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Bella had never actually seen Paul with a girl. She's heard him talk about Carmen, the girl he could have loved, but she's never actually seen him with a girl, kissing, holding hands. It was hard for her to picture Paul ever actually dating someone, actually being someone's boyfriend.
Which is why she is so surprised by the way he acts when he becomes her boyfriend.
He's sweet and gentle and he does couple-y things like hold her hand and open the door for her and suffer through dinner with her father and his stern lectures about staying out of trouble.
It's just as startling to her to find out he's the same way the first time they have sex. There is lust in his eyes and it's intense and very much how she's imagined. But there's also an amazing beauty in the way he touches her. The way his fingers glide over the skin of her stomach, barely touching. The way his lips are a whisper against her mouth. She has to moan and beg just to get him to deepen his kiss.
Every touch of his skin on hers is slow and deliberate. Every motion is measured with control she didn't know he had. Even when he pushes inside of her he is careful, so careful that she can't stand it. She rolls her hips and urges him to move faster, harder. He chuckles and gives in to her, but even when they are moving together fast and hard and deep, it's still incredibly gentle and tender. She feels like the most cherished human being on the planet and wishes that she could freeze them in this moment forever.
Later as she's curled up against him, his hand moves up and down her arm, slow and gentle and in that moment she knows exactly how it feels to be loved by Paul Lahote.
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