Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters. No copyright infringement is intended. All belong to Stephenie Meyer, I've just borrowed a few of her characters to have some fun.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to post this chapter. A bit of RL intruding and sophomore jitters. I promise the next chapter will arrive much, much sooner! Once again, thanks to masochisticlife for her mad grammar skills and willingness to drop everything and help me out. I couldn't so it without you! And many thanks to the spectacular einfach_mich for taking the time to make my fic better and making me laugh along the way. And if you're not reading her fic, Confessions of a Difficult Woman, what are you waiting for?

"Baby, baby, baby, baaaaby," I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head, trying to muffle the sound of whatever annoying whine was trying to burrow into my brain. "Baby, baby, baby, baaaaby," yeah, not muffled enough. Too much to drink and not enough sleep equals shut the fuck up already!

Ahhh, blessed silence. I settled back down, drifting off into the quiet. Just one more minute. "Baby, baby, baby …" Shit! I threw my pillow across the room and dragged my ass out of bed to track down the source of my torture.

I stalked naked across my room, squinting at the bright light shining through the blinds. Where the fuck did I leave my phone last night? It shouldn't be too hard to find since that shitty music, if you could call it that, wouldn't stop playing.

I followed that obnoxious crap until I unearthed my cell from the clothes I had left in a pile on the floor last night. If I had to here that whiny voice singing "baby, baby" one more time … I was going to seriously mess Jake up if he didn't quit changing the ringers on my phone. Motherfucking Jake!

I turned off the ringer and squinted at the screen on my phone. My head was still spinning a bit as I tried to figure out who was calling and why. I can't believe I got so trashed last night. Somehow I had thought drinking would be the key to staying away from Bella. I was certainly paying the price for my idiocy this morning.

God damnit! No one was calling; it was the alarm going off! I had exactly one hour to get to the meeting Emily had set up for me. And this was definitely a do or die type of thing. We really needed to land this job - it was the key to staying in the black and going ahead with the expansion plans.

As I rushed to shower, I couldn't help but think about last night. That girl was going to be the death of me. Fuck Bella Swan prancing around all afternoon in that bikini … a very small, almost non-existent bikini. Before last night, I was pretty sure you could die of a stiff dick. Now I knew you just lived through it, painfully and unmercifully. I found it hard to believe Charlie would let her into the backyard in that thing, much less a pool party attended by numerous horny bastards. Fuck, I was the horniest of them all - at least when it came to Bella.

I started to wake up as the warm water rained down on me. I needed to focus on my upcoming meeting, not Bella. I grabbed a handful of my supposedly manly smelling shower gel and started to soap up. I hurried through all the usual motions, conscious of my lack of time.

As I ran my soapy hands down towards my unruly and rapidly stiffing dick, I helplessly revisited the picture of those fucking hot tits and super sweet ass encased in that tiny excuse for a bathing suit. My body was demanding I rub a quick one out, but I didn't have time for that this morning.

I forced myself to finish washing and rinse off, then jumped out of the shower to get dressed. I grabbed my keys, my lap top and my phone and was out the door and into my truck within half an hour of my alarm going off. Thank God I didn't have far to go - staying at my apartment in Port Angeles had its benefits.

On the ride over to my (hopefully) new client's offices, I went over the construction project one more time. Since starting up the business, it'd had sometimes been a struggle to keep it going. Being one of the only licensed contractors in Port Angeles had its positive and negative points. True, while there wasn't a whole lot of local competition, there sometimes wasn't a whole lot of work either.

So many kids form the rez needed work – and a guiding hand to help them out – It was sometimes hard to shoulder all that responsibility. Nabbing this contract with Cullen, Inc. would really calm me the fuck down. Yeah, it would mean a lot of overtime, but that didn't bother me and my guys needed the work.

As I got closer to Cullen's office, my mind drifted back to Bella. There was something about that girl that drew me in like a fat kid to cake. She was fucking hot, but there was more to it than that. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep my wanting in check. I'd had that shit under control for a long time now, but now she had graduated and was legal my imagination was in overdrive. I was thinking it was time to come up with a new plan. I couldn't keep getting drunk every time we were thrown together, because that happened a lot. I had to put it away for
now, but tonight I was coming up with a plan.

(*)(*) (.)(.) (*)(*)

"Thanks for coming in, Sam. Great presentation. I think this relationship is going to end up being very beneficial to both of us," Carlisle Cullen said as we shook hands.

"No, thank you, Mr. Cullen." He'd asked me to call him Carlisle, but I wasn't quite there yet. "I'll be in touch with those figures you wanted and a preliminary work schedule," I told him as we finished up our handshake. It was a good one too, not posturing bullshit – just firm and professional. Like the man himself, actually. I had a good feeling about this deal.

As I hopped in the truck to make my way back to the office, I finally let out the sigh of relief I'd been holding back. I fronted pretty well for the guys and the folks on the rez, but sometimes the stress of being responsible for so may other people weighed me down. And I mostly kept all that shit to myself. I mean, who was I going to talk to about it? My mom? She had enough to handle on her own. The guys? Yeah, right.

Emily was probably the closet thing I had to a real friend, but it didn't feel right unloading on her anymore. I know she'd listen, but I didn't want to give her the wrong idea or take advantage of her willingness to help.

So yeah, I was relieved in a big way to know I'd have steady work and money coming in for the foreseeable future. I may even be able to hire on a few more employees. I knew a few of the younger guys and girls were looking for work for the summer. Yep. Things were looking good for Uley Construction.

I reached to turn up the stereo volume, wanting to celebrate a bit. I took my eyes off the road for just a sec to mess with my iPod, and quickly glanced back to the road. "What the fuck?" I could seriously not believe what I was looking at. I swear to god Bella was running along the side of the road … naked? No. Fucking. Way.

I stopped at the red light and I stared at her hard, trying to figure out what in the hell was going on. Damn, she looked hot running along like that, everything bouncing and jiggling. But now that she was getting close, it looked like she was wearing one of those ugly jogging bra things. A flesh colored one. Damp with sweat and clinging to her spectacular tits, that top left absolutely nothing to the imagination. And I don't think you could call that strip of cloth barely covering her fine ass a pair of shorts. I couldn't look away from those long, firm legs, bouncing tits, and flat stomach.

So, not naked but close enough to it to piss me off and turn me on. And what the hell was she doing jogging down the main street of town, turning on every asshole with a pulse to look her way? The light changed and I pulled forward enough to get right up alongside Bella.

I took a few deep breaths, seriously trying to get my irritation under control before attempting to talk to Bella. Keep it together, Sam, be cool. And for Christ's sake, don't scare the girl.

As soon as she heard my truck, Bella turned to see what was up. One more deep breath and then I leaned towards the open passenger window and called out to her, "Bella."

"Sam? Hey! What are you doing here?" She asked as she jogged closer to my truck.

"I think the question is what the hell are you doing?" Shit I heard the irritation creep into my voice and could do nothing to stop it.

I watched her face cloud up as she digested my words. With a frown she answered, "I'm running. What does it look like? And what's it to you?"

"I don't know, when I saw the daughter of the police chief running around town half-naked I got a little concerned. Get in the truck and I'll drive you over to Charlie's office." Fuck, fuck, fuck. I sounded like a huge asshole! But I wanted her in my truck. Now.

"What the fuck, Sam? I'm wearing running clothes. Because I'm running. Understand? Or do I need to speak slower? So, no. I won't be getting in your truck. You're not driving me anywhere and," she paused and stared dead into my eyes, "You didn't seem to mind my 'half-naked' body at the party. At least if the way you stalked me all night has anything to say about it." She started to run off but then turned to fire her parting shot. "Oh, and if I forgot to mention it, bite me."

I stared at her ass as she ran off , pissed and laughing at the same time. Round one to Bella, for sure. I shook my head and put the truck back in gear. Yep, I definitely needed to come up with a plan. I wanted her and now, more than ever, and I was determined to have her.

(*)(*) (.)(.) (*)(*)

I walked into the office, slamming the door behind me. It got everyone's attention, which is exactly what I wanted. Jacob, Emily, and Leah all looked up at the sound. I could read the anxiety on all of their faces, but because I could be a bit of a bastard, I let them wait it out a few minutes more.

"Well, don't keep us hanging, man. How'd it go?" Jacob fired off before anyone else could speak.

I looked around the room feeling their curiosity. I tried to hold a straight face a little longer, but then decided to put them out of their misery. "Well, thanks in large part to Emily busting her ass on this pitch … we got it! We got the contract!" I smiled as I listened to the various celebratory outbursts before turning back to Jake.

"And as for Jake, you little shit, leave the god dammed ringer on my phone alone! If I wake up again to that beaver kid it's gonna get real between us," I growled in my most intimidating voice.

Jake and Leah promptly burst out laughing, and Jake flipped me the finger …"I'm fucking serious," I stared him down for a minute, until he gave up and looked away. Leah, of course, made no effort to contain her hilarity. I allowed a small smirk to cross my face once I'd turned around to walk to my office. That would shut him up for a while at least – I loved him like a brother, but I had to work hard to keep that kid in line.

I sat down at my desk and allowed myself a few minutes to replay the morning and both of my meetings before getting on with work. . The one with Cullen couldn't have gone better, while the meeting with Bella … well, at least she wasn't indifferent to me. Before I could drift off in thoughts of her, though, I was interrupted by a soft knock on my door.

To say I was surprised to see who was standing there would be a big understatement. "Well, hey. Come on in, Charlie."

Hope you liked it! If you did (or didn't), how about letting me know? I'd love to hear what you think! Thanks!