“I wanted to ease some of his pain,” Jane said. “I experimented with it a little, just a brief while ago, but when I came…” Her eyes all but rolled into the back of her head as excitement tickled her nerve endings at the memory of her powerful orgasm. “I thought it was a strong enough sensation to share with him.”
Jude said, “It’s not your responsibility to fix me, Jane.” In his tone, there was a hint of humility mixed with a serious dose of regret and guilt.
He didn’t like that she felt the things he did and it bothered him greatly that she was trying to smooth the deep wrinkles in his life.
She could appreciate that. But if she could do something to help him…
Turning back to him, she said, “I get the pride thing. Drake never intentionally pricks my nerves when he tries to get me to leave the office or face the fact that I hide there because I fear meeting anyone—a human, in particular, who I might hurt. I can see now that the reason his prodding never clicked in my brain is because, subconsciously or instinctively, I was waiting for the two of you. But don’t mistake what I feel toward you as pity. That’s absolutely not the case.”
She sat back down on the edge of the ottoman and said, “I empathize with your pain. I told you I loved someone once. He had Cray’s casual disposition and your fierce passion. Two contradictory, yet unbelievably dynamic traits. I loved him from the moment I laid eyes on him.”
“What happened to him?” Cray asked.
Jane was both shocked and relieved to discover all the co-mingling of emotions she commanded helped to alleviate a good deal of her own internal strife as she thought of Sean. The erotic sensations her imprinters evoked continued to radiate throughout her
and the sensuous feelings were strong enough to keep her from doubling over in pain, as she sometimes did when she thought of Sean.
“A slayer tracked him down and killed him.” That was really the only part of the story she dared tell, lest the blocking of her agony weakened and she had to experience the excruciating grief over losing Sean.
She didn’t want to feel that grief anymore. Or the remorse. She liked that she had a reprieve from it and she particularly liked that Cray and Jude could help her past fifty years of a near-solitary existence.
Cray knelt beside her, his heat and hunkiness keeping her excitement elevated and her juices flowing. He was magnificent and the desire to see him naked was an unrelenting one.
He touched her cheek with a quiet kindness that made her heart soar. His fingers lightly stroked her face and swept over her lips. Then he leaned toward her and kissed her in that tender, sexy way of his. Slow and languid. Like they’d known each other forever and had all the time in the world to enjoy what the other had to offer.
Moving between her parted legs, he wrapped one arm around her waist. His free hand cupped her breast and massaged it gently, yet skillfully. He had a way of creating a slow burn low in her belly that was molten and sexy. Hot magma seeped through her veins and that flickering flame of desire teased her clit again.
His lips left her mouth and grazed her jaw, then her throat as her head fell back on her shoulders. His tongue brushed over her skin and his teeth lightly scraped the surface, a titillating touch.
“You don’t have to hide out anymore, Jane,” he murmured against her neck. “You’re not alone. Nor do you have to worry about hurting us. Or anyone else, for that matter. I don’t believe it’s in your nature. If it were, you would have attacked someone long ago.”
She thought of Shana and the human blood that had tempted her. Yet she’d resisted it. She’d fought the thirst that had risen within her and had fled the room to compose herself.
“You’d intervene if I started to slip with a human.”
“Of course.”
She relaxed a little.
He added, “Nor will you hurt me or Jude, because we’re shifters.”
The mere idea of tasting their blood sent a wicked shiver down her spine. Cray’s head tilted to the side, a silent offer. She stared at the veins running along his throat. She wanted to bite him. Actually, it became more of a primal need than a desire.
But she said, “I can’t. I’ve never tasted human blood, nor do I want to. Ever.”
“We’re not technically human, Jane,” Jude said.
“Do it,” Cray whispered. “It’s one more thing that binds us together.”
A hint of fear crept along the edges of her excitement. Her breathing quickened and her clit tingled. She licked her lips in anticipation, but still hedged. “What if I can’t stop?”
“You will,” Cray assured her. “It’s just a sample, so you’ll know how we taste.”
Her gaze shifted to Jude. “Are you sure about this? Because if I bite him, I’ll have to bite you as well.” Part and parcel of the balance they had to maintain. They’d both become an algebra equation. What she did to one, she had to do to the other.
“Your biting us is sort of the equivalent of us imprinting on you. Cray’s right. It is another form of intimate and innate connection. Another eternal attachment.”
Jane wanted desperately to believe in “eternal attachment”. She wanted to believe the three of them would always be together. That they would never leave her or be taken from her, like Sean.