“With my life.”
“And I will find the strength and the way to always come back to you. I don’t know that I could survive another separation. I need you.”
“Do you know how much I have longed to hear you say that ever since I found you? Do you know how I’ve ached to know you feel the same as I do?”
Strian brushed hair away from her damp temple as tears slipped from Gressa’s eyes.
“My love,” she choked out. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for turning you away the weeks we traveled. I’m sorry for pushing you away since we have been home. I never imagined you would leave this tribe.”
Gressa held her breath, waiting to hear Strian say he had changed his mind. Her watery eyes looked at him before she continued.
“I don’t know if you’ll be happy in Wales, but I know you won’t be shunned.”
“My home will always be where I can fall asleep with you in my arms.”
The tears fell faster as Gressa’s heart expanded to absorb Strian’s pledge, but they also fell faster for the secret she could not share. As full as her heart was, it shattered with the misery of not being able to tell Strian everything from the past ten years. So instead of letting her mind linger, she infused her love into their kiss. It was long after that, that they fell asleep once more, exhausted but fulfilled.
Ten
Strian and Gressa remained secluded in their love den for three more days. During that time, they shared how their lives had evolved since the battle that left Gressa behind. She told him she had seen and heard him calling for her, but that she had been too weak for him to hear. She told him more about her friendship with Princess Enfys, or at least what she thought had been a friendship.
“Enfys listened when I spoke of you. She comforted me often during the years when I thought I couldn’t go on and that the heartache would break me. I spoke of our childhood together and our courtship. She knew things about us that no one but you would know. I believed I would never see you again, so I divulged those secrets believing they would never go further than her ears. The more I think about how I came to be with Grímr, the more I realize her betrayal. She must have shared those private conversations with Dafydd because there is no other way Grímr could have known what you mean to me. He never would have known that threats to your life would be the only thing that could manipulate me and force me to, to---” Gressa could not continue, the shame of having put her mouth on any part of Grímr, let alone his manhood, made her nauseous.
“Gressa, I don’t consider what you did infidelity. Not anymore now that I understand. You thought you were protecting me. I understand because I would’ve done anything if I’d been in your place. Please don’t feel ashamed. I don’t enjoy thinking of it, but I can’t explain how loved I feel knowing you still put me first.” Strian caressed her back as they sat facing one another, Gressa’s legs resting near his hips. He lifted her until she could take his sword into her sheath. They sat, joined, for a long moment just enjoying the connection.
“I still regret it. I regret ever trusting Enfys and Dafydd. I believed she had forgiven me for Dafydd’s pursuit those first weeks I was there. I thought Dafydd had moved on to find other women while Enfys bore him four more children. One, if not both of them, deceived me.”
“That is the truth but sending you to Grímr is what made us find one another. I can’t overlook that blessing.”
“But I--” Gressa sucked in her lips, making her mouth a taut line.
“I know. I know you never intended to let me find you.”
Gressa shut her eyes, unable to look at Strian as he spoke the truth. He kissed her neck before smattering kisses on each cheek, her forehead, then her nose before reaching her lips. His thumb pressed to release her bottom lip from her teeth. The kiss was slow, building the fire in their bellies once again urging them to rock against one another.
“Gressa, I know there is something you are still holding back, even after these days alone talking of the past. I won’t force you to share your secret, but I wish you would trust me.”
Gressa’s eyes flew open.
“I do trust you. It’s why I never tried to escape ever since you found me. I still believe I’ll be safer once we’re in Wales, but I trust you.”
Strian lifted and lowered Gressa as her inner muscles clung to his cock. His body cried out for him to stop talking and make love to her, but his mind was not at rest.
“There’s still a secret though. I’m a patient man, and I won’t break from whatever you’re hiding. I won’t deny that it hurts, but it seems it’s your secret to keep.”
“You can overlook it? Or at least live with it?”
“Yes. I suspect you are trying to protect me just as you always have.”
“I am, Strian. I’ll never stop trying to protect you.”
Fire fueled their kiss, and the time for talking had ended. Their motionless joining had been a fusion of their souls as much as their movements now were a fusion of their hearts.
They finally left their longhouse, Gressa having agreed it was once more her home, and ventured out to the training field. Strian had returned Gressa’s bow and arrows before they set sail from Scotland and then her sword while they remained secluded. Tyra had found the sword on the field after the battle and given it to Strian. He had kept it tucked away in his parents’ chamber, knowing it was a place he did not have to see it. He could not bear parting with it, but the sight of it had caused more pain.
As they approached the others, Strian squeezed the hand he held. Gressa continued to look straight ahead but returned the squeeze.
Tyra and Bjorn had returned to the fields just that morning after celebrating their own union for the past three days. Freya scowled at Gressa but said nothing instead turning to whisper to her husband Erik. Leif stood silently, but his gaze caught and followed his wife Sigrid as she left a storage building and returned to the jarl’s longhouse.
