Chapter Four: Bella POV

The sand crunched underneath as Edward and I walked hand in hand back to the beach party. I really thought through his offer carefully before accepting it. My first thought was that he had some ulterior motive behind a candor, kind mirage. I still did, but now it was more of a dull, nagging idea in the back of my mind. As we entered the heated, bouncing mass of dancing partygoers, I noticed that I received loads of envious stares from girls everywhere I looked… and I had no idea why. Edward towed me even deeper into the crowd until we came to a halt somewhere in front of the DJ booth.

Jake had two scantily dressed blonde girls standing on either side of him bobbing their heads and thrusting their chests to the fast paced beat. Our gazes locked for only a moment before he stiffened and looked away quickly. My eyes narrowed at one of the girls who laid one of her dainty, manicured hands on Jake's broad, muscular chest and leaned in to whisper in his ear. His eyes flashed back to me and then landed on Edward. Jake sneered after seeing Edward, turning his attention back to the two blondes.

Edward tugged on my shoulder to get me to face him. His hands encircled my waist as he pulled me nearer to his body. Truthfully, I couldn't complain about being up close and person with Edward. He was… beautiful—not as much as Jake of course, but still. The strong arms around me tensed when he brought me up against him. I could feel every single muscle on his solid torso.

Edward dipped his head so that his lips brushed my ear very lightly, saying, "Congratulations, Isabella. You've successfully caught Jacob Black's attention. He's openly staring now." I sneaked a furtive glance at Jake and sure enough, he was gaping at me with his mouth slightly open and a hint of dangerous anger in his dark eyes.

I winked at Edward and gave him my bet suggestive smile, angling my body so that Jake would be able to catch a glimpse of my expression. Edward smirked and once more leaned in to murmur, "Laugh softly, like I've said something slightly funny, but don't look at Black," I threw my head back slightly and perfectly executed the most musical sounding laugh I have ever made in my lifetime, "Good, Isabella. Okay, now run your hands slowly up my chest and then wrap them around my neck."

We moved against each other in time with the pulsing music. Edward ducked his head, pressing a kiss to my jaw and I let out an audible gasp. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jake cross his arms, shrugging off those two blondes who were running their hands all over him, feeling up his biceps and his triceps and his abs. Oh good lord, I could see an outline of a perfect set of abs through Jake's tightly stretched tee and my knees failed to keep my upright.

...

Edward POV

Isabella's knees buckled and I gasped as I caught her, scooping her up into my arms bridal style before she could hit the sandy ground. My heart rate shot up at the thought that maybe I was the one to make Isabella weak in the knees. Her hands clasped together behind my neck and she smiled feebly at me.

"Can we go, Edward?" Isabella looked up at me with adorable puppy dog eyes—the sweet, kind of eyes that no one can resist. I obliged after turning to Black and shooting him a smug, triumphant smirk. The anger was bubbling underneath his skin and I was elated because of it. I carried Isabella out of the crowd. People, thinking Isabella was injured because she was limp in my arms, parted like the Red Sea to allow us to get through.

Once we got out of the throng of dancers I laid Isabella down on the first empty table I could see.

"Isabella, are you not feeling well?" She shook her head slightly.

"Edward? Eddie! Little bro!" Emmett's voice boomed out of absolutely nowhere. Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie came strolling toward us from the parking lot. Rosalie's hair was greatly disheveled, she had a bleeding busted lip, and bloody scraped up knees. Other than all that, she looked completely normal.

"What happened…?" Rosalie held up her hand in front of my face, practically slapping me in her frustration and apparent anger.

She huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes, "Long story short, Emmett and I were dancing and some fucking bitch decided to push me out of the way so that she could bump and grind with my man. Emmett tried to get her to stop but he didn't want to hit a girl so I did it for him." Rosalie held up her hand, making a fist and displaying a set of bleeding knuckles.

"I let that scrawny chicken-legged chick go," Rosalie paused and smirked, "with a black eye and a fake nose that's probably now broken in two places. I mean, seriously, the fact that she even had a nose job in the first place was so totally obvious it was painful to look at."

"And," Emmett added, pulling Rosalie to his side and kissing her temple, "I do declare that it was extremely hot."

"Watching two girls beat each other up?" Isabella asked.

"Nah, just watching my feisty girl get aggressive over me."

Rosalie and Emmett proceeded to make out in front of everyone unabashedly. Emmett reached into his pocket grabbing his keys and tossing them on the ground. Alice took the keys to her Porsche out tossing them next to Emmett's feet and picking up the key to his jeep. Well, we probably wouldn't be seeing Emmett until sometime tomorrow around midday.

I lifted Isabella up once more so that I could bring her to the car. I nuzzled my nose against her sweet smelling hair and tenderly shifted her in my arms so that she'd be more comfortable. Her head lolled sleepily against my chest, against my speeding heart.

...

Isabella and I sat in the back seat again as Jasper drove back to my house. She was sitting up straight and wasn't looking sleepy anymore.

"Isabella, what happened? Why did you almost collapse?" I was desperate to know why she had pretty much almost fainted while dancing with me. I wanted to know if I was the one to make her knees go weak. I just wanted to know.

"Um… Jake… Jake's…" she pointed to her slim stomach and started drawing boxes with her index finger.

Holy fucking shit. She went weak in the knees by just looking at Jacob Black's abs. I just grunted as indifferently as I could in response and turned away from her, not speaking anymore. Isabella was silent as well. The entire rest of the car ride was awkward as hell. I was such a fool! Isabella only had eyes for that… that… dog. How could I have been so incredibly stupid as to even start to delude myself into believing that Isabella was swooning at my feet? Clearly, her mind and heart was already set on someone else.

When we arrived at my house, Alice and Jasper got out and went inside after bidding Isabella and myself goodbye.

"Edward…?"

"Yeah?" my reply was a little sharp and a little harsh sounding to my ears.

"I… I understand if you don't want to help me win over Jake," she said.

I coaxed my voice to be soft and quiet, "No, no, no, Isabella. Of course I want to help you, because I lov—because… you seem like a good, honest person who deserves to get what they desire in life us and it's obvious that what you desire right now is Jacob Black." Oh Isabella, but I will get that to change if it's the last thing I do.

Isabella smiled and turned in her seat to wrap her arms around my neck in a seemingly friendly embrace.

"Thanks, Edward," she whispered, her lips against my neck and I sighed, content to stay in this position forever.

I drove her home in my shiny silver Volvo and told her that I'd pick her up at seven o'clock sharp on Monday morning for school. I would continue with the plan to get Jacob Black to fall for Isabella Swan because I liked her and I wanted her to be happy… and maybe, just maybe, she might just fall for me instead.

...

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-MinnieVan