Author's Note: to commemorate my apology for leaving it so long to update the last chapter, here is a new one: long and prompt!
Lots of Jacob and Daisy, plus Daisy and Michael here. Some revelations of Daisy's past, and fluffy fluff.
Also, side note: the age a child is moved out of foster care in the UK is actually 16, which I personally find abhorrent, particularly now education has been made mandatory to the age of 18. For the sake of this story, let's pretend the UK is more morally acceptable than they really are and call it 18.
And finally it was so nice to hear from my wonderful, amazing readers again! I'm pleased you enjoyed the last chapter, and hope this one makes you smile too!
Take care and enjoy!
It had taken the promise of double locking the door, a lunch date the following the day, and a text before she went to sleep and when she woke up in the morning to get Jacob to surrender and leave Daisy at the cabin with her brother, having dropped the siblings off in spite of Daisy's objections.
She felt it unfair to have him leave his home when hers was only fifteen minutes away by foot, but when he'd rightly pointed out that she was not just dead on her feet, but that her feet were completely bare after sprinting from the beach that morning – was it really only that morning? It seemed an age ago – Daisy had conceded and clambered into the front seat of his truck, revelling in the imprint of warmth on her skin from spending so long curled up into Jacob's chest on the sofa.
They'd stuck Netflix on in the back ground while they argued about film taste, debating the best Christmas film – A Muppets Christmas Carol the clear winner in Daisy's mind, while Jacob insisted Elf was unbeatable – and Jacob lamenting her hatred of horror films, laughing at her objections to fake ghosts and gore while she snuggled into the side of a veritable werewolf.
Michael had meandered in around 7PM, looking frustrated and worn down, and Daisy had sat up quickly, moving over to him and tugging him to the door, needing to get Michael home and fed. After all, it was school night.
So she'd whipped them up bangers, mash, veg and gravy, helped him with his homework, and the silence settle somewhat comfortably between them, a lot playing in the background of their minds, processing in a gentle hum that vibrated softly.
The hum played beneath Michael's teasing tone, "So, you and Jacob looked pretty cosy today."
Daisy grinned at him across the counter where they'd settled with their drinks, her reading over his responses for English and Biology while Michael finished his Maths homework – something there was no point in Daisy even looking at, hopeless as she was with algebra and geometry – playfully indicating her agreement, "Must be those soulmate vibes you're picking up on."
Michael smiled tiredly, hazel eyes alight and genuine, "I'm happy for you, Daze."
"Thanks, littl'un." She returned softly, sipping from her mug of golden warmth and comfort.
"Guess I've got some more growing to do before I can threaten to kick his arse if he hurts you." Michael commented lightly, erasing an answer on his sheet with drawn brows, while Daisy corrected his spelling of 'onomatopoeia'.
She vehemently shook her head, "Please no. No more growing from you. My sewing machine can't take it, and I'm honestly surprised you don't have back ache from having to hunch in the shower already. And I'm going to have serious neck strain from craning up to see you."
Smirking, Michael teased, "And craning up to kiss Jacob."
"Michael Rae!" Daisy castigated him, with jaw loose in shock and a grin of disbelief on her face.
"Daisy and Jacob sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" He sang mockingly, and Daisy threw the eraser at him, making him laugh and dodge her assail.
She groaned, putting her head in her hands, "You're so ridiculous. And embarrassing. And childish – did I mention childish? Maybe I do need to teach you more manners." Daisy joked, and Michael snorted, before hesitating slightly, putting his pencil down, his smile dwindling faintly.
Daisy tilted her head, leaning still across the counter so she was close to him as he sighed, perched on the stool top. "Are you worried that he knows where we are?"
Considering his question, Daisy responded with honesty, feeling a flicker of something nervous and unsure in the pit of her stomach, "Probably not as much as I should be," she admitted, reaching out to rest her hand over his, "Are you?"
"No," Michael answered instantly, seriously, and – from what Daisy could tell – honestly. At her prying look, he continued, "I actually think there's part of me that's happy, or relieved maybe. He's spent so long haunting you now, taking advantage of you, even when he was human. He's always been dangerous. I guess I'm happy that I might get the chance to put him down; get rid of him for good, and you can just be happy and safe for once."
Daisy's heart felt tender and swollen listening to her brother, and she squeezed his hand, looking at him with all of the love and affection anyone could have for another person, "I'm happy and safe now, Michael. Caleb isn't here, is he? You would know if he was, or when he does come, right? You'll be able to smell him?"
It felt strange to talk in such animalistic terms with her very human, very rational brother, who had just solved quadratic equations with enviable ease, but Michael nodded all same, "Yeah, we'd know. He hasn't been here; just his messenger, or whatever that arsehole was or is to him."
Daisy nodded, feeling a strange sense of calm at the confirmation, "And there are always wolf people, uh, members of the pack, in the forest and stuff?" She thought that was the case, and Jacob, Michael and Leah mentioned something about it between them quite often; shifts where they inspected the reservation for any threats.
"On patrol?" Michael laughed through his nose at her, "Yeah."
Nodding resolutely, Daisy stated simply, "Then I'll worry when they tell me he's been here. I can handle a few creepy men lurking around, knowing cryptic secrets about me. Humans I can deal with. Ask Leah. I'm a machine."
"Yeah, Leah scares me, so I'm not going to do that." Daisy laughed at him with her mouth closed, trying not to choke on her mouthful of tea, and Michael smirked at her, shaking his head, "Just, you know, try not to go running through the forest or on the beach in the dark, by yourself, like you have a habit of doing? Please." He insisted, and Daisy sighed, conceding that he had fair point.
"I will do my best to keep myself safe, as long as you promise to do the same. Stick with your friends, and the rest of the pack, including Leah. You want scary wolves having your back. Let them look out for you."
Michael nodded at Daisy's beseeching, and spoke clearly, "Deal." And then a sly look took over his handsome face, "And at least now I know you'll be alright tomorrow while I'm at school, since you've got your daaaaate."
Daisy pointed a finger at Michael's face, dumping her empty mug in the sink, "You've been spending too much time with Embry," she commented, and Michael laughed, "And for that, you can finish the rest of your homework on your own."
"Like you'd have been any use to me with Tribal History, anyway!" He called after her as she turned to walk backward toward the bathroom door, feeling the need for a hot shower and some comfy pyjamas, shooting him a smug grin.
"Oh yeah, not like I have connections to the next Tribe Chief, or anything." She wiggled her eyebrows, and Michael pulled his expression into a scowl of disgust.
"Please keep the details of your 'connections' to yourself, or I'll puke." Daisy's laugh echoed as she entered the bathroom, closing the door on her little brother's amused face.
The past few nights of restless, short bursts of sleep and physical exertion during the day meant that Daisy fell asleep earlier than typical – around midnight – but she still found herself up and about by 5:00, resisting, with great effort, the temptation to let her feet beat the pavement in her usual morning jog.
Instead she plugged in her headphones, swallowing down the flashes of memories she'd seen in her sleep, of moments from her childhood: before Michael, at her foster home, in the group home. She slipped into yoga pants, a sports bra and an oversized chunky cardigan and danced through the kitchen in bare feet, working out the anxious energy that tingled from the top to the bottom of her spine.
Hours later, when Michael woke up, he found Will and Finn already at the kitchen counter, eating bacon and egg butties and grinning at him. Daisy placed his own in front of him, earning her a grunt of – what she chose to translate as – gratitude, before she waved away the boys and instructed them to have a good day.
She knew Jacob was wolfing it out in the forest on shift that morning and planned to pick her up at noon for a date, taking very seriously her ground rule to get to know one another at as normal a pace as they could muster. Until that point, she video conferenced some of her colleagues, discussing the theme and colours for the summer line for one her buyers, and began drawing up sketches to include the desired attributes.
At 11:00 she showered and got herself ready, dressing according to somewhere between the outside temperature and Jacob's body heat, spending more time than she would care to admit staring at her wardrobe and wondering which outfit Jacob might like the most on her.
Five minutes of that left Daisy telling herself to stop being pathetic and get a move on: it wasn't as if Jacob hadn't seen her in sweats before, spattered in Bolognese after a morning of cleaning, or half-drowned by the rain and her sweat out on a jog. If he still fancied her after that she doubted anything would turn him off. Bonus of being 'soulmates', she supposed, admittedly slightly acerbically.
Settling on high-waisted, light mauve jeans, belted in black leather and a silver buckle, a cropped, cream chunky knit cardigan with large, black buttons, Daisy stood in front of her mirror, debating how many buttons to leave undone. She settled on leaving it open enough above her bra, so the cardigan hung sloppily, revealing the top of her shoulders and hanging lower down her back that the front of her, the sun pendant hanging from one of her three dainty necklaces still visible. She paired it with healed black Chelsea boots, throwing her hair back into a messy bun, leaving tendrils down to frame her face.
By the time she had flattered her lashes with mascara and her lips with a raspberry-flavoured balm, she knew Jacob had arrived, a revving outside of her house calling her out in curiosity, picking up her black circular crossbody bag on the way to the door.
Opening it just as Jacob raised his fist to knock, Daisy stopped short before she could run into his – somewhat surprisingly – shirt covered chest. Her mouth was open at the surprise of meeting him at the doorway, but soon split into an irrepressible smile of excitement, her stomach fluttering at seeing him again.
God, she'd missed him. She had actually missed him. It hadn't even been 24 hours, and here she was, realizing she had missed him. Pathetic.
But she comforted herself by noting that he was awfully easy to miss, with his sharp, beautiful face, looking awfully handsome in his long-sleeved white Henley and jeans, staring at her like she was darkest kind of temptation he could hope to encounter.
His heated gaze burned her as it traced over her outfit, a rumbling groan making her insides tighten as he lifted his hands to rest on the top of the doorframe, leaning into her with a serious intonation, breath fanning over her face deliciously, biceps tight as he rasped, "You're fucking killing me here, gorgeous."
She tutted at him, decidedly giddy and embarrassingly girlish at his attention, tiptoeing to bring her lips near his and muttering, "So dramatic," before lightly brushing her mouth to his in greeting, feeling liquid fire in her veins as he returned her kiss before pulling away to hum a little in satisfaction, "Good afternoon, handsome. How was your morning?"
"It would have been better if I'd have woken up under the same roof as you, dream girl; but the day is definitely looking up now." He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer, the other running her errant curls through his fingers. "How about you? Did you manage to get much sleep?"
Daisy smiled, safe and warm against the cool air, "I got enough. Spent the morning cooking breakfast for the kids, on a work call and catching up with some chores. Nothing terribly exciting, I'm afraid."
A wicked grin on Jacob's perfect face short-circuited Daisy's brain, and she had to remind herself how to breathe twice before she actually managed to take in air, "Well, I think I might know a way to change that." And at her confusion, he stepped aside, hand sweeping out to gesture to the road in front of her house, "Your wish; my command."
Thrill speared through Daisy and wound a grin onto her face, her eyes flitting over the beauty of the motorcycle parked up by the curb, gleaming somehow even under the grey of the wispy clouds. She turned to Jacob, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, and he laughed at her glee, a glitter of affection in the honey of his eyes. Daisy's insides felt raw as she thought about the Yorkshire teabags and her favourite chocolate in his cupboards; thought about the hangover-special sausage sandwich he'd brought over for her; thought about how he'd helped her at every opportunity since they'd met, remembering their conversation in his garage showroom.
Her excitement faded into tenderness, and Jacob's slight concern at the change in her body language vanished when she stepped closer to him, tugging on a fistful of his shirt to bring him down to meet her, pressing a deep, heartfelt kiss onto his soft, full lips. His surprise turned quickly into eagerness, a growl emitting from the depth of his chest, and he tugged her closer, palm hot and flat against her lower back while the other hand wrapped gently around the back of her neck, supporting her precarious stretch on the very tip of her toes. She nipped his lower lip between her teeth, moaned when his tongue responded by entering her mouth, and their breathing hurried and deepened as their bodies pressed tightly against one another, their kiss hard and fast.
Daisy's need for air became urgent and she pulled back unwillingly, Jacob's own breathing harsh and ragged as she moved away from him, pressing her cold fingertips to the swelling of her warm lips, meeting his scorching gaze with a heady look of her own, almost surprised by her own audacity. With a somewhat cheeky shrug, Daisy joked weakly, "I guess I didn't want to be the only excited one."
Jacob laughed almost disbelievingly, his face taut with a look that conveyed a slight discomfort, and Daisy realised that his jeans had tightened considerably. She blushed, biting her lip as she gazed back into his eyes, and Jacob groaned, leaning back against the wall of her house, "You're not helping anything by doing that, gorgeous." So she released her bottom lip and crossed her arms, letting the cold air sting against her flustered cheeks. Shaking his head and smiling, Jacob closed her front door, and Daisy moved over to lock up, her fingers a little clumsy in her overexcitement.
Taking her hand in his, Daisy still reeling a little in embarrassment of practically jumping Jacob, her head ducked a little, she focused her gaze on their interlocked fingers, and how small and fragile hers looked in the tanned strength of his. But his grasp was gentle, tender almost, and it made her smile shyly to think of a man like Jacob wanting to take care of her as they walked toward the parked bike.
He sighed, moving their locked hands to wrap around her, his arm over her shoulder, tucking her into his side with a gentle kiss to her temple. Daisy looked up to smile at him, a puddle of goo under the beauty of his soft gaze, her feet moving automatically at a leisurely pace. "As payback for that you know you'll be riding bitch, right?"
Laughing, Daisy shook her head, looking up at him through her lashes, "Punished for kissing you? I suppose I'll have to think twice about it next time then."
Shaking his head, Jacob muttered into her hair, "And I'll be thinking a lot more than that about all the other ways I'm dying to pay you back, gorgeous; all the other ways I plan to excite you too. But until that becomes an option, it looks like you're riding bitch, dream girl."
Daisy's skin flushed all over, burning white hot, and her breathing stuttered and folded, swearing she could feel the ghost of Jacob's hands and lips running over her body. God, had she ever felt turned on like this before? Had she ever wanted someone this way? Her baser instincts wanted her to stop, tug Jacob into the house and have her wicked, dirty way with him on the kitchen floor, but a shake of her head and rationale intervened, and she chose to clear her throat, affected and chastising herself, instead.
Jacob smirked but his eyes were dark, pupils dilated, with something dangerous and tempting and delicious, and god, how did her cardigan feel so heavy and tight? "Good to know I can rile you up too." The growl in his voice, his words, went straight to her core and lingered there, throbbing achingly. Who knew Jacob Black could be such a tease? He let go of her, moving to the bike, smug and smirking still, and he picked up the leather jacket and helmet she hadn't noticed before resting on the seat. He held the jacket up to her, clearly belonging to him if the size of it was anything to go by, inviting her to turn and put her arms through the sleeves. "Safety first, gorgeous."
Rolling her eyes, face still uncomfortably warm, Daisy took the opportunity to turn her back to Jacob, shrugging the jacket on with his help, her eyes shut as she forced her raging hormones to calm the fuck down.
She murmured a 'thank you', turning back to face him. Jacob fastened the zip, running it up to beneath her chin, laughing at the way the material hung down past her backside and far past her fingertips. Daisy didn't care; it held that peppermint, woodsy smell she enjoyed about him so much, and she was too focused on that and Jacob's fiery eyes to notice. "You know you won't be getting this back either, right?"
"You know you don't have to steal my clothes just to get me naked, right?" He winked at her, and she laughed, shaking her head at him.
"If that was the case I wouldn't be starting with the hoodies and jackets. You walk around topless the majority of the time without any contribution from me and my sticky fingers."
Jacob conceded the point with a smirk and nod, "Fair point. I don't suppose you're in need of any cut-offs?"
Daisy laughed, looking down at the hem of the jacket with her arms outstretched in a half-shrug, "Not since your tops fit me like dresses, I'm not."
He groaned, tugging her into him and running his fingers along the hem of the jacket, Daisy's lungs tightening, "Now there's a visual I'll be thinking about for a while. You. My jacket. Nothing else."
Inhaling in surprise, Daisy gave Jacob a light shove, earning her only a laugh in return, Jacob remaining unmoved. She pointed at him, shaking her head with a smile on her face, "That is the kind of visual reserved only for people who don't make their soulmate ride bitch. Or mess up their hair with a helmet." She tugged her lips into a frown, inspecting the offending item in Jacob's hands.
"Well, this person wants to keep his soulmate's incredible brain inside her pretty skull, and not scattered across the asphalt." He responded, leaving no room for argument as he tugged the too-large helmet over her head, amused by her pout and grumbling response. "So be sure to hold on tight to me, dream girl." He fastened the clasp under chin and knocked on the top of the helmet lightly.
"Mhmm, don't mind me if I cut off your circulation in the process. Accidentally, of course." She fired back, the corners of her lips turned up in teasing. Jacob laughed, positioning himself on the bike with ease and wiggling his eyebrows, patting the spot behind him to encourage her to join him.
Daisy moved over to the bike, swinging her leg round the back of it to perch on the leather seat, scooting up to Jacob and locking her arms around the width of his strong torso, instantly warmed through by the proximity, feeling his narrow hips between her thighs.
She felt Jacob sigh in contentment before he turned his neck to face her, smiling as he lifted his shirt up. "What are you doing?" She asked curiously, her eyes wide and questioning the intention in his.
He took her hands, placing them on the bare skin of his stomach before pulling his shirt back down and over them, patting them gently and sending her a wink, "It's going to feel pretty cold in the wind when we start moving." He explained, and Daisy nodded, a little dazed, before locking her muscles when she felt the bike start up, tightening her thighs around Jacob, sure he was smirking even though she couldn't see his face.
With a roar they were gone, speeding down the road as if a hand of God were hurrying them along, and Daisy found her escaping breath quickly enough to laugh in exhilaration, moving her face away from Jacob's back to peep over his shoulder, the scenery whizzing past them at dizzying speeds. Jacob had been right, her cheeks were frozen in moments, and she dug her fingers a little harshly into the skin of his stomach, feeling his abs tense under her touch, reveling in the feeling of his body beneath her hands.
They were on the road for only a minute or two when Jacob veered left, into the shade of the trees, a dirt path that seemed well worn under tire guiding them upward. Eyes fluttering to keep out the rising dust, Daisy kept her gaze peeking up over Jacob's shoulder, her nose buried into the material of his top, her smile pressed into his skin, an imprint of her delight.
It must have been less than ten minutes when they crested out of the forest and onto a cliff edge, Jacob already easing the bike to a stop in the middle of a dusty plane that overlooked the violent waves of the ocean, the beauty of the horizon, and span of First Beach beneath. Daisy had been disappointed to end the adrenaline-inducing travel so quickly, but upon seeing where they had arrived she forgot about it very quickly.
Her legs were a little shaky as she clambered off the seat, a product of how tightly she'd wound herself around Jacob's body, and the heat of being so close to him had her stripping off his jacket and quickly peeling away the helmet, the wind instantly picking up and playing with the dark, wayward tendrils framing her face.
Jacob took the jacket and helmet from her, hanging both over the handlebars of the bike and grinning at the star struck look of wonder on Daisy's face, stepping close to her and tucking a flyaway curl behind her ear, "Something tells me you were enjoying yourself there, gorgeous."
Daisy, giddy, smiled broadly and cocked her head to the side, stating playfully, "And here I thought I was difficult to read; a closed book." She shrugged, shaking her head in mock disappointment with herself.
Jacob intertwined both of her hands with his, moving to hold them behind her back, keeping her close in a half-embrace. He hummed in faux contemplation, "I don't know about that: do closed books usually giggle and squeal?"
Daisy's jaw loosened and she inhaled indignantly, crying through an insuppressible grin, the smile that always seemed to be working its way onto her face when she was with Jacob, "Excuse me, I was not squealing!"
"Sure, sure." Jacob nodded, placating, "If you say so."
God, she loved being so close to him: her hands in his, their bodies tight together, being able to see the shades of deep black cutting through the flame-colour of his irises. Safe and alight and wanted, Jacob's arms were quickly becoming her favourite place to be.
And now she'd lost the train of the conversation in her doe-eyed inspection of his beauty and talent.
So she settled for a slightly non-committal hum, and diversion of the conversation, "Mhmm. And what about you, handsome? Enjoying yourself?"
Jacob's hands left hers, but they were quick to find the high-waisted top of her jeans, his fingertips grazing lightly the skin underneath her cardigan. Daisy brought her hands up to grasp his biceps, the feel of strength there, the taut and bulging muscle making her swallow down a rising desire. A desire that wasn't easily stoppered considering his response.
"After having you wrapped around me, dream girl, my whole goddamn year has been made."
Daisy blushed a little and shook her head, distracted slightly by the rough skin of his fingers over the sensitive flesh of her back. She bit her lip and smiled cheekily, "Wow. Your whole year, huh? And we're only fifteen minutes into date one. Who knew my cuddling powers were so on point?"
"You're an impressive woman." Jacob grinned, moving his nose down to brush against hers, warming her perpetually cold face with his.
Daisy rolled her eyes, bringing her hands to rest on Jacob's chest, feeling the steady thrum of his heart beneath her palms and quirking an eyebrow up at him, "This coming from the funny, handsome, 28-year-old Alpha shifter come business owner."
Wickedness spiked Jacob's grin, "Don't forget 'sweet' and 'loveable'."
He wasn't wrong. Hadn't she been complaining about just how bloody sweet he was when she thought he was a raging dog up for a quick shag? Right down there on First Beach, hadn't she bemoaned his care for her, his helpfulness and concern?
Loath to be so serious and open, Daisy simply shot him a sarcastic smile and added, "And oh so modest and humble."
Jacob shrugged and smirked, before pinning her with an affectionate look, "Not to mention really fucking lucky to be made for you."
"And then there's the cheesy, smooth-talking thing you've got going on, too." She teased, and he lifted his hands to tickle her sides in response, making her squirm and giggle breathlessly, backing away from him swiftly and moving over, near to the edge of the cliff. "Don't you dare tickle me, Black, or I swear there will be pain and retribution paid to you in buckets." Before she was distracted from his arms raised in surrender, the perfect look on his perfect face, and turned slowly instead to look out across the water.
She felt Jacob snake his arms around her shoulders, resting his chin on the top of her head, "The view's amazing from up here." She commented, resting her hands on his forearms, her heart speeding up at the sight and span of the ocean and Jacob's attention, "Do you come up here a lot?"
Daisy felt Jacob sigh, "Not as much as I'd like, but when I became Alpha and I had to start making the big decisions for the pack with a clear head I came here, or even just when I want some time outside of everything, this does the trick. Privacy is like gold dust in La Push. Between the small town ethos and the pack mind…"
"Mmm," Daisy hummed in sympathy, "I imagine it's difficult to come by privacy when there are twelve other voices in your head. Does it ever feel like you have multiple personalities? Like, when you get really angry do you blame it on Paul's voice? Or when you do something stupid can you blame it on the fact that you've been inside Embry's head?"
She felt Jacob laugh in the movement of his chest, "Nah, nothing like that. Memories can get a little blurry though – Quil, Embry and I share a lot of childhood recollections, so sometimes it's hard to tell whose perspective you're remembering stuff from after a while."
"You guys have been friends since you were little?" She prompted, enjoying the invitation into Jacob's past, wishing for the first time that maybe she could look inside the mind of a wolf to watch a little Jacob Black celebrate his fourth birthday.
Maybe she'd hit Rachel up for some baby pictures.
"Yeah, pretty much from day one. My greatest achievement in life is surviving Embry for near enough three decades. My second greatest is not murdering him." He joked, and Daisy grinned, wondering how it was Embry and Jacob had turned out so differently if they'd shared so many traditions and milestones together.
"Is it weird now, being their leader? Were you Alpha from the first time you shifted and just got shoved into it because you're the biggest, like an animal kingdom thing? Did you have to fight someone for it? Did you have to kill someone?" She wondered aloud, recalling David Attenborough's documentaries and getting carried away with it all.
Jacob shook his head and Daisy turned in his arms, eyes wide and watching the amusement spark in his eyes, "No, gorgeous, I didn't have to kill anyone, or fight anyone for it. These teeth are only used to bite leeches, unless you're into that kind of thing, of course." He teased her, and Daisy rolled her eyes with a smile, her cardigan revealing a sliver of skin along her abdomen as she locked her arms around his neck, tiptoeing to reach. "I became Alpha when I was nineteen: it was Sam before that, since he was the first of our generation, but since the tribe was headed by my great grandfather it's kind of in my DNA to be Alpha, and that showed in how shitty I was at taking orders from him."
Daisy feigned astonishment, "You? Incapable of doing as you're told? I'm shocked."
Grinning, he leant down to her level, "This coming from the outlaw?"
She threw her head back in laughter, arms still locked behind Jacob's neck, feeling a sense of elation at learning more of him; feeling the constant need to be near him, touching him. Is this what imprinting was? Insatiability?
It would be a lie to say Daisy wasn't enjoying it.
"What can I say? It takes trouble to know trouble." She admitted, eyes starry as she twinkled with mirth.
"Sounds like the universe knows what it's doing." Jacob agreed, watching her smile fade gently in his words, her narrow shoulders shrugging, unsure.
"They might have fed you the short end of the stick there, handsome. I think I come with more trouble than I'm worth." Her mind brought forward an image of Caleb, cold and calculating, deceptively clever, and her stomach plummeted.
Jacob snorted, shaking his head and watching her with a tender, honest amusement, "Said the beauty to the wolf."
Daisy laughed humourlessly, bobbing her head thoughtfully, "You might have a point there. But with you comes safety and protection; with me comes danger and obsession, and baggage the size of a comet. And enough insecurity to keep bringing up the baggage the size of a comet."
Moving out of his hold, she felt his eyes on her, watching as she moved over to the motorcycle, absentmindedly gliding her fingers over the shining metal and inspecting the sheen of classic black casing. He called out to her, "Then share it with me. I can take it."
She looked across to him, eyes glistening with something withheld, choked back and forced down and masked with wariness, "That wouldn't be fair to you."
He held her gaze for a moment, before stepping closer slowly, moving to lean against the seat of the bike, crossing his arms and staring at her stood beside him, still inspecting the pattern of the bike. "Tell me about the night the stranger was talking about. With the wardrobe, and the knocking." Daisy felt a vacuum appear inside of her, sucking out her insides and leaving her empty and numb, shaking her head as her gaze shot to meet Jacob's. Before she could deny him, rebuke him as she had planned to do, he beseeched her, eyes soft in consideration, "I can take the weight of it; you should see how much I can bench." He joked lightly, encouraging her, but she still felt her head shaking to refuse him.
"Jacob…" She tailed off, and he somehow knew not to touch her, not to push her.
Instead, he uttered a simple, low, "Please," and she found her armour softening.
Unable to look at him, she shifted away from his position, moving to the front of the bike to face the handlebars, running her fingers over them, focusing on the texture and not the memory she was gathering her metal to share, not the anxiety snaking her nerves that whispered and hissed in fear of Jacob's reaction; fearing that he might look at her differently.
"Michael was seven when I was moved to the same group home as him. I was thirteen and didn't know anyone; I'd been moved across the country so essentially I was starting over. Michael had been there for three years, but he didn't really speak to anyone. He just kept his head down, stayed quiet, kept to himself. A survival instinct; a lot of kids were like that in the homes.
"Anyway, I found him one day, about a month after I'd moved there, sat at the kitchen table on a Saturday morning crying over his homework. Everyone else was outside, and I didn't even know his name, but I sat down next to him and he let me help him, and then he smiled this adorable, heart-stopping smile, thanked me, and we went our separate ways. Until the next Saturday, when we sat down to do the same all over again.
"We became close pretty soon after that, started spending time together to do homework, and then he would catch me sketching designs, and he'd sit and draw next to me, or I'd teach him card games, or watch the local football team with him. It just became normal for us. We didn't bother when any of the other kids: there was so much transition in and out that most of the time it was easier not to get attached. But we did. We attached to each other. We were all the other had."
The tiny, happy face, beautiful smile with missing front teeth, and little fist gripping tightly to a pencil appeared clear as day in Daisy's mind, and she couldn't help the affectionate turn of her lips, thinking back to her now 6'4 brother sat at the counter with her, completing homework only the night before.
Not everything had changed, it seemed.
Jacob stayed silent, watching her as she wrapped herself up, folding in on herself, self-soothing. Daisy knew he wanted to hold her, wanted to put his hands on her, comfort her, but he read her well and resisted, letting her relay her story with space and time.
"It was about a year later that some of the older kids formed a sort of gang, moving round and bullying the younger children," she scoffed with disgust, "I was fourteen, but they were about to age out of the system, and they banded together. There were five of them, and they loved making everyone else feel puny in comparison to them. They were big; not shifter big, of course," she commented drily, "But bigger than us. Even the adults didn't like having to deal with them.
"They set their sights on Michael one day. We were outside, and he was dribbling the football while I sketched on the side-lines. He was just minding his own business, eight-years-old, tiny as anything, which is bizarre to think about now, and he was just harmlessly playing by himself when they came over. The leader – Taron – he spat at Michael, called him a mongrel, and moved to shove him, but I had seen them come over and grabbed Michael before he could touch him, and I put him behind me, got between them."
She smiled sardonically, meeting Jacob's gentle, worried eyes, and she moved her fingers to tap against her lower lip as she thrummed through with adrenaline, her other arm still crossed tightly around her waist, hand tucked into the crook of her elbow.
"I don't really remember what I said to them –" she'd spent such a lot of time actively not thinking about this, it wasn't really any wonder she'd lost some of the finer details, "- something about bullies feeling the need to overcompensate, I think. The words were out of my mouth before I really knew what I was doing, to be honest. Instinct must have kicked in, I guess." She shrugged, running her cardigan-covered hand over her forehead.
"They closed in, said I had a lot to learn about the way a girl should use her mouth." Daisy scoffed, rolling her eyes to the sky and breathing a little deeper, her movements more ragged and tense, trying to battle away the fear that chased the memory. She couldn't look at Jacob, too insecure in her vulnerability, "The whistle blew for dinner before they could do anything, or say anything else, and we went separate ways."
Daisy paused, exhaling until her lungs were clearer, inhaling and counting slowly as she soothed herself, slowing her erratic heartbeat. She knew Jacob was tense, in her peripheral vision she could see the sharpness of his locked jaw and tightened muscles through his white top. She forced herself to continue.
"Michael came to me later on, said he'd overheard them on the boys' side of the home discussing plans." She could still see Michael, little, holding a stuffed Red Devil in cotton pyjamas, his eyes big and innocent as he ran into her box room where she sat, sketching, curled against the side of her bed. "They wanted to teach me what girls were good for. And they wanted to make Michael watch so he'd know what to do if a girl stepped out of line in future."
Daisy's throat burned, but her voice was hollow. The only other time she'd told this story, the only other time she'd forced herself to relive it, was in Caleb's office, crying and shaking in the corner of his couch. The thought made her want to vomit.
"I was terrified. I kept Michael with me – to be fair, he often fell asleep in my bed anyway – and I barricaded the door so they couldn't get in. We didn't have locks, the group home leader liked to be able to have access for searches, to keep us in line, so I used the only thing in the room that was heavy enough. The wardrobe."
She lifted her eyebrows, as if that somehow connected all the dots from the snippets provided by Michael the afternoon before, and laughed without humour, "But I couldn't lift it on my own. It took me forever to shove it in front of the door, and I was so panicked in that time that they'd just burst in – "
Daisy cut herself short, shaking her head to rebuke her wandering thoughts, not wanting to go down that road. She was fine. She was there, with Jacob. She was safe. She was fine.
"I managed it, but Michael could see I wasn't alright. He didn't really understand what was happening at the time, and he started crying. I leveraged myself against the bed, on the floor, my feet pressed against the wardrobe to somehow shove it further against the door. I held Michael to me, keeping him close, trying to keep him safe. I –" She cleared her throat, the swelling in it thick and uncomfortable, "- It's had been about fifteen minutes, and then someone tried to open the door. They began shoving against it, banging. I was so tense my muscles ached for days afterwards, and I put all the strength I had into my legs, my feet, into keeping them out. They were calling through the door, taunting us, saying things that I don't think I'll ever be able to forget, that I wish Michael didn't have to hear.
"It was an hour before they gave up, but Michael and I sat like that all night, and into the afternoon of the next day. It wasn't until Lisa – the group home lead – called through the door to check on me that we moved the wardrobe and came out.
"I told her what happened, and she was good, she was helpful, she reported the boys and had them moved out to different homes, and it was good that they were gone but I couldn't – "
She broke off, swallowing down and turning to face the cliff's edge, holding tightly onto herself, "I couldn't really sleep properly after that, because even though they were gone, even though I didn't have to see them again, or deal with them, or even think about them I couldn't shake it. Because they were gone, and I didn't know where they were. But they still knew where I was. They still knew where Michael was. And ever since that day I can't help but feel that someone's coming for me in the night, waiting in the shadows for me to let my guard down.
"I thought maybe it would be ok when I was out of the system and had moved, because rationally I knew they had no idea where I was or how to find me. But apparently my subconscious doesn't quite see it that way." She offered with a shrug, and let the silence hang in the air heavily until ending with, "I told Caleb about it during counselling, but never anybody else. It isn't really something I like to talk about. I don't like talking about my past in general, to be honest."
Daisy cleared her throat one last time, and breathed the sea-salted air with relish, filling herself with clean oxygen and refreshing her constricted lungs. Jacob was still quiet, and she wondered what he was thinking while simultaneously too frightened to ask. But she told herself to stop being a wuss, turned around, and weakly finished her story with: "So that's the tale of the wardrobe. It's not quite the version C. S. Lewis came up with, I guess, but at least it's shorter."
It took a moment still for Daisy to summon the courage to move her gaze from the spindly branches of the trees back to Jacob, her mind whirring painfully to resist her body's natural instinct to be closer to him, to be looking at him. When she finally acquiesced the numbness of her body began to thaw under the raw emotion of his blazing eyes. He hadn't moved from his position, still half-sat, side-saddle, on the leather seat of the bike. She could tell from the state of his hair that he'd been pulling at it while she'd be speaking, and he somehow looked older, more burdened, like a crack had fissured somewhere inside of him.
It made her wish she hadn't said anything.
Before she could reassure him, think of something funny to say to break the tension, to sweep it all away, he called out to her, his voice gravelly and breaking as he spoke her name, "Daisy." And she blinked back tears. Why was she so upset? Everything had turned out alright, hadn't it? I mean, aside from the obsessed vampire sending them creepy messages. Everything was perfectly fine. "Please," he near-begged, holding his hand out to her, his face a carving of need and concern, "Come here."
The fact that he knew in that moment what consent must have meant to her – the fact that he realised she needed to be the powerful one, the one in control, to not be touched unless she allowed it – made something glow inside of her, but she still couldn't force her feet to move as quickly as her heartbeat demanded. Instead, her steps were slow and measured, weighted by a fear of what she would find in Jacob's reaction.
Daisy knew her hesitation increased Jacob's pain, she could see it deepening the lines on his handsome face, so she moved a little more resolutely and found herself rewarded by his sigh of relief, contentment almost, and the warmth and protection of his hand, catching her outstretched one and guiding it to his shoulder, his muscular arms embracing her and his face, lowered to nearer her height by his slouched posture, burying itself in the curve of her neck.
They stayed like that for a moment, the tension in both of their bodies working its way out as they fell into one another. Daisy was stood between his knees, not a hair's width between them, and she inhaled the scent of him, her nose nestled in his chest. She ran her fingers affectionately through the soft tuft of hair at the nape of his neck, her ministrations soothing to them both, not realizing she had been shivering until she stopped.
Jacob's voice was still rough and affected when he spoke, "I fucking hate that there are people in this world who have hurt you."
Daisy closed her eyes tightly in the sanctuary of his chest, moving a hand to run in small, consecutive circles over his top-covered torso, "There are people that protect me too. People that make me happy."
His arms tightened minutely, and Daisy could feel him nod, his stubble rubbing comfortingly over her skin, "There's nothing I wouldn't do to protect you, dream girl. Nothing I wouldn't do to keep you safe and happy. I want to make you so fucking happy."
Daisy looked up at him, seeing the open need and desperation in his eyes that made her knees feel like giving out and had her heart clenching tenderly, "You do, Jacob. I've never felt as safe before as I do here, with you."
He ran his hand under her cardigan, rough and hot, "You slept that night with me in the car."
Daisy choked on a small laugh, her memory of that night still hazy at best, "Yeah. I thought maybe it was the alcohol, but I guess my soul must have known you'd take good care of me. And what do you know? It was right." She teased weakly, tilting her head and smiling benignly, tapping his heart with her fingertip twice to emphasize her point.
He grabbed hold of her hand, holding it against his chest to feel his heartbeat, sturdy and fast, thrum in consistent delight, "So stay with me." He retaliated, voice scratching the air in anxiety and want. Daisy opened her mouth in surprise, unsure what to say to deny him, but didn't have the chance, "Please, dream girl, stay with me. I'll always keep you safe, you and Michael, and you can sleep for fucking days and I will make sure that nobody ever gets anywhere fucking near you again. Please."
Closing her eyes briefly against the onslaught of emotion coming from Jacob, Daisy reached up to place a gentle kiss over his lips, feeling his hands move in an instant response to her neck, to cradle her face, moving his hot mouth expertly with hers and making her tingle all over. She pulled slowly away, almost unwillingly, before she caved and thought about how nice it might be to have constant access to those kisses on demand, whenever she wanted.
How nice and warm it must feel, to fall asleep tucked cosily into Jacob's side.
"I will stay with you now, and enjoy this date for as long as we can until duty calls on you. And I will stay with you tomorrow, and cook you dinner, and impress you with my delicious chorizo sauce." She wiggled her eyebrows and Jacob cracked a small smile of amusement, which Daisy took as a victory, "And I will stay with you in the sense that I will be yours for as long as we want to do this. But I can't just move in with you for the sake of my memories, Jacob. It's been eight years. I've learned to handle this by myself, and I can take it a little longer."
Jacob was shaking his head, closing his eyes in exasperation, but she stopped him before he could argue with her, "If we move in together – "
"When we move in together," he cut across her, and she shot him a deadpan look before rolling her eyes.
"When we move in together, or when we first spend the night together, I want it to be because we want to. Because we're ready. Not because you feel like we have to because of my crappy childhood, shitty sleep schedule and residual emotional baggage."
He sighed, landing his hands on her hips, "Ok." He conceded, and Daisy's eyebrows lifted, suspicious at how easy his surrender came, "But for the record, I am ready, and I do want to. So just say the word, dream girl."
"Duly noted." And she melted a little, wondering how she got so lucky as to be wanted completely and utterly by the most phenomenal man she had ever met. She planted her hands on his stubbly cheeks, gazing up at him in wonderment, her eyes wide and unable to see anything except Jacob's perfection. Maybe the universe did know what it was all about, after all. "Now kiss me."
I'm not sure when the next one will be up: it might be later this week; it might be a few weeks until I can upload again. I hope you enjoyed the interaction in this one though!