64. Ember
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
EMBER
I can’t stop crying.
It doesn’t matter what I do, how hard I try, the tears won’t stop.
Rough sobs make my chest and throat hurt, and no amount of soothing from Max or Orion seems to help.
Everything feels like too much right now. The sun. The stupid dress. Every bump in the road. It’s overwhelming, and instead of vocalizing it, I just cry.
“It’s okay, Em. We’re almost there. Almost home,” Max says soothingly.
Home.
A week ago, I was contemplating where that truly was for me, but now I know it’s not a place.
It’s not the house with the white picket fence I always dreamed of growing up.
It’s not the apartment I shared with my brother, or the penthouse where I fell in love with Orion.
It’s not in Las Vegas with Max and Darius like I thought it was.
No. Orion is my home. He’s the steady warmth I never knew I needed, and I hope he meant it when he said nothing would take him from me, because I’m not sure I’d survive truly losing him.
The sun disappears as he navigates the truck into the parking lot beside the SUV I’m used to seeing him drive.
He turns his body to face us, and before I’ve made the conscious decision to do so, I throw myself across the cab, wrapping my entire body around him awkwardly.
Orion catches me, burying his face in my neck and growling when he smells Lucas on me. But that only seems to make him hold me tighter, like he can’t get close enough to me. A problem I empathize with because I feel it too.
If I could crawl beneath his skin, I’m pretty sure I would.
There’s a tearing sound that startles me until I see Max hacking into the tulle with a knife he pulled from…somewhere.
He works diligently until a mountain of fabric falls to the floorboard and I can move my legs without having to kick it out of the way.
“I’ll give you two a minute. I’ll meet you upstairs,” he says softly before wrapping his arms around my back for a beat. “I’m so glad you’re safe, Em. We’ve been going out of our minds.”
A fresh wave of tears falls, and I reach back to squeeze Max’s hand.
He closes the door carefully behind him, probably trying not to startle me, and then I’m left alone with Orion.
He tugs me harder against him, and I go willingly. “Fuck, Little Flame. You had me so fucking scared. I didn’t think I was afraid of anything until I almost lost you.”
I press my lips to his throat, needing to feel him. “You almost died,” I whisper.
“No, I didn’t.” He chuckles. “We knew it was rigged when we went in. We set it off on purpose once we were safe, so Lucas would bring you out, and we had a chance to save you.”
“Oh my god, Elsie. Is she okay?”
He nods. “She’s upstairs with Darius. She helped us as much as she could.”
I relax against him, relieved to hear she made it to safety.
“Don’t think you won’t be getting the punishment of your life for giving her a chance to run instead of yourself.”
My body stiffens, but not from fear. Orion would never hurt me, and I know he’s not angry at me. But because of the reason I did that, I haven’t allowed myself to think it through. “She had something to fight for,” I murmur. “And I thought my reason was gone.”
A deep rumble vibrates in Orion’s chest as he buries his face in my throat. “Fuck, Little Flame.”
“I love you,” I whisper. “I love you so much. And all I could think the whole time was that I never told you. I never gave you those three words, and I thought it was going to be the greatest regret of my life.”
Orion grips the hair at the base of my head and pulls me back to look me in the eyes.
The dark pools swirl with barely contained anger and love, but only one of those things is for me.
“I love you with every single beat of my heart, Ember. You are my everything. My queen. My woman. My Little Flame. Without you, I would be so beyond lost.”
He leans across the car and, in the process, tips me backward, but he holds onto me, making sure I don’t fall as he reaches for something.
It’s not until it’s wedged between us that I realize it’s a ring box, and my entire world stops. I know without a shadow of a doubt that there will be two very distinct times in my life. Before this moment, and after.
“Orion,” I whisper, my fingers covering my mouth as if it’ll do anything to stop a fresh wave of tears from falling.
“I bought this ring the morning after the first time we met for real. I was thinking about it for months. Every single day after the accident, in fact, but it wasn’t until that night in the dark at the club that I knew for sure that you would be my wife one day.
” He leans forward, pressing a gentle kiss to the corner of my mouth.
“It’s been really fucking hard not asking every single day, but I knew there’d be the right time, and I’d know when it was upon me. ”
“And you thought right after rescuing me was the right time?” I tease.
He shakes his head. “No. There are probably a million other times I could do this that would be more appropriate, but I can’t go another second without you having my ring on your finger.”
“Being appropriate is overrated.”
He chuckles and drops his forehead to mine. “Will you marry me, Ember? Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
I nod before he’s even finished speaking, because there’s no other answer. Orion is everything I never knew I needed, and I’m done denying that.
The ring box pops open, and I gasp when the stone comes into view. The sapphire sitting in a bed of diamonds is the same color as my eyes, and a sob rises up my throat of its own accord.
“I saw this and knew it was perfect for you,” he explains as he plucks it from the cushion and carefully guides it onto my finger.
“I’m covered in blood,” I say, my eyes wide with terror at the idea that such a beautiful ring could get dirty.
Orion chuckles. “The blood of our enemies. Kind of romantic, if you think about it.”
I hit his chest weakly before pressing a kiss to his lips. “I can’t wait to be your wife.”
He groans and tugs me closer. “Don’t say things like that when people are waiting for us and you’ve had a traumatic few days. My dick doesn’t seem to understand it’s not the time for him to celebrate yet.”
The laugh that bubbles in my throat startles me. A few hours ago, I was afraid I would never laugh again, and now here I am in the arms of the man I love with his ring on my finger.
I guess I was fighting for something, after all.