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Danny

D anny moaned. Something smelled so good .

It was that delicious Mr. Handsome scent surrounding him—had he let Danny borrow his cologne to douse his pillow after all?

He turned his face into his pillow and took a deep breath in. Heaven . The scent made him feel safe, and cozy, and…turned on?

Yep. Definite yep. His morning wood twitched as he inhaled again. Except…

“Not pillow,” Danny mumbled, his voice garbled by cloth and…

chest. That was definitely a hard male chest his head was resting on—one that was starting to shake as its owner let out a soft laugh, all gloriously smooth and deep and rumbly.

Oh no. That was definitely not helping Danny’s morning wood situation at all.

He lifted his head and found himself gazing into familiar bright-blue eyes. Had Danny thought they were cold and predatory before? Now they were warm and soft, with a heat building in them that had Danny’s toes curling.

“Awake already, lovely? It has only been a few hours.” That smooth, deep voice sent a shiver down Danny’s spine.

He let out a grumble-snort that was supposed to translate into, “Awake is a relative term.” Hopefully Roman got the gist. Mornings were not Danny’s thing, even at the best of times.

As the sleep fog slowly left his brain, he realized with some amount of mortification that he was wrapped around Roman like some kind of horny octopus. At some point in his sleep, Danny had apparently kicked off the covers and decided the man—the vampire —was his personal life-size teddy bear.

Which—double mortification—meant Danny’s hard-on was currently pressed right into Roman’s hip.

He let out an embarrassed groan and tried to untangle his limbs from Roman’s body. “I’m so sorry, I—”

He was cut off by a low growl as Roman’s arms tightened around him, keeping Danny firmly in place, without an inch of space between them.

Danny took a moment to relish the feel of the vampire’s embrace. He would have thought vampires were cold, but Roman’s body gave off a delicious heat. “Um…,” Danny mumbled into Roman’s chest. “I didn’t mean to sleep-accost you.”

“It was not unwelcome.” There was a hint of laughter in Roman’s voice.

Well, there’s a ringing endorsement . “I’m serious. I didn’t realize I was such a cuddler. I would’ve warned a guy.”

“I would have done the same from the beginning had I known it would be acceptable.”

That was surprising. “You would have…cuddled me?”

Danny felt Roman rub his stubbled cheek against the top of his head, like he was some kind of big cat. He hummed into Danny’s hair. “I would have touched you, held you—yes.”

That thought took a moment to process in Danny’s brain. He blinked at the incongruity of his fierce vampire-demon protector wanting to play big spoon, little spoon with him. “Oh. And you don’t mind…um…you know…?”

Roman chuckled softly. “I don’t know , but if you mean this“—he rubbed his hip against Danny’s hard cock, causing heat to spread from Danny’s groin through his whole body—”I do not.”

Oh my Lord. Danny buried his face into Roman’s chest, cheeks flushed with embarrassment and…other things.

That deep, smooth voice sounded even more amused, if a little husky. “You might even have noticed I’m in the same predicament.”

He said what now?

And then Danny did feel, against the leg he currently had draped over Roman’s midsection—Jesus, he really had engulfed the man—that the vampire had his own little situation going on.

Except…not little. At all. A big situation. A big, hard situation. A big, hard situation that Danny would very much like to— ahem —handle for him.

Danny hadn’t even realized he’d started squirming against Roman again until he felt a large, firm hand on his lower back. “Settle, lovely boy. My restraint is stretched thin as it is.”

Danny stilled instantly. What in the goddamn goodness was wrong with him right now? He felt the need to clarify. “I’m not…usually like this. Definitely not with men I’ve just met. Definitely, definitely not with vampires I’ve just met.”

That soft chuckle again, which Danny felt more than heard. “Neither am I.”

Danny lifted his head to narrow his eyes at his bedmate. “You’re telling me that you—looking like you do—don’t have many casual hookups? One-night stands? Rolls in the hay?”

Danny doubted it. Majorly.

“And how do I look to you?” The damned vampire was smirking at him now, looking a trifle too smug for his own good.

Danny just raised an eyebrow.

Roman’s face turned serious. “I have had countless one-night stands, lovely Danny. Never do they actually last the night. Never do I hold someone until morning.”

Danny wasn’t sure whether to be horrified by that “countless“ or warmed to the bone by the rest of it.

So he decided to change the subject.

“So you were right. You didn’t burst into flames with the dawn or anything.”

Roman’s smirk was back. “How perceptive you are.”

Danny had a million questions and barely knew where to start. “So why is that a myth then? What started all those nasty ‘daylight equals death’ rumors?”

Roman hummed a little, seeming to gather his thoughts. “Our demons do prefer the night, it is true. We seem to be more or less nocturnal by nature. It has always made sense to me, seeing as how many of our…predilections…are more conducive to the dark.”

That added up. “You mean chomping on people’s necks?”

Roman huffed a laugh. “The biting, yes. But also more than that.” He pressed his erection up into Danny again, sending a pool of warmth into Danny’s stomach. “Blood and sex, Danny. That is what our demons crave. What I crave.”

Well, holy shit. That should not be so hot. That should be terrifying, not arousing. Danny forced himself to focus. He felt they were building to something, clinging to each other the way they were, but no jumping the vampire’s bones until he had some more answers.

There was one thing he definitely wanted to know.

“Last night you said there might be a reason. A reason I feel this…drawn to you.”

Roman gave a sigh, settling his hips back down into the bed.

Danny tried not to mourn the loss.

“I did say that.”

“Care to share with the class?”

Roman stayed silent for so long Danny began to think he was refusing to answer the question.

Then, with another sigh, he began, “First, keep in mind there is no organized vampire society, no council in charge. In general, vampires—as far as I know—are relatively solitary creatures. Generally if you move into an area and realize it has been established as another vampire’s territory, you leave.

Otherwise, it can be seen as a challenge.

Our demons can get restless, aggressive with each other.

There are exceptions, of course. The one who turned me—we traveled as a pair for over a century. ”

Danny wasn’t sure where this was going, but it was fascinating to hear about.

He had a million questions, and normally he might not be able to keep his mouth shut.

But with Roman’s large hand now rubbing circles on his lower back and his deep voice rumbling in that hard chest under Danny’s ear, he was content to just listen.

“Sometimes, when two unacquainted vampires are both traveling through an unclaimed territory, they might meet and swap stories or news about the wider supernatural world. It is part of how we learn about what we are, what traits band us together as a species.”

Roman paused then, and Danny gave a small nod against Roman’s chest to let him know he was still listening.

“One of the things I have heard of is the idea of…mates. Vampires whose demons recognize each other. Belong to each other. They become bonded permanently. Soothe and calm each other, prevent the descent into a feral state that our kind succumb to.”

“Feral state?” Danny did not like the sound of that.

Roman tensed slightly beneath him. “The older a vampire is, the more they tend to lose touch with their humanity. The demon inside takes more control and gets wilder, more violent. Many of those vampires end up dying at the hands of our kind. Put down before they can expose us all.”

Danny had a hard time imagining the man currently rubbing his back so gently as some sort of feral demon-beast. “And at what point does this happen?” he asked tentatively. “How old does a vampire have to be?”

He felt Roman shrug underneath him. “It differs depending on the individual. Some hold on to their humanity better than others. In theory, we all succumb eventually. But apparently a mate can prevent the descent.”

Danny felt like he had more questions than answers. “I still don’t understand your demon. Is it a separate creature? A separate…soul…living inside of you?”

“It just…is. When I awoke after I was turned, it was there, inside me. I cannot tell you if it is a part of ourselves that gets awakened or a separate soul that…infests us. But it is part of me now. There are times over the years when it has been more dormant and times when it has been a little more…communicative. When my eyes turn black, when my fangs pop out, that is when the demon is at the forefront of my consciousness.”

Danny’s brain felt fuzzy trying to comprehend this entire new world he was learning about. He felt like he should switch to a simpler line of questioning. “How old are you, Roman?”

“I have lived over two centuries. But as a human, I was thirty years old when I was turned.”

Holy shit. He was cuddling with someone over two hundred years old?

“Oh. Wow. Um…wow. Wow, wow, wow.” Danny wasn’t sure why—when all this was pretty goddamn bonkers to begin with—it was the knowledge of Roman’s age that had finally broken his brain.

Maybe it was the realization that this was a man— vampire, man, whatever —with not just decades of life experience over him but centuries .

Danny suddenly felt small and young and a little foolish. What was it Roman had called him? Lovely boy . He really was a boy when compared to him.

Roman’s hand stopped its soothing circles. “Is this too much? Should I stop now?”