A/N: Hello to all! I just wanted to say that I am very pleased with all the support I've been getting from my readers! I'm sorry if it seems as if I have been slow posting new chapters...I just don't don't like to rush. Believe me...you wouldn't like my work if I did. Please keep posting reviews and let me know if you have any questions! I'd be happy to address them!

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Chapter 12

Birthday

"What is the craziest thing you have ever done?" Paul asked, a smile permanently glued on his face. His eyes were as intense and loving as ever. We were lying on his bed. I was on my back and he lay on his side with his elbow propped up on a pillow. We were playing a game of questions.

"The craziest?" He nodded. I bit my lip in thought. "Let's see...either the time I stole Bella's motorcycle to race this jerk from school, or the time I entered, and won, mind you, a corn dog eating contest when I was seven."

"You stole a motorcycle? You? I didn't even know you could ride one? And the vamps let you put yourself in danger?" Paul exclaimed.

"I'm not a complete angel, you know. Besides it wasn't really stealing. Alice knew I was going to do it before I did. And she knew I wouldn't even get a scrape, so she let me." I shrugged.

"I must admit, that does make you somewhat of a bad ass. Who was this jerk you were racing anyways?" He said after a moment, accepting that I wasn't intentionally put into a dangerous situation.

"I don't remember his name, but his hobbies included taking advantage of girls, and bragging about his motorcycle. After I rejected him, he turned to mocking me, so I decided to kick his butt the only way I knew I could beat him." I responded, loving the fact that I had shocked him.

"So you won?" He asked. I nodded, smiling ruefully. "What did you mean by 'taking advantage'? Did he do anything to you?" Unconsciously, or maybe not so much, Paul's arm slid around my waist possessively. I didn't miss that his hands were shaking slightly either.

"Nothing other than try to kiss me." I rolled my eyes, squirming until his grip loosened. "You really need to chill out about other guys. Most of them aren't that bad, and I can take care of myself." I informed him. I propped myself up on my elbow so we were face to face.

Paul grumbled something inaudible under his breath. I suspected that it was rude and chose to ignore it.

"Speaking of you calming down about guys, you could have been a bit nicer to Wes today. He was only trying to be nice. Why were you so mean, anyways?"

"I wasn't being mean. Just straightforward." He grumbled, avoiding my gaze.

"Oh, whatever, I saw how you were shaking. What's so bad about him?" I questioned.

He mumbled a reply.

"What? I couldn't hear you." I pressed.

He sighed. "I don't like the way he looks at you, and then he made it sound like you were going out as more than just friends, if you know what I mean. Which is completely out of the question, of course. I thought you didn't like him anyway?"

"I like him as a friend, that's all. And I am pretty sure that's a mutual feeling. He's just being nice to the new girl." I explained, rolling my eyes at him.

"Not from what I saw." He grumbled.

"From what I've seen, you would get upset if a dog looked at me funny. Just try not to overreact all the time, okay? People are going to look at me, and talk to me, and occasionally bump into me. It's a fact of life."

"I just don't like sharing you." He grumbled again.

"But you will try, won't you?" I asked.

"Fine, I'll try. But I don't guarantee any immediate results." He tweaked my nose playfully.

"Previous girlfriends." I challenged him.

"What?" He asked.

"You asked a question and now it's my turn. Previous girlfriends, now go." I answered.

He shifted. "Skip."

I scowled. "That's not fair. All questions must be answered. It's the rules."

He sighed and shifted uncomfortably, giving in. "In sixth grade there was this girl named Crystal, then in eighth grade there was Valerie, and Grace. In high school, there was Kayla, Missy, Shea, and Anne Marie."

"You definitely got around, didn't you?" Was the only thing I could think of to say.

He shrugged, avoiding my gaze.

"Did you love any of them?" I asked.

He didn't miss a beat. "No."

"What about, well, did you, you know?" I asked timidly, not really sure if I wanted an answer.

He shifted uncomfortably again. I gulped.

"You did, didn't you? No, never mind, I don't want to know. It doesn't matter anyway." I replied quickly, my face flushing.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

"It's okay." I assured him, even though I was secretly jealous. But letting him know that would just give him more reason to get jealous himself.

"So, what was it like, living with the vamps?" He asked.

His question surprised me. "I thought you didn't like to talk about them?"

"True. But they're a big part of you, which I can't seem to hear enough about." He smiled.

"Well what do you want to know...specifically, I mean?" I asked.

"What is one of your favorite memories?"

I sat reflectively for a while before answering. "My sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, eleventh, twelfth, fourteenth, and seventeenth birthday's."

Paul looked at me funny. "Why those?"

"Those were the ones that we celebrated with just the family. Banana pancakes in the morning, a picnic lunch, a baseball game, then presents at night, and Chinese takeout for dinner. Alice went all extravagant on the others, with live bands and large crowds. Not really my taste, but I humored her as long as I still got my banana pancakes." I explained.

"Banana pancakes?" Paul asked, an eyebrow raised skeptically.

"You haven't had them before, have you?" I accused.

"Nope." He shook his head.

"Well, you should." I affirmed.

"Your turn."

"What made you build this house, especially since you hardly ever stay here?" I asked.

"When Seth and Bethany got married, they had to stay with Sam and Emily for a long time before they could get a place of their own. They were still fairly young and Bethany just finished school, so they had all that loan business to worry about too. After seeing them struggle, and watching Seth having to deal with not being able to provide for Bethany like he wanted, I decided that I wasn't going to let that happen to me."

"So you built the house."

"Yes, and now it doesn't have to be an empty shell anymore. Now that I have you." He picked up my hand and kissed the back of it. "You can do whatever you want to it. I don't really have an eye for decorating."

"Too bad Alice isn't here. She's really good at this kind of thing." I couldn't help the pang of homesickness that crept into my tone. Thankfully, Paul didn't seem to notice.

"We'll get the hang of it. I think Emily has a lot of home decorating magazines we could look at."

"Does this mean I'll be living with you?" I queried.

"I was hoping. If you're not against it." He looked at me earnestly.

"No, I'm not against it." I grinned, snuggling against his chest.

"I was hoping that when you moved in, you'd be a little more than just my girlfriend." He said suddenly. His voice sounded unusually nervous. He sat up and pulled me up with him. His face was serious, as was his tone of voice. He was visibly flustered. I was puzzled by his sudden change.

"You are my everything, Camryn. My everything." His voice was ragged, his hands tracing my face to the back of my neck. His thumbs lingered on my lips. "I promise to try not to be too much of an ass, even though I will always be jealous of any guy that looks at you, even if he doesn't have any romantic intentions. I promise to always love you. And I promise that I'll never, ever be parted from you." He paused for a moment, before quickly adding, "unless taken by force."

We lay there silently, staring into each other's eyes for what seemed like forever.

I thought about how fast all of this seemed to happen. How my life was completely flipped upside down by this man, this wolf of a man, wolf man. Here I was, with nothing but my own stupid fears holding me back. Happy tears began to run down my face. Paul gently soothed me and wiped the salty tears from my cheeks.

I knew what was coming then.

We leaned our foreheads together. I closed my eyes. Both of us were breathing hard and fast. I had made my decision the night I let him close to me for the first time, the night of our first kiss, the night I let fate, or whatever it was, take over.

We kissed. Sweet kisses, not serious making-out kisses.

He pulled away for a moment. He had to hold me back just a little bit. He studied me carefully before speaking.

"Camryn Vera Cullen, will you marry me?"

I just nodded really fast before I was able to verbally answer him, but it was just barely a whisper before our lips were together again. Our bodies seemed to mold into one. This kiss, unlike all the others, was so intense it felt as if I was burning from the inside out.

I pulled away suddenly, a dreadful thought entering my brain. "But I'm not old enough!" I exclaimed, dismay welling up in me. Paul laughed through his own salty tears that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Yes, you are." He answered. I looked at him, puzzled. Then it dawned on me.

"What time is it?" I asked hurriedly, looking around for a clock.

"1:15." Paul grinned. March 16. My eighteenth birthday. I was officially legal.

"You had this all planned out, didn't you?" I accused him, shoving his chest in mock irritation. The annoyance I'd tried to infuse in my voice was absent, however. I just sounded breathless and high-pitched.

He smiled at me, a dark, predatory smile that made the butterflies in my stomach whirl up in a frantic storm. I was suddenly on my back on the bed, with Paul's grin staring back down at me. He grabbed my wrists, enclosing them in burning shackles, and pinned them over my head.

"Maybe," he mumbled against my lips, moving so that he was leaning over me. I giggled, a reaction quite unlike me. He pulled away, looking very pleased with himself, before leaning in to kiss me again.