My jaw clenched as I held back the fucking lump crawling up my throat, water blurring my sight, when Maddie laughed a single laugh and shook her head. “I used to wonder how two people—one broken girl, and one broken boy—could ever move on from their dark and tortured pasts. But now I know. Together, that’s how. They fight their way through… together.”
My nostrils flared as Maddie took the large ring in her hand and pushed it down on my ring finger. And as that fucking piece of metal stared up at me from my hand, I thought my fucking black heart would explode from my chest.
Using my thumb, I turned it around. Maddie gasped as a gold engraving came into view. “My Maddie,” she whispered, reading the engraved name aloud.
“Yeah,” I hushed out, unable to find my fucking voice to say much else.
“Flame,” she whispered, “It is perfect.” Maddie traced over the ring’s words with her finger, tears dropping from her eyes. “Your Maddie,” she whispered under her breath.
Seconds passed as she stared at the ring on my finger. Lifting her head, she said with blushed cheeks, “It is your turn.”
Maddie shifted our hands’ positions so that I now held hers, and I felt my stomach drop. Gritting my teeth, I said, “I don’t know what the fuck to say.” I held Maddie’s tiny ring in my right hand, gripping it tight. “I’m not good… with words, Maddie. I’ll fuck this up.”
Maddie pressed her right hand over my heart and explained, “Just say what is in your heart, Flame. Here,” She took the ring from my hand and placed it at the top of her ring finger. “Say whatever you want to say, whatever you feel in your soul, then push the ring down.”
Sucking in a deep breath, I fought back the growing pit in my stomach, and said, “I’m shit at talking, Maddie. Can’t ever express myself right.” Maddie smiled, then looked up at me with the most beautiful fucking expression I’d ever seen on her face.
Lifting my right hand, I ran it down her pink cheek, and said, “But fuck, Maddie, I know this. I fucking love you. You fucking saved me. You fucking understand me. And you’re fucking mine.” I pushed the ring onto Maddie’s finger, and I caught a damn hit to the chest seeing that black and gold ring sat on her hand.
Maddie sighed.
And I fucking smiled.
That ring, right there, was my home.
Lifting my eyes, Maddie was crying. “Maddie?” I questioned, but before I could say anything more, she threw her arms around my waist and pressed her cheek to my chest.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so very much. Do you know that? I need you to know how much you mean to me.”
I exhaled, feeling all kinds of fucking right. Because I knew she did. My little black-haired bitch loved me. I wrapped one arm around her waist and the other on her head.
She still smelled of strawberries.
We breathed, and stayed that way for what felt like forever, but then Maddie leaned back, and eyes on mine, declared, “You’re now my husband, Flame. My forever.”
Groaning, I pressed a kiss to her forehead and rasped, “My fucking wife. Maddie Cade.”
Maddie tipped her head back, her face beaming, and she whispered, “You make my heart smile.”
Groaning, I pressed my lips against hers, making this marriage shit iron-tight.
Maddie broke away and, cheeks blushing, said, “I… I want to go home. I want… I want to be with you.”
My muscles twitched, fucking needing that too, but just as I went to lead her out of the woods, I caught sight of the box on the ground. Letting go of Maddie’s hand, I picked it up and handed it over.
“Here. I got you this too. You’re my old lady now. This fucking tells the world.”
Maddie slowly took hold of the box and opened it. Reaching into the box, she pulled out a tiny leather cut, her name stitched on the front. “Flame,” she whispered and turned it over. Her eyes filled with tears again and her finger traced over the stitching on the back that read, “Property of Flame”.
“I am,” she whispered as a teardrop fell onto the untouched leather, right over my name. “I am yours. You have no idea how ‘yours’ I truly am.”
My pulse slammed in my neck, and clutching the vest to her chest, Maddie looked up. “Take us home, Flame. I have the need to make love to my husband. I want to be as close to you as I can possibly get tonight. I want to cement this union. I want us to be one.”
*****
I panted, out of breath, my skin slick with sweat. Maddie opened her eyes, her cheeks flushed with red, the green of her eyes bright next to the flames from the fire.