His lips couldn't have been on mine for more than a few seconds before I heard the door to my room open with a bang.

Not that those few seconds weren't more than enough to get me all kinds of hot and bothered and wanting.

Not that those few seconds didn't have me pushing myself up into him as my legs curled around his waist.

Not that those few seconds didn't have me whimpering in need.

Of course, in retrospect, I can completely understand how that whimpering could have been mistaken for a noise made out of fear or pain. Unfortunately due to my human nature I was unable to do anything to stop the series of events that followed because most of it happened before I even realized Edward was no longer lying on top of me.

Alice would later inform me that the rest of the family had been out in the woods behind the property attempting to give us some privacy while still making sure I was safe. Our conversation was being monitored and when they heard Edward's possessive declaration they came running. Apparently when Emmett heard my whimper he acted in a protective manner and attempted to pull Edward off of me.

Edward, being in an incredibly irate and possessive state, did not much care for that.

Which is how my bedroom ended up with an Emmett sized hole instead of a window.

However that wasn't enough for Edward who leaped out of the hole and landed on Emmett and started beating the shit out of him.

This all happened in approximately four seconds, at which point I became coherent enough to ask what the hell was going on.

I ran over to the hole in the wall and tried to get a better look at the situation, but all I could see was a blur of motion and occasional bits of mud being flung out from it.

"So is anyone going to do anything to stop this? Or are we just going to let them go at it?" I asked turning to Rose.

"I'm going to give them another minute or so, Edward needs to calm down, but Emmett should've known better than to grab him. They won't do any serious damage to each other. Edward is honestly more insulted by the implication he would ever hurt you than angry at Emmett for pulling him off you. And then there's the other part of him that's pissed he was cockblocked." Rose responded matter of factly.

"Ok, how do you know all this? I thought Edward was the mind reader. Or are you just making assumptions?"

She actually laughed at that, "No assumptions necessary Bella, I realize its too fast for you to be able to make out, but they're actually having a conversation while they maul each other. They heard me say I would intervene soon, and they'll wrap it up shortly."

"I'd say they're about done now anyway," Jasper commented, "The emotions I'm getting from Edward indicate that he's coming out of the rage and moving into shame territory."

The blur in the yard suddenly stopped moving and I looked down to see what appeared to be Emmett pinning Edward to the ground. Edward wasn't struggling or fighting back at all. They stayed that way for a couple of seconds before Emmett helped Edward up and they walked into the back door.

"And it looks like your man just let my man win," Rose commented, "which makes me think he's definitely ashamed of what went down."

"I wouldn't say he let me win babe," Emmett said entering the room, "He definitely gave up the fight, but I could take him any day."

"You wish," Edward said walking to stand in front of me. He was covered in mud and there were twigs in his hair. I started to reach up to pull them out, but Edward stopped me. "It's not that I don't appreciate the concern love, its just that if you start running your fingers through my hair then we're just going to end up back on the bed and you're going to get filthy."

I sighed and looked down, knowing it was for the best if we didn't end up back in that situation. Besides for the time being it seemed that Edward had lost his need to touch me, and I probably shouldn't do anything to jeopardize that. I could feel his eyes boring into me and I knew there was more that he wanted to say, but my mind was starting to process everything that had happened in the last ten minutes, and I didn't particularly want to have any sort of conversation with him. We stood there surrounded by the family in awkward silence until Alice spoke up.

"Speaking of filthy, you and Emmett should really go and shower, you're both disgusting."

Edward opened his mouth to protest, but I spoke up, "I agree, besides I kind of want to have a conversation of Rose, if that's okay, and I can't do that if you're staring at me."

I looked up and into his eyes and I could tell he didn't want to let me out of his sight, but I wasn't budging on this. I needed time to sort out everything that was happening in my head, and being near him was not going to help. At the same time being left completely alone with my thoughts was a good recipe for a one way trip back to the mental institution.

Edward's keen eyes searched mine for a moment before he nodded and said "Of course. Would you mind if I used your shower? I'd hate to drag mud everywhere."

I strongly suspected that his vampire agility would allow him to make it to his own shower without smearing an ounce of mud anywhere, a suspicion that was further bolstered by the fact that Emmett had left as soon as Alice made her suggestion without leaving any sort of trail, but I decided not to mention that fact and let him have his way on this.

"No problem, I'm just gonna go downstairs and have that chat with Rose. The stuff I have in there is all pretty girly, do you need anything that doesn't smell like flowers and fruit?"

He shook his head, "I mostly just need to rinse off."

I made a point of looking him up and down taking in his muddy form. "Whatever floats your boat." I said before turning and leaving the room the remaining family members following close behind me.

SA-SA-SA-SA-SA-SA-SA-SA-SA-SA-SA-SA

Rose and I settled in downstairs in the opposite corner of the house from where my room was located. She had asked me if I wanted the rest of the family to leave but I decided that at this point everyone really knew my business so what was the difference if they heard it from me first hand or pieced it together later. So they all stayed in the house but kept to the upper floors in an attempt to give me the illusion of privacy.

"Bella before we start talking, I just wanted to let you know that even though he's on the opposite end of the house and in the shower, Edward can still hear every word you say right now. He says that he's going to give you as much privacy as possible, but he can't exactly turn off his hearing."

"It's fine," I said, "to be perfectly honest it might be best for him to hear some of this conversation anyway."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I wanted to talk to you about some of our relationship and mating stuff and I can't always be rational when I'm around him. So it might be best if he hears me talking it through with you so I'm not influenced too heavily by his presence."

"Let's start there, what do you mean you can't always be rational around him?"

"Whenever he gets too close to me I'm at war with myself. A part of me wants to tell him every last thing he's done to me and then tell him to stay out of my life, then another part of me wants to believe everything he's saying to me, that he loves me and he wants us to be together, and then another part of me just wants to jump him and not care about the emotions and all the reasons I should stay away."

Rose nodded, "That's all perfectly justified Bella, and I know you're feeling this all to an extreme, but I have to say I'm not sure how unusual any of that is."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I feel like that with Emmett all the time, not to the point I want to tell him to get away from me forever, but I get mad and need space sometimes. We all do. And we all have romantic moments, and moments when we need to be reassured about our relationships." She smirked, "And we all definitely have moments when we're feeling particularly… amorous."

"Yeah, but with the exception of the whole Carlisle and Esme thing, which was a vastly different situation none of you have ever been abandoned by your mates before either, because none of you would ever do that to your mate."

Rose looked thoughtful for a moment, "So at this point are you admitting that you are his mate?"

I considered that idea for a moment. As much as I may want to deny it, there was clearly a bond there, a bond that had screwed with my brain chemistry and made me swoon like a character in a romance novel whenever Edward touched me, even if all I wanted to do at the time was beat the crap out of him as impossible as that may be. But was that bond a mating bond? It certainly wasn't a normal human to human bond, I knew deep in my soul that there would never be another for me as long as I lived, and I knew that I wasn't being melodramatic. The thought of another man touching me was absolutely abhorrent.

I nodded, aware of the fact that making any sort of verbal claim could lead to a repeat of last night and this morning.

"Okay, that's good, at least you have an understanding of your situation. You have to know where you stand in order to make the decisions that have to come next."

"What decisions?"

"Well, you admit that you're his mate, but the question I have for you is, do you want to be?"