A Taste Of A Vampire

Chapter 10

In the two days that followed Nicholas’ admission of his true self to her and his final visit, Claire did not leave the manor. She barely left her room, taking a few meals there, rather than in the breakfast nook where she usually ate. She slept much of the time. She read the journal. She cried. She took long hot baths. She stood out on the balcony and looked over the land around her. She thought and thought and tried to figure out what she was going to do.

She knew that she couldn’t stay; not knowing what she knew about Nicholas, and she knew she couldn’t keep the manor. She had begun to think that selling it was indeed her best option. It was no surprise to her when Fran came to her room to tell her that Lord Drake Thomas was waiting for her in the library.

Claire made herself get dressed and she tidied herself up a bit before going to the library to see Drake. He stood off to one side of the room, hands in his pockets, looking around the room at the books pensively as he waited.

When she entered the room, he grinned and his blue eyes sparkled. “There she is. Aren’t you looking gorgeous today? I could eat you up, you know.” He chuckled and walked toward her.

She sighed inwardly, but showed no outward sign of it. She was there for business, and she wanted to keep them both in as good a mood as she could.

He reached for her and pulled her close to him, kissing her cheek and lingering there, breathing in her scent as he held her almost against him.

“You smell divine.” He breathed in her ear. “I’m so glad to see you. I’ve missed you.” He kissed her cheek slowly and softly and then moved to kiss her mouth, covering her lips before she realized that he was going to do it.

He moved his mouth hard and hungrily over hers, pulling her up against him as he did it, and she pushed him away sharply, taking a long step backward. “Drake, we’re here for business, I take it. We should keep this business.”

Drake raised his eyebrows and chuckled softly. “Oh…she’s a minx, she is!” He giggled deeply. “You’re a tough one to catch, I can see that. No easy little tart are you, no, but that’s exactly how I want you, and I will have you. You are the challenge that I will meet and own.”

Several harsh rebuttals came to mind, but she pushed them all back and shook her head. “No, Drake. We’re here for business. That’s it.”

“I’m here for several things.” He gave her a teasing smile. “But we can start with business, if you’d like.”

He stood back from her then, watching her as if she was some kind of prey, and he, her predator.

She drew in a long breath. “I’ve decided to sell Grayson Manor to you. It makes me sick to do it, but I want to keep the staff on here, and you said you’d do that. I’m going to have my attorney draw up the paperwork.”

He chuckled deep in his chest and moved toward her again. “I knew I’d get you. I knew it.” He reached her again and lifted his hand to her arm, trailing his fingertips up and down her skin, leaving a shiver behind them.

“I’ve already had the paperwork drawn up,” he purred, leaning in close to her.

She could smell his cologne, and a hint of whiskey on his breath.

She frowned and furrowed her brow. “What do you mean you’ve had the paperwork drawn up? How can you do that when I haven’t said a word to my attorney about what I’m doing with this place? I didn’t even decide to sell it to you until this morning.”

She was dumbfounded with his bold assumptions.

He walked slowly behind her, drawing his fingertips back up her arm and leaned close over her shoulder to whisper in her ear. “Your attorney, Colin Dent, works for an old-school chum of mine. Why do you think he hasn’t been able to come back here to see you? Why do you think you’ve been kept here as you have? Put off so many times? I saw you the very first time, and I knew then that I not only had to have Grayson Manor, I had to have its lady as well. I told him to keep you here. I told him that I would be buying the estate. It’s all been in the works since the day you first met me.”

Her stomach tightened and she gasped. She wanted to pull away from him, but just as she was about to, he closed his strong hands on her hips.

Claire did not see anyone behind Drake, who towered before her as the big man that he was, but the sound of shock that escaped him caught her attention, and in a split second, no part of him was touching her.