The Wind's Call (The Broken Lands #4) - T.A. White Page 0,121
wood woman's hair and she chucked them at Caden's feet.
"I'm getting a little sick of being the bad guy all the time. You try dealing with all I’ve had thrown at me and see how you fare." Eva's voice had risen to a shout.
"I think she's cracked," Ghost said in a whisper to Roscoe.
He wasn't quiet enough. Eva's attention snapped to them.
Ghost gulped. He'd faced down monstrous creatures only seconds before, but now a touch of apprehension crossed his face at whatever he saw in her expression.
"What was that?" Eva asked, her voice sliding into a low rumble. "Are you insinuating that I'm mentally unstable because I had a natural reaction to another one of you idiots telling me something is my fault when it isn't?"
Eva was aware she was acting crazy, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. It was all too much. Too many people wanting things she couldn't possibly deliver. She wanted her simple life back. Not this dangerous one that seemed to get more dangerous with every passing second.
She wanted to be the type who saw a dangerous situation and ran from it like any sane person would. Not this person who constantly found herself embroiled in it.
This was not the simple life she thought she'd lead as a herd mistress.
"Well, to be fair, you're the only one these things attacked," Roscoe pointed out. "We all had contact with the figures and none of us set them off."
There was silence as Eva stared at them. Her gaze swept the group. Fiona winced as the color drained from Eva's face.
"Not helping," Fiona told Roscoe, who had the decency to look slightly guilty.
"Is this true?" Eva asked.
They all nodded. Some reluctantly. Some less so.
Caden watched it all with his enigmatic gaze, his arms folded over his chest.
Eva's shoulders slumped at this confirmation that here was one more thing different about her.
"Everyone out," Caden ordered.
The others tramped toward the gate. Fiona lingered, giving her a significant look as she murmured. "There's nothing between you two. Uh-huh."
Eva mustered a tiny glare for the other woman as she left.
They were quiet for several moments while Caden watched her.
"I didn't do anything besides touch one. You can't put the blame for all this on me," Eva burst out.
"You're right," he said.
She paused and stared at him. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. The commander losing an argument was unheard of.
"I saw you in danger and my temper got the better of me," he continued stiffly. "It shouldn't have happened."
Eva frowned, unsure now as she studied him. An apology? From a man she was sure had never apologized for anything in his life? He could lop off a person's head and still have that same placid expression. She doubted it would even register.
"Why were you angry?" Eva asked.
He didn't answer immediately, giving his attention to the bits of broken plant and wood strewn over the ground.
Eva cocked her head, letting her mind tease and untangle all the threads that had been ruffling her feathers until now.
It didn't make sense. Unless—hmm. He acted like a parent might if their child did something dangerous. Only he wasn't her parent and she definitely was not his daughter.
"Do you perhaps like me?" Eva asked, watching him carefully. "In a physical sort of way?"
He arched an eyebrow at her, his lips curving in a crooked smile. "What a tepid description."
Eva lifted a shoulder. "I'm not sure if I believe in love. If I did, I wouldn't believe you felt that emotion after such a short time."
A matter of weeks really, and maybe two meetings before then.
He took a step closer, the look in his eyes sending flutters through Eva's belly. "I say tepid because that word doesn't have a hope of touching even the barest surface of what I'm feeling."
His eyes darkened.
"Tepid, because I want to bend you over and do many, many things to you. You're a craving in my blood and a fire in my veins that I can't seem to work out, no matter how I try. Lips I'd like to lose myself in and a mind that pushes even when you know you're outmatched, little rabbit." His eyes were half-lidded, the look he gave her sultry. "You're a raindrop who thinks she's a tempest, and damn if I don't want to see you teach them to fear your wrath.”
Eva's breath came faster. The words coming from this normally reserved man—a man who spoke rarely—were more seductive than a thousand kisses.