“I took you for granted first as a friend and then a lover. I’m arrogant, stupid, selfish and I don’t know what to do without you.”
Trey reached her and stopped two feet away. The crowd held their breath, watching real life drama unfold in front of them. Several women wiped away tears while the men shifted uncomfortably and their girlfriends looked at them expectantly.
“I don’t know how else to tell you I love you except to do it in the one thing you love the most.” He gestured at the empty stage behind him and his eyes were filled with desperation and determination. “You left and you made your point. I’m making mine now. I love you. I know what it means now and you know I never do anything half ass.”
There was a round of gasps and cheers as Trey went down on one knee and reached into his pocket and pulled out a beautiful ring. Gwen didn’t take her eyes from his and her awareness of their audience disappeared. She stared into his eyes and that ache she carried around for thirteen years eased. She was shaking so badly she couldn’t talk. She nodded instead and Trey erupted from the ground, grasped her face with his hands and kissed her. Gwen felt him shaking and his hands were damp with sweat.
Trey pulled away and threaded the ring on her finger. Gwen looked down and saw a huge princess cut diamond on a gleaming platinum band. Trey grabbed her hand and thrust it into the air so everyone could see and the crowd roared in approval.
“You’re all invited,” Trey shouted and dragged her to the exit door.
Trey led her through several back hallways and she jogged in her heels to keep pace with him. Somehow, he pushed her into a private elevator that opened onto a floor of the hotel. Trey didn’t say a word as he pulled her into his hotel room and locked the door behind them. He unstrapped the guitar from his back and set it on the couch and turned to her.
“You really mean it?” Gwen whispered.
Trey came towards her and she saw that his hair was soaked with sweat. He loosened the buttons on his shirt, tore off his jacket and tossed it on the floor. He glared at her with a mixture of fury and desire.
“You think I do this with every woman I’m with?” he snapped.
“It was very… dramatic,” Gwen conceded.
Trey’s hands tunneled into her hair as he kissed her. “I put everything into my performance tonight to convince you and then I see you trying to run away from me again. Why?”
“I didn’t know why you were doing it,” she admitted. “I didn’t want to assume…”
“Assume what?” he demanded. “Assume I was singing to you? Assume that I have feelings for you? Damn. You don’t get it, do you? I don’t think I’m in love with you, I am. I’ve accepted it and you have to too.”
Her lips twitched. “I do, huh?”
“Hell yes.”
“Angie told me you saw Natasha in my bus the last night of the tour. I called her because I wanted to talk to her about you.”
She stared at him. “Me?”
“I asked her why she didn’t tell me you loved me.”
Gwen felt her lips twitch and she couldn’t hold back a laugh. “She must have loved that.”
“I don’t know what she thought I called her for but she was pissed. She said a bunch of stuff that all came down to the fact that she knew all along that you had a great voice and she knew I would’ve been interested if I had known you loved me.”
“She said that?”
“As soon as I finished with her, I went looking for you and Angie told me what happened. I haven’t been able to find you and I’ve been going out of my mind!”
“What about your world tour?”
“We can do that after our honeymoon.” He pulled her into the bedroom. “The guitar’s yours. You forgot to claim it.”
Trey’s movements were jerky and uncoordinated as he stripped her and Gwen stared at him in surprise. He wasn’t the playboy now. His eyes were glazed with need for her and his agitation didn’t leave him until he slid inside of her, claiming her as his own again. He braced himself above her and stared down at her with such naked love on his face that Gwen cupped his face.
“It’s okay. I’m here,” she whispered.
“You’re going to marry me.”
“Yes.”
“I love you, Gwen. I think I always have. I’m so damn glad I caught you singing. It was the tipping point for me.”
Months of being apart culminated in a climax that left them weak and trembling. She stroked his back as he lay over her and she looked at the ring on her finger, which sparkled in the light that poured in from the Las Vegas lights.
“I can’t believe you did that in front of everybody.”
He raked his teeth over her neck. “I needed to make a statement.”
“You sure did.”
He raised his head to look down at her and brushed her hair back from her face. “I missed you. I can’t go through this again.”
“You won’t have to,” she promised.
A mischievous look crossed his face. “Did you see Natasha’s face?”
Gwen hooted with laugher as Trey covered her face in kisses.
Epilogue
Trey and Gwen married in White Mist on her parent’s fifty-first anniversary the following year. They had their ceremony on the same field which bloomed with flowers on a perfect Montana day. Oliver sang as Gwen walked down the aisle and her sisters, Barbie and Cassie dressed in peach colored dresses as her bridesmaids.
The townspeople of White Mist and hundreds of celebrities mingled and lounged beneath several large tents or on benches set around the field to take advantage of the scenery. Gwen thought she saw Carrie on the swing set in the distance and Angie was actually relaxing for once, staring out at the mountain range with purple stilettos. Johnny was late to the wedding but made his presence known when he went onto the dance floor with Regan Lee, whose husband scowled on the sidelines.
The day was filled with love, laughter and music which is all Gwen could ask for. Trey stood by her side most of the day and when he presented his legendary guitar to her with a flourish, her smile was a mile wide. That night, as they flew to a secret location for their honeymoon Trey twined their hands together.
“Do you want to sing on my world tour?” he asked.
She grimaced. “I don’t think my heart can take it.”
He shrugged easily. “You can do a show here and there when you feel like it. You don’t mind a life on the road?”
It was how she met and fell in love with him in the first place. She could write in whatever country, whatever city because home was wherever he was. “Not at all.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A. P. Jensen was born and raised in Kamuela, a small town on the Big Island of Hawaii. She spent several years on the mainland (Las Vegas and Austin) before moving home in November 2012 to pursue her writing career.
A. P. Jensen loves to read, write, travel and watch movies, listen to old-timer’s talk about the good old days and daydream. She has two dogs, Ali’i and Maile who are world travelers and tolerate the long hours she spends in front of the computer.
For upcoming releases visit her website and join her mailing list!
If you enjoyed the book please leave a review on Amazon!
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