Bella's game was incredible. She spent almost an hour 'experimenting' to see how I responded to her kisses, strokes, tickles, scratches and nibbles.

I was very glad that my control had improved so much recently - perhaps the sole silver lining to the storm cloud of my foolish desertion - a year ago I could never have endured so much stimulation without snapping. But, today I was able to relish the closeness without ever losing the fight with my vampire nature. My human nature, however, was another matter altogether. I was definitely finding it hard to keep the gentleman in charge. I was excited and certain parts of my anatomy were broadcasting that very clearly indeed.

When Bella slid her hand down my thigh and cupped my ass, even though I was fully clothed - I guess this is why Alice left me the heavy denim - I growled. The growl was far from being the most embarrassing part of my reaction. It was like a dam bursting.

"Oh!" At the most inconvenient moment, I had apparently lost the ability to speak.

Bella slid off the bed.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Oh, thank Alice for the quick thinking and the thick pants.

"Um . . . er . . ." If my adolescent mouth could just get a full sentence out, I might be able to get out of this without Bella noticing.

"Edward?" she sounded very concerned, "has something happened? Should I call Rosalie?"

Is she kidding?

"Rose will know what to do," Bella said confidently, "whatever happened, I'm sure it's going to be fine. Just stay there."

Dear God, I'm cursed. She's going to call my sisters upstairs because I'm too embarrassed to speak.

"No! Bella, please, don't call anyone. I just need . . . a minute."

I leapt up and checked the bed for dampness - I was safe, there was nothing Bella would notice. My family was another matter, of course. They would be able to smell . . . oh, this was going to be humiliating.

Thanking heaven that Bella was too slow to notice what I was doing, I grabbed spare clothes and dashed into my bathroom.

I was in the shower - behind a locked door - before Bella crossed the room.

"Edward " she called, "are you sure you're alright? You just had a shower."

"So I did," I turned the water off and stepped out of the cubicle, "you get me so flustered, Love, I don't quite know what I'm doing around you."

I towled off and pulled on my clean, dry clothes.

I opened the door and saw Bella standing there, looking bemused.

"You changed your pants," she said, "and not your shirt."

Shoot.

"Er . . . don't you like the shirt?"

She frowned, oh she is adorable when she frowns. I hope she doesn't do much more of that. I really can't change my pants again.

"I like the shirt fine," Bella said, reaching out for me.

"Oh, Bella," I felt that animal part of me spring back to attention, "I'm sorry. I really can't be so close right now."

She put her arm back down, slowly, achingly slowly, I wanted to lick . . . Argh! I am losing my slender grip on my behaviour right now.

"Sorry," she said softly, "I didn't mean to push you too hard."

Too hard? Why would she say that?

I stared at the floor and gulped. What is it Emmett says? Think of something else, something completely different. Think of baseball.

Do not think of Bella in a baseball jersey, with a solid wooden bat in her hand . . .

This is not helping. Emmett's an idiot.

Then there were footsteps on the stairs. Someone's coming.

Am I interrupting, Edward? Alice's teasing thoughts come into the room ahead of her.

She knocks on my door, for Bella's benefit I suppose, she's never bothered with knocking before.

Come on, Edward, don't think about knocking . . .

"Everyone's going to be back in ten minutes," Alice announces, as she smirks her way into the room.

Bella looks round in surprise.

Alice twists her face back into a more normal smile.

He stopped to pick up a kitchen counter top and a cupboard door, she thought, how does she manage to think smirks at me?

I tried to smile back, but I don't think it was very successful.

Don't get mad at me, Alice thought, I didn't break anything or stain anything - you wrecked those jeans, by the way, you may as well chuck them. Perhaps, wrap them in a few layers of garbage bags first, though.

Cringing, I dropped my eyes back to the floor.

Alice seemed satisfied with that. She returned her attention to Bella, saying, "we're going to watch a movie, it'll be fun, and relaxing."

Bella nodded, "sure," she said, "sounds good."

I wish I could read her mind, because I have no idea what expression she was wearing just then. It was a sort of thoughtful smile. What is she thinking?

We followed Alice downstairs and she set us to work selecting a movie, claiming that she was going to make popcorn.

It wasn't a lie, precisely, Alice did make popcorn, but it wasn't the reason she left the room, either. She'd heard Bella's phone call earlier, and she had a few words to say to Jasper. I did not envy him the welcome home that he was about to receive.

"Something loud?" I asked Bella.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing, just wondering what kind of a movie you fancy. There's action, romance, drama."

"Something light-hearted," she said, "it's not been the easiest week for any of us."

I nodded, "we have a whole collection of comedies. Have you ever watched Charlie Chaplin?"

"Seriously?" Bella gave me a withering look more suited to my real age than my appearance. It was mildly hurtful. I don't want her to think of me as an old man.

"Seriously," I said, "he still has plenty of fans, even amongst your generation."

She giggled, "alright , my aged lover, at least it's an uncontroversial choice."

Of course, Bella wasn't to know how far from accurate that was. But, there would be time in the future to fill her in on all those long-dead arguments and family stories. I was quite sure Carlisle wouldn't complain if Bella chose the movie, so I just smiled and fetched our Chaplin selection for her to pick from.

As usual, I heard my family's approach long before Bella.

"They're pulling up now," I said, "let's put the movie on, and avoid any debate."

Bella laughed at me, "so much for my uncontroversial choice."

She didn't stop me, though, and soon the clown was scrolling onto the screen.

Bella was watching the movie, completely oblivious to Alice's stern voice as she summoned Jasper to her study. Everyone else heard it, though, and I wasn't the only one to give a sympathetic wince.

"So," Alice scolded, "you've been busy. You threatened Edward, I hear. Don't you remember the agreement that you would leave him alone?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jasper replied, "I remember it perfectly well."

"Then what were you doing?"

If it had been me in there, I know that wheels would have been spinning in my head, as I tried to work out the smartest answer to that. Jasper wasn't even slightly panicking. Though he knew that she was strict with him, he believed that she was always right. If she spanked him, he trusted that she was right to do so; and, if she didn't, then that must be right. Jasper didn't feel the need to btalj Alice into or out of punishing him. All he needed to do was tell her the truth, and she would know what he deserved. His trust in Alice was so absolute that he simply recalled his original plan and explained as clearly as he could.

"I was worried about Bella," he said, "I didn't want Edward to give her any trouble, and I thought he might be more careful if I got him a bit nervous in advance. Do you want me to tell you exactly what I said?"

Alice shook her head.

She saw, then, Jasper thought, with a slight sigh of relief, if I was going to be in trouble, it would have happened already.

"Do you think that was keeping out of it, like you agreed to do?"

"No, ma'am."

"Well?" Alice asked.

Jasper stood a little straighter, pulling himself into at attention position, "I'm sorry for interfering, ma'am. It surely won't happen again."

Alice looked her soldier up and down. He was only looking out for Bella, she thought, I can't argue with that.

"Alright, Jazzy, " she said, relaxing slightly, "you weren't trying to cause trouble, but if you interfere with Edward's discipline again, then I will have more than words with you."

Jasper tensed very slightly, "understood, ma'am."

"Good boy, now, why don't you help Edward fix up the kitchen before Esme gets upset?"

With a smart click of his heels, Jasper set off obediently.

As he passed the lounge, he waved his hand through the door at me, I know you heard, Eddy, come on.

I leant in to give Bella a kiss, "Jasper's back," I said, "he's going to help me fix up the kitchen."

Bella's eyes narrowed. Was she annoyed about my earlier tantrum? I had rather skipped any discussion about that.

"If he says anything," she said, "come and tell me, OK?"

I grinned, "yes, ma'am."

You spend too much time in my head, Jasper thought, you gonna salute her too?

Bella didn't like it when I called her 'ma'am'. Irritatingly, Jasper was right, and I only did it because I'd been thinking about him and Alice.

I frowned, "sorry, Bella."

She laughed at me and kissed me again. "Go, fix the kitchen."

I nodded and ran off, without a salute or any heel clicking at all.

I met Jasper at the front door. He had the new kitchen counter in his hands and the cupboard door tucked under one arm.

"Good timing," he said cheerfully, seemingly unphased by the light scolding he'd just received, "grab the other end of this would you?"

I took hold of the countertop and helped Jasper manoeuvre it inside without scratching the door frame.

When we reached the kitchen, Jasper took in the damage with one sweeping assessment.

"You get a bit wound up, then?" he asked me.

"Rose tried to run me over," I said, "with Bella in the car."

Jasper chuckled, "the two of you are always going at it. Beats me why it still bothers you so much. Alright, I reckon we can get this done pretty swift."

He stopped talking aloud then, figuring it was quicker just to picture his plans. We worked in silence, apart from my occasional "right", " up a bit", "there", since Jasper couldn't read my mind.

As Jasper knelt down to screw the new cupboard door in place, he said, "I went too far yesterday, it's not right, and I'm sorry for it."

I shuffled my feet, wishing there was a second door so that I had an excuse to be looking at something else.

"We good?" Jasper asked.

"We're good," I agreed.

"I don't like to make excuses, and I'm not now, but, you know that I was looking out for Bella because I care about her, right?"

"Of course I know that. I appreciate it."

He snorted, "yeah, you needn't, it's not really on account of you so much anymore. Anyhow, Rose cares about her too, alright?"

I sighed, only Jasper could claim to know more about Rose's feelings than I did. If he said Rose cared, then, I guess I couldn't argue with him.

"Alright," I said.

Jasper opened and shut the door a couple of times, admiring his work.

"We're done, I reckon," he said, standing up and pulling me into a rough half hug. "Wanna see how much of that movie's left to play?" He reached around to ruffle my hair.

I wasn't going to allow that. I ducked away from his hands and shrugged him off me.

The rest of the family were sat around the lounge, watching Charlie Chaplin together. I snuggled back up with Bella.

"Nice slacks, Eddie," Emmett said with a grin, in case I had any doubt that my whole family knew all about that embarrassing incident earlier.

I growled softly at him, hoping Bella wouldn't notice.

"I preferred the jeans," Alice piped in.

"Yeah," Emmett said, "jeans are cool, why d'you change out of your jeans, Eddie, were they getting too hot for you?"

I hissed, "call me that one more time, Emmett."

"Ssh, boys," Esme interrupted softly, "don't you want to watch the movie?"

Alice was perched on the edge of a sofa, Jasper went to sit next to her, but Rosalie was on the same sofa. Rose gave Jasper a sharp kick. She really hated being talked about, especially when people were saying soft stuff.

Jasper gave her an appraising look, trying to decide whether she wanted an argument. Then he shrugged and sat on the floor instead, folding his long legs up under himself.

Rosalie grunted and lay down over most of the sofa. Alice resettled slightly so Jasper could lean against her leg.

On the other side of the room, Esme was sat with Carlisle on the love seat, and Emmett had a whole couch to himself, he'd built a wall of cushions and was lying on his front, with his chin resting on the soft pile.

Everyone turned back to the screen and watched the show, their minds quieting as they focussed on the silent film. I loved silent movies, the way they made everyone think without words for a little while. I hated it when talkies came in, though I couldn't imagine what Bella's expression would be if I tried to tell her that!

Eddie, Jasper thought clearly, I glanced his way to confirm that he had my attention, in case you're wondering, Bella totally knows.