Page 131 of Lifebound

“Yes,” I said with all my heart. I was more than ready.

With my lip between his teeth, Rune slowly pushed his hips down and somehow came even deeper inside me. His name left my lips with every new thrust. It didn’t escape my attention how my body fit his perfectly, how we moved in perfect harmony, like we’d done this a thousand times before. Like we knew each other our whole lives.

His movements became faster by the second, and the harder he fucked me, the harder I screamed. He whispered praise under his breath that I only understood halfway, so lost in the feel of him, in the pleasure that had consumed me completely. We were one, face-to-face and chest-to-chest and lips-to-lips.

It wasn’t just sex, not for me. It wasconnection,a kind I never even knew one could have with another person.

And I was fully his, too, that night—and all other nights to come for the rest of my life.

My arms were around his neck, his hair in my fists, and his ear was next to my mouth when the pleasure exploded in me and I screamed out his name. He pushed his hips down and let me move at my own pace while I rode the high, like we had indeed done this before and he knew exactly what I needed, what my body loved.

Rune’s body must have loved it just as much to have me moving like that underneath him because he came, too, with my name on his lips, seconds later. With that voice of his, I had never heard a more beautiful sound.

Our eyes were closed, and we were pressed against each other. The bird had faded, but its silhouette still flew over us while we took a moment to catch our breaths.

Despite how I’d come to be here right now, this really just became the best night of my life.

Rune came out of me slowly, kissing my face as he moved to the side and lay on the ground next to me. Our hearts had yet to slow down the beating, but our breathing was becoming more even quickly. He held me in his arms like I was this fragile thing, like he thought I might break if he handled me too roughly, and I fucking adored it. As strange as it sounded to my own self, I felt free and safe to befragile and vulnerable when I was with him.

Never would I have thought that to be agoodthing, but it was. It was incredible to give up control all the way like I had right now.

“Are you cold?” Rune whispered a little while later.

I snuggled closer to his chest, and he pulled me tighter with his arm around my waist. “A little.”

The heat of him kept me warm, though, even if the night was colder and we were still wet from swimming in the lake. We could still stay here among the bushes, secluded from the rest of the world, for a moment longer.

“I’m not on birth control,” I said when the fact occurred to me, when I felt the wetness between my legs. Possibly his cum slipping out of me.

Fuck, the thought alone turned me on.

Rune kissed my forehead. “The marked can’t conceive.”

Not going to lie, I was relieved, but I could have sworn he soundedsadagain. Raising my head, I looked at his neck, at the tattoo marking him, the curves and the straight lines, and the dots.

“It’s actually beautiful.”

His hand closed on my cheek and he looked down at me, eyes sparkling, the brand-new bird he’d made me flying a bit higher as if to give us privacy while still giving us enough light.

“I don’t think anything more beautiful than you exists in my world or yours.”

My toes curled and my stomach went wild with all these butterflies that came out of nowhere.

“You caught me off guard, Wildcat. I wasn’t prepared for it.”

I laughed a little. “I wasn’t prepared for you, either.” He’d hit me straight in the face, and I’d had no idea what the hell I was doing since. “What was it like? You know—before.Before me.”

“It was just life. I had my routine. I had my work.”

“What’s that? What is it that you do?” I knew so little about him, which was ridiculous considering I wanted to know every little detail about him since the day he was born.

“Weapons,” Rune said. “I make weapons for the Seelie Court soldiers.”

I looked up at him. “You do?”

“Yes. Metal manipulation is a Midnight fae trait. I don’t really have much power, but I understand how it works. How it bends. How much pressure it needs.”

“Holy fuck,” I whispered. “That’s…how in the world do you make that sound sohot?”

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