I'm glad to see that you are finding this story interesting and like it enough to have it as one of your favorites!

I would still like to see some more reviews! Even just a smiley face would be nice! I do know that there are a lot of you reading it who don't say anything!

Now to answer ja4ever's question! I'm sorry to say that you will have to continue reading to find out why! I don't want to ruin it for you now!

This chapter is kind of nice and shows further progress between Jasper and Alice! Hope you all like it! =]

Mind Games

Chapter 16 – A Woman's Touch

Jasper stretched out his stiff body due to a night on the couch. Yes he had decided to be the genteel man, leaving Alice to enjoy the comforts of his king size bed.

He sat up on the make do bed and waited for the grogginess to fade before he could start anything.

Jasper still couldn't believe what was happening. He had thought that if it were to come back it wouldn't be as strong. Boy he was wrong and foolish to think otherwise. Now thankful he had the opportunity to suppress her gift. If he couldn't do it he'd have to kill her and for some reason it didn't seem right. Alice couldn't remember who she was. Why should she be killed for the mistakes of her past life? But what was weirder was the fact that Alice was now living with him. The evil seductress was in his home.

Jasper got up to make his way into the kitchen where he was stopped in his tracks. There was a pile of pancakes sitting on his black marble counter.

What the…

"Alice?" he called, looking around the room for his guest.

Her head popped out of the balcony door.

"Good morning sleepy head," her cheery voice sang.

Jasper's shoulders instantly relaxed with the knowledge that she was still with him.

"Morning, how'd you sleep?"

"Great, your bed is very comfortable. Thanks for letting me sleep there, but I was more than happy to sleep on the couch you know."

Jasper waved it off and headed for the scrumptious looking pancakes.

"Did you make all of these?"

"Yeah, but you had the packet mix- made things easier. I'm surprised you slept through it."

"So am I," he muttered to himself while piling on the food then made his way to the table, were Alice now sat in Jeans and a red sweater her hair running the length of her back and those lips their usual shade of red. He was always surprised to see her dressed that way. It wasn't like the Alice he knew-aside from the lipstick.

"Thanks."

"Any time."

"So did you blow up anything?" Jasper inquired between mouthfuls.

"Not yet, but we have the whole day."

He looked up from his plate to find Alice's brown eyes staring at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She lifted her eyes to his face.

"Maybe it's because I can't remember seeing a topless man before."

Shit. He knew he had forgotten something, at least he had remembered to sleep in some pants.

"I can go put something on?"

Alice shrugged "Your house."

Jasper contemplated getting up to put a top on then thought - What the fuck, she's already seen me half naked. Besides he really wanted to finishes these pancakes while they were still warm.

"You know it's a good thing you made breakfast because I really can't cook," he confessed which seemed to make Alice laugh and her laughter made him smile. It was nice-strange but nice. The last time they had been like this was when they were kids. Ironic that they only good thing about his childhood should be his torment now.

Once Jasper had finished he placed his dishes in the dishwasher then turned to Alice.

"I'm going to have a shower then we can pick up where we left off."

She nodded and Jasper made his way to the bathroom. When he opened the door to his immaculate bathroom, the kind you find in high class hotels. All marble floors huge tub and shinny metals. He found a blue bag sitting on his bench. It was Alice's. Jasper stood staring at the thing, not quite sure how he felt about having her stuff in his bathroom. He had never had a woman's things in his bathroom before. Shaking it off he undressed and jumped into the shower, making it quick-not wanting Alice to be alone. She was a ticking time bomb and Jasper was scared shitless that it would go off when he wasn't looking.

When he got out he didn't bother drying his hair, just pushed it back out of his face and through on a pair of black jeans and a black tee shirt.

Jasper entered the lounge room to find Alice sprawled out on his couch like a cat in the summer's heat watching Oprah.

"You ready?" he asked her.

Alice turned her attention away from the T.V, sat up and turned the thing off.

"Yep, where do you want me?"

Jasper stiffened at her choice of words. If it was any other day and with any other woman sure he'd take her right there and then on the couch. However this was Alice, a woman so far out of his reach it wasn't possible. Besides she didn't mean them that way.

Clearing his throat he told her. "By the coffee table."

She slipped of the couch to kneel by the table, while Jasper walked over to open one of its many draws.

"What are you doing?" Alice asked curiously.

Jasper pulled out a deck of cards, taking a single card from the deck.

"This is what I want you to move." He placed it in the center of the table and walked to the opposite end so he was facing Alice.

"To control it let the energy slowly seep out." He informed her.

She nodded then focused on the card. It twitched a few times before it rose an inch off the table.

"Good," Jasper encouraged then regretted opening his mouth. The card zipped around the room and funnily enough landed back on the table.

"Sorry," Alice apologized.

"Don't. I chose a card for a reason. Try again."

They spent at least an hour trying to make the damn thing float. Occasionally Jasper had to show her what she was doing wrong and should be doing, but it was exhausting her. And things weren't necessarily getting better.

Jasper knew, form what he had been seeing that she was more than capable of doing it. She was just not use the effort and energy that it demanded.

"How about we call it quite for today?" Jasper suggested.

Alice looked up at him with determined tired eyes. "One more time, I know I can do it."

He shrugged and waited for her to do her thing.

Alice took a few deep long breaths centering herself.

Jasper felt a prick on his hand the kind you get with static electricity and knew that it was Alice. Instantly he tensed preparing for the worst. It was the first time he had felt her energy and it was never a good sign.

He glued his eyes to Alice. Yet instead of the assault he was expecting she focused on the card and like the many times before it rose. But this time it stayed hovering a few inches for the table. Then Alice made it slowly rise and loop around his head to settle back on the coffee table.

Jasper feeling like a dick relaxed. However if training and months chasing down the woman in front of him had tout him anything it was to be prepared for anything.

Alice looked at him her eyes sparkling with excitement. "I did it." Then she leapt across the table flinging her arms around him.

Jasper, again tensed this time out of surprise. Alice was hugging him.

"Thank you," she whispered in his ear.

Slowly he put his arms around her-as you do when someone hugs you. It was by far the strangest thing Jasper had ever encountered. A hug from Alice was the last thing he expected. Shot him, torture him but hug. A hug was strange in general, but this exceeded anything.

He pulled away to see that Alice had a goofy triumphed smile on her face. Jasper couldn't help but smile back. He couldn't remember seeing her ever this happy-aside from when he told her who she was.

He reached over and picked up the now bent card and walked over to the kitchen to throw it out.

Looking up at the clock Jasper noticed it was lunch, far latter then he had thought.

"We have two choices we can go out for lunch or order in?"

Alice bit her lip in contemplation. "In, I'm a bit tired and probably look like shit."

"Believe me you look anything but shit," Jasper commented while picking up the phone and menus to hand it over to Alice who cheeks had turned a soft pink.

God she's cute when she blushes.

Alice took the menus flipping through them.

"What do you feel like?" she asked him.

"Anything -although that pizza place is really good," he pointed to the red menu decorated in mini pizzas.

"Pizza it is then," she confirmed dropping the other menus and flipping it open. "I think I'll have a Mexican."

Jasper raised an eyebrow at her choice then dialed the number.

"Hi, Felix." He ordered there a lot and knew the owner quite well. "No, it will be two large Mexican pizzas today. Thanks." He hung up; amused that Alice would order his favorite pizza.

"I hope you didn't order a whole pizza just for me?"

He smiled at Alice. "Sure did and if you don't finish it I'll just eat it."

Alice gave him a dubious look. "So you're going to eat one and a half pizzas?"

Jasper gave her a little wink and collected the menus to stick them back on the fridge.

"If you feel sick it's your own fault."

Jasper laughed at that. She was always warning him about something-daring him to jump and of cores he always did. Be it male ego or pride he was never one to simply accept thing. He had to challenge them and himself.

Jasper turned to face Alice who was now walking towards the kitchen table.

"I see your ankles better."

"It still hurts from time to time but at least I can put pressure on it."

She reached across the table and took a book that Jasper hadn't realized was there.

"What's that?"

"This,"-Alice held it up in the air-"Is my sketch book."

Jasper walked up behind her to get a closer look. She was flipping through the pages until she found an detailed incomplete drawing of a man gazing out a window.

"Who's that?" he whispered.

"This is the only memory I have of my father. It's been in my head for a few days now. I guess I just wanted to get it down before it fades. I know it sounds silly," she confessed.

"It doesn't. Never feel that you have to justify yourself to me Alice. I know you better then you do. You don't want to forget, I understand. It's a beautiful drawing."

Jasper could see Alice's cheeks turning that adorable shad of pink he love.

"You know you look really cute when you blush." He instantly clenched his fists.

I can't believe I just said those words out loud. You fucking moron!

A knock at the door saved him from further embarrassment.

"I'll get the door."

Jasper hurried over, anxious to put something in his big fat mouth. He opened the door and gave a heavy sigh in relief. It was the pizza guy standing there chewing gun and listening to his ipod.

"That will be 18.50." he groaned out.

Jasper reached into his pocket and handed him the cash then took the pizza.

"You better be hungry." He said while walking over to the black oak kitchen table.

Alice had already taken a seat and so Jasper placed one of the boxes beside her and took the seat next to her.

"What, no plates?"

"Saves washing," Jasper mumbled as he dug into his first slick of pizza and it was heavenly.

"Mmmm. This is really good," Alice voiced his thoughts.

"I told you, best pizza around."

"Do you have any memories of you father?" She asked abruptly, making Jasper almost chock on his pizza.

"What?" he chocked out.

"You never talk about your family. I'd like to know."

Jasper cleared his throat. "There's nothing to tell."

Why won't he share something with me, Alice's thoughts pleaded.

Jasper felt like saying because it's too hard, but would never show a weakness of any kind-especially to Alice.

He sighed and chose something less painful.

"I never really got to see my father, spent most of his time out on the field. If he was home he would always give me five bucks to spend on chocolate."

"I noticed that you're a chocolate fan. You have a whole cupboard full of it."

Now Jasper was turning slightly pink. He had an addiction, he knew it.

The rest of the night was spent slowly eating pizza and watching bad T.V, which Alice seemed to enjoy. Jasper at the moment was content to let her have fun, even if it meant watching a stupid soapy. A feeling he had never expected to experience with Alice. Never in there whole lives had he ever remembered feeling content with her.

It was possible he had during there time together as kids, but all Jasper could really think back to is pain-and refused to dig deeper to find out.

So this was there first day together!

Give me a smiley face if you enjoyed it!

Any questions or comments you know what to do!

Gotta love the typical male. Brave and horny, throw in a bit of angst and walla! You have Jasper! A man who lusts for cute little Alice and refuses to talk about his feelings because it isn't manly! Aww!

Don't worry people! All he needs is a little Alice! hehe! =]