Disclaimer - Stephanie Meyer has legal dibs on all that is Twilight.

Chapter Eleven – Jacob

The first thing we did when we arrived home was raid the pantry. Esme was already at work in the kitchen. She was searing some steaks and frying up some eggs for us. She knew I found these foods acceptable. While we were waiting, Jake and I munched on rice puffs. I didn't actually like the taste of them. The flavor was close to what I imagine sawdust would taste like. I just found them highly entertaining to crunch on. I liked the sound—and eating them was something I always did with Jake.

We chatted on happily. Jake told me about his travel issues.

"I had already considered jumping ship and running. After three hours with my knees in my chin, you can bet I wasn't torn to bits when I realized I would have to run."

"What about all your stuff, Jake?"

"I'm having his suitcase shipped in from the airport," Esme said as she set down two heaping plates.

"You didn't have to do that, Esme," Jacob countered.

"Jacob, I know you went to a great deal of trouble to get here," Esme said, "Please—we were supposed to pick you up from the airport anyway. At the very least, you saved us a trip. Let us do something for you."

"Uh, thank you." Jake mumbled, looking a bit sheepish.

"I knew I smelled something mangy in the house."

Rosalie had entered the room. Esme gave her a disapproving look.

"Really, Nessie, do you have to join him in his eating habits? You know he did eat out of a dog dish once."

"Barry nice pen-min-ship, I ruh-membeh." Jacob mumbled through a mouth full of food.

"Gross," she scoffed, and left the room.

Jake looked immensely pleased with himself.

We both finished off our plates quickly.

I pouted slightly and stared at my empty plate.

"You are still hungry?" he laughed.

"I'm a growing girl." I protested before considering. "Well, not really anymore. Carlisle said I only had a teensy bit more. Either way, I skipped lunch today."

"You did what?" Skipping meals was not in his werewolf cognitive universe. No matter how sad one might be—food was not something to ever be passed up.

"It was cafeteria food. Nasty. I was planning on hunting anyway. I'm thirsty."

"Sounds good to me. Let's hunt."

We ran toward the park. I paused at the same time he did. I could hear a scratching to the west. Bear. Definitely, bear. I was about to run in pursuit, but then I remembered Emmett's sweatshirt.

"Crap," I muttered. I scrambled out of the shirt and leapt to hang it from a branch. The temperature was barely above freezing, and I was in a small tank top. It didn't matter to me. I wasn't cold. I just had to be wary of running into any humans in case they thought I was some crazed lunatic suffering from exposure.

I turned to glance at Jake and found him gaping at me.

His expression was a mixture of shock and an emotion I'd never seen on him before. I could not place it.

I ran to him and pressed my hand against his face. Jake, are you okay?

He jerked quite stiffly away from me and replied in a strained voice, "I'm going to go phase, Nessie. We should hunt."

He ran into a corner of the woods and was back just as fast padding in the direction of the bear.

"Oh, no you don't!" I called and ran in pursuit.

He let me take the bear and ran off to hunt a stray caribou to the south.

When I finished draining my kill, I made my way over to one of the many small streams that dumped into the St. Lawrence. It was a strangely warm day for December in Quebec, and the stream had a small but noisy current flowing through. I climbed into the branches of an overhanging elm and listened to the sounds of the forest. I heard Jake when he approached.

I peaked silently through the branches.

He paused to look around and sniff the air, and then he was phasing. I had seen Jake phase before, but I had not really paid attention. If I were honest with myself, I had not been truly aware of him before. Now, I was. I was very aware of him.

The great mass of fur seemed to fold up. It was like his form curved in on itself, only to bend out suddenly, his human shape appearing. When I was little, I thought his phasing was magical. I realized, as a wave of heat surged through my core, that I still felt that way—only more so.

Jacob was magnificent. I could see every muscle defined in his body. The sun dashed off his russet skin and splayed across the meadow, and I thought this is how Adonis himself would have looked had he ridden his flaming chariot down to consort with the mortals. Jake turned suddenly, shrugging on his pants, and I gasped, almost falling out of the tree.

He spotted me then and ran over to the elm, a smile cracked wide across his face.

"You were spying on me, weren't you?"

I gathered my wits about me. "It's not my fault you poof into human form without any warning."

He laughed. "Come down, Nessie. Stop hiding in trees." I stood on the branch, before gracefully letting myself fall into his waiting arms. He caught me easily.

And then we were touching, and he was staring into my eyes. This stare was the same look as earlier, but now it was magnified up-close. His eyes were inches from mine. I finally understood his expression. I could feel the taut edge to his body. I could hear his heart beating, his lungs breathing. They were accelerated. Jake wanted me.

My body responded unconsciously. I could feel my heart rate increasing, too. My breath was aligning in speed. I felt a swell of heat beginning low in my body and creeping upward. I felt strangely faint.

He jerked his head away from me suddenly, biting his lip. "Uh, sorry, Nessie. I haven't seen you in a while."

I was immediately indignant. It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head.

He set me down, and I lay back on the snow, picking up a yellow blade of grass and playing with it, irritated.

"Jake?" I called quietly.

"Yeah?" a strange, controlled tone to his voice.

"Jake." I called his name again. I was surprised by how deep and husky my voice sounded. "Jake, come here."

He heard the difference in my tone then, and he looked down at me. I couldn't help but notice how boyish his expression was. He actually looked… shy, maybe?

I scooted myself toward him. He still hadn't moved.

"You know I hate talking when I can just show you." I realized I was pouting.

He grinned and sat down next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and plopping us both back into the snow. It was noticeably melting around us. We were getting all wet.

I sat up on my elbow then and reached my other arm across his chest. I gently curled my hand under his chin.

He closed his eyes and took in a jagged breath at my touch.

I took my own deep breath and focused, showing him.

Him standing in the parking lot after school. The full force of my joy. Our laughter. My happiness at seeing him again. Finally, our hunt—seeing him—all of him. I didn't hide my desire as I focused my vision. My sight climbed his contoured back, rounded his broad chest, and then drew my focus slowly up his neck. It rested on his lips.

And then my images were interrupted, my hand knocked aside, and his lips pressed against mine. He kissed me gently, sweetly, and slowly.

I didn't want gentle or slow. I didn't need to feel safe with Jacob. I didn't want to. I wrapped my palm against the back of his neck and showed him exactly what I wanted.

In response, he completely and utterly unleashed himself. Jake pulled me to him with a wild gasp before rolling me under him. His lips pushed in harmony against mine. Our mouths opened to each other, and he deepened the kiss, and I drank him in. His heat was adding to my heat, and my talent was feeding it back to him, so that we fed off of each other, the heat building rapidly, taking on a blistering intensity. My free hand groped his lower back, tightening him against my shape.

And then it wasn't just the heat, I could smell him. Jacob did not smell a mere human to me. Our ardor had enhanced his normal musky smell so that a fiery, wild scent emanated from him, and it overpowered my senses, leaving me totally defenseless.

His hands traced a scorching trail across my body, leaving me moaning helplessly. They left my face, slowly sliding down the sides of my body to cling feverishly to my waist. His right hand moved lower, and he hitched my leg around his waist so his fingers could stalk down my jeans until they reached my knee and from my knee down the length of my calf, memorizing every line and curve of my form.

And I could feel his excitement. I could sense every inch of his hard body pressed against mine. Jake's form covered me completely and yet I fit into him perfectly. I was completely lost in him. My mind and my body disconnected. I had no idea how to react or respond. I just knew that I wanted him to take whatever he wanted. I could feel the heat cresting now, ready to erupt and overflow, and my lips broke from his lips with a shrill moan.

He did not stop kissing me. His tongue outlined my bottom lip before his lips followed the line of my jaw and descended upon my neck.

The neck put me over the edge. I couldn't help it. I wanted more.

I took charge. I pulled his face to the line of my chest, pushing his lips to linger there, and then my hands were moving to the bottom of my shirt, lifting.

And then Jacob's hands were on mine, holding them. He laughed breathlessly, his face burrowed in my neck.

"So are you trying to get me killed?" he breathed. His lips brushed against my ear as he spoke. The tingling sensation that action produced was not helping my logic.

Why, Jake? Why did you stop?

"Nessie," he whispered my name, kissing me softly. "Your dad is going to want to rip me a new one as it is. If we take things further, I know he will kill me."

I'm not sure I care at this moment. I think I want to die happy.

I rolled us so that I was on top of him and exploring his bare chest. My hands happily navigated the muscles in his stomach, while my lips drew a path across his collar bone. He groaned, pulling my hips against him, and I could feel the heat rising between us again.

He shook his head, then, sighing. He grabbed me and pulled me into his lap, still kissing me, but also taking our intensity down several notches.

I huffed. I had been enjoying myself. I did not want to be done.

He brushed my bronze curls out of my face. "Nessie you are beautiful. So unbelievable." he breathed.

I put a finger to his lips, stopping his sentence and showing him: my shirt flowing upward, his bare chest touching my bare chest.

"Nessie!" he groaned, frustrated. "Listen for a minute."

I bit his shoulder—not too hard, but hard enough. I was pissed.

His face contorted in pain, and then he held my face in his hands.

"I love you, Nessie."

He said it in an unwavering voice.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. Ness, I love you. I am in love with you. I have always loved you."

I stared into his deep eyes. I could feel the warmth this time in a slow wave. I clasped his chin and kissed him slowly.

"I think I am in love with you too, Jake." I smiled shyly, softly at him.

Part of me was in total dreamland. I had just rolled through the bushes with Jake. My best friend. Jake kissed me in a way that made my head want to explode. Jake. I was still endeavoring to understand my own behavior. And yet it felt strangely natural, inevitable, like my body couldn't not respond to him—and as if his body couldn't not respond to mine—like there was an invisible chain that pulled us together. My head was still swimming. The adrenaline continued to course through my veins—I still wanted him.

Then I saw the mark on his shoulder, and I pursed my lips, looking down apologetically. "I'm sorry I bit you."

He grinned. "It's mostly healed anyway, so I kind of forgive you, as long as you swear an undying oath that I'm the only one you ever want to bite."

"Sure, sure," I smirked, kissing the crescent scar that was swiftly fading.

"Good." And then he kissed me deeply, making my toes curl all over again.

"So, seriously, how are we going to stop your dad from butchering me? Because he's your dad, Nessie. It's not like I'm going to try and take him."

Ugh. My dad could be so annoying.

I didn't think twice. I picked up my phone and called my mother.