Chapter Twenty-One
Her hands knew him; her eyes were now learning him.
Seraphina touched his face, ran her fingers over the scarf covering his empty eye sockets. When he tried to shy away from her, she sank her fingers into his hair and pulled him closer, her lips inches from his.
“Can you see me?” Rune asked, and she inhaled his breath greedily.
His hands traced up her cheeks, the tips of his fingers pressed lightly into her undereyes, brushed over her eyelids. She closed her eyes and made a sound deep in her chest, something between a moan and a sigh. She nodded hard enough to be sure that he understood.
“I’m sorry–” he started.
She shook her head.
“You see now how deformed I am. How ugly.”
She shook her head harder and opened her mouth to say “no”, but only an “o” came out. The only letters she could pronounce were the vowels and the lip consonants.
“I should turn away,” he said. “Why can’t I?” His hands cupped her face, his thumbs grazing her lips. “I shouldn’t touch you.”
Seraphina leaned into him. Her mouth pressed to his. It only lasted a moment before he pulled back.
“What did they do to you? Tell me. So much blood. Why aren’t you saying anything?”
She grasped his hand and guided his fingers into her mouth. There, he discovered most of her tongue was gone.
“How?”
She kissed his palm.
Rune recoiled from her, his chest rising and falling as he breathed heavily, working himself into a frenzy. His hands were covered in her blood.
“I will end them all,” he growled. “I don’t care if they’re in the service of God. What they did was barbaric.”
Seraphina clung to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face into his chest, begging him wordlessly not to leave her.
She shook her head over and over, hoping he’d understand.
Not being able to talk to him hurt more than anything.
She’d waited so long for the chance to say that she was sorry, that abandoning him had been the worst mistake of her life.
Here they were now, she unable to speak, he unable to see.
How cruel fate could be. Would they ever be together and whole?
“You don’t want me to leave,” he said. “I won’t, then. I won’t. I promise.”
He held her, his warmth enveloping her. They stayed like that until her grip around him loosened, and he said he would help her wash.
“You’re cold, there’s so much blood…”
He stumbled over a stool as he tried to reach the hearth. Seraphina placed a hand on his arm to calm him down. He wasn’t used to doing these things blind.
“You shouldn’t do everything,” he said. “I should be able to help you.”
She smiled and caressed his cheek.
“No, I’m useless.”
Seraphina lifted herself onto her toes and kissed him again, even if it meant he was forced to taste more of her blood.
He was right; she needed to wash. There was water in one pot already, and she filled a second one from a bucket.
She looked around the cottage and saw there was a bedroom at the back.
The blood stains on the walls and ceiling didn’t escape her.
A chill ran up her spine. What had happened here?
She saw the unmade bed and the nest of blankets on the floor.
Rune reached for her hand.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” he said.
“I don’t deserve you, yet I can’t seem to stop touching you.
” He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them, then turned them over and pressed his nose to the inside of her wrists.
“If you want me to stop, hit me. Don’t be subtle, just slap me over the face. ”
She chuckled and reached up to nuzzle his chin.
That earned her a smile. She looked at him in wonder, barely believing that this was the man she’d shared a prison cell with, the man who’d explored her body and seen her at her most vulnerable.
Her hands knew him; her eyes were now learning him.
She drank him in, hating that he couldn’t see the awe on her face, the adoration in her expression.
She threw her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up until their foreheads pressed together.
Seraphina wanted to tell him she and Idris had a pair of eyes for him.
They were green and had once belonged to a boy named Axel.
She looked at Rune and tried to imagine what it would be like to stare into green irises.
It wasn’t a bad color, rather rare, but would it suit him?
It didn’t matter. He’d blinded himself for her and deserved to see again.
What if with his new eyes, Rune would look like a stranger to her? No. He’d never be a stranger. Ideally, Seraphina thought, she’d look into the eyes of someone she loved. Matteo’s eyes? Who knew where they were…
The water was ready, and Rune carried it to the tub in the corner.
Forgoing all sense of propriety, Seraphina removed her clothes and stepped into the tub, groaning at how good it felt.
She washed her face and her neck, scrubbing her skin with soap until it was pink and raw.
She dipped her head back, into the water, and washed her long, blond hair.
Rune waited at a respectable distance. A blush settled high on his cheeks. Seraphina allowed herself to simply stare at him for a while, until he tilted his head and frowned, apparently feeling that he was being watched. She wanted to call him to her.
“Mmm…” She reached out her hand. He didn’t react, so she splashed him with water.
Rune gasped, an expression of confusion on his face. Seraphina splashed him again.
“Do you need me?” he asked as he moved closer.
Oh God, how she needed him! When he was within arm’s reach, she gripped the front of his shirt and pulled him forward.
He braced himself on the edge of the wooden tub.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and glued herself to him, her wet skin soaking his shirt.
His hands came around her, his fingers trembling as they discovered bare skin.
“I’ve thought about you,” he whispered in her damp hair. “All this time. Day and night, only you.”
She climbed him, and he gathered her in his arms and carried her to the bed, where he deposited her on top of the covers.
“I don’t know where the towels are,” he said.
She groaned and dragged him on top of her.
“We shouldn’t…” he breathed hotly, but his hands were all over her, roving down her sides, over her stomach, down to her hips.
Seraphina could feel his hardness press into her thigh. She shifted and tried to rub herself against it, but Rune let out a hiss, as if she’d burned him, and drew away. She clawed at his shirt and whimpered.
“I can’t see what I’m doing, and you can’t speak.”
She pulled his face toward hers. His lips found her chin.
“How I wish I could see you.”
He mouthed at her jaw. She moaned and let her head fall back, offering him her throat. He took his time kissing her neck and breathing in her ear as he brushed her hair over her shoulders, gathered it in his fist, and held it there.
“Mhm,” she encouraged him.
“You taste divine,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t, but I can’t help myself. Can I taste every bit of you?”
She nodded enthusiastically as she threaded her fingers through his dark hair.
His mouth on her neck made her squirm and rub her legs together.
Molten desire gathered in her core. She felt herself drip onto the bedsheets.
His mouth moved lower, at last, kissing along her clavicle.
She pulled at his shirt, trying to get him to take it off, wanting to feel his skin on hers, but he took hold of her wrists and pinned her hands above her head.
“No,” he said. “ Please.”
His lips moved lower, finding the mound of her breast. The tip of his tongue brushed tentatively across her nipple.
She arched her back and let out a keen. It was delicious; it wasn’t enough.
He was going too slowly. She could tell he remembered her body and how she liked to be touched.
His free hand cupped her other breast and kneaded it gently.
She rolled her hips upward, he let go of her breast and brought his hand to her hip, pinning her to the mattress as his mouth moved to her other nipple.
He was taking his time. She loved it. She hated it. Nothing could make him move faster.
Rune kissed over her ribs. He let go of her wrists to place both hands on her breasts as he licked a trail down to her navel and back again.
He sucked at the underside of her breast, kissed the expanse of her stomach as she panted, dragging as much oxygen as she could into her lungs.
His tongue dipped into her navel, then brushed lower.
He pressed his nose to her pelvis and inhaled.
Seraphina froze. She hadn’t expected that.
She waited for him to move back up her body, return to her breasts, which she knew was what men liked about women.
At Kr?henstein Academy, she’d heard girls talk about furtive adventures in hidden alcoves, and while plenty had mentioned taking their lover’s cock in their mouth, none had said their man had kissed them down there.
It was a dark, wet place that sometimes bled, a mystery men didn’t want to explore too closely.
“Can I smell you?”
He didn’t wait for her answer, dipped lower and inhaled again.
His nose brushed her sensitive bundle of nerves, eliciting a moan from deep in her chest. He nuzzled at that spot, knowing from their first time together what it did to her.
With two fingers, he parted her, and the next thing she felt was his warm, velvety tongue against her core.
Seraphina opened her mouth and stared at the ceiling. She gripped the sheets, suddenly certain she might float off the bed. Maybe the devil was in her, after all, if she was ready to take flight.
Rune licked from her entrance to her throbbing nub. He stopped over it, tongue flat, pressing lightly. Her hips jerked, creating friction that she needed like she needed air.