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"I told you not to use that one."

Tyler peered up at me, gripping a power drill. "This one? I thought you meant the cordless…"

"No, the cordless is fine. This one electrocuted Mike yesterday."

"Then why the hell do we still have it?" he asked incredulously.

I snatched the drill up, yanking the cord from the outlet. "Good question."

"Where's the cordless?"

"Ask Mike," I called back, walking away.

We were in the home stretch now, almost done with the four bedroom at the top of Marin Ave. It was all about the finishing touches now; I'd be calling in the carpentry company we worked side by side with to handle the cabinets and that sort of thing.

Emmett McCarty and I'd built Cullen Construction from the ground up. We'd done well for ourselves, so much so that we didn't have to be present on most of the jobs – even though we chose to be. We had a good number of employees, many of them guys we'd known for years. It felt like family.

I went outside and lit a cigarette, grateful for the soothing burn.

"Thought you were quitting that crap, man," Emmett said, joining me.

"I am," I said, the cigarette bobbing as I spoke.

"Those things'll kill you."

"They won't kill me because I'm quitting."

"I'm surprised your girlfriend hasn't put her foot down," he commented, opening his bottle of water.

"She's not like that."

"Yeah? What's she like?"

Closing my eyes, I took a deep pull and flicked the cigarette, stamping it beneath my boot.

Bella.

Bella with the brown hair. I liked her hair, loved it even. Long and a little curly.

Bella with the nice ass. She looked even better out of her clothes than she did in them.

Bella with the sweet smile. She'd smile and look sideways at me, trying to sneak a peek when I wasn't looking but I was always looking. Even when I wasn't, I was.

I knew she thought I was stuck in my head. Half the time, I was.

She was usually in there with me, though. In my head, on my mind. She floated through it all the time, random thoughts, boring thoughts, sexual thoughts. Thoughts of her mouth; I loved how she laughed and how she bit her lip and licked it. How her kisses had been so shy when we'd started out and now they were bold, how she sucked me off when I asked her to and sometimes even when I didn't.

Her body. She was sweet. She looked sweet, she fucked sweet, she tasted sweet. She –

"Dude."

I blinked, the mild sunlight of the day coming back into focus, along with Emmett's face.

"What?"

"What was that?" He smirked. "When do I get to meet her?"

"Whenever, man. I don't know. Let's do something tonight."

"She have any cute nineteen year old girlfriends?"

"Actually, yes."

Emmett smirked, draining his water. "Bring 'em along."

Bella would probably like that. She got a little edgy sometimes when my friends came along, like she wasn't good enough. Like she was too young to keep up.

Little did she know she was light years ahead.

"Where are you?" I pressed the phone closer to one ear and stuck my finger in the other, trying to hear.

"Right below the clock tower. I'm meeting Alice."

"Is that why it's so loud?"

"Uh, yeah… where are you?"

"With Emmett, headed home. What are you doing tonight?"

" –ou."

"What?"

"You," she giggled.

Intellectually I knew she was messing with me but my dick twitched accordingly. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Her voice was lower now. Maybe she hadn't been messing with me.

"Hmm."

"Listen, Alice is here…"

"Yeah, okay. Do you want to go out tonight? Emmett's been on my ass to meet you. You can… bring your friends."

"Oh, okay! What time?"

"I don't know…seven? Eight?"

"Which one, Edward?" I knew that tone. She wasn't feeling very patient.

"Seven."

"Okay."

"Bye."

"Bye…"

I closed my phone and slipped it into my back pocket.

"No smoking in my truck," Emmett said.

"I wasn't…"

"You were thinking about it."

"Yeah," I chuckled. "I was."

"So… seven? I'll be at your place by 6:30. I know how you roll. Poor girl will be lucky if we get there by ten if we do it your way."

I snorted, not bothering to argue with him. No one knew me better than Emmett.

Emmett whistled lowly.

"That's the friend? She's nineteen?"

I glanced up at Bella and her friend. Just one. Guess Jasper's girl was… with Jasper.

"I think she's twenty. Her name's Rose."

"Damn." Emmett ran his hand through his hair, checking her out as they came toward the car.

"Hi," Bella said shyly. I jumped out before the girls could climb into the back seat.

"Hey." I kissed her mouth. "Rose, why don't you sit up front next to Emmett?"

"Uh…sure." Rose frowned and got in to the front seat.

I slid in next to Bella. She buckled her seatbelt and smiled up at me.

"So… where are we going?"

"A friend of ours in Montclair is having a few people over."

She nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Emmett and Rose began to talk up front. He kept looking at her, but she was staring at the window.

Yeah, good luck with that, Em. I'd talked to Rose a few times on the phone. She was kind of a bitch.

"How did the rest of your day go?" Bella asked quietly, fiddling with the strap on her bag.

"It went well. We're basically done with the house on Marin."

I told her about Mike and the faulty drill, and how he'd almost offed himself using it.

"Why don't you guys get rid of it?" she asked, her cheeks pink from laughter.

"Good friggin question," Emmett boomed from up front. "Every day we say we need to toss it and every day it ends up with all the other drills."

"So did you throw it away today?" Bella asked, her eyes shining.

"Nope."

There were a few other cars at Marcus's place. We parked and we got out, falling naturally into pairs. Rose looked a little less stiff; maybe Emmett's antics were breaking through. He didn't exactly have problems getting women.

Marcus had a nice place, in a neighborhood similar to the one I wanted to build in. He was into this modern art motif I wasn't really feeling for me, but it worked for him. He even managed to keep it from looking pretentious with his bright red couches and ink blot paintings.

I wanted plants in my house. Lots of wood, lots of plants. Organic, open.

The pool table was sweet, though. Em and I introduced the girls as we walked through the crowd, people we'd known since elementary school. I even saw a couple of kids who'd gone to school with Riley, but he wasn't there.

I leaned down, putting my lips to Bella's ear. "You want a beer?"

She nodded. I led her to the fridge and got one for each of us. Emmett and Rose had disappeared to the game room, so we joined them and set up on the couch.

Marcus was down there, just coming out of a game.

"Hey, Edward."

"Hey, Marcus. How's it goin'?"

"It's going," he sighed. "Just lost two hundred bucks."

"On a game?" I asked, shaking my head. "Idiot."

"Yeah no kidding." His eyes fell on Bella. I swear to God he looked like a hungry animal, seeing its first meal in weeks.

"This is Bella," I said, tightening my grip on her.

He knew me. He knew my style. If I was with Bella, I was with Bella. End of story.

Slightly smiling, he met my gaze, before looking back at Bella. "Nice to meet you, glad you could make it out."

"Thanks," she said, smiling at him and then at me.

So Bella sucked at pool. It was fun teaching her though, especially once she got past the self consciousness of other people watching. Rose was pretty damn good at it, not surprisingly. She had Emmett whipped, in more ways than one by the looks of things.

Later Bella and I were back on the couch, loosened up after a few beers. She tucked herself into my side, and all I could smell was her; her skin, her hair.

"You're really sexy," she breathed suddenly.

I looked down at her, realizing she'd been watching me for awhile.

I let my eyes linger in my favorite places; her mouth, her tits, where her shirt dipped and showed me hints of her tits, the v where her legs met.

"You have to say that," I said, squeezing her thigh. "Because you're with me."

"No, I say it because it's true," she argued, this sly little grin falling across her mouth.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Sexiest guy I've ever been with."

"Hmm."

"Hmm," she echoed, cocking her head.

I leaned down, sliding my hand around her neck, pulling her closer and kissing her.

"You think so?"

"I know so," she said, and bit my bottom lip.

I pulled away and grinned down at her, really liking the way she was looking at me.

Then I bit her back.

figured i'd do a 2 A DAY, to help make up for ffnet's craptasticness. it's still not working, you know; i/we simply found a way around it.

also, my birthday's today. whoot! dirty thirties, baby.