He'sbearinghis way in,her goat said gloomily, and Briana giggled before letting out a sigh as she looked around. "What are we going to do," she breathed then, not really expecting either an answer or a response.
Laurie, with the air of a man who wasn't really thinking about what he was doing except offering comfort, put his arm around her shoulders and ducked his head over hers to murmur, "We'll figure it out."
Chapter 14
Briana froze up as Laurie put his arm around her, which was fair enough, because as soon as he realized what he'd done, healsofroze up. With an undignified sound that could only really be called a squeak, he removed his arm and took a step back, all rather mechanically.
His heartfelt, "Sorry," wasn't mechanical at all, though. "I didn't—that was—I mean—sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."
Briana stood still a moment longer, holding herself so stiffly that he was pretty sure she was making an effort to not look up at him quite yet. Probably because she was trying to keep her goat from taking over and kicking him into next Tuesday. "You weren't thinking," she said after a moment, and glanced at him, her expression more forgiving and bemused than he'd expected. "You were just being kind."
"Well, yes, I know, but I—it's just—I mean?—"
The corner of her mouth started to tug upward. "It's just usually women are very happy to have you be all masculine and protective and handsome at them, but you thinkI'mgoing to kick you into next week for it?"
"That is literally what I thought," Laurie whispered, and Briana lost control of her smile just a little bit more.
"You are correct. That's my general impulse. If it helps, it's not specifically related to you. I have this over-developed oldest sibling thing where I'm furious at anybody wanting to help or protect me at all while somehow also being really tired of being the one in charge." She wet her lips, which Laurie was certain wasn't meant to be enticing, but it certainly made him want to kiss her. "I also do tend to assume everyone around me is incompetent and in need of rescue themselves."
Laurie ducked his head and half-smiled at his muddy boots. "No wonder you don't like me. I'm the spoiled baby of the family and am used to not only being rescued, but also getting away with pretty much anything."
"Which is no doubt made easier by the fact that you'reunbelievablygood-looking," Briana muttered.
On one hand, it was probably true that being handsome helped. On the other hand, the fact that she commented on it made Laurie's heart leap hopefully. He dared a quick glance at his fated mate. "You think I'm good-looking?"
Briana stared at him incredulously. "I'm confident you own a mirror, Laurie, and I own a pair of functional eyeballs."
"Yeah, but me thinking I'm good-looking is vanity.Youthinking I am is a relief."
Briana actually laughed at that, although Laurie meant it. "I mean, at least I've gotthatgoing for me. If you thought I was a hag I'd have literally nothing to offer you."
"You areextremelygood-looking," Briana assured him almost ruefully. "All you Torben boys are, but I think you get prettier as you go along. If you'd had another younger brother he'd probably have been, I don't know, Captain America or something. Except I guess that’s your cousin Liam."
Laurie, about to say thanks, found himself pausing in consideration. "What kind of shifter do you think he'd be?"
"Liam? I assume he’s a bea—oh, you mean Captain America. I don't know. A Golden Retriever is what leaps instantly to mind, but I think that's doing Cap a disservice. Your imaginary younger brother would presumably also be a bear, but that doesn't seem right for Cap, either. Well. Unless we're talking about Sam Wilson, in which case the answer is obviously a falcon, and if we're talking about Isaiah Bradley?—"
"I want you to understand that when I say, 'I love you, marry me,' it's because of this conversation, not the mate bond," Laurie interrupted, and Briana laughed again as she finished, "—then I might go with a lion or possibly a panther, although that's treading into somebody else's territory. I actually started crying when Bradley showed up in the TV show, no lie."
"I didn't know he was even a character before the TV show! You're a nerd!"
Briana ducked her head, smiling. “I’m not, really, but Dahlia is. She’s a comics artist. A sequential artist, I mean. So she tells me about all these characters a lot, and I kind of got into the Avengers a while back. I’m hopeless about the, uh, the X-Men, though. There are so many of them. Also, I make swords for fun, which I’m afraid is pretty nerdy.”
"Oh. Yeah, fair. I hadn't thought of it that way, but now that you say it…well, nobody wants me for my brains, anyway. Fortunately Idohave all this going for me." Laurie gestured at himself, and Briana's eyebrows drew down.
"You do have all that going for you, but is that really what you think?"
"Aaahmm." Laurie glanced away, squinting toward the mountain as if it might provide some kind of refuge. "Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm the smart one in the family, no."
"Who is?" Briana sounded somewhere between curious and annoyed.
Laurie shrugged. "I don't know. Bill ran the brewery forever, Steve got out of town and started his own restaurant, and Jon's really gone all-in the past year or so in widening our distribution, so I guess anybody but me."
"I thought you both did that. The distribution stuff."
He couldn't help glancing back at her, at that, and Briana gave a shrug as stiff as when he'd put his arm around her shoulders. "I had to pay attention to what you weredoingin order to avoid you, you know."
"Ow. Yeah, okay. We did, but honestly I mostly used it as an excuse to get around to the other faires for the fights."
