Page 77 of Lifebound

“Fuck.That.”My voice was as final as I could make it.

Lowering his head, he gripped his hair in a fist and paced in front of me for a moment, furious, his feet moving so fast they were barely touching the ground.

Meanwhile I stood there and watched him.

A completely unbiased observation (not really) but he was indeed a fine specimen. Tall and lean and strong and handsome.

Yes, his god or whatever had created the fae had really taken his time with Rune.

“Together.”

A noise rang in my ears. Rune stopped pacing in front of me and his pale cheeks were just slightly pink at the apples. It looked good on him, that wash of color.

“What?”

“We’ll ride one horse together. It’s still faster than continuing on foot—and we arenotstaying here for the night. It’s too dangerous. People have been noticing you more and more. It’s only a matter of time before they start to ask questions and before someone makes a guess about who you are.”

Rune seemed frustrated, but I was really focused ononething here. “When you say,we’ll ride one horse together,does that meanyouwill be sitting on the same saddlewithme?”

Because that would be…

That was just…

It was?—

“Yes.”

Fuck me sideways.

“Then what are we waiting for?”

First,Rune put on this cloak he’d bought—said it came with the horses, and it had a big hood so nobody would recognize him in Cloakwood—which was kind of funny because of its name.Kind of. But he’d been there before, and he didn’t want people to see him at all.

Unfortunately for me, the cloak made him look like some evil supervillain who was planning to take over the world. A very hot, very delicious supervillain who may or may not be purely evil (to others)—and it wasn’t even anI-can-change-himtype of situation. More likehe’s-perfect-the-way-he-is.

Of course, I didn’t comment.

He picked the bigger horse that could carry the two of us for longer stretches of time. He’d paid for both, he said, but if he wanted me to feel bad about it, I didn’t. I was going to ride a horse together with him, our bodies flush against one another. There simply wasn’t any space to feel bad about anything right now.

Once more, I wished I had my phone with me just to text Betty to tell her what I was about to do. I could have used some encouragement right now, but oh, well.

Rune helped me up on the saddle after he reassured me about a hundred times that the horse would not move. And then he got on, too, in front of me.

The way my arms wrapped around his waist instantly could have been funny—and not even half of it was from fear of being on a horse again.

But the cloak he had on was really long and it was sticking underneath my legs, which made him uncomfortable when he moved. So, Rune thought better of it.

“Someone might grab you before I can see them,” he said, and shivers ran down my back—this time a purely fearful reaction. The thought of being grabbed from behind made me want to jump off the giant horse headfirst.

Except Rune then climbedbehindme.

His legs were on the sides of mine. My back was to his chest. His arms were to my sides, holding the reins.

I swear I almost came right then and there when I leaned back and settled against his chest.

His muscles were so strong, though. And I hooked my hands around both his arms, holding them to my sides. He wanted to complain, I heard him muttering to himself, but he knew I’d fall off if I didn’t hold on.

That would forever remain my excuse.

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