Claiming Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 2)

I leaned back, gazing out the window again. The arid landscape was beautiful, in its own way, especially with the sun setting across the land. It was also impartial. It was neutral, and it didn’t give a flying fuck about what I was going through.

It was dry, barren, and rock solid.

It was the way I used to be.

“It might really be that simple, yeah?” I wondered aloud. “Just like that.”

“Just like that,” Darren nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll echo everything Sam said, but in particular… you know we both love you. You’re welcome in our home as long as you’d like, anytime you’d like. But most importantly… this isn’t where you need to be.”

I stared him straight in the eyes, seated across from me.

“You need to be back there, where you belong. With her.” He stopped to swig back the last of his beer. “This must be scary for you, though. Actually caring about a girl for once. I get why you’d want to run away from this.”

“I don’t run,” I told him through gritted teeth.

“You ran halfway across the country to come here,” Sam shrugged halfheartedly. “What’s the difference? Plane just got you here faster.”

Holy fuck, she has a point.

“You’re seeing reason,” Darren chuckled as he set his empty bottle back down. “I think you know what you need to do now.”

I stood up, with the clearest head I’d had all freaking week.

“I do,” I told him.

The two of them stood up with me.

“Good,” he grinned, extending his hand. “Put ‘er here, and go get her.”

I laughed at the gesture, pulling him into a heavy embrace. As we separated, Sam drew close, and we hugged as well.

“You’ll do great,” she smiled. “We both believe in you, Dalton. Just remember: don’t be a stranger. You can come back out here without some sort of existential crisis, you know.”

“I can’t thank you both enough,” I told them.

“You can stay here the night if you need to,” Darren told me, glancing at his wife just to be sure.

“No need,” I told him. “I’m calling the rental place and the airlines on the way, dropping the car off, and putting myself square on the next plane back home.”

“Just like that, huh?” Sam asked.

“Just like that.”

That’s exactly what I did.

I seriously lucked out with a plane headed back home, although the protocols of the rental lot – and the security line at the airport itself – almost made me miss the flight.

But a few hours later, I was stepping off of the plane, climbing back onto my motorcycle, and roaring down the Interstate towards her apartment.

While I stopped to pump gas, I happened to flip Facebook open. Flicking through my feed absentmindedly, I noticed a status update that she’d posted a few minutes beforehand.

“Refreshing end to a long day. Bon appetite!”

Clara apparently had geo-location turned on for her updates, so I conveniently learned that she was at some swanky Italian restaurant in town.

She must be having dinner with Natalie, I reasoned to myself while I disengaged the pump and hit the road. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too far from my location – I could probably make it in about ten minutes.

Thank you, intrusive Facebook, I sighed. I liked to leave that setting off, but it was easy to forget it was there once you’d checked in somewhere once.

A few red lights and a missed turn later, and I was parking my motorcycle. I kicked down the stand, pulled the helmet off, and strolled in the direction of the front door.

It was only as I pushed the doors open that I realized she might be having dinner with our parents instead… which wouldn’t exactly be great for a public declaration of love.

Well… I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I began scanning the tables from the foyer as the hostess drew my gaze towards her podium.

“How many?” She asked sultrily.

“Looking for someone. Won’t be long.”

She nodded, her eyes blatantly drawn to my broad build and biker threads, but a quick glance from me cut her attention elsewhere.

Can’t see her from here, I thought to myself as I stepped around the side and began scanning the restaurant. A pit began to form in my stomach. What if I’d missed her? What if she’d left before I could get here?

That’s when I finally spotted her.

Clara was sitting at a booth, but it wasn’t Natalie with her. Nor was it our parents.

It was that ex-boyfriend of hers.

I took a step forward to confront them.

But then I paused, because she was laughing, and the guy was holding her hand across the table. He lifted it to kiss her knuckles, and she quieted her laughter but didn’t pull back.

Anger exploded inside my core.

My entire world ruptured around me.

I couldn’t just stand here and gawk openly at them. Guests at other tables were starting to stare at me, and it was only a matter of time before one of them looked my way.

Fine. Keep him.

With a heavy heart, I resigned myself to my fate, turned on the heel of my boot, and strolled back out into the crushing heaviness of the night.

Chapter 19

For one conflicting moment, I thought I saw Dalton across the restaurant in biker gear. But Jeremy was making me laugh at some stupid impression he was doing, and when I looked again the biker guy was gone.

Probably someone else, I thought to myself. Besides… how the hell would he know I was here?

Jeremy hadn’t been as monstrous as I remembered. In fact, this had been the most fun I’d had all week… although I was already thinking that this last-minute dinner date was a pale substitution for the real thing.

The real thing?

I shook my head.

No. I’ve got to move on… for both of our sakes.

“…Don’t you think?”

I blinked a few times. “I’m sorry, what was that? What don’t I think?”

A resigned smile crossed his face. “Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been distra

cted all night, Clara. Fading in and out of our conversation. I mean, I’ve been enjoying myself a lot, but I’m getting the feeling that you’re not really here with me…”

“What? No, of course I am!” I smiled, chuckling in a little too high a pitch. “I’m sorry, I just thought I saw someone for a moment. Here I am.”

I felt a slight brush of warmth as he took my hand again, although the feeling passed quickly. What’s getting into me? I know I shouldn’t really get into anything else, especially not with THIS guy of all people… do I really just want a rebound fuck?

That didn’t feel right.

I’d been half-heartedly flirting with him off and on all through dinner, building up towards something, but I was starting to think that maybe this had been a big mistake. Jeremy was clearly far more into this than I was. He could say what he wanted, but I knew him, and I knew how silver-tongued he could be… maybe it wasn’t right to lead him along…

“You’re fading out again,” he muttered, shaking his head. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, leaning back and running his fingers through his hair. He was objectively attractive, but I just didn’t have the energy for this... or to fight his dominating nature, if it came down to that.

“Look, do you want to just go back home? We don’t have to do this,” he told me. I sensed bitterness entering his voice. “I was being honest when I told you earlier that I was just trying to get your mind off things… but if you’re not going to put in any effort…”

“No, that’s not it at all…” I replied hastily, feeling bad. I knew he was doing it on purpose, spinning my apathy as a guilt-trip, but that didn’t change a thing about falling for the trap. “Wait, we don’t have to do what?”

“Fuck,” he shrugged. “I thought that’s what we were doing after this – just a harmless, meaningless little fuck. I mean, isn’t that what you wanted – a rebound fuck to get your mind off of that guy? Something to clear your head…”

I was almost indignant, but the sexy little smirk that crossed his lips, and the way his eyes seemed to twinkle, undermined my firm opposition to the idea.