“He makes me violent with rage.”
“Well, yes. I can feel that through the bond,” Danny admitted. It was true. Just the sight of Lucien, and red-hot anger pulsed through the bond like lava. “But I can also feel that it’s…lessening, every time you see him. And you told him you forgive him.” Danny pointed an accusatory finger, laughing when Roman pretended to bite at it. “I heard it.”
Roman arched a brow. “I said no such thing.”
“You called him your frenemy.”
“I was quotingyou, little king.”
“Still, you said it.” Danny couldn’t keep the smugness out of his voice. “And I think Jamie’s his real mate.” When Roman snarled, Danny swept his hands along his shoulders soothingly. “And that’s a good thing. He won’t go feral. He won’t be lost completely. And Jamie seems cool. When they’re ready to leave Tucson…”
“You would have them join our den?” Roman asked, dropping his hold. Surprise and shock sparked through the bond. Apparently Roman hadn’t realized quite how far Danny’s “tenderhearted” ways went.
Danny wouldn’t force the issue, of course. He didn’t want Roman to be miserable in their new home. He just thought it was worth…suggesting.
But after a long moment, Roman’s eyes softened, his hands coming back to Danny’s hips. “You cannot help it, can you?” he murmured. “Taking care of everyone around you.”
“It’s your fault,” Danny told him, maybe nonsensically. But it was, really. Before they’d met, Danny had been too overwhelmed to care for anyone outside his patients and his mom. He’d been barely hanging on, all his focus on surviving until the next week.
But now he was working less, his mother was getting the best possible care with no concern for cost, and Gabe was finally sharing that emotional load. Plus, Danny had the benefits of a kick-ass vampire energy boost. He had more time and resourcesand inner strength than he’d ever had before. And he wanted to give it all to the community they were going to build.
He didn’t want anyone in their circle to end up lost like Roman, or hurting like Lucien, or trapped like Jay and Soren had been.
They would all be safe, and they would all behappy, damn it. Even the ones with…looser morals than Danny might have liked.
Roman read it all, either on Danny’s face or through the bond. He let out a long breath, rubbing his cheek on Danny’s shoulder. “My tender little king,” he crooned. “My lovely mate.”
Danny carded his fingers through Roman’s dark, silken hair. “Do you hate it? That I’m pushing this?”
Roman clucked his tongue, pressing a kiss to Danny’s clothed shoulder. His fingers dipped lower on Danny’s hips, brushing under the waistband of his pants. “There is nothing about you I could hate, mon petit roi.”
“That is not a very healthy philosophy to have,” Danny protested, even as he shivered at the soft touch.
“Fuck healthy,” Roman told him with a smirk.
Danny yelped as he was lifted into the air by strong hands on his butt, Roman rising from the bed in one smooth motion. “Come. Let us wash the desert off of you.”
“You just want to get me naked,” Danny accused, wrapping his arms around Roman’s neck.
“Always.” Roman’s smirk turned into a devilish grin. “But I need no excuse for that.”
And Danny wasn’t going to argue. Not when a nice perk of this little vacation was that they got to use the massive bathroom of Lucien’s overpriced hotel suite. The shower was probably four times the size of what they had to work with in Danny’s humble home.
Roman stripped him efficiently, gracefully kicking off his own underwear until they were both clad in nothing more than their wedding bands.
God, there was nothing like a naked Roman. All long, lean muscles, that thick cock already hardening for Danny. It made the baby demon within him alert and restless, ready to touch and lick and suck.
Our gorgeous mate.
Roman’s eyes were molten, the vampire no doubt feeling Danny’s lust and appreciation through the bond. He flipped on the hot water without taking his eyes off Danny, and once steam was billowing through the bathroom, he manhandled him inside.
He started soaping Danny up immediately, turning him this way and that so he could get to every part of him. It made Danny giggle—it wasn’t like the desert heat could actually make him sweaty these days. But he knew it was more about the act itself. A way for Roman to cherish Danny, as he always did.
And of course Roman paid special focus to…certain parts of him.
Danny was going to have the cleanest dick in all of Tucson at this rate.
Well, if that was the direction this was going in… Danny pushed his ass out, shamelessly encouraging Roman’s wandering hands. He received an approving growl, even as Roman teased, “Need something, little mate?”
