MARRYING THE ROCKSTAR (#3 ROCKSTAR SERIES)

♪ one ♪

A brisk Parisian night, a lavish, royalty-like trip—that was what happened when one traveled with rockstars.

So there I was, at the top of the Eiffel Tower, Paris' lights sprinkling all around me, a gentle wind breezing through my tresses, no noise but my breaths coming out of me in nervous spurts.

Because the man of my dreams was on one knee before me.

Proposing.

Leo Lee, rockstar of my heart, wet dream of women and men and enbys around the world...was proposing to me.

I couldn't move. Could barely breathe.

Was this real?

Teenage-me would have been screaming. She'd have smacked both her cheeks and pinched herself three times and started running from one end of the Eiffel Tower's third floor to the other, laughing and crying and laughing harder. Teenage-me never would have imagined this in a million years; never would have even thought it possible to get close to this crooning, wooing rockstar. Never in her wildest fantasies had she even pictured it.

But the difference between teenage-me and current-me was maturity. Perhaps too much maturity, because I still couldn't comprehend this or put into words what I was feeling.

Because I didn't know what I was feeling.

Leo had reserved this entire place—the damn Eiffel Tower, for crying out loud—for us. For privacy. So he could surprise me; no, utterly shock me by sliding down to his knee and whipping out a velvet box with a gorgeous ring inside.

And that ring was gorgeous. Not that I knew how to recognize diamonds and their sizes or their value, but this one was...large. I assumed it was several carats, sprinkled with rubies and sapphires, and a thin, rose gold band. It was a tad bigger than what I'd normally wear, but it was something I might have picked out for myself had I been shopping with Leo.

Had I known he was planning this. Had we talked about it, agreed on it first. Had this even been in the realm of possible.

I never mentioned marriage to him, ever. In fact, I rarely even mentioned it to myself. I didn't have a wedding mood-board like many women my age did, nor had I thought about colors or dresses or venues. I didn't have my ideal bridal party picked out, no playlists of songs to walk down the aisle to, no notion of what my bouquet would look like, or what my cake would taste like.

Marriage wasn't something I'd often thought about; not that I didn't want to, I just didn't see it happening to me any time soon.

But it appeared that Leo Lee had decided otherwise.

"Leo..." That was all I managed to say as heat spread over my cheeks. As my heart swelled in my chest, then melted, then swelled again. I was going through the motions, wave after wave of questions, answers I couldn't quite put together yet.

But he remained in position, his smile not faltering, his eyes wide and inquisitive. Waiting. Desperate for an answer; desperate for the answer.

Yes.

How long had he been planning this? How much time and money had he put into it? Who else knew about it, and had anyone helped him? The ring—surely someone in my entourage had given him hints, right? Yes, it was big, but it was my style.

And he'd done it all without consulting me first, all while presuming I'd crumble and cry and immediately say yes.

And I should have. I would have, had we conversed about it, had I had more time to digest the possibility. Teenage-me was battering inside my chest, begging me to speak, to utter the one simple word that would reshape my entire future right there and now.