An hour later we arrived at our destination, and Madison turned to me in surprise after she got off the bike and removed her helmet. “We haven’t been here for ages,” she said softly.
I ran my thumb over her cheek. “Yeah, thought it was time.”
Her face slowly broke out in a smile. I got off the bike and grabbed her hand, and led her to the clearing. The view from Mt Glorious always stunned me. I could sit here for hours just staring at the view and thinking about shit. I moved behind her, put my arms around her and leant my chin on her shoulder. We didn’t say a word; didn’t need to. This was our place and all we needed was each other and the silence.
Eventually, I murmured, “I love you, Madison Cole.”
I couldn’t see it, but I could hear the smile in her voice when she said, “I love you too, Jason Reilly.”
I moved my arms so that I could turn her around to face me. My eyes searched hers and I dipped my head and kissed her. Slowly. Deeply.
We pulled apart, and I said gruffly, “This is where I decided to make you mine.”
She nodded. “I know, baby.” Her hand rested on my chest, and I moved my hand around to rest on her ass. She smiled at that; she couldn’t get enough of that, and neither could I. I knew I never would.
“This is where I’m gonna make sure you’re mine forever.”
Her eyes widened and her face flushed with colour.
I kept one hand on her ass and with the other, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the little blue box I’d been carrying around for fucking weeks. Reluctantly, I had to move my hand off her ass because I needed it to open the box. I flipped the lid to reveal a diamond ring that cost me a small fucking fortune.
Her breathing had picked up and her chest was rising and falling fast. And there was a huge fucking smile on her face.
“Baby, will you make me the happiest fucker on this planet by marrying me?”
She grabbed the ring off me and shoved it straight on her finger, then jumped up into my arms and wrapped herself around me. After she kissed me hard, she breathed out, “Yes.”
I held onto her for a little while longer and then let her down. “Thank fuck,” I said.
She frowned slightly. “You knew I’d say yes, right?”
“Sometimes you make me work for it, babe, so I wasn’t sure if today would be one of those occasions.”
She held up her hand with the ring on it. “J, I’d say you nailed it with this baby,” she said, grinning, but then her face took on a serious look, “There’s no way I was ever saying no to you. I wasn’t letting you go again. We’re a forever deal now, okay?”
“Trust me, sweetheart, you haven’t got a hope in hell of ever getting rid of me.”
“Ditto,” she said.
She reached out and hugged me, and I let my hands run up and down her body. And I decided I really was the happiest fucker on Earth right now.
Chapter 9
Madison
“Show me that ring!” Harlow exclaimed, grabbing my hand. “Oh my God, it’s huge! And how did he know that you love Tiffany rings?”
Before I could answer, Brooke wandered into the kitchen where we were, and interjected, “I might have had something to do with that. Not that I realised it at the time, but I was browsing the Tiffany website one day when J was at my house. I casually mentioned something about you loving a particular ring. Remember, you showed it to me once?”
I nodded. “Yes, I do remember. Thank God for that! And shit, he actually paid attention to what you said.” I was so impressed with J at the moment, and he was reaping the rewards of that; we’d had so much sex last night and this morning that I wasn’t sure I had the energy to get through this party.
“Where’s the birthday boy?” Brooke asked.
I pointed towards the backyard. “He’s out there.” I squinted to try and see where he was but I couldn’t find him. “I think he’s out there.”
“Cool, I’ll go in search of,” she said, and left us to it.
“So, I saw Nash here,” Harlow said, surprise in her voice, “I wasn’t sure that J would invite him.”
“Yeah, me either. That’s still a touchy subject but I’ve told J once and for all that he needs to get that shit under control. He seems to be working on it.”
“Scott said, and I quote his words, ‘It’s a lot fucking easier to work with those assholes when they’re not being dicks’”.
I laughed. “Yeah, I bet he did.”
The back door slid open and Nash graced us with his presence. He grinned at us. “My two favourite girls.”
“What will you call us once you find a woman, Nash?’ I teased him.
“Never gonna happen, sweet thing, so we’re all good.”
“I hope it does happen for you, Nash. She’d be a lucky woman,” Harlow said.
He beamed at her. “Means a lot, babe. Now, have either of you seen Griff? It’s his fuckin’ birthday and none of us can find the fucker.”
“No, I thought he was out the back with you guys,” I said.