Page 48 of A Fate In Moonstone

“I never lie.”

“Uh huh, sure.” Everybody lies. Tor’s power showed me that more than I ever knew.

Even my aunts lied earlier when they claimed they didn’t know where my mother snuck off to during a meeting. Probably had something to do with my father. I saw her dart into a room alongside a brown-skinned man with a shimmering black crown on his head.

Looks like my father used our advisor’s portal magic for some intimacy with the queen. Gross.

“I will never lie to you, Sapphira. Perhaps a jest here and there but never lie.” He lifted my head to look at him. My hands warmed. He wasn’t lying now.

“You do snore after a stressful day, and I can hear it, but that is because I have werewolf hearing.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I never wanted a mate,” he continued, “because they’d be another person to see me as cursed, to hate me.” His low voice and stoic face did me in.

I climbed over him, straddling his waist, and cradled his face between my hands.

“You are not cursed, and I far from hate you. You are grumpy, and I am a ray of beautiful sunshine.” He smiled at my words. “Together we are—”

He silenced me with a kiss.

“Eternal.” His husky voice travelled over my tongue, down my throat, and settled inside my chest.

“I was gonna say opposites, but that works too.” I smirked against him as I teased. And with complete ease, he lifted me off his lap to settle me back to his side, an arm around my shoulders. Right, kissing, being too close could lead to us losing control. Rune did not lose control easily. A line I would flirt with a month from now.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” he muttered, his icy blue eyes on the electric festival below. It was easy to watch him, to follow the three scars on his face to his pink lips, sharp jawline, and back up to his pointed ears, and dark messy hair.

He was so fucking handsome.

“My favorite time of day is—”

“Nighttime”

“Right,” I said. “Um, my favorite color is—”

“Blue.”

Right again. I eyed him. “Is there anything you haven’t learned with your mate stalker skills?”

“The sounds you make as you come while I’m inside you.”

The blood beneath my skin burned, and my eyes widened.

He faced me then, gaze locked on mine, those pink lips lifting.

“I already know what moans leave your lips when you think of me by yourself. I heard them that night after our time in the training arena.”

My jaw dropped.

“We’re supposed to be playing nice while I’m engaged to your brother, remember?” I pointed a finger at his pleased expression.

“Were you playing nice when you answered the door in your fancy lingerie this morning?”

No. I wasn’t.

Rune had growled, then walked away without a word.

“I was hot. You know this heat is not like ours back home. I couldn’t simply open the door naked.”