ClaimMe

by Calista Fox

  “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.

  Jane tried to placate both of them with a flippant, “Trust me, there’s plenty of me to go around.”

  “There’s hardly anything to you at all,” Jude said as his large hands circled her biceps and he pulled her closer to him before he kissed her passionately, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth to tangle with hers.

  It was a hot, demanding kiss. One that seared her to the core of her being and sparked deep, dark desires.

  She shifted while still kissing him and straddled his lap, her short skirt hitching up a few notches. Her arms wrapped around his neck and his encircled her waist. She pressed her upper body to his and felt all of the rigid muscles against her soft curves.

  The need to ease his woes rose within her once more and she deepened the kiss, boldly thrusting her tongue into his mouth and taking over the kiss. Only for a short while, of course. Alpha that he was, he took back the control, which thrilled Jane again. The push and pull was sinfully delicious and it superseded myriad negative emotions evoked by being so close to him.

  When they finally came up for air, Jane was lightheaded and ridiculously turned-on. She felt less of a strain on Jude’s soul too, which was encouraging. She’d succeeded in passing on some of Cray’s carefree attitude.

  She climbed off Jude’s lap and returned to Cray. She deftly unbuttoned his shirt and splayed her hands over his bare chest. She let out a sigh of genuine appreciation.

  “I guess if a girl has to be involuntarily imprinted upon, she couldn’t ask for two hotter imprinters.”

  Cray grinned. “Nice to see you’ve finally come around.”

  “Like Jude said, what choice do I have? Besides…” She shoved the material over his wide shoulders and down his heavily muscled arms. “I never would have moved on from Sean if you hadn’t come for me.” Shooting a quick look back at Jude, she added, “And maybe I can help you get over Celine.”

  He seemed to work down a lump of emotion lodged in his throat, but then he nodded.

  She returned her attention to Cray. “You’ve never had a broken heart.”

  “No ma’am.”

  “I’ll be very careful not to change that.”

  His lips grazed her temple as he said, “You don’t have to tiptoe around us. We’re more than aware of the difficult situation we’ve created. We both suspected the outcome before we agreed to come here for you. In theory, one of us should have stood down, but in reality… That’s not possible when you feel like this. So we have to make it work.”

  “The three of us?” she murmured as his warm lips swept over her skin, across her cheekbone, then down to her mouth, where he nibbled one corner.

  He whispered, “It might be kind of hot.”

  A soft laugh escaped her parted lips. “I don’t think there’s any question.”

  He groaned again, the sound low and sexy. It reverberated deep within her. “Good thing you’re not human.”

  She thought of the multiple ways in which these two men might pleasure her and, for the first time, didn’t miss being human. “Definitely do not let my size fool you. Or deter you in any way.”

  “We’ll keep that in mind,” he said in his sensuous voice. Then he kissed her. Tenderly and certainly with a different sort of intensity than Jude exuded. But it was no less explosive.

  Jane’s inner walls squeezed tight, making her desperate to feel Cray’s cock inside her. Jude’s too. She craved them both.

  Cray held her tightly, their bodies melding together again. Her fingers twisted in his tousled hair, the strands silky against her skin. She longed to feel her bare breasts against his chest and was relieved she didn’t have to break the kiss to tell him as much. He must have wanted the same thing, because he reached for the zipper at the middle of her back and slid it partially down the track. He peeled away the bodice of the dress and then gathered her close to him again.

  Her hard nipples pressed to his hot flesh and Jane tore her mouth from his, despite her previous reluctance to do so, and gulped down a hearty breath of air. The skin-on-skin contact was nothing short of electrifying.

  “Oh Christ.” Her chest heaved and she tingled from head to toe.

  Behind her, she heard Jude stand and whip off his suit jacket. Then he joined Jane and Cray and unzipped her dress the rest of the way. He worked the tight material over her hips and down her legs.

  Excitement shot through her. Desire prickled her clit. Anticipation created a throbbing sensation so intense in her pussy, it seemed to pulse throughout her entire body.

  Jude stripped his shirt off and pressed his chest to her back, instantly enveloping her in male heat and human suppleness. The very things she’d longed for and had convinced herself she’d never feel again. Cray’s hands gripped her hips and Jude’s palmed her breasts, massaging the small mounds almost roughly. It drove her wild.

  Cray’s head bent to hers again and he kissed her, the gentle, teasing strokes of his tongue a direct contrast to the way Jude pinched and rolled her nipples with an assertive touch. Jude’s mouth graze
d her craned neck and he nipped at her flesh, making her nearly jump out of her skin.

  She felt another powerful jolt when Cray’s hands moved down to her ass, sliding between her backside and Jude’s front. He squeezed the cheeks and crushed her to him. Not to be outdone, Jude wedged a hand between her and Cray and two fingers stroked her labia through her thong panties. And then he targeted her clit and Jane was hopelessly lost.

  Jude’s pain had morphed into intense desire. She could feel it as strongly as she felt her own desire balloon within her, swelling with every touch and kiss and groan.

  When Jude swept aside the lace covering her pussy lips and his strong fingers caressed her confidently, she broke Cray’s kiss and let out a small cry. A potent craving gripped her very soul. She desperately needed their intimate touches, their contradictory tender and aggressive ministrations.

  Jude stepped away from them. Cray took her by the hand.

  No words were spoken. None needed to be.

  He led her to the oversized, tufted ottoman in the center of the room and she sat on the edge of it. Jude rounded the opposite end and, with his hands on her shoulders, guided her onto her back, her blonde hair fanning out around her head. Cray spread her legs wide as Jude clasped her wrists and raised them above her head. They wanted a submission of sorts. Perhaps it was the vampire-werewolf thing and they wanted to prove they were the dominant species. Perhaps they wanted to restrain her from pulling away again. Not that she would.

  Or maybe, she thought as Cray’s tongue swiped over her sensitive folds and fire consumed her, they simply wanted to pleasure her.

  She moaned and that seemed to spur Cray on. The tip of his tongue flicked across her clit, over and over, until she was squirming on the velvet-covered ottoman, her back arching, her breasts thrusting upward.

  Jude held her captive and that aroused her even more. All he needed was one hand to hold both her wrists in a firm grip and he made that move so he could use his other hand to cup her breast and alternately massage it and roll the nipple between his finger and thumb, before he paid the same attention to the other breast.

  Cray’s mouth on her pussy was a delicious combination of licking and suckling. He used his tongue to stimulate her clit and then he drew her lips into his mouth and sucked tenderly, tantalizingly.

  “Oh yes,” Jane whispered. The erotic sensations racing through her were raw and vibrant and exhilarating.

  When Cray pushed a thick finger deep into her pussy, she cried out again. The unrelenting need to have her cunt filled and stretched made her hips lift off the ottoman and she ground herself against his mouth as he more vigorously tongued her clit and fingered her pussy.

  Jude let out a primal grunt that elicited even more dark passions. He leaned over her and sucked a nipple into his mouth while still holding her wrists in a vise grip.

  Within seconds, that balloon of desire and need expanded and then burst.

  “Oh God, I’m going to come!”

  The fiery sensations blazed through her body and they were absolutely glorious. There was a magical sensuality that Cray exuded and a primal one coming from Jude, which collided with her own passion in a magnificent explosion of beautiful and carnal sensations deep within her. They were so red-hot and searing, her insides burned. She was certain her skin felt hot to the touch too, for the first time in decades. The heat incinerated the pain she’d experienced with Jude’s soul and she tried once again to pass that vibrancy onto him, to mask what ailed him.

  She stared up at him and willed the sizzling sensations inside her into the very essence of him. At first, it seemed a vain attempt. But then he sucked in a ragged breath and released her wrists. He stood, stumbling away until he collapsed into a chair.

  “Jesus Christ.” His entire visage changed from intense and driven to perplexed, yet highly aroused. His eyes glowed under the soft lighting from the chandelier overhead and he looked at her in awe. As though he marveled over the sensations she’d experienced and had transferred to him.

  “What happened?” Cray asked in a quiet voice, so as to not disturb the intimate moment.

  Jane sat up. She tore her gaze from Jude and it landed on Cray. “I think… I might have…” Elation coursed through her. She couldn’t stop smiling, although she managed to say, “I believe I just hijacked his turmoil and projected some of our emotions into him. I sort of…gave him part of my orgasm.”

  “Whoa.” Cray stood. He looked a little blown away and maybe just a tiny bit freaked out.

  Jane toed off her stilettos so she could stand without teetering on them. Her body still vibrated despite having transferred some of her pleasure to Jude. What the two shifters had done to her was much too powerful to ebb quickly and she continued to feel the effects of their hands and mouths on her body.

  She raised her arm toward Cray and lifted one finger in an attempt to make him stop trying to process what had just transpired. Hoping to appease and settle him, she said, “Two wolves imprinted on me. Is my new ability to project feelings into someone else’s soul really so bizarre in comparison?”

  He gave her a huffy look. “Apples and oranges, Jane.”

  “Only because you’re not intimately familiar with vampire gifts. They vary greatly, I’ll admit. And sometimes they don’t exist at all. Drake, for example, is—according to him—no different innately than he was as a human. Although I’ll always contend he’s more intelligent. He has business sense through the roof—hardly something you’d expect from someone who became a British soldier in the 1700s because he had no other prospects for his future.”

  The room was silent for a moment. Then Jude said, “She’s right. I felt it. I felt everything she felt and I have to say…” He shook his head as Jane looked at him over her shoulder. “That was fucking amazing.”

  She smiled. “Yes, it was. And you only got a portion of it. Imagine what I experienced.”

  Jude clearly still reeled from the sensations she’d transferred to him.

  Cray said, “You’ve seriously never done this before.”

  It wasn’t a question, because some part of him had to already know the answer. It was the same with her—she could sense and deduce enough from their connection to understand what occurred between the three of them was unique and unprecedented and…real.

  “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.”