Chapter 17: Her Confession
I slammed into the water, sinking down deep. I let the cool water swish around me as I took my time before surfacing. I felt the water shift and move as Jake (or at least I assumed it was Jake) broke the surface of the water after jumping after me. Motherfucker. It only took about thirty seconds before I felt Jake's hand circle around my left bicep and pull me up. When my head broke above the surface, I was pressed flush against Jake as he held me close. He was breathing heavily and searching my face for any signs of injury. When he found nothing, he breathed a sigh of relief and dropped his head to my shoulder. "Please don't do that again. If you really want to cliff dive, fine. I concede. You can cliff dive, but let me jump with you. Please."
I suddenly felt very small wrapped in his arms as he treaded water. It had really freaked him out when I had jumped. I don't think that I had really understood how much my safety had meant to him until this moment. Until he thought I was going to be hurt. It had scared him enough that he was willing to compromise in a way that let him feel more in control of my safety. I wrapped my arms around his neck and moved closer.
I was suddenly aware of the fact that Jacob was very, very naked. It made sense since he went wolf all of a sudden. I shook my head to clear it of the very dirty thoughts that lingered on the edges. I focused on the problem at hand.
"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I just couldn't let you keep yelling at Seth like that. He did nothing-"
Jake lifted his head up to look at me. His stony gaze met mine, and I shrunk as far back as his arms allowed. He could be really scary sometimes. "Don't talk to me about Seth right now, Renesmee." When he used my full name, I cringed. I didn't like him using my full name… except in bed, but that was different.
"Nessie. I'm Nessie." I whispered.
His eyes softened and he pulled me closer to him. "I know, but your feelings for Seth-"
"What feelings?"
"You're in love with him."
What. The. Actual. Fuck. Jake thought I was in love with Seth? Oh, sweet Jesus. I gave an incredulous laugh. I couldn't believe this. I shoved away from Jake and swam to the shore. I could feel him hot on my trail. Upon reaching the shore, I stormed along the coast up towards the clearing again.
"Are you going to jump again?" Jake ran to catch up with me. I don't know where he found shorts, but he had them on now.
I glared at him, and said, "No. You're going to apologize to Seth for your behavior."
"Ness-"
"Apologize. No discussion. Not if you want to be my friend." I stopped walking and turned to face him. He almost slammed into me, but caught himself. I narrowed my eyes. "Seth and I are friends, Jake. That's it. You and I used to act the same way Seth and I do before we started dating."
"But it wasn't a joke with us, Ness. Never was."
"Fine, but it's just good-natured fun when it comes to me and Seth. Don't believe me use your telepathic wolf thing!" I waved my hands around. "Me and Seth." I snorted. "I can't believe you ever thought that could be a thing."
I wasn't sure which part of what I had said made it through to him, but he gave me a small smile. I turned around and made my way to the clearing with Jake. Once we got there, Jake approached Seth and apologized like I had asked. Seth just nodded. They did their bro hug thing, and Jake turned back to face me. Seth leaned over Jake's shoulder and raised an eyebrow silently asking what had happened, but I said nothing.
I was too cold to say anything.
It wasn't the greatest idea for someone without the heat the wolves had to jump into freezing water in the middle of October. I was definitely shaking. I hadn't realized how cold I really was until I stopped moving, but now, I imagined my lips were blue.
Jake rushed over and made quick work of removing my sopping wet shirt, shoes, and pants. He picked me up bridal style, and said, "C'mon. I'm taking you back to the house. You can borrow some dry clothes." He took off running.
The wind nipped at my skin, a majority of which was now exposed, but it was better than having clothes that froze to my body. Plus, where his chest, arms, and hands pressed against me, I felt perfectly warm and even a little tingly. We arrived at his house within minutes.
He strode in, and embarrassingly enough, Billy sat at the kitchen table. "You couldn't wait to get home to take her clothes off, huh, boy?" Billy chuckled at his joke.
Jake ignored his father and sat me down in a chair before retrieving a blanket from the couch. He wrapped it around me, and said to himself, "You're going to be okay." And then to me, "You're too cold. I'm going to run a hot bath. I'll be back in a second." He pressed a chaste kiss to my forehead, and muttered, "Too cold," before heading to the bathroom.
Billy finally realized that something was wrong. "What happened?"
"I-I-I cl-cl-cl-cli-clif-f-fed…" I couldn't bring myself to finish my sentence, but he got the point.
He reached over and rubbed my arm over the blanket. "Cliff diving in October? What would your dad say?"
"Do-don't"
"I'm not going to call him." Billy anticipated my anxiety when it came to my father. If he had called him, he probably realized that my dad would have drove down here and murdered Jake on the front porch for letting me jump like I did.
At that moment, Jacob came back and scooped me into his arms. He moved as quick as he could down the hallway and into the bathroom. The hot steam hit me, and I moaned in pleasure. Jake's arms tightened around me. "Not now, Ness. I can't handle that right now." I was so cold and my brain so fuzzy that I didn't take the time to figure out what he meant.
I got set on my feet, and before I had time to register what Jake was doing, he had tossed the blanket aside, unclipped my bra and slid my panties down my legs. Then I was in his arms again for a brief moment before my body was submerged in deliciously hot water. I moaned again, and the feeling began to come back to my body.
I laid there while Jake left the room to grab some of his old clothes from my drawer in his dresser. I expected him to leave again, seeing as I was naked in the tub, but he sat down next it instead. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he simply shook his head. I decided not to press the issue.
"Thanks."
He nodded, but didn't say anything until I reached over and poked him. "That was the second heart attack I had today. I should've realized how cold you would be and taken you home the minute we hit the shore. Seth's apology could've waited. If I had been too late in warming you up…"
"You weren't. I'm okay." I ran my wet hand down his arm, and he shivered. It suddenly dawned on me that he had a warmer temperature, yes, but he was still wet. "You jumped in, too. You should warm yourself up."
He shook his head, but his body trembled slightly. "I'm okay. I'm not leaving you."
"Jake." I gave him a pointed look which he returned.
"What do you want me to do?" He sighed in exasperation. I took in his wet hair and skin. His shorts were dry, and he would probably be okay. I was just worried that he would get a cold. "At least dry yourself off."
Instead of saying anything, Jake just looked at me. Then his eyes drifted lower, down my neck and shoulders towards the rest of my body. I started to feel a little shy but quickly shut it down because it wasn't the first time Jake had ever seen me naked. Besides, I knew he wouldn't do anything. After what felt like forever, Jake shook his head and stood up. He pulled me up. It was then I realized that the bath water was cold.
I felt a towel wrap around me and Jake said, "Put those clothes on and come to my room when you're ready." With that he left.
I sighed, and quickly got dressed. I went into Jake's room to find him lounging on the bed, taking deep breaths. "Jake?"
He looked over at me. His eyes roamed my now clothed body, and he took what I assumed was a sigh of relief. He pressed his back to the wall, and motioned for me to come over. "I figured you're probably as tired as I am after last night and today. Nap before dinner?"
I nodded and climbed into bed next to him where we both fell asleep quickly.
I awoke to a banging that came from the direction of the kitchen. My face was pressed into Jake's chest, and Jake's arms were holding me so close that all I could do was rotate my head. The clock next to Jake's bed read 11:23 PM. Well, so much for dinner. I looked at Jacob who seemed to be sleeping perfectly peacefully.
Then the scent hit me.
Vampire.
My mom.
Oh shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
I tried to pull away from Jake before she came crashing into the room, but Jake's hold was too tight. The door slammed open, no doubt making a crack in the wall. After that, everything happened too quickly.
My mom growled at the position Jake and I were in just as Jake jerked awake. He threw me against the wall and shielded me with his body while reaching for something in the drawer next to his bed. I could see my mom stalking toward us, saying something. No doubt it was something to the effect of "Get the hell away from my daughter" but I couldn't hear her. I was focused on Jake.
The rate of his breathing and the way his eyes were unfocused told me he wasn't fully aware of his surroundings. He was reverting back to that time spent overseas. He wasn't seeing my mom, wasn't seeing that she was only a threat to his manhood. He was seeing some kind of terrorist of insurgent. All he was thinking about was protecting me. Then I saw the gun that he pulled out of the drawer.
"Jake! Stop!"
Finally, my mom had begun to recognize that something was horribly wrong. She was halted in the middle of the room. I grabbed the arm that held the gun, and pulled back before he could fire at my mom. If he did, I knew he wouldn't miss, and because my mom is a vampire, it would bounce off and risk hitting him or me. His arm broke free, and I reached in front of him to try to get the gun.
Then he fired.
I yanked my hand back and stared at the blood that began to spill from the wound. The smell of my blood must've woken Jake because he dropped the gun and flipped to me. My mom bolted from the room to stop herself from doing something she'd regret.
"Ness. Oh, Jesus. Oh, fuck." Jake began to shake, and I could tell his emotions were slipping from his control which meant his wolf was too. My hand burned, but I could feel it healing. I licked up the blood around the wound. It had a metallic, gun powder tang to it. Then I grabbed Jake's head.
"Shhh. Calm down. It's okay. I'm okay. See?" I held up my hand which had no wound anymore. His eyes searched my hand before he took a shaky breath. "Jake, you need to calm down before you go wolf, or else we'll both get hurt more." He nodded and kept taking deep breaths. I looked into his beautiful brown eyes. "Jake, right now I need to go talk to my mom. You need to stay here, okay? Then we'll talk about what happened, but until then do not beat yourself up about this. It was an accident."
With that, I got up and went into the living room where my mom was pacing. She rushed over when she saw me and grabbed my hand to inspect it. When she saw that I was fine, she pulled me into a cold, hard hug.
When she pulled away, her eyes were as icy as her skin. "You're not together? Is that why you were in bed with him? Wearing his clothes?" She gestured to my person.
"We fell asleep, Mom. I went cliff diving because I was being stupid and didn't think about how cold it was." I waved my hands around as I talked. "I almost froze to death, and Jake brought me back here. He took care of me. Gave me dry clothes. We aren't a thing, okay?"
My mom's eyes had widened as I told her about the cliff diving, but she didn't ask if I was okay. Instead she said, "I don't believe that you don't want to be with him, Renesmee."
I said nothing.
She took a step closer and grabbed my hands in hers. "What I don't understand, honey, is why you're willing to go back to him." She tilted my head up, forcing my eyes to meet hers. "He broke your heart."
"I know."
"So why? Why would you go back to him even as a friend? You forget that he was my best friend, too, but after I got that phone call from you, I- You sounded so broken as you sobbed on the phone. Do you remember you had to come to Alaska for a few weeks and you didn't get out of bed? He hurt you that badly." I shrugged but didn't answer.
I transferred a single thought to her. He's my best friend. It's always been him and only him. I needed my best friend.
She nodded sympathetically. "I just don't want to see you give him another chance, and give everything you have to someone who could hurt you so badly." My mom said it really low. I knew even Jake in the next room couldn't hear.
"Too late."
"What?"
"I already gave him everything, Mom, so you don't need to worry about that."
She smiled sadly and stroked my hair. She was still about 5 inches taller than me. I'd always be her "little" girl. "I know how much you love him, but you didn't give him everything."
Oh, boy. She was in denial. I sighed and decided to just fess up to it. "Mom, I'm not a virgin." My mom pursed her lips, and leaned away from me.
"Oh, Ness, noooo." Jake's voice sounded from behind me just as the front door flew open and the cavalry came sweeping in.
3 very angry looking vegetarian male vampires stood on the threshold and had eyes for only Jake.
Well, fuck. This night couldn't get any worse.
