Clara
Dante kissed me with so much passion that I wondered whether his memories of me had returned. And his words, ‘I choose you’, added fuel to my hopes, to the very real possibility of getting everything I’d lost with him back.
He stopped kissing me and made a satisfied humming sound against my lips. His happy expression was innocent in its sincerity, yet the rest of him was far from innocent. His softening cock was hanging obscenely out of his wet, unzipped jeans, while the faded blue material hugged his muscular legs deliciously. He looked like sin wrapped in denim, a sight I could never forget, or ever wanted to, the man of my dreams even better in person.
Light-headed, I pressed my back against the wall, using it to hold me up, my legs still trembling from what he’d done. I stared back at him, totally entranced by his beautiful face. His wet hair framed it so perfectly, while those dark eyes of his drew me in even more. The very idea that I could stay away from him was absurd, because I would risk anything to experience moments like this again.
He shook his head at me. “That’s why,” he said, sounding like he’d just had an epiphany, something coming to him that he’d always wondered, but couldn’t quite obtain.
“That’s why, what?” I asked, hoping it was more memories of me.
He reached out, running the pads of his fingers over my cheekbones, then his thumb over my lower lip. “Why I felt so attracted to Kara.”
I stiffened. I’d thought he was going to say he’d remembered something lovely about me, a piece of the past he’d lost but had now found in my presence, but to hear another woman’s name fall from his lips... It was like he’d struck me.
He continued, “You look so much like her, just a li’l slimmer. But you weren’t in the past. You were as curvy as Kara back then, and with similar long blonde hair. It’s pro’bly why I wuz so attracted to her. Cos of you.”
I started mentally praying this wasn’t a brush off, a ‘You’ve made me realise how much I want her’ speech.
He didn’t stop, totally oblivious to how upset he was making me. “You created my type. Before you, I liked Pacific Island girls, but ever since I had you, and lost you, I’ve been searching for women who look like you, just without realising it.” His face softened. “I may have lost my memory of our time together, but deep down, I must’ve retained enough to remember what you looked like. The blonde woman in my dreams... I’d been searching for her, had thought I’d found her in Kara, but I wuz wrong. I haven’t found her until now. Until you.”
He stepped in closer, making me suck in a breath, my upset instantly vanishing, his words beyond anything I could’ve asked for.
He ran his palm down the side of my face, then cupped my cheek, leaning forward to press his lips against mine. It wasn’t like the hot passionate kisses from earlier. It was gentle, tender almost, as though he was trying me out, tasting me for the first time, nothing at all like our first kiss nine years ago. That had been full of heat. While this one was a getting to know one another kiss, reacquainting ourselves, familiar, yet still new.
I reached out, placing my hand against his cheek in return, holding him in place as I kissed him back just as tenderly as he was kissing me. Tears prickled my eyes, ones of joy, of hope that all my suffering would finally be over.
His lips left mine. I opened my eyes, not remembering having closed them, just losing myself in the moment, like I used to lose myself in Dante’s embrace when we were younger.
He nudged my cheek with his nose. “Are those tears of joy or sadness?”
“Joy.” More tears fell, laying a path down my cheeks. “So much joy.”
He smiled. “You are so sweet. I’ve never had sweet, only sour. Did we have this when we were together?”
I nodded, remembering the times he’d spoken softly to me in bed, his words of love filled with a sweet wonder I would never forget. Like the time he’d traced my face with his fingertip, saying that no artist could create someone as beautiful as me.
He brushed more tears away with his thumb. “I want more sweetness. I think I deserve it.”
“You do,” I said. “Because you’re wonderful, Dante. So wonderful. So talented. So perfect.”
Sadness filled his eyes. “I’m not perfect, far from it.”
“All I see is perfection. And if anyone tells you differently, don’t listen.”
He bit his lip, seemingly pondering what I’d said, then he shook his head. “It’s hard not to listen. Beth used to make me feel so stupid. She talked down to me all the time, while Kara...” He exhaled. “She also put me down, constantly berating me for not doin’ what she wanted. She made me feel small. I always bit back, but I also believed what she said.” He looked away, seemingly embarrassed, his expression wrenching my heart.
I took hold of his cheeks and forced him to look at me. “You are not stupid. Those women are the stupid ones.”
He didn’t reply, the upset on his face telling me he believed his exes, not me.
“You. Are. Not. Stupid. Say it.”
A small smile prickled at his lips. “You may not be a teacher anymore, but you haven’t lost your touch. It feels like you’re gonna gimme detention if I don’t do as I’m told.”
I let go of his face. “You’re not stupid, but you are naughty as hell.”
He started laughing, the infectious sound setting me off too. It felt good, like I was expelling all the heartache I’d kept in for the past nine years.
His laughter grew softer, a wide smile lighting up his entire face. “I can live with naughty.”
I smiled back. “Naughty is nice. Naughty is sexy. Naughty is you.”
His smile disappeared, a serious expression taking over. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For making me feel good, and for making me feel like I’m worth more than a fuck. Even though we just had sex, it wuz more than that to me. It wuz how sex should be. Not cos you want my body, but cos you want who I am.”
I stepped in closer, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I’ve always loved who you are.”
“And I want to remember loving who you are. I look forward to gettin’ to know you again, Clara.”
I beamed at him, knowing I couldn’t ask for more.