Page 144 of Save Your Breath

“Marry me, Strings.”

He sang the words like the sweetest song, each syllable tickling my ears like the perfect string of notes. One hand held mine, the other held the ring, and his gaze was steady and sure, his beautiful, dark eyes watching me and waiting for an answer.

“I… I don’t understand.”

“Marry me,” he repeated. “Not for show, not for some stunt. For real.”

My mouth was dry, hand trembling where he held me. “I… we can’t. They’ll know. They’ll know it’s fake.”

“No, they won’t.”

“They’ll think we’re just doing it to save our asses.”

“They won’t, Mia,” he assured me, squeezing my hand. “Because there’s nothing fake about the way I love you.”

I couldn’t contain the small gasp those three words wrenched from me. I covered my mouth with a shaking hand, brows folding together.

“You heard me,” he said, as if he could read my mind, as if he could sense the disbelief rushing through me. “I love you, Mia. I’ve loved you for years. I loved you when you slept down the hall from me and when you rested your head a thousand miles away. I loved you when you weren’t mine to love, and I love you still. It’s not fake. It never has been.”

He looked down only long enough to place the ring at my fingertip, and then his eyes were on me again, waiting for permission.

“I meant every word I said on that yacht. I’ve meant every touch, every kiss. There’s nothing I want more in this world than for you to wear this ring, for it to mean you belong to me and I belong to you.” He swallowed, his voice cracking a bit when he added, “For you to be my wife.”

Fresh tears swelled in my eyes, blurring the beautiful image of this man on his knees for me.

“But only if you want this, too,” he added quickly. “If you let me have you, all of you… I’ll be everything I can be for you. I’ll be the best of myself, the version of me you’ve always seen under the dirt and grime. I can’t promise I’ll be everything you deserve, or that I’ll be the best man you’ve ever been with. But I can promise you that you’ll never know a day in this life without fierce, protective love. I can promise that I will care for you, put your dreams first, putyoufirst in every way. I’ll never try to contain you. I’ll never try to change you. I’ll always be right here, by your side, to cheer you on or push you to be better or hold you when you need to fall apart.”

He wet his lips, eyes dancing between mine.

“Even if they do think it’s fake at first, they won’t for long. Because when they see me bawling when you walk down the aisle to me, they’ll know. When they see how I watch you perform in a sold-out stadium, they’ll know. When they watch us grow old together, you the mother of my children and me stillthreatening to bury any motherfucker who dares to speak one ill word to you? They’ll know.”

I laughed a bit through my tears at that, shaking my head as I hung on to every word.

“And even if they never know, even if they always wonder,” Aleks continued. “We’ll know.Youwill know, Mia. You’ll never have to wonder. From this moment on, I will be yours entirely.” The corner of his lips quirked up. “To be honest, I always have been.”

He let out a shaky exhale, the speech done, and then he looked down to the ring and back up at me.

“So?”

“This… this is insane,” I whispered, but I was smiling, swiping away tears with my free hand.

“And genius.”

“Andabsurd.”

“You’ll be stuck with me.”

At that, I lowered to my knees, covering his hand with mine. “The only place I want to be.”

“Yeah?” Aleks’s eyes were filled with light and hope.

“Yeah,” I whispered, crying again, shaking my head and looking from him to the ring and back again. “I’m not getting a divorce,” I warned him sternly. “I mean it. If we do this—”

“I’d sooner walk away from a fight on the ice than ever let you go, Strings.”

I laughed, biting my lower lip as I searched him for any sign of this being a joke.

I found nothing.