As the male started to roll his hips, Blay glanced down the bed. Sure enough, behind the fly of those leathers, a thick erection had sprung up out of nowhere—

A hissing noise preceded an abrupt halt of the grind, and as Blay refocused on his mate’s face, Qhuinn lost that lovin’ feeling: Gone was the sexual speculation. In its place was all kinds of well-shit-that-hurt.

Blay kept his I-told-you-so’s to himself. “Just rest, okay?”

“We have ten minutes.”

“Well, eight now.”

“It’s a shame to waste them.” Qhuinn turned his head on the thin white pillow and stared at the center of Blay’s pelvis like there was a bull’s-eye hanging off his Hermès belt. “Besides, I have something that’s working just fine.”

“Your brain is not it.”

Qhuinn deliberately licked his lips again and then bit down on his pierced lower one with his fangs. Next up on the roster was some kind of pleading sound in the back of his throat, and his final player on the field was his tongue. Which really wasn’t fair. That ball piercing made an extended appearance, the steel catching a glimmer in the light of the exam room as it flicked back and forth—

Blay groaned and closed his eyes. “What are you doing to me—”

“What I’d like to be doing to you, is more the point.” That hand, that talented hand, went for a stroll down Blay’s torso. “I’ll be quick about it and it’ll feel good for you, I’ll make sure of that.”

Well, duh, the male always did. The guy’s jaw was double jointed—

As Blay felt his own arousal get cupped through his fine slacks, he tottered on his feet—and sure, at least this time the wobble was not from terror. But it was not from relief, either. There was an operation looming, and that knife was still STICKING STRAIGHT UP out of Qhuinn’s pancreas.

Or whatever anatomy was playing pincushion.

“Gimme just a taste,” Qhuinn growled. “Come on, just a taste…”

Blay swayed so badly he had to catch himself on the gurney’s edge. “This isn’t the time—”

“Oh, I think it is.” That hand went for the zipper. “Tell me to open wide for you, Blay. Tell me you’re going to fill my mouth up. Tell me you’re going to stretch my lips and—”

The door swung open and Blay jumped back so far, so fast, he slammed into the wall, rattling the framed Claude Monet poster that added a slice of color to all the clinical stainless steel and tile. The good news? Ehlena, the clinic’s nurse, was busy rolling in a piece of equipment so she missed all the rearranging. On both his and Qhuinn’s part.

“—just need a quick EKG,” she was saying. “Won’t take a moment.”

Qhuinn’s voice dropped to a whisper as he looked up at Blay. “Six minutes. Still enough time. And my heart’s doing a-okay, so we can tell her to go.”

Blay glared at the fool. “You are out of your mind.”

“I could be out of my pants if you let me.”

“Ehlena?” Blay said.

“Yes?”

As Qhuinn got all kinds of hopeful, Blay crossed his arms over his chest. “Can you hook that thing up to his skull? I think that’s the area on him we need to check first.”

Qhuinn’s beautiful lips mouthed: Party pooper.

Ehlena laughed. “I’m not going to ask.”

“You’re a smart female,” Blay muttered.

As the nurse started affixing pads to various pulse points, he went still as reality sunk in. Fear, ever a tenacious interloper, made him focus on his mate with such intensity that it felt as though he was seeing that which was intimately familiar for the first time: The teardrop tattoo that had been colored in in purple when Qhuinn had been relieved of his ahstrux nohtrum position for John Matthew. Those incredible eyes, one like a piece of jade, the other like a Ceylon sapphire. The slashing brows that could fluctuate from aggression to flirtation in a second. The piercings in the ears, all gunmetal, the hoops running up from the lobe. The piercings elsewhere, winking in the bright light. The black hair that was cut in an asymmetric flop at the moment, part of it colored grape Kool-Aid. The thick neck, the heavy pecs, the rippled arms and broad shoulders.

The sacred scar of the Black Dagger Brotherhood right over the heart.

It was a helluva package. And yet as unforgettable as it was… the inside of the male was even more beautiful: The loyalty. The love. The soul that shone with such inner purity.