WIP IT UP Wednesday - Claiming Claire #wipitup,

Welcome to WIP IT UP Wednesday. #wipitup. My extract today is from my WIP currently titled Claiming Claire.  This is a rewrite of my contemporary romance Chances & Choices .  Written for the mainstream it just has a few spanking threats.  I'm having great fun adding in all those missing spankings.  In this extract, Claire has just returned to her hometown of Los Angeles after working in New York for three years.  Having dinner with her best friend Julian, their discussion triggers forgotten details of their first meeting six years earlier.

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Over dinner, Claire kept the conversation on professional or general topics.  Every time the discussion threatened to move into her social life, she steered adroitly away from the subject.  Finally, Julian asked her outright about the man she’d been seeing in New York.  It was typical of him.  He would only take evasion for so long.

"We split up."

"I see.  That wouldn't have anything to do with your transfer back to L.A., would it?"

Claire shrugged, feeling miserable.  She wanted to confide in him, but not in a restaurant.  She put him off.  "I'd rather not talk about it, right here and now."

He nodded, but gave her a thoughtful look.  He knew her well enough to realize when she was upset.  

Attempting to lighten the mood, she asked him teasingly.

"What about you?  Still avoiding all the women playing the grieving widower?"  She regretted the remark immediately.  "Sorry, that was heartless of me."

He smiled.  "No, thoughtless perhaps, but not heartless.  Claire, Susanna died seven years ago, it's not a subject you have to skirt around."

Glad she’d not offended him, Claire continued eating, growing thoughtful.  Looking across the table, Claire speculated for the second time that evening about why she’d never thought of him sexually.  Had she subconsciously decided not to compete with the memory of the beautiful woman known to the public as Susanna Ainsley, award-winning star, and to Julian as Susanna West, his much-loved wife?

Claire narrowed her gaze.  It was an illuminating thought.  One that opened up new horizons.  It was in that illumination that Claire suddenly remembered their first meeting.  How could she have forgotten how much he affected her when she walked out her apartment door to see him bounding up the stairs with that lithe, animal grace of his?  She smiled, remembering that he’d been annoyed with her for buzzing him up without checking.  He’d lectured her for not being more careful.  She'd completely forgotten the dynamics of that meeting, mainly because she was embarrassed when her awkward attempt at flirting made her feel foolish

“You always this bossy?”  She asked him, testing the waters with a sideways, sexy little smile.

“With naughty girls.  Yes.”  He'd replied, his smile sardonic, eyebrow raised.  She looked down and blushed thinking he found her attempts at flirting amusing.  Not a turn on, just amusing, and all her insecurities kicked in.

She was embarrassed by her response to him.  She feared the attraction wasn’t mutual and buried the memory.  Now when she brought it out and dusted it off in the light of her new gained sexual knowledge and confidence, she recognized the exchange for the sexy little scene that it was. 

She looked down at her plate and bit her lip.  Oh boy.  They had a definite sexual exchange and she’d stupidly missed it.  She felt hot remembering.

 What was with the whole naughty girl thing?  Polite, reserved Julian?  Who knew? 

Claire liked bossy men.  Not too bossy, that just pissed her off, but men who were sexy about it and hinted at retribution got her all hot and bothered.  She found herself drawn to that quality in men.  A few men had playfully called her a naughty girl and threatened her with a spanking making her heart thump and her body flush with sexual heat, but none had followed through.  She'd come to believe that most men were just talk in that department. 

Claire shifted in her seat.  Julian was not most men.  In all the time she'd known him, he was anything but talk.  He stood by his word.  That knowledge combined with her sudden memory of the exchange at their first meeting was an erotic, enticing shocker.  Claire swallowed and looked across the table at Julian's refined hands and virile physique.  What would it be like to feel the force of his hand wielded with the strength of his powerful arm as she squirmed across his muscular thighs?  Claire wriggled in her seat and closed her eyes willing the image away.  This was not what she'd bargained on when she got home.  She thought she'd be escaping her sexually confused feelings, not uncovering some more.

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