Page 125 of Lifebound

“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?” Forme,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 amnottaking 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 soundedcalm.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 morecareless,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.”

Ireallydidn’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 waseasy,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.

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