Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

“I want to try something,” he whispered.

And something in his voice sent a naughty thrill through her. “Okay.” With Sean, she was up for anything.

Withdrawing, he turned her onto her back.

Fighting the urge to stretch like a cat, Nicole smiled up at him. His hair was mussed, and his eyes bore that wondrous amber glow. “Hi, handsome.”

“Hi yourself,” he returned, standing between her thighs.

Nicole was a little surprised that she didn’t feel self-conscious, splayed out before him as she was. But this was Sean. Her Sean. Not just her lover. Her best friend. “What’s on your mind?”

He winked. “This.” His cock sank deep. Then his handsome form blurred.

Pleasure shot through her. Sudden. Intense. Eyes widening, she cried out as another orgasm took her.

Heat filled her, letting her know he had come, too.

Her heart racing, she stared up at him in astonishment when he stilled. “What the hell was that?”

He laughed. “I’m going to call that Immortal Guardian perk number one.”

She grinned. “That’s one hell of a perk.”

“Agreed.” Taking her hand, he tugged her upright.

Limp as a noodle after three orgasms, she leaned into him for several long minutes. “I don’t know what you’re thinking,” she muttered, burying her face in his chest hair, “but all I want to do now is sleep.”

Wrapping his arms around her, he rocked her slightly from side to side. “Are you sure? I was thinking about having a shower and then seeing how much of Emma’s eggplant parmesan we can eat.”

Her stomach rumbled at the thought of it. Straightening, she met his warm gaze. “Forget what I said. Let’s do your thing.”

Laughing, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the adjoining bathroom.



Hours later, Sean sprawled on his back, sated and relaxed, staring up at the ceiling and could think of no other place he would rather be. Nicole lay snuggled up to his side with her head resting on his shoulder. As he idly toyed with her hair, a phrase from one of his sister’s favorite chick flicks came to mind.

Jerry Maguire.

Sheesh, Krysta must’ve watched that movie at least forty times. It had driven him crazy. But one line in it resonated with him: ‘You complete me.’

Sean thought that summed up his feelings for Nicole nicely. She completed him. It was that simple. When she had spent those two weeks away in Becca’s dorm, he’d felt as if a piece of him were missing. Even with Cliff and Emma there to keep him company, the house had felt empty. Everything had seemed duller, as if some of the color had leached from the world.

Sure, everything still existed in shades of gray. But he enjoyed it so much more with color.

With her.

With Nicole.

When he pondered the how’s and why’s of it, he couldn’t pinpoint precisely when his feelings for her had changed.

Hmm. Had they changed? Or was this where they’d been heading all along, from the moment he’d first met her?

It didn’t matter. Nicole was his best friend. Sean would do anything for her. Had he been alone on that plane, he would’ve taken however many hits and bullets necessary to complete the mission and find out whom they were dealing with. But when that bastard had started shooting…

A bullet causing explosive decompression hadn’t been Sean’s only concern. He had been terrified that the asshole would shoot Nicole. If a bullet had hit her in the head…

As he’d once told her, Seth’s incredible healing ability didn’t extend to resurrection.

“Nicole,” he said softly.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

Raising onto an elbow, she smiled at him, her lovely face full of tenderness. “I love you, too.”

He combed his fingers through her tousled hair. “I don’t want us to be apart anymore.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that. If Seth, David, and Chris can’t find what they need, Aidan will pose as Becca and—”

“I wasn’t talking about the op.”

She tilted her head a little. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t want us to keep pretending we’re just an immortal and his Second.”

Face somber, she studied him. “You want to go public, let everyone know we’re lovers?”

He nodded. “I know how much your career with the network means to you. If there are any negative repercussions, if Chris gets a bug up his butt or anything else comes up, then we can call Alena Moreno and—”

“Who?”

“Alena Moreno. She’s the head of the West Coast division of the network.”

“Oh. Right.”

“I chatted with her once and don’t think she would have a problem with arranging a transfer for us.”

Surprise lit her features. “You’d do that? You’d move away from your family?”

His mother, father, and sister all resided here in North Carolina, and Sean was close to all of them. “To be with you? Absolutely.”

Smiling, she gave him a quick kiss. “That means so much to me. But I think the cat’s out of the bag regarding our relationship status. Everyone we talked to today acted like they’d already guessed.”

“Full disclosure: Bastien, Zach, Roland, and every other immortal who attended Cliff’s barbecue knows about us, too.”