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“I love you, Millie,” he growls. “I love you so much it hurts. I love you more than I ever knew I was capable of. I was so cold, colder than the deepest winter before I met you. But you’ve changed me. So there it is—I love you. I fucking love you.”
“I love you too,” I gasp. “Oh, God, I’m so glad you said it. I thought I might be crazy.”
“Oh, you are,” he smirks. “But so am I.”
With that he slides gracefully onto one knee, moving so fluidly for a man his size it’s almost difficult to believe. He reaches into his jacket pocket with his free hand and deftly opens the ring box, the ring carved out of winter dreams, the band ice silver and the diamond glittering like an icicle, inlaid with tiny snowflakes.
I gasp, tears pricking my eyes, my heart catapulting and a song of pure joy lighting up my insides.
“Millie Green, will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife?”
I squeal and jump around and somehow end up at the edge of the frozen lake before returning to him, no idea what I’m doing, fueled by the absolute craziness of the moment.
“Millie,” Markus chuckles. “Get over here and give me an answer, dammit.”
“Hmm,” I tease.
“You sassy fucking queen.”
“Yes, yes, of course, it’s yes, Markus!” I yell.
He takes the ring from the box and brings it to my hand. I put my ring finger out for him, welcoming the coolness of the piece of jewelry as a physical reminder that this is real, it’s happening.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper, holding it up to the sun. “When did you even get it?”
“The ring or the idea to marry you?” he says, rising to his feet and pulling me close to him, our bodies melting with heat, boiling hot against each other.
“Both,” I laugh.
“I got the idea to marry you one night when I found this lost dog on a dark road …”
“Seriously?” I whisper.
“Seriously,” he growls. “Maybe it scared me at first, but I knew it. You were the one for me. And when a man loves a woman as fiercely as I love you, he has to make his claim known to the world. Like in the wild when a lion claims his mate. You’re mine, Millie, and this ring shouts it loud and goddamn proud. I bought the ring the morning after the hotel. I just knew I had to make it official. I knew I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t.”
“I love you,” I say, standing on my tiptoes to reach my giant’s lips.
“I love you more,” he breathes huskily.EpilogueThree Weeks LaterMarkusI set another log on the stump and heft the ax, aiming and bringing it down with a satisfying thwack.
I purposefully use the arm that took the gunshot, because in the end a SEAL is a SEAL and I’m not going to let this injury tiny slow me down for even a few goddamn seconds.
I smile broadly as I work, the midday sun shining down. Lava sits just off to the side, watching me with his tongue hanging out, curiously tracking my movements.
Jackie and Millie are in town … doing something.
When I asked her this morning, she got this cute-as-hell look of mystery in her eyes.
“Maybe I’ll tell you later,” she said, tossing her hair in that way that makes it dance around her shoulders in a captivating heavenly whirl.
“We’ve got a lot to smile about, eh, boy?” I say, putting another log onto the stump. “Although, maybe you’ve got more to smile about than me right now.”
The day after the craziness with Finn, Lava somehow found his way onto the neighboring property half a mile up the forest and had his way with Juniper, a gorgeous Dalmatian female. She’s pregnant, and already Millie and I have agreed to take one of the pups.
Lava grins.
“I’m jealous,” I tell him, my chest becoming warm and light every time I think about Millie and I having children one day.
Whenever it happens, I’ll be ready.
I split the log and then turn at the sound of my Chevy, Millie guiding the old girl skillfully and coming to a stop just beyond where Lava and I wait.
Lava leaps to his feet and lopes up to Jackie when his owner steps from the car, and – with a secretive sort of smile – Jackie leads him inside.
I turn to my fiancé, wrapped up in her pink winter coat and her thick boots, and yet still curvy as a fucking treat for all that. Her smile shimmers as she approaches, her eyes flitting here and there.
“What is it?” I ask. “Millie?”
“It’s … good,” she says. “I’m just stunned.”
“Tell me.”
I feel my lips trying to tug into even more of a smile, a proper ear to ear grin, but I need to be careful because perhaps I’m misreading the situation.
