"You...are so wet."

I lifted my head from between Rachel's thighs and smiled down at her. Her mouth was still open, gasping for air, eyes squeezed shut, and a smile was forming on her lips. I could feel her wetness still running down my chin. "I thought I was gonna drown," I teased, swiping at my mouth with the back of my hand.

She chuckled, licking her lips in an attempt to to moisten her mouth. Her eyes were still shut and she looked so beautiful with her messy hair and the slightest sheen of sweat covering her breasts.

"I love you."

Her eyes snapped open as I hovered above her. Her expression softened as she gazed up at me and murmured, "I love you, too."

I rolled off of her, stretching out next to her and smirking when she immediately snuggled up to my side. I sighed when she burrowed her nose into the crook of my neck. "My whole body feels like Jell-o," Rachel hummed against my skin.

I laughed and pulled her closer to me. "So are you ready for another?"

She scoffed. "Me? What about you?"

Her hand drifted down my chest, over my stomach and between my legs. I grabbed her wrist before she could grip me. "Don't do that."

Lazily, she lifted her head and propped herself up on her elbow. "Why can't I touch you?"

I turned my head slightly and let my gaze fall on her beautiful face. "I'm supposed to be making it up to you. I'm trying to say sorry for how selfish I was earlier."

"Paul..." she sighed, shifting her body to straddle my hips. "You've been saying sorry. You've been showing me. You've shown me four times already," she laughed.

"Four? Is that a new record?"

She scooted back a bit, resting on my thighs. "I need one more. That will be the new record."

I nodded and noticed her eyes, how they drifted down and lingered on my erection. "But what about you?" she mused sinfully, her hooded gaze made my heart clench. I loved how much she wanted me.

My eyes fell closed and my head pushed deep into the pillow behind my head when she wrapped her fingers around me. "I'm okay," I lied. "This was for you."

"You've taken care of me. Now let me take care of you," she murmured as she guided me inside of wet warmth. I hissed when she sank down on my erection, already feeling ready to explode from being so worked up.

"You don't need to do this," I assured her I held her hips still. "I don't deserve it after what I did."

Rachel gripped my wrists and held them down on the pillow above my head. "Stop punishing yourself. I already forgave you."

I laughed as her breasts hovered just about my mouth and my tongue flicked out to taste a nipple. "You know you're not strong enough to hold me down, right?" I challenged, even as I lifted my hands and pushed hers back.

She slammed them back down again, sending me a warning look. "Don't do that again."

"Why not?" I teased, squirming underneath her.

Rachel let her eyes drift closed for a moment before slipping my fingers under the slats of my headboard. "Don't move. Don't touch me."

"Okay? Why not?" I mumbled, loving how hard she was grinding down on me.

She ran her fingertips down my arms, landing on my chest. "Because I'm gonna make you come," she threatened as her thumbnails scraped over my nipples and I nearly broke my own headboard from squeezing too hard.

Her hips rocked as she leaned forward and licked up my chest, pausing to nip with her teeth, and finally landing on my neck. It took everything in me not pound into her when her lips found that sweet spot under my ear and I felt her sucking. The harder she sucked, the more I felt my control dissolving. I called out her name as my fingers gripped the headboard harder. You could hear it starting to splinter from the pressure.

When Rachel began hooking her ankles under my thighs and thrusting harder, I considered just letting go. She was so wet and I didn't think I could go another minute without giving in to my release. "You feel so good," I called out breathlessly.

"Then why won't you come?" she demanded as her back arched and her hips slammed forward faster and faster.

I made the mistake of opening my eyes and seeing her head thrown back, breasts pointing up, sweat dripping down her stomach and pooling in her belly button. The feeling of her clenching around me, paired with the sight of her goddess like body bouncing above me had me all kinds of turned the fuck on.

"Dammit," I hissed when my heels dug into the mattress and I snapped my hips up over and over, trying to match her pace and loving the way our bodies sounded as they slammed together.

"Just let go," she begged as her lips lowered to mine, fingers gripping the sides of my neck. "Come for me, Paul."

I completely lost it when I heard my name on her lips and felt her tongue in my mouth. I became a sweaty, shuddering mess as my climax hit me harder than I expected. I tore my mouth from hers, calling her name as I continued to pump into her, hands squeezing her ass hard and begging her to come with me. "Rachel, please."

She pushed off from my shoulders, trying and failing to get me to ease up. I could feel her her tensing all around me and knowing how close she truly was. "That's it, baby," I coaxed when I felt her legs shake.

"Yes," I sighed when she shook violently in my arms. I smoothed my hands over her body as she shuddered breathlessly. With each breath she struggled to take in, I could feel her body relaxing, virtually melting in my embrace.

She mumbled against my skin and even my wolf hearing didn't pick up what she said. "What was that?" I asked, rolling us to our sides.

Rachel traced her finger over my lips and murmured, "I won. You came first."

I rolled my eyes and nodded. "You're right." I held her closely, feeling lucky to have an imprint so perfectly matched to my needs. And even as our breathing slowed down and our heart beats synced together, I couldn't ignore the nagging doubt still hanging over us.

I had to find a way to protect my imprint from that animal.

~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~

I yanked my front door open when I heard a loud knocking that just wouldn't let up. I found Sam, Jared and Embry staring at me and I suddenly wondered if I had missed a pack meeting. "What's going on?"

"Dude," Jared smirked. "I take it you and Rachel made up?"

I nodded quickly, my smirk matching his. I held up a hand, with all my fingers wiggling, and mouthing 'five' as Embry and Sam's backs were turned. Jared's eyes opened wide as he repeated 'five?' wordlessly. I nodded slowly and he smacked my back. "You're a legend, dude."

"So where's Rachel?" Sam mused as he turned to face me.

"Taking a bath. Why, what's up?"

"You could stand a shower," Embry huffed as his nose crinkled in disgust.

I scowled at him and shrugged. "I wasn't exactly expecting company." I tried not to be mad at Embry for his shitty comment. After all, his imprint was still in Hawaii and I knew it was killing him. "And by the way, Embry. I wanted to thank you for protecting Rachel today. West is the worst kind of scum trying to blackmail her like this."

Sam nodded. "I heard about what happened and that's why we're here. We want to help."

I shook my head slowly. "I don't think Rachel wants our help."

"But she's your imprint. Our protection extends to her, whether she wants it or not," Sam reminded me.

I stood there considering how Rachel had been insisting on handling this herself. And I knew having the guys here, even though they were only trying to help, would surely piss her off. But before I could politely decline their assistance, Rachel walked out into the living room, clad in a towel, while using another towel to dry her hair.

"Baby...I was just wondering..." she paused when I called her name and she peeked out from under her towel.

"Shit!" she squealed as she darted back down the hall and slammed our bedroom door. Jared chuckled as we heard her constant stream of profanities. "You could have told me we had company!"

"Sorry, babe!" I called out to her.

I returned my attention to my pack brothers, feeling even more unsure about them meddling in her business. "Maybe you should just go before she comes back," I suggested.

"It's not good to be scared of your girlfriend," Embry quipped.

"I'm not scared! I just...don't wanna piss her off again."

"Scared," the three of them said in unison.

"She just doesn't want our help," I explained.

"You see the way Mr. West looks at her. He needs to be stopped, Paul. No way does he just want one date. He's manipulating her," Embry insisted as he raked his hand through his hair. "We should at least try..."

"No."

"Rachel, come on," Sam urged. "Let's talk about a solution. Just let us help you."

Rachel stepped next to me, slipping her hand into mine. "What can you do, Sam? You can't kill him, he's a human. You can't beat him up because he knows all of you. He'd call the cops. Just let this drop!"

"Maybe there is something we can do," Jared offered.

"You can't do anything! If I don't go along with this, he'll hurt Paul."

The guys scoffed. "No way he's stronger than Paul."

She shook her head quickly. "I know that! That's not what I meant."

"Just tell us," Embry urged gently.

Rachel turned to face me. "Mr. West isn't threatening to turn me in, Paul. He wants fail you."

I laughed. "That's it? That's why you're doing this? This is crazy, Rachel. I'll quit! This isn't worth taking a chance on you being alone with him."

Rachel shook her head and leaned against me. "I already know what I need to do," she sighed. "I already have a plan to stop him."

I wrapped my arms around her tightly and sighed. "And what's that?"

Rachel lifted her head up from where it had rested on my chest. She swallowed thickly and gave me the saddest look.

"I need you to break up with me."

~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~

I glanced up from my test, catching Rachel's gaze as her eyes darted around the room. She only looked at me for a split second before her eyes dropped back down to the stack of papers in front of her. I tried to focus on my test, wanting to do the best job I could. Rachel stayed up half the night quizzing me and we spent the rest of the time arguing.

Time ticked by as one by one, the other students finished their tests, dropped them off to Rachel and left. By the time the asshole said it was time to finish, I was the last one in the classroom.

"If you don't know the answers by now, you never will."

Eat a dick, Mr. West.

I gathered up my books and in three short strides, I stood in front of Rachel with my test in hand. She raised her head slowly, reaching for my test and frowning when I wouldn't let go. "Can we talk?"

"No," she huffed, pulling the test from my hand.

"You can't just ignore me," I growled when she stood to walk away.

"Your class time is over, Mr. Lahote. I suggest you remove yourself from my classroom...now," Mr. West ordered.

I continued to follow Rachel and ignored the dickhead. "Why won't you talk to me?" I asked, pulling on her elbow. "Are you too busy planning your date with him?"

Rachel turned to face me, just to glare into my eyes. "Just go. I'm not gonna change my mind."

I scoffed. "So that's it? It's over?"

"It doesn't have to be," she sighed. I caught her stealing a glance at Mr. West and I could feel my body start to vibrate.

"If you go out with him...we are through," I demanded, holding her chin in my hand.

She swallowed thickly and nodded. "Then I guess we're done," she squeaked.

I pulled my hair with both hands before whirling around to face the devil himself. "Does this make you happy? Was this what you wanted?"

Mr. West simply smirked, knowing he had won. I had to leave. I couldn't look at his face anymore.

"Paul," Rachel whispered as she tugged on my shirt sleeve. She walked around to face me and I felt my chest tighten when she produced her engagement ring, thrusting it at me. "I don't feel right keeping this."

"Are you fucking serious?" I seethed. "I can't believe this!"

I jammed the ring in my pocket and stomped to the doorway, tossing a snarl in his direction. "I hope he was worth it!" I called as I exited the classroom and left my imprint alone with the man I hated even more than my father.

Fuck.

~♡~♡~♡~♡~♡~

"Should we be doing this?"

Trey smiled down at me as he held the door open and motioned for me to walk in. "Why shouldn't we? We are celebrating after all."

"What could we possibly be celebrating?" I asked skeptically.

"e've been working together for two weeks," he announced, like I should have known that. "And also...your newfound freedom."

I sighed deeply when I thought about Paul. "Want me to find a table?"

Trey glanced around and nodded. "Hardly anyone here when you come in the middle of the day."

"Yeah, it's quiet." I paused to glance up at the menu board and scanned it quickly. "Can I just have a hot tea? No sugar please."

Trey looked so happy he could burst and after assuring him I didn't want any food, he scurried off to place the order. I just wanted to get this over with.

"Try not to look so sad," Trey smarmed when he returned to the carrying two coffee cups and two muffins. I pulled my gaze from my now empty ring finger and sighed.

"I didn't know I had to be cheery for this date, Trey."

He placed the cups on the table and scooted his chair closer to mine. "You should be cheery. You just saved yourself from a lifetime of being cheated on by a fuckboy. Paul would've never been able to keep it in his pants."

"You don't know him like I do. You have no idea what he's really like."

Mr. West took a sip of his coffee and chuckled. "Oh yeah? Did he ever tell you I caught him with a girl bent over my desk once?"

"You're lying," I gasped softly.

"No, it's true," he insisted, covering my hand with his. "In fact it was that Bianca we saw him in the library with."

That stung. Mostly because Paul never told me that and I had to be blindsided by Trey with the information. "I...I had no idea."

"They had their clothes on, but if I had walked in a moment later, I know that wouldn't have been the case. Paul just can't control himself, Rachel. He may have calmed down a little bit in the past six months, but his temper is still the worst. Do you want to be on the receiving end of one of his tantrums? You saw how he acted today."

I nodded quickly before sipping my tea. "Can we please stop talking about this? He already broke up with me. What more do you want?" I demanded angrily.

"Just this," he replied before squeezing my hand. "I love that you're giving me a chance."

I scoffed and pulled my hand away. "It's not like you gave me much of a choice."

"Does it really matter now? Sure it took some convincing on my part..."

"Convincing?" I echoed. "You said if I didn't go out with you then you would fail Paul. There really was no other option."

"He's your weak spot, Rachel." Trey smirked as he touched the tip of my nose. "It was easy to get you to go out with me and by threatening to fail Paul, I knew you'd give in. Haven't your wasted enough time trying to save some dumb kid who's only gonna end up hurting you?"

"Dumb?" I produced Paul's test from my purse and waved it in his face. "He can't be that dumb if he passed your super hard test with a B-. Maybe you should reconsider who you think is dumb the next time you try to blackmail your student teacher, Mr. West."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

I smirked. "I'm saying the only dumbass here.. is you."

"You're gonna regret saying that to me. Do you have any idea how I could fuck your life up? You need my evaluation to pass. You can't graduate without it," he seethed. "But don't worry. If you sleep with me, then maybe I'll reconsider."

"Is that a threat, Mr. West?"

Trey whirled around to find Principal Gordon standing behind him. Obviously, he was at a loss for words, so she continued. "Did I really just hear you ask Miss Black for sex in exchange for a favorable evaluation?"

Trey eyes grew wide as he stood. I breathed a sigh of relief when Paul pushed him down by his shoulders. "This is not what it looks like," he whined. "She's been coming onto me since day one."

Paul scoffed and I could see him starting to shake. "You're unbelievable, man."

I pulled Paul by his hand, needing to make sure he kept his distance. I didn't want Paul to give Trey an excuse to bring an assault charge on him. We rounded the table and stood next to Mrs. Gordon instead. I produced a small tape recorder from inside my bra and handed it to her.

"What the hell is that?" he spat.

Mrs. Gordon rewound the tape a bit and played it back.

"He's your weak spot, Rachel. It was easy to get you to go out with me and by threatening to fail Paul, I knew you'd give in. Haven't your wasted enough time trying to save some dumb kid who's only gonna end up hurting you?"

"You bitch!"

Trey jumped up and grabbed the table, forcing it forward and nearly knocking it over. Paul tucked me behind him and growled. "You really need to consider your next move very carefully, Mr. West. I'm a professional boxer. If you take the first swing, I won't go lightly on you."

Trey backed off a little and scoffed. He directed his attention back to Mrs. Gordon. "She's dating a student! You know that violates her contract. If I'm guilty, then she's guilty too," he pouted.

Mrs. Gordon nodded as she glared at Mr. West. "All that has been explained to me and Miss Black will be dealt with. But from what I understand, they aren't dating now, so..."

"That's bullshit," he fumed.

"Let's go, Mr. West. You can drive me back to campus and tell me more about this little blackmail scheme of yours. Somehow I think you'll need to polish up your resume soon," she replied, pausing to wink at me and then she addressed Paul. "And I expect to see you back on campus for your afternoon classes, young man."

Paul nodded and replied, "Of course I'll be there."

With that, my principal and former advisor breezed out the door. I could already hear Trey trying to weasel his way into keeping his job. It didn't matter to me, Principal Gordon had already promised to pair me with someone else for the remainder of my time. When Paul and I had sat down with her the day before and explained what had been going on between Paul and I as well as how Mr. West had been acting, she felt awful for what I had been through. Of course she wasn't happy that I had kept my relationship with Paul a secret, but we made her see that this was serious and had been going on since before I took the job. I had agreed to break up with him and keep my distance for the next four weeks, but we both knew that wasn't gonna happen. I found out that Principal Gordon was Paul's biggest fan. That boy could charm anyone...including me.

"We should go," I urged as I watched them drive off in Trey's car.

"Do you think she'll really fire him?" Paul mused as he pulled me close.

I tipped my head back to look up at him as I shrugged. "I don't even care at this point. I'm just glad he can't threaten me anymore."

"So now what?" Paul asked sweetly as his gaze lowered to my lips.

"Now we go back to school."

Paul pulled my hand and snapped me back to him when I tried to walk away. "Not so fast, Rachel." He lifted his pinky and my ring twinkled under the harsh fluorescent lights. "Put this back on.. please."

I sighed and wriggled out of his embrace. "Why don't you give it to Bianca?" I called over my shoulder as I stomped out of the cafè.

Paul jogged to catch up to me, spinning me around once I had reached his Bronco. "I don't want her, Rachel. That shit happened two years ago."

I stared at his chest as he leaned closer to me, caging me with his strong arms. "You should have told me."

He slid his hand behind my head and sighed. "You're right. You're always right and I'm sorry."

I peered up at him, temporarily lost in those beautiful dark eyes of his. "Don't you ever get tired of fighting with me?"

He chuckled as he pulled the passenger door open and waited for me to climb in. "I don't mind it as long as we get to make up later."

"Well maybe we won't this time," I replied, gazing up at him.

His face fell and his brow furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I cupped his cheek in my hand and held his face gently. "Maybe..." I paused to lick my lips and noticed the way he stared when I did. "Maybe we won't make up later. Maybe we should make up now, Paul."

A bright smile crept across his face as he lowered his mouth to mine. "I like that," he murmured before catching my lips with his. I pulled him close to me, needing to feel his body against mine. Even though our breakup was staged and never even a real possibility, it killed me to take my ring off.

Paul was it for me, the one the Spirits had chosen to be my mate for life. It seemed crazy when we met to consider how much this infuriating flirt would eventually mean to me, but here we were, making out furiously in a restaurant parking lot and making up for the hundredth time. It didn't matter to me how much we fought. I knew when it came down to it, there was no one else I'd rather have fallen in love with.

I pulled back from the kiss and tried to catch my breath. "What is it?" Paul gasped as he smoothed his hands over my hair.

"Can I have my ring back now?" I sighed.

Paul smiled sweetly at me, pressing another kiss to my lips before sliding the delicate ring back on my finger. "Should I ask you to marry me again? Because I will."

I laughed as I climbed into the Bronco and waited for Paul to join me. He held my hand in his as I smiled at him. "You can ask me as many times as you want, Paul. But the answer will always be yes. I will always want to be your girl."

Paul sucked in a deep breath, his chest puffing out with pride and love. "Then marry me, Rachel. Be my girl forever."

And I was.

The End

...

A/N: The epilogue is coming soon!

I

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