Steamin' at the Seams

"So how are you and Jacob doing?" Emily asks. It's just me and her hanging out again.

I shrug. "We're just friends. Why?"

"Just wondered. You two have seemed closer in the past few days since we told you the secret is all," she replies.

"Well, he imprinted on somebody, so nothing's ever going to happen between us," I say darkly.

Across her kitchen table, Emily looks at me sympathetically. "You like him." It's not a question.

"Don't say anything to Sam," I plead, knowing that Sam wouldn't be able to keep it from Jacob. "I don't need anyone to feel sorry for me just because I fell for the guy who had a predetermined destiny."

Emily sighs heavily. "I won't, I promise."

I sigh too, but mine is a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

* * *

A few days later, Quil, Embry, Will, Jacob, and I are hanging out at our house. We're down in my room playing Guitar Hero. Jacob and Will are battling, and Will is getting his ass kicked.

"You're sure you've never played this game before?" I ask Jacob jokingly.

He laughs, not daring to take his eyes from the glowing screen in fear of giving up his lead. "Nope, never played in my life. I'm just lucky, I guess."

"Pretty damn lucky," I say admiringly as Will loses for the third time in a row. I stand up from my seat at the foot of my bed. "I'm thirsty. I'll be back in a minute. Try not to break anything while I'm gone."

"Yes, ma'am," Quil says cheekily. I shoot him the finger and walk up the stairs with the boys' laughter as my theme music.

I'm standing in the closet in the kitchen, where we keep the soda on the top shelf, trying to decide on a drink, when suddenly there is a very warm presence against my back. I spin and find myself face-to-chest with none other than the enigmatic Jacob Black.

"Oh!" I say breathlessly.

He grins. "I'm thirsty, too."

I look down around on the floor, and, finding a box deeper inside the closet, I stand up on it, facing Jacob. Now we're face-to-face.

Scrutinizing his visage, I say "Shut the door."

"Why?" he asks, staring back just as steadily.

"I want to see how dark it gets," I say with a slightly challenging tone.

Jacob raises an eyebrow, but does as I asked. We're immediately plunged into darkness. The atmosphere changes. Now that I can't see him, I feel drawn to Jacob, like a magnet to sheet metal. Tentatively, I reach out towards him. Finding his chest, his skin hot through the thin cotton of his t-shirt, my hand follows his throat up to his face, memorizing as it goes.

I don't know who the instigator was, but before I know what's happening, Jacob's arms are around me, my hands tangled in his hair, his mouth hard and fast on mine.

This kiss is not like the last one we shared. That one was soft, swift. This kiss is slow and fast at the same time. Hard and smoldering.

But the smoldering isn't in the kiss. The smoldering is inside me. Down in the pit of my stomach.

I realize that, being with Jacob like this, the hole in my chest is gone. Healed up. I realize that I want Jacob. Too much.

With a gasp, I pull away, resting my forehead on Jacob's shoulder. Both of us are breathing hard, our chests heaving in synchronization.

"What about her?" I ask, afraid to hear the answer.

"She won't mind," Jacob says huskily, knowing immediately who I mean. "She doesn't even know about me…and the imprinting."

"OK," I say. I step down from the box, turning around. "You should go back downstairs. They'll be wondering where you are."

Wordlessly – though I can feel his anger burning through the air – Jacob grabs a random can of soda from above my head and disappears, the sudden light from the open door blinding me.

Pulling the door shut, I sink down onto the floor, my back against the box. Tears course down my face. Just like last time.