Chapter XXXIII

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"It's not me!" I screamed. "It's the imprint magic."

I didn't see him move, didn't see anything at all. His arm wrapped around my waist and hauled me from the ground. He pressed his lips to mine, warm and soft and insistent. My eyes fluttered closed, nothing but fireworks behind the lids. I wrapped my arms around his neck, heat flooding my veins. His cropped hair tickled the tips of my fingers, prompting me to wind them through his locks.

My feet, which had been stretching to keep my toes on the ground, were suddenly in the air. His arms constricted around me, his mouth still on mine. I had dreamed of kissing this boy for years now. And as I felt the tip of his tongue brush against my lower lip, my head spun and I moaned.

Jake smiled against the kiss, slowly leaning down until my feet were flat against the hard soil and he had his forehead against mine. I was struggling to catch my breath while hiding my shaky state. 

"Did that feel like imprint magic?" he asked, eyes still closed.

"Some kind of magic," I whispered, embarrassed at my state. Jake laughed and pulled back to kiss me again.

"Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to do that?" he asked quietly. Probably not as long as I have.

What was I doing? Jake loved my sister. "I have to get home," I whispered.

"I won't take you until you tell me you know I love you," he insisted, his hands gripping my shoulders. I didn't answer. "Okay, listen to me," he begged, bending so he was eye level with me. 

"I love you, Ryanne Lee Swan. I was stupid enough to look at someone else, but I've know for weeks now, Rye."

"You didn't say anything," I whispered.

"You said you just wanted to be friends, Annie. I didn't want to take your choice away from you," he said.

I choked out a laugh at the irony. I had said the words, sure that the imprint had taken away any semblance of a normal life Jake could've had. 

"You think I'm joking? What do I have to do? What's it going to take to convince you?"

What would it take? I needed to know that I wasn't the rebound; that he didn't pick me because Bella had gone back to Edward. I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to organize my thoughts enough to verbalize them. 

"I need to know that this isn't because of Bella or Italy or the imprint. I need to be sure that this, me, is what you want."

"So, slow?" he asked. I nodded, carefully gauging his reaction. "I can do slow." He smiled down at me like I had given him the winning numbers to the lottery. "We should get you home," he added.

He was right about that. I would be lucky if I had any privileges after the past couple of days. "Let me grab my bag," I said. I had packed everything of mine, the intention of taking all my things. Jake beat me to the porch, taking the bag and quickly setting it down again.

"What do you have in their?" he laughed.

"Everything; I-uh, I wasn't sure if I'd still be welcome," I admitted.

Jake opened the front door and tossed the bag inside the house. "No need to take that back with you then," he said simply.

"Jake, I'm in a lot of trouble," I whispered. We both knew my dad wouldn't keep me from La Push; I went to school here, my friends were here. But, as much as I wanted to believe that Jake loved me, I was still waiting for him to come to his senses.

"Rye, nothing you can do will ever make me hate you," he promised. "Now let's get you home."

As I sat in the small cab next to Jake, I only want to kiss him again. And I wasn't sure what to say to him; how to act around him. Was I his best friend? Yes; that would be the one thing I would always be. Was I more than that? No...Yes... I don't know. I wanted to take it slow, to make sure I wasn't going to cause myself more heartache. I turned ready to talk to Jake about it. I couldn't let everything about us change. I couldn't lose him and what we'd always been because he might be in love with me.

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