Page 70 of Lifebound

Rune said, “Calm down. It was a dream.” His words struggled to make sense.

“You’re okay. It was only a dream…”

A dream.

Yes, I remembered it. The men with a hundred heads and the vampires and that awful laughter in the distance.

But wait…

Everything came to a halt. Rune was on my bed, his feet holding mine to the sides, his hands over my wrists on the pillow as he held himself up by his elbows. The tips of his hair that usually fell over his eye touched my forehead, and it was wet, like he’d just showered. His eyes were right there, his lips inches away from mine.

“Calm down,” he whispered. “Calm down—you’re awake now.”

I was, and it was daylight outside, and the sun was falling on my face from the window just below the bed’s edge, and I couldn’t see him as clearly as I wanted to. My chest rose and fell fast. I nodded, and Rune let go of my hands.

The moment he did, I moved on instinct, brought my arm up to shield my eyes from the sun, and accidentally pushed his elbow to the side.

Rune fell right on top of me, his entire body against mine. I felt everything.

Holy fuck…

My eyes were open wide. His closed tightly, and he pulled his lips inside his mouth for a moment, as if to stop himself from speaking.

Ormoaning.

My heart didn’t beat at all because there was a fire burning underneath my skin, and she was waiting to be consumed by it. His lips were right there,almost touching mine, and his chest was pressed to me all the way—and his cock.

My God, Rune was hard.

I let go of a shaky breath, and the same insanity as the night before came over me again—I was going to kiss him. The way he slowly opened those eyes and looked down at my lips—yep, I decided it. I was going to kiss the hell out of this man right now simply because I needed to. Nothing else mattered, not the dreams or this realm or his tattoo and what it meant—just his lips.

But even though his eyes were bloodshot and he was breathing as heavily as me, Rune was still in control of himself, and so he rose on his elbows again and took his body off mine before I could make a move.

I looked down instinctively—the tent in his pants was so close, almost touching me over the blanket, and if I just raised my hips a little, I could rub against him.

Yes, he was absolutely, so deliciously hard…

“The sun’s up, that’s all,” Rune said breathlessly, and it took a moment for the words to register.

I looked up at him again. “Oh.”

The corner of his lips turned up as he rolled off me and jumped to his feet near the bed.

“We leave in ten minutes,” he said without meeting my eyes.

And with that bulge in his pants that I couldn’t look away from, he walked out of the room and left me panting.

We stoppedto eat breakfast at the same guesthaven where we’d slept. They had this big, half-open area where you could find all kinds of creatures who’d spent the night. Rune didn’t let me sit down but took me with him to the bar this time and told me to keep the scarf over my face as much as I could.

No problem,I thought.I can keep my head down and my eyes on your pants all day, buddy.

Unfortunately for me, he was no longer hard.

But I’d felt him. The memory was so fresh in my mind that the moment I closed my eyes, it was like I was living that moment again. I was in bed and Rune was on top of me, and he was hard, and he was kissing me like the world would end tomorrow, and all we’d ever get was today.

Yet every time I had to open my eyes to see the real world, to seehimsitting across from me, watching everyone around us like a hawk, the memory faded and this sense of restlessness came over me again.

“Why aren’t you eating?” I asked, just to chase away the awkward silence.

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