"It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; it is less difficult to know that it has begun."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Chapter Seven

Bella hadn't been sure what to expect when she had leaned forward and kissed him. Jasper, the cowboy she couldn't stand when she had arrived at the ranch. She had never thought about kissing him until now, in this moment. And in the highest of her expectations she assumed it would be nice; pleasing, even. But this?

Never this.

Warmth flooded from her face to the very tip of her toes. The world itself stopped and then spun wildly out of control. Her mind went completely blank, and her heart…

Her heart had never pounded so much, had never increased its rate so rapidly in a single moment as their lips collided, bursting forth a series of strange, gratifying sensations that sent Bella's whole entire body kindling at his touch.

No, she wasn't kindling, Bella realized as Jasper placed one of his strong, rugged hands on her waist and the other on her cheek.

She had already ignited.

And it was the most wonderful feeling on earth. Bella didn't want it to stop as she lifted her arms and wrapped them around Jasper's neck, pulling him closer to her flying wayward heart which pounded so rampantly inside her chest.

After a few deep, burning kisses the two broke apart and stared at each other silently in careful inquisition.

What just happened? Bella thought in immediate shock, staring at Jasper with a look of awe on her pale, dazzled face. Did I just kiss…Jasper?

She couldn't believe she had done that. Out of all the senseless, idiotic things she could have done she just had to make a complete fool out of her-

"Wow," Jasper remarked, the corner of his lips twitching slightly. "That was…interesting," he drawled slowly, lifting his hand and giving his head a brief scratch.

Interesting?

Bella raised an eyebrow and then with a playful roll of her eyes socked him in the arm. "Interesting my ass!" she exclaimed, watching as several set of emotions played out across his face.

First, pain. Second, a slight trace of alarm. Third?

Bella screamed as Jasper reached out and unexpectedly tackled her sides. Air whooshed out of her lungs as he picked her up and swung her over his shoulder, spinning them around near the edge of the cliff.

"Jasper! Don't!" Bella sputtered between wails of laughter. "We're going to fall!"

Grinning, Jasper stopped and allowed her to slide down halfway, letting her hang there in his warm, enduring embrace. He gazed softly into her wide, startled eyes and murmured huskily, "Not if I can help it."

Bella's heart fluttered as she felt Jasper's hard, lean body pressed rather intimately against her mid-section. Gulping nervously, she lowered her gaze to his chest and blinked in embarrassment.

"So, um…thanks for showing me this. You-I mean, this, is truly amazing," Bella murmured.

Jasper smiled, and simply the sight of him doing so caused her blood pressure to rise. Calm down Bella, she chided herself, wondering why she was freaking out. She had been held by a guy before, so this was really nothing new. But still…with him everything felt so atypical.

Jasper's teasing, amicable voice immediately snapped her out of her thoughts. "Earth to Bella…"

"Sorry, what?" Bella questioned, kicking herself mentally in the head for not paying attention. Stupid hormones.

"I said we should probably head back. I need to start working with some of the horses."

"Oh." Bella tried to hide her disappointment as they began walking back to Sweet Thing, who had happily made herself at home in the shade of a tall sycamore tree. "Hey girl," she murmured affectionately, patting Sweet Thing's neck and smiling when the mare let out a gentle nicker.

"She's definitely lived up to her name," Bella remarked, glancing down at Jasper as he started to untie the horse. Once he was done, he hopped onto Sweet Thing's back and offered Bella a hand.

"Wanna hear the story of her birth?" Jasper asked as he easily pulled Bella up into the saddle. He wrapped his arms around her waist and then clicked his tongue softly. Sweet Thing stopped grazing and obediently started back on the trail.

"Sure," Bella replied, trying to ignore the butterflies that had immediately erupted inside her belly the second Jasper's hands had fallen to her sides. Instead she did her best to focus on the story…she honestly was curious about it.

"Well, her mother Minuet was always a fierce little thing…still is, actually. Charlie always had the plan of breeding her, but he wasn't sure which stallion would be the best match to suit her fiery personality. He didn't want a real crazy stallion, because well, you know how those are."

"Crazy?" Bella guessed and rolled her eyes.

Jasper chuckled. "You got it. Anyways, several years ago Charlie bought this one stallion that was literally the craziest stallion I have ever come across in my whole entire life. He was beautiful too. Stark black with one small white marking on his forehead that looked like…" Trailing off, he smirked. "You'll never guess."

Bella bit down softly on her lip and took a shot in the dark. "Hmm…a heart?"

"Damn, you're good."

She laughed. "Shut up and continue the story, I'm engrossed."

"You're gross?" Jasper said incredulously, his tone light and playful.

"Jasper.'

"Right. Where was I? Oh yeah. So your Pop decided to put Blackjack in the stall beside Minuet, and you'll never guess what happened."

Bella groaned and exclaimed, "Enough with the guessing already!"

Jasper grinned. "Okay, I'll just lay it on you. Minuet stuck her head over his stall and nickered. That's major considering how extremely temperamental she was…you know old Hammer? Well she was literally ten times worse than him."

Bella grimaced. "Lovely."

Jasper continued on. "Your Pop knew right away that they were meant to be. I mean, it wasn't every day that Minuet nickered and in a friendly way, might I add. So he took the daring risk and bred them. Once it was time for Minuet to give birth out popped Sweet Thing who had the exact same colorings as her mama. By that time your Pop started gettin' concerned, thinkin' we were gonna have another crazy mare at the ranch. You wanna know how Charlie knew Sweet Thing wasn't the same?"

"Enlighten me," Bella replied, listening curiously.

"When Minuet was born Charlie walked right up to her to scratch her muzzle and she nipped him, drawin' blood and everything. But when he walked up to Sweet Thing she swiped her tongue over his fingers and nickered as sweet as my grandmother's fresh-made jam. And that's how she got her name."

Bella smiled and leaned down to brush her hand against Sweet Thing's neck. "She sure is a sweet little thing," she whispered.

Jasper grunted softly in agreement and murmured, "You two got somethin' in common..."

Wait, he thought she was sweet? The cowboy was out of his freaking mind! Since when had she ever been sweet and to him in particular?

Okay, so maybe she had had a couple of weak moments after they had kissed, but that was it. She had never intentionally been sweet to him and that was what set her apart from Sweet Thing. Jasper apparently didn't understand that.

"I know what you're thinking," Jasper said the moment they had dismounted inside the barn.

Bella raised a skeptical eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"You're thinking that I'm psychotic for calling you sweet and at this very moment are secretly plotting to clog me with a horse shoe in my sleep," Jasper said in a serious, matter-of-fact tone.

Bella stared at him incredulously for several moments before bursting out laughing.

"Where in hell do you think of these things?" Bella cried, exasperated as she slid off Sweet Thing's bridal and hung it on the hook on her stall door.

"Well, not exactly in hell per se but perhaps in another place where-"

"Never mind," Bella interrupted, rolling her eyes. "You were right about me thinking you're crazy. But now that you've mentioned clogging…"

Jasper chuckled. "Touché."

There came a deep, annoyed voice from the other side of the barn. "Ahem."

Bella jumped, whirling around and peering over Sweet Thing to see a quite handsome, irritated looking cowboy standing near the entrance of the barn, his stunning hazel eyes gleaming profusely in the sunlight.

"Hey Stace," Jasper greeted the other cowhand with a nod of his head before glancing back over at Bella. "We just got back from a trail ride."

"Aren't you supposed to be working with the stallions?" Stacy inquired, lifting an eyebrow. He walked over to them and flashed Bella a quick heart-melting smile. "Don't worry, I'm not blaming you." He winked at her and gave the horse a couple firm pats on the neck.

"Yeah, I'll head over there just as soon as I finish putting away Sweet Thing's tack," Jasper replied, feeling a little bothered by Stacy's flirtatious behavior towards Bella.

"Bella and I can handle it," Stacy remarked, narrowing his eyes. "You go ahead and get started, Boss is already wondering where you are."

"Boss?" Bella questioned.

"Charlie," Jasper and Stacy replied simultaneously.

Jasper shot the other cowhand an annoyed glance and then gazed at Bella questionably.

"Um…yeah. It's okay Jasper, go ahead. I don't want to get you in trouble with Charlie," Bella replied finally, feeling a bit uncomfortable by the whole situation. Where was all this tension coming from? She certainly hadn't seen Jasper act this way before, so why all of a sudden? Why now?

When Jasper had reluctantly left the barn Bella glanced up and into the startling hazel eyes of the oldest cowhand. He held her gaze steadily for several moments until she felt a bit uneasy and glanced away, back at the horse.

"So, um…what do we do now?" she questioned, desperate to fill the awkward silence that had consumed the barn the moment Jasper had left. Brushing a strand of dark brown hair out of her eyes, she bit down gently on her bottom lip and waited patiently for Stacy to speak.

"Well, first we…take that blanket off."

Without any warning Stacy stepped forward, brushing his front too closely against Bella's backside. He ended up locking her inside his embrace as he reached over with both arms and grabbed the blanket off the horse's back.

Bella's eyes grew wide. What. The. Hell?

This was certainly not what she had planned when Stacy had offered to help her put away the equipment. Jeez, what exactly was he intending to do, assault her openly right there in the barn? Definitely not a very smart maneuver if you asked her. He had quite a few bees hovering around in that pea-sized brain of his if he thought that he'd get away with that ingenious shenanigan.

"Baby, you feel so good…" Stacy's deep, salacious murmur broke through Bella's thoughts and with eyes blazing like wildfire she whipped around and kneed him hot and heavy in the balls, her heart hammering loudly inside her chest.

"And to think I once thought you were polite," Bella exclaimed hotly, glowering down at the fallen cowhand who was yowling and clutching his manhood. "Rotten jackass, don't you ever touch me again!"

Leaving him on the ground to endure the agony, Bella marched straight out of the barn and into Jasper's arms.

"Bella?" Jasper said urgently, stopping her by placing his hands firmly on her shoulders. Noticing her red face and trembling hands, he lowered his head and asked calmly, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Him," Bella said curtly, pointing her finger angrily in the direction of the barn, "That disgusting, foul-smelling ninnyhammer!"

"What did Stacy-did you just say ninnyhammer?"

Fuming silently, Bella crossed her arms and stuck up her chin. "Yes, I did. It means-"

"I know what it means," Jasper said, grinning slowly, "I just never heard it used before. Now, what did Stacy do so that I can kick his ass?"

She started to cool down. "Nothing," Bella said, sighing, "just forget about it, okay? He already got what was coming to him."

Jasper stared at her curiously and asked, "Yeah? How?"

Bella shrugged and began walking towards the house. Glancing over her shoulder at him, she smirked and said, "Let's just say he won't be riding a horse any time soon…"

So Stacy turned out to be a jerk. And Jasper got a little jealous..hmm, what does that mean? Review and let me know what you think. :)

I'll post the 8th chapter next week! Thanks for reading, guys.

~LWS