Disclaimer – I own nothing…except the plot and Breanna…
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The next morning found Dom up way before dawn and vomiting, something he rarely, if ever, did after drinking. The previous nights events were blurred in his mind, but he did remember crying...alot. On the way back from the privy to his bed, his foot came in contact with a shard of glass from the liquor bottle and Dom swore under his breath, hobbling to his bed.
"I'm never going to drink for as long as I live." He grumbled, sitting down to inspect his foot and set to removing the glass. "Never in a million years." His foot bled sluggishly and he quickly bandaged it up, knowing he would have to get it looked at later, but getting more sleep was more important to him at the moment.
A loud knock on his door, followed by a shout pulled him from his gentle slumber.
"What?" He shouted angrily and he heard the door open and someone cross his sitting room, to enter the bedroom.
"Still want to go riding?" Asked Neal. "Or would you like to lay around and mope because you're to stupid to talk to her?"
"Go away, Meathead." Dom demanded, putting the pillow over his head.
"I'll leave, but your still stupid." Neal said and barely missed being hit in the head by a pillow, but a stream of curses did follow him from the room.
Dom managed to sleep through breakfast, lunch and a good portion of the day, awakening with a slight headache and a steady dull in the bottom of his foot. Throwing back the blankets, he stood up and limped to the privy to get ready for the rest of his day.
A quiet, but ever present knock, pulled the half-dressed Dom from his privy.
"Meathead! Leave me be, I'm not going to talk to-" He pulled the door open and was face to face with Brea.
"Hi." She breathed quietly, staring at the ground.
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A loud knock on the door pulled Brea from her deep slumber and she groaned, not wanting to get up. The previous night she had finally fallen asleep after getting back from talking to Neal. Aggravated, she yanked open the door and stared sleepily up at her best friend, Kel.
"Must you wake me up?" Brea demanded, she wasn't the definition of a 'morning person.' After letting Kel in, she limped back to her bed and sat down. Her ankle hurt, but not nearly as bad.
"Yes, because your lazy arse has been asleep for almost the entire day. It's already well past noon." Kel told her, sitting in a chair beside Brea's bed.
"Is the queen mad at me for missing this morning?" Brea asked, brushing her black hair from her face.
"No, she knows you hurt your ankle." Kel responded, propping her feet up on the bed. "She was however, worried when you didn't show up at breakfast or lunch. Raoul sent me here to check on you."
"Well you can tell him that I'm fine, just a little tired." Brea told her friend, picking at the blanket.
"Bull. Neal told me about the talk you two had last night. He is sorry for making you mad." Kel had been woken up when Neal slipped back into bed with her and spent the rest of the night, talking.
"I had forgotten that you two were together. How goes it?" Brea was hoping to lure the conversation away from her and Dom; Kel caught on and grinned.
"Don't even think about changing the subject." Kel told her. "Come on, you can talk to me." Brea flopped backwards on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"Is there really more to the story?" She asked the ceiling, more than Kel.
"Yes."
"Then why can't you tell me?"
"Because, I don't know it and even if I did, Dom should be the one to tell you. Not me and Neal." Kel sighed. "You should talk to him."
"Gods you start sounding more and more like Neal everyday." Brea grumbled, sitting back up.
"Well, sharing a room with him might happen, but I've also been talking with Dom. After I got over wanting to murder him."
"So you agree with Meathead then? I should talk to Dom?" Brea asked, sitting up and looking at Kel.
"I do agree with him. For a meathead, Neal does have quite a few good ideas." Kel shrugged, studying her boots. "He was a bit grumpy earlier but he should be okay by now."
Grumbling under her breath, Brea gathered up clean clothes and went into her privy to change. Emerging a few minutes later, she pulled on her boots and stood up, following Kel from the room. Brea purposely slowed her walk, not wanting to rush her arrival and actually came to a dead stop when they were down the hall from Dom's room.
"What are you doing?" Kel demanded, hands braced on her hips.
"Nothing." Brea scuffed her boot against the floor.
"Brea, get over there right now." She didn't move. "Breanna, if you don't start walking right this instant, I will put you over my shoulder and deposit you in his room myself." Kel told her friend, narrowing hazel eyes at her.
Not at all wanting to test Kel, as she had actually put Brea over her shoulder once before, Brea began shuffling across the floor. It took her a good ten minutes before she finally reached her destination. Her hand hesitated before knocking and at Kel's glare, she knocked ever so quietly.
"Meathead! Leave me be, I'm not going to talk to-" Brea heard Dom's sentence cut short as the door was flung open. She suddenly found it hard not to stare as his bare chest.
"Hi." She breathed quietly.
"Lady Breanna, how may I help you?" Dom asked, being more sarcastic and rude than he was nice; he wasn't in the mood to get yelled at.
"Can we talk?" Brea asked, grimacing as her full name rolled off his tongue. "Meathead and Kel convinced me to come here and talk about the full story. Whatever that might be."
"Knew those two would come in handy someday." Dom joked, smiling slightly and could've sworn he saw the ghost of a smile flicker across Brea's face. "Come in." He said and pushed open the door, allowing Brea to walk in, before shutting it. "You can sit there." Dom gestured to a chair and Brea sat, noticing shards of glass and what looked like...blood? She didn't even want to know.
"Well, I suppose I could let you start." Brea said, readjusting slightly as Dom sat in the chair opposite hers, the sunlight spilling over his face.
"That night, I remember it clearly. We had just gotten back from helping out that little village. Despite what you may think, I was rather eager to see you." Dom sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I dismount, tend to my horses and go off to find my beloved." Brea bowed her head slightly, fiddling with the edge of the chair, pulling at a loose string. "But she knows that she isn't as innocent as everyone thinks, is she?" Dom's blue eyes bored into the top of Brea's head as she remembered that day, as clearly as ever.
FLASHBACK
"Missing him already?" Questioned Cleon, stepping up on the fence beside Brea.
"What do you mean, 'already'? He's been gone nearly two months." Brea retorted, glancing at Cleon.
"You poor thing, heart broken and sobbing over a man already. You're sixteen and beautiful, you have years ahead of you to cry after guys." Cleon joked, nudging Brea and causing her to fall off the fence. "He's part of the King's Own, you should try to get used to it." He said and hopping off the fence.
"I'm trying and it's not working. I guess that's just the sixteen year-old side of me. The girl in me that wants someone close by." Brea shrugged and they started inside. "I don't know, maybe I should look for someone closer to my own age."
"I'm just saying, that if you stay with Dom, be prepared to sleep alone for awhile. They are gone for most of the year, considering that your uncle is the knight commander and he prefers to be active, than sitting on his rump in the castle like other knights." He pointed out.
"That's my uncle for you." She muttered and crossed her arms over her chest as they started inside. Cleon laughed and draped an arm over her shoulders.
"He will be back in no time, don't worry." He said; truth was, he knew that the King's Own was just outside of Corus and would be to the castle soon. What he didn't know was they were already in the stables.
"I know. This is where I leave you." Brea leaned against her door. "Thanks for talking to me...I think."
"No problem, that's what friends are for." Cleon said and stood in front of her. Before Brea could stop him, Cleon had leaned down and pressed his lips against hers in a heated kiss, his arms lacing around her waist to pull her against him. Her first impulse was to back up and smack him for it, but oh! How she had missed being kissed like this! She let it happen, even adding a little spice to it; what she didn't know, was a certain blue-eyed soldier, eager to see her, watched them from the shadows and walked away broken hearted.
END FLASHBACK"I'm guessing you were hoping I would never find out about the kiss between you and Cleon?" Dom asked, his eyes still boring a hole in the top of her head.
"No, my conscience wouldn't let me live with it." Brea retorted, staring up at Dom. "I was coming to apologize for it, when I caught you in bed with that...girl."
"You may have a point there, but throughout these two years, you went on, pretending like you did nothing wrong in our relationship. Making me look like the bad guy, when you weren't Ms. Perfect either." Dom said, sitting forward and staring at her. He wasn't angry with her, just wanted the truth.
"What did you expect?" Brea demanded, her voice rising slightly. "Did you want me to say that I kissed Cleon, which made you sleep with someone else. It's okay though, we'll just be even. Is that what you wanted me to say?"
"I'm not saying that's what I wanted you to do, but you didn't need to play innocent." Dom said and sighed; they were going to get nowhere by fighting. "Look, you should know that when I slept with Juliana, it was a one time thing. I never saw her again after that, except when we were joined up with the Riders to do something." He ran a hand through his sleep-disheveled hair. "That night, a bunch of the Own and some Riders were going down to the Dancing Dove to have a few drinks and celebrate. I was pissed off at you and upset. Me and Juliana sat down at a table to talk over a few drinks. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew, you were walking in on us, and I was pounding on your door, screaming for the whole hall to hear that I loved you. Then there was nothing." He buried his face in his hands, feeling horrible for the whole ordeal all over again.
Brea sighed, at a loss for words. So there was more to the story and she was just being stupid and ignoring it. What she had just learned made everything different. She had been the true cause of their break-up, it was her fault.
"I just came to hear everything out." Brea stood up and Dom glanced up at her. "I'll leave now." She started towards the door.
"Don't go," Dom gently grabbed Brea's arm and turned her to face him.
"Why not? I'm just as guilty as you, maybe even more so." Brea stared at the floor.
"Well, that much is true. You are just as guilty as I am." Dom said and Brea glanced up at him, startled.
"I guess your right." Brea sighed, biting her bottom lip.
"We can still be friends though, right?" Dom asked. "Before we were together, you were one of my closest friends, can we still be that?"
"Friends I can do." Brea responded with a smile and they hugged.
Reviews would be much appreciated…I have laryngitis so when I'm feeling a hundred percent better, I will start writing chapter six…