Hi folks. Sorry I haven't been online all that much. I really appreciate the feedback.

Tried to take this down a different kinda road from the "typical"… we'll see how I do. Also a note that was made clearer by a scene that I cut: Paul never actually marked/bit Bella (that mating bite wasn't a big thing in the BLW universe).

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As always, thanks for reading and hope you enjoy.

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Chapter 19 – Love Comes

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Paul stood by the window, staring out through the rippled antique glass over the lawn. The noon hour was overcast and moody… very much like himself.

A soft groan slipped from the bed behind him and Paul glanced over his shoulder at the woman, sprawled across the mattress, finally passed out from enduring fucking agony. He turned back to the window, pressing his lips into a straight line.

It wouldn't be long now.

The part of him that lamented the game that he was going to have to play sat like a cold, lead dread in the pit of his stomach. The rest of his sick self bubbled with shameless….

Anticipation.

Bella's groans grew louder behind him and Paul clenched the muscles in his jaw, against turning around.

"P-Paul?" she moaned quietly.

"I'm here, babe," he murmured to the window.

He heard the sheets rustle and the bed shift as she turned on her side toward him. For several minutes, the sounds of her soft panting, punctuated with the aching gasps of the pain that was driving them both mad. Paul's eyes stayed carefully trained outside, unfocused as they were, as he struggled to draw air, slow and steady, through his nose.

"Paul?" she whispered, her voice trembling with confusion.

"Yep…" He brought a cagey finger up to trace across the sash. Just to keep himself grounded. Just to keep him from turning around, scooping her up in his arms and comforting that quaver in her voice.

"What's wrong?" she breathed over the dull squeak of the bed as she sat up.

Paul closed his eyes for a moment pressing his lips together and drawing in a cooling breath.

"Well…" he turned around.

Slowly.

"Last night you almost died," he hissed the acidic words over his tongue as his eyes lifted to his wife.

His resolve shimmered like a mirage. Bella's huge eyes were worried where she sat on the edge of the bed like a little waif, her body dwarfed by his tee shirt. The flush of suffering stained her cheeks and her shoulders were caved in under all the weight of her burdens.

But still she was so fucking beautiful.

"In fact," he snapped his mind back into the game – a game that necessary for both of their sanities' sake. "You asked Jasper to kill you," he murmured, cocking his head with a dark and bitter smirk. "Remember that?"

Bella blinked rapidly as her hands wrapped around her middle. She didn't answer.

"And I can't do it anymore," Paul pushed the words over a raspy breath. "I can't watch you suffer like this, not when there's something I can do about it. Not when all you have to do is fuck me."

Bella sucked in a sharp breath at his crassness. He was never crass with her. Ever.

"I can't watch for three hours while your bones break – over and over… " he met her wide-eyed gaze. "While you scream bloody murder for hours when the pain's finally gotten too ridiculous to hide it, like you're doing right now… " he took a step toward her. "I can't watch my wife ask a leech to kill her because she can't stand the torture anymore."

Bella's eyes narrowed. "Then you can leave," she jutted out her chin with that signature rebellious pucker of her lips. "You can go home to Caleb. Where you're supposed to be."

It was just as he'd expected.

Paul growled, slapping the wall hotly. "This is fucking bullshit!" he took a tense step toward her and then abruptly turned, pacing into the room. "You're just being stubborn!" his voice vaulted up to a yell along with his blood-pressure.

Bella coughed a laugh. "That's the pot calling the kettle a frying pan if I ever heard it," she snorted.

Paul spun on his heel as a smirk broke through the angst to tug at his lips. "You mean 'the pot calling the kettle black?'" he sniffed a laugh.

"You said it, not me…" she raised her brows shrewdly.

Paul narrowed his eyes in annoyance. She'd been messing with him, insinuating her sneaky self into his rising temper like she did oh, so well.

Oh-ho-ho, little girl. Game on.

He gave her a slow saccharine smile.

"Maybe I should just leave…" he raised his brows tauntingly. "I mean Jake's been creaming his jeans for another chance at you."

"Oh my God!" Bella screeched, vaulting to her feet in outrage. "Disgusting, Paul!"

Now he was getting somewhere.

"He'd be much better for you," he continued caustically. "He's a good kid, sweet, dorky… happy."

"Paul! !" Bella exclaimed with a distressed furrow to her brow.

"Then that'd leave Leah, though," he tapped his finger on his chin as he feigned giving it any sort of thought what so ever. "She's one Rez bitch I never got around to back in the day," he continued mercilessly as the color rose to Bella's cheeks.

She pressed her lips together severely as he took several slinking steps toward her, staring intensely into those stunning new eyes.

He enunciated each word like a punch. "With that ass, she's bound to be a good fuck."

With an indignant growl, and new lightning reflexes, she reared back and slapped him.

Or tried to. Paul fluidly caught her wrist.

He could feel it in her racing pulse, see it in her harsh rasping breath… scent the lupine rage rising pungent and sweet from her skin: Bella was seething as she stared at him with eyes flashing like lightning in a clear summer sky.

Paul yanked her a step toward him as his gaze drifted indolently over that beautiful, passionate face. "Yeah, baby," he purred. "Show me what you got."

Her other hand darted out to try again to land a hit across his face, but he lithely dodged the blow with a quick, efficient twist.

"Missed," he whispered.

He backed up, cocking his head as her breath rolled through her flared nostrils. "C'mon. You can do better than that," he goaded in a velvet croon. "Leah'd have my ass in a sling by now."

Bella lunged with an incoherent shrill. She raked her hand across his chest, and Paul grabbed her wrist, moving with her movement and stepping to the side. With just enough force, he flipped her, Aikido style, and she careened over the floor into the far wall.

With a growl of fury, she flipped over and unfolded into an aggressive couch. Paul's wolf purred with appreciative pleasure. His mate was strong and agile.

Bella's eyes glittered with the wolvish rage that had leached over her human consciousness. She was running on instinct now.

Paul tauntingly motioned her forward. "C'mon. Show me this monster, babe. Show me what you're so afraid I can't handle."

Bella streaked across the room with a savage snarl, her fists catching air with Paul's fluent evasions. He grappled his arms around her and she twisted with a shriek, elbowing him and then turning with a deft backwards kick. Paul caught her leg and tossed her on the bed, pouncing after her.

But she slithered out from under him with her nimble athleticism, pushing herself with enough force that she jettisoned off the bed, twisting agilely to land like a cat on her knuckles and balls of her feet.

Panting, Bella looked up from under her lashes with a vicious look that darkened her eyes to azure. Her lips peeled back from warning hiss.

It was sexy as fuck.

Paul slipped off the other side of the bed, prowling around it with a slow smile as her feral eyes followed him closely.

"Whatchu gonna do, little girl?" he crooned under his breath.

Bursting forward, he faked left and feinted right, dodging her strike and follow up spinning kick. Spinning around, he lunged and snapped his arms around her surprised torso, lifting her feet off the ground as she kicked wildly. He crossed the room in two strides and, measuring his strength carefully, he threw her against the wall.

She spun around upon contact with a squeak that sounded far too close to fear for Paul's liking. He was in front of her faster than she could react, pinning her to the wall with his heaving chest. He snatched up each wrist as they raised to beat him back and pinned each slowly, carefully, to the wall while his assessing eyes washed over her face.

Bella bared her teeth with a rabid snarl.

"Shh, you're okay," he soothed in a whisper and blew away the curls that had fallen over her eyes.

For several moments she wordlessly glared at him as their breaths sprinted ahead in syncopated pants. Slowly her eyes lightened with the return of her humanity.

A very pissed humanity, that is.

A shining auburn curl stubbornly fell back over an eye and Paul scooted each wrist up the wall and grasped both in one hand over her head. He brought his fingers down to push the lock behind her ear.

"You always wanted to see this side of me, Bella," Paul murmured as his gaze drizzled down over her flushed cheeks with relish. Truth be known, he was so turned on it hurt. He'd always been terrified to show her the raw passion and aggressive need for her that boiled his veins.

But now she could understand. And take it.

He ghosted his large palm down over her pert nipples then down to her waist as he pressed a thigh between her legs and lifted her up the wall, rubbing his arousal into her hip as if it would alleviate the ache.

It did anything but.

A soft gasp slipped from those cherry lips as she rubbed against the pressure between her legs, and Paul's gaze snapped back up to yawning pupils.

She was feeling it too. He could smell it.

"This is what I do, babe…" he whispered with a deceptively conversational cadence. "I piss 'em off to throw 'em off balance..." his lips lifted on one side in triumph. "Kinda like you are now,"

Bella rolled exasperated eyes and bit down to still the quiver in that entrancing lower lip. It drew him in like a magnet.

"And then I take what I want," he breathed huskily and leaned forward to lick over that sweet mouth.

Bella snapped her head to the side defiantly. "So you're just gonna take it?" she disparaged turning back with a raised brow and disparaging smirk. She knew him better than that.

Paul's lips hitched up on one side as he shook his head slowly. "Nope, I'm gonna make you give it," he crooned provocatively.

Bella glowered at him.

Paul chuckled and leaned his torso into hers, sliding his free hand up over her armpit, clinging close to that new dense bicep, over delicate elbow, tensed forearm to cover his hand and hers above her head.

Inches from her face, he catalogued the details of her sexy annoyance up close: eyes that warred with arousal and luminescent wolf, nostrils flared with the hitch of stubborn lips to one side, her honeyed breath puffing uneven over his face.

Paul smiled. "Gimmee babee," he stretched the petition in a dark croon and felt her body shiver under him.

Swallowing her ardor, Bella closed her eyes with a huff of frustration.

"But before you do," he began in a tempting whisper. "There are three things you need to know about me."

Bella's eyes popped open, endearing curiosity trumping all of the other emotions that swirled in those aquamarine depths.

"First," his leaned forward an inch and traced the tip of his nose languidly up the bridge of hers.

"I'll never hurt you," he pulled back and his gaze focused, boring into her eyes to punctuate his sincerity. "Which is a whole hell of a lot easier with this new, solid body of yours," his lips curved with pleasure while his wolf rumbled in agreement in his diaphragm.

"Second," he breathed, leaning back in and listening to the hitch of her breath. "I'll never make you do something you don't wanna do," he stopped a centimeter from those addictive lips.

And stayed there.

Bella paused for a moment, eyes crossed as they tried to glare at him before she relented with a gasp and closed the distance to press her lips to his.

Paul caressed her mouth for a moment, patient, luxurious, enjoying the burning resistance against control that was he was so deliciously close to losing. He played this game for her sake… but he waged this war against himself.

Oh God.

Paul broke the kiss.

Slowly.

The delectable cling of her moist lips made his eyes roll as he pulled back several inches, panting softly.

Bella cleared her throat. "I know all that," she complained hoarsely, scrabbling to reign herself in with her signature impatience.

"Ah!" Paul's brow shot up in reprimand. "It's the third, babe," he chided, throwing in that roguish smile she loved so much as penance. "That's what you gotta hear."

"Shoulda made it first then," Bella snorted, unappeased.

Paul chuckled and then intensified in an instant, looking deep into her eyes. This is what she needed to hear. Oddly it was Jake who had given him the insight into the root of Bella's torment. He'd talked about how all new Wolves were frightened most, not by four feet or fur, but by their sheer unnatural power and it was the Alpha's job to be stronger… for them.

It was then Paul had understood: Bella needed to feel contained.

"Third babe," he murmured, emphatic and slow. "Anything you do to me… bite, scratch, fuck my brains out…" He punctuated each word with a searing heat stoked in the kiln of his innate dominance.

"I.

Let.

You.

Do."

His gaze darted between hers for a moment, searching for understanding. He could see the struggle and uncertainty in her eyes. It had scared the shit out of her to suddenly have the power to wound him. And she couldn't bear it.

Paul knew the feeling.

He resituated them against the wall and tipped his neck toward her proudly showcasing the healing imprint of her teeth scarring his neck. "See that?"

Bella's eyes snapped down to the wound with a mix of horror and something else battling in their depths.

"I let you." he patted her wrists against the wall over her head poignantly. "I can handle you," he hissed fiercely turning back to pin her with his convicted gaze. "Anything you wanna throw at me. I've got you, babe. I've got you tight. You're not a monster, you're a wolf…" he paused, licking his lips as his eyes darted between hers, begging her to understand. "And I was made to handle this shit."

Bella blinked and then swallowed thickly with an expression that told him Jake had been spot on. It made total sense – Paul had just been too mired in his own private hell to understand.

But he did understand. He was made for this. He remembered the long dark months before he'd imprinted when he hated the Wolf and everything that came with it more than life itself.

Now – suddenly - it felt so right.

"Look at this," he commanded tipping his neck again and watching her reaction carefully. "It turns you on, don't it, little girl?" It was more a statement than a question.

Bella's eyes stayed glued to his neck and her eyes widened with inner turmoil.

"It turns me on," he rasped, pressing his rock hard erection into her hip to prove the point. "It's supposed to, Bella." He turned and looked her square in the eye. "It's how a wolf marks its mate and it's the only thing that's kept me sane with you being around other males and not carrying my mark!" He couldn't help the growl that leaked out with pure lupine outrage.

Bella's eyes snapped back to his.

"You don't know how fucking close I've come to losing it," he continued, his voice breaking. "When you forget who you are, when you're still human… your wolf wants me bad. You imprinted too, and she has the same driving need to seal the bond that I do, and it's taken everything I got not to give her what she wants without your permission!" he declared passionately.

Bella blushed like a plum and her gaze dropped. "Y-you never bit me," she whispered.

Paul released her hands, letting her slide down the wall back to her feet. He took a step back and brought both palms to cup her jaw, tipping up her gaze which had ripened with tears of uncomfortable confusion.

"I always wanted to," he murmured, running his thumb over her chin as he gazed into her eyes. "Why do you think I had to suck a perma-hickey into the side of that neck? It's a latent instinct that most of 'em can ignore," he paused dipping down to catch Bella's wandering gaze as she processed. "And I'm more Wolf than most," he breathed.

Those huge, haunting eyes blinked once. Twice. A tear rose to tremble on her lower lashes.

"You always said you wanted to be able to understand me… that you wanted to be there…. to get it," he stared earnestly, beseechingly into her confusion. He didn't understand it, but nothing had ever been as important as this.

"Now you can, babe. Don't run away."

Paul held her gaze wordlessly for several breaths while a million thoughts and feelings tumbled in her eyes.

And in his heart.

"Please," he whispered, closing his eyes to cage the tempest inside him. "Don't leave me now."

"Oh, Paul," she drew his name out soft and slow. The touch of small hands on his cheeks made his eyes snap open to find that tenuous tear giving up the fight. She blinked it down her cheek, several others following in a slow lament. "I'm sorry."

Paul shook his head. "It's scary shit," he whispered "You know I get that,".

"I love you so much," she hissed fiercely with such soulful sincerity that it made his heart flip in his chest.

She smiled at whatever expression flashed over his face and with a soggy sniffle, she leaned in, going up on tiptoes to press her lips to his. "I do get it," she murmured into the kiss.

Ahh… fragrant silk against his mouth.

Her lips were so loving, so redemptive… so giving. The delicate, attentive brush of her lips, was like a blessed pardon for a million sins he'd never even known were weighing him down. She'd always balanced the wolf but now she was truly balancing the man. They weren't alone anymore.

His soul swelled, overflowing in a low groan of rapture.

Bella echoed him with a soft hum and her hands slipped around his neck. Their mouths entwined in a lazy duel with the luxuriousness of longtime mates as her fingers idly combed through in the short hairs at the nape of his neck.

Paul's hands ghosted down her neck, back over her shoulder blades, counting her vertebrae with cherishing fingers before settling over the swell of her hips.

Her hands trailed back around to his jaw, riding the indolent movement of his slow dragging pulls for a moment before clasping fervently and prying her mouth from his lips with a gasp.

Paul froze, panting against her, clasping the alter of her feminine hips, praying she wouldn't pull away.

Bella's eyelashes fluttered over his cheekbone as her mouth ghosted sensuously over his upper lip. She ran her nose up the side of his and then dragged it over the bridge and back down the other side with a sumptuous sweetness.

Paul's breath snagged in his chest as his eyes closed with a shaking sigh.

"Aren't you kinda…" Bella breathed, he could hear a smile in that alluring croon. "Um,… uncomfortable?" She pulled back with a mischievousness sparkle in those heavy-lidded eyes.

A slow smile bloomed on Paul's lips. It was a running joke between them: the way he would oh, so willingly contort his six foot five body into all sorts of strange angles to accommodate his petite wife. Paul straightened from his twisted stoop slowly, slipping his hands under her pert bottom and pulling her indolently up his body, relishing the way her curves felt dragging over every last inch of him.

Bella wrapped her arms tighter around his neck as her heels locked around his waist. "Better?" she asked.

"Much," Paul murmured leaning hungrily in to capture those tempting lips. Her mouth bloomed dewy and sweet under his demand and a fire ignited in his gut. With a guttural groan he fell into the wall, crushing himself into her delicious welcoming body.

And. He. Kissed. Her. Senseless.

He feasted on her mouth, frantically trying to fill a week of despair, five years of self-loathing, a lifetime of emptiness with the succor of lips. She ravenously met his hunger head-on and raised it, and the wolf slipped easily off his leash and devoured her whole.

Finally Bella gasped in a neglected breath from his ravaging mouth and Paul tore his lips from hers to place urgent nips over her jaw. His hands kneaded her ass, spreading her cheeks and pushing himself brazenly into her crotch while she moaned and writhed her pleasure.

"Shit," he gasped between frantic kisses over her face. "I .. love.. this.. new…body."

"It's different?" she mumbled as she took advantage of his position to snag his ear between her teeth.

Paul's knees buckled. "Mm hmm," he growled.

Bella released his ear. "Really?" she asked, her insecurity tickling his ear all the same and sending shivers down his spine.

He forced himself to surface from where he'd been surveying every follicle of her hairline with kisses as he drowned in her delectable scent scent. "Yep," he whispered. "Heavy… dense… strong."

Bella's eyes blinked worriedly.

Paul silenced her question with a smothering kiss. "Like I'm not gonna break it," he mutter-growled into her mouth as he shoved his cock against her grinding pelvis with a resounding thud against the wall. He was pretty sure they'd dented the thick plaster.

And she didn't even notice.

Bella came up for air with a gasp and Paul took the opportunity to pounce upon the hollow of her throat.

"…yone?"

Bella's mumbled question finally worked itself into his muddled brain as his lips dragged across her collar bone. All the blood in his body had gone south for the Fourth of July holiday while fireworks exploded in his head.

"Huh?" he gasped, following the pulse jumping up her neck at his Wolf's demand.

"Where is everyo-… unh!" Bella sucked in a sharp breath has his teeth massaged the sensitive tendon.

"Gone," Paul answered tersely as his hips began pumping into her hungrily.

Fuck!

He needed to rein himself in if he was going to cross the finish line. He felt like some kinda green zit-faced teen dangerously close to blowing it. (Which, for the record, he'd never been.)

With an irritable growl, he tipped his head back gulping in air by the lungful.

Bella seemed oblivious and pounced elatedly on his neck with hot, sensuous kisses as she continued to grind her crotch shamelessly into his painful erection, her fingernails digging eagerly into his shoulders.

"W-wait," he choked as he stumbled back from the wall, his arms gripping her tighter in greedy rebellion.

"No," Bella grunted against his neck. "Now," she commanded.

Reeling from sensory overload, Paul stumbled back. His arm shot out and tugged the mattress off that weak-assed bed and threw it to the floor. His lips again captured in Bella's fervid kisses, he collapsed backwards onto it, cracking his head against the floorboards as he landed awry.

"Shit!" he laughed at himself.

Bella picked her head up with a giggle as Paul scooched more onto the pitifully inadequate space. Their mattress back home was a California King. On the floor, of course.

Thankfully it broke the mood just enough to let himself scrape together any lingering shreds of control, as Bella became distracted by the new position.

She delightedly fell on one of his nipples while his hands deftly ruined yet another one of his shirts as they tore it off that creamy complexion. He tugged the material from between them and they gasped in unison at the exquisiteness of skin upon skin.

Bella hummed in pleasure as she luxuriated, moving slowly to and fro, and Paul watched his hands as they adoringly caressed, teak upon peaches, over her bare shoulders and down the white chocolate curve of her back.

Bella stilled under the tenderness of his touch, settling her cheek over his pec like a contented kitten. Paul smiled to himself as he ghosted lightly up over the sides of her ribs, feeling the chill bumps race along ahead of his fingers like ripples in a pond.

His fisted a hand deep in her thick curls at the back of her head and lifted her head from his chest, enjoying the way her eyes rolled in her head and the soft gasp of desire that slipped from her lips like honey.

"I like your hair like this," Paul murmured without thinking.

Bella's eyes snapped forward and her lips curved tentatively. "You do?"

"Mm, hmm," Paul hummed, carefully dragging her up his body and watching her nostrils quiver with the sensual tingle. "It's sexy. It shows off that bone I love at the back of your neck," his hand ghosted meaningfully over the vertebrae, then traced over the ridge of a shoulder blade.

Bella's face lit up in a glorious smile and Paul's heart skipped a beat. She was just so fucking beautiful.

"And it makes you look so young and innocent," he pursed his lips teasingly. "Like a little girl." It was the perfect stage for her organic features, highlighting her natural artlessness in a very tantalizing way, he had to admit.

Bella sniffed a laugh and her eyes melted to sultry. "Oh, I'm not a little girl," she smiled.

"Thank God," Paul chuckled as a finger slipped around to trace that delicious lower lip.

"And I'm not innocent either," she caught his finger in her mouth and suckled suggestively.

"Mmph," Paul's cocky reply was snagged in viscous craving as she slowly inched his finger past cherry pie lips and swirled her velvet tongue over the tip in her mouth.

With a smirk of triumph, Bella popped his finger out of her mouth and slithered up chest several inches. Her lips fell on his with instant fire and Paul's hips jerked up in reply. With soft grunts of want, she kissed him breathless with a novel unfettered hunger that sated something deep in the core of who he was.

The scent of her arousal and her raw, feral need was driving him insane. His own lust rose like an indivertible tide, razing anything and everything in its wake.

Pants. Off. Now.

Paul's hands fumbled uncharacteristically with her shorts in his fervor. He was burning - like he'd been doused in viscous Napalm that was incinerating him alive. And if he had to pick a way to go, this would definitely be it.

Bella broke the kiss with a soft chuckle at his struggles as he tore through the shorts with a petulant growl. She pushed up off of him, but, seemingly similarly unable to bear the painful separation from his skin, continued to trail kisses over his jaw while he ripped and kicked his own jeans off impatiently. She settled back down over him with low hum of ecstasy as her tongue laved over and over her mark on his neck.

He came ridiculously close to blowing it (literally) at the feel of her soft, hot skin on his aching cock, and frantically stilled her succulent undulations.

"Fuck," he hissed through his teeth as she continued to purr and lap over his neck, completely unconcerned by his frantic grip on her body.

"You wanna be on top?" he ground out through gritted teeth, and Bella's eyes popped open as she lifted her head in surprise. He'd only asked for propriety's sake… he knew what she liked (except on lazy Sunday mornings) and, not so coincidentally, it was what he liked too.

His Wolf growled in glee, as he flipped them seamlessly.

As Paul let his weight slowly push her into the mattress, Bella moaned deep in her throat. Eyes rolling with passion, she instinctually stilled under him, tipping her head to the side with a soft whine in primal submission.

Paul purred – a low, guttural sound of pure lust – as his lips dropped kiss after kiss over her face. Bella's legs opened of their own accord, and she lifted her feet up to rest on his back. His body quivered in anticipation while her moaning petition twisted and hollowed the room.

Panting like a racehorse he trailed his lips down over her collar bone – conspicuously avoiding her neck - bending to lap over a delectable breast, rolling a nipple between his lips, biting it carefully with his teeth as her groaning demand escalated, finally flaying the cloudy afternoon in a desperate shriek.

Paul chuckled wickedly.

He was teasing her. Teasing himself. Taking these last few moments to enjoy this erotic cremation before he gave them both what their bodies and bond so craved.

But he was only a preternatural Wolf after all. And he couldn't wait any longer.

With a rumbling growl, his lips locked over her racing pulse. And he suckled, his teeth dancing over her flesh in barely tempered yearning.

Not yet.

"P-please," she begged achingly over quivering lips as her legs spread wantonly.

Not yet. If he bit – marked her like he'd craved to do for so long – he'd lose himself too soon.

Drawing in a slow, rasping breath he pushed off of her with every last ounce of strength he had. Bella whimpered, her eyes popping open, beseeching and wild.

"Shh, babe," he soothed as her nails raked over his shoulders, begging him closer as he spread his own knees on the bed and sat up more.

With a mewling moan, she tugged herself up to place a desperate and pleading kiss on his jaw. Paul moved his hands down to her slight hipbones and held tight. "Lay back, baby," he commanded in a velvet whisper that melted her body like butter. She slithered back down to the mattress and her hands snapped to his forearms. On his knees, legs splayed, he centered his body.

"Paul!" her plea was pushed through sticky, heavy want.

"Here we go, babe," he reassured those wide, frantic eyes in a panting murmur. Then, taking a steeling breath, he pushed forward, entering her hot satin wetness.

Every last cell in his body burst into flame.

Gritting his teeth and throwing his head back he pushed and pulled, slow and patient, while Bella's nails dug into his arms and she moaned long and low and delirious.

With a sharp intake of breath he cracked his eyes and tipped his head down. He loved to watch her like this: luxuriating in the sensation of him filling her before the rushing rapids of need compelled them both toward satiation's shores. Her eyes were softly closed, her lashes fluttering against her cheek, lips parted and quivering and her nostrils splayed as widely as her legs.

Fucking delicious.

His worshipful gaze washed over pert nipples… the chill bumps raised over every inch of skin…her pelvis tilted up in aching petition for more… his huge hand clasping her hips as tight as he wanted… his skin dark against her light and his tattooed wedding band proudly proclaiming his soul's desire.

Bella.

With a moan, he fell forward over her, catching himself on tense hands as his hips changed their angle and rhythm. Bella purred her approval as her nails raked over the musculature in his arms, slicked with the sweat of restraint.

Her fingers ghosted with contrasting gentleness over his shoulders and her eyes popped open, immediately finding his. A small, sexy smile quirked her lips as her gaze ran over his face with transparent affection.

"Mine," she mouthed silently.

Paul nodded mutely, entranced.

Bella arched under him and her legs wrapped around his hips urging him on. With an ardent moan, he gave in to the driving need of his body, pressing her down into the bed as his hips thrust into her mercilessly. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she tipped her head back, a low cry of rapture beginning somewhere deep in her being. She craned her head to the side, exposing her neck in an instinctual surrender. To her body's need, to her soul's craving, to her mate's desire.

To him.

With something akin to reverence, Paul curled his body so his lips could latch over her hammering pulse while his hips slammed into her relentlessly. Bella's high keening elation only pushed him faster.

Harder.

Deeper.

A growl began deep in his gut as his movements jerked and stuttered with his imminent demise. As in tune as always, Bella's body shuddered violently from the inside out and he followed her with a roar into her shoulder as he pounded his aftershocks brutally into her core.

And then he bit.

The feel of his teeth cleaving her flesh made his body seize like he'd grounded a lightning strike. Her blood willingly squirted into his mouth as wave after wave of his seed coursed into her hot clenching body.

MINE.

It was a violently explosive edict that shook him to his very soul, leaving his teeth chattering in resonance.

His body went limp over hers as he laid his cheek on her shoulder, pushing into her neck and laving the wound with soft pooling whines and a healing tongue. Her blood was sweet and gratifying, soothing some deep ache inside him and grounding him with a sublime stillness he'd never experienced.

Bella's hands slowly unclenching from his shoulders brought him back to earth. As his darkened vision cleared to tenacious spots, he lifted his head.

And there was not an ounce of fear at what he'd find.

For the first time in his life he was truly at peace. He didn't worry at what she'd suffered at his loss of control, he didn't fear for her body or mind; she'd been with him for every last second.

With him.

Her heavy lidded eyes and slow dreamy smile were the perfect affidavit. It was the expression of a well-loved and soulfully sated woman.

His woman. His.

She hummed a silly little tune of delirious contentment under her breath and Paul sniffed a laugh and rolled them both over as he stretched back out. She rested her cheek sweetly on his shoulder with a long, blissful sigh.

"You bit me," she whispered snuggling into him and pulling her hands up between them as Paul's arms wrapped tightly around her.

"Yep," he mumbled.

"It was awesome," she gushed with a girlish giddiness that made Paul chuckle.

"Tell me about it," Paul rumbled squeezing her tighter as a thick, blanket of fatigue settled over him like a rolling fog. "Remember this part babe?" he whispered, pressing his lips to her forehead and nuzzling her hair.

"Mmm… sleepy," she mumbled sounding drunk. He felt her smile press against his chest. " 'Mating bond settling."

"Yeahhhh," he sighed happily.

And he was happy. It was crazy! He was happier than he'd ever been.

For several minutes he counted her slowing breaths rolling over him as their bodies slipped into sublime satiation and their imprint viscerally knitted their souls together.

Again.

"We meet with the Fae tomorrow," Paul mumbled suddenly. His own words surprised him.

Bella's breath caught in her chest and Paul froze.

She licked her lips audibly. "Why didn't' you tell me?" her voice was thin.

Paul squeezed his eyes shut, suddenly understanding why the thought had bobbed up into consciousness: guilt.

"I was s-scared," he breathed, his tongue stumbling on such a word. "Scared you'd hold out on me," he admitted with a quiet shame.

Bella picked her head up and her canny blue eyes washed over his face carefully – taking in every last detail - ending in his eyes.

"I'll never hold out on you," she whispered with a fiercely protective heat. "Never again."

Paul blinked and brought a hand up to smooth over her cheek. God, she was so fucking awesome.

"But if we're coming clean…" Bella bit her lip ruefully.

Her mortified expression instantly snagged his interest and he rearranged his arms back around as he lifted a sly and encouraging brow.

Her gaze dipped as color rushed to her cheeks. "Jasper kissed me."

Paul chuckled at her embarrassment and she looked up, confused.

"I know," he wiggled his brow mysteriously tempting the corners of her mouth to tentatively curve.

"How?"

"Well I figured that parasite would try something like that," Paul's lips hitched shrewdly. "I've seen the way he looks at you. 'Probably thought when you were Turned you'd choose him, huh?"

Bella nodded with an amazed smile.

"Did you kiss him back?"

Bella blinked. "Well, he did that mind control thing so I thought it was you…" she ventured. "But I slapped him …"

Paul smiled with a satisfied nod and an awesome mental image. "Don't you worry," he crooned as he pulled her head back down to his chest. "I'm gonna kill him real soon… and that's just gonna make it so much fuckin' sweeter."

Bella snorted and tried to lift her head. "B-but…"

"Shh… we gotta rest, babe," he murmured as he held her down and then smoothed a palm down her back.

Bella sighed and nestled into his neck as he once again wrapped her in a covetous embrace. Even more covetous now. His mind wandered with relish over all the many way he could make Jasper suffer. Oh, this was going to be fun. Fucking leech.

"Y'know, I was all prepared for you to be a leech," his mouth mumbled suddenly without his permission.

"Really?" Bella asked in disbelief, succeeding at raising her head this time. "You'd still love me?"

Paul cracked open one eye and grinned at her expression of shock. "Yep," he said, popping the 'p' all casual and sure. ('Cause he was.)

Wide-eyed with wonder, Bella lowered her cheek slowly back down to his chest.

Paul tried to monitor her breath – just to see how she was processing that – but he was slowly slipping beneath the surface of tranquility: holding his mate, his imprint and best friend in his arms after what could only be described as the most life-changing sex of his existence...

damn, that had been fuckin'...

"Would you love me if I stayed a Werewolf?" Bella's whisper insinuated into his slumber.

The words jarred him to his core.

Paul's eyes blinked heavily open and he stared at the ceiling for a moment. That question really did something to him… and he wasn't sure what. But it was easy to answer all the same.

"I love you no matter what you are, little girl," he whispered.

Bella released a soft, hitching breath that would have piqued his interest if he didn't feel so drugged. The compulsive undertow of sleep was becoming impossible to resist.

"Good," he heard her breathe over his chest as he tumbled into dream.

'

'

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