Rune’s fingers tightened ever so slightly as he leaned in close.
“You havealwayshad my attention.”
CHAPTER 29
Alora
Alora blinked up at the God of Shadows looming above her, his crimson eyes glowing like coals in the lowlight. His long black hair spilled down his face, framing hers. His weight didn’t touch her, but the shadows did, curling possessively around her wrists and sliding up her waist like silk spun from night.
She didn’t move. Because she didn’t know what Rune would do if she did. The way he was looking at her made her heart pound as everything else fell still.
“No matter what I do, or where I am, my attention is always on you,” he murmured, softer now.
Alora’s chest rose and fell with shallow breaths. She hated the way his voice curled inside her, making her pulse slow. She hated the way he looked at her, like she was his salvation and his temptation all at once. His grip held her in place, one hand on her neck and the other pinning her wrist above her head.
He didn’t hurt her, but he held her tight enough that she could hardly breathe.
Yet her first instinct wasn’t fear. A wild rush of heat curled low in her stomach that made her almost forget every reason to resist.
Wrapping her fingers around Rune’s wrist, she let the light brand him as she said icily,“Get off me.”
Yet Rune didn’t move, and it startled her that he hardly reacted to the burn. As if he were used to it. Or he enjoyed it.
Alora let the bodkin blade sheathed in her sleeve slide neatly into her palm, and it flashed in the low light as she pointed it against his chest.
“Oh,” Rune drawled, voice low and velvet-dark, “If you wanted me that badly, you need only say so.”
“Want you?” Alora gripped the black blade, the tip pressed against skin that refused to bleed. “I have a knife at your heart.”
“Exactly.” His red eyes glinted, wicked, gleeful.
Rune leaned in, shadows curling up his arms like they ached to touch her. His voice brushed her ear like a threat disguised as a promise. “Whenever you threaten my life…”
His gaze dropped to her lips, the markings on his neck flashing bright crimson.
“My only instinct is to devour you whole.” His eyes burned bright. “Unfortunately, Nightstone cannot harm me.”
To her shock, the dagger dissolved like black stardust, crumbling into the sheets. His shadows grasped her wrist and pinned it above her head again. She bucked against him, growling.
“I despise you,” she spat.
“Oh, I’m sure you do,” Rune murmured, lips ghosting her ear. “Almost as much as you despise how much you crave me.”
“I crave running a blade through your heart,” she hissed.
He grinned at that. “As much as you wish to deny it, one day you will come to understand this pull you feel towards me isn’t seduction. It’s because you aremine. You feel it in my touch. In the magic in the air. In the beat of your heart. Even in your dreams.”
Heat rushed through her face, remembering the moments she had dreamed about him … and the things they had done. Had he seen her dreams?
Rune chuckled, his mouth grazing her jaw. “It’s torture waiting.” His hand delicately traveled up her thigh, making her shiver. “It’s delightful how innocent you are,” he murmured, fangs nipping her skin. “But I know you have already imagined what it would feel like to take all of me.”
Then hehadbeen in her dreams—or the source of them. The wicked gleam in his eyes infuriated her. Magic flashed at Alora’s wrist, breaking his shadow hold, and she slapped him.
It wasn’t hard, but enough to make him pause.
Rune’s sneer returned, slow and dark. “Strike me again and I may have to punish you for it.”
The menacing glow in his eyes made her shiver, and yet it didn’t sound like a threat. It sounded like a carnal promise.
