The Wind's Call (The Broken Lands #4) - T.A. White Page 0,127
to keep the rain off me.”
“Oh?”
She ducked her head and nuzzled his chest, hiding her smile. “I’ve never seen you using a jacket, only the lighter ones you Trateri have. You wouldn’t happen to be missing yours?”
He shrugged, affecting nonchalance. “I must have forgotten it at camp.”
She didn’t believe that for a moment. Not Caden, a man who was annoyingly thorough and precise when it came to everything.
“And the dagger that I’ve been told by several people looks exactly like one you own?” She nodded to where she’d set the dagger beside the bed with an expectant look.
“I imagine most daggers look similar.”
“Hmm.”
Caden’s expression was inscrutable as he stared back, the look in his eyes almost daring her to ask.
She was happy to rise to the challenge. “Why the gifts?”
It was a question that had plagued her since she’d realized he was the most likely culprit. They’d started long before she knew he had any feelings for her.
“You’re so certain it was me?” he asked with a superior smirk.
“I wasn’t, but I am now.”
He narrowed his eyes at that, and she hid a grin against his chest before settling against him and making it clear she was waiting. It was so fun teasing him.
She propped her chin on his chest and peered up at him. If he thought she would give up this line of questioning, he was wrong. She had a bottomless well of patience when it was important. This felt important.
His arms closed around her and he pulled her closer. “Do you remember the first night we met?”
Eva cocked her head. “The night Fallon was attacked. Shea was thinking about leaving by herself but stopped.”
“Because of you.”
Eva reared back and shook her head. “Not because of me.”
“We were following her. Shea has a habit of thinking she can go it alone. She did exactly what we thought she’d do when faced with immense mental strain. She shut everyone else out and tried to solve the problem by herself.”
“But she stopped,” Eva said.
“Yes, you sat up and asked her what was wrong. It jarred her out of her own mind, enough so it got her thinking again. Had anyone else done the same, I doubt it would have worked.” Caden’s expression turned distant. “Fallon was near death and the last thing I wanted was to have my focus split between the two. There you were, alone except for Caia, a hapless throwaway in the wrong place at the wrong time. You asked if the Warlord was injured, and I snapped at you.”
“You told me it was none of my business and insinuated if I spread the news, I wouldn’t live long,” Eva finished for him.
He nodded. “You were afraid of me, but it didn’t last long. Within moments, you tried to stare me down.”
“I was still afraid.” That night was imprinted on Eva’s mind. She’d been terrified of the Anateri commander. Until then, she’d had a slight crush on him. He was quiet but had a deep reserve of strength that attracted her.
“But you didn’t show it. Not many challenge me the way you did. It left an impression,” Caden said. “I had to know who you were so I set about learning everything I could, with the certainty that once I knew, you would become less interesting. The next time we met you’d thrown yourself between an angry stallion and your apprentice, and I thought. How brave. How utterly stupid.”
Eva frowned at him. These didn’t sound like the thoughts of someone so taken with her he’d left gifts where she could find them.
“Every time we met, you did something so at odds with the image you presented. You looked like a meek rabbit but you had the bark of a wolf. You were tireless when in defense of your herd. I couldn’t help but want to protect you from your own destructively noble impulses,” he said, peering at her with an intense expression.
He drew the back of his finger down her cheek, his smile turning slightly wicked. “You have no killer instinct. It was clear if I didn’t help you survive, your fire would be put out before I was done warming myself by its heat.”
Before she could respond to the prick to her pride, his hand cupped the back of her neck, tangling in the hair there. He drew her down for a kiss that quickly became more. After that they didn't speak for a long time.