Bella was going to get kissed, damn it.

Jasper was going to kiss her and that was that.

Jasper was determined to keep things G-rated between them but, by god, there would be kissing and possibly even tongue.

"How do you like it?" His voice was deep and pleasant to hear. He motioned to the spaghetti on her plate. "Esme was sure that you'd love Italian."

"It's delicious." Bella forked another bite.

How she was going to do that was the question. She could trip and fall upwards and land on his mouth but that seemed too obvious and Jasper was just so tall– she'd have to leap to accidentally kiss him.

She'd never kissed nor been kissed before. Otherwise, she'd initiate it herself. She just didn't have the skill set.

"Have you ever played Truth or Dare?" She was going to have to catch him off guard. Truth or Dare might be obvious but he was a vampire– maybe he wouldn't catch on.

"No, I haven't."

"Perfect–let's play." Bella grinned and put her fork down to watch his face. "Pick one: either truth where you have to answer honestly or dare where you might have to do something ridiculous."

"Okay." He ran a hand through his golden hair and then resettled in his seat. "Truth."

"What year were you born?"

"As a human, it was sometime in the summer of 1844." He fiddled with a piece of garlic bread and sat forward. "Then as a vampire, I was turned in 1863."

"My god you're old!" Bella couldn't help but laugh at the sheer number of years between them. How could she ever catch up?

"I've been nineteen for a very long time." He was grinning and looking all kinds of kissable.

"I've come to terms with my grave robber tendencies." Bella nodded gravely and then grinned when he squinted his eyes and tilted his head at her.

"Grave robber?"

"Like cradle robber but opposite."

"Oh. Oh." If a vampire could blush Bella was certain that he would be blushing. "Bella– "

"No, don't tell me how you're not good for me." Bella waved her hand in the air and then motioned to him. "So then does that mean you were in the war… the civil war?"

"Yes ma'am, I was." His southern twang came out with just those few words. Bella wanted to keep hearing it.

"I feel like I shouldn't have to ask this but I need to know. What side were you on?" She wasn't going to kiss an asshat, however. If he said anything but Union it was going to be an issue.

"I was the youngest Major in the Union Army." Again that twang.

"Oh thank Christ," Bella let out a sigh of relief. "I was thinking this conversation would go a whole other way if you said Confederate."

"Nah, not a racist."

"Your turn."

"Okay, truth or dare?"

"Truth." Bella forked another bite and chewed quickly.

"Was it always bad with your mother?" He looked surprised like he hadn't meant to ask. Bella didn't feel the sudden clawing panic that had come with thoughts of her mother in the past.

It might have hurt her before to think about her mother but it had been months. She'd done the hard work and gone to therapy. She'd talked about Renee and all the things that had happened. Bella had spilled all of her secrets and with that came a certain amount of peace. It wouldn't be true to say she wasn't scared of her mother anymore but Bella felt safe where she was at.

Safety and peace of mind– two things it never occurred to her that she'd been missing.

"No. Sometimes it was really really good. She'd have good weeks where she'd take me out to eat or to the library and we'd have fun together." Bella shrugged. "Other times she would just forget about me completely and be gone for days at a time."

"Of course, you'd go to the library for fun." He was grinning.

"Hey, it is fun!" He was teasing her and Bella loved it. "How dare you."

"To each their own." He put his hands up and Bella saw yet another silvery scar on his palm.

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare." He smirked and leaned forward like he was anticipating what she would say. Bella had no idea what she would dare him besides to kiss her and she hadn't quite gotten up the guts to do that just yet.

"If I dared you to eat that garlic bread would it hurt you?"

"No, it's just gross." He grinned all slyly and Bella felt butterflies in her stomach. "I'd have to puke it up later." He took a big bite of the garlic bread.

"So what about all the other vampire stuff– I've seen you go out in the sunlight. If you're not afraid of garlic what about Jesus Christ? Do you sleep in a coffin?" Did fiction get it wrong? Was there nothing to the myths? "Would a wooden stake kill you?"

"Nah, not afraid of garlic or Jesus. A wooden stake wouldn't kill me." He chuckled and swallowed the piece of bread. "I don't sleep in a coffin– I don't sleep at all actually and the sunlight just shows we aren't human." He made a face when he finally swallowed the bite and Bella had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing.

"Because of the sparkles." He really didn't sound like a vampire at all. "You don't sleep?"

"Nope." He put down the piece of bread as he shook his head and grinned.

"And you don't eat or drink- except for blood."

"Yes." His hair fell into his face as he nodded.

"Well, how do you get your blood? Do you guys rob a blood bank or hunt humans?" Bella didn't know how she was so blase about the whole blood thing but it just didn't seem like a big deal.

"No nothing like that– the Cullens are vegetarians. They hunt animals."

"They? Meaning you aren't a vegetarian?"

"No, I am– I'm just newer to it so." He shrugged. "So it feels like I don't count, I guess."

"How many vampires are there?" Bella was going to start seeing vampires everywhere she went whether they were there or not. And if vampires were real what else was there?

"More than you want to think about– trust me." He sat forward and fiddled with salt and pepper shakers. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth." Bella liked the intimacy of their conversation too much to switch it up with a dare.

"When you blank out… what happens in your head?"

"When I blank out? What do you mean?"

"It usually happens when you are feeling a lot– I don't know how you do it but you just turn off all of your emotions instantly." The tone in his voice implying that not many other people did that. And he would know because of his whole emotion thing.

"I don't know… I guess I kinda just flip a switch and turn it off." But that wasn't exactly right either. "Sometimes it's like I'm two different people at the same time. Or, I don't know… maybe it's more that I split in two. If that's even different. It's like I can turn them off just by being Not-Bella."

"Not-Bella?"

"It's silly that I named it, I know. But it feels… stronger than me when I name it, ya know? This doesn't make any sense, does it?" Had it been anyone else besides Jasper and maybe her therapist Bell wouldn't have been able to answer the question. But with Jasper, everything was just easier.

"No, it does. I get it. Being Not-Bella sounds like it's safer."

"Yeah, that's what my therapist said too." Bella watched him smile and she couldn't help but smile in response. "Enough of that– it's your turn. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What is the Ultimate Vampire Challenge– I heard you guys mention it a couple of times."

"Oh," He ran a hand through his hair and laughed. "That's something Emmett and Alice made up in the 50's. There are leaderboards and everything. Basically, it's a competition to see who can learn a thing– anything– the fastest and be the best at it. Esme is currently in the lead with the most learned things. You should see her Mario Kart skills– solidly whoops Emmett every time."

"That sounds like fun."

"It is and it's a way to pass the time." He sat up straight and grinned. "Alright truth or dare."

"It sounds like I should chose dare but I'm kinda scared what you have in mind." Bella couldn't help but grin back at him as he shrugged and rose an eyebrow at her. "Fine, dare."

"I dare you to talk in your southern accent for five minutes."

The dares only got sillier from there and the truths were kept light and breezy. It wasn't until they were standing in Charlie's driveway that Bella go up the courage to do what she'd been planning to do from the start.

"Truth or dare?" It came out as a challenge then a simple question and Jasper tilted his head at her.

"I don't know– will you force me to do a little dance again?" He grinned when she shrugged. "Fine. Dare."

"Will you kiss me?"

He appeared shocked. Like he couldn't believe she just dared him to do such a thing. Bella thought for a moment that he would refuse but then something sparked in his amber eyes and she knew that she was going to get kissed and it would be toe-curling.

Bella watched in stunned breathlessness as he took a step toward her. Something compelled her to take a step back until her back was pressed against the cold metal of her truck. His hands braced on either side of her head and he leaned close.

He wasn't warm. There was no heat radiating off of him like there would be if he was a human– it had to be a vampire thing. Which maybe shouldn't be the foremost thing on her mind at the moment but there it was.

Finally– finally the man tilted his head and brushed his lips against hers.

Once.

Twice.

Her heart sputtered in her chest and she forgot how to breathe properly but none of that mattered because he was kissing her. Finally fucking kissing her.

The third time he leaned in to brush his lips over hers he caught her bottom lip and nibbled on it just a bit. Bella let loose a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and swayed where she stood.

He was soft and sweet and it physically ached. For a long moment, she was too stunned to do anything but breath and reel.

But Bella was not one to let an opportunity pass her by. She was going to do some of her own kissing too.

Bella reached up and twined her fingers in his thick golden hair. Jasper leaned in as if in a haze with his gaze flicking to her mouth and then her eyes like he was unsure of her response. Bella kissed him this time. Brushing her lips over his firm bottom lip and nibbling at it the way he'd had hers. His lips parted and at that moment all conscious thought fled from her mind.

She wasn't sure how long they stood in her driveway, pressed against her truck, and kissing for all the world to see but it wasn't long enough. At some point, the blond pulled away.

Dazed, it took Bella too long to realize that Jasper had gone tense. His head was turned towards the house. And he was frozen where he stood, still with his arms braced on either side of her.

Bella thought for a long horrible moment that Charlie was standing in the doorway.

But the door was closed. The porch light was on and casting long shadows on the lawn.

"Jasper," Bella stood straight when he stopped leaning towards her and stood upright. "What's wrong?"

"He came back." He was a blur of motion. One second they were standing by her truck and the next she was tucked back into his car and he was hoovering in her door as if to shield her with his body. A phone was in his hand and he was barking orders into it. "We're at Bella's– I need you and Rose and everybody else."

"Who came back? Jasper, what's wrong?"

"The vampire from earlier. I can't hear Charlie in the house."