Page 127 of Lifebound

“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 soundedsadabout it.

“No, that’s not it. I mean—yes, I wasn’t myself for the most part, and theintensityof 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’tjustthe 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…Iam.”

“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’renot good enough? For fuck’s sake, you’re…you’reperfect!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’tjust becauseof 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 wasmoreintense 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 Ican’t standhow 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. Ican’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?—”

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