection he spoke of. Maybe not to the same extent as him because I was human, but I certainly felt that bond. And because of that, I knew without a doubt that he was the only one I'd ever consider being with.

"But we both tried to pretend it was. We told ourselves that we couldn't be together and that was that."

"Because it would hurt Alice if we were together," I reminded him. The argument was becoming harder and harder to make though. He was ready to give in and I wasn't sure I'd be able to withstand the argument if he couldn't.

"Yeah, it would. It will. I hate that, but I hate the idea of being without you even more. I began to realize that when I nearly killed Peter for putting his hands on you. And he knew that that would happen. He may be an ass, but he knows how to drive a point home. I can't lose you, Bella, and I cannot stomach the thought of you possibly moving on with another guy," he said.

I shook my head. That would never happen. "I could never be with anyone else."

"But that's not right either. I don't want you to spend the rest of your life in misery. That won't help anybody. Look, hurting Alice would cause me to feel immense guilt, but hurting you is unacceptable! And that what I'd be doing if I didn't fight for us. I'd be hurting both of us. So I'm going to fight for us. The question is will you fight too?"

I was quiet for a while. I was trying to figure out what to do. I didn't want to hurt Alice. I knew she'd never forgive us if we did this. But then again, Alice might not forgive us anyway. He had already betrayed her. And honestly, what was I more afraid of losing? Alice's friendship or Jasper?

.I was surprised by how easy the answer came. I loved Alice, I really did. Her friendship meant so much to me. But Jasper I loved the way I loved no other. I couldn't imagine a future without him. Even when we were fighting our connection, when I pictured my life ten or twenty years from now, he was there. Others might be gone, but he was always there. I didn't know what I would do if he one day wasn't and I was not overly eager to find out.

Finally, I reached over and put my hand on top of Jasper's. "I don't think we should fight. I think what we've been doing is fighting. Fighting our connection, fighting the way we feel about each other. I think it's time we finally stop fighting."

Jasper smiled and stood up. He pulled me up and into his arms. "I love you, Bella."

I pulled away after a minute and finally said the words I'd been trying not to say for so long. "I love you too, Jazz." Then I kissed him.