Page 64 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

I shook and writhed, intuitively understanding that this orgasm was about to tear straight through me in a way no other had done before.

Rune was going to destroy me, set my body and mind on fire as I handed him the matches.

“Come.”

I came against his hand as sweat beaded my forehead, my cheeks flushed hot, and a cry pierced the room. Wave after wave crashed into me, dragging me under a flood of release. My heavy pants began to slow, my heart pumping hard.

I was barely conscious of Rune moving me with careful tenderness as if I were the most precious thing in the world. On the carpet, he lay back and placed me on his chest, our limbs tangled together like we were two halves of a whole.

“You can take a lot more than you think, Little Flame,” he whispered. “You were so good for me, tonight. Absolutely perfect.” He paused. “You don’t believe in your own perfection yet, but one day you will. I’ll make sure you see yourself the way I do even if I have to destroy the entire realm to do it.”

“You speak as if you know me,” I said, just as softly as he spoke, as if we were co-conspirators on the run from the rest of the world.

“I feel like I do, on a level I thought I’d lost.” He stroked my hair, and my eyes fluttered. “Artists, witches, and mystics often speak of the phenomenon of two souls meeting here on earth who knew each other in past lifetimes, or on some other plane of existence that we traversed before our lives began. And that’s why it sometimes feels like we know people before they tell us who they are. That’s why certain beings draw us in and others repel us. Because we’re all stuck in this karmic web together, predestined to love and hurt the same souls over and over until we finally learn the gods’ will.”

“You believe in all of that?” I asked, listening to the steady thump of his slow-beating heart and feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest. “In soulmates and karmic cycles and love written in the stars?”

I did. I’d learned to suppress these beliefs, to stay silent about them completely in Crescent Haven. Jaxon had merely rolled his eyes and changed the subject, but Isabella had been downright venomous about what she called my childish delusions. She said that the gods didn’t care about us, not since they’d left our plane to rule over the heavens or the underworld. She said that believing in fate and soulmates and all the rest only primed me for the disappointing truth of reality.

Maybe she was right. But I’d believe anyway, in a quiet, secret sort of way. That all the horrible things that had happened to me and the people I loved weren’t in vain. That in another life, my parents would live to see Isabella and me grow up. That maybe I’d been hurt and violated and sent to the empty place because that was what needed to happen in order to weave my path into something beautiful and destined. Because it was only through knowing the darkness that I could one day find myself drowned in light. I believed in love written in the stars because I couldn’t fathom living in a world without it.

Rune’s hand stopped mid-stroke through my tangled strands of hair. “Maybe. For mortals, at least. Not for those of us who damned our souls for eternity.”

The weight of his words fell on my chest heavier than I expected, and I remembered when he’d answered no when I’d asked him if he mourned himself.

Suddenly the stars dimmed, the hum of fate fading into silence. It was just me, Rune, and his shadows.

What was I doing?

The daze lifted, and now that I was no longer clouded by lust, logic trickled back to its rightful place in my mind.

I didn’t know exactly what I was feeling, but it tasted like disappointment on my tongue. I just knew I had to get away from Rune. I had to put distance between me and this immortal being who would live for hundreds, if not thousands of years and would likely forget my name soon after growing bored and discarding me.

I sat up, and Rune followed me, concern in his features.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I studied his face, his dark, alluring beauty perfectly designed to ensnare weak, idealistic mortals like me.

Maybe he hadn’t used incubus magick, but he’d sure as hell used something downright sinister to lull me into that headspace of utter submission. I’d been completely at his mercy, and what was more frightening was how much I’d loved it. Once I was there, I’d never wanted to come back down to reality again.

I stood up, and Rune followed.

“I want to go home, and I don’t want you to follow me,” I said, avoiding his eyes.

Rune was silent for a moment. “Fine. But you need to at least take the witch with you.”

“Her name is Snow,” I snapped. I realized my tits were still out, and I angrily readjusted my dress to cover both them and my ass.

Rune watched me with an eerie calm. And it suddenly intensely aggravated me how closely he watched me, read my face, and probed inside my mind. He was searching for weaknesses, just like he’d warned me to my face.

In the moment, it had sounded sexy.

Now?

It was a huge problem.

When I finally met his dark eyes again, they were guarded. He looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it.

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