Chapter 22

Adult content right at the end of the chapter, you'll know you're about to hit it by the preceding paragraphs.

Jasper POV

I was worried about Bella. After what had happened on Monday with her father she had been distant throughout the week.

I understood where she was coming from, she knew that if she disappeared like all of those people in Seattle that she would be robbing her parents of closure. But it was hard to convincingly fake a death. And especially nowadays with all the social media and constant news coverage, we would need to really think about how this could affect the next few decades of our lives.

I of course was there for her the entire week, but she was distant with the rest of the family. They kept their distance mostly, and as the week progressed Bella finally began to open up a little. And although she didn't specifically talk about what was troubling her so much, I knew her mind had been working overtime and she had managed to rationalise whatever decision she had come to.

It was a relief when Bella suggested that I should send Friday night hunting with Edward and Emmett while she spent some time with Alice. It meant that she was done with shutting out the rest of the family and would be a good chance for her to speak with Alice, who was both a third party and able to be more impartial than myself, and also able to see how Bella's decisions could affect the future. I was sure it would do her wonders to spend the night with Alice.

And so that was how I found myself running through the forest near Forks with both of my brothers, well the two I lived with anyway, making jokes and pushing each other around as we lazily tracked the scarce winter prey.

We briefly stopped in a small clearing by a rapidly flowing creek to scope out any potential scents when the wind gusted in from the north.

We simultaneously breathed in deeply to assess the situation.

The unmistakable musky scent of wolf was in the air. And more than one of them.

An advantage to having spent so much time together over the years was we all knew exactly how we would all act in such a situation, and with just a quick glance at each other, we silently agreed to move closer.

I took the lead, as usually happened in somewhat hostile situations due to both my background and nature, and we were soon perched in a couple of trees overlooking the river that demarcated this section of the border between our land and the wolves. Below us and on the other side of the river we could clearly see Sam in the form of a large black wolf, and sitting in front of him with their heads bowed there were two other wolves; slightly smaller and different shades of grey.

"Edward do they know we're here?" I asked in my mind, not even daring to breathe.

He shook his head in response.

"Do you know who they are?" I thought whilst also trying to think of who these wolves could be judging from what Bella had told me about her trips to La Push. The frontrunners where two young men named Paul and Jared, who Bella was convinced could smell me on her when she last saw them.

Edward nodded again, apparently it was them.

We sat in the treetops for hours in complete silence, not ones breathing, nor moving, nor speaking. There was too much of a risk to us. While we might have been on good terms with Sam, there was no telling what these other two would do should they see us, and now the numbers were evenly matched, that was not a risk we were willing to take.

It felt like an eternity later when they wolves made their move away from the river, and thankfully we remained unnoticed. A few minutes later Edward quietly gave word it was safe and we made our way back to the house. It was about four in the morning and we hadn't had a chance to hunt, but we needed to let the others know there were more wolves.

The news was mostly well received although everyone, especially Rosalie, were understandable upset we hadn't been informed properly. And rightfully so! It could be a very dangerous situation for any of should we run into one of these new wolves, just as it could have been with Sam during his first transformation. Later in the morning, we filled Bella in on the situation and she agreed to continue to be the messenger between our two groups and to find out what was happening.

Fortunately though, Bella received a text message from Sue around lunch time with the information. I was correct about the identities of the newest wolves, and it appeared they had both made the transformation just two days ago, and had only just being able to re take their human forms, and that was what caused the delay in reporting the information. I still wasn't completely happy, but at least the information came through before Bella had to go and find it out, while also having to face another conversation with Billy about her life choices. I was worried as to how Bella would react if Billy launched into the same speech again about how this would affect Charlie, especially after the week Bella had just had.

In the early afternoon, as the sun was desperately trying to break through the clouds, Bella was curled up alongside me in our bed tracing patterns absentmindedly onto my chest through my shirt while we watched a movie. The light teasing touch of her burning finger tips was enough to begin to drive me wild, and had I not been acutely aware of the rest of the family scattered throughout the house I would most definitely have acted upon my more basic animal instincts. Instead, I called upon my superior intellect.

"You wanna go out somewhere?" I asked, my voice far huskier than usual.

"Sure, have any ideas?" She answered without letting up on the pattern drawing.

"Port Angeles?" I asked, forming an idea in my mind.

Bella nodded enthusiastically before pulling my face towards hers, with a lot of input on my part too if I were to be honest, and kissing me deeply.

"It's a date." She said simply as she pushed herself up and off of the bed to get ready.

Of course Alice came barging in at that exact moment and insisted on helping Bella get ready.

"The weather is going to stay fine for the whole afternoon, as long as you're back by eight you'll stay dry." She said pulling clothes out of our drawers, throwing some to me and handing some to Bella and pulling her into the bathroom across the hall.

I quickly changed into the dark jeans, white t-shirt, and leather jacket before pulling on my favourite black boots.

"Judging by the outfit I guess we're taking the bike?" I asked as I waited for Bella, leaning against our door frame.

"I vote yes to taking the bike!" Bella said as Alice released her from the bathroom.

She looked beautiful in her black jeans and shirt, with a thick denim jacket over the top and black lace up boots, perfect for sitting on the back of my bike.

"Well why else would I let you two leave the house in simple jeans and jackets?" Alice laughed as she too left the room, handing Bella a hair tie and flitting off with a happy "Have fun!"

Once we made our way to the garage I quickly pulled the sheet off of my bike and wheeled her out front and helped Bella onto the back of the seat. I'd hardly been able to take Bella on the bike before, but I never grew tired of the sight of her sitting there waiting for me to get on so she could wrap her arms around me. I waited for her to finish braiding her hair down over one shoulder so the helmet would fit better before handing her the oversized protective jacket she had picked out a few months ago, and then her matching helmet. Of course I would never crash the bike, especially with Bella on the back, but we did need to conceal her identity from Charlie. He had a terrible opinion of bikes.

I pulled my helmet on, and made myself comfortable in front of Bella, and started the bike. As soon as she was holding on, I kicked it into gear and off we went.

As we left Forks we were stuck behind a logging truck for a while, and we passed Charlie where he was sitting on the side of the road with the radar, but luckily we were still under the limit and he didn't recognise us. Well I hoped anyway. Charlie catching me with Bella on the back of my bike would not go down well.

Though knowing where Charlie was made it much easier to really let lose once I was able to get passed the logging truck. In fact, we made it to Port Angeles in record time, and the whole way Bella was simply dripping with excitement and joy that I knew only came from her when we were travelling at speed; either running or riding. And at times, when I really pushed the throttle on the rare straight stretches of road, Bella even let out excited whoops and giggles. Her joy was infectious.

Her joy continued through the afternoon, and it became our joy. We made our way through the main street, stopping in all the shops that took our interest; bookstores, music stores, and a little gift shop that sold handmade jewellery. We had made a few small purchases, mainly books, but enough that I bought Bella a small black backpack, the type that was more like a purse than an actual back pack, but it was big enough to get or things home.

But it was at the jewellery case that I made my favourite purchase of the day. Bella was looking at this beautiful silver pearl ring with a look of love in her eyes.

"That one's beautiful, isn't it?" The elderly lady who owned the shop said as she noticed Bella's gaze. "This one was hand made by a local artist, the leaves on the band are all hand etched, with a locally farmed freshwater pearl." She continued, pulling it out of the case and handing it to Bella.

"It is beautiful." Bella said simply. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her in to me.

"Do you want it?" I asked her.

"Well yeah, but you don't have to buy it for me, you've already bought me so much today." She said not taking her eyes off of it.

I took the ring from her fingers, feeling the weight of the rather large pearl and the delicate patterns on the band. It was simple, and unique, and perfect for Bella.

Carefully I stepped away from Bella and took her left hand in mine, smirking at the way her heartbeat fluttered from the prospect of me holding her left hand and a ring. I gently slid the ring onto her index finger and admired how well it looked on her, it fit perfectly.

Bella laughed, somewhat relieved I hadn't just proposed in some little jewellery shop on a whim.

"Well know that I see it on I guess you'll have to buy it for me because I'm not taking it off." She giggled.

I helped her to untie the little price tag and handed over the cash to the woman behind the counter, and we made our way back to the street. Bella bought herself a takeaway pizza and we made our way to a currently unused wharf where we could sit and talk while Bella ate. Our feet were handing off the edge, and Bella was tucked into my side, my arm around her shoulders and we just enjoyed our alone time together.

"You know, you freaked me out a little there with the ring." She said as she placed the now empty pizza box beside her.

"I know, sorry about that, I was trying to be funny." I replied, squeezing her just a little closer to me.

"It was funny, just not something I'd ever put much thought into to be honest." She took a breath, "But I also freaked myself out a little because I didn't not want it as much as I thought I would. In fact there was a small part of me that was almost disappointed." She quickly confessed.

"You want to marry me?" I asked, somewhat confused as I knew Bella hadn't had many great examples of marriage in her life and thought from a young age that it wasn't something she particularly wanted.

"Yeah." She answered with a nod, trying to look very causal. "Not right now, but you know, in the future."

"Well in that case, sometime in the future, I'll get you a proper engagement ring and do the whole down on one knee thing." I said with a laugh.

"No need for another ring or anything, or getting down on one knee, let's just move this ring over sometime and not make a big deal of it."

"So just the lowest of low-key proposals?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Yep." She agreed, popping the 'p'. "Just one day while we're watching a movie or something just move the ring over and we can sort out the details at another much later date." She grinned.

"Alright. Well you let me know when that day is." I leaned down to kiss her sweetly. "But just so you know, Alice will plan the entire wedding and it won't stay as low key as you're hoping for." I said with a laugh as I pulled away.

"Oh I already know that, she'll probably congratulate us as we walk in the door tonight, but if she knows what's good for her she won't try too much." Bella laughed.

We pulled into the garage at five to eight that evening, and just as Alice had told us, the skies opened three minutes later, drenching everything within seconds. We tried to make our way up to our room to collect Bella's things to spend the night at Charlie's, but we were somewhat predictably stopped by Alice at the foot of the stairs.

"Bella!" She screeched as she launched herself at the human and pulled her into a spinning hug, "Let me see! Well I mean, I've already seen it, but let me see it for real!" She continued to talk a speed I was unsure Bella would be able to understand.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Emmett said as he came across the scene of Alice gushing over Bella's left hand. "What have I missed?" He asked, feigning hurt over not being told.

"Nothing Em," Bella reassured him. "I saw a nice ring and Jasper bought it for me, and Alice is totally overreacting about something completely none of her business." She said directly addressing Alice with a glare that might have scared a vampire if it had been on anyone other than Bella with her kitten like temper.

"Fine. Ruin all of my fun. Don't come to me for help then." Alice said, faking offense.

"When the time comes I promise I'll come to you, but that time isn't now." Bella reassured her.

Alice kissed her on the cheek and flitted back off to whatever she was doing before and finally allowed Bella and I to go about our business.

A few hours later Bella and I were curled up on her slightly too small bed, the heater on full and the electric blanket warming us from below. Our clothes were scattered around the room and our legs tangled together as I held Bella in my arms and she traced the same patterns on my naked chest that she had been doing this afternoon. Charlie was asleep in the room across the hall, and I was very carefully monitoring his breathing for any signs he was waking, and we had some music quietly playing to help mask any sounds we made.

"I had the best day today." She said quietly, barely breathing out the words.

"I did too, getting out of the house and riding the bike with you, and of course that chat we had on the wharf has to make it one of the best days of my life."

"Me too, it was good to get away from Forks and away from the drama that seems to pool in this town. I even almost forgot about all the supernatural stuff, I didn't stress about what I need to do to my parents, and to any other person on the street we must have just looked like any young couple in love." She said.

"Well maybe we need to get out of Forks more often? I've never felt such joy from you before." I told her as I too began to trace soothing patterns on her naked back. "You have those plane tickets from your birthday, you could take me to meet your mother." I suggested.

"But wouldn't you have to stay indoors all the time in Florida?" She asked, always so concerned for others.

"Well we could plan it to go when the weather is bad? Alice would be able to tell us when would be good."

"You're a genius." She laughed as she say herself up before leaning down to kiss me. "Let's go to Florida. And maybe as well as that trip we could do some little weekends away? Charlie won't love the idea but we can frame it more like a family outing." She asked.

"Sounds wonderful babe." I answered as I pulled her in for another kiss which she quickly deepened.

Our kisses grew more passionate and I could feel the lust rolling off of the bother of us and I had to remind myself of the fact we weren't completely alone and I needed to reign in the lust I was clearly projecting.

Bella began to move down my body, planting sweet kisses down my neck, then my chest, and tracing the slight valley that stretched down the centre of my abdomen with the lightest touch of her tongue. I could feel the pleasure filled growl begin to grow from my chest and I quickly pushed that down.

As she moved down the bed she pulled the blanket down with her, and was now resting on her knees, straddling mine, both of us completely exposed.

Ever so slowly she started those maddening patterns she had been tracing all day long. This time on my upper thighs. I couldn't look away from her. She had totally captured my attention.

She looked up, into my eyes, biting her lip, and I could see the anticipation on her face.

She smirked as she saw just how much of a reaction she was getting out of me. She leaned forward, resting her weight on her right hand that was gripping my left hip.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"For what?" I asked, confused as to where she was going.

"For the ring." She said as her left hand moved away from my thigh and began to stroke elsewhere.

"You don't need to thank me." I gasped out, forcing myself to control the volume to a light whisper.

"No, but I want to." She answered as she bent further forward.

I couldn't help it, I let out a groan that was louder than it should have been, and I gripped the sheets either side of me, forcing myself to remain in control and not yell out in ecstasy or writhe around too much.

I couldn't help it. To look down and see Bella there, doing something this intimate, solely for my pleasure always drove me mad. And then when this was all happening and I was already struggling to stay fully in control, I looked down. And Bella was staring right back at me, and although her lips were otherwise preoccupied, I could see in her eyes she was smirking the sexiest smirk I had ever seen. She knew exactly what she was doing to me.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, please leave a review with any feedback I love to hear it all.

So a bit of a filler chapter I guess, but also not because it's setting up a few things that are going to happen later, and I'm totally going to have a bit of a time skip next chapter (we're in mid-November here) and probably going to do Florida too.

I hope you liked how I approached the subject of marriage here, I feel like in the books Bella very suddenly changed her mind from no marriage ever to yes I want to marry you, but I hope that here I am making it a little more believable and that they'll move at a more realistic pace. And also, Jasper is the one for Bella right, and when you know you know. Or that's what I've been told anyway.

Also sorry for the bit of the delay. We're sticking to once a fortnight updates I think, and even then I'm a little late. But this isn't the only thing in my life right now that's late and I'm more than a little stressed.

Well I'm going to stop dumping my thoughts on you, hope you enjoy and I look forward to hearing from you.

xx