Paul's POV

I turned and walked back through the trees after she had disappeared in the house. My head was reeling and my dick was still uncomfortably hard and rubbing against my shorts. I was going to have to get a grip on my thoughts or I'd be walking back to La Push barefoot rather than risk phasing with Ateara out there; his twisted little mind would have way too much fun with what Bella and I had just got up to. Any other girl and I wouldn't have given a shit, but I didn't want him getting any dirt on her. Besides, he'd probably go and run his fucking trap, and Black really didn't need to see that just yet.

I walked through the clearing that Bella and I had just spent the last hour in. My cock throbbed as I caught the heady scent of her still clinging to the tree I'd had her pushed up against; I leaned my forearm on the tree and let her scent flood my senses.

Yeah, that's not going to help keep my mind off her at all.
How the fuck did I manage to walk away from her?

I had jerked-off more in the last week than I had since I was thirteen—and always to thoughts of Bella—but smelling her made it impossible to ignore the ache in my nuts. I palmed my hard-on through the denim of my shorts, before popping the button fly open, letting my shorts hang low on my hips and taking myself in a firm grip. I rested my forehead on my arm and breathed her scent deep into my lungs. I remembered her eager agreement to make herself come while thinking about me tonight and thought how much I'd love to watch her come apart. I wondered how she touched herself: fast or slow? gentle or firm? Did she only play with her clit or did she slide her fingers inside her cunt too? Did she squeeze her tits? I should have told her to call me so I could listen to her. Would she moan? Fuck, would she say my name?

My hand felt too big and way too fucking hot; I wanted to feel her hands on my cock. I closed my eyes and imagined her stroking me; her cool little fingers toying with my balls. I pumped harder, already so close just thinking about her touching me. I imagined those sweet pink lips of hers wrapped around me; her tongue running up the length of my cock and taking me fully in her mouth. My balls clenched tight and I blew my load over the ferns at the base of the tree at the thought of fucking her perfect mouth.

Stroking until the contractions subsided, I thought of coming back here tonight to listen in and see if Bella did fuck herself to sleep like she said she would, but I thought better of it. It would be too fucking tempting to be that close to her if she did. Besides, the last fucking thing she needed was someone invading her every private moment like that fucking leech Cullen had.

I pulled my shorts up and continued slowly toward the Reservation, hoping I'd be able to get my head back in focus now that I'd taken care of that distraction. After about a mile I figured I'd be able to keep Quil out enough to strip and shift.

'I wondered when you'd come slinking back,' Quil snipped. 'Seth said you took Bella back to where you guys found her after Cullen ditched her, man. What the fuck is wrong with you?'

I didn't want to let him see Bella's confession of being afraid to go out there, or her nervousness before we'd even set foot in the forest, so I changed the subject right away. 'How's patrolling solo?' He was usually easily distracted but I had no such luck this time.

'Boring as hell, but I bet you had a nice time in the woods. Did she rub your belly like the good little lap dog you are?' the venom in his thoughts was easy to pick up on.

'Mind your own fucking business Ateara! You think I'm going to give you anything to go report to Black?' I snapped. I was sick to fucking death of everyone being up in my business. They'd all given Jacob a wide berth when he and Bella were dating, but because I'd apparently 'stolen Jake's girl' I didn't get the same fucking privilege.

'Relax Paul,' he scoffed. 'We all know what's going to happen anyway.' Apparently, whatever he thought that was, was pretty fucking hilarious.

'What the fuck are you talking about?' I had half a mind to join Ateara on his patrol run and tear a chunk out of him. He was really pissing me off.

His mind flashed to a memory of a red faced, pissed-off Bella standing next to her truck in my drive way, yelling, presumably at Black. It must have been the day she'd come out to see me last week; the day this whole thing had started. Fuck, it had been less than a week.

"No, I'm going to fuck him because I want to!" she screamed, standing on her tip toes to get as much in his face as she could.

I stopped dead in my tracks feeling exactly the shock that filled the memory that Jacob had shared with Quil.

'She said that to him?' was the only thing I could even come up with.

'No shit, Sherlock!' was Quil's witty response. 'So, yeah, nobody doubts what's going on with you two, but it's pretty weird to hear it from Bella and not you, you know. Your brain is usually like a walking porno, what gives?'

I couldn't fucking help the flashes of Bella that ran through my head: laughing in the park, licking milkshake from her finger at the diner, that fucking blush on her cheeks every time I touched her, the look she gave me before she kissed me on the porch yesterday, the look on her face just a few minutes ago when I pushed her against the tree, followed by her throaty moan.

'You lucky fucking bastard! What the hell does Bella see in you, anyway man? You've never been anything but a dick to her, ever.' I could feel Quil's shock over the memories I'd let slip—some of them a little less intentional than others—and felt it as it all sort of clicked into place in his mind. He got that I wasn't just messing around with Bella out of some twisted fucking scheme to fuck with Black, and I wasn't tricking her into it somehow. He got that what was happening between us was real—fucked up and confusing as hell—but real.

The shock of this realization made his memory jump backward to Bella shoving Black out of her way and storming down the porch steps to her truck. She was fucking angry, easily as angry as she'd been with me when I'd made her feel like shit about dating a vamp.

"Don't you think you've done enough for him, Bella?" he shouted, stalking after her. "You've shown your gratitude already. Are you going to fuck him to show him how thankful you are that he did his job!" The bitter taste of jealousy filled the memory. We all knew that Black still wanted her for himself, but seeing this made it fucking pathetic. He was on the verge of throwing himself at her feet and begging her to choose him over me.

'I'll fucking kill him!' I took off as fast as I could. I wasn't sure if I should go after Black or kill the messenger first.

'It was fucking low man, but I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it really. You know how Jake feels about Bella, man. He's just hurt that it's you and not him that she...well, you know,' Quil tried placating me, but my anger consumed me.

'He's supposed to be her best friend. He should save the trash talk for the fucking vamps. I'm going to fucking kill him.'

'Paul, come on, man. Just let him cool off a bit. He'll make it up to her, I'm sure.' Quil offered in appeasement.

'What the fuck, Ateara? He speaks to her like she's...some fucking whore and you defend him? What the hell is wrong with you? She considers you a friend, and you let him treat her like that?' I spat indignantly.

Yup, kill the messenger first, then kill fucking Black.

'Hold up, Paul, man. You fighting her battles for her is just as bad as what Jake did. She stood up to him and that's half of what's pissing him off. She's obviously not going to back down from whatever the fuck it is going on with you two, so just let her figure it out, man. Or wait until she asks you for help first. You'll just piss her off if you go ahead and try to fix this without her.' Quil was thinking fast and furiously, trying at first to just get me to leave him alone, but it hit me that what he was thinking was absolutely true.

'Fuck, you're right,' I thought, not even realizing I had passed it along.

'I am?' his shock was genuine; it was pretty rare for him to have a good idea or thought. 'Well, yeah, I am! Huh.' He stopped running for a minute and his mood became serious; Quil was never fucking serious.

'Look man, Jake fucked up, I know that, Bella knows that, and now you know that—hell, even Jake knows that—but if you get involved it's going to get ugly and Bella could just walk away from the whole mess.' He paused for a minute before adding, 'And who's going to make brownies for the pack parties then, huh? Think of the brownies, dude!' Everything was always a fucking joke to this guy, but I wasn't laughing.

I was only a couple miles from home, and I couldn't take any more of Ateara's bullshit, so I phased out and walked the rest of the way. It gave me time to get my head straight.

Quil was right; as much as I may have wanted to teach Black a lesson, I needed to let Bella fight her own battle. She was strong—really fucking strong—and the way she had already stood up for herself to him only proved that. I knew she was probably upset about fighting with him about it too, but she hadn't let me know apart from blushing like crazy when it was brought up. I'd given her a chance to back out before things got heavy between us—or heavier I guess, given that the first time I'd fucking touched her I'd wanted to touch all of her, and would have if Black hadn't interrupted us actually—but she didn't take it. She'd said she couldn't just pretend there was nothing there.

That was exactly the opposite of what she had done when she and Jacob were together; she'd pretended that there was something there. Maybe that was a mistake on her part, and only served to lead him on further, who knows, but she had made herself clear when she told him their friendship was too important to her to risk losing over unrequited love. That led me to believe that she'd still want to make amends with him now. Hopefully that didn't involve kicking me to the curb. I really hoped that wouldn't happen any time soon.

I was in a fucking miserable mood by the time I got home. I scooped my phone off the table and thought about calling Bella, but couldn't think of what I would say to her. I thought about calling Black, but that wouldn't do any good either; I'd be no better than him if I caved into that. I paced around the living room, stewing on the whole mess and finally just flopped down on the sofa, defeated. I'd just have to wait and see how it panned out. I fucking hated having things out of my control like that.

I woke up disoriented with a kink in my neck—fucking couch!—to the sound of my phone buzzing. It was starting to get dark out and the glow from the little screen was the only light in the room.

I tried to remember if I was supposed to be anywhere; I didn't have patrol until the next afternoon and I couldn't think of anywhere else I was expected. I flipped the phone open: 8:54 pm /1 text message from Bella.

I feel like I should thank you. :)