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Good. Then, maybe not all the focus will be on the last witch of the Dumont bloodline—just the vampire on her arm.
Vampires. I look to the front for my Celt, but he’s already gone.
“No one will be able to take their eyes off you in there,” Rune says.
I shake my head. “No. I plan on blending in as much as possible tonight. If I can help it, no one will recognize me.”
Rune snorts. “Yeah, good luck with that, babe.”
He tightens his fingers around my hand and helps me out of the back seat. When I stand, I get the full effect of his presence, his cologne, and his suave attitude.
It’s a heady combination.
The rolled-up sleeves of his black collared shirt and vest combo are nowhere near as formal as Sebastian’s all-black suit, or as traditional as Fintan’s kilt of green tartan, but it suits him.
Especially with his hair tied into an intricate twist of braids, all of them pulled back into a single dark blond ponytail.
“It’ll be you they can’t take their eyes off.” I smooth a hand down the soft fabric of his vest and feel the ripple of his taut muscles under my fingers. “You’re looking good tonight, Viking.”
He leans close, his lips brushing the skin of my neck and making my pulse jump. “As opposed to my grotesque appearance every other day?”
My body shivers with the nearness of him and I have to step back or risk combusting and ruining this pretty dress.
My reaction earns me the reward of a hearty chuckle. “Hold on. You haven’t got the full effect.”
He leans past me to reach into the back seat and gives me a perfect view of his toned butt. The way his pants stretch against his thick thighs is completely, panty-soakingly sinful.
“I feel you ogling my booty.” He wiggles said booty at me, and I give him a playful smack before he straightens.
“As your Unity Witch, I believe it is my booty to ogle, isn’t it?”
He traps his bottom lip between his teeth and waggles his brows. “You can do more than ogle my body, cher. Say the word and I’m all yours.”
“Tempting, but it will have to wait. Put on your mask so we can go in.”
Rune lifts his hands and secures his mask in place. It looks more like a Viking helmet than any masquerade mask I’ve seen, but I can’t picture anything more appropriate for Rune. “The pièce de résistance.”
It really is.
Because wow. Rune always looks handsome with his rugged beard and solid, muscled build, but he’s especially climbable tonight. “The mask takes it to another level, right?”
I swallow, taking in the band of brushed bronze that covers from his top lip to his forehead where two dark horns curl out from each side. “Uh…yeah. Very dashing.”
The effect is wicked, but it’s not the mask or the outfit that draws me in. With these heels on, I’m at Rune’s eye level for the first time, and I’m spellbound by the way his hazel eyes shine when he smiles, and how the bronze mask brings out the different shades of green.
Reaching out, I brush a finger over the symbol etched into the medallion sitting over his forehead. It’s the same as the one on the necklace he usually wears—the fylgja, he told me.
“Come on, let’s go wrangle Sebastian.” Rune tilts his head, and I peer around his bulky frame.
“Is he causing trouble already? We haven’t even made it inside yet.”
Hopefully Rune’s medallion will bring us some good luck and protection, so tonight goes smoothly.
Please, Gaia, let this night go smoothly.
It becomes clear that isn’t going to happen when we join Sebastian and Finn around the car where our king is all but growling at a poor young man wearing a red vest and neat bowtie.
“Why worry about finding a parking space when you have such an extravagant ball waiting for you just inside?” The valet puts out his palm for the keys, but Sebastian refuses to hand them over.
