“No, but I can end a show with this.” Cash grabs his nearby guitar. “If you’re not up for it. We should do something else.”
I nod. “Cash, you go out there. Finish with an acoustic song you can sing by yourself. The others can go back to the dressing room and get ready to leave to go to the hotel. I wouldn’t mind taking Seb to the hospital to have him checked out.”
“What? I don’t need a hospital.”
I glare at him. “Yes, you do. I thought I was going to lose you.” My voice cracks, but I can’t help it.
Seb shakes his head. “Never.”
My nose tingles, and my eyes hurt because I almost lost him. One tiny mistake by the crew, and I could’ve lost him forever.
Now more than ever, I know I don’t want to have this ring around my neck. It belongs on my finger, Seb belongs at my side, and as if reading my very thoughts, Seb leans forward and cups my face with his callused hands.
“Some people say that your life flashes before your eyes before you die, but all I could see was your face. You. It’s not the band or fame or groupies, it’s you.” He runs his finger under the chain around my neck and untucks it from my shirt. “I’ve been trying to be patient, Thorne, but every day you make it harder and harder to remind myself it’s too soon.”
My hand covers his. “Me too,” I admit.
“And after that?” His brown eyes pierce through me, cutting into my soul. “Why are we waiting?”
The answer to that is I really don’t know.
So here I am, already on my knees before him, with a ring in his hand. So I blurt out what I’ve been holding in ever since we got to Australia.
“Marry me?”
“Fuck yes. It’s about damn time.”
“We’ve been dating for two months,” I point out. “By society’s standards, this is fast.”
“It’s been so much longer than two months. I just didn’t know it. I love you with everything that I am, and I think I have for a long time.” Seb’s lips brush against mine. “Besides, by celebrity standards, this is slow.”
“Well, you are a celebrity.”
“I’d give it up in a heartbeat if you asked me to.”
“I would never do that. You are this life.” And it’s one of the reasons I love him. The fact he wanted to give his fans more even though he could’ve been seriously injured just now … it speaks to my inner workaholic, and I find it an extremely attractive trait for him to have.
“You’re more important,” Seb says. “I honestly didn’t know how I was going to be a good boyfriend or if I was even relationship material, but with you, I haven’t even had to think about it. I want you there by my side when I go to sleep and when I wake up. I want you to be the one to drag me out of bed when I have media to face or songs to write. I want to be yours.”
“Be mine. Forever.”
Seb smiles his trademark smirk. “I wouldn’t settle for anything less.”