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Fuck Buddies

"What about fuck buddies?"

Bella smacked Jake's head. "NO."

Jake laughed. "It's not so bad, you know. You get pretty much everything! You know you're safe, you get an experienced hand, and, most importantly, no emotional garbage. Besides, who wouldn't want to tap this fine piece of meat?" He wiggled his ass at her playfully.

Bella Swan shook her head, trying to decide if she was irritated or amused. "Jake, you've been with so many women how would I know you don't have an STD? And you know you're a lazy fuck in bed, you wouldn't know how to find a clit if it had a corn dog flagging you down. And there is no way in hell I am going to deal with your garbage since we both know you can't fuck a girl more than once."

Jacob thoughtfully cocked his head to one side. After a second, he grinned. "Not true! I fucked Leah Clearwater twice!" He smiled triumphantly.

"Doesn't count. You only did it because you were so drunk you thought she was her cousin." Bella shook her head in disgust. She wondered briefly how she was still friends with this stupid man.

'This stupid man' was Jacob Black, best friend and gigolo extraordinaire. They had grown up together and Jake was the one she counted on the most, the one she could trust with her life. He was also a man-whore. He liked pussy and lots of it. He liked experimenting. He liked variety. He liked them big, small, hairy, bald, dark, light, old, young…he loved them all. It was as if he had a mental list called "50 Best Vagina's to Fuck Before You Die". Except that number was exponentially higher. But what he loved most was the chase. In this city of almost 8 million people, the thrill of the hunt never bored him and he was relentless in finding new prospects. In San Francisco, the name Jacob Black was synonymous with sex.

She sometimes wondered if being Jake was easier. He never worried about meeting girls, never got offended when a girl rejected him, and he actually preferred that girls never call him back. And he was always so damn happy. The concept of "serial dating", as Jake called it, was so foreign to Bella. She hated dates: they were always awkward and superficial and usually just a precursor to sex. But Bella couldn't bear being intimate with a man she didn't actually love. She had been in love only twice before, or perhaps she had only been in love with the concept of love. The distinction was never really quite clear, and Bella didn't know why it always seemed so complex in her head when it sounded like the simplest thing in the world.

"You're thinking about it, aren't you?" Jake grinned. "Fuck buddies? Eh? Eh?"

Bella was annoyed. Jake had wanted to nail her ever since he discovered his penis started doing strange transformations around girls when they were 14. His friends teased him relentlessly about being the last one of their group to have a girl handle his junk. His sister's then-boyfriend, Paul, wasn't an outstanding influence, either. Since Bella was Jake's best friend, it was assumed she would just transition into being his girlfriend, and consequently, sexual experiment. But she was always smarter than Jake, always more mature, and always put more thought into her decisions. And when she thought about the consequences of sex with him, she decided that it wasn't worth the risk. Perhaps it was that first rejection from his best friend, or maybe it was Paul and his friends' relentless teasing, but Jake tossed aside all his romanticized ideas about relationships and set his mind to sleeping with as many girls as he possibly could. By the time he graduated at 18, he had slept with all the girls in the town within a three-year age-gap. Except Bella.

She wouldn't give. She couldn't. Her friendship with Jake meant too much to her, to both of them. He would never force himself on her, and she knew he was happy with their relationship just the way it was. Still, he couldn't resist the urge to tease her when she was going through a seriously dry spell.

Not that there were no prospects. Bella was very attractive. She turned heads everywhere she went, with her perfectly coiffed chestnut hair, large striking chocolate brown eyes, sumptuous hips and creamy skin. Looks were never a problem for Bella; the problem was that she was too intimidating. Although Bella had a heart of gold under her tough exterior, she was accustomed to putting up frosty, defensive walls that were ideal in her position as an Editor-in-Chief, but severely detrimental to her dating life. The result was an endless barrage of arrogant, witless men, looking to control a sexy, powerful woman, and Bella would have none of that.

The other problem was that Bella liked to be in love. And Bella liked sex. Bella loved sex. When she found it with someone she cared deeply about, it was extremely satisfying and she found herself to be insatiable. It had been over a year since she had had sex, not counting the disastrous blind date Jake had insisted she go on. It was the first (and last) time Bella had tried to do this casual sex thing that everybody raved about. Laurent was a colleague Jake tried to set her up with, and he was beautiful and knew it. Bella couldn't help but notice that every time he passed a reflection, whether a store window or the back of a spoon, he would eye himself admiringly. Even during their one hasty night, she caught him proudly making fuck faces at himself in the reflection of the picture frame above his bed while he pounded his too-small cock into her too-dry pussy and she screamed fake orgasms just so he would come already and get the whole damn thing over with.

She turned her attention back to Jake, who had, at some point, put some Al Green on the stereo in their shared apartment and was now doing a strange mating dance-slash-Celine Dion fist pump while holding a beer bottle as a microphone. He was sashaying towards her on the couch and unsuccessfully trying wink, instead looking like his right eye had a twitch. Bella knew this game. Girls fell for it left, right and centre. Jake was hot enough to get away with his ridiculous antics, and girls found his playfulness boyish and endearing. Bella also knew that when he needed to turn up his game, he could be very seductive. The reality is that he could sway his hips in the subtlest and sexiest of ways, he could wink effortlessly, and when his voice dropped to a low, husky rumble, Bella had seen women practically come at the first word that passed his lips. Yup, her Jacob was an extraordinary Casanova.

But she couldn't help but laugh and play along and she got up from sulking over broken hearts and one-night stands and she danced with Jake because it felt good to be happy and easy and free with the one person who knew her inside and out. And when she made her way into his strong, familiar arms, she felt comfort and safety, but also a void she couldn't quite put her finger on. She knew she didn't love Jake that way. At least not now. But could she? At some point? Bella didn't know, but she knew that they couldn't mess around with their friendship by complicating it with benefits.

She gently pulled herself away and Jake regretfully let her go.