Claim Me (Body Scenes 4)

“True mates,” Cray said from behind her. “Jude and I always thought of it as a mysterious and unattainable wolf legend, because neither of us had experienced it in our twenty-nine years.”

She turned to face him, finding that breaking the eye contact with Jude helped to lessen the agony radiating throughout her body. She stared up at Cray, allowing her soul to connect with his instead. Warmth flowed through her, along with an intimate sensuality that helped to push out some of the pain. The very essence of Cray was magical to her. He oozed sex appeal, no doubt about it, but he also emitted a quiet strength. A gentle passion that was the polar opposite of the fierce passion she sensed within Jude.

A molten sensation seep

ed through her veins and down her spine as Cray’s large hands clasped her waist and their bodies gravitated toward each other and naturally melded together. Jane’s fingers touched his skin at the opening of his shirt, the tips trailing along his supple skin. His muscles tensed in response to her light strokes.

He was so much like Sean, before he’d been turned. His skin was hot and it felt heavenly against hers. He chased away the chill she’d felt for longer than she could remember and his heat almost eclipsed her and Jude’s pain. Enough that she could breathe a little easier and feel something other than sheer agony.

She asked, “How did you know I was the one?” It was, as he’d said earlier, an inevitability that could not be reversed. Acceptance was really her only course of action.

“We caught your scent when we were up around Niagara Falls,” he told her.

She blinked. “You could smell me all the way up there?”

He grinned. It was an easy, comfortable, yet breathtaking smile. She melted against him, her breasts pressing below the hard ledge of his pectoral muscles. Her four-inch stilettos put her at a perfect height, allowing their bodies to conform to each other.

“It’s a very enticing bouquet,” he mused in a low, erotically stirring tone. “You’re not the first vampire we’ve encountered, but you’re definitely the first one who smells like lilacs in the spring.”

Jane laughed, Cray’s lighthearted nature overriding some of her inner turmoil. “My favorite fragrance. I always wear it.”

“It drew us here,” he told her as his head dipped and he sniffed the skin at her neck.

“You knew I was watching you when I was upstairs in Drake’s office. How?”

“I sensed it.”

“You imprinted on me through a security camera. Without even ever seeing me.”

“Jane,” he said on a sigh. “Stop analyzing and dissecting it. Stop trying to make sense of this. The universe’s rules and general common sense don’t apply to imprinting. It’s innate. It’s primal. It’s mystical. That’s what makes it so pure and so special.”

“But you both imprinted on me.” As difficult as it was to break the intimate contact with Cray, she turned in his arms again to face Jude. “You’re the alpha, right?”

He nodded. “Cray’s my second.”

“An alpha who shares?”

His jaw tightened for a brief moment. Then he said, “What choice do I have in the matter? Neither of us can help what happened. It’s innate. It’s primal. It’s mystical. Just as Cray said.”

She stepped out of Cray’s loose embrace and crossed back to where Jude sat. He reached for her hand and pulled her to him, into the V created by his long legs—she was a magnet and he was steel. She sank to her knees and rested her forearms on his powerful thighs as she gazed up at him.

“I’m sorry I’m hurting you with my past,” he told her in an edgy tone.

“There’s nothing you can do about it. But maybe…” She glanced back at Cray before returning her attention to Jude. “Maybe the reason you both imprinted on me is because the balance is necessary. Cray reminds me of someone I once loved. That memory is painful unto itself, but your agony adds to it. Cray’s good nature softens the blow a bit. But regardless of the pleasure or the pain, there’s no denying we’re all bound together now. I can feel it deep in my soul.”

He nodded as though he understood. But he said, “This won’t be easy. In fact, it’s very…complicated.”

She could feel the tension running rampant through him. It was a raw intensity that was visible in the hard set of his jaw, his squared shoulders, his bunched muscles. But mostly, she saw it in those eyes that looked like melted dark chocolate.

“My entire existence has been complicated since I became a vampire,” she told him. “Par for the course and all that.”

For the first time since she’d met him, he smiled. The flash of pearly white teeth and the slight lessening of some of his internal consternation made the gesture not only a relief but the final welcomed acceptance of their unusual connection.

She had the compelling need to release him from his torment—as much as possible at any rate. She wondered if she could transfer some of Cray’s carefree disposition to Jude. It wasn’t something she’d ever tried or considered before, but perhaps she had the power to pass sensations onto him, now that they were all so intricately and viscerally joined.

Leaning toward him, she brushed her lips over his. They were warm and soft, like Cray’s skin, providing that human touch she’d wanted so much to experience again. A wicked thrill shimmied down her spine. She traced the tip of her tongue over the smooth flesh at his mouth and Cray let out a groan behind her.

Yes, this was definitely complicated. Tricky, in fact. Kissing one made the other jealous.