AN: So sorry for the extremely long delay. Becoming an auntie, the stresses of wrapping up my old job and starting a new one, and the sheer chaos of packing, moving, and unpacking…I haven't had time to do much of anything for a few months now; and then when I did have the time, a ton of writer's block. But, I'm finally getting settled, and my muse is making a return, so here's a new chapter. I hope this turned out alright.

Bella POV

I lay on the bed in Paul's guest bedroom, crying for a reason I couldn't really determine. I'd been cheated on and betrayed, so why was I crying like I was the one who'd done something wrong? I'd meant what I had said to Paul earlier: I wasn't going to stay with Edward after what he'd just done. But what was I going to do? How was I going to explain this to everyone? How was I going to deal with Edward now? With his family? With mine? How was I going to face life after tonight? How was I going to deal with tonight? Tonight had been so out of character for me. Did I regret it? Should I?

I knew society would say that I should be ashamed of my actions tonight, for turning Edward's infidelity into a tit-for-tat situation. Some might say I should be like a politician's wife, and loyally stand by my man no matter what he did. Well, I'd never been one for meekly toeing the line of society's expectations. I didn't regret this night with Paul—I wouldn't regret this night. As for the rest of it…

Tossing and turning for a while, I finally realized that sleep just wasn't going to come right now. Giving up, I quietly slipped out into the hallway, moving into the living room, and turning the TV on. I glanced back down the hall, seeing that Paul's bedroom door was closed. I didn't want to disturb him, so I turned the volume down low.

"You okay?"

I jumped when Paul's voice spoke from the darkened hallway.

"Yeah—I don't know," I amended. "I can't sleep. I'm sorry if I woke you up."

"Hadn't gone to sleep yet," Paul settled himself on the other end of the couch from where I had curled up.

"Why not?"

"Heard you crying," he admitted.

"I'm—"

"Don't apologize for being upset. You'd have to be weird not to be upset, with what you've been through."

We silently watched the TV show for a while before I asked a question I had started to wonder about. "How did you know…?"

Paul shrugged. "I've been there."

"Someone cheated on you, too?"

He shook his head. "Not on me…but my dad cheated on my mom. A lot."

"I'm sorry," I said—and meant it. My own parents' marriage had gone sour when I'd been young, but at least they'd decided to part ways before getting themselves tangled up in infidelity.

"Not your fault, or mine, either. Just the kind of guy my dad was, I suppose."

Paul POV

We ended up spending the rest of the night on the couch, falling asleep with the TV on. I woke up with my nose buried in Bella's fragrant hair and with her spooned up in front of me. I was grateful she still seemed to be asleep and hadn't noticed my morning wood so far—which changed the moment she started stretching into wakefulness. She rolled away instinctively and started to tumble off the edge of the couch. I had to reach to catch her, which meant I was pressed up against her curvaceous ass.

"Oh," Bella squeaked, the instant she woke up enough to figure out what was going on. Then her tone changed. "Mmm. Good morning."

Well, that wasn't the reaction I would have expected. But then again, she seemed to defy predictability. "Good morning," I offered, hoping I wouldn't screw this up. "How do you feel?"

"Okay, I think. And I have a pretty good idea how you feel." She rubbed against me sinuously. If I hadn't already been rock-hard, that would have done it for sure. I lifted Bella through brute strength, rolling so I lay on my back with her back resting on my chest and my cock nestled in the cleft of her pajama-covered ass. My hands came up to tease her; one reached under her top to begin playing with her breasts, and the other delved inside her panties to stroke her dampening lips. Bella writhed against me, making me groan with lust.

"Damn," I swore, remembering that I didn't have a condom tucked into my pajama pants, or any in the coffee table's drawer. Bella seemed to read my mind.

"Go get one," she told me, blindly moving her hand to press against me and get support to push herself upright. I thought momentarily about asking her if she was sure about this, but didn't. I figured she'd probably knee me if I did, for one thing; for the other, I wasn't about to argue with a woman who wanted to help me with my not-so-little problem. I rolled off the couch after she stood up and quickly moved to my bedroom to grab another condom. While I was at it, I went ahead and stripped naked. When I got back to the living room, an equally naked Bella was waiting for me.

Oh, yeah. I'd wanted her here since she'd dropped that sheet last night. Now, I'd have her. I stalked toward Bella, my rock-hard cock leading the way, bobbing up and down with my movement. It was impossible to escape noticing that Bella's attention was riveted to my groin. Words were unnecessary. I pulled her close to me and up onto her toes, ravaging her lips before plunging my tongue into her mouth. Bella's hands flailed before finding purchase in my hair.

Not wanting to go bald prematurely, I released her mouth and set her feet back down on the floor. I didn't give her time to absorb anything before I spun her around, nudging her forward so that her arms instinctively caught her weight on the couch. I pressed up against her, my cock nudging between her legs, my tip already touching her entrance. Bella gasped, but opened her legs slightly to allow me to slide inside. My hands gripped her hips; she'd probably have bruises later on.

Even with as new as this was my strokes into her heated body were like a return home. My deep thrusts into the core of her womb were intense and erotic. A good thing about living in an isolated cabin like I did meant that I didn't have neighbors to shock with the noises we were making. It also let me be a typical guy and avoid the decorating frou-frou of curtains. Except for the bedrooms, all the windows in my cabin—including the big picture window the couch sat in front of—were completely uncluttered, allowing for unobstructed views out to the surrounding forest. But the forest held no interest for me this morning, not compared to the woman I held.

"Paul! Paul!" Bella screamed as she thrashed against me. Her spasms, and the tightening of her muscles around my dick, wrenched my orgasm from me with a shout of equal volume. She went limp and my own legs shook. I managed to control the descent of my knees to the floor, pressing Bella into the couch with my weight.

"Awesome," I breathed into her hair. Bella didn't seem to register my comment.

What she did notice—and practically flung me back onto the coffee table because of—was the banging on my front door. With a shriek, she pulled away from me and bolted for the hallway. I sat back on my heels, looking around to see if there was anything I could cover up with. The only thing was the small blanket Bella must have brought out here with her last night. Not the best thing, but better than nothing. Wrapping it around my waist, I moved toward the door, mentally cursing whoever was out there. If it was that bastard Cullen again, I wasn't going to hold back this time.

I flicked the latches I'd uncharacteristically engaged last night and opened the door to find Jacob Black standing on my front porch. Not exactly who I wanted to see at 7 am, but much better him than Cullen.

"Not interrupting anything, am I?" Jake inquired wickedly.

"Nah," I dismissed it. His eyes tracked up and down, meeting mine again in challenge.

I smirked. "Like what you see?"

"You're not my type. So, who was it this time?"

I quashed the idea of saying 'just some girl' before the notion even had time to form. Bella wasn't 'just some girl' and I'd never demean her by implying she was. Sidestepping the whole question, I asked, "Is there a reason you're here at 7 am, Black?"

"You didn't answer your phone. I wanted to make sure you got the message that your work truck is ready to be picked up. Turned out the repair didn't take as long as I thought it would."

"Okay, message received. Goodbye, Jacob." He began to turn away as I started to shut the door.

"Hey—" Jacob blurted. Spinning back around, Jake pierced me with a hard stare. "Paul, just what the hell is Bella's car doing in front of your house?"

"Where do people usually leave their cars at night?" I asked in return.

The shoe dropped. "She's here?"

I rolled my eyes. "Hence why her car is here."

"Why is she here?"

I hesitated, trying to think how to answer that. 'Because she didn't feel like going home after finding out her ex cheated on her' was the obvious—and truthful—answer, but I didn't know if Bella was ready to start sharing that with everyone yet. So I decided to brush Jake off with, "We just happened to meet up yesterday on the cliffs."

"So, what, you decided for some reason to invite her back to your place so she could get a front row surround-sound seat to a show of you and your flavor-of-the-week?"

I gave him a dirty look. "You really think I'm that much of an ass?"

Jake started to shake his head. "I wouldn't but…" he trailed off. "Shit, Paul, tell me you didn't…?"

I shrugged at his desperately hopefully expression, "Okay, I won't."

"Why?" Jake's hands clenched into fists and he pushed past me into the house.

"Why not?"

"Why not?" his voice rose. "Because she's engaged to someone else for starters. And you barely even knew who she was. Why in the world would you bring her back here and fuck her all night?"

Bella POV

"Because I asked him to," I told my friend, stepping back into the living room. When I'd bolted back into the guest room a couple minutes ago, it had been in complete panic. I'd just known that it was Edward again, and I wasn't ready to deal with him again just yet. Jake was the better choice between the two, but even this wasn't exactly good. Jake had been one of my best friends for years, and wasn't exactly the first person I wanted to explain this—whatever this was—between Paul and me. Yesterday afternoon and last night had been one thing, but I hadn't planned on this morning, hadn't expected the blinding lust that had erupted the instant I felt him behind me. I didn't regret it—any more than I had everything we'd done yesterday—but I was definitely feeling like I had a split personality now, or Bi-Polar Disorder, or something.

But just because I might be unsure about what this was and where it might go, I wasn't about to let Paul face all the fallout with Jake. I was just as responsible, if not more so. So when I heard Jake accusing Paul of taking advantage of me, I couldn't let him do that. I flung on the first things I could find and rushed back out.

"Why would you do that, Bells?" Jake took a few steps toward me. I looked at him, and saw Paul shutting the door.

"Edward cheated on me, Jake. With his 'friend' Tanya, from school. I walked in on them when I got back yesterday. I guess I freaked out and ended up down here, on the cliffs. Paul found me, and…I guess we did end up back here fucking all night, as you put it. But I wasn't forced or manipulated or anything. Paul made sure I knew what I was asking before we left the cliffs. If anyone took advantage of the situation, it was me. He was just out for a run and a near-stranger propositions him."

Jake just stood there, staring at me. "So he cheats on you with someone he knows, and you return the favor with 'a near-stranger'? That's not you, Bells."

"Maybe not," I admitted. "Maybe he brought out some old insecurities. Or I just didn't want to think about why I wasn't enough to satisfy my fiancé. I don't know, Jake. But whatever my reasons, I don't owe them to you. Friend or not, I don't owe you that."

My childhood friend just stared at me like I'd grown a second head, or something equally outlandish. A range of emotions played over his face: fury—hopefully at Edward; disappointment—at me?—better not be. Finally, Jake ran his hands over his face and back through his hair. "I need a drink," he muttered.

"I'll make some coffee," I offered. Glancing over at Paul—and my blanket wrapped around his waist, I added, "Paul, why don't you go get dressed?"

He smirked at me and headed for his bedroom. I ignored Jake's gagging sound and grimace, heading into the kitchen in search of the coffee-making supplies. Paul joined us just as I got the machine ready to start brewing.

"Thanks, babe," Paul commented, moving past me to start pulling out boxes of cereal from a cabinet. "I've got this stuff here, or there's eggs, bacon, or sausage in the fridge. Might be some pancake mix, too."

"Frying pan?" I inquired. Paul pulled it down from a high pot-rack, and I got to work. By the time the food and coffee were ready, Jake seemed more himself—and clearly determined to get answers.

"What happened, Bella?"

Paul POV

Bella gave Jake more of the highlights—or rather, the lowlights—of her yesterday. "I honestly don't know how I ended up at the cliffs, or how I got down here without crashing. But I'm glad Paul found me—there's no way I should have done any more driving yesterday. Anyway, we came here and …"

"And," Jake repeated.

She gave him a look. "Yes, obviously Paul and I did have sex. I'm not going to give details, Jacob—you're no more entitled to them than you are to an explanation."

"I—"

"You're my friend, Jake, but this is for me—and Paul—to figure out. Just like I have to figure out Edward."

He offered her an imitation of his usual smirk. "Want me to go beat him up?"

"If our next meeting doesn't go any better than the one last night did, I just might take you up on that."

"What?" Jake stopped eating to stare at her.

"Cullen showed up here last night, pretty pissed," I informed him. "Bella read him the riot act and we drove him off with some sex talk."

"I just can't figure out how he found me yesterday," Bella told Jake, echoing her words to me. "I mean, why would he think to look for me here? It's not like Paul and I really knew each other before." Jacob frowned at this repeated reminder of the virtual stranger-sex Bella and I had had—and the fact that she didn't seem bothered by it.

He looked out the window instead of at either of us, and I saw his shoulders tense up. "Lo-Jack," he muttered.

"What?"

"Lo-Jack, Bells. It's an anti-theft security system installed on most new cars now. If your car gets stolen, you or the cops can access the GPS tracking unit in the car to figure out where it is. He bought you that car, didn't he?"

She nodded.

Jacob knew cars like I knew construction—part of why it hadn't taken him long at all to peg the car outside my house as Bella's. I swore. "You think he tracked her down that way?"

"Like she said, no reason for him to expect Bella to be here. Logically, he'd have tried my place first."

"Damn him," Bella snarled. "How dare he?"

"He's gonna lose a lot of face once this gets out—he was probably hoping he could talk you into forgiving him or keeping it quiet," I thought aloud.

"Hell, no," she retorted. "Not after coming here, and then—damn it," she cussed again. "Charlie!"