Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight. I only own my red laptop where I write what I wished could have happen with my fav characters. In no way am I getting paid for any of this, because if I was I would be in a jacuzzi full of newly printed money taking turns with each of my fav WILF's Embry, Jacob, Paul, Collin, Brady, Seth & maybeeeee Jared with them all in the nude catering to my every whim! mwhahahaha.

Ch4:Deny, Deny, Deny

Jacob kept his gaze pinned on Leah. He was finally going to get the truth about the scheming and plotting she must have done back then. He could forgive the cute little pledge who had almost run him over with her car because her big sister told her to. It had been a stupid thing for her to do, but he hadn't gotten hurt. Nothing but a leech or another wolf could cause any real damage to him. He hadn't been around another wolf since he had been home and he hadn't come across any leeches around his territory in Seattle.

He couldn't forgive or forget, however, the young woman who had kissed him and put those scandalous pictures in the school paper. She hadn't been pledging a sorority then. She had done those deeds on her own for her own gain.

Judging from the way her jaw was hanging and the now crumbling pieces of her plastic fork that fell onto her plate, he must have caught her off guard.

Pushing his more than half eaten airport delicacy aside, he peered at her a moment more before repeating himself. And then he waited for the long anticipated apology.

The look Leah cut him instead as she folded her arms across her chest and arched her eyebrow made him think that the apology might be a long time coming. From what it looked like, she seemed to be hiding her hands that were shaking from her anger. He was hoping that she didn't plan on phasing on the plane because that ending didn't sound good at all.

But after she closed her eyes for a second her hands stopped vibrating. "If anyone should be apologizing about that photo, it's you. You're the one who orchestrated the entire thing." She let out her stream of words in a heated hiss. And then a haughty indignant glare crossed her face as her shoulders crept higher and higher. "Playing on my naïve emotions and catching me in a moment of weakness… did you and your frat brothers have a good laugh at my expense?"

"Would you like another drink sir?" The flight attendant leaned down toward them, and he took his eyes off of the headstrong Leah for a moment.

"I'll take another vodka tonic."

"And you, ma'am?"

"Gin and tonic with lime." Leah smiled sweetly at the flight attendant and glared at him as soon as the woman walked off to get their drinks.

They each just stared at one another. Jake knew he was waiting for the flight attendant to return with the drinks and leave again to resume the conversation. He figured Leah was trying to piece together her lies. She should be counting her lucky stars that she was one of the few people where he couldn't scent out if she was dishonest or not. Otherwise he would have called her out long ago.

So he watched her instead and she watched him.

He had to admit as he took his drink from the flight attendant and then the flight attendant handed Leah hers, Leah had the righteous anger and incredulous overconfident stance down. He could almost believe that she really felt that she had been the wronged party.

Although he had planned to use some of his time on the island to get the truth out of her, he figured he might as well get it out now. That way, they could get the past out and be done with it.

"So…" he moved his hands in a gesture so that she would continue.

She was wrong and she needed to admit it.

"You're kidding right Black?" Leah asked the question between clenched teeth with her arms still firmly crossed. She hadn't even bothered to take a sip of her drink.

Jacob picked up his vodka tonic, downing it before he responded. "Do I look like I'm kidding Clearwater? I mean, come on, it was a long time ago, but it would still be nice to know why you did it. Well, besides wanting to win and knowing that there was no way you would have beaten me otherwise."

She started laughing then, literally giggling out of control, holding her flat toned stomach and everything.

The laughing fit went on for several minutes, and then she stopped and slowly wiped tears of laughter from her eyes using her middle finger only. Jacob knew she was doing that on purpose.

She glared at him for a second before saying. "You are delusional."

Then she turned away from him as she put her earplugs back in and enjoyed her drink.

The nerve of him! What happened to letting bygones be bygones? Burying the hatchet? All that shit?

And then he had the nerve to try and continue his whole you-set-me-up spiel when he was the one who had set her up. He was the one who had played her and played on her feelings for him.

If it wasn't so funny it might have been sad. The man was definitely either delusional or really thought if he put his own spin on the story long enough he could make anyone believe it, even the person who got hurt by his actions.

Oh, I'm sorry, girl. You broke your own heart. I didn't do that. And by the way, you should apologize because you hurt my little record while you were busy breaking your own heart.

The asshole!

The nerve of him!

His audacity was almost too much and if she hadn't started to think of her happy place she was sure the plane would have seen the whole other hairy side of her. She really thought of just letting the situation go but a few questions began festering in her head and she knew she wasn't going to be able to just forget about it like she wanted.

Snatching off the earplugs that weren't really blocking any sounds out she turned and looked at him.

He watched her intently, his dark eyes studying her every move. She could tell he was trying to read her to see if she was lying or not.

"Why are you trying to blame me for something that you and your frat brothers cooked up? It's not my fault it backfired on you and you lost."

Sore loser, she thought even though she knew he was anything but a loser. He might have lost that election to her, but it was probably the only thing he had ever lost in his entire life.

"Are you saying you really had nothing to do with the picture being taken?"

"How could I have known? I certainly had no idea you were going to kiss me!" she huffed.

He frowned then as if he had never considered that aspect of it before. "Hmm…Maybe it was a setup," he mumbled.

"Yeah, but who could have known that we were going to kiss? I mean, we didn't plan to kiss or anything… It was a mistake… a fluke. There's no way someone could have planned to catch us, right? Unless you knew you were going to kiss me and you planned it." Leah didn't like the flustered jumble of her words, but she couldn't help it.

"Trust me I didn't know I was going to kiss you then." Jacob had a narrowly focused glint in his eyes, and he rubbed his chin in contemplation. "After the kiss you ran off wherever you went but I hung around. I didn't see anyone else there. But that doesn't mean there wasn't anyone else there. That person might have seen us kissing and taken advantage of the situation." His thinking-man, mile-high-private-eye act had her heart stuttering. Who knew a guy putting together facts could be so sexy?

Leah kept her expression clear of any emotions as she responded. "Sounds really plausible, Black. But of course I'll have to mull it over awhile first, given the fact that I have spent all this time pretty much despising you for using… that particular moment in your campaign. I may need a minute to rethink this new information."

He nodded his head in agreement. "The same here. The fact that I was right about you and then led to believe that I was wrong about you, which led me to be wrong about you for all these years, is a lot to process." Jacob mumbled.

"What?" Leah twisted her face in a confused manner.

"Never mind, let's just say I'm glad we've somewhat figured this out, because I wouldn't want anything to get in the way of us getting reacquainted."

"Riiiiiiight. Reacquainted." Suddenly Leah's lips felt parched. She took a sip of her gin and tonic in an attempt to quench, if not her thirst, then something…

Jacob held out his hand. "So how about the two of us form a truce for real this time?"

Leah had to smile at that. But a small part of her wondered what would have happened if the pictures of their kiss hadn't shown up. Would they have kissed again? Or more?

"Okay. I'm sorry for hating you all these years and throwing negative energy into the universe about you."

Jacob's jaw dropped. "Negative energy into the universe? Really? Now, see, I just hated you. I didn't pull a Miss Celie on you."

Now Leah's jaw dropped. It couldn't be. One of her favorite things to do with Keilani and Seth was quote lines from movies and plays at both opportune and inopportune moments. She crooked her pointer and middle finger and squinted her eyes. "Until you do right by me—"

"Everything you even think about gonna fail." Jacob and Leah finished Whoopi Goldberg's famous lines in unison.

She couldn't help it. She started giggling again, anger completely forgotten. "Okay that was weird. Somebody has seen The Color Purple one too many times."

"And that someone would be you." Jacob said with a smirk.

"Okay, guilty as charged. I have been known to quote lines from movies, plays, fiction and songs when I think the moment fits. And that was one of the movies I just saw recently." Leah giggled lightly. "It's a part of my inner dweeb. I'm like a walking Notable Quotable."

"Now I'm officially speechless. I have no idea what to do with this new information about you, Leah. An inner dweeb?" Jacob's almond shaped dark brown eyes considered her and seemed to hold her. "And here I thought you were one of the cool girls? I guess that's why you used to date all those lame guys in college."

Leah's mouth fell open. "What do you mean by that?" She almost went as far to deny her partiality for guys that were easy to manipulate, but she didn't want to let on that Jake had touched a nerve. It did bring to the forefront the question of what Jake was doing noticing the kinds of guys she dated back then.

Shaking his head as if trying to clear it, Jake smiled. "Never mind. It's not important. What is important is how you want to spend your time in Blake."

Yes, it's best to leave that alone. Good move, dude, good move!

"I just want to have fun. I want to do some touristy things, but I also want to see as much of the island as possible. And I would love to see the places where the people of Blake actually hang out, places off the beaten path."

"I think I can handle that." The sexy glint came back into his eyes, and his smile took on that predator's gleam.

Uh-oh. Back away from The Wolf, for your own safety. Back away from The Wolf.

"Honestly, Jacob, you don't have to. I know you're here visiting family. So I would totally understand if you couldn't follow through—"

"Oh, make no mistake, I always follow through, and there isn't anything that could keep me away from my promise to show you around. I want to do this very much."

The steaming sincerity in his eyes accelerated her heartbeat until it sounded like a wild herd stampeding in her eardrums. She couldn't think of a response even if her mouth had been working well enough to form words.

She cleared her throat, needing to somehow shift the mood from the glowing nice vibe that was starting to redevelop between them. "So, I've been hearing lots of buzz about you through the years, lots of corporate takeovers, forced mergers, raiding and moneymaking. Very impressive, Black."

There she'd said it!

The last thing she wanted to do was give Mr. Very Big Ego another reason to have a swelled head. But his career was impressive, and she envied it like nobody's business. That was why losing the promotion stung so much. She wanted to play with the big boys like Jacob, and had essentially been told, no, stay in your lane, little girl.

Jacob squinted and eyed her for a moment before responding. "Thanks. I had no idea that you had kept up with my career."

Big. Ego. Indeed. "I wasn't keeping up with your career or anything like that. I just noticed a couple of articles every now and then and thought I would make small talk. No need to go getting a bigger head, Jake."

He gave her one of his trade mark sexy grins then, and she felt her insides quiver.

Her wolf who was usually silent was making herself known and she wanted the sexy, infuriating jerk in front of her but Leah did not plan on giving in to her wolfs wants.

"Oh, in that case, thanks. What about you? You're in finance right? What do you do? Are you moving and shaking like you did in undergrad?"

She swallowed. It was like every school reunion nightmare she had ever had rolled into one. She was like the loser who had peaked in college, forced to face Mr. Most Successful.

No. Way.

"Yes, I work in finance, but I'm on vacation now. The last thing I want to talk about is work. So, if you're going to hang with me at all this week, that's the first rule. No talking about work while we're on vacation."

He smiled his panty dropping smile as someone came on through the speaker telling them to remain seated as they landed.

As soon as the three minute announcement was done Jake held out his hand as he said, "Sounds fine with me. No talking about work."

Leah took his large equally warm hand in hers intending to shake it when an oh-so-pleasing electric charge coursed from her hand through her body again, and she felt her eyes flutter as she became slightly wet.

She looked him in the eye and she could tell that he felt the electric charge too. His dark eyes narrowed as his nose flared and his jaw began to tighten and untighten, as if he was trying to fight the feeling. She sighed in relief. As long as they both decided to resist whatever the attraction was between them, then things should be okay.

Deny, deny, deny. Another new mantra she was going to add to her list that seemed to be getting longer and longer.

God forbid either one of them would decide to let go and give in to the heat.

Sooo I'm thinking of just posting up the chapters of my other stories without having them beta'ed by my beautiful beta.

I don't usually have that many errors anyways because I tend to re read it like five times fixing anything along the way.

So I'm giving her until the end of the day before I just post them up...

I hate that I've left so long of time between updates for my other stories. But since this one is pretty much all planned out because I'm super excited on writing it I'll definitely be pushing out a chapter a day until it's done.

One faithful PM'er/reviewer pointed out that the title doesn't match the story...

I explained to her, that it doesn't match it yet

Keep in my mind it's only the beginning and as always most things in my stories never make sense until the end. It's just how I work...

I'm a strange jelly bean of a writer, I already know, I'm just happy you guys sort of get me... :)

And I'm glad you guys are enjoying this story as much as I enjoy writing it.

So (Review) let me know what you think, what you like or hate, or what you hope to see in the future and it might be squeezed in! :D

Now I'm going to curl up in my snuggie & read Kei Kat Jones: Worth Waiting For, to have my daily dose of Embry because I heart her and I love her stories, while I patiently wait for all your wonderful Reviews & PM's!

xoxo