Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.

Rated M for several reasons. Oops, I think someone's gonna slip on a lemon rind.

Chpt 28 A Proposition

BPOV

After a toast with champagne, I drank, Char sniffed appreciatively and everyone else swirled their glass around and looked slightly uncomfortable, Pete took me home so I could make dinner for Charlie.

One of his deputies has been off sick for while which is why he's been doing mostly nights but he's also been going in during the day. I couldn't remember the last time I saw him eat a proper meal so I've ordered him home tonight.

It's a nice couple of hours. We talk about college and I break the news that Rosalie and Em are coming with us, he already knew about Char and seemed happy that I'd be going with someone I know. He's less happy about the Cullens even though I took great pains to assure him that Edward would not be coming with us.

"Families visit each other Bells." Was his final dark comment. He's so not team Edward.

He sympathised with my desire to dodge my own graduation ceremony but then artlessly laid a guilt trip on me about Renee. Although we speak on the phone regularly and email each other constantly she hasn't seen me since I first slipped into my zombie coma and he thinks it would be nice for her to be able to come to Forks and see me do something positive. She's been badgering me about booking flights and hotels and I've been putting it off, hoping that some miracle would occur.

Charlie watches me as he sips his coke, a small smile playing on his lips.

I wriggle, I squirm and finally I huff.

"Okay, fine, I'll go."

He hides his smile well and busies himself putting the dishes in the sink.

"A wise choice Bells. Very noble. Who knows, you might even enjoy it."

I snort.

Dropping a kiss on the top of my head he goes back to work and I get up to do the dishes.

I suppose it won't be too bad, maybe there is something Char can do to make me and the yellow gown less than mortal enemies. Besides once I leave for college there's a chance that I might never see my hair brained mother again.

It's a bit strange, growing up she was my best friend and I love her dearly and yet of all the things that might hold me back from being a Whitlock she isn't one of them. Possibly because if she could know, she would understand, maybe even approve.

I feel far more guilt about leaving Charlie, the father I barely knew who it turns out is the template on which I'm based. Leaving him will be very hard. I shake myself out of that line of thought, I have time, and I am actually planning to finish college before I take the final step.

Chores done I take a long soak in the tub. Tomorrow is Saturday and I have arranged to go out for lunch with Angela, apparently there is a lot she needs to tell me.

Once again exhausted I ensconce myself in my welcoming bed with a tired yawn and a small smile, maybe I do have narcolepsy. Spider wielding weirdo.

…..

Lunch is an interesting experience. I can't really empathise with her, well I can I suppose, if he didn't have issues I would have been naked under Edward a long time ago so I guess if he'd been human it might have been me in her position.

Having no desire to have children myself I'm not much use on her moral dilemma on whether to not to go through with the pregnancy, have the baby adopted or take the other hard choice. I can totally sympathise with their desire to put off telling their parents as long as possible.

Ben, bless him, is adamant that he will stand by her no matter what she chooses. How different their relationship is to my only experience, both totally on the same page, freaked out but planning to face up to it together. Next time I have a hard decision to make I'm going to ask to borrow her panties, maybe I could grow into them one day.

Still somewhat awed I agree to go to Jessica's party with the two of them, Angela has a sort of last chance saloon attitude to it, and then I make my way back home to do my chores. Great emotional upheavals come and go but life goes on and the toilet bowl still needs to be scrubbed.

I rumble along in my truck pondering the strangeness of life and how it turns out differently for each of us. Of my classmates some have already got jobs lined up, some are going off to college, some like Angela are suddenly finding themselves having to make decisions they weren't expecting and yet of all us are taking risks. Going onto the next phase of our lives with no idea how it will turn out, it's no wonder we're all on edge and acting strangely, obsessed with the little things we think we can control.

My first visitor is Char, for a serious discussion about my new bedroom. I have no idea and no money but somehow we manage to agree on something which I like and Char won't want to pretend to throw up over. We also book a shopping session to get an outfit for Jessica's party.

My second visitor is Edward. Wearing jeans and looking about as comfortable in them as I would in high heels.

"So you're going to be a vampire?" He asks after our awkward greeting is out of the way.

"Eventually." Without him my age when I change is no longer such an issue.

"I don't know how I feel about that." He confesses.

"It was inevitable from the moment I met you. You were the only one who couldn't see it."

"Rose was against it, then."

"That didn't mean she couldn't see it." I point out, that was after all her problem all along.

"I wish . . . ."

"Edward." I interrupt. "I don't, not anymore."

"I still hope."

"Why?" Please don't hope. Please.

"Alice."

I pinch the bridge of my nose, something I've seen him do a thousand times. Was it frustration? Because that's what I'm feeling now.

"This is my life Edward. Not yours, not Alice's."

I stare at him, willing myself not to show any sign of weakness.

"I'd better go."

I nod.

He leaves.

Time to scrub the toilet bowl.

My third visitor is Jessica, happy that I'm coming to her party and wanting to know if Groundskeeper Pete will be coming too. Hardly, I trust him not to eat anyone but god knows what trouble he'd be able to cause in a house full of drunken teenagers.

Visitor four is Pete himself. Char's 'deathday' is coming up and my advice is apparently required on a suitable present. We spend an amusing hour researching her southern roots on the internet and come up with a winner, we hope.

His devotion to her is amazing and I'm still mulling over the downside of living in a house with two loving couples when visitor number five arrives.

My stomach turns over slowly and my mouth goes dry as he stalks me purposefully up against the bannister, poking the front door closed with his foot as he passes.

I open my mouth to object to his presence but with lightning fast reactions he fists his hands in my hair, shoves his thigh between my already trembling ones and covers my mouth with his own, sucking the breath out of me and leaving me gasping.

"I've missed you." He growls transferring his attention to my neck, tongue licking at the pebbled flesh there.

"Why are you doing this?" I whimper, my hands automatically coming up so that my fingers can roam through the silk of his hair.

"Because you're going to college soon and I won't be able to."

"But. Why?"

"I want to make love to you." He pulls back slightly to look into my eyes. "I want to be your first. Wouldn't you like it to be me, rather than some sweaty fumbling college freshman?"

I shake my head mutely and he leans down, ghosting his lips across mine, noses rubbing together.

"The truth, Bella." He purrs.

I shake my head again. You're Alice's husband. I'm not ready for my PhD. I haven't shaved my legs. You're married. I don't love you, you don't love me. I'm not ready. I want you.

His hands move in my hair, pulling it gently, finger nails dragging lightly across my scalp.

"The truth." He presses, tearing it from me.

"Yes." I concede, so quiet only a vampire would hear.

His eyes blaze with triumph as his cool lips press harder against mine, his tongue slipping between them, taking possession of my mouth, in complete control.

It doesn't even occur to me to resist, fingers tangling in his hair, body pressing against him as close as it can get.

I want him. I want him in a far more visceral way than I ever wanted Edward. I don't even properly understand what my want is, all I know is that whenever he's around my head says stop but my body commits sabotage on the brakes.

His tongue explores the inside of my mouth with purposeful strokes pulling tingling warmth up from my suddenly aching core and sending moisture down into my panties as his body undulates against mine. The feel of him moving against me, solid chest massaging my tender breasts, drives me into a frenzied state where I don't know who or what I am except a willing recipient of whatever he's prepared to give me.

My pulse thuds in my ears but the sound of his heavy breathing melding with my harsh panting almost drowns it out. Music, it's like music. Perfect and right.

With a groan he releases my hair and drops his arms to wind around my waist lifting me up so I can wrap my legs round him, his big hands sliding down to grasp the back of my thighs in an almost painful grip.

The gentle grinding of his hips now has his hard length rubbing directly against me through our jeans, the friction rapidly turning the tingling warmth in my body into an electrical fire. My misbehaving hands drop down to his ass trying to get him closer, grinding harder. Obediently he increases the pressure and immediately it's almost too much, with a gasp I arch my upper body away from him, head falling back, the chords in my neck stretching out against the tension building within me.

He transfers his mouth to my exposed neck, lip covered teeth nibbling and biting at my skin as he continues to rotate his hips into me.

Oh my god. I recognise the feeling spreading out from the center of me and I want to tell him to stop but I can't, I couldn't if my life depended on it. I'm going to . . . .

With a soft cry I reach my orgasm, sweat springing out on my skin, every muscle shaking with heat and pleasure, fireworks exploding behind my eyelids, wet heat soaking my panties. He continues to rock into me gently and I ride out waves of pulsating bliss I didn't know I could have, my walls fluttering and clenching with a life of their own.

Little by little his movements still, his breathing slowing with mine as I relax gradually back into my startled brain and gratified body.

No, no, no. What have I done?

"Don't." He whispers as he peppers my throat and face with delicate kisses. "Don't do that to yourself."

"Jasper, I . . . ."

He kisses me again, silencing me, and this time it's so relaxed and sweet I actually sigh into his mouth.

Eventually he pulls away, easing me back onto my feet and wrapping his arms tightly around me, face buried in my hair.

I inhale deeply, his fresh cotton scent oddly soothing.

With a sigh he releases me, caressing my jaw with his thumb.

"You've promised yourself to me, I hope you know that." His voice is gentle, expression indecipherable, gold eyes dark.

Uncomfortably warm I'm totally unable to respond.

Leaning down he places a kiss on the end of my nose before turning abruptly and striding away.

As soon as the door closes behind him I slide down the bannisters to the floor, pulling my knees up and hugging them tightly.