Heartless Hunter (Crimson Moth, #1)

by Kristen Ciccarelli

It was why Rune never cut herself.

She couldn’t afford to let them find the scars.

“Rune has been out rescuing witches all night. They say the Crimson Moth only works beneath the cover of darkness.”

“Alex would love it if you came.” Gideon tensed beside her. “You must not know my brother well if you think my presence in your home would cheer him.”

Every time Gideon looked at the young heiress, she reminded him of the sea: steal-your-breath beautiful on the surface, with the promise of untold depths beneath.

He’d spent the last two hours making it for her, feeling slightly ill as he sewed every petal. Roses always brought the painful memories rushing back. But Harrow’s advice—to woo Rune—kept ringing through his head, and his mother could never resist the silk roses his father used to make her after they argued.

“Your laugh is like a fuse,” he said. “It lights you up.” Rune’s heart thudded. No one had ever told her that before.

When she realized that serving tea wasn’t humiliating for me, she changed tactics, telling me I had to prove my devotion by making her three dozen silk roses by sunrise—the kind my father used to make for my mother—and if I failed, something terrible would happen to my little sister.” He looked down at Rune, who drew her lips in a tight line. “The silk flower I made you took me two hours to sew.”

“It’s not a crime to have loved a witch, Rune.” He bent toward her until their foreheads touched and his breath tangled with hers. “If it were, you wouldn’t be the only guilty one.”

His body buzzed at the lack of her. As if Rune in his arms was the only true thing in the world, and until she was there again, everything was wrong.

“I remember the sound of your laugh,” he said as the back door of the house came into view. “It pulled me like a magnet toward the beach, where I found the most beautiful girl in the world standing on the shore.”

But it wasn’t only her physical attributes that had him spinning. It was her kindness. Her thoughtfulness. Her wildness. It was her willingness to argue with him.

If he wasn’t careful, he might fall in love with her.

“Gideon, the thought of you inside that building … it felt like being held underwater.” She lowered her gaze to the pulse at the base of his throat. “Like being starved of air.”

I’m in love with him. Instead of getting Gideon Sharpe out of her system tonight, Rune had gone and gotten herself addicted. The hunted had fallen for the hunter.

“It’s why you’re so afraid to look at me sometimes. Because I know what you are, and I know what you’ve done, and I love you.” Rune’s heart fluttered in her chest. What? His face was inches from hers now, his breath warm on her lips. “I love you, Rune Winters. I have since the day I met you.”

“Be my wife, Rune. Come with me to Caelis. Let me give you the life you should have had.”

“I will never stop hunting you, Rune Winters. No matter where you go, I will come for you.”