Page 128 of The Wedding Engagement

He groaned.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “You’re invited to my room tonight.”

He grinned, pausing at the top of the stairs and holding out his hand for her to take. “Awesome.”

They descended and arrived back behind the “No Entry” sign, which made her chuckle and raise her eyebrows suggestively at Arran. There had been plenty of entry, all right.

He tugged her close as they laughed softly, Liv scanning from the shadows so they could time their exit.

Managing to slip out onto the stone landing toward the bar, holding hands, Arran swung their arms while pretending to whistle nonchalantly. Liv dissolved into laughter. Nobody made her laugh like he did. She eyed him, again admiring how devastating he looked in that kilt. The thought that one day he’d wear one to theirwedding popped into her head, bringing with it the most wonderful feeling of serenity and contentment, and not an ounce of fear along with it. The only palpitations she felt were those of excitement.

Glancing up, she spotted Nico watching them across the bar. He flashed them a grin and held up his glass.

“Don’t look now, but I think Nico’s rumbled us,” she whispered to Arran.

“Mm-hmm,” Arran replied in a surreptitious tone. “And he’s not the only one.”

She shifted her gaze over to where he was gesturing and spotted Elise, who was giving them a soft smile. Liv raised her hand in a little wave and gave her a big grin back.

—

His entire body was filledwith a delicious ache. Like he’d had a vigorous workout at the gym the previous day. Arran opened his eyes, taking in the old-style opulence of the four-poster bed and the tartan-clad room around them.

Except he hadn’t been to the gym, but rather had a personal workout with the lovely Olivia Agnes Holland. All night long.

Smiling, he trailed a finger along her naked thigh and over her waist to where her arm was holding a sheet against her front. He loved this contradiction of a woman. Sweet, empathic, and could probably kill you with her bare hands. Warmth filled his chest, and he realized that the hollow sensation that had plagued him for the past year had disappeared.

She stirred, opening those gorgeous green eyes and pinning him with her gaze. “Morning, you total sex god.”

“Well,” he said, bending an elbow behind his head with a shrug. “I do try.”

Liv shifted over to kiss him, then glanced over his shoulder. “Shit. We’re late for breakfast.”

Arran looked at the clock. “Fuck.”

They both jumped out of bed and had a hurried shower, Arran cursing that they didn’t have time to re-create what they’d done the last time they’d showered together.

“Later,” Liv had whispered when he’d complained, and that was all he needed to hear.

They left the bedroom in a hurry, holding hands and laughing as they descended the large sweeping staircase that led from the bedrooms to the ground floor of the castle. Despite being late, they still found time to laugh at each other’s crap jokes, and it occurred to him, not for the first time, that not only did nobody make him laugh the way that she did, but nobody got his dumb jokes and laughed back like Liv.

The memory of waiting for her to emerge into the wedding gazebo, his heart in his throat, surfaced, along with that random but oh-so-right thought about the piper—when I marry Liv, we’ll have a string quartet instead.Then something that Jess had told him randomly popped into his head.“She’s a good one. Hold on to her.”

Liv went to lead them around the corner, but he tugged her back, watching her eyes widen and pupils dilate as he brought her into a kiss. He broke off to press her gently against the wall. “I need to ask you something.”

Her lips were swollen and her eyes hazy from their kiss. “What is it?”

He took a breath, pulse accelerating. “Just a hypothetical at this point. But what would you say if at some point soon, I asked you to marry me?”

Her breath hitched as she searched his face. “Are you being serious?”

He arched an eyebrow. “Deadly serious.”

She let out a soft laugh, then paused for a couple of seconds.“We only became a couple last night, so that thought should probably terrify me. And yet…” Her eyes sparkled.

“And yet what?” he asked, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Liv smiled. “And yet it feels completely right.” She touched his face. “I was even thinking the same thing myself.”

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