Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
He chuckled, the sound a low rumble against my neck. “Ye of little faith,” he tsked. “You don’t think I can deliver a swoony proposal speech.”
“I just—”
“Woman,” he said, cutting me off with a squeeze of his hands at my hips. Then, the bastard nipped at my earlobe, making my eyelids flutter when he lowered his voice even more and growled in my ear. “Shut up and let me inspire your next song.”
I wanted to roll my eyes.
I wanted to scoff and shove him off me and tell him he was dreaming if he thought I’d ever put any of this in a song.
But I was too busy trying not to spin out of orbit, my fingers curled around the metal bar at the bow so tightly my knuckles were white. My entire body responded to his hands on me, to his voice in my ear, to the words still echoing long after he said them.
Damn him for being so good at pretending, for making it look so easy.
Damn him for making it impossible for me.
“Alright, lovebirds,” Isabella called from where she was hiding out of sight in the main salon. The door was open so she could talk to us — and so Giana could sneakily get the video from a stew’s point of view. “I just got confirmation that we’re in good sight. Fire away, Romeo.”
Aleks took a long, deep breath, letting it out slowly as he thumbed my skin where he held my hips. He did it again, this time, waiting for me to do it with him.
“Breathe, Strings,” he said in my ear. “I’m right here with you.”
On our next exhale, Aleks released me, keeping one hand on the small of my back as he slid up beside me. He leaned an elbow on the metal bar, then his hand trailed up to sweep my hair back from my face, and he cradled my neck, waiting for me to face him.
My heart cracked when I did.
He was so brutally handsome, it was like a fist straight to the gut when I looked at him. It was the wildest phenomenon, to see him both as the rugged man he was standing before me and also as the quiet, reserved boy who’d first stolen my heart all those years ago. I knew no matter what happened next between us, no matter who he dated or who I married or where our careers took us — I would always be able to close my eyes and see him.
I would always feel him like he was a part of me.
Aleks stared at me for a long moment, his throat constricting as he thumbed my jaw line, his brown eyes almost golden in the setting sun where they traced every inch of my face. He wet his lips, shaking his head a bit.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said softly.
I knew Giana was filming, so I leaned into his palm, telling myself it was all for show even as my stomach tightened and my knees grew weak.
“And I don’t just mean your eyes, or your hair, or your lips,” he said louder, loud enough for Giana to pick up with her phone. He tapped my bottom lip with that comment, smirking. “Although I do love these lips. These are the kind of lips that could launch a thousand ships, as they say.”
I couldn’t fight the way my lips curled.
This poor kid.
He was going to crash and burn trying to give this speech.
“I could go on and on about everything that makes you gorgeous — your dimple, your beauty mark, your legs, your smile. But all of that is… to be frank, Mia, it’s so fucking boring compared to what really makes you beautiful.”
I arched a brow at that, and he smiled, shaking his head before he was pulling me to face him more squarely, his eyes searching mine.
I wished I’d worn my sunglasses out here now.
I wished I had something to hide behind, with how he was staring right through me.
“It’s your heart, and your soul,” he said, swallowing. “It’s how music lives within you even when you don’t intend for it to. It’s how you light up every room you walk into, how you love your family and your friends so fiercely. It’s the way you laugh, the way you cry, the way you open yourself to feeling every emotion life has to offer, never running from them even when I know they hurt.
“It’s the way you share that pain with the world, the way you embrace being vulnerable and ask us all to be brave enough to do the same. It’s the way you fight for what’s right, for your voice to be heard, for all voices to be heard.”
His brows bent together, and he wet his lips, pausing for a moment like he wanted everything he said to be perfect.