Tonight’s patrol had been long and boring. An hour before dawn, Nik headed down the clinic hatch into the hall of subsuites. He paused outside Shay’s door, but resisted the urge to disturb her. Knowing Shay, she’d probably worked in the lab until midnight, and she needed her rest.

So he bypassed her door and went into his own room. There was really no reason for him not to find a secret daysleep space like the rest of the vampires, but no one had suggested it and neither had Nik. He liked having Shay so close.

He stopped short as soon as the door to his room swung all the way open. Shay sat up in his bed, her back propped against the headboard. He wasn’t sure what she was wearing since the quilt was pulled up to show only an enticing set of bare shoulders.

He opened his mouth, then closed it.

Shay blushed. “If you don’t come into the room and close the door, I’m going to have to walk into the hall wearing nothing but a t-shirt and will never recover from the humiliation.”

Nik still didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t been with anyone in a long time, and certainly never as a vampire. Would it be different?

“Oh, God. What have I done? I misread this whole situation.” Shay leaned over to grab her t-shirt from the bedside table, giving Nik a glimpse of a smooth, bare back.

“No you didn’t. Don’t go.” His stupid tongue finally came unstuck. “I just, well, it’s been a long time for me. I’m kind of rusty. And I’m a vampire now.”

Shay settled back against the headboard. “Seriously, Nik? I know you and Robin were together before she met Cage.”

Well, yeah. “But I didn’t love her.”

That blunt statement shut both of them up. Don’t screw this up, Dimitrou. Not after she’s put everything on the line for you.

Nik tossed his jacket on the sofa and pulled his sweater over his head. He felt awkward undressing beneath the heat of her gaze, but he couldn’t exactly ask her to turn her back. To hell with it. He’d never been self-conscious about his body and this was no time to start.

He ditched the fatigues, kicking them aside, and paused with his hands on the waistband of his black boxer-briefs. “You sure about this?”

Shay laughed. “Nik, I’m practically having to seduce you. Do you think I’m having second thoughts?”

Nik grinned, shucked the briefs, and let her look at him a moment in case she had any doubts that he wanted her, and wanted her badly. He was so hard his balls ached.

He crawled beneath the quilt and held her. She felt soft and warm in his arms, and he could feel her heart beating all the way through his chest, and the baby’s heart against his belly. “You sure Krys said this was okay?”

Shay kissed him. He’d gotten so good at avoiding the fang issue he might try his mouth elsewhere. “I’m a doctor too, remember? I did my research and found lots of things we can try. Even missionary is okay as long as I have some pillows behind me.” She paused. “I have quite a lot of pillows behind me. I want to see your face.”

He gave her a gentle kiss, but she didn’t want gentle, judging by the way she grabbed a handful of his hair in each hand and pulled him to her, opening to him, their tongues tangling. He kissed his way down to her breasts, testing their sensitivity with his tongue and loving the taste of her skin. Nothing flowery, just clean and fresh.

He paused, resting his forehead on her chest. The urge to taste her—to really taste her, as a vampire male would—left him gasping for air.

She stroked his hair. “I wish you could too. Everybody thinks I’m trying to find a cure to end the war. I’m finding a cure for us. Are you okay?”

He slid fingers into her hot, wet heat to get her ready, then slowly slid into her. “Oh, I’m okay.”

She grinned. “Then get a move on, soldier. Dawn’s coming.”

He started slow, careful to angle her on the pillows so he didn’t press his weight on the baby. Again, gentle wasn’t what Shay wanted. She matched him stroke for stroke, but finally dug her nails into his back. She pulled his head down so that his ear was in front of her mouth. “Fuck me like you mean it, buddy,” she whispered. “I’ve waited sixteen years for this.”

He lost himself in her then, holding nothing back, with no thoughts except an awareness of her heat, and her mouth, and the way he felt inside her until their rhythm faltered and he felt her tighten around him.

He followed her over the edge, his breath ragged, the flush of building sensations spreading over him, his body pressing into hers and holding a long, breathless moment of pure, agonizing pleasure.

It made him want to cry. In fact, when they’d caught their breath, he rolled to his back and pulled her with him, holding her close so she wouldn’t see his face. Vampires could cry for their first year or so, but that didn’t mean he wanted Shay to see it.

But she did. She raised up on her elbow and stroked a hand across his cheek. “Are those good tears, I hope? Because you are amazing and if it wasn’t dawn, I’d want to try out one of those other positions. I found more than twenty.”

He laughed, sending one tear streaming down the side of his face and into his hair. “It’s just…before I met Robin and then the vampires, I couldn’t touch anyone without my head being filled with ugly images. The only way I could even stand to be with a woman was if I got so damned drunk I could barely get it up.”

He looked at her, leaned over, kissed her—soft this time, slow and sweet. “This was the first time I ever really felt as if I had made love to anyone. Not sex, but love. That’s…pretty damned amazing.”

She settled back into his arms, and as daysleep crept into Nik’s muscles and mind, her deep, steady breathing was the last thing he felt.