Roman (Vampire's Mate, #1)

by Grae Bryan

“You goddamn, flipping piece of crap, son of a hot potato!” Danny yelled,

He sat back down, giving himself a shake. “All right, Danny, let’s stop creating distractions for ourselves. Also, let’s stop talking to ourselves. We’re embarrassing us.”

Seeing how this apparently wasn’t a patient he had to be nice to, and seeing as how he had just been forced to admit to an unfairly good-looking stranger that he had been talking to himself like a loon, Danny felt entitled to funnel his embarrassment into annoyance instead.

And oh. He smelled good. Really good. Like warm spices with some strange undertone. Something almost metallic, something that shouldn’t smell so good but most certainly did. It would be weird to sniff a stranger, right?

She gave him an unsubtle perusal, and Roman had to fight to keep his lip from curling. Apparently it wasn’t just his demon that didn’t have any patience for non-Danny humans right now.

His demon was driving him completely mad. He’d thought the last few years had been bad enough, but they were nothing compared to the intensity of this complete obsession. Want Danny. Honey. Sweet. Ours. Ours, ours, ours.

Hush. We’ve barely talked to the boy. You’re losing it. Not losing. Right there. Waiting. Honey sweet. Waiting for us.

A tall figure slid gracefully into the seat across from him. Figuring it was Gabe by the size of him, Danny didn’t bother to finish chewing before giving him a friendly, “Fuck off, I’m reading.” “And a good evening to you too.” He knew that voice. He looked up to find a pair of familiar bright-blue eyes gazing back at him.

Danny raised an eyebrow. “I see we’re still saving up all our words for a rainy day.”

“This might seem like a stupid question—” Danny paused and eyed Roman’s face, the fangs that Roman still hadn’t retracted. “—but are you…human?”

looked at him. He took in the pale complexion, the dark bruises showing under his eyes, and realized how exhausted the young man must really be. Danny looked tired, not in the way of someone who’d just had a long night, but in the way of someone who had been working too hard for too long with no one to take care of him. And that, Roman decided, just would not do. Ours, his demon rumbled. Ours, he agreed.

Something about the open vulnerability of it all had Roman’s cock hardening. He really was a predator. He wanted to tackle the boy, lick him everywhere, rub his own scent all over Danny’s body. Roman wanted to claim him.

Roman shook his head. This boy was entirely too trusting. “Do not convince yourself I am not dangerous. My demon may not want to eat you, but it has other feelings toward you. Very…possessive feelings.”

Danny nodded sharply as if that was the end of that, but then gave a little start as if he had just realized something. “Unless…that’s a vampire thing too? Is it some compulsion thing? The way I’m drawn to you? Is that why you smell so good?” Roman was momentarily stunned. Danny was drawn to him the same way Roman was drawn to Danny? Maybe the boy wasn’t overly trusting and naive; maybe he just knew somewhere inside him already that he belonged to Roman.

His demon was offended at the implication, that it would hurt this boy it had decided to claim, a fact Roman found almost hilarious considering its recent bloodthirsty inclinations.

he realized with some amount of mortification that he was wrapped around Roman like some kind of horny octopus.

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.

Roman broke their kiss and nuzzled under Danny’s ear, breaths coming out fast and harsh. “Oh fuck. Merde. You feel so good, lovely boy.” He sounded wrecked, and Danny couldn’t believe he was the one causing this sexy-as-fuck, experienced vampire to lose his composure like this.

“You can’t say all men are trash when you have a perfect husband, Chloe.” “I can, and I will. Marcus would even bake us cookies for it.” Marcus was Chloe’s incredibly sweet, incredibly loving husband. He probably would too.

to be scared of you just because of what you are. I work in the ER. I’ve seen stab wounds, gunshots, domestic abuse—all done by humans. Vampires don’t have the patent on violent acts. A human partner wouldn’t necessarily mean a safe partner.

“And for the record…my demon does not just like you. It craves you. Is obsessed with you. Wants to own you and devour you and never let you go. You would run for the hills if you could hear what it thinks about you. What I think about you.”

mon petit roi?

I want everything, was all Danny could think. He wanted Roman’s mouth on his cock, wanted Roman to fill him and fuck him until he couldn’t walk. But what Danny blurted out was, “I want you to bite me.” Well, shit. Where had that come from?

Roman’s fearless little mate actually rolled his eyes at him. “I’m not talking about the sex part, grumpy pants. Could you not…bite anyone else?

Maybe it was crass to bring up money, but given the annoyingly large role the lack of it played in Danny’s life, he was more than a little curious.

The look Mary gave Danny was so warm and empathetic that Roman immediately decided she was on his approved list of Danny’s associates. She could join Chloe’s name there. Gabe still had yet to prove he could make the cut.

Roman knew that feeling. Hope was terrifying.

task, Danny turned to him, grabbing his shoulders and pressing him—none too gently—up against the wall. “What did you do to her? Are you—are you hypnotizing her? Controlling her somehow?” His sweet, fierce mate.

His demon grew restless at their mate’s distress, but Roman reassured it, Humans just need to cry sometimes.

Did he mean because of Danny? To take care of Danny? Should Danny be flattered or offended thinking of Roman looking up tips on human habits? How to Best Care for Your Human by Some Vamp Dude.

“No buts, little king. I am realizing I have made an error. I have underestimated the trauma you hold. But if you need me to tell you every single day that I am staying, I will tell you. Gladly. Often. Always. That I am yours. Forever, if you will have me.”

The thing was, he was still not sure he had been wrong about Luc and Victoria. That might be arrogant of him, to assume his situation with Danny was different—maybe a means to assuage his internal guilt—but Roman had been there when she’d died.

Roman needed to turn him. Soon. The human body was simply an inadequate vessel to house the most important soul in Roman’s world.

“Because you’re not thinking,” Soren accused. “Being in love has made you stupid. It makes everyone so fucking stupid.”

Danny found it ridiculous and maybe a little adorable that, instead of just texting, Roman had gone to the trouble of taping a physical piece of paper to Danny’s phone. What a dork.

“Not quite. But I was instructed to take you to work and to make sure you were fed and watered beforehand.” Danny snorted at that. “Fed and watered? I’m not a horse.” Soren hummed. “Close enough, you high-maintenance mammal.

Say what, little king?” “I love you, okay!” Danny was shouting again. “I love you and your dumb vampire face, and I really thought I’d get to tell you that in person.”

There was a shuffling noise, and then Soren’s bright voice came on the line. “Are you going to be confessing your undying love for me too?” “Perhaps another time. Everything is all right over there?”

Drinking human blood for the first time and his first concern is for the possibility of future French toast.