Page 135 of Gathered Sparkle

She places the velvet box carefully on the floor, then stands and adjusts her dress, clearly trying to figure out how to straddle me with it on, but the fabric is too tight. She huffs, turns her back to me, and glances over her shoulder. “Unzip me?”

Jesus.

My pulse spikes again, nerves and heat flooding my blood. This isn’t what I meant when I suggested this, but there’s no way I’m saying no to Nova losing her clothes. “Uh… yeah. Sure.”

I reach for the zipper, the tips of my fingers brushing against her back as I slide it down slowly. The hum of the zipper fills the space, and she wiggles free, letting the pink dress drop to the floor as a pool of fabric. She steps out of it gracefully, leaving her in nothing but a tiny thong.

When she turns back to face me, my breath catches. Every dip, every curve of her body, is breathtaking. I knew her body by heart when we were younger, but this… this is something else entirely. This isn’t the girl I memorized. This is a woman, confident and impossibly stunning. My mouth waters just looking at her.

She smirks, clearly noticing the effect she’s having on me, and steps closer. “Like what you see?”

“More than you know.”

She comes to straddle me, and her sweet scent floods my senses. The second she settles on me, I feel the hard press of my cock against her, and fuck, it’s impossible to hide.

“I usually start with a good, long dance. To distract them. Keep their eyes on my chest and their blood away from their brain.”

“It’s absolutely working,” I mutter, my gaze flicking down to her breasts before returning to her face. She giggles, and it’s the sweetest, sexiest sound I’ve ever heard.

“You’re so damn beautiful,” I whisper, my hands instinctively moving to her hips, my thumbs drawing circles on her hipbones. “Even more than I remember.”

Her expression softens, and she leans in to kiss me, her lips brushing against mine with a tenderness that makes my chest ache. It’s the kind of kiss that soothes every frayed nerve, erasing the tension still lingering from earlier.

“You do that with your clients?”

“Nope. That one’s for my personal VIPs.” She kisses me again, and I let myself sink into her, my hands steadying her against me.

But when we part again, my gaze snags on the graze on her arm, then the scar etched along her right shoulder. My fingers brush over it softly. She stiffens for a second, then she lets out a breath and leans into my touch.

“Is this… from the crash?” I ask, almost afraid of the answer.

Her smile fades, replaced by something quieter, heavier. “From when I pulled Rosalee and… you… out of there.”

The world tilts beneath me, and I can barely breathe past the weight of it.

She risked herself to save us.

She hurt herself saving me.

I think I’m going to be sick, and because of that, I stay silent for too long. I can practically see the wall going up in her eyes.

“You think it’s ugly.”

I stare at her, stunned. “What?”

“The scar.” She’s trying to sound indifferent, but I can hear the vulnerability underneath. “You think it’s ugly.”

“No,” I rasp, shaking my head. “Nova,no.” I take her face in my hands, needing her to hear this—feelthis. “You’re… God, you’re so fucking beautiful it hurts sometimes.”

Her eyes soften, and the wall I watched going up falls again.

“You saved me.” I let my finger glide over the scar. “And I’ll be forever grateful for that.” When she leans back, my gaze catches on a tattoo on her hipbone. A red Ace of Hearts inked into her skin. I trace my thumb over it, making her shudder. “When did you get this?”

Her cheeks tint pink, matching the dress now lying forgotten on the floor. “When I came to Vegas. It was one of the first things I did with my own money. I wanted you close.”

Something inside me snaps at her words. The thought of her carrying that part of me with her, even when she thought I was gone, undoes me. My hand reaches up, cupping the back of her head as I pull her down for a kiss—harder, deeper this time. She gasps, and I take the opportunity to slide my tongue into her mouth, tasting her sweetness. She smells like heaven, but she tastes even better, like candy, everything I’ve ever craved.

When we finally break apart, both of us breathing hard, she whispers, “I’m sorry you didn’t get all my firsts, Ace. I’m sorry I broke that promise.”

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