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If he hadn’t saved her, again and again, her blaze might’ve consumed everything.
But he never tried to extinguish her. He simply made sure sheburned smarter. Brighter. Together, they were a force no storm could shake. She turned to him now, breath caught in her throat. "It’s… beautiful, Quinn,” he said softly. “That doesn’t even touch what you’ve created. I always saw this in you. But you’ve crushed my expectations.”
She stepped closer, tears caught in her lashes.
“I love you, Kade. Where my fire meets your water, like a wave cooling the burning sand.” She smiled, soft and fierce. “You were the ash that whispered,rise, when I didn’t think I could anymore.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, grounding herself in the strength that had always been hers, even when she fought it.
“I want your child, Kade. Planted deep inside me. A symbol of this fire we forged together of our commitment, our family, our future.”
His chest heaved, voice ragged. “Quinn,” he breathed. “I love thefuckout of you. I’ll give you whatever’s in my power. If it isn’t, I’llmakeit so.”
She trembled, pulling back just enough to meet his eyes, whiskey fire and sea-glass calm, crashing in perfect balance.
“Come on, my phoenix,” he said, lips curling. “I’ve got a hotel room and I want to watch you burn.”
Their future wasn’t built on perfection. It was built on fire and water, rage and forgiveness, ruin and rebirth. Through grief, through fury, through a thousand almosts, they had found their always.
It was over the moment he looked at her and said,“You worked your ass off for that degree.”That quiet, unwavering belief.
She never stood a chance.
Dagger’s integrity was lethal.
He didn’t just protect her body. He guarded herworth. Even when she couldn’t see it.
Now, she saw everything. She kissed him again, fierce and claiming. “Oh no, my love,” she whispered. “I’m going to set water on fire.”
The house was quiet.For once. The kind of stillness that came only after chaos. Bath toys had been cleared, the twin boys tucked under superhero blankets, the dinosaur shampoo crisis averted. Ezra had curled into a corner of his pillow, one leg hanging off his small bed, while Elijah sprawled like a starfish across his. Their breathing was soft and steady, little chests rising and falling in a rhythm that soothed something deep in Dagger’s bones.
He stood in the doorway, shirt damp, hair dripping from the splash zone, a plastic stegosaurus still suctioned to his arm. He hadn’t noticed it. He didn’t care.
Quinn stood beside him, arms crossed, wearing one of his oversized shirts, her curls frizzed from the bath steam and exhaustion written all over her face. She was working hard, her firm thriving under her leadership, and had landed another huge contract. She looked like hell.
She looked perfect.
His chest tightened as he watched her gaze soften on their boys.Her boys.His boys.Theirs.
He had no idea when it had happened, this shift inside him. He’d always believed his job was to keep people safe by staying detached. Focused. Sharp.
But this woman… she’d undone him.
Not with force. Not with fire.
With love. Quiet. Steady. Unrelenting.
Now, watching her in that soft hallway light, worn and beautiful and utterly his, he couldn’t hold it anymore.
He stepped away from the doorway. Dropped to both knees at her feet. No fanfare. No ring. Just the full weight of everything he was, offered without armor. Quinn’s breath hitched. “Kade…”
He looked up at her, hands resting on his thighs, heart hammering like he was about to breach a compound, not ask a woman to marry him. But maybe this was the bigger leap. Because this time, he wasn’t protecting her. He was surrendering to her. “Marry me,” he said quietly. Roughly. Every word pulled from somewhere deeper than he’d ever let anyone see.
Before he could say anything else, before he could even breathe, she dropped to her knees with him, cupped his face in her hands, and said the words that would live in his soul forever.
“You kissed me like a wrecking ball. I knew it from the start as everything inside me came undone.” Her voice was a hushed storm, low, tremulous, but steady with the kind of truth that left no room for doubt. Emotion wove through every word, cracking slightly at the edges like something long held back finally set free. “You effortlessly captured my heart against my will, ruining me before I even realized I belonged to you. All the while, you tried to hold back with your quiet, soul-wrenching integrity that only pushed me right into the fall.” Her features softened as she spoke, the sharp lines of pain giving way to something luminous, eyes shimmering with unshed tears, lips trembling with the weight of revelation. “But it wasn’t just your kiss that changed me. It was everything… it was you. The healing. The anchoring. The way your gravity pulled me out of the ruins and into something whole again.” Her voice went so soft. “I didn’t realize then that the free fall wasn’t chaos. It was flight. Somehow, impossibly, I landed in love.”
He was wrecked. Completely, thoroughly, irrevocably wrecked. His throat locked down. He couldn’t speak. He could barely breathe. He pulled her to him, wrapped her in his arms, pressed his forehead to hers. When he finally found his voice, it was a broken whisper.