I always got this rush of energy, this adrenaline boost when I knew my girl—my wife—was watching me. I dodged the punch and delivered an uppercut before my opponent could react. He went down like a ton of fucking bricks.

The crowd went wild, absolutely insane, and I loved it. I sucked that shit in. I felt myself get more pumped up because of it.

I breathed hard, my chest rising and falling, my body heating, and my heart racing. Glancing over at Roxie, I saw that her smile was wide. My girl was happy I’d won.

I’d put two big motherfuckers on either side of her. If she insisted on coming to the fights when she was seven months pregnant with our son, I didn’t want any fuckers to mess with her.

I let the rush of the crowd, my trainer, my fellow fighters, all congratulate me. But my focus was on the one person who meant more to me than life itself. I stared at Roxie, held her gorgeous gaze with mine, and made sure she knew that no matter what, even amid chaos, she was what I focused on.

I pushed past everyone, made my way out of the ring, and embraced my girl. She was mine, always would be, always had been.

The feel of her rounded belly pressing against me had my heart racing. God, I loved her, so fucking much it hurt.

When I pulled back, I cupped her face, leaned down, and kissed her. She was the reason I lived, why I breathed.

Without Roxie I was nothing, and I’d prove that to her every single day for the rest of my life.

I led her away from the crowd, into the back room, and shut the door.

Once the door was shut behind us, I embraced her, had my hand on her hair, holding her close, keeping her head right over my heart. God, I loved her, would die for her, kill for her.

“You feeling okay?”

She nodded, her hands around my waist, her warm breath skating along my bare chest. I was sweaty, but it was clear she didn’t care. I didn’t either. I wanted my scent on her, marking her, like I was some kind of fucking animal.

I pulled back and dropped to my knees, cupping her rounded belly, feeling our son kick. I looked up, grinning, feeling like I had the whole fucking world in the palm of my hands.

“I love you,” I said and leaned in to kiss her. “I love you so much my heart hurts, my blood rushes through my veins, and the very earth quakes beneath me every time you’re near.” I felt her hands in my hair, pulling lightly at the strands. I tipped my head back, seeing the smile on her face, the same one that always stopped me in my tracks.

“I love you.”

I stood, embraced her, and just let everything sink in.

I was kind of crazy, a whole lot brutal in the ring, but when it came to the one I loved, my best friend, my wife and soul mate, and the future mother of my children, she was my queen.

For her I’d level the world just so she had a clear path. That’s how it would always be.

* * *

My world.

Everything in this room was what I’d die for.

Madden, our son, called out for me, and I smiled, scooping him in my arms when he ran to me.

“Come on, honey,” Roxie said, taking Madden from me. “Bedtime, big boy.”

“We’ll play trains or trucks or whatever you want tomorrow, buddy,” I said and ruffled his blond hair.

Leena, our two-year-old daughter, started crying, and I got up and went to her room. She sat up in her toddler bed, her darker hair mussed, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong, princess?”

“Dweam,” she whispered.

I scooped her up, cradling her little body to mine, and took her out to the living room. I sat on the couch with her, listening to her little voice replay her dream despite the fact I wasn’t sure of half the stuff she was saying.

Madden came barreling out of the hallway, this grin on his face as he jumped on the couch.

“Tell us a story, Daddy.”

I glanced over at Roxie, who leaned against the wall, a smile on her face.

I wanted my wife with me. I wanted her close. Holding my hand out, I gestured her over.

“Okay, one story but then it’s bedtime.”

Leena and Madden both nodded.

I pulled Roxie in close to me, smelling the sweet scent that always surrounded her and feeling at home. In five years much had changed. Roxie worked part-time at a firm handling business contracts. And I now trained other boxers at the gym where I used to fight.

But what hadn’t changed was my love for her.

I smiled at my wife, feeling like I was the luckiest bastard in the world.

There was nothing more important to me than my wife and our children.

And I’d make sure that there was so much love in this house we suffocated from it.

I’d make sure there was never a day where they questioned that.