Swimming with Swan

originally written for the

"MEN AT WORK ANONYMOUS ONE SHOT CONTEST"

March 2010

Lesson 1 - Dangerous Waters

Edward Cullen POV

"Four years of swim lessons, ten years of practices, long hours of training, all day meets, professional competitions, working out…"

I was grumbling to myself as I pulled up to my newest client's house, annoyed I'd had to use just about an entire tank of gas just to get there, not to mention my car had no goddamn air conditioning, and it was fucking…hot…as hell out.

"Edward Cullen," I said to the sleepy looking guy behind the gate's security booth I'd pulled up to. I'm pretty sure I'd just woke him up from a good dream.

Part of me felt bad about that.

He looked down at his clip board, running his index finger down a piece of paper. When he got to the bottom, he looked up at me, in my old 1968 refurbished Ford Mustang and said, "Sorry, no Edward Cullen listed."

I sighed.

"Cullen, Crawling?"

I cringed, it was a play on words I'd thought up when I decided to start this little venture.

Get it? Crawling as in, the crawl? A swim stroke…and crawling like in, I'm calling you, but there's an "R" in there…

Yeah I know, lame.

"Oh yeah, yeah!" he chuckled and hit the buzzer on his tiny desk, lifting the gate for me to drive through and I kinda did this half wave thing as I smiled weakly at him, moving my old 'Stang through the gate.

I could still hear him laughing about a half a mile away.

It was hard to tell where I was supposed to park when I pulled up to the house I'd be loaning my talents out to today. There were probably four garages and two separate drive ways, and no way in hell to tell where the poor folk, like myself, should leave their vehicles.

Then a dude with a black tux type outfit on came out and met me at the end of the sidewalk that led up to the front door of the house.

"Follow the gravel path to the pool area in the back, Ms. Swan will be there shortly," he said, then turned on his black, shiny shoes and disappeared again into the house.

"Whatev," I said to myself, and then yelled after him, "Thanks!"

I drove slowly around to the back of the estate and as I pulled around to the 'pool area', my jaw dropped.

"Holy mother of Olympic swimming competitions."

Shit, if these people didn't have everything a water lover would want and more.

Pool house, cabana for changing, outside kitchen, wet bar…IN THE POOL…you name it, they had it.

It made me wonder why in the hell they needed me, but I had to assume the lessons were for a kid. This, 'Ms. Swan' I was guessing, was probably at that age where she was wandering around and getting into all kinds of fuckery on her own and her parents didn't want her falling in the pool while they were busy entertaining guests or something.

Typical.

I pulled the car to a stop and hopped out, then went around to the trunk to get all of my toys and shit that I knew kids liked, along with my bag of paperwork, towel, goggles and flippers.

I also made a mental note to be sure and invest in one of those carts to carry all of my shit in for the next time I needed it.

Struggling with all the things I was trying to take in one trip to the pool side, I tried to make sure I didn't drop any of it as I rounded the corner of the house and therefore ran smack dab into…

Fuck my sister and call me Nancy.

A very NOT so little toddler type person.

"Fuck me," I mumbled, because all of that shit I'd just had in my hands?

Now on the ground.

It all spilled and scattered and all I could do was stand there like a complete dumb ass, staring at the brunette beauty in front of me.

She was barefoot, wearing some over sized sweat pants that she had scrunched up to her knees, but the top that she was wearing was one of those semi-see-through type things that hung lifelessly off of one of her shoulders, giving me a great view of her breasts that were peeking out of it at me and I silently cursed the fuckers for teasing me like that.

She didn't look old enough to be a mom.

"Oh my gosh," she yelped as she jumped back from our collision, dropping a book she'd had in her hand. She bent down to get it and then started helping me pick all of my shit up and I of course followed the direct line of sight to her cleavage as she did.

"Um…" she started, a little amused, trying to hand me back some of the kiddie toys I'd brought out.

Hellooooo, idiot…wake up!

"Oh, I…uh…" I still couldn't form much of a coherent sentence but her smile seemed to help me along. She looked like she wanted to laugh but was trying really hard not to.

I shook my head to try and pull myself back into reality and said, "Sorry, I'm here for…I mean…I was supposed to be teaching a new swimmer today."

She scrunched her nose up and told me apologetically, "I know, I totally forgot, and I have a major hangover, and I need to change, and then…"

"Wait, what?" I was confused. "You're…the new swimmer?"

A small giggle escaped her mouth and it was hypnotizing.

My forehead creased and she asked me, "What's wrong?"

I peeked around her tiny frame for a second, to make sure I had indeed seen what I thought I'd seen and then back to her.

"You have a Jr. Olympic-sized pool in your backyard, and you don't know how to swim?"

She twisted her mouth a little before answering me, almost as though she was a little embarrassed to have to explain herself to me. "Actually, more like, afraid of the water."

"Oh, so, did you what…just move in, and decide to learn, then?"

Made sense, I guess.

"No, I've…lived her all my life," she said very matter-of-factly, leaning forward onto her toes and then back onto her heels again, causing her nipples to push up against the flimsy shirt she had on.

No bra.

Holy shit.

"How is that possible?" I asked her, genuinely interested to hear how she could live with a pool fifty feet away from her for, I had to guess, twenty or so years and be AFRAID of WATER.

"My um…father, is a little…"

"Flamboyant? Pretentious? Flashy?" I was so fucking annoyed with this guy that I hadn't even met yet, getting a pool put in just so he can…SHOW OFF…when his own DAUGHTER can't even swim!

Ass.

"Actually, I was gonna say, hopeful."

Huh?

"Hopeful?"

"Yeah, he was…like first in his age group and or weight class for competitions throughout his whole life…and so…he was kinda hoping to have a daughter that would…well…you know…"

"Follow in his footsteps," I finished for her, feeling like a complete IDIOT.

"Yeah."

She bit her lip, looking down a little, then there was this completely awkward silence between us and I finally dragged my hand through my already fucked up hair, noticing the title of the book she was holding for the first time.

"Statistics…wow, that's…"

Impressive.

"Just some studying, I majored in Business and plan to get my CPA next week then I'm HOPEFULLY starting work for this CPA firm as a Junior Associate, assuming I keep my A average anyway, but only if I pass the CPA the first time, which is really hard to do because it's like, one of THE hardest professional tests for people to take and pass outside of the BAR…"

Holy shit did this girl babble.

She took a breath of air, and I figured she was just trying to fill the silence with her ramblings, so I took that opportunity to say, "Okay…okay."

I held my hands up in surrender to her.

"Look, about that comment about your dad…"

She closed her chocolate colored eyes, and assured me sarcastically, "Yeah, I know…it was easy to come to that conclusion with all the mansions and guest houses and Mercedes around you." She arched an eyebrow and smirked at me.

She was right, I'd totally assumed shit without knowing these people and felt like a complete and utter jerk for doing it, but she was smiling again, kinda, so I hoped that meant she wasn't gonna hold it against me.

At least, not yet.

Maybe the nipples…later…in the pool perhaps…

Holy fuck.

I grinned at her and took a nice deep breath in, thankful I wasn't starting my lesson out with too much tension, then said to her, "Well, let's get to it then," shooting my eyebrows up and picking the rest of the shit I'd dropped off of the ground.

Once we made it over to the shallow end of the pool, I could already see Ms. Swan's posture change. She was definitely nervous, that wasn't just a little flirtatious comment she'd made about being afraid of the water.

Not that she'd have been flirting with me.

I mean, she might have been, with the sexy eyebrow thing.

Not with the terrifying fear of water, though.

"Well, I…guess I better go get my bathing suit on, huh?" She asked, pointing with her thumb over her shoulder, to the cabana where I assumed she was heading off to.

I laughed, 'cause fuck if she wasn't the cutest…

Right, customer…

"Yeah, I'll just…set up, while you're doing that."

She trotted off and I watched her go. Her ass did this little wiggle thing that woke my dick up in a very "oh snap, I'd like to tap that" kinda way and I thought to myself, Fuck. Me. But then I managed to snap myself out of it and started pulling shit outta my bag for our lesson.

I let out a long, controlled breath. "Focus, dip wad, it's a fucking swimming lesson, not a date."

I started to throw the toddler toys into the bag to get them outta the way, but then thought, well shit, she might actually need them if she's that scared of being in the water.

I suddenly wondered if she'd ever even been IN the water of her own swimming pool.

Mental note, ask about experience.

I pulled my shirt off and tossed it onto one of the lounge chairs then pulled out the SPF thirty suntan spray I religiously used, only to find it was empty.

"Mother of…"

I didn't get the obscenity out because right about then is when Ms. Swan walked out of the cabana and I about lost my shit over the fact that my dick was now about as hard as the rocks found in the Mississippi River.

They're hard, just…trust me, okay?

She was wearing this…shit, I don't even know if what she was wearing could be considered a bathing suit in most states.

Maybe in Europe.

"Shit…" I whispered. "Go down…go down, go down, go down, go down…"

He didn't listen of course, he never did, he was a little fucker like that.

"Pleeaaassse go down," I begged him, but it was too late anyway.

She was too close to do anything about it so I just dropped all the shit I'd been holding and covered the obtrusion up with my hands, hoping to the gods that I didn't seem too obvious.

"Everything okay?" she asked and I swear I felt my body temperature go up about ten degrees.

Her hair was down now, and it fell over her shoulders in a way that look like they were tickling her arms, instilling a fantasy in me of having it tickle my…

I swallowed and choked out, "Yeah, great…hey I ran out of suntan shit…stuff, sorry, do you have any?"

"Oh yeah, it's in the cabana, want me to…"

"No no!" I screamed out, a little bit hysterical actually. "I'll get it," I finished, clearing my throat and rushing off to the tiny covered shack and looked around, finding the suntan lotion she'd referred to fairly quickly.

I hate lotions, by the way. They don't dry for like, fifteen minutes and even then, you get into the water and feel like a damn slimy eel or something.

It's fucking disgusting.

So there I am, right? Trying to spread this lotion on as fast as possible, while having a conversation with my dick, telling him to settle the fuck down, when Ms. Swan bursts in to ask if I'd found the fucking lotion!

"Shit!" I screamed, dropping the damn bottle. I bent over to get it and clocked heads with my client, who'd also decided to pick it up and while I was rubbing the shit out of my head where I'd just hit hers, I noticed her gawking at the trouble maker dick.

Shit…shit…shit!

She laughed and covered her mouth, looking away, stammering, "OhMyGod."

What the fuck was she laughing at?

"I'm so sorry, I thought maybe you couldn't find the lotion," she babbled and I tried not to think about how she was giggling at the sight on my hard on.

I mean, shit, it wasn't like it was a trickly dick.

"It's okay, I just…have to, uh…" I had no idea where I was going with that shit by the way. I mean, what do you say?

Sorry, my dick has a thing for you and I'm trying to talk him down.

Yeah, okay.

"Do you need me to get your back?" she asked, trying to be helpful but something told me that her hands on any part of my body at that point would only result in very, very bad things happening.

"No thanks, I'll um…be right out though," I told her and she left, looking, what? Disappointed? That was weird.

"Mother of Christ…what the fuck is my problem?" I asked myself after she'd gone, the hard on suddenly non-existent as well.

"Yeah, NOW you go down."

Dick.

I gave him the finger and finished putting the fucking lotion on as best I could, then peeked outside to work up my courage to show my face again.

Ms. Swan was at the edge of the pool, kind of swinging her foot back and forth over the water, only her toe touching the liquid.

Her leg muscles contracted and relaxed as it moved and I couldn't stop staring, wondering what would make her so afraid of something that made her look so angelic like when she interacted with it.

I gathered my muster and walked out, deciding it was best to just pretend the fuckery in the cabana hadn't just happened, and jumped into the water.

She jerked a little, putting her hand to her chest and I smiled, holding my hand out to her.

"Ready?"

"Oh, no, I…I mean, I thought maybe we'd work up to that."

"Ms. Swan…" I said, getting ready to lecture her a little.

"Bella."

"What?"

"My name, it's Bella…you're making me sound old when you call me Ms. Swan."

Of course.

"Okay, then…" I said grinning still. "Bella. To learn to get OVER your fear of water, don't you think you should face it head on?" I asked, keeping my voice soft and non-threatening.

"Well, h…how do you handle your…smaller clients?" she asked, seeming to stare at my pecks in a way that seemed kinda, lustful.

"The parents usually just throw them in with me," I answer, chuckling a little bit at the expression on her face. "Would you like me to throw you in?" I curled my eyebrows up and tried to stifle the smile that was growing, kinda sorta hoping she'd say yes.

She took a deep breath and then grabbed onto the hand rail near the stairs and descended, slowly but surely into the water.

Bummer.

It was truly fucking stifling out, but the temperature of the water was pretty chilly, and her nipples hardened as she made her way over to me, taunting me through her barely there piece of fabric bathing suit.

I cocked an eyebrow.

"It's not so bad, I guess," she said and I answered, "Nnnooooooo, it's not."

I wasn't talking about the water though.

"Huh?"

My eyes snapped up to meet hers and I said, "Um, I said no, it's…quite nice."

I'm such an idiot.

SUCH. AN. IDIOT.

She giggled a little, silently, and then asked, "Sooo, what do I do?"

"Well, I think being that you're afraid of the water, we should start with the back stroke," I instructed, immediately feeling my dick harden again.

Stop saying shit like "stroke" asshole!

"Um, maybe, floating," I corrected myself, REALLY fucking happy that the lower half of my body was underwater and that Ms. Swan…Bella, couldn't see how happy I was to see her this time.

She waited for me to do something and again, I found myself feeling like a complete tool standing there in the water, unable to make my body do things like, I don't know…move.

"Right, okay," I started, finally walking over to her and turning her around.

"You'll have to trust me a little here, Bella," I said from behind her, next to her ear, as I put my hand on her shoulders and began tilting her backwards toward me.

Her skin was soft, and I had to fight the urge to caress her arms that were perfectly toned, or run my fingers through her hair that was splaying out across the water as she lay back.

I could feel the stiffening in her body again, much like in my dick.

Stop saying stiffening, stop saying stiffening.

"It's okay," I told her, trying to keep my mind off of my hard on, and more on teaching this poor girl how to fucking float.

Please just get me through this fucking lesson so I can go home and whack off.

She shivered and kinda mumbled, smiling, "Brrr, it's a little chilly."

"Yeah, it's definitely nipply…"

FUCK!

"NIPPY! It's NIPPY!"

Shit!

She just laughed as I leaned her back the rest of the way, looking up into my eyes from the position she was in, fully on her back, now.

Oh my god she's fucking hot as hell, laying like that.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she breathed. "Are you?"

I didn't quite get what in the hell she meant by that, but I answered her anyway.

"Absolutely…okay, now I'm gonna let go…"

She jerked and stood up.

"Bella, it's okay, I'm right here," I assured her and she nodded, but her face said something more like "I don't fucking think so, douche bag."

"Okay, tell ya what," I said, raking a hand over my face. "You like numbers, right?"

Her eyebrows made a perfect V and she said, hesitantly, "Yyyyeaah."

"Okay, turn around and let's just…try this again."

She did and I took her shoulders in my hands again.

When she was flat on her back, yes, my hard-on was in full swing, but that's not the point.

"Okay, tell me what the square root of eighty-one is," I requested and she rolled her eyes. "That is so easy."

"Alright, then, hot shot, what is it?" I teased.

"Nine," she said all, "duh" like.

Which was also fucking adorable as hell.

I laughed and pulled her along the water, her hands skimming the water. Her feet were just below the surface, which is exactly where they needed to be.

She was a natural floater. I had no idea why she'd be afraid of the water, I mean I could watch her float like that all damn day long.

What?

Not everybody is, ya know?

"Fine," I said with a slight sneer. "Tell me what the square root of Nine Hundred and Eighty One is."

She scrunched her eyebrows again, and bit her lip.

God, I wanted to suck on that bottom lip.

I was just about to enter into fantasy land again when she gave me the answer.

"Thirty one…point three…two…"

Her eyes squinted shut.

"Zero, nine…"

I laughed. "Zero, nine one nine FIVE."

Her eyes opened and she looked up at me, confused.

I shrugged.

"I tutor some at night."

I continued pulling her along the water as I turned us to go back up the other way, only now I was just barely touching her shoulders with my fingers.

Enough to let her know I was still there, but not really enough to be doing anything.

Also, just enough to cause goose bumps to form along where I touched her, making my breathing become a little irregular at the thought of having that kind of effect on her.

"Alright," I muttered. "That one was a little hard for you, how about this one…"

"It was NOT…" she huffed. "My answer would have been marked correct on ANY test, there isn't a college professor that I take a class from that looks past the fifth decimal point."

"Ah," I said, pointing my index finger up to the sky. "Correct on the test, but wouldn't you rather know the ENTIRE, correct answer?"

She rolled her eyes as we kept chatting about numbers and soon, I wasn't holding her at all.

"Do you even know how minimal the effect would be to be off by…what ten MILLIONTHS of a decimal point?" she asked and I chuckled at her passion for numbers.

Something I wish I could have had when I'd needed it.

"Kick your feet a little," I threw into the middle of our conversation as I walked backwards behind her, and she did, absently, causing her breasts to jiggle just a little bit and damn if I didn't curse myself for telling her to do that shit.

"So…" I started, trying to get my mind off of them. "Why now?"

"Why now, what?" she asked.

"Why start swim lessons now? You're about to graduate from college probably and get out on your own anyway, you won't need the lessons then."

"Oh, um…it's just one of those things, you know?" she giggled a little, making her boobs jiggle all the more. "Like a bucket list, I guess."

"MmmmHmmm," I responded, absentmindedly.

I watched, as her breasts bobbed up and down, with their perfect size and roundness, and their taught little nipples that were laughing at me as they did and I must have missed something Bella had said, because she suddenly got loud.

"Helloooo, Mr. Cullen?"

I closed my eyes for a second. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I asked how I was doing."

"Well," I started to say, and then stopped walking to let her kick herself right past me. "You're floating and kicking all by yourself, I'd say you're doing pretty damn good."

Her eyes locked on mine and I added, "I think we should add a kick board into your next lesson."

She lowered her feet to the bottom and stood up, the water glistening off of her and washing down her skin like a waterfall through the crease in between her breasts.

"Oh my god," she said, bewildered and I smiled proudly at her.

"I did it!" She screamed, starting to jump up and down, then she bounced right over to me and threw her arms around my neck, holding on about as tight as she could without cutting my air supply off.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!" She was yelling into my ear and even though part of me knew it was painful to hear, what I couldn't stop myself from concentrating on were her nipples pushing themselves up against my torso and her pelvis being about an inch away from ramming right into my…

She stopped abruptly, but didn't move from the hold she had on me.

"That's…not a kick board, is it?" she asked softly into my ear.

Too late.

I coughed a little. "Um…no, it's not."

Her breathing, although it slowed, still seemed hitched and neither one of us appeared to be letting go of the other, regardless of the fact that my dick was now a mere thin fabric away from penetrating her and calling her mine.

My hands instinctively fisted at her sides and her leg moved in between mine, rubbing up against me.

Fuuuuuuuuuuck.

"That's um…not…"

"I couldn't have done that without you, Mr. Cullen," she said, breathing hard, still not pulling away from her hold on my neck.

Holy mother of school girl fantasies, did she just call me…"Mister….Cullen?"

"Bella, you don't need to do this…your father is…"

"I'm not doing anything because of anything," she answered and then I felt warm lips press against my neck as one of her hands slowly lowered to my chest and the other grabbed a good hand full of my hair, whispering, "I'm doing it, because I want you."

Mother of…

Her hand moved from my chest and slid it's way down my stomach, her fingers grazed inside of the hem of my trunks, lingering there as her lips made their way to mine and there was just no fucking way in hell for me to push her away.

I mean shit, it felt…soooo-ho-ho good.

"Jesus," I kinda choked out, because she was making it really goddamn hard not to just rip the bottoms of what she so liberally declared as a bathing suit off of her.

"I've wanted you since you first bumped into me coming around the corner of our house earlier," she breathed.

"Shit."

What was I supposed to do here? I wanted to be professional about the whole thing, but in all honesty, I'd wanted her from the minute I'd seen her, too.

Something about the geeky way she was dressed, and then managed to transform into this, goddess of some sort when she put her two tiny pieces of fucking fabric on.

I held her at the waist and pulled her away from me for a second, looking into her deep brown eyes.

"Ms…"

"Bella," she corrected me, before I could say anything.

"Bella," I repeated back to her, and shit mother of fuck if something wasn't happening to me whenever I said her name like that.

It wasn't just the hard-ons that she kept creating in my trunks, it was…something else.

Something more.

Her eyes darted to my lips and her tongue flicked out for just a fraction of a moment and I couldn't take it anymore.

I put my lips to hers and felt like everything around us just, melted away.

My arms moved from her waist to the small of her back and her hand made its way all the way into my trunks, finding my dick fairly quickly and shit if I didn't moan out from the simple touch of her fingers around the tip of me like that.

"Mmmph." I let out the noise into her mouth and pulled her against me, trying to induce some more friction when she said, "Touch me, Mr. Cullen," against my lips, staring me, straight in the eyes.

My eyes squinted shut and I decided I needed to tell her, "You need to call me," I swallowed, "Edward, if we're gonna be this intimate."

I had no idea what I was saying, I just knew I wanted to hear my name come off of her lips.

"Okay, Edward," she whispered, stroking me and moving her lips so that they were against my collar bone now, making small nibbles along my shoulder.

Fuuuuuuuuck, me very much.

"God, you're so…" I couldn't form any very coherent thoughts but I knew in my own mind what I was trying to say, at least.

She was fucking flawless, and beautiful, and soft, and sensual, and holy mother of all hand jobs she was quite good at getting a guy off.

That was about when I'd decided to reciprocate the advanced, and moved a hand around to the front of her, first saying hello to her little friends, the breasts that had been taunting me for the majority of her lesson.

My hand was cupped around the swell of her boob, and I thumbed her nipple through the fabric.

Not that there was very much of it, but I was trying to be a fucking gentlemen.

And yes I realize how stupid that sounds, considering we were probably about to fuck in her father's seventy-five gallon sized swimming pool.

A father I hadn't even met yet.

God I'm an ass.

And no, that didn't stop me.

She arched her back to push her breast up against my hand and massaged her there, pinching the nipple, because I just couldn't stop myself from being a goddamn dog at that point.

I mean, shit, I barely knew this girl.

Right?

Fuck.

"It's okay, Edward, I feel it, too," she said, breathlessly, doing this gyrating kinda thing with her hips, telling me what she really wanted.

"Okay," was all I said, and I moved my hand down her front, grazing her torso with my fingers as it descended to her…

Hot, wet, mother of fucking goodness.

"Shit," I managed to mumbled, putting my forehead against hers as my fingers entered her folds, feeling the juices she was emitting from being near…me.

"Feels so good," she whispered, moving her hips a little more, begging for…more.

I delved my fingers into her deeper, curling them around to hit just…the right…

"Ahhhh," she moaned and when she did, her grip on my dick tightened a little as she stroked it a little harder.

Yes.

Scratch that…Fuck yes.

"God, Edward, that feels so good…can you just…" she wrapped her legs around my waist, something that would not have been all that easy for her to do, had we not been in the pool, but as it was, we were, and she did, and it gave me some serious access to her that I hadn't had before that moment.

"Mother of god," I rasped out, thumbing her clit as my fingers roamed her entrance, finding their way in and out of her as deep as I could and she began pumping herself against them until…

"OH…" she breathed harder. "GOD."

Her breathing hitched and then she held it as she came and I could feel her walls tighten and the hot wet as fuck juices poured out onto my fingers, making me cum right behind her.

"Jesus. Fuck," I moaned out, furrowing my brow and shutting my eyes tight, trying not to cry out too loudly, because who the hell knew what servants were where on the compound where she lived.

Bella's lip found it's home between her teeth, like they had earlier, and I was immediately trying to figure out where exactly I could carry her off to that was secluded enough to finish our little play date because I just needed to be buried deep inside of her with my dick so bad I could have put a crack in the side of her fifty thousand dollar concrete swimming pool had I knocked up against it at that point.

Maybe the cabana, I thought and I was about to ask her about it when we both heard some muffled, snickering voices coming from the sliding glass door that led into her house and we both jumped, righting ourselves.

"Who the hell are they?" I asked quietly.

Bella was looking at me like she wanted to say something but she was interrupted by one of the girls that were now walking out to where we were.

"Nicely done," said the tall blonde, enthusiastically, who was smirking and eying me while she made her half naked way over to Bella.

The short brunette just giggled and started digging into her purse as I watched them, scowling, wondering what the fuck was going on.

"What's…" I started, but didn't need to finish apparently, because the blonde took it upon herself to explain as Bella got herself out of the pool, grabbing a towel, looking at me a little, what? Embarrassed?

"We bet our little fish here that she couldn't get her swim instructor out of his pants by the end of the lesson," she said, amused.

She, could swim?

Maybe she was a better actress than I thought.

I felt the crease in my forehead begin to form.

The brunette piped up, handing Bella money, arching an eyebrow at her. "Technically, she didn't."

I eyed Bella, but she wouldn't look at me and as she reluctantly took the money from her friend, they each looped an arm into hers and trotted off with her to some other area of the property.

I watched the three of them, dumbfounded, until they were out of sight, then pulled myself out of the pool and sat on the edge for a minute, raking my hands over my face, through my hair, then over my face again, before starting to gather my shit up to leave.

I wasn't quite sure how I felt as I closed the trunk up after packing everything away, thinking about how I was fairly certain I'd just met the goddamn girl of my dreams, and how she'd managed to make me feel both extremely satisfied and highly fucking pissed off all within the course of one measly swim lesson.

"I am so fucked," I said to myself as I started the Mustang up to leave, realizing I still had seven more lessons with this girl.

It wasn't like I could drop the client, her father had already paid me and that money was long gone.

But then I figured hell, maybe the following week they'd bet her she couldn't ride me like a stallion in the cabana with all of the curtains pulled back.

And just when she was about to climb up on top of me with her cute, perky little tits staring at me, I could tell her to go to hell and leave her there, high and dry, so to speak.

See how SHE likes looking like a bonehead.

"Not such a bad gig after all, Cullen," I said, smiling, suddenly looking forward to messing with my little hellcat during our next meeting.

**********************************


Lesson 2 -Paybacks are bitchy little fuckers

Bella Swan POV

“I really wish you guys hadn’t done that,” I told my two best friends as we disappeared from my swim instructor’s sight.

Part of me was glad, I was so, so, so, so incredibly ashamed of myself when I saw the look on his face, I couldn’t bear to look at him.

I felt…so horrible that they’d embarrassed him like that, but I shouldn’t have been surprised, they were evil, evil plotters and had probably planned it out like that from the get go.

“What do you mean?” Rose asked. “You won the bet, we paid up.”  She said it like she hadn’t just embarrassed him beyond recognition back there at the pool and I threw the money at her.

“I don’t want it.”

“Was it not enough?” she asked me, sarcastically.

“You know what I mean, Rose, you didn’t have to do it like that, you could have waited until he’d left.”

She smiled.  “But what fun would that have been?”

She was evil.

I…was evil.

After all, I was the one that had agreed to partake in their plan in the first place, no one had forced me to do it.

I just hadn’t taken into consideration that I might actually LIKE the guy.

I mean, of course I’d have to LIKE the guy to even…

UGH!

But I mean, like, I think I really…LIKE, this guy.

Is that even possible?

Alice laughed her little tiny size two ass off, bending over in hysterics.  “Did you see the look on that poor guy’s face?”

Rose looked bored. “He wasn’t half bad either, way better than…”

“Don’t…even say the name, Rose,” I warned her.  There was no way I wanted to go down memory lane right then.  We’d all agreed a long time ago that my ex’s name was to never be mentioned again.

Ever.

Not that I didn’t deserve a little bit of blatant bitterness.

I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone with my little stunt, I just…

I was stressed, and trying to get over a really…REALLY bad break up, and…I’m immature, okay?

I’d been completely overwhelmed with school and exams, and the CPA test…and…god how completely full of myself do I sound?

He has to think I’m a complete and utter spoiled rich girl now.

And he’d be right.

I was spoiled.

I was spoiled, and evil, and an absolutely horrible…horrible person.

“Helloooo, Bella…” Alice was waving her hand in front of my face to try and get my attention again and I snapped out of my inner torture.

“Yeah?”

“Oh, come on,” Rose started, rolling her eyes.  “You don’t feel bad, do you?”

I put my head into my hands in utter disgust with myself.

“Oh, Bella…” Alice started, rubbing my back and sitting me down onto the bench by my father’s fountain just inside his hedge maze.  “No harm done, honey, he had fun…YOU clearly had fun…” she laughed again.  “You even learned to float!”

“Funny,” I mocked her.

See, I really didn’t know how to swim…and I really did think it was time to learn, as petrified as I was of the water…I couldn’t just NOT go on beach trips anymore, it was really annoying the crap out of Alice and I had to admit, it seemed silly to me now that I was in my twenties.

I sighed. “Alice, it was just…not nice, he was nice…a nice guy,” I told her and Rose laughed bitterly.  “HA! Nice!?  Like there’s any such thing in the male species!”

She wasn’t really as horrible as she sounds…she’d just been broken up with…by Felix Volturi, the quarterback of the football team at our college.  And it wasn’t a mutual, or even amicable break up either.

But when are they ever?

He blatantly went out with one of the skanky cheer leaders on a date at the place he’d taken Rose to on many occasions, on the night she was supposed to meet him there, along with all of our other friends.

He was a complete and utter dick. I’d told her so on a whole lot of occasions; she just had never really seen him for what he was…until that night.

And she was having a hard time getting over it.  The only thing that seemed to make her feel better was to take it out on every other living man on Earth.

I shouldn’t have agreed to her game, I just, wanted her to smile more.

At least that’s what I told myself.

I guess in some sick and twisted way, I was cleaning out my own closet.

I really wished Edward hadn’t been so…sweet.

He even knows math…who had I ever met who knew the entire square root of nine-hundred and eighty one?

“I need to go apologize,” I told them, getting up and leaving them there as they giggled. 

“Bella!” they called after me, but I was already half way back to the pool area by the time they’d even given half of a thought about coming after me.

I was blowing off some steam. 

No, that just sounded lame.

I was double dog dared…no, tripled dog dared!

Oh my god, there was just really no excuse for what I did.

“Edward, I…”  I started to call out as I rounded the corner, just in time to see his car pulling away.  “Edward!” I yelled, but I was sure he didn’t hear me, and even if he had, why would he come back?

………………

The following week dragged by, tormenting me.

During the day I couldn’t study worth a crap and at night I couldn’t sleep.

I was too busy thinking about Edwards fingers, his lips, his…

I closed my eyes.

“Fuck.”

He hadn’t called to cancel his lessons and when I found his contact information in my father’s files, I finally tried calling him.

I only got his voice mail, though.

God, what do I say?

“Edward, it’s Bella…Bella Swan…I…look that wasn’t…I mean I didn’t….I just…”

Beeeeeeeeeep.

Each message I left sounded pretty much the same, only they got worse with regards to the clarity of my words by the last one.

I decided that after the fourth message I’d left, to just wait and see if he show’d up for our next lesson.

He probably wouldn’t, he’d probably send a replacement and cut his losses and I’d never see or hear his wonderful voice again.

Serves me right.

I guess I could get another instructor; my dad had already paid Edward though.

Ugh.

I could pay the new one out of my own savings, then dad would never know.

Not a horrible idea.

The night before my CPA exam was scheduled to take place, I’d decided that if Edward didn’t call by the time I got home from the test, which indeed, he probably wouldn’t, then I would call this other private instructor and have her come out to finish up the lessons.

I wasn’t optimistic.

He still hadn’t called me back and I was trying like hell not to call and leave yet another stalkeresque type message on his cell phone.

So to get my mind off of my upcoming test and the butterflies in my stomach, I talked Rose and Alice into going out with me.

Dancing.

Just for a little while.

It would do two things for me.

Us.

One, it would allow me a chance to get all this pent up energy worked off.

And two, maybe, just maybe I could get my mind off of the superbly built, completely sexy swimming instructors for an evening, making it possible to concentrate on the CPA, study my ass off for the remainder of the evening, pass the test, get my act together and start my new life with a career making a minimum of fifty thousand to begin with, allowing me to be self sufficient and not be forced to rely on my dad for something every time I turned around.

Yeah.

I felt, pretty good.

The more time and space away from Edward Cullen, the better as far as I was concerned.

And his super magical fingers and excellently talented dick.

As soon as we walked into our favorite dance spot, Rose, Alice and I found our favorite spots at the bar and I warned them, “I’m only having a few tonight, remember, test tomorrow, I’ll drive home.”

They fist bumped each other and ordered us each a Margarita, no salt, on the rocks and before we were even finished with them, two fairly decent looking specimens walked in, causing my two BFFs to choke on their drinks.

“I am sooooooo taking the big guy home,” Rose muttered from behind her glass, but then she quickly correctly herself, remembering that she wasn’t driving. “Or…at least dry humping him in the dark hallway back there.”

“Good thing, because I’d have to fight you over the little one,” Alice retorted and lifted an eyebrow as she watched the smaller of the two guys walk by.

It was really hard to ignore Rose and Alice.  They might have been the exact polar opposites of each other, Rose being tall, blonde and bomb shell like, Alice, short, petite that is, brunette and perky, but they were each quite stunning in their own way.

These two however, walked…right…passed them.

Didn’t even look their way as a matter of fact, which was…weird.

Rose and Alice looked at each other and then swiveled around on their bar stools and watched the two boys walk to the other side of the bar and order drinks.

I laughed at my friends, shaking my head, finishing my drink off so that I could properly spend the rest of the evening staying sober and babysitting my two oldest friends in the world.

“I’m going over there,” Rose said but Alice put a hand on her. “You know our rule, Rose, that’s not proper etiquette with bars and men.”

“I don’t care, that guy ignored me…on purpose.”

I laughed out loud at that. “On purpose, Rose, seriously?  How do you even know that?”

“I. Can. Tell.” she scolded and then just like that, she jumped off of her chair, finished her drink, set it on to the bar counter and stalked through the crowd of people over to the other side of the bar.

I grabbed Alice, who was still trying to finish off her Margarita as I dragged her behind me and followed Rose.

Because we just don’t let each other wander off like that.

Not after the Natalie Halloway bullshit, anyway.

“Rose, what are you…”

“Hey,” she snapped at the big one, tapping him on his broad shoulder.  He turned around very nonchalantly after finishing his order with the bartender.

He looked Rose up and down once or twice and then smirked.  “Can I help you?”

“You most certainly goddamn can…what the fuck was all that about?”

“Excuse me?” he asked her, tauntingly and I noticed the little one was now covering his mouth with his hand while Rose and the big one went at each other with a banter that could only be described as Rett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara.

I tried not to laugh at Rose.

Really I did.

The little guy was trying not to act like he was covering his mouth with his hand and I wondered suddenly if Rose was right just as he caught a full on look at Alice and I saw his eyes get big.

He hesitated before saying anything and looked over his shoulder at the entrance to the bar and then back again and asked, “Can we uh…get you ladies a drink?”

Wow, he had the sexiest southern accent…ever.

Alice thought so, too.  I could tell by the way she had just completely blushed when he said that.

I’d followed his line of sight when he’d looked over his shoulder and wondered out loud, “Who are you…?”

Alice chimed in before I could finish my thought. “We’d LOVE one.”

“Oh, not me, I’m…” I started, but the big guy nudged me.  “Awe, come on little lady…just one’s not gonna hurt ya.”

“I’m driving though…so…”  I tried to explain.

“You’ve got plenty of time, come on,” he said, not seeming to be able to take no for an answer and then he waved to the bartender tell him he needed more than just the two he’d ordered. 

When they were set in front of him he picked two up, spun around on Rose like he was straight out of a Clark Gable flick and said, “For you, my dear.”

She stopped being pissed off when she saw the type of beer he’d taken it upon himself to order, impressed with his taste and then she took the beer, clinked glasses with the guy and swigged that fucker down like there was no tomorrow.

Rose was like that.  She was never going to let a man drink her under the table or show her up in any way shape or form if she was able.

I personally always thought that was why Felix couldn’t handle being with her.

He was a light weight.

“Now that’s my kinda girl,” the big guy said, then put a hand out to introduce himself. “I’m Emmett, Emmett McCarty, and this is my buddy Jasper,” he told her, nodding slightly to his friend.

Jasper smiled and handed both Alice and I our drinks but really, didn’t take his eyes off of Alice the entire time.

“Rose,” Rose said, then proceeded to introduce Alice and me and I couldn’t have felt more awkward.

“Helloooo, Bella,” they both said at the same time.

It kinda gave me the creeps but I managed a smile anyway and said, “Hi.”

I sipped my beer and tried to enjoy myself but in all honesty, the girls had forgotten I was even there the minute those two boys walked in that door.

So much for operation make Bella feel better.

I needed to get away from the friendly foursome suddenly.

So, I walked the bar. I’d done this a million times, just never by myself.

I danced a few times with some random, seemingly harmless and by themselves men, went back to check in with the girls and hydrate myself with the one beer that was mine every so often. 

At least I thought it was just one beer.

I did the rounds, checking out the darts games, pool games, bathroom lines, body shots and ball busters but really all I kept doing was trying to forget those gorgeous green eyes that my swim instructor owned.

I tripped over some feet that were up against a wall as I made my way back toward the dance floor and apologized blindly as I waved a hand behind me without looking, attempting to cross the dance area so I could make my way back over to my group but was side tracked once again by a song I knew and loved.

I was feeling quite buzzed and didn’t pay one iota of attention to whether anyone was staring as I danced alone on the dance floor to John Mayer.

Bodies bumped me a little and I think I almost fell over at some point but then strong arms caught me and stopped me from face planting the floor and possibly getting trampled by the drunken mob that surrounded me.

I paid the hands no mind as I went back along my merry swaying and didn’t even appear to care they wrapped themselves around me and I felt a hard, warm body pressed up against my back, swaying to the music in perfect sync with me.

It actually felt…really good although I couldn’t tell you if that was the alcohol talking, or just my mind playing tricks on me.

Which is kinda the same thing, huh?

I closed my eyes and let the arms guide me and keep me from falling again and I even let my head fall against the hard pecks that were holding me up, snuggling into the torso that smelled…oh…so…good.

I got goose bumps all along my shoulder blades as I felt a nose travel along my neck, down to the crook where it sets on my shoulders and warm, sweet breath engulfed me there.

I hummed, imagining only one person’s lips on me.

Edward’s.

I felt frustration in wanting this stranger to kiss me the way Edward had, to make my body do the things Edward had made it do.

And that’s how I knew I was drunk.

Too drunk, that is.

I knew I shouldn’t have been dancing with someone like that, with my friends nowhere in sight of where I was, letting myself get swept away in an alcoholic induced fantasy, letting my ass arch up against some…stranger’s hard on.

I vaguely remember wondering if my girlfriends even cared where I’d gone off too, or if they were just too busy with their new boy toys to worry about my sorry ass but then the stranger who was holding me took my mind away from them again as he began to hold me tighter.

His hands slid across my stomach to opposite sides of my waist and he dipped his head into my shoulder.  His lips radiated against my skin but never actually made contact there, he just…let them linger.

Teasing me.

And oh, how I wanted him to do more.

My breathing started to hitch and I started to spin myself around to see who my mysterious, sexy dancer was just as the music stopped and then…

He was gone.

I popped up onto my tippy toes and looked over heads but only saw other heads as I stumbled and almost fell again.

People were swirling around me and I could barely tell where I even was, much less if any of the nameless, faceless heads were the person who’d just made me wet between the thight on the dance floor to one of my favorite songs of all time.

My eyes blinked slowly and I ran my hands through my hair, trying to get it out of my face and I fumbled my way back over to where I thought the girls were.

And there they were…thank god.

I tried counting the empty bottles on the table the four people I was with had gotten, but there were so many I couldn’t see straight.

I couldn’t really stand very well, either and I found myself giggling at the absolutely stupidest things that people were saying to me.

I cursed myself drunkenly for forgetting to drink water in between the beers and yet I couldn’t bring myself to stop drinking as each one was handed to me.

“We’re playing a game, Bella, come join us!” Alice chirped and I hopped onto a seat, leaning in to see what the hub bub was all about.

“It’s called thumper,” Emmett said enthusiastically and some what excited that I’d joined the group again.  “You pick a sign and that’s your sign, then we thump…like this…”

He showed me how to play and I though wow, how insanely simple.

Until I’d had quiet a few more beers due to missing not only my own signs, but everyone else’s as well, as they pointed to me with their elbows or…did an invisible dick sucking routine…

I just couldn’t stop laughing.

Who knows how much longer later it was when we were singing to the last song of the evening, seat dancing and swaying to the song we all seemed to know way too well.

We were drinking up the last of our very last drinks when I heard it.

“Ready to go guys?” a very soft, very velvety voice asked from behind me and I felt myself get a little giddy for some reason thinking, cool, finally there’s a third joining us so I don’t have to watch Rose and Alice have all the fun.

The girls both spit their drinks out from utter shock before I could even focus on the looks of terror on their faces.

I laughed.  Giggle snorted and turned to see…

“Edward.”

At least I thought it was Edward, he was a little blurry and I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t having a hallucination.

“Did someone pop a ruffreee into my drunk…” I hiccupped.  “I mean my drink.” I laughed.

Rose and Alice laughed.  A little.

Okay, a lot.

Emmett and Jasper chuckled, even.

Edward didn’t though.  He just looked right passed me, to his…

Friends?

“You know these guys?”

He grabbed a hand ful of the popcorn from the bowl that settled in the middle of our table and popped a few pieces into his mouth.

“Yeah, see, I bet my friends here,” he pointed to the two boys who’d been flirting and playing and drinking with Alice and Rose all night, “that they couldn’t get you and your friends completely drunk off of your asses and possibly even make you slur your words by the end of the night.”

I felt my forehead begin to throb and my eyeballs felt closer together.

Was I swaying?

“You…”

I looked at my watch.

“Ohmygod.”

Oh no…

Three AM!?

Where did the time go?

I couldn’t drive like this.

“I have…I have a…”  I was panicked, I wasn’t supposed to drink.

“No, you weren’t,” he smirked and I thought, how did he hear my thoughts?

“Test in the morning?” he smiled and I still couldn’t wipe the complete and utter chaos out of my system.

I needed to get home…I needed to…

“CPA, right?” he looked genuinely concerned on one hand yet entertained at the same time.

“Not quite as demeaning for you as, say, fucking your fake swimming instructor for kicks, but…” he popped another peanut into his mouth.  “Works for me.”

Then, just like, he winked at me and motioned for his two…buddies to join him, which, they did, saluting to Rose, Alice and myself as they did.

I looked for my keys.

I had to get out of there, I’d worry about being pissed later.

“Looking for these?” Edward called out from a little further away that I could have ever expected him to be.

I reached for the keys he dangled in front of me but he pulled them away.  “I couldn’t let you drive now, could I Bella?  I mean friends just don’t let friends drive…drunk.” 

He said it with such…venom, and…meanness.

“Asshole, give me my…” I reached again but missed and this time I fell forward.

He caught me and when I looked up at him I thought I saw something else in his eyes…something…nicer… but all he said was, “Have a nice test,” then he stood me up and left.

Oh my god I was so screwed.

******************* 

Lesson 3 - Let this be a lesson

Edward Cullen POV

I…am a dick.

“Dude, that Rose was hot.”

Such a dick.

“No kiddin’, her little friend though, she was fucking adorable in her own right, if ya ask me.”

Dick dickity dick dick…crazy old mcdickenstein.

Emmett and Jasper high fived each other.

“Booyah!” Jasper hooted.

“So glad I got her digits before Edward showed up…I’m totally calling her tomorrow.”

That pulled me out of my dick sulking.  “What? You can’t CALL her,” I finally piped in.

“Why not?”

“Because…she’s…the enemy?”

Duh.

They both laughed and I didn’t quite get it.

Okay, I got it, but that’s beside the point.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Emmett looked at me like I was a retard or something.  “This girl jerks you off in her rich daddy’s pool, you finger fuck her, and you’re still…pissed?”

He had this look on his face like I was telling him a joke that he didn’t quite get and I just got more annoyed.

“Em, she PLAYED me.”

Still, nothin’.

“Japser, you get what I’m saying, right?”

“Oh, yeah, sure Edward…” he started to say but then looked defeated. “No, not really.”

“Dude…what were you thinking going out on that dance floor like that?  You almost blew your whole plan.”

“She was fucking drunk, man, she almost fell right into a light stand.”

I smirked a little thinking about it, actually.

I couldn’t help myself from following her around all night.

She weebled and wobbled but hadn’t actually fallen down till she was trying to dance with herself.

I laughed as I caught her, and figured at that point that I’d blown it but could probably make her eat shit anyway because by then, she was already wasted.

But damn if the woman didn’t even bother turning around to see who’d saved her sorry drunken ass from a concussion.

I’d planned on just hiding again after that.

‘Till I felt her soft skin under my grasp. 

Smelled her scent.

Remembered the swimming lesson.

Fake as it was, it was still…

Shit.

Dancing with Bella in the water was pretty fucking hot.

Dancing with Bella on the dance floor that night was…seductive.

I was pretty sure I could have made her body do some serious aching out on that dance floor, but hell, that would have been taking serious advantage of her.

And we all know, she didn’t deserve being…”taken advantage of”.

I snorted.

Still, as semi-satisfying as it was to burn her ass at the end of the night and take her keys from her as I left her standing there, I was still a dick.

I mean, this test…it was…her future…

“Fuck,” I said as I dropped the guys off at my place, letting my head fall back against the car’s head rest.

I sat there for a minute but then leaned forward again, putting the car back into drive.

“Where you goin?” Emmett asked when I started to pull away again.

“I’m gonna make sure they get home alright, then I’m gonna make sure Bella gets to her exam on time…”

They started drunk dancing in the street, then.

“Edward’s…in…loooooo-hove!” they sang as they made goo goo eyes at me and Emmett rubbed circles on his ass as he wiggled it at me.

I gave them the proverbial finger and left, knowing I might very well find them passed out in the front yard when I got home, but at least I knew they’d be alright.

I think.

It didn’t take me long to find the girls.

I debated offering them a ride home as I listened to the voice mails that Bella had left me over the prior several days leading up to this crazy idea.

“I’m so sorry, Edward, really, I’d love to talk this over…”

Her voice sounded sincere but I couldn’t stop replaying that day in her pool back in my head over and over and over again.

The blonde cackling like one of the witches from Eastwick, the short one handing Bella her money for winning their bet.

And me, looking like the biggest idiot in all of creation.

As I watched the girls take their heels off and continue walking though, I also couldn’t help but remember the unbelievable connection I thought was mutual when we were…

Well, connecting.

That decided it for me.

I pulled up next to them and rolled the window down.

Oh man, Bella was…out. Of. It.

“I mean…who does heeee thinnnnk he IS anyway?” she was asking no one and the other two were behind her, giggling idiotically at the way she was flailing her hands around.

“So I wacked him off in my dad’s pool…Seriously…what’s the guy complaining about? He caaaaaaaaame, didn’t he?”

Ohhhhhh boy.

The BFFs had already seen me and stopped, mouths gaping as Bella realized they weren’t answering her.

She turned around.

“DIDN’T HE?”

Why yes, yes he did.

She was waiting angrily for them to answer when the short one said, “Bella…” and pointed in what she no doubtedly thought was a very covert kind of way.

I let out a silent huff and hung my head, shaking it.

Why…why Cullen?  Just tell me why.

When I looked up again, Bella was narrowing her inebriated eyes at me through the window.

“YyyyyyyyOU!”

“Need a ride?” I asked them and it didn’t take Rose or Alice long to praise the gods and jump in, but Bella…noooooo…she couldn’t just be…fucking GRATEFUL…she was a stubborn ass…and refused.

“Screw you, Cullen,” she said and continued walking.

Or rather…stumbling.

Nice.

“Come on, Bella, it’s a good, what, five miles to your house,” she glared at me. “Sorry, mansion from here?”

The girls in the back of the ‘Stang laughed.

Bella kept on walking.

Then I just had to let out a bitter chuckle myself as I drove along next to her at a snail’s pace.

“Ya know, it’s not like you’re the one that should be pissed here, I mean…” I waved a hand at her even though she wasn’t even looking at me.  She was just…drunkenly stumbling along the damn road.

“I’m the one that got duped!”

That stopped her.

“Duped…seriously?” she huffed through her nose and made an evil…yet sexy face at me.  “You got a hand job, Edward, I’m going to FAIL my CAREER’s EXAM.”

She leaned into the window and pointed at me. “I’m pretty sure you’re coming out on top in this whole…” she swirled her finger around like she was stirring a pot. “Scenario.”

Then she tripped on a rock or something and disappeared from my sight.

“Oh! Shit!” the girls in the back laughed again but I slammed the breaks on and threw the car into park.

When I got around to where Bella was, on the ground, sitting cross legged, she was crying.

Fuck.

Me.

I put a hand out to help her up but she swatted it away.

“Bella, come on.”

She gave me the finger.  “Up yours, mister swim instructor.”

I do not need this bullshit.

I looked up and down the road but no cars were coming, so I couldn’t flag one down and shove her into someone else’s nightmare…

It was too late to call a cab…

The guys were drunk off their asses…

I wonder if dad would…

Nah.

I was out of options really, so, I did what I had to.

I sat down next to her.

She wiped her eyes that were dripping with black mascara now and I really had to work hard at not laughing at how completely drunk and pitiful she appeared.

Not at all the little vixen who set me up last week.

Then she looked at me.

“I didn’t mean to…I mean I meant to…but I didn’t mean it like that…I just…the girls…we were…”

She really was quite incoherent considering her intellect.  She tried to get the words out but then just gave up finally, waving a hand at me.

I brushed the hair out of her face and told her, “Well said.”

She laughed and so did I.

For the love of god, even ridiculously sloshed and sloppy looking, she was adorable.

Help me. Somebody.

Please?

I ignored the yearning I was starting to feel, wanting to lean in and put my lips on hers.

As I stared at them, I could distinctly remember the salty taste they had to them from the water in her father’s swimming pool.

I licked my lips without even realizing I was doing it.

Then, in an attempt to snap myself out of it, I decided that a rhetorical pick up line was in order and asked her, “So, do you…often place bets with your friends over how long it’ll take to get some guy out of his pants….err…swim trunks?”

She laughed.

A little.

But mostly looked like she was cringing.

“I don’t…and Edward, I swear, I…” she started but then abruptly stopped, looking up at the window above us and then so did I.

Rose and Alice were hanging out of it, listening in on us, smiling like the

“She really doesn’t,” Alice said.

“Yeah and she felt all kinds of baaaaaad about it afterwards, if that makes you feel better,” Rose added, rolling her eyes.

It did, in actuality.

I mean, I’d gotten that impression from the voice mails, but you really never know if someone’s just saying that so they can maybe make another bootie call at some point in time without the guilt attached to it.

Ya know?

Bella smacked the window and the girls jumped back into the car, laughing again, then she took a deep breath and let it out before she tried explaining.

Something about Rose’s ex, stress over finals, a fight with her father and the CPA exam…

By the time she was done…and before I’d had a chance to respond, she passed out.

Yep.

Fell right into my lap and other than the fact that she nuzzled her nose up into my crotch, causing some mock two dick palpitations, I kinda thought she looked pretty cute there.

A picture flashed in my mind of my jeans being off and Bella’s mouth being wrapped around my dick and I could just see my hand moving to the back of her head in order to push her down onto me a little further, wanting to hit the back of her throat.

I swallowed.

Not cool, Cullen, she’s fucking passed out for crying out loud.

“Ohhhhh kay, Miss Swan,” I said, getting myself up and pulling her into my arms to pick her up and shove her into the car.

“Can one of you lovely ladies open the front door?” I asked the drunkards in the back, but they too had fallen asleep.

“Well, this is certainly gonna be fun,” I said to them.

I somehow managed to open the door and get Bella in after a good ten minutes of fighting with her weight and the car’s handle.

As I slid her in, her head hit the ceiling of the car and I scrunched my face.

“Ohhhhhhh…”

Man that’s gonna hurt in the morning.

I rubbed it out and told her, “You didn’t see that.”

Getting passed the gate dude wasn’t all the hard, disappointingly enough.  He started out strong, asking me just exactly what I was doing with three passed out women in my car.

But a simple, “Designated driver,” answer seemed to appease him and he let me right through. 

I shook my head, driving down the dark street to Bella’s, thinking I could have been a rapist for all that guy knew.

“Idiot,” I said to the rear view mirror as I drove passed him.

Then I realized something and muttered, “Shit,” because I didn’t exactly remember the house number but after two or three go’s around the block, I recognized the front of the house and that same butler guy met me as I pulled up.

He bent at the waist and looked into the car at the girls, then at me.

He cocked an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Long story, dude, I really just need to get them to bed.”

“You’re the swim instructor are you not?” he asked me and I nodded. “Yep.”

Another cocked eyebrow.

“Like I said,” I started.

“Long story,” he replied.

He helped me get the girls into their beds and then showed me out to my car but I had no plans of leaving until I knew Bella was safe and sound at her CPA exam.

Out at my car I shook his hand. “Thanks, man…Edward, Edward…”

“Cullen, yes, I know,” he replied, taking my hand into his.  “My name is Demetri, sir.”

But of course it is.

He looked at his watch. “It’s rather late, sir, wouldn’t you like to sleep here for the night?”

Wow.

I hadn’t expected that.

I was just gonna hide down the street until morning and then throw rocks at Bella’s window until she woke up, but…

“Yeah, actually, that’d be great,” I said to him and then he promptly showed me to the pool house.

Ah memories.

“Listen I uh…left my keys upstairs,” I told him in a lame attempt at smooth cunning.

“Oh, I’ll get them for you sir…”

“No, no…I know where it is…I’ll get ‘em.”

I ran into the house before he could stop me but he didn’t seem too pressed about really stopping me, so, I made it upstairs without any issues.

And there I stayed.

It was fuck cold in her house.

They must have kept the A/C on like, fucking forty or something.

So I found a blanket, settled down into a satellite chair she had in the corner of her room, set the alarm on my iPhone and pulled the blanket up to my chin as I get comfortable.

As comfortable one can get in a circle shaped piece of aluminum, that is.

I watched her for a while.

Her arm hung over the edge of her bed and her hair was all over the place but I could see her face still.

And as pissed off as I was the week before, or hell, even earlier that night, I just felt it all…go away in those moments

I remember smiling at her falling on her ass earlier and pointing her drunken finger at me while trying to make her point as I closed my eyes and then the next thing I knew, my alarm was going off.

I rubbed my eyes, trying to focus and then saw Bella, still asleep.

I checked the time.

I knew where and when the exams were.

I was supposed to have taken one of the exact same tests the year before.

That was prior to my extreme genius decision to blow off accounting all together and teach kids to swim.

I got up and went into the bathroom to piss and then headed back into the bedroom to wake up sleeping beauty.

“Bella.”

Nothin’.

“Bella,” I whispered again, shaking her a little.

This had to be done delicately, hangovers were never pretty.

“You’ve got an exam in approximately sixty minutes,” I told her into her ear and an eye opened.

“Mmmmmmph.”

She threw her hand over her face and I chuckled lightly at her, letting my head fall down loosely so that she wouldn’t hear me.

Once I was convinced I wouldn’t laugh out loud in her face, I pushed her hand down gently and brushed the hair out of her face.

“You need a shower, Bella, unless you wanna go to the test smelling of tequila.”

“Ohhhhhhhhh, my head,” she said. “When I get my hands on that asshole, I’m gonna…”

She stopped, letting her eyebrows scrunch together and then squinted her eyes open.

When she saw me, she blinked a few times.

Then realization set in and before I knew it, she was screaming.

Really fucking loudly.

“Okay…” I started but she didn’t exactly hear me with the screaming.

God, if she would just…settle down.

She pushed with her feet against the bed to scoot back up against something.

Only nothing was there and she fell off of the other side of the bed.

“Shit, are you okay?” I asked her but now she was screaming louder.

Jesus fuck she had some lungs.

“Bella!”

“What are you doing here?! GET OUT!” she yelled and then turned her head. “DEMETRI!”

“Bella, it’s okay,” I laughed, still unbelieving that she was so freaked out.

“Oh, my head,” she said as she put her fingers to her temples and started rubbing circles.

I tried to go to her. “Here, let me help you…”

“NO!” she shouted again, hold one of her hands up to me. “Just…stay away from me!”

“Bella, what’s the problem?”

“What’s the problem?!” she scream questioned me.  “You…SABOTAGED my CPA exam and now you’re…” she whispered the rest. “In. My. BEDroom!”

“I’m in your bedroom, because we had a moment last night and I felt bad and brought you home…and put you to bed I might add.”

Now I was scowling.

She shook her head though.  “I don’t remember any…moments…and I’m REALLY sure you felt bad about anything you did…you….you!”

I closed my eyes tight and turned my head waiting for the onslaught again but then…Demetri was there, at the door.

Thank you god.

“Demetri, tell her I…”

“How do you know my butler’s name?”

“I told you…I…”

She waved me off and started pushing me out.  “It doesn’t matter, you need to leave.”

“I wanted to…”

“GET OUT!” she yelled again and then, just like that, I was in the hallway and the door was close and I was left standing there with Demetri who looked just about as shell shocked as I felt.

I let out a long sign and put my hands on my hips, letting my head fall back.

“Dude,” I said to Demetri.  “Is she ALWAYS like that?”

Demetri laughed and just said, “No sir, actually, I’ve never seen her like that.  Not even close.”

Then he just smiled at me and spun around to go…do…butler stuff.

I guess.

I waited for Bella, because I was gonna take her to that damn test, whether her stubborn ass liked it or not.

I went outside for some fresh air and to clear my head and when she came out, she still looked like she was in pain, but at least she didn’t stink.

Much.

“Why are you still here?” she asked me, narrowing her eyes at me.

Cute.

“I’m taking you to your test, it’s kind of an…apology of sorts.”

She snorted and mumbled, “apology my ass.”

“Listen, I didn’t have to drive you home last night…or…put you in bed…” I waved flippantly at her house…mansion…whatever.  “Or make sure you got up on time…”

“You drove me home?”

Then I laughed. “You really don’t remember anything?”

She scowled. “Not passed you taking my keys and leaving me stranded.”

Figures.

Her face smoothed and she smiled at me and I couldn’t help but feel like I was about to be devoured somehow.

She walked over to me. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

Huh?

I backed up a smidge but she crowded me up against the hood of my ‘Stang.  My hands went behind me to hold myself up from falling backwards onto the damn thing.

The pure unadulterated sex was practically emitting from off of her.

I could feel it.

My dick could definitely feel it.

And he was telling me to, “Stop backing the fuck up for Christ’s sake.”

Again….devoured.

And hopefully in a good way.

When her tongue flicked out to wet her lips, I managed to close my mouth and I swallowed as the blood pumped through my system a little faster.

She raised up onto her tippy toes and leaned in until she was so close I could smell her shampoo.

I breathed her in as she put her lips onto mine and my eyes closed.

We didn’t touch other than our lips and she leaned in a little more to press her tits up against me.

Soooooo not playing fair.

She barely let her tongue touch mine when she pulled away a little and said, “Thank you.”

You are sooooooo welcome.

“No problem,” I said smiling and then she told me, “I’m gonna be late if I don’t go.”

“Right, I’ll…”

“No, Edward, really, you’ve done enough, I’ll drive myself, but thank you, again.”

The side of her mouth raised and I asked, “Are you sure you’re okay to drive?  I mean it’s no problem.”

“I’m sure,” she said and then she slid into her own vehicle and started her up.

“I’ll call you…” she told me and then she was gone and I had to talk my body down from the high it was on once again.

“Wow.”

I shook everything out and got into the ‘Stang, then padded my pockets for my…

“Where the fuck are my keys?”

I searched all of them, every pocket.

Twice.

Not there.

Then I looked down the drive of Bella’s father’s mansion just as I got a text and when I checked, it was from her.

Have a nice day, it said and then things clicked for me.

She’d pick pocketed my ass!

That.

Bitch!

**********************

Lesson 4 - Patience is a virtue

Bella Swan POV

Jesus.  I am glad that’s over.

I barely made it through my CPA exam.

Between nearly falling asleep and not being able to see straight from the headache I was sporting, I was quite surprised to have finished at all.

I convinced myself I’d only survived it due strictly to the adrenalin rush from screwing with my sexy swim instructor a little bit beforehand, which made me smile.

A little, it still hurt to move at all.

Eyes that look like Heaven…Lips like cherry wine…

“Jerk,” I mumbled, climbing into the extra Volvo dad kept in the driveway area, thank GOD.

I mean, otherwise, I’d have had to let Edward bring me this morning…and then I might actually have owed him some gratitude.

I mean, not that I didn’t.  According to him anyway…he did take me home the night before and he did get me up on time, which, I have to admit, would definitely NOT have happened if he hadn’t…been in my…

Bedroom.

A shiver flew up my spine as I started the car up and backed out of the parking spot.

I also sighed because…great…now I felt bad for leaving him with no keys to his car.

“Still deserved it,” I told myself so I would stop wallowing in the self pity.  I’d done that enough the entire week before when he refused to return any of my phone calls.

Had he done that, he probably wouldn’t have felt the stupid man urge to get me drunk off of my ass and then I wouldn’t have been forced to retaliate.

Right?

Right.

I sighed again.

Wrong.

Once I made it home, I noticed Edward’s car was no longer there and I felt just a tad disappointed that he wasn’t.

If only I hadn’t had that test to take that morning…I could have hung around and maybe…taken the tease I’d given him a little further…maybe on top his Mustang…

Yeah, maybe if I wasn’t such a fucking bitch.

I looked at the house and started walking toward it to shake those thoughts.

I swear part of me just wanted to jump his bones.

The other parts, well, they just wanted to jump his bones, too.

Inside, I practically crawled up the stairs, mumbling a hello to Demetri, threw my keys and bag down, then passed out on my bed.

Which immediately feel off of its hinges and onto my floor with a crash.

I thought I heard giggling from downstairs when it happened.

“Asshole,” was the last thing I said as I closed my eyes.

Edward’s face haunted my pre-sleep bliss and I remembered the sound of his intake of air as I put my hand on his family jewels.

I smiled.

I really liked getting a rise out him.

When I woke up, it was some time Friday and Demetri was shaking me a little to wake me up.

“Ms. Swan…Ms. Swan it’s time to get up, ma’am.”

“Whyyyyyyyyyy,” I asked him.

“Your swim lesson, Ms. Swan…”

He said it matter of factly and I almost ignored him until I realized what he was saying.

My swim lesson?

MY SWIM LESSON!

Edward was here?

I threw the covers off of me, jumped out of bed, nearly knocking the poor man over and ran to the window, pulling the blinds down at the center to look out over the pool area.

“Oh my god.”

“Is there, something wrong, ma’am?  Should I tell him you’re not…”

“No no!” I yelled, running into the bathroom to get my suit on.  “Tell him, I’ll…be down in a minute.”

I must have messed with my hair for ten minutes before finally just throwing it into a pony tail.

I couldn’t go out there look like I’d just slept twenty-four hours, but I couldn’t exactly put make up on either.

Why was he even there?

How did he get home?

WHY….was he THERE?

“Only one way to find out,” I said to myself and then I heard Demetri ask, “What’s that ma’am?”

I jumped.

“Shit, Demetri, I thought you’d gone downstairs.”

“I did, ma’am, he’s waiting for you by the pool.”

I thought I saw him smirk as he turned to leave me and I grabbed a towel, took a deep breath to steady my nerves and then descended the stairs leading to the main floor of my father’s house.

I peeked out through the doors leading to the pool area and watched him for a minute, making sure he didn’t have any sharp objects in his hands or anything.

When I was confident he didn’t, I started out.

As I approached, he didn’t make any kind of eye contact with me, he just started setting things out that we’d be using for the day’s lesson I was supposing.

I cleared my throat.

“Miss Swan, I see you managed to make it,” he said with no expression what so ever.

Hmmmph.  Not very nice.

I didn’t even know exactly what to say to that, so I just went with, “Jerk.”

I didn’t see his face but I heard the huff that he let out through his nose as he fiddled with his…toys.

I chewed on my lip, trying to think of a way to apologize maybe, when he spun on me and started in with this…rant about his day.

“I missed every lesson I was scheduled for yesterday, do you have any idea how much that put me out?”

I opened my mouth to speak, not knowing exactly what to say, but thought I’d try anyway and he cut me off.

He snorted.

“No, I guess you wouldn’t, you and your…” he waved a hand behind him as he turned away from me to fumble with his gear again.

I opened my mouth again.

He cut me off…again, not bothering to even look at me as he rambled.

“Ya know, I don’t know what it is about you…rich girls…you get bored, you fuck with other people’s lives, you get your feelings hurt, you fuck with other people’s lives…someone tries to help you out…You. Fuck. With. Other. People’s. Lives.”

My mouth was open by the end of that one so I closed it.

“Not all of us are made of money, ya know…some of us have fucking rent to pay and bills to mail at just the right moment so it’s not late but the check doesn’t fucking bounce…”

“Y…” I started but again, it was useless.

“Those clients I lost yesterday? That money was supposed to cover my car payment.”

I eyed his car from around the corner of the house.  It didn’t look like it would be all that big of a car payment.

I was at a loss of words.

Which doesn’t really happen all that often.

Except for when I’m talking to this guy.

I wasn’t a rich girl…I didn’t…fuck with people’s lives.

Did I?

I was started to feel like a real shit but for some reason, I just couldn’t bring myself to say that.

“Well…you…started it,” I told him defiantly…immediately regretting not thinking before I spoke.

Oh my god how immature was that?

I closed my eyes tight as my lips pushed together, waiting for the onslaught.

He laughed before I could even say anything.  “Ohhh, buuuurrrrnnnn,” he goaded, which made me open my eyes and I sneered at him.

“And if I remember, correctly…and I’m pretty goddamn sure I do…YOU started it, Miss Swan, with your…perky little tits and your…oh thank you mister Cullen…and your…fucking hands and…”

He trailed off and I pulled my towel around me a little more.

This amused him apparently.

“Oh, I see…now you’re SHY?” he asked bitterly.  “HA! Good one!”

For some reason I was completely unable to make my mouth work when he talked to me like that.

“I…”

“Ya know what? Save it…let’s just…get on with the lesson so I can get the hell out of here and try salvaging what clientele I still have.”

…………..

This lesson wasn’t exactly like the first one.  It still had all of the elements of a swimming lesson, I suppose…just, not all of the extra curricular sexual tension like there had been previously.

At least, not on Edward’s part.

There was kick boarding…and the evil eye from my instructor.

Then there was back floating…and sarcastic mumblings courtesy of my instructor.

There was more kick boarding…and quite a few eye rolls…even a watch check from him.

Lastly, but not least, he had me do some breathing exercises…which created some seriously tense body posture on his part.

It was like an angry tango, minus the passion.

I moved, he moved…further away.

It was exhausting.

By the end of the half hour, I was done. 

“What exactly does all of this have to do with learning to swim anyway?”  I asked him, frustrated as I pulled myself up the ladder to exit the pool.  He’d barely spoken to me throughout the lesson, so it wasn’t like I would know what in the world he was…teaching me.

He just laughed bitterly and shook his head while he started gathering his things together.

“So, what, I’m just supposed to…not question what I’m being taught here?” I pushed.

He stopped, turned, and eyed me for a minute as I stood there, soaking wet, dripping in front of him.

His eyes were…burning into me. Like he wanted to strangle me…or…fuck me.

Please fuck me.

I couldn’t really tell which one it was, but I could take an educated guess.

I wanted him to kiss me again.

Wanted him to hold me, maybe let his fingers to that vu doo that they do…but alas.

I sighed.

Because that wasn’t gonna happen.

He hated me.

I thought maybe he was gonna say something to me when he suddenly narrowed his eyes a little, releasing himself from whatever thought process was going on inside of his head and he began grabbing everything he could so he wouldn’t have to come back for a second trip I was guessing.

“I can help you, if…”

“Don’t bother,” he snapped.  “Whatever’s left, I’ll get at the next lesson,” he said and when he started off to leave, he was stopped short by something.

I peeked around his hard, perfectly sculptured, I wanted to touch it very badly body.

Then we both saw Rose and Alice.

“Great, more fun,” he said, sarcastically and I watched as his jaw tightened, making me even more heated in places I wished I wasn’t quite so heated in at the moment.

I didn’t have time to let it register in my mind why the girls would be there because then we saw who was with Rose and Alice.

“Emmett?” he whispered… “Annnnd, of course…Japser.”

“What are they…?”

“Hi guys!” Alice called out as they made their way over, Alice skipping with Jasper’s hand in hers.  Rose was lagging behind, with Emmett’s arm draped over her shoulder.

“What the fuck are you guys doing here?” Edward asked his friends and then there was a silence that took over between the six of us.

Emmett’s arm slowly removed itself from Rose’s body and he rocked back and forth on his feet, looking away as he mumbled, “Awkwarrrrrrrrd.”

“I’m out.”

“Edward, wait!”

It was Alice, she was stopping Edward and I felt my forehead scrunch together, wondering what she was up to.

I honestly thought he would just keep walking but something made him stop.

He faced Alice with all of his gear in his arms and she smiled.

“Thanks for the ride home the other night.”

This caught him off guard and his eyes fell on me momentarily as he let her words sink in. 

He looked, sweet…and…like the guy I’d met that first time…shy…nice…not royally pissed off.

But then, the monster returned and his eyes went darker as he made eye contact with Alice again.

“Don’t mention it, see ya.”

“Wait!” she yelled after him again and once again, he stopped for her.

“We’re…throwing a pool party this weekend, we wanted you guys to come…” she trailed off and looked at me…

ME.

Like I was putting it together.

“Right, Bella?”  she eyeballed me.

“Um….” I was totally thrown off guard, but then, I got it…this was her way and Rose’s of making up for contributing toward the evil trickery we’d played on Edward.

“Right,” I ended, standing up a little straighter, hoping he’d accept.

“I don’t think so.”

“Bummer,” Emmett said.  “Guess we’re not comin’ either, then, girls.”

Rose looked absolutely livid.

“What is your problem, anyway?” she spat at Edward, who I already knew was in no mood to play games today.  I wanted to tell her to stop, to just…let him go so he could cool off, but it was too late, he’d already dropped his things.

“I don’t know, Rose, maybe I’ve just hit my limit of the spoiled rotten rich bitch bullshit that I’ve had this year already.”

Before she could give him a piece of her mind for that, Jasper piped in.

“Dude, it’s just a party, it’s not like we’re asking you to marry the girl…it’s an Olive branch for crying out loud.”  He put his arm around Alice who cuddled right into him like she was born to be there and Edward scowled at them.

“Freeeeeeee foooooooood,” Emmett added in his very manly yet boyish sing songy voice and I had to put my hand over my mouth to hide my smile.

He was so ridiculously cute.

“Drinks….” Alice told him, smiling her Alice charm at him.

“And maybe even someone to take the stick out of your ass,” Rose said.

“Ya know what?  Why not,” he said but I could tell, he wasn’t exactly happy about it.  “Seeing how I missed out on the last drinking binge…” he pointedly look at me.  “Invitation…excepted.”

I felt his bitterness in the pit of my stomach.

And other places.

I should have been happy, maybe even excited…but I wasn’t, it just PISSED me off.

He left his things on the ground and stalked off as I did the same toward the house and I heard Emmett yell after him, “We’ll uh…get your stuff dude, see ya at the apartment!”

“Good job, Bella! We’ll talk details later!” Alice called out to me but I didn’t bother with any gestures of acknowledging her.

That girl was always getting me into trouble.

Giggles from the girls and hand slapping from the boys was all I heard as I slammed the doors behind me once I was in the house.

“Whatever,” I muttered, walking back into the house. “It’s not like I have to hang out with him.”

Right?

***************************

Lesson 5 - Don't forget to breathe

Edward Cullen POV

“Two down…sex to go…”

Emmett eyeballed me, smirking.  Jasper didn’t bother eyeballing me.  He never did.

He just sat on the couch, one ankle resting on his other knee, reading the newspaper.

He flipped a page.

“I mean, six…”

“Uh huh.”  He snorted as he popped a hand full of cheese puffs into his mouth then proceeded to wipe his orange sticky hands all over my shirt.

Ass.

“I said six,” I told him and he just started shoulder bobbing.

“Fuck you.”

Six to go.

How the hell was I gonna get through six…more…swimming lessons with that girl.

“Dude, it’s okay if you like her, so what if she’s a bitch.”

“I didn’t say she was a bitch.”

She’s kind of a bitch…

“I like Rose, she’s a bitch.”

True that.

“Speaking of which…what the fuck?”  I asked him.

“Can’t help animal magnetism, dude,” Emmett replied and then waggled his eyebrows at me, ending with a wink and a snort.

Oh my god.

“Alice isn’t a bitch,” Jasper told us and he was right, she was just…evil…and sneaky.

“So you do like her.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Look, I…thought I liked her, I could have liked her…I just…she’s…”

Shit.

“He likes her.”

I mumbled then. “Not like it matters.”

“You gonna stop fuckin’ around? Maybe try to hook up?”

“Serioulsy?” um…no.

He laughed.  “Why not?  She clearly has the hots for ya dude.”

“Scuze me?  Have you seen her when she’s around me? I’m nothing but a…”  I waved at a fly that wasn’t there.

Clearly.

“Edward…wake up and smell the flirtation, my friend…it’s like you’ve regressed to fifth grade or something.”

“Word,” Jasper added, flipping another page of his sports section.

“If I am, it’s because of her.”

They looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

“Maybe we should send him to detention together for a day or two, slather peanut butter all over each other and watch em make nice.”

“Dude, that’s cats, not humans…”

Then he thought about it for a minute.

“Then again…” he said, cocking an eyebrow at me and I told him, “Don’t even think about it.”

Emmett punched me in the arm.  “Seriously though, dude…”

“Actually, I was thinking about taking Jessica.”

“OH…fucking A dude…Jesscunt?  Seriously?”

“What? She’s…nice.”

They laughed.

Again.

“Nice and nasty, you mean,” piped Jasper.

Emmett shivered.

“Well, she’s a safe bet as far as pissin’ the bitch off.”

Shit.

“He liiiiiiiiiiikes her…” Emmett sang as he wiggled his butt while making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that would put Man VS Food to shame.

I went to my room at that point, flipping the two of them the bird, put my head phones in and listened to angry Oasis songs for the next couple of hours before calling to see if Jessicunt…I mean, Jessicah could go to the party.

Surprisingly, even last minute, she said she could make it.

Yay.

…………

As we made our way around to the back of the property where I knew the pool area was, my eyes got big.

Like, really big.

“I thought this was like…an intimate party.”

“They must want everyone in the tri state area to know how sorry they are,” Emmett teased.

“Jesus.”

There must have been, three hundred of Bella’s closest friends in attendance and of course, she was nowhere to be seen.

I felt abandoned somehow.

Except that, the tug on my arm reminded me, I wasn’t exactly alone.

“Wanna find a nice quiet corner somewhere, Edward?”

What was I thinking?

“This was such a bad idea.”

“Negatory,” Emmett told me, taking over like a lieutenant colonel in the army or something.

“We’re goin’ in.”

He said it with authority and Jasper and I…and…Jessica…followed him to the keg where we were given our duly appointed red plastic cups, filled them up and toasted our free alcoholic beverages for the evening.

As I took my first gulp, that’s when I saw her.

Bella.

Dancing on some…

“What the hell…?”

My friends laughed of course and I chugged the beer, refilled it, chugged again, refilled and then I noticed, Bella had noticed me too.

She stopped dancing with the idiot surfer looking dude she was with, said something into his ear…

I imagined her hot breath on my neck that day and recognized the look on the guy’s face.

I wanted to rip his lips off.

Then she walked over to us.

“Hi,” she said, surprisingly shy and awkward like.

I nodded and looked away, putting the plastic cup back up to my mouth so I wouldn’t have to say anything and then Rose and Alice joined the group.

Alice nearly screamed with enthusiasm.  “Jasper!  You all came!”

Innnnn….uendo….

Rose slinked an arm around Emmett’s bicep and Jessica mimicked her, showing off her prize possession for the night.

Me.

“I think I’m gonna…find someplace for us to get cozy, Edward,” she purred and then kissed my cheek and started off.

“Who’s that?” she asked, eying Jessica up and down as she passed her to go find…what, I dunno….then I swallowed the last of my beer.

Emmett took the cup and disappeared with Rose as Jasper took Alice’s hand and pulled her away with him.

“Looks to me like she’s the ying to your boy’s yang over there, if ya ask me.”  I nodded and when she looked back over her shoulder again to where Jessica had landed, sure enough, she saw what I saw, which was her date, feeling up my date.

I almost laughed.

‘Cause man, she was fickle.

“Asshole.”

“Oh, I’m sure Jessica isn’t completely innocent in that whole scenario.”

“I wasn’t talking. About him,”  she said, narrowing her eyes at me, swaying just a tad in front of me.

She was wearing that damn red bikini she’d worn the first day I met her.

That’s right.

The one that showed off her perfect breasts with the taught nipples that were once again, flaunting themselves at me in the middle of the chaos.

I forced my eyes back up to hers.

“Oh really?  Well who’s the one who started all of this…shit anyway?”

Her face twisted and her mouth sneered as her eye twitched and a disgusted noise escaped her mouth as she tried to think of a comeback.

I took a step toward her, hoping my momentum would hold up and finally…maybe…make a point with this woman.

“You think I enjoy playing games like this?”

“I…”

“I don’t remember the last time, aside from high school that some…” I waved a hand at her. “Brat used me up like an old popsicle stick and then proceeded to taunt me afterwards.”

She took a step back to give me space, by I closed in again.

“Taunt you?”

“You enjoy it, don’t you...” I asked her, peeved as all get out that she got under my skin the way she did and there was nothing I could do about it.

I wanted to kiss her.

And then slap her.

“No, I …”

“You think it’s funny that I get a hard on every time you say my name and smile that pretty little red lipsticked smile of yours at me…”

“You…” her eyes dipped to my dick and then back up at me and I thought she actually blushed, but I couldn’t stop talking at that point.

I took another step toward her and this time, when she backed away, she fell backwards into the swimming pool.

People laughed and hooted and hollered and I rolled my eyes, imagining the onslaught of attacks that would come out of her mouth no doubt when she got out this time, somehow blaming ME for falling into the water.

Well screw that.

I started to walk away.

“Serves you right,” I said when I heard Rose screaming.

“Someone get her out!”

Huh?

Alice was bustling through the crowd then too and was headed for the water when it hit me what must have been happening.

That I must have misunderstood something somewhere along the line and then Rose confirmed it.

“She really doesn’t know how to swim, you IDIOT!”

Shit.

I didn’t waste another second.

I jumped in.

Bella was already at the bottom of the pool.

Not floating like I’d taught her, but that was typical, she probably had panicked.

I got to her and pulled her up to the surface, making sure her head stayed above water and when we got to the side of the pool, Emmett helped me get her out onto the pavement.

She wasn’t moving.

“Motherfuck, move out of the way!”  I said and immediately began resuscitation on her.

As I put my lips on hers, blowing air into her lungs the first time, she responded, coughing and sputtering and trying to breathe.

Good, this is good.

“Can you hear me, Bella?”

“What?”

“Oh thank god.”

“I need a drank,” Emmett said and once everyone was convinced she was indeed, okay, they scattered a bit, leaving me sitting on my ass next to her, my leg bent at the knee, and a hand over my face.

“Holy shit.”

Bella tried to sit up and I went into paramedic mode, standing and picking her up into my arms, over the threshold style.

“What are you doing?” she asked, a little amused.

“I’m getting you away from the crowd and then I’ll get you some water.”

She laughed. “Had enough of that already, thank you very much.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you really couldn’t swm?” I asked her.

“Ummmm, I thought that was obvious, you know, with the, lessons and all?”

“Yeah but…that first day…Rose and Alice said…”

She remembered.  “They were being sarcastic, Edward, they can’t even get me to the beach on perfect days, they’ve been waiting for me to learn for….years.”

“Jesus I’m a fucking idiot, I’m sorry Bella,” I said as we got to the pool house and I closed the door behind me with my foot.

I set her down onto the day bed there and then sat next to her, leaning forward, putting my head into my hands, thinking about how she could have seriously been hurt just now.

“Shit.”

She was quiet.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, peeking over at her as she lay there.  The moonlight was coming through the window, highlighting the wetness in her hair, making it shine.

I stood up to close the curtains a little and give her some privacy before I left to let her rest and when I turned back around to face her, she was staring at me.

The look on her face was…odd.

“Bella?”

Then she sat up, reached into a drawer in the table next to the bed and pulled an envelope out, extending it out to me.

“What’s this?”

I took it hesitantly and started open it.

It was money.

A lot of fucking money.

“Bella,” I started, handing it back to her, but she stopped me.

“I feel horrible, Edward, I have ever since that first day,… but you’re soo…” she closed her eyes, then seemed to stop herself from going on yet another tangent, pursed her lips and shook her head.

“I just wanted to make up for the money you lost from your lessons the other day, plus…” she stopped talking and I wondered what the plus could possibly mean.

She wasn’t going to continue, so I prodded.

“Plus?”

She took a deep breath before telling me, “Plus, the money Alice gave me for the…bet.”

I sat down next to her, flipping through the bills. “There’s gotta be over a thousand dollars here, Bella, I don’t make that much giving swimming lessons.”

“I want you to have it, I’m just…sorry.”

When she started to get up to leave.

Leave me there alone.

Again…

I just, couldn’t let her go.  Not this time.

I put my hand on her shoulder, stopping her from standing and when she looked at me, curious as to what I was up to, I said, “Apology accepted.”

She smiled.

I smiled.

And then, I kissed her.

The sparks I remembered from our first encounter were still there, they’d never left, they just, went to sleep for a while and my body instinctively adjusted itself to hover over her.

We were both soaking wet and didn’t care.

We were also both hard in places that made the other respond.

In oh so excellent ways.

I felt her nippes pressing up against me and I’m pretty sure she felt my dick pressing…up against her.

Bella bent her knees , clutching my midsection between them tightly and it only made me deepen our kiss further.

Tiny, feminine moans escaped her and they sent chills up my spine.

In a good way.

“I’m sorry,” she said again as she began slipping my drenched shirt off of me. 

“It’s okay, I’m sure it’ll dry,” I told her and she giggled, pushing it the rest of the way off of me. 

“Is this going where I think it’s going?” I asked her and she responded by leaning forward a little and putting her mouth to my neck. 

“Mmmmm, I take that as a yes.”

“I just don’t wanna fight anymore, Edward, I’m sick of fighting, this whole thing could have been avoided if I’d just….”

“Hey,” I said, pulling back a little to look at her.  “I was kind of a dick myself, so, don’t take on the weight of the world because we just had a series of seriously fucked up misunderstandings…”

She looked down and I pulled her face back up to mine by her chin.  “Okay?”

“Okay,” she smiled and we went back to make up sex.

Not that we’d had sex yet…I mean I guess we did, technically, but you know…not with…um…penetration.  Well, there was penetration, but not of the kind that was about to go down.

I slid a hand down toward her bottoms and let my fingers glide underneath the hem, pushing them down as she lifted her hips to allow me I met eyes with her again and realized, she wasn’t a bitch.

I swallowed as she kicked her bikini bottom off the rest of the way and then I let my hand get reacquainted with her slickness.

Bella’s eyes closed, her lip found a home in between her teeth and she tilted her head back, pushing her breasts into me even more so I took advantage of that position and put my mouth on her neck, sucking just a little.

She took the hands that were previously removing my shirt and moved on the swim trunks, being sure to say hello to my lil’ frien as she passed him by.

Not so little anymore.

Nope, no shrinkage here.

“You want me to…” I started to make an offer of the oral kind but Bella, she didn’t want that, not now and I was okay with that, I figured at this point, there was always later.

“I just want you, Edward, just you.”

Nooooooooooo problemo.

“Okay.”

It was barely a whisper but it was there and as I entered her, the warmth and the wet and the perfect fit of the two of us forced my body to reel with pleasure, pain, confusion, elation…and just about everything in between.

She felt so good and so, right and I didn’t care anymore about the bet or the stupid mistaken insinuations.

I only cared about holding her.

Kissing her.

Making her feel safe and letting her know I wasn’t gonna be a jerk off again like I’d been playing for the past weeks.

It was an intense emotion that bubbled up inside of me as we moved in sync with each other.

Bella rolling her hips at just…the right moments.

Me positioning her at just the right angles to hit the spot that would make her feel just right.

And when she came, I came, and it was…all….good.

“Holy shit,” I huffed out, trying to catch my breath.

“I know,” she replied and we both looked at each other with what seemed like a knowing between the two of us.

There was a reason I was the one her dad had called for those lessons.

There was a reason her friends had made that bet with her.

She was just, mine.

And I was hers.

“Bella,” I whispered .

“Mmmmm?” she hummed, snuggling up into my neck with kisses and licks and general around goodness.

“Apology accepted.”

THE END.