Page 145 of Gathered Sparkle

And then, the barest tremble in her lower lip—a hint of heartbreak.

Fuck.

She’s hurting.

And it’s my fault.

I thought I’d be fine if Nicholas got hurt in the process of all this. Thought it was okay for the greater good. But I never considered Novalee would get caught in the crossfire.

Worse, I never thought I’d care.

But here I am, reading her like an open book, seeing her hurt, her want, her conflict, and every instinct in me is screaming to fix it to take it away and make it better.

We’re all in this mess because of me—I pushed her into it. Instead of… hell, I don’t know,talkingto Nicholas? No. That would’ve been insane. Easier to drag her into this, to manipulate the situation like it’s a game of chess.

Except now it feels like we’re all losing.

I take her hand, and she twitches in surprise but doesn’t pull away. I entwine our fingers, stroking the back of her hand with my thumb.

Her gaze shifts from Nicholas to me, and she smiles.

That smile.

I’m such a goner for this girl.

It’s not just the way her lips curve or eyes soften when she looks at me. It’s the way those things make my chest tingle, my pulse race, and my entire goddamn world tilt in her direction.

And I hate it.

Not the feeling. Never the feeling.

I hate that I can’t spend every waking second with my lips on her skin, with my teeth in her thighs, pulling those sweet sounds from her that make me feel invincible.

But this show. Thisshow. It has to go off perfectly.

If it does?

Fuck.Between her thighs, somewhere in Italy, that’s all I’ll be. That’s all I want to be. And if that doesn’t sound like the perfect escape plan, I don’t know what does.

And I’m fine to share that space between said thighs with Nicholas if that stops her from hurting so much.

Fuck, that could be hot.

As if she’s reading my dirty thoughts right off the tip of my nose, her eyes narrow, and she glares playfully at me. “What?”

“Nothing. I was just… thinking about my Mercedes.”

The fact that Nicholas not onlyborrowedmy car—hell, let’s call it what it is, he basically stole it—but now also uses it like it’s his own should piss me off. But it doesn’t. I know I’ll get it back. Nicholas wouldn’t keep it, not forever. That’s not the kind of person he is. And deep down, I’ve always known that.

So why didn’t I know that everything with him and Levi was a misunderstanding?

Of course, Nicholas hurt Levi. I won’t deny that. But I also know Nicholas better than anyone. I should have seen that there was more to the story, that the pieces didn’t add up. Instead, I dropped him like a hot potato as he accused me of doing.

I told myself I saw what he did to Levi, saw the fallout, and that was all the truth I needed. But that was bullshit, wasn’t it? I didn’t even ask. I didn’t dig deeper. I sided with Levi, stuck with him, and let it burn Nicholas in the process.

And now? Now I can’t stop wondering what it cost us.

What it costhim.

---