"You took Rachel's picture, didn't you? One of the ones she sent me for my birthday? You saw it and you took it...didn't you?"

Embry just stared, which pissed me off more than lying about it. "Answer me, you fuck!" I demanded.

Embry swallowed thickly and nodded slowly. "Yeah...I took it."

I balled my fists up and bared my teeth. Embry's eyes opened widely in fear. When I advanced on him, he kept backing up until he was pinned against the side of my Bronco. "I want that fucking picture back, do you hear me?"

Embry nodded quickly. "Are you gonna tell her...that I took it?"

I pressed my fists together, giving him an expression that indicated I was thinking about it. "If I don't get that picture back, I'm gonna tell her. And I better have it tomorrow...do you understand me?"

"I'll have it. You'll get it back. Just don't tell her what I did."

I placed both fists on either side of his head, pressing firmly against the Bronco door. "Well that all depends on you, now doesn't it?"

"I'll bring it back," he replied defensively.

I backed off a little and scowled at him. "And what happened at your locker? Did you kiss her?"

Embry shook his head solemnly. I got some small amount of pleasure knowing he was scared shitless of me. He took in a deep breath and spoke quietly. "Rachel got all freaked out when she saw you with Leah. I was just hiding her. There wasn't anything else going on."

I crossed my arms over my chest and chuckled. "You are really something else. Playing the best friend card when all along you've been lusting after her. Did you look at all the pictures? All of them?"

Embry lowered his head and sighed. I knew that meant he had. The night of my party, I was so shit faced that I had to have help getting back to bed. I knew that someone had been in my room and the next day, I realized one of the pictures was gone. It wasn't like I could ask around because secretly I had hoped I was wrong. I had sworn to Rachel that no one would ever see them and I failed her. Honestly, I never wanted her to know that I had betrayed her trust. But I wasn't above using the threat of telling her to get him to bring the picture back.

And what pissed me off more was that I didn't leave them lying around. They were in the envelope, in the top drawer of my desk. And that meant he had gone looking for them...and he knew what he was doing.

I ran my hands through my hair and scoffed. "It's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for."

"Paul..."

"Save it," I ordered, raising my hand to stop him from speaking. "You know I have to do this, right?"

He furrowed his brow. "Do what?"

I held up my fist and smiled. "Just this." I reared back and punched him right in the gut. I didn't give him the full force of my punch, because as a trained boxer, I could have really hurt him. But I did manage to knock the wind out of him and send him to the ground, doubled over in pain.

I leaned down and sneered, "I went easy on you this time. Next time won't be so pretty."

Embry lifted his leg and attempted to kick me. I laughed in response. Jacob and Quil came running down the ramp, pushing past me to check on Embry.

"Paul! What did you do?" Quil accused.

"Ask him what he did."

Jacob looked at me and shook his head, as he and Quil got Embry to his feet. "Jesus, Paul. Did you have to be so rough on him?" Jacob scowled.

I laughed again. "His ass is lucky that's all I did to him. He needs to go home."

Quil argued, "He was gonna stay the night."

"Now he's not." I shot Jacob a look to let him know I wasn't kidding.

Jacob nodded. "Let's walk him home, Quil."

"Don't forget what I said, Embry," I called out as they disappeared into the darkness.

I jogged back into the house, needing to make sure Rachel was okay. I approached her bed carefully, noticing that she was curled on her side, facing away from me, and sleeping soundly.

I ran my hand through her hair, trying to push the errant strands away. I leaned in to press a kiss to her temple, when she reached back for my hand. I smiled when she pulled me down to snuggle against her. I kicked off my boots and slid in behind her.

I pulled her body as close as I could to my own and buried my face in her hair. I missed this. She must have missed it too, because even in her sleepy state, she wanted me here.

~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~

When I awoke the next morning, I stretched and felt strangely content. Well that was until I opened my eyes and saw Rachel staring at me. "Good morning, beautiful."

Her brow furrowed as her gaze drifted to my bare chest and her surroundings. She nibbled her lip and whispered, "Did you...did we...umm...?"

I noticed how nervous she looked and I finally realized what she meant. She thought we had sex. "Oh, honey, no. I would never...I couldn't do that without your permission." I was rambling like an idiot.

Sensing maybe she didn't believe me, I jumped up and showed her the rest of me. "See I've got my jeans on." I looked around for my shirt and scowled. "I have a shirt somewhere...but I must have gotten hot and taken it off."

"Sorry...I just don't remember coming home last night."

I shrugged. "You told me you hadn't eaten yesterday and then you kind of fainted. I brought you home and put you to bed."

Rachel nodded and sat up against the wall behind her. "Did you get me dressed for bed too?"

I rubbed the back of my neck and nodded. "You're not mad, are you? I just wanted you to be comfortable."

"You took off my bra."

I could feel myself blushing. "Yeah I did."

She looked a little more sure of herself and I noticed her eyes roaming over my body and it thrilled me. "Is everything okay?"

She pressed her lips together and nodded. "You look...really good."

I couldn't hide my smile when she complimented me. "Yeah, I've been working really hard," I replied, turning my arms in to show her the definition of my muscles.

"Still training at the gym?" she asked, pulling her knees up to her chin.

I sat on her bed with my back against her headboard. "Yeah I am. I had a big match I was getting ready for."

She scowled and reached for my face. When she cupped my jaw with her hand and gave me a look of concern, I tried to reassure you. "Stop worrying. I won, okay? And I didn't get hurt either."

"Is that why you've been too busy to return my calls?" she asked, dropping her hand to her lap.

My palms started to sweat and began nervously wiping them on my jeans. "That's part of it," I replied cryptically.

She wrapped her arms around her knees and squeezed tightly. "How about you tell me the whole story?"

"Maybe later?" I offered weakly.

She scoffed. "Whatever."

When she tried to climb over me to get off the bed, I held her hips still. "I'll tell you, okay?"

She was straddling me now, making it even harder to say what I had to say. When I hesitated, she tried to get up again. "Okay, okay, okay. This is the truth." She settled back in my lap and it was all I could do not dig my fingers into her hips and push up into her.

"When we're training for a boxing match, we have some rules. We can't smoke or drink and we have to...abstain from sex."

"Why?" she asked innocently.

I bit down on my lower lip and smiled nervously. "Well Manny thinks we should take all that pent up aggression and put it into our training."

"But you weren't having sex anyway...or were you?"

"No! I wasn't...I'm not. But abstaining also includes any type of sexual release."

"So...you couldn't masturbate? I don't get what that has to do with me."

I chuckled nervously. "That's where the no calling comes in. See, you like to get a little naughty during our late night phone calls, so I just didn't want to get tempted..."

"Oh for fuck's sake!" she exclaimed, stealing one of my phrases. "That's your lame ass excuse? And you have the nerve to blame me?" she demanded angrily.

"I'm sorry! Between that and all the extra time I was putting in at the gym, I just...I'm an asshole, okay?"

"You really are," she replied, scowling. She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. "I don't forgive you."

I licked my lips and gripped her hips with both hands. "I wouldn't forgive me either."

She wrapped her hands around my shoulders and squeezed tightly. "Good, because I don't."

"I don't blame you," I retorted, lifting my hips a little and gauging her reaction.

She squeezed her eyes shut and I heard the hitch in her breath when she felt how hard I was under her. She slid her hands behind my head and played with my hair. Fuck yes. "You made me think you didn't want me anymore," she whimpered, while her hips rolled forward, meeting mine.

I gave her a couple of quick thrusts and leaned up into her ear. "Does it feel like I don't want you?"

She tilted her head and started twisting away from me. "We shouldn't be doing this," she gasped as she rolled away from me.

I groaned in frustration as we both stared up at the ceiling. "I have to fix this, Rachel. Please tell me what I need to do."

When she rolled over to face me, I did the same. I hated seeing the sadness and disappointment in her eyes when she looked at me. "I'm so sorry."

She lifted her fingers to my shoulder and absently traced a small scar I got when I was eight. "Since when is a boxing match more important than me?" she asked softly.

I caught her chin between my thumb and forefinger. She closed her eyes when I brushed my thumb over her lips. "It wasn't more important than you. But I was offered a lot of money to compete and I had to win. I needed that money."

Her eyes snapped open. "Are you having trouble making ends meet? Your dad hasn't been helping?"

"It wasn't that. I had another reason for wanting that extra money."

She furrowed her brow. "What was the reason?"

I pressed my forehead to hers and sighed. "I wanted the money for us...for our future. When you get done with school and when I get done with school, I want us to get our own place. I don't wanna live in my father's house. I hate wondering when he'll show back up again." I paused to hold her face in both my hands. "I don't want him anywhere near you. You're my girl, Rachel. And I don't ever want us to be apart after you finish college."

"Paul..."

I didn't wait to hear her say she didn't want a future with me. I didn't wait to hear her say it was too late and I screwed it all up. I turned away from her and swung my legs over the side of the bed resting my elbows on my knees. I breathed a huge sigh of relief knowing I had finally told her everything.

I froze when I felt Rachel shift and kneel behind me. She slid her hands around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder. "You never told me you were making plans for us. We never talked about any of this."

I covered her hands with mine and angled my face toward hers. "It's okay if you don't feel the same way. That's why I didn't tell you. I didn't know if you even wanted to live with me."

I closed my eyes when I felt her drag her lips back and forth across my shoulder. "We really need to work on your communication skills," she teased.

I laughed before reaching around to pull her across my lap. "You just think you're so damn cute, don't you?" I used one hand to cradle the back of her head as my other palm splayed over her stomach, fingertips slipping under the hem of her t-shirt.

"You know I adore you, Paul. And I'd be lying if I said I never thought about our future. But we should've talked about this. You really hurt me when you didn't keep in contact with me. How was I supposed to know you even wanted me anymore?"

"I don't know, Rachel. I don't know how else to tell you how sorry I am."

She reached up to touch the side of my face. "I just wish..." she paused to sigh. "I think I need more time..." she trailed off. She couldn't hide the disappointment in her eyes. I had let her down.

I stood and released her legs, allowing her to stand on her own two feet. "It's okay," I lied when she looked up at me. "Take your time and...we can talk again when you're ready."

I pulled away, even when I felt her reaching for me. I didn't want to see that pitiful look in her eyes. The one that clearly said, You fucked up, Paul.

I opened her bedroom door and made my way out of the house without even so much as a glance back to Rachel. I could hear her calling me, but I just had to go. Looking at her made me feel too much like a failure.

When I yanked the front door open, I found myself face to face with Embry Call. He looked shocked to see me, taking notice of my lack of shirt and no doubt, messy hair. We stared at each other for a moment before he handed me a sealed white envelope. When I gave him a strange look, he simply said, "It's what you asked for."

Remembering that he had Rachel's picture, made me angry all over again. He looked at me expectantly and all I could do was scowl at him. "What?!" I demanded.

"We had a deal," Embry reminded me as I pushed past him.

"Whatever, dude. Your secret is safe with me." I paused to swing around and face him again. "Just know that I will never forgive you for this. We will never be friends again, if we ever really were."

"Is Rachel home?" he asked meekly.

"Go fuck yourself," I muttered before climbing into my Bronco and getting the hell out of there.

....

A/N: okay so Paul punched Embry. Everybody happy? Lol. Leave a comment and let me know what you think...it seriously makes my day!