There. Something is . . . scratching . . . the sound is familiar. Recognition dances on the edge of my thoughts. Rodents? No. It’s not the same wood-gnawing grind.
It doesn’t click until the doorknobstarts to turn.
Lockpicks.
My heart leaps into overdrive. Someone is trying to sneak inside. Rune’s chair would be near immobile when combined with his weight, but I’m not risking being assassinated while chained to a bed frame.
So I shift.
KEEPING SECRETS
9
RUNE
Ishouldn’t be feeling this way. I shouldn’t want to touch her skin, taste her tongue on mine or dance with her on these moonlit shores, and I certainly shouldn’t want tofuckher until her voice is raw from moaning my name.
But I do.
Odelia darts away, her bare feet digging into the silver sand. Wild, brunette waves fly behind her as she dashes through the sea that kisses the shoreline. The sound of her laughter carries on the wind, and the moment it reaches my ears something inside me snaps. Ineedto chase her. Ineedto catch her, and then Ihaveto taste her.
My feet move without permission. Salty ocean mist slaps against my skin as I run after her. Brown eyes dipped in gold lock onto me as Odelia throws a glance over her shoulder, a feral grin stretching across her beautiful rosebud lips. Silently, she invites me into her orbit, and I accept willingly. Here, I can want all I like. Here, there are no consequences.
Oyster coloured silk melts to her figure, the wind pressing against the soft fabric, making her look as if she has beendraped in seafoam and then stitched together with strings of pearls. Above us, the sky is littered with a thousand pin pricks, each one reflecting off the waves as we prance by.
I close the distance between us, and her scent hits me—honey and pears. Sweet, fresh, nothing like the brine and rot that cling to the decks day in and day out. It drags up memories I haven’t let myself taste in years: sun-warmed orchards, overripe fruit on the breeze, meadows that stretch so far you forget the sea even exists.
It’s the kind of smell a man like me longs for—something that belongs to solid ground, to land that doesn’t shift beneath your boots.
The steady thrum of my heart beats inside my chest, and each time I almost reach Odelia, she seems further away. My brow pinches as I see her disappear into the bushes up ahead, her footsteps in the sand my only companion.
“Rune . . .”
I whip my head around, following her voice.
“Rune . . .”
There, in the thicket, I can see her golden highlights blending in with the underbrush like prey hiding from a predator. A grin forms upon my lips. I’ve caught her now.
“Rune!”
The vision before me shatters, melting away into the dark as my mind comes to consciousness. Someone shakes me back into reality. Someone who smells like honey and pears.
My eyes shoot open, hands grabbing for the figure leaning over me. Without too much thought, I yank Odelia’s armstowards my body. What she’s doing I have no idea, but I’m not going to take any chances.
With a muffled shriek, she falls into my lap, her palms slapping my bare chest. For a moment, we simply stare at each other, but I don’t miss the slight intake of her breath as she flicks her gaze down to the pale, gold markings on my skin. That’s when I notice her wrists, one with the viper tattoo, the other ink free. Neither of them are manacled. She’s escaped again? How does she keep doing this?
It feels so wrong that she fits so right, perfectly perched on my thighs. The warmth of her body seeping into my skin, burning through every hardened layer that I keep trying to put between us. She’s not to be trusted—ever—so why does this feel so good? I knew the moment she stepped from my sleeping quarters onto the deck dressed in Soraya’s loaned clothing that I’d struggle to look away. Why did she have to become so irresistible?
The room is dark. Watery moonlight streams through the round glass window, bathing us in its silver glow. My grip tightens on her arms as I find her gaze once again. Neither one of us dares to speak, yet the thump in my chest says a thousand words. It’s quiet enough that the only sound in the room—besides my heart—is the creaking wood ofThe Gilded Hart.
I angle my head to the right as I notice shadows protruding from the top of Odelia’s head. Only when she sees me staring does she try to pull back. That’s when the moonlight catches the stick-like limbs. My eyes widen slightly whenI realise what I’m seeing. Small antlers. Pale brown. Velvet-like, standing tall between her brunette tresses.
A grin stretches across my mouth as I tug Odelia down. Her breath hitches when her lips are inches from mine, and I can feel the tremor of her pulse under my fingertips.
“You’ve been keeping secrets from me, little doe.” The tension in the room crackles between us. “You’re a nymph.”
Odelia tilts her chin a little higher. “Correction—wood nymph.”
