Brave the Tempest (Cassie Palme) - Karen Chance Page 0,214

when I showed up for training. Maybe because she couldn’t even trust her own lover.

I thought uncomfortably of Mircea. That had been our problem, among others. I still loved him, probably always would, but I couldn’t trust him. And how could you have a relationship like that?

Of course, love covered a multitude of sins. At least, I guessed Agnes had thought so. Because she and Jonas had been together right up until her death, yet she’d never told him about Rhea. Never breathed a word.

“She wanted to protect her,” I said. “From him, and from what I saw today. I always wondered why she never let Rhea be trained. Now I know.”

“And you?” Pritkin asked. “What do you want?”

It caught me off guard, I don’t know why. He was never anything but direct. But I didn’t hesitate.

Because on this, I’d had plenty of time to think.

“I want what she never had. No skulking in corners. No lying. No hiding everything about who I am—and who I love.”

Green eyes blazed into mine, but he didn’t move a muscle. Because yeah. It wasn’t that simple.

“I know, okay?” I told him. “I understand the dangers, especially with the never-ending war! We need everyone on our side; I can’t be seen to be playing favorites—and I won’t be! I think Jonas understands that now.”

“And the others? The vampires?”

I sighed. There were so many people to be considered—about my damned love life! “I don’t know, but I can’t live a lie. Not forever. I had to tell Gertie one today, just to stay here, because I didn’t know what she’d do if I told her the truth—”

“The truth?”

“About what happened in training. She didn’t understand why I was able to do that. I had to tell her I took a potion.”

“But you didn’t?” He leaned forward, suddenly intense.

“No, I ran out. But you gave me some power last night, so I had extra juice I wasn’t expecting. That’s all.”

“That’s all,” he repeated, looking a little weird. A succession of expressions crossed his face, too fast for me to follow. But he didn’t look like a guy who’d just been told “I love you”—for the second time!

“What is it?” I asked.

“Cassie,” he paused, and looked like a guy who was choosing his words carefully. “Before you decide anything, you need to know—” He stopped again when he took my hand, and then looked up at me in surprise. “You’re freezing.”

“I told you so.”

“I didn’t think you were serious!”

“It’s the damned weather. And that,” I said, nodding at the water heater. “They need to get it working.”

“It is working. It must be ninety degrees in here.”

“Just because you’re from the frozen north—”

“I’m from Britain.”

“Like I said. And I haven’t eaten.”

“At all?”

I scowled. That had sounded more like the annoyed trainer than the concerned boyfriend. And you know, in my head, this whole moment had been a lot more romantic!

“I got up too late for breakfast, and lunch doesn’t count if you lose most of it.”

“You have to eat!”

I’d been in the process of pulling a blanket back up to my chin, but at that I stopped. “You have food?”

I checked him out. He was in one of those buttoned-up, three-piece suits they liked here—plain brown, but it fit like a glove, hugging broad shoulders and muscular thighs. Which I’d have appreciated more right now if he’d been holding a sandwich.

“I don’t have it on me!”

I pulled the blanket up again.

He pulled it down. “But I know a place; if you don’t want to eat here, that is. They’re serving dinner in a few moments; I was sent up to fetch you.”

I made a face. Dining with a table full of people I’d just killed, and who thought I’d done it by cheating my ass off. Sounded like fun. My stomach grumbled.

I didn’t want to move, but I didn’t want him to leave, either. Besides, anything he brought back through this weather would be stone-cold by the time it got here. “Is the food good?” I asked suspiciously.

“Best in the city.”

My mouth started to water.

“And you haven’t even heard what’s for dessert.”

Chapter Forty-nine

Dessert better be pretty damned epic, I thought grimly, after getting dressed and slogging through slushy, snow-filled streets. To be fair, the buildings blocked most of the wind, but every so often a cross breeze, which was more like a cross gale, would hit and I honestly thought I might turn to ice. Which would have been fine, except we weren’t on our way to