When they arrived at the empty parking lot, Bella muttered, "Thank God."
Paul teased, "I told you if you wanted to get me alone, all you had to do was ask."
Bella snorted and said, "Cute. Actually, you can help me."
He rolled his eyes as he opened the driver's door and said, "Well, in that case…"
Bella climbed out of the truck and handed him the garment bag by the hanger. "You can't drop this, okay? It's important." As he nodded, she unzipped it to remove the dress, bra, and panties she'd brought to change into. She turned her back toward him and asked, "Will you unzip me, please?"
Pulling the zipper down, he asked, "Did you intend to change out here in the open the whole time?"
"I figured I'd change in my car while whoever I brought along kept an eye out for me."
Smirking, he teased, "Good thing it wasn't Newton."
He watched as she carefully separated the tape from her skin. There was little moonlight to see what she was doing, but Bella knew it was more than enough for Paul to observe her every move as she slowly removed the dress. He let out a low hissing sound as it pooled at her feet, and she carefully stepped out of it. Bella shimmied the pantyhose down her legs and braced one hand on the side of the truck to remove her right shoe, the pantyhose from the same leg, and then put her shoe back on.
Paul leaned to better see her backside as she repeated the process with her other foot. She grabbed the panties first and carefully maneuvered them around her heels and then up into place. He grinned as Bella slid her arms into the bra and adjusted how it fit. Finally, she slid into the low-cut, deep purple sundress. Form-fitting, it clung to each curve, and tiny stripes of see-through fabric provided glimpses of the flesh underneath. She reached into the bag for a hair tie and grabbed the blue dress from the pavement.
Paul asked, "That was so important? Holding the bag so you could get dressed?"
"Yes." She reached into her purse for a lighter, a small container of lighter fluid, and then grabbed the Merlot from the floorboard. "If your hands were free, you'd have just grabbed me once I was naked, then fucked me against the truck. And that's not what we came here to do."
"I don't know. Might still happen."
Laughing, she shut the truck door, and they headed toward the beach.
She removed her shoes as the ground softened and carried them to the usual fire pit. Paul gathered smaller, dry pieces of driftwood and tossed them into it. Meanwhile, Bella dug a shallow hole in the water and firmly packed the wine bottle inside it.
Paul chuckled as he spotted her. "That should chill it rather quickly."
"It works for Charlie's Vitamin R. It'll work for this wine bottle."
Arranging the woodpile for the fire, he asked, "Shouldn't you be doing this? What if I wasn't here?"
Bella giggled. "I'd have probably just hosed it with lighter fluid and burned myself."
"Well, we can't have that. I'd have to take care of you and kiss it better until you recovered."
Bella kept her smile, but the comment made her sad as she looked away. She couldn't help but consider his earlier remark about wanting her to stay with him and Jamie. It had replayed in her mind a dozen times on the drive. Despite how much Bella already adored the little boy, she couldn't envision herself as a mother.
She wondered if this was how Charlie felt when she came to live with him after barely seeing her for years. It was likely that full-time fatherhood scared him shitless. And, she supposed, she couldn't blame Charlie for being angry with her now that he finally knew the complete truth. She'd hidden so much from him, lied to him for so long, and put him through hell… Maybe she deserved the silent treatment from him for a while.
"What are you thinking about so hard over there?"
Bella looked toward Paul and shrugged. "Charlie. He has every right to be mad at me right now."
"I don't think so," Paul muttered, then smiled, triumphant as he gestured toward the now-burning pile of driftwood. "All yours, Beautiful."
Bella snorted. "Why did you say that? About Charlie?"
"Unless I can convince you to stay here, Charlie's time with you is short. And it's not doing him a damn bit of good being pissed about the past. That energy would get better spent by getting to know you now."
She grumbled, "After the bonfire, I'm pretty positive everyone knows me now."
"They know your story, babe. They don't know you. Leah might, considering she's been up your ass since you got here. But the others?" He shook his head.
But does he? What did Paul know about her besides her story? He'd heard most of her story years ago - all of it, so far. And she had changed little in seven years aside from her appearance, the men she 'dated,' and her choice of poison.
The one thing about Bella that hadn't changed was the pull she felt toward her husband. They were perfectly fitting pieces of two very different puzzles. She was the odd one out - the odd piece that somehow fit where she never really belonged and somehow the yin to his yang. He intentionally appeared dark and cold without, with a quick temper, sharp tongue (both of which were under control these days), and ever-present wolfy counterpart. Yet Paul was internally warm, kind, and generous of his time and attention. He was reliable and steadfast. Far more mature than she'd become.
Bella couldn't help but feel she was the opposite - Light without in her flirty yet business-chic wardrobe, sunkissed skin, and bleached hair. Light with her casual relationships, fair-weather friendships, and a male best friend who reminded her more of home than anything else. Like she'd told Charlie, she was sweet but dark on the inside. The sweetness was genuine but only masked the bitterness in her mind and heart. It hid the well of negative emotions and regrets she kept trapped behind her now-shattered mental barrier.
Paul had hopes and ambitions for himself and Jamie.
Bella didn't allow herself to hope. She'd stopped daring to dream. Bella was changing again, however. She could feel it begin the second she stepped foot in Clallam County.
Where did that leave her? Would giving a relationship with Paul an honest chance, disrupting her entire life to move, dragging herself back into the supernatural world while awaiting her execution… Would it be a wise decision? One last chance at happiness? Or would it be a disaster, exposing the wolves to their inevitable destruction and her to more shattered hopes along the way?
She couldn't bear the thought of it - if anything happened to any of the wolves because of her, it would surely kill her. She'd gladly let the Volturi destroy her if that happened. Bella couldn't envision a world without them, but did that mean she belonged here with them?
Sadly, she admitted, "I missed you…" Bella looked away from Paul and into the blue-green flames. "I couldn't… say your name for years. That's why Jack never made the connection. I had to force myself to say it after I got here after Charlie confronted me about you."
Paul scoffed. "How did Charlie know anything about it?"
"Court schedules."
"Ooh," he said, cringing. "Sorry. Didn't think about that."
"Paul…" she hesitated, unsure if she should go on. "I dated briefly, intentionally keeping everyone at arm's length, avoiding anyone who might remind me of you. I was serious when I said I kept people at a distance. Everyone but Jack, mostly because he wouldn't let me, but also because he's an incredible friend. He… feels like the friend Jacob was supposed to be for me. But Jacob fell in love with me, and we were never supposed to be together. Jack started calling me Honey right away, too. I never told him Jake calls me Honey."
Paul sat beside her and slid his arm around her shoulders as she leaned into his side. Once they had settled, he asked, "You couldn't say my name, huh? Why?"
"Hurt too much. I am excellent at disassociating, just as Leah said. I had four months to practice it before Jacob helped me heal back then… And I've been doing it since I walked out of that Vegas hotel."
Paul's voice cracked as he asked, "Why? Aside from Jack, you've been… alone? You couldn't have been happy. Bells, I'm… if you don't want to be with me, I'll respect that. I didn't expect to reconnect with you like this again. But I also meant it when I said I'm tired of being alone."
He reached for her chin, gently turning her toward him to look into her eyes. Sliding his hand up her jaw to cup her cheek, Paul said, "I'm alone because I can't find another you. Jamie is my top priority. That's true. But, I have help with Jamie. He doesn't monopolize all of my time, even though it probably seems like it. I've dated and had one-night stands, and I'm willing to bet you have, too. I've tried to forget you too, but I can't. My wolf can't either, and that makes this even harder."
She knew his wolf was fond of her, but he made it sound like… "What, exactly, does it make harder? Paul?"
He removed his hand to drop it to her thigh and swiftly slipped it under her dress. She gasped as he pushed her legs apart somewhat and traced his teeth marks with his thumb. A slight tingling rushed through her limbs, and she shivered as every nerve ending seemed to ignite.
It sounded more like a moan as she protested, "Paul!"
After a firmer stroke along her scar, Bella whimpered from the immediate rush of desire that heated her skin. Paul's hand was so close to her sex, and she suddenly wanted it there, touching her, gliding his rough fingertips through her slickness, against her, inside her.
As if sensing the immediate, lustful change in her, Paul's eyes seemed to flare along with his nostrils as he inhaled her scent, greedily sucking in the deepest breath possible. His voice shook, hardening with anger as he said, "That's … what I was afraid of."
Bella's eyes flared with her temper as he pulled his hand away and stood up. Readjusting her sitting position, she hissed, "What were you afraid of? Paul!"
Heading toward the water, he snapped, "Can you just burn the fucking dress so we can go?"
Confused by his sudden temper and how he'd pissed her off so quickly, she stood, tossed the entire garment bag onto the fire, and stomped toward her bottle of Merlot. The bag made a loud 'woof' noise as it burst into a mass of red and orange flames, dancing among the blue-green ones, creating an odd kaleidoscope of color inside the fire pit.
Bella yanked her somewhat chilled bottle from its watery resting place. Rather than feeling at peace as she opened it, as she'd intended, Bella suddenly wanted to dump the contents right on Paul's head. He had made the entire night for her a dizzying dance of sadness, aggravation, lust, and fury.
They glanced toward each other simultaneously, and then both gasped at the odd purple hue of the smoke rolling from the remaining scraps as they burned.
"Wow, I didn't expect it to burn that quickly," he said with a slight chuckle. "Looks like there were some traces of venom left behind on that stuff."
She was in no mood to humor his apparent mood swings as she asked, "What the fuck were you talking about, Paul? What the hell, exactly, is what you were afraid of."
"I don't want to answer that," he said. "I don't want to influence any more of your decisions."
Bella scoffed. It was too fucking late for that! "If it has to do with your fucking teeth marks, you might as well tell me. I've already got Leah asking Sue about it."
His eyes went wide as he asked, "What?"
She asked, "Do you think I'm entirely unobservant, Paul? I know this scar means something. I don't even feel the fucking thing unless you touch it, so you might as well tell me."
He half-growled, half-sighed as she took a long, greedy pull from the Merlot. She held it out toward him, and Paul strode toward her to grab it. After a generous swallow, he looked at the label and then drank again. Handing it back, he said, "That's a lot stronger than I expected."
Bella grumbled, "Yeah, well… I probably drink too much. Now, quit stalling and fucking tell me."
He suddenly looked thoughtful, mischievously smirking as though an ingenious idea had come to mind. "If you stay with me from Monday until Thursday, I'll tell you what it means on Thursday after court. That way, if you don't want shit to do with me afterward, we'll already be divorced."
Well… Bella supposed that slammed the final nail in the marriage coffin. They were divorcing, regardless. "That's blackmail and doesn't make any fucking sense. I'm just going to find out from Sue, anyway. Most likely tomorrow. Do you really want me to lose my shit about whatever this is in front of Jamie? I don't want him to see us fight, Paul."
He grinned at her sheepishly and sighed. "Damn. It was worth a try. And you're right. I don't want him to see us fight, either."
Bella observed him suspiciously as she took another drink of Merlot. After swallowing and handing the bottle back to him, she asked, "You're not gonna tell me, are you?"
Paul stared her straight in the eyes as he shook his head. He closed his eyes and tilted the bottle back for another long pull. As he returned it to her, Paul said, "Nope. I don't think you'll believe me, anyway. If I tell you it's what it is, you'll think I'm using it to get you to stay. If I tell you the opposite - same fucking thing."
"So you're just going to risk me finding out in front of everyone tomorrow."
"Yep."
"That's such an asshole move, Paul!"
"Well, I'm still an asshole, Bella. That never changed. Just like your stubbornness and impulsivity." He smirked as she grinned back at him ruefully.
"I think you're just stalling to get me to agree to stay with you tonight. You just don't want me pissed off. Meanwhile, I think this damn scar has everything to do with your wolf and the… magic of this place, as Leah put it."
He scoffed, but his expression told him she was right as he said, "There ya go, thinking again."
Bella rolled her eyes at his poor attempt at gaslighting her, and he laughed. He walked over to put out the fire now that any trace of her prom dress was gone. Bella hadn't given it the exact sendoff she'd wanted to. But it was done without her having to wallow in any leftover bitter feelings about it.
Paul picked up her shoes in one hand before holding the other out to her. "Come on."
Bella shook her head as she closed the bottle and let him lead her to the truck.