~A/N So here goes, this is my first strictly Paul/Bella pairing. Of course, there's some Edward in the beginning and I can't promise it will all be smooth sailing, but I really want Paul and Bella to have some fun together, maybe some adventures. Would love to hear from my readers if you are looking forward to this.

Story idea was inspired by the song "Won't Go Home Without You" by Maroon 5. The song is a little more angsty than the story, I hope; but it happens to be one of my favs.

No beta: mistakes are mine, but I promise to edit the heck out of anything before I post.

Banner credit goes to Urban Rose

Copyright disclaimer: Twilight and all recognizable characters are sole property of Stephanie Meyer.

Summary: A visit to the reservation to check on Jacob, caused Bella to run into Paul. He hates her; the feeling's mutual, but an act of kindness changes things between them and either by chance or intentional, their paths keep crossing. New consequences arise and she questions all her decisions. Will she make it to the altar or does she have a new destiny? [AU, Bella/Paul]

Won't Go Home Without You

Bella knew better, but she wanted to see if Seth had an update for her. Jacob had been gone over a week since Edward sent him that stupid wedding invitation. She realized the pack didn't want her around, but Seth was still kind enough to give her the time of day. She parked her truck and started up the long rocky driveway to the Clearwater's house. A harsh voice cut through the silence, "What are doing? You aren't supposed to be here."

She looked to see who it was and sure enough her luck continued to be terrible. It was that Paul Lahote guy. Jacob warned her, that Paul had no patience for her being sympathetic to the Cullen's. He called her leech-lover behind her back. Well, not really...he'd said it to her face once as well.

"Um...I was here to see Seth."

"Seth, huh...well, he's a kid and he still goes to school."

"But it's summer."

"I know that, leech-lover but because of your vamp family, Seth phased as a kid and missed a shitload of school this year. He's in summer school, so he doesn't flunk out."

"Oh," she hadn't thought about that. It did seem unfair, but she didn't think the Cullen's should be blamed, they didn't do it on purpose. "Okay, well I'll leave."

"Good, and don't come back."

She started walking back towards her truck. She swore she could feel his eyes on her still so she turned around to see if he was watching her and he was.

Maybe he'd answer if she asked. "Um, Paul...do you know anything about Jake?"

"Yeah, Jake ran away from his family, his pack and his home because you wouldn't stop jerking him around," he was taking a step towards her with each word. She started backing up. How dumb could she be? She had just reminded herself how much he hated her, yet she prolonged their encounter with a question that he wasn't about to answer. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to remind her again how badly she'd hurt Jake.

"What's the matter?" he asked out of cruelty.

She felt tears well up in her eyes. The afternoon couldn't have gotten any worse, she thought. There was no way she wanted to break down in front of him. She made the split decision to make a run for it. She turned on her heels and started to flee. Why was the Clearwater's driveway so long and uneven and why had she parked so for from the house? She regretted every decision she'd made that day since waking up.

She could hear his sinister laugh in the background. He was enjoying the fact that he'd scared her. All of the sudden, she felt really angry. How dare he? She stopped and turned around, determined to get back at him. "You're a jerk!" she screamed.

He looked particularly pleased with her insult. "Really, is that the best you've got?"

She hated the way his lip curled up on one side and how his eyes squinted like he was seeing more of her than he should. He stalked her again. She felt perspiration bead across her forehead. "No, forget that. You're exactly what Jacob said you were."

"Oh yeah, what did baby chief tell you he called me besides, sir."

"Asshole...and he's exactly right." There she'd said it. She rarely cursed, but she managed to call someone she barely knew a name. She was feeling kinda powerful until he grabbed her arm. He was touching her. Why'd he do that? His hand felt especially hot on her wrist. "Let go of me," she jerked as hard as she could since she knew all about werewolf strength. He instantly released her which caused a certain amount of inertia. She could feel herself losing her balance. It happened so fast, but she felt like she was experiencing it in stop motion. She landed hard on her butt in the driveway and felt a sharp pain.

"Really, you've got to be kidding. You're that clumsy?"

Didn't everyone know she was that clumsy? She assumed Jacob had told them all. She was easily stunned from the fall and the pain she was feeling. She wanted to pull herself up and get out of there as soon as possible, but she wasn't sure that she could.

"Here," he reached out for her hand, and pulled her up. "Turn around, you're bleeding. Let me see what happened."

She didn't want to turn for him, so she remained still and he circled around her instead.

"Leave it to you to fall on the sharpest rock in all the Clearwater's driveway. It's still sticking out of your thigh."

Surely, he was exaggerating, but when she moved her hand back there, she felt it. Why had she worn shorts that day? Maybe if she'd had her jeans on, it wouldn't have gone through. It was time to pretend like she was tougher than she was. "I'll take care of it when I get home. Bye Paul. Thanks for nothing." She tried to take one step back towards her truck.

He laughed again, "So you're going to climb in and drive home while a rock is jammed in your skin? This I gotta see."

She took another step and felt wetness on the back of her thigh. The pain was terrible.

"Here, let me get you inside and clean that up. Sue has a massive first aide kit for the pack."

She was completely caught off guard, when he lifted her up and held her close to his naked chest. She hadn't felt anything like it since...well, since Jacob carried her up the mountain. Paul brought her into the house. Sue didn't even have the door locked, he waltzed right in. He walked them back to bathroom in the hallway where he sat her back on her feet. "Take off your shorts," he commanded.

"What? No way."

"Fine have it your way, but I'm going to have to pull them up farther. The rock is stuck where your cheek meets your thigh."

His hands went to the cuff of her shorts.

She slapped at him stop.

"I have to get the rock out, so I can clean it; so bend over. Please, girl...you don't have anything I haven't seen before."

Ugh, she felt repulsed by his declaration, but it wasn't the truth. He hadn't seen her before, no one had. Even so, she still listened and she leaned over the sink and let him pull up the back of her shorts.

"This might hurt," was all he said before he place one palm against her inner thigh and pulled the sharp object out with the other hand. He held it up over her shoulder and she saw the blood stained rock which resembled a flat blade more than a rock. Then she noticed that his hand was still on her leg.

"Are you done?" she questioned.

He dropped the rock in the trash can, "No, I need to clean it up. Oh, I wasn't thinking, did you want to keep that rock as a souvenir?"

"Of course not, hurry up. I need to get home."

"Why?"

"Because I just do."

The next thing she felt was really cold liquid on her and stinging pain. He had poured peroxide on her then he took some flat bandages and patted the area dry. Surely that was it. She could take care of herself when she got home. She tried to stand up straight again, but he put his hand on her back.

"Wait a second I want to put a bandage on it. The bleeding has almost stopped but it's still oozing, plus I'll put some antibacterial back there. You might need a tetanus shot."

"No, I'm Ms. Accident prone, I'm up to date, it's fine. Please finish."

"Sure, you're very impatient," he pressed a gooey bandage to her skin. He coated it with antibacterial first. Finally, her ordeal was over and she could get Paul away from her bottom. It was so humiliating. They didn't even like each other and he'd seen more of her than Edward or Jacob.

She made sure before she lifted up. "All done?"

Before he said, "Yes," that little pervert lifted her shorts again and said, "Never would have figured you for a lace girl."

He helped her out to her truck and she was about to climb in the driver's seat.

"Hey, I'm not busy. I can drive you if you'd like."

"No...no thanks," he was acting so different now, almost polite.

"Oh, well I was just thinking you have to press the clutch, it might make it hurt worse. It's really fine." He held his hand out and she gave him her keys.

They drove back to Forks. He wasn't very talkative and she was still so embarrassed that he'd not only seen the bottom of her butt cheek, but he also saw her blue boy shorts. She usually didn't wear lacey panties, but that particular pair she wore had some around the edges. She had no idea why he'd looked other than she remembered Jacob called him a player once. But still, he wouldn't have thought of her that way. She was engaged to Edward and he couldn't stand her. She was a little surprised when she saw the Volvo out front.

She made an unconscious noise of disapproval.

"What? You don't want to see him? I can get rid of him."

"No, it's just, I wasn't expecting him til later. I really don't want him to worry. He won't know why you drove me and then he'll know about the accident. I don't want him to overreact."

"So you want me to tell him to leave?"

"No, why would you do that?" She couldn't imagine that going over well.

He shrugged.

Paul was weird, like weirder than she thought in the beginning. He'd been terribly rude to her which is the real reason she fell, but then he completely did a 180 and helped her with her injury. The big shocker was his offer to drive her home in her truck and now he wanted to shoo Edward away. That was strange and Edward would not have responded well to that at all. She was going to have a hard enough time explaining how it all happened. It wasn't like she needed to lie, but he didn't want her going to the reservation any longer and she hadn't listened to him. As soon as she thought harder, it made no sense. Edward was her boyfriend not her father, why did she have to listen to him in the first place?

Bella climbed out of the truck. She wished Edward had stayed away, but Alice must have know she went to the reservation. She couldn't help but limp from her injury.

"Bella, love what happened? Alice couldn't see you. How were you injured? On that dreadful reservation, I guess. Didn't I tell you that you shouldn't go back there." Edward came to her side to give her assistance.

She glanced over her shoulder to see what Paul was doing. He had a twisted expression. She couldn't help it, she laughed and he smiled back. She thought he asked "is he for real" but she wasn't the greatest lip reader. She tried to compose herself and turned back around to face her fiancé and answer his questions.

"I...I just wanted to find out if Seth had heard from Jake, but he wasn't home. The Clearwater's have an uneven driveway and I slipped, is all. Um...Edward, you remember Paul Lahote." The two of the acknowledged each other, not exactly in a friendly way. "Well, he helped me and since I was injured, he offered to drive me home. It's really no big deal. Alice shouldn't try and check on my whereabouts every second of the day."

"I think I should take you to Carlisle to make sure the wound was properly cared for. I still smell your blood. Perhaps, you need suturing."

"Hey, don't do that!" Paul's shouts interrupted their conversation.

Edward and Bella both turned to see what caused Paul's outburst. "Pardon?" Edward questioned him. He maintained his perfect manners even though Bella knew he did not care for Paul.

"Don't talk about her blood like that, bloodsucker. She's not bleeding anymore, I cleaned it up perfectly. She doesn't need to see the leech doctor and she doesn't need stitches." Bella remember what a hair-trigger temper Paul had. She'd witnessed it and Jacob had told her several stories, but she couldn't believe how bad he was shaking. The very idea of Edward talking about her blood had lit his fuse. He was shaking and she worried he might phase which would have been disastrous. She didn't even hesitate, she pulled away from Edward and went to his side.

"Paul," she touched his arm. "It's really fine. Edward has control, the Cullen's wouldn't hurt me. I know you took excellent care of my cut, it's already so much better." She felt him start to relax as she spoke, but Edward interfered again.

"Bella, step away, he isn't in control; he could hurt you."

Paul's head snapped up and he pushed forward and got in Edward's face. "I will not. I'm not the one planning to end her life, that's you, leech." Bella caught a glimpse of Edward's face as it slightly changed. He usually hid that side of himself, but he had warned her it existed inside of all of them. Edward was studying him, most likely trying to get inside his head.

Paul smirked, "You don't want in there, I'm sure you're not equipped to deal with what you might see."

Edward's expression changed again to disgust. She needed to diffuse the situation. She did something she never thought she would do with any other wolf besides Jake, because she totally trusted him, but she pushed her way in between them.

"Paul, I think you should go. I appreciate the help today. I know I'm not your favorite person, but you took care of me anyway."

"Whatever, I'm not some perfect gentleman like your bloodsucker or a little do-gooder like Jake, but I'm not heartless. Catch you later, Blue or not. Bye," and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he sprinted off towards the woods and disappeared.

"Come inside, love. Do you need me to carry you?"

"No, I'm fine," she craned her neck to see if she could see any sign of the wolf, but he was gone.

The two of them went inside. She was hoping he'd forget all that went on in the front yard, but it was the only thing he wanted to discuss.

"Blue? Why did he call you that?"

"Um...I don't know, Edward. He usually calls me leech-lover."

"It truly doesn't make sense. Your eyes aren't blue, of course. You aren't wearing blue. I would like to know what possessed him to say that."

Of course, she knew that she was wearing blue, but only Paul would know that and there was no way she was telling him the truth that he'd seen her underwear.

"Bella those shorts really aren't appropriate attire, I have to believe if you weren't wearing them, you might not have been injured. I really don't like to think about that unsavory man looking at you and I assume he had to touch you to bandage your leg. Let me see exactly where the cut is."

"No," she quickly responded. "I mean, please, it finally stopped throbbing, I don't want to bother it again and it's hot, I like these shorts; they're comfortable."

He frowned again, but continued to warn her, "Bella, I trust that you will never be in that neanderthal's presence again. He is the most volatile of all the wolves. I don't know how you manage to find yourself in these situations."

"Edward, I know...don't worry he and I try our best to stay away from each other. It was rare that he was nice to me today."

"Well, I can't stress how much I distrust him. His mind is a jumbled mess. It's polluted with pornographic thoughts and images. He obviously hasn't a shred of respect for any woman."

"Fine, I get it Edward. Can we drop it? I feel like I'm getting a headache. I don't want to talk about it any longer." She secretly wondered what Paul had shown him, but she felt like she was starting to blush thinking about what it might have been.

"Oh, well of course. Let me get you an aspirin and a cool rag."

"No," she asserted. "Please can you just leave? I need a human moment. I want to be alone."

"Are you sure? I was only trying to take care of you."

"Yes, I'm sure and I know that. I'm sorry." Apologies came so easy for him, she didn't think he realized there was such thing as over-protective.

"You're still upset about not finding out word on Jacob."

"A little. I just want someone to let me know he's alright. I hurt him and I feel guilty. You know I'll always care about him."

"He's a strong man and wolf, Bella. It isn't like he's in danger, but I suppose I understand. I'll let you have some time to yourself." He placed a chaste kiss to the side of her head and walked out the door.

Bella went to kitchen and got a glass of water and a couple of Tylenol. Her head wasn't exactly hurting, but her leg was a little sore. She noticed how much better she felt when she heard the Volvo speed away. She was giving him her whole life in a month, she wished he could pull back a little and let her deal with her last days as a human without so much hovering. She didn't know how to make her point without hurting his feelings. He naturally wished to take care of her, but she could admit to herself that she felt smothered. She went to the sink to rinse her glass and wash the dishes from breakfast. She looked out towards the woods and swore she saw a silvery flash of fur. Could Paul still be out there? If so, why? Why was Paul sticking around after she told him to leave? She reached up and felt her mouth. The more important question was why did it make her smile to think he did? She and Paul hated each other, didn't they?

~Thanks for reading

I'm excited about this fic, hope some of you are as well.