Page 72 of The Devil In Blue
A lump was forming in my throat and I swallowed it down, willing the tears with it. I wasn’t going to cry. Not over something so small. I knew it was ridiculous.
“Could you forgive me?” he said, leaning in so his breath was caressing my cheek. “If I gave you something else?”
He stepped back, lifting my arm and twirling me so my back was against his chest. I gasped at the sudden shift in positions, not hating the way his hands held my waist. The music continued, but our movements had ceased.
When I felt Rune’s lips on my neck, I trembled, my head falling back against his shoulder without even thinking. He moved his mouth softly down to the bend of my shoulder, the tips of his fingers dancing over my bare arm.
When he stopped, my pulse was already racing with such vigor that my skin was flushed and my mouth dry. I let out a shivering breath as his hands came around to my front and he unraveled a little gold chain.
“I’ve made a new necklace for you,” he whispered, his hot words tickling my ear.
I let him place the chain around my neck and sighed, relaxing against his chest. Once the necklace was clasped, I looked down, taking the pendant between my fingers to look at it.
Except, it wasn’t a pendant at all.
It was a tooth. A gold molar with a hole drilled into it so the chain could pass through. And surrounding it like a round frame was a dirty-gold ring with Lucien’s crest on it.
It took me a second to understand what the gift meant, but when I did, my skin flushed again. I should have been horrified, but all I felt was excitement. I felt Rune’s lips press to my neck again and closed my eyes, savoring his touch.
“This is Lucien’s,” I said.
“Ihatethe sound of his name on your lips,” he hissed in my ear, nipping at the lobe.
That voice sent heat directly south.
What was wrong with me?
“I’ll never say it again,” I promised as his hands snaked around to my front, gliding up over my corset-bound breasts and across the front of my throat.
“Do you like your gift?” he whispered.
“Yes. That’s where you went after you came to me in the woods, isn’t it?”
“What I heard in the dungeon killed me, Briar. I couldn’t stand it. I wanted him dead. I had planned to bring him back to you, but I just couldn’t help myself.”
“How did you do it?”
He reached around with his hand again and gently collared my throat so the tips of his nails barely grazed my skin.
“I tore open his mouth,” he whispered. “He begged before he drowned in his own blood. And I made sure he knewexactlywho I was.” He kissed me just beneath my ear and gooseflesh rippled across my skin. “And that you…” He kissed me again. “Didn’t belong to him.”
“And…” I gulped, my body on fire. “Do I belong to you?”
I felt the tip of his tongue slide over the shell of my ear and I couldn’t help myself. I whimpered lightly, wanting him to go further.
“Only if you want to,” he whispered.
His fingers slid up my throat and gently clutched my jaw, turning my head toward him. I expected him to kiss me, but he didn’t. He hooked me with his eyes and stilled, releasing me as if to give me the choice to continue. His gaze—his lips—begged me to put my mouth on his. To feel him and breathe him in. My pulse quickened at the thought and I could feel the anticipation racing down between my legs.
But then the dining hall doors swung open, pulling us both out of our trance. Elanor marched in with that sour look on her beautiful face and stood erect, hands clasped elegantly in front of her.
“Forgive me, my king,” she addressed, ignoring my presence.
Rune slowly turned to glare at her, the faint traces of a snarl rising from his throat.
“Yes, Elanor?” he said.
“The excitement from the other day attracted a gripson. It’s stalking the outer edge of the maze near the woods. I thought you should know.”
