25 - Choices
I woke up abruptly and nearly fell out of my narrow bed, for a moment I could not get my bearings since my still half asleep mind could not seem to work. My brain was getting confused trying to figure out what my mother was doing in the dorms and why was she telling my brother to get ready for school.
"Mom, can't I just sleep a little longer?" Seth's voice sounded muffled, almost like he was hiding underneath a pillow.
"No, you came in very late last night and if I don't make you get up before I leave for work you will oversleep and will be late for school again." I heard my mother's stern reply. "Then I will get a call from one of your smug teachers that are determined that you are a child delinquent."
Memories flooded me as my mind finally started to work again, I was not in the dorms instead I was back home. Suddenly something really important popped up in my mind - Phil. Had I made all that up or had he actually told me he loved me in that roundabout not going to come out and say it kind of way. I quickly opened the drawer on my nightstand and pulled out what was inside.
My rose was starting to wilt, maybe I should have put it in some water. Of course then I would have to explain to my mother why there was a flower in my bedroom. I think Phil might lose all his standing in my mother's eyes if she figured out he was sneaking flowers into my bedroom. I was not ready to explain my relationship with Phil to my mother, in fact I had to figure it out for myself first.
After finding the rose on my bed last night I had immediately rushed to my window, hoping to finally pin him down. I had thrown the small window as wide open as possible but there was nothing outside except an empty cold and wet night. The only noise I could hear was the sound of rain and the fainter sound of the ocean.
I had dashed back to the bed where I had left Seth's phone but when I tried to call Phil yet again but he was still not answering. Looking to my nightstand I considered trying yet again but decided against it, he knew I was looking for him and he had better have a damn good reason for not answering.
I could hear my mother making breakfast and having skipped dinner last night my belly decided to chime in - well more like roar at me. Putting my half wilted rose into a large book, I pressed down firmly hoping that I could dry it out and save it. The note and the small charm would be stashed away safely in my pocket. I wanted something solid to hold onto, a reminder in case I ever got nervous or unsure about Phil. I knew there were some decisions that had to be made, but as of yet I did not know all the variables. I promised myself I would pin Phil down, even if I had to sit on him and bar the door. I was going to have a long talk with him and no one was going to interrupt.
It did not take me long to get dressed, I had taken most of my good clothes to school. So I was in cutoff jeans, a T-shirt full of wholes, and my old flip flops.
"Morning Leah," Seth said with a perky voice from the kitchen table. I grumbled my reply, he was a little too happy this morning considering he slept less than four hours last night.
Kendrick and my pack had showed up very quickly after I tried to get an answer out of Phil and unfortunately Sam's pack was not far behind.
I had tried to thank Kendrick for coming out and finding both my brother and I. Unfortunately he would not be thanked and had immediately downplayed his role in the rescue operation, giving me a wide smile before he told Phil about the pressing need to get going. "The other pack is right behind us, it would be best to clear out."
"Leah you are family, anytime you need help we will always be there. No matter what.." Kendrick had told me, his smile reaching all the way to his beautiful violet eyes. "We will be around but you will not see us," he told us before his image wavered and disappeared. I hear his his heartbeat get quieter as he walked away, but I could not see him anymore. My pack looked very impressed, we did not know that they could go invisible.
Phil who had held me through the entire exchange had given me one more squeeze and then he too disappeared - I could still hear his heartbeat next to me as he followed me to hide behind some shrubs. I had quickly removed his jacket, and phased into a wolf. I was a little nervous phasing into a wolf in front of Phil, while he might intellectually know that I turned into a wolf it is a whole different story to actually see it happening. I should never have doubted my Phil, I got an invisible hug before his jacket was picked up off the ground before it too disappeared.
We had gone to meet Sam's pack before they could come to us and encounter Phil and Kendrick's scents.
Nothing much was accomplished as we had spent several hours searching the region for any signs of the leeches. They too knew the trick of going through water to disguise their tracks. I finally gave up around three in the morning, and headed home with Seth. My mother had been asleep on the couch when we got home, we woke her up and sent her to bed after reassuring her we were unhurt. It really must be hard having both your children be werewolves, I was amazed my mother had not gone insane with worry in the past year.
I had barely sat down at the small kitchen table when there was a knock on the back door. "Morning Mrs. Clearwater," I heard Sam say as he walked into the kitchen, he was not alone. When it rains it pours, or so the old saying went. I watched as Seth took the remaining eggs and dumped them on his plate, Paul had come along with Sam. I grabbed the toast and jar of jam that was on the table pulling them both in front of me - if I did not finish my food quickly Paul the bottomless pit was going to consume every scrap of food. I smeared jam on my toast before stuffing half of the slice into my mouth. Small details like the fact that the food was on someone else's plate did not seem to bother Paul too much, he would grab and eat any food in sight.
"Oh hello Sam, what are you doing here?" My mother asked giving me a searching look. It was too early in the morning for me to start even attempting to interpret my mother's expressions so I gave her a non-committal shrug. I used the excuse that my mouth was full of toast.
"We just came here to talk to Leah and Seth, Jake is supposed to be meeting up with us as well. He should be here soon." Sam explained in a polite tone, was it just now or had he always been such a freaking kiss ass.
"Do I need to make something more to eat?" My mother wondered out loud as she allowed the two large boys to enter her small kitchen. It was suddenly getting very crowded in the tiny room.
"I would not do that, especially since Paul is here. You know what they say, you feed a stray dog once and he will keep coming back for more." I heard Jake comment from the back door, he did not try to come into the already overly crowded room.
We all laughed except for Paul and my mother. Though she did turn back to the sink and start concentrating very dutifully on scrubbing the dirty pan from breakfast.
"Hey Jake," Paul told him while trying to shove him back out the door.
"Stop it you two," Sam interrupted. "We need a plan as to how we are going to be dealing with these new leeches."
I looked around the kitchen, everyone was a little bleary eyed from a definite lack of sleep in the past twenty four hours. It looked like Sam had been out patrolling all night. I felt guilty for a moment, but that quickly passed, Sam had made his choices and he had enough pack members to help him out. There was no reason for him to be out all night, only his own stubbornness. So if he chose to do that it was not my problem any more, I had stopped worrying about his wellbeing a while back.
"Let us take this outside," I told everyone begrudgingly, these were not the visitors I wanted this morning. I wanted someone with green eyes and dimples, was that too much to ask for?
I took them past the small area that constituted my back yard, especially with a guy as volatile as Paul I did not want him getting pissed and breaking my mom's home. "We need a plan," Jake stated quickly as soon as we were past the first set of trees. "There are at least seven vampires running around here. I called the Cullens to ask if they knew anything about this, to see if Alice had any more visions but she was not helpful." I was pretty certain Jake had actually called a family member, not a Cullen, but maybe he did check with Alice.
Jake and Sam argued for a while, the rest of us would make side comments but really they were talking in circles. We finally convinced Sam that the only possible solution was to be ever vigilant, hence more patrols.
"What about Leah, should she not come back here? I mean we could use the extra help in running patrols and she would be safer here than running around somewhere in Seattle." Paul told us with his infinite wisdom.
I jumped down from the log I had been sitting on ready to rip out his throat. It was very easy for him to dismiss all the freaking work I had put into school - luckily for Paul Seth beat me to it.
"Shut up Paul, what do you know?" He told Paul in an angry voice.
Before I could agree Embry who had come along to join into the conversation also jumped to my defense. "Just because you are too much of a dumb-ass to get into college does not mean Leah has to come back to protect you. One wolf is not going to make that much difference. Unless you need her to do your job?"
Paul backed down when his ability to do his job without help was questioned. But I could still tell he had not given up on the idea. "What about your safety? How are you going to defend yourself against them if you meet up with them again."
"Seattle is a big town, it would be hard for them to find me alone there. I have the safety in numbers bit." I retorted in an authoritarian tone. Jake looked at me with raised eyebrows. I had made this same argument less than a week ago, and I ended up being kidnapped. Well things were going to be a little different this time, I was going to keep my cell phone on me at all times. Anyway Phil was back in town, I had the impression he was going to stick to me like white on rice. Except he was nowhere to be found right now.
The meeting broke up soon after that, Jake offered me his VW Rabbit if I needed a car to get back to school.
"Thanks for reminding me that my car is sleeping with the fishes this morning." I told him sarcastically. "I might have to take you up on your offer, I have work at three this afternoon and so far no way to get there." In all the excitement I almost forgot I had to get to work tonight - seriously being normal was overrated, I had to go to work as well as deal with the supernatural crap. "If something else does not come up in the meantime." I mumbled under my breath, I was kind of hoping Phil would show up. At this point I would take his crazy driving, just so we could be alone for a couple of hours and just hash some stuff out.
My pack collectively rolled their eyes, while Sam and his boys looked around confused. Technically speaking, Phil had left the area sometime in the middle of December and had not been back since then - Sam did not know about my continued interaction with the man, I am sure he would not have approved.
Jake gave me a nod and hurried away stating that he needed to get ready for school. Sometimes I wondered at fate for handing the safety of the tribe over to a bunch of kids, most of whom could not even vote yet.
I went back inside and talked to my mother what I was doing at school while she finished up getting ready for work.
It was a few minutes before nine when I heard the phone in the kitchen ring. "Hello?" I picked up.
"Princess?" I heard him say in his deep voice.
"Phil, are you all right, and more importantly have you ever considered answering your phone?" I grumbled at him, not waiting for him to answer my question I fired off another one. "Why are you not here?"
"Because it would look really strange if I showed up the day after you were kidnapped by vampires. Would you like to meet me at the edge of the woods? Behind your house?" He asked quickly changing the topic.
I hung up the phone before he finished his sentence. I slowed down at the back door to make sure no one would see me making a mad dash across the field behind my mother's house. After noting the coast was clear I ran full speed to the tree line. He was waiting for me, leaning against a tree. He was particularly fond of that pose, not that I was complaining since it really worked for him.
I did not slow my run after seeing him, hopefully he would figure out my intentions. But I should not have doubted him, he was a smart boy. I was swiftly encircled in his arms, the place I wanted to be since I woke up this morning. Citrus and sage were starting to be some of my favorite smells.
"Hi," I said in a subdued tone, I was hit with a wave of shyness. I wanted to take the note he had attached to the rose out just to look at it again, just to tell me again that this man belonged to me. But did he? What if I got it all wrong, maybe he was just a really good friend who cared about me.
"Hi yourself," he said wrapping his arms more tightly around me and resting his chin on top of my head. For a moment we did not say anything, just stood there together.
"We need to go soon. Jenny will be awake and I need you to be there to make the story stick." Phil told me with a tired sigh, I speculated about the amount of sleep he had enjoyed last night. Blossom had mentioned something about the family members not really needing that much sleep, had he been running around these woods after the rest of us had gone home?
"Jenny? Is she all right?" Was I a bad friend for completely forgetting about her?
"She is at the cabin with Phila and Carlisle, she is still sleeping." He reassured me quickly. "Now I need you to understand the story. Your car broke down, it is kind of an ancient vehicle and there were some funny noises it had been making recently. Since you could not get a cell phone signal and call for help you both decided to walkto town. She managed to drop her phone and sprain her wrist during the hike." He looked at me to make sure I was listening. "You finally were able to make a call to me and I came to pick you up. When we got to the cabin she was in a lot of pain but when I gave her some Darvocet she started acting funny. We are going to blame the medication for the fact that she can't remember some of what happened."
"What about her arm, it was horrible looking last night. And you said something about surgery?" I asked him, knowing it was important to get our lies straight.
"The breaks are pretty much healed, as well as her skin, most doctors will never be able to tell we did something." Phil reassured me.
The story was good, it explained how my car was gone and why we were at Phil's cabin. I guess they must have used some pretty strong powers to get her memory erased, one day he was going to explain to me how they did that but that conversation was pretty low on my current to do list.
"All right let's go," reluctantly pulling away from his embrace. It was a pleasant surprise that he did not want to let go of me completely, instead he held my hand as we walked through the woods. Phil's family was very physical in their displays of affection, I guess my figuring things out had given Phil the permission to start touching me. His behavior this morning was completely opposite from previous occasion - in retrospect I could now see that he had deliberately gone out of his way not to touch me.
His truck was parked a little outside the reservation, we ran through one of the less used hiking paths as Phil led us in a way that completely avoided Sam's patrols. Phil seemed pretty good at this, I think he had his GPS turned on because we did not get lost once. With both of us moving at faster than human speed it did not take us more than ten minutes to reach his truck.
He told me a little bit about where he had been all night, they had to take Jenny to the island for surgery to fix her broken arm without involving any hospitals which would have asked questions we did not want to answer. A family member had helped Carlisle operate to fix her break and the compartment syndrome, then they had healer her up before taking her to the cabin to sleep it off.
Phila was in the kitchen eating when we got to the cabin, Carlisle joined us and sat down on one of the stools next to Phila.
"She break is totally healed, as well as the surgical site. I am amazed that you can do it that well." Carlisle was telling Phila as we were coming in.
"It comes at a cost. But it is worth protecting the family secrets." Phila told him around a bite of what smelled really yummy.
"Ooh what is that?" I asked her. My meager breakfast of toast and jam had not really filled me up.
"Quiche, did you not get anything to eat yet?" She asked me around bites.
"I did but I can always eat again," I told her grabbing a plate and scooping out some gooey goodness out of the pan. I smelled cheese, eggs and some peppers. "Pass me the hot sauce."
I was in the middle of enjoying the flaky crust when Jenny wandered down looking a little confused. Not that I blamed her, waking up with altered memories was a little disconcerting.
We all jumped up at once, like we had not all heard her coming down the stairs. "Good morning how are you feeling?"
After some quick introductions Carlisle went through the story of what "happened", Jenny seemed to get even more confused for a little bit but then she came to accept the truth. It was hard to resist the sheer force of Carlisle assurances, even I was starting to believe him.
Phila offered Jenny some spare clothes and suggested a shower to 'clear the cobwebs from her head'. I went back to my breakfast trying to act as casual as possible, it seemed that Jenny could not remember the traumatic events of yesterday afternoon.
"She had bruises on her arms," I told Phil as soon as Jenny was escorted away by Phila who was offering to show her where she could take care of her needs.
"I know, she also had a slight crack on a rib, that was fixed as well." He told me with a dimpled smile. I might have gotten lost in that smile for a moment, it was still disconcerting staring into his green eyes. In the past I had become accustomed to his eyes being brown, not that I did not prefer this color; my problem was how easily I could get lost in his gaze. The back of my mind pointed out Phil did not seem to be in a hurry to look away either.
A loud clearing of the throat interrupted my daydreaming. I had forgotten about Carlisle, we both looked at him. I don't know about Phil but I was starting to get a little pissed at the constant interruption. Can a girl not stare at the man who had just the night before declared his eternal love, it might have only been in the language of flowers but still.
"If you don't mind I will head back home, Esme is doing something that requires some extra help." Carlisle told us with a knowing smile.
Why could Carlisle who was obviously a normally very observant man not figure out that I wanted him gone? I thought ungraciously, I might be a little nicer under normal circumstances but I was still sleep deprived from last night.
"Yes of course, I will figure out the jump coordinates. Do you want to go to the new house?" Phil asked after a moment, I guess he had been distracted too. "Let us go to the attic, that way our activities will be less obvious."
Phil came back down a few minutes later, Jenny was showering still or at least so I assumed since the shower above me was still running. Phila had come down a few minutes ago but she had gone into the study and shut the door, I could hear her typing away at the computer.
Since I had nothing better to do I had helped myself to a second serving of quiche. The flaky crust was so yummy I am sure it required a pound of butter or something. It was a good thing I had a wolf metabolism or I would have become severely overweight eating Phil's cooking.
"Thanks for the second breakfast." I told Phil while I stood up to rinse my plate. "So did you guys find out anything else about those vampires?" I asked him quickly. Best ask these questions now, before I start considering how good he looked in those jeans, or how they hugged his small but tight ass. Focus Leah, focus.
But it was just so damn hard. I had a million question for him, like where did we go from here? And how would I fit into his well organized life, and come to think of it, where would he fit into my hectic schedule? Was it boxers or briefs? I was going to go with briefs, boxers would not allow for such nice definition. His clothes had changed in a subtle sort of way since he had 'gone back to LA' last December, no more drug store jeans for him. These jeans were obviously designer and cut to really emphasize his amazing ass, Phil's seriously drool worthy ass.
"No, we did not find any trace of them." He told me after a moment, bringing me back to the harsh reality of my life. What was I going to do about a car, and what the heck was I going to do about a place to stay? After my encounter with the leeches there is no way I could take the danger back to the dorm, but at the same time I could not permanently move in with Phila. At some point I would have to start paying part of the rent and as nice as Phila's place was I could not afford to pay for it. I also needed something for transportation, damn vampires.
"Kendrick and Sassy will stay in the region, and try to track them down. Unfortunately they must have known about the wolves because they made a quick exit and covered their tracks really well." He drew in a frustrated breath and ran a hand through his shoulder length hair. I watched the move with hungry eyes. I tried to remember if his hair was as soft as it looked or if it was a little more coarse to the touch; I had been so distracted last Saturday by his all out assault that I had not been able to appreciate the details. Speaking of details, it was starting to make so much more sense as to why Phil had totally freaked out over the vision of my death.
"Phila and Jenny are going to drive back to Seattle in a little bit, if you wish you could join them." Phil continued speaking, drawing me back from my contemplation of his kiss. "So you can drive back with them to Seattle or you can stay with me and we can jump back in a few minutes. "
Given the choice of riding in a car for two hours or staying with Phil - did I mention we were going to be alone? It was a really tough decision and it took me all of two seconds to chose.
Finally we were alone, no family and no wolves that were going to come barging in. On the drive over I had used Phil's phone to text Seth to tell him where I was. He would let Jake and the pack know, at this point I did not give a shit about Sam, how dare Paul ask me to give up my school? Asshole.
"Are you ready?" Phil asked as we watched Phila and Jenny drive away. Jenny had given me strange look when I had opted to stay with Phil, but I noticed she had given Phil a once over. When she thought his back was turned she gave me a questioning look, I simply shrugged. I had no idea where this was going.
Jenny had given me two thumbs up in approval, I rolled my eyes. Yeah I had already figured out he was prime material.
"Where are we going?" I asked as soon as the car was out of sight. He had cleaned up the kitchen and turned out the lights indicating that we were not going to stay at the cabin for very much longer.
"It is a surprise," Phil told me with a small smile.
"You know at this point I really hate surprises." I had a few too many of them in the past couple of days.
"This one will be a pleasant one, I promise." He assured me as he pulled out his silver tablet to make his jump calculations.
I followed him though the bubble he had created. Holding my breath as that feeling of being pulled spread through my body I stepped into the wet grass in front of me. The jump was disconcerting when I knew where we were going, but now I was seriously confused. I did not see flags or the normal field where we usually end up when heading to the island. Instead we were in a small field, the trees were very similar to the ones found around the Rez.
"Where are we?" I asked him looking around curiously.
"Outside a small suburb, northeast of Seattle." I followed him through the shrubs to another field, this one was filled with neatly placed holes with potted plants next to them, waiting to be planted I guess. "I asked everyone to come in after lunch today so that I could show you the house."
I had been too busy looking at the plants around me to notice that there was actually a house here too. It was a large flat faced two story building with cream colored siding and huge white trimmed windows. There was a detached four door garage to the side, everything looked shiny and brand new. Peeking into the windows I could see no furniture inside, increasing my initial conclusion that this was a newly built house.
"Whose house is this?" I asked Phil as he led me up the steps to the front door.
"Mine," he told me with a smile. "Well technically it is Phila's as well, but that is not that relevant to the question you asked."
"But I thought Phila was renting her apartment." Why would she need two places to live in Seattle.
"Actually she owns that apartment, and she was going to rent it out and move in here now that this house is finished. It gives us more privacy, plus it is really close to the Cullen's place in case there is an emergency. Would you like to see inside?" He asked as he reached for the doorknob.
"Sure," I told him reluctantly, though what I really wanted to talk about was our future.
He opened the front door, it was not locked of course. I noticed there were bundled up sticks with thorns place next to the house. I guess they would be planting roses there.
The inside of the house was bare, with no furniture, no curtains, the wood floors were so shiny and new they were as reflective as mirrors. Phil gave me another house tour, we seemed to do this a lot; but it sounded like his family owned a great many houses.
As we entered the house there was a large staircase heading up. To the right of the entrance was the future dining room with a fireplace. Through archway past the dining room was the gigantic kitchen, some of the appliances were already here, but otherwise it too was bare. The back part of the house was a wall of windows, Phil had not decided what to do with this yet.
"Phila might put some of her aquariums here." Phil had explained as we walked across the long and narrow room. Phila liked to keep fish, which was understandable considering she was a marine biologist. The left part of the house was taken up with a large living room/study, with another large fireplace.
Upstairs we walked past a closed door and he showed me three bedroom suites. These were set up in the usual sitting room, bedroom, bathroom style that Phil's family favored. Everything was painted in neutral or cream colors with white trim, I might have been impressed with it had I not seen the cabin and Phil's house on the island.
I was getting bored with another tour or another house, I had seen it all before and I was getting frustrated in that he did not actually want to talk to me.
"Phil look, I think we need to talk about us. About what we are going to do?" I told him getting exasperated as he showed me the second set of bedrooms. "This place is not a home, it is just another house, a very nice house but just a building nonetheless."
"All right hold your horses." He told me with a small but nervous sounding laugh. He was leading me to the closed door.
"Great another bedroom suite." I mumbled under my breath.
He stopped in front of the door hesitating. "You have a choice to make and I am just giving you some options." He paused for a moment to make sure he got my attention. "You cannot stay in the dorms, Phila had mentioned that you don't really sleep well there. Also it would not be a very secure place, especially since there are still seven vampires running probably very desperate to get you back in their clutches. So you could either stay in Phila's old apartment which would put you closer to the college ..." He paused again to hesitate. I got the impression the next option was the one he wanted me to choose.
"Or..." I said as I watched him struggle, it would have been amusing had I any patience left. I wished he would just spit it out.
"Or you can come live here, with Phila and I." He said quickly, rushing through my last option.
I instantly blushed at the thought of sharing a bedroom with this man, my mind had no problem conjuring up all sorts of scenarios. Certain parts of my anatomy were almost instantly ready to rumble.
"Like move in with you?" I asked, my cheeks burning. Well this was a little quick, we went from friends to eternal love to moving in together in less than twenty four hours.
"Like live in the same house as me, you would have your own bedroom and everything." He explained quickly as he realized the assumption I had made.
"So this would be my room?" I asked him pointing to the door in front of us.
"If that is what you wish." He told me, reiterating the fact that it was all up to me. He was obviously hoping that I would take him up on the offer but I knew he would not stop me if I said no. I wondered how much of this was his need to protect me. As crazy as it sounded I did not want to be asked to live with him because my life was in danger, instead I wanted him to actually want me around.
"Do you want to see it?" He asked nervously.
I rolled my eyes, getting seriously annoyed at him. "What is there to see? Another neutral and cream colored empty room." I walked in front of him and threw the door open ready. My angry stride came to a grinding halt as I looked around me, the room was not cream colored nor was it empty. The walls were a pale green with the trim being a dark stained wood. The small couch and two side chairs that faced the built in bookshelves were covered in a matching green fabric. The bookshelves were also dark stained wood, at first I thought there might be something wrong with them. On closer inspection it became apparent that the shelves were not flawed but were carved so that they looked like the bark. They were supposed to be the trunks of the trees, and the ceiling was the canopy of the forest. The ceiling might have been originally painted a pale blue but someone had gone through and stenciled a plethora of leaves in green on top of the blue. I was completely blown away by the amount of details, this was not the let me slap a few decals of leaves on it. With my wolf vision I could easily tell that each leaf was unique and hand painted. Was that a small bird hiding behind a leaf?
I may have made a noise, I don't know, shock had frozen my body and mind. The contrast between this room and the rest of the house was startling.
As soon as I could move I hurried past the sitting room and headed into the bedroom; wanting to see if it would be filled with colors and furniture. This time I was not surprised, much.
The walls here were the pale blue of the ceiling of the living room, the dark wook trim continued in this room as well. The floors were wood but were almost completely covered by a thick rug, it was a pale blue with much varying sizes of circles in a darker blue. They gave me the impression of rain drops on a small pond. The ceiling was a deeper blue with small silver specs that I assumed were the stars. A fourposter bed occupied one wall of the room the large size would have overwhelmed a much smaller room. I threw myself across the bed, there was no way I would ever fall out of this behemoth. Someone, and I was starting to suspect it was Phil, had taken werewolf size into account. It was lying there on the bed that I finally noticed that the posts of the bed were also carved - flowers and ivy twined their way around as they grew up towards the ceiling.
"So what do you think?" Phil asked interrupting my inspection. "There are also some clothes in the closet. Aunt Katie heard what I was doing and insisted on adding her portion. I made sure they were somewhat practical for the area, so there should be some jeans and long sleeved shirts in there."
"Crap," I swore out loud mainly to myself, I wanted this room to be mine. Was it shallow of me that I was this easily persuaded by pretty things. It was not like I needed the extra incentive to move in with Phil, but this room really pushed it over the top.
"What is the matter?" Phil asked appearing next to the bed.
"How am I going to tell my mother I am moving in with some guy? That is not going to go well." I told him with a groan.
Phil laughed as he moved away from me. "You can explain that Phila is also staying with us, and that you have your own room." By the sound of his voice he had moved out into the sitting room.
"My mother is not going to see it that way, she is going to see me as being a little tramp, moving in with some guy I barely know." I reluctantly left the nice soft bed, my tired body protested the move. I went out to the sitting room where Phil was sitting on the small couch and threw myself down next to him, so maybe I was overdoing the drama a little. But I so did not want to have to explain this to my mother.
"Are you agreeing to move in here with me?" I could hear the hope in his voice. "I will cook for you." He offered, like I needed any more bribes.
I scrubbed my face with my hands, getting frustrated. I had wanted some time alone with Phil so that we could figure out our future together. Here he was offering to let me move in with him but he still had said nothing about us. "Let me think about this."
"Of course, I was not intending for you to make a decision immediately. You just seemed to have already come to a decision." The bastard was right of course, I had enough strife in my life that I wanted to take the easy path for once and just give in.
I lay there for a moment trying to gather up my thoughts after the curve ball he had just thrown. "Phil what are we going to do?" I stared up at the leaves above me, there was a small caterpillar munching on a leaf.
"What do you mean?" He asked me suddenly sounding concerned.
Jumping up I started pacing in front of him. "What about us? You just leave me a rose declaring your everlasting love and then what? Where do we go from here?" I could not seem to find the right way to ask him what I wanted. Hell I did not know what I wanted.
"Ahhhh" I heard heard him finally understand. "May I?" He was holding out his arms when I looked down to see what he meant. He wanted me to move into this arms.
So I might have thrown myself into his embrace, I was not playing it cool right now but I needed a little bit of peace and Phil had always been able to do that for me.
"So here is the way I see it, yes I am bound to you but that does not mean I cannot think for myself. When I first met you I have to admit I liked you because of what the spirit was showing me. But now I love you for ...well you." He said giving me an extra squeeze, just dropping the word love casually into the conversation. "As for what we are going to do now? We are going to coordinate schedules and find a day that we are both free. If by some miracle that actually happens I would like to go on a date, if tha is what you wish."
"So what, you will be my boyfriend now?" I asked, my voice muffled since I was burrowing into his shoulder. It was a comfy spot, and I was so tired still. I was pleased with the fact that he seemed to care about me as a person not just because fate had picked me out for him.
"I will be whatever you want me to be. If you want me to be your friend that is what I will be, if you want me to be your boyfriend I will start looking up which chick flicks have the highest ratings and most violence." He told me with a small laugh.
"I think what I want to do is get to know you, with no secrets between us." I told him, trying to see if there was anything else he had left out. Like why the heck he wanted to be around me. I tried again and this time I was a little more successful in vocalizing my thoughts.
"So you want to know why I put up with you? Despite the fact that you are as prickly as a hedgehog at times? I hate to tell you this but I can be just as prickly." I could hear the smile in his voice. "Wait till you see me not get my way, then we will have a showdown of bad tempers."
"So why did you not find anyone nicer?" I asked, blatantly fishing for compliments. But I also wanted to understand, how the hell was I going to hold the interest of a two thousand year old man. It was simply mind boggling.
He leaned back against the back of the couch, getting in a more comfortable position. I was getting a little worried, was it this hard to come up with a reason that he picked em over some non bitchy girl.
"I used to date a very nice girl while we were in med school together." I frowned and decided against asking him if she was pretty. "She was very, very nice and very agreeable. Any time a decision had to be made she let me have my way. That was nice at first but after a while it got annoying." I smiled secretly please, I liked the fact that she had bugged him. "Finally one day when I picked her up to go out to dinner I asked her where she wanted to go to eat. 'Wherever you want to go' was her answer. So I might have lost my temper and told her to make a fucking decision for once in her life."
"Seriously?" I could not help but laugh, Phil had never lost his temper with me. "So what did she do, smack you around for a bit?"
"No, of course not. She ran from the car crying her little heart out. I suspect that I was supposed to go and comfort her and apologize." Phil's voice was filled with disgust. I could not help but laugh at her reaction, what a little coward.
"Anyway she did not even have the guts to call to tell me she was breaking up with me, she had one of her friends do it." I could hear the contempt in his voice. I had to agree with him on that one. "My point is that you would not do that to me, if I lost my temper you would not run away crying, instead you would give as good as you got." Phil finished his explanation. "Smack me around for a bit," he repeated my earlier words with a smile.
"That is all you did was yell at her?" I started out hating this girl because she had dated Phil but now was pissed off at her for having so little spine. I could see how my physical strength and stubbornness would appeal to Phil.
"Yeah," he told me with a laugh. "But forget about her, do you want to go on a date with me?" He asked getting back to the point.
"Sure, I don't work this Sunday. But please no chick flicks." I said in a stern voice. "Shall we seal the deal with a kiss?" I tried to be casual about it.
"Sorry I don't kiss on a first date." He told me with a big dimpled smile.
"Sorry but I won't take no for an answer." I returned his smile with a mischievous one of my own. There was something to be said for wolf strength. It certainly came in handy when your boyfriend was being stubborn and not giving you what you wanted.
I was practically sitting in Phil's lap so it did not take much to turn my body to straddle him. It took minimal effort to pull Phil's lips down to mine and seal my mouth over his. His lips were firm but silky soft under my rough tongue, I pushed against the seam of his mouth demanding entrance. He did not comply immediately, pulling a soft growl out of my chest. I could feel his lips curling into a smile as he too showed my his stubborn side. One hand grabbed the back of my head and the other hand was on my hip, all of a sudden he flipped me where I was under him being pressed into the cushions of the couch. He opened his mouth over mine but he would not let my tongue invade his mouth, instead he pushed his own inside my mouth licking the sensitive insides. I was not going to be pushed around so we battled it out for a few minutes, both of us trying to gain dominance as we explored each other's mouths. He tasted of mind toothpaste but underneath I could recognize his unique taste - we had only kissed like this once before but I could easily recognize the distinct taste of Phil. All of my fantasies last Fall were nothing compared to the real deal, nothing could have prepared me for Phil. There was an added sweetness to his kiss this time around, the desperation of last Saturday was gone. He lifted his head far sooner than I would have wished, and moved his hard body away from mine.
"You are so demanding." He told me with a frustrated laugh.
"What I am is horny," I whined, as he sat up and moved away from me. "Hey come back here, I am not done with you." We had reached and I wanted to go further.
"We are done for the day." Phil told me seriously. "We need to slow down some."
"But I want sex." I told him honestly. "And you are the one I want to get lucky with." I had wanted it all week and these kisses were just making me want it more.
I heard Phil's long sigh before he joined me back on the couch. He picked me up like I weighed next to nothing, and place me back on his lap. He looked me in the eye, "Leah are you sure this is what you want?"
"Well I don't want to force you," I replied stubbornly, I felt like a complete pervert trying to seduce him. "At this point I feel like I might have to resort to rape."
As close as I was to him I could hear the rumblings of his laugh starting deep in his chest. "You know what they say, you can't rape the willing." He told me as he pulled me a little closer to him, I could see how this was not going to be rape. Phil was very, very willing.
I expected him to start in again with where we had left off but instead he kissed the side of my mouth. He then proceeded to place small kisses along my jawline all the way to my ear.
I was completely unprepared for when he reached my ear and delicately traced the outline of my ear with his tongue. I never realized that my ears were such an erogenous zone, but as horny as I was at this point any body part being licked would do it for me.
He moved back to the other corner of my mouth and continued with his teasing feathery light kisses, this time moving to my right ear. I anticipated the outlining of my ear with his tongue but then he surprised me by sucking my earlobe into his mouth. I could not help myself, I pushed my body forward and tried to rub myself against the hard ridge in his jeans.
"Shhhh, slow down," he whispered after he let go of my earlobe. "We have hours Princess." Yeah well if he kept up this sensory overload I would not last for hours, I did not think I would last for even five minutes.
He did not give me a chance to reply but instead blazed a new trail of kissed this time down my throat. The small bite on my neck was not painful, in fact it made me ache even more. My entire body reacted to that small nip, goosebumps erupted across my skin. My nipple becoming hard points beneath my shirt, the light cotton material was bothering me a great deal.
It was like Phil was reading my mind because very soon he was slowly lifting my shirt and exposing my breasts to the cool air in the room. After making an approving rumbly sound he leaned down and kissed the outer curve of one of my small breasts. I started to squirm with discomfort and self-consciousness as it finally dawned on me that Phil was staring at my breasts. Phil instantly raised his head at the first sign that I was no longer enjoying his ministrations.
"What is wrong?" He asked in an unsteady voice.
"Umm well it is just my breasts, you must see really nice ones all the time..." I started trying to explain.
"Leah..." He interrupted. "I am male, that means I only have one criteria for beautiful breasts."
"What is that?" I asked looking down at myself, Phil still had not let go of them, and was cupping them both while rubbing his thumbs on the bottoms curves. It was making me want to squirm some more against him, especially since his thumb was just barely avoiding the hard little peaks.
"You let me play with them and they are the most beautiful breasts in the entire world. Now can I get back to my admiration?" He asked leaning down again to the spot where he had been kissing before I had interrupted him.
"Ummm, no go ahead." I told him not quite knowing what I was agreeing to, but how was I supposed to think with his thumbs getting closer and closer to my now aching nipples.
He spent a great deal of time on my breasts, kissing, licking, and even biting every part of the right one and then repeating on the other side. I completely lost my shirt somehow and had been moved to lie underneath him again on the couch but I don't quite remember moving from Phil's lap to underneath him.
It was when his kisses reached the waistband of my shorts that my thoughts came rushing back. Surely he was not going to kiss me there? I had never had that done to me, and I wondered what I was supposed to do while he did that. What if he did not like it? What if I did not like it?
"Stop it," Phil told me biting a hip bone. "Whatever it is you are thinking, I need you to stop."
"Well what are you trying to do?" I asked suddenly really nervous.
Phil looked up at me and rolled his eyes. He moved back up my body and plunged his tongue into my mouth without warning. My nervousness was forgotten as I pulled myself up and rubbed my naked chest against his fully clothed body. I was going to have to do something to rectify this problem very soon. But that though was lost as Phil plundered my mouth yet again.
I was in a happy glow of his kiss before I noticed that he had moved back down and was busily unbuttoning my jeans. "Lift your hips." He ordered as he pulled down my shorts and underwear in one swoop.
He did not give me the time to start thinking again, instead he put his hands under me and pulled me up to his face. The one long lick across my lips had me using every curse word I knew. Had I been afraid I would not like him going down on me? He nuzzled me for a moment before he did it again. This time it was not his hands that were pulling me up to meet his face but my hips moving, without conscious thought on my part.
I was on the brink after only a few licks but the bastard moved away and licked the seam of my thighs instead. I made noise of complaint, I was more than ready for this torture to end. Phil seemed to understand my plight because he moved back to the lips and gave them some very nice and very long licks as well as a few more bites.
"Seriously what is with the biting. Are you a leech or something?" This was completely overwhelming to me so my regular defense system had kicked in - yup, sarcasm was always a handy tool.
This was when I figured out what it felt like to have a man laughing when he is right next to you. Puffs of air hit the very sensitive skin of my very sensitive girl bits - seriously I had never realized I was such a prude not even being able to call it the right word in my mind. Instead of replying to my snarky comment he bit the sensitive inside of my thigh before heading back to my center. My mind decided to take a serious hike, all my thoughts of being nervous flew out the window as Phil went back to licking me like he had never tasted anything this good before.
The tension was building in my body, I had never felt it this strong before. My back was completely arched, my hands were beside me trying to hold onto something or anything as I felt myself being pushed to the edge. It had been a long time since I had been with another man but it had never felt this good then, and I had not even come yet. Phil knew what he was doing, and he continued to torture me pushing me towards the edge but then backing away a little when I was almost there. Finally he seemed to take pity on me and decided to give me some relief, he took the small hard nub of my clitoris in his mouth and sucked hard. I might have screamed a little or a lot but I was not exactly coherent as pulses of heat and pleasure ran through my body. My body was finally capable of relaxing, and that is what I did - melted into a pool of goo across the small couch.
I felt Phil gather my naked body up in his arms, his clothes were rubbing roughly against my still sensitive skin but I did not care at this point. He was rubbing my back with his long graceful fingers, trying to soothe me.
It took me a few minutes to realize that Phil had not done anything for himself. Guilt hit me with my own selfish behavior, "here let me...do something." I started to reach for him, rubbing my hands down his chest and moving them closer to his waist. So it was not completely altruistic on my part, I wanted to see and touch him too. But he quickly brushed my hands away.
"As much as I would like to do that, we can't right now." He told me with exasperation filling his voice.
"Yes we can." I replied, despite my insane orgasm I was more than willing to continue. I wanted to try for orgasm number two.
"That is it, for our first date we are going to a deserted island." He told me as he started reaching for my clothes.
"And why is that?" I asked him thoroughly confused.
"Because both my parents are currently at the door, getting ready to knock." He told me with a smile. "So are you ready to meet them?"
A/N: All right what did you guys think, I am such a prude. I really was blushing when writing this.
Connect2tjb: Yay another chapter down, did you like the sort of lemon?
Leaa'Clearwaterr: Wow I am impressed that you read it that fast, I tend to get pretty wordy. Here is the next chapter I hope you enjoyed. The doctor will of course be back, because fate is not done screwing with Leah.
Ms animegoddess: Oh I am sorry about allergies, that must really suck. I remember just trying to keep my kids away from nuts when they were babies, that was nothing compared to trying to do it all your life. Is that Seth's Sassy, you need to trust my insanity - I assure you I have a plan.
ABarbieStory: Glad you liked how clever Leah was in the last chapter, I really got pissed off at the fact that SM's Bella just constantly was the damsel in distress and needed to be rescued - but I guess she was good at getting hurt. insert eyeroll here. Why did the family not know what he was up to? I am guessing the vamps were trying to dodge the wolves and so inadvertently managed to be not seen by the family. You can bet your behind the family will be looking for them now. By the way, I am putting this chapter up in the middle of the morning, hopefully you will be awake and well rested.
Jamie2772: Yay she figured it our, and there was a little lemon just for you. :D
By the way, thanks everyone for putting me on story alert. I like to know that I am not just writing this simply for my own entertainment.