Once again, thank you for the fab reviews! I'm so glad you all seem to like these beautiful, troubled men.
The characters are not mine. The beautiful kinky ways they love each other are, so no stealing.

Chapter 3: Resilience

The day is moving more quickly than I would like. Not only is my tryst in the woods with Edward entirely too short, but Alice will be home when I get there. I made sure when I assigned the workload this week that I would have plenty to grade, and even though I'm only prolonging the inevitable, I send a text letting her know I'm staying late.

Alice isn't normally a sexual woman. At the beginning of our relationship, she did what I needed her to do, but left well enough alone when I was content. In later years we hardly connected in that intimate way at all, and both of us are perfectly accepting of that arrangement. The only exception is fashion. Where others get off on porn, Alice gets off on absurd outfits strutting down runways. Barcelona was a big fashion show for her, so I'm sure she won't be happy with my absence.

Less than a minute later I find out I'm right. She's furious. She demands that I come home and strip her naked, but I won't. Part of me is overjoyed that I've taken this step. The rest of me is petrified. I've been with Alice since we were twenty—sixteen years of marriage down the drain. Everything is going to change.

.

The week is hell. Alice has tried to corner me three times, forcing me to be direct with her. It's led to squabbles over dishes and blowouts over bills, but never about the thing I know she wants to yell at me for. What woman wants to acknowledge that her husband isn't attracted to her? My only sanity comes from Edward, who I find smirking sometimes when he catches us fighting. I can see it in his eyes that he doesn't like finding comfort in his sister's unhappiness, but the situation is what it is. For us to be happy, I have to break Alice's heart.

Making love with Edward has been rather subdued. We're limited to our lunch hour, which usually makes one or both of us frantic, but this week has been slow. Sometimes we don't have sex at all. On Wednesday, Edward has made it to our place before me and is laying back on a blanket, soaking in the sun. There won't be too many more days like this with winter approaching, and then we'll be forced into the abandoned classroom on the far end of campus.

When I lie down beside him, he curls into my side and hums, his fingers tracing the buttons on my shirt and his voice soft like melting caramel. "I know things are fucked up right now, but you should know… I've never felt shit like this with anyone else. You make my world feel right."

His eyes are so green in the sunlight, even greener than usual. There's a smile in them that is only barely visible on his lips, and my heart aches so good. I want to love this boy forever. "Someday we won't have to hide," I say, brushing his hair away from his face so I can see him better. "When you're eighteen and after Alice and I have been separated for a while, we'll tell everyone."

"You wanna get married some day?" he asks so casually I almost think he's asking about the History assignment. "Some people don't want to if they've been divorced, but I think I might want to marry you some day if you're up for it." His eyes sparkle. "You up for it, old man?"

"Oh, I can always be up for you, baby," I say, chuckling at his playfulness. And then I sigh. "I don't know. You know what my childhood was like. I was brought up to love and marry one woman 'til death do us part."

"Well, that's horseshit in a barrel," Edward says in a scary imitation of my accent.

"I don't say that!"

"You so fucking do," he says, laughing. "I'm gonna marry you someday, so you know. I'll drag you down the aisle if I have to."

"You won't have to."

"Mean it?"

"I mean it," I say.

Marriage. The boy is seventeen and already thinking about marriage. I can't deny the thought thrills me. My hometown was small and bible-belt Christian, where marrying a man is as far from an option as Pluto is from the Sun. It wasn't even a planet! Edward quirks an eyebrow when he hears me laughing at my lame internal joke, but I simply kiss him and keep chuckling. I can live my Hell with Alice if God keeps granting me perfect moments like this.

.

I have been praying the whole way to Chicago that Esme and Carlisle will, by some small miracle, miss the tension between my wife and me. It's a vain hope. Nearly the second we walk through the door I can see the speculation in Esme's eyes. That woman is far too perceptive for my liking. The three of us—Edward, Alice, and I—shrug off our coats and hang them in the closet, and then Alice heads to the kitchen to help Esme prepare the feast while us men join Carlisle in the backyard, where he's trying to deep fry a turkey.

"I can't believe you actually bought this thing," Edward says to his father. "I was hoping for some actual tradition and here I get Kentucky meets the Pilgrims."

"Shush. Jasper, come over here and check this gauge. Is that right?"

I lean over and check the settings on the fryer. "Yup. You're right on track."

"Oh, thank God. Esme would have killed me for ruining the bird."

I chuckle and scratch at my cheek. I love this man and I think I might love his wife even more. It pains me that what I'm doing to Alice will hurt them too, but maybe, when all the dust has settled, they'll still accept me as their son. It occurs to me, not for the first time, how strange and awful it is of me to jump from one sibling to another. If Edward weren't Alice's brother, I could make a clean break. It would hurt like hell to leave all these people behind, but it would be easier than trying to rearrange the puzzle pieces.

"Hey, you'd still love me if everything went to shit, right, Dad?"

I snap my wide eyes to Edward as Carlisle answers, "Of course. You don't even have to ask."

"Yeah, but I mean really shit. Like, our family in ruins kind of shit."

"Edward," Carlisle says, turning his back on the turkey for the first time, "has that man contacted you?"

"What? No! Why the fuck would you ask that?" Edward's eyes go wild, his movements twitchy and unclean. I've never seen him so untamed. "I would tell you."

"I'm just making sure. It's my job to keep you safe."

"Well, I'm fucking safe. I only meant if I did something bad, you would get over it, right? You wouldn't hold it against me for the rest of my life?"

I stand behind Carlisle, my lips pressed firm and my expression begging Edward to let it drop. Carlisle sighs. "Edward, if there's something you need to say, I would rather you tell me. You didn't… you didn't kill someone, did you?"

"Jeez, Carlisle," I say, setting a hand on his shoulder. "The kid's been living in Forks. If he had killed someone, I would know."

"All right, fine. What's this I hear about a girlfriend?" Carlisle asks, turning once more toward the frying bird. "I was under the impression you were fond of the less fairer sex."

"I am. Bella is just… a cover I guess. It's a small town."

"Now, Edward, I didn't raise you to mess around with people's hearts. I know you've been through a lot, but that doesn't excuse your actions." For the next twenty minutes, Carlisle lectures Edward on the wrongs of treating people like pawns, and I wonder as Edward meets my eyes if maybe he isn't enjoying making me squirm. The lecture, though directed at him, applies to both of us.

The discomfort carries over into dinner, where Esme asks time and time again about how married life is treating her daughter, and when she's going to be made a grandmother. The elephant in the room grows ever larger. After pie is served and devoured, I excuse myself to the washroom and wait for Edward to follow. I'm barely down the hall before I'm spun and pressed against the wall, my boy's lips all over me.

"You shouldn't have done that out there," I say. The words are hard to get out softly with him biting me just the way I like. "I'm working on it. If you tip my hand, we're done for, baby."

"You shouldn't have fucking kissed her." I'm lost in the pain from a hard scratch up my back, and I don't immediately remember what the hell he's talking about. "I should take you over my knee for the little display. The sweet doting husband in front of the mother-in-law. Fuck, I want to spank you red."

This is no good. If I get hard, Esme will notice, as she seems to notice everything. I always wondered if maybe she was a spy in her youth. "Baby, you can do whatever you need to when we get home. Right now, we have to cool it."

"I don't want to cool it," he says. "I want to take you out to the shed and fuck you 'til the only name you know is mine."

There's something nagging at me. This is a bad idea for some reason, but I can't quite wrap my mind around why. As he palms my cock and drags his lips across my skin, Edward whispers all the naughty things he wants to do to me out in that shed. All we have to do is wait until the house is quiet. I try to beg off halfheartedly by using the age of consent laws, but Edward assures me he's legal here in Illinois, too. I'm done for.

After a round of leftovers, Edward excuses himself to bed. The flight was long, he was up late last night, and a bundle of other reasonable excuses. Esme and Alice aren't far behind him, leaving me and Carlisle to share a nightcap. Things at the hospital are going well for him, but he's thinking of signing onto a private practice. He's just not as young as he used to be. I try to commiserate, but all it does is remind me how young Edward is, and damn it, I don't want to think about that right before I sneak off to be with him. Carlisle heads on up, and I make up some such about needing to drink a glass of water. I can't go into my shared room with Alice only to leave again, whether she's awake to know it or not.

"There you are," Edward says, pulling me into him the second I open the shed door. "I've been waiting forever."

"Your dad wouldn't go to bed."

"Sounds like Dad. Damn, baby, you're already hard for me."

"You think I wouldn't be after what you pulled in the hallway?" I ask, relieving myself of my shirt and shoes. Edward is already in his boxers and wrapped in a blanket to stave off the cold.

In a corner of the sizable shed is a pallet of blankets and pillows Edward has laid out for us and a lantern just bright enough to see the contours of his muscles. This boy's body is something from my dreams, soft lines and divots revealing strength on a lean frame. He works hard to maintain this body, and it's a gift that he would share it so eagerly with me.

"Are you going to spank me?" I ask, and I know he can hear the want in my voice.

"Get on all fours," he says, giving my ass a quick swat. I'm naked except for my socks—Edward doesn't want me to get cold.

Why is it that I need to be under this young man's power? Why do I feel safer when he controls me? I don't know. I don't really care. I'm not ashamed of myself when I'm with him. It's the only time in thirty-six years I've ever felt this way. The first swat comes down hard on my left cheek, making me gasp, and then moan when he rubs the tenderness away. He slaps me again, just below the first. Three come in quick succession on the right cheek.

"Please, please," I beg.

Another slap hard across my right cheek. "What is it you want, Jasper?"

"Your cock, baby. Please fuck me."

"Your such a little slut. Fuck. Who's slut are you?"

He spanks me again, and then slaps softly but repeatedly against my balls, forcing from me a high, keening whine. "Your slut. I'll always be your slut."

"Mhmm, my slut. And you think I should fuck my slut?"

"Fuck, baby," I gasp. "Please fuck me."

The tapping on my balls stops, thank fucking God, and then I feel the familiar slide of Edward's lubed fingers at my hole, preparing me. He's inside me not a moment later, his pace relentless. "Come," he says, and with his hand stroking me as he fucks me this hard, there's no way I'll last. If Edward wants me to come, I will come, and I do. The feeling is so intense, my scream is silent save a whistling intake of air.

"That's it, baby," Edward says, his voice ragged. "Come for me. Is that what you wanted?"

Though it's inadequate to describe all I'm feeling, I say, "Yes."

"Good. Now hold still."

With renewed vigor, Edward grips my hips and pumps into me at a speed I won't be able to match. He takes much longer than he should, and I realize he must be doing this on purpose. After several minutes, I feel myself rising to the occasion. When I curse, Edward laughs.

"You are a little slut, aren't you?" Edward says through heavy breaths. "I'm going to make you come again."

"Edward, I can't. I can't. Please."

"You can. Don't fucking tell me no."

When his driving become erratic and then slows to purposeful, deep thrusts, I know he's close, but I also know he won't come until he's had his fun. He reaches around and strokes me just as he did before, and it feels so good I want to cry. He shifts, and oh, God, that feels good, but when he shifts again, fucking shit, that's the spot.

"Right there. Fuck."

"Come for me."

"Edward, I… I… shit…."

I can't take much more of this. I'll break. Fall to pieces like humpty-dumpty and never get put back together again. The hand that's not stroking me is caressing my back, my ass, my thigh. He tells me to come, a whisper. I can hear how much he loves me. I can feel it. And fuck if I don't start crying as I come all over the blanket beneath me.

"Shhh, that's it. Good boy. I'm so proud of you."

"I love you," I say, trying desperately not to let my tears clog my throat. "I love you so much."

"I know. I love you too."

Not too much longer, Edward comes inside of me, and it's the best feeling in the whole world. When he pulls out, he folds himself in my arms and kisses me. Soft, sweet, healing kisses. Not hungry, but still insistent. I should tell him what I've been thinking about, but I don't want him to think it's the sex talking, so I wait a few minutes more.

"Why are you so good to me?" I ask. "I've been such an ass."

Edward looks up at me, his eyes so full of wonder under those thick eyelashes. "I've been treated pretty shitty, and that's a fucking understatement. My life was a fucking endless nightmare before I came to Forks." He takes a breath and shakes his head. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Jasper Whitlock."

"I'm going to ask Alice for a divorce. I figure… after the holidays—"

I'll explain later, because right now my boy's lips are on mine and there's nothing else I'd rather do with them than kiss him silly, like the grin that's now plastered on his face.

A/N: A little bit of sugar to offset the spice, and then… well, shit. What do you guys think? I told some of you this story would be maybe five chapters, but I honestly don't know. The story is in my head, I just can't seem to figure out how long it will take to tell it.

If you haven't checked it out yet, there's a poll on my profile for all you little kinksters. I'm a curious lady.

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lellabeth rec'd this oneshot, Safe in Harbor by sadtomato and I LOVED it. Thanks so much!

/s/8957151/1/Safe-in-Harbor
Carlisle is struggling, two years after losing the love of his life. His best friend sends him on a tropical vacation with strict instructions to cut loose, but Carlisle can't seem to let himself relax. Enter Edward, a fun-loving college student who has an appreciation for sexy older men...

If you guys have any other recs of the slightly kinky to ridiculously kinky variety, don't be shy!