JPOV
Esme's toast to us was heartfelt. It brought tears to my eyes. She truly loved her son. Edward squeezed my hand and I squeezed back. I loved this man so much.
I couldn't believe I was sitting at my own rehearsal dinner. I was about to do the impossible. In a matter of two days, I would be marrying the man of my dreams.
Edward was a dream I didn't dare have because I was sure it would never come true.
"I'd like to make a toast to my best friend and Jasper," Tanya stood. Jake moved to help her stand and she slapped his hand away. Jasper and I chuckled. "I can stand!" She hissed at him. Jake wasn't fazed. He smiled lovingly at her. Tanya rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Edward and me. "I met Edward under extreme circumstances. Some of you are aware of Edward's past and I dare you to say something bad about it." My mother took a nervous breath as Tanya glanced around the room with fire in her eyes. "I love Edward Masen. If he were straight, he would be in my bed." Everyone laughed. "It makes me want to hate Jasper if he wasn't equally as hot as Edward." Everyone laughed again. "But seriously, Edward and I saved each other from a lot. Then Jasper came along and he saved us from the life we weren't meant to live. He shone a light that Edward couldn't help but gravitate to. And being the masochist I am, I went along for the ride. It was how I met my overprotective baby daddy, Jacob Black." There were surprised gasps and applause sounding throughout the room. "Yes! I will be breaking his hand during the birth." We all laugh again. "But I have to thank my best friend and Jasper, my secret fantasy lover," I laughed at Tanya as she winked at me. "For every bit of happiness I feel. Without you two, I'd be dead in a ditch somewhere. I look forward to years and years to come of witnessing you two crazy kids being in love and happy together. I love you both."
Edward and I got up and hugged Tanya. She and Edward were crying. "See!" she said to everyone. "My fantasy lovers!"
The night went on. We were happy and filled with nothing but joy.
Joanne had done a great job. Our rehearsal dinner had gone off without a hitch. Our wedding was in two days and Edward's family had been flown in along with my Grandpa.
Edward and I couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces as we posed for pictures with our family. There was a rare one with my mother and I. We were locked in a hug while she cried on my shoulder, apologizing for the past and her cruel treatment toward me.
Edward had been looking on proudly.
My fiancé looked incredible in his black suit with white inner shirt and two buttons undone and his glassed perched on his nose. He kept pushing it up and I wanted to fuck him with only those glasses on. As the night went on and the more I drank, the more I thought about Edward naked and writhing beneath me while I drove my hard cock into his tight hole.
The man did things to me.
"What are you thinking about?" He asked while we danced.
I angled my hips so he would feel exactly what I was thinking about and cocked an eyebrow at him. "What does it feel like I'm thinking about?"
"Mmm…" was his answer as he discreetly grinded against me during our dance causing me to growl.
I pulled him into a kiss earning us catcalls and wolf whistles along with laughter from our guests. "I want to take you home and fuck you until you pass out, darlin'."
Edward kissed my neck and whispered, "You say the sweetest things, love. I want to wrap my mouth around your big cock and suck it until you come down my throat. I promise to lick up everything you give me, baby."
I was losing control. "We have to leave, Edward." I was dead serious. I had enough liquid courage in me to fuck him right now in front of family and friends. I wanted my dick in him. Now.
I don't know how Edward did it. But my fiancé was a miracle worker. Before long, we were leaving our rehearsal dinner for some time alone.
Edward drove us home. I was too wired to think straight. All I could think about was fucking him.
When he stopped in my parking space, I jumped out of the car and raced to his side to pull him out. I fuse my lips to his as soon as he was standing. Our hands were all over each other. He moaned and begged for me to take him upstairs when I sucked and bit his neck while stroking him through his pants. His erection was begging for freedom from the confines of his dress pants.
We kissed to the elevator. We kissed and groped on the elevator. I slammed him into the wall beside our loft's door and devoured his mouth. He pushed me away and adjusted his glasses before opening the door. He gave me a come hither look over his shoulder and smirked when I palmed my cock through my pants.
I shut the door behind me and Edward attacked me, pushing me into it. We kissed, panted and bit at each other's lips while we groped and stroked our cocks.
"I want you naked!" I demanded.
"I want to come on your cock!" Edward threw back at me.
I growled at him again and grabbed his hand, dragging him to our bedroom. I burst into the room with a laughing Edward and threw him on the bed. I practically ripped his clothes off in haste and then stripped. Edward grabbed the lube and I attacked him with lips, teeth and tongue. He shouted, begged and pleaded for a release while I sucked him off. The taste of him was intoxicating. He threw me on my back and returned the favor with vigor until I was shouting my release as I came down his throat.
The moment I entered him was heaven. I would never tire of making love to or fucking this man. He held command over my body, heart and soul.
"Oh God! Jasper!" Edward pushed back against me and I thrust into him. Hard. I pulled him up into my arms, holding him to me while I fucked him. "Uh! Uh! I love you, Jasper!"
"I love you too, baby, so much!" I punctuated each word with a thrust of my hips as I chased that edge I was desperate to fall over with him wrapped around me.
We fucked, cursed and confessed our love for each other until the need reached its pinnacle and I came with Edward not far behind.
We both collapsed on the bed.
"That was…" I was breathless and lightheaded.
"Yeah...it was…" Edward said, equally exhausted.
But it wasn't over.
We fucked again and again until we couldn't keep our eyes open. Edward cleaned us up and then crawled into bed with me. I pulled his lips to mine. "I love you," I whispered, pressing my mouth against his.
"I love you too."
The shriek of Edward's ringtone woke me. He groaned and reached for his phone while my head fell back against the pillow. I closed my eyes and listened to him croak, "Hello?"
I was ready to go back to sleep when Edward's voice rose and he sprang up out of bed. I snapped my eyes open and listened intently.
"Embry?! Where is she?"
Oh no. Mercy.
"What?!" Edward shouted. "Tell me the fucker is dead!" He growled into the phone. "If he isn't, I'm going to find that motherfucker and kill him myself!" Edward listened while he reached for underwear, throwing it on then his jeans. I got up. Sleep forgotten. Something had happened to Mercy and her pimp. That bastard better be dead before I got my hands on him. That was it. Mercy was leaving the hooking behind. This was the last straw. That asshole did something to her. "Where is she?!" Edward asked as I got dressed. He threw me a shirt and put his phone on speaker. Embry's voice filled the room.
"Eddie, I told you. Mikey is out of the picture. He wasn't dead on impact but I made sure to change his status after I pulled Mercy out of the car. I don't know what happened in the car though. Only Mercy can tell you that."
"If…" Edward growled out to cover a sob caught in his throat. "If she wakes up."
Our eyes met and Edward roughly wiped a tear away.
"Where is she?" I asked, taking over.
"Jas man," Embry said coolly. "She's at County General. Get there."
"Whatever you did, I'll make sure you're okay," I promised Embry. I had paid handsomely for his silence and involvement with Edward's incident.
"I know you will, Jas man," he said with a smile in his voice. "Take care of the kid."
We hung up and Edward and I grabbed our wallets, phones and keys and ran out of the loft.
Edward's leg bounced frantically as we weaved through traffic. He was scared out of his mind. What would we hear when we get there? I didn't even want to think about it. I knew we shouldn't have let this happen. We should have stood our ground. We would have done anything to get her out and now this happened.
Edward had the door open and was jumping out of the vehicle before I could come to a complete stop. I jumped out and slammed the door shut. He was bouncing on the spot as he waited the few seconds for me. He took my hand and practically dragged me into the hospital behind him.
The last time I came through these emergency doors Edward had been attacked and I was losing it.
Much like I was now over Mercy.
We shouldn't have let her go back.
Edward stomped his way up to the nurse's station. "Mercy Blake!" he yelled at the nurse, making her jump.
"Sir?" She was moving too slow for Edward.
He huffed and rolled his eyes before he barked again. "Mercy Blake! She's a sixteen year old African American girl. She was brought in here or dropped off, I don't know. We're her family." It left his mouth so effortlessly I would have smiled proudly if the situation wasn't serious.
Apparently Edward and I were on the same page without discussing things in depth. I was already thinking about it. Why shouldn't we help Mercy by making her family? She would finally have people around her who didn't wish to exploit her. She would have us. We could save her.
"Her family?" The nurse looked between us.
"My fiancé and I are about to become her adoptive parents," Edward lied effortlessly again. I could kiss him.
"Well, Sir, about to be doesn't make you family," she said with a scowl.
"Fine," I said, stepping in. "How does my name is Jasper Whitlock, and my family donated fifteen million dollars to building two wings for this hospital, get your Chief of Staff down here now, sound?"
Her eyes widened. She knew hospital politics. "You're…J-J-Jasper W-Whitlock?"
"Yes," I said harshly. "Get your Chief of Staff down here now!"
"You heard my son," my mother said, coming to stand beside us. "My name is Heidi Whitlock. And as I and my son said, get the Chief of Staff down here!"
I called my mother on the way here. I thought Edward and I would need her expertise for this situation.
The nurse reluctantly made the call then informed us the Chief of Staff was coming down to the ER immediately.
"That doesn't tell me where she is!" Edward stressed.
"Calm down, baby. She's strong. Mercy will be okay." It was foolishness. I was worried too. But I had to calm Edward down.
"Are you sure?" he said to me. He sounded like a small child. His eyes filled with tears.
I ran my hands up and down his arms. "Yes. Mercy will be fine."
The Chief of Staff entered the ER and rushed over to us. As soon as he introduced himself, Edward started again. He rattled off everything he knew about Mercy's description. The Chief asked the front desk and they immediately told him Trauma Room Three.
Edward was running off before we could stop him. I ran after him.
We weren't allowed in. We could only stand outside the doors and watch an army of doctors and nurses work on Mercy as they tried to save her life.
"What happened?" Mother asked as she came to stand beside us. Edward's eyes were glued on what was going on inside Trauma Room Three.
"Car accident," I told her. Edward had told me everything Embry had told him.
"Is that all?" she whispered.
"No." I looked her dead in the eye and said.
"We'll deal with it," she said with conviction. "After all, she's family, isn't she?"
"Yes," I said to my mother.
My heart nearly stopped when I heard Mercy flatline. One of the doctors screamed for the paddles. Edward lagged against me. I felt weak in the knees too but I had to stay strong for him.
They got her back after three tries. Edward was gripping my hand for dear life the entire time.
Mercy was strong. We had to believe she would make it.
This was not how I envisioned this day ending. With how great it started, I didn't see it coming to an end with myself and Edward curled up in the waiting area of a hospital, seated across from my mother, father, Esme, and Carlisle, who was off pestering the residents here for information on Mercy's current condition.
Today was supposed to be a good day. A day before our wedding tomorrow afternoon.
Carlisle came back to us. Edward sat up straighter. Tanya and Jake came through the doors. Tanya headed for Edward, who took her in his arms. They hung on to each other as we waited for Carlisle to begin.
Any news was good news. As long as Mercy was still breathing.
"She's out of surgery. They've repaired most of the damage," he said.
"Most of it?!" Edward shouted. "What does that mean?"
"Edward, calm down," I said. His eyes snapped to mine. They didn't hold anger. Just anxiety and sadness. He blamed himself as much I blamed myself for letting Mercy walk away from us that day two weeks ago. We weren't thinking. We thought Embry could keep her safe. And in truth, he was. This wasn't his fault and we were glad he caught up to Mikey when he did. This could have gone another way. "But, Jasper, he said they repaired most of the damage. Doesn't that mean something could still happen?" Edward said nervously.
"Yes," I said with honesty. "But we're not going to think like that. Mercy is a strong girl. She's gonna come back to us. Teasing us. Telling us we're dumb for worrying so much."
He laughed shakily. "I hope so."
Between Tanya and me, we kept Edward calm enough to allow Carlisle to continue. He told us Mercy's condition, explaining anything we didn't understand.
Mercy was in a car accident. From what the cops have gathered, Mercy and Mikey were fighting when the car got out of control, flipped a couple of times and then crashed. Mercy was pulled out of the car before it exploded, burning Mikey to death.
As I waited on more word on her, I berated myself for letting her go back to that bastard. I wasn't the least bit affected by his death.
We waited and waited. Eventually, my parents left with promises to return later in the day. I convinced Esme and Carlisle to head to our place for some rest. Edward and I weren't going anywhere. I also managed to get Tanya to let Jake take her home after about two hours. She said she was coming right back later.
It was three in the morning and Edward had finally passed out from exhaustion. I was about to doze off myself when Mercy's doctor came looking for us. When he spotted me, he walked over.
"Mr. Whitlock?"
He looked almost scared to talk to me. My last name carried a lot of power.
"Yes?"
"Ms. Blake is awake," he said, shuffling from foot to foot.
"Can we see her?" I asked while I woke Edward up.
He sprang up and stared at the doctor in shock. "Oh my God, did something bad happen?!"
"No. Mercy is awake, baby. We can see her," I told him gently.
He audibly sighed in relief.
We got up and followed the doctor. I had forgotten his name but I didn't have time to care about it. The doctor had led us into a private room and all I saw was Mercy asleep in the hospital bed with machines beeping around her.
"How bad is she?" I asked. Edward's eyes snapped to mine. Again, it wasn't in anger. He was worried about what the doctor would reveal.
"A few cracked ribs, some bruises, and we have managed to repair some internal damages. We had to remove her appendix and spleen. There was also, well, we found this during examination…" The doctor stumbled over his words.
"Just spit it out, Doctor."
Edward was ready to spring on the poor bastard.
"She raped," he said gravely. "I suspect it was more than one party involved. There was tissue damage and she will be in pain for the good while."
"They ganged up on her," Edward explained. "I don't think she knew what was coming when she took the job."
The doctor was looking at us. "May we see her?"
He led us further into the room and left us. "You're talking from experience, babe?" I asked Edward as I looked down at the fragile battered girl on the bed.
"Embry saved from a situation like that once. If he hadn't…" Edward didn't say anything else, but he didn't need to. I understood perfectly. He probably wouldn't be here with me.
"What are we going to do?" he asked me.
"Take care of her. After all…" I picked up Mercy's hand, wrapping my fingers around her delicate ones. "She's family."
