“Oh, you liar.” Alora seethed. “You prince of lies!”
“I didn’t lie. I omitted. A far more elegant art.”
She smirked bitterly, “Yes, I have come to find demons speak half-truths when it suits them. Then I should treat every action and every word you speak to me as a half-lie.”
He studied her, reading the flush on her skin even in the low light. Alora looked away. It wasn’t his mockery that bothered her, but that it had returned after showing her a sliver oftenderness tonight. It had been nice … to see him acting so … genuine.
A part of her sensed he had not always been this way.
Would she ever see the real him?
He prowled toward her, towering form cornering her against the wall.
“You don’t want the real me, Alora,” Rune said tightly. “You want something you can understand. Something human. But my truth…” he traced a clawed finger down her throat to her racing pulse. “It would terrify this fragile heart of yours enough to make it forget how to beat.”
The warning sent her heart into a tumble. And she saw herself for a split second, fleeing from a shadow in the forest.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Alora whispered. “Or is that your own heart stopped beating a long time ago, rotting to a husk within your chest? Perhaps you feel nothing at all.”
The temperature in the room became stifling. Every candle flame guttered until his glowing scarlet eyes were the only source of light.
Alora’s heartbeat danced wildly as she backed away from him, aware of the thin fabric of her gown. Rune’s molten gaze burned as they held hers, burning with fury and another fiery emotion that flushed her skin. Her hip bumped into the desk, and Alora blindly reached behind her.
“Don’t.” Rune growled, caging her against it, his breath searing her neck. “Reach for that knife and I will be tempted to have you on this desk, songbird. And I can’t promise to be gentle.”
“Why are you so furious?” she whispered.
“I am alwaysfurious.” Grabbing her waist, Rune planted her on the desk and braced his hands on the surface, his claws digging into the wood. “My heart may have withered long ago,” he rasped, his voice rough with something rawer than anger,“but then you came along—and now it feelseverything.All the time.” His breath brushed her cheek. “It is infuriating.” She swallowed hard. He leaned closer, his next words a threat and a plea all at once. “But nothing angers me more than you putting yourself in danger.Neverdo that again.”
Alora scoffed. “If I do? Will you punish me?”
The shadows stirred at once, sliding over her like smoke. Her breath caught as they coiled around her wrists and ankles, not rough but unyielding.
He stepped closer, the air thick with the heat of him.
The look in his eyes was the same the first time they met. She had mistaken it for desire but now saw it for what it truly was.
Obsession.
“Perhaps I should,” Rune said, the words low and dangerous. His claws slowly glided up her bare thighs, making her shiver. “I am tempted to toss you into that bed and make you scream. To give you the same torment I feel every time you look at me like that.”
Like what?
The thought fluttered between them.
His lips grazed her jaw, then lower, trailing down to the rapid flutter of her pulse. “Like you have forgotten me.”
Alora panted, trembling as his hand slid up her torso to cup her breast. The bond between them thrummed.
“As though you have not already surrendered in my hands.”
She whimpered at the first stroke of his thumb over her sensitive nipple. An intensity gathered low in her stomach, her core pulsing in response. He was speaking of her dreams, her lustful, unabashed desires. They were bonded, minds connected. She should be embarrassed that he had seen those secretive thoughts, yet ever since he’d kissed her, her body had been aching.
“Shall I touch you until you cannot withstand it?” Rune breathed against her neck, fangs grazing the goosebumps on her skin. “And make you forget all else?”
“Yes,” Alora gasped before she thought better of it.
The shadows lifted her bound hands to the wall behind her and wrapped around her eyes. Her heart pounded wildly but not with fear. Every stroke of his wandering hands melted away her resolve. He must be seducing her with his magic but at the moment she didn’t care.
