Hidden Under Perfection

Chapter 16: Doran

I wake up surrounded by warmth and softness, I nestle my head deeper into the heat and then I feel something move agaianst me and I hear the sound of soft laughter muffled by layers of blankets. I peak my head out of the covers to see claire's beautiful face looking down at me. Her smile is so wide and gleaming that I stretch my neck and kiss her quickly. I pull away and smile softly and she starts laughing again. I kiss her neck and she gushes, "Good morning, you're very happy today."

I continue kissing her neck and along her jaw until I reach her mouth and then I kiss her longingly, parting her lips with my own and then I kiss her soflty so that I can respond to her. "It is a good morning, I woke up to my girlfriend curled around me and the first thing I heard was your laughter."

"I love you," she says as I resume kissing her neck.

"I love you too," I mumble against her collar bone. I lift my face to meet hers as her hands cup my cheeks, I kiss her softly and my heart beats faster as her lips part beneath mine. One of my legs slips between hers and by body is alighted in flame with the overwhelming sense of desire that foods me. I roll her onto her back so that I am on top of her. I kiss her lips one more time before she pulls away and stares into my eyes, her eyes tell me that she doesn't want to stop but she says, "Doran we have to get up and tell the others what happened last night."

"They can wait five minutes," I grumble kissing the skin behind her ear, she archs under me and bites her lip. I moan her name in and kiss her lips tenderly. I move my lips against hers as she kisses me and she bites my lip drawing a growl from the back of my throat. She squeals as I bite the soft skin on her neck. I kiss my way across her shoulder and up her neck. She moves away from me and I groan in protest but she threads her fingers through my hair and with a raspy voice she professed, "Come on this is important."

"Fine," I mumble reluctantly. I pull away and look at her, she is so beautiful. Her cheeks are a little flushed and her lips are swollen but her eyes convey so much love that it takes all of my will power to peel myself from her and into the bathroom where I need to take a cold shower to get how soft her skin felt against my hands out of my mind.

I turn on the shower and step in, the cold water is a strong contrast the the warmth of the bed. Once I finish taking a shower I am refreshed and I am ready to think about the upcoming day. I brush my teeth and walk out into my bedroom, claire is gone and the door is closed. I grab a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt from the closet and quickly get dressed and head down stairs.

The first thing I notice is Claire, she is sitting in a chair by the counter wearing short jean shorts and a loose sweater. That alone is enough for me to want to run upstairs and take another cold shower. Then I notice that there is a space waiting for me at the table with a freshly made bowl of cereal sitting on the counter. I sit down and start eating, I look up when Claire starts talking. She says, "last night The Clandestine responded to the application we sent out and I have pictures on my eyescreen, because the window for viewing it was one minute. I am going to share that with you now," she pauses and her eyes unfocus and then everyone gets the little notification in their eye screen. I don't have to open mine because I read it last night so I look at Claire while the others read the letter. One at a time their eyes refocus and the expressions on their face range from mildly concerned to angry to scared. John's face is somewhere between scared and angry. They all look to Claire for her to explain what to do next. She explains, "in the letter it said that The Clandestine would take extreme measures to neutralize the threat that we pose and that makes me think that they will use painful measures to ensure that you are telling the truth and that you have no prior connection with us." She looks at John while she says this.