“What’s this surprise ye want to show me?” Reid let Corinne tug him by the hand through the great hall despite the curious stares of the servants as they cleared away the midday meal.

Normally, he would have frowned on such a public display—not only of holding hands, but also letting her drag him away from his duties on the training grounds. Yet now he felt an uncharacteristic urge to let everyone in the clan see his wife pulling him up toward their chamber in the middle of the day.

Aye, he would show them his happiness with Corinne, and hers with him. And not simply because it had encouraged them by example to warm to her, to be more accepting and welcoming of her as their mistress. It was more than that. The truth was, Reid doubted he could contain his utter elation if he tried. The fortnight they’d been married had been the best of his life. He was acting a moon-eyed fool, and he didn’t care.

“You’ll see,” she said cryptically over one shoulder, an eager grin curving her mouth.

He felt a smile tug at his own lips. “I thought I left ye so well satisfied this morn that ye wouldnae need to drag me back to bed by midday, but clearly I have underestimated yer hunger for me, wife.”

A bonny flush rose to her cheeks. She shot him a chastising look. A short lock of flaming hair fell over her eyes and she distractedly blew it away. “It isn’t…that,” she breathed. “The surprise is…well, you’ll see.”

They mounted the stairs, but when they reached the first landing, instead of pulling him into their bedchamber, she opened the door to the solar.

When he’d shut the door behind them, she released his hand and strode toward the shelves on the far wall.

“Now close your eyes,” she instructed.

“I like where ye’re headed with this, lass,” he teased, lowering his lids, “but ye ken I like to watch ye undress.”

She clucked her tongue from across the room, but then he heard her soft steps approaching once more. “Hold out your hands.”

Obediently, he did. A moment later, something light landed in his upturned palms.

“All right,” she said, her voice suddenly tight with nerves. “You can open your eyes.”

He blinked, staring down at what rested in his hands. It was a parchment scroll, rolled into a tube.

“What is it?”

“Look for yourself,” she urged, gnawing at her lower lip.

Carefully, he unfurled the parchment. His eyes landed on Corinne’s elegant, sure script before he realized what the words said.

“This is…” he felt his brows furrow as he read. “This is the Mackenzie clan lineage.” He scanned through the names at the top. “Kenneth Mackenzie and Morna MacDougall of Lorn, his wife. They begat Ian Mackenzie, Murdoch’s father. And here is Murdoch and Brinda MacDonnell, and—”

His words suddenly caught in his throat at the branch below Murdoch and Brinda.

There, in Corinne’s perfect hand, was his name.

Reid Mackenzie, fourth Laird of the Mackenzies of Eilean Donan, Kintail.

His heart seemed to miss a beat, and then it thumped so hard against his ribs that his breath left him.

Beside his name, Euna MacDonnell was written, with her birth and death dates, and a note about their unborn bairn. And Corinne’s name appeared on the other side of his.

“I found this,” Corinne said, holding up a more aged scroll next to the one in his hands. Reid instantly recognized it as the original record of the clan’s Lairds and lineage. That scrap of parchment had brought him a good deal of pain over the years—more than he cared to admit.

“I noticed that your name hadn’t been added originally,” Corinne went on. She pointed to the spot Reid had stared at many a time. On the original scroll, beneath Murdoch and Brinda, the first entry had been Reid’s half-brother Logan, followed by their sister Mairin. Reid’s name had been hastily added later, with a line jutting off to the side between Murdoch and Logan.

“And based on what you told me about Logan and Mairin, I changed their entries as well,” Corinne said, shifting her finger down over the original record.

When Logan had been thought a murderer, Reid had drawn one heavy, decisive line through his name in ink. And Mairin had been presumed dead after she’d been kidnapped, though instead of a death date, there was only a question mark.

Reid shifted his gaze to the new scroll. Sure enough, below his own name, Logan’s entry had been restored, as had Mairin’s.

He swallowed against the sudden tightness in his throat, but he could not dislodge the lump of emotion there.

“Corinne…”

She chewed on her lip, looking between the scrolls. “When I found the original records, it didn’t seem right to leave them as they were, what with the inaccuracies and changes,” she said, her voice faltering. “I thought you might like to see what I’ve been working on this past sennight. Mayhap it is only of interest to me, but I meant it to be a…to do something kind for…”

Belatedly, he realized she misunderstood his speechlessness for disapproval. “Corinne,” he said again, halting her wavering words. “I love ye.”

Her head jerked up, her eyes wide and depthless as the ocean.

He pulled in a breath, just as caught off guard by his words as she was. Still, though he hadn’t anticipated them, it didn’t make them any less true. His heart thrummed against his ribs as if trying to beat its way toward her. Deep in the pit of his stomach, in the marrow of his bones, and in the expanse of his heart, he knew. He loved her.

“I…I love you, too,” she breathed, her eyes suddenly going bright with moisture.

If he’d felt grounded in the knowledge of his love a moment before, now he soared toward heaven with the knowledge of hers.

“Ye do?”

“Aye,” she replied, a smile splitting her face. “I do.”

Snatching both scrolls in one hand, he pulled her close with the other. When their lips met, there was no need for any more words. A wave of emotion swept across him as they kissed tenderly for a long moment.

With a sigh, she rocked back on her heels, breaking the kiss. She stared up at him, her gaze unguarded and brimming with the love that filled him as well.

“You like it, then?” she asked, tipping her head toward the scrolls.

“Corinne, this is the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me.”

She beamed up at him. “I thought the records should show that you were a wanted child, and a wanted Laird, not some hastily scrawled side note to the clan’s history. This denotes your rightful place here.”

He looked between the old, marked-up scroll and the new one. There was one piece of information that neither he nor Corinne could add, however.

“I wish I kenned what name to write for my blood father.”

Sobering, she captured and held his gaze. “I know your birth weighs heavily on you, Reid. But this—” she held up the newly scribed scroll, “—isn’t some fabrication or lie. I’ve seen with my own eyes how much the clan loves you. You are accepted here. You are wanted by your people. And by me.”

Corinne dipped her chin, a blush rising to her cheeks. “I…I would also like to think that I’ve found my rightful place as well.” A tentative finger rose and brushed over her name next to his on the parchment. She looked up at him, suddenly shy. “I finally feel that I am wanted, valued—thanks to you.”

A new emotion suddenly mingled with love in Reid’s belly—desire. He’d never been as good with his words as he was with his actions. He needed to show her just how wanted and valued she truly was to him.

Careful of all her hard work, he set the scrolls down on the desk next to them. But then he couldn’t contain the lust roaring to life in his veins any longer. He rounded on her, snatching her up behind the knees and hoisting her so that her legs hitched around his hips. She shrieked in surprise, but her husky chuckle told him she liked being swept off her feet.

Holding her close, he took two swift steps to bring her back against the door to their bedchamber. She locked her arms around his neck and pulled him forward into a searing kiss. Their tongues mated in an erotic imitation of what he intended to do to her.

Heat surged into his cock, making him groan against her lips. Keeping one hand beneath her bottom, he reached with the other for the doorknob.

But when she circled her hips, grinding her pelvis against his hard cock, he forgot what he’d meant to do. His hand went to his plaid of its own accord, yanking away the folds of wool. When he’d shoved them aside, he fumbled with her skirts, pushing them up her satin thighs.

She gasped as cool air hit her, but just as quickly, the crown of his cock brushed at her entrance, their shared heat sending a jolt through them both. Bloody hell, she was already wet for him. He teased her for a moment, sliding his shaft through her damp folds, but when her head fell back against the oak door and she moaned his name, the last of his patience snapped.

He thrust deep, claiming all of her in one swift stroke. They sucked in a breath in unison. Though it had only been a fortnight since their wedding, there was something familiar, something fundamentally right in joining with Corinne. Reid felt like he was home, body and soul.

Home, but in need. He began to move, craving more of her slick tightness. She gasped again as he increased his rhythm. There would be other times for slow exploration, for gentleness. This wasn’t one of them. The need to take her, to join their bodies as fiercely as their hearts, was an instinct too powerful to deny.

He drove her into the door with each thrust, uncaring now of how wild and reckless this loving was. Corinne took him with just as much abandon. Her nails clawed his shoulders through his shirt, her legs clamping like a vise around his hips.

Suddenly her breath hitched and he felt her clench around him as her release broke over her. Her pleasure snapped the final thread of his control, triggering his own undoing. He hammered into her once, twice, thrice, the coiled ecstasy unleashing in a fierce torrent.

They rested their foreheads together for a long moment, both struggling to breathe. At last, Corinne’s fingers released their grip on his shoulders and her legs loosened around his waist.

Slowly, he lowered her to her feet, though he kept his hands on her hips to steady her when her legs wobbled.

“Damn it all,” he murmured. “I wasnae planning for that to happen. I meant to take ye to our bed and make love to ye properly.”

“And that certainly wasn’t proper,” Corinne teased, letting her head fall back against the door with a grin.

He chuckled. God, he loved this woman.

Her hand slid from his shoulder to his chest. His heart hammered wildly beneath her palm. “But really,” she said, her smile turning wicked. “Who says we have to choose between the door and the bed?”

With a growl of pleasure, he lifted her off the ground once more, this time throwing her over one shoulder like the barbarian she turned him into with her slightest touch.

She squealed in delight as he shoved open the door. “An excellent point, lass,” he said, striding toward their bed. “Now, let’s see about doing this the proper way.”