Chapter 17 #2
"What?" Keir demanded, disgusted disbelief echoing from him. "This is madness. Ye're a liability. I accept that ye may nae have kent the truth, and perhaps ye're nae as cruel as he, but ye are still a Cameron. Ye dinnae belong here."
She met his gaze steadily. "Then help me belong.
Teach me. Guide me. I want tae fight back against the monsters who have truly been the ones holdin' me hostage for so long.
Let me wash the stain of me family name from this world with the sweat and blood of me toil.
Let me do what I can tae make it right."
"It will never be right," Keir hissed.
But Noah smiled at her. "Me lady, I'd be honored tae fight by yer side. I've always kent how strong ye are. It would give me nothin' but gratitude tae let ye finally show that strength tae the world."
Briana nodded to him in thanks, her heart warm from the compliment.
She had never stopped adoring Noah, a fraternal love so different from the romantic and spiritual love that had grown for Theon.
It made her smile through her tears to know that Noah had never stopped being the man who deserved that adoration.
"I missed ye," she told him simply. He stepped forward and took her hand, raising it to his lips in a courtly kiss.
"Well, I already said I liked havin' ye around," Graeme added easily, his hands behind his head as he casually leaned back against thin air. "Ye've brought life tae this old group of sad exiles, Bri. Can I call ye Bri?"
She laughed, affection blooming in her heart for this silver-tongued warrior who found the joy in the darkest of places. "Ye can," she said, "but only if ye let me sew that awful shirt ye've let fall intae tatters."
Graeme grinned. He stepped forward too and took her hand, squeezing it once, and then he and Noah retreated.
Briana glanced up at Theon. He was watching her with a renewed warmth in his eyes, making her heart flutter just by his expression.
"Ye already ken me answer," he told her, and he leaned down and gently kissed her. Briana smiled against the light brush of his lips, feeling truly content.
The peaceful moment was shattered as Keir burst out with a furious stream of curses. He glared at each of them and then pushed past, storming right into the trees and away from the camp entirely. Briana watched him go, guilt twisting in her heart.
"I dinnae want…" she started.
Theon shook his head. "Let him work out his anger. He'll come back when he's ready." He took her hand and, with a nod to the two others, led Briana toward his cabin.
"Goodnight, Bri!" Graeme called after her, clearly very pleased with her new nickname. "Dinnae worry about our wee eejit. He'll be fine."
"Sleep well, me lady," Noah added. "Tomorrow we'll move on, but tonight ye may rest peacefully."
She bid them goodnight and followed Theon inside.
As soon as the door closed behind them, he swept her into his arms and held her close.
She leaned into him, enjoying his strength, his warmth—his everything.
Tension left her, replaced by the same joy she'd felt in the cave.
After some time, he led her to the bed and climbed onto it with her, and she settled down in his arms.
"Theon," she murmured. "I called ye such vile names, accused ye of the worst crimes, when all the while the truth was the opposite of what I thought I kent. How could ye let me believe such terrible things about ye?"
He stroked her hair. "I didnae make it easy," he said. "I hated ye just as ye hated me. We both thought the other was somethin' they arenae."
"But me father…" She sighed. "How could ye nae have told me earlier the truth of what he is?"
Theon pulled back to examine her face. "Would it have mattered? Would ye have believed me?"
Briana hesitated.
Theon smiled a little sadly. "Ye had tae see it for yerself. And now ye have."
"Now I've seen the truth," she agreed. She reached up and touched his cheek, drawing him down toward her. "Now I've seen ye."
She kissed him then because words failed her, and in that kiss she gave him all her passion and her profound relief, a seal on the confession that she had just made, a promise in its depth.
It was slow and deep, a silent conversation made by lips and tongues and shared body heat.
She savored his taste, his heady scent washing away the lingering bitterness of everything that had come before.
He responded in kind, his lips moving against hers with a reverence that made her heart ache and sing.
Theon's hands rose to frame her face, his thumbs caressing her cheekbones.
The sorrow and anger that had followed Briana for so long melted away under his touch, and in its place, a tender need bloomed low in her belly with insistent heat.
Theon shifted, rolling them both so that they lay together side by side.
His leg slid between hers, pressing against the heat of her core.
The rough wool of his tartan brushed against her inner thigh, contrasting the smoothness of his palm as his hand roamed down her side, coming to rest on the curve of her hip.
They didn't speak. A soft sigh escaped her lips as his body shifted in a slow, deliberate rhythm that felt like a promise and a question at once.
She answered by arching against him, her hands tangling in his hair as she pulled him closer.
This time there was no rush, only a deep, unhurried exploration and a flame that burned steady and strong between them.
Once they were both bare and exposed, he rolled again, settling over her, his weight a comforting anchor. He guided himself to her entrance and entered her with a groan of pure contentment, and she closed her eyes at the slow, full stretch that felt like a blissful homecoming.
She welcomed him, her body molding to his once more, losing herself in how he felt.
The movements were a languid, liquid dance in the firelight, every thrust a reaffirmation of the new promise between them as the world narrowed to the slick glide of their bodies and their whispered breaths and sighs.
It was a powerful joining, a sealing of the new reality in the most ancient, profound way, and they danced until they both shuddered together in a gentle but powerful shared release.
Pleasure crested over them like the turning of the tide: a slow, inexorable rise that left them breathless and clinging to one another, trembling and content in the aftermath.
When Theon's breaths slowly deepened and he gave way to sleep, Briana lay awake and content in his arms. She knew that the dawn would bring a new world—a world in which she could finally find her place.