Broken Dreams(150)

“I still can’t believe all of this is happening. One day, I’m happy as a clam. The next, my world as I knew it had fallen apart.”

He made her look at him. “Claire, I want to make you happy again.” He was so sincere.

“Oh, Nick. I want to be happy again, too, but…how can any of us be happy in this madness? How is that possible?”

“We can figure it out.” He fiddled with her hair and touched her cheek.

“What if we decided to make a go of this? What if we fall in love, and something happens to one of us? What if we decided to marry eventually? And children? What about children?” Her questions were coming out in rapid fire.

“Claire.” He positioned himself so he could look her in the eye. “Listen to me. We can’t live on a ‘what if’ basis. We have to live in the now. We just have to. There is no other way to live anymore. We can’t take a single day for granted, thinking we’ll wake up tomorrow. I don’t know what my future is, none of us do, but why not try to make the best of our situation? Why not try to live in the now?”

She quickly realized that what Nick was saying was true. No one knew what would happen in five minutes, let alone ten years. She was so used to having everything planned out that it was hard for her to live spontaneously. Nick was absolutely right. There was no other way to live.

“Kiss me,” she whispered. He didn’t waste a second. He began kissing her passionately, and Claire returned it. The chill of his lips and tongue, as he stroked hers, made her shudder.

Nick pulled back. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, yes. Please, don’t stop…” She leaned into him for more. Nick began to kiss her neck.

Then she thought of Marc. She gasped and jumped back. “What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?” Claire sat there stunned for a moment, staring at him. “Claire?” He touched her cheek.

“Do you think they would have wanted us to move forward?” Nick took a deep breath. He knew what she was thinking.

“I think they would want us to be happy. So, yeah, I think they would want us to move forward.” He felt some sadness, but he knew Jenna would want him to move on.

“I think you’re right.” Claire dove back into Nick’s embrace. He laid her down on the bed. Things heated up, even though Nick’s body stayed cool. Her body prickled with his every touch.

He pulled back enough to soak her in. His eyes dazzled her, and she melted with his look. “You are everything a man could ever want, and so damn beautiful. I don’t know why I never…”

“Shhh…” She began kissing him again, pulling him back down on top of her. She loved the feel of his weight pressing down on her smaller frame. He felt so much different than Marc. It wasn’t that she hadn’t enjoyed Marc and his love making, but being with Nick was something she had yearned for. She let out a moan as he reached down and pulled her leg up.

“I want to kiss you all over.”

“Please…,” she whispered.

Nick laid a kiss on her forehead, then moved to her right ear. He drew her earlobe into his mouth and nipped it. Claire let out another soft moan. She held onto his hips as he ground them into hers. He circled the outer edge of her ear with his tongue, and then slowly worked his way down her neck, leaving kisses at each stopping point.

The deep V-neck t-shirt that Claire wore exposed what little cleavage she had. Nick was glad she hadn’t noticed that he was staring at her cleavage every second that he could throughout the day. He kissed her collarbone and down to her chest, where he met her shirt.

“Baby…this needs to come off.”

“Yours, too.” She wanted to see his fit chest, never imagining that she would be able to touch it.

Nick pulled back, and pulled his t-shirt over his head. Claire wiggled her way out of hers. She had on one of her only bras, and it happened to be emerald green lace that matched Nick’s eyes.

“Jesus Christ, Claire.” She smiled, as his eyes darted around her nearly naked upper body. “You are the most beautiful woman that I’ve ever seen.”

She laughed. “You are just saying that to get into my pants.”

He smirked at her. “Baby, I don’t need to compliment you to get into your pants. My good looks do it for me.” Claire burst out laughing, and Nick followed with a hearty chuckle.

“Keep going,” she said, as she grabbed his hair and pulled him back down to her lips. “I want more kisses.”

“No problem, baby.” He kissed her lips, and went back to where he left off. He nuzzled his way across her chest and pulled her right breast out of her bra. “Let’s just take this thing off, shall we?” She sat up, and he reached around behind. In a snap of a finger, her bra came off and hit the floor.