by Lucy Monroe
He ripped the Velcro straps on the handcuffs open. “Hold me, baby. Hold me hard.”
She didn’t need a second bidding, but wrapped her arms and her legs around him with all her strength and even so, he rode her with powerful thrusts that sent her careening into orgasm and him with her.
Afterward, he took care of the condom and then lay down again, pulling her until she was sprawled on top of him. “Tell me yes, Beth.”
“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.
Epilogue
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 red-haired 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.
If you liked this Lucy Monroe book,
you’ve got to try her READY,
WILLING,
AND ABLE
series…
READY
Writer Lise Barton is used to coming up with wild scenarios for her characters, but the one that’s playing out for her right now is no fiction. Someone is stalking her, someone who knows where she lives and what she does—who’s even threatened her family. To protect them, she packs up and leaves Texas for the anonymity of Seattle—where it starts all over again…
Joshua Watt’s mission is simple: Bring Lise home for Thanksgiving or he’ll never hear the end of it from his sister. He’s spent months trying to forget the taste of her lips, but the minute he sees the fear in Lise’s eyes, the former Army Ranger takes control. His mission: Protect Lise and try to keep his personal feelings out of it. Because if there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s that sex and work don’t mix. So far…
WILLING
Josie McCall left her dad’s mercenary school for a normal job in computers. But now that someone has torched the school and her dad is MIA, Josie’s going to use every bit of her training to hunt down the culprits who took him. Josie knows a lot about explosives, hand-to-hand combat, and tracking. What she doesn’t know about is sex. She has no idea what to do with the volcanic attraction she feels for her dad’s new partner, Daniel Black Eagle. And that feels more dangerous than any bomb…
Daniel knows exactly what he’d like to do about that attraction. He can’t get within five feet of Josie without wanting to touch, taste, and protect her. But right now he’s got his hands full figuring out who set that bomb and took Josie’s dad. Daniel’s sure of one thing, though—he’s not letting Josie McCall out of his sight for a single second…
AND ABLE
Claire Sharp trusts few people and relies on no one. But after her life is threatened, ex-mercenary Brett Adams blows into her self-contained world, full of southern charm and rugged good looks. But Claire is not about to fall into Brett’s bed. For one thing, the guy has a no-commitment clause that would stump most big-shot attorneys, and for another, despite her response to his sensual kisses, in Claire’s experience sex isn’t exactly fireworks and brass bands…
Brett plans to prove her wrong. He’ll give her a white-hot pleasure like nothing she’s ever known and she’ll realize that some things in life are worth every risk. When the threat to Claire grows dangerously close, pitting them against deadly odds, Brett will do whatever it takes to save her. Because Claire Sharp has just found herself a man who’s ready to bring it on, willing to do what it takes, and able to go the distance…
And don’t miss Lucy’s newest book,
WATCH OVER ME,
coming next month
from Brava…
“Lana?”
The stranger had a strong jaw, too, squared and accented by a close-cropped beard that went under, not across his chin. No mustache. His lips were set in a straight line, but they still looked like they’d be Heaven to kiss.
Not that she’d kissed a lot of lips, but she
was twenty-nine. Even a geeky scientist didn’t make it to the shy side of thirty without a few kisses along the way. And other stuff.
The fact that she could measure the time it had been since the last time in years rather than months, weeks, or days—which would be a true miracle—wasn’t something she enjoyed dwelling on. She blamed it on her work.
However, every feminine instinct that was usually sublimated by her passion for her work was on red alert now.
“Dr. Ericson. Lana.”
She waved her hand at the noise buzzing in her ear as she continued to take in the delicious man before her. He wore a tight black T-shirt that clung to a definite six-pack and leather jeans that molded to muscular thighs and an impressive package. She liked that word. Package.
It sounded so naughty and implied a man’s member was some kind of present waiting for a woman to open it. His was getting bigger by the second.
Oh my. She wanted to open that pressie.
A very pointed throat clearing happened near her ear.
She tried waving her hand again, but it was caught this time.
“No,” she said firmly.
“Uh, Lana…”
She definitely didn’t have an appointment with this guy.
One dark brow quirked, but he had yet to say anything.
“Dr. Ericson!”
Lana’s head snapped up again and she saw that the stranger was accompanied by others. Her boss, Frank Ingram and ETRD’s security consultant, Elle Gray.
The tall, super model beautiful woman was the one who’d grabbed Lana’s hand. Was it fair that Elle could incapacitate a man twice her size, was probably as smart as Lana—well, close to—and was that amazing looking?
The only amazing thing about Lana was her brain.
Wincing at her thoughts as well as the small throb below her left eye from her run-in with the microscope, she said, “There was no need to shout, Frank.”
Elle shook her head and laughed. “You were staring, Lana. Hard. At unmentionable places.”
Oh, those pesky taboos again. Men got away with staring at breasts all the time, but a woman, particularly a geeky scientist wasn’t supposed to stare at a man’s crotch. Still. “I was studying. It’s what I do.”
“You study men?” the stranger asked in a voice that made her thighs clench.
Wow.
If he could do that with his voice, what would he be able to do with other things?
“I study everything.”
Frank chuckled. It was an indulgent sound, one that she seemed to bring out in him more than the other scientists on ETRD’s staff. “To the exclusion of noticing anything else around you. Hence the shouting.”
She sighed, knowing her boss had a point. “I’m sorry, Frank.” Meeting the dark brown depths of the stranger’s eyes, she stifled a second sigh. “I also apologize if I made you uncomfortable.”
She’d been told she did that sometimes. It was one of the many reasons she preferred her lab over social settings. Really, really preferred.
He adjusted his stance just a little. “Uncomfortable isn’t the word I’d use.”
Elle groaned. “Myk, you are so bad. Baba would slap you with the wooden spoon.”
Things clicked together in Lana’s extremely productive brain. “You two are related. He’s your brother. Mykola, the one closest to you in age and an INS agent. You haven’t seen him in over a year and you’re hoping he gets along with Beau as well as Mat does.”
Mykola turned a less than pleased look on his sister. “When did you get to be such a blabbermouth?”
Elle rolled her eyes. “Don’t be an idiot. Lana remembers everything she hears, even in passing.”
“And she puts it together like she does her formulas.” Frank smiled proudly. “I bet she knows the name of my podiatrist.”
“You don’t have a podiatrist. There’s nothing wrong with your feet, but have you considered seeing an allergist? I think you may have allergy induced asthma brought on by something in Nisha’s lab.” She’d been meaning to mention that for a while, but had gotten sidetracked.
More than once.
It was the story of her life.
She’d never have a committed romantic relationship. No man would be able to tolerate the way her brain worked on a long term basis, but she wasn’t opposed to something less involved with the gorgeous bad boy in front of her.
“Lana!” Frank and Elle shouted in unison, both sounding equally scandalized.
Uh-oh. “Which part did I say out loud?” she asked in resignation.
Elle gave her a look that hovered between pitying and hugely amused. “The part where you implied you wouldn’t mind having sex with my gorgeous bad boy of a brother.”
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Copyright © 2007, 2009 by Lucy Monroe
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