Page 91 of Roman

Dannyhurrieddownthehall of the care home, careful to keep his speed human appropriate. He was running behind, but he’d promised to stay until the end of the western he and his mom had been watching, and he never broke his promises to her.

Mary was waiting for him at the front desk, smiling warmly. “Seems like she had a pretty good day again.”

Danny grinned at her. “She did. It was lovely.”

It had been. Danny hadn’t been able to compel her into remembering exactly who he was—those days were getting fewer and farther between, as her illness inevitably progressed—but he’d been able to keep her calm and happy. They’d watched TV together and discussed the different birds they could see through her window.

He would be forever grateful for this extra time with her. Even Gabe had started visiting regularly, although the days she didn’t know him still seemed to take a lot out of Danny’s brother. He was trying though, and that was more than he’d been doing before.

“When is your hubby coming next? The ladies have been asking about him.” Mary winked, and Danny found himself blushing.

“He’ll be here with me tomorrow.”

Hishusband.

Danny grinned down at the simple gold band glinting on his left hand. He and Roman had been married at City Hall a few months after Danny had turned. Weirdly enough, it had been Roman’s idea. “Your human friends do not understand the concept of mates,” he’d said in all seriousness. “We have to show them in some other way that you are mine.Permanentlymine,” he’d emphasized.

Sweet, possessive vampire.

They tried to visit Danny’s mother together regularly, but sometimes they switched off their visits so someone would be there to soothe her on any given day. Danny was only working part-time now, as Roman had paid off his mother’s place at the home for the next five years. Danny still wasn’t sure how much money his vampire was hoarding, but it didn’t seem like they’d get to the bottom of it anytime soon.

In his extra time, Danny had been discovering hobbies—he still hated cooking, but it turned out he was pretty good at baking, and he was learning French—and spending time with friends. He had friends now, besides just Chloe. Other coworkers and a few new faces he’d met at a book club he was now a part of.

Ironic that a vampire coming into his world had finally given Danny the full, human life he’d always longed for: family, friends, leisure time. He’d been worried Roman would get bored with small-town existence, but his mate seemed to be reveling in being able to settle into a place for the first time in decades. The little old ladies at the home adored him, as did Danny’s coworkers.

Even Soren had stuck around.

After saying his goodbyes to Mary, Danny rushed home. Roman was waiting for him in the kitchen, chopping vegetables at the counter. Gabe would be coming over for dinner later.

“Bonsoir, mon amour,” Danny greeted, coming up behind his mate to wrap his arms around Roman’s waist, nuzzling the back of his neck. Roman’s scent was still Danny’s favorite smell in the whole world.

“Bonsoir, mon petit roi,” Roman replied, tilting his head back for a kiss. “Have you decided our destination after dinner?”

“The Hideaway, I’m thinking.”

They were going out tonight. Danny had put his foot down on stealing more blood bags once they realized he had the control to feed normally, but he didn’t like the idea of drinking from people in his town he was going to see day after day. So they’d decided tourists were fair game. He and Roman went to the downtown bars on the weekends. They fed together these days. At first they’d done it to make sure Danny didn’t slip and lose control, but they’d continued because drinking blood made Danny’s demon pretty frisky and Roman took pleasure in catering to those needs as soon as possible.

More than one alley in town had been witness to their postfeeding indiscretion.

Roman nodded, moving Danny’s arms off his waist and stepping back from the kitchen counter. He stepped over to Danny’s laptop, which Danny was just noticing lay open on the kitchen table. “There is something we need to address prior to dinner.”

Uh-oh.

So far Luc had been true to his word, and they hadn’t heard anything of him for the past year. Had that changed?

Roman beckoned Danny to the laptop, where a web browser was open with multiple tabs that he began clicking through. They were all different photos of gorgeous locales: mountains, deserts, tropical beaches.

“Pick one,” Roman ordered.

“Huh?”

“Our honeymoon, little king. It is overdue. Pick one.”

Danny understood now. He had been avoiding choosing a honeymoon destination. He’d never been anywhere, never left the country. How could he pick just one place? It felt…monumental.

Roman must have intuited the source of Danny’s hesitation through their bond, because he brushed his fingers gently along the back of Danny’s neck. “There will be more travels, little king. An eternity’s worth. This is only the first of many.”

Danny took a deep breath and pointed to one of the photos.

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