A/N: First off, I want to thank all of you for your continued interest in the story, even though the characters are not my own, they have really gotten into my head. Your reviews stave off the writer's block and keep me entertained, and I love reading your reactions to the story. I promise that all of your questions will be answered as the story plays out, and if you post a signed review, I can PM you answers if it is something that I can tell you without ruining the story.
Second, I want to apologize to those of you who despise Nate and want me to kill him off, because, he does come back in this chapter, and you will not like him. I promise that he will get his eventually, but he is an integral part of the plot I have outlined, and he will be staying around for a while.
Third, this is officially the last chapter that I will be requiring reviews to update. I sincerely hope that you continue to give me feedback, but I will post once a week after this one, on Saturdays, at least (If I get ahead, I might post more, but no promises).
Ok, now back to the story, and I know, Nate is evil, but he's supposed to be so….:p
Chapter Twenty-eight: Back to Reality
Nessie POV
As my eyes opened, the previous days events assaulted my consciousness. My father, his anger, my guilt, my worry for Jacob; it was crushing me. I had done something irresponsible, and now my father hated my betrothed. I wanted to feel guilty, but I didn't, I wanted to be mad at my father, but I wasn't.
The events of the weekend swam through my brain as I tried to untangle my legs from my softly snoring fiancée who held me tightly in his arms. He was so warm, and his face was angelic as he slept, my heart was swelling at the sight of him, but I knew that today I had to bring myself back to reality.
It was Sunday, and I had to attempt to gather myself back together so we could return to class tomorrow. I wanted nothing more than to curl up in his bed and spend eternity in his arms, but I knew that we had appearances to keep, and if we neglected to go back to school, then it would mean that the family would have to move that much sooner.
The responsibility of our secrecy depended on us blending into the human world and avoiding drawing too much attention to ourselves. Jacob and I were not exactly involved in the day to day lives of the rest of the family, but we still needed to do our own parts.
Slowly but surely, I was able to slide out of Jacob's embrace and sneak back to my room without waking him. There were so many things I needed to get done today, and I still needed to find out exactly what I needed for an exam later in the week. I would have to call Nate, oh god Nate, to find out what exactly was going to be on it.
I was going to have to talk to him about this weekend, it was inevitably going to come up, and I knew that this was something I didn't want to tell him in a lecture filled with people. He claimed that he just wanted to be my friend, but I knew that some part of him held more affection for me than that. I couldn't keep my engagement from him, it wasn't fair to him, and it definitely wouldn't be fair to Jacob.
As the hot water in the shower ran down my back, drenching my pale skin, I contemplated how and when I was going to tell him.
I could sneak off to his apartment and get it over with quickly; I could take Jacob with me, but that would be awkward; either way, I needed to tell Jacob that I wanted to tell Nate about us, and I hoped that he would understand. It was only fair to tell him, because he was my friend, and he had been worried about him ruining my reunion with Jacob.
While my thoughts were getting away from me, I could hear the door to my bedroom open, and before I knew it, a sleepy Jacob was standing in the middle of my bathroom, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. He was naked; standing in the middle of my bathroom with an annoyed, but sleepy look on his face, and it was sexy. Oh god, I am never going to get out of this apartment.
"Ness, why didn't you wake me up?" he asked, stretching his hands over his head and yawning loudly.
I peeked out the door of the shower, and responded, as he walked over and placed his hand on the top of the door.
"You were tired, and you looked so peaceful, I wanted to let you sleep longer."
He eyed me cautiously, and then placed his hand on my shoulder, easing me back into the stream of warm water. His eyes then roamed my wet, naked body and he stepped into the shower with me.
"Jake, we need to get cleaned up; we actually have to get things done today. We have school tomorrow, remember?"
"Ness, I know you are trying to be responsible, but how am I supposed to be concentrating on boring things like school when you are in here, naked, rubbing soap all over yourself?" he asked slowly, his voice low, as he ran his hands down my sides and gripped my hips firmly, pushing me into the cold tile on the other side of the shower stall.
My mind was swimming; my desire to get things done was being pushed down by my desire for Jacob. He was like a drug, and every time I was near him, I twitched like an addict.
As his soft warm lips met mine, my brain switched off, and my desire took over as I wound my hands into his wet, dark hair, our mouths moving in synchronization.
In a matter of days, I had become immersed in this world of sexual desire and passion. I don't know how anyone who was engaging in these kinds of activities ever got anything done. I couldn't think when he was close to me, I couldn't breathe when he was away from me. The attachment I felt to him before was nothing compared to this. I wasn't sure if it was a product of the imprint, or if it was the love that surrounded us, but Jacob had become the only thing I valued more than my own life.
As I tried to fight off my thoughts, his hot breath cascading over my nipples as the steam surrounded us in the shower caused me to emit a breathy moan, which only seemed to urge him on as he sucked it into his mouth and ran his hands along my hips.
I could tell that this morning was not going to be a morning of quick and urgent love-making, he was trying to slowly torture me as the steam enveloped us in the warm shower.
I was glad that Carlisle had bought an apartment with a re-circulating water heater, because I didn't want Jacob to get cold once the water temperature dropped. Although, I was quite sure that our elevated body temperatures would help us to remain focused on the matter at hand.
As Jacob knelt down in front of me in the shower, and his fingers dove into the sea of drenched curls below my waist, I urgently wanted him to kiss me.
"Jacob," I half moaned, half begged, "Kiss me, please."
He smiled widely against my stomach and rose up and took my lower lip between his two large warm ones. My hands roamed the wet skin of his back while he pressed himself into me, our tongues meeting and soft moans spilling out when we were forced to break for air.
Even his kisses were intoxicating, the way he moved his lips; the noises that he would make when my hands grazed over the overheated skin of his back. Everything about him was pulling me in, drowning me in desire for him, for his body, for his heart, and I was elated that I could finally claim him as my own.
After a few minutes of long, slow excruciating kisses, I could no longer hold myself back and more and I grabbed onto his ass, slowly pulling him close to me.
He pulled his head back gasping, knowing what I was requesting, and as he pulled me up against him, positioning himself at my entrance, he leaned forward and whispered the most seductive and surprising thing in my ear.
"I want to make you come for me, my love."
I closed my eyes and moaned as he thrust into me, guiding my hips down onto his erection.
During our previous time in this shower, I had desperately clung to him as he pushed us both towards release, but I wanted to watch his face as our bodies connected.
I leaned back against the tiled wall, and he held onto me as he continued to push and pull our bodies apart and then back together, a fire building within me each time we reconnected.
He had his eyes tightly closed and each muscle in his arms and chest rippled as our momentum increased. I was desperately trying to keep my eyes open so I could watch him as we made love, but when he leaned forward and began to suck and nip at my chest, I closed my eyes and arched my back, pushing my breasts into his hot mouth.
Several times, he would change momentum, thrusting quickly and desperately, grinding himself into me, but then as soon as I could feel myself getting tighter, he would slow down and thrust in long, slow strokes, sliding along my wet core. I could feel every inch of him as he pulled himself out of me, and I ached for him to quicken the pace again.
"Jake, please," I begged between moans, and he once again began to thrust frantically, causing my orgasm to pick up speed.
He leaned forward, pinning me to the wall with his sculpted chest, his lips inches from my ear as his hands continued to tightly grip my hips, helping guide his motions.
"Oh Ness," he moaned, pressing his forehead against the cool tile next to my head. "I can feel you, oh god, you're getting so tight, let go, just let go."
As if he could will my orgasm to break loose, the tremors started and my muscles convulsed around him as my body trembled against his. I was moaning unintelligible things interspersed with his name and various curse words I didn't even know I was capable of saying as he continued to thrust into me.
All of a sudden, he tensed up and I could feel him push all the way in as his orgasm released into me. He moaned a breathy "Renesmee" in my ear, and I had never heard him use my full name like that, but damn was it sexy.
Once our bodies both stopped trembling and our breathing slowed down, he leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
"Ness, I love you, I didn't know that it was possible for this to get better, but wow."
As he pulled himself out of me and helped me to my feet, my legs wobbled a little bit and all I could do was giggle. He turned me around, placed me under the stream of warm water and began to rub soap all over my body with his bare hands.
Even in the relaxed post orgasmic state, he was still trying to take care of me, and I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensation of his hands running up and down my body.
Once he was done, I did the same thing to him, but as I ran the bar of soap down his sides he jerked slightly and laughed, and I realized that he was ticklish. I laughed at him and continued, and before we knew it, we were both clean and standing in the middle of the shower hugging, as the water ran down around us.
I couldn't think of a better way to end our weekend of passion, and I was glad that we were able to do this one more time before the reality of our responsibilities set back in.
As if he could read my mind, he leaned over and turned off the water, reaching over the door next to pull in two dry towels. As I ran my towel over my relaxed body, he began to speak.
"Ok, I know that we have both been enjoying this, a little too much I think, but maybe we should actually try to get something accomplished today."
"Jake, you read my mind," I laughed as we both walked out into my room, covered by our towels.
He leaned over and gave me a sweet kiss saying, "Ok, I'll go get dressed, meet me in the living room and we can talk about our plans for the week. I love you."
As he turned to walk away, I responded by saying, "I love you too Jacob, and thank you for this morning, it was nice."
Ok, Ness, back to reality, what to wear, what to wear……
Jacob POV
I seriously don't know what has overtaken me lately. Every time I wake up, I just want to touch her. I think all of the months of buildup has left me constantly craving more and more.
When I woke up in my empty bed, I hoped that Nessie was still in the apartment, but then I heard the water running and I couldn't help but try to go and join her. My desires have taken over and I don't know who I am anymore.
My future father in law hates me, because I deflowered his daughter, and I can't say that I blame him, but I don't know how to fix the situation. Bella definitely has her hands full with that, and I only hope that he realizes that it was a natural progression of our relationship. At least I waited until the ring was on her finger first.
Nessie and I have gotten completely caught up in the new part of our relationship and I am afraid that it is going to become a major distraction to our lives. We need to return to school and go back to life as it was, but nothing will ever be normal again now that I know what we are both capable of.
The physical connection has also seemed to strengthen the imprint, and I feel myself being drawn towards her wherever she goes. Even when she was in the kitchen with her family yesterday, I could feel myself being drawn to her. I know that returning to class is going to be painful for me because we are separated most of the day.
Then that also brings with it the circumstances of homework and projects. I can't spend all of my time in the library with her, and she can't spend all of her time in the studio with me. We will have to be separated and I don't know how either of us will be able to concentrate.
I also don't know where her relationship with Nate stands, I know he is trying to mend their friendship, but I don't trust him. Her friends are her business, but he makes me uneasy and his influence on people is unnatural. One word from him and you can't help but be drawn into the conversation. The last thing that I need is him trying to wedge himself into our lives again.
Even Bella and Alice think that her relationship with him is dangerous, but she won't listen to any of us. If she won't listen to her mother when it comes to her friends, then who am I to tell her that she can't see him. He has all of the same classes with her, and even though he has a bad habit of running off, he knows exactly how to find her, his presence the night that I came back is evidence of that alone.
I don't think that she caught it, but he was flashing me that same smug smile that he flashed me the night that I caught him kissing her. He isn't who he seems to be, but I can't get him alone long enough to figure it out. Maybe I need to go with Nessie to his apartment and talk to him, he has to be hiding something. He is always conveniently missing when Edward threatens to find him and I wonder if he already knows about the family.
Oh god, maybe he is the one who has been following us, no, no way, he can't be…..I'm just being paranoid…..
"Jake, are you ok?" Nessie asked, sitting down on the couch next to me, knocking me out of my worried state.
I turned to face her, grabbed one of her tiny hands and held it in between both of mine.
"I'm fine. I'm just worried about things. I am wondering how we are going to manage to still spend time together once we go back to school. I also don't know how to fix this rift with Edward, the last thing I need is your father hating me."
"Jake, stop worrying, it will all work out; we will still see each other everyday. And as far as the thing with my dad, I'm sure he will calm down once my mom knocks some sense into him. He can't stay angry at you forever; he will have to walk me down the aisle eventually."
"I know, and you are probably right, I just can't shake this feeling that everything is about to change. We have been really lucky all these years together and I can't shake this feeling that it's all about to end."
"Jacob, stop it," she said taking my face into her hands and bringing her face up towards me. "I know we have been lucky, but we have built a good life here. We are both doing well in school, we both have friends, and our family will support our decisions. As long as we are together, I won't let anything come in between us, I promise you."
I sighed, knowing that there was still something that was a threat to us. I needed her to stop seeing Nate, I knew that it was probably an irrational fear, but I couldn't let her be around him anymore.
"Ness, can I ask you to do something? I know it is asking a lot, but it's for my state of mind, please hear me out."
She gave me a worried look and said, "Of course, what is it that you want?"
"I need you to stop spending time with Nate. I know that he is your friend, but I don't trust him."
Her hands dropped from my face and she sat back against the couch, a pained expression spreading across her face.
"Jake, what do you expect me to do, change majors?"
"No, that's not what I mean. I just want you to stop seeing him outside of class. I don't trust him being alone with you, I can't explain it, but I think he might be dangerous."
"You are being paranoid Jake," she said, looking at me with irritation before she crossed her arms across her chest.
"I know, but please, don't see him anymore, I know I have no right to ask this of you, but please, for me, just please do this."
We sat there in silence for a moment, and I knew that she was probably angry with me, but I wasn't going to hide anything from her anymore. Honesty was that only way that we could maintain a healthy relationship.
"Ok," she said so quietly I could barely hear her. Relief suddenly overtook my body because I knew that she could understand where I was coming from.
I leaned over and kissed her sweetly, stroking her cheek with my fingers as my lips slowly moved with hers.
She pulled back slightly and shot me a warning look.
"But, if I am going to cut him out of my life, I have to tell him in person. It's only fair," she said, looking into my eyes for a reaction.
"Ness," I begged, I didn't want her to be alone with him. "I want to come with you, please, let me be there when you talk to him."
"Jake, he won't like that, and I don't need you fighting with him. You can come with me, but you have to stay in the car. I promise, it will only take a few minutes, and then I will come back to you."
"Ness, please, I don't know how to explain it, but he has this strange influence over you. I trust you, but I don't trust him. I don't want you to be alone in his apartment with him."
"Jake, please. Stop. If you are making me give up my friend, then he at least deserves to hear it from me, alone. You may not trust him, but I do; and I know that he won't do anything to hurt me. He is my friend."
"Fine, but I am going with you, and if you take any longer than five minutes, I will come get you."
She huffed loudly and sat back against the couch again her arms crossed against her chest.
"Fine, but you stay in the car. And stop being paranoid, it's Nate, seriously, how much danger can he be?"
Nessie POV
"Oh, Jake," I said, remembering a conversation with my mother yesterday. She had given me a new phone for Jake, and I had totally forgotten to give it to him. "My mom gave me something yesterday, since you don't have your old one anymore."
He gave me a puzzled look and I got up to retrieve my purse from by the front door. I pulled out the small black phone and held it out to him when I walked back over to the couch.
"She told me that it has some kind of tracking device in it, it's already turned on and all of their numbers are programmed into it."
"Oh, yeah, I totally forgot that my phone got crushed when I was in La Push," he said, his cheeks blushing slightly.
"Crushed?" I asked giving him a worried look.
"I threw it against a tree. I didn't do it on purpose, I was mad, and it just happened to be in the pocket of my pants."
"Oh," I said, knowing that I was the reason for his anger.
"Alice thought that since she can't see you, or me when I am with you, that it would be easy for them to find us if they ever needed to. Just make sure that you keep it on you, Carlisle has the tracking chip programmed into his car navigation. I guess it's just for emergencies, but they wanted to be safe," I said, knowing that my family's paranoia was always coupled with state of the art technology.
"Oh, that's cool, do I have to do anything to activate it?" he asked, opening the phone and pushing some buttons.
"Not as far as I know, I think it is automatically synced."
He laughed loudly and continued inspecting the phone.
"So it's like lo-jack. Your family actually put me on lo-jack, that's too funny."
"Well, I guess they want to know where you are, its not that they don't trust you, it's just that you are a blind spot."
I called Nate after my conversation with Jacob this afternoon, and he sounded excited to hear from me. The circumstances of my visit are not going to be something pleasant. I have to tell my only friend at school that I can't hang out with him anymore, and I don't even know where to begin.
Jake is probably right, Nate probably does have feelings for me, but I can't get my head around why he believes that he is so dangerous. It's Nate, he may be a ladies man, but he is far from dangerous. He has only ever been nice to me with the exception of this kiss misunderstanding, but he apologized for that.
The only reason I even agreed to this is because I know that if I don't it will create a rift in my relationship with Jacob, and I can't let that happen. I have to choose him first, he is more important to my life than Nate ever will be, and if I have to give one of them up, it is Nate, without a doubt.
We are currently driving over to his apartment, and I am running over how to do this in my mind. Should I tell him about the engagement and see his reaction first, or should I just tell him I can't see him anymore, I don't exactly know how I am supposed to cut someone out of my life, but I have to do it for Jake.
Once Jake stopped the car in front of Nate's building, I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned to face him. He looked worried, and he was gripping the steering wheel tightly. I don't know what has gotten into him, but he is working himself up over nothing.
"Jake, calm down, I will be back in a few minutes," I said, running my hand through his hair.
He let out a loud sigh and turned to face me.
"Ness, you have to text me if you think that he is being unreasonable, I don't want you to feel threatened by him. Just text 911 to me and I will come up. I promise not to start anything, but I want to be there if you need me."
"Jake stop it, I will be right back," I said giving him a kiss on the cheek.
After I stepped out of the car I leaned back in the door and gave him a smile of reassurance. "I love you Jake, I will be right back."
"I love you too Ness, hurry."
I closed the door to the car and headed towards the buzzer for the front door of the building. I tried the door just in case, and it was unlocked, which was weird, but I let myself in and made my way towards his fourth floor loft.
When I got to his door, before I even knocked, the door opened and a smiling Nate ushered me into his small living room. His apartment was a small studio with a lofted sleeping space, and it was definitely a sparse bachelor pad.
I sat down on the couch and he joined me, keeping a comfortable distance.
"So," he said, looking at me intently. "What's up, you sounded worried on the phone. Are you worried about going back to class on Monday? I mean, you can borrow my class notes, and I can fill you in on anything you missed."
"That's not it Nate, I just wanted to talk to you about everything that has been going on."
I nervously twisted my engagement ring around my finger and I could tell that his gaze had settled on my hands. I looked up and he was giving me a pained look. I sighed and smiled weakly at him, hoping that he would still at least let me be friends with him in class.
"I see you have a new accessory Ness. I guess your conversation with Jake went well."
His voice was filled with contempt, and I realized that maybe Jacob was right about Nate, he wasn't just interested in my friendship. He did want something more.
"Nate, Jacob and I are engaged," I said taking a deep breath. The next part of my conversation with him was going to be difficult and I only hoped that he would take it well.
I stood up slowly and started to pace in front of the couch. He watched me curiously before he tried to prompt me to speak.
"Ness, just tell me what you came here to say." His voice was tense and he was beginning to look angry.
I felt my heartbeat pick up as he looked at me and I realized that he was still having a strange effect on me. He was the only person besides Jacob that could ever make me feel this nervous, and I wondered if I could actually go through with this.
"Well, Jacob and I talked, and we think that it is best that maybe we only spend time together in class."
He stood up with his hands balled at his sides and took a step towards me. My heart began to thump harder as he looked at me and I tried to avert my gaze from him. I couldn't look him in the eye when I told him this, it was just too hard to deal with.
I fumbled in my pocket and tried to pull my phone out. His breathing had picked up and he was only a few steps in front of me, still looking angry. I hesitantly pressed 911 into a text field, and as I was typing in Jacob's phone number, Nate's voice startled me and I dropped the phone to the floor.
"So, he actually told you that you had to stay away from me?" He asked, his anger now clearly evident.
I bent down to pick up the phone and responded, with my head looking down towards the floor.
"Nate, don't be angry, we both thought it would be best if we didn't spend so much time together. I can't see you anymore."
A loud noise ripped through the apartment and before I could grab the phone and look up to him, I felt my body being flung backwards and into the living room wall.
Nate's arm was pinning my neck to the wall, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see that he had something in his other hand.
"What…what are you doing?" I managed to choke out, taking in his aggressive stance. He was much stronger than I expected him to be, and I couldn't fight against him, something was wrong, seriously wrong.
"I really wish you hadn't have done this Renesmee, that Jacob Black has made this whole situation more complicated than it needed to be," he growled.
I could see stars beginning to form in my field of vision as his arm pushed me further into the wall.
His words were making no sense.
How did he know my name? How did he know Jacob's name? Oh my god, who was this guy?
"Who…who, are…." I tried to choke out as I could see him moving his other arm, holding something shiny up to my neck.
I still couldn't see what was in his hand, but I was beginning to lose consciousness as his grip on me tightened.
"Oh you know who I am Renesmee, and I really wish you wouldn't have forced me to do this," he snarled as a sharp pain ran through my neck.
My heart began to pump harder, and before I could gain my bearings, I felt my body convulse below me, and that was when everything went black.
A/N: I know, I know, another lemon, but I had to give them one last happy time together before all the drama started. Hope it was a good one, because it is all you are going to get for a long while. ;) Oh, and for those of you who asked about protection, it will come up later on, it's all part of the story.
Duh duh duh, Nate isn't who he said he was…..I bet you can all guess who he is…..but what does he want from her? And will Jake get to her in time?……..stay tuned and you will all find out.
