If You Love Me Right

AU in which Owen and Claire become friends with benefits prior to the events of Jurassic World. Includes pre, post and during Jurassic World scenes. (Assume everything in JW is the same, just under the lens of they’ve been sleeping together all along)

Notes:

Basically I wanted to write a lot of smut for these two. I was going to get this beta read, and then I didn’t bc I got too excited to post it.
'chapter' titles inspired by the album Queen of the Clouds by Tove Lo, and the title is from the song Talking Body by Tove Lo

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

i. prologue

In the future Owen would say that it was love at first sight we he saw Claire. Truthfully it was an instant ‘Yes, fucking please,’

The woman was gorgeous no doubt about it, she was harsh lines from her hair to her dress, from her cheekbones to shoes, from her shoulders to her nose. There was no part of her that screamed, or even whispered, soft.

She was stunning, magnetic even from across a room. He couldn’t take her eyes off her even if he wanted to. And he definitely didn’t want to.

He had no idea then just how much she’d change his life, he merely thought she was a beautiful women, a mistake so many had made before him. However, Owen would realise this far sooner than the others.

Her eyes gave her away. The cool blue as she scanned a room, assessing everything that could go wrong, a predator looking for her prey. The way they crinkle when he tells a joke she doesn’t want to find funny. How they gloss over when she can’t say anything at all.

Even after the date from hell, something kept pulling him back to her. He knew she was over it, and he wanted to respect that. Hell, he didn’t want to be the one to give in. But sometimes he sees her when the light hits her hair just right, or when she mutters something under her breath, or he finally makes her laugh at one of his jokes, and he wishes they weren’t so stubborn. He is entirely self aware over how fucking stupid they are both being.

But, there are other times. Times where she makes decisions for profit, ignoring the needs of the dinosaurs, or times where she feels the need to micromanage every situation and he just can’t see the things he likes in her. He sees the corporate women, who gave up her life for this.

Deep down he knew he’d never understand her, the problem was he rarely ever cared.

ii. the sex - the passion in the beginning is always going to be the best part of it

Talking to departments that didn’t directly concerned Claire had always annoyed her. She didn’t see why she should have to talk to some paleontologist about the behaviour of a triceratops for an hour. Rationally she knew she had to had some knowledge of the research division of the park for investors, but that’s not why she became senior assets manager. Truth be told she didn’t particularly care for dinosaurs. She was currently writing a speech to investors about how ‘people just don’t care about dinosaurs anymore’, she didn’t mention how she was one of them.

This is why it particularly annoyed her when she had to go out of her way to talk to some of these people. Especially when these people, were Owen Grady.

Owen Grady with his ‘I know better than you’ attitude. Owen Grady who hasn’t had handed a progress report in in months. Owen Grady who wore board shorts.

Which is why she was less than looking forward to this meeting with him. A meeting that he had already postponed twice and was currently five minutes late for. It was late enough as is, most of her team had already gone home (admittedly this wasn’t unusual for Claire, she was rather familiar with the night team for someone who wasn’t supposed to work with them) and she had agreed to let Zara go once Owen had gotten settled.

She was starting to regret forcing the meeting to be at seven, it was a power play move and he knew it. He had just irritated her so much by postponing it already, she wanted to show him who was actually in charge.

But now she just wanted to get this evening over with.

Talking to people who didn’t care about what he had to say about his raptors pissed Owen off. He didn’t want to talk someone who saw them as just assets, or only needed to know about them for investors. He wanted to talk to people who cared about them as much as he did.

It pissed him off even more when that person was Claire Dearing. It wasn’t as if he hated Claire, he more hated the fact he didn’t hate her. And having to see her nod her head for an hour over a subject she didn’t really give a shit about, was going to piss him off so deeply he knew he’d want to hate her with everything he had. But he also knew she’d smile, or glare, or roll her eyes, or do anything, and he would no longer hate her. Which would just piss him off even more.

He didn’t not write those progress reports to piss her off, it was just an added bonus. In every interaction with Claire he strived to get a reaction out of her. Knowing he was getting one without ever having to speak to her gave him a special kind of joy.

Walking up to her office late, in a last minute attempt to gain the power after she chose the meeting to be ridiculously late on a Monday night. However, he was starting to regret that decision, he had a feeling she was too. What they wouldn’t do to get one over each other.

Finally, reaching her office he stopped at Zara’s desk. ‘I have a meeting with Claire.’ It felt redundant to say considering there was only one other person in the office, and was Zara clearly only here to see him in. But sometimes social convention got to Owen, as much as he wished he was above it.

Zara flicked her head round, checking through Claire’s see through doors. He loved those doors, on the occasions where he did find himself having to see Claire in her office, he enjoyed waiting outside. Seeing her in her natural environment, the one she was clearly born for.

Turning back around Zara stood up, and walked over to the door carefully knocking before opening it.

For a split second Claire’s face was completely blank, not the harsh lines, nor the assume annoyance that he was so familiar with. He liked getting to see what she looked like, when she thought she was alone.

‘Mr. Grady is here.’

Standing up, Claire’s hands went down to smooth out her skirt before gesturing towards the seat. ‘Please sit down, Mr. Grady,’

‘Call me Owen.’ The look on her face only told him that was never going to happen.

‘Do you need anything?’ Claire continued ‘A coffee perhaps?’

Owen wasn’t sure if that was a dig at the late time of the meeting or not, so he just shook his head and sat down across the desk from her.

Sitting back down, Claire started ‘So, we haven’t had an update on the raptors progress in over three months now,’

‘We made good improvements, not every session is good but the good days are becoming more and more frequent. Hide and seek is their best drill,’

‘Hide and seek? Like the kids game?’ Claire asked, raising her eyebrows.

Smirking and gently rubbing his jaw (in a way Claire did not find cute) he said ‘No, we get them to smell something and track it down in the cage. They get on scent pretty much every time now,’

Furrowing her brow, Claire continued to write her notes. ‘Do you have a statistic for that?’

‘No, I don’t,’ he said clearly bemused. She’d asked him for statistics many times over this meeting, and he rarely had any. Typical. ’I can find you some though, Barry keeps track of that sort of thing,’

‘If you handed it your progress reports, I’d know already,’ she pointed out.

Giving a tense smile he defended himself. ‘We’ve been busy, the girls are still quite young and unpredictable. With me being their alpha, I need to spend a lot of time with them,’

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that one. It was another item on the list of reasons why Owen Grady was intolerable, the list was originally called reasons why Owen Grady was not the man for her, but that implied that she thought of Owen in a romantic way. Which she didn’t. Much.

‘What?’ he asked with a laugh.

‘Nothing!’ It’s just any man who calls himself an alpha is not a man she wanted to spend any time with. ‘Do you really go around calling yourself their alpha?’

‘I am their alpha,’

‘Okay,’ she said, her mouth forming a defined o shape. Briefly she looked over her notes. ‘We seem to have covered everything I needed to know. Do you have anything else you wanted to add?’

Mulling it over for a second, Owen replied with ‘No, that’s it,’

‘Well, I’ll still need to see their progress for myself. I should visit sometime this week, you can show me… what was it peek-a-boo?’

‘Hide and seek,’

‘Yes, that,’

They both packed away in awkward silence.

‘Fuck.’ Claire quickly looked up to see what Owen was swearing about.

‘What?’ she asked before looking out the window and seeing the torrential downpour. It was the rainy season in Costa Rica, and terrible weather wasn’t uncommon. Luckily for the park, rain kept mostly to the evening and it was still hot the rest of the time.

‘You live on the other side of the island don’t you?’

‘Yeah, and I drove my bike over here,’

Her eyebrows shot up. ‘You’ll die if you drive home,’

‘I’ll be fine, wet maybe, but fine. I work with dinosaurs, how bad could some rain be?’ As if on cue there was a strike of lightning. ‘Okay, maybe not,’

Sighing Claire said ‘I’ll drive you home,’

Owen looked doubtful. ‘What about my bike?’

She didn’t know if this was actual concern, or if he just didn’t want to spend any extra time with her. ‘You can get someone to give you a lift in the morning, it’s a better option than you dying out there,’

Narrowing his eyes, he sighed and gave in. ‘Okay,’

They walked down to her car in awkward silence. Owen didn’t even try to derail the conversation to something non-work based like he usually did. Then again you couldn’t derail a conversation if you weren’t having one.

As she sat down in the driver's seat, indominus popped into her mind. Turning to Owen, she said ‘Sorry, I have to phone someone quickly,’

He gave a small nod, seeming to understand that being head of operations meant phone calls at all hours.

‘Is she okay?’ she asked into the phone, her eyes flicking to Owen.

‘She’s pretty angry. Well, more angry than usual that is. We have it under control though.’ She could kill all of us if we let her, and yet she is afraid of the rain.

‘Keep it that way,’ she said, hanging up the phone. Starting up the car, she made her way out of the parking garage.

‘Is that the new dinosaur?’ Owen asked. She gave him a pointed look. He knew she couldn’t talk about it.

‘That has nothing to do with your department, Mr. Grady,’

‘Owen,’

As they got outside, her hands braced against the wheel. The rain was pounding against the car, this was probably the worst rain she’d been caught in on the island.

‘I hope my girls got some shelter,’ he pondered, peering out the window. ‘They’ve got used to it now, but when they saw the rain for the first time? Shit, that was traumatic,’

She was unsure if he was trying to ease her mind because the rain was so horrible, or if he just really liked talking about raptors. He did talk about them a lot on their date.

He continued on, but as her hands got whiter she had to interrupt him. ‘I don’t think I can drive to your bungalow,’

Pausing for a moment, she could tell Owen knew it was a reasonable request. ‘What should I do then?’

It wasn’t accusatory, which Claire appreciated. He just needed her help to get somewhere to spend the night safely.

Only one idea came into Claire’s mind. Inwardly groaning, she sighed and said ‘I suppose you can stay with me?’

‘What?’ This was clearly not the answer he was expecting.

‘My place is only a few minutes away, you can sleep on the couch, leave in the morning. We can act like it never happened and both not die,’

Running all the options through his head, just like Claire had done, he too realised this was the best option.

‘Okay,’

‘Well, here’s my apartment,’ Claire said flicking on lights, to reveal a decent sized open plan apartment. Most of the colour scheme was creams and whites, with a few dark furnishings. However, he could admit the one deep red wall surprised Owen in the best kind of way.

Surveying the room he gave a noncommittal ‘Nice.’ Pursing her lips, she clearly didn’t buy his bullshit. With a sigh he followed up, ‘It’s a little impersonal,’

‘It’s clean and organised. I know these are two unfamiliar concepts to you,’ she said, laying her purse down on side.

‘It’s just my house is homely,’ he started. ‘You know, pictures of family and friends, some souvenirs,’

‘Empty beer bottles are not souvenirs, and the velociraptors are not your friends,’ she replied, kicking off her shoes and placing them delicately on a shoe rack. Owen considered the fact he had never seen her not in a pair of heels before. She’d probably survive the apocalypse in them.

‘Of course not, they’re family.’ This just warranted an eye roll.

‘Look, do you want to stay here or not?’ she asked cocking her head.

‘You were the one that wanted me to stay!’

‘Because you would die out there!’

‘So, you do care about me,’ he said mockingly, holding his hand up to his chest. ‘I didn’t know you felt this way about me,’

‘Don’t be too touched. It would be bad press if you died,’ she replied with a smile. It was a teasing smile. One where a corner of her mouth goes slightly higher up, and one eye crinkles just a little bit. It was a smile he didn’t see often enough. And just like that it was gone.

Her eyes flicked over him. ‘You need some clothes, I think I have something,’ she said leaving the room.

‘I don’t think I’m your size,’ he called out taking this opportunity to be nosier. He found nothing, which was disappointing, yet expected.

Claire came back into the room, a pile of clothes in tow. ‘I’m not sure Paul was your size, but I think they’ll do,’

Who the fuck is Paul? ‘Who the fuck is Paul,’ he asked, taking the clothes off her.

‘My ex-fiancé.’ She had a fiancé? This knowledge both surprised Owen, and felt obvious. A feeling that was all too familiar when Claire was involved. She was an amazing women, he was sure she had lots of guys who were interested in her (guys who enjoyed rigorously planned dates). However, he always assumed she was too tied down to her job. Then again she made time to go on a date with him.

‘What happened?’ he asked, only afterwards realising this might be an invasive question.

‘He was in New York, the long distance wasn’t working,’ she said nonchalantly, while opening a cupboard to get out a pillow and comforter. Somehow he thought it hurt more than she was letting on.

‘You mean he was intimidated by the fact your career that is probably better than his.’ She paused for a second, before sighing and giving a small nod. ‘I hope you kicked his ass to the curb,’

‘I really don’t see how that’s any of your business,’ she said setting the bedding on the couch. ‘I don’t have a guest room, because the hotel is like a built in one. But I can offer you a shower now,’

‘Don’t you want one?’

‘I’m more a morning shower person, anyway you look like you need it more.’ He thought this was a polite way of saying he smelt. He did spend most of his time with raptors, so he decided to not be too offended.

‘Sure you don’t want to join me? Conserve water and all that?’ This was met with narrowed eyes. ‘Kidding.’ Unless of course she was up for it.

‘There’s clean towels in the bathroom,’ she replied, deciding to ignore his comments, and headed over to her kitchen.

Owen took this as his cue to go to the bathroom. Her bathroom was as expected. Spotless, filled with bath products more expensive than his house. Quickly shedding his clothes he slipped into the shower.

He loved his bungalow, but this did really make him realise how much he missed a shower with decent water pressure.

After spending five minutes in the shower it crossed his mind that he was naked in Claire Dearing’s apartment. Claire Dearing, his boss (well only technically). Claire Dearing the women he had the worst date of his life with. Claire Dearing the women he definitely did not still find hot.

It felt immoral somehow, even if she had offered for him to stay. She offered him the shower. Yet it still felt like a line they shouldn’t cross. Rationally he knew they threw professionalism out the door when they went on their date. But he still felt self-conscious being here. And being naked here.

It was hard not imagine what it would be like if she got in here with him. He could almost hear the creak of the door opening, the rustle of her clothes as she took them off filling his body with anticipation. She’d slip behind him wordlessly, her hands tracing the top of his back, chills forming under her imaginary touch. He wouldn’t turn around at first, letting the pleasure and anticipation build inside him until he couldn’t breathe without seeing her face. He’d slowly turn around and- he heard a cupboard door slam and he was pulled out of his fantasy.

Quickly turning the water to cold he tried to compose himself before leaving the shower. With a sigh he got out the shower and wrapped his towel around him.

‘Fuck,’ he whispered to himself, realising he had left the clothes on her couch. He briefly weighed up his options, put back on his wet, sweaty clothes, or walk out there with only a towel on. It wasn’t like he was going out there totally naked, but if he felt like he was crossing lines of professionalism before, going out there in just a towel wasn’t going to help things.

However he did it anyway. It felt like the best of any options he had, or at least the one that could shift any awkwardness solely onto Claire.

He tried to creep in and out, without Claire noticing. However, she clearly had a sixth sense (something all employees had long been suspicious of), since she turned around the second he stepped through the door.

Her eyes bulged at the sight of his half naked body, her eyes lingering on his body in shock for a few seconds longer, before moving back up to his eyes. They were both still, as if any slight movements and something terrible would happen.

‘I forgot the clothes,’ Owen finally let out. Claire gave a small nod, before turning around and taking a gulp of her red wine. He quickly grabbed the clothes, and slipped back into the bathroom. He threw on the clothes that looked liked they fit the best. It was Harvard T-shirt, and some plaid pyjama pants. While he wasn’t surprised her ex went to Harvard, he was surprised she’d ever date somebody who wore plaid.

Going back out the bathroom he decided his plan was to act like it never happened and if that failed, make jokes about it. So, pretty much his general life plan.

‘I have salad if want anything to eat,’ Claire said, clearing choosing the ignore option too.

‘Does salad count as eating?’ he asked, moving over to the kitchen.

‘Yes, it’s considered quite healthy actually,’

‘Got any beer?’ he asked, already knowing the answer.

‘I have red wine.’ Usually he would have said no, but he thought any alcohol would help him with this situation, so he nodded his head.

Pouring the wine into a glass for him, she asked ‘Was that a no on the salad or…?’

‘I’m fine, really,’ he replied, taking the wine out her hands. They both downed their glasses of wine in the silence. When both their glasses were empty, Claire picked up the wine bottle and filled up both his and her wine glasses again.

Breaking the silence, Claire said ‘Seeing you in a Harvard shirt is not something I’d ever expect,’

‘You saying I’m not smart, Ms. Dearing?’ he joked.

Rolling her eyes she said, ‘You’re smart. I just thought you’d be against Ivy League universities on principle alone,’

‘Oh, I am. The second you turn your back, I’m going to burn it,’

‘Since it was an ex’s you’d be doing me a favour,’ she smiled, loosening up a bit. He never saw her like this. Even on their date she had everything planned, and she was still professional.

‘Are you sure, it’s not because I’d be shirtless?’ Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Her eyes slowly flicked over his body. When her eyes met his again, she gave a half smile and said with a shrug ‘I’ve already seen it, and I’m not that impressed.’

‘Really?’ he asked, setting down his wineglass and moving closer to her.

‘Really,’ she said her nose wrinkling. God, he loved it when she did that.

Leaning in further, he was almost boxing her in now. He had no idea what he was doing, but he loved every second of it. She was acting unattached, like she was unfazed. He was so close they were almost touching. Her hand gripping to the side of the counter, bringing his out to touch it, gently brushing her fingers, her breath hitched.

Scanning her face, he could see her lips opening subtly. Not enough for her to even notice. The changes in her body were so subtle, only someone who had spent far too long appreciating her would notice. Owen was one of those people. He knew Claire wasn’t.

His eyes flicked to her lips one last time, and he pulled away. The second her heat was gone from his side he regretted the decision. But it was a dare. A challenge, one he hoped she wouldn’t back down from. He knew that if she wanted it enough to move over here, she wanted it enough to not regret it.

He could see the cogs turning in her head, her eyes narrowed, her lips pursed. Finally, she let out a sigh, what he knew was her way of saying fuck it.

Moving forward, her hands went up into his hair, across his face and pulled him down and finally they were kissing, something he’d wanted to do since he’d played eyes on her. Suddenly nothing in the world mattered, except for the warmth and the pleasure of her mouth. Their lips crashed against each other. Claire’s tongue, teasing him as it gently flicked over his.

Claire kissed in a way he didn’t see coming. It was pre-calculated, it wasn’t passionless, it didn’t have flawless technique. It was spontaneous, it was hungry, it was just flawless.

She didn’t kiss how she did her job, in an organised fashion. She kissed how she loved her job, with an all consuming passion.

His hands slid down the side of her body, and then slipped up underneath her skirt.

Pulling away from him, but keeping her face close she asked ‘We can keep this between us, right? One night of whatever this is?’

Owen had no idea what he wanted. Half the time, he wanted to kill Claire with her plans and her assets. But sometimes she surprised him. Sometimes he saw all the things he usually hated, and loved them.

He wanted to say ‘fuck no, just give me a chance.’ But right now he was thinking with his dick, and his dick wanted Claire, screw the consequences. So instead he said, ‘Of course,’ before leaning back in for another kiss.

Her hands were hungrier now, roaming his body. They were both impatient, they needed each other now. If this was their only time together he wanted it to last. However, it being their first, he knew it wouldn’t.

Moving his arms up and around her, he lifted her off the ground. Her legs wrapped instinctively around him, and he let out a groan. He was walking them to the bedroom half blind, considering he had never been here before and he was a little distracted by a certain redhead’s mouth.

By some miracle they made it to the bedroom, and the second he set her down she was tugging at his shirt. Reluctantly they pulled apart, Owen pulling the shirt above his head as she unbuttoned her shirt as fast as she could. The second his shirt hit the floor, he came back in for more, not wanting to be apart for too long.

Without parting from her, he pulled her shirt off her shoulders. His lips trailed down her jaw, throat and collarbones, as his hands searched for her zipper. As much as he was partial to fucking with clothes on, if this was the only chance he got with Claire, he wanted her in all her glory. Her hands guided him to the zip of her skirt, dragging downwards together. Even with the zip all the way down, they were plastered close enough together for it to not fall to the floor.

Claire’s hands slipped inside the waistband of his pants, causing a sharp intake of breath. He could feel her smile against his mouth. Biting down on his lower lip, she pulled away, pushing his pants down. This gave enough space for her skirt to fall down.

It took him a second to take her all in, in all her matching silk underwear beauty. His heart was beating so fast, he thought it might explode.

Their bodies collided once again, and they collapsed onto her bed together. Their hands, exploring each other skin-to-skin. Her underwear falling to the wayside, as their movements became more frantic, more urgent. His tongue teasing her nipples, her fingernails digging deeper into his skin.

Claire moaned as his fingers traced her entrance. ‘God, you’re so fucking wet,’ he breathed out against her neck. Her fingers pulling at his hair. His thumb circled her clit and she let out a sob.

‘Owen, I need you, now.’ This wasn’t a beg, it was a demand. A fucking hot demand at that.

‘Condom?’ he asked. Her eyes finally flicking open, she moved out from underneath him reaching for her bedside draw. Pulling out a condom, she ripped into with her teeth.

‘Do you mind?’ she asked. In a stunned silence, he shook his head, as her hands came down. ‘Good,’ she said with a smile as she moved the condom over his cock.

The second the condom was on he slipped into her, both letting out a groan as he did so. Wrapping her legs around him, he started to move. Slowly at first, but building at Claire’s words of encouragement.

‘Faster,’ Claire groaned, ‘Faster,’ she said again. He abruptly stopped moving, she instantly stilled underneath him, her eyes flicking open. With one swift motion, he flipped them over so she was now on top. She wanted to be in control, she could be in control. He wanted her to be the happiest she could possibly be. And hey, it wasn’t like this was bad for him either.

Claire cocked her eyebrow for a second, before he said ‘Well?’.

Her face broke out into an amused smile, tracing her teeth with her tongue. Stretching her hands out over his chest, she started to move. His hands settled on her ass, his fingers digging into her the faster she moved.

He could feel the pleasure in him building. The louder her moans got, the harder her hands pressed into him, the faster her breasts bounced, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. His climax washed over him, so intense he was glad he wasn’t on top because he didn’t know if he could continue after this.

He came back down to earth just in time to see her come undone too. Her entire body tightening around him, her back arching. Finally, she collapsed on top of him. Their bodies sticking together, he could feel her heart beating, even faster than his.

‘That was…’ he whispered, trailing off.

‘Yeah, it was,’ she breathed out, her voice raspy and uneven.

They lay in silence for a few minutes, trying to catch their breath. Until Claire lifted her head up, looking him directly in the eye. ‘Wanna do it again?’

Never had words sounded so sweet. With a tired smile he replied with ‘Give me ten minutes,’

‘You have five,’

Claire woke up with a delicious ache all through her body. She hadn’t had this ache in so long. She’d had sex yes, but it was just a release of serotonin to make her function better. But she hadn’t had burning in the sheets, can’t keep your hands off you, passion in so long. But she found it again, in Owen Grady.

She couldn’t let it happen again, it can be a one night bout of passion. Something that needed to happen, but didn’t need to happen again.

She could feel his heat envelop her, the man was a radiator. As he moved closer to her, her hairs stood on end. Her body all too aware of his presence. He laid an open mouthed kiss on her shoulder, then one just further up, and another, and another. Lazily kissing his way up to her ear.

It was like an itch. A toe curling, heart racing, goes straight between her thighs itch. But an itch none the less. One she’d ignore. Okay, one she’d give into just one more time.

Flicking her eyes open, she noticed the time, five minutes before she usually got up. Immediately sitting up, Owen moved up with her, still kissing her shoulders.

‘This is never going to happen again, you understand that, right?’ she said. If Owen understood the rules, she wasn’t the only one held accountable for what had happened.

‘Of course,’ he said against her skin.

‘And if you tell anyone, your raptors will be the last people to see you alive,’

Finally pulling away from her he replied with, ‘But you admit they’re people?’. Claire just responded with a glare. With a smirk, Owen flopped back down on the bed.

‘I have to go take a shower,’ she said, getting up, before turning back around and saying ‘Well, are you going to join me or not?’

It had been two days since it had happened, and he hadn’t seen Claire since. He couldn’t decide if this was a good thing, or a bad thing. It was one of those things he hope became a good memory soon, because right now it’s all he thought about.

It was in his bones, his muscles, his everything. Every part of him screamed, ‘Go find Claire.’ He was restless, his entire body was pushed into motion. It wanted to do something, anything. Anything to take his mind off it, anything to relieve the stress.

You know what else would relieve the stress? Getting to have sex with Claire again.

He doubted it would happen again. Claire was definitely into it, however she also explicitly said that was it. And everyone knows she’s a fan of plans, and sticks to her word. Having sex with him didn’t fit into one of those boxes in her life.

Still he had hope, he hadn’t seen her since it happened, so he couldn’t gauge her reaction. He wanted to see her again so fucking badly. But he wasn’t going to go out of his way to see her. She said she’d see him again to check on the raptors for the investors, so she had to come see him eventually.

And sure enough later that day she came.

He was just going up to the raptor cage when he noticed her. She didn’t look like a woman going to visit raptors. She was wearing those ridiculous heels (ones he wanted digging in his back), a long-sleeved blouse he thought would be too hot for a summer's day (one that he wanted to unbutton, revealing her breasts to him), and a long skirt (that he wanted bunched up in his hands as he pulled it up).

Knowing she’d want to see progress he doubled back on himself, coming back down to see her.

‘What have we done to deserve your presence, Claire,’ he said, specifically using her name to get a reaction from her. A lot of what he did was to get a reaction from her.

He could tell she was repressing the urge to narrow her eyes, but instead she said ‘I’m here to check on the velociraptors progress, I told you I’d be visiting at our meeting,’

Okay, she was going the professional route. This was unsurprising to Owen. However, it also irritated him, and he couldn’t help but say ‘Our meeting was a lot to take in, I guess I forget some stuff,’

‘Well you won’t be getting a repeat, so you better hope you remembered everything.’ Owen’s face couldn’t help but break out into a smile. Rationally he knew what he was hearing; he wouldn’t be getting a second chance, and that shouldn’t make him so happy. But getting to hear her be anything less than professional always felt like a victory.

‘Sorry, if I’m not at peak performance, but I’m still pretty sore after the other day,’ he said smugly. Seeing the unimpressed look on her face he went on ‘I have gained some scratches somehow, it’s completely… unexpected,’

Pursing her lips, she replied with ‘Well, if that’s all it takes to tire you out, maybe it’s a good thing you won’t be getting a repeat performance,’

His eyes flickered over her body, and his mouth went dry. He wanted to say something else, remove the subtext, say something cruel, kiss her right now, anything really. But he couldn’t, he let himself stand there in stunned silence for a moment longer, before saying ‘Why don’t we go see the raptors now,’

Something in her eyes flashed, if only for a second. Disappointment? Relief? Giving a polite smile she said ‘Lead the way,’

As Claire got into her car, she was on autopilot. She let her body do whatever it had to do, not letting her mind hold her back.

She’d been this way all week. Usually sex made her more productive, it was a break that made her better off afterwards. Sex with Owen did the opposite.

She wanted to be back in his arms, she wanted just one more time. However, she also doubted one more time would be enough.

She tried not think about, she tried to throw herself into her work. But, she already threw herself into her work, so it made no difference.

Her mind drifted back to that night. It wasn’t just two people who were great at sex having sex. It felt like they were built to have sex. Claire didn’t believe in soulmates, or meant to be’s. Even if she did she highly doubted Owen Grady of all people was hers. However, they felt so complementary. Surprisingly he understood her, he got what she wanted to do without having to say anything. Not that she wasn’t partial to demands in the bedroom, nor that she didn’t give them. It was that he understood she wanted to be in control, which was unexpected. As attractive as she found him she always told herself he’d be all alpha-male in the bedroom. Which was not something Claire particularly cared for, maybe sometimes under the right conditions. But all the time? Not her cup of tea.

But somehow Owen got her. And that’s how she ended up outside of his bungalow at 9 o’clock on a Friday night.

For a second she considered driving away, but she knew he could see her. The damage was done, she might as well get some pleasure out of it.

Stepping out of the car, she chose to walk as if she was a boardroom. With confidence, as if she was meant to be there. Show no weakness, take no bullshit, win this fucking thing. What she was winning was unclear here, but she thought in this case and this case only, not losing should be considered a victory.

Owen swaggered out his bungalow with a smug grin on his face. ‘Did you forget something, Claire? Because-’

She didn’t let him finish before her mouth was on him. That wiped the shit eating grin off his face. Pulling away she said ‘Shut up,’ before coming back for more, pulling her hands up to his face. Her hand brushing harshly against his stubble. She loved that feeling, it made her want to fuse to him, so they were no longer two people, but one.

Warmth filled her body as his hot, callused hands explored, never settling in one place for too long.

Moaning against his lips he seemed to instinctively knew what this meant. Grabbing her by the ass he lifted her up, crashing them against his door as her legs wrapped around him.

Biting down on his lip as she pulled away, she quickly buttoned her blouse. The second her bra was revealed to him, he pushed it down with one hand to gain access to her breasts. Her hands settled in his hair, as much in support, as encouragement.

He started by delicately placing kisses between her breasts. ‘Harder, Owen, I’m not a fucking doll,’

In retaliation he slowly bite grown against her skin, causing her a wicked smile to form across her face. Her back arched as every nerve in her body was overcome with pleasure. His tongue flicking against her nipple, her body tightened around him. Sighing as if touching her was both a relief and a source of pain, his tongue continued to work her.

She felt like she might explode if she didn’t come soon. Her skin was too tight, too hot. She needed a release, she needed him. Her fingernails digging into his back, she breathed ‘I need you, now,’

His head lifting up from her breasts, he said ‘We might want to take this inside.’ She’d barely noticed they were still outside, even with the door digging into her back, nothing else mattered but him.

Prying himself away from her as she unwrapped her legs from him, he set her down, before opening his front door.

The second they were through the door, they were on each other again. Pulling her blouse off her shoulders. Owen backed her up onto the arm of his couch, which was the nearest surface that could provide some kind of support.

Kissing her way down her front, his hands moved from her knees upwards, both leaving goosebumps in their wake. When his mouth and his hands met in the middle, his eyes flicked upwards, silently asking permission. Giving a slight nod, her eyes became half lidded with desire.

He pushed her thong downwards and it fell around her ankles. Pushing her skirt further upwards, she assisted him by moving her legs further apart.

He let out a hallowed sigh, before finally burying himself between her legs. Her hips bucked at his touch, she was so wound up already she knew her relief was insight. She’d be wounded up all fucking week. But this? This made it all worth it.

She let out a moan as his tongue found her clit, gently flicking against it. Her fingers pressed harder against him, she was sure it would leave a mark. But the harder she pressed, the more diligent he got. He was eating her out reverently, and she couldn’t think of the last time it had happened with such passion.

Her hips bucking under his touch, he hummed appreciatively as she grind against his skin. She could feel his touch reverberate around her entire body.

‘I’m about to come,’ she groaned. With one last flick of her clit, she was coming undone. Pleasure washed through her body, starting at her core and working it’s way out. ‘Owen,’

Finally Owen pried himself away from her, looking up at her with a glint in his eye. His mouth still wet, she leant in for a kiss. Going to kick off her shoes, his hand moved out to stop her and she stilled under his touch. ‘Keep them on.’ Claire briefly narrowed her eyes, before he followed up with ‘Please,’

‘Since you asked so nicely,’ she said with a smile, pushing off her skirt as he stood up. He unbuttoned his shirt, as her hands went to his belt buckle. When they were both finally naked (apart from the shoes of course) they collapsed back into his couch.

Kissing down her neck, Owen said ‘Condom,’ into it.

Groaning Claire said, ‘I’m clean, and on the pill,’ moving her hand down his arm, she asked ‘Are you?’

‘Yeah,’

‘Well then,’ she said leaning upwards for a kiss. ‘Let’s not,’

Rationally Claire knew this was a little early and required too much trust. Trust that they weren’t lying, trust they wouldn’t have sex with anyone else, trust this wasn’t some ploy to get pregnant (not that Claire thought that last one would ever cross Owen’s mind). But it was a trust that despite everything, she did have in him. Leaning down for another kiss, she knew he had that trust in her too.

Their lips moved over each others feverishly, hands hungrily exploring. Biting down on his lip, Claire whispered ‘I’m not getting any younger,’ as she moved one leg over his shoulder. He let out a whimper as she did so.

They both let out a groan as he finally slipped inside her. She could feel her heel digging into his ass, but he didn’t seem to mind, instead he was spurred further on.

With every movement he seemed to go impossibly deep, hitting exactly the right spot. The pleasure built inside her once again, until finally she tightened around him, pleasure washing over her once again.

Arching her back in pleasure, they seemed to be plastered together impossibly close. Owen let out a guttural moan, and came undone inside her, riding through his orgasm.

Finally, he collapsed on top of her. There was a few moments of the two of them both trying to fit comfortably on his couch, but both their bodies were too weak with pleasure to move far. Eventually, they found a comfortable position, her lying on top of him. Both their bodies thick with sweat, gluing them against each other.

Once the post-coital haze was starting to lift, Owen whispered ‘Is this something I should expect from you?’ his breath tickling against her neck.

Her brain wanted to say no. Her brain wanted to chalk it up to insanity, some carnal desire that was now fully sated. However, her body knew better. Her body thought it might never get enough. This made her mind all the more worried.

Lifting her head up, she planted a kiss on his lips. ‘If that a yes? Or are you just softening the blow?’

‘Since when have you known me to do that?’

‘True,’ he said. His eyes gazing at her with such intensity she felt exposed. Or more exposed considering she was already naked.

‘It’s just going to be this though,’

‘This being mind-blowing sex,’ he smirked.

Rolling her eyes, she said pointedly ‘Yes, it’s just mind-blowing sex,’

His middle finger dragged lazily against her back, sending goosebumps down her spine. ‘Yeah, it’s just that,’

It was Sunday evening and Claire was lying completely contently in Owen’s arms. Somehow they’d ended up spending the entire weekend together. Surprisingly he didn’t get pissed off when she had to take frequent breaks to work or the sex that got interrupted for a phone call. Honestly he had come at a bad time considering the handlers for indominus were threatening to quit after she attacked a handler. But in-between phone calls, emails and negotiations she had Owen. She could relieve some stress. Part of her thought that talking to so many people naked was inappropriate, but she thought they’d understand if they knew the phenomenal sex she was having.

If she thought about this too deeply about how Owen understood the needs of her job, it scared her more than she was willing to admit. However, she told herself this was just a mutually beneficial physical… thing.

Feeling Owen stir beneath her, she was instantly distracted from her whirling mind.

'I really need to go,’ he groaned, not sounding like he wanted to go at all.

Crooking her head upwards, she gave him lots of small kisses against his mouth. Between kisses she whispered ‘No, stay,’

Pulling away he replied with ‘I have to go, I’ve got work in the morning.’ Moaning against his body, she pulled away too and pouted. ‘I think, you're starting to like me, Claire Dearing,’ he said moving a piece of hair away from her face.

'In your dreams maybe,’ she scoffed.

'Really? You're saying that to the man you've begged to stay five nights week,’

'Last night doesn't count you just wouldn't leave from Friday,'

'Please, if you didn't want me there I'd be kicked out in less than a minute,'

'Well, I haven't heard you complaining before,'

'I wasn’t complaining, I just said you liked me,’

Narrowing her eyes was the only response she could give. Truthfully she did like him, she saw the side in him that made her want to ask him out in the first place. However, she still didn’t want to let him into her life. Not fully, not ever.

They lay like that a little longer, before Claire broke the silence by saying ‘I thought you had to go,’

‘Yeah,’ he said softly. Leaning in for a kiss goodbye, he got out of her bed. Claire closed her eyes and acted as if she was falling asleep. Really she was listening to his every action. When she heard her door close, she made a promise to herself to not see him again until at least Thursday.

Owen had always taken whatever scraps Claire Dearing gave him. Even the times he thought he hated her, he took what he could get. He took the reluctant smiles. He took the eye rolls, the professionalism, the snark. He took whatever he could get, because he didn’t get much. But, every time he got something else, the puzzle that was Claire become more complete. It rarely ever made more sense, but it was on the way there.

Since starting this thing with her, he learnt more about her. More than just the way she kissed, more than just her moans, her breath, her heartbeat. He learnt her routine, he learnt about the moments she let her guard down. Her mind became more clear to him. There were pieces of the puzzle missing sure, but he could feel the edges and some days that was enough.

Other times he felt he knew her no better. She refused to talk about her family, he knew she had some, he heard her talk to what he assumed was a sister (having sisters himself he knew that laugh). But it was always behind closed doors, in hushed whispers. She still refused to recognise the dinosaurs as anything other than assets. He was 100% sure she was forcibly forgetting the names of his girls. She was so damn stubborn about it all. She didn’t want their relationship to change, she didn’t want them to get closer. But they had. And somehow that stubbornness just made him like her more.

‘It’s your girlfriend,’ Barry joked, gesturing over to the stunning redhead stepping out her car.

Owen gave a pointed glare, something clearly taken directly out of Claire’s handbook. Fuck, I’ve been spending too much time with her. ‘She’s not my girlfriend,’

Before their date from hell, Owen had got frequent ribbing from the crew over his crush on Claire. When it all fell to shit, it soon stopped. However, after a meeting in which he couldn’t keep his eyes of Claire, Barry had picked up on the change.

It was all Claire’s fault. She wore his favourite dress for him. He knew this because that morning he’d complained about having to go to the meeting, and Claire said he wear whatever he wanted to it. This was probably completely against company policy, maybe even the law. But Owen wasn’t complaining due to view he got. He doubted anybody else in the room cared either.

Still now Barry could sense the change, he knew it wouldn’t be long before he realised. He didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

‘But you want her to be.’ You have no idea.

Walking over here with purpose, she said ‘Mr. Grady, I need to see you,’

‘I was just about to visit the raptors,’

‘I’m sure they can manage without you,’ she said, never breaking eye contact from Owen.

With a sigh, he moved his head, in a gesture to follow him. They walked to his office in silence. Opening the door to his and Barry’s office he gestured to Claire to let her in first.

‘So, this is your office?’ she said perusing the piles of stuff on his desk. ‘I assume this desk is your’s,’

As he nodded his head, she perched on the end of it, a sly smile forming on her face. Narrowing his eyes he moved closer to her.

‘Why do I not think this is work related?’ he asked, her legs wrapping around him as he got closer.

‘Because it’s not.’ Her hand moving over his chest.

‘Are you sure? At work?’

‘Mmmhmmm,’ she hummed against his neck, as she kissed her way up. He was burning up, and knew it wouldn’t be long before they were having sex. But, he wanted to delay the inevitable.

‘I mean I have a lot of work to do… Work you want me to do,’

Pouting she pulled away. ‘Are you telling me you’ve never thought about it.’ Her piercing eyes, looking seductively up at him. ‘Never imagined what it would be like to have me here, on this desk, ready to do to whatever,’ her hand moving down his chest. ‘Where anybody could just walk right in, and see you between my legs,’

As she talked, his hand trailed up her leg. It was a slight movement, a whisper really. But one he knew she was aware of.

‘I know I think about it,’ she continued on. ‘Well, on my desk at least. However, it has those damn glass doors,’ she punctuated this with a sigh, as she popped open his shirt buttons.

‘I suppose we’ll make do with my office then,’ he finally replied, narrowing his eyes in mock sympathy. Claire’s face formed into a wicked smile, before their lips finally crashed together. They were both all too aware of the time (and noise) constraints.

Owen made quick work of her blouse, pushing aside her bra and gently sucking on her breasts.

Letting out a moan as her hands raked through his hair. He was going to looked thoroughly fucked by the end of this. Groaning Claire said, ‘Love the enthusiasm, babe, but we just don’t have time,’

Smirking against her skin, he lifted his head up. His hands pushing her skirt up as he said ‘I suppose I can speed up, if you really want me too,’

‘Oh I really do, Mr. Grady.’ Her hands reaching for his belt buckle. ‘And I always get what I want,’ she whispered as she pushed down his pants and underwear, just enough to get the job done.

Owen’s hands trailed upwards expecting to return the favour, but all he found was skin. His eyebrows narrowed, and his mouth hung open, as his blood ran even hotter.

‘I came prepared,’

‘Well, prepare to come.’ This managed to break her dominatrix vibe, as she rolled her eyes. He wasn’t having that.

One finger slid against her slit, teasing her softly. He could hear her breath start to waver. He could tell she was all too aware of the public place they were in, he could work with this.

His thumb reached out and started rubbing her clit, softly at first. As he pressed harder, her moans got louder. Lifting up his free hand, he gently brushed his thumb to her lips. She seemed to get the message her moans died down.

He moved his hand away from her clit, and grabbed her ass instead, as he slid into her. As he did so, she gently bite down on his thumb. Owen let out an audible whimper and fuck it took everything he had to not come right there as warmth filled his body.

Removing his hand from her lips he moved it down to her ass, so he could bring her even closer to him. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, to do the same.

His movements were frantic, not with enough time or patience to take this any slower. What he currently lacked in stamina he made up for in power. Every movement seemed to take him further.

Claire’s strained breath tickled against his ears, and he could tell how much she was loving this. All it took was one tiny, whisper of a moan from Claire before he was coming. ‘Claire,’

Soon she was moaning too, tightening around him, her nails digging into his skin.

He let himself live in the moment a few seconds longer. Let himself feel her heartbeat against his skin, feel her breath in his ears, the heat of her entire body enveloping him. But as he felt her pull away from him, he knew he had to do the same.

They both took sometime to sort themselves out. As Owen spent significantly less time doing this, so he got to do one of his favourite things, observe Claire.

She did everything in life with purpose (which echoed in his mind as what purpose are you?), preparing herself for the world was nothing less. He never really understood make-up, but with Claire it nothing short of mystified him (like Claire herself). The precision at which she did it amazed him. It was as if she was putting on her warpaint.

Watching her do that, made him feel as if he was special. As if he had level 1 clearance into the mind of Claire Dearing. As much as he wished he shared a life with Claire, he had the haunting feeling he was only visiting.

He was pulled out of this self-indulgent daydream as he saw her take a pair of underwear out her purse. Seeing the look on his face, she rolled her eyes. ‘Did you actually expect me to go the rest of the day without underwear?’

‘No,’ he replied indignantly. Maybe. So what?

‘Men,’ she said under breath as she slipped them on. ‘I knew if I wore a pair they’d be ruined, like some other pairs. So, I did the smart thing,’

‘You didn’t mind before,’

‘They were under more forgiving circumstances,’ she said making her way towards him. Gently she smoothed his shirt. He took this as her way of giving him a kiss goodbye considering she’d already applied her lipstick.

‘Should I expect you again tonight or not?’

She gave a small smile and said ‘This is more of a parting gift, I’m in San Diego until the end of the week,’

He smirked and shook his head in disbelief. He had a feeling he’d never truly understand her.

She was halfway out the door when he called back. ‘So, see you Friday then?’

‘It’s a date,’

‘I thought we didn’t do those.’ She immediately stilled, and he knew she had no idea what she had said. He thought she never did anything without purpose, yet again she surprised him.

Turning back around, she said ‘We’ll have sex and you’ll feed me. Normal society would call that a date,’

‘Since when are we normal society,’

‘Exactly,’ she said with a smile, smiling back at her in awe he knew he’d never truly get her. Suddenly her phone started ringing and the moment was over.

‘What do you mean NASA wants the walls to be higher?’ she said into her phone as she left the room, leaving him behind.

‘The tickets came in the mail today,’ Karen said over the phone.

‘Are you sure you can’t come?’ Claire asked, she was sad she wasn’t going to get to she her sister. She’d barely seen her these past few years. Weekend visits here and there, but they were both just too busy.

‘No, a work thing came up,’ Karen sighed. She could tell just how disappointed she was not to be able to come and she didn’t think it had anything to do with the dinosaurs. She reminded herself to get Karen an extra special christmas present this year.

‘Well, I’m sure the boys will miss you and I’ll take extra good care of them,’

‘It will be good practise for the future.’ Even though Karen couldn’t see her, Claire rolled her eyes. Just because they’d both made a pact to give each other nephews/nieces when they were thirteen did not mean they were actually obligated to supply them.

‘If I have kids,’

‘I know you want them,’

‘I don’t not want them, there’s a difference.’ There were a list of circumstances under which Claire would have children.

She’d already reached her career goals (honestly, Claire was rather happy where she was at the moment. She had become the Senior Assets Manager at Jurassic World at 30 and that was a great accomplishment)

She had a husband (this was completely unfulfilled)

That husband would be willing to support Claire’s goal in not having to sacrifice her career for children. Someone who’d take paternity leave, or time off for school events. She wasn’t asking for a house husband but someone who was willing to make an effort. (See number two)

She wasn’t desperate for children, she wasn’t one of those people whose life would be completely unfulfilled without them. However, she could see the appeal

‘Anyway it’s not like I have a line of suitors waiting to father my children,’

‘Please, you could have anyone,’ Karen replied. Claire never thought Karen truly understood how men reacted to her and her career. Which was strange considering Karen had a career herself. ‘Also, don’t act like you aren’t having sex on a regular basis because I know you are,’

‘Excuse me?’

‘You sound a lot happier, like someone who is having great sex would. I bet you’re glowing,’

‘You can’t tell if I’m having sex from just my voice,’ Claire scoffed. Their mother always used to say that the women in her family had a sixth sense. However, Claire had never believed her.

‘I’ve heard the sound of distinctly male voice multiple times. You’re hardly James Bond,’ Karen laughed. She loved hearing her sister laugh, she didn’t hear it often enough. ‘Also, I noticed you didn’t deny, so dish,’

‘It’s just sex, it’s nothing really. I doubt he’ll be here next month, let alone long enough to have children with.’ This was a slight lie, they’d already been seeing each other four months now, which was four months longer than she thought this would last.

‘Well, at least one of us is having sex,’

‘Thing’s are still bad with Scott?’ she asked, her eyes narrowing in sympathy. Call it being a protective sister, but Claire never liked him. She didn’t appreciate Karen the way she needed to. She was so amazing, and kind, and funny, and he just didn’t care about any of that.

‘We’ve pretty much stopped talking all together now. We just want to stay together for little longer for the kids, you know? After christmas and their vacation, we’ll tell them,’

‘It will be terrible at first, but in the long run it will be better. Like it was for us.’ Their parents had gotten a divorce when Claire was thirteen. She remembered Karen crying over it, even though she was six years older, she ever tried to get them back together a la The Parent Trap. Claire on the other had been silently begging them to get divorced for years. It was weird at first, moving house, two Christmases and thanksgivings. But it was better. Her parents were happier and she didn’t have to live in a house that fought all the time.

‘I suppose,’ Karen sighed. ‘This is too depressing, let’s talk about something else,’

‘Okay,’ Claire replied and in true sisterly form she moved the conversation onto how much hair Karen’s freshman year boyfriend had lost.

iii. the love - and suddenly you need this person

Owen had always loved taking baths. The only thing better, was taking bubble baths. He was both comfortable enough with his masculinity to accept his love for them, and insecure enough with it to have to invent many an imaginary girlfriend to justify going into Lush. Even if he was rarely ever questioned, he liked having a backstory ready if any questions were asked.

Recently he discovered that the only thing better than that, was taking a bubble bath with Claire.

Her hair was piled up onto her head, giving him full access to her neck. Taking a sip of her wine, she nuzzled up closer to him. Placing a kiss on the ridge of her neck, he said against her skin ‘We should do this more often,’

‘This is the third time we’ve done it this week,’ she replied, Owen could practically hear her eyes roll.

‘Your point?’ His nose brushing against her face, as he kissed her cheek.

‘Well don’t get your hopes up, I’m going to be busy all week,’

‘So should I just be expecting quickies then?’

Splashing water in his face she sighed and said ‘You shouldn’t be expecting anything.’ He’d heard that before. ‘I’m serious,’ she said clearly reading his mind. ‘I’ve got the meeting with investors tomorrow, Masrani’s flying in, and so are my nephews,’

Prying himself away from her neck, his mood quickly changed. ‘Nephews? I didn’t even know you had them, let alone they were coming in!’

Stiffening underneath him, she subtly moved her face away. ‘Well, you know now,’

‘Claire, we’ve been seeing each other for almost 6 months now! And I still don’t know any of this shit!’

Pulling away from him, she turned around fully facing him now. ‘It’s not like you’re my boyfriend, this isn’t information you need to know,’

‘Well, who decided that?’ he said his voice raising now.

‘Please, like this isn’t some fantasy for you. You hate me! For some reason, we’re just really good at having sex,’

‘I hate you? Since when!’ Her face was getting redder now, she turned away from him. Reaching out his hand, he gently prompted her to turn to him again. ‘Since when, Claire?’

‘You act like I don’t know what you all say behind my back. Uptight, bossy or my personal favourite ice bitch,’ she spat out, practically laughing at her own words. ‘Getting to where I am takes being a certain type of person, and being a women I have to go above it. Going above it is not going out drinking, it’s making itineraries, it’s not having the time for relationships. I know you don’t understand that, and I’m not asking you to,’

As much as he wanted to argue with her. He couldn’t. Everything she said was true, he didn’t get it. In his weakest moments he’d called her less than flattering words. He wasn’t proud but he did. ‘Maybe you should ask me to,’

Her piercing blue eyes flicked up at him, he knew he was far from her good graces, but she didn’t hate him as much as she did a second ago. He could deal with this.

‘You should probably go,’ she whispered, her mouth barely moving. ‘I’ve got a big day tomorrow,’

He gave a small nod, one he was unsure she even saw, and got up out the bath. He quickly dried off and put on his clothes, as Claire watched from the bath. Once he was fully dressed, he paused for a moment. His eyes glancing from the door to Claire.

Slowly he leaned in to give her a kiss. It was soft, but thorough. He had no idea if it was a goodbye for now or a goodbye forever, but he knew what he wanted it to be. Pulling away he let his face linger, their foreheads still pressed against each other, both breathing each other in for just a moment.

Finally, he fully pulled away, moving towards the door. He took one last look behind him, and he could see her thumb gently stroking her own lip. He wasn’t sure she even knew what she was doing.

With one last smile, he slipped out the door.

Out of all the day’s, why does it have to be today that she needs to talk to Owen. The day after their first fight. If you count these things for non-couples. Then again if they weren’t a couple, this wouldn’t count as their first fight.

Well, whatever had happened, why does she need his help the day after it? It wasn’t as if today was stressful enough already.

Pulling up outside Owen’s bungalow. She could see him working on his bike.

Getting out her car, she briefly checked her reflection. She needed to look her best for this.

Walking over to him she started ‘Mr. Grady, I need you to come talk a look at something,’

‘Why are you calling me Mr. Grady?’ he asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

‘Owen,’ she sighed. She really didn’t know what to call him, this was a professional meeting. However, it was in a distinctly unprofessional setting. Throw in their relationship and it became a hard social landscape to climb, even for the most skilled navigators like Claire. ‘We have an attraction,’

‘That’s not what you seemed to think the last time I saw ya,’ he pointed out, standing up, so she was now looking up at him.

‘Dinosaurs, Mr. Grady,’ she emphasised

‘Owen,’ He interrupted. This needed to professional. Why couldn’t he understand that?

‘It’s about a dinosaur we made,’

‘You just up and made a dinosaur?’

‘Yeah, that’s kinda what we do here,’ she sighed. ‘The exhibit opens in a few weeks, and Mr. Masrani wanted me to consult with you,’

‘You want to consult here, or in my bungalow?’ he asked, his voice dropping an octave lower.

Crinkling her nose, she tried to ignore the crude innuendo. However, with him wearing that tight shirt she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t tempted.

‘That’s not funny,’ she sighed, shaking her head.

Laughing, he replied ‘It’s a little funny.’ Before walking up the steps to bungalow, where she followed him.

‘We’d like you to evaluate the paddock for vulnerabilities. Mr. Masrani thinks since you can control the raptors-‘

‘See it’s all about control with you. I don’t control them, it’s a relationship. About mutual respect. It’s why we don’t have one,’ he said moving back over to his bike.

‘Excuse me?’ she said in shock. ‘I’m the one who doesn’t want a relationship with you!’

‘I never asked you for a second date, hell, you were the one to ask me out in the first place,’

‘Okay, can we just focus on the asset, please?’ She didn’t come here to talk about whatever was going on between the two of them. She came here to do her job.

‘Look I get it, you have to make a lot of hard decisions out here. It’s probably easier to pretend these animals are just numbers on a spreadsheet. But they’re not, they’re alive,’

‘I’m fully aware they’re alive,’ she said in confusion. At least they were some what on topic now.

‘You might have made them in a test tube, but they don’t know that. They’re thinking gotta eat, gotta hunt, gotta…’ he said, making a pumping motion with his fist, a motion any 5th grader would get. She couldn’t not roll her eyes at that.

‘I know you can relate to one of those things.’ And back off topic.

Walking down the steps, she started ‘I’ll be in the car.’ Her eyes briefly flicked to his lips, and all she wanted to do was wipe that shit eating grin off his face. She leaned forward and gave him an opened mouthed peck on the lips. She didn’t know why she did it, she just couldn’t help herself. For some reason she lost her self-control around Owen.

Moving back way she tried to play it cool with one last jab, because she was only human after all. ’You might want to change your shirt, they’re very sensitive… to smell,’

Please let Owen be alive. Please.

This silent mantra had been rushing through Claire’s head since the car. She couldn’t deal with him dying, she couldn’t entertain the possibility that this man, this stubborn, cocky, brilliant man was no longer in her life.

As the number on the elevator got higher and higher, her stomach got heavier and heavier. Just before the door to her floor opened she whispered ‘Please,’

The already quiet room fell silent as she walked into it. All eyes turned to her.

Owen’s dead.

Her body ran cold. Her eyes started prickling, and it took everything she had to not break down and cry right there. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t afford to break down, not over him, not over anything. She had lives to save, especially since she couldn’t save his.

She couldn’t cry until her throat was sore, until her eyes were as red as blood or her shirt was thick with tears.

She couldn’t be angry that the only man who ever wanted to understand her, died. She couldn’t be angry at the universe for being so cruel, she couldn’t be angry at him for leaving her. She just couldn’t.

But what she can do, is this. She promised herself that she would whatever it took to save everyone on this Goddamn island. Because she never wanted to feel like this again, because she didn’t want anyone else to either, because it was her fault.

She let herself have her ten seconds of wallowing. But it was over now, it was time to be strong.

‘Everyone remain calm,’

He’s alive.

God, he was so fucking mad at Claire. He couldn’t understand how the women he thought he could love, was so… heartless. How she could make decisions that could lead to certain death.

His blood was running hot, bubbling beneath his skin. He couldn’t take this anymore, all this adrenaline running through his system. He’d already fought with a security guard.

The crowds kept increasing and the intercom kept saying ‘Due to a technical malfunction all rides are closed’. It was half driving him to edge, but also keeping him from completely hating Claire.

She shut down the rides, she did something. He just wished she did more.

His stomach tightened and his opinions did a complete 180. Claire. He’d almost died. He’d almost died and he had spent six months with Claire, and in all that time she never let him in. If they both survived this, he couldn’t take it anymore. He wasn’t going to let himself be in limbo with her. She’d either admit she cared for him, or he’d leave. Knowing he could die at any moment, he wanted to be with people that could love him.

As if she could hear his thoughts, she appeared to him.

She looked different to usual, he couldn’t place why or how but something had changed. More than just a dinosaur on the loose. She managed to stay composed before, so what’s different now?

Getting closer to her he called out ‘Claire,’

Immediately turning round a look of relief washed over her face. ‘I need you,’

He doesn’t know why he kissed her, he just knows in that moment he had to. He knows they’ve kissed before, but he also knows they may never kiss again.

He’d never been one with words, and the only way he could show her how he felt was with a kiss.

She’d saved his life. She’d saved his life, after running around a jungle in heels and dinosaur shit looking for her nephews. She’d ceased to be Claire Dearing the mystery, she has become Claire Dearing the women.

The women who cares more than she admits, or even knows. The women who’d do anything for those she loves, and God had he never wanted to be loved by her more than now. She was the women that did the impossible, and did it in the most ridiculous footwear possible.

As their lips crashed together he could taste the blood, the sweat, the anxiety. The kiss was metal and gasoline. Between anyone else it would have been terrible. But between him and her? It was everything.

So what do we do now?

She wasn’t sure how they’d ended up in the same hotel room. She was aware that at some point she started shouting at somebody, but she was too tired to remember when or why. All she knew is that she wanted to sleep for a thousand years.

‘You should really have a shower,’ Owen said, lying next to her bed. Groaning she knew she had to have one. She was covered in dinosaur shit for god sake. But nothing in her body wanted to.

Nudging her Owen said ‘The quicker you have one, the quicker you can get to sleep,’

This logic made sense to Claire. Slowly she got up, her muscles feeling too weak to even move.

As soon as she started taking off her clothes she suddenly needed them off, she couldn’t bare one more second in them. However, she was so tired it became hard to do so, and she actually started crying over it.

‘Are you alright, Claire?’ Owen asked from the other side of the door just has she managed to get out of her clothes.

‘Yeah,’ she said weakly, moving over to the shower to turn it on. She couldn’t wait to slip in and wash all the crap off her.

However, as soon as water hit her feet, they burned up. ‘Holy fucking shit,’ she groaned, her feet flaring, and the pain radiating outwards. Running around in heels for hours on end, left her feet bloody and raw. She almost regretted this decision, but they’d be raw without shoes on too.

‘Claire, are you okay?’ Owen asked again, this time opening the door.

Turning around to see him, she said ‘Owen, I’m fine,’ unconvincingly, as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Giving her a look that could only be described as ‘Don’t bullshit me,’ he pulled up his shirt and threw it to the ground. Next, he pushed down his pants and underwear leaving him completely naked.

He slipped into the shower behind her, gently he pushed her round so she was back facing the shower head, her back to him. They stood in the shower, barely touching just letting the water pound against their skin for a long while.

Eventually, Owen reached out for one of the complimentary shower gels, usually she didn’t touch the stuff, but right now she didn’t mind. He worked the gel up into a lather in his hand and started on her back, gently working her shoulders and neck before moving round, gently brushing her breasts. He worked her entire body, applying just enough pressure. He signalled being done by placing a kiss on the crook of her neck.

Picking back up the shower gel she turned around. Starting on his chest, she worked his body just like he had hers. Admittedly he was far larger than her, but that didn’t stop her from working every muscle. His skin was hot beneath her touch, too hot even. When she was finished she placed a kiss by his heart. Her lips burned at his touch, and she could still smell the gasoline. A pit in her stomach formed (reformed) as she thought about everything he went through. Everything they went through.

She didn’t have long to dwell on this as he took shampoo and started massaging her hair. Letting out a moan, she could feel him harden beneath her. However, he continued on her head, placing more and more pressure.

Every thought in her mind slowly disappeared and all she focused on was his touch. When he was finished she leaned back, and let the suds run out of her hair.

When she was sure they were all gone, she started washing his hair. It was far to reach, so she was sure it wasn’t as relaxing for him as it was for her, but he got her breasts plastered against him so it evened out.

Finally, they were both clean, she looked up to take in his face. Wrapped in his arms, she saw the subtle changes. Not just the purple bags or the bloodshot eyes. But, the burning on his nose, the freckles that didn’t used to be there, the hollow look in his face, the wrinkles that had gotten deeper.

His eyes flicked to her lips, and slowly he leaned forward. Their mouths slowly working each other into oblivion. Owen gently pushed her against the wall so we was out of the direct stream of water.

Slowly he kissed his way down her body. Starting at her neck, gently lashing his tongue in the crook of her neck, causing her to call out in pleasure. Next, he grazed his lips against her collarbones, his lips gently dragging against her wet skin. Moving further down he peppered kisses along the underside of her breasts, her entire body stiff with anticipation. He placed hot and heavy kisses across her stomach, her sensitivity driving her to the brink.

Finally, he settled between her legs. The first lick caused her to moan, however her heart had never beat slower. With every lap, every suck, every brush, it didn’t get her blood racing nor her heart pumping. Instead it fulfilled her up with warmth, not the red warmth of passion. But the gold warmth of home. The pleasure that starts in stomach, and spills out, filling every cell in her body.

Her hands settled in his hair, not to tug, not to tell him what to do, but to feel what he feels. The rhythm that vibrates across her body.

When the pleasure became too great, she cried out, her entire body relaxing as she came. Quickly he kissed his way upwards, finishing at her mouth.

Slowly she opened her eyes, ‘Your turn,’ she whispered. He gave a slight shake of the head.

‘No, I wanted it to be for you, just about you,’

Biting her lip she gave a weak smile, but body not capable of anything more. Together they got out the shower, Owen wrapping a towel around her and then himself.

She dragged herself to bed, lying down on it not bothering to get changed. Her body completely relaxed, sleep washed over her body.

iv. the pain - is this the end or just a new beginning?

The next week past in a blur. Sleepless nights, meeting after meeting, the constant fear. She’d left part of herself on that island. The part of herself who could pay attention to something for more than a few minutes, the part of herself that could stay in enclosed spaces, the part of herself that could keep still.

In its place was a women that could do the impossible. A woman who could save thousands of lives, run from dinosaurs and finally show her family how much she cared. However, the woman who could do the impossible had a very hard time doing the probable. She couldn’t sleep, she could barely eat, memories blended into one.

She’d tried to stay strong, tried to not break. But it felt like the stronger her outside got, the weaker her inside was. As if it had leeched the power, and she was now rotting from the inside out.

She knew at some point something had to give, she just hoped it didn’t happen live on air. However, when it came she was alone and somehow that was worse.

Alone in their hotel room, Owen had gone out, she couldn’t remember where. She couldn’t remember much at the moment.

It came without warning, one minute she was staring at the room-service menu trying to remember if she had eaten anything today, then the next thing she knew a lone tear streamed down her cheek. Feeling the dampness on her cheek, she lifted her hand up to it, catching the tear. Staring at it, the tension rose in her body. Starting from her stomach, spreading out like smoke.

Before she could comprehend what was happening she had let out a sob. Tears burning down her face.

Everybody's dead and it’s all my fault.

The harder she tried not to cry, the more tears seemed to come out.

She had no idea if she wanted to compose herself before someone saw her or if she wanted someone here to help.

She had no idea how much time had passed, but she heard the latch of the door open. ‘Hey babe, they didn’t have any swedish fish, but they did-’ stopping in his tracks, he immediately threw the drugstore bag down and moved over the bed.

Wrapping his arms around her, she could already feel her heartbeat slowing. Burying her face into his neck, she took in his scent. The smell of gasoline had finally dissipated, and the smell of Owen had finally come back. It wasn’t a smell she was aware he had, until that smell had become home.

‘You’re going to be okay, Claire. You’re safe now,’ he whispered in her ear. His fingers slowly brushing his hair, her sobs finally started to subside until they were only sniffles.

‘Thank you,’

Awake in Owen’s arms she listened to his heartbeat. As the slow thump soothed her mind, she finally let herself think of her relationship with Owen.

He’d become one of the most important people in her life, and not just after in the incident, but before it too. It was never something she wanted to admit, but he was always there for her. He didn’t always understand her, but she got the distinct feeling he wanted too. And it should have been enough for Claire.

She’d decided long ago that Owen Grady was not the man for her, and despite over the last six months he showed her the opposite, she’d ignored it. She put up walls so he couldn’t fail the hurdles everyone else who went before him had. She didn’t even give him a chance.

She saw exactly where he could fit into her life, her heart, and she didn’t let him.

She couldn’t do this anymore.

Owen didn’t know how Claire dealt with so many interviews. He’d had one press conference, and two interviews and he’d already had enough. Sitting in this chair for third interview he silently prayed he wouldn’t fuck this one up.

He didn’t usually get to see Claire during the day, she was too busy with dealing with this shit. However, he caught her eye coming out of her own interview.

Seeing her face form a smile as she noticed him made his stomach clench. There was no maybe’s anymore he was definitely in love with her.

‘I have exactly two and half minutes to talk to you,’

‘You’d be surprised at what I can do in that time,’ he replied with a smirk.

Rolling her eyes she said ‘I’ve seen it, trust me not that impressive,’

Hearing a polite cough, they both turned around to see Melissa McNamara, the women who was about to interview him. Shit.

‘Well, I was just leaving,’ Claire said to the both of them. Briefly she touched his hand, an action she wasn’t she knew she did. ‘See you later,’ she said just to him.

‘Let’s get this interview started then,’

The interview was going fine, he hadn’t sworn which was better than all his other public appearances and when Melissa said ‘Sadly are interview is coming to a close,’ he felt relief wash over him.

‘However, we have time for one more question.’ Shit ‘One I’m sure our female audience will be interested in.’ Shit shit shit shit shit. ‘Is it true that you and Claire Dearing are seeing each other?’

Fear briefly flashed over him, thousands of answers flooded his head. From the teen movie style public declaration of love to the simple, yet effective ‘fuck you’.

However, he settled on ‘I don’t see how that is relevant or any of your business,’

With a polite smile she replied with ‘It’s something everyone is keen to know. You two could be quite the power couple,’

‘We’re not celebrities, we’re just people who did our job. I don’t see how asking about our love lives- which may or may not be connected- has any relevance to anything we’ve done here,’

‘Well, we’re out of time,’ she said abruptly, before turning to the camera. ‘That was Owen Grady, and I’m Melissa McNamara,’

Something had been off about Owen all evening. Claire couldn’t tell what it was, they’d been going through a lot of changes this past week and a half, it wasn’t surprising that they were different now. However, this was a different type of different.

She figured out very quickly Owen’s coping mechanism was withdrawal, he didn’t bottle it up as much as Claire did. However, he let it out in private. In run’s that last hours. In showers that he got out of with suspiciously red and puffy eyes. In leaving the bed the middle of the night when he thought Claire was asleep.

This wasn’t that. It was too tense, it was too vocal. He was on edge, but because of what she didn’t know and she was too afraid to ask.

As he came out the bathroom, drying himself with a towel, she searched for conversation to have with him. This wasn’t something she was used to doing, it usually came so easily. As he got changed into his pyjamas she asked ‘How was your interview?’

He visibly tensed up, and her eyebrows crooked. She wasn’t aware she’d asked such a loaded question.

‘It was fine.’ Letting out a sigh of relief, she relaxed. ‘Until they asked me if we were dating,’

‘Oh,’ she said, biting her lip.

‘Yeah,’ he replied.

‘What did you say?’

‘That it wasn’t any of their business,’

‘Good,’

She could tell that whatever he was about to say next, he was thinking hard about it. In that moment there was nothing Claire wanted more than to hear them, whatever they were. She was tired of him not telling her things, but she also understood that recovery is hard.

‘What else could I have answered with,’

‘What?’

‘At the risk of sounding like a fifteen year old, what are we, Claire?’

‘I don’t know,’ her voice wavering. She’d asked herself the same question and she still didn’t have an answer.

‘We’ve been doing this for so long, we had to talk about it eventually, Claire. You had to know it was coming,’

‘I didn’t say I hadn’t thought about it,’ she exclaimed. ‘I just don’t know. And it isn’t like it’s entirely my doing,’

‘You never let me in,’ he interrupted, taking a step closer to the bed.

‘You never gave the impression you wanted to!’ her voice raising. Her stomach became lead, she didn’t want to do this now. She didn’t know she ever would want to. ‘You said so yourself, I only care about numbers of a spreadsheet. Don’t act as if you expected anything more from me,’

‘What about now? When I’ve been here for you, through all this? Couldn’t you tell I cared for you then?’

‘Really? After a life or death situation you think it’s appropriate to bring up relationship status? We have more important shit to deal with,’

‘But I can’t do this anymore!’ He shouted. She felt like she’d been doused with water. He didn’t actually care. He didn’t want more, he wanted less. That’s okay. She’d be fine…

‘Okay, if you want to stop then,’ she replied, on the brink of tears.

‘I mean, I can’t act like I don’t love you.’

Oh.

‘I can’t do it anymore, Claire. Because I do! And I want you and everyone else to know it. I can’t act like I’m just here for sex, or some form of human contact. Because I’m not here for any of that, I’m for you.’

She had no idea what to do with any of this information, so she just cried. She didn’t mean to, but like how all her tears came, it only needed one before the rest came crashing down. Moving over to her, he sat down next to her on the bed. Gently he placed his hand on her knee.

Slowly she focused on her breath and tried to say something.

‘I don’t love you.’ Feeling his hand tense on her knee, she continued. ‘But I know I could. I think I’ve always known I could, and that’s why I couldn’t let you. Because, I don’t know, I love my work too much or I’m not the best at showing people how I feel.’ Taking a deep breath, she said what she really needed to say ‘But I’m going to let you love me and I’m going to let myself love you. It might be tomorrow, it might be six months from now, it could be two years away for all I know. In this shit storm I just don’t think I’m ready. But I’m ready to be ready,’

Looking up at him with blurry eyes, she hoped he understood what she meant. She hoped he knew that she was giving him everything she had.

His large, callused hand came up to her face. Gently wiping away a tear, which Claire knew was more of a symbolic gesture than anything else considering the amount she had cried, she knew he understood.

Leaning forward, their lips met. Moving against each other in perfect harmony, it was unlike any other kiss they’d ever had. It wasn’t hot and sexy, nor was it desperate and needy.

Pulling back, Owen kept his hand on her face, his fingers gently stroking her cheek. ‘I love you,’

With a bittersweet smile, she replied ‘I know,’

v. epilogue

‘It’s been almost a year since the events of Jurassic World and the company has finally been liquidated. The research aspect of the park are still under InGen control, what InGen is allowed to do with the remaining dinosaur embryos is an ongoing court case. The island itself has been left as a reserve for the dinosaurs,’

With a cup of coffee in hand, Claire was watching the morning news. Naturally, she already knew all this information, but she still couldn’t believe it was all over.

Coming up behind her, Owen placed a kiss on the crook of her neck and whispered into her skin ‘You’re finally free,’

Owen had moved in with her, it was never an official thing. He just came back with her from Costa Rica and never left. While he brought very few belongings with him, the house had definitely taken a turn for the Owen. Souvenirs popped up around the house, pictures of his family started to appear next to pictures of hers, and the pictures she had were updated.

‘Yeah, free to do nothing,’ she sighed, placing her coffee mug down.

‘You have job offers.’

Her fingers tracing around the edge of the coffee cup, she knew this was true. But she didn’t know if she wanted any of them. Jurassic World was her life for so many years, even after it was destroyed. She didn’t know how she could move on from that.

‘You don’t have to take any of them you know,’

‘I don’t know, that’s the problem.’ Claire didn’t like not knowing things, she prided herself on being knowledgeable in every situation. If a situation arose where she didn’t know enough to make informed decisions, she found somebody that could and trusted their advice. There was no one to give advice for this, there was no more knowledgeable person.

‘Whatever you decide, I’m here for you. I have a job now, you still have savings and a you got money from the liquidation. Whatever you want, it’ll be okay,’

His hands rubbed up and down her arms, trying to reassure her. ‘I just want something, that makes me feel like working at Jurassic World felt. I want to feel accomplished, like I’m doing something,’

‘And you can take sometime to do that. You’ve been working hard, you deserve time to think your next step through. They’ll be other job offers,’

It had gotten to the point in her and Owen’s relationship were it wasn’t burning passion all the time. The sex was still great, yes. But it wasn’t about that anymore, and she didn’t care. It was lazy mornings and constant companionship. Someone to come home to, someone to face everything with. When she imagined a future for herself, Owen was the only thing that never changed. So looking up at him, she finally told him something, she’d wanted to tell him a long time ago.

‘I love you,’

His hands immediately stilled. ‘Care to repeat that?’ he asked in disbelief.

‘I love you,’

His lips came crashing down onto hers and she was glad she’d waited this long. Not to put Owen through any extra torture, but she wanted to mean it. She wanted to love him with every atom of her body, before she said it. She wanted to be able to give all of herself to him.

And getting to kiss him after having all that, it felt incomparably amazing. Pulling back, he whispered against her lips ‘I love you so fucking much, Claire Dearing,’

‘I love you too, Owen,’

Leaning back in they kissed, not for the first time and definitely not for the last.

Notes:

All feedback is appreciated :)
My tumblr is dearingclaire and I post fanfic on lydia-dearing

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