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She jumped from the chair and raced to the panel. Her hand on the latch, she paused. It wouldn’t do to open the door wearing nothing but the light nightgown if someone else stood outside. “Who is it?”

“’Tis me, love. Open the door.”

With a small cry of delight, she flung the door wide open and launched herself into his arms before he’d completely crossed the threshold. “I was so worried,” she said, peppering his jaw and throat with hot kisses. “Did ye catch Oswald?”

He stiffened for an instant. “We found him, but he didna surrender willingly. He took his own life rather than face the hangman’s noose.”

Honestly, she couldn’t blame him.

“I’ll tell ye all the details tomorrow, but right now…” He nuzzled the sensitive spot below her ear. “I have more important things on my mind.”

He smelled divine. Fresh soap. Shaving lather. His distinct musky maleness. He’d bathed, and his hair was yet damp. He wore only a fine lawn shirt and breeches.

Giving him a coy look from beneath her lashes, she ran her hands over the bulging muscles of his arms. “Why, Lord Montforth, are ye here to seduce yer betrothed?”

“Aye. We’ll marry on the morrow, but I mean to introduce ye to pleasure tonight.” With a hungry growl, he lifted her in his arms and kicked the door shut behind him.

Kendra was in no frame of mind to summon false protestations of modesty or decorum. She wanted him, too. Feverishly.

He laid her upon the turned-down bed, then stood back, hands on his lean hips, his smoldering gaze raking over her. “How could I have been so blind for so long?”

He sat upon the edge of the mattress and reverently ran his forefinger over her cheek, across her mouth, and down her jaw, the column of her throat, and lastly, to the tidy sky-blue ribbon tied demurely at her bodice.

The smile arcing her mouth held invitation. She wanted their joining every bit as much as he.

“Ye’ve been a treasure right before my eyes all this time,” he murmured, veneration in his voice.

She caught his hand and brought the palm to her lips. She kissed the firm, calloused flesh, breathing him in. “I was just as blind, Broden. But I’m so grateful we see at last.” Eyeing him, she propped onto her elbow. “Are ye comin’ to bed with yer clothes on?”

His eyes darkened to liquid passion, and his mouth quirked into a seductive smile that held a promise she couldn’t wait for him to fulfill.

In a few svelte strokes, he’d stripped himself bare. Standing beside the bed, he bent one knee and hands hanging loosely at his side, he patiently waited for Kendra to finish gawking.

“Oh, my.”

She dashed a swift glance upward, admiring the wide expanse of muscled chest and rippled abdomen, lingering for a moment on the fresh pinkish scar marring his shoulder. But her attention gravitated back to the rigid evidence of his arousal, jutting toward his flat stomach.

She swallowed. Not from fear, but unadulterated lust.

Scrambling to her knees, she swiftly untied the ribbon securing her gown’s light fabric and then raising her gaze to his, pulled the garment off over her head. The coolness of the room swept over her, but no embarrassment or shame assailed her.

Proudly, she remained kneeling, affording him the same opportunity to study her form as he’d permitted her. Then, he was laying her onto her back, his eyes, hands, mouth, and body worshipping her.

And she wanted to crawl inside him, to appease the pulsing ache growing and growing and growing inside her. She returned every caress, eagerly exploring the sinewy planes and contours of his spectacular body.

His tongue slipped into her mouth, and she greedily sucked as he slowly—maddeningly—teased her with taunting plunges. As he settled between her thighs, she drew her legs up, wrapping them around his waist.

She tore her mouth from his, moaning, “Please, Broden. Please.”

He nipped her shoulders before grasping her buttocks with his big hands and tilting her hips. “I love ye, lass. Ye are mine. Now and forever, Kendra.”

“Aye,” she groaned as the head of his penis entered her. Filling and stretching. God, it felt so good. “Aye, now and forever.”

Then awash with bliss, he took her to the heavens. When the sun exploded behind her eyes and her body convulsed with untold pleasure, she cried over and over, “I love ye, Broden. I love ye.”

Much later, or perhaps it had only been a few minutes, he withdrew from her and drew the bedcoverings over them. She snuggled into his side, one arm resting across his ribs and her thigh atop his.

“That,” she breathed, still groggy with passion, “was beyond amazin’.”

“Aye. ’Twas.” He kissed her temple. “Ye are amazin’.”

“Can we do it again?” She cracked an eyelid open. “I found it most enlightenin’.”

A rough chuckle exploded from him. “I see I’ve found myself a lusty wife.” He ran his tongue over her shoulder, and she gasped, arching into him. “No’ that I’m complainin’, mind ye. Give me a few minutes to recover, and I’d be delighted to enlighten ye again.”

She grew serious and propped her chin on his chest. “Broden, Mother says marriage isna easy, even when ye love yer spouse. Promise me, we’ll never let anythin’ come between us. That we will share our thoughts and feelin’s, and never go back to shuttin’ each other out. Never be adversaries like we were, bent on hurtin’ each other.”

He turned his head, scrutinizing her beloved face. “I promise, leannan. We’re startin’ with a ready-made family, and the lasses will require patience and understandin’.” He squeezed her buttocks before lacing his fingers with hers. “But together, with our love as an unshakable foundation, we can build a life for them and ourselves.”

Giving her a wicked wink, he pulled her atop him. “Now, let’s enlighten ye a trifle more.”