It was a moment before I could speak, and still the only answer I could give him was, "Please."

"That's what I thought," he said, his face going calm again, but for the turbulent light in his eyes.

"I love you, Bella," he murmured.

"I love you, Jacob," I whispered brokenly.

The pain was back in Edward's eyes now.

He smiled. "I know that better than you do."

He turned to walk away.

"Anything," I called after him in a strangled voice. "Anything you want, Jacob. Just don't do this!"

He paused, turning slowly.

"I don't really think you mean that."

"Stay," I begged.

He shook his head. "No, I'm going." He paused, as if deciding something. "But I could leave it to fate."

"What do you mean?" I choked out.

"I don't have to do anything deliberate - I could just do my best for my pack and let what happens happen." He shrugged. "If you could convince me you really did want me to come back - more than you wanted to do the selfless thing."

"Manipulative bastard!" Rosalie yelled and Edward was now shaking with fury. To use Bella's compassion against her really seemed low. How could she not do whatever he wanted if it was his life that was at stake? She would do anything so save someone she cared about.

"How?" I asked.

"You could ask me," he suggested.

"Come back," I whispered. How could he doubt that I meant it?

He shook his head, smiling again. "That's not what I'm talking about."

It took me a second to grasp what he was saying, and all the while he was looking at me with this superior expression - so sure of my reaction. As soon as the realization hit, though, I blurted out the words without stopping to count the cost.

"Will you kiss me, Jacob?"

Edward growled loudly; his eyes were now closed, but the pain and anger there were still as clear as ever.

"Don't fall for his trick," Rosalie hissed, but she knew it had been useless since the time the mutt had brought this whole subject up.

His eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed suspiciously. "You're bluffing."

"Kiss me, Jacob. Kiss me, and then come back."

He hesitated in the shadow, warring with himself. He half-turned again to the west, his torso twisting away from me while his feet stayed planted where they were. Still looking away, he took one uncertain step in my direction, and then another. He swung his face around to look at me, his eyes doubtful.

I stared back. I had no idea what expression was on my face.

Jacob rocked back on his heels, and then lurched forward, closing the distance between us in three long strides.

I knew he would take advantage of the situation. I expected it. I held very still - my eyes closed, my fingers curled into fists at my sides - as his hands caught my face and his lips found mine with an eagerness that was not far from violence.

I could feel his anger as his mouth discovered my passive resistance. One hand moved to the nape of my neck, twisting into a fist around the roots of my hair. The other hand grabbed roughly at my shoulder, shaking me, then dragging me to him. His hand continued down my arm, finding my wrist and pulling my arm up around his neck. I left it there, my hand still tightly balled up, unsure how far I could go in my desperation to keep him alive. All the while his lips, disconcertingly soft and warm, tried to force a response out of mine.

As soon as he was sure I wouldn't drop my arm, he freed my wrist, his hand feeling its way down to my waist. His burning hand found the skin at the small of my back, and he yanked me forward, bowing my body against his.

His lips gave up on mine for a moment, but I knew he was nowhere close to finished. His mouth followed the line of my jaw, and then explored the length of my neck. He freed my hair, reaching for my other arm to draw it around his neck like the first.

Then both of his arms were constricted around my waist, and his lips found my ear.

"You can do better than this, Bella," he whispered huskily. "You're over thinking it."

Edward seemed to be fuming this whole time, but he was wary of her reaction to this.

I shivered as I felt his teeth graze my earlobe.

"That's right," he murmured. "For once, just let yourself feel what you feel."

I shook my head mechanically until one of his hands wound back into my hair and stopped me.

His voice turned acidic. "Are you sure you want me to come back? Or did you really want me to die?"

Several growls where heard in response to that.

Anger rocked through me like the whiplash after a heavy punch. That was too much - he wasn't fighting fair.

My arms were already around his neck, so I grabbed two fistfuls of his hair - ignoring the stabbing pain in my right hand - and fought back, struggling to pull my face away from his.

And Jacob misunderstood.

He was too strong to recognize that my hands, trying to yank his hair out by the roots, meant to cause him pain. Instead of anger, he imagined passion. He thought I was finally responding to him.

With a wild gasp, he brought his mouth back to mine, his fingers clutching frantically against the skin at my waist.

The jolt of anger unbalanced my tenuous hold on self-control; his unexpected, ecstatic response overthrew it entirely. If there had been only triumph, I might have been able to resist him. But the utter defenselessness of his sudden joy cracked my determination, disabled it. My brain disconnected from my body, and I was kissing him back.

There were more growls at that and Edward's head bowed in defeat again.

Against all reason, my lips were moving with his in strange, confusing ways they'd never moved before - because I didn't have to be careful with Jacob, and he certainly wasn't being careful with me.

My fingers tightened in his hair, but I was pulling him closer now.

He was everywhere. The piercing sunlight turned my eyelids red, and the color fit, matched the heat. The heat was everywhere. I couldn't see or hear or feel anything that wasn't Jacob.

The tiny piece of my brain that retained sanity screamed questions at me.

Why wasn't I stopping this? Worse than that, why couldn't I find in myself even the desire to want to stop? What did it mean that I didn't want him to stop? That my hands clung to his shoulders, and liked that they were wide and strong? That his hands pulled me too tight against his body, and yet it was not tight enough for me?

Each one of these questions seemed to cause Edward more pain…to cause everyone pain.

The questions were stupid, because I knew the answer: I'd been lying to myself.

Jacob was right. He'd been right all along. He was more than just my friend. That's why it was so impossible to tell him goodbye - because I was in love with him.

More pain went through the room with that, and everyone's eyes were on Edward, who looked completely lost.

Too. I loved him, much more than I should, and yet, still nowhere near enough.

She still loves you most, Alice thought, heartbroken about what was going on, but it didn't seem to have any effect on Edward.

I was in love with him, but it was not enough to change anything; it was only enough to hurt us both more. To hurt him worse than I ever had.

I didn't care about more than that - than his pain. I more than deserved whatever pain this caused me. I hoped it was bad. I hoped I would really suffer.

In this moment, it felt as though we were the same person. His pain had always been and would always be my pain - now his joy was my joy. I felt joy, too, and yet his happiness was somehow also pain. Almost tangible - it burned against my skin like acid, a slow torture.

For one brief, never-ending second, an entirely different path expanded behind the lids of my tear-wet eyes.

Emmett paused here... knowing what this would do to Edward if he read this next part.

"Read it!" Edward commanded in a dead voice and Emmett didn't have a choice.

As if I were looking through the filter of Jacob's thoughts, I could see exactly what I was going to give up, exactly what this new self-knowledge would not save me from losing. I could see Charlie and Renée mixed into a strange collage with Billy and Sam and La Push. I could see years passing, and meaning something as they passed, changing me. I could see the enormous red-brown wolf that I loved, always standing as protector if I needed him.

For the tiniest fragment of that second, I saw the bobbing heads of two small, black-haired children, running away from me into the familiar forest. When they disappeared, they took the rest of the vision with them.

Edward seemed to break down at this and Esme went over to him. She was crying as well.

Rosalie was growling, not at the actions by the mutt this time, but because a part of her really did want Bella to have that life that was just painted... a normal life with a future.

Everyone knew that Edward would be thinking the same thing now... that if Bella could have that future... he would want her to have it….even if he had to let her go. No one said anything though; they knew it was coming, but right now wasn't the time to bring it up.

And then, quite distinctly, I felt the splintering along the fissure line in my heart as the smaller part wrenched itself away from the whole.

Jacob's lips were still before mine were. I opened my eyes and he was staring at me with wonder and elation.

"I have to leave," he whispered.

"No."

He smiled, pleased by my response. "I won't be long," he promised. "But one thing first…"

He bent to kiss me again, and there was no reason to resist. What would be the point?

This time was different. His hands were soft on my face and his warm lips were gentle, unexpectedly hesitant. It was brief, and very, very sweet.

His arms curled around me, and he hugged me securely while he whispered in my ear.

"That should have been our first kiss. Better late than never."

"You're still a manipulative bastard," Rosalie hissed. She may have wanted Bella to have the future that was just painted, but that didn't mean she would wish that mutt on her.

Against his chest, where he couldn't see, the tears welled up and spilled over.

"That's the end of the chapter," Emmett said, holding the book out.

"Maybe we should take a break," Carlisle suggested, sounding really depressed himself.

Edward looked up. He was beyond devastated at this point, but it was clear that he wanted them to read the next chapter. He needed to know that she was going to be okay, even after what had just happened.

"I think I should read the next one," Jasper said, taking the book. He was looking at Esme comforting Edward and knew his mom wouldn't be able to read right now.

Chapter Twenty-four

Snap Decision

"Snap Decision," Jasper read.