Chapter Three

"Hard to believe we have to go home tomorrow," Jaime lamented. "Two weeks went awfully fast."

"Just because this is over, doesn't mean we are...right?"

"I hope not," she answered softly. "I feel so comfortable when I'm with you. It's like whatever the rest of the world can throw at us, we'll be ok, if we face it together."

"Teamwork in action," Steve confirmed. With his arm around Jaime's waist, he stepped off of the front porch and into the tall, soft grass, taking her with him. "We can tell Oscar we've thoroughly inspected the place."

"Passed every test we could come up with."

"There is one spot we haven't checked out..."

"Oh?" Jaime couldn't imagine, since they'd even made love in the wine cellar.

Steve grinned wickedly as he picked her up and laid her body down amidst the wildflowers and the tall grass. The clothes they'd only recently put on came off once again, as their insatiable desire for each other took hold for another round. Their releases occurred in unison, their bodies perfectly in sync, and they cried out and held each other close, their eyes reflecting the way their love had blossomed and grown even stronger in the last two weeks. The were now one soul, even when they weren't physically joined as one body.

"Oscar would be very proud of us," Jaime remarked later, as they watched the embers in the fireplace fade. "We were very conscientious in carrying out our assignment."

"I think we earned a vacation," Steve chuckled.

"Maybe he'll send us back here." Jaime sighed. "I'm really gonna miss this place..."

"I bet he'd let us come back here on our honeymoon," Steve said softly.

"Yeah, maybe...what did you say?"

"Marry me?"

Jaime stared at him with sparkling eyes. "But...you aren't on bended knee, so you can't really mean it."

"That'll do it for ya?"
"Don't know...we'll see," she teased.

Steve instantly hit the floor on one knee and looked directly and deeply into her eyes. "Jaime, I love you more than life itself...even more than Mom's 'pasghetti'. I want to spend the rest of my life with you by my side. So, Miss Jaime Lyn Sommers, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

Jaime smiled through the tears in her eyes. "You know I will. Absolutely, positively - with my whole heart."

Steve took a tiny box from his pocket. "I believe this belongs to you." He placed a ring on her finger, the very one she'd worn before the accident that had torn them apart. Her expression told him she recognized it, and he slipped it on her finger and kissed her with every bit of the love in his heart, and with the firm intention to never, ever lose her again.

END