Author's Note: Apologies for the short chapter. It's the last two week of classes for me, and I've got finals to worry about. This chapter is like a stepping stone anyway, but I wanted to get it out there for you guys to read. ;) Sorry it took me some time with this chapter. The next will be longer and better, okay? I hope you enjoy it. Definitely leave me a review and tell me your thoughts!

JPOV

"What do you mean you're leaving for the week?"

"Abram invited me to go on a trip with him to look for a new job."

Damn it. I'd pushed Leah too hard and too fast. Now she was going to balk against my attempts and try to run and hide somewhere, with Abram, no less, who I could have snapped fucking toothpick if I'd wanted to. I should have. Why hadn't I when I had the chance? He wasn't meant for Leah. I was. Didn't she see that yet? All of our so-called meaningless sex had been anything but. Maybe it had started out like that, but it'd grown into something else. I knew that she'd felt the same thing when I'd kissed her. I could tell by the way that she looked at me.

She wasn't fooling anyone but herself.

"And you're going?"

I gritted my teeth, resting my forehead against the wall in my bedroom. Leah hadn't answered my calls all day, and had only called me back the minute I'd decided to give up and go to bed.

"Yes."

"Leah."

"Yeah, Black?"

"Come over."

Heavy silence. I hated heavy silence. Why couldn't she just talk to me? Running away wasn't going to solve anything. We both knew that. Was I that horrible that she couldn't even pretend to see herself in a relationship with me? I had more to offer than my dick. I was beginning to wonder if she even knew that.

"I can't."

"You aren't even going to give me a chance?"

"I just need some time to think."

"When you have sex with Abram, you think about me. Do you think about him when you're having having sex with me?"

"Sex doesn't mean anything."

"No, you won't let it mean anything. Come over. Let's talk about this."

"Jacob, I'm with Abram. I committed to this, and I can't—I can't be in a relationship with you, or even think about it, until I figure this out," Leah said. "I'll see you in a week, Jacob."

I hissed out a breath as the dial tone hummed in my ear. This wasn't right. Why was Leah running from me? Just because of one kiss? One kiss had freaked her out this much?

She had started this whole thing. After Sam's birthday party, she'd asked me to finish it, and I wasn't going to let her escape so easily. Over the course of a few weeks, I'd decided on what I wanted, and now I was going to make Leah see that she wanted it too.

As soon as she got back from her stupid little trip, she was going to realize who it was that she really wanted to be with.

LPOV

I had to be an idiot.

As Abram checked us into our hotel for the night, I realized that I had made a mistake. I looked at the guy that had once seemed ridiculously attractive to me, and I felt nothing at all. I wanted to say that Sam had sucked the life out of me with that fucking soul-stealing kiss, but it wouldn't have been fair to Jacob.

Sam wasn't shit to me anymore. I'd had a little relapse when he'd surprised me with that kiss, but I wasn't that girl anymore. That part of me that had loved Sam had long since been forgotten underneath the person I'd become after learning to cope with his imprint. Yeah, sometimes it still pissed me off, but Sam wasn't the reason that I was regretting my decision to go with Abram.

Jacob scared the hell out of me on a daily basis. He was strong and sexy and full of needs. He'd gotten himself worked into the idea that he wanted me, on more than a physical level, and now he was asking for things that I was terrified to give.

I wanted it all to stay easy. I wanted to keep rolling in the sheets with him, spending hours upon hours appreciating his perfect package, but he wasn't game for that now. There was something more that he wanted, and, as far as he was concerned, it was about time that I pissed or got off the pot.

Jacob had had his share of heartbreak with Bella, and I'd had mine with Sam. The difference was that he was ready to move on now, and I couldn't stop wondering if it was all too rushed. I didn't want to be his escape route, and I didn't want him to be mine.

Couldn't he agree that we needed time to sort things out? We couldn't have done it if I'd stayed in La Push. The chemistry between us was hard to ignore, and I was positive we'd spend more time touching than talking.

Not that it was a bad thing in my book, but Jake obviously wanted something more.

Abram was finishing up with our room arrangements, dishing out the necessary cash, when my phone chimed with a text message alert. I stood completely still in the hotel lobby, staring at Abram's back. When I finally convinced myself to take the phone out of my pocket, I knew it'd be Jake before I checked the screen.

Miss me yet?

I scowled at the phone. I missed him like crazy, like an addiction. It was hard to break the habit, and I didn't want to think about it. Especially because I was missing more than his pleasure stick at the moment. I was sort of missing his face and his voice as well.

Buzz off, Black. I'm trying 2 enjoy a romantic getaway w/ my boyfriend.

I closed my eyes for a second, wishing I could stop thinking about him. I'd made the decision to come with Abram for a reason, right? I had to see if it would work—if I wanted it to work—and that wasn't going to happen if I couldn't get Jacob off my brain long enough to think.

The message alert beeped.

Are you going to fuck him tonight?

I felt heat gathering in the pit of my stomach as I glanced up to see if Abram was paying any attention. The person at the desk was gesturing quickly with his finger, explaining to Abram how to get to our room.

Irrelevant. R U jealous?

I'd barely hit send with my thumb before Jacob had a reply.

No. U'll think of me.

What an asshole.

U're an asshole.

Abram was picking up our bags.

Hurry back, Leah. I don't like waiting.

I frowned and quickly tucked my phone into my pocket as Abram moved to my side. He had my suitcase in one hand and his in the other. He jerked his head toward a hall on our left.

"Let's go. This way."

We were halfway down the hall when my phone chimed again. I gritted my teeth and slid it halfway out of my pocket to see what it said.

BTW, tell him I'll break his dick off if he puts it in you.

"Who's that?"

I looked up.

"My mom," I mumbled.

Even miles away, Jacob was kind of hot when he was jealous.

JPOV

"You've been distracted lately."

Leah had only been gone a day, and I was already going crazy. I'd resorted to hanging out with my dad, which was something I used to spend a lot of my time doing, but I couldn't get her out of my head.

Sitting on my dad's beat up couch, tilted slightly to my left from where it sagged in the middle, I stared blankly at the game playing on the television screen. My dad shifted in his chair to look around at me, which was saying something, considering it was usually pretty difficult to pry his eyes away from a game. His face had more lines in it than I remembered, but his eyes were still as dark and perceptive as ever. I felt them scrutinizing me, and I wished that I'd bothered to make a few vague statements about the game so that he wouldn't have grown suspicious.

My dad was one of the last people I could talk to about Leah Clearwater.

"I've been seeing Leah."

Shit.

My dad's black eyebrows raised so far up his forehead they nearly disappeared underneath his hat. He was silent for several minutes, and I wondered if I'd given him a heart attack. It was sort of what I'd expected him to do. Everyone knew how Leah was, how stubborn and bitchy she could be. I didn't think that the two of us ever would have made a likely pair.

There had been plenty of times when I'd ranted to my dad about how easily she could piss me off when she tried to act all high and mighty toward me, condescending me even though I was the fucking alpha of our pack. She had never failed to mention how she'd believed herself more capable of the position.

"Leah Clearwater?"

I looked at the floor. "Yeah. That one."

My dad's eyebrows were now in his hat. He let out an appreciative breath.

"Oh. How's that going?"

I snorted. "Probably exactly like you expect."

"Oh?" he prodded.

"She doesn't want to be in a relationship with me." I frowned. "Frankly, I don't want to be in one with her either, but..."

"Things happen," he filled in.

"Yeah."

I knew that he probably didn't want to know more than that, and I really didn't want to admit to more either. That was definitely pushing the boundaries of our relationship. I didn't want to scar my dad for life.
"Does—uh—Sue know?"

"No one knows, but you." I winced. "And Sam."

"Oh," he grunted meaningfully again.

Practically everyone on the rez knew about Sam and Leah's past relationship. My dad was no stranger to the controversy. I could imagine all the things that he might be thinking knowing that Sam was the only other person that knew about Leah and I.

Of course, he'd have no idea that Sam had gotten more than his share of information about our relationship. I sighed. Thinking about his birthday cake made me lonely. I could feel my phone pressing into my leg, and I was annoyed that Leah hadn't texted or called since our very short text conversation the day before.

Maybe I had gotten the wrong impression completely. Maybe she really didn't feel like I did. She would have called if she did. She would have sent me a text at the very least, even if Abram was in the same room.

But no, she was probably having the time of her life with that dumb fuck, not giving me a single thought. She had went with him after all. That meant something.

"Well, is it worth the headache?"

I looked up at him. "I thought so."

Until she'd packed up and ran off for the week.

He nodded. "You'll make it work then."