Page 34

thirty-three

Naked. Ripped. Wet .

God, if you help me out right now not to stare like an idiot and/or jump his bones, I promise I’ll donate all my belongings to a charity as soon as I get back home.

“Hey, Wildcat.”

There went my knees. “I hear you might be a horse.”

Laughter burst out of him suddenly. He brought a fist to his mouth and stopped it right away, but I heard it. Unfortunately for me, I heard it.

Slowly, I moved back to rest against the table. And to put some distance between us so I could check him out while he got himself together again.

My God, he was perfect. His wet hair was out of his face. He’d pushed it all back when he came out of the lake and it looked so good on him it was painful. His pointy ears were perfectly visible, and they suited the rest of his face so well. Every inch of him, from his chest, to his arms, to his abs and that V that his shorts hung low enough on his hips to reveal…

And his tattoo—the mark that apparently extended down his left arm until just above his elbow, and then down his back and all the way to the right side of his torso, the ink seemingly wrapped around his ribcage.

“Don’t mind Raja. She means well.” Rune came closer to me, his eyes sparkling, so light I saw the silver in them. “Let me look at you. How bad is the pain?” He squatted down in front of me.

“It’s…it’s fine,” I whispered.

Rune pulled up my dress and touched my leg gently, then looked up at me. “Do you feel that?”

I feel you everywhere— but that wasn’t what he was asking. And since I currently couldn’t really produce voice anyway, I only shook my head.

Then he grabbed my leg by the heel and pulled it up gently, placed my foot over his thigh.

My eyes closed because I couldn’t handle the sight of him right now, with his hair pushed back like that, his eyes so alive.

“How about now?” He was touching me, pressing his fingers around my ankle just over the bandages. Again, I only shook my head and held on tightly to the edge of the table behind me.

Then he kept one hand around my heel and brought the other up, touching me every few inches, asking if it hurt. But he was wasting his time because, even if my leg did hurt right now, I wouldn’t feel it. My blood was rushing because his hand was almost to my thigh. My naked thigh, and he was wet, practically on his knees in front of me.

And when I risked a glance and found him looking up at me with those wide puppy eyes?

Yeah, I wouldn’t feel a bullet going through me right now.

“Raja put potions on you. You should be good to walk without trouble in another few hours.” He finally put my foot down and stood up. Thank God .

“She threatened to kill me if I hurt you in any way,” I muttered—and yep, Raja was still outside, tending to some planters on the other side of the house, her eyes on us.

Goose bumps on my forearms. She’d probably seen Rune checking on my leg just now, and I was willing to bet my life that she hated me more for it. Fuck.

“She can be difficult sometimes, but she’s not going to hurt you. I’ll talk to her,” said Rune, running his hands through his hair again when some strands fell on the sides of his face. I adored how he looked with it pushed back like that. His face was spectacular. It was a miracle on its own. It was otherworldly.

And I was so, so screwed…

“Don’t. It will just make things worse,” I said. “Besides, I can handle it.”

“I know you can, but you shouldn’t have to. And it won’t make anything worse,” he said, then leaned his head to the side to make me look at him. How in the fuck could I resist?

“You threw me away,” I said, trying to forget the fact that Raja was right there watching us, even if she was far away.

“They would have gotten to you if I didn’t—and, no, biting them wouldn’t have helped the situation, Wildcat.” There he went, smiling like that again.

“Just don’t do it again, okay? Not if you’re going to remain behind. If something happens to you, I…” My mouth closed because I really didn’t know what the hell I’d do.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” he said. “I knew it then and I know it now.”

For a moment, we just stood there looking at one another, barely blinking.

Could he see how terrified I’d been when I found myself in that forest? Could he tell that I had been about to do something… stupid because I refused to sit back and watch those incibu kill him?

“We’re okay,” Rune whispered and, yes, that was the most important part. We were alive, despite what had happened.

“How?” I asked. “How did Raja know? How did… how ?” She watched us still as she violently pulled weeds from a planter or whatever the hell she was doing. Her gaze weighed so heavy on me.

“Shadows,” Rune said. “Fae of the Midnight Court can use shadows to communicate sometimes. I can do it with Raja. She taught me when I was a teenager.”

“Is she your family or something?”

“No, she was my mother’s friend. She left the Court after I got banished and I found her again a few years later. We’ve kept in touch since. I come to visit her sometimes through the tunnel. She showed it to me—that’s how I know it exists. It’s not too far from here.”

I nodded. “Are we in Blackwater?”

“Yes.” Rune pointed a finger behind me, to where the blue sky merged with the darkness beyond. “You remember what I told you about this part of Verenthia?”

Again, I nodded—how could I forget when I’d been with him on that horse, wrapped up in his arms, feeling better than I ever had in my skin before?

“Yes. It’s close to the star Reme so most of Blackwater is in permanent darkness.”

“Exactly.” He flashed me a smile bigger than usual. I tightened my grip on the edge of the table. “That’s where it starts, and there’s only darkness in the rest of the Blackwater. Those who live here who are not vampires usually stick to the parts where the sun hits, near the lake.”

“Do vampires come here, by any chance?”

“No. We’re safe here. Nobody comes near Raja’s property.”

I looked at the woman again—for once she seemed focused on what she was doing, not on us.

“She’s so powerful,” I said in wonder. The way she’d made those shadows— fuck. It was like she didn’t even need to bother at all.

“She’s fae,” Rune said with a nod, and maybe I was just fooling myself, but I thought I was starting to really understand what that meant. Being fae versus being any other kind of Verenthian. The difference in power…

“Are you the same without that tattoo on you?” It really did look just like ink on his skin. It started as a star with four points on the side of his neck, and it extended in swirls and dots and squares all over his skin, and way more shapes that were merged together like they’d started out to be something else but had ended up just spilled ink on him.

“No,” Rune said. “I’m more powerful than that.”

I looked up at him. “You are?”

He nodded. “It’s why I was sealed when they banished me. Had they left my magic untouched, I’d have had no trouble surviving.”

My mouth opened and closed a few times as I looked at him. “Who are you?” I finally whispered.

The smile he gave me was almost heartbreaking. “Just Rune.”

And it was bullshit. He was so much more than just Rune. The curiosity burned me to know everything about him, every little detail. But, of course, I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to push him or make him uncomfortable.

So, for the moment, I just turned to the lake.

“Beautiful,” Rune whispered, and it really was. Especially with the darkening sky.

“Is the water warm?” I wondered. Because he’d come out and hadn’t even bothered to search for a towel.

“Yes, actually,” Rune said. “Do you want to try it?”

Well, fuck. “You mean, go in there? To swim?”

“That’s what you generally do in lakes.”

“I know, Mr. Moody.” I rolled my eyes. “I mean, is it safe?” For me, not him.

“Very.”

He reached out his hand. I put mine over it automatically—there was no hesitation at this point. He wanted me to follow him somewhere, I would, no questions asked. That’s how screwed I was and didn’t even understand it yet.

Just like that, we were walking hand in hand toward the dock, and I looked back just once to see that Raja was standing now, arm crossed in front of her chest as she watched us. It was going to be great to catch a break from her attention in the water, I figured. It looked so relaxing.

“Wait—can I swim in a dress? Because I am not taking it off.”

Suddenly my cheeks flushed when the memories came back to me. He’s seen you naked, dumbass.

“Keep it on. I’ll be there if it weighs you down,” said Rune, and maybe it was just me, but I realized that he sounded calm. I realized that he hadn’t once made a snappy comment or looked at me like he used to in the beginning, like he couldn’t figure me out. Like he suddenly had, and now he was…relaxed.

His whole posture had changed, too. His shoulders weren’t so rigid, and his steps were more careless, not as precise. His facial expression was so much calmer, too.

Rune felt safe here. He trusted Raja.

“You can sit at the edge then slowly come in,” he said when we stepped onto the wet wood of the dock. Then he jumped in the water without hesitation.

Slowly I sat down, subconsciously moving my wounded leg as little as possible while he waited, up to his shoulders in the water. My feet slipped inside the surface and the warmth surprised me. It felt so nice.

“You’re sure there’s nothing down there?” I asked because other than the rocks at the very edge near the dock, you couldn’t see anything at all in the water because the sky was getting darker by the minute.

“Yes, I’m sure. C’mon, I’ll help you.”

Suddenly, his hands were around my waist and he raised me up like I weighed nothing. A scream ripped out of me as I put my hands over his forearms on instinct, and then I was in the water up to my chest.

“Oh, my God, oh, my God,” I whispered, arms around his neck, his around my torso.

I was in the water, and there was nothing in there but water, and my legs weren’t touching anything except Rune.

“You’re okay,” he whispered. “Let go—I got you.”

I really didn’t want to.

But he grabbed my hand and pulled me as he moved, and I had no idea how he was swimming, how he was keeping afloat when the water didn’t even move or ripple around his body, but he pulled me with ease. My legs moved and I was swimming—without any pain—and the water was so nice.

Rune held onto me until we went a good distance from the dock, then finally let go.

I wasn’t afraid.

I spun around slowly to look at our surroundings, the sky and the mountains and the forests—and Raja near the grill again, watching us over the bushes and the grass that grew on the edges of the lake. Fuck, the water was really something, and I could have sworn that it was holding me up without my needing to even move all that much. It was easy, or maybe my memory was just wonky because it had been almost a year since I went swimming.

But my eyes kept going back to Raja, and I really didn’t want to be reminded how much she hated me right now, so I said to Rune, “Can we swim down that way?” Where the weeds and the grass were going to hide me from her eyes.

“We can swim anywhere you want, as long as you’re not afraid of the dark,” Rune said.

“I won’t be if you give me my bird.”

A curl of his lips, and the water came alive with light around his body. A moment later, a little bird identical to the one from last time broke the surface of the lake and flew up higher, then came over my head.

“Hey, little guy!” I said, smiling so big my cheeks hurt, like it really was an old friend. And the way it flew closer and nearly touched my nose with its glowing beak would have you thinking it was glad see me, too.

I laughed.

“C’mon, race me,” I told it and started swimming deeper down the lake, farther behind the weeds, shamelessly hiding from Raja. The bird followed me and so did Rune.

I didn’t get very far before my limbs got tired, though. I hadn’t eaten and I hadn’t swum in a long time. So, I stopped near the edge and I turned on my back, and I just watched the sky get darker while my bird got brighter and brighter as it flew over me. The water blocked the sound of the world and I was all alone in my head for a moment.

Even Rune couldn’t get to me here, and I had no idea whether he was far away or close by.

Slowly, I let go of a deep breath. I was alive and I was okay, and I was going to get to the prince soon. He would personally take me back to the Aetherway, and if he was as powerful as Raja, I wasn’t afraid. With him and with Rune by my side, I was going to make it to the Neutral Lands in no time.

Then I could get back to Fi and Dad and Betty. I was going to hug the crap out of them for hours until they had enough— that was my plan…

Wasn’t it?

That was how this whole thing was supposed to go since the beginning. I owed a debt to a fae prince, and I’d come here to heal him, wake him up, then go back home again. Simple. Easy. Not complicated in the least.

And then I could move to New York City or L.A. or wherever I wanted and get on with my life.

That had always been the plan.

Except now when I thought about it, something inside me protested. Something inside me squeezed and moved uncomfortably, something that didn’t want to even consider the idea at all. New York City, L.A., Oregon— they seemed so distant to me now so suddenly. The entire world I had lived in my whole life seemed so far away. So unreachable.

And the fact calmed me. It didn’t freak me out. Which was wrong on so many levels.

Eventually, I swam upright to find Rune was on his back, too, eyes closed as he floated on the surface. The sky was a deep blue now, almost identical to the color of his eyes. I wasn’t afraid, though—my bird was with me still, flying in perfect silence. It followed me when I slowly swam back toward the edge of the lake, to a spot where there were no bushes or grass growing right off the edge.

I rested my elbows on the wet soil behind me and watched Rune floating about for a while. The view was so perfect it hurt.

Or maybe it was just the fact that I was never going to be here again. I was never going to see him like this again, so relaxed and carefree, swimming in a lake.

How much longer until this was over?

How much time did I have left with Rune before it was done for good?

Tears pricked the back of my eyes. This might be the last time we are alone together . And that, apparently, made me want to cry.

Rune opened his eyes and raised his head, and when he saw me there by the edge, watching him, he swam upright, too. Came closer to me slowly, the water around him barely rippling. His hair was pushed back like that again, and the moon, which was definitely smaller here than it was back home, didn’t give us much light, but the bird flying near me did. It bathed him in a silver hue that was all the more magical because of the water droplets hanging on his skin.

My heart held perfectly still. Our eyes were locked on one another, never blinking. Rune didn’t stop swimming until his hands were near where my elbows rested on the edge of the river.

I was trapped between his arms, but he was far still, too far.

“Come closer,” I whispered, and he didn’t hesitate.

Whatever it was about this place that had put him at ease like this, that took away all his inhibitions, it made me want to stay here forever. To never leave. To always be like this with Rune.

He came closer until we were chest to chest, and I pushed myself up and wrapped my arms around his neck, rested my head on his shoulder. I hugged him to me with all my strength while the bird flew around us slowly.

And when his arms locked around me, too, a sigh escaped my lips, this one in relief. In contentment. There was no place in any world, I thought, like Rune’s arms. Just something about the heat of him, the way his heart beat, the way he held me.

Like he, too, never wanted to let go.

“Are you cold?” he whispered.

“Not at all.” The water was really perfect, the air warm and still. “You cleaned me up. You washed my clothes.”

Rune said nothing, only kissed the side of my head.

“You stayed with me, Raja said.”

“I did. You had a little fever before the potion started working. Nothing dangerous.”

If he said it, I believed it, and I didn’t even need to know more.

Eventually, the sound of the water calmed me down all the way. We stayed there in each other’s embrace for a while, just breathing, and all the memories of him since I first saw his face came back to me, but this time slowly.

My cheeks didn’t flush, and I wasn’t embarrassed—on the contrary.

“What happened at the Enclave,” I started because I knew I wasn’t going to get another chance to talk about it, but fuck, it was so difficult. I was still struggling to understand what had actually happened, so it was hard to talk about it.

“I know, Wildcat. It wasn’t you. I know,” he said, and maybe I was just trying to make this easier on myself, but I could have sworn that he sounded sad about it.

“No, that’s not it. I mean— yes , I wasn’t myself for the most part, and the intensity of everything the air in that place made me feel was fucking insane, but…” I leaned back and forced myself to look at him. “I don’t…I don’t regret it.” I swallowed hard. “It wasn’t just the incubi, though it was them.” Fuck, now I didn’t know what I was saying. My eyes squeezed shut. “I just mean that I don’t?—”

Fingers underneath my chin. He raised my head with one hand, held onto me tightly with the other, and I could have sworn that he wasn’t even moving his feet yet somehow he was keeping both of us on the surface.

“Don’t say it,” Rune said. “I’m not going to hold you responsible for anything that happened at the Enclave, Wildcat.”

“But I was. I…I am. ”

“No,” Rune insisted.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m no good for you—you should know this by now.” And he sounded like he meant it.

Which baffled me. “Are you kidding me? You’re not good enough? For fuck’s sake, you’re…you’re perfect! Ugh, you’re so perfect it hurts.” Again, I closed my eyes and shook my head. “I’m just…I’m trying to say that I didn’t want you just because of the incubi. Yes, that helped in…well, basically driving me batshit crazy, but it wasn’t just because of their magic.”

Rune didn’t smile. He just looked down at me like he couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth.

And I waited—for almost a whole minute, I waited, but…

“Say something,” I said when his stare got too much, and it was more intense because of the silver light of the bird flying over us. God, his eyes were something else.

“What is there to say?!” He lowered his head for a moment, let go of me, so I had to hold onto the edge of the lake again.

Rune muttered under his breath, words I didn’t hear properly or understand, until he spoke out loud.

“I don’t know what you’re doing to me, but I can’t stand how aware of you I am at all times, even when I’m sleeping. I can’t stand how much of me now depends on the expression on your face. I used to be free—do you understand? I never had to wonder or care what anybody else might want or like.”

“Rune,” I whispered because my heart was about to come right out of me—but he wasn’t done.

“I thought it was curiosity. I’ve never met a mortal before, so I was curious about you, that’s all. But then your mouth and your eyes and the smell of your skin…” His eyes closed and his jaws clenched. “Keeping you away is like trying to hold back the night. It’s completely hopeless . ”

That was it for me.

Pushing myself up with all my strength, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. To hell with it all—I was going to have him while I still could, even if this entire world burned tomorrow, because right now I couldn’t think of a single reason why I shouldn’t.

Rune kissed me back, slowly at first. His hands were on my face, pushing away strands of my wet hair, teasing my lips with his, then bringing his tongue between mine to taste me. I surrendered completely, wrapped my legs around his hips, pressed myself to him all the way so that I felt his erection right against my center.

A muffled moan slipped out of me, and Rune leaned back a bit. “If you don’t stop, I won’t, either. I can’ t.”

“I don’t want to stop,” I said breathlessly because every inch of my body was coming alive.

His eyes squeezed shut and he growled when I bit his bottom lip. Fuck, he tasted so good I was shaking with need already. Which made me wonder how much of that arousal I’d felt at Lorei’s place was really just the magic, and how much of it had been my own body taking control the moment I thought I had none because of the incubi.

“Think about it, Wildcat. Tomorrow, we might be in the Seelie Court. We?—”

“I don’t want to think.” Squeezing my thighs around his hips, I pushed myself a little higher, and Rune wrapped an arm around me and held me up so we were face-to-face. Wet. Panting. “I don’t care about tomorrow. I don’t care about anything right now.” The words were right there at the tip of my tongue. I said them without a second’s hesitation. “I just want you.”

Rune froze for a moment, his muscles tight, his eyes closed.

“I don’t think you know what you do to me,” he finally whispered, then slowly moved me back until I was against the edge of the lake. “How about I show you?”

Yes, yes, please, show me! But I was too excited, too breathless to say it out loud.

His hands moved to the ground and he dug his fingers in the soil, pressing himself against me until I felt every inch of his body on mine. A loud moan ripped out of me. Fuck, he felt so good…

“I’m going to take my time with you, savor your heat,” Rune whispered, then thrust his hips forward, rubbing his hard cock against my pussy. He licked my lips, stuck his hand underwater, and pulled my dress up, put his hand under my thigh and squeezed tightly.

He claimed my lips, kissed me furiously while he moved his hand farther up, until he gripped my ass.

“I’m going to show you how much I’ve craved your beautiful body since the first time I saw you naked.” His fingers were over my panties, and I dug my nails in his shoulders and held my breath. “And you’re going to scream for me just like you did when you touched yourself, Wildcat. You’re going to scream my name when I lose myself in you.” His fingers moved under the fabric, and I lost the last of my control when he slipped a fingertip inside me.

“Fuck, Rune,” I choked, holding onto his shoulders for dear life while my hips moved lower, desperate to feel more of him, but he didn’t let me. His fingers slipped up my folds, and the water made his every movement twice as intense, until he touched my clit and rubbed a circle over it.

My head fell back with a moan, the sensation so powerful it felt like it set fire—not just to me, but to the whole damn lake.

Rune growled at the sound and kissed me again, hungrily, biting my lips and sucking on my tongue while he pressed himself against me harder. He brought both hands to my face, and moved them slowly down my neck, never breaking the kiss. He cupped my breasts, squeezing until I cried out in both pleasure and pain.

His mouth closed on the side of my neck, and he must have been as starved for me as I was for him because his lips never stopped touching my skin. Even when he unbuttoned the front of my dress, pushed down my bra to free my breasts, he never stopping kissing and licking and biting.

My breasts fit perfectly in his hands, and while he kissed my collarbone, he whispered, “Keep moving.”

It was an order, and I eagerly obeyed.

Holding onto the ground behind me, legs locked tightly around his hips, I fell back as far as the position allowed while Rune’s mouth tasted every inch of my skin. His hands traveled from my breast, to my waist and to my ass, then back up again. The bird still flew over us, bathing us in silver light, and when Rune closed his lips around my nipple, I thought my scream was going to scare it away.

It didn’t, of course. The bird stayed right there so that I could see Rune’s face, his eyes closed as he sucked on my nipple, and played with the other with his hand. The moans that came out of him ignited me even more, and fuck, I was so close. If he touched me again, one more time, I was going to come undone within the second.

But Rune took his time, savored every new inch of me he reached. My hands were on his hair, wet and thick, perfect for grabbing, and I held him close like I was terrified he might let go. When his mouth closed around my other breast, my head fell back, my body arching to give him better access because I wanted to feel more. So much more.

“Your body is perfection,” Rune whispered as he kissed between my breasts and went lower, as low as he could reach while I moved against him uncontrollably.

“Rune, please,” I whispered because I needed him right now. This fire that consumed me was too intense to hold back for longer.

With a growl, he reached for the edge of the lake, dug his fingers into the soil, and he thrust his body against mine again, harder than before.

“Keep begging, just like you did when you were dancing on my lap.” Another thrust. “Remember that? Remember how wild you were? How you rubbed yourself on my cock?”

“ Yes!” I cried out, trying to move my hips faster against him, but he wouldn’t give me more space.

“I never wanted anything the way I wanted to devour you in that moment.” He bit my bottom lip, then suddenly his hand was between us, and he was pushing his shorts down, freeing his cock. A muffled scream escaped me as my body locked down in anticipation, but Rune took his time again.

He moved my panties to the side, so excruciatingly slowly, and looked at me from half-open eyes as he brought the tip of his cock to my entrance.

I gasped at the contact, dug my fingernails in his skin. Slowly, his lips stretched into a smile, bigger and better and more mischievous than any he’d showed me so far.

“ Beg .”

His whisper danced on my skin.

I gripped his face in my shaking hands and leaned in until my lips were against his. “Please fuck me, Rune,” I said with a whimper I couldn’t control. I’d get on my knees, too, if that’s what it took.

But Rune couldn’t hold himself back any longer. As soon as the words left my lips, he thrust his hips up until he was buried inside me all the way.

“ Fuck! ” he choked, and I couldn’t even move anymore, could do nothing but cry out as I held onto him, muscles locked tightly.

God, he was so big. The way he stretched me felt so fucking good, but it also hurt me a little bit.

Rune could tell. He froze right away.

“Is it painful?” he whispered against my lips.

I nodded. “I think I need a moment to adjust.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and kissed me gently. “I’m sorry, Wildcat. I lost control.”

“It’s okay. I just need a moment, that’s all.”

“Do you want me to move away?”

“No!” I said, way too fast, genuinely panicked that he would. “No, please don’t. You feel so good.”

And the pain was already starting to fade away.

With a growl, Rune wrapped an arm around my waist and gripped my ass. “You’re so fucking tight, I’m going to lose my mind.”

“Don’t you dare come,” I said, and my muscles squeezed instinctively at the thought of him coming.

Like that, I felt all of his length inside me, and it was fucking delicious.

Rune moaned and dug his fingers in my ass harder. “Don’t do that, Wildcat. Don’t squeeze me like that.”

I tried to say something, but all I was able to get out of my lips was a moan. He felt really, really good inside me— how is this even possible?!

“Do you have any idea how you feel to me?” he whispered.

“I can guess,” I said because I knew how he felt to me.

“Fuck, it’s so easy to forget.” He leaned his head down to kiss my shoulder, then the side of my neck.

“Then let’s forget.” I pressed my lips just below his earlobe and felt the shivers that erupted down his back clearly against my hands.

“Forget your world and mine,” Rune said, stretching his neck to the side so I could plant kisses all over it. God, he tasted just as good as he felt. “Forget everything .”

“Everything.” That sounded like a dream come true—and exactly what we both needed right now.

As I kissed him, I began to move, slowly at first, just to see if the pain came back. It didn’t—on the contrary. He was so deep inside me, so thick that the pleasure erupted in me like a fucking volcano. I cried out again, held on to him tightly and bit the side of his neck.

Rune didn’t complain, didn’t move a single inch as I pushed myself a little farther away, then back down on his cock again. If there was any more pain left, I didn’t feel it. I could move faster, holding onto him with my limbs and my teeth while Rune moaned, never moving an inch, giving me time to find my rhythm.

And, by God, I did. My eyes were closed, and I moved on him faster by the second, my attention on where we connected, how easily he slid in and out of me each new time, how sexy the water and our skin sounded when my thighs slapped onto his pelvis.

Then Rune growled, fisted my ass and pulled me to him until he was buried inside me to the base again.

He stopped me from moving for a good moment, then whispered, “Does it hurt?”

“No,” I breathed. “Not at all.”

Slowly, he leaned his head back to look at me with a wicked grin. “My turn.”

All of a sudden he grabbed me, pulled me out of the water and sat me on the ground, right there between the bushes. He climbed out of the lake, too, and the bird still flew over us, just as bright, so I saw all of his naked glory. His shorts weren’t on him, and while I dragged myself back to give him more space, he stalked toward me on all fours, watching me like a damn predator.

My lady parts fucking adored that. My pussy squeezed so hard I thought I might come even before he put me against the ground and kneeled between my legs. Grabbed the backs of my knees and spread them as wide as they’d go. Pushed my wet dress up to my stomach and looked down at me as he touched me, gripped my flesh, digging his fingers in my skin.

I wasn’t embarrassed. On the contrary—something about being spread wide open for Rune. Something about the fire in his eyes as he looked at me, then slowly lowered down and kissed my knee.

“Rune, please, faster,” I panted when he grazed my skin with his teeth, slowly going higher.

“But I need to taste you first,” he said calmly and pulled my wet panties to the side. My eyes squeezed in anticipation as he came closer and closer….

“I want to own every moment of you…” His warm breath blew against my folds, and his tongue pressed on my clit.

I cried out, raised my hips, brought both hands to my mouth to keep from screaming even louder.

“That’s it—scream for me, wildling. The stars will be my witness.” And he dove in.

Rune took his time, just like he promised, settled on the ground and gripped my thighs in his fists as he ate me, stuck his tongue inside me as deep as it could go. There was no pain, just pure, raw pleasure.

The way he moved his tongue on me was fucking electric, and I had both hands in his hair now, pulling and pushing him whichever way I needed until the orgasm ripped through me faster than it had ever before.

I swear, I touched the very stars he called witnesses with my bare hands. They all heard me screaming out his name—pretty sure the whole universe heard—until I had no more strength left in me to even keep my eyes open.