Neither Bella nor Jacob had ever been so thankful that he had supernatural speed at his disposal. The windows were almost completely steamed up, and although that in itself was probably going to give Charlie a heart attack, he hopefully couldn't see much detail of what was happening in the front seat. Within five seconds Jacob had deposited Bella unceremoniously off his lap and into the seat beside him, shoved her bra out of sight and was trying desperately to help her get her shirt back on. His natural agility, sadly, was completely cancelled out by her natural clumsiness but by the time Charlie got tired of waiting and opened the door, they were both at least fully dressed, if rather flushed, embarrassed and still breathing heavily.
Bella's father narrowed his eyes as he stared at the pair of them. It was blatantly obvious what they had been doing and they knew it, but as long as he didn't figure out just how undressed or just how pressed together they had been a few moments before, there wasn't too much he could do about it, Jake hoped. Teenagers made out in cars. And in a small town like Forks, with not much else going on, this was probably the most common activity the police ever came across. Apart from the occasions when unwelcome vampires wandered through town and made things a bit more interesting, Jacob mused. He cleared his throat and went for the charm offensive, counting on the fact that Charlie liked him a hell of a lot more than he'd ever liked Edward (not that that was a particularly high endorsement. Charlie's opinion of the boy who had broken his only daughter's heart and apparently broken her as well was pretty darn low). Jacob decided on a sheepish grin while Bella did nothing except stare fixedly at her knees, unable to look up at all.
"Sorry, Chief Swan I was just about to take Bella home, we were just talking" he lied as confidently as he could. Charlie continued to stare, obviously fighting a huge urge to punch Jacob in the face before locking Bella up in some sort of tower until she was thirty-five. As the awkwardness grew Jacob's grin faded a little but he soldiered on. "So, uh, we'll get going…?" his voice broke in an embarrassing squeak towards the end of the sentence which ended up sounding like a question.
Charlie finally spoke. "I think I'll be able to escort Bella from here, Jacob. I strongly suggest you go home. And I think it's safer if you don't come by for a few weeks."
"Safer? For who?" Jacob didn't voice his thought but the insinuation was enough to make him swallow nervously as he gave an unconvincing chuckle and said a quick farewell to Bella, who mumbled something incoherent and got out of the truck without looking at him. Jacob sighed heavily as he watched them pull away. The last hour had been the best and one of the worst hours of his life all in one. But when would he get to see Bella again?
It had been five days since the incident with Charlie and Jacob hadn't shown his face, although they had spoken once on the phone, an awkward conversation that left them both feeling depressed and worried that they had ruined everything. Bella had spent the time flitting between relief that she didn't have to deal with him, missing him more than she could cope with, and confusion. Big confusion. A week ago she would have sworn that she didn't want anything from Jacob except friendship and she wasn't prepared to risk that for anything. Then that thing happened and the lust and longing that she suddenly found within herself not only took her completely by surprise but scared the life out of her. What did it all mean? Did she love Jake like he obviously loved her, or was it just a biological response which meant nothing really, apart from the fact that she was an 18 year old girl and he was an incredibly hot boy with a beautiful face and an insanely good body. Mmmm. That body… the copy of Hamlet that she had been desperately trying to read for the last hour fell closed as she remembered again the blissful feelings that he had awoken in her. But no, she mustn't. She had eventually decided that it had been a mistake and she still wasn't prepared to risk their friendship by going any further down that dangerous road. The metaphorical road, and that dangerous dirt track. The only thing to do was to make sure it never happened again and hopefully they could go back to their comfortable, reliable friendship. Now she just needed to tell him that. She could already see the hurt and disappointment in his expressive brown eyes. Poor Jake. He really deserved better than her.
Bella glanced at her watch. It was past midnight, her father had called it a night long ago, but she was still trying to concentrate enough to make sense of Shakespeare, although she was beginning to doubt the possibility of ever doing that. A noise caused her to stop reading yet again and she looked up to see Jake half way through the open window, pulling himself in as though it was no trouble at all.
"Jake!" she hissed. "Charlie is in! What the hell…?" By now Jacob had crossed the room and was holding a hand gently over her mouth.
"Don't worry, he's totally asleep. I'll be able to tell if he wakes up," he said without bothering to whisper. "I just needed to see you, Bella, I've been going crazy here."
Bella remained silent, knowing that anything she said would hurt him badly, but the silence wasn't any better. Jacob looked at her for a long moment and sighed. "A mistake, huh?" he muttered, able unnervingly to read her mind as usual. "Damn it, Bella… how can you say that? (Bella refrained from reminding him that she hadn't actually) You wanted me like I wanted you. We'd be so great together. I can't believe you're still not admitting it!" Despite his angry words his hand was gentle as he reached for a strand of her hair and pulled it back from her face, tugging at it gently and causing a shock of pleasure to rush through her. One simple touch. She tried to stop him from seeing what an effect he had on her but of course he noticed.
"You want me," he whispered, moving his lips close to her ear so that she could feel his breath tickling against it. She shivered and shook her head. She had to stay strong. "You want me." His voice was even softer this time, sexy as hell. He turned her around so that her back was to him and she didn't resist. She wasn't responding to him, but she couldn't step away either. She felt his hand slowly push her hair to one side and then his lips land ever so softly on the side of her neck, moving their way down towards the pulse in her throat as she stood there, eyes closed and heart beating fast, trying desperately to remember why this was a bad idea. He was right. She did want him. And all the reasons she had come up with for staying away from him suddenly seemed trivial. Those lips, those hot, hot lips, continued a trail down to her shoulder as he used his nose in a rather endearing way to nudge the strap of her top down her arm so that he could continue his route unhindered. His hands were stroking up and down the tops of her arms, feathery strokes that only just touched her skin, but brought up goose bumps and more shivers of delight.
As his mouth started its ascent again and moved up her face she turned her head to meet it, suddenly unable to bear the lack of contact of their lips. Jake pulled away slightly. "Uh-uh," he chided. "You have to admit to me that you want me before I let you kiss me." He grinned as he gave her the challenge. Bella, though beyond happy to see that he was smiling again, raised an eyebrow. She had a considerable amount of pride and certainly wouldn't be giving in that easily. "Oh well," she said looking sad. "I guess that's that, then." She pulled away and sat down on the edge of her bed, gazing up at him with a look that said "good luck with that one."
Jake stared at her for a long moment and then sat down beside her, a mischievous look on his face that Bella found adorable. "I'm going to make you beg me to kiss you," he murmured against her hair and her heart sped up even more, racing wildly at his words. He moved his lips along her face again, following the line of her jaw, lightly dropping kisses as he went until he found her mouth. He kissed the corner of it, and then the other side, while his hands gently massaged her hair. His brown eyes were full of concentration as he pressed his lips to her face again and again, as Bella did her best to appear unaffected, despite the small groaning noises that she occasionally couldn't help which rather gave her away.
Jacob changed tactic slightly, running his tongue over her lower lip and then nibbling on it ever so gently with his teeth. His hands moved down to her bare leg and started wandering casually upwards towards her thigh, finding the edge of her denim shorts and carrying on an inch or two underneath them, and though he didn't stray further than that, his hand never seemed to stop moving, his thumb gliding across the sensitive skin of her inner thigh in a way that made her gasp with pleasure. Then she felt his mouth by her ear, nibbling on her ear lobe, licking it and blowing into her ear. A wave of longing shot through her and she shivered uncontrollably. He turned her head so that he could do the same to the other ear. By this time Bella was breathing so heavily that she was a little worried her father would be able to hear while, to her annoyance, Jacob seemed quite in control of himself, calm and collected as he turned her into a trembling wreck. Only a rather fast heart beat gave any clue that he too was enjoying himself.
The fact that she wasn't allowed to kiss him made Bella want to more than she'd ever wanted anything. She tried to think about other, unsexy, things but he was relentless in his quest and his confident hands and soft lips were driving her wild as they moved over her, always staying in PG-13 areas but nevertheless turning her on so that she felt herself getting wetter and wetter. Finally she snapped. "Jake," she moaned, as quietly as she could. "You win. Please let me kiss you properly." Jake laughed as he leant back slightly to look at her and pretended to think about it. But truth be told he was struggling as well and after a few seconds he grabbed the back of her head roughly and pulled her towards him, their lips and tongues finally meeting in a frenzied dance as all their pent up self-control was allowed out. They kissed for several minutes, making small sounds of pleasure, breathing so hard they were almost panting, as the kiss deepened and grew even more heated. All Bella could think about was how amazing it felt and how much she was lusting after him right now. Thinking back on how she had been feeling just an hour before, now she was pretty sure he could do anything he wanted to her and she'd be powerless to resist him.
But suddenly Jacob stopped kissing her and pulled back, taking in a deep, ragged breath and letting it out slowly. Bella, bereft of his incredible tongue, tried to pull him back towards her, but given their comparative strengths, she had little effect. "Bella," he whispered, grabbing her hands to keep them still. "Listen to me. I know it may not seem like it, but I actually really want to take things slowly with you. If I kiss you for another second I think I'm going to end up ripping your clothes off and doing bad things to you and then tomorrow you'll freak out and there'll be regrets and you'll hate me and I'll be sad." He stopped her from protesting with a finger to her lips. "I know I'm right about this. We have plenty of time. Let's not risk ruining everything by rushing things." Even though Bella wanted to scream in frustration at what he was saying she realised later that it was at that moment that she fell for him completely and utterly. She took a minute to calm down and regulate her heart, and then she nodded slowly. "I'm sure that soon I'll be able to see that you're right," she said wryly.
Jacob grinned. "Good girl. Now, if you can keep your hands off me, how about we get some sleep?" Before she could respond she found herself lying on the bed with his big arms wrapped around her, making her feel incredibly safe, his chest moulded against her back. As he seemed to be pretty much asleep already, there seemed to be nothing to do except join him, smiling to herself as she thought about the previous half hour and the approaching weeks and what interesting times they might bring.