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)
“And I can tell you right fucking now that yeah, some people are going to hate it. Some people are going to call it shit. But more people are going to love it, and connect with it, and play it on repeat, and see a little of themselves in every song. Because you didn’t hold back. You let yourself be raw and honest and true. And there’s nothing better than music that hits like that.”
“How can you be so sure?” I croaked.
At that, the corner of his mouth tilted up. His eyes flicked between mine for a long moment, the Adam’s apple in his throat bobbing hard.
“Because I felt it,” he admitted softly.
My heart was in a vise grip in my chest, struggling to beat as I read into those words. I wondered if he really did feel it. I wondered if he knew that so much of the music on this album was inspired by things he had made me feel.
Did he know that track two was about how I longed for him when I was with my first real boyfriend, how I wondered how Aleks would do it all differently if it were him as my man?
Did he know that tracks six and seven explored how angry I was with him for rejecting me, how I somewhat blamed him for my string of terrible boyfriends before I realized that it was me self-sabotaging all along?
Did he know the final track, titled “Windows,” was about how I couldn’t leave my doors open for him forever, but that I’d never be able to shut my window because I would always be hanging onto hope that maybe, one night, he’d crawl through it?
I wanted to ask him. I wanted to know if I was as transparent as I felt under his gaze right now.
But before I could speak even one word, Aleks wet his bottom lip, his eyes falling to my mouth.
God, the way he looked at me. The way he always had.
It made it impossible not to think he felt something even when I knew he didn’t.
He stepped closer, eliminating the little distance between us. My skin was hot to the touch at his proximity, at how his hand still cradled my face, how it seemed to shake a bit as his other hand hooked me at my waist.
“Aleks…”
“Mia.”
He tugged me into him, eliciting a muted gasp that got stuck in my throat as our bodies lined up flush against one another. I could feel my heart about to beat out of my ribcage, my chest rapidly rising and falling as I fought to steady my breathing.
I blinked, and saw us years ago — me on top of him, him pinning my hips to stop me, my mouth on track for his before he turned his chin and denied me.
But when I blinked again, I was in the present, where he wasn’t turning away.
The present, where he was angling his mouth for mine.
The present, where his fingers were curling in the fabric of my dress.
“There aren’t any cameras out here, you know,” I breathed. “You don’t have to pretend.”
That made him pause, the muscle in his jaw flexing hard as his gaze shot from my mouth to my eyes. He searched them, looking for… something.
And then the sliding glass door flew open.
“Oh! Look at you two, committing to the cause,” Isabella said, stepping onto the balcony barefoot with a bottle of champagne in one hand and two flutes clutched in the other. “You can ease up. I made sure no one can see us up here.”
Giana stepped through after her, holding two glass flutes of her own.
“Which is a good thing, since I’m pretty sure your publicist is about to shake this bottle of champagne and pour it over your tits like you’re in a rap star video,” G said on a laugh.
Aleks let out a strained breath that rumbled softly in his throat as he released me, stepping back so far I felt chills sweep over my body as if we were in the icy tundra instead of California.
Giana handed a glass to him as Isabella handed one to me, and she popped the bottle, pouring bubbles to the top for each of us.
“You fucking did it, bitch,” she said, shaking her head on a drunken smile. “The streams are insane. Social media is spiraling. It’s only been an hour and a half since the album dropped and I can already confidently tell you that this is the one.”
“People are crying downstairs,” Giana said, pausing a moment and blinking a few times to let that settle in. “Crying, Mia.”
As if my heart wasn’t unsteady enough, it now felt like a wobbly wagon on one precarious wheel, like it was about to fall out of my body and splat onto the floor at any moment.