Page 65 of Lifebound

He didn’t even bat an eye. “That wasoutside.Here, there are creatures who can smell you.”

“So,let themsmell me!” That didn’t sound like ameproblem at all.

Until he said, “There are creatures who can walk through walls.”

That clamped my mouth shut right away.

With a groan I closed my eyes and cursed loudly with the nastiest words I knew, and who cared that he could hear me?

“Turn around and close your eyes, Mr. Moody. And if I catch you taking a peek, I’m going to throw my shoe at your face.”

His eyes sparkled—did he think I was kidding? Because I wasn’t.

But just to make sure he understood—and it was easy to do since I was pissed off now—I leaned in and said, “Don’t test me.”

Unfortunately for me, all my serious voice did was make him smile. He stopped himself halfway so all I got was a lopsided half-smile which looked too good on him formyown good.

Fuck,he was so goddamn gorgeous it wasn’t fair.

“My, my, Wildcat. You almost scared me there.”

He was mocking me. Clearly.

I closed my eyes again, called for the last bit of control that was quickly running away from me—please, come back.I would not let him get the best of me, damn it. I was used to bullies. He had no power over me, his hotness be damned.

“Iwillscare you for real one day. You just wait and see,” I said, and I meant it. I was going to find whatever made him shiver, and I was going to use it against him. Shamelessly. Mercilessly. Because, yes, I was used to bullying, but I also loved to bite back. I was petty like that.

“Nowturn around.”

An arched brow. A brand-new spark in his eye. “Is that an order?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s the goddamn law that you can’t see the prince’s Lifebound naked.”

There.His face changed so suddenly. His eyes, now a blue so deep, so dark, they showed me my reflection, turned down to my body.

Suddenly, I felt naked for real, like he could see right through the fabrics I wore.

My heart picked up the beating so fast it was a miracle it didn’t shake me in place, and my mind became completely blank. I was reminded of that heat I’d felt twice now from the incubi and the succubi during the day, except this was different.

This was…natural. It was just my body’s response to this gorgeous asshole that was messing with my mind.

“Be quick,” he finally whispered, and he turned around to face the door.

It took a good long time for me to calm down from that heat, to actually take in the bathroom, the rusty tub that would barely fit me to sit in it, but it was full of water that looked clean. The sink was basically a bowl full of water with a pitcher next to it and some soap on a piece of wood. A half-broken mirror hung on the yellowed wall over the basin. There were windows near the ceiling without glass, but if it was cold in here, I didn’t feel it. And the toilet, thank God, was in a separate cabin on the other side of the room. Putting my backpack against the tub, I went for it first.

Those glass spheres full of the sparks that glowed white and golden were mounted on the walls here and there, but none was in the toilet cabin. It was a hassle, but it was worth not being heard peeing by this guy.

Wait—can he actually hear me peeing through the door?

Mortified, I walked outside and found him exactly as I’d left him, facing the door, not moving a single inch. He looked like a fucking statue, and I almost asked him to move, to make sure it was still Rune.

At the last moment, I decided to just get on with it.

I didn’t bother with the sink at all, just grabbed the bar of soap, cleaned it because it looked awfully suspicious, and then I began to undress.

My heartbeat hadn’t slowed down at all. My cheeks were flushed as if I thought he had eyes in the back of his head and could see me. My hands shook as I took off all my clothes, put them over the wooden box to the side of that basin, and rushed into the tub.

Ice-cold.

---