Page 169 of Highland Spy

Smudges of exhaustion showed dark under her eyes, and the closer she got, the more uncertain her steps grew, until she was directly in front of him.

“Are ye verra upset with me, brother?” she asked solemnly.

There was much Connor wanted to say—how dangerous her decision had been, how she shouldn’t marry a man she didn’t know, how people change over time.

But then Kenneth slipped his hand into Cora’s where it hung at her side. Their fingers entwined. She glanced back at him and he smiled in a way Connor had only seen when they were lads.

Connor gazed down at Ariana and she tilted her head in understanding. He wanted to cradle her beautiful face in his hands and kiss her senseless.

He turned back to Cora. “Are ye verra happy with him, sister?”

Her eyes twinkled, and it carried away all signs of exhaustion from her face. “I wouldna have ridden like the devil to him otherwise. And I wouldna have ridden back just as hard to explain it to ye.” She shook her head. “I know how ye are. Ye’d assume he kidnapped me and work out some way to rescue me when I dinna need rescuing.”

Arguing was useless and so Connor merely chuckled. “Then I’m happy for ye, Cora.” He glanced behind his sister, at Kenneth. “And ye too. But I’ll warn ye, ye’ve got yer work cut out for ye with this one.”

Connor regarded the king where he’d stood watching the exchange with a look of frightened self-interest. “Take yer men, go back to England, and leave me be, or ye know what will happen.”

The king nodded.

“Go on then.” Connor jerked his head toward the door and the king all but slithered away, his battered men crawling behind him.

And, finally, Connor was free.

• • •

Ariana opened the door to the study to find Connor in his usual place before the large fire. The sun had long since set and the chaos of the day was finally going quiet.

“You asked to see me?” she said.

Connor turned and looked at her. It was the first time they’d been alone since the attack and the moment hung between them like the final note of a dance.

“Ariana.” He closed the distance between them and caught her in his arms. His mouth was on hers in an instant, insistent and ravenous and filled with all the love she had longed for. “I thought I’d lost ye.”

“You know I’m too stubborn to die that easily,” she said between kisses.

He lifted her and spun her around with a warm laugh.

“Oh, Connor,” she breathed. “You have everything you’ve ever wanted. I’m so happy for you.”

He shook his head. “I dinna have everything I want.”

“What do you not have?”

“My wife to give me a wee babe to whom I can pass on my da’s legacy.”

A sudden moment of fear gripped her heart. “Your wife?”

“Aye.” Connor took her hand in his and gently caressed her knuckles with his thumb. “I dinna have one of those either. I’d like her to be ye.”

Her relief came out of her in a laugh.

“Are you asking me to marry you, Connor Grant?” Her tone was light and teasing.

“Aye, I am.” He stroked a hand down her uninjured cheek. “I canna imagine bringing joy back to Urquhart without the verra person who makes me the happiest.”

Her heart welled with such love as she had never known to the point it felt near bursting. “I can’t say yes if you don’t ask me.”

Connor sank reverently to his knees in front of her and clasped both her hands in his. “Ye always saw so much more of me than the man mired down by the weight of his own sins and ye brought happiness to a life I thought I could no’ ever enjoy. I love ye, Ariana, and I’d be humbly honored if ye’d agree to become no’ just my wife, but also the lady of Urquhart Castle.”