The Wind's Call (The Broken Lands #4) - T.A. White Page 0,126

him. His breath caught and this time it was his turn to groan as his hips pushed him harder into her hand.

"Alea na, my heart’s breath. What you do to me," Caden groaned.

The arm next to her head flexed as his hand closed into a fist.

"Turnabout is fair play, warrior," Eva taunted.

His eyes came up to spear hers and the gentle lover was gone, taken by a man as driven to possess her as she was him.

The smile he gave her held a feral edge as he slid down her body, placing his mouth where no man had ever kissed her before. The sound she made was strangled, as sensation shot through her.

Any semblance of control vanished as his mouth drove her higher and higher. A coil tightened deep inside, each touch sending tension coursing through her.

She was an inarticulate mess when he finally crawled up her body, lining his hardness against her center. His head bowed as he slid forward, his cock sliding deep.

She caught her breath as he stretched her, leaving her feeling almost too full. Caden's eyes met hers before kisses rained down on her jaw and along her neck.

She wasn't the only one to lose herself as he plunged forward, his rhythm tightening and coiling the tension inside further.

The sensations intensified and soon she was moaning as his thrusts filled her.

Her body tensed, her hands clutched at him as she approached her orgasm.

The tension tightened deliciously, spilling her over the edge, her body clenching around him. He lost the last of his reserve, his movements becoming wild.

She hung on as he wrung the last of her pleasure from her before climaxing himself.

His head dropped, his forehead coming to rest against hers. This close his gaze was inescapable.

Somehow the move was more intimate than everything they'd just done.

"If I'd known your stubbornness hid this, we'd have gotten to this point a long time ago," Caden said.

"I prefer the term persistent," Eva argued. "Stubbornness has too many negative connotations."

People used that word like it was something bad, but Eva never would have escaped her lot in life if not for a persistent belief she could do better.

Caden drew one hand down the length of her side, still propped up above her. He moved, rolling and pulling her into his side. She let him, enjoying the gentle touch—one that reminded of her of how she sometimes petted Caia when the horse needed affection.

"When I was young, I used to dream of what my life would be like when I became the best among warriors," Caden said, looking up at the ceiling.

Eva dropped a kiss onto his chest.

"Never did I believe I would have to fight people who'd turned into plants," he whispered.

There was a note in his voice Eva understood. She dropped another kiss onto his shoulder before propping herself up on her elbow so she could see his face better.

The mask that had briefly disappeared during their interlude was back again as his thoughts turned down dark paths.

"We don't have many rules, but not hurting children is one of our most basic." There was a catch in his voice that she knew he didn't mean her to hear.

The thought of what he'd done was torturing him.

She touched his jaw, turning his face toward hers. "And you still haven't. After what was done to them, they weren't children anymore. You were defending me and the others. There's no shame in that. I, for one, am happy I'm not dead. Thank you for that."

She hoped he could accept that and let this go. It would haunt him otherwise. He had too much goodness in him for that.

Those things hadn't moved like babies. They had been too fast, too bloodthirsty. She didn't know what had been done to turn them into that, or even how it was possible, but she did know she had not sensed any impression of the humans they'd once been, off of them.

In a bid to distract him, she propped herself on her elbow. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about these random gifts that keep appearing in my bags. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about them, would you?”

The question did the trick, some of his grief fading as he quirked an eyebrow at her. “Do tell.”

Her smile was wistful with a hint of playfulness as she rubbed her fingers along his chin, the bristly hairs there tickling her. “First, it was an apple. Then mostly little things until one day I found a jacket, waterproof