Chapter 24
24
FRIDA
“ T hat was incredible!” I pranced from one end of Rune’s cottage to the other, my heart so full I felt like I could stay awake all night. The morning’s exhaustion felt years away, like it had belonged to someone else entirely.
Rune, however, eased into his chair beside the roaring hearth and closed his eyes, like he could fall asleep right then and there. “You, Frida Rurik, were crafted from pure sunshine and endless energy.”
“Oh, come on,” I said, sliding to a stop before him. “Don’t pretend you didn’t have fun today. I saw you smiling. And celebrating. And shouting, just like me.”
His eyes cracked open. “You’re right. It was one of the best days I’ve had in a very long time.”
Heat curled through me. But as much as I yearned to climb onto his lap, I cleared my throat and turned away. “Thank you for helping me experience something so wonderful before I leave tomorrow.”
Rune grunted. “And even that couldn’t change your damn mind? You’re willing to leave behind your bonded dragon and the joy of flying with him, and for what? To live a life you’ll hate?”
“This isn’t what I want, but I don’t see another way,” I whispered, my heart aching. I didn’t want to spend our last night together like this, but I’d known it was coming. Neither of us could ignore the truth of what tomorrow would bring, no matter how much we wanted to.
“I gave you another way,” he said in a low voice that shuddered over me. “Stay here. With Eldi. With Arvid, who I know you’ve grown fond of, too.” A beat passed. “With me.”
“Rune, you know I want to stay.” Tears ran down my face now. I tried to wipe them away, but they just kept coming. “And if I could, I would. You have to believe that.”
“What I believe is that you can’t see the forest for the trees. You’re so focused on the life you think you want that you can’t see the life you could have, not even when it’s right in front of you.” With a frustrated sigh, he closed his eyes. “Good night, Frida. Sleep well.”
I blinked, caught off guard by his sharp dismissal. Silently, I dabbed my face with my sleeve and walked away from him. This was not how I’d wanted to end things between us. But anything more would be unfair to him. Rune had already given me so much. I couldn’t ask for more. I couldn’t ask for him to wrap his arms around me and give me one last memory of what life was like beyond the guild.
One last moment of joy.
Something I could hold on to when the guild-hall felt too small and too dark.
Something to remind me of why I’d gone back—to save him and everyone else here.
I went into my room without a word. As soon as the door was shut, I slumped against it and sank to the floor. I dropped my head into my hands and mourned a future that could have been. Me and Rune, waking up beside each other every morning. Hazy days spent building and training archery and soaring through the skies on the back of the dragon, who I realized I’d already come to love. Nights in front of the hearth with Moira curled up at our feet.
In my mind, it was a lovely little life. One I could never claim as mine.
The weight of the door suddenly vanished from behind me. I fell back, my head colliding with a pair of worn leather boots. I looked up into the oak moss face of the orc who’d shown me the kind of life I could have had, if only I hadn’t been born into the wrong kind of family. Maybe in another life, we could find each other again, and we wouldn’t have the long blade of the guild hanging over us.
Rune swept me up into his arms and carried me into the main room. He gently lowered me into the rocking chair, his eyes searching mine. Everything within me tensed.
“I’m so sorry, Frida,” he murmured, kneeling before me. “I don’t want to argue with you, especially not on your last night here. That’s not how I want us to spend our last few hours together.”
Something in my chest stirred, that aching sense of loss I’d felt earlier with Eldi. Rune’s eyes, so rich and brown and kind…they felt like home.
“I don’t want that, either,” I said.
He smiled. “Good. What would you like to do, then?”
Kiss you. Hold you. Touch you. I want to love you, Rune.
Rune’s eyes went wide, and a shudder went through him. Gone was his smile. In its place was the look of a man starved. He cupped my cheek, his thumb on my jaw and his fingers spread across my neck. An unrelenting need tore through me, my eyes locking on the closeness of his lips, his tusks.
“Eldi convinced me to take some of the Hugur sand during one of your flying breaks,” he murmured. “He poked a talon at the sack very insistently. I thought he wanted me to take it so I could hear his thoughts in case you two got into trouble when you were up in the air. Then he started badgering me with questions.”
The roaring of my thundering heart filled my ears. “Wait, what are you saying?”
I heard your thoughts just now.
The implications shuddered through me, burning my cheeks. He’d heard my thoughts about wanting him. I started to pull back, to put some space between us before he could do it himself. With the fear of tomorrow looming before me, I couldn’t bear the weight of his rejection, too.
But then his voice filled my mind again. I want all those things, too. Why do you think I’m fighting so hard for you to stay? It’s because I’ve fallen for you, Frida. In the few weeks you’ve been here, you’ve become the best part of my life. I’d do anything not to lose you.
“Oh, Rune,” I whispered. My tormented heart lifted in my chest. The idea that we’d found our way to each other like this—a would-be assassin and her prey—seemed laughable. But it also felt like the most inevitable thing in the world. The moment I’d laid eyes on Rune, my world had been forever changed.
Rune braced his palms on the arms of the chair, boxing me in place. Even though he was on his knees, our faces were level, and so when he leaned in, his mouth captured mine. My soul sighed, even as an unrelenting fire blazed through me. I gripped the front of his tunic, relishing the soft warmth of his lips and the cooling touch of his tusks that gently pressed against my skin.
After a moment, Rune pulled back. The need in his eyes burned hot. Excitement pounded in my ears, my heart racing so fast I could barely breathe. Desire tightened between my thighs. I slid my hand around his broad neck as he leaned back in, his lips trailing down my chin. Every touch sparked a new flame, intensifying the growing ache in my core.
A satisfied rumble sounded in his throat, and his hand swept down the front of me to cup my breast. A gasp popped from my parted lips, and my thighs trembled.
Fate, I wanted him. Inside me, on top of me, under me, against the wall. I wanted him everywhere and anywhere. For hours. For days.
For months .
He chuckled softly, his breath hot against my neck. “I’m more than happy to oblige, but I’m hoping we can take some breaks for sleep every now and again.”
“Don’t forget food,” I said with a smile.
“Maybe I can eat it off you,” he murmured against me.
A thrill went through my core. Rune gently squeezed my breast, as if sensing my response to his words, then brushed his thumb across my peaked nipple. Even over the top of my tunic, his touch made me gasp.
“Fucking fate, I love that noise, Frida,” Rune said, pulling back. “I’m on my knees before you, willing to do whatever you want. Tell me what you like.”
“I like you ,” I whispered, my heart pounding.
“Hmmm. You can do better than that.” His eyes darkened as his free hand slid around to the top of my thigh. He slipped his thumb between my legs, pressing it firmly against my core. An aching need pulsed through me. “Do you want my finger here, or my tongue?”
I swallowed. The idea of his mouth against me brought a pool of wetness to my thighs. Rune’s eyes sparked, and that hungry look consumed his face once more. Everything I was feeling, he felt, too. It was as if the Hugur sand had bonded us in a way I’d never imagined.
“Tongue it is.” He grinned, pressing his thumb harder against me. I wriggled against him, desperate to erase the distance between us. I needed more. So much more.
“What about your tusks?” I gasped.
“Oh, don’t you worry about them, sunshine. I know how to use them to make you squirm.”
Oh my.
His hand moved to my trousers. He unlaced them and slid them down my legs, then pulled back to drink in the sight of me. My entire body trembled at the curl of his lips and the wicked satisfaction glinting in his eyes.
Still on his knees, Rune lowered his head. He brushed his lips against my knee, and a shudder went through me. Smiling against me, he slowly skated his left tusk up the side of my leg and stopped only an inch short of brushing my core. I cried out as an aching need blazed through me.
I slid my fingers into his thick, dark hair and tugged his mouth toward me.
“Please,” I gasped. “I want you to taste me.”
“I’ll do anything you want, sunshine,” he said. His cool tusk skated across my wetness, driving me mad.
When his mouth finally found me, I nearly came undone. Pleasure shuddered through me, sparking stars in my eyes. I arched against the chair, my hands still twisted in his hair. And as Rune’s tongue swept across me, my pleasure already began to mount.
It had been so long since anyone had touched me, and even then, it had never felt like this. Like he knew exactly where to caress me and what I liked. Like he could spend all day on his knees if that was what I needed.
His tongue dove inside me, then slid up to my clit. And then I broke. Crying out, I gripped the chair, quakes of pleasure rocking through me. Rune kept his tongue pressed tightly against my core until my orgasm slowed. Soon I was nothing more than a trembling mess against him.
Rune pulled back and looked up at me. I smiled and curled my fingers across the side of his face, feeling more content than I’d felt in a very long time. But then he smirked, and that heat between my thighs returned.
Rune stood, tugged me off the chair, and gently lowered me onto the rug spread before the hearth-fire. The flames cast flickering light onto his face as he settled his powerful body on top of mine. He caught my mouth in his and kissed me with a hunger that stole all the breath from my lungs.
Between kisses, Rune pulled off my shirt, then followed it with his own. Heart in my throat, I spread my fingers across his chest, feeling the softness of his skin and every dip and rise of his hard-won muscles.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured, gazing down at me.
“So are you,” I whispered back.
With his eyes locked on mine, Rune slid his body between my thighs, and his hard length pressed against me. I gasped at his size. Just like everything else about him, he was large enough to make my pulse race.
Are you sure you want this? I heard him ask.
I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.
And as I gazed up at him, I felt something pass between us that I’d always dreamed of finding. Happiness. Contentment. Hope. Against all odds, I’d found the thing I’d been looking for all my life.
I’d fallen in love with Rune.
I’ve fallen for you, too, Frida. In every possible way.
Tears filled my eyes. I couldn’t leave him. Not for my brother. Not for my father. And certainly not for the fucking guild. Suddenly, it felt as if a film had lifted from my eyes, and I could see the world for how it truly was. As much as I loved my family, I couldn’t lose who I was just to have them in my life. I needed to live for myself.
I needed to choose my own happiness.
Rune searched my gaze, the Hugur sand allowing him to read my every thought.
“Does this mean what I think it means?” he asked, almost timidly.
“Yes, Rune,” I said, the tears sliding down my face now. “I want to stay here. I want to start a life on this island, one with you by my side. If you’ll still have me. But I can’t promise it’ll be easy.”
“I would have you, even if the storms plagued my every step. I don’t care if it’s hard. You’re worth it, Frida. You’re worth everything.”
With his hand cupping my waist, he slid inside me. I gasped at the feel of him and how well his hard length filled my core. He slowly inched inside until he hit the very back of me. Another shudder shook my body.
“Fucking fate,” Rune said, groaning. “You feel so fucking good. I don’t think I can control myself.”
I met his eyes. They were only an inch from mine. Everything within me soared.
“Then don’t,” I whispered.
Rune gripped me tighter. He pulled back, then thrust deep inside me. I gasped, arching against him. Bracing his arms on either side of my head, he thrust again, harder and faster than the time before.
But it wasn’t enough. I wanted more.
As his pace quickened, I curled my fingers around the rug and hooked my legs around his hips, a desperate need coming over me. His cock hit the back of me again, filling me completely.
Rune’s lips found my ear, but it wasn’t his voice I heard.
I love you, Frida.
My pleasure stormed forward.
I love you, too , I thought back.
And then I reached the edge, my orgasm pounding through me once more. Rune’s pleasure reached its crescendo a second later, as if my moans fuelled his. Together, we breathed, holding tight to each other, sweat coating our skin. It was a long time before either of us moved, and when we did, we didn’t dare let go.