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 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.”
