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“We do.” Aidan stood. “Thank you, Father, but I must go—”

He froze when Father Simon cleared his throat. “Son, you understand the proper order of things when it comes to holy matrimony?”

He supposed he could take the priest’s advice, leave Clarissa untouched until she became his wife in the morn. After all, he’d waited this long. Could he not wait one more night?

Nay, he could not.

“I do, Father,” he said instead. “And will take it under advisement.”

He should have said, “I have already taken it under advisement.” As he walked out of the hall, he felt sure he heard Father Simon mutter, “No better than a Kerr.”

He would take that as a compliment.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Aidan realized that although he’d arranged to meet Clarissa in her new chamber after the rest of the family had retired, he’d failed to ask which room she’d been moved to. He only knew her belongings had been brought from the tower to the keep. No matter. He would find her.

Except the chamber he’d suspected she would be in was empty. Indeed, each door he shoved open on the keep’s second floor, the one reserved for guests, was empty. By now Gillian would be abed. He could seek her out, but Graeme would likely not appreciate it. Should he wake Morgan instead? Perhaps the maid was not yet abed.

He took two steps back toward the hall and stopped.

Something Allie had said to him surfaced in his mind. He’d told her about seeing Clarissa again, and how it had made him feel, and she’d responded, “I understand well. It is you who does not understand. But you will.”

She’d recognized the depth of his feelings for Clarissa from the start. She’d recognized Clarissa was to be family. He smiled, certain he had solved the riddle.

He went back toward the great hall, this time turning up another corridor and ascending a different set of circular stairs. There were just two chambers up here. One, a smaller version of the solar chamber enjoyed by the lord and lady of Highgate. The other, a much larger room that he and Graeme had once shared as children. It had since been transformed to an adult’s bedchamber, the two small beds replaced with a large one, and all vestiges of the lads’ childhood removed.

Aidan paused as his hand fell on the iron handle of his bedchamber.

Clarissa would be in there, waiting for him. Waiting for this night and for the beginning of their lives together.

He pushed the door open.

* * *

Though she’d been waiting for him to arrive, Clarissa startled when the door opened. She’d not been nervous before now, but watching Aidan as he closed the door behind him . . .

“Gillian?” he asked.

Clarissa looked down at her fine cream chemise and then back up to meet Aidan’s watchful gaze.

“Allie. The gown was Gillian’s.”

“Ahhh.” He took a step toward her. “They’ve taken to you, lass.”

Clarissa nodded, not trusting her voice.

“And I them.”

In three long strides, he reached her, pulling her toward him, and crushed his lips to hers. Clarissa wrapped her arms around him and responded with a tentative touch of her tongue, vowing never to let go. Aidan plunged deeper, his tongue tousling with hers, his head tilting for better access.

This was unlike any of their previous kisses. This one was meant to claim, and its outcome would ensure it. She had thought perhaps they would talk first. After all, there was much to discuss. But Aidan appeared to have other plans.

When his hand reached for the hem of her chemise, his fingers brushing her flesh, something inside her snapped. She wanted no barriers between them, now or ever.

“Take it off,” she said, pulling her lips away for the briefest of moments. Aidan took the opportunity to lift the chemise, and in one fluid motion, he tossed it onto the ground.

But then he stopped.

“I plan to worship every bit of your luscious body before the night is through,” he said, staring into her eyes as he spoke.