Claire Kent > Quotes

“I guess I keep waiting for someone to choose me, to want me, over all the other women he could have.”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“Anyone can write good sex scenes. All you need is some basic knowledge of anatomy, the right vocabulary and some choice reading material. Experience has nothing to do with it.”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“Me big strong man. Me take woman from behind.”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“Just once I'd like to see you be wrong about something."

"Oh, I've been wrong about plenty of things," Ander murmured, pulling her toward him and draping both arms around her waist. "I just don't like to advertise the fact.”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“Feeling like a caveman tonight? Or do you still insist you’re immune to such primitive impulses?”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“It is unquestionably foolish to begin a battle when you don't know the full strength of your adversary.”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“Here is a piece of advice. Never pay attention to what a man says when he comes. Anything might be blurted out at that moment, and it rarely means anything.”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“The truth is that, when it comes to sex, selfishness is pretty typical with guys."

"Great. How infinitely comforting."

"I don't mean they're all jerks. I just mean it's more common for them to go about sex focusing on what they want rather than ensuring that you get what you want. Sabrina shook her head and clicked her tongue. "It's a sad fact of the world.”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“Thank you so much for going out of your way to bring me here.” “Of course. I’ll be here in three hours to take you back to the motor. If you decide you want to stay with your sister”
― Claire Kent, Ashes

“So she laughed instead, squeezing him in her arms and wondering how she’d ever written romance novels without really understanding what love was.”
― Claire Kent, Escorted

“It’s complicated for me too. I know I’m not the man you might want me to be, for a serious relationship. But I want you so much, I don’t care. I want you, Kelly, and I can try to change, if you need me to. All of me is yours.”
― Claire Kent, Sweet the Sin

“People didn’t often change, and the way they most commonly surprised you was by disappointing you.”
― Claire Kent, Nameless

“Jimmy there doesn’t have a woman. He’d take real good care of you.” I dart a quick glance at Jimmy and fight to keep my face from changing expression. “No, thank you.” “Shouldn’t say no so quickly. Pretty girl like you needs a man.” “I have a man,” I say without thinking. “She’s got a man.” The voice follows on the heels of mine. Lower. Gruffer. Louder. Travis.”
― Claire Kent, Last Light

“must have salt and pepper here. The silence gets to me, and with a surge of frustration, I decide I’m not going to give in to it. So I start to talk. And I keep talking even though Mack doesn’t reply with more than an occasional grunt. I tell him all the news I can think of about our friends back home. Halbrook is now the biggest town in the area with a thriving school, two churches, and a clinic. Esther, who we met by chance on a trip we were making a few years ago, is now the principal of the school and also newly pregnant with her and Zed’s second child. Layne and Travis are still living in their little cabin in the mountains, but they’re planning to move to Halbrook within the next year because their oldest, Abigail, is now five and will need to attend school soon. They’ve also got a three-year-old boy named Michael, a one-year-old boy named Benjamin, and are pregnant with their fourth, so they can’t live so isolated anymore.”
― Claire Kent, Beacon

“He stood up, standing very close to her, watching her in that way he had that morning, in that way she didn’t understand.

Like he was waiting for something.

She stared back at him, suddenly hit with a wave of attraction that was beyond her comprehension.

The man was dirty, smelly, covered with hair, and totally rude. She shouldn’t be attracted to him. At all. In any way.

But her body responded to his proximity, to the strength she could see in his arms, his shoulders, his chest. To the intelligence, the humanness she saw in his eyes.”
― Claire Kent, Fall

“After we clean up, Mack gets interested in a different sort of activity, and I have no objection. So we fuck on the couch with my legs wrapped high around his back until I come twice, and then after he pulls out, I finish him in my mouth. It’s after that. After a good day and a good meal and good sex with a good man who feels like mine. It’s then. I’m hit with a deep wave of grief. Because he’s not mine. Not for real. I might want him now in a way I never have before, but he doesn’t want me anymore. Not for more than the next three weeks. The reality hurts so intensely I have to leave Mack in a sated sprawl on the couch with the excuse that I need to go to the bathroom. There, I sit on the toilet and cry into my hands, fighting to will myself back into composure. Mack can’t know. He can’t know how much this hurts, how bad I feel. He’s got such a soft heart and such a strong sense of responsibility, he might try to give me what I want even now, even if it’s not the best thing for him. And I can’t let him do that. He needs to be perfectly free in a way he’s never been before. Free to decide on the life he wants. And telling him the truth about these new feelings and desires would make him less free. I won’t do it. “Anna?” Mack is knocking on the bathroom door. “You okay in there?” “Yes!” I’m relieved I sound just slightly strained. “Why wouldn’t I be?” “I don’t know. Just picking up vibes. You upset about something?” “No, of course not! Sorry. Just have some… digestion issues. I’ll be out in a minute.”
― Claire Kent, Beacon

“On the first day I met you, I promised your dad that if anything managed to get to you, I’d already be dead.”
― Claire Kent, Princess

“It’s not going to hit for a month or two, but the news will become public later today, and there’s likely to be mass panic. Civil unrest. All kinds of violence. So now’s the best time to hunker down. Here where it’s safe.”
― Claire Kent, Princess

“For the next hour, I sit on the porch step and watch the sky through the surrounding trees get darker and darker. I feel like crying, but I don’t. I used to cry all the time. When my husband, Josh, lashed out at me. When I would make plans for finally getting away from him but then be too scared to do it. When the asteroid hit and the world fell apart. When so many of my former students died in the first few years after Impact. When I was trying desperately to learn how to stand on my own and defend myself. When my life became scrambling frantically to survive. Mack has held me so often while I cried. I can still feel the strength of his big arms and the solidity of his broad chest. The beat of his heart against my ear. Comfort like that from Mack is a thing of the past, and I know it’s for the best. I might still want it for me, but it’s no longer fair to let him give it to me. I don’t expect him to dry my tears anymore.”
― Claire Kent, Beacon

“So I clear the emotion from my throat and continue, “I really do get it, Mack. I know exactly how it feels to make a decision out of self-preservation that seems like the only option to… to survive and have no one else understand why I’m making it. You hold it close to you. You guard it like a treasure and lash out if anyone gets anywhere close. I know how it feels.” “What decision did you make like that?” “Are you kidding?” I’m dying to turn around again, but I still resist. It’s somehow safer to say all this when I can’t see his face. “Mack, do you have any idea how often other people either implied or said straight out that I was heartless and stupid for not marrying you and making you happy and having all your babies?” My voice breaks despite my best effort. I feel a reaction from him behind me. His body jerks, and he wraps his fingers around one of my forearms in a grip that feels weirdly protective. Since he hasn’t replied in words, I go on. “No one ever hated me. But everyone loved you. They loved you. And they resented me because they were sure I was hurting you. For no good reason.” “I didn’t know they were doing that,” he murmurs in a very soft, very thick voice. “I never would have allowed it.” “It wasn’t your fault. I know you never complained about me to anyone. But I’m not sure you could have stopped the talk even if you’d tried. It was inevitable. You’re… you’re Mack. And I was the bitch who kept breaking your heart.” He sucks in a sharp breath, his fingers tightening on my arm. “You don’t get to talk that way about yourself. I’ve never let anyone say that about you, and you’re included. You don’t get to talk about yourself that way. Not around me.”
― Claire Kent, Beacon

“You’re doin’ good, Chloe, doll,” my grandfather says. “Just don’t stop.” Those are his last words. His very last. A crack of sound behind us makes me whimper. I’m about to ask if that was a gunshot, but then Grandpa slumps forward in his seat. He stays like that, unmoving. After a minute, I realize there’s blood gushing out of his neck.”
― Claire Kent, Homestead

“Julia couldn't stop kissing him, pressing her lips over and over against his. She felt like she wanted to swallow him, like she couldn't bear for him to ever pull away.”
― Claire Kent, Finished

“I turn away from the man I killed without even a sliver of guilt or regret. I used to be a twenty-three-year-old high school English teacher in a small mountain town in western Virginia. But somehow in the past ten years I’ve turned into this.”
― Claire Kent, Beacon

“He nods, evidently accepting my answer as believable and appropriate. “Someone has taken my daughter.” “What?” I’m genuinely surprised and appalled, and I sound that way. He’s got startlingly intelligent blue eyes. They’re focused on me without wavering. “She’s been kidnapped. Her guard was killed. We’re checking for anyone who might have seen something.” “I haven’t seen any little girls. How old is she? What does she look like?” “She’s eight. This high.” He makes a gesture with his hand to indicate her height. “Brown hair and blue eyes. She always carries a doll with a pink dress.” “I’m so sorry she’s missing. I’ll keep my eye out. I really hope you find her.” He gives a brief nod. “I’ll find her. If you see anything, you can tell anyone. Everyone around here knows how to get me a message.” He pauses and then adds as if as an afterthought, “I’m Logan.” He turns and walks away before I can get any sort of response out. As soon as he and his men have left the clearing, Mack returns to me with his big package of provisions. “Did he bother you?” he asks, sounding as bristly as he looks. “No. Not at all. His daughter is missing, and he was asking about her.”
― Claire Kent, Beacon

“It’s like it’s not even Mack anymore. It’s on that thought that my eyes start to burn, and after a few minutes all the tears I’ve been suppressing for the past twenty-four hours start streaming down my face. I cry in mostly silence, still walking at a brisk pace because I can’t afford to lose any time. Cal and Rachel will be waiting for me for a few more hours. They’re going to be crushed when I show up without Mack. I sniff and wipe at my eyes and continue, making sure to keep an eye out for possible danger. I really think I’m being careful, but I’m also crying. So what happens could definitely be my own fault. I’m not really made for this life. I don’t like violence of any kind, and it took me years after Impact to develop any sort of functional self-defense and fighting skills. I’ve learned a lot and hardened myself as best I can, so I’m not completely helpless anymore. But I’m not Rachel. Or Maria. Or one of the supercompetent women in my circle. And when I turn a tight curve in the trail I’m following and am suddenly confronted by three dubious-looking men, I don’t react quickly enough. I should have raised my gun immediately, but I don’t. I’m surprised. My eyes are filled with tears. And my head is momentarily blank.”
― Claire Kent, Beacon

“They built this farm as an attempt to live off the grid, so it was equipped with well water, manually pumped plumbing, and composting toilets, which gave us an advantage when infrastructure collapsed all over the United States and this area lost power and water. At New Haven, we grew wheat, ground it into flour, and baked bread for as long as I can remember, and we always had a huge vegetable garden.”
― Claire Kent, Haven

“The dawn would come eventually, and what was broken could mend.”
― Claire Kent, Breaking

“always try to be happy for you because you deserve everything you want. So can we just drop it?” His expression deepens into a frown again, and I don’t like how he’s still trying to dig into my brain. So I shake myself off and walk toward the front door of the cabin, relieved when Mack follows and doesn’t restart the conversation again.”
― Claire Kent, Beacon

“Do you have someone?” He doesn’t answer immediately, and I start to think he’s not going to at all. Then he finally meets my gaze. “Sure, I’ve got a woman. She just hasn’t realized it yet.”
― Claire Kent, Princess

“My grandmother’s Bible and her old copy of Little Women, which were her most treasured items.”
― Claire Kent, Princess