Page 102 of Moonmarked

My brows narrowed. “What reason?”

“I don’t know,” Rune said, shaking his head. “He hides it well. And maybe I’m even wrong—I really don’t know. But my point is that other people are suspicious as well, Wildcat. Like theBroken Crown.”

“What the hell’s the Broken Crown?” Pretty sure I hadn’t heard that before, but something about those words…

“A group of people who once tried to rise against the queen and the prince. They were thought to be eradicated years ago, but their symbol…”

He looked down and I knew exactly what he was thinking, the same reason why those two words had raised my flesh in goose bumps—the knife I just told him about that the woman had given to me before she ran.

“Let me guess. Their symbol is a crown broken in half,” I said—the tiny figure engraved on the side of the knife’s handle.

Rune nodded. “I’m going to look into that, too. Find the woman who gave it to you.”

“How?” Because if I could talk to her, if I could just ask her why she wanted to attack me, and why she didn’t, why she gave me that knife instead…

“Through the ball service. If she’s Seelie, it will be easy to find her based on who made her dress.”

“I’m really not sure, Rune. I didn’t see her hair, just her mask. I don’t know—could have been a blonde or a brunette.” The detail had been completely lost to me, probably because of everything I’d felt.

“Hey, look at me.” Rune put his finger under my chin and raised my head. “I promised you that I will figure out a way around this whole madness, and I will.”

“I know.” I believed he would with my whole heart.

“Right now, I need you to sit tight and wait for me, okay? I can’t come see you as much as I’d like, but I’m always watching you, Wildcat.”

That made me feel a bit better right away. “What about the letter I wrote for my family?”

“On its way. Should be delivered by tomorrow,” Rune said.

“That’s good, that’s good.” At least Dad and the girls wouldn’t be worried about me. They’d believe that I was okay—I made sure of it in that letter.

And, yes, I did feel like shit for lying, but what other choice did I have?

Wish a sigh, I leaned closer to Rune. “It would still be nice if you could come to my room sometime. I have a big bed.”

The corner of his lips turned up. “This throne room will do just fine,” he said and kissed me.

I thought we were done when he fucked me on that dais. I thought there would be no more time for us to spend here together, but the sky was still dark beyond thosecolorful windows, and Rune deepened the kiss, sucked my tongue in his mouth violently, and the next moment, I was sitting on his lap.

“Rune,” I whispered, every inch of me on fire already as I slipped my hands underneath his unbuttoned shirt, traced the curves of his back and dug my nails in his skin.

His lips on my neck made me moan and scream and whisper all within the same minute, and it was incredible how he played my body like it was a damn instrument in his hands.

Rune growled when he sank his teeth in my skin and I moved against him, my legs on either side of his thighs.

“These sounds you make when you’re surrendering to me?” He grabbed my face in his hands and held me in place, then kissed every inch of my face, licked my lips slowly. “I want to memorize them with my mouth. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”Kiss, kiss, kiss.“I don’t just want to fuck you. I want toownyou completely.”

He already did, and I was going to tell him that when his tongue wasn’t in my mouth anymore, but Rune never gave me the chance. The moment he stopped kissing me, he said in that deep,rawwhisper of his, “On your knees, wildling.”

Every thought in my head vanished into thin air. A smile spread my swollen lips. “Yes, daddy,” I breathed because I was at his fucking command.

Rune growled, eyes bloodshot while he watched me, and the way I moved wasn’t even funny. I was on my knees in a second, breathing heavily, so turned on by the idea alone that I almost begged him to move faster, to get up, to use me, own me just like he wanted.

A mischievous smile was on his lips as he took his time, got on his knees in front of me, then trailed my jawline withthe tip of his tongue, and my lips, too. Meanwhile, my hands slid down his chest. He only wore his black boxers, and I swear I wasn’t even breathing until I touched him.

Rune pressed himself against me, eyes squeezed shut, shadows bursting out of his hands, and I wasn’t afraid of them in the least. It was comforting to feel them against my skin, especially when he grabbed my hair in a twist fit with one hand, and my chin in the other, and kissed the breath out of me while I jerked him off.

There was something about making a man like Rune lose control. When he growled and moaned and whispered my name, thrusting his hips faster, coming undone in my hands…

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