If you're in the mood for Thanksgiving fluff, lemons and some good ol' Edward-Jacob rivalry in which Edward, as always, wins, you've come to the right place!
While this is an outtake for "After Nightfall", you don't need to know the plot of that to enjoy this. There are just two major things to keep in mind:
- This small story place takes in some alternate universe in which Edward never left Bella and Jacob and Bella never got to become close friends;
- Edward and Bella are engaged and very into "practicing" for their first night together (you know what I mean).
This outtake's summary:
Edward and Jacob have never been exactly best buddies. But when circumstances force them to spend Thanksgiving under the same roof, they have to find a way to coexist - or not.
Some would think that finding a new hobby after a century-old existence is a dead-end task. Until recently, I might have had the same belief. I had always known what my passions were: music, literature, languages, science, running. I was content with them, knowing that they were enough to keep me fulfilled to a decent extent. I knew that as long as I had those, boredom would not be a problem for me.
But I had recently found a completely different, more exciting and crushingly intense hobby: offering Bella as many orgasms as humanly possible - without a break, if possible, because this only seemed to deepen her pleasure and make her come harder. She was fascinating to watch, in ways that no book or movie or song could have conveyed.
Whenever she hit these extreme heights, she started to pant and moan and shake and I had to silence her with kisses, to keep some semblance of silence for her father's sake. She trembled and arched her back and curled her toes and pulled my hair in the process, forgetting the world around her and falling to a place in which only she and I existed.
Her face changed in unexpected ways, the blush of her cheeks competing for attention with the way she bit down her lower lip. That perfect blush extended to her chest and culminated in her rouge nipples - those nipples that were always hard for me, always all too ready to be cherished and adored.
And God, the way she smelled during these moments…
She had always been mouth-watering, albeit for very different reasons. Her blood was what I had craved from day one, after all; getting to the wet, pulsing miracle liquid and drowning myself with it had been a fantasy of mine for way too long. But that smell was now all the more alluring, given the fact that the scent of her ever present arousal was there to change the game completely and send my senses spinning in a million different directions, all at once.
It had become the sweetest torture in the world to be with her at night: with one hand caressing her body, the other hand rubbing against the wet fabric of her underwear, right where her clitoris was quivering, and my mouth planting ravenous kisses on her throat, it felt like playing with fate at times. My throat was burning, begging me to bite, while my erection was throbbing to penetrate. The two sensations had managed to be so interconnected, that it became tough at times to even tell the difference between what I was feeling. Was I thirsty? Was I aroused? Most of the time, it was both.
However, we did not go further. I needed my own orgasm just as much, but the thought of her hand stroking me to my release filled me both with an unquenchable desire and an unspoken dread that I might lose control and hurt her, despite my best intentions. Back home, it was tough to find a moment alone to satisfy my needs - as silent as I was trying to be, someone would always need something from me just as I was allowing myself to fall prey to my fantasies.
I kept trying to gather the courage I desperately needed to just let things be, but it was harder than I imagined. It appeared the more intense our practice sessions got, the tougher it became for me to allow her to do what we both desperately needed. It was ridiculous, really - the very purpose of these training sessions was to get accustomed to these foreign pleasures, so that I could handle the supreme bliss that making love to my wife would bring without ruining everything in the process.
We had to stop for a few days when Emmett's annual pre-hibernation bear hunting tradition came along. It was something we had always done, even before Jasper joined our family. Over the years, it had become a brother-thing. Emmett liked his bears irritable: and hunting them down right as they were getting ready to hibernate made them understandably annoyed.
As much as I tried to find an excuse to ditch this year's hunting trip, Emmett wouldn't have it.
"Jasper never ditched me like this. I'm sure Bella will be just as ready to get a good dose of vitamin D when you return, but those bears won't remain awake for much longer. So 'no' is out of the question."
In a bid to compensate for my missing act, I tried to offer Bella as many orgasms as she could take the night before setting off. I was getting tired of always being so careful and not trespassing the barrier of her underwear, but that had to be a worry for another day.
Tuesday morning, way before the normal waking hours, my brothers and I left Forks. We had a clear itinerary: Washington, Idaho, Montana and back. Emmett was having a blast, knowing what awaited ahead. Meanwhile, Jasper was doing his best to soothe my anxiety - and it worked.
His efforts were doubled by the fact that we would return just in time for Thanksgiving. Usually, my family and I would gather together on this day and just enjoy our time together, playing board games and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This year, however, I would not be present for these festivities, for I had been officially invited to spend the holiday with Bella, her dad, Billy Black and his son.
The idea troubled me, for some reason. The last thing I wanted to do was to spend any kind of holiday with Jacob Black. If it weren't for his thoughts regarding my bride to be, he would have been a whole lot easier to be around. But I had to remind myself that he hadn't seen Bella in months and that he was, in fact, sixteen years old. At that age, passions could come and go without warning. Maybe he had already found a girl his age to crush on.
For the entire duration of our trip, my emotions had become one big puppet for Jasper to handle. He tried to get some of Emmett's good spirits and inflict them on me, while simultaneously trying to get me to keep my cool. I knew it wasn't easy for him, but at least it made me less irritable than the bears we were hunting.
Emmett had been more than pleased with how things turned out. He fought with the bears to his heart's desire, draining them clean and smiling proudly after each round. I myself made sure to drink as much blood as possible - after all, at some point I was not going to be under Jasper's influence anymore and have to contend with all the different hungers I was feeling for my future bride.
We returned Thursday at noon, in the middle of another snow storm in Forks. Jasper let his defenses over my emotions slip once we arrived home, allowing me to properly feel for the first time in two days. Everything came back to me at once: the unknown events of that day, the uncontrollable desire, the anxiety.
Esme had not forgotten about my plans for that day. She had already baked a copious batch of pumpkin pies, that had filled the house with the warm smell of burned sugar and spices. She seemed to be over-the-moon happy with this little activity, her mind summoning a series of thoughts that expressed more or less the very same idea: "Thank God for this angel of a girl for giving me an excuse to bake!"
Esme was not the only one who had not forgotten about this particular day. As soon as I set foot in the house, Alice was already dragging me upstairs, to the closet, where she had prepared and ironed an entire outfit for me: a white shirt, a tan cashmere sweater and blue jeans. She was fidgeting as she was explaining to me how to keep the clothes in perfect condition - so much so, in fact, that I had to stop her to ask if she was okay, since her mind wasn't giving too much away.
"I'm fine, it's just… something stressed me out while you were gone," she said.
"What could possibly stress you out?"
"Something happened to my visions. I'm not sure how or why, but it's like each time I try to get a glimpse into what your day will look like today at Bella's house, I just can't."
"I'm not sure I understand."
"Ugh, it's all white! Instead of seeing glimpses of the future, however small, I only see these white flashes. It's so idiotic!"
"This has never happened before."
"Yeah, tell me about it!"
She sighed dramatically and turned to take out a few belts from the closet, studying each one of them up close.
"What does Carlisle think?"
"He's just as clueless, to be honest. Besides, it only applies when I'm trying to focus on your day at Bella's. I can see the rest perfectly fine."
As she was saying this, an unwanted thought started to make its way inside my brain. Maybe, just maybe, the only reason Alice could not see further into the future was because something terrible would happen - this could roughly be translated into me hurting Bella. But how? I had done nothing but hunted the past few days. I felt perfectly in control of my usual thirst - now the newer, fiercer thirst, was another issue completely, of course.
"Alice… maybe it's me. Maybe I'll hurt… no, I can't even think about it."
"Oh, please! I would have seen that, you know it. Besides, I can perfectly glance into the events of tomorrow when it comes to you and Bella. And you both seem fine. It's like today is broken or something."
She shrugged, but the frown between her brows did not disappear.
"Take this," Alice said, handing me one of the five belts she had been studying. "It matches your eyes today."
"It won't even be visible under the sweater."
"Not during the day, it won't."
"You don't mean…"
"You know exactly what I mean, now shut up."
I went to take the hottest shower in existence - not that it mattered, since it would take at least six hours before Bella and I would be alone and unclothed in her bedroom again. I had to keep a clear head until then. No room for distractions - distractions such as Jacob Black. If only I could pack Jasper up and keep him in my pocket, like my own personalized Jiminy Cricket.
This was ridiculous. I could not let Billy's kid ruin this day.
Esme wrapped all the pies she had baked in foil, then went the extra mile and wrapped them in colourful wrapping paper as well. She insisted on getting them to my car herself and I let her have her way. I realized with a pang of regret this might be one of Esme's last chances to bake something for someone she loved.
"Now," my mother said, after she arranged the pies in an unbreakable formation. "You drive slow, because I don't want my pies getting ruined, you understand?"
"Of course."
"And please, be your usual courteous self, even if you might not be a fan of the guests."
"They are not fans of me," I protested.
"Semantics, honey. You know very well what I meant by that."
I nodded, a little unsure whether I could keep that promise or not - I guess that depended on how the events of that day would transpire.
"I don't want Bella's father to think you've been raised by wolves. Promise me you'll behave."
"I promise I'll try," I said, knowing that this was the best I could offer her.
She hugged me tightly and let me go, but not before telling me how much she was going to miss me that particular day. I assured her I would miss her too - after all, this was the first Thanksgiving away from my family.
I drove slowly to the Swan residence, the howling storm making this task easier. I had not called Bella to let her know that I was back, but she knew I would be coming around this hour. The bigger part of me wondered how she had been coping these past few days. Truth be told, she did appear to be almost as drunk on this new hobby of mine as I was right before I left. While I had been having Jasper keeping my emotions in check, she did not have that luxury.
Maybe she had been having those wet dreams she had told me about again. Or maybe… she tried pleasing herself. The image of Bella slipping her delicate fingers under the fabric of her underwear, where the most exquisite place awaited, made my erection throb painfully in my jeans. I wanted full access to that place so much, if only I could trust myself enough to do it without losing myself.
The low rumble of voices and thoughts pulled me from my reckless fantasies. I was close enough to hear Billy and Charlie having small talk over the football game, but also the lovely sound of my Bella laughing. What had amused her?
"God, she's beautiful when she's laughing," this was a mental voice I had heard enough times to recognize it: Jacob.
My hands clenched tightly on the steering wheel and I pushed hard on the accelerator. He was, of course, allowed to think that. After all, Bella was beautiful when she was laughing. And when she wasn't. And just about any other moment. Still, rage boiled through my veins as his thoughts started focusing more and more on the shape of her lips.
My lips, I thought hungrily.
I was in front of Bella's house in no time. Right as I was parking the car, a revolting smell hit me. It was tough to pinpoint exactly what it was, especially since few - if any - scents could provoke such a strong negative reaction within me. It smelled like fur drenched in water and slowly turning moldy. But that could not be it, since there were no animals within hearing distance.
Stepping outside the car and grabbing the pies Esme had made, I rushed to the door and knocked three times. It felt unusual to do so - I was so used to entering the house through Bella's window, that it almost felt unnatural to knock.
"Oh, good, the bloodsucking leech is here."
I froze in place when I realized that this particular thought did not come from Billy. It belonged to his son. However, that made no sense. The kid had made it clear to his father on countless occasions that he did not believe the legends about the cold ones. He was part of the new generation, the one that did not take the old stories too seriously. The last time I had been around him, he still found the stories foolish to the point of being embarrassed by his father being so adamant in his belief of them.
What had changed?
I heard Bella stumbling her way to the door as I was trying to process the strange new path of Jacob's thoughts. Her heart was beating louder than all the other hearts in the house and I found myself momentarily forgetting everything else. I inhaled the frozen air of the blizzard deeply, preparing my lungs for the burning her scent would bring. She opened the door and nothing else mattered when I saw her.
She was wearing a blouse I had never seen before: white, form-fitting, with a small lace detail over her chest. The blouse was tucked inside a skirt - her only skirt, I realized, the one she had worn back in spring, when she had met my family - that revealed her cream-coloured calves.
All of a sudden, it became incredibly difficult to not throw the pies away in the snow, undress her and make love to her right there, in the doorway.
"I've been waiting for you," she skipped past 'hello' and threw her arms around me, pressing her body against mine in the process.
I made sure to enter the house as I hugged her back with one arm, because I didn't want her to catch a cold from standing in the bone-chilling storm one second too long. Closing the door behind me, I pulled her closer to me and lifted her up from the ground, so that I could reach her easier.
"And I've missed you like crazy," I said, delighted to see her cheeks getting rosier every second. "You're ravishingly beautiful, by the way."
She smiled and reached out to kiss me, her lips parting as soon as they met mine. My body betrayed me in a second, reminding me just how much being away from her had affected me: my lips parted as well, allowing my tongue to escape and invade her mouth, while the arm holding her up pressed her closer to my body - close enough for her to feel how hard I was.
It felt liberating to no longer hide this part of myself from her. It felt right. I realized how silly I had been for ever believing it would scare her. In fact, it had quite the opposite effect on her: it got her wet, as the scent of her arousal in the air alerted me.
"I've missed you too," she whispered when I started sucking on her lower lip. "So, so much…"
Hearing a new set of footsteps approaching us should have alerted me to stop - but when I realized whose footsteps those were, I decided stopping was the last thing I wanted to do. Instead, I lowered my mouth to Bella's neck and started licking the fast-throbbing veins underneath. I could almost taste their contents - that thin and fragile they were.
"This can't be happening, he's not seriously feeding from her, he can't do that… no, he's just kissing her… but why the hell does she look like she's enjoying it?"
I ignored Jacob's thoughts, happy that Bella had not noticed him. It was not as easy to ignore the fact that the repulsive smell seemed to be even stronger now, inside the house.
"Mmmmm, I can feel that, my love," I murmured, grazing the delicate skin carefully, trying to inhale her sweet scent deeper.
"Hey," Jacob said, unashamed of his rude interruption.
Bella winced ever so slightly when she realized we were being watched. I let her down gently, still keeping one arm around her body, as my eyes darted in the direction of the intruder.
He looked like Jacob, but definitely not like the young scrawny kid I knew. His long locks were no longer there, replaced by a short haircut. He was taller too; I could guess somewhere around six feet and two inches - almost as tall as I was. And the scrawniness had been replaced by bulky muscles that were well defined and perfectly visible under his clothing.
His gaze was spewing fire and I felt myself amused by this.
"Hello, Jacob," I offered politely, as I had promised Esme. "Haven't seen you in ages."
"Dumb bloodsucker."
"Edward," he said with his jaw clenched.
What was this boy's problem?
I could feel Bella's eyes burning a hole through my skull - as polite as I was, I knew she could feel the tension tightening every muscle in my body. I could not understand, for the life of me, what was wrong with Jacob. Of course, he had never been my biggest fan, for he had been crushing on Bella ever since she tried to seduce the truth about my family out of him. But his mind had always been this happy-go-lucky place, despite his disapproval of me.
There was no trace of that now, as he was throwing daggers in my direction. Something had changed. For the worse.
"I can keep it under control. I won't shift. No, that would cause too big of a scene."
Shifting? What was he on about?
It could not possibly be…
No, the shapeshifting gene of the Quileutes was no longer active. It had not been active for decades.
There were no wolves in La Push, that much I knew. Still, the revolting smell, the sudden shift in thinking - those things could not be ignored. Then Alice's blurred visions…
The pieces of the puzzle started arranging themselves in my mind, slowly gluing themselves together to form one clear thought: somehow, someway, Jacob was a werewolf.
"Congratulations on the engagement," he managed, despite his mind spewing thoughts of pure hatred in my direction.
I made a real effort to keep my composure. The only thing that helped me in that regard was Bella's small body still pressing against mine.
"Thank you," I replied. "We'll be sending you an invitation."
"No need to. I won't make it."
"That's all right, it is more of a close friends and family event anyway."
The sting of my remark did not escape his notice. In fact, it enraged him - but this was no ordinary rage. While I could not feel it, I could make out what it was doing to his mind. It was so intense, that all of his thoughts disappeared at once. They had been replaced by images: violent, abrupt glimpses of a brown wolf tearing me apart piece by piece.
I pushed Bella behind me in an instant.
"Edward, what's going on?" she demanded.
"He wouldn't seriously think I would hurt her… I'll show him."
He took a few steps in our direction, but stopped right as Charlie came to welcome me.
"I thought I heard voices," he said, unusually cheerful. "Come here, happy Thanksgiving, Edward!"
I half-heartedly distanced myself from Bella, to shake hands with her father. He immediately noticed the pile of pies in my other hand.
"Wow, you surely came prepared!" he said. "Those smell delicious."
"Yes, Sir. My mother has her own special recipe."
"Well, send her my blessings! I have been eating store-bought pumpkin pies for far too long."
I smiled, thankful for the distraction. Bella helped me out of my jacket and I felt an unexpected pang of delight at the sight of her taking my jacket off and placing it carefully on the hanger.
"My daughter made some killer turkey. And the best green bean casserole I've ever had in my life."
"I'm sure it's delicious - she's a talent in the kitchen."
I flashed her a quick smile and she blushed adorably. It was no secret to me that she was a great cook - if only I could taste that food myself and actually appreciate it the way I would have if I were human.
"Well, no excuses this time," Charlie said. "You can't say 'no' to some classic turkey."
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat.
"Of course not, Sir," I managed, under Bella's amused eyes.
I had almost forgotten about Jacob standing somewhere in the background, watching everything - of course, his smell made it impossible to make him completely forgettable. While his anger was still there, bubbling underneath the surface, he had at least managed to compose himself enough to appear normal in Charlie's eyes.
"Bella was just getting some sweet potatoes ready," Charlie said.
"Yes, I was helping her with those," Jacob replied.
His mind flashed a quick memory of his hand reaching for the peeling tool and touching Bella's hand in the process. Then, painfully, another one - this time of him grabbing Bella's waist to help her reach for the sugar jar on the top shelf and her protesting.
Suddenly, I was no longer eager to respect Esme's wishes anymore. My free hand clenched into a fist and I fantasized about ramming it right into Jacob's jaw.
"What do you say, Edward?" Bella's father asked. "Football game or kitchen?"
I forced myself to smile when I answered:
"If you don't mind, Chief, I had missed your daughter terribly while I was away. I would love nothing more than to catch up with her - and with Jacob, of course."
"Does Charlie seriously believe a word of this?"
"Young love, I guess," Charlie mumbled, his thoughts suddenly giving way to embarrassment. "You know where you can find us."
He disappeared, but I could tell that a part of him was relieved after hearing my refusal. Billy's thoughts from the living room weren't much friendlier than his son's, but they were far less violent.
"That was odd," Bella sighed, having my attention immediately.
I pressed my palm against her cheek, completely in love with the way her blood coloured her skin with the most exquisite shade of pink.
"Come on, sweetheart, let's see about those sweet potatoes," I said, leaning down to kiss her forehead.
The sudden contact between my lips and her skin made her heartbeat fasten. It seemed that our recent nighttime activities had made her more sensitive than usual to my kisses and touches; the two days spent apart only added to that. I found myself enjoying this additional sensitivity more than I should have.
With one arm around her waist, we traversed the hall to get to the kitchen. I saluted Billy in passing and he responded reluctantly to my 'hello'. His mind was now focused on hoping that his son would keep his cool. Jacob followed us into the kitchen, his disgusting stench following close by. He was boiling on the inside, his eyes obsessively stuck on the physical closeness between me and Bella.
"He's holding her as if she's his property. I bet his pale ass is feeling threatened right now. I'll show him."
I smiled at the silly audacity of Jacob's thoughts. I did not feel threatened in the least. Annoyed? Sure. I would have much preferred this day to go the way Bella and I had originally planned: dinner for her at my house, then a one-night getaway to Seattle, just the two of us, under the guise of a sleepover with Alice. The thoughts of what I could have done to her if we were alone in a hotel room, where no one was listening…
A part of me started to understand that maybe it was for the best that we didn't have to spend a night alone in a hotel room. As tempting as it was, I wasn't so sure I could stop myself from going all the way with her. Knowing that her father wouldn't be but a few rooms away, capable of hearing us at any given moment, would loosen my control even further. I wouldn't think twice about succumbing to her wishes when she would whisper 'please', knowing perfectly well what she was begging for.
"So I was getting ready to cut these sweet potatoes," Bella said, unaware of the delicious trainwreck in my head.
"I'll gladly help you," I said, just as I was placing the pumpkin pies on the counter near the sink.
"Actually, I had already started cutting up some," Jacob intervened.
"So you can stick your helpful services where the sun doesn't shine, for all I care."
"That's perfect, you two can do this together while I get the seasoning mix in place," Bella chirped.
Cutting up potatoes with Jacob Black, the boy who had recently turned into a werewolf and who now held an unspoken grudge towards me and everything I represented - the perfect way to spend my afternoon.
Bella offered me a bowl of peeled sweet potatoes, while Jacob grabbed two cutting boards from the dish holder and sat down at the table. I watched Bella move with ease through the kitchen, a little distracted by the way her hips swayed underneath her skirt - and it seemed that I was not the only one perusing that sight.
"So Jacob," I began, trying to stop his ogling in a way that didn't involve stabbing him with a potato peeler, as I made myself comfortable on the chair next to him. "I haven't seen you in forever. What have you been doing?"
He didn't bother to look at me, choosing instead to focus on his potatoes. At least he was no longer thinking about what Bella's ass looked like underneath her skirt, so that was a progress of some sort. However, being that close to him was unnerving - his scent was sickening in ways I could not comprehend. The good part was that I was most definitely not alone in my suffering, for Jacob found my smell equally revolting.
"Not much. I've been hanging at the reservation mostly."
"He can't be completely clueless. He must know something."
Jacob was only half-right. I was not completely clueless, now that his mind had revealed the most unexpected truth about this nature. At the same time, my own mind was still recovering from finding this out. Just ten minutes ago, I was convinced the shapeshifter gene had died generations ago.
"And how's your sophomore year going?"
Esme would have been so very proud of how calm my voice was. Maybe I could get through this Thanksgiving without giving Jacob a fractured mandible, after all.
"I wouldn't know what to tell you, I've been skipping classes a lot lately."
"Thanks to this damned curse your kind bestowed on me. Thank you very much - not."
"Oh," I offered, faking a mix of surprise and concern.
"He's repairing bikes now," Bella explained, from the other side of the kitchen. "He's doing pretty good actually."
She was now focused on mixing what smelled like paprika and garlic powder in a small bowl filled with coconut oil. I, on the other hand, was more preoccupied with observing the magnificent curve of her waist.
"That's more of a hobby," he frowned.
"That gets you good money, so it's more than I can say about my hobbies," she said.
Always supporting - I could not help but love that about her, even when her support was directed towards what was supposed to be my enemy now.
"I guess you're right, Bells," he smiled, suddenly a brave smugness settling on his face.
Bells. He had his own nickname for my Bella? My mission of being a gentleman was growing harder and harder to accomplish. His face looked like it could use the help of my fists.
No, I admonished myself. I was not an animal. I was better than my instincts - even when they called me so desperately to listen to them. Instead of making a mistake, I cut the potato pieces on my cutting board in even smaller pieces, imagining somehow that it was Jacob on the board instead of the harmless vegetable.
"And do you have a job or anything?" he asked, his mind giving away immediately where he was going with this.
"No," I replied calmly.
"Ouch, so still living off your parents' money, I guess."
That was a low blow, even for a sixteen-year-old. Part of me wondered how the sweet and wholesome kid that Jacob once was could disappear like that - did this transformation affect his emotions to such an intolerable extent, that he had become almost a new person?
"For the moment, yes," I offered. "I consider my education to be a priority, since I'd like to go to a good college."
"His priority is being a disgusting leech. The nerve he has, I swear…"
"Oh, so you're that type," Jacob snickered.
"What do you mean?" I asked, even if I already knew the answer to that.
"You know, the Ivy League fanboy."
"Jake, you're being rude!" Bella's voice called out to us from where she was standing.
As a response, he lifted his arms in the air, in a defenseless motion.
"That's all right, my love, I suppose your friend was only joking. Right?"
I wondered if Bella had heard the sharp threat in my voice as clearly as Jacob had. His eyes flew from his potatoes to me in an instant, squinting. I held his gaze for seconds on end, my hand now clenching the knife with almost enough force to break it in half. It would have been fairly easy to teach him a lesson in good manners right now: a knife in his arm would not truly hurt him, now that he was no longer human, after all. He would heal in seconds.
No. Bella did not have to be a witness to what my rage could do. And I was better than that - at least my mother thought so.
"Right," Jacob breathed between his teeth, before breaking eye contact.
"If Bella was not in the room with us, I would rip his head off on my own, I swear. Who does he think he is? Out of all the girls he could have manipulated into being in a relationship with his bloodsucking ass, why Bella?"
My hands were moving more eagerly with the knife as I was cutting the potatoes. Bella's eyes darted in my direction, full of questions. I simply shrugged, since there was no good way of telling her that her friend had transformed into a werewolf since the last time she had seen him, nor that this friend was completely convinced that she had somehow been manipulated into loving me.
If only he knew how hard I had tried to keep Bella away from me, only for all my plans to come crumbling to the ground despite my good intentions.
"So anyway, how is that wedding preparation going?" Jacob asked.
"Like I don't know what the actual reason behind that wedding is. God, I don't know how Bella could be talked into accepting his disgusting ways."
The fact that he honestly thought that Bella did not have a major say in this annoyed me even more than his occasional ogling. This was Bella's choice as much as it was mine. His childish crush did not change that.
"It's going great," she responded. "His sister, Alice, is handling the heavy work though."
"A female leech, fantastic."
Jacob did not reply to that, even if he had been the one to bring the subject into the conversation.
"But Edward won't tell me where we'll be going for our honeymoon, so there's that," Bella said, throwing me a reproachful look.
"I want it to be a surprise," I offered innocently.
The news of our honeymoon took Jacob by surprise. I saw his left hand tightening into a fist when he spoke:
"A honeymoon, huh? During the school year?"
"Actually during the winter break," she corrected him.
"We'll just go some place where we'll be completely alone, that's as much as I can tell without giving anything away," I said, adding fuel to the fire in Jacob's brain. Let him dream about that.
"What kind of sick joke is that? He'll kill her in seconds if they're alone, I have no doubt. She can't seriously think this will be some romantic vacation."
And just as his mind was going into overdrive with possibilities, Bella excused herself for a moment to go to the bathroom. And then, there were two.
I had no idea what to expect from being alone with Jacob in the kitchen. So many raging emotions seemed to overwhelm him at once, that a small part of me believed he would not shy away from transforming into a werewolf then and there, just to prove a point. But even full of mood swings as he was, Jacob was not a dumb kid - that he had never been. So I wasn't truly surprised when he calmly turned around to face me fully and started talking:
"Are you completely out of your mind? You're going to kill her."
If complete bluntness was what he wanted, then it was complete bluntness that he was going to receive.
"That is one thing I would never do to her," I responded. "But frankly, Jacob, this is none of your business."
"She's my friend, it is my damn business."
I smiled, pleased that he had gone exactly where I hoped he would go.
"And do you fantasize about all your friends like that or is it just Bella?"
"Fantasize? What do you even… I don't-"
"What the hell? It's not like he can read minds. And I can't be that obvious. I know I'm not, actually."
"Look," he hissed, unwilling to entertain the possibilities in his head for longer. "I don't know what love potion you've been feeding her to get her so enamored with you, but you are not good for her. And she will see that sooner or later."
"Oh, I didn't have to feed her anything. You see, love is not something that anyone can force."
"I think you'd be the notable exception."
"You are not in the position to make such statements," I explained calmly. "But I, on the other hand, am in the position to tell you this: Bella is mine. And she will always be. The sooner you get used to this idea, the better for your ego."
"You don get to say this sh-"
He stopped mid-sentence when Bella returned. She looked at us with a frown between her brows, seemingly sensing the tension, but not quite understanding the reason behind it. When neither me, nor Jacob said anything, she shrugged and got back to talking and cooking, still throwing worried glances in my direction every now and then.
Time moved painfully slow. It took another two hours for all the batches of sweet potatoes to be ready. During those hours, the conversation with Jacob moved at an awful pace, drizzled with pangs and jesty remarks on both ends. This made it harder to concentrate all of my attention on Bella, but not entirely impossible.
My hungers for her were still battling inside me - but it looked like today the hunger for her body was winning by a landslide. Part of this victory was due to the extensive hunting trip across the states. The rest was all Bella, with her perfect little figure hinting from underneath her clothes, reminding me how much I yearned to play her body like an instrument again - and how I craved to find my own release as well. I was not so sure I would find that liberation tonight; not because Bella would not be willing to offer it to me as soon as we were alone, but mostly because I didn't know if I could take it without making some fatal mistake. But then again, I was well-fed…
Jacob's thoughts kept screaming at me: the more time we spent together in the same room, the more convinced he became that Bella must be, on some level, disgusted with me. This little fantasy made him feel a little better about himself, as if he still had the smallest shot to be with my future wife. This, of course, made me obscenely territorial in return: I would find every little excuse to have my hands on Bella, I would press my lips on the side of her throat whenever he thought that I thought he wasn't looking, I would shower her with my love, despite having a one-man-audience.
I had to take a step back when we finally got to the dinner table, for her father's sake. By the time we sat down on our chairs, Jacob's frown was so deep that his father was ready to ask me directly what I had done to his son. Charlie, on the other hand, seemed to be oblivious to the tension in the air. He urged me to try a little bit of everything that was on the table, not once stopping his praise of Bella's cooking skills. And despite my nature, despite the way the food bore no interest to me, despite the fact that I would have to throw it all up later, I ate - much to Bella's surprise and Charlie's delight.
When we were all done eating, the two fathers at the table started reminiscing about the olden days, when they were younger and their children were still frolicsome kids. Charlie remembered one particular day, when a middle-school-aged Bella had come to Forks during the summer vacation and begged him to take her on a fishing trip. From their combined thoughts about that memory, I got the rest of the story pretty quickly: Billy had taken his son on the boat as well, and they all met in La Push. With Bella being Bella, she fell into the water not long after trying to catch her first fish.
"I swear I've still got that photo of Bella, the one we took when we got her back on board," Charlie said.
"I'd love to see that," Jacob grinned.
"Me too," I admitted.
"She was such a carefree kid, then… who would have thought she would meet such a fate?" Billy's thoughts shadowed over the playful conversation.
Bella sighed and rolled her eyes.
"You don't have that photo, dad, I do. It's in one of my albums."
"Well, bring it here, Bells!"
"So you can all laugh about it? No, thanks."
"It's all in good spirits, kiddo!"
Seeing that she was so agitated, I slowly let my hand slide underneath the table, on her knee. Bella's immediate reaction was to straighten her back, and I could not help but notice the way her delicate cleavage silently demanded more attention when she had this particular posture.
"If I promise I won't laugh, love, will you bring that photo?" I asked her.
Her eyes looked disconcerted when she lifted them from her plate to look at me.
"Edward…"
Carefully, I let my hand slide further up, underneath the hem of her skirt and right on her searingly hot skin.
"Please," was all I said.
She blushed and looked away immediately, but the sound of her heart was still booming loudly in my ears. The sound of arousal.
"I don't know where that album is anyway," she mumbled.
"Well, since I helped you organize your stuff the other week, I think I could help you find it," I suggested.
I moved one finger on the inside of her leg, adjusting my erection slightly with the other hand.
"I guess so…"
"We'll be right back," I smiled, before sitting up and heading away from the table, with Bella following my stride and Jacob's irritation shouting at me from the deepest pits of his mind.
Once we were out of sight, I lifted her in my arms and started climbing the stairs to her bedroom, making no effort to keep a human speed. Two seconds later, I was letting her feet back on the floor of her room while I turned on the lights.
"What were you trying to do down there?" she asked, completely scandalized. "Give me a heart attack?"
"Never, my love."
I flashed her a quick smile before surrounding her with my arms, pressing her back against the wall near the door.
"The truth is, Bella, I don't care about that photo that much. I just needed an excuse to be alone with you for a few minutes."
"But we've got all night and I-"
It was not very polite to interrupt a lady when she was speaking, but my body made the decision before my brain: I stopped her words with a kiss, pressing her onto the wall as I did that. She soon forgot whatever she had wanted to say, throwing her arms around me and pulling me closer to her, her hands tugging at my sweater in the process.
Everything that Jasper had tried to keep away during our hunting trip came back doubled: the excitement, the fire, the primal need to possess. I had to remind myself to be gentle with her, knowing that my exhilaration could cost us both greatly.
"God, Edward, you're so hard," she whispered underneath my lips, making me realize that I had been grinding my erection against her abdomen for the entire duration of our kiss.
"That's what you do to me."
I made an effort to part from her lips, descending now to her neck, closer to the most sublime scent on the planet. It was almost impossible to keep my urges under control in these circumstances.
"I expect you to be soaking wet for me," I blurted out, unable to put a leash on my words.
"Why don't you see for yourself?"
There was no doubt about it: I was the luckiest man on Earth, to be invited into Heaven just like that - and that was an invitation I could not refuse. My desire for her blazed deeply and I knew I had to move quickly if I wanted to not be bothered by anyone from downstairs. I interrupted the kisses on her neck and leaned down to grab the hem of her skirt. I started rolling it up her thighs, until I got to her hips. She was heaving, watching my every move between heavy eyelids.
Keeping her skirt up with one hand, I moved my free hand on her thigh, until I arrived at the heat between her legs. Never one to disappoint, Bella's underwear was drenched. I felt my member hardening even more in the prison of my jeans.
"Mmmmm, you are so ready for me, my love," I murmured appreciatively.
"I've missed your touch so much…"
"I can tell."
In that moment, I wanted nothing more but to discover what she felt like beneath the cotton layer that separated us from each other. I felt my jaw clenching at the thought, in an instinctive motion - however, no venom rushed into my mouth to remind me why that wasn't a safe idea. Maybe I had to be more thankful to Emmett, for insisting that I go on that hunting trip with him and Jasper.
As I was rubbing her gently, I allowed my hand to find the rim of her underwear and tug at it lightly. It snapped back immediately, too slippery from the juices that had been soaking it.
"Tell me you want me here," I groaned, tugging at the rim once again.
"Yes! Please, Edward, I want you."
My hand worked its way up to the waistband of her underwear, pulling it down and sliding underneath it. The new sensation that followed made us gasp in unison - her flesh was satin-like here, more delicate than anywhere else on her body. Then just one inch lower, the satin was drenched in her arousal, slippery and hot like wildfire. Everything was wet here: her clitoris, the thin hood covering it, the small folds announcing the entrance to her body.
"I seriously cannot believe how good you feel," I told her through my haze.
I felt a new wave of sap coming to meet my fingers just as I started moving them in this divine place. It was even easier now that I didn't have to do this blindly through her underwear. I could feel how her pulse reverberated like an echo to her clitoris, making it throb like crazy. I began to flick it with my thumb, back and forth, slow and steady, and Bella hid her face in my shoulder to cover her moans.
"That's right, love," I encouraged her. "Let me feel you come..."
A few seconds later, my rubbing brought us where we wanted, to the most delicious rapture known to us: her climax. Her juices dripped on my palm when she exploded, and I very nearly rammed my fingers inside her - but I stopped just in time. Instead, I kept moving my hand lightly along her slit, caressing it as the last remains of Bella's orgasm left her body.
Through the hypnotic trance I was lost in, I heard footsteps. But I couldn't make myself move, it felt way too good to just let my hand roam freely between Bella's thighs.
"It shouldn't take so damn long to find a photo," Jacob's loudness hit me.
"Edward, I need more…" my love begged with a soft voice.
The footsteps grew closer, but not loud enough for her to hear in the state she was in. He stopped just two feet away from the door, confused when he heard Bella's pleading voice, realizing that he had never heard her use that tone with him.
God, I had to stop. But I didn't want to. Just the thought pained me.
"Please?" she tried again, moving her hips eagerly, so that she could press herself against my fingers.
"What the hell? Is he… he can't be doing this, not with Charlie downstairs. She can't possibly want this. He's a bloodsucking demon."
I growled, fed up beyond belief with his certitude that I was forcing things on Bella.
"Tell me what you want," I demanded.
"Make me come again, please! I'm dying here… I need you..."
"Come again? What does she mean by 'again'? No. No, no, no, he did not…"
It was fairly easy to ignore Jacob's wolf stench when I was surrounded with the sweet fragrance of Bella from every direction. My fingers got back to playing with her clitoris and I rushed to catch the sounds of pleasure she made with a kiss. No one but me should have access to those sounds.
"No, she must be sick in the head to like this… and to beg him like that… I am so done. Screw this."
I heard him step away and I smiled over our kiss. Bella came fast and hard again, her teeth biting down on my lower lip when she did. It wasn't until she was fully done that I removed my hand from the precious place between her legs and started licking my fingers clean, amazed by this otherworldly taste that seemed to hold the same bewildering spell that her blood held over me. I could not even focus on the latter properly now, too busy imagining what it would be like to taste this sap right from the source.
"Edward," her voice was low and raspy when she called for my attention.
"Hm?"
"Please let me return the favour… now."
I had expected many things - but not this. God, not this. The throbbing hardness in my jeans was begging me to forget all reason. It was aching to be freed from my pants and be held in Bella's warm hand. To have that hand move up and down its length… to let that hand bring me to the greatest heights… maybe I could allow this to happen, since my thirst felt so much like an after-thought. I had been dreaming about this moment for far too long.
A groan escaped from my chest and I took her face in my hands, to get a good look in her eyes.
"Are you sure of this?" I asked.
"Of course. Are you?"
Sighing, I leaned down to crush my lips over hers.
"More than anything," I responded, once I found the strength to put an end to our kiss.
Her eyes widened and the surprise on her face was obvious. She didn't lose too much time, choosing instead to focus her attention on the belt of my jeans. Her hands were shaking, making her mission harder, so I stepped in to help her, unbuckling my belt and unzipping my jeans for her. My erection sprung in front of me, stretching my boxers to the limit. I watched Bella's face as she was studying this new sight - it was the first time she was seeing it without the lights off. Her pupils had dilated so much, that the melted chocolate of her irises was barely visible.
"Can I take them off?"
Her voice was trembling.
"I don't know, can you?" I teased her, hoping that this would be enough to ease her nervousness.
She smiled as she grabbed the fabric of boxers in her hands and slowly, very carefully, slid them off my hips along with my jeans, revealing my erect member and marking a big 'first' for me. I waited patiently for her to do something else, but she appeared to have frozen in place. She was once again studying me, moving her eyes from the tip to the base of my shaft again and again, without saying anything.
"Is there something wrong with it?" I quipped, in a bid to get her to at least talk.
"God, no! I'm... just surprised."
"Surprised how?"
Full of care, her fingers started to move through the wild patch of hair at the base of my penis.
"Well, for starters, I didn't expect it to be so… uhm, beautiful."
I huffed. This was not a compliment I had ever expected to receive.
"Hey, don't laugh," she frowned. "I mean it."
"Okay, I'm sorry, that's just not the word most people would use. But thank you, I guess."
"Well, I really like the shape of it. And secondly… I'd guessed you would be pretty big, but not like… that."
I raised my eyebrows, feeling a little out of the loop.
"Like what?"
"You want a round of applause for winning the genetic lottery of well-endowment or what?" she snickered.
Oh. The fact that no one had ever seen this part of my body had made me a little slow on the uptake. I could only hope that my slowness did not pass as smugness. In a bid to get over my blunder, I leaned down to press my lips on hers. As our mouths opened to allow our tongues to meet, I felt Bella's hand moving: it was no longer playing with my hair now; it had started to travel up my length and only stopped once it arrived on my tip.
I had not realized I was trembling until Bella pulled away from our kiss to ask:
"Are you all right?"
"Oh, more than all right," I said.
I could see how my trembling could be misinterpreted as fright, but it was the opposite of that; I was a can under pressure, boiling to explode in my lover's hands. The sensation was better than any physical thrill I had ever felt until that point.
"Tell me if I'm doing anything wrong."
"You're doing everything perfectly," I assured her.
Gaining a little more courage, Bella gripped my shaft in her palm and started moving: up and down, rubbing against the head each time she moved. I found myself biting down on my tongue to stop the sounds that threatened to erupt from my throat, allowing only my breathing pattern to give away how much I was enjoying this. Bella's breathing was just as erratic as mine when she locked her eyes with mine, subduing me completely with her gaze.
I was hers. She could do anything she wanted with me.
The pressure inside my body kept on building, rippling through my frozen veins and sending waves of electricity inside my muscles. I felt as if all my dreams were coming true at once as she was rubbing me with vigour, sensing without my help the exact moment when my body needed her to pick up the pace.
"Is this right, Edward?" she muttered.
"So very right, my love, don't stop… keep doing that…"
She listened to me, her hand sliding up and down my length effortlessly, making me swell with a concupiscence that felt more powerful than all of my instincts combined. I did not recognize the new conflagration that was slowly taking over my entire body, making my tissues boil with need, until it reached its zenith. Without warning, the pressure that had been devouring me detonated and there was no going back now.
No one in the world existed but the two of us.
I moaned and watched as my desire burst out of me in streams of venom, that landed right on Bella's blouse. She started rubbing me even faster in response, whispering words of encouragement as I came all over her, feeling liberated and elated and high - all at once. No words left my mouth as this miracle was happening, only incorrigible sounds.
Nothing could have prepared me for this overwhelming kaleidoscope of sensations and feelings. Everything felt exactly right in the world, as if the all the past events in the history of the world had aligned to lead to this perfect, faultless moment, in which I could almost see the invisible string that had Bella's soul tied up to my being.
Her hand on me had never felt better than now. It made me realize once again that I was hers and hers alone, and that no one else could bring me to such a height, like she just did; only Bella could make me feel as if I had met the most exquisite death and got reborn, all at once. If she didn't have to sleep, I would have had no shame in asking her to do this again and again and again, for days on end.
I knew my orgasm had lasted no longer than ten seconds, but it felt as if I had spent an eternity swimming in my own euphoria. When I resurfaced, I was no longer the same man. For the first time in my undead existence, I felt truly warm. So very warm, as if I had been bathing in the hottest spring for days.
"Bella…" I breathed, every fibre in my body being aware that she was the only reason behind this supreme bliss.
"I love you," she replied simply.
"Almost as much as I love you."
She looked as if she was getting ready to protest, but there was no time for that. I pressed my palms on her cheeks and kissed her: lovingly, fervently, shamelessly.
"That felt amazing," I admitted, parting from her.
"Tell me about it."
"I've never experienced anything even remotely close to this in my life."
"Good, because I plan for you to experience it on a daily basis, until you get tired of it," she smiled.
"The chances of getting tired of it are practically non-existent. God, how I want to do that while I'm inside you..."
My words set both of us aflame - we got back to devouring each other with our mouths in no time, and my member pressed between us, hard and ready, demanding her attention.
"Edward, you're-"
"That's how vampires work, love," I explained, pleased that she appeared to be happy with this discovery.
"Okay, can we get married like… now?"
I laughed, trying to remind myself that as much as I would have loved to spend the rest of my days in that bedroom with her, we had a few more pressing obligations to take care of.
"I think we have to find that photo first," I said.
"Oh."
"That's what I thought. Now why don't you go change your blouse, while I search for that album?"
She looked down, gasping when she realized that her white blouse had served as the perfect canvas for my orgasm.
"I think I've got something similar enough in the closet," she said.
"Good, because I'm in no mental state to invent an excuse for your father."
We parted without much excitement, both of us needing more. It seemed that the further we dove into our mutual sexual awareness, the more incapable of keeping our hands off each other we became - not that I minded. The only thing that helped me keep my poise was the fact that we did have all night in front of us - well, that and the knowledge that when we would go back downstairs, Jacob would know exactly why Bella's blouse would not be quite the same.
So finally - finally! - Edward got his much needed release! Can we get a standing ovation for our man?
If you liked this Thanksgiving story, I would love to hear your thoughts on it, be them small or big, positive or critical!
While I do not live in a country that celebrates Thanksgiving, I am certainly in the mood to say 'thank you'. So thank you to all the wonderful people who somehow, someway, have the patience and interest to read the ramblings of my mind. I am forever grateful to you!
If you want to see sneak peeks of future chapters, get early heads-ups regarding updates and see the visuals I make for each chapter, you are welcome to join the Facebook group of the story (the link is on my profile page).
In the meantime, stay safe and happy!