“Yes, I am…” Alora pressed close to him, her arms around his neck. “I find myself so incredibly mad for my husband, I cannot withstand being away from him any longer.”
Rune’s crimson eyes met hers and something in them shuttered. “I must take you back.”
She shook her head, burring her face in his chest. “Not yet. Not until you show me the world through your eyes. Did you not once offer to show me how beautiful the night could be?”
A low growl rumbled deep in Rune’s throat, his body stiff against hers as if he was trying so hard to resist. Claws tightened against her back then he pressed his nose to her head and inhaled deep breath. He shuddered, his entire body warming.
His smoky voice curled through her mind as his heavy-lidded eyes met hers.Oh,I missed your scent.
The air tore past them as they rose into the sky. Each beat of those vast wings sent them higher, until the ground was a memory and the sky remained.
Rune’s hold was possessive, desperate. His gaze never left hers as they flew among the stars. The clouds parted for them, scattering like whispers in the dark. Below, the world glittered with rivers like silver ribbons, forests swaying under moonlight, the Argyle castle glowing like a jewel tucked within the hills. But it was him she watched.
She could see it in his eyes, the way the battle waged behind the crimson. The heat of his skin seared through the thin fabric of her dress, and her pulse thrummed. She didn’t need to sense him through the bond.
His need was a living thing between them.
It was an achingneed.
He wanted to take her. But still he clung to restraint like it might save them both. The starlight caught in his hair, graced the curve of his horns. His red eyes smoldered like embers, yet there was softness there.
But the glamor quickly returned, veiling his horns and any shred of vulnerability from view. Did he know when his glamorslipped? Or did it slip away in moments he subconsciously couldn’t help showing parts of himself to her?
She wanted him to kiss her.
He seemed as though he might.
Gods, sheneededhim to.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Rune rumbled in her ear. His lips brushed her cheek, lingering at the corner of her mouth. “You smell absolutelydecadent, and it is too tempting to bear.”
Beneath her skirts, shadows whispered against her thighs.
Her gasp was lost to the wind.
The tendrils were soft, curious things, like smoke and silk, curling over her legs, sliding up her inner thighs in teasing spirals. One traced her waist. Another ghosted over the swell of her breast. Her nipples tightened through the fabric. He held her like something fragile and precious, while his shadowsworshippedher.
His fangs grazed her jaw. “I am hanging by a thread, Alora.”
Yet he still didn’t kiss her.
Alora bit her lip, arching into the touch she couldn’t see. Every movement, every stroke of magic left her aching and flushed. When one daring tendril dragged slow and deliberate over the bundle of nerves between her thighs, she whimpered.
“We know how to break the curse,” she murmured. “You have kept your word, now let me keep mine.”
His hold on her tightened. “You don’t know how difficult it is to hold onto every ounce of my will to stop from tearing into you like a beast.”
She shivered at the thought and gave his neck a playful nip. “Must I beg, Rune?”
He growled and his knee pressed against her core. He held her there by her waist, grinding her against him in the sky. Her head dropped against his shoulder, mouth open in a silent cry aspleasure bloomed through her like wildfire. He licked her throat, fangs grazing her pulse, and her skin prickled.
You are sacred fruit meant to damn me,he rumbled in her mind, mouth trailing over her breasts.I’m the one who is truly mad.
The shadows teased her sensitive flesh through her clothes, touching her everywhere she needed him.
Her back arched. Her body burned.
It was him. All of it. Rune. His magic, his madness, his careful grip keeping her afloat even as he carried her higher.
