Page 21 of Roman

Danny held his breath as Roman pushed himself up so their faces were only inches apart. Danny expected to feel fear now that he knew what those black eyes represented, knew that Roman’s demon was looking at him, but what he saw in those eyes—hunger, desire, possessiveness—only made him feel just as safe and wanted as the rest of Roman.

Safe enough that he was still giving in to the pull of sleep.

Barely holding on to consciousness, Danny lifted his right hand and cupped Roman’s face, thumb pressed lightly against one of Roman’s fangs. “Hello, demon,” he whispered.

And then he drifted off to sleep.

Danny woke hours later feeling well rested for the first time in…he couldn’t even remember. He blushed, remembering what had prompted his going back to sleep so sated.

Guess the best orgasm in your life can really do the body good.

He grabbed his phone off the bedside table and checked the time: 1:00 p.m.

Roman wasn’t in Danny’s bed, and Danny couldn’t hear him in the house. Had the vampire left? Danny slipped on his pajama pants—they’d somehow ended up on the floor all the way across the room—without bothering with underwear or a shirt and stumbled down the stairs toward the kitchen.

He blinked as he approached his kitchen counter. There was a big bowl with a variety of fresh fruit that definitely hadn’t been there before. And…a note:I took the liberty of filling this kitchen with actual groceries. Please eat some proper food. You were sleeping so soundly I did not want to wake you. I will see you soon, lovely Danny.

Warmth filled Danny’s chest at the thought of Roman going out of his way to buy him groceries. How long had it been since someone else had stepped in to take care of something for Danny? He opened the fridge and saw it was filled with vegetables, a new box of eggs, orange juice, milk—overall, a far cry from the empty cavern of condiments it had been just last night.

Danny used the eggs and milk along with a new loaf of bread he found in the pantry to make himself French toast, slicing up strawberries and bananas to go on top. He knew how to cook the basics—he’d made meals for himself and his mom before she’d had to move to the facility—he just hated grocery shopping, hated going to the store and searching for ingredients for just himself. It felt like a cruel reminder of how alone he really was these days. So he’d been getting by with infrequent trips, stocking up on frozen meals and canned goods that wouldn’t go bad.

He took a picture of the finished product, thinking he’d text it to Roman, and then paused.

He didn’t have the vampire’s phone number.

He glanced at the note again, at the sweet message and promise to see him soon. But that was it. No phone number. No way to contact him.And when is soon?Danny thought, a hopeless feeling replacing the warmth in his chest.Tomorrow? Two weeks from now?

Eating his breakfast—or really, lunch at this point—Danny couldn’t decide what to think about it all. Roman had rescued him, cooked for him, spent the night, and given him the most amazing orgasm of his life.

And he’d called Danny his mate.

Or…maybehis mate. He hadn’t exactly said for sure that was what Danny was. He’d actually been quite cagey around the subject, now that Danny thought about it. And then he’d gone off without a way for Danny to contact him.

The groceries were sweet and all, but what if Roman just got off, literally, on taking care of helpless little human men and then disappearing into the sunset?

Maybe the mate thing was just a weird pickup line vampires liked to use on unsuspecting humans.Hey, baby, you so fine. You must be my mate.

Danny was unsettled by just how much the thought upset him. What did it even matter? He hardly knew the guy, no matter how safe his vampire pheromones or whatever made Danny feel. So why did the thought of Roman leaving after just one night make it suddenly hard to breathe?

He supposed that what he should be freaking out about was the fact that vampires existed at all, not whether one of them wanted to date him.

But even though Danny generally considered himself a man who believed in science—he was in healthcare, after all—he’d also seen plenty of just…weird shit. Unexplainable things happened sometimes in the hospital, and he had always believed there was more to this world than anyone knew. And he had meant what he said to Roman—his time as a nurse had taught him to trust his instincts, to roll with the punches, and to keep his mind and eyes open.

So—vampires existed. And Roman was one. And he possibly, maybe wanted Danny to one day be one as well.

Could Danny do that? Agree to exchange his humanity for eternal (or at least, he assumed eternal) life and a chance at some sort of demonic true love? He scoffed at himself as he took his last bite of French toast.Way to get ahead of yourself, dummy.Was he really stressing out about whether he would agree to turn into a vampire when Roman had never even asked him to?

Danny had only known him for a day and didn’t even have his phone number, for fuck’s sake.

He could already tell he was going to be turning endless anxious circles in his own brain unless he got some distraction. Or a new perspective.

He couldn’t tell anyoneeverythingabout what was going on, but he could tell someonesomethings.

He grabbed his phone and called Chloe.

“Danny Boy!”

“Hey, Chlo. This isn’t too early, is it?” He knew she’d worked the full shift last night, but he also knew she didn’t like to sleep in too late on the days when she had a night off.

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