Chapter 22
twenty-two
He fell on top of me right there on the table. His elbows were on the sides of my head, his hand on my cheeks, touching me as he looked at me, like he was fascinated by my face all over again.
My eyes were only half open, but my energy levels were climbing up quickly, especially since I could feel his cock against my center. His smooth length felt like heaven against me, and each time he thrust his hips forward a little to tease me, the need for him intensified.
Rune kissed my lips slowly as I reached up my hands to touch him, caress his back, his arms, pull him to me a little harder.
It was the perfect moment. The silence was only interrupted by the crackling of a fire somewhere close by, and the noises of complaint the table underneath us made.
My legs were finally strong enough to wrap around his hips, and we moved in a slow rhythm, taking our time, lost in that soft, sweet kiss still.
“I’ve dreamed about this every day, every hour,” Rune whispered against my lips, as he slowly moved back a little, and positioned himself lower, until the tip of him pressed against my center.
My muscles locked tightly again, and I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I’ve imagined you like this a thousand times,” I said, and it was the truth. Even when I’d been on the brink of death or sleeping in a hole in the fucking ground, I’d pictured him like this, over me, panting, our lips touching. I’d wanted this even then—to be with him. To be his.
Rune closed his eyes, brows narrowed, his lips on my chin, and he slowly began to ease himself inside me.
We didn’t need our hands at all—our bodies knew each other in detail by now.
I was so wet, and he was so hard and so smooth, that he slid inside me with ease.
There was no pain while he stretched me wider and wider, only pure pleasure that slipped into every cell of my body.
Until he was inside me all the way. Until we were one for real.
Rune stopped there, and his arm slipped underneath me, wrapped around my shoulders. He held me like he thought I might disappear any second, and I fucking adored him for it. I closed my eyes and I breathed, my mind peaceful for once, my soul calm.
That’s where we stayed for a good moment, our eyes closed, our breaths tangled, our bodies belonging to each other fully. With Rune it was never just sex —it was connection. I gave him a part of me when we were like this, and he gave me a part of him in return.
Then he leaned his head back a little, and when I opened my eyes, I found his wide and shimmering silver, a small, sneaky smile stretching those gorgeous lips.
My poor heart fell on her face, forgot that it was supposed to beat for a second there .
I reached out my hand to his cheek, and I thought myself the luckiest girl in the universe.
“Are you ready for me, Wildcat?”
“I was born ready for you, Mr. Moody,” I said breathlessly.
His grin could easily convince me to set the world on fire. “Then allow me”—he turned his head mid-sentence and kissed the palm of my hand before he continued—“to fuck you until neither of us can stand anymore. That sound good?”
Fuck ! I was already this close to coming again when I nodded a million times.
“Yes, mhm, yes,” I choked out, and he kissed my hand again and my lips before he let go of me.
He stood up straight near the table, looked down at me naked and spread out before him.
His hands were everywhere on me, and his cock was buried so deep inside me I felt him to my very core.
Rune paused for a second while he gripped my hips tightly.
“Scream for me, wildling,” he whispered. I only had a second to understand his words before he moved.
And, boy, did I scream.
Rune moved fast, like he’d been holding himself back a lifetime, and now he was done waiting. His hands remained on my hips and he held me in place as he pounded into me, reaching new depths with every thrust, somehow giving me more.
It was raw. It was violent. It was everything he promised.
He felt better than ever before, and he looked fucking divine any time my eyes weren’t rolling in my skull, and I could look at him.
Skin slick with sweat, a silver hue falling over him like a veil from the light of the bird flying over us still.
His hair on his face, bouncing with each thrust. Eyes bloodshot, burning every inch of me he looked at, lips parted as he sometimes moaned, sometimes whispered my name.
I held onto his forearms with all my strength, legs wide open and in the air, taking every inch he gave me as he thrust with such strength he moved both me and the table farther and farther back.
The second orgasm was twice as powerful, and when Rune felt me squeezing around him, locking down my body tightly, he stayed inside me, rose on his tiptoes, gave me all his delicious length until I was out of this world for real.
He whispered praise under his breath, leaned over me and trailed kisses on my jawline, told me how good I looked and how incredible I felt when I came on his cock.
Then he grabbed me by the neck, stayed there with his chest pressed to mine, and kept his word—fucked me until every inch of my body turned to jelly.
By the time he came, I could barely even hold onto his shoulders anymore and my eyes remained closed. I felt him inside me, and my name on his lips when he came was the most beautiful sound I would ever hear.
Rune still had strength left in him, though. He only took a moment to lay over me, keep those lips pressed to my cheek as he breathed deeply, and gave his heartbeat a moment to slow down.
Then he stood up, his arms around me—always—and lifted me up. My feet didn’t even touch the floor before he swooped up my legs. The bird made of light led the way down a corridor, away from the faint hint of the orange light, away from the sound of crackling fire.
A door opened, then closed, and the air was cooler in here, but Rune had me in his arms, so I wasn’t complaining. He moved with such ease you’d think I really was a part of him and laid us down somewhere soft—a mattress covered in linen that smelled slightly of vanilla, and a lot like Rune.
Heaven is real, I thought, because Rune was lying next to me. He put a cover over my body, too, before he pulled me closer, cocooned me in his arms.
My eyes were closed and there was a smile on my face, and all the worlds in the universe, however many there may be, were right.
We were definitely in Rune’s bedroom, and though I’d never actually thought about what his room might look like, it was exactly like him.
It was just slightly bigger than my own room back home and it suited him.
The stone walls were bare except for a few weapons hanging within easy reach—blades of every shape and size, round ones, and others that looked like triangles.
I couldn’t for the life of me even imagine what one would use them for.
The bed we lay on was tucked against one wall, its frame made of beautifully carved dark wood, the soft sheets a charcoal gray.
There was no art, no trophies, nothing extravagant.
Just a heavy-looking oak chest at the foot of the bed and a small table cluttered with odd things—sharpening stones, old leather-bound books, and a handful of broken trinkets that looked a hundred years old.
Despite the starkness, the room didn’t feel cold at all. It felt lived-in. Personal .
A black cloak hung from a rusty hook near the door, and the window near it was small, closed. There was a fireplace opposite it with no fire in it, but it wasn’t cold under these covers, wrapped up in Rune. It was actually the perfect temperature.
This was definitely not the kind of room meant for visitors. It was the kind of room meant for a man who slept with a knife under his pillow, and I was willing to bet a good deal that if I searched this bed right now, I’d find at least a few.
Rune lay behind me, his body spooning mine, his arms wrapped around me so that I had no clue where I ended and where he began.
My head was on his biceps, and a smile was still on my lips.
The colors of the world were much more vivid to my eyes, even though the only light in the room came from the bird sitting at the edge of that table, wings folded and head lowered like he was indeed real—and taking a nap.
He was so beautiful my heart ached. He was all mine.
Just like the man lying behind me.
Lazily, I turned on my back to see his face—I’d been curious about his room a moment ago, but now I just wanted to continue to look at him for the rest of eternity. Pretty please, may I? I asked the stars, and in my ear I heard their whisper, yes, yes, you may.
And maybe I was just making it all up—but who cared?
Rune’s eyes were closed, his breathing even, his hair pushed back by yours truly, and so I saw every detail of his beautiful face. I touched him with my fingertips, trailed the white outline of his lips, the bridge of his nose, the tips of his lashes.
My God, he really was perfect.
I leaned in and kissed the tip of his nose. His eyes opened lazily, and he smiled—a smile just for me.
All fae were beautiful beyond a doubt. All of them looked drawn, unreal, but Rune was different.
One look at him and you could see he’d gone through some shit.
Most importantly, you could see that he’d overcome all that life had thrown his way, and he was ready for the next round.
That’s what set him apart. He was real, he was grounded, and he was fucking vicious in his calm.
Or maybe I was just that infatuated with him.
“Are you really here?” he said, barely moving his lips, like he didn’t even notice he was speaking at all.
“I am,” I promised him, just because I refused to believe this wasn’t real. “I missed you, Mr. Moody. I missed you more than I know how to say.”
His eyes opened all the way, and he looked surprised for a moment, and doubtful in the next, like he was hesitant to believe his own ears.
I leaned in again and kissed his lips gently, and he didn’t hesitate for this.
Pulling me until I was facing him again, he deepened the kiss, slipped his tongue in my mouth, kissed me like time was his to control, and it wouldn’t pass without his say-so.
I melted into his arms, his lips, every breath that went into his lungs.
“You disappeared,” Rune then said, and he wasn’t smiling anymore. I could see the colors of his eyes just slightly because the bird was on the other side of the room, but it was enough to see his fear. “You disappeared, Wildcat. I lost you in Mysthaven—you just disappeared.”
He rose on one elbow, grabbed my face with his hand, came closer. “I thought I lost you. Do you understand? I thought you died.”
“I didn’t,” I said. “I didn’t. I’m okay.”
“How?” he demanded, and the pain in his eyes, in his voice, broke me because it matched my own. It was a mirror of everything I’d felt since I jumped from that balcony.
I closed my eyes and tried to stop the tears that came like a fucking army seeking to destroy me, but I couldn’t. They spilled from the corners of my eyes, and Rune caught them all with his fingers, with his lips.
“It’s kind of a long story,” I whispered, and even though I was crying, I still smiled. I even laughed a little.
“Look at me, Wildcat,” Rune said, and I did. His face loomed over mine and I was safe here, wasn’t I? I was safe with Rune.
The tears slowed down.
“What happened?”
“Well, I ran away,” I started, feeling a thousand pounds lighter already. “I heard your voice on the balcony—you told me to jump.” And by now I was half convinced that I’d just made that part up, but…
“I did. I spoke to you through shadows.” Closing his eyes, he clenched his jaws and brought his forehead to mine, kissed my lips one more time, desperately. Then he lay down on his side, and like that we were face-to-face and chest to chest, breathing the same air.
“I heard,” I said.
“You shouldn’t have,” Rune whispered, raising his hand to push my hair away from my face. “I hoped you would, but you shouldn’t have.”
“Well, I’m glad I did.” Because I’d been too chicken to make up my mind about it myself.
“Me, too, wilding.” Another kiss on the tip of my nose. “Me, too. I’m so fucking glad. I took you to the back, to the fields, and I thought you’d wait for me there.”
I flinched. “Well, fuck. I…I didn’t. I ran as fast as I could.”
A small smile stretched his lips. “I know. I searched for you all day. You weren’t there.”
“In my defense, I had no clue I was supposed to wait. I thought it was safest for me outside the court,” I muttered, feeling a little stupid now because of course, I should have waited for him to find me instead of running. He took me to that canal himself!
But… “I’m glad you didn’t wait. There were soldiers everywhere by evening. I’m not sure I’d have been able to hide you properly inside these walls.” Closing his eyes again, Rune sighed deeply. “You did well, Wildcat. You did well to run.”
Thank God, I thought. Otherwise, I’d have had to second guess my instincts the next time.
Not that there would be a next time, of course, but still. I was surrounded by fae. By now I knew that anything was possible here. Anything at all.
“Tell me everything,” Rune said, caressing my hair, planting kisses all over my face. “I want to know what you did, how you survived.”
I nodded—I wanted him to know, too. I wasn’t really sure how much time we had before I needed to get back to the palace, but he needed to know.
So, I lay there in his bed, in his arms, finally feeling safe enough to breathe without terror holding my thoughts hostage—and I told him everything, every single detail from the moment I jumped into that river.
Rune absorbed every word I said and didn’t interrupt me once until I was done.