Seven

Chapter Seven - "Please Come Home for Christmas"
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Bella
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"Move in with me."  He tells me.

Now I tried very hard not to bleed into the the lines of the stereotypical woman, you know with the squealing and bouncing, but when a man that looks like Jasper does, has his beautiful blue eyes pleading like they were and asks you to share his space, I just couldn't help it, and I know that we already did kind of live together, but the way he asked me, just...ugh!  (Cue girly squealing).

Yes, internally I was embracing my inner fan-girl, that could seriously rival a "New Kids on the Block" groupie.

"New Kids on the Block"?  Really?  Now I just feel old.

But my inner Jasper groupie was doing the happy dance and high-fiving my libido that we would get to partake in all the candy goodness that is my fine specimen of a man, whenever we wanted.

This was all on the inside, of course.

On the outside, I'd like to think I played it cool, and didn't come off like a serial Twilight maniac meeting Jackson Rathbone in person.

And for a minute I was doing very... well until...I giggled.

Yes, I fucking giggled.

Not just any giggle mind you, no, I broke out with the meeting your crush for the first time giggle.

"What are you giggling about, huh?"  Jasper asked, dropping a chaste kiss to the top of my head.

"Nothing,"  I say wistfully, and I think I even sighed.

Yeah, I sighed, too.

"So what's your answer then?"  Jasper asked me, with uncertainty in his voice.


It was then that I realized that while I had been living in my head comparing us to pop stars and groupies, that I hadn't answered him.   Fuck, I'm surprised I even remembered what the question was.


"Yes."  I answered with no hesitation.


"Yeah?"  He asked leaning up to see my face.


"Yeah."  I breathed snuggling deeper into his side.


I laid awake most of that night staring up at the ceiling, thinking over just how much my life had changed again, and how it seems that my life had come full circle.


I had been lost, drowning in the darkness of my own insecurities, thinking I was nothing more than what those around me had led me to believe.

Then my sun came peeking through the clouds, my Knight in shining white Chucks had found me again, and again he had saved me.

And he had brought me home, again, living the life I was always meant to.  I had my family back; my daddy, my pseudo mother, father, brother and sister, and finally I had the chance to show that man I loved with all my heart exactly what he has always meant to me.


My Jasper.


His breathing had begun to even out and the soft rumbling in his chest told me he was nearly asleep.

"I love you,"  I told him.  Meaning it with everything in me.


"I love you, too,"  he whispered.  "so very much.


That was nearly a month ago.


Jazz had moved us to his apartment in the city the very next day, and his apartment was nothing short of amazing, it was the pent house, of course, he was a Cullen after all, and they did nothing half way.


(Not that the Whitlock's are any better).

 I could tell that Esme and Alice had done their part to help with the decorating, and they had done a wonderful job.  The entire space positively screamed Jasper; a perfect combination of light and dark, so much like Jasper himself.

A man always waring with the light and dark aspects of his personality.  The contemporary furniture and abstract art suited the hard nosed and dangerous life he had created for himself, but there was still something missing.  


The apartment didn't look lived in; it was missing the soft southern roots of his past.  I could envision older pieces here; battered woods, tan leathers, brass and iron; things that would speak of the other side of the man I loved so much.


Sure Jasper was a killer, and a very good one, but that didn't mean that he lived every aspect of his life that way.


Jasper excuse for the move was he was tired of Emmett barging in on us in the morning, but I could smell the bullshit in the air and knew there was more to it that that, but I supposed he would tell me when he was ready.


I don't know if he really thought that his excuse was cleaver or cute, but the fact was that us moving to the city did nothing to deter Emmett from his annoying and fast becoming standard wake up calls.  

 In fact I think it made it worse.


We found that out our first night.








I laughed to myself of the memory:




I had just returned home from a shopping excursion with Alice.

A forced shopping excursion I might add.

But Alice informed me that with the trip to Ireland coming up for Christmas and Alice's wedding, I was told that my wardrobe was in serious need of an overhaul.

I have to say I agreed with her.


That morning Alice barged into out bedroom, demanding Jasper's credit cars, and started calling what seemed to me like an army of personal shopper, including someone from Vera Wang to do an emergency gown fitting for the Maid of Honor.  Me.

I cried.

Damn hormones.

We also made a stop at La Perla and bought some interesting pieces that Alice and I schemed would make Jazz fall all over himself, but that was the point of the store, I suppose.

Jasper was seated on the sofa when I arrived, and the doorman of the building had several lackeys bring up the mountain of clothing I had acquired throughout the day.

But it was Jasper's face that I remembered so vividly.

I had everything put away and decided that my boy deserved a little treat for being brave enough to hand his Black card over to Alice at 6:30 AM.

Yes, he was a very brave man.

His eyes all but bugged out of his head when I emerged from the bedroom in nothing but a pair of peep-hole cheeky panties and a pair of heels so skanky that I couldn't wear them in public.

I had decided to forgo the matching bra because, well, for one it was insanely uncomfortable and two; Jasper seemed to love it when I went without one.  He was a breast man, who was I to deny him a little nipple action.

And my assumptions were correct, he loved the 'free-breasting' as I now call it.

He smirked at me then, the panty-dampening one, and beckoned me to him.

I went with no protest.

Here's where I normally tell you what great sex we had on that couch, with the writhing and the screaming.

But no, I had just straddled Jasper's lap, Jasper's very naked lap, when our front door burst open.

Or should I say slammed open.

"HONEY, I'M HOME!"  Apparently Jasper had failed to mention to me that Emmett had his own fucking key.

I screamed and scrabbled for the throw on the back of the couch.

Thank Jesus it was there or Emmett might have gotten more of a show than he bargained for, not that he wouldn't have deserved it, but having my brother see me in nothing but heels and underwear was not on my list of the top 10 things to do before I died.

I swear if Jazz had had a gun on him that minute, I think he just may have shot his own brother.

Jasper was already irritated with Emmett for a similar encounter from that morning, twice in one day, mix that with longing he had from not seeing me all day, and add to that the very prominent erection he was sporting and you get a vile Jasper who was well beyond sexually frustrated and blurring the lines into blind furry.  If I were Emmett I'd find a rock to crawl under and hide until next Christmas.

"Emmett!  What the fuck are you doing here?"  Jazz growled at him, fussing with the throw that was barely hiding my modesty as well as his.

"What'da ya mean?  I was just in the neighborhood and brought you a housewarming present."  the bastard snarked, but sure enough in his arms were two perfectly wrapped presents.

"Go into the kitchen for a fucking minute and let us get dressed."  Jazz barked, using his 'I'm in command voice', and I think my panties may be ruined now.

Fuck me.

Please!

Emmett's gifts were enough that I immediately forgave him; a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label and my very own snub nose .38 Special. 

 It was beautiful; Ivory handled and inscribed ion the handle in silver.

It read:  "With love to my sister, Belly-Bean."

Yeah.  I might have cried... again, but who's counting, and anyways that was a really thoughtful gift.

Emmett said he liked me having a gun I was familiar with since Jazz was going on a business venture in a couple of days - to which I had been assigned - much to my protest - two armed guards.

Now when Jasper had said bodyguard I envisioned Gorilla like men in dark suits looking like they had just stepped off the set of 'Men in Black'.

My guards, however, were nothing like that.

They were crass, funny, tattooed, jean-wearing Irish boys, and I loved them immediately.

 Weird part was that I recognized them, they were apart of my fathers faction, and I couldn't understand the need for that kind of security, but if they made Jazz feel better then I would deal with it.

Emmett said he didn't care if I had bodyguards or not, he still wanted me to have a piece that I would be comfortable with and easy to use if I got a surprise in the middle of the night, or in his words:  'no muss, no fuss."

I don't know if you have ever fired a gun, but a .38 is easy, really easy; there's no safety, and its a no aim kind of gun, and while its not in anyway an accurate shooting weapon, anything that does have the balls to get in its firing range, will be missing a limb or sporting a hole the size of Texas.  You may be deaf for a few days after shooting that pup indoors, but the end result is very worth it.

Me?  I fucking loved it.

That was the start of Emmett's clockwork like visits, he was there either every morning or every night.


I started to wonder if he really just missed us or if he was escaping Rosalie.  I didn't care either way, but if that bitch had done something to my brother I would be using that .38 on her.


The house phone ringing brought me out of the happy memory, and with a groan I got off the bed to answer it.


Looking at the caller ID, I laughed.


"Whitlock's Cold Storage, you stab'em we slab'em!"  I answered, trying not to laugh.


"God, Bells, could you find a cruder way to answer the phone?"   My sister asked with a laugh,  "Never mind, don't answer that.  So are you ready?"


"Yeah, Ali, just trying to decided with outfit to pack for Jazz's welcome home present."


"The white one, I think.  Are you still going with the Christmas light idea?"

"Yep,"  I told her, popping the "P".  "Do you think he'll like it?"

"Bells, if the man doesn't die from heart failure, he'll be the happiest man in Ireland, apart from my Garrett, of course."  She chuckled.

Jazz had been gone for nearly three weeks, having gone with my father to New Mexico to oversee the transaction of one the family's bigger accounts and leaving me here with two snarky bodyguards, one crazy, shopaholic sister and one annoying brother.


In other words; I was going out of my mind without him.


Worst part of all is that Jasper wouldn't be here to fly out with us.


Jasper would arrive the same day as the rest of us, but would be taking a much later flight out of Phoenix, and my father wouldn't be arriving until the day of Alice's wedding.

The Cullen's and I would be spending roughly a month in Ireland, in the town of Wicklow near Dublin.  We would arrive a few days before Christmas and be staying until after Alice's wedding at the end of January.

"BELLA!"  Alice yelled, and apparently I had let my thoughts run away with me again.


"Sorry, Ali."


"Well, never mind that, we're just about to pull up."

"Alright, see you in a few."


I raced through the apartment, throwing this and that into my bag, and hauling-ass to the elevator.  I kept telling myself that the faster I got on that plane the faster I could see my Jasper.


I all but doubled over on the sidewalk as the Cullen's pulled up.

 Alice has rented a limo to cart all our asses to the airport, she said that this was her wedding and we were going to be sent off in style.


I laughed at the sentiment, it was comical to me for all of us to be dropped off at an airport three days before Christmas in a monstrosity of a stretch limo; like we needed anymore attention brought to us, and like suspected, as soon as we pulled up at the unloading entrance, people were trying to see through the black out window tint and groups were forming, waiting for us to get out.

It was like being at an award ceremony or something, but whatever, if it made my sister happy, then it made me happy.

O' Hare was a fucking nightmare, but that was to be expected with flying so close to the the holiday, and of course our flight was delayed due to the weather.


I slept most of the time, on and off and dreaming of Jasper.


"Bella,"  Alice giggled.  "you're moaning in your sleep again."  Well, that had my attention.


I popped up, wiping the drool from my mouth.


Hey!  Not what you think.


Yeah, my man is more than drool worthy, but I was just stuffed up, or at least that's the excuse I fooled myself into believing.


Sue me.


"Sorry,"  I muttered.


Sitting up I looked around for the rest of my family, Esme must have taken a page from my book and was peacefully sleeping using her carry on as a pillow, well, as peacefully as you can get stretched out across a row of bench seating.


Rosalie was sulking by herself, thumbing through an issue of US Weekly, she still hadn’t said a word to me since that night in the dinning room.  


Emmett swears up and down that she felt horrible after hearing the whole story, but she had yet to utter an apology.  It was a shame too; Rosalie and I are of the same breed, hard as nails on the outside filled with a warm gooey center, and I believed if she would just get the fuck over herself that we would probably make the best of friends, but I wasn’t about to hold my breath on that one.


Alice and Garrett were snuggled up together going through last minute detail for the wedding.  


Garrett had made a full apology, even showing up at the apartment with an assortment of roses slung over his cast and a bag full of my favorite sweets.  


He looked so pitiful standing there with his shoulder to wrist cast, and I did feel a little guilty that Jazz had broken his arm so close to the wedding, that I had to let him in. The next two hours he spent explaining that he was a horrible drunk and he had let the wine go to his head, and how sorry he was.  I understood, he was just trying to impress Jazz, by complimenting him in what he thought was the guy code, problem was is that Jazz wasn't like most men in his position, if he were to have interludes with a paid-for-woman I guaran-goddamn-tee you, he would be the the only one to know about it.  When Garrett explained it like that, how he was Jazz was his hero, I couldn‘t help but laugh and forgive him.  


Jazz, on the other hand… well, he was harder to convince.


"Hey Bean!"  my brother yelled, catching the eyes and ears of the entire waiting area.  "You gotta check this shit out!"

And I swear on my fathers grave I heard Esme mumble something that sounded like "language Emmett." in her sleep.


God, my family was fucking cracked.


Curiosity or, maybe just boredom getting the better of me, I made my way to where my brother and Carlisle were huddled together cackling like senile old women.


They were both propped against a luggage cart faces pressed together, reading.


Yeah, I said reading.  Not exactly what I had pictured as being so damn important to make me drag my tired ass out of my...


Holy shit, grump much Bella.


“Belly, you gotta read this,”  Emmett told me as I approached, stuffing the thick novel under my nose.  “It’s about Vegetarian Vampires… who fuckin’ sparkle in the sun.  What kind of gay shit is that!”  he roared, laughing at himself, and also earning us some more unusual stares from the on looking populace.

I laughed with him as I read a few of the lines of the plot.


It was kind of corny.

But by the time our plane was ready for take off, Carlisle had bought me the entire series and had my nose currently buried in part two of the vampiric saga.

~~
 
I must have have fallen asleep again because the next thing I knew I felt the world shift under me and I was moving.  It was so warm and peaceful in my dream bubble; Jasper was there, rubbing my sore neck and feeding me strawberries as we floated on a fluffy pink cloud.


But then my cloud was very bumpy and laughing.


Wait, clouds aren't supposed to laugh.


I opened my eyes and screamed bloody fucking murder.  My brother's ugly mug is what graced my sight upon waking, as he carted me like a sack of potatoes through, what I assumed to be the Dublin Airport.

"Jesus Belly, you slept like the dead,"  my brother told me, his face etched with worry.  "Are you feeling alright?"


Now that he mentioned it, I wasn't.  


I felt like shit.


I was sore, and felt like I had just ran a leg race around the world.


I had felt fine when we boarded in Chicago, and I felt fine when we boarded our second flight out of London, maybe a little more tired than normal, but I didn't feel bad.


Maybe it was the stress of the crazy flights and me missing Jasper, that had to be it.


Cause I refuse to get sick on this trip.


"Yeah, just tired is all."  I told him.


"You're still tired?"  Emmett asked with a look I could only describe as complete shock.


I nodded, because I was; I could go back to sleep right now.


"Bean, you've been asleep the entire flight, and you slept for a good two hours during the layover.  Maybe you should see a doctor?"


"NO!"  I shouted.  "No, I'm fine, really Emmett, I was really excited and didn't sleep well last night,"  It wasn't a total lie.  I didn't sleep well, but it wasn't because I was excited; I kept having strange dreams that I couldn't remember when I woke up.


"Alright,"  he conceded, setting me down on my feet.  I wobbled but regained myself quickly.  "But if you start feeling any worse, promise me you'll go to the doctor.  Jazz would kill me if something happened to you."


I smiled sweetly at him.  I had no doubt that Jazz would, but I knew that was only half the reason for Emmett's concern.

We took several rented cars out of Dublin and within the hour we were bound for Wicklow.

The landscape was beautiful, but even after having bought the biggest espresso I could get from Starbucks I was still fighting to keep my eyes open, and I was getting angry with myself.  


I had always wanted to come here, ever since my father showed me the pictures of his childhood, and here I was falling asleep.


Again.


I was woken up by a gentle nudging from my sister who could hardly contain her glee, she looked like she might combust at any second; she was bouncing up and down in her seat, and sitting up I could see why.


The Cullen home was... well it was fucking insane.  I felt like I was in a fairy tale and was headed to a royal ball to meet the prince.  

The house itself was massive; all stone with a slate tile roof and I'm pretty sure it had Gargoyles.


Carlisle had called it a Manor.


Manor my ass, it was a fucking castle.


"Christ..."  I breathed.  "This is amazing."


"Just wait till you see the inside,"  Alice told me, and she was right.  It was magnificent and I could see why Alice wanted to get married here, it as truly magical.  Definitely every woman's inner Cinderella dream.


For those of us who had never been here before, we all stood together gaping in unison while the rest of the family went about their business as if this were nothing at all.

We were met at the door by a short, balding, round man, named Liam, who in my opinion looked like Santa Clause.

Liam

Carlisle informed me that this was Liam's first year serving the family as head concierge, and that he normally took care of things having to do with the property itself and not so much the house, but as he was getting on in his years Carlisle offered him the position as gratitude for many years of loyal service to the Cullen Clan.


I chuckle darkly to myself; Jasper was gonna flip his shit when he saw him.

Santa issues; my brave, sexy man who illegally sold guns and tortured people for a living was scared (quite shitless) of Santa Claus.


I happen to think it was the cutest fucking thing in the world.


After being assigned my own personal assistant for the duration of my stay, I along with my "helper" Jane; a sweet girl of maybe sixteen, headed off to my room to unpack.

Jane

I got a call just as I was putting the last piece of lingerie away.

It was Jasper.


Apparently something had come up and he ended up missing his flight, but he swore up, down, sideways and back that he would here tomorrow around noon, and while I was bummed that I wouldn't be seeing him tonight, I was really jet lagged and would most likely feel much better in the morning.


I told him that we would be home around that same time, as we were taking a horse drawn wagon to pick up the family Christmas tree, and that he would be just in time to decorate it.


This earned me a long sigh, see what did I tell you; Christmas: Jazz is not a fan.


He told me how much he had missed me and that he couldn't wait to see the family and take me to see the sights, that is if I let him up for air once he got there.


Smug bastard.


We said our 'I love you's' and he promised to text me as soon as he landed in the morning.


I laid on the bed in our insanely beautiful room and it wasn't long before my eyes grew heavy and I was out like a light.