A/N: So this update took a little longer than the others. I apologize. But I hope there are some of you still out there with me! And of course, feedback is always appreciated. Thanks!

Shoutout: A BIG thank you to sw1m4l1fe, Jammeke, Wickedgal08 and Kaitlin13 for their reviews on the last chapter. They mean SO much to me guys! :) and, as always, thanks to sw1m4l1fe one for being my brilliant Beta! she is sooo in my head, it's insane. love you, darlin'!

Disclaimer: I don't own diddly squat. Except Rhiannon.

Chapter Five (James' POV)

I sat on a tree stump in a small clearing, deep in the woods of the Forks forest, me and Rhiannon's designated meeting spot. I was waiting for her to come back from her initial meeting with the human. She had been gone all day and I was beginning to grow impatient.

I was in the process of doodling in the dirt with a stick when I heard footsteps approaching. I looked up and saw my partner in crime materialize from behind some branches. I stared at her, taking in her appearance, and all my previous thoughts of aggravation flew out of my head when I saw the state that she was in.

My jaw dropped. "What in the name of all things holy happened to you?" I asked her, incredulously. If I had not been in such a state of shock, I would have laughed.

Rhiannon was an absolute disaster. Mud was caked all over her clothes, as well as her face. Her normally perfectly smooth hair had frizzed up to twice its normal size and there were small twigs and leaves jutting out in various places.

"Shut up," snapped Rhiannon, shooting me a glare. If I wasn't already technically "dead", her death look would have done the trick right then.

"You look like were hit by a truck. As a human," I coolly replied, knowing it would drive her crazy.

I was right. She immediately tensed up, clenching her hands into fists, looking as if she wanted to kill me. However, she took a few deep breaths and composed herself.

"You know, you're really lucky the Cullens know who you are, otherwise, you'd be the one having to put up with them and all their 'togetherness' shit," Rhiannon said with a sneer, as if the thought alone was enough to make her hurl. "I swear, it's like I stepped into an episode of Barney or something. If I hear one more thing about how 'there' for each other they all are, I'm absolutely going to lose it. It's revolting," she spat, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

As she was going through her tirade, my glance drifted from her eyes down to her clothing, once again taking in her messy appearance. This time I noticed that mixed in with the mud was what appeared to be blood. I would have automatically assumed that she, like I had predicted, had been unable to resist the girl, but she clearly stated that did not yet lose it.

"What?" I asked, interrupting her rant, which was still continuing.

"You mean you didn't actually lose it yet?" I said with a bit too much surprise in my voice.

"What are you, dense?" she scoffed, almost sounding a bit offended. "Of course I didn't. Some of us actually have some self-control," she said, eyeing me pointedly.

I raised one of my eyebrows skeptically. "You didn't harm the girl at all? Not even a little?"

Rhiannon slumped down onto the stump next to me. "No. I told you I'd be able to resist, and I did," she said, shoving me in the shoulder.

I stroked my chin as I eyed her sardonically. "I'm not sure I can believe you, especially with such high stakes as the ones we laid out. And besides, the fact that your clothes are drenched in blood tells a different story than the one you're spinning."

She held up her blood covered sleeve and put it directly under my nose. "Take a whiff," she directed.

I did, though I immediately wished I hadn't. The smell almost knocked me over. "That is absolutely vile," I told her, springing up from my position and crossing the clearing in the span of a second just to get away from the wretched smell.

"Smell like the girl's blood to you?" she asked, batting her eyelashes in feigned innocence.

I scowled at her obvious mocking of me. "Obviously not," I muttered, my face in the pine tree needles, trying to get some smell, any smell in my system to replace the vile odor.

"What is it?" I asked. Curiosity got the better of me. I could not fathom any reason why blood would smell that bad.

"Deer," Rhiannon answered, smirking.

"Why?" I asked, still utterly disgusted.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, I had to tell them something, didn't I? I wasn't about to show up on their doorstep, unannounced, and expect them to welcome me with open arms and without question," she said, speaking to me like I was an idiot. "So I told them I was interested in learning about their 'vegetarian' lifestyle. But unfortunately, that meant them taking me out to the woods to hunt deer."

"Did the deer win?" I asked, referring to obscene amount of blood she had caked all over her.

She seemed taken aback by my question. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

I crossed back over to where she was standing. "I repeat, 'you look like you've been hit by a truck,'" I said, reaching up to pick a twig out of her hair. I handed it to her with a smug grin on my face.

She snatched it out of my hand and immediately tossed to the ground. "Yeah, that'd be a prime example of the Cullens being 'there' for each other," she said, scoffing. "The girl was stressing out over the images I planted in the seer's head, so the two young males in the family took her out for a joyride on these death machines. I had to go along in order to keep up appearances. And once he found out I had never ridden one before, the large one took great delight in making my ride as 'enjoyable' as possible."

"And was it?"

Rhiannon sent me another one of her death glares. I was beginning to think it was a signature look for her. "Does this look enjoyable to you?" she asked, sarcasm oozing out of her voice. "I swear there wasn't a single hill he didn't fly off of, any tree branches he didn't barrel through or any mud puddles he didn't drive over. And then of course, there was the deer hunt. Even though I'm never one to shy away from a challenge, I can't say that I liked the fact that I had to chase my meal through the woods. Even when I thought I had it, the damn thing would dart out of my grasp and I'd have to start the whole process over again. It was exhausting, and let me tell you, dirty is not a good look for me."

If she was going to dish out the sarcasm, I wasn't about to roll over and take it. I was going to serve it right back to her. "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself," I said, sardonically slinging one of my arms across her shoulders. "I think you look quite ravishing."

She shrugged it off and turned to face me. "Yeah, that's right. Laugh it up. But of course you know what this means, don't you, James?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest confidently.

"That you are sleeping the hell away from me because you smell absolutely revolting."

Rhiannon smirked. "Actually, luckily for you, it means quite the opposite," she said, her lips curling into a sly smile.

I had no idea what she was talking about. "Continue," I encouraged, officially intrigued.

"It means that I have not killed the human and therefore, have won our bet."

"So I get to be at your beck-and-call whenever you want. Right. Lucky me," I scoffed, rolling my dark eyes.

"Cheer up, James," she said, patting on my cheek mockingly. "You have to look on the bright side."

"I doubt there's a bright side to being your slave."

"I don't think you're realizing all the possibilities," she purred, her voice suddenly a few octaves lower as she slowly unzipped her sweatshirt and slipped it off, revealing a tight, black tank top. The undershirt had quite a striking effect against her translucent skin.

Shaking off that last thought, I realized that I still did not know where exactly she was heading with this conversation. "I don't think you could be any more cryptic," I told her skeptically.

She placed a small hand against my chest and began walking forward, forcing me to move backwards with her. "You see," she drawled out slowly, still in the low voice, her eyes locked on mine. She looked like a woman on a mission. "In a way, you've also won." I felt something hard come in contact with my back. She had pushed me up against a tree.

Still not knowing what was going on, I made a joke to hide my confusion as well as the fact that I was now beginning to get slightly uncomfortable from the whole situation. "Unbelievable! You've done it! You were more cryptic."

She snaked one hand around my neck and pulled my ear down to her lips. "This is going to be so much fun," she said softly.

She ran her hands down both of my bare arms seductively. Then, she took my hands and pulled them behind my back, tying them together with her sweatshirt, pinning me to the tree.

Had I been thinking straight at the moment, I would have remembered the ridiculous amount of strength I had in my possession and broken free from her trap. But I was too stunned to form any coherent thoughts. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" was all I managed to get out.

She appeared from behind the tree to face me once again. "Take it easy, James," she said, her fingers grazing the skin between my shirt and my low-slung plants. "It's like Emmett told me before we went out on those bikes: just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride."

A while later Rhiannon was zipping her sweatshirt back up while I shrugged my pants on. "Well, I can't say I was expecting that," I said, sending Rhiannon a smirk. "But you were wrong earlier. Dirty is a good look for you."

She tilted her head to the side, sending her dark hair cascading over her shoulders. "You're complaining?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

I pondered that for about a split second. "I didn't say that."

"That's what I thought. No one ever resists me," she shrugged.

"Cocky much?" I asked with a laugh.

"No, it's just a statement of fact. I know what I want and I do whatever it takes to get it," she said bluntly.

"And you wanted me?" I asked, a bit cockily.

She thought for a moment. I could see the look in her eyes before she answered and I have to admit, I felt my heart sink a little. "Not exactly," she answered. "I just wanted someone I could have a little fun with without…hurting. You were the best candidate for the job."

"Thanks," I responded, rolling my eyes, an attempt on my part to mask the blow to my manhood.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You couldn't have lied a little?" I asked, taking a seat on my tree stump. "Telling someone he was 'the best candidate for the job' is not exactly what guys like to hear after sex."

She came over and sat beside me. "Aww, poor little James!" she teased, her dark eyes glistening with amusement. "Did I hurt your fragile male ego?" she asked with an incredulous laugh.

"No," I answered quickly, refusing to meet her eyes.

Rhiannon grinned. "Liar," she said, placing her hand dangerously high up on my thigh. "Do you want me to kiss it and make it better?" she asked suggestively.

"Hey, hey, hey. Down girl," I said with a laugh. I didn't realize this girl was insatiable. "Put some ice on it for a minute. Don't you think we should talk?"

She recoiled her hand and looked at me, confused. "Talk? You really are the girl in this relationship, aren't you?"

"Don't get me wrong, as much as I love being used as one of your play things, I think that now that you're in with the girl, we should strike and strike fast. Why waste any time?"

"Says the guy who spent a year wallowing in self-loathing in Brazil while he waited to take action," she muttered in a huff under her breath, but still loud enough that it was obvious that she meant me to hear it.

"That was before I had you to teach me any better."

"I figured you would be a quick learner," she said. I figured a woman like her needed to be hit with a compliment in a time like this. That should make her perk up.

It worked. Her mood changed in a snap. A sly, cocky smile appeared on her lips. "Impressed?" she asked, looking like she was quite proud of herself.

I shook my head stubbornly. "No," I teased.

"Yeah right," Rhiannon said, leaning close to me. She ran her fingers through my hair, staring at me deeply with one of her seducing looks. Death glares and seductive looks. I had to hand it to her. She pulled both off extremely well.

I had no choice but to respond. I put a hand behind her head and roughly connected her lips to mine. Once I let her go, she looked at me, smirking. "Hmm. I take that back. You're a very quick learner," she said with a little laugh.

I kept my cool on the outside, but inwardly, I was ecstatic. So I finally had a tool I could use to get to her. Looks like the playing field between us might finally be even.

I shifted my body weight so I was now sitting on the stump facing her instead of being side-by-side. "So what's the next step in your fantastically evil plan?" I asked casually.

"That's the easiest part," she said with an evil tone in her voice. "I simply take Bella for a little 'nature walk' in the woods. Edward will come rushing to her rescue and BAM!" She suddenly clapped her hands together, sending a large, booming echo through the woods. "We finish them both."

Something inside me clicked. I had suddenly remembered something. I looked at her, narrowing my eyelids over my eyes. "You never did tell me exactly why you have it in for our poor little Romeo," I asked curiously.

"I didn't?" she asked innocently, with a "who me?" look on her face. I wasn't buying it.

"No. All you told me that you met him in Italy about a year ago and that the rest was a story for another time," I said, remembering when she approached me in the bar a few days ago. That was the last and only time she mentioned the subject. "Don't you think now's the time?"

Rhiannon's face seemed to become even paler then it already was, which one would have thought to be impossible. She sat there in silence for a few moments, looking at an insect prattling away on the ground instead of at me.

When she didn't speak, I became worried. "Rhiannon, what happened in Italy?" I asked, unable to hide the concern radiating from my voice. "He didn't…he didn't hurt you did he?" I asked, becoming strangely angry at the very thought.

She snapped out of her trance. "Saint Edward?" she asked, finally looking up at me with a raised eyebrow. "Oh God, no. At least not in the sense you're implying," she said with a slight, sarcastic laugh.

"Well, what then?"

A sad smile appeared on her face. "You know, I'll never forget that first time I saw him. It was like seeing an anjo- an angel. If I had had a beating heart, it would have stopped. He was devastatingly beautiful."

I snorted, inwardly disgusted at what I was hearing. What was it with the guy and the effect he had on women? It was beyond me.

"Hey, don't judge," she said, swatting at my arm.

"I wasn't judging," I asked, holding up my hands in front of me in defense.

"You so were," she crossed her arms, looking at me pointedly. "And if you want to hear the rest of this story, I'd keep your comments to yourself."

"I didn't say anything!" I exclaimed incredulously.

"Surely you're aware you say a lot when you don't say anything."

"What?" I asked, my eyebrows knitting together in confusion. This woman seemed very fond of vague, cryptic answers. It was very frustrating.

"You have a very expressive face, James," she said, laying a hand on my cheek. "Your expressions are worth a thousand words."

I rolled my eyes. "I thought that was a picture," I muttered sarcastically.

Rhiannon drew her hand away. "Do you want to hear the rest of this or not?"

"By all means, continue," I said mockingly.

"I'm serious. You have to keep your mouth shut."

"Are you gonna make me?"

"Don't tempt me," she threatened.

I leaned in close to her. "What if I want you to shut me up?" I asked suggestively, trying to tease her.

"Look, you're the one who said he wanted to talk."

"Can't a guy change his mind?" I asked, trailing a finger down her arm.

She showed no outward reaction. "He could, but not if he wants to hear the rest of this story because I'm thinking that I'll only be willing to tell it right now, at this very moment."

"Tease," I joked.

"Take it or leave it."

"Fine," I said, pulling away from her. "I'll take it. Go on with the story."

She sent me a victorious smirk. "If you insist."

But then, her demeanor changed once again. She looked up at me and I saw something in her eyes that I had never seen before. She seemed…vulnerable, something I would have never thought possible. It was almost unnerving.

She took a deep breath and began to tell me her story. "He wasn't drop dead gorgeous, at least not in a feral sense of the word. He was so much more than that. He was captivating, mysterious, intoxicating. And he was beautiful. It's almost indescribable. The attraction was instantaneous. I couldn't help but be drawn to him. It was like a moth to a flame. I just couldn't take my eyes off of him. I wanted him. I needed him."

I wisely bit my tongue while she spoke. I knew she was serious when she said she would stop if I interrupted with a sarcastic comment, so I said nothing, and waited for her to continue.

"I watched him for a few days, plotting my next move. And the more I watched, the more intrigued I became. He was always alone, just aimlessly wandering. It was as if he was physically there, but not mentally. His golden eyes were empty. He looked broken."

That was too much for me. I couldn't keep quiet any longer. "And you wanted to fix him?" I asked in disbelief. "How very cliché of you, Rhiannon," I snapped while inwardly thinking of consequences that could stem from that last statement.

However, none came. She simply shrugged. "Just look at the man. Who could blame me?" she said bluntly.

This made me angry. The thought of Rhiannon pining over that weasely little Cullen was making me sick. "I thought you of all people would have higher standards than that pathetic excuse for a vampire," I said, wrinkling my nose in contempt. "He's weak, too emotional."

"For the love of God, James, I am a female."

"And?"

"And you have to forget your male-driven, fact-based logic for a minute here and look at things from a woman's point of view."

"Which is…?"

"Women can appreciate the finer things in life, such as art. Art is beautiful. And when we see something that is aesthetically pleasing, we want it. It's instinct. The man is stunning, plain and simple. It's undeniable."

"Speak for yourself," I said under my breath.

She made a face like she heard me, but chose not to comment. "Like I said before, I know what I want and I do what it takes to get it. I wanted Edward. And I told him so. And he rejected me."

I thought about that for a moment. "Someone turned you down and now you're going to kill him?" I asked curiously. That seemed extreme, even for me.

Rhiannon let out a loud sigh. "It wasn't just that he rejected me, James. I wasn't about to give up that easily. I tried every trick I knew to get him to want me. I even considered putting a mind block on him to get him to think of nothing but me, but even I wouldn't stoop that low."

"That's a first," I quipped.

"Please," she said, beginning to get irritated. "Men should be thankful when I choose them. They usually fall over themselves to impress me. I don't have to lift a finger. But not Edward. I just couldn't figure him out. It was so frustrating. I got angry. It was just rejection after rejection. No one rejects me. Especially when I was going out of my way to win him over. So I decided he needed to be taught a lesson," she said, her chest heaving like she was struggling for breath.

"Killing him? Kind of a harsh lesson, don't you think?"

Something I said set off a trigger in her. She jumped up from the stump and stood directly in front of me, immediately dwarfing me.

She looked at me, her eyes wild. "I loved him, James!" she exclaimed pitifully

My jaw dropped. That…I had not been anticipating. I didn't know what to say. I almost felt guilty even for forcing that out of her.

She sat back down. "Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear?"she asked, sounding pathetic.

I was speechless. All emotional walls that had been in place since I met her finally seemed to be crumbling to the ground. "You loved him?" I managed to choke out.

It seemed like she was fighting back tears even though she and I both knew they would never come. She took both my hands in hers, eyeing me desperately. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. And I know that I put up a tough front, but he made me that way. I saw him and I just knew. He was my one. He shattered me. I'm never going to be the same again. Why should he?"

"Didn't you know about the girl?" I asked slowly, trying not to upset her any further.

"Of course I didn't! I would have left him alone if I knew that. I only heard the full story after I went back to Brazil."

I hesitated before I spoke. I knew she was not going to like my next question, but I felt it had to be asked, just for the record. "You don't want to cut him some slack after finding out the truth?"

She dropped my hands and stood up again. "Don't try to talk me out of this! Why are you defending him?" she asked incredulously.

"I'm not!" I exclaimed, jumping up as well. "Believe me, if there's anyone who understands the inexplicable need for revenge, it's me."

She seemed to accept this as she said nothing more. She only shrugged.

I had to do something to lighten the mood. It was killing me to see her like this. I took her hands in mine. "And besides, I have to say that I'm glad he rejected you," I said, a smirk appearing on my lips.

She looked at me curiously. "And why exactly is that?" she asked, now distracted from her previous thoughts by my sudden shift in demeanor.

I pulled her close to me, leaning in to whisper in her ear. "Because then we'd never have met."

A/N 2: be on the lookout for a special suprise tomorrow: Chapter 5: Gag Reel. Okay, so maybe it's not a suprise anymore, but when I had written the dialogue for this chapter, I had a friend of mine, who had no idea what was going on with the story, write all the descriptions/filler statements. The results were incredibly hilarious. I honestly could not stop laughing. So that'll be up tomorrow sometime :)