“We can wait until you’re ready—”
“Babies are good.” My voice was a squeak. “This is…” I dropped my head to my hands, pressing my thumbs into the corners of eyes. It was unreal. I couldn’t make sense of it. He had to have lost his mind, and I was there hunting mine alongside him, because I was actually considering this insanity. I opened my eyes and looked back at him.
“I’ll do this on one condition.”
His eyes narrowed. “What?”
“This is not real. I am not going to hold you to this. Your mother’s ring…I’ll take good care of it,” I said carefully. “For when you change your mind. For when you want it back.”
He looked at me then, and there was a solemnity in the depths of his eyes that shook me. “I won’t be needing it back,macushla. Once I put this ring on your finger, that’s it. You’re mine.”
“I would understand. It’s a ruse. A fabrication to save both our lives.”
“It is a ruse.” He pulled the ring from the box and held it between his thumb and forefinger. It was a faded silvery-gold color, with intricately carved celtic knots set alongside a large emerald stone. “It’s also the realest thing I’ve ever done. Do you understand what I’m saying,macushla?”
“This is crazy.” Anxiety curled in my stomach, despite his earlier words. I wanted it too badly to believe it was real. “I promise, Brodie—I won’t hold you when you find the woman you want to spend your life—”
“Emery.” He shook his head. “I meant what I said. It doesn’t make sense, and it is crazy. That aside, I want this to be real. I won’t want to get out of it. When I put this ring on your finger, you need to know it’s for keeps. Do you understand?”
He picked up my left hand and held my ring finger between his thumb and middle finger.
My hand trembled in his grasp.For real. For keeps.He was offering me everything. His name and all that went along with it. Protection. Passion. His future bound irrevocably to mine. Could I do this? Did I even want to do this? It was utterly insane. I’d known him a matter of weeks.
And yet, I liked him. Was stupid attracted to him. I’d given him my trust. My body. What else was there? I could do this. I attempted a nod, but it emerged as a quasi-bobble of my head on my neck. Brodie’s grip tightened.
“I need to hear you say you understand, Emery.”
I would be his, not for a minute but for a lifetime. I would eat with him, argue with him, sleep with him, and maybe…hopefully…have children with him one day. He would be my Kidnapper. I would be hismacushla.
I closed my eyes.
“I understand.”
The ring slid home on my finger. It was done.
