His eyes narrowed, and he ground his teeth together, snarling, “Don’t you fucking apologize!”
He pulled me higher into his arms, in a hold that surprisingly wasn’t tight. Rather, he held me delicately but still firmly enough against him so I couldn’t wiggle away. I turned my face to the side with my ear pressed on his chest over his thundering heart.
“But I’m—”
He reared back, and his rough hands cupped my cheeks, making me look at him.
His eyes were still narrowed, and his nostrils flared as he growled, “Isa, if you try apologizing one morefuckingtime, I’ll spank your ass. I don’t give a shit if you just came back from the dead, I’ll turn your ass red.”
My lips parted, and my eyes widened. More pins and needles swept through me. I should’ve been upset about that. Any normal woman would’ve been, but I...
Before I could say anything, he muttered, “Fuck,elskan mín.” Then his lips smashed on mine as he kissed me like the world was ending and he only had a few seconds to make it count.
And what a way he made it count.
I wound my arms around his neck, whimpering into his mouth as he forced his tongue past my lips. Our tongues tangled, and teeth knocked together. I winced when I remembered my earlier puking. Thankfully, the kiss didn’t last long. He pulled away, his hands still on my cheeks as he gazed at me with parted lips and now blue eyes full of his turbulent emotions. It was hard to tell what all he felt...
The link.
He was blocking his emotions from me, but I needed to know. I wanted to be there for him. Comfort him.
Without any thought or effort, I forced open his end of our link, and his emotions and thoughts flooded through. His eyes widened, his shock becoming mine. My heart raced and synced with his. The lingering raw grief crashed through me before it was replaced with Rune’s relief and shock again.
“I don’t mean to break the moment, but how the hell is she alive?” Slátra asked.
I blinked and glanced around the room for the first time.
Slátra stood by the couch in the small living room that looked like a tornado went through and destroyed the place. He was covered in blood, and his arms crossed over his chest. I swore the man loved being covered in blood because it always looked like he bathed in it.
The fake wooden floors were dirty with smears of more blood and dirt from the plants that had fallen at some point. The room was shadowed in some areas, with the only light coming from the living room and kitchen.
“Check her wounds, Rune,” Hluti said from my other side.
I peered at him, and he was in the same dirtied state as Slátra. My stomach dropped, and a lump formed in my throat as I noticed a gash on his temple. I held back the rising sob and the tears stinging behind my eyes.
“Don’t,”Rune said through the link.
My gaze snapped to him, my lower lip wobbling. He shot me a stern look, and I barely caught his intention of what he was about to do. He raised the hem of my shirt, looking at my stomach. I caught his sharp inhale, his ocean eyes darkening as they swept over my exposed abdomen, his fingers stroking the sensitive skin.
I glanced down, my eyes widening at the pink, puckered scars Rune rubbed. They were sensitive and looked like they’d been there for years, fading in front of my eyes into a shiny white. Rune laid his palm over my belly.
“How?” he asked with a tremor in his voice.
My mouth opened, rendered speechless for a second. My eyes flew up and caught him staring at me, begging me through his gaze and our link, asking what happened. How I was able to bring myself back to life. I had a feeling he could easily search through our bond and find the answer himself. But he needed to hear it from me.
“Was I... was I really dead?” I said instead. My voice cracked, and my throat felt like the Sahara desert.
“Oh, you were dead all right,” Slátra answered, bringing my attention to him. He rubbed his hand over his mouth, his green eyes looking me over like I was a specimen he wanted to pick apart.
Rune’s hand on my stomach pressed down with a small bit of pressure to bring my gaze back to his. Through our link, Rune blocked the playback of me dead. But I caught the brief moment of him bent over me on his knees, his hands on my chest, pushing the heels of them over and over. My sightless eyes on him with blood smeared over my face. A stream of it came from the corner of my mouth and down to my dirty hair that made a coppery, pale blue halo around my head.
“Come back to me, elskan mín. You’re not leaving me again.”Rune’s breathless demand echoed from far away in his memory.
My stomach dropped like a sack of potatoes, and my eyes stung again with tears. Rune’s guilt made it worse for me. But I grabbed his arm, lip wobbling as I glanced over his pain-stricken face.
“Yes,” Rune answered, taking a lot of strength for him to say. My heart shattered for him. “I did CPR when your heart stopped beating. You didn’t respond.” He swallowed hard. “You were dead for forty minutes.”
I tried to push away the echo of his memory. He had his memories blocked from me, but just the small clip of one was messing with me. Swallowing hard, I squeezed harder on his arm as I stared at his face.
