Once again I have to give credit to Smyers and S McMillan.
Hope you like this chapter. Let me know if you confused at all. This chapter introduces Bella and starts the interaction between Jacob and Bella.
Somebody was going to get into that impala tonight and have sex. That somebody was going to be her. For one wild panicky breath, Bella Clearwater wanted that fevered dream of delicious lust that hit her with a flash of perception to be real. Hot ripples scorching her skin, his fingers teasing inside of her. Her muscles clenching around him. Her voice, sobbing at the shock wave of pure pleasure….
No, no, no….she blocked the sensory images assaulting her so hard that her knees nearly collapsed under her.
The man getting out of said Impala that had pulled into the parking lot next to her car was , tall, built, effortlessly sexy. She bet that he was just as good with his hands as she imagined. It was all she could do to not stare at his ropey-sinewy body and go right back to fantasy land. And it was a fantasy, not a projection of soon to be reality.
First off she was hardly Miss America, and despite the see all way his gaze pinned her, she didn't have a history of come-ons by rugged , sexy, impossibly erotic strangers in parking lots as if she was living out some kind if True Confessions story line.
Second, she was crazy….certifiable, wasn't she? The cacophony of uncomfortable intuitive flashes that had taken over her life made her feel like a satellite picking up too many signals-most of which were likely products of her ridiculous imagination. Maybe someone was going to get lucky in that Impala tonight but it wasn't her. She hadn't gotten lucky in a long time, not that she cared any….right? Bella diverted her gaze from the man now standing in front of her, she felt the man grab her arm. "Are you alright?" No not really, not at all. She refused to meet his eyes, stared down at the lean muscular chest of the oh so sexy stranger, even his voice was sexy, as she felt something wet between her legs, something that she hadn't felt since Seth. Wow, he moved fast, not that the parking lot was huge. Forks had one tiny grocery store and just had one row of parking in the front and another along the side, the fact that this was the biggest store in town said a lot for the community. It served as everything from a grocery store to a hardware store to a feed store, not to mention a fast food deli, movie rental and community gossip hub. "I said , are you alright?" he repeated. "I am fine thank you, one if you will please excuse me." He let go of her arm bad she ran, actually ran, around the side of the building into the store, her heart hammered like mad. She needed cinnamon not sex. Baking, she loved baking, baking was normal. She just wanted things to go back to normal, not that they ever were before. Course crazy was the new black. She was half polish half Italian, and she had been married to a Quileute Irish man. What did people expect from her anyway?
It was nearly closing time as she raced through the store a grabbed the small jar of cinnamon, some flour and a bag of apples, and headed to the checkout. No wait, she needed ice-cream and lots of it. She picked a gallon of vanilla bean from the freezer case, juggling it with her other items. "looks like someone is making something good tonight , said the checker as she rang up the items. " I wish I was going to your house tonight, yummy." Bella tugged a ten out of her wallet and handed the bill to the girl behind the register, she looked like she was about nineteen. Bella had never seen her before and wondered if they had just hired her. She wondered if Kim had hired her.. She turned around to see her friend Kim coming around the corner. The girl handed back Bella her change and as there hands met, Bella felt the familiar feeling of electricity jolt her. Bella met the girls eyes as she held the now hot change. She was a pretty girl, with bright blue eyes and she was going to get fired tomorrow for stealing. "Hey", Kim said, reaching the checkout, "I thought that was you whizzing thru the store, not planning to stop by and say hi to your best friend?", " Kim I am so sorry, I was just in a hurry tonight and you looked busy in the office so I did not want to bother you." " Wow, was that two excuses for the price of one?". Bella looked away from her friends now piercing eyes. " I was thinking that we should get together and go shopping or something, I hardly see you". " I cant," Bella said all to quickly, " I'm sorry".
She thought about telling Kim that her checker was going to get caught stealing, but she would find that out tomorrow, right? Just like the librarian was going to find out that she was pregnant and somebody was going to get into that Impala to have some super fabulous sex tonight. Or maybe Bella was just crazy like everybody said. Either way keeping her lip zipped seemed like a good idea. Even if Kim was the only person in forks who might, just might not call her crazy. Bella knew that Kim herself had kept her own experiences after the earthquake close to the vest, even if she had shared one of the experiences with Bella. Or maybe it was Bella who didn't want to talk about it and was projecting it wrongly. A piano teacher by trade, shed spent ten years hobbling as a pretend psychic at community fairs and school carnivals. Until the earthquake had changed everything. The real thing wasn't as much fun. And what was the point since nobody believed her anyway. People thought she was crazy thanks to the media circus surrounding her husbands death, called her for the "psychic" services she no longer offered. She gave Kim a quick hug. " I am sorry, I got to go, I will call you later, ok?" "No you wont", Kim called after her. No she probably wouldn't. the man was still there, leaning between there cars. She walked between the cars to her drivers side door, juggling the packages along with her keys. " I am sorry about your husband." She dropped her bag of apples. "What?" she stared at him over the top of the car. It had been nine months since Seth had died. She was used to sympathetic platitudes, even from strangers, but how did this stranger even know who she was…. She had never seen him before the vision tonight, she was certain of that. " I know how it feels to lose someone, and I know you know how it feels , too." " How did you¾ she broke off, stared at him again. A floodlight on the building reveled his features. Square jaw, intensely jade brown eyes, planed cheeks, a full straight lean mouth, dark thick almost military short hair. How could she forget him if she even met him before today?
He was the epitome of hot, his mile long legs clad in worn blue jeans and a plain whit t shirt, untucked yet stretching over impressive Pecs and reveling. tightly muscled arms. His stance was lazy, like a coiled cat. He wore the bearing of a man who could do nothing and anything. Leap tall buildings in a single bound, for example. Action material for sure. He belonged on a movie poster with curling flames in the backdrop. Any women who got into that impala with him would be a lucky women indeed. She felt jittery and sweaty all at the same time. It took everything in her body to block the sensory assault again. Heavens could she be more lame? Fantasizing about a stranger in a parking lot.. Stranger danger that's what he was, for sure. And although he looked street wise dangerous almost ridiculously gorgeous, like a long sharp knife. Nope she didn't need any of that today. Bella struggled to get her breathing under control. " How do you know me?" she asked, repeating the questions she had only managed to get half out before.
"I lost a friend on flight 498." Could they have crossed paths that day? wouldn't she have remembered?. She'd known everyone, in her mind. Lots of people she knew were scared of flying. But just because she had a severe and highly imaginative panic attack the day that her husband had gotten onto one, and just because his plane had actually ended up blowing up, didn't mean she was a real psychic. It just meant that she was a hysterical wife. Coincidence and nothing more. It was safer to think that way. She had been scared to read anything about the crash victims later, crazy that's what she was. No need to confirm it. And if the victims who had matched up to those whose lives had flashed before her eyes that day…she didn't want to know it either.
" How do you know me?" Bella repeated warily. "I went to your house but you were leaving. I followed you here, we need to talk." Her throat completely closed up. screw the apples just get in the car and drive away. Her pulse thumped and she had trouble thinking. Was he stalking her? What if he followed her home? Wild possibilities tumbled through her mind, she was bordering hysteria. "I need your help," he continued. "and you don't know it yet, but you need mine. We don't have much time. " "What?, I cant help you." " I think you can and I think that you are in danger." Yes yes so did she, from him. He was gorgeous but a lunatic, very sad for the women of the world. Whatta waste of flesh. She had to get away and now, she could go back in the store and call for Kim, yes, that is what she will do. " I- I have to go back in the store, I forgot something." " No", No? her heart jumped with both feet in her throat when he set the apples down on top of her car. Relief soaked through her as another car pilled into the now empty lot. She was saved, thank god. The dark car screeched to a stop and a window rolled down. Next thing Bella knew she was knocked down and bullets sprayed as the world rocked in slow motion. She screamed.