Page 98 of Moonmarked

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head.

“Like he hada rightto you,” Rune spit, and he didn’t stop until the tips of my toes touched his boots, and he was deep in my personal space, looking down at me through those bloodshot eyes.

I looked up at him, waited, completely surrendered.

Then his hands closed around my cheeks, his shadows gone, his touch gentle and rough at the same time. Fuck, he was so close I could feel the heat pouring off him.

“Say it,” he whispered. “Tell me you’re not his.”

“I’mnot his.” The words slipped from my lips the very next second. It was one of the truest things I had ever said in my life, so it wasn’t hard.

Rune froze in place for a moment, his eyes on mine almost like he was surprised. Like there was a part of him that still doubted this—us.

He didn’t anymore, though. Now he fully believed it, and I saw the color flash in his eyes a second before he slammed his lips to mine.

Finally.

Rune kissed me like he wanted to break me open. His hands gripped my waist, pulling me in so hard I gasped, and then I was moving—stumbling backward, locked in his hold, my back hitting cold marble as he pressed me against a column with a growl.

He never once took his lips off me, and it was everything I always dreamed of, every second of every day when we were apart. Every time I closed my eyes, I sawthis,I heard his moans and felt his hands on me, tasted him on my tongue. He destroyed me without even trying—and we were only just getting started.

The world beyond this room was completely forgotten, which might not have been very wise of me, but it was Rune. If there was a reason to be worried, he would be, and if he wasn’t, I trusted him.

That—and Ireallyhad no more room left in me to fear. God, I needed a break. I needed to be Rune’s again so I could slip into my own skin after feeling like a damn stranger for days.

Rune gave me exactly that.

He lifted me up like I weighed nothing, and I automatically wrapped my legs around his waist. He carried me with ease all the way across the room again, up on the dais one step at a time, until we reached the seats near the two throne chairs.

My heart almost broke out of my ribcage when he sat me down on the velvet seat, and I looked up to see the tall backrest that ended in a pointy tip like it was a damn weapon. To my left, the queen’s throne was right there,close enough to me to touch.

“Rune, that’s her throne,” I choked, though he had fallen to his knees in front of me, arms locked around my waist tightly still as he dragged his mouth along my jawline, down my throat.

“It will soon be his,” he whispered, and I knew he meant Lyall. I could only cry out when he licked the soft spot behind my earlobe, then brought a hand to my mouth to stop myself from moaning.

“That’s okay,” Rune continued as he planted kisses on my chin and cheeks and lips. “Let him have his throne. I haveyou.”

The way he said it. The look in his eyes that were so vibrant now, so blue and silver and alive.

Something inside me twisted, a wild thing thatthrivedat his words, that grew the size of the sun inside me, nurtured by the way he meantwhat he said. Like I was as worthy—no,moreworthy than a throne. A kingdom. The whole damn world.

Slowly, I moved my hands on the sides of his face, pushed his hair back so I could see every little detail on him. Fuck, I loved this man with my entire being, and I had no idea how to even say it. Words were too small to properly describe it.

My fingers tangled in his hair. I pulled him closer. “You do,” I promised him. He had all of me. Every little bit.

For a moment there, we looked at each other without blinking, without moving. We let our eyes and our hands and the breath we let out of our parted lips do the talking.

We were okay, and everything made sense right now when we were in each other’s arms, but…

“Someone could come in here,” I whispered because asmuch as I didn’t want to think about anything at all, I also didn’t want to get caught.

“They won’t see us if they do,” Rune whispered, leaning closer, eyes half closed and on my lips.

That was all the confirmation I needed.

I leaned in and kissed him with every ounce of desperation I felt every second we weren’t together, and Rune didn’t hesitate. He must have felt the gnawing need for me as I did for him because he pushed himself higher on the chair where he sat me, and I had no choice but to unlock my legs from around his hips. His hands were under my thighs, the silk of the nightgown so thin it could have disappeared under the heat of his skin. I knew what we were about to do was fucking crazy, and we both knew better than this, but…

We didn’t, not really. Rune was hurting and I saw it written on his face, felt it in the way he kissed me so furiously, in the way he dug his fingers in my skin. It was beyond just desperation—it waspain,and I felt it together with him. That kiss Lyall had given me had irritated me, but it had driven Rune insane.

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