The only thing left to do was let go of the fiction fueling her feelings—let go of the idea that she couldn’t be loved as she was, for who she was, and what she wanted.
It was time to let go of the little girl who’dlosteverything, and become the woman whohadeverything.
“I do trust you, Ethan.” As soon as she’d said the words, she absolutely believed them. “You told Marcello you knew about me. I know that couldn’t have been easy, but you were willing to give up being an agent to help me. You might not have always accepted me, but I believe that you do now, and I do believe that you love me.”
“Does that mean you’re willing to try again?”
She looked into his eyes, those dark pools of intensity that were filled with uncertainty about her answer.
Fact: She loved him.
Fact: She accepted him, too. All his faults and failings. He was just a man, after all.
Fact: He was hers.
Fact: She was his.
“Yes, Ethan, let’s try again. I love you.” She opened her arms and he gently moved into her, wrapped his arms around her, and buried his nose against her neck.
“Thank fuck. I promise you won’t regret it.”
With the way her heart was filled, the warmth and all the goodness he was giving her flowing through her and around her, she didn’t doubt it.
They still had a long road ahead, dealing with Envision and the fallout from the last few days, but they’d do it together.
Always together.
Epilogue
ETHAN
Three months later…
Vollywood, Valleria
Royal Premiere of the latest film in the Jasper Best franchise, which focuses on a Vallerian secret agent.
It was a gorgeous day in Vollywood, though Ethan couldn’t see it from inside the darkened windows of the car. All he could really see were spots in his vision, and all he felt was exhausted and depleted and so very satisfied.
Verysatisfied.
Then again, what man wouldn’t be after a blow job in the back seat of a car from the woman he loved, their driver and security agent on the other side of the closed and dark partition not seeing or hearing any of it.
When Ethan’s breath calmed, he began to straighten his clothes, loving—fucking loving—the sight of Anda’s lipstick streaked on his cock. All night he’d walk around knowing it was there, knowing just what those sexy lips had done to him, and he’d need to fight getting hard. He liked knowing that she was going to taste him on her tongue all night long and that he was going to taste her on his; he’d sucked and finger-fucked her first, naturally.
God, he loved her.
Anda was fixing her dress, which had gotten a little mussed, and began digging through the minuscule purse she carried. “Is my hair awful? I can’t believe I let you talk me into that. This is our first big public event and now I’m going to have oral sex hair. Not to mention my lips and flushed skin. Everyone will know what we were up to.”
“They’ll assume they know. We’ll just tell them it’s the look of two people in love.”
She snorted a laugh.
He chuckled, then leaned close to her ear. “You look beautiful. Perfect. Everyone already loves you. They only love you more because we’re going out.”
She finished fixing her hair. “If you think anyone likes me more because of that, you clearly haven’t been reading the vitriol and bullshit they’re printing about me in the press. Fuckers think they think they can get away with it, but that’s only because they don’t know me. They’ll learn.”
He’d certainly started ignoring some of the comments and articles that had come out disparaging her. How some members of the media and the public could love a person one day, then decide to hate them the next just because of who they were dating or seeing or one day marrying, he never understood. “You should just ignore that shit.”
