Page 128 of The Laird’s Sinful Obsession

His eyes were dark in the candlelight, and there was something in his expression she couldn't quite name - not triumph, not relief, something quieter and more private than either.

His thumb moved once, gently, across her lower lip.

"Good," he said, very quietly, as if he were answering a question only he had heard.

Alba let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

Ruadhri stepped forward with a parchment and a quill, and Alba signed her name beside Lachlann's in the register.

Her hand shook only slightly, and James and Ruadhri witnessed it, and that was that.

The fire in Lachlann's chamber had gone out while they'd been gone.

He knelt before the hearth and built it again with the same methodical care he brought to everything. Kindling first, then the logs arranged to catch, his movements precise and unhurried despite the late hour and the strangeness of the night.

Alba stood near the bed and watched him work and tried to feel married.

It didn't feel particularly different. Not yet. She was still herself, still standing in the same room she'd been in a dozen times before, still wearing the same dress she'd worn to find him in his solar.

The only thing that had changed was a set of words spoken in a cold chapel and her name written in a register.

However, something else had changed too. She could feel it in the quality of the silence between them, not uncomfortable, but different.

Weighted.

He stood when the fire had caught and turned to face her.

"Are ye all right?" he asked.

"Aye," she said. "I think so."

He crossed to her slowly, and when he reached her he lifted his hand and touched her face. He touched her briefly, just his thumb against her cheekbone, the gesture both careful and deliberate.

“Ye’re mine now, Alba,” he murmured, his voice rough as gravel, the burr of his accent wrapping around the words like a promise.

His hands found her waist, pulling her flush against him. The hardness of his body pressed into the softness of hers, and she could feel the heat of him through the thin fabric of her dress, the rigid length of his manhood trapped between them.

Alba tilted her chin up, meeting his stare without flinching. “And ye’re mine,” she replied, her voice steady despite the way her pulse hammered in her throat.

Her fingers curled into the thick waves of his auburn hair, tugging just enough to make him groan. The sound sent a shiver down her spine, pooling low in her belly.

His mouth crashed onto hers before she could say another word, his kiss fierce and demanding, his tongue sweeping past her lips to claim her in a way that left no doubt.

This was no gentle wedding night. This was a man staking his claim, and she was more than ready to let him.

His teeth grazed her lower lip, nipping just hard enough to make her gasp, and he swallowed the sound, his hands sliding down to grip her ass, lifting her against him.

The friction of his manhood grinding against the apex of her thighs through the layers of fabric made her whimper, her nails digging into his shoulders.

Lachlann broke the kiss only to trail his lips along her jaw, his breath hot against her skin, his hands already working at the laces of her dress.

The fabric loosened, slipping down her shoulders until it pooled at her feet, leaving her in nothing but her thin shift. The firelight turned the material nearly translucent, outlining the dark peaks of her nipples, the dip of her waist, the shadow between her thighs.

His gaze raked over her, hungry and unapologetic, before his fingers hooked into the neckline of the shift and tore it clean down the middle. The sound of fabric rending was loud in the quiet room, and Alba’s breath hitched as the cool air met her bare skin.

“Fuck,” Lachlann cursed, his voice rough, his hands already cupping her breasts, thumbs brushing over her nipples until they tightened into aching points. “You’re perfect.”

He didn’t wait for a response before his mouth closed over one taut peak, his tongue swirling, his teeth grazing just enough to make her back arch.