John Dougan Smith

Claire knew that this entire day would feel like she was running through quicksand. A check of the clock on her phone again and doing the math in the head as she walked in the door to the office that would now be her workplace, she realized that she had only had five hours of sleep. Though she knew that lack of sleep couldn’t explain all the pain in her neck or the bruise she had spotted in the mirror on her collarbone when she had changed her sweater. Wondering if he would be back at that bar if she returned once the work week was over.

Pushing the thoughts of what had happened out of her mind to think about later. She tried to focus on the file in front of her to make the best first impression that she could.

Then she heard him before she saw him again.

Her blood running cold and heart jumping into her throat. She had stood back up to reach her hand out for a professional shake. Him calling her name out making it clear she was the fresh meat out on the hook in a room. It was such a different way he had said her name than how she had heard it only a few hours before. Barely catching the clinch in his jaw.

Wide eyes followed him as he walked to his office and flinched as he slammed the door. Before watching as all her new colleagues returned to their buisness. Making it clear that it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to be like this.

Another hand wrapped around hers and gave it the hard shake, she had been expecting. Turning to look she saw a broad smiling face.

“Guess he stole my chance to ask for your name,” he started, as she pulled her hand back and sat in her seat. The new man sitting at the corner of her desk. “I’m Danny Pink and don’t mind him. Smith is a hard ass but the pay is good and the work is consistent. If you need anything; more pens, where the water cooler is, a better desk, etc. Just let me know,” he finished with another grin before pushing himself off her desk and returning to his.

If you asked her later, she would barely be able to remember what had happened that day. Spent all of it reading and re-reading the few files that had been placed in front of her. But managing to get them done. As everyone else filtered out the door to end the work day. She sat there waiting until they were gone to make her way to his office.

Cursing herself as she stood at his door with the engraved name plate. How dumb she had been to not ask for his last name. Then maybe she would have asked if he was the Smith from Smith and Song. Shaking her head and out down her hands she raised it to rap her knuckles against his door.

“May I come in?”

Sitting at his desk he made due with the pile of reports at his desk to distract himself. It was enough that he finally stopped to pause his mind all the night before when his focus was needed to get work finished by deadline. The client meetings, conversation throughout the day bored him endlessly and River was utterly unbearable. She had cornered him after their meeting and made a remark about a mark on his neck. 

He blinked, staring at her with furrowed brows and decided to make use of it when it finally came to having her keep off her claws on him. “Yes, - I’m involved.” He said curtly, leaving her there to return to her own business and give himself a breather while she sat on that false knowledge. 

It brought pain in the reminder he was not. Claire was likely wanting to forget much about the situation given the face that his business would not allow him to be involved in such a way with his employee. If only she hadn’t been hired onto the team. He groaned again, pacing his office and pulling his suit jacket off his shoulders and thrown on the chair in front of his desk. 

He loosened his tie with a tug. Giving up on his work he walked back to his desk and pulled open a drawer to pull out a hidden bottle of scotch. John poured a glass, lifting the cup to his lips – however, hesitating for just a moment to stare bitterly at the liquid. The liquor brought him back to the night before. 

It mocked him.

He drank slowly from the glass, sitting and pondering the rest of the day away until the time was trickling to the end of the day. It was torture to think of her, just outside of his office working away and unsure what she would say to him. 

John leaned back. He thought about the way she had looked at him – utterly shocked to see him as he did her and he hated to make it come off as if she hadn’t mattered. She mattered most to him. There was a need to apologize to her

Despite the fact neither had a clue to what was to happened he could had been less patient than to take her home the very night they met. John had mentioned he was not the man to do such a thing – he wasn’t, there weren’t many chances do so at his age. 

A knock at his door pushed him out of his thoughts. He had told his secretary that he was to be left alone for the reminder of the day as he was not in the mood. John rose to peek through his blinds and saw she had left for the day and huffed, wondering who could be knocking at his hour. 

It had been minutes passed when the day was called. 

He walked to the door. “I specifically asked to be left alo-“he paused, mouth closed when he found her standing at his door. “Claire...” he whispered, stepping back to allow her in and closing the door behind her with a turn of the lock to leave them uninterrupted. 

His demeanour now changed to one she had met the night before. John would not hide himself now after everything they had gone through in the last hours of the day. The façade of the crass and rude boss at his desk was reserved for business. 

“Mh, perhaps but dont I think you can get me to admit it” He retorted, chuckling at the sight of her, five-foot such a small thing taking one over him, or so he thought.

Without much of a moment to breath he felt her grasping at his trousers, pulling them down in one swift motion. He saw the confidence he had now. Kicking off the fabric around his ankles he shook his head in amusement while she began to undress herself to the same bareness he stood with. 

She gave an appreciative look, low to his lap and he bit his lip to hold in a noise of appreciation that he had staring at what she revealed to him. John took his moment to drink her in, eyes wandering from her eyes and down to the sight of her tattoo and he reached out again to hold his hands to her hips. 

He felt the goosebumps on her skin. “Cold?” he teased, watching as he stepped into his space and closed his eyes to the sensation of her lips against his neck. Opening them to see her pushing him back to lay against the sheets. The hold he had her hips had him pulling her along and resting her just atop him. 

John felt the warmth of her skin on his, naked and bare above him. It would be foolish of him not to admit how taken he was with her. It was a shame he could only have her for tonight. If he was sober, had less to drink and charmed her then – then maybe she would have given the chance to take her to dinner before he bed her. 

She was not the women he felt was usually taken to bed by a stranger. They could have rushed, taken each other and left the bar separately if she was such a woman. He would have let her but it seemed a genuine moment of mutual attraction and a mix of alcohol only convinced her to let him take her home. 

For whatever reason there was they had met each other. If he was only to have her for the night then he would have his fill of her. 

He raised her by her hips, guiding her to brush against him intimately with a low groan in his throat – a wayward hand moving to press his thumb against her. Stroking in light touches just enough to have her building up.

His fingers tracing at the delicate skin around her hip had her lips opening to ask for more. Hardly anyone had even seen the tattoo let alone touched it the way he had. Wanting to reach up for him again and hold his lips to hers. The slight brushing not being enough when he answered her question.

When the ‘more’ came she bit down on her lips to hold in the shout. Not able to think of anything else other than the way his eyes had frozen her to the spot on his bed.

Moving with the way his hands urged her. Claire reached out her own. First her fingers digging back into his hair to guide him back to where she wanted him. Then her legs hooked around one of his. Trying to lift herself back to sitting so that she could have a better look at him.

The sound of something snapping brought her back down to the bed sheets. Shock filling her eyes and coloring her cheeks a bright red. As the bra slipped down her arms and he tossed it into the darkness that was the rest of the room. Lips dropped open, she closed them again before pressing her hands against his shoulders and whispering against his lips. “You definitely will.”

“This is very unfair. You had less to remove than I did at the begining,” she mused, her fingers going back to the clasp on his pants.

Staring down at her, her hands matching his movements created all sorts of thoughts in his mind and not were all too very innocent. 

There was a groan of disappointment when she paused but that was quickly fixed by the movement of being pulled down to her once again. He caught on quite quickly, pressing close to her as he kissed her – swallowing her moan with a noise of satisfaction in his throat.

John paused, hearing her question quite clearly and hoping she understood what she asked of him. He was hardly the man that held back when encouraged to be and especially when he had one thought on his mind – he felt young again. 

“Very dangerous words to use with me, sweetheart” he whispered, nearly brushing her lips as he spoke to her. John placed his hands at her hips, stroking his thumb at her hip bones – the sight of an intricate design on the left hip side and traced what he saw with a finger as barely avoiding her most intimate areas. 

His hand traced blinding in no certain pattern at her navel before he laid his palm flat again and brushed the lower ribs and towards the swell of her breast. His hand covered her, pulling down the fabric that hid her – he gave her the quickest glances just as he covered the newly exposed skin with his mouth. 

John teased her for many moments. His tongue darting out at her skin to taste her skin with the slightest sheen of sweat growing on her skin. His hands groped along her sides, slipping under her back and guiding her to arch her chest towards his mouth – distracting all her senses before she knew what he had planned.

He felt the fabric of her brassiere. The small hooks keeping her confined and still hidden from him. John grasped each side, pulling hard to force them to roughly tear them with a quick tug – sure that he had broken a set she could never wear again. 

John pulled back, taking his lips away from her skin, the fabric of her now torn brassiere down her arms and thrown behind him carelessly.

“Apologies, you can send me the bill for those” sounding none to innocent about it as he smiled down at her with her matching his state of undress. 

His offer was all the approval that she needed. Turning from his arms too take the few steps back to where she had left her purse. She had to pause in her steps when his beard and lips brushed back actoss her skin. Closing her eyes and using every bit of self control to keep the noise from passing her lips.

Leaving a few extra bills at the bar to pay for the extra drinks that they had. It wasn’t but a moment later they were out the door.

The shiver passed from him to her through where their fingers touched. She wanted to know what was he thinking when her eyes darted across his face.

In the few seconds that passed, before his hand met her cherk again. She had readied herself for rejection. That this was all for fun for him. He didn’t want anything more.

When his thumb brushed across her lip. Every word froze in her throat and she could hardly remember what she was about to say. His fingers pushing into her hair and pulling her closer. Her face tilted whichever way he moved her. She curled her fingers up into his shirt. Wanting to hold onto it, make it last as long as it could.

The burn of his scotch, the smoothness of his beard and the scent of his cologne was all she could feel. Pulling apart from him she dropped her forehead back to his cheek to catch her breath. Not even fighting the smile that came to cross her face. The song was fading to an end making his words fit all the more. She nodded her head. “I see you.”

One hand slid back down his arm and wrapped her fingers around his. The reason why she came to the bar in the first place completely forgotten. All she could think about now was the man with his arm around her and her wine stained lips leaving his a bit more red. “Should I be grabbing my things?”

He groaned quietly, feeling the pull on his shirt and very nearly tempted to take her into the nearest available room to them. She seemed intent to keep him there and he would give her no fight. 

John felt the grasp of her fingers around his own, licking his lips and hiding a smile of his own playing on his lips. Of course, she had kissed him first but he didn’t expect her to meet him in the passion of his kiss – from the moment she brushed his lips he felt drawn to her. 

“Aye, lass – If you’ll come home with me” taking her words for an invitation to join him at his flat with a little impatience to have her alone. She had surprised him being forward herself when just a few moments ago they were strangers stumbling each other. 

It would be crass to admit that he was happy to be going home with a woman on his arm but he couldn’t help but feel the joy of it. There would always be a desire to bring home a woman but never at a pub – at least not since his university days and a first at his age. 

She let him lead her further out onto the floor. Finding herself putting all her trust on him. When he brought their hands to his chest she unfurled her fingers and let them rest on his shoulder. Humming as his other hand found its way to the small of her back.

“I won’t hold you to that,” she whispered, before letting the music drown out her words. She couldn’t think of the last time anyone had danced with her. Let alone someone that seemed interested in actually looking at her. His blue eyes held her attention and everything felt like a dream.

When he leaned in close she reached up to greet him. Her forehead brushing his cheek. “I don’t wanna be alone,” she said, allowing enough space in her words it could be seen as her singing along and not a heartbeat confession. She kept her eyes on his, before they fluttered close.

Turning her face her lips brushed against his for only a fraction of a second. Pulling a hair’s breath away.

John held a breath, feeling the slightest brush of her skin against his own. It was the slightest of touches but it sent the hair on the back of his neck on end. The slightest touch of her breath on the skin just above the loose buttons of his shirt at his collar didn’t help to damper the shiver under his skin. 

He wondered if she had even paid enough attention to the reactions she gave, his adams apple bobbing with the nerve of how close she stood to him. In part, it was undoing – it seemed his words weren’t the only things quickly struck down by influence of alcohol in his system. The last few glasses of scotch he had with her were making itself very known. 

There it pushed and prodded him to the pleasure of a woman, very nearly pressed into him and wanting more of that sensation. And Claire, she seemed all too encouraging to that thought to give in to that feeling as the night was stretching on.

It was a single moment that brought him back from the sense he had to pull back. It didn’t seem possible she could have done more to sway him. She did, it had been so effortless for her, or rather, he was far too weak and wanting to give in. 

Just a single brush against his lips sparked that feeling. He didn’t care to think of the consequences of the drinks he had throughout the night and lifted the hand that left hers went to cradle her cheek. 

He looked at her for a moment to drink her in, brushing a thumb just under her bottom lip and tracing the along her cheekbone. He stood with her, no longer swaying with her but standing there holding her close. 

John decided there was no reason to hold himself back further as he as he pulled her flush to him with his hand holding the back of her head close the distance and kissed her deeply, tilting her just so to taste the wine on her. 

He found that he was intoxicated by the mix of the wine and something distinct to the gloss she wore on her lips. He felt as if he couldn’t be without it now that he had his taste.

 It was he who found himself breathless, pulling back. 

“Do you see me?” speaking to her earlier words, barely a whisper of her speaking the lines of song they danced to. It was a silent offer. 

The confidence of alcohol and desire to have her if just for the night that she would be giving him had felt worth the trouble of a broken heart of being far forgotten from her mind in the morning.

“Done and done.”

Listening to him talk she nodded her head along. A few more sips of her drink and it was gone and already she had a refill. It seemed they had a lot more in common than it would first appear. Even if he had a few years on her and seemed more in the time of life to settle. She knew it seemed off to the few friends that she had left that it had not worked out with her last boyfriend. “Here’s to that. One bachelor finding another,” she joked again lifting her glass in a toast. “May the couple be happy for all their days.”

“If you hadn’t noticed. I am drinking a lotta wine.”

When he held out his hand. She looked from it back to her glass and knew it was the alchohol loosening her nerves. One dance couldn’t hurt anything. Finishing off her glass she left it next to his. Placing her hand in his. “Now what are your friends going to think?” she teased as she pushed herself off the bar stool.

Stepping closer she swayed gently along to the rythym of the song. “You’re luck that this is one of my favorites.”

“Only if you’d have me. And don’t mind if I step on your toes.”

“You might not want to say that too loud now” He jested back, in the back of his mind he knew it would only be more fodder for his mates to rile him up about finding a woman to have him settle down into a domestic life. 

Drunk as he was, john didn’t think he was much material to make any moves towards that life as married as he was to his work and he still doubted any chance with her. They were an unattached pair merely amusing each-other with drink and conversation. 

He chuckled and lifted his glass, knocking back his drink once again to join her toast in his friend and future wife. 

“Lass, you are a light-weight if that is what you think is ‘a lotta’ “he grinned, losing his accent to tease her liverpool one. “However, I would never day its wise to match a Scotsman like myself.”

With her hand in his he pulled her gently away from the bar. They were out of sight of his friends now with then busied with their drinks. He supposed they finally caught on and left him on his own – but he would not complain about the company he was left with. 

“Do you? I haven’t a clue to who this is – “trying in vain to think where he’d heard it before but quickly giving in with his attention taken by her step into him. John smirked, drink giving him the confidence he would never have and took their hands to his chest and splaying a hand on her lower back to bring her in. 

Her heels, barely enough to bring her to his chin made him chuckle. “A small thing like you? I hardly think I’d feel such a thing if you did – never mind the amount of drink to that would undoubtedly have me forget any pain” 

“I feel safe in your hands.” He said, sincerely as he leant to her – feeling very weak to her eyes looking at him just as she was. John hardly trusted himself to say another word, afraid to say more that was on his mind with the drink meddling with his mind. 

At the bar, with a quick glance to the chalkboard swinging above their heads, she handed over enough bills to cover his drink. “Well, sorry again, John. Thanks for the drink.”

As she looked back at him, she brushed her free hand through her hair to get it out of her face. Seeing the few men at the other table that were facing them give each other looks before gathering the attention of the rest. “I’m Claire, by the way.”

Watching as he responded to the group, the pieces fit together in her mind. She couldn’t help her eyes from wandering to get another look at him. Laughing at the gesture, she turned her face away from him to collect herself. And make it seem like she wasn’t staring at him.

“Can’t say I expected that much honesty out in the open,” she joked, his next comment did have the tips of her ears burning. Certainley the first time she had heard that. Another sip of her wine needed downed before she finished. “Now that I really do think is your whiskey talking. I’m not out of anyone’s league.”

Realizing how that made her sound she sat her glass down and shook her head. “Not like that. I’m not looking to shack up with anyone either. Just wanted to have a few drinks to calm my nerves…”

“Nah you won’t have to bugger off back to them yet. I think that would be fairly pathetic me standing her all by myself.”

John shrugged his shoulders, thinking it was the very least he could do to apologize for being such a drunk cad in front of her. He would be having words with his friends come morning when they were all struggling from hangovers. 

“You’re very welcome for the drink, Claire. And please, for my sake – ignore them” he quietly begged, hoping they knew better than to find their way over to the bar to join them. John loved them, best mates for years but there was only so much he could tolerate from their antics. 

He took another sip from his glass and hissed slightly at the after-burn. “Oh, you’re right about that. I had a plan to be a designated driver but one of my good mates is getting married and goaded me to celebrate properly – I’m the last to settle but I don’t think that’s in my cards at all” John replied, nonplussed about the topic of settling down. 

He had relationships but none had a lasting time. The last woman to be attracted to him with his River, partner in the company that he avoided like the plague. She was pretty enough for her age but her personality was something too much to bear. 

“I am positive I am out of your league. Unless you like something a little aged” he jested, taking the rest of his whiskey in his mouth before he put his glass down towards the barman. He hinted for another pour – if only to drag out the time he had with her. John didn’t want to leave her quite yet and she had hinted she was alone on her visit to the pub and nor would he dare. 

“If I have a choice, I think present company is preferable” 

“Will you think it pathetic of me to try my luck and ask you for some company? I’m a little alone myself now and I am in very much in need of a partner” he asked, holding out his hand as if to ask her for a dance. 

Perhaps he might, if only to spend a little more time in the company of her until she was bored of him and tossed him off to sleep off his drink. 

To say her nerves were frayed would be an understatement. The career path she had been working for, for years was finally taking a massive step forward. The next morning would be her first day at her new job. She should have been sound asleep in her bed to be fully rested for the next day.

But after two hours of tossing and turning, sleep wasn’t going to come for her. With nothing strong enough in her fridge or cupboards, she chose to walk down to the bar that was only a block away from her flat. Get a strong drink to calm her down and then get herself back home.

Walking into the bar just as another loud shout came up from a table in the corner, she steered herself away from there. In the motion finding herself bumping right into the chest of someone else.

“Sorry man,” she said at the same time he apologized to her.

A breathy chuckle following as he offered to by her a drink. She got a good look at him. Giving a quick nod of her head, she took the couple of steps forward to the bar and ordered a glass of red wine.

“I think it’s only fair if you let me buy you one too.”

He gave a chuckle at her exclamation. “ehm, you can call me John.” He was prepared to turn down the offer of a drunk. It was just a few moments earlier that he had told himself that he was on his last drink before he forced himself to call a cabbie for a ride home. For some unexplainable reason he hadn’t the heart to turn her down. 

He glanced over at his mates, thoroughly enjoying themselves without any more thought to him as another round was brought their way. She looked at him before walking herself to the bar with an order of a glass of wine. 

John raised his brow but said nothing further before he ordered a glass of whiskey, hoping that he could hold himself over with a nursing drink without going too far down towards embarrassing himself – never as drunk arsed as his friends. 

As he started to speak, he heard another shout of his name, instinct had him looking at his mates and groaned. All men grinning at him as he stood with her and quickly, he flipped them off with two fingers raised to them. 

“I was hoping to ignore them for the rest of the night.” He said, turning his attention back to her and stepping into view of them to allow them a quiet moment of peace from them. “They see any woman and instantly think I’ll be shacking up – I’m not here for that or any other night.”

“However, you’re a gorgeous woman and – completely out of my league.” He said openly, taking a sip from his glass before he gave her a small grin. 

In the corner of a bar John had decided to give himself a moment to himself as he finally found himself away from the rambunctious crowd of his old school friends that decided to have far too many in a night in celebration of an engagement, not his own but he thought never likely at his age. 

He was very close to drunk with the fifth drink of the night, nearly unsteady in his feet as he walked to drop his car keys to the man at the bar with the thought still clear his mind not drive once he was convinced to join in celebration and break his rule as the designated driver. 

John was a true Scotsman. In the mood he could be the best drinkers at the table and unfortunately his friends had tested him. The buzz of alcohol was heady feeling he liked but come morning he knew it was something soon to regret. 

At the bar he heard the shouting orders of a round by his table of friends and he looked at the barman. His hands drew out the notes from his wallet, handing the money over before he headed back to the tables. 

With a slightly bump of his arm he misjudged his path, finding himself in the way of a short woman that was a whole foot lower standing at his shoulder. “Sorry, lass -“ hands at his side with a step back to let her pass. 

He stopped, his mouth agape slightly at the sight of her and with a stare. She was a women far out of his league but he was immediately taken by her he had forgotten himself completely.