Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

Nope. They were definitely not lovers. So why was he in her bed, holding her so tightly?

Her mind raced.

Something must have happened.

No. Something must’ve happened to her.

Nicole’s gaze strayed to the blinds around which bright sunlight peeked.

It was daytime. So whatever occurred must have taken place last night.

She struggled to recall the events of the previous evening and could dredge up nothing. Vaguely, she remembered heading to her favorite restaurant for dinner but had no memory of reaching it.

Had she reached it?

Nicole frowned as a foggy memory of Tessa tried to force its way through the haze.

Had she seen Tessa last night?

Several moments of contemplation merely yielded more frustration. She couldn’t remember.

Okay, don’t panic. Stay calm. She had been injured in the line of duty before. When the Immortal Guardians had blitzed that huge mercenary base, and she and the rest of the network’s special ops soldiers backed them up, she’d been shot. It had hurt like hell and had pissed her off because Richart had teleported her away to network headquarters for triage, so she’d missed the rest of the battle.

Nicole had no difficulty remembering that.

Then there’d been the night Tessa had impaled her with a dagger. That memory was clear as day. And Nicole had suffered brain damage once, thanks to Gershom’s sorry ass. As with last night, though, she had no memory of the last. She’d been Sean’s Second by then and new to the job. Sean had suffered injuries of his own and had been furious when he’d learned what had happened to her. For days, he had hovered over her—worried that she’d suffer permanent damage—until she’d finally convinced him she was okay.

He had hovered.

He hadn’t clung.

And right now, Sean was clinging to her as if he thought she would fall off a cliff if he let go.

“Sean?” she said softly, dread pooling in her stomach.

“Mmm?” Shifting in his sleep, he snuggled closer.

Even with concern crowding her, she felt her pulse pick up at the contact. But now wasn’t the time. “Sean,” she repeated a little louder, not wanting to startle him, yet eager to get some answers.

His muscles tensed. “Nicole?”

“Yeah. What happened?”

A long moment passed. Then he hugged her even closer, nearly cutting off her breath. “You almost died,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.

A chill skittered through her. “Tell me.”

Without relinquishing his grip, he relayed the events of the previous night.

Nicole had to admit it unnerved her. She had almost died. She’d hoped Sean was exaggerating, but when he went into medic mode and started talking about a possible broken neck, her spinal cord, and excessive blood loss…

Yeah. It unnerved her. She swallowed hard. “Well. That didn’t exactly go according to plan, did it?”

“No.” And still, he held her.

“Was Seth pissed?”

“Only at Gary.”

“I assume Gary was the vampire?”

“Yeah.”

“Where’s Gary now?”

“Dead. Seth killed him after reading his mind.” The tone of his voice left no doubt in her mind that Sean wished he had been the one to kill him.

“You brought me home after Seth healed me?”

He nodded, his chin brushing the back of her head. “Melanie said you’d be loopy for a while. And I wanted you to be comfortable.”

He’d also apparently felt quite clingy.

She frowned. Or had she felt clingy? Melanie had admitted to saying some pretty personal things to Bastien in front of several other immortals while she’d been under the influence of a bite. Nicole bit her lip as a new concern rose. “I didn’t do anything I should feel embarrassed about, did I?” A vampire’s bite didn’t just leave victims loopy. It could also lower inhibitions.

“Other than ravishing me and stealing my innocence, then farting in your sleep? No.”

She laughed. “I did not!”

“Okay. You didn’t fart in your sleep.”

She grinned. “But I did steal your innocence?”

“No,” he said, injecting his response with amusing petulance. “I kept waiting for you to, but noOo. All you wanted to do was sleep.”

Again she laughed. “I’m serious.”

“You didn’t do anything,” he divulged softly, his voice gaining a somber edge. “You just slept. So deeply I worried that…”

She wouldn’t wake up?

Affection filled her as she patted the hand still cradled against her chest. “I’m okay. I don’t even have a headache.”

A sigh ruffled her hair. “Thank goodness your head is so hard.”

She chuckled.

A long moment passed.

He didn’t move.

“So,” she broached conversationally and struggled to keep her heart from beating harder at his nearness.

Damn, he felt good.

“So?” he parroted.

“You want to tell me why you’re still holding me?”

“Well, if you must know…?”

“I must.”

He sighed. “Cliff made pizza last night after we came home, and I’m afraid you’ll kick my ass when you find out I ate it all.”