Lucy Monroe - Satisfaction Guaranteed

“I’m fairly certain I said that word several times in the last hour,” she said in a voice hoarse from her screams when she climaxed.

“Say it with the words I’ll marry you attached.”

She lifted her head so she could look straight into his gorgeous green eyes. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Ethan Crane. I love you.”

“I don’t want you to give up your dreams, Beth, I want to give them to you. Every last one.”

“You have.” Tears she made no attempt to control burned her eyes. “You’ve made me dream bigger and promised a future that fulfills my every fantasy, but one that is very, very real.”

“I always want to be your fantasy man, Beth.”

“You always have been and you always will be.”

“You’re my fantasy woman.”

“Am I?” She didn’t really doubt it, not after all that he’d said when he started making love to her.

“When you meet my mama, you ask her what kind of woman I always said I’d marry and she’ll describe you to a T.”

Beth didn’t doubt him, only she didn’t think anyone else in the world saw her like he did. But that made them equal, because according to him, no one else saw into his heart the way she did.

“My dad is going to be over the moon about this and Mother is going to be so relieved I’m getting married. She thought my aborted wedding attempt put me off marriage for life.”

“I’ll be there, Beth. No way would I leave you standing at the altar.”

“I know. With love comes trust.”

“And passion,” he said with a suggestive grin.

“You can’t be thinking of making love again so soon. I’m wiped.”

“Baby, when it comes to you, I will always be thinking of making love.”

“I guess that’s only fair…since I’ve spent more than two years dreaming of making love to you.”

“Reality outdoes fantasy, no matter how good…doesn’t it?”

“When that reality is with my fantasy man, every time, Ethan. Every time. I love you.”

“I love you, Beth, and I always will.”

And then he proved once again just how much better reality was than fantasy.

Whit sat in his office chair and congratulated himself on a job well done. Ethan and Beth were getting married, just like he’d planned.

Bringing Alan Hyatt in to make Ethan jealous had worked like a charm. So had assigning his daughter to work the case with Whit’s top agent. They’d nabbed Prescott, gotten some good leads on further technology espionage, and gotten engaged to boot.

He’d have to wait a few years for the grandkids because his daughter was training to be an agent. Finally. He had to admit, he hadn’t expected that outcome, but he liked it just fine.

Ethan had made it clear that from this point forward, he went on assignment with Beth, or he didn’t go. Whit didn’t blame him. He’d always planned to marry another agent, or at least someone in the business, but Lynn had derailed his thoughts. He’d never regret marrying her, but he thought maybe they could have handled some things in their life a little differently.

He liked knowing both Ethan and Beth planned to stop fieldwork once she got pregnant. Whit had missed out on too much of Beth’s childhood. He couldn’t get those years back, but he planned to be a hell of a grandpa and a better father to his grown daughter than he was to her as a child.

He was proud of his matchmaking skills though. It seemed a shame to waste them.

His gaze slid to the computer where an image of a redhaired actress filled the screen. Jillian Sherwood. There was something about her eyes that spoke honesty and integrity and mischief. Just the kind of woman Alan Hyatt needed since he’d lost out on Beth. You had to feel for a man who had lost his chance with Whit’s daughter.

Hmm…if Whit played it right, he could get Hyatt and that pretty little redhead together. It would require a little judicious information on his part and assigning Hyatt to a case that wasn’t strictly his area of expertise, but he had faith in the agent. Hyatt was smart and knew how to think on his feet. Whit was willing to bet the pretty little redhead in the picture shared those qualities, too.

He typed up the assignment orders while whistling the tune of “Matchmaker.”

If this worked out, he was going to have to turn his eyes to some of the other agents. Most of them were single and he thought it was time they found the bliss he’d known with Lynn all these years.