Dark Receiver

"Ah but I would be your landlord, there would be no scandal in that at all. And if you look at the French of that era, it was quite ordinary for a married woman to have two or three lovers and her husband would have naught to say about it."

He grinned,

"But the stage would still have loved you, of that I am quite certain."

He traced the soft curve of her arm next to him, looking at her,

"And I might just make an honest woman out of you yet."

He gave her a cheeky grin
 
"Ah but I would be your landlord, there would be no scandal in that at all."

He countered.

"And if you look at the French of that era, it was quite ordinary for a married woman to have two or three lovers and her husband would have naught to say about it."

She thought she should point out that she was not married, so that was hardly relevant.

"But the stage would still have loved you, of that I am quite certain."

She blushed at his words, struck by the expression on his face as his fingers trailed softly, her heart flipping as he looked down at her.

"And I might just make an honest woman out of you yet."

She chuckled.

"So that I can take multiple lovers?"

She queried softly.
 
He grinned at her,

"You may try, but I can also be a very jealous lover and challenge them all to duels. Honor is also held in high esteem and no man dare say no to a duel if he wishes to preserve his honor and standing in the eyes of the lady."

He trailed a tickling finger under her chin and smiled at her,

"Then again, it is also customary for the lady to present the male with trinkets to ensure her love to him...I believe that I prefer the English in this case."
 
"You may try, but I can also be a very jealous lover and challenge them all to duels. Honor is also held in high esteem and no man dare say no to a duel if he wishes to preserve his honor and standing in the eyes of the lady."

Claire chuckled, but she couldn't help experiencing a slight thrill at the thought of Glen being jealous of other men having an interest in her. Old fashioned language it might be, but there was nothing amiss with the 'honour and standing' with which she regarded Glen.

His touch upon her chin drew her focus to him once more.

"Then again, it is also customary for the lady to present the male with trinkets to ensure her love to him...I believe that I prefer the English in this case."

She giggled.

" ... trinkets ...?"

She queried as she offered back her own soft banter.

"So ... that is the way for me to show you I'm in love with you?"

The words were out there before she realised.
Claire blushed hotly. Her comment had been intended to be playful, but, much as she was discovering that she had truly 'fallen for' Glen, she had ever intended to be the first to make anything that could be taken as a 'declaration' ...
 
Glen could feel the breath catch slightly in his throat, he knew that they were just bantering, but something in her voice, the way she said it, told him so much more than the words themselves. He smiled at her and cupped her cheek in his palm, holding the gaze of her star-reflected eyes,

"If you were a French lady of a bygone era, but you are not. All I need is the words from your lips, the promise in your eyes and the confirmation of your embrace. Of course I would cherish anything you do wish to bestow on me and I will not challenge your ardent admirers to sword fights...I'll just threaten them with a shotgun instead."
 
His hand cupped her heated cheek and she was unable to look away, to break the intensity of the gaze that they exchanged.

"If you were a French lady of a bygone era, but you are not."

They were still bantering, but their words somehow were so much more as he told her softly;

"All I need is the words from your lips, the promise in your eyes and the confirmation of your embrace."

Surely she had unconsciously given him every confirmation he needed of her feelings that evening?

"Of course I would cherish anything you do wish to bestow on me and I will not challenge your ardent admirers to sword fights...I'll just threaten them with a shotgun instead."

She could not prevent the smile and the chuckle his words brought, and yet his hand was still on her cheek and, even in jest, they were still speaking of the hear and now.

" ... and is that how I would know if you were in love with me Glen?"

She dared to ask him.
 
He smiled at her question,

"Would you believe the first time I saw you was all it took for me?"

He rested his thumb on her lips,

"But I am very willing to take things slow."

He leaned closer, his lips next to her ear as he whispered,

"Your eyes have told me long ago what you felt. They truly are the windows to your soul and heart."

He placed a soft kiss on her cheek and leaned up again, his thumb slowly caressing her lips,

"Shall I steal the sins from your lips as a good pilgrim should?"

His eyes twinkled as he grinned at the referance to the play.
 
"Would you believe the first time I saw you was all it took for me?"

Her expression clearly communicated her surprise. The first time ... her audition!?
She thought back to how nervous she had been when she'd taken to the stage, how he had put her at her ease, how kind he had been ... but, no ... she'd had no idea ... hadn't for ages ... and then she hadn't been sure if he was interested and how interested ... only this evening had she finally realised.

"But I am very willing to take things slow."

Claire shivered as he traced her lips. She wasn't sure she wanted things to go slowly, but then again ... but if this went quickly, then she had no idea just how quickly it might go ...

"Your eyes have told me long ago what you felt. They truly are the windows to your soul and heart."

It was his words rather than the fact that his hot breath was caressing her ear that made her gasp. It was clear he had understood her feelings even before she herself had made sense of them. She could not hold back a soft murmur as he kissed her cheek, that softly sensual stroking of her lips was achingly intimate.

"Shall I steal the sins from your lips as a good pilgrim should?"

His eyes were locked with hers, she returned his smile at his misquote.

"You don't have to steal what is freely given..."

She replied softly. Her kisses were his and only his ...

"And ... as you already know ...
'My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite...' "


The quoted words giving her courage to confess her feelings as she closed the slight distance between them and pressed her lips to his.
 
He met her kiss with one of his own, there was nothing hidden between them right then, there was no denying that their feelings was so much more than just mutual attraction. To his mind it seemed like they were both more of kindred spirits, meeting again after years of separation. There was no sudden ache and need to be intimate, instead it was a slow sensual unfolding of knowledge, to know that they were together, that was all that was needed.

His hand slowly stroked over her cheek, down her neck and over the gentle curve of her shoulder and arm, lacing his fingers with her own, the kiss the only real anchor his mind had at that very moment. For the first time in almost his entire life. Glen was caught without words, without conscious thought. And he knew that he was happy.
 
His lips met hers and they kissed.

To kiss ... Claire had never realised just what that could mean before.
The intimacy, the emotion, the need to be one and the feeling that THIS was what it was all about, that Glen simply completed her.
Every nuance, every touch felt right. It was all brand new to Claire and yet everything she shared with Glen gave her a security that she had never felt before, even at home protected as she had been with her parents. With the new knowledge of her 'situation', a knowledge that Glen was fully aware of, she marvelled at how this could still be possible ... but it was ... and she simply accepted that.

For the first time Claire truly knew that Glen loved her and that she loved him.
What that 'meant' she didn't care. What the future held was irrelevant.
All that mattered was right here, right now and their lips eased apart and she pressed closer to him and nestled against him with a contented sigh, the need to be held against him overcoming her usual shyness as she lay against him, her hand daring to raise and wrap around him drawing him close as their bodies melded together.
 
Glen lay back, Claire held closely to him, he could feel her arm around him, feel her body as she relaxed against him. For a first date, this was going just perfect and he could not have asked for it to be any different. His fingers slowly stroked through the silk of her hair as he looked up into the starry sky, there was still so much to tell her, so much she had to know about him. But that was not relevant now, all she needed to know right now was that he loved her, he wasn't in love, he loved. He knew that the first time he saw her, the very first time she spoke and acted out her audition scene, that there would be no rest for his soul until she knew how he felt.

But to have her feel the same way, that was something he had not counted on, it was not something he wanted to rationalize or even argue about, it was just perfect the way it was at that very moment. He rested his cheek against her soft hair and smiled.
 
She stared up at the stars and sighed contentedly. Glen's fingers laced though her hair, their touch unhurried, exploratory and like just being so close to him, this felt so good. For a long time they simply lay together, time and everything else forgotten apart from the contentment of being together.

"Did you talk to Elron about me, Glen?"

Claire questioned quietly as she wondered just how much the two good friends had discussed.

"You two share everything, don't you?"

She asked wondering if Glen would ever share her 'secret' with Elron.
She could not imagine that he had done so yet...
 
"Not everything, but no I have not spoken to him about you much. We did talk about your performances and your work ethic, but so far he's quite busy with his own pursuits."

He chuckled softly,

"Oh he knew how I felt, I didn't need to say it, as my best and oldest friend he knew that you had bowled me over. And from those looks he gave you, I knew that he was on the trail of your very own feelings as well. I just couldn't believe that you felt the same about me."

He held her a bit tighter,

"Seek a Juliet and find a treasure...or is it seek a treasure and find your Juliet..."
 
"Not everything, but no I have not spoken to him about you much.
We did talk about your performances and your work ethic, but so far he's quite busy with his own pursuits."


Claire nodded and wondered if Elron was really 'involved' with someone or still 'playing the field'. It was a shame that he didn't want to spend all his time in the theatre, but she did admire his vocation to teach.

"Oh he knew how I felt, I didn't need to say it, as my best and oldest friend he knew that you had bowled me over."

Claire blushed at the idea of her effect on Glen more than the fact that Elron had known from the start.

"And from those looks he gave you, I knew that he was on the trail of your very own feelings as well."

It was Claire's turn to laugh. Elron had been none-too-subtle at times!

"I just couldn't believe that you felt the same about me."

His arms held her closer and she sighed contentedly as she lay pressed against him beneath the stars.

"Seek a Juliet and find a treasure...or is it seek a treasure and find your Juliet..."


She smiled as he mused.

"I wasn't seeking ... nothing further from my mind ... "

She told him softly.

"But ... "

She paused as she reflected on how their relationship had developed, how she had been so unsure about how he felt about her ... even today ... before they had gone out together this evening ...

"I bowled you over, I fell gradually ... I had no idea ... "

She told him.

"Sometimes I thought ... but then ... "

She eased back enough to look up at him.

"And I so hoped you ... liked me ... but then it got complicated ... and now ... "

Her expression, the smile, the way her eyes held his told him all he needed to know.

"Now ... consider me well and truly fallen for you ... "

She told him breathlessly.
 
He smiled up at her and gently caressed her cheek,

"None too gradual if we look at the time frame, but you will find me an uncomplaining man. I can still love you and learn all there is about you."

He rested his palm on her cheek,

"All there is about you..."

He smiled once more,

"And you may not have been searching, but I was. You were like that single ray of sun which breaks through the clouds, dismissing all misgivings and giving one new hope."

He chuckled,

"And then you even had the audacity to question yourself as right for the role."
 
"None too gradual if we look at the time frame, but you will find me an uncomplaining man. I can still love you and learn all there is about you ... All there is about you..."

Her eyes held his, the intensity of his expression making her shiver, the touch of his fingers on her cheek, of his palm as he cupped it achingly intimate.

" .. maybe not so gradual ... "

She murmured softly as her pulses raced.

"And you may not have been searching, but I was. You were like that single ray of sun which breaks through the clouds, dismissing all misgivings and giving one new hope."

She adored his poetical turns of phrase, but still was stunned that he attributed such words to her.

"And then you even had the audacity to question yourself as right for the role."

She laughed and retorted.

"You picked me as your Juliet ... I just didn't realise how much my producer believed in method acting ... "

She teased.

"Though you seem to have monopolised every role going; my producer, my Kane Productions 'boss', my landlord ... and now my ... "

She hesitated. What was he now? ... boyfriend ...? ... lover ...? Just where or how far this was to go, Claire didn't know ... but it didn't matter, they just 'were'.

" ... my Romeo ... "

She completed after the briefest of pauses. Whatever she and Elron had created on the stage before, it was only now that she had any idea of how Juliet may have truly felt ... acting with Glen that time before had been intense, but knew it would be so much more so if they were ever to do so again ...
 
He smiled,

"I'd rather be some knight in shining armor carrying the lady off to live happily ever after than to die in crypt in your arms."

He chuckled at his own words and drew her down to him, their faces yet again just inches apart,

"Just as long as you are happy, I will be as well. I have no other need and no other wish than to have you smile and enjoy what you are doing."
 
"I'd rather be some knight in shining armor carrying the lady off to live happily ever after than to die in crypt in your arms."

She shuddered despite herself. She didn't want to think of people dying around her. With Glen's encouragement she had managed to put that out of her mind, for most of the time at least.

"Knight in shining armour it is then ..."

She agreed softly as she found herself held close to him once more.

"Just as long as you are happy, I will be as well. I have no other need and no other wish than to have you smile and enjoy what you are doing."

She knew he was sincere, knew that he truly wanted the best for her.

"My needs are few,"

She told him softly as she reached out a hand and tentatively stroked his cheek.

"Tonight was lovely Glen, but I don't need all that fancy expensive stuff to be happy. Just laying under the stars with you is all I need to be content ... "

It was enough that he was offering her a place to live, not to mention the salary she had secured with her contract.

"... I have a job I love and a knight to protect me. What more could any girl ask for ...?"

She told him simply.
 
He smiled,

"All that expensive things wasn't for you my dear, it may seem that way, but like I said, I am a man with certain tastes and when I have the time I indulge them."

A chuckle escaped his lips,

"Though I will of course have to run for quite a bit tomorrow morning."

He slowly brushed through her hair,

"And a man has a lovely lady by his side along with poetry in his mind and the soul of a writer, there is not much he could want more."

He grinned,

"Not much more to ask either."
 
"All that expensive things wasn't for you my dear, it may seem that way, but like I said, I am a man with certain tastes and when I have the time I indulge them."

Claire considered his words. Glen wasn't 'showy' and although it wasn't for her benefit, he had chosen her to share the evening with, which meant a lot to her.

"Though I will of course have to run for quite a bit tomorrow morning."

She laughed softly along with him.

" ... I doubt I'll be joining you ... "

She responded. Early runs weren't her choice of 'work out' activity.

"And a man has a lovely lady by his side along with poetry in his mind and the soul of a writer, there is not much he could want more."

The action of his hand moving slowly through her hair was doing strange things to Claire's pulses. It was all she could do not to 'purr' aloud at the sensations he was causing.

"Not much more to ask either."


She managed to focus enough to query.

" ... are wanting and asking different things...?"

She watched the stars as she considered his words.

"... I guess if you want something it's not just a matter of asking ... you have to work towards getting what you want ... "

She'd never believed that things just landed in her lap through wanting.

" ... for the first time, I feel like I'm able to actually live my life ... "

She wondered if he understood.

" ... before things just happened around me and to me ... I was ... stifled ...
I know why now, but ... I can't believe now that I lived like that for so long ... "
 
"The difference between wanting and asking is the reception. If you want something, you can work to get it, or if it's not something to work on, you ask for it. It's like a branched out concept. Say for instance I want to kiss you, I can not work towards it, it is something I will have to ask for, I don't have to ask in words, body language is also a very good way to ask. So I can lean closer, aiming to kiss you and you will have to say yes or no. With consent I will receive the kiss, without consent I will not."

He watched the starry sky for a while,

"I believe that I can understand how you feel, being held back all these years and now finally you find a way to explore yourself and the life around you. You're able to do something that you like to please yourself and to test your own boundaries, not the boundaries set upon you by others."

He gave a whimsical smile,

"You might even find that you enjoy life on the outside of the box and I'll be there to help you as much as I can."
 
Claire smiled as he spoke of asking to kiss her and reflected that it was highly unlikely that she would ever refuse her consent for the exchange of kisses between them.

"I believe that I can understand how you feel, being held back all these years and now finally you find a way to explore yourself and the life around you. You're able to do something that you like to please yourself and to test your own boundaries, not the boundaries set upon you by others."

She didn't contradict him, but she doubted that he could truly understand what it was to be constrained by family, to follow their wishes, their rules and conform to the limits that were set up around her. She realised they had been for the best of intentions, but he was right that it was more than time to set her own boundaries.

"You might even find that you enjoy life on the outside of the box and I'll be there to help you as much as I can."

She laughed.

"I think that's a given. Who would want to live inside a box?"

She looked across at him and moved closer to kiss his cheek.

"You've helped me so much more than you can ever imagine Glen."

She told him quietly.
Without him, she wouldn't have a job or a roof over her head.
But most importantly, he was the man she was totally falling for and to her it was for that reason she wanted him in her life.

"But I don't want to be with you for the help you can give me ... I just want to be with you 'cos you're you ... "
 
He felt her soft lips against his cheek, the warm wash of her breath as she spoke, he pulled her into another hug, holding her close and then he reluctantly let go,

"As it is written, all good things must come to an end and no matter how much I am enjoying our time, the time still waits for no man, woman nor creature."

He smiled at her,

"Pity about the creature part, we could dress up in costume and stay here for a very longer time. Well come along, tomorrow it's back onto the breach and I am sure that Romeo missed the presence of Juliet very much."

He slid from the hood and helped her down as well,

"Of course he will first tell all his saucy details to me, you are his Juliet and he will only regal you with his encounters after your wedding."

He winked at her and then chuckled.
 
"As it is written, all good things must come to an end and no matter how much I am enjoying our time, the time still waits for no man, woman nor creature.
Pity about the creature part, we could dress up in costume and stay here for a very longer time. Well come along, tomorrow it's back onto the breach and I am sure that Romeo missed the presence of Juliet very much."


Claire laughed.

"A very poetic way of telling me it's time to go."

She commented as she let him help her down.

"Of course he will first tell all his saucy details to me, you are his Juliet and he will only regal you with his encounters after your wedding."

She laughed at his words.

"You think Elron will notice a change in ... us...?"

Claire asked shyly wondering just how 'private' Glen was going to keep their 'date' and speculating that when at work with the rest of the cast she supposed he would be 'professionally detached' as usual.
 
Glen gave her an innocent smile,

"Oh he may...but of course that is when Juliet are to have eyes only for her young lover and her eyes tells her young lover that she'd rather be outside in a park, stealing kisses and watching stars with another."

His smile turned to a grin, his grin turning to a soft laugh,

"As long as it doesn't influence us for the worse, I am sure that he would approve."

His hands reached out and rested on her hips,

"You are after all as darn tootin perfect as they come."
 
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