Page 69 of Love Me Forever

“I will not be” —she had to pause for a breath as the pain continued to radiate down her leg— “touched until I am ready.”

Ian looked to Royce. “She cannot continue to lie here. The ground is cold and damp and will do her no good.”

“Ian is right,” Moira said, joining her husband at his side. “She will suffer a chill, and that often brings on the fever.”

Royce needed to hear no more. He leaned down close so that Brianna could only hear his words. “Show me your determination.”

She realized his intention and agreed with a bare nod.

He spared her no time to consider the wisdom of his actions; he scooped her up in one solid swing into his arms.

She bit back her cry and fought to hold firm to her tears, and she immediately buried her face against his chest.

“Cry if you wish,” he whispered, pressing his face to hers. “Even the mightiest warrior sheds tears when he feels pain.”

“Have you cried?” she asked her arms tight around his neck.

He did not answer, and she patiently allowed him his silence.

His answer came slowly. “Everyone cries sometime in his life.”

The pain became suddenly unimportant. The fact that the legendary Royce Campbell had cried one time in his life was important. You had to have feelings to cry, and to have feelings you had to have a heart.

They neared the keep and she lifted her head, her eyes glistening with tears yet to be shed. “You have cried.”

He had thought her a beauty, but at that moment, with the tears sparkling in her brilliant blue eyes, her flushed and damp cheeks, her dark hair out of control from her ordeal, and the tender understanding in her voice, he never thought her more beautiful. And his heart raced at the fact that she belonged to him. He loved her so much that it hurt him to think of ever being without her.

They entered the keep.

“Will you tell me?” She did not demand, she simply requested, and she wished that all who followed behind them would go away and leave them alone. This was a private moment.

“Will you tell me why you ran?” He carried her up the steps to her bedchamber.

Soon they would not be alone, and neither of them would have their answers.

“Freedom,” she whispered and laid her head on his shoulder.

He nodded. “I understand.”

And with those words he entered her bedchamber and with a solid jolt of his boot-clad foot sent the door slamming behind them.

“Can we be free together?”

She stared at him for a moment, his scar bright red and frightening the way it consumed the one side of his face.

It made one wonder how he lived through such a horrific ordeal or made one think how skilled a warrior he must be to have survived. And yet what she truly saw was a man with a tender heart who wanted to be free with her and only her.

She smiled and placed her cheek against his scarred one. “I would like that.”

Brianna heard her brother protest right outside the door, but a gentler tone calmed him and she knew that Moira had things in hand.

“Please ease me to my feet?” Brianna asked of him.

“The pain has eased and I wish to see if I can walk without discomfort.”

Royce seemed reluctant to comply with her request. “Are you certain that is wise?”

“Nay,” she answered honestly, “but it is what I feel I need to do.”