Dark Temptation

Ok so, long story short, I fail a bit at updating this story. There are a lot of excuses/reasons for not updating, least of which being holidays, work deadlines, and the demise of Leelan Oleander's laptop. I couldn't post without her approval, and she couldn't approve it without a laptop so... You see the problem right? Excellent excuses. Seriously though, I'm going to try harder to update more regularly, but I make not promises. Dandiegoose also waved her magic wand over this chapter for me, and made it awesomer.

This story is rated M for language, adult themes, and some smexin'.

Disclaimer: I wanted to say something witty about how I don't own twilight… but then I realised, who reads this shit anyway?

Dark Temptation

Chapter 10

JPOV

I breathed in deeply and sighed, scrubbing my hands through my hair for what felt like the millionth time. We'd been sitting here for hours, Peter and I. Hours. Hours of strained silence; the fucker wouldn't look at me, wouldn't talk to me and I was afraid of opening my mouth in case I earned myself another broken cheekbone. Not that it was really that much of an inconvenience, but that shit hurt and probably wouldn't endear us any further to Montreal's finest. Hell, I probably deserved worse than a broken cheekbone.

Even if I didn't understand why Bella was married to Peter, it still didn't negate the fact that I'd slept with another man's wife; with my brother's wife. I may be a cold-hearted bastard at times, hell most of the time, but I was raised in the South and I was supposed to have manners. I was supposed to respect women, not bend them over a goddamned desk without stopping to make sure they were unattached first. You just don't disrespect a person like that. If my momma were alive to see me now, she'd box my ears for sure, even if it wasn't the worst thing I'd ever done.

Somehow I think my dear, sweet momma would more easily forgive the atrocities I had committed in my time with Maria than the transgressions I had made against Bella and Peter. My momma was a fierce woman who was both proud and terrified for me the day I'd marched out of town to join the Confederate Army. She had always said that there was pride in being a soldier even if there was no dignity in battle. She would never have forgiven me for what I had done to Bella, though. First, I nearly killed her, leading to her abandonment by the love of her life and the family that she had come to love as her own. Then I had taken advantage of her and manipulated her emotions to my own advantage. I sighed deeply once again and hung my head in my hands as I perched on the edge of the suspiciously stained bench I was occupying in our cell.

I must have been projecting my feelings of shame and guilt because I heard Peter shift on his bench across from me. He huffed in annoyance as I looked up at him from the other side of the cell.

"For fuck's sake, Jasper. Stop being so fucking emo; I'm the one who's going to have to explain to my Chief of Police father-in-law why I was arrested for attacking a stripper. You've done nothing wrong in this situation except fail to use your voodoo magic to diffuse the situation." Peter grumbled at me, annoyance seeping out of his every pore.

I snorted a little bit at the image of any interaction between the sedate and steadfast Charlie Swan and the mischievous trickster that I sometimes called my brother. Thinking of Charlie made me think about how he'd feel about the way I'd treated his daughter, and the shame and self-loathing returned full force, battering away any lingering mirth at Peter's predicament. I adjusted my posture and leaned back against the rough cinder-block wall of our jail cell. My head hit the wall with a loud thunk as I stared up at the ceiling, as if I honestly thought it could give me some answers or absolve me of my guilt.

"She's stronger than you give her credit for, you know. As much as it pisses me off to say it, I doubt you could make her do anything she didn't want to." Peter was sounding uncharacteristically sober and serious as he levelled me with his sympathetic gaze. I could still feel some irritation and animosity welling under the surface, but I had to give him credit for trying.

"She's a strong, fierce and proud woman, and when she sets her mind to it, she will find a way to beat you down, through words or actions."

I nodded, agreeing with Peter's statement and accepting it for the olive branch that it represented, no matter how temporary. From what I'd seen of Isabella these past few days, her backbone was made of stronger stuff than most vampires, and she had to be a saint of some sort to tolerate Peter.

"I have a feeling she'd have no problem breaking her hand to punch me in the face, just to prove that she could," I assented. Peter snorted and I rolled my head to face him so that I could meet his amused expression.

"Wouldn't be the first time; she socked a werewolf right in the nose once. She broke three bones but swears ti was worth it. Hell, I would pay good money to see her do it again just so I could capture the mutt's facial expression on a camera this time." Peter was snickering to himself as I felt a low, rumbling growl build up in my chest at the thought of Bella in close proximity to a werewolf.

Peter held his hands up in surrender as he continued to laugh.

"Hey now, it ain't my fault that little girl attracts mythological creatures like I collect belt buckles." He looked down towards his crotch and frowned, as if he only suddenly remembered that they had confiscated his belt when he was booked.

I sighed, realising that there was nothing I could do about Bella's status as a danger magnet at this moment. However, with Peter in a chatty mood, I realised that this could be a good time to learn more about Bella's life. Peter had told me that both Bella and Char were hours away when we were arrested, so I knew that we still had time to kill. I attempted to subtly push out encouraging feelings to Peter as I tried to figure out where to start.

"You know," I drawled out, as if this was just idle speculation and chatter and not a fact-finding mission that was deeply important to me, "when I was in that bar where she works, I overheard a man offering her a full scholarship to do an MBA. I could feel from his emotions that he had no ulterior motives, why would Bella decline his offer?" I decided it was best to start of innocently enough, but I could sense from the glint in his eyes that Peter could see through to my ulterior motives at the abrupt change in topic. I tried to feign nonchalance, but for some reason I found myself waiting with (figuratively) baited breath to learn more about the enigma that was Bella Swan. Err, Bella. I didn't know what last name she went by now that she was married to Peter, since he usually had at least two or three aliases at any given time.

"Fuck if I understand the female mind. She just doesn't want to, and even without the scholarship she knows that I would happily fund any education she wanted to pursue. That girl has never asked another person for a dime, and I'm proud of her for that, even if it is unnecessary. She's built the life that she wants on her own two feet and, well fuck, she's got me…what else could she possibly need?" Peter grinned and waggled his eyebrows at me suggestively, at which I barely managed to supress another growl.

I couldn't understand the possessiveness I felt at the insinuation that her husband, no matter how inconceivably that title fell to Peter, was meeting her needs in that way.

"Being a barmaid? Serving drinks? How is that fulfilling! Shouldn't you be providing for her so that she doesn't need to debase herself in such a menial way?" I blurted out the words. By the stiffening of Peter's frame and the rage he was emitting, I realised that I perhaps should have thought through my words more carefully.

"She owns that bar, dickweed. If you had spent more time paying attention to your surroundings and less time trying to get into my wife's panties, you might have noticed how much of her personality that place encapsulates. Of course, you like to play with your food, not get to know it, don't you?" Peter was practically growling at me, but it felt like my vast vampire brain was stuck on the most inconsequential details.

"She owns a bar?" I spat out, immediately cringing as I realised once again how thoughtless and condescending my words sounded.

"Well, technically, the bar is in my name because…." He paused at this and stopped, as if checking himself from saying more than he intended to. "Well, for various reasons, but yes. She had her hand in every part of that venue, stubborn woman wouldn't let me do anything other than sign my name and fill in on occasion as a relief bartender." I felt a trickle of deceit from Peter as he tripped over his words, but I was so full of awe and confusion that I couldn't focus on it. I had a premonition that was something I would come to regret.

"So, how did you meet Bella? I just don't understand why two are married." If Peter took offence to my insinuation, he certainly didn't show it. Charlotte was his mate, and I couldn't fathom how he could have married someone else.

Peter looked down thoughtfully, a wave of sadness washing over him as he pursed his lips in thought. It looked to me as if he were carefully contemplating what he was going to tell me, a decidedly un-Peter-like characteristic.

"I…" he paused, clearly thinking through his words again before he continued, and I leaned forward in anticipation of the words that would follow. Peter took a deep, unnecessary breath before he locked gazes with me.

"The Isabella Swan that I met had absolutely no one in the world to turn to. She wasn't the confident, sassy spitfire that she is now, and she wasn't the shy, gentle soul that I've learned she was before. She was a scared little girl, hiding behind a façade of confidence who had absolutely no one to lean on." He was radiating nearly devastating waves of sadness and anger, laced with a gentle affection that grew into genuine love as the pause stretched on.

"I became that person for her. I held her as she cried, and I raged as she raged at the burden of the hand that fate dealt her. We laughed together at the absurdity of the world, and we nearly broke under the cruelty of that same world."

I opened my mouth to argue, not understanding how she could feel so alone if she still had her father, her other friends back in Forks, but Peter held up his hand to silence me.

"She was stuck in the middle of a world that nobody else could understand or know about. Who could she turn to?" He paused again and smiled softly, "I fell in love with her, so did Charlotte. How could you not? She has the purest soul, despite the hell that she has lived through."

"What hell? What…" My inquisitiveness was once again squashed as Peter cut me off once more.

"I… I can't tell you her story, it is hers alone to share, but I can tell you that the fact that she continues to get out of bed every morning and manages to find a way to look forward to each day… It shows that she is the strongest woman that you or I will ever face." Peter broke down at this point, his breath hitching and his whole body shaking with uncharacteristic sobs. His eyes were shining brightly with tears that would never fall as he smiled up at the ceiling. He was emitting sadness, and anger, and pride. I could only guess that it was pride at her strength, at her ability to continue. I realised at this moment that Peter truly did love her, as the ferocity of his love and sorrow and anger were nearly overwhelming me.

I struggled not to break down myself as I tried to blanket the room in calm and serenity. My gift had the opposite effect on Peter however, as he rushed across the room at a barely human pace and lifted me from the ground. He held me against the wall, pressing his forearm uncomfortably into my throat and I could feel the cinderblocks crumbling behind me at the pressure.

"Don't you dare try to calm me down, you bastard. That girl was broken, broken, when I found her. You think you can just use your emo-powers and make it all go away? Well you can't! Because of you, two of her ex-boyfriends nearly killed her. Because of YOU! It's all your fucking fault, you and that pack of piss-eyed freaks you call a family. You nearly destroyed one of the most beautiful souls that ever existed, all because you wanted to play at being human. You are not the man I used to call my brother."

Peter was hissing in my face, his voice barely audible to human ears as he sprayed venom everywhere. I could feel the conviction behind his words as I crumpled. Oh god, what have I done?

I felt my heart breaking at his words and it felt like I was drowning in my shame. Peter let go of me and stepped away from me in disgust as I crumpled to the floor. I deserved everything he had said and so much more, even if I didn't truly understand what I had done.

Peter turned his back on me, showing how little he regarded me. Just has he was about to reclaim his perch on the bench across from me, both of our heads snapped towards the doors to our cell. The scent of peaches and sweet peas, tempered by a lingering stench of wet dog, floated down the hallway towards our little enclosure. I could feel the apprehension rolling off of Peter, but it was over overpowered by my own self-loathing. How could I face her now? I'd almost rather remain here, wallowing in the putrid stench of vomit and other body odours than face her, knowing that I had caused so much pain.

Her sweet voice wafted down the hallway as she spoke with the clerks about our release.

"Mary-Jane Parker, I'm here to pick up my husband and his brother? I'm so sorry for leaving them here for so long, but I was in the states visiting Peter's Aunt May. She hasn't been the same since Uncle Ben passed. He was shot during an attempted mugging, you know. Peter was right there, and he's never really recovered." She was speaking in hushed tones. I felt waves of sympathy and understanding blossoming from the direction of the front of the station. She was clearly winning over her crowd.

Peter was struggling to maintain his disdainful glare at me, but I could feel the amusement rippling off of him and his eyes were twinkling with his barely supressed mirth.

I swear I was getting emotional whiplash from all these intense shifts in his mood. Peter was filled with so much anger directed at me, but he was a jovial, fun-loving man at heart who was struggling not to find the humour in the situation. I could feel some remaining undercurrents of his brotherly affection as well, though they were muted. I understood that he no longer saw me in the same light; I could see his perspective. After all, he perceived me as having hurt the woman he loved, no matter how complicated the love between them was. I was struggling to understand his amusement, but I found myself distracted from my internal questions as Bella continued pouring out her sob-story to the captive audience at the front desk.

"He acts out sometimes, he doesn't really mean anything by it though. He was an orphan, his parents having died in a car accident when he was quite young, and was taken in by his aunt and uncle. Then he was helpless to do anything when his surrogate father, Uncle Ben, was murdered in front of him. He was understandably devastated, and just as he started to recover, his high school girlfriend, Gwen, was struck by a drunk driver while walking home one night and died. He's always felt responsible for not picking her up from work that day."

She paused at this point and sniffled, I could tell that the clerks were buying into her story as they murmured words of sympathy.

"So, sometimes the burden of that responsibility overpowers him and he does really, really stupid things. I do hope he didn't cause too much trouble this time. Please do let that poor woman know that I'm deeply sorry for my husband's actions, and if there is anything Peter can do to make amends to her, feel free to pass on his contact information."

I snorted out loud as I finally realised what was going on. I quirked my eyebrow at Peter who was still struggling to hold on to his anger and failing pretty miserably.

"Really? Peter and Mary-Jane? I know this wasn't her idea."

Peter finally gave in and raised his hands in surrender, chuckling under his breath.

"Hey, the identities were my idea, but that right there? That story was all her."

I rolled my eyes at Peter and resigned myself to the fact that he would never grow out of his immaturity. He once asked me to have Jenks work up an identity for him under the name 'Peter Peter Pumpkineater'. When he was stopped at the border with that ID, he has told the border security guard that Peter was a family name, on both sides. Yup, we'd been arrested then too and had to burn those identities to get rid of the stigma of being suspected draft-dodgers.

~~.~~

Our release was expedited by Bella's amusing sob story and somehow she even managed to have all charges against us dropped. The sergeant who was on duty released us with a stern glare and a lecture about behaving more respectfully in the future.

As soon as we stepped out the doors and into the cool overcast evening air, I took a deep breath in an attempt to clear the putrid stench of the jail from my nostrils and nearly choked as I recognized the wet dog smell wafting from Bella to be the repugnant trademark stench of the Quileutes. I turned to her and sniffed the air again carefully to make sure that the smell was, in fact, coming from her.

I screwed up my face in disgust and opened my mouth to chastise Bella and warn her about the danger of associating with those out of control pups. "Bella—"

She cut me off with a sharp glare and held her hand up to silence me.

"Jasper Cullen, I see that expression on your face and I know you aren't about to say anything about how badly I smell, right? Because no woman appreciates hearing that."

I was so taken aback by her abruptness and perceptiveness that I didn't even bother to correct her assumption about my affiliation with the Cullens. Peter stood a careful distance back, his nose scrunched up at the smell as well, but his feelings of disgust were smothered by waves of affection and fuckery. And yes, coming from Peter, fuckery actually was an emotion.

"Seriously babe, were you having an orgy, because you reek of wolf."

If I was shocked by Peter's bluntness and his lack of true disgust at this situation, I was even more shocked by Bella's response.

"So sorry, dear. If I'd had more time, I might have showered after I hugged my brother and sister goodbye, but I thought you might want to be bailed out of jail." She was feeling smug. She obviously knew how awful the wolves would smell to vampires.

"By the way, thanks for cutting my time with my family short, asshole. Seth says 'hey' and Leah said to tell you 'go jump in a fucking fire' or something. I think she's warming up to you." Bella smiled genuinely up at Peter as I looked on in confusion. She had siblings who were Quileute wolves, who Peter had met before. None of this made any sense; they should not have been on such good terms.

"Charlie says he's not too old to fire a rifle and that you should watch yourself because his daughter deserves better than some idiot who can't say out of jail."

Peter barked out a loud laugh that echoed around the parking lot as Bella led us towards a small Porsche convertible.

"No he didn't," he shot back, and Bella frowned ruefully and shook her head with a short laugh.

"No, he didn't. He laughed his ass of at you though. I still do not understand how you managed to win him over."

Peter tapped his nose and winked at her knowingly while she huffed in mock exasperation and rolled her eyes before turning to me. She laid a gentle hand on my cheek as she looked up into my eyes.

"Listen, Jasper, I'd like to apologise on behalf of my husband for getting you arrested, but really, you should expect these things by now. You've known him longer than I have, and I'm fairly certain that his idiocy is not a new development."

As Bella addressed me directly for the first time, Peter's words came back to the forefront and I realised how much I owed this woman. Despite Peter's shaking his head behind her and pleading with his eyes for me to shut up, I felt I owed Bella an apology at the very least. It wouldn't be enough, but at least it would be a start. I looked into her eyes and grabbed her hand gently, struggling to portray as much sincerity as possible without using my gift. Bella's carefree demeanour was quickly shadowed by a guarded expression and a strong undercurrent of suspicion.

"Bella, I am so sorry—"

She paused and turned slightly, allowing her eyes to flick back and forth between my face and Peter's guilty stance until her posture abruptly changed. It was as if a light bulb had gone off behind her eyes and they were suddenly sparkling with a ferocity I had only ever witnessed in newborn vampires before. Once again, she shocked the shit out of me and managed to stun me into silent awe at the rage that flowed from every ounce of her being.

She twirled around and I sighed almost imperceptibly as I realised that I was not, in fact, the target of her anger and hatred. At least not at this moment, I added to myself.

"Peter Fucking Whitlock, you son of a bitch!" I watched in shock as she swung her handbag up and smacked him in the back of the head. From the sound of it, and the manner in which he flinched, I was tempted to believe that she had a brick or something stored in that fucking bag. "What the fuck did you say to him? You had no right!"

She was right in Peter's face, yelling at him as if he couldn't crush her without a second thought. The truly surprising thing was when he shrunk back from her tirade; he truly seemed intimidated for a moment, before a similar switch flipped inside of him. He was suddenly right back up in her face yelling and screaming and I was truly concerned that he could end up hurting her.

"I had no right? Me? That's fucking rich, you had sex with my brother!"

"So what!" She was fucking sexy as hell in her fury, staring down a vampire, a seasoned warrior.

"So? You're my fucking wife! I think I deserve a little more fucking respect than that!"

"Why the hell does that bother you so much? It's not like you're exactly faithful either."

"Because he doesn't fucking deserve you. I'm not sharing you with a piece of shit like him. Not after—"

He was silenced by the coldest and most lethal glare I have ever seen. If it was possible, I would have pissed myself at the intensity of her glare and it wasn't even directed at me. I felt shame and fear flood through Peter at the same moment that Bella's emotions abruptly shut off. It was as if she was there, all wrath and brimstone one moment, and then next she simply disappeared.

"Bella?"

I reached out a tentative hand to touch her, to make sure she was okay. Just before my hand made contact with her arm, she reached up to grasp it, never taking her eyes off of Peter.

"Jasper, I assume you have a hotel or something in the city, I suggest you find your way there on your own. It seems my husband and I need to have a little chat, here." She squeezed my hand gently, then let go, completely dismissing me. I saw Peter gulp nervously and I'm ashamed to admit that I turned tail and ran at a barely human pace to escape that confrontation. I did not want to be on the receiving end of her anger, no matter how much I deserved it. It was somehow even more intimidating that I could not actually feel her anger anymore. I wonder if she's always been able to do that.

~D.D~

I quickly hailed a taxi and made my way back to the hotel, lost in thought. I was silent on the way back as I recounted my experiences since running into Peter last night. Never in my life would I have thought that Major Jasper Fucking Whitlock, the God of War, would have been terrified of a mere human girl.

As soon as I thought that, I realised she wasn't just a weak human girl, she was a sharp, intelligent woman who held untold power. She had managed to cut me off from her emotions, and whether it was consciously or unconsciously done, it was a powerful thing. She was a human, surrounded by a vortex of mythical creatures who managed not only to stay alive, but to stay fierce and undaunted in the face of things that would have made a stronger man than I fold. I didn't know the details of what she had been through, but I knew it was enough to make Peter feel pain and rage like I had never experienced from him before at the memory, and yet she showed no weakness.

As I contemplated whether it was stupidity or strength that caused her to face a hot-headed and enraged vampire like Peter without fear, I made my way through the hotel and let myself into my room. I quickly shed my clothes as I continued contemplating the enigma that was Bella Swan-Parker and stepped into the shower. I was eager to wash off all the stress, confusion and smell of jail which was surrounding me.

I idly wondered if Peter had given her the Whitlock name as I adjusted the nozzles in the shower, impatiently waiting for the water to heat up. I felt an unexpected twinge of jealously as I contemplated it being Peter who got to bestow my name upon Bella, and not me. Wait, it's not like I wanted to marry her, right? My cock throbbed at the thought and I frowned down at the traitor.

That would never happen anyway; she had to hate me if I caused her half of the pain that Peter had implied. Even while I tried to convince myself of these truths, the mere thought of her eyes fiercely flashing as she unleashed her rage on me only served to spur me on. My cock hardened even further as images of her flashed through my mind, and my hand slowly travelled down my body for another round of Bella-inspired self-abuse.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I had completely neglected to acknowledge the other presence in my room until a small, cold hand wrapped around my erection and a familiar form pressed up against me in the shower.

"I see you've missed me too, Jazzy-poo," she whispered for behind me, and my wood instantly deflated as I reached down and pushed her hands away from me.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Alice?"

Ba-dum-bum-chhhhhhh. Did ANYONE see that coming?

I don't know that I had a sound-track for writing this chapter, but I will tell you the AWESOME song that I've been playing a lot lately... It's the new song by the Lonely Island called I Just Had Sex (feat Akon), go youtube it. Epic funny. Srs epic funny.

You can also keep an eye open for my Twilight-25 entries which I'm working on. I doubt I'll get them finished by the deadline, but I'm working on it, when the inspiration strikes.

Have you been reading Behind Enemy Lines by Jazzella, because WOW is it completely insane. You should also check out When Life Gives You Lemons: Eat Them by DreamersDaze, she's only posted the first chapter so far, but it is going to be superawesome, believe you-me.

PS - OMG I BROKE 100 Reviews! I'm almost at 150! how fuckawesome is that! Also amusing that between and , it actually turned out to be the mac to my cheese, Leelan Oleander who was my 100th review. On , I think my 100th review was an anonymous reviewer who was sent over by a friend of mine to cheer me up.

PPPPPPPPPenis, I mean PS - I almost forgot to add in that a) I have a snazzie new banner that was made for me by ysar on the graphics team at . Its super awesome, and can be found here: http / bit (dot) ly / gIGOMa

AND, I was recc'd or something'd on Sunday Selections at the Wordy Bitches AKA Fellowship of the Peen blog back in December. I squealed like a little girl for like 10 minutes. Seriously, I was excited. You can check out the feature here: http / wordybitches (dot) com / ?p=1164