Jasper's PoV
It was around nine in the morning and I was growing bored of waiting for Bella to wake up. I was stroking her face gently with one finger wishing I could take away the ugly bruises that were on her face and wrist. Bella had rolled over in the night allowing me to lay down fully. It didn't take long for her to roll back over and right into my arms where I was currently holding her while stroking lines down her face or stroking her hair. Eventually I finally heard her breathing change indicating that she was waking up so I quickly closed my eyes, relaxed my face and pretended to sleep. I heard the moment she opened those beautiful eyes and blinked a few times sending shock waves of sound towards my face that only a vampire could hear.
"Jasper, vampires don't sleep" she mumbled. I couldn't stop my face from breaking into a smirk.
"I thought I would give it a try" I said as I stretched, pretended to yawn and pulled her tighter into my arms.
"Good morning Bella," I said, smiling softly and gently kissing her forehead.. She let out a giggle at my joke.
"You take forever to wake up" I said, giving her a look.
"Well I only got to bed around three in the morning so whose fault is that" she said before yawning and stretching her limbs. I released her so she could move around. Unfortunately she climbed out of bed and started walking off towards the kitchen probably to find breakfast. I got out of bed also and found her in the kitchen staring at the kettle that was boiling with a glazed over look like she would fall asleep while standing. So I came up behind her, pulled the hood part of my hoodie up and over her face covering her eyes before quickly tickling her and zooming off before she could retaliate.
"Hey that's not fair" she complained while spinning around with a glare. She couldn't see me as I had jumped to the ceiling and was standing above her on one of the supporting beams. I waited for her to turn back around again before softly landing behind her and wrapping my arms around her in a quick hug giving her a fright.
"Jasper Hale, go find something to do, go make breakfast" she scolded, pushing my arms away so she could escape.
"Fine, hurry up and wake up though, I wanna go horse riding again into the forest. Oh and my actual last name is Whitlock not Hale" I said before zooming off to collect fresh eggs. I came back and started frying up some chopped bacon, adding in chopped mushrooms with tomato then adding those to the fry pan, when they were all crispy, I added in eggs, scrambled it and melted cheese on top before delivering it to Bella on a piece of rye bread who was sitting at the breakfast bar staring off into space.
"Thanks" she mumbled before digging in. I then made her a tea with some honey, passed it to her and sat next her. "How is your throat?'' I asked while fiddling with with my bracelet that had our family crest on it.
"It still hurts but rather that than my head, my head is finally clear but my nose is a bit gunky" she said before sipping at her tea.
"Well I guess take some more medicine and hopefully fresh air will help?" I asked hopefully. She just rolled her eyes and continued sipping her tea.
Suddenly I could hear someone on the property around Jacob's house, I didn't think anyone was coming back so I figured I better check it out.
"Stay here for a moment" I said, passing her the biggest kitchen knife and zooming off to run towards Jacobs house. I laid eyes on Jacob as I zoomed around his house and nearly smashed into him.
"Hey Jasper, sorry, I'm done camping. I don't want to intrude on your space. I just wanted to be nearby encase Edward and Alice come back. I was just going to hang out in my house and i'll stay out of your space. They are planning on coming back in a few days though" he said as he threw his camp stuff inside.
"No worries, next time text me, I could have killed you by accident" I said before zooming off to Bella.
"What's happening? What am I supposed to do with this?" she asked in a rush.
"Jacob's back is all, I dunno? Stab them with the pointy end?" I smirked as I resumed sitting next to her.
"You're made of stone Jasper, had it been a vampire, what good would this have been?" she asked.
"Could have been a conversation starter? I was only a few heartbeats away. You could have asked them about their opinion of pairing chives with egg" I said as I carefully took the knife from her and placed it back in the knife block.
"Really Jasper" she said exasperated. I just shrugged and found Char's bracelet on the bench to fiddle with.
"You're not very good at sitting still are you?" she asked as she dug into her food.
"Sorry, habit from my human life, but you also take forever to eat! I could have killed several things by now, drained them and disposed of them" I said, staring at her intently and leaning close to her face.
"A, a, a, are you hungry now?" she asked with her bottom lip quivering.
"Not for blood, no" I said, smirking again and leaning back.
After Bella ate, she had a quick shower while I flipped the washing into the dryer and zoomed around the property a few times and raced Jacob around to see who was faster before checking on the animals. I left a few chores for Jacob to do, mainly to keep his mind occupied and saddled up the horses. I had packed a blanket with some containers of food with a bottle of wine for Bella and was excited to get going. Bella finally came outside wearing her own clothes much to my disappointment but still wearing a hoodie that I could pull on the drawstrings if I desired. She was wearing blue jeans, black boots, a black tank top with a gray hoodie. When she reached me I tugged gently on her drawstrings causing a soft smile to appear on her face.
"So I'll let you ride Daisy and I'll just go wrangle a Rocket into submission and we will take off. I wanted to go horse riding into the forest, there's some really nice views, and a valley I think you will love. Here put these soft gloves on, they will protect your hands since they can get sore from holding leather straps for too long" I said as I passed her a pair of riding gloves. I helped her onto Daisy then found Rocket who was already saddled but had run off wanting to do the opposite of what I wanted. Once I was on Rocket and he settled, we took off towards the mountains with me in the lead and Daisy faithfully following with out much instruction from Bella. Once we were in the forest line we had to slow down to a walking pace to allow the horses to maneuver between the rocks, slippery mud and trees.
An hour later Bella finally broke the comfortable silence that we had fallen into.
"So are we lost? We've changed direction a few times" Bella asked.
"Wow Bella, no faith in your handy vampire that can run miles within mere seconds!" I said pretending to be offended.
"That's my point, you run fast, you're not used to going slow at a human pace, are we lost. Do you need to ask a bear for directions?" she asked, giving me a look.
"Bella, you hurt me! We are fine and a bear wouldn't give us directions, they would most likely maul us or try to" I said urging Rocket to pick up the pace a little.
"Well I dunno how it works, ask a squirrel? You have how many degrees, one of them ought to teach you how to speak animal" she mumbled.
"Well you of little faith, we are here, it's just over that ridge" I said, speeding Rocket up so I could watch Bella's reactions as the beauty unfold below her. It was a breathtaking sight of a valley with a waterfall rushing down from the high cliffs surrounding the area creating a calm pool at the bottom. There was forest all around but by the pool there was some clear space. Bella's mouth dropped into an O shape as her eyes fell upon the beauty when her and Daisy caught up to us. She was speechless so I urged Rocket onward while gently tugging at Daisy to follow.
I led us to the small clearing by the small lake and started setting up a picnic I had planned while Bella was in the shower. I had a blanket, a few containers of food options for Bella and a bottle of wine with some plastic cups. I wasn't going to trust Rocket with glass cups in his pouch. She just carefully dismounted and started looking around in wonder taking in all the sights. The sunlight was especially beautiful how it bounced off of droplets of water that were cascading at a great speed down the cliff side, creating rainbows. I realized my skin was probably lit up like a diamond but Bella was more interested in the natural beauty which made me happy. I wasn't a huge fan of been stared at.
"Jasper, this is beautiful!" she breathed.
"I thought you might like it, come sit and enjoy" I said as I tugged her hand gently pulling her down next to me on the blanket. I poured her a cup of red wine and passed it to her hand which she absentmindedly took and sipped at before finally paying attention as her taste buds connected to her brain.
"Ohmygosh what is this, it's beautiful" she said excitedly.
"It's a very old bottle of wine that Peter said I could use. We don't drink so I figured you might enjoy the taste more" I said smiling at her joy. She savored the taste and continued sipping away between chocolate covered blue berries and chocolate covered strawberries that I fed into her mouth since she was too busy looking at the view again.
"I know your suppose to eat dessert after the vegetables but your emotions are so fun when you are eating chocolate" I murmured as I placed another chocolate covered strawberry into her mouth.
"How about we get high then tonight and eat roasted marshmallows" she said excitedly.
"Consider it done" I said while tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.
"Well I did make a salad but I don't think your stomach wants any more food, am I correct?" I asked. Bella nodded so I packed the rest of the food up and placed it in the thermos bag that would keep it cold for a while. I then laid back to close my eyes with my head resting on my arms to enjoy the sunshine warming my stone cold skin. I could feel Bella staring at me after a few minutes before she decided to lay back also resting her head on my arm.
I tried to lay still but was itching to hold her. It felt peaceful in her presence, it felt like home. I ended up stretching my arm out and rolling onto my side which left her head on my arm and our faces inches from each other.
"Does your face hurt at all?" I asked as I carefully stroked lines down her face again with one finger.
"It does but you're very gentle so it's fine. How bad does it look today" she asked, tilting her head to the side to stare deep into my eyes as I followed the path of my finger with my own eyes.
"It looks painful but it will heal with time" I said, scrunching my eyebrows with concern. She smiled softly and closed her eyes while I continued stroking her face and wondering how I got so lucky.
A part of me was scared to jump in with both feet as this would have been the third time that I had thought I was in love. I was going to call Emmett later when Bella was sleeping tonight to run some things by him such as how he knew who his true mate was. I felt a pull towards her to protect her but I wasn't sure if I trusted the pull to love her. Although Bella was very different to what the other two were like, one wanted to use me as a sex toy that she could fix, the other forced me to murder people after a year of creating them that destroyed me emotionally. Meanwhile she rewarded me with sex and punished me by removing body pieces to let me bleed out then would put me back together just to tear my limbs apart again all while starving you of blood. After a while, your body just screams in agonizing pain at you till you feed.
Regardless, I couldn't deny that I felt at home, at peace whenever I touched her or held her. Everything in me was screaming to continue looking for ways to initiate touch while a small part of me was telling me not to trust it, no one gets a third chance at love, especially a sadistic monster that deserves to burn slowly for the crimes he had committed to his kind and the human race.
"Wanna go swimming?" I asked after a while or spiraling in my own issues.
"Um, we aren't close to home, I can't ride that far in wet underwear, I'll have a rash for a week" Bella replied.
"So don't then?" I said smirking as I sat up after gently taking my arm out from under her head. Her emotions were a swirl of embarrassment and curiosity as I started pulling off my black leather hoodie, then my gray long sleeve top before standing and pulling my pants off with my boots. I was expecting Bella to feel embarrassed but what surprised me was the tiny spark of arousal in her emotions. It threw me off guard for a second but I recovered quickly and walked to the water's edge before jumping in. I quickly searched the pond for any predators that might try to harm Bella before rising to the surface.
"Come on Bella, the water is great!" I called from the water.
"No thanks, I'm quite happy over here in my clothes" she said hitting me with another wave of embarrassment.
"Oh come on, that's so last century been wrapped up in a little thing called being naked" I said smirking at her face that was going even redder.
"Fine, turn around though and no peeking!" she called. I obeyed and stayed perfectly still till I heard her jump into the water. I turned around and saw her emerge a few meters from me.
"Okay why didn't we train Jacob how to fight here, I could have gone swimming in the warm water under the sun while you guys played in the dirt!" she said.
"You were sick, remember" I said.
"It still would have been nicer" she said.
"I'll remember that the next time I'm planning a training session, sorry madame," I said, rolling my eyes and smirking at Bella.
"Yes, there should be a list of standards, warm climate, the hotter the better, private lake. chicken tenders and endless alcohol. I wouldn't say no to a fire either to roast smores on while you are busy humping each other in the dirt" she quipped.
"Noted" I said shaking my head at her.
"So chicken tenders for dinner tonight then smores?" I asked.
Bella didn't reply, just hit me with a full dose of happiness that basically screamed yes.
