Page 105 of Dawn Caravan
“Fine.” Ben wasn’t happy, but he understood. Tradition was everything to Radu. The idea of violating his siblings’ privacy went against everything he believed in.
“I’m not a busybody,” he said. “All I’m going to do is look for the goblet. Don’t forget, you’re the one who brought me here.”
“To find a thief, not accuse my family.”
“I will go where the evidence takes me,” Ben said. “If Vano knew nothing about the theft, then why was he in Kashgar?”
A shadow flickered in his dark eyes. “To accompany our sister.”
“You know there’s more to it than that,” Ben said. “Radu, I’m trying to help. Think. Look around you. Who benefits most from your loss of legitimacy?”
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t avoid Ben’s eyes. “I appreciate your honesty, Ben Vecchio.”
“I won’t lie to you.” He glanced at Tenzin. “And I didn’t dismiss her outright. But I can tell when she’s lying.”
Tenzin snorted. “No, you can’t.”
“Really?” Ben raised an eyebrow. “The ship in Puerto Rico?” The place she’d told him she was leaving for China and that it had nothing to do with him.
Tenzin narrowed her eyes and looked away.
* * *
Why didhe persist in irritating her? She was showing admirable restraint as it was.
Ben had no idea how much gold Tatyana had hidden in her caravan. But was Tenzin stealing it? No. Radu kept a chest full of gemstones in his vardo. Had she taken a single one?
Well yes, she’d taken a rather nice sapphire, but then she put it back.
See? Evolving.
She was doing remarkably well on her New Year’s resolutions. Did Ben give her any credit? No. He continued to act as if she hadn’t changed at all.
And he still had iron control over his sexual urges, which was very frustrating.
“Tell me this has nothing to do with me. Look me in the eye and tell me this has nothing to do with you and me and what happened in that cave…”
Why had he brought up Puerto Rico? Three years had passed since that happened. Was he still angry that she’d left? If she hadn’t, she would have lost control, just like she had in the cave. She would have hurt him. She’d nearly killed him while he spent his dying breaths reassuring her that it was okay.
Oh no. She’d needed a long break from the temptation that was human Benjamin Vecchio.
He’d been slowly wearing down her control for years, picking at her, making her lower her guard, trying to reveal the human beneath the vampire she’d become.
Ben thought he knew her, but he had no idea.
“Tenzin?”
Radu was gone. The two of them sat alone at a table on the edge of the forest with a candle burning between them and an open bottle of blood-wine.
She turned her eyes to him. “Why do you try to humanize me?”
Ben looked surprised. “Because you are human.”
“I’m not.” Something in the center of her chest ached. “You should be honest about who I am, Benjamin. Otherwise, the person you think you love will only be an illusion.”
The smile he gave her was halfway between bitter and sad. “I know who you are.”
“Do you?”
