Claim Me (Body Scenes 4)

Chapter One

“You’ve taken over my desk, Jane?”

Her head whipped in the direction of the door and Jane Van Kamp let out a squeal of delight as she sprang to her feet. “Drake, you’re back!”

He gave her his usual slow, sexy grin as he strolled into the spacious office above Body Scenes, the nightclub he’d opened last year. It was one of Manhattan’s most exclusive venues, with a bonus naughty art gallery showcasing murals painted on naked bodies. The erotic joining of the models completed the creative and intricately designed pieces.

Over the decades, Jane had been Drake Halston’s assistant in various capacities, locations and business ventures. But since he’d been in Mexico on his honeymoon, she’d gladly taken over management of the club, his latest investment.

Despite how much she enjoyed being in control of the business while he was away, she was thrilled he’d returned. She rushed across the room to greet him with an enthusiastic hug.

He chuckled at her exuberance.

She pulled away and composed herself.

“You’ve made yourself quite comfortable in my absence, I see.” His British accent was a tad subtler than hers and it held a dark sensuality Jane found alluring.

Too bad Drake was no longer on the market. Not that she’d wanted everlasting love with him. She’d carried a torch for someone else the entire fifty years she’d been a vampire, though her lover Sean was long staked and burned to ash. Being a reclusive immortal ever since had left Jane lonely, but for some time at least, she’d had Drake, a once-reclusive immortal himself, to scratch the itch when need be.

No more.

Feeling the familiar void deep within her, she had to admit the sexual disconnect from Drake saddened her. Despite her recent intimate detachment from him, however, she was genuinely happy he’d found true love. He’d married the human object of his desire months ago, which meant both he and Shana, his new wife, were off limits.

Doubly unfortunate, really, given the very wicked night the three of them had shared before Drake had marked his territory with Shana. Now Jane was resigned to throwing herself into her work in order to keep her mind from the one thing she’d discovered she wanted most when she and Shana had pleasured each other in front of Drake. A human’s touch.

Pushing that disconcerting thought aside, she focused instead on business. “I have a better view of the security monitor from your desk than from mine.” She pointed to the large flat-panel screen mounted over the fireplace in the living room setting of Drake’s massive office. In a teasing tone, she added, “I promise I didn’t prop my feet on your desk or smoke your cigars while you were away.”

“You’d be entitled,” he told her. “I can’t thank you enough for holding down the fort while I was in the Rivieria Maya with Shana.”

“I wondered if the two of you would ever come back to Manhattan.”

“We considered staying awhile longer. She can do her work from anywhere with her Internet hotspot. But she missed you, Yvette and Finn terribly.”

Finn Griffith was the renowned artist who’d given Drake the idea for the gallery portion of the club. His girlfriend, Yvette Samson, was a trendy writer and blogger. They’d become good acquaintances of both Drake and Jane.

“Mm, you came back so Shana could be with her friends,” Jane said, a tinge of amusement still in her voice. “How thoughtful of you.”

“All right, fine.” A dark brow lifted. “I missed you terribly too.”

“That’s better.” She turned back to the desk, wandering over to it as she continued. “You’ll also be pleased to know I didn’t spy on the models while they were placing themselves for the murals.”

Another low chuckle from Drake filled the otherwise quiet room. “And what about afterward?”

She tried to feign innocence with a look over her shoulder, but was sure she didn’t succeed in pulling it off. He knew her too well.

“Jane. I have rules for a reason.”

“Well, I didn’t spy on all of them.” Sometimes it was erotically stirring to watch the various couples and multiple partners get it on after the curtain dropped on their murals and they were all tangled together in seductive ways behind closed doors. Sometimes, however, it pained her. Those were the nights when she sat alone in the dark, watching humans enjoy each other’s bodies and heat, while she longed for a soft, sensual touch.

But as much as Jane desired the warmth and suppleness of a human’s body pressed to hers, she didn’t seek it out. She lived in fear of hurting anyone. She’d never tasted even a drop of human blood, nor did she want to. She controlled her primal urges by keeping her distance, though her self-discipline had certainly been put to the test that night with Shana. Their unexpected threesome had generated a very dangerous scenario in the end, when a few drops of Shana’s blood had touched Jane’s skin after Drake had made love to the virgin.

Those few terrifying moments of apprehension as her respect for the human race warred with her vampire hunger had been the final defining moments for Jane. She hadn’t gone for Shana’s jugular and she knew Drake would have quickly intervened if she’d made a move toward Shana’s throat, but still. She had to accept her fate as a vampire. She simply didn’t trust herself around humans and didn’t want to be tempted by them. The very reason she hid out in this ginormous office, all alone. She didn’t even dare spend time with Finn and Yvette when Drake wasn’t around, because they were mortals. And she conducted the vast majority of the club’s business via the phone or email or text. The less human contact, the better, was her motto.

That, of course, made Drake and Shana’s return all the more welcomed. She’d missed them as much as they had her and some of her lonesomeness slipped away at the sight of Drake.

Prompting her to ask, “Will you be staying long?”

“That depends on how much you want to continue running Body Scenes in my stead.” He joined her at the long, glass-top desk and crossed his arms over his wide chest.

She bit back the sigh of longing he so easily evoked. Drake was too handsome for words, all tall, dark and dreamy. And so very talented with his hands and mouth. Not to mention the imaginative ways he liked to make love. She couldn’t deny she missed feeling his hard, thick cock inside her, taking her to dizzying heights before she cried out his name as she came. Over and over.

Were she not a vampire, she never could have withstood his aggressive nature—what a damn shame that would have been, to have missed out on their steamy trysts. He was a powerhouse of a man at six-foot-four and had a strong, muscular build. She was a five-foot-three-inch waif with delicate features, blonde hair and pale green eyes, a vast contrast to his smoldering dark looks. She’d been fragile as a twenty-four-year-old mortal, but her strength as a vampire almost rivaled Drake’s, making them a very passionate couple on the rare occasions they’d gotten together.

Yet he and Shana were even more explosive together, as she’d witnessed the night of their threesome. Jane had suspected all along that Drake and Shana would singe the sheets when they finally made love. In fact, she’d stopped initiating sex with Drake after she’d discovered his secret obsession with Shana, long before either of them had even met the international-musician-turned-Internet-journalist in person. Therefore, their threesome had been a very unexpected, yet delightful, occurrence.