Rosalie P.O.V

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. –Philip K. Dick

Emmett had said we should get dinner and that was exactly what we did. We'd gone straight to this little place on one of the main streets and found ourselves at a table somewhere off in the back, hidden in a dark corner. Emmett spent the first 5 to 10 minutes texting on his phone and even when he was looking at me, he seemed to be looking through me. Things between him and Alice had definitely hit the fan and honestly, besides the night that I'd first laid eyes on her, I couldn't really think of a time that I had seen Alice happy. Did I really want to be a part of this for the rest of my life? I looked at Emmett as he absently ran a hand through his hair, his mouth in a tight line. Sure, he may have had family issues, but could I really judge? My parents weren't exactly model material of the average family.

"We don't have to sit down and talk about this today," I offered.

Emmett obviously had some things he needed to work out with his sister. She disliked me enough. I didn't need to be thought of as the person that came between her and her brother, even though I probably already was.

"It's fine," Emmett sighed, "She needs space. I'll talk to her tomorrow."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," he locked his phone and sat it face down on the table.

I had thrown it all out there now. There was no backing out. I had told my father that I was seeing and fucking Emmett. I had told Emmett that there was hope for whatever the hell we had going on. I had taken the leap. A part of me believed that I'd done so because there wasn't a doubt in my mind about Emmett and I being together. Now that I had done it, I wasn't sure that was true. I may have considered going through all of this, but the final push in this direction hadn't been my infatuation with Emmett at all. It had been my loyalty to Bella. Bella needed me to forgive Emmett. She needed me to tell my father about him too. Bella and I had planned this out to the best of our ability. The best thing for me to do was to keep allowing the men in my life to think that they held all of the cards. They would do exactly what I wanted them to do, as long as they thought that it was their idea and by helping me- we could save Bella and that was all that mattered. It mattered more than my dad possibly shooting Emmett in front of me and it mattered more than me being in a loveless marriage for the rest of my life. I had been the only person Bella had once upon a time and I wasn't going to walk out and leave her in distress now. Bella had gone through what we both hoped was a pregnancy scare and if Alice were to ever find out, we would definitely need Emmett in our corner. He had claimed that Jasper was like a brother to him. I was betting my best friend's well being on the love he claimed to have for Jasper.

Our waiter approached the table and smiled.

"I'm Tyler and I'll be your server tonight," he handed each of us a menu, "Can I start you off with drinks?"

"Water, no ice." Emmett cracked his neck both ways.

"I'll take some lemonade, really sweet please."

"Okay," Tyler jotted our drinks down, "I'll give you some time to look over the menu and I'll be right back with your drinks."

He left us alone and I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table and putting my face in my hands.

"I don't recall there being a time when you've drank something besides beer in front of me," I observed.

Emmett chuckled.

"I'm not an alcoholic," he shrugged.

"I didn't say you were."

"Rosalie, what do you want?" Emmett leaned on the table, resting his hands on it.

That was a loaded question.

"More."

His demeanor visibly changed. Emmett prided himself on not being afraid of anything. I didn't buy that for a minute. Maybe I would have when I'd first met him, but he very obviously had a fear of commitment and abandonment. One that Alice must have too because from what I could tell she was glued to her brother at every possibility.

"I don't know how to give you more," he said, his gaze never leaving mine.

I didn't doubt that- not one bit. Emmett didn't seem like the roses and chocolate giving sort of guy.

"Well what can you give me?"

"Protection," was the first thing to come out of his mouth and then he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin with one of his hands, "Honesty and sex. The people around me normally end up dead or fucked up beyond fixing, Rosalie. I'm not good at feelings. I'm good at breaking shit. It's what I do."

"And fuck," I countered.

Emmett laughed, a good laugh, from somewhere deep in his belly.

"And fuck," he repeated, "but I'm willing to try something else for you- with you. I just feel like I'm going to end up hurting you."

"You believe that about yourself, don't you?"

"What? That I hurt people? I know that I hurt people."

Emmett found a place on the table for his eyes to focus on and I knew that this was uncharted territory. He normally looked cool, calm and collected.

"Emmett, what are we doing?" I repeated my question from earlier.

"I don't know," he repeated his answer in response.

I huffed out a laugh. His casual answers to complicated questions were making me a little crazy. Tyler walked up to us and placed our drinks in front of us.

"Are you ready to order?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Emmett said gruffly.

"I'm fine too. Thank you."

"Okay. I'll check on you again to see if you've changed your mind," Tyler smiled, "Do you want to keep the menus just in case?"

"Sure," I smiled back and Tyler nodded once before leaving us again.

We both watched Tyler walk away and towards another table.

"Why do you want more?" Emmett asked.

I paused. That was a good question. It was a question I asked myself a lot. That didn't mean I had an answer. I pulled my glass of lemonade closer to me and then collected some packets of sugar. I opened three of them and emptied the contents into my glass.

"I don't know," I admitted, "I think about it a lot though, especially when you go missing on me for days at a time."

Emmett's eyes turned away and I couldn't help wonder if he felt some sort of remorse.

I continued, "Look, I know you think that I'm this fragile little girl that needs to be protected and watched over, but that's not the case. I can handle anything you can throw at me so you can feel free to tell me whatever you want. I'm not going to get offended." I stirred my lemonade with my straw and then looked up and at Emmett-hard, "Don't you want me to trust you?"

"Yeah," he said simply.

"Do you actually like me, Emmett? Or do you just like fucking me, as you like to remind me?"

Emmett leaned forward again and swallowed.

"Rosalie, I've been trying to fight this. I've been going back and forth about this with myself and Alice and fuck- even Bree. This isn't the life you wanted for yourself and I can't make you want it."

"And what life is that?" I clasped my hands together on the table.

"The life that I'll have if I decide to take over after your father is dead,"

"How is it any different from what you do now?" I took a sip out of my straw.

"I'll be out later. I'll be less available. There'll be more blood on my hands. Those days when I go missing will be more often. I'll have new enemies."

"Are you worried someone will kill me, Emmett?"

I watched his muscles tense and for a few seconds he looked like the same Emmett I'd seen at the club pushing people out of his way.

"No one is going to fucking touch you, whether we're together or not."

I knew it was more of an oath to himself than me.

"So what are you worried about exactly?"

"I'm worried about you being miserable," Emmett closed his eyes and clenched his teeth together, visibly trying to get his thoughts together.

"You don't think that this back and forth shit that we do makes me miserable?" I snapped.

"Look, we can date," Emmett shrugged, "and whatever happens, happens. It'll be like dating anyone else. If we break up in a year or less- fine. If we don't, we'll cross the hurdle of a decision when we get there." Emmett sat up and ran one of his fingers around the rim of his untouched glass of water.

"Normal couples argue," I reminded, "That means you can't run for the hills if we have a disagreement."

"That's reasonable."

"Bree needs to move out."

Emmett chuckled.

"She's looking for a place. She'll be out in three months max."

"Emmett, don't lie to me."

"I don't lie," he sighed and reached across the table grabbing my glass.

"Emmett," I watched him take a sip of my lemonade and then make a face.

"What?" he grabbed up more packets of sugar and began emptying them into my glass.

"What happened to you?"

Emmett stirred my glass with my straw, took another longer sip and then pushed it back across the table towards me.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"What was your childhood like?"

Emmett looked at me for a while before he chuckled.

"It sucked," he shrugged and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, "My mom gave birth to Alice and I and then she died and our father was a drunk and a druggie who liked to beat the shit out of us when he couldn't get a fix."

I pulled my lemonade to me and took a sip before bracing myself for my next question.

"How did he die?"

I got prepared for Emmett to tell me that it wasn't my business or that he didn't want to talk about it. I got prepared for him to shut down and throw his wall back up.

"He hit Alice and I beat the shit out of him with whatever I could get my hands on until he stopped moving."

I opened my mouth and then closed it only to open it again.

"I'm so-"

"Don't," he interrupted, "Do not do that, Rosalie. Seriously. I don't deal well with pity."

"Okay," I nodded quickly.

I didn't need him to shut down on me.

"That's where all the marks are from," he continued, "but I'm fine with them. They don't bother me. They itch a lot, but I typically wear my scars with pride. They're a reminder of all the times I took the worst of it for Alice. I just don't like stares. I don't like pity. I don't like people to look at me the way you're looking at me right now,"

"Sorry," I looked down at the table.

I couldn't help my natural facial expressions.

"What about the other three tattoos?" I asked.

"That's a story for Alice to tell you," Emmett sighed, "or it's at least a story for another day, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed.

He was taking baby steps, but they were steps all the same. I watched Emmett pull out his wallet and place a 20 dollar bill on the table.

"Ready?" he asked.

I nodded. Tonight had been eventful to say the least.

I looked at Emmett slowly stand up and take in his surroundings again. Emmett was broken and so was Alice. There was something even worse there- something deeper than the two of them being beaten by the only parent the both of them had physically known; even though that in itself was enough to screw up any child. They'd been abused and most likely starved until Emmett, a young teenager had killed his own father,in front of his sister. They'd most likely been homeless after that if my dad had ended up around them. They were carrying around demons. That partially explained why Alice was so set on them always being together. Emmett had been her protector. But that didn't explain why Emmett let himself get run over by her though… unless the reason he'd gotten those other three snakes tattooed on him was the answer to that. Something had happened to Alice and Emmett hadn't protected her. He felt responsible.

I got up and Emmett and I met towards the center of the table before starting towards the exit. There was so much going on around us. He had shit up his sleeve, I knew that. I had a few things up my sleeve as well however and I doubt that he knew it. My father was up to something and Bree had made a comment earlier that she was up to something. I didn't know Alice well enough to be able to tell what she may or may not be capable of. Our worlds had been thrown in chaos since the first night we'd met. We were a cosmic joke. We walked out of the restaurant and on to the bustling sidewalk. Emmett planted a kiss on my forehead. He draped his arm over my shoulders and started to lead me down the sidewalk.

TWO MONTHS LATER:

I watched Emmett as he moved around his kitchen. I hadn't even known that he could cook. I hadn't asked. He'd finally invited me over- more or less. What he had really done was gotten me dressed and into his car and then driven me to his place. I'd known more or less where his home was, but this was my first time actually seeing the inside. He'd asked me if I was okay with staying in this Saturday and naturally I was. I doubted that him cooking for people was something he usually did so I'd jumped at the opportunity. He was showing me his sanctuary. He wasn't going to up and pack up and leave. He was making an effort.

In the past two months, Emmett and I had found a rhythm. We would talk twice day- normally extremely early and extremely late before we went off for our days and after it came to a close. We'd work and live our normal lives. I was okay with that. I wasn't trying to give up my life. I didn't want my world to revolve around Emmett. He and Alice had made up and every Friday we wouldn't talk at all because he would run off with her and they would spend the entire day together. They had come to some sort of decision that Alice wasn't going to bring up Emmett's decision until the time got closer. He would return Saturday morning directly to me. While he was gone, I would go to the bar with Bella and we would laugh and talk and she seemed good- still happy. Emmett and I normally ran together on Saturdays. I wasn't athletic but it was something for us to do together. We would normally eat out that night and have mind blowing sex. We'd physically sleep together- at my house. Sunday we would "get to know each other". Emmett would go to his Sunday workout and then we would go hiking or take random drives to nowhere. We went rock climbing, boating, and everything in between. We didn't watch movies or musicals. We didn't attend concerts. We did activities that allowed us to talk. We got to know each other.

In those two months the people in our lives had begun making adjustments. My dad had Bree out of state most of the time and when she'd returned, she had in fact began looking for a place of her own. I could live with that. She went out of her way to be nice to me the few times we'd come face to face. My dad hadn't treated Emmett any different according to what he told me. He didn't have a reason to be upset with either of us since Bree had gone off and found Seth a trophy wife that had jumped at the opportunity. I didn't see Jasper. I figured he was avoiding me. Alice wasn't particularly nice to me, but she didn't call me a bitch or a hoe either so it was a step in the right direction. We were normally so absorbed in to each other when we were together that it wouldn't have mattered if they hadn't anyway.

Emmett seemed at home in his kitchen, working on several things at once, as I sat on his island, my legs dangling, facing him and his stove. He moved quickly from his ice box to his pantry and then to his fridge. He was shirtless and sockless with some sweatpants on that hung rather low, leaving his "V" revealed. It was making me crazy. According to Emmett he was making garlic butter roasted carrots, brown sugar garlic pork, roasted potatoes and lemon broccoli pasta. He was definitely a health nut. Emmett placed some tops on to his pots and I hopped off of the counter. I'd gotten used to being around Emmett on Saturdays. It was exasperating to think that we wouldn't be together next weekend. It was frustrating even. I had to go out of town to some sort of convention for the magazine. The only consolation was that it just so happened to have been planned for a weekend when Emmett had to go out of town as well.

I slid off of the island and peaked my head around Emmett's body as he wiped spilled food off of his stove.

"Hey," he said casually and looked me up and down.

"Hey," I repeated.

I'd slid into one of his shirts and nothing else as soon as he'd told me we were staying in the entire day. I wrapped my arms around Emmett's chest, and leaned my head on the back of his shoulder. He tensed against me and put his hands on mine for a few seconds.

"Pick out a wine for us please," he took one of my hands off of him and planted a kiss on my wrist.

"Sure," I pulled away and turned towards the island, pulling one of the cabinets open.

He'd wanted me to stop touching him. That was obvious, but he'd done it in a very nice way. I commended him for that. He hadn't just pulled away. I bent down and collected the first bottle of wine I saw. Emmett's hand met my butt before I had a chance to stand back up fully and when I sat down the bottle and looked back he was already getting wine glasses out of another cabinet.

"It'll get easier for me," he said, his back to me.

I thought about asking him what he meant, but I knew and there was no need to ask unnecessary questions.

"So how did you meet Jasper?" I asked instead.

Emmett turned towards me and closed the short space between us, putting a wine glass on either side of me.

"He was another homeless kid," he picked me up and sat me back on the island, staying standing between my legs, "He took one look at Alice and Alice took one look at him and he hasn't gone off on his own ever since."

"So he's loved her ever since?"

"It was infatuation and then lust and over time it developed into love I guess," Emmett pulled the cork off of the wine.

"They've been together for a while then."

"Yup," Emmett poured some wine into one of the wine glasses.

"So how can he just cheat on her?" I picked up the glass on my other side and offered it to Emmett.

"Alice was Jasper's first. He loves her, but he roams. She roams too. It's what they do. They always go home to each other in the end though."

"So they have an open relationship?" Emmett poured wine into my glass and then sat the bottle down.

"Yeah. They do until they get married anyway."

"Sooo," I took a sip out of my wine glass, "Would you ever-"

"No," he interrupted, "And I'll slit the throat of any guy that tries."

I wrapped my legs around Emmett's waist and he let me pull him closer.

"So you haven't?"

"Not one person since that first night," he took a sip out of his glass and then sat it back next to me.

"Good."

Emmett chuckled.

"Were you worried?"

I could feel the blush creeping up my cheeks. I took another sip out of my glass instead of answering.

"You said Alice was Jasper's first. Who was hers?"

Emmett took a deep breath.

"I don't know."

"How do you not know?" I chuckled.

"Alice was a prostitute while we were out on the streets. She never told me and I wasn't going to pry."

Emmett licked his lips and then picked his glass back up and took a sip. I'd never thought about how two children had survived for three years on their own. It had never even crossed my mind. Alice had been a prostitute to provide for her and Emmett. Was that why he let her run him over? Did he submit to Alice because he felt horrible about what she had done to provide for the both of them? I took another sip.

"Who was your first?" I asked, moving on to the next topic.

"My first time was a one night stand- some redhead. I couldn't tell you her name if I wanted to," Emmett shrugged, "I had a lot of sex after that with a lot of random girls in a lot of random places."

"I don't want to hear about you fucking other people," I rolled my eyes in fake annoyance.

"You're the one that asked," Emmett chuckled.

I noted that he hadn't asked who I had lost my virginity to. I assumed that he didn't want to know. That meant I was not going to share the information for no reason. I sat my wine glass beside his.

"I never would have pictured you for the cooking type," I sighed and put my hands on his shoulders.

"And why is that?" Emmett placed his hands on my hips and pulled me closer to him.

"You're not the homemaker sort of guy."

"Well, I have a large variety of interests and talents," he leaned his forehead against mine.

"Oh really? Besides being conceited?" I let one of my hands roam through his hair.

"Shut the fuck up," he laughed and then his lips were on mine.

Emmett was a rough kisser and I loved it. His hands found their way beneath the hem of my shirt and began toying with the top elastic of my underwear. Both of my hands hooked themselves into his hair. Now that Emmett let me touch him, I touched him as much as I could. He had days when he didn't even want me to see him without his shirt on, but he tried to let me get in my personal touchy time and it was just another one of the hundreds of things I was indirectly asking him to change about himself. Being with Emmett was like being attracted to fire. He was all consuming. He wrapped himself around me and I had no choice but to suffocate or attempt to calm the flame a little. I was definitely suffocating though. I wrapped my legs tighter around Emmett and one of his thumbs ran across me. He had a way of making me crazy with the slightest touch. When Emmett pulled away from me, there was no pause before he latched onto my neck. This man was going to be the death of me.

Emmett P.O.V

Rosalie had taken over a very large part of my life in a very short amount of time. If somebody had told me 5 months ago that I would be in my kitchen kissing and cooking for Carlisle's daughter with no shirt on, I either would have laughed or kicked their ass. Here we were though. Rosalie was here in my home and in my t-shirt, sitting on my counter while I felt her up. I slid Rosalie's underwear to the side with one hand and used the thumb of the opposite one to slide across her wetness. She never failed to amaze me. She was perfect for me. Rosalie's arms wrapped around my neck and I continued to trace my thumb in a circle. She moaned into my ear and I was instantly harder. We had time for a quickie in the kitchen. We could make it work. Rosalie reached between us and slid her hand down my sweatpants. I loved this fucking girl and I didn't even know if it was my heart or my dick that caused the thought. I covered her mouth with mine again and groaned when she began stroking me. We would definitely make time. I stopped holding Rosalie's underwear to the side and broke apart from her long enough to pull them off of her and retake my place between her legs which she immediately hooked behind me again, pulling me back into her. She groaned when I brushed up against her and because we were somehow in sync, we both stuck our tongues out at the same time and they met briefly outside of our mouths. I couldn't stop the chuckle that came out and Rosalie moved her mouth to my neck, leaving little bites starting from my shoulder and going up, one of her arms around me from beneath my arm, the other housing her hand that was fisted in to my hair.

"Rosalie, you're fuc-"

We both paused with the sound of keys. You had to be fucking kidding me. I backed away from Rosalie and yanked her off of my counter rather quickly before partially pushing her behind my island. My house door flew open and in sauntered Alice in a pair of tennis shoes and some athletic wear. I wasn't embarrassed of Rosalie- not in the slightest and I wasn't afraid to stand up to Alice for her. However, Rosalie wasn't very fond of being face to face with Alice. She swore that it was awkward and that if she could avoid it she would.

"Hey Em," she smiled broadly, "I need your laptop."

"It's in the office. Take it," I grounded my teeth together.

"Thanks."

Alice let herself across my living room and into my office and I looked down at Rosalie, who was now sitting back on her knees and laughing. I shook my head and rolled my eyes and she covered her mouth with both of her hands as she partially toppled over with laughter. Alice came back out with my laptop and charger in hand.

"Are you… cooking?" she asked.

"Yes."

She raised an eyebrow at me and my door flew open again. Did everyone fucking hate me?

"Hey Em," Jasper nodded in my direction, always in athletic wear and tennis shoes.

"Does anyone fucking knock?" I snapped.

"Sorry. I just hadn't seen you lately," Jasper held up his hands as a form of surrender, "I just wanted to make sure everything was good with you."

"Everything is-"

My voice caught in my throat the second my manhood went into Rosalie's mouth. She had to be fucking kidding me. Everyone just had to be fucking kidding me today.

"Great," I finished lamely.

"How's you and Rose?" Jasper asked and pulled out his pack of cigarettes.

"Don't light that in my house," I snapped, "And we're-"

Rosalie's hand began to slide up and down the part of me that didn't fit into her mouth.

"Great."

"Are you okay?" Alice asked, "You don't look well. Let me see."

Alice started towards me and I held out a hand towards her.

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

Rosalie choked me back as far as she could go and I was pretty sure I'd hit the back of her throat when I jerked forward.

"Get the fuck out- both of you," I snapped.

"Did I do something?" Alice asked.

I couldn't help it. I groaned.

"I'm getting my dick sucked and it would be a whole hell of a lot better if you guys weren't here."

Rosalie laughed from her place on the ground and Alice's eyes got wide for a second. Jasper chuckled, but quickly let himself out and Alice followed in tow.

"Hey Rosalie," she called from the door and then continued, "Have a good night you guys."

I covered my face with one hand.

"Hi!" Rosalie called and peaked her head from behind the island.

"I'll call next time," Alice said quickly and headed out of my door.

Rosalie stood up and we waited for the key to turn in my door for it to be locked.

"She told me hey," Rosalie said and winked at me.

"That's progress," I agreed.

For Alice- it was. I turned towards my stove and cut off all of the burners.

"That was a pretty horrible thing you did," I raised an eyebrow at Rosalie and she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Are you going to spank me?" she challenged.

My dick pulsed in response.

"You're fucking right," I crouched and grabbed Rosalie by the bottom of her legs and stood up, throwing her over my shoulder.

She giggled in response and I spanked her once on her ass, heading towards my bedroom. We had two nights left before we wouldn't see each other in what could easily be two weeks with our fucked up schedules. These next two days were going to be… interesting to say the least.

"Do we need to worry about them barging in again?" she laughed.

"I'm changing the fucking locks tomorrow," I spanked Rosalie again and kicked my bedroom door open.