Page 132 of Lifebound

A chuckle that warmed me to my soul. “I don’t understand why I love the way you talk so much.”

Hiding my face below his chin, I tried to act cool, stifle that giant smile, and basicallynotmelt into a pile of goo. “So, do you have like your own shop or something?”

“My own workshop, yes.”

“And? What about other smiths? And other people you work with?”

“I work alone.”

Again, I looked up at him. “Really?”

His eyes were closed as he held onto me with one hand and played with my hair with the other.

“I prefer it.”

Something told me it wasn’t the truth at all. Nobody preferred to be on their own all the time…did they?

“What’s that like?” I asked because I didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable by asking him if he was sure or something. I would rather just lie on his shoulder and touch his smooth skin, listen to him speaking indefinitely.

“I…got through,” Rune said in a soft whisper. “It was easy, actually. I never really had any idea what I was…well,missing.”

My toes curled again, and I pressed my lips to his collarbone. His skin erupted in goose bumps. I loved the effect I had on him, and for a moment, I chased the little bumps away by running my fingertips over his skin.

The silence started out comfortable, but…

The more seconds ticked by, the more Rune’s muscles tightened. I gave it a moment, didn’t let myself read into it, thought it would pass.

But then the silence changed within just a couple of minutes. The way he held me by the waist changed, and the way he dropped my hair and no longer seemed interested in playing with it…

Like something else had just occurred to him, something…not good. I wasn’t sure how I could tell—the air just seemed to be filled with tension now and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“We have to go,” Rune then said before I could gather courage to ask what was wrong. My heart jumped. “Raja is waiting.”

The next moment, he sat up, took me with.

He was naked still, and his shorts were there by the edge of the lake. He put them on without ever looking at me, and suddenly I felt socold.

Not because of the air but because of how quickly his entire demeanor changed.Just like that.

Again—I figured I was just being silly, though. Probably just reading too much into it. So, when he offered me his hand, I took it and let him pull me to my feet.

“I’m going to need to use the bathroom,” I said, just to say something. To try to chase away this strange tension that came out of nowhere and settled between us. It was too scary to eventryto understand it yet, so I didn’t.

Rune nodded. “Let’s go.”

My bird disappeared into the dark.

thirty-five

I’m just seeing things.

Rune wasnotacting like he suddenly regretted what we did. I was just making that up because he was composed again, and he wasn’t holding me on his lap, and he wasn’t kissing me and whispering in my ear.

Of course not—we were sitting at a table right outside Raja’s house, and she was there, too. Sitting between us. Watching us eat as she chewed her food slowly.

Yes, I’m just seeing things.Rune was just eating his food. He wasn’t doing anything wrong—and so what if he wouldn’t look me in the eye for longer than a second?

Raja was sitting right there!

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