Deanna burst into tears.

She carefully put the beaded fabric down in the box and then threw herself into Mitch.e.l.l's arms.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly, but since she was crying and he was sneezing, it wasn't exactly the most romantic of embraces.

"Okay," he said, pulling away, his face flushed and his eyes still watering. "We're going to do it all, here in the sight of the Pride, since that was what you wanted.

He fumbled until he found her hand, and then he lifted it to hold it in his. He gently pulled off her rings, separating out her engagement ring and then sliding it into his pocket. When he pulled his hand back out, he was holding a different ring instead.

It was beautifully engraved gold with a lovely diamond setting. It looked like an antique-full of history and meaning that spanned generations.

He slid the new ring on her finger with her wedding ring.

"I never should have given you that other ring," he said. "It was wrong. It was empty. It wasn't like you at all." He sniffed and paused, like he would sneeze, but he didn't. "I love you, Deanna Beaufort Graves. I love you with everything I have in me to love-which is so much more than I ever knew before I met you. I don't want to take the easy route with you. I want to do the hardest thing, the most beautiful thing. I want to work as hard as we need to work to get this right. I'll be as patient as you need me to be. I'll wait as long as you need me to wait. But I'm not going to give up on this because I know it's the right thing for both of us. I think you know it too. I understand why you didn't trust me before, but as soon as you do, I hope you'll let go. I promise I'll be there to catch you when you do."

He broke off with a huge sneeze that jarred both of them.

"d.a.m.n it," he muttered. "I almost got through the whole speech."

She burst into laughter and tears at the same time and grabbed him in another hug, this time pressing kisses all over his face. "I love you too. I was going to tell you tonight too, after I loosened you up with the Pride. I know there are no guarantees in love, in marriage, in life, in anything. But I want you anyway. I want you all the way. I want you exactly as you are."

Mitch.e.l.l made a rough sound in his throat and grabbed her face in a deep kiss. She kissed him back, eagerly, her arms wrapping around his neck, until he had to break away to sneeze again.

"Okay," he said, "Either we go or the Pride goes."

"The Pride can go," she said, filled with so much joy she knew it was it spilling out of her somehow. "They've done their job."

"Just don't tell your grandmother. I'll never hear the end of it if she knows that her dead cats had any hand in getting us together."

Deanna giggled. "Too late. She already knows."

Epilogue.

Deanna fumbled to the door of their bedroom, trying unsuccessfully to open it. Mitch.e.l.l had her pressed up against the door, kissing her as if his life depended on it.

She was so turned on that it felt like hers might depend on it too.

He'd lifted one of her thighs and was holding it up next to his leg, spreading her open just enough for her to feel the pressure of his body against her arousal. She moaned, still scrabbling to turn the doork.n.o.b.

When it finally turned, it surprised her, and she gasped as the door started to open.

It evidently surprised Mitch.e.l.l too, since he briefly lost his balance, and they started to fall backward as the door opened into the room.

He caught them before there was a disaster, dropping her thigh and grabbing her with both arms to stabilize her. Then he was kissing her again, walking them back toward the bed.

He was hard and hot and eager, and nothing had ever felt so good. He was all there-all of him-and all of him was completely into her.

That knowledge affected her as much as the physical sensations, and her body was buzzing with excitement and emotion when the back of her legs. .h.i.t the edge of the bed and they both tumbled onto it.

He didn't stop kissing her, even as they clumsily started pulling at each other's clothes. He was more successful than she was, and soon she was naked except for her panties. She got held up on his tie, which she accidentally kept tightening instead of loosening.

The third time, he coughed as she started to strangle him and broke out of the kiss. "I'll do it," he said huskily, his eyes hot and soft. "Since I want to survive long enough to get inside you."

She made a face at him, but she was pretty sure it wasn't effective, since she was melting with affectionate feelings. As he pulled his tie off, she started working on the b.u.t.tons on his shirt, and pretty soon they together got his shirt and T-shirt off so his chest was bared.

Running her hands up and down it, she smiled. "Much better."

"Well, don't rest on your laurels too much. We still have work to do." After a pause, he c.o.c.ked one eyebrow. "I'm still wearing my pants."

She broke into giggles and pulled him down into another kiss. The kiss grew deeper and hotter until desire was filling her head again and she was fumbling with his belt and then the top b.u.t.ton on his trousers.

She had better luck with the pants and was soon able to pull them down and then push down his underwear so she could finally get her hands on his erection.

He huffed into her mouth as she stroked him between their bodies. She adjusted so she could wrap both legs around his thighs and she rocked beneath him, unable to stay still.

"Deanna," he gasped, breaking his mouth out of the kiss and panting against her skin. "Baby, wait."

She tried to rub herself against him. "I don't want to wait."

"But..."

She grabbed his head back down to kiss him again. He moaned into her mouth, not moving against her as rhythmically as usual.

"Mitch.e.l.l, please," she murmured, tightening her legs around him.

He groaned again and pulled his head away, against the resistance of her hands. His eyes were now torn between desperate desire and amus.e.m.e.nt. "I'm trapped in my pants."

The words managed to process in her l.u.s.t-clouded brain, and she peered around his chest so she could see what had happened. His trousers had somehow managed to twist up as she'd pushed them down so they were tightened around his knees like a vice.

She giggled helplessly.

He gave her an aggrieved look. "You're the one who did it."

"I know." She couldn't stop laughing, even as she tried to untwist them enough to get them off his legs completely.

"I'm in a pretty bad condition here, you know."

"I know. So am I." She smiled up at him, suddenly filled with so much love she couldn't possibly contain it. "You have no idea how much I love you."

"I love you too. But if you're going to leave me trapped like this, maybe you can at least help me turn over so my d.i.c.k is accessible."

She was still giggling as she got his pants and underwear off all the way, and then she slid off her own panties and repositioned herself, spreading her legs to make room for him. "There. Now you're all set."

"Oh, good." He was smiling too, as if he was filled with the same feelings that she was. And when he kissed her this time it was almost gentle. As he did, he guided himself inside her body, the penetration tight and pleasing.

They rocked together tenderly for a while, kissing and stroking each other. But eventually the intense need took over and their motion intensified. Soon, he was thrusting into her hard and fast, and she was crying out as her o.r.g.a.s.m coiled up inside her.

They were so shamelessly enthusiastic that the bed was shaking wildly as her climax finally broke and she arched up with a cry of completion. He was right behind her, m.u.f.fling his exclamation with another kiss.

They collapsed together afterwards, clinging to each other. She loved the feel of his hot, satisfied body on top of her, almost more than anything else.

After a few minutes, he lifted his head to gaze down on her. "Well, aside from a few minor issues, that was amazing."

"That was amazing-issues and all."

He stroked her hair gently away from her damp face. "Happy anniversary."

She grinned up at him. "Happy anniversary to you too." Without thinking, she glanced above the bed, where she'd hung the beaded wall-hanging he'd worked so hard on and given her six months ago. Her chest still constricted at the sight-even after so long-of how determined he was to show her just how hard he would work to have her, to keep her.

He'd never let her down.

"Don't get too sappy," he murmured, evidently reading her expression.

She cleared her throat and looked back at him. "Never. You know, I was thinking that we really need to have two anniversaries each year. One for when we got married and another one for when we really got together."

He shook his head. "That seems a sneaky way of getting two anniversary gifts a year."

"Of course. Why else would I suggest it?"

Adjusting her body so she was nestled against him more comfortably, he idly caressed her back and bottom. "I can manage that."

She rested her left hand on his chest, the engagement ring and wedding rings prominent. "Remember, you were supposed to have a wife who was easy to manage. I'm not sure that worked out very well for you."

He leaned up to press a kiss against her hair. "It didn't work out at all. You're impossible to manage. But that ended up working out even better for me, so I'm not about to complain."

Hired Bride is the first book in the Beaufort Brides series, which will be continued with Rose's book, Subst.i.tute Bride, released in September of this year. If you haven't already read them, be sure to check out the four Heirs of Damon books, Seducing the Enemy (Harrison's book), Playing the Playboy (Andrew's book), and Engaging the Boss (Jonathan's book), and Stripping the Billionaire (Ben's book), which are part of the same world as the Beaufort Brides. An excerpt from Seducing the Enemy follows.

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Excerpt from Seducing the Enemy.

Marietta sighed and drooped against the wall. "Yeah. I guess the moment is over. Every time I think I can...I end up..." Her resignation changed back into a smile. "Thanks for dancing with me, though. I really had a good time."

He realized she thought he'd lost interest-as if such a minor thing would dampen his attraction. If anything, he wanted her even more, her delicacy rousing some sort of latent protective instinct.

"So that's it?" he asked lightly. "You're blowing me off now?"

Her gaze darted up to meet his. "No, I just thought... I just thought-"

"You thought I was such an a.s.s that I'd be scared off by an irrelevant aversion?"

"No. I didn't think that." She had the most delicious faintly French accent.

He leaned in until his lips hovered near hers. "You thought I was such a beer guzzler that I couldn't stand to spend time with someone who doesn't love it as much as I do?"

Surprised laughter rippled out of her and her hands closed around the lapels of his suit jacket.

Harrison was mesmerized by her lovely face-warm, amused, sincere, utterly real. The urge to kiss her was so overwhelming he no longer resisted.

He closed the slight distance between their lips, brushing hers gently with his.

He heard her quick intake of breath, felt her fingers clutch at him even tighter. He kissed her again, lingering against her mouth longer this time.

She broke the kiss after a few moments but didn't pull away-just asked against his mouth, "So are you?"

He tangled his fingers in her hair until he'd cupped the back of her head. "Am I what?" He couldn't wait for the answer before he closed his mouth over hers, deepening the kiss with his tongue.

She opened for him, her body melting against his and one of her arms twining around his neck. Her responsiveness intensified his desire.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd wanted someone as much as he wanted her.

When she finally turned her head, she panted out raggedly, "Are you a beer guzzler?"

He chuckled and murmured, "I prefer Scotch."

It was evidently the right thing to say. She wrapped her other arm around him and kissed him with naked pa.s.sion. Soon he'd hardened again as his tongue tangled with hers. She practically writhed between his body and the wall, and he wrapped one of her legs around his hip to align her groin better with his. She moaned into his mouth while he rocked into her and stroked her bare thigh.

When his erection started to pulse tightly in his trousers, he knew they needed to stop. He couldn't take her in the back hallway of a nightclub, no matter how tempted he was.

He forced himself to release her and step back, still bracing himself with one hand on the wall.

Her cheeks were deep pink, her hair messy, and her lips swollen. She was the s.e.xiest thing he'd ever seen. "Wow," she said. "Wow."

"I agree."

"Did you want to..." She ducked her head to hide an inexplicably shy expression.

"I hope you were going to ask whether I wanted to continue this elsewhere. Because the answer is definitely yes."

She raised her eyes, and excitement flickered through her lingering heat. "Really? You don't have to go back to work?"

He smiled, privately cursing the d.a.m.ned inspection report he still needed to write. He was never late. His responsibilities as a Damon were always his priority.

"Work can wait." He couldn't miss out spending the night with this beautiful, pa.s.sionate woman. The report wasn't urgent, and he could get up early tomorrow to prepare for the settlement meeting.