Page 22 of Possessive CEO

“You’ve always been mine. You’ve made me so happy, but will you make me the happiest man in the world by becoming my wife? Baby girl, will you marry me?”

“Yes! Yes, Ethan! Yes!” I jump from my seat, no longer caring how undignified and inelegant I look, and throw myself into his arms. He wraps me in a cocoon of love, happiness, and warmth, and I hear the faint sound of applause in the background as he slips a six-prong diamond ring with a white gold band on my finger.

There’s nothing more perfect than this.

“I love you, baby girl. You’re my life,” he rasps in my ear.

My voice cracks from the various emotions flooding me. “I love you too, Daddy. My love. My everything.”

EPILOGUE

EMILY

If someone told me two years ago that my life would change and I’d find my happily ever after, I never would have believed them.

I was a barista in a small cafe in a small town, living from paycheck to paycheck, taking on multiple jobs because I couldn’t afford to pay rent, buy groceries, send my sister to school, buy antidepressants for Mom, and still have something for myself. One day just bleeds into the next. Work. Go home. Work.

And Ethan came along.

We got married two months after his proposal. Since I couldn’t bear to be away from him, I decided to continue my studies online, which was great because I could easily drop by the cafe anytime I wanted. When we found out I was pregnant, Ethan immediately set to work building a house away from the city. This place, where we once made love and got caught by the guard, was where we built our home.

I never saw the plans. As usual, he told me it was a surprise but that it would be what I wanted—a farmhouse. I expected something relatively small and cozy, but I should’ve known better.

It was a mansion. Farmhouse style, yes, but a mansion nonetheless. In my second trimester, he started working from home, no longer going to the office unless it was absolutely necessary.

I gave birth to Elise a year ago, and Ethan’s face when he first laid eyes on her made me feel as though my heart was going to burst. He was so careful the first time he held her, and he smiled at me and said, “We made this little miracle.”

And that was the scene the nurse witnessed when she stepped into the room. Ethan, holding our baby and smiling at me, and me, bawling my eyes out.

Every day since has been just pure bliss. Ethan hired nannies for Elise, but we’re both hands-on parents. We’re there to witness every milestone.

I swing open the screen door with my hip and slowly sit on the wooden rocking chair, putting two steaming cups of coffee on the table and leaning back to watch the scene before me.

Ethan is wearing nothing but khaki cargo shorts. The sculpted muscles of his chest and thickly corded biceps are in full display as he crouches on the grass, arms outstretched to catch our one-year-old daughter, Elise, in case she falls. Watching him like this makes me warm and tingly all over. I never knew I could fall more in love with him. But watching him be an amazing father? There’s just nothing like it.

She takes unsteady steps, her chubby little hands clenching and unclenching as she walks toward Ethan. Her face lights up with an infectious toothless smile, cute laughter filling the air. It seems only yesterday when we took this small bundle home.

Elise has Ethan’s eyes, even though he always argues that she looks like me. But she definitely gets her stubbornness and bossy attitude from him. No doubt about it.

After a few minutes, Elise gets tired of “chasing” Ethan, so she slumps on the grass and lifts her arms up. Ethan laughs and carries her to the playpen we’ve set up on the porch, for times like this when we want to drink our coffee in peace and still watch her.

In seconds, Elise’s attention is on the dinosaur plushies.

Ethan kisses my forehead and sits beside me, taking my hand in his and kissing my knuckles. That alone makes the pulse pound between my thighs. Yes, he can still turn me on so easily. He doesn’t even have to do much.

With his arm draped over the back of my chair, I lean closer to him and rest my head on his shoulder.

“Baby girl, I’m sweaty,” he says.

“Don’t care. You still make me wet,” I tease.

In an instant, his face darkens, eyes at half-mast. “Stop that or you’ll pay at bedtime,” he growls.

“Hmmm. I don’t think I mind,” I chuckle as I stand up to give Elise her water.

I don’t get far, though, because Ethan pulls me to his lap and I yelp. The words die in my throat as he kisses me deeply. My arms automatically loop around his neck, and I push my body to his.

“Don’t waste your energy, baby girl. I’ll tire you out tonight,” he whispers as he takes my bottom lip between his teeth and sucks it.

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