Chapter 9

I may have been a cold-hearted bastard at times. I may have been rude, a complete dick, devoid of emotion, or anything else you wanted to call me. But there was one thing I wasn't, and that would be a wife beater.

No matter what, I'd never raise my hand to a woman. No matter how nonsensical I thought they were being, there was never a time or a place to hit a woman.

A jackass like Jake Black, though? There was always a time and a place when it came to assholes like him; to punch his lights out.

—

"What the fuck, Bella?" Jake seethed, pushing his way past her into the house, almost knocking her to the ground in the process. He gripped her by the shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. She tried to pull away, but he was too strong. "You hang up on me every time I call, you won't see me—"

"Jake, please—"

"Why won't you love me?" His face was twisted in heartbreak. His emotions were obviously unstable.

"You need to take your hands off her." He turned his eyes on me, suddenly alerted to my presence. It didn't take much to see that he was high, and it definitely wasn't from pot.

"You are fucking him!"

Bella winced as he yelled, his grip becoming tighter. Before I could get in between them, he shoved her to the ground. She cried out as she landed hard on her arm.

"Nothing but a little slut!" he roared, moving in on her.

Those were the last words he uttered before my fist connected with his jaw. "Bella, you need to call the cops, then get to your bedroom and lock the door. He's having a bad trip on something," I yelled over my shoulder as Jake took a swing at me, thankfully missing since he was wobbly on his feet.

I heard her on the phone and then the bedroom door slam, happy that she had chosen to listen to me. I needed her safe. I didn't know how much longer I could hold him off before he got a hit in or worse.

"Fuck, what is wrong with you?" I muttered under my breath as he took another swing at me. This time he was lucky, as his fist connected with my jaw. He didn't look like he was weak on any given day, but right now his strength was intensified. I was lucky my jaw wasn't broken.

"What do you have that I don't?" he yelled, trying to get a grip on me.

I wasn't nearly as high as he was and I was able to avoid him as he tripped over his own feet. He groaned as he landed face-first on the coffee table. "Why won't she love me?"

Thankfully, the cops showed up a few minutes later.

—

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she held an ice pack to my jaw. Every time Victoria or my mother cried, I couldn't help but roll my eyes, but this was different. These were true, honest, sorrowful tears.

"I'm sorry, Edward."

"What are you apologizing for, sweetheart? You didn't hit me." Thankfully, Jake had only gotten that one good punch in before the cops showed up. They'd taken him to the clinic where he'd be watched while he came down, then transported to jail. Bella had hesitated to press charges, but thankfully, I'd been able to persuade her.

"If I wasn't such a—"

"No. You're a good girl, Bella." I put my hand over hers, moving the ice pack away. I pulled her onto my lap and stared at her, taking in her features. How had I never realized she was so young?

"Good girls don't do what I do, Edward," she whispered.

I shook my head. "What you do with your body doesn't change who you are."

Her brow furrowed as she stared at me for a moment. "Where is this coming from?"

I shrugged. "I'm capable of being compassionate sometimes. You know, you could thank me." I smirked at her, trying to lighten the mood. I wondered if she remembered I'd said similar words to her at the bar.

"Thank you. Honestly, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been here. I wouldn't have been able to fight him off very well."

"If I hadn't been here, it might not have happened at all. Maybe if I had just left you alone…"

She pulled her lip between her teeth, obviously contemplating something. "No, Edward. He didn't like me to look at any other guy. No matter how many times I told him it was nothing more than friends who had sex. You said something at dinner earlier. How I keep telling you no, but yet I keep showing up? I don't want you to leave me alone."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm done telling you no. You're an asshole, you say these things—you're chauvinistic, you're crude, you act like you don't give a shit about women. But then you go and say things like you did just a moment ago. How what I do with my body doesn't change me? This other side of you, it's an act, isn't it? Why would my body react like it does around you if it weren't just a fucking act?"

I shook my head. Maybe at one point in time, she'd have been correct. "Nothing will come of us, Bella, you know that don't you? I've got three weeks and then—"

"I'm not looking to settle down, you know that." She leaned down then, pressing her lips to mine. I wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her to me. She threaded her fingers through my hair, pulling on it as she increased the pressure of her kiss. I moaned, slipping my tongue past her lips, sliding and tangling it against her own, the taste of her sending shock waves through my body. It was like no kiss I had ever experienced before. Definitely not with Victoria, and not even with Rachel. It was something all of its own.

I knew that slowly, every so often she was cracking the ice that kept my heart so cold. With every crack, new thoughts would arise.

Thoughts where I'd imagine that I could just stay here. I could just work for Cullen and then retire. I'd come home to Bella every night, and we'd live happily ever after. I was starting to wonder who the chick was in this arrangement; me or Bella.

But I was too smart to give into whims like that. I'd worked too hard to get where I was to give it all up on feelings of lust and infatuation. Besides, if I gave her the option, she'd break my heart just as Rachel had.

We broke apart, and she began to press soft kisses to my neck. "I want you, Edward," she murmured.

It seemed that I was as stupid as they came.

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