Bella didn't quite know how to react to that unexpectedly personal list of her mistakes. Smiling at him all the time was a dead giveaway of the kind of feelings he didn't want her to have and that she didn't want to reveal. But it was a challenge to hide the simple truth that he made her happy, indeed happier than anyone had ever made her feel in her entire life. Because while he might not love her, he did care and he seemed to find her irresistible. Did she really need more than that from him? All that lovey-dovey stuff and wedding ring proudly worn on male fingers would really just be the icing on the cake, she reasoned: lovely to have but not strictly necessary.

'You won't be getting jumped tonight,' she warned him, her lovely face flushed and self-conscious.