Page 33

Danny

“ T he whole thing,” Roman said, tilting the water glass up so Danny was forced to finish its contents.

I mean, really , Danny thought. I’m not a baby .

But he didn’t actually protest. Only stood there, blinking stupidly, as Roman took the glass away.

Maybe whiskey on an empty stomach after only two hours of sleep had been a dumb idea after all, but Danny had been shaken by his separate encounters with Gabe and Luc.

He’d needed something to steady his nerves, to give him courage to address the issue with the two vampires in his house.

Now he just needed something to steady his legs.

Roman had already made him eat some toast, and Danny had sobered up accordingly, but the exhaustion was catching up to him physically. Now his vampire was turning the bed down for him like some kind of manservant.

Some kind of sexy manservant. Mm .

“Come on,” Roman urged. “Time for bed. Strip.”

Danny smiled at him dopily, all his earlier irritation with overbearing vampires gone. What a cutie, taking care of Danny like this.

Roman stared at him for a minute. Danny was more than happy to gaze back at him in turn—he was so handsome . Roman broke it off when he sighed and moved forward to wrestle Danny’s shirt off his head.

Right, he was supposed to be stripping.

As his shirt came off, the bruise Luc’s hand had left on Danny’s forearm came into view.

Roman tensed at the sight, eyes darkening. “Bastard,” he growled.

“I like the bruises you leave on me much better,” Danny said absently, tilting his head down and tracing one Roman had left on his collarbone with his fingers.

Roman’s muscles remained tense, but his eyes flashed with heat. “I do too,” he said, circling Danny to admire the marks he’d left the last time he’d claimed him. Because that was what sex with Roman always felt like to Danny—a claiming.

Danny shivered at the memory of their last time together.

He’d always thought he was relatively vanilla when it came to sex, but something about being marked up and used by Roman ignited a fire in his belly.

The bruises even felt like a form of care, in their own way.

For Roman to be rough and wild but never seriously hurt Danny with his superior strength.

It was passion and control at the same time.

Just like when he bit Danny, drank him in without taking too much, too fast.

So fucking hot.

“Will you still want me as much when you can’t drink from me?” Danny hadn’t known he was going to ask the question until he did. Danny was apparently loose-lipped in general today. And now that he’d brought up being turned by Roman, it seemed like his brain couldn’t turn off thoughts about it.

Maybe he should be more scared of the idea of giving his humanity away, but he was choosing to have faith in Roman, in the truth of their theoretical mating bond.

Danny knew his vampire hadn’t always acted perfectly, Luc was proof of that, but Roman had admitted to his mistakes. He was willing to own up to his fear.

That alone meant a lot to Danny. He was so used to avoidance from the people he loved.

His mom fighting him every step of the way leading up to her diagnosis.

His brother bending over backward to care for Danny without actually being there for Danny.

And here was Roman, answering his questions openly and honestly.

Admitting to the bad along with the good.

And Danny knew from experience, both his own and what he’d seen as a nurse, that life couldn’t always be counted on. He could choose his human life, choose dying peacefully of old age, and still get hit by a bus the next day.

He wanted to be brave for once in his life—to choose love and adventure and a chance to experience what the world had to offer.

But he didn’t want anyone else to have to suffer for his decision. The thought of being killed didn’t scare him nearly as much as the thought of killing someone else. Danny had to trust in Roman to be his safety net. Did he have that sort of trust left in him?

Danny was brought back to the moment by the feel of Roman’s warm breath on his shoulder. The vampire had circled closer in his perusal of Danny’s skin and was deftly unbuckling Danny’s pants from behind.

“We’ll have to make up for it, won’t we?

Get my fill of you in other ways.” Roman pressed a soft kiss to the nape of Danny’s neck as he relieved him of his pants and underwear.

“And haven’t I told you?” He straightened back up to whisper into Danny’s ear, sending a shiver along his spine.

“Every part of you is delicious. Not just your blood.”

“Like, which parts?” Danny asked cheekily.

Roman huffed a laugh. “You know very well which parts.”

“Show me.” Danny commanded, tilting his head back against Roman’s shoulder. “Erase Luc’s touch. Help me remember I’m yours.”

Roman complied immediately, dropping with a growl to his knees behind Danny, spreading his cheeks with both broad hands, and tonguing his hole with soft, wet strokes.

Ohh fuck. Danny was melting. A melty little popsicle.

A puddle on the floor. Why did Roman’s mouth feel so goddamn good ?

He’d thought he was too tired to get undressed, let alone get hard, but two seconds of Roman’s magic tongue, and Danny’s flushed cock was bobbing in front of his stomach, leaking generously from the tip.

Danny could feel the slight soreness left over from their last session abating. Ohh right, because Roman’s tongue was actually magic. Healing Danny at the same time as he ate him out. Well, wasn’t Danny just the luckiest duck?

That magic tongue penetrated him, and Danny couldn’t help his long, drawn-out moan. He received a sharp nip on his ass in return. “Quiet,” Roman scolded. “Soren is still here, and he is already in a mood.”

“Don’t care ’bout Soren,” Danny slurred, losing his words as arousal fogged his brain. “No stop. More mouth, please.”

He could feel Roman’s lips curl in a smile against his ass, and then that tongue was back, licking and sucking and just generally making Danny lose his damn mind with pleasure.

He lifted his hand to grab his aching cock, groaning when Roman knocked it away and wrapped his own palm around Danny’s shaft, stroking him fast and rough enough that Danny was coming in under a minute, keening as he emptied himself into Roman’s hand.

Danny looked down and whimpered at the sight of his cum flowing over Roman’s clenched fist.

“So hot,” he whispered, his mind a pleasant, foggy haze.

His already weak knees gave up on him, and he started swaying in place, but a strong arm wrapped around his midsection, pulling his body back firmly against Roman’s hard chest.

“So good for me, lovely,” Roman purred, nibbling gently on Danny’s ear.

Somewhere in the back of Danny’s mind, he was aware of the wet tip of a hard cock grinding against his lower back and the rhythmic sounds of Roman stroking himself filling the air.

“Not gonna fuck me?” Danny asked.

“Do not tempt me. You are in no state for it.” Roman grunted and gave him a light swat on the ass. “Now stay still for me. Almost there.”

Danny liked the thought of Roman using Danny’s body to get himself off. He hummed in pleasure a moment later when he felt the warm splatter of his vampire’s cum on his back.

Roman nuzzled the back of Danny’s neck. “I want to leave this here. Keep my scent on you.”

Danny giggled. “You’d leave me all sticky, you caveman.”

“I know.” Roman sighed. “Let me get you a towel.”

He led Danny over to the bed, where Danny flopped gracelessly onto the covers on his stomach. Oh sweet, sweet mattress. Blessed pillow.

Danny was on the verge of drifting off when he felt a warm, wet towel on his lower back. He gave a small sigh of pleasure. “That’s nice.”

“Why did you feel the need for whiskey for our conversation? Were you afraid to confront me about Luc?” Even in his hazy state, Danny could detect the hurt in Roman’s voice.

“Maybe a little of it was ’cause of that, yeah. Also to confront Soren. I was worried he was going to literally rip my head off for asking about Gabe.”

A rumbly chuckle from above him. “He would not do that. He likes you.”

“Mm.”

“You said ‘a little of it’ was that,” Roman prompted.

Oh, right. Finishing his thoughts was good.

“The other bit was just because I was shaken and…sad. It makes me sad. Imagining how it feels to be left all alone, losing your grip on your humanity. But also sad because…because I can’t be totally sad for him, right?

Because of what he’s done. What he’s doing. ”

Roman pressed a kiss to Danny’s shoulder. “You are tenderhearted, sweet mate.”

“I wish we could fix it.”

Roman ran gentle fingers through Danny’s hair. “You know it is not on you to fix, correct? I know your nature is to care for those around you. But I am here to care for you .”

Danny frowned into his pillow. That wasn’t right. “But I want to take care of you too. We’re partners, aren’t we?”

“Your presence alone has already helped me more than you can know, little king.” Danny could hear the smile in Roman’s voice. “I was lost before we met. The Luc situation is for me to fix.”

Danny felt…feelings about that. He didn’t want Roman to be alone for this. He cared about his vampire, this man with a demon inside him, who’d spent so long alone with his guilt and his fear.

The thought that Danny’s existence in itself had helped Roman was a heady feeling. He knew what Roman meant too. Roman’s scent, his warmth, his strength—Danny could feel them all healing the jagged little pieces of his heart, those pieces left sharp and broken from his life up until now.

And the fact that Roman needed Danny as much as Danny needed Roman? That was something he’d never had before.

It had always seemed so easy for people to leave him.

Danny had a partner now. For forever, it seemed, if he wanted it. Someone he loved. Because he did love Roman. Which, somehow, both Gage and fucking Lucien knew, but Roman still didn’t.