“Too much,” I agreed, grinning.
“Okay, in you go,” Georgie said, pulling my hand and directing me into the change room beside her, hanging a sequin gown and a red one up.
I sighed. I tried the silver glitter dress on first, and the sparkles bounced off the walls like a disco ball. I hated it. “This is a definite no,” I called out.
“Surely it can’t be that bad. Show me then,” Georgie called back.
Hesitantly, I stepped out into the room, glad no other customers were around to see me.
“Oh.” She grimaced, her eyes sweeping over my body. “Right, that’s not fabulous. Let’s try the other one.”
I went back in and pulled on the red dress. It fit like a glove. It was so low-cut at the front that it opened to the top of my belly button. One wrong move and my nipples would pop out like a nun doing squats in cucumber patch. It was the most stunning gown I’d ever worn. And I didn’t feel at all comfortable in it.
“Also a no,” I called out, stepping out to show her, because I knew she would insist.
“Hello, Amelia.”
The voice ran a current straight through me. Startled, I pivoted.
To say Karson looked handsome was way too bland a word to describe what stood before me. My heart took off, charging forward, and it thudded so loud, I worried he’d hear it. He wore a fitted black short-sleeve shirt and beige pants, and he was holding a suit wrapped in a white cover in one hand. His shirt had the top four buttons undone. The stretchy fabric curved around his sleek, tanned chest, and the tattoo peeking out was a black raven. I craned my neck, trying to see more detail, but I stopped gawking like an idiot when I realized he was watching me with a bemused expression.
He couldn’t have heard about our shopping plans. He would have no way of knowing we would be in this particular shop, at this particular time.
Say something, fool.
I blurted, “Are you stalking me?”
His eyes glinted and he crooned, “And if I answered yes?”
A thrill shot through my stomach. Even though I knew he was only joking, I bit back a smile and stated, “Then I would be the one calling Matt.”
Karson’s full lips lifted into a smile that lit up the room. I couldn’t help smiling back.
His eyes drank all of me in, and the hazel deepened. “You should wear that dress. Red looks stunning on you,” he purred.Purred.In a way that stroked my skin. My nipples hardened, and I snapped my arms up, covering my chest.
His smile collapsed. He stared at the long blue bruise on my arm, then wrapped his fingers around my wrist. The touch was whisper soft, but it was electrifying. My adrenaline spiked. My heart raced. My knees grew weak. I felt an invisible force wrap around us, pulling us together, like a gentle current I wanted to be swept away in.
He studied the bruise as if it was an atrocity he needed to rectify. “You’re hurt,” he growled.
“It’s nothing,” I mumbled, embarrassed by his overkill of concern for a simple bruise. Embarrassed by my body’s reaction. If he touched me any longer, I wasn’t going to be able to control myself—I’d drift in.
Karson didn’t take his eyes from mine. Maybe it was the dim light, but his pupils seemed to dilate until the hazel color became almost black.
Did he feel it too?
“Oh my god, Amy, you look gorgeous,” Georgie squealed, popping her head out of the change room, the curtain draped across her naked body.
I pulled my hand away and stepped back, my face flushing.
I stood awkwardly as my brain searched for words, the perfect thing to say. I came up with nothing. The annoying man, with his perfect face and perfect lips, almost laughed, completely amused by my embarrassment.
“I hope you’ll dance with me Saturday night, Amelia. That is, I assume, given your outfit, that you won’t be on bouncer duties this week?”
“Funny,” I muttered.
“Georgie.” He nodded at her, then turned and left, ending my exquisite torture.
I stared after him, watching as his slacks hugged his tight ass. His legs seemed to float across the floor.
