“And you’re a wolf I can’t outrun,” she whispered, closing her eyes against his touch. “Not even in my sleep.”
His hand went still, prompting her eyes to open.
“Dreaming about me again?” He cocked an eyebrow, as if this pleased him. With his grip still tight on her wrist, he leaned in, his breath warm against her cold lips, making her heart beat in triple time. “How often do you dream of me, Rune?”
The look in his eyes made her ache with longing.
More often than I’d like.
Seeing how she shivered, Gideon let go of her wrist. When Rune didn’t lash out with her knife, he tugged off his jacket and dropped it over her shoulders.
Rune glared at him. Howdarehe be kind on the eve of his betrayal.
After pulling it snug around her, he tugged her toward him, doing up the top few buttons. Ensnaring her further.
Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her knife.
Are reinforcements on the way? Is that why he’s delaying me?
Was his plan to seduce her until they arrived?
Rune was trapped. She couldn’t get past him—not if he didn’t want her to. The only way to escape was to lower his defenses. And to do that, she needed to play the same game he was playing. One last time.
Rune ran her free hand up his chest, resting her palm against the scar beneath his shirt. Gideon glanced down, watching her. To Rune’s surprise, his gloved hand slid over hers, linking their fingers together and keeping her palm pressed to his heart.
Their intertwined fingers filled Rune with a strange and terrible yearning.
“Will you miss me, Crimson Moth?”
She swallowed. “How can you ask me that?”
“Is that a yes?”
Normally, Rune could tell when he was plotting something. Tonight, he was impossible to read.
“Where will you go?”
He was a fool if he expected her to answer that.
“Somewhere you’ll never find me.”
Gideon stepped closer, until there was less than an inch of space between them. The heat of him called to Rune’s cold and trembling body. How easy it would be to step into his arms and let him warm her completely.
Rune mentally shook herself.
No.
If she walked down this path, she wouldn’t be able to walk herself back. She’d walk herself straight into another one of his traps.
“I’ll miss you the way a fox misses the wolf’s snapping jaws,” she said.
His mouth curved at her words. “I can’t tell if you’re insulting me, or flirting with me.” He slid a gloved hand behind her neck, tipping her chin upward with his thumb so her mouth tilted to his.
She knew what he was about to do.
The worst thing was, shewantedhim to do it.
Rune lifted her knife to his throat. Trying to stand firm against the snare of him. “Don’t you dare.”
