Love in a New Light, Chapter Three: You Can't Undo What's Already Been Done
Title: Love in a New Light, Chapter 3
Author: Me, anirishtwilight
Pairing: Quil/Claire
Rating: PG-13 for now but the rating might go up later. :]
Warnings: None
Wordcount: Approx. 2,771
Disclaimer: They aren't mine! Even though I love them dearly!
A/N: Claire has just returned to La Push after living in California for 5 years for college. Quil has spent her entire life hiding his feelings from her until the right moment. Now it seems the time is right, but will Claire want what he has to offer?
Chapter 3
The day flew by, and before either of them realized it, the sun had begun casting its late afternoon shadows across the earth. At around 5pm, Quil wiped a dirt streaked hand across his brow. Claire had been pulling him around the house all day making plans for their impending construction project. It wasn’t that he minded spending the time with her, by any means, but his stomach had begun growling so loud that she could hear it across the room.
“Jeez, Quil, are you seriously telling me that entire pizza you ate by yourself at lunch wasn’t enough for you? You’re hungry again?” she said it with an incredulous laugh that had her bright white teeth shining through the dusty smudges on her cheeks.
“Hey, I can’t help it, okay? A growing boy has to eat.” He grinned and wrapped a playful arm around her shoulders, rubbing her hair affectionately. Although he made the gesture in the same way he always had-she was still, and always would be, his Clairebear-after their kiss earlier that day, he couldn’t help but feel a certain jolt whenever his body made contact with hers. The feeling was akin to some kind of static electricity running between them. He wasn’t entirely sure he was comfortable with it.
She craned her neck to look up at him, her petite height of 5’3” completely dwarfed by his 6’5”. “Speaking of growing, when did you get so tall? I practically need binoculars to see your face up there.”
Quil fixed a very serious expression on his face and said, “Oh, you know. My bed is next to a microwave.”
She stared at him for a moment, and then exploded into a fit of laugher. Through gasps of air she said, “Yeah, well, you’ll have to find me one of those so I can catch up.”
After getting a grip on her sanity again, she sighed dramatically and twisted out of his grasp to put her hands on her hips in a pose of mock impatience. “Okay, growing boy, back to the matter at hand. What do we need to get you to eat this time?”
He paused, running his hand absently across the back of his neck. Part of him wanted to ask her to come to his house. He wanted to spend the rest of the night with her-hell, he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her-but he didn’t want to rush her into anything, considering the circumstances she wasn’t even aware of yet. He wondered if she would even want to have dinner with him or if he was just imagining this new found chemistry between them.
“Actually, I was thinking maybe you could come over to my place tonight, if you wanted to. I could cook you dinner and show you around. You haven’t been in La Push since I got my very own house!”
He wasn’t going to admit to himself or to her that he was holding his breath for her answer. He tried to convince himself that he’d be okay with whatever response she gave him, but when she grinned and bounced up on the balls of her feet like she always did when she was especially excited, he almost laughed with giddy relief.
“I’d love to! Wow, breakfast and dinner in the same day? Clearly you’re the man of my dreams. Sign me up!”
He chuckled and took a step closer to her, pushing the limits of the new connection they had made. He lifted his hand to brush his thumb over the soft skin of her cheek and heard her breath catch. Ducking his head so he was eye to eye with her he spoke in a low, husky tone; “In the meantime, let me show you how much I really did enjoy your kissing skills.”
He hesitated for a moment-not because he was unsure of what he was doing, but to draw the moment out. He saw her eyes flutter shut and he moved in slowly, just barely rubbing his lips across hers. She curled her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to him as he deepened the kiss just slightly. Not too much too fast, Quil, he reminded himself. His hands stroked up her back until he cupped one hand at the base of her neck.
She tilted her head to the side to have better access at his lips, and he held her to him with the hand that he had pressed at the small of her back. When he felt them both getting a little out of control from the heat of the kiss, he pulled away reluctantly. He gave her a slow smile when she finally opened her eyes.
She smiled back, a bit winded, and said, “Okay. I believe you now.”
*****
Quil drove Claire to her parent’s house so she could get cleaned up and changed for dinner while he went home to prepare for the night. He was still flying pretty high from that kiss, and he couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of getting his hands on her again.
It was a strange feeling for him. He was adjusting pretty well, if he did say so himself; but he had gotten so used to thinking of Claire as a younger sister out of necessity all of these years that this new change was a lot to take in. He certainly didn’t mind, however.
Things certainly had changed since she’d returned from California. He knew it was going to happen someday, but there was no way he could have prepared himself for that first jolt that ran through him when he saw her again after all of those years. It was like someone had plugged him into the electrical socket finally. Although all he had ever seen was Claire since he first met her when she was two, this was a different kind of feeling for him. His feelings for her had immediately turned from big brother to the something much more.
He drew in an unsteady breath just thinking about it. It was exhilarating being in love this way, but he felt completely lost as to how to approach the issue with Claire. She was obviously attracted to him, but the reality of the situation was larger than life. How could he explain this to her? Hey, I know I was like a brother to you all these years, but now I actually want to marry you. Or maybe I realize I’m sixteen years older than you, but I swear I’m young for my age. He had a lot of explaining to do. Not to mention the whole-By the way, I’m a mythical creature that phases into a giant dog whenever I want…is that cool with you?
After pulling his truck into his small gravel driveway, he scrubbed his hands over his face. He would have to figure it out, somehow. He couldn’t stand to lose her now, that was for sure.
Resolving that he would cross that bridge when he came to it, he jumped out of his truck, slamming the door behind him. He opened the door to his house, depositing his keys haphazardly on the small table next to the door. After closing it behind him, he went through the sliding patio doors that took up one entire side of his kitchen’s wall to fire up his grill.
He would take a shower while the grill was heating up, and then cook dinner when he got out. This thought in mind, he pulled his dirty t-shirt over his head and quickly ran a hand through his cropped hair. Re-entering the kitchen, he realized the small answering machine on the counter was blinking red, indicating he had three messages. He punched the play button impatiently.
“Yo, Brother! It’s Jake. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since Claire’s party…although I guess I really don’t need to ask do I? When you figure out how to peel off that layer of gooey, lovey-dovey candy from your brain, give me a call.”
Quil noted to punch Jake in the face for that one.
“Quil, it’s your mother. Give me a call please. Love you, baby.”
He rolled his eyes at that one. He could be 60 and she would still call him baby. In a way it was endearing, but mostly just embarrassing. The next message had Sam’s voice ringing through his kitchen.
“Hey Quil. It’s not a problem now, otherwise I would have found you myself, but we may have an issue on its way. All of us are going to get together tonight around 1am. I’ll fill you in then. Until then, enjoy your night with Claire.”
He shook his head incredulously, wondering how on earth he knew about his night with Claire already. Sometimes he thought maybe it was better not to know. What worried him more was what this possible problem was.
He was still thinking about it when he stepped out of the shower and got dressed. He dragged on a pair of his best jeans and a decent black t-shirt and padded out to the kitchen to get dinner started. He was making them rosemary seasoned steak with garlic potatoes and buttered green beans. From what he remembered, this was one of Claire’s favorite dinners. That was one advantage of having been around every day of her life since she was a child-he knew exactly what she loved and hated and what made her tick…for the most part.
He was just setting the table when he heard the knock on the door. I only took his long legs three strides across the small living room to reach for the knob. The last coherent thought in his mind after opening the door was that he should have prepared himself for this.
Claire hadn’t dressed up, but what she had worn had the apparent air of being expensive and big city. She wore attractive, tailored jeans that conformed to her shape in all the right places. Her white tank top had a gathered bodice that tightened around her ribcage but then fell slack around the rest of her abdomen. He noticed that she was considerably closer to his face, and took note of the fact that she had strapped on 4 inch wedge sandals to complete her look.
Nothing about her look was as stunning, however, as Claire herself. Her ebony hair fell in perfect arcs around her face and she wore just a minimal amount of make-up-she didn’t need much…just enough to make him utterly insane.
When he finally found his voice, he croaked out, “You look beautiful, Claire.”
She grinned, always comfortable, and said “You’re looking pretty dashing yourself, Handsome.”
She raised up on her toes to plant a firm kiss on his lips before whirling away to look around his small house. He stood there, cemented in the spot for a moment, before he was able to close the door and show her around.
“Quil this is so adorable! I really love what you’ve done in here. Who knew you were such a little home maker!” She was currently running her palm over the smooth leather of his couch.
He smiled, “Yeah, well, my mother spent all of my formative years beating it into my head and to her intense pleasure it all stuck.”
She paced around the room, looking at the black and white photos of nature he had hung on the walls.
“These are beautiful. Where did you get them? I might want to get some for the walls of my new mansion.”
He walked over to stand beside her, “I took them myself.”
She snapped her head around to look at him, her eyes wide. “Seriously? They’re amazing Quil!”
He smiled, “Yeah, I needed something to do while you were in California, didn’t I?”
She was stunned. She would never have pegged Quil to be an artist; he was the typical outdoors kind of man, and always one to run with the boys. It was absolutely shocking right to the ground to see this other intimate side of him. She turned to him and shook her head, “Amazing.”
A lopsided grin broke out on his face, “Thank you.”
He took her hand and brushed his thumb across her knuckles before saying, “Come on, lets see if I can amaze you with my artistry in the kitchen as well.”
*****
Claire was completely stuffed, and thoroughly impressed that Quil had supplied her with such a delicious meal. The man had some serious skills in the kitchen, which was hard to come by in such an attractive man. He was just racking up the points on the hotness scale, as far as she was concerned--which was not helping the tension that was already electrifying the air after their kiss from earlier that day. They had conveniently avoided the subject all throughout dinner, but Claire wasn't really one to let something go that intrigued her; Quil definitely intrigued her.
She swirled the red wine around in the elegant glass he had given her. They were sitting in his backyard, stretched out on a thick woven blanket he had laid out for this purpose. The night was beautiful and it would have been a shame to waste it inside. She took a deep breath and turned to smile at him--a slow, flirtatious smile.
"So, have you been thinking?"
He had assumed a position stretched completely out on his back with his head pillowed on his hands. His eyes had been closed and a serene smile had been fixed on his features. With his, his eyes flickered open slowly and he turned his head to look at her inquisitively as if she had woken him out of a deep sleep. "Hmmm? Thinking?"
She grinned, "Yes, Quil, thinking. Remember you said you needed to think about things?"
He propped himself up on his elbows, a small frown forming between his brows.
"I think maybe I've been thinking too much. It probably isn't right for me to be thinking about you as much as I have been."
This was exactly what Claire wanted to hear. She was absolutely awful at being demure-- especially with Quil-- and therefore rather than playing a sly temptress, she let a smile of unabandoned pleasure spread across her face. She sat up to curl her legs under her, sidling herself up to his side and looking down at him, her hair cascading over one shoulder.
"Okay, so what does that mean?" she said lifting one sculpted eyebrow.
She felt her heart flutter when he pulled himself upright so he was eye to eye with her. "It means, Claire, that even if I wanted to stop thinking about you, I don't think I can. I don't know what you've done to me."
He lifted a hand to her face, his palm and long fingers cupping her chin lightly as he leaned into her face. She gasped in a short breath before his lips met hers. It was slow and testing at first, just like their second kiss. He stroked his long fingers down her face from temple to jaw until he cupped his hand at the base of her neck. She turned her head to allow him to deepen the kiss, lifting her hands to run them over his shoulders and down his arms. What she wasn't expecting was her reaction when he nipped her lip playfully.
Suddenly it was as if every inch of her body was on fire, the flames licking her skin ruthlessly. She moaned and pulled herself closer to him. This time he didn’t stop her from losing control; he didn’t pull away like he had earlier right when he felt that tether starting to strain. She heard something akin to a low growl emanate from him as he trailed his lips down the column of her throat. Her hands found their way under his shirt to grip at the muscles of his back. She lost all sense of time, so she wasn't sure how long this went on before he broke away leaving them both breathless.
She held his gaze, the look in his eyes more intense than any she had seen in anyone else’s. She still couldn't identify the emotion--it was something deeper than anything else she had ever experienced. It sent a pleasant shiver down her spine as a shaky smile formed on her lips.
"Well, okay then. I can't say I want to undo whatever I've done."
Chapter 2 | Chapter 4
Author: Me, anirishtwilight
Pairing: Quil/Claire
Rating: PG-13 for now but the rating might go up later. :]
Warnings: None
Wordcount: Approx. 2,771
Disclaimer: They aren't mine! Even though I love them dearly!
A/N: Claire has just returned to La Push after living in California for 5 years for college. Quil has spent her entire life hiding his feelings from her until the right moment. Now it seems the time is right, but will Claire want what he has to offer?
Chapter 3
The day flew by, and before either of them realized it, the sun had begun casting its late afternoon shadows across the earth. At around 5pm, Quil wiped a dirt streaked hand across his brow. Claire had been pulling him around the house all day making plans for their impending construction project. It wasn’t that he minded spending the time with her, by any means, but his stomach had begun growling so loud that she could hear it across the room.
“Jeez, Quil, are you seriously telling me that entire pizza you ate by yourself at lunch wasn’t enough for you? You’re hungry again?” she said it with an incredulous laugh that had her bright white teeth shining through the dusty smudges on her cheeks.
“Hey, I can’t help it, okay? A growing boy has to eat.” He grinned and wrapped a playful arm around her shoulders, rubbing her hair affectionately. Although he made the gesture in the same way he always had-she was still, and always would be, his Clairebear-after their kiss earlier that day, he couldn’t help but feel a certain jolt whenever his body made contact with hers. The feeling was akin to some kind of static electricity running between them. He wasn’t entirely sure he was comfortable with it.
She craned her neck to look up at him, her petite height of 5’3” completely dwarfed by his 6’5”. “Speaking of growing, when did you get so tall? I practically need binoculars to see your face up there.”
Quil fixed a very serious expression on his face and said, “Oh, you know. My bed is next to a microwave.”
She stared at him for a moment, and then exploded into a fit of laugher. Through gasps of air she said, “Yeah, well, you’ll have to find me one of those so I can catch up.”
After getting a grip on her sanity again, she sighed dramatically and twisted out of his grasp to put her hands on her hips in a pose of mock impatience. “Okay, growing boy, back to the matter at hand. What do we need to get you to eat this time?”
He paused, running his hand absently across the back of his neck. Part of him wanted to ask her to come to his house. He wanted to spend the rest of the night with her-hell, he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her-but he didn’t want to rush her into anything, considering the circumstances she wasn’t even aware of yet. He wondered if she would even want to have dinner with him or if he was just imagining this new found chemistry between them.
“Actually, I was thinking maybe you could come over to my place tonight, if you wanted to. I could cook you dinner and show you around. You haven’t been in La Push since I got my very own house!”
He wasn’t going to admit to himself or to her that he was holding his breath for her answer. He tried to convince himself that he’d be okay with whatever response she gave him, but when she grinned and bounced up on the balls of her feet like she always did when she was especially excited, he almost laughed with giddy relief.
“I’d love to! Wow, breakfast and dinner in the same day? Clearly you’re the man of my dreams. Sign me up!”
He chuckled and took a step closer to her, pushing the limits of the new connection they had made. He lifted his hand to brush his thumb over the soft skin of her cheek and heard her breath catch. Ducking his head so he was eye to eye with her he spoke in a low, husky tone; “In the meantime, let me show you how much I really did enjoy your kissing skills.”
He hesitated for a moment-not because he was unsure of what he was doing, but to draw the moment out. He saw her eyes flutter shut and he moved in slowly, just barely rubbing his lips across hers. She curled her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to him as he deepened the kiss just slightly. Not too much too fast, Quil, he reminded himself. His hands stroked up her back until he cupped one hand at the base of her neck.
She tilted her head to the side to have better access at his lips, and he held her to him with the hand that he had pressed at the small of her back. When he felt them both getting a little out of control from the heat of the kiss, he pulled away reluctantly. He gave her a slow smile when she finally opened her eyes.
She smiled back, a bit winded, and said, “Okay. I believe you now.”
*****
Quil drove Claire to her parent’s house so she could get cleaned up and changed for dinner while he went home to prepare for the night. He was still flying pretty high from that kiss, and he couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of getting his hands on her again.
It was a strange feeling for him. He was adjusting pretty well, if he did say so himself; but he had gotten so used to thinking of Claire as a younger sister out of necessity all of these years that this new change was a lot to take in. He certainly didn’t mind, however.
Things certainly had changed since she’d returned from California. He knew it was going to happen someday, but there was no way he could have prepared himself for that first jolt that ran through him when he saw her again after all of those years. It was like someone had plugged him into the electrical socket finally. Although all he had ever seen was Claire since he first met her when she was two, this was a different kind of feeling for him. His feelings for her had immediately turned from big brother to the something much more.
He drew in an unsteady breath just thinking about it. It was exhilarating being in love this way, but he felt completely lost as to how to approach the issue with Claire. She was obviously attracted to him, but the reality of the situation was larger than life. How could he explain this to her? Hey, I know I was like a brother to you all these years, but now I actually want to marry you. Or maybe I realize I’m sixteen years older than you, but I swear I’m young for my age. He had a lot of explaining to do. Not to mention the whole-By the way, I’m a mythical creature that phases into a giant dog whenever I want…is that cool with you?
After pulling his truck into his small gravel driveway, he scrubbed his hands over his face. He would have to figure it out, somehow. He couldn’t stand to lose her now, that was for sure.
Resolving that he would cross that bridge when he came to it, he jumped out of his truck, slamming the door behind him. He opened the door to his house, depositing his keys haphazardly on the small table next to the door. After closing it behind him, he went through the sliding patio doors that took up one entire side of his kitchen’s wall to fire up his grill.
He would take a shower while the grill was heating up, and then cook dinner when he got out. This thought in mind, he pulled his dirty t-shirt over his head and quickly ran a hand through his cropped hair. Re-entering the kitchen, he realized the small answering machine on the counter was blinking red, indicating he had three messages. He punched the play button impatiently.
“Yo, Brother! It’s Jake. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since Claire’s party…although I guess I really don’t need to ask do I? When you figure out how to peel off that layer of gooey, lovey-dovey candy from your brain, give me a call.”
Quil noted to punch Jake in the face for that one.
“Quil, it’s your mother. Give me a call please. Love you, baby.”
He rolled his eyes at that one. He could be 60 and she would still call him baby. In a way it was endearing, but mostly just embarrassing. The next message had Sam’s voice ringing through his kitchen.
“Hey Quil. It’s not a problem now, otherwise I would have found you myself, but we may have an issue on its way. All of us are going to get together tonight around 1am. I’ll fill you in then. Until then, enjoy your night with Claire.”
He shook his head incredulously, wondering how on earth he knew about his night with Claire already. Sometimes he thought maybe it was better not to know. What worried him more was what this possible problem was.
He was still thinking about it when he stepped out of the shower and got dressed. He dragged on a pair of his best jeans and a decent black t-shirt and padded out to the kitchen to get dinner started. He was making them rosemary seasoned steak with garlic potatoes and buttered green beans. From what he remembered, this was one of Claire’s favorite dinners. That was one advantage of having been around every day of her life since she was a child-he knew exactly what she loved and hated and what made her tick…for the most part.
He was just setting the table when he heard the knock on the door. I only took his long legs three strides across the small living room to reach for the knob. The last coherent thought in his mind after opening the door was that he should have prepared himself for this.
Claire hadn’t dressed up, but what she had worn had the apparent air of being expensive and big city. She wore attractive, tailored jeans that conformed to her shape in all the right places. Her white tank top had a gathered bodice that tightened around her ribcage but then fell slack around the rest of her abdomen. He noticed that she was considerably closer to his face, and took note of the fact that she had strapped on 4 inch wedge sandals to complete her look.
Nothing about her look was as stunning, however, as Claire herself. Her ebony hair fell in perfect arcs around her face and she wore just a minimal amount of make-up-she didn’t need much…just enough to make him utterly insane.
When he finally found his voice, he croaked out, “You look beautiful, Claire.”
She grinned, always comfortable, and said “You’re looking pretty dashing yourself, Handsome.”
She raised up on her toes to plant a firm kiss on his lips before whirling away to look around his small house. He stood there, cemented in the spot for a moment, before he was able to close the door and show her around.
“Quil this is so adorable! I really love what you’ve done in here. Who knew you were such a little home maker!” She was currently running her palm over the smooth leather of his couch.
He smiled, “Yeah, well, my mother spent all of my formative years beating it into my head and to her intense pleasure it all stuck.”
She paced around the room, looking at the black and white photos of nature he had hung on the walls.
“These are beautiful. Where did you get them? I might want to get some for the walls of my new mansion.”
He walked over to stand beside her, “I took them myself.”
She snapped her head around to look at him, her eyes wide. “Seriously? They’re amazing Quil!”
He smiled, “Yeah, I needed something to do while you were in California, didn’t I?”
She was stunned. She would never have pegged Quil to be an artist; he was the typical outdoors kind of man, and always one to run with the boys. It was absolutely shocking right to the ground to see this other intimate side of him. She turned to him and shook her head, “Amazing.”
A lopsided grin broke out on his face, “Thank you.”
He took her hand and brushed his thumb across her knuckles before saying, “Come on, lets see if I can amaze you with my artistry in the kitchen as well.”
*****
Claire was completely stuffed, and thoroughly impressed that Quil had supplied her with such a delicious meal. The man had some serious skills in the kitchen, which was hard to come by in such an attractive man. He was just racking up the points on the hotness scale, as far as she was concerned--which was not helping the tension that was already electrifying the air after their kiss from earlier that day. They had conveniently avoided the subject all throughout dinner, but Claire wasn't really one to let something go that intrigued her; Quil definitely intrigued her.
She swirled the red wine around in the elegant glass he had given her. They were sitting in his backyard, stretched out on a thick woven blanket he had laid out for this purpose. The night was beautiful and it would have been a shame to waste it inside. She took a deep breath and turned to smile at him--a slow, flirtatious smile.
"So, have you been thinking?"
He had assumed a position stretched completely out on his back with his head pillowed on his hands. His eyes had been closed and a serene smile had been fixed on his features. With his, his eyes flickered open slowly and he turned his head to look at her inquisitively as if she had woken him out of a deep sleep. "Hmmm? Thinking?"
She grinned, "Yes, Quil, thinking. Remember you said you needed to think about things?"
He propped himself up on his elbows, a small frown forming between his brows.
"I think maybe I've been thinking too much. It probably isn't right for me to be thinking about you as much as I have been."
This was exactly what Claire wanted to hear. She was absolutely awful at being demure-- especially with Quil-- and therefore rather than playing a sly temptress, she let a smile of unabandoned pleasure spread across her face. She sat up to curl her legs under her, sidling herself up to his side and looking down at him, her hair cascading over one shoulder.
"Okay, so what does that mean?" she said lifting one sculpted eyebrow.
She felt her heart flutter when he pulled himself upright so he was eye to eye with her. "It means, Claire, that even if I wanted to stop thinking about you, I don't think I can. I don't know what you've done to me."
He lifted a hand to her face, his palm and long fingers cupping her chin lightly as he leaned into her face. She gasped in a short breath before his lips met hers. It was slow and testing at first, just like their second kiss. He stroked his long fingers down her face from temple to jaw until he cupped his hand at the base of her neck. She turned her head to allow him to deepen the kiss, lifting her hands to run them over his shoulders and down his arms. What she wasn't expecting was her reaction when he nipped her lip playfully.
Suddenly it was as if every inch of her body was on fire, the flames licking her skin ruthlessly. She moaned and pulled herself closer to him. This time he didn’t stop her from losing control; he didn’t pull away like he had earlier right when he felt that tether starting to strain. She heard something akin to a low growl emanate from him as he trailed his lips down the column of her throat. Her hands found their way under his shirt to grip at the muscles of his back. She lost all sense of time, so she wasn't sure how long this went on before he broke away leaving them both breathless.
She held his gaze, the look in his eyes more intense than any she had seen in anyone else’s. She still couldn't identify the emotion--it was something deeper than anything else she had ever experienced. It sent a pleasant shiver down her spine as a shaky smile formed on her lips.
"Well, okay then. I can't say I want to undo whatever I've done."
Chapter 2 | Chapter 4