Strong arms wrapped around my waist from behind. Before I could so much as squeak, I was off my feet and being spun around the backstage area.
Roadies rushed around us, jumping straight into breaking down the stage and packing up equipment. The Rhiannon guys were wrapped up in their women while the men of The Brightside and Candlemakers made plans to hit up an off-licence before we barricaded ourselves in the buses for a twelve-hour journey to New Orleans and our next stop.
No one batted an eyelid at the guitarist using me as his personal merry-go-round.
“You have to stop, I’m going to knock someone over,” I shouted, my voice tinged with laughter.
Chuckling, James set me on my feet and spun me around to face him. The area swayed and for a moment I saw double. Hands gripped my shoulders firmly while James’s sheepish face sharpened into focus.
“Sorry, I got carried away.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the buzzed gleam in his eyes. Restless energy seeped from him and his fingers twitched against my sides, desperate to pick up a guitar and do it all over again.
“You were great out there.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, linking my fingers.
Grinning, he dragged his thumb across my lower lip. “I had some pretty fantastic inspiration.”
“You’ve got me, you can turn off the charm.” I laughed, but James turned serious. His grip on my waist tightened.
“No matter how many years we have, I’ll never stop appreciating you.” His fingers danced across my cheek. That awed light I loved to capture on stage shone in his eyes as he considered me. “You’re my endgame, my only love, and I intend to make sure you never doubt it again.”
“That’s a pretty hefty promise.” I grinned up at him, my mind free of doubts.
Before James could respond, Lily bounced up to us with a bottle of water in her hands. Her hair stuck to her head, the strands darkened with sweat. She wore a huge grin and combined with her sparkly costume, she resembled a mad hatter.
“Did you ask her?” she asked, clutching the bottle dangerously tight. Her eyes were huge as they skittered between us.
I turned back to James with an expectant quirk of my brow. Did he ask me what?
James scowled at Lily. “I was getting there!”
Lily’s grin faltered. “Oops.”
She glanced around the space, searching for something to catch her attention. She fixed on Alys who was clutching Ryan’s hand. Her eyes were fixed on James and me. In fact, everyone was watching us. They were trying to be discrete about it, but now that I’d noticed, it struck me as odd. We’d all normally be pilling into the green room by now, chased from the stage by the swarming roadies.
What the hell?
“I’ll just — I’ll be over here.” She danced away after throwing James an apologetic look. Alys chuckled as she approached.
“Who needs meddling mothers when you’ve got meddling cousins,” James muttered, glaring at Lily across the busy space. He took in our audience and his scowl jumped up a notch. “Don’t you lot have somewhere to be?”
The question was met with a chorus of no and their grins widened. Some of them crossed their arms, staring him down.
“Shall we get out of here?”
I had barely nodded before he was gathering my camera bag and ushering me through a fire door. We stepped into a white hallway and he threaded his fingers through mine. The door slammed shut behind us, cutting off Lily’s protests.
“You’re going to pay for that later.”
“You mean we’re going to pay. Twelve hours on a bus. If we’re lucky Lily will be stuck on the other.”
I eyed him as he led me down the deserted hall. The only sound was the slap of our shoes against the shiny concrete floor. His gaze was fixed in front while he set a gruelling pace.
“Gonna tell me what Lily was talking about?”
He stopped in his tracks, dropping my hand. He paced in front of me, pulling at his short hair. “You’re going to make me do this here?”
“I don’t know what it is you’re doing, so I can’t really say.” I was grinning and not bothering to smother it. “Is it not an echoey hallway type of question?” I hadn’t seen him in this fidgety, agitated state in a while.
“Keep laughing, and one day I’ll ask you to marry me on stage,” he muttered, his voice low.
As threats went, it was a pretty harmless one. He just sang a bloody song about me to seventy-thousand fans.
With my grin firmly fixed in place, I nodded. “So it’s not a proposal question.”
He sighed. His hands fell to his hips as he studied me. “You’re not nearly as fazed by that statement as I was expecting.”
I crossed my arms, ignoring his fishing expedition. He mirrored my actions, quirking his brows in a weird and pointless standoff. He wanted something from me after all.
My silence won out. Smiling, his hand landed on my hip as he pulled me closer. I tilted my head back so that I could keep track of his flighty emotions.
“Sorry. Lily just took me by surprise. I should have known better, but that’s another issue.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking. It’ll be a while before we’re home, but we’ve waited so long for this, and we’re getting on really well sharing space on the bus. We haven’t had any major arguments and —”
“Just when you got drunk and woke me with your screeching.”
His smile fell flat. “I was trying to serenade you.”
“It was off key, and three in the morning.”
“Point taken. Other than that, things are going pretty well, and I really like waking up next to you. I don’t want that to stop when we go home.”
His expression begged me to read between the lines and put him out of his misery. A vulnerable edge entered his eyes and I almost reached out to smooth the crease from his brow.
Almost.
I was enjoying him sweating too much to actually do it. I bit my lip and widened my eyes, signalling for him to continue.
He blew out a breath and his shoulders sagged. “Why do you have to make this so hard?”
“You’re the one asking important questions.”
He growled. His fingers tightened against my waist and I could read the desire to shake me in his expressive eyes. “Will you move in with me?”
“Into my house?” I said, my voice deadpan. He pulled a face as he confirmed. “Shouldn’t I have been asking the question then?”
His head fell to my shoulder. He used it to thump his forehead and I shook with barely restrained laughter.
“I’d love it if you moved in,” I whispered, putting him out of his misery.
His body froze as he processed my quiet words. “Did I hear that right?”
I leaned back, trying to see his face. “You actually thought I’d say no?”
James straightened up and his hands slipped into my hair. “I never know what you’re going to do, so yeah, I thought it was a possibility.”
“Unbelievable.”
“You can’t take it back.”
“I’m not going to take it back!”
“Good, ‘cause I wouldn’t have let you.”
I stared at his grinning face with narrowed eyes. “You’re crazy.”
“You’re only now figuring this out?”
His arm wrapped around my waist and I found myself spinning again. This time, I didn’t protest. I threaded my fingers behind his neck and tightened my grip, trusting him to stop me taking out an unsuspecting roadie.
