Usual disclaimer: SM owns it all and I don't

Ch9: Ground Rules & Deal Breakers

Jacob sat at the bar in his mother's rum shack, feeling more than a little grumpy. He had spent the entire day with his family, and it was wonderful, even if a huge part of him kept wondering what Leah was doing, if she was hanging out with Embry who was also a no show, or if she had found someone to have a fling with.

If he could have kicked his own ass for blowing things with her and not taking it slower, he would have. What was he thinking, asking her straight out why she didn't want to have a fling with him? It was the absolute wrong approach! Plus, he had sounded like a punk.

He might as well have said, Why don't you like me, Leah. Please like me, Leah. Please.

What a chump!

No wonder she had given him the brush-off…

But he could tell by the way she melted in his arms, her pulse racing and her eyes fluttering…

He knew she felt the electricity, the chemistry between them. She was just scared. And she didn't want to risk her heart.

At least one of them was thinking, because he was ready to risk it all. And that wasn't a smart move.

No, it wasn't smart to risk his heart. Not where Leah was concerned.

"So how come you didn't bring my girl Leah back with you tonight? Where'd you take her last night?" Sarah leaned on the bar and studied him with keen interest.

Rather than tell his mother that the last person he wanted to talk about was the woman who had been on his mind all day, the person everyone in the rum shack seemed to be asking for all day, he just shrugged.

Sarah hit him on the arm with her cloth. "What kind of answer is that, Jake? You wait all these years to bring a woman here. You finally bring one and we all like her and you had to go and mess it up!"

"Ma, not that it's any of your business…" he glanced up from the vodka tonic he was nursing and noted the dark squint of his mother's eye.

She used the cloth in her hand to slap him upside the head. "What do you mean it's none of my business? I spent all day in labor to bring you in this world, and you sit there trying to tell me what's my business and what's not my business? You're my only son, my baby, and I want you happy! You'll never settle down if you keep dating the kind of women who let you run all over them. Leah is a nice girl. You can do a whole lot worse—and come to think of it, you have."

"Your mother is right." Billy concurred. "You have to know how to tell a good woman when you see one."

"And she's cute too. You two will make me some pretty grandbabies. She's so sweet and innocent and she seems smart." His mother smacked her cloth across his arm again. "Don't you hurt that sweet girl, Jake."

Jake ruffled at that.

Why was everyone worried about him hurting Leah? What about Leah hurting him? She could very well hurt him too!

In fact, if he was honest, he would admit her unwillingness to have her little island fling with him had hurt him a lot more than he would ever let on.

"She don't look that sweet Sarah." Billy grumbled.

"Shut up and mind your business old man. Can't you see I'm trying to have a conversation with my son?" Sarah gave him a slight glare.

"Woman, how easily you seem to forget he's my son too." Billy pointed to himself with his thumb. "And I was just trying to help you. I don't think he's used to anyone like Leah. He's probably used to dating those pretty airheaded girls."

Jacob turned to his dad, not sure if he should take the time to be insulted by the man's diss of his dating practices.

"Hush old man," Sarah shook her head. "Anyway, Jake, you're not getting any younger. You're knocking on forty's door."

"I'm thirty three, Ma."

"Like I said, knocking on forty's door. And women as smart and pretty as Leah won't be coming around easily. Mark my words, you'll regret letting this one go." Sarah nodded in agreement with herself.

Jake sighed. "Okay, Ma, can we change the subject?"

"Sure," Sarah smiled. "So are you going to bring Leah by tomorrow evening?"

Jake rolled his eyes.

"Oh never mind!" his mother said excitedly. "There's my girl! Jake, why'd you let me go on and on if you knew she was going to stop by here?" she hit him with her cloth again. "Hey, Leah, sweetie! How you doing? Come in and take a load off!"

Jake turned toward the door and almost fell out of his seat. There she was in his mother's rum shack looking absolutely stunning in a white sundress with big sterling silver hoop earrings and bangles standing right next to Embry. Embry leaned down with his hand on her waist whispering and she nodded beaming up at him before he went over to speak with Quil. Jake bit the inside of his cheek deciding to ignore that fact before he got angry as he turned his interest back to Leah.

He knew he was staring at her. He almost wanted to punch himself to make sure that she was really there.

Leah smiled and walked over to the bar. "Hey, Sarah, Billy! Hey everyone!" she practically glowed. "Jake." She nodded at him and quickly turned her attention back to the others.

He cleared his throat. "Leah."

He took a sip of his vodka tonic and got up. He took her arm and led her over to the dance floor.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Leah screeched as she let him lead her away.

He pulled her into his arms and started to move to the smooth music that was playing in the background. He had no idea what song was playing, and he didn't care. The only thing he cared about was that she had shown up.

He had been thinking about her all day. He thought that he had blown his chance with her. But she had shown up.

And if she really didn't want him to pursue her, then she really shouldn't have done that. He had tried to do the right thing and let her call the shots and stay cocooned in her fear. But that would only have worked if she had stayed away.

Now…Now that she pissed his wolf off? Well, all bets were off.

He gazed down at her. That clear shimmer gloss thing she had going on with her lips seemed like it would be tasty. He decided to taste and see.

When his lips connected with hers, it felt amazing, damn near surreal. She immediately opened to his kiss, and his tongue didn't waste any time diving in.

Damn, her mouth was addictive. He wrapped his arms around her and her closer as he all but devoured her mouth. He let his arms roam all over her lush, delectable curves.

It took everything inside of him to pull his lips away from hers and end the kiss. It was only the sound of clapping in the background that made him finally let her go. And even then, he kept her close to him. He looked around he noticed Embry's frown before Quil pulled him outside. Jake felt like puffing out his chest in pride. Then he turned his gaze onto his mom and her crew were clapping and whistling.

Leah's face had just a hint of red on the cheeks.

"Jake—" she started.

"No," he interrupted her. "If you didn't want to be with me, Leah, you should have stayed at your hotel where it was safe." He put the extra emphasis on the word safe, since that was such a big deal for her. "I let you walk away from me last night, and I would have done the gentlemanly thing and respected your wishes. It would have killed me, but I really would have done it, Leah."

He bent down, taking in her scent, and placed his forehead against hers. "Forget the whole Embry thing I don't want to talk about it. But you came back here. You walked in that door looking like an angel, and now there's no going back, Leah. There is no way in hell I'm going to let you find some clown on this island to have a fling with. That's not going to happen. Sorry. When we leave here tonight, you're coming to my place. And you might as well get your things from the hotel and check out. We've wasted too much damn time already."

"Are you done?" Leah twisted her lips to the side.

"Pretty much, if I think of anything else, I'll let you know."

"Cocky ass! As I was going to say, before you interrupted me…" She paused with a saucy little grin on her face. "I know you told me not to talk about Embry but I have to say my wolf didn't like him too much." She seemed disappointed at the thought, frowning before she continued. "Jake, I want to take a risk and have a wildly passionate island fling with you. We'll just have some ground rules—namely, when I leave this island our fling will be over. No questions. No promises. No problems. These ground rules will help us keep things in prospective."

Jake bristled. Normally he would have loved having an automatic out-clause written into a relationship. But for some reason, with Leah it wasn't appealing to him at all.

"We don't need ground rules, Leah. What happened to your wanting to be spontaneous and do something wild and unplanned? Coming up with ground rules kind of goes against all of that, doesn't it?"

She sighed. "This is a deal breaker, Jake. If we can't agree on the ground rules, then we can't do this. No questions. No promises. No problems." She nibbled on her lip, and it made him want to kiss her again.

What was she so afraid of? They continued to sway with the music, but that question plagued him.

"Why do you feel like you need these ground rules so much? Are you afraid I'm going to turn into some kind of crazed stalker or something?" he joked as he spun her around. He gave her a peck on the lips when she faced him again. "I promise you, when you get tired of me I will respect your wishes and move on. Of course I'm going to try my best to make sure you don't get tired of me anytime soon. But—"

Leah let out a deep, exasperated breath. It had been hard enough putting it all on the line, taking a cab over to the rum shack after spending all day with Embry and admitting that she wanted to spend more time with him. She knew she was taking a huge chance with her heart. The ground rules had to be in place because they would remind her not to fall in love with this man.

She glanced up at his handsome face. He gazed at her with such earnest longing that she had to catch her breath. She had already told him the other night that she needed to protect herself from getting hurt. How much of her soul did he want her to bare in order to have this fling?

What more did he want? Blood?

"That's not it Jake. I need the ground rules in place because I…" I could very much fall in love with you.

She couldn't say that. No need to get carried away with the truth. "Because I think we need to be able to end things the way we started them, as friendly rivals." She smiled. "What we're experiencing here in Blake might be the island magic that is making us want each other so much. And make no mistake about it, I want you…But this is the only way I'm willing to go into this with you."

With his jaw set firmly, it appeared as if he were going to say no deal. Her nerves had her holding her breath. What would she do if he said no? She had already called on every ounce of strength and resolve she had in her to get dressed and ride with Embry to Sarah's. The entire ride over, she had to darn near bite her tongue to stop herself from telling Embry to take her somewhere else.

If Jake said no, where would she get the resolve and strength she would need to laugh it off and then spend an hour or two partying at the rum shack as if it didn't matter that he didn't want to have a fling with her?

"I don't like this, Leah," he grumbled.

"We don't have to like it Jake. We just have to respect the boundaries of it. That way, no one will get hurt and we can remain rivals slash friends." She smiled at him. "Come on, Black. You know you want to say yes. There is unfinished business between us that we can settle before we go our separate ways."

"I don't want to place an expiration date on it, Leah. We both live in Seattle—"

"All the more reason for us to limit this. That way neither one of us will have any expectations that we can simply bring what we start here back home."

"Are you seeing someone back home? Is that it? You have a man at home that you're here cheating on or something? Fuck! I should have asked you that earlier." Jake shook his head in frustration.

"I don't have a man at home. I just broke up with my boyfriend. I had just given him the key to my place after dating him for a year and I came home to find him in bed with another woman."

Jake's eyes narrowed. "You just broke up with a cheating boyfriend and you want me to be your rebound fling?" he said the word rebound as if it was a dirty word.

"No. Not really, I mean. I don't know. I don't think you would really be a rebound fling proper, since technically I knew you way before I met him. And in a way we are settling old business from our kiss in college. Taking things further—"

"As far as we can take them in, what, four days? What if we need more time to explore?" Jake rolled his eyes and sneered. "And what if I'm not comfortable being your rebound guy?"

"Four days is all we have. And you aren't my rebound, Jake." She looked back to see if his friend was still in here. "I could always ask Embry…" she said softly.

But she knew he heard her when he growled in warning his hands tightening a bit. "Leah…"

She placed her hand behind his neck and pulled his head down. Brushing her lips across his, she was surprised by how quickly he gave in to kissing her. Within seconds, he was devouring her mouth again. She figured her mouth would probably look like she's had some kind of collagen injections by the time he was done with her. But it still pleased her that he seemed to want her so badly.

That had to be a good sign.

His hand trailed her arms and back, landing on her behind. He cupped her behind and squeezed.

Yes, that had to be a really good sign.

Leah smiled at him. "Let's just say our goodbyes to your mom and talk about this at your place, if that's okay?"

"We'll see." Jake took her hand and they headed back to the bar. When he sat down at the bar, she followed his lead and sat down too.

"Uh-oh, what happened? My son has his 'I didn't get my way' look on his face. Leah from Seattle what did you do to my son when you all were over there dancing?" Sarah had a big grin on her face, and it made Jake scowl even more.

Jake's reaction almost made Leah reconsider her stance. It wasn't as if she thought she would ever get enough of Jake. That was the problem. She figured he would be tired of her long before she ever grew tired of him.

That was the way men like him operated, and they left a long line of broken hearts behind them to prove it.

Since she wasn't about to tell Sarah that Jake was mad because he didn't want to have a short, no strings attached affair with her, she just shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

Sarah picked up her cloth and popped Leah on the arm. "Don't shrug your shoulders when I'm asking you a question."

Jake's eyes widened in outrage. "Ma, you can't just pop strangers with your cloth. There is nothing wrong with me. I'm fine." He grumbled.

"Leah's not a stranger. She is practically family! And judging by how irritated she has your normally smooth and untouchable self, she's probably the only woman who can handle you." Sarah smiled at Jake as he glowered.

Leah giggled, which made Jake turn and narrow his eyes at her. "Sarah, you are something else. Jake is fine. We're both fine. But I know I could use a plate of your excellent food. I haven't had anything else in Blake so far that compares."

"And you won't have anything else that compares. I'll fix you a plate." Sarah glanced at her son. "How about you Jake? You want something while I'm back there?"

"Sure Ma. We're about to head out of here once we both eat." He gave Leah a poignant stare.

She could tell.

He had made his decision.

He was going to do it. Or do her, as it were…

Hooray!

He must have mulled over her terms and decided they were for the best.

Perfect.

That was exactly what she wanted.

Wasn't it?

Hmmm had a long dayy... so I was only able to update this story

but my other ones should be updated soon for sure by tomorrow

You guys are simply Amazing! :D

Review I'm one away from 100 :D