** Sorry for the IMMENSE delay...life got crazy. Enjoy :) **

Jacob

"Do you wanna sleep for an hour before we go?" I asked when she yawned again on our way to the house. I wanted her to actually be awake for the rest of the evening I had planned…because it didn't actually include sleep.

She looked up with an apologetic smile. "Do you mind?"

I was actually a little tired too. Weddings apparently take a lot out of you…especially when it's yours. "Not at all. I'll sleep too."

Bella appeared from the doorway and gave me a hug and kissed Nessie's cheek. "Are you leaving?" she asked, eyeing her yawning daughter.

"Nah, it's nap time," I joked and slid my arm around my wife. Then I smiled for no apparent reason…my wife.

A mischievous grin quickly appeared on Bella's face. "Well, she is only seven. Seven year olds do still need a nap sometimes."

Ouch. "Thanks for that, Bella."

"No," Nessie chimed in amidst another yawn. "It's because I'm actually part human. I need sleep every so often."

"Sure, sure." I steered her away from her chuckling mother, only to almost run into Edward. I chose not to think about what they were doing in the house together alone…eww. I was starting to warm up to Edward again though since he'd finally come around and allowed us to get married so soon. But it still startled me at times to be so close to him and I had to fight the urge to let go of Nessie in his presence.

"Leaving?"

I felt Nessie shake her head. "Nap."

He smiled at her. It was kind of hard not to.

"We'll leave in an hour or two," I explained, maybe a little too matter of fact, "when she's fully rested."

Edward nodded. "Probably best."

In order to be the best son-in-law I could be…and it was still odd to think of Edward and Bella as my "in-laws", I had told them my post wedding plans. Well, I'd told them the location anyway. "I'll let you know when we set out."

I took Nessie up to the room that would no longer be hers after tonight. We would move her to my cabin in the forest behind the house when we returned…in a few weeks. She climbed up onto her 18th century, four poster and fell face first onto the midnight blue pillows.

I crawled up next to her and pulled her into my arms. "Wake me up when you're ready, 'kay?"

.-.-.-.-.

Nessie

My eyes fluttered open at 2 am. I could still hear music coming from the backyard and I couldn't help but smile. My family didn't get a lot of actual occasions and this was probably the last one they were going to have for a very long time. It wouldn't surprise me if they kept the party going until the sun came up…and maybe even a little longer.

Jacob's arm was still firmly around my middle and I could hear him breathing steadily. I loved waking up like this…and I got to do it for the rest of my life. That was a nice thought. I smiled and sighed then attempted to pry myself loose. After all, it was our wedding night and we were supposed to be on our way as soon as I was actually awake. And boy did I feel awake.

I successfully left his grasp and popped up on to my knees. "Jake," I whispered even though I knew very well that it would take a lot more to actually wake him up. "Jacob," I said a little louder in a sing-songy voice.

He started to stir and I could see his eyes moving under his eyelids. And he let out a cute little moan.

"Good morning," I whispered and then tackled him into the mattress.

"Good morning!" he laughed and his arms automatically pulled me to him for a slow, sensual kiss. "Are you ready to leave?"

He wagged his eyebrows and grinned and my stomach flopped like it had when he'd kissed me for the first time. I was more than ready. I kissed him again then hopped off of the bed. "Very ready."

Only, very ready was a lie. Not so much as lie as a slightly less true version of the truth. I was ready to leave and in theory I had been ready for this for a while…but in the very close reality of it….well, I might not be as ready as I had thought. I knew what was going to go down (and that was before the really awkward talk my mother tried to have with me a few days ago that I quickly nipped in the bud and thankfully avoided the logical next conversation of how I didn't need to have said conversation.) Jake knew this too, since I had been sending him my unclean thoughts for a while now when things got a little heated between us. But those were thoughts.

It was about to be real.

"How do you want to go?" Jake asked as he followed me off the bed.

I squinted my eyes at him, so lost in my thoughts that I didn't understand the question. "There are options?"

He grinned at me and took my hand. The backpack I had packed two days ago while my aunts snickered at me was already on his back. "We can go side by side or you can go on my back. Your choice."

I was pretty sure if I walked next to him, hand in hand, to wherever it was we were going that I would just blush the entire time. And it had been a long time since I'd had a ride on his back and it was my favorite way to travel. Always had been. I had never felt closer to him than when I was on his back. Of course, that was probably going to change once we reached our destination.

"On your back, please," I answered with a grin. This would also— hopefully— lead to the fruition of a fantasy I had had since my feelings for him had changed. A fantasy that he was very well aware of.

And the grin he gave me in reply told me that he knew exactly what I wanted. "I had a feeling you'd say that."

He helped me put the backpack on and fastened it around my chest. Instead of letting go, he used the strap to pull me against him and he kissed me sweetly. "Let's go."

He took several steps back, peeled off his shirt, grinned at me then morphed into the beautiful, oversized wolf that he was. I just stared at him for a few seconds before I actually moved to get on his back. He yelped happily and took off into the dense forest that surrounded our home.

I relished the wind in my hair as he ran through the trees at a speed that probably would have terrified a human—or so I'm told. I haven't actually met that many humans, let alone one who has ridden on the back of a werewolf. But I loved every second of it. One of the reasons I liked driving fast was because I had grown up on the backs of vampires and werewolves who moved that quickly on foot.

I was only on his back for twenty minutes when I finally saw something in the distance. The trees seemed to be glowing up ahead as we rushed toward them. I smiled against the wind as we got closer and I could just make out a huge four poster bed in the center of a clearing. The closer we got the more I saw and the wider I smiled. I loved him so much and I would have loved him if we had stayed in the cabin we would live in from now on, but my heart was about to break out of my chest at this. There were lighted lanterns hung in all of the trees surrounding the bed and multiple strings of ivy and flowers were hung from the branches, connecting the trees. It was breathtaking.

He slowed to a stop and I slid off of his back, running my fingers through his soft fur as I walked around to see his eyes. I felt a shudder run through his body and he whimpered just as I came around to his front. I knew I was torturing him because I knew the thoughts and feelings I was conveying to him and I could see the pleading in the golden brown depths of his eyes. I grinned at him and turned and hopped up onto the gorgeous, wonderfully soft, king-sized bed.

And then it finally happened, the one thing that I had wanted to see even longer than I had wanted this day. Right before my eyes, my very own werewolf turned back into my very own husband. And it was even more breathtaking than the scene he had created for me. Because when he was done, he was standing in front of me in only his suntanned, perfectly caramel skin and absolutely nothing else. Goodness, he was beautiful.

His signature grin, the one I couldn't seem to get enough of lately, spread across his lips and I could suddenly feel the short distance between us much more keenly than usual. I smiled back and beckoned him with one finger. He sauntered toward me until he was standing between my knees in all his glory.

"Your turn," he whispered and pulled my shirt over my head. For all of my worries, the last thing I felt right now was nervous, even though this was the first time he had ever seen me like this. He grinned down at my blood red, lacy bra before he dipped his head and brushed his lips against mine oh-so-softly and far too briefly.

His hands slid down my arms with a feather light touch that made me shiver in the best way possible and he took my hands and placed them on his searing skin. I felt a little silly when I realized I could have done that myself. I was too mesmerized by him to actually touch him. That was never going to happen again…

A peak of the anticipated nervousness came when he reached for the button on my jeans. And apparently it went through my skin to him because his hands immediately stilled. Even though I was nervous, I didn't actually want him to stop.

"Don't be nervous, baby. It can only get better, remember?"

I nodded. "I'm going to be nervous, at least a little bit. But I don't want you to stop. That's the only way I won't be nervous anymore."

"Sure, sure," he mumbled. "Do me a favor and let me feel everything you're feeling. Don't hold anything back, okay?"

I smiled at him and pulled him closer to me. "Sure, sure. I'll let you feel everything if you kiss me right now."

He grinned. "You, darlin', drive a very hard bargain." He kissed me forcefully, just the way I liked it at times like these. I tried my hardest to squelch any lingering nerves when he unbuttoned my jeans, slid them over my legs and tossed them to the side. He broke our kiss then to look me over with approving eyes. "Damn, I'm lucky."

An ornery streak ran through me and I couldn't help but tease him a little. "That you imprinted on a fine piece of half vampire ass? Yes, you are."

His laughter rang out through the trees. "I love you,"

I cocked a challenging eyebrow at him and fell back onto my elbows. "Show me."

He took the challenge. He was on top of me in an instant, snaking his arm around me and carrying me to the center of the bed, like only a werewolf with inhuman strength and balance could do. His lips ravished—yes, ravished mine and his hands moved over every inch of my body that he had never been allowed to touch before. I was so lost in him that I forgot to be nervous when he unhooked my bra and ran his hand over the soft, untouched skin. I think I moaned into his mouth or maybe I just conveyed to him what I wanted because he kissed down my neck and…yeah, he knew what I wanted.

He suddenly laughed against my skin. "This is really convenient."

"What?"

"This whole you can tell me exactly what you want without actually telling me thing," he explained. "It's good."

I sent a new thought to him and the next instant he was pressing his lips to mine and laughing against them. His hand trailed down my side and down the back of my thigh, taking my red, lacy boy shorts with it. I grinned at him the entire time, even though I knew he could feel that I wasn't nervous, I wanted it to show on my face. I couldn't even remember what nervous felt like at this point. My mind was filled with the love and laughter in his eyes and the feel of his large, warm hands on my skin and nothing else. This beautifully decorated clearing with my wonderfully steamy werewolf husband was my own personal heaven.