Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I just like to play with the characters.

Additionally, I would like to thank my wonderful beta, EdwardsMate4Ever, and jaspersdoll, for suggesting the title and other creative input.

This is a Jasper-Bella fiction. It takes place in current time. Vampires are in hiding, but have a more structured society. They take human "pets" for food, and some humans are held in captivity to be bled for vampires. They bottle this blood much like humans bottle beer, and it is sold in the underground vampire clubs and bars. There are a number of "designer" blood labels, some of which are very popular. Bella's blood has been featured in a blend called "LaGuerra" and is the most popular designer bottled blood on the vampire black market.

Humans who have been claimed by vampires have a small tattoo on their wrists to mark them as vampire property. The marks are usually a series of dots forming a small triangle or rectangle. The colors and pattern identify both the Vampire Territory and individual owner claiming the human.

Chapter 34 – Warming Up

When I woke up the next morning, I was staring into Jasper's eyes. Instead of lying next to me, he had pulled up a chair, next to the bed, and was resting his head on his hands.

"How do you feel?" he asked quietly.

"Like I was run over by a truck," I said, wincing as I started to sit up. Gradually, the memories of yesterday came back as I looked down and saw I was still wearing the red dress.

"I brought you these," he said, leaning over to pull up a huge bouquet of roses from a vase at the foot of the bed. "I figured it was about time, especially since we had our first date last night. We went to a movie, remember?"

I nodded, and then turned my attention back to the dress I had spent the night in. It started to gap open from being slept in, and had come partially untied during the night. I started to tie it, but Jasper reached out to stop my hands.

"Funny you chose that dress," he said. "Was there a reason?"

"I was in a hurry; it was at the front of the closet," I answered.

"I remember the first time I saw you in that dress, in the foyer of my house. Actually, you weren't wearing a dress at all, initially," he said, looking at me with a smile.

I remembered. I had decided to take a stand against going out "dressed like a slut," as I put it. I had gone downstairs for that first evening out with Jasper just wearing my underwear.

"Not terrifically smart," he commented, running his finger along the neckline down to my waist. "We almost ending up in one another's arms right there, spending our first night together on the floor of the hallway. You just looked too beautiful. I left grooves in the doorway that Peter had to repair after seeing you like that."

"I'm glad you didn't," I said in a small voice.

He flashed his eyes up to me. "Oh, you would have wanted me to take you, don't worry. All I had to do was let even the slightest bit of the lust I was feeling travel to you, and you would have been more than…receptive. You might not have been too happy with yourself in the morning, though. That's what made me stop. Then Charlotte started..." here he began untying the sash of my dress, "…wrapping this dress around you."

I blushed, looking down, and then peered back up at him.

He leaned forward to touch my lips with his, as his hands quickly loosened the other ties and he gently removed the dress. As he removed it, he began to position himself above me, so that he was finally directly over me, and he began stroking me with not only his hands, but his entire body.

"I love you, little darlin'," he said huskily as he deepened his kiss.

I reached around him, and held on tight, then moved my hands back to the front of his shirt and began to unbutton it. He quickly removed it, pulling it over his head, in a flash, barely interrupting what he was doing. I let my hands begin to explore his chest and back, pulling him close.

Xxxx

He lay still and held me, stroking my hair, whispering in my ear. Though I was very happy, I was also exhausted, and suddenly very self-conscious. I blushed, thinking of all those other vampires in the house, having heard me.

He picked that up quickly.

"Relax, I asked them all to go hunting this morning, so I could have some time to talk with you about Mexico," he said with a slow smile. I looked up at him, and he said, "Well, I had hopes our 'talk' might go well, but I didn't assume anything."

I snuggled back up against him, and he started kissing me again, stroking me softly as he turned us so I was lying on my side next to him, still joined, and began a slow, steady movement inside of me again. I was a little sore from the muscle strain and a bit uncomfortable with these new sensations, but he drowned that with lust quickly, I noted with a wry smile. As he began to kiss down my chest, he seemed to start licking and nuzzling one particular area on my upper left breast before he suddenly sank in his teeth. I screamed and began to struggle, but he grabbed my hands, pulling them over my head and holding them together. Suddenly, I felt a sensation almost as intense as the one created by our joined bodies. I moaned and writhed at what his mouth was doing to me, eventually freeing my hands so I could grab onto his hair, and almost sobbed when he stopped, licking the wound closed. This time he pulled out after he was done, but still didn't let go of me.

"That," he said huskily, "is what your friend was talking about when she said we could make you feel good when we bit you. Only I wasn't feeding this time, I was marking you. Not that any other vampire will ever get close enough to see this mark," he growled, touching it with his finger.

I looked down, and saw the red was already beginning to turn to white, like the scar on my wrist. But he had started to caress me with his hands, which soon distracted from my new scar. I was soon lost in the sensations he was creating wherever he touched me, and I let go of my feelings about this unexpected bite.

After another half hour, my stomach started growling, and he rolled away from me, standing up in a fluid motion at the side of the bed. "Let's get you something to eat," he said, holding out his hand.

I started to get up, dragging the sheets with me, but he untangled me from the sheets and took me into the bathroom. I got into the shower and unexpectedly he followed me…and it was a long time before we got out. At some point, I soaped up and washed my hair with his help.

Eventually we were downstairs, and I was eating pancakes when Esme and Carlisle quietly slipped back in.

Esme looked concerned about something and opened her mouth to speak, but Carlisle put his hand on her back and guided her out of the kitchen, nodding to Jasper and smiling at me as he passed.

I looked up at him then. "What was that?" I asked.

"She probably smelled the blood," he said quietly.

I blushed. What else did they smell? I thought to myself, embarrassed. "Everything, I'm sure," he said with a knowing smile. "But don't worry, we have very limited privacy in this house, and everyone knows everything. After a while, you get used to it."

I finished eating, and we went into the living room. He put on one of my favorite movies, pulled me onto his lap, and we watched it together. Though it felt weird to sit like together like this, it also felt right.

Of course, when Emmett came back in, it was an entirely different entrance from the quiet one made by Esme and Carlisle.

He was grinning, and I blushed. Jasper said something to him, and got him to leave the room. About an hour later, I heard Emmett doing something on the patio. He seemed to be setting something up, as I heard the sound of metal and plastic being moved.

"Oh, Bella," Emmett called out to me in a sing-song voice. "I got a piece of art out here to show you…I think this style is called 'Found Art'."

Jasper grimaced, looking suspicious, but we went outside. And there stood Emmett, next to one of the oddest things I had ever seen. It looked like two towers of computer keyboards, which had been connected via holes drilled in the lower left corner. They were fanned out in circles, so it took a few seconds to realize what they were.

As I reached out to touch one, I looked up at Emmett with a question.

"I call it, 'Dedicated to Bella,'" Emmett said. "Peter passed me these keyboards. According to Peter, every time you walked by the Jazzman's office in his Texas house, he wrecked another keyboard, so they were ordering these things by the truckload. And every time he tossed one out, Peter drilled a hole in the side and sent it to me instead of disposing of it."

I heard a low growl from Jasper, so I glanced back at him. He slowed the growl to smile at me, but I could tell he was not happy.

"Is that true?" I asked, feeling bolder. Jasper turned away from the "found art" to look at me, and leaned in for a long kiss.

"Yes. Every time you looked at me with those brown eyes, I smashed another keyboard, trying to hold myself back. I wanted you so badly, but…you were a long ways from being ready. I could feel your interest in me, but it was shot through with shame and fear. I wanted you in my arms, but not while you had those other feelings tarnishing what should have been your attraction."

Emmett had disappeared inside when Jasper started talking to me, seeming to realize that this was a private conversation that he didn't need to intrude on. I appreciated his surprising sensitivity.

Because as happy and excited as I was about our relationship, I was still confused about my emotions and attraction to Jasper. I was now so in love with him. Even though he had said that he had sought me specifically, some part of me was still worried about him tiring of me and passing me on to some other vampire in a year or so.

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