Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable in this story. SM gets all that glory. I do however stake claim to Alpha PR and the craziness these characters come up with.

A/N: I know, I'm horrible. Feel free to shoot me. Actually, please don't. I like life at the moment. I won't bore yall with everything that life has thrown at me over the past 6 months, past year, whatever. Just know I'm so fucking sorry for dragging it out this long. I understand if no one is reading this anymore. I wouldn't have waited around for my ass either.

But big thanks to Ynotjacob for betaing this for me so quickly and helping me by asking all those questions that left me completely dumbfounded as far as where this story was going. You're awesome and I really don't deserve a beta as good as you. I heart you.

Also, big thanks to the pre-readers or 'hand holders' as I've come to call them, LuvinJ and Goldengirl2707. Couldn't have done it without yall being there to walk me through every damn sentence! LOL And Mist for pushing and pushing for this to get done. Yall are awesome bb's and I love yall for all of it.

And also to all of you readers who read this craziness and stick around. I know it's been a long time without an update, no need to point out how long, I'm very aware... go on and read now...

JPOV

"So, you really didn't get any from her, did you? Dude, if my cock went through as much teasing as yours, I think it might just fall off, which would be very bad considering it's my best asset." Quil never knew when to shut the fuck up.

I wanted to talk to Bella, but he just wouldn't go away, and as much as I wanted to explain everything to her, I really wanted to know how everything had turned out the night before. Losing the Baker account would cost me thousands, and as much as I liked Bella, no one fucks with my money. Period.

I ignored Quil's insistent interest in my nonexistent but very promising sex life with Bella, and the painfully endless recaps of his very raunchy sex life since moving to Seattle. I'm a grown ass man and blushing isn't really my thing. But some of the shit he's done with people even had meturning a little pink, and at times, green. Out in the hall, I could hear Bella on the phone with some guy, and then her door slammed and rattled my paintings. I only knew it to be a guy because she mentioned the name Edward.

Who that was, I had no idea, but I hoped like hell it wasn't a boyfriend. That was part of the reason I didn't get involved with people at work. I'm not a man who messes with relationships, and I damn sure wasn't one to break up families. I had seen it happen too many times to count. I'm simply not into sloppy seconds.

The other reason I don't do relationships at work was easy; If things went south, and I don't mean the good South, the office would turn into a living nightmare. It was safe to say I was treading into unfamiliar territory by going as far as I had with Bella. I'd never gone the at-work-romance route or "office fucking" as Paul dubbed it.

I walked out of my office, still ignoring whatever sexcapade Quil was reliving at the moment, and stood outside Bella's office door. I could make out very few words, but what little I did get was that she had – at some point – fucked this guy. Or more accurately, sucked him off. My hands began to shake, for what reason I was unsure. I mean, let's face it. I wasn't her 'boyfriend'. I wasn't even fucking her. Yet.
Something about this whole situation had me pissed beyond belief. I could imagine her lips wrapped around my dick – MINE – and no one else's.

There were mumbles coming from within her office about forging documents and something about her mother. When I heard her slam her phone down, I flung open the door to her office before I had any idea what I was doing. I assumed my emotions were written all over my face because of the look on her face. The words were out of my mouth before my apparently very slow-reacting brain caught up to what I was saying.

"Who the FUCK is Edward, and what the FUCK are you falsifying?"

Bella's face went from shocked to pissed in about 0.2 seconds. She was still so fucking hot. And although there was a thought in the back of my head that said someone else was dipping their rod in her, I wanted nothing more than to just throw her on the desk and rip all of her clothes off. She was thatfucking tempting.

We stared at each other for what seemed like hours, but was probably just one of those moments that felt longer because of the tension between us. My hands were still shaking, and my body was beginning to as well. I wanted some answers, but she just sat and stared at me, stabbing me with invisible daggers from those hypnotizing brown eyes of hers.

"Well?"

"Do you always listen to your employees' private conversations?"

"Any falsifying that is being done by my employees is my business, so start talking. Now."

"What do you want to know more about? What I do in my free time or the guy I was talking to?"

"Whatever you feel like talking about first, just start somewhere." I shut the door and moved to sit on her couch, picking up her rubber duck thing on the way.

"Uhh, you might not want to touch that... it's not really what you think it is."

I took a seat, squeezing the duck and feeling the vibrations match the ones running down my spine.

"Okay." She turned away and started messing with papers on her desk.

"Who is Edward?"

"Ah ha, I knew it! So, what exactly do you want to know?" She had a small smirk on her face, and as much as this woman could piss me off, she had me by the fucking balls and she knew it.

I let out a sigh because deep down, there were so many questions and things I wanted to talk to her about. But I guess the main thing that I - or rather my dick - wanted to know was what was going on with this guy.

"Who's Edward?" I asked, gritting my teeth in the process.

She sat there for a minute, a look of uncertainty on her face, and then... she did it. She bit her bottom lip, and I was hard. Like concrete-fucking-wall hard. Like titanium-fucking-steel-rod hard. I think a noise escaped from me that sounded like a dog in pain.

Bella glanced down at the crotch of my slacks and made a whimpering sound that reverberated off my cock and made it even harder, if that were possible. I noticed her rubbing her thighs together, and realized she was having just as much of a problem as I was. A thought occurred to me that I could use this to my advantage. I'd get the answers I wanted, but as far as anything more, well... that was yet to be determined. I tossed the duck on the couch and stood up before walking over to her, pulling her up from her seat, and fisting my hand in her hair.

"I said, I want to know who Edward is and what has he been doing with this pouty mouth of yours." I growled before slowly taking her bottom lip in between mine and biting soft enough to not hurt her, but hard enough to make it swell. Her tongue poked out to run along my lip, but I pulled away from her.

"And stop biting that lip, it only makes it harder for me to not rip your clothes off and fuck you right here."

She whimpered and clenched her thighs together again before stuttering through a response.

"H-he-he's my ex-boyfriend. He uhh, he owns Cullen's Investments down in Phoenix, and it's umm...it's a really long story. Can we...umm...talk about this some other time, and do something about our mutual problem instead?" She asked, eying my dick.

I threw her a smirk and then leaned against the edge of her desk. "No, Miss Swan, we can't. Before this," I pointed at my cock, "gets anywhere near that," I pointed at her snatch, "there are things we need to discuss, and first on the list is this Edward guy. Just so you know, I don't like to share my toys with others. Is that clear?"

She nodded and crossed her legs. I stood and walked back over to the couch, leaving her there, once again trying to create some friction between her legs.

"Fine," she huffed. "But I'm telling you now, it's not as bad as you think. I used to date him. He's one of those rich, trust fund brats who thinks he can have anything he wants." She cocked an eyebrow at me as if assuming I should know the type. I had no fucking clue what made her think that.

"Last October, Renee was on a "I want to be Paris Hilton" rampage and thought she could blow money like crazy. She ended up not paying any of the damn bills for two months. When my cell got cut off, I knew something was up. Then we got a letter in the mail saying we had fifteen days to pay the mortgage or we were being foreclosed on. I went to Edward and he loaned me the money, in return for a favor, or course."

"What kind of favor?" My voice was low, making her jump in her seat a bit. I saw her legs twitching again and mentally patted myself on the back for making her as uncomfortable as I felt.

"Is that really important?"

"Yes."

"I don't see how it could possibly make a difference, but anyway, I was a full time student with a part time job as a barista at Starbucks and a shitload of student loans. He wanted the money back right away, like in two weeks, and there was no fucking way I could do that, instead he asked me to fudge a few documents for his investment firm. And that's that. The rest is just details. Are we done yet?"

I thought about what she had said. She made a point to tell me he was her ex, and that calmed the rage that had been boiling inside me considerably. I was still pissed about the whole document forging thing. I didn't deal with things that weren't legit, and this shit was anything but. If she got caught, this could bring a whole lotta of trouble down on my company.

And seeing as I was expected to create a positive, goody two-shoes, I-have-no-skeletons-in-my-closet-cause-I'm-a-fucking-saint image for everyone we represented, as well as my own reputation, it wasn't kosher to have employees dealing in illegal matters.

"What exactly are you doing for him? Because I can't have my employees getting themselves into deep shit, like fraud."

"It's just...it's taking the accounts and changing the amounts the companies owe him. Look Jake, I know this is wrong, but he's got me by my fucking tits here. I have the money to pay him, but he doesn't want it now. I have to do this for him and when I'm done, he's out of my life for good. I swear."

I have no idea why she was pleading with me, but I still didn't like it. If anyone got wind of this, it was my ass they were going to hang, not just hers.

"How much did you owe him?"

"Seven grand."

"That's it? You're doing all of this for seven grand? You're risking your career for that kind of fucking money, Bella? I've heard of stupid, but this is just fucking dumber than a box of rocks! How many accounts did he ask you to forge?"

"I don't know. Not many." She wouldn't look at me. I had a feeling she was lying, but I didn't want to push her away, so I gave up on that line of questioning. But at the same time, I wanted to make damn sure she understood this shit was stopping now.

"This ends now. There isn't going to be any more shady dealings like this unless you'd like to find a new place of employment. And in case there's any question, if this astounding error in judgment on your part has any effect on my company, I will make damn sure that your reputation suffers ten times as much damage. We create images here, remember? I can ruin names as easily as I make them. No one, and I mean no one,will hire you once word gets out about the unethical shit you do in your free time. Is that clear?" Only when she muttered out something that sounded like an agreement did I leave, slamming the door behind me.

When I returned to my office, Quil was lounging on my couch like he didn't have a care in the world.

"So, trouble in paradise? I could hear moaning and yelling and things slamming around in there. What happened? You finally get some? You're one kinky dude, aren't you, Jake? I can see it in your eyes."

"Get out of my office, Quil." I walked over to the small closet in the corner of the room and yanked open the door. Unbuttoning my shirt and peeling off my tie, I tossed both inside without bothering to hang them up.

"What's got your g-string all twisted up? No sucky-sucky for the boss man? I could solve that problem for you, but I hear I'm a better receiver than a giver in that department." He sat up, nodding his head with a serious look on his face. I had no clue what the fuck he meant by that and I hoped like hell he wasn't really offering me head, seeing as I was his cousin and the hershey highway was not how I traveled.

"Quil, what the fuck does that even mean? Have you like...seriously sucked a guy off before?" I asked as I fished my gym bag from the bottom of the closet. I figured a good workout would go a long way towards releasing some of the tension and hostility that had built up in me.

"What? No. I mean, well...okay, see, what happened was we were in college and there was a party where you were supposed to come dressed as the opposite sex, and well you know me. I had to outdo everyone there, so I-"

"You know what, stop right there. I don't want to know. Isn't there anything you should be doing right now besides reliving your asinine college years?"

"No, not really. I was going to call and check on Paul to see if he made it to L.A. alright, but other than that, no." He leaned back on the couch, stretching out and resting his arms along the back while propping his foot up on the coffee table in front of him.

"Great. Hey, you think you can do me a favor? You think you can find out about somebody for me? The name's Edward. Edward... Cullen. He owns an investment firm in Phoenix. Just... uhh... keep it hush hush. I don't want anyone to know that I'm looking, can you do that?"

As obnoxious as Quil could be, and as fucked up as his verbal brain filter was half the damn time, he was damn good at keeping secrets, and snooping was another one of his strong points.

"Sure, I'll let you know what I find out," he promised.

I went to my restroom and splashed some water on my face. When I walked back into the room, I found Quil was gone.

Thank God for small miracles.

I wasn't sure I could handle any more of him right now. I grabbed my iPod out of the desk, a bottle of water from my mini fridge, and walked out into the hall, shutting the door behind me. I went down to the locker room and changed into my workout clothes, grabbing a sweat towel on the way out.

Once I got to the fitness center I noticed there were a few people down there, working on various machines. I didn't really feel like working out with a crowd so I went straight to the bank of treadmills because they were unoccupied. There was nothing like a good run to help clear your head of things. Like images of Bella's ass. Of how it was so perky and toned and fit perfectly in the palms of my hands. Or the way her tits almost pop out of her shirt when she leans forward.

Not good. These were the thoughts I was trying to get rid of. I didn't need to be thinking of these things as they were causing me to pitch a tent. With every step I took, I could feel it bobbing. I hoped like hell that no one noticed, but for some damn reason, I could never get thatlucky. Pat from Accounting was staring right at my man meat with a smile that reached from ear to ear.

This wouldn't have necessarily been such a bad thing if Pat wasn't 6'4", around 200 pounds, and a man. I coughed loudly, which made Pat look up and meet my eyes. He winked and shot me a bashful grin before getting up from the weight bench and leaving the gym. The previously mentioned tent was now gone.

After that, I turned my iPod on before slipping in some ear buds and turning up the volume until everything else was drowned out. Running like this helped me think. I mean really think about what I wanted as a person, and made me forget about all the big stuff – like the contracts and the clients and the business in general. I wanted... I honestly wasn't really sure what I wanted. I had dreams of being happy and settling down one day, but not right this moment. I even wanted to have a few kids someday, but the business that I had worked so hard to build wouldn't allow for that anytime soon.

It wouldn't even allow me to have a real fucking relationship with a woman. Not that I could find a woman worth settling down with. All the women I'd met have either just wanted my dick or my money. And if you're not careful with the first, they end up with the second. As far as I knew, I didn't have any little Jakes running around anywhere because I made it a point to double bag it, but there was always a chance.

Thinking about relationships and trying to decide if I wanted to be in one brought my thoughts back around to Bella. Just thinking about what she had on today made me hard for her. She didn't seem like one to do the exclusive dating thing. Hell, just going by what I'd learned about her from that phone conversation I'd overheard, she sounded pretty slutty. Not that I had anything against sluts, if anything they knew how to have a real good time. But that wasn't what I wanted in a woman, and for whatever reason, I really fucking wanted Bella. She was all-consuming in that... well, that when I thought about her, she consumed all my damn thoughts!

Bella had been good at her job, in that she hadn't totally blown any of our accounts. In fact, she'd made a few of our clients very happy and had even brought in new ones. But whatever this shit with Cullen was, wasn't cool at all. I mentioned earlier that I don't like getting in the middle of relationships, but more than that, I hated meddling in people's personal lives. Kinda ironic when you run a public relations business, huh? But there's more to this line of work than just trying to cover up who slept with who and all that stuff. I'm saying that I'm not the type of boss who's going to go digging to see what kind of skeletons my employees have in their closets. If you have a problem and need my help solving it, fine. But if you want a heart-to-heart on some cosmic level to determine what your fate or destiny is, I'm not your guy.

I really didn't want to get involved in what Bella was messed up in, but I felt the need to help her. Maybe it was my second head that was thinking, but I felt like she needed help with this. On the other hand, she got herself into this shithole. Maybe it would be best for everyone involved if I didn't bail Bella out. In fact, maybe it would best for me if I didn't get involved with Bella Swan at all.

As hard as it would be to keep my distance, I'd have to do it because I wasn't willing to give up everything I'd worked so damn hard for for some girl who I really knew nothing about. I needed to think with my big head – the one on top of my shoulders – instead of the smaller one. And all my brain kept telling me was to leave Bella alone, to stay away from her unless it was strictly business. No after-hours contact.

Just as I was turning off the treadmill, Bella waltzed into the fitness center. She had on a pair of black skin-tight workout shorts and one of those tank tops that showed how chilly she was feeling. If I had any chance of surviving my new 'no contact' rule, I was going to have to enforce a dress code, something I had always been pretty lenient with. A strict one at that.

She spotted me and sashaying my way, swaying her hips more than necessary.

"Hey, Mr. Black. Mind if I join you?" She ran a hand along the low cut of her shirt and looked at me from beneath her long lashes. God, this was too much – way too fucking much. I couldn't even be in the same room with her without images of the Kama Sutra flipping through my head. I coughed and wiped my towel along my brow before dropping my hand in a manner that would – hopefully – cover the very prominent hard-on I was sporting.

Undoubtedly, if you use God's name in vain – even in your thoughts – you're cursed or something because when I looked at Bella, she was staring back at me, only not just at my face this time. Her eyes were focused on my crotch and she was biting her lip again, dammit, making me wish I was the one biting it for her. Forgive me, Father for I shall sin with every thought I have of this goddess before me!

But before I let my thoughts get carried away and before I let my smaller head do all of the thinking for me, I coughed, and as discreetly as I could, adjusted myself so I could at least make it to the locker room without drawing too much attention.

I gave her the best panty melting smile I could so that hopefully she wouldn't feel rejected in any way and said, "Sorry Miss Swan, I was just finishing up. The treadmills are all yours." And with that, I walked away from her and took a deep breath. I'd do my best to avoid her from now on, but that didn't mean she couldn't be the leading lady in every one of my fantasies for the rest of my life. And man, did she give me some great material to work with.

If you want to tell me your thoughts, I'd really like that. :) -km3-