“I think so,” she said, “Only he didn’t realize it until after the breakup so.”
“So he was a bit more torn up about it when it happened?” Kurt felt excitement course through his veins. If they had been broken up for a while, she had ended things, and she had really felt the ways he was describing now then it was perhaps really okay for him to make a move. He got the feeling she was single. He wanted to ask, but since they were talking about Tyler, he figured that could wait.
“I mean, we were both torn up but yes, he took it a bit harder initially. That happened a little over a year ago, though, and we’re okay now. We still talk casually, but hang out rarely. I guess that’s just the way these things go.”
Kurt cleared his throat and placed his hand on his knee. His finger twitched. He wanted to reach out and snatch up Claire’s hand to feel her slender hand swallowed by his. He looked into her eyes before his gaze drifted down to her pretty, pink lips which she applied a light coat of gloss too.
He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to do things with her he had always dreamt of doing. But he doubted if she felt the same way, particularly given there was no way it could actually amount to anything. And that was something that tugged on him a bit too. He had been so madly in love with her that he didn’t know if he could just have sex with her and skip town without some kind of lingering desire to explore an actual relationship with her. But as his gaze moved back up to look into her hazel eyes and he remembered the way her cleavage had looked as she started leaning forward in the car, he felt a slight stirring in his pants. He cleared his throat again and shifted in his seat.
“Well, I’m glad it wasn’t anything terribly heart-wrenching. I know it hurt, but you know what I mean.”
“What? Like Tyler cheating on me? I forgave him for that years ago,” she responded coolly.
“What?” Kurt looked at her with wide eyes.
Claire giggled and scooted closer to him to bump her shoulder against his. “I’m kidding,” she told him. Then she stopped giggling and stared into his eyes.
Kurt could feel his heart slowly thudding faster and faster, like a train picking up speed. His breathing slowed and suddenly everything around them went quiet. If ever there was a moment he felt was the perfect time to kiss her, it was right then. The way she was looking at him made it hard for him not to lean in, so he did, but only slightly. As soon as he did he realized what was happening and he turned to pretend he was scratching an itch on his shoulder on the opposite side. He shut his eyes and exhaled. As much as he wanted to kiss her he didn’t know if the moment for it was right after talking about her ex, that very one who had taken his chance from having a relationship with her.
Now that he had the courage the timing was off.
But when he turned around to face her again he found that she hadn’t moved an inch and she was still staring him down in the same way. It was almost as if she were challenging him.
He took the bait.
He did what he had wanted to do all night, what he had wanted to do since she walked into the party at his house. In fact, it was what he had wanted to do from his teen years in his final year of high school.
He leaned forward and placed his hand on her cheek before gently pressing his lips against hers.
Chapter Four
When she didn’t back away, Kurt placed his hand at the back of her head and started kissing her. She kissed him back deeper. He parted his lips slightly to run the tip of his tongue along her lower lip and she readily parted her lips so he could deepen the kiss. Claire shifted her body so she could kiss him more comfortably and Kurt responded by placing his other arm at the top of her back, slowly pushing her in toward him.
They kissed for a while, slowly the entire time, before finally breaking to take in some air. Claire’s eyes were glittering even under the dull lights of the little park. Kurt’s heart was racing. He had spent years fantasizing what that would feel like and nothing he could have thought up matched the reality of it. He moved his hand from her back to the curve of her waist and brushed a few strands of her hair off her face with his other hand. He wanted to tell her how long he had wanted to do that, but held off on it. He was going to go into this thing strong. He wasn’t going to make the mistakes the teenage version of himself made.
He stared into her eyes for a couple minutes before suddenly moving in and kissing her again. This time he held her face between both hands and kissed more passionately. She leaned in to it after taking a couple seconds to catch up. Kurt thought of her revealing that there had been no intensity or craving in her relationship with Tyler. He wanted to show her what it was like to be with someone where those things existed in abundance. He craved every inch of her with an unmatched intensity and it wasn’t just about sex. It was about Claire; it was entirely about all of her. As soon as he started to lament the fact he wouldn’t be able to explore all that, he kissed her harder. It was the only remedy he could think of in the moment.
Finally, he broke the kiss and drew in a deep breath, dropping his hands to rest on her shoulders. Claire was breathing harder than normal. He could see her breasts heaving slightly from the corner of his eye. He felt another stir in his pants and gulped. The last thing he wanted was to wind up with a situation out there at the park during his first hang out with Claire in years. Sure, they had kissed and it had been quite amazing, but that didn’t mean she wanted to see a bulge in his pants already.
Kurt stood up and reached out. She looked at his hand and looked up at him. Biting her lower lip and nodding, she stood up and slid her slender hand in his. They walked back out to the main street, hand in hand, something he could have only dreamed of as a teenager. But now it had come so much more easily to him. He had spent the party talking to her and, before she left, easily asked her to hang out. But still, even with the newfound confidence only adulthood could bring, all the feelings of his teenage years came rushing back.
Now he had taken initiative and kissed her. It was almost too good to be true, at least for his younger self still lingering in his mind. If she were any other girl this would have been completely normal to him. But Claire wasn’t just any woman and he was very well aware of that. He had never forgotten just how much she meant to him. He still recalled the stinging pain when he found out she was with Tyler and how he hated the feeling in his gut when he heard the news of her engagement. But now they were strolling about, almost as if they were an actual couple.
It was almost exactly like old times as they walked around and looked through the windows of old shops that had been there for years, some in dire need of an update. They shared memories from their youth and talked about how they had grown and changed.
“You’re certainly less timid,” Claire said suddenly as they rounded the corner after looking at the stonework of the local library’s architecture. “I mean, you weren’t exactly timid back then but you seem a lot bolder now.”
Kurt turned to smirk at her. It was true. He had truly broken out of his shell when he left his hometown for good. He had always been a little more timid and shy. That all changed when he went to college and only continued to change from there. Once he joined the Army he really came into his own as a leader and that helped him earn his way up to Corporal in as quick of time as possible. After he joined the Army he really felt like he had found his place and he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. He loved being a soldier and that was something he made sure to mention to Claire.
“That’s really good,” she said as they walked down the street. The street beside the library was a bit darker than the others since they were now on the edge of the main square and there were no houses or apartments in the area. “I’ve always admired soldiers.”
Kurt smiled with pride. He squeezed her hand, “What do you want to do now?” They had been walking aimlessly for a very long time, completely lost in conversation. Kurt turned just in time to see her shrug. He pursed his lips together and started brainstorming ideas of what they could do when h
e heard her clear her throat.
“Come visit my house?”
“But your parents-”
“I don’t live with my parents, silly. See what happens when you never come around?” Claire nudged his arm. “My parents moved to a house across town. I convinced them not to sell the old one and I kept it. In exchange, I pay half their current mortgage.” Claire grinned and he looked at how happy she looked. He felt his chest swell. That was a pretty sweet deal, but he couldn’t help but notice the difference between them.
He had left his house the first chance he got and Claire had instead convinced her parents to let her stay in the house she grew up in. She was never in a rush to leave, though. That was something he always knew about her. She had always been much more comfortable and happy in this place than he was. She had also had much more of an emotional attachment to the people she lived around and the town in and of itself.
“So you’re going to give me the tour of your place? I think it should look quite different now that it’s all yours,” he told her trying to sound as casual as possible. The truth was the idea of going back to her house and being there alone with her was exciting. It was invigorating. Then his mind flashed back to the pillows he had seen on the bench swing on the porch and it all made sense. They had definitely more her style.
Claire turned around and pulled him in the direction of where they had parked, soon arriving at the car. They got in and he sped off toward her house, blasting some old tunes they liked from high school days as they went along. Kurt listened in amusement as she enthusiastically sang along to some of the lines and then burst into laughter. The wind flowed freely through the cars windows and the stars looked like little dots in the night sky. In his mind’s eye this looked like a dream scenario from when he was younger. He pulled into her driveway behind her car and the two of them stepped out. He watched her hips sway as she walked ahead of him on the walkway and then leapt daintily up the stairs to her front door.
Claire unlocked and opened the door before sticking her hand inside and switching on the entrance light. Then she turned to face him with a large grin.
“Welcome to my humble abode!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. She reached around to close and lock the door behind him, the side of one of her breasts grazed his arm momentarily and sent the stirring into his pants once again. Claire let go of his hand in favor of walking forward and flipping on the living room light. It was a somewhat small, but cozy space filled with lots of colors. She had decorated in a modern yet welcoming manner, all the mish mash of colors was actually pleasing to the eye. It was clear she had a knack for what looked good, right down to what looked good on her.
She kept walking forward and walked through an archway into the dining room. It was very simple and less colorful but the colors she had decorated with popped. Then they kept walking to get into the kitchen. Kurt noticed she had completely taken out the den and expanded the kitchen to make one worthy of a budding home chef.
“I really love to cook,” she said almost sheepishly as she watched his eyes roam over all the high-end appliances and ample counter space equipped with butcher-block surfaces. It was definitely a lot sleeker than the rest of the house but somehow she still made it all flow.
“Do you? Then you’ll have to cook me some dinner before I leave,” Kurt told her. He walked forward and ran his hand over the clean, smooth surface of one of the counters. Then he felt her slide up next to him.
“I’ll be happy to,” she said in a subtly, sultry voice.
In an instant, Kurt had turned to face her and pulled her into a passionate kiss. He didn’t want to waste any of the time he spent with her. It was like he wanted to fit everything he had missed out on years ago in the span of the two weeks he would be visiting and, suddenly, that didn’t seem like a daunting amount of time to spend back in his hometown.
He grabbed her waist and pulled her in toward him until her lean body pressed against his. He felt her breasts smash against his chest and he kissed her even more fervently. It wasn’t until he was running out of breath that he finally loosened his grip on her and pulled away a bit. Claire looked up at him, starry eyed.
“I want to taste,” he said in a low growl of a whisper as he leaned in close to her ear, “Your food.” He kissed her ear lightly and felt her body shudder against his. Then he let her go entirely and took a step back glad there wasn’t yet a tent forming in his pants. “Is that all?”
“Of course not,” Claire responded rather breathlessly with her cheeks still flushed a cute shade of bright pink. “There is the upstairs,” she reminded him.
“Oh right,” he said jokingly, “How could I forget?”
He was curious to see what she had made of her old bedroom. Her parents, nice as they were, had always been a bit more on the strict and old-fashioned side. That meant no boys were allowed in her room and that rule applied even to him, whom they had known for many years. It was only when they were out that she would let him go upstairs with her if they were stopping by to drop off or pick anything up before going to hang out somewhere in town. He doubted she had kept it the same even as she grew up so he thought it would be interesting to see what she had done with it now that the house was all hers.
It was the first door to the right when they went up the stairs and it was open. She stepped inside and moved to the side so Kurt could follow. It was a home office, just as brightly decorated as the living room downstairs. She turned to look at him with a smile. On one side, opposite the door, was a large desk and where her bed used to be was a loveseat nestled between two bookcases. It was quite nice and he imagined a great workspace.
“This is my second favorite room in the house,” she confessed.
“I can see why,” he told her as he walked in to look at some of the titles that found a home in one of her two bookcases. He ran his index finger over some of them as he recalled they were on their high school reading list. That was when it struck him that he didn’t even have the slightest clue as to what she did for a living.
“Hey,” he told her as he turned back around to face her. She was watching him intently. “We’ve talked for hours today and you haven’t even told me exactly what you do. You’ve only mentioned stuff about your job.”
“Oh,” she said and then giggled. “Strange, right? Remember old Jerry’s deli that he opened up an actual restaurant for in the town over?” Kurt nodded. He remembered how much they had liked going to that deli on Fridays after school. He even remembered exactly what he ordered and wondered if it was still on the menu. In all his years he had never come across a sandwich quite like the one from Jerry’s. “Well, he opened a couple catering and banquet houses in a few towns over and it has been a real boom. I help organize the places and the events. So I’m old Jerry’s official organizer. Well, I was. Now his son took over.”
“Did old Jerry-”
“Oh, my gosh, no! He just retired,” Claire said as she placed her hand flat on her chest and took a deep breath as if he had said something terrible. Which in retrospect, he kind of had, even if it was a legitimate question.
“Anyway,” she said a moment later, “I really like it.”
“That’s good,” he smiled as he remembered everything she had mentioned about her job. It was all good and she did seem genuinely happy with what she did. It was just strange to think that such a career had come out of a place like this and a local deli, of all things. He walked back up to her and Claire immediately turned to walk out and lead him to the bathroom. It was clean and modern with pops of color just like he had seen in the dining room.
“Just a bathroom,” she said as she ran one of the decorative towels through her fingers. She turned around to find Kurt blocking the doorway. His eyes were stuck to her like glue.
Then he walked forward into the bathroom until her back was up against the wall and his hands were around her waist. His lips found hers again, just as passionately as they had in the kitchen. He was making out with her all over
her house in ways he could have only dreamed of in his youth, only he would have never been so confident and dominant back in those days. Perhaps he had been too timid back then or even too in love, he wasn’t sure. Either way, it sure was great to do it now.
He pulled away as Claire looked at him with surprise in her eyes, but he could tell it was a good kind of surprise. He smirked before turning on his heel and walking out of the bathroom.
“What’s next?” he asked casually even though his mind was now racing with thoughts. Eventually they would be in her bedroom and he would want to kiss her again when they were in there. He would want to do a lot more than just kiss her. And he certainly had the courage to go for it. If she didn’t want something to happen, he would completely respect that. But this was his chance to finally be with her in some kind of way and he didn’t want to drop the ball on it.
Claire cleared her throat and straightened her dress before walking out of the bathroom and straight to the door at the end of the hallway upstairs. She opened the door to reveal a large and completely remodeled master bedroom. Kurt had only been in there once or twice before but it had looked absolutely nothing like it did now. This was sleek and modern but still welcoming. It was lively with all the bright colors inside.
Hard Love: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance Page 7
