Embry POV
Whether she knew it or not, Bella had had the right idea in not taking my bed for the night. I was discovering that having her here in my house was distracting enough-Bella in my bed... Sleep eluded me as my mind naturally insisted on exploring that unfinished thought. In no time at all, I was sliding my hand down into my shorts and stroking my growing erection. My body suddenly felt like it was on fire, and I halted my movements to shift and yank off my shirt and bare my torso to the cooler air accompanying the approaching storm. Then my hand resumed its stroking, pulling and twisting in a rhythmic movement. Squeezing my eyes shut, fantasy replaced my hand with Bella's, but mindful of her presence only a short distance away, I clenched my lip between my teeth to stifle any noises I so badly wanted to make. Imagining my girlfriend's hands fondling me brought about a now-familiar tightening and tingling in my balls. Biting my lips near to bloody, my hips jerked up off the bed as the orgasm swept through me. My chest heaved in gasps as I tried to return to the real world, even though I'd much rather stay in that dream-state.
Rolling out of bed, I stripped and used my shirt to clean myself up. I lay back down, but sleep was even farther away for me now than it had been before. The sounds of the wind and of branches rustling were increasing-sure signs that the storm was getting closer. There was no doubt out it when a deafening crack of thunder broke right on top of the house. A whimper and thud from the direction of the living room had me on my feet and moving to investigate. Flipping the light-switch on the wall told me that we'd lost power-no big surprise with this bad of a storm-so I grabbed a flashlight instead, but didn't turn it on just yet as my eyes seemed to be seeing just fine at the moment. I debated on whether I should grab a shirt, too, and ended up grabbing it but not putting it on.
Once I was almost to the living room, I whispered, "Bella?" softly, trying not to scare her. Or at least, not to scare her any worse than the weather seemed to be doing. "Bella, you okay?"
"Yeah," she grumbled in a whisper that wasn't all that convincing.
I came up to the couch and felt my way around it, following the sound of rustling fabric. Bella was on the floor, having apparently rolled off the couch when the thunder had roared its presence. She couldn't get up because she was wrapped as thoroughly as a burrito-which was probably the reason for the embarrassment I just knew she had to be feeling right now.
"Quil's mom and grandpa put up a bunk bed in his room once-didn't last long, though: three boys, two beds...plus the whole thing of it being great to swing on and jump off of. Anyway, we were all crammed on it one night, and a storm came through...I practically brained myself on the upper bunk bed from how high I jumped from the thunder." Telling a mildly embarrassing story of my own-even if it did hurt a little to talk about my old friends-seemed to help Bella relax. I set the shirt and flashlight on the coffee table and reached down to lift Bella up and back onto the couch before settling down next to her.
"Guess the storm's here, huh?" she whispered.
"Yeah. Power's out, too."
"Does that happen a lot?"
I thought about it. "Yeah, I guess so. One of the few downsides of living here, I guess. Close to the coast, isolated… yeah, we usually lose power when there's a bad storm—but it's not like storms like this one happen all the time," I assured Bella.
In a well-timed flash of lightning, I caught Bella's weak attempt at a smile. "Don't like storms much, huh?" I guessed.
"Not really," she admitted. "We didn't have ones like this down in Phoenix very often, and there's only been one since I moved back—last spring. But that was mostly thunder…" her voice trailed off. Bella took a deep breath and continued, "The day I watched Edward's family play baseball."
"A baseball game during a thunderstorm? Were they crazy?"
Bella gave a breathy laugh, "Maybe so."
"So you're probably not ready to go back to sleep, right?"
I felt Bella's head shake a negative against my shoulder.
"Distract me?" she requested.
"Okay." The flash of a very inappropriate means of distraction was ruthlessly quashed. I really had no desire at all to become acquainted with Chief Swan's shotgun. "A story?"
"That sounds nice," Bella shifted even closer to me and rested her head against my shoulder.
"Long ago," I began, "the land near Neah Bay was flat and swampy. One day the sea ebbed away, leaving the bay dry. Four days later, the water returned, higher than any had ever seen it. The elders told everyone to run. Some ran to their canoes and floated on the water. Others ran for the mountains, chased by the flood waters all the way to the tops of the mountains, and the animals with them. In the morning, the people woke to find themselves surrounded by water—everything they had known, all their homes, everything, were gone. After four more days, the water retreated and was as it had always been. Some of the people returned and rebuilt their homes, but others were scattered." As I finished, I realized that it probably hadn't been the best story to tell, given the present circumstances. Too late now.
"A tsunami?" Bella guessed.
"That's the legend. Other stories say that the flood came because people were evil and caused an earthquake. Who knows?"
"Would you tell me another one?" She shifted so that her cheek now rested against my skin and her hand along my side. I took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on a story and not on anything else.
"The Quileute have a story…
Long since, in that respect was a sad time in the earth of the Quillayute. For days and days, a violent storm blew. Rainfall and hail then sleet and snowfall descended upon the earth. The large hailstones killed many natives. The Quillayute were forced from their sea-coast villages to the great prairie, which comprised the peak part of their land.
In that location the tribe became lean and weak from famish. The hailstones destroyed the ferns, the camas, and the berries. The rivers covered by ice and the tribe could not fish. Violent storms swayed the sea therefore the fishermen could not go out in their canoes for deep-sea fishing. Before long, the tribe consumed all the grass and roots on the prairie for food; at that place no food was left. As children perished without nutrient, the strongest and most courageous of their fathers could do nothing. They called upon the Great Spirit for help, but no help came.
Finally the Great Chief of the Quillayutemet with his tribe. He was old and wise. "Take comfort, my tribe," the Chief said. "We will call again upon the Great Spirit for help. If no help comes, then we will know it is His will that we die. If it is not His will that we live, then we will die bravely, as brave Quillayute have always died. Let us talk with the Great Spirit."
The weak and hungry tribe sat in silence while the Chief spoke with the Great Spirit, who had looked kindly upon the Quillayute for hundreds of years.
When his prayer had finished, the Chief turned again to his tribe. "Now we will wait for the will of the One who is wise and all-powerful."
The tribe waited. No one spoke. There was nothing but silence and darkness. All of a sudden, came a great noise, and flashes of lightning cut the darkness. A deep whirring sound, like colossus wings flapping, came from the place of the setting sun. All of the natives gazed toward the sky above the sea as an immense, bird-shaped beast flew towards them.
This bird was greater than any they had ever seen. Its wings, from tip to tip, were twice as long as a war canoe. It had an immense, curved beak, and its eyes radiated like fire. The tribe saw that its large claws held a living, giant whale.
In silence, they observed while Thunderbird – for so the bird was called by everyone -cautiously lowered the whale to the earth before them. The thunderbird flew high in the sky and returned to the thunder and lightning it had come from. Perhaps it flew back to its perch in the hunting grounds of the Great Spirit.
Thunderbird and Whale kept the Quillayute from dying. The tribe acknowledged that the Great Spirit had answered their prayers. The tribe shall never forget that gift from Thunderbird, never forget that it ended long days of hunger and death. For on the prairie near their village are large, round stones that the grandfathers say are the hardened hailstones of that violent storm long since passed.
My voice had gotten a little shaky by the time I reached the end of this tale—my body, though, was anything but shaky. Sometime in the last few minutes, Bella's fingers had started wandering over my stomach, perhaps on purpose or perhaps not. My body didn't care, though. My balls felt as hard as those hailstones in the story; I might as well not have released early for how tight they felt right now.
"Bella," I groaned quietly. I knew this needed to stop, even though stopping was the last thing I really wanted.
Her hand shifted automatically. Unfortunately for me, it moved down and not to the side. Bella's fingers brushed up against the tip of my cock that was peeking up through the waistband of my shorts. I stiffened like I'd just been jolted by an electric prod; Bella gasped at the same time, and probably for the same reason. I didn't have to see her to know she was likely bright red right now.
"I'm sorry," she gasped. "I—I didn't mean to—"
"It's okay—you didn't hurt me. But—I don't think we should do anything more. I really like you—this is just so new and I—" Whatever I was trying to say wasn't coming out very well.
"I'm—" Even in the darkness, I could see Bella's head drop. I leaned forward to grab the flashlight off the coffee table and adjusted myself in my shorts in the process. Pointed away from us so we weren't blinded, the flashlight still illuminated our faces.
"Bella! It's not your fault—well, maybe it is, but in a good way. No one has ever—ever—made me feel like this. You are special, and I want to treat you that way."
"So you liked it?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bella POV
Embry collapsed into the back pillows of the couch with a groan. "Oh, yeah," he answered wryly. His face flushed as much as mine had just done as he admitted, "If you'd done any more of that, we'd both have seen just how much I liked it."
Somehow, hearing that made my embarrassment fade away. I had wanted to touch Edward…well, maybe not quite like this, but he'd never let me. He hadn't said anything, usually, but his golden eyes had always had a look of disappointment—like I was doing something wrong. Embry's eyes were completely different. His dark brown-black orbs were dotted with specks of fiery light. He didn't make me feel ashamed or that what I'd done hadn't been okay.
"I want…a lot of things. And I really want to be the kind of guy who deserves you, who'll make all our parents proud. I don't want to mess things up."
I knew what he meant, and I agreed with him. While it might at times feel like we'd always been "Embry and Bella", the reality was that this was only a few days old. I wasn't really ready for more any more than Embry was. I'd always been so mature and responsible, and this was anything but. I hadn't heard my dad's side of the phone conversation with Embry, but I somehow suspected that "behave or else" had been part of it.
"Thank you."
"No problem. Think you can sleep now?"
I considered it. The thunder was fading away, but the wind still whistled outside. "Could you stay here?"
"Sure." Embry grabbed his shirt and pulled it on, then helped me get situated on the couch, with my head at one end and my feet tucked against his leg. After flicking the flashlight off and setting it down somewhere, Embry slouched back down. "Night, Bella."
"Goodnight."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Embry POV
Surprisingly, the rest of the night was pretty good. Having Bella next to me…her scent and the sound of her heartbeat lulled me into sleep. A sleep which I was rudely brought out of by a hand coming to rest on my head.
"Did your bedroom relocate itself?"
"The storm bothered Bella. I came out here to help her feel better." Flipping the light sheet off onto the floor, I stood up. "See, fully dressed."
Our conversation woke Bella up. "Good morning," she told both Mom and me. "Embry isn't in trouble, is he? I was a little upset from the storm and Embry coming out here helped me fall asleep."
"I'm glad he could help."
I couldn't exactly tell if Mom believed us, or if she somehow knew there was more to last night than we were saying. I'd probably find out either way eventually.
The clock on the old VCR was blinking, so it looked like our house had gotten power back. I went to my room, and Bella to the bathroom to get dressed, and my mom took care of getting breakfast ready.
"What are you planning for today?" Mom asked us.
"I don't know. I've got to call my dad," Bella answered.
After she ended the call, Bella relayed her dad's report of trees down throughout the area, and that the highway leading to Forks was still being cleared. So with Bella stuck down here until I could get her out, we ended up taking Mom's suggestion of checking with the neighbors to see if anyone needed help. Mostly that meant me doing the physical work of hauling downed branches to the edge of the street and Bella being friendly. But with the way she kept looking me over and smiling, I didn't mind.
Late in the morning, Bella's dad called her again to say that she ought to be able to make it home alright. We'd only just started back to my house when I stopped dead in my tracks, the hair standing up on the back of my neck. From around the side of one of the houses, wearing only cut-off shorts and battered sneakers, came Jacob Black and Sam Uley.
As soon as he saw me, Jake's lips pulled back in a snarl and his eyes tried to bore holes in me. For my part, I just stared right back at him.
"Jake," I heard Sam mutter. Jake seemed to ignore both Sam and me.
"Bells," he called.
On my other side, she stiffened, clenching my hand hard. She didn't move, or even try to look around me toward him.
"Would you take me home, Embry?" Bella asked.
"Sure. Don't want to keep your dad waiting," I replied. I gave Jake and Sam one last look and guided Bella down the street. Within minutes, we were on my bike and heading back toward Forks.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AN: I have taken slight liberty with the nature of the weather of the Pacific Northwest. Windstorms as described do hit the coast of Washington state, but are generally only encountered in the fall/winter. As this story chapter takes place in August, I've advanced that time window up slightly in the interest of advancing the story plot. I hope I can be forgiven for this.