A/N Yeah, it's been forever since I've done a chapter… but this one is a goody! Hopefully that'll make up for the lateness… :D

Chapter Twenty-Two

I woke up after what felt like a few moments, though the sun had fallen to lay right beside the horizon as I propped myself up with my elbow. I looked over at Kyle, who was still asleep. Smiling to myself, I move his arm away from me as I started getting out of the bed. His arm snaked back around my waist and tugged me down. "Five more minutes." He mumbled without opening his eyes. Laughing, I flopped down beside him and lightly started tickling his side, causing him to flinch away.

"Come on Kyle. Grandma probably has food waiting for us." This caused him to open his eyes, and when he did, he snickered. I automatically touched my hair, "What?"

He reached over and traced something down my face, "You rolled over onto your iPod earphone. It caused a mark on your face." I frowned.

"It happens, alright? You try falling asleep with headphones in and not getting some sort of mark."

"It's fine. I just didn't know your skin could be marked up like that."

"I'm part human. Of course it still can. I blush, don't I?" I argued, causing him to nod with a little glint in his eyes. I started to feel around for my ipod, hoping to figure out what that glint actually meant.

Except Kyle noticed my hand feeling around, and he grabbed hold of my hand and before I realized his intent, he had me pinned underneath his body. "You're slow without that extra head start of knowing my thoughts." He teased, and I would have shown him how fast I actually was, when his look went from teasing to searching, "Was Esme right?" He asked quietly.

I didn't need to read his thoughts to know what he was asking about. "No. Well. Maybe," I blushed, to my distaste. I tried to take my hand away from his to hide the redness, but his grip let me know he wouldn't let that happen without a fight. This wasn't a moment to use my strength to hide, but to use my strength to be courageous. I stared back at him, a bit of defiance shining through, "Yes. You have a power over me. When I'm with you, I feel stronger, happier." At this moment the embarrassment overrode my courage and I yanked my hands away to hide my face.

He chuckled softly, before kissing the parts of my hands that were covering where my lips were. "Thank you. You saying something that's corny is more meaningful than the words you actually said."

I pulled my hands away to glare at him. "Here I am, confessing that I don't see you as just a meal ticket, and you laugh at me?"

He kissed me again, this time on the lips. As he pulled away, he was smiling softly, a type of smile I had never seen on his face yet. A smile that was full of vulnerability. "I've known that you weren't just a blood-sucking hybrid out for my blood for awhile now. You've hung around even when you didn't need to, or didn't get anything out of it. The first time I saw you I thought you were mega attractive, but as you were around more and more, I started looking forward to our conversations, intellectual ones that make me think about the world around us. You are making me grow up Edelle, since you act so mature for your age. Even more so when I think about your actual age." He said with a grin and I placed my hands on the back of his neck, pulling him down towards me.

"A normal human almost seven year old wouldn't do this." I whispered before kissing him deeply.

He returned the kiss, and leaned backwards as he did so, pulling me up to a sitting position. With very little difficult I moved my legs so that I was sitting on his lap. He smiled into the kiss, "very smooth." He murmured.

"Shut up." I whispered sarcastically back as he pulled away to laugh. I soon joined him with a soft chuckle, but didn't move away from his lap. He grinned while I started playing with his hair that was near his neck.

"So. I'm not just an excuse anymore?" He asked, causing me to smile.

"Well, I don't kiss just anyone." I saw, causing my face to darken slightly. Stupid Braden. Kyle noticed and took my wrists, making me stop and withdraw my hands from his head. "We'll talk about it later. Can't we just…you know…"I raised an eyebrow, causing him to shake his head.

"I won't forget this." He promised and I pouted, causing him to laugh, "And you can't make it so I do either." He reminded me.

"You're the only human who I can't."

"And that's what makes me so damn special." He joked, causing me to shake my head.

"There's other reasons too." I replied softly, which was the ticket to getting him to kiss me again. This kiss was a bit more heated than the previous one, and soon I found it that my back had found the mattress again, my hands now splayed across his upper back. His one hand was resting on my hipbone while the other was cradling my head.

Unfortunately, a few minutes into our make out session, we were interrupted when Kyle was carelessly tossed across the room. Dad had been kind enough to ensure he landed on the bean bag chair in the corner, but it still was enough to piss me off. "It's called knocking Dad."

He glared back at me, but I wasn't going to be cowed down now that I had a soft part in my heart. After all, he had just thrown that soft part across the room like it was a piece of beef. "I came here to inform you guys that it was supper-time, but it seems like Kyle is not hungry. He's already been snacking."

I snickered, "Dad, just say he was eating my face." This apparently was the wrong thing to say, because it caused Dad's face to narrow even more. I casually stuck my Ipod in my ear and pressed play, allowing me to zero in on Dad's thoughts. When I heard them, my own face softened. "Dad, he's my boyfriend. Would I be dating him if I didn't know he could be trusted? He wouldn't follow through with the ideas flowing in your head, no matter what Emmett was suggesting to him earlier. Half those ideas gave Kyle nightmares just thinking about them." Sadly, it was true. As Kyle was napping, he did have a nightmare, but it was because some of the things Emmett suggested weren't even humanly possible for Kyle. He would have had a few broken bones.

Edward looked at Kyle, who returned the gaze calmly. "Sir, I respect your daughter. As much as I think about it and consider it, I'm not going to do anything without us having talked about it first."

Dad didn't remove his gaze from Kyle until a moment later, when he heard the sincerity in Kyle's voice echo through into his thoughts. After that heart-changing moment, I shielded Kyle's thoughts, something I really should have started doing once I had woken up. "So, it's dinner time?" I asked casually, "We better get going now if we want to eat it while it's remotely warm. Kyle takes a while getting over the river."

"While you two were…busy…Emmett was tossing trees and making a small trail. There's a bike by the door and a small bridge over the river."

"Wow. You guys sure are accommodating here." Kyle remarked, causing my dad to flash his vampire teeth at my boyfriend. Kyle was unfazed however, since I spent most of the time glaring at him. "Well, we better get to it, not let all of Emmett's hard work be wasted."

I waited for my dad to take the lead to leave, but then I noticed how cemented his feet were to the ground. With a sigh I got off the bed. "Seriously Dad? You would be able to hear us most of the way back to the house." I reminded him, but he shrugged it off.

"But by the time I'm halfway to the house, I'd have to hurry back if something happened. And depending how easily Kyle gets spent, the deed would be done." With a wicked glint in his eye, and my lower jaw having dropped to the floor, my dad left the room. Kyle was in as much shock as I was.

Did he just hint I'm not good in bed? Kyle thought, not being able to help but be offended. I chuckled awkwardly.

"I think he's just been spending too many decades around Emmett. When my mom hears about that comment, he'll get a talking to." I raised my voice slightly at that last part, so my dad knew it was for his benefit.

"Not if you guys want to spend the next weekend in the same state." He called, causing me to shake his head. Dad was too far gone for Kyle to hear what he had said, so I repeated it to him. My boyfriend just laughed and gestured to the door.

"Shall we go eat?" He asked, and I quickly fixed my shirt and hair before smiling.

"let's."

When we got to the main house, I stopped, hesitantly smelling the air to insure that the thoughts I heard weren't fake. "My Great Grandpa's here!" I told Kyle excitedly, causing him to stop on the bike awkwardly.

"I just dealt with your dad and uncles, now I have to deal with the human side as well?" He joked, causing me to smack him lightly.

"No worries, Charlie's mellowed. After seeing Renesmee and I grow up so quickly, he's not scared of anything. But why is he here?" I questioned quietly, waiting until Jasper came outside. From his thoughts I knew that Dad or Mom would have come out, but they were entertaining Charlie.

"His scent has to be absorbed around the house." Jasper explained, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Well, we're having a few extra guests that aren't exactly vegetarians over for the wedding, and we need to insure that they can handle themselves at the wedding around our human guests. "

I blinked in surprise, "And Jacob's allowing vampires to come?"

Jasper shrugged, "Did he have a choice? It was Renesmee's request…something about wanting to meet more vampires that have befriended our family over the years, even though they have a different meal preference then ours."

My heart sunk when I knew who he was referring to. He looked at me curiously and I realized that my emotions had done a downturn that he was curious about. I tried to liven up my emotions a bit as I asked, "Kyle will be alright, won't he?"

"Of course. He's your mate after all, and his smell will be all around the house by the time the wedding comes around. In more places than others," Jasper replied with a grin, causing me to struggle to not blush, but with no prevail.

"Good," I looked at Kyle, who was looking a little nervous, "It'll be fine Kyle. Most of the vampires invited respect Carlisle enough to find meals elsewhere. Forks will be safe, they'll go farther for their meals."

He forced a smile on his face, "Most?"

"Well, one or two might be tempted, so don't go around spilling blood." I told him with a smile.

"I'll keep that in mind."

I looked at Jasper, "Not all the vampires have internet access, or a permanent address. How did you get all the invites to them?"

"When Emmett and Rosalie went on their anniversary world trip last year, at that time Edward had already heard Jacob thinking about proposing once Renesmee stopped growing. Rosalie just picked a date that Jacob would have either already proposed by already, or we'd have accidently made him propose by."

I could remember when Jacob started thinking about proposing, but… "How come I didn't know any of this?"

Jasper smiled, "You might have spilt the beans…so Rosalie and Edward didn't dwell on it too much, well, Rosalie more than Edward since Edward grumbling wouldn't have been too suspicious. Rosalie picked the date after she and Emmett had left."

I was still confused on how I didn't pick up on any of the thoughts regarding the wedding. Perhaps I was too interested in all the stories they had to tell about everyone they met and avoiding all the stories of their public displays of affection to dwell on it too much. I tried not to mull around Emmett's mind too much. I already have emotional scars from the things that came out of his mouth, let alone his mind.

Jasper was still looking at me, his suspicions rising. It's not just because of Kyle that you don't want other vampires to come…

"No…I'm also concerned about the Volutri thinking that there is an army here…it almost went badly last time they thought so." I reminded him, but he shrugged.

"The Volturi wouldn't dare. We have friends all over the world…if they were harmed, the vampire society would be furious over the injustice. The Volturi stay in power because they hide behind their rules and sophistication. They'd have to be really creative over their reason for coming here and causing a disturbance. You're safe here, Edelle. " Jasper said with a reassuring smile as he used his power to aid me in feeling more calm.

No. You guys are safe from the Volturi because I am here…but that may also be the reason why your friends may be the ones you should fear… My power would be staying on permanently while our guests were here. There is no way that my parents would find out what I have been doing.