Sugar & Gold
by
Emma Scott
Release Date: Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Tagline: “I loved you before. I will love you forever.”
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“I loved you before. I will love you forever.”
Nikolai Alexei Young was born with a special gift…one he’d do anything to lose. The heart and soul of every person he comes into contact with is an open book to his heightened senses. Colorful emotions, whispers of thoughts, the sour tastes of old memories…He feels them all. The sci-fi books would call him an empath. For Nikolai, his ability has made him an exile. He roams the U.S. alone, avoiding the glut of life in big cities, and using his innate talents to win money in underground poker games. Just enough to keep going, one town to the next. He has no hope that his life can be anything else, until he meets her…
At nineteen, Fiona Starling was trapped in an ugly, desperate situation until she freed herself the only way she knew how. Now three years later, living outside Savannah, Georgia, she is rebuilding her life on her own terms; seizing every moment and saving every penny so that she might fulfill her dream of moving to the raw wilderness of Costa Rica. But behind her carefree smile beats the heart of a lonely young woman haunted by her past, until a chance encounter with a tattooed stranger changes everything…
Fiona takes Nikolai under her roof for three sultry nights, waiting out the rain of a summer storm. She grows more and more fascinated by this brooding stranger with whom she shares an intense physical connection—a connection so strong, she wonders if there is something between them beyond lust and passion. Nikolai is shocked to discover that Fiona calms the raging turmoil in his heart. She alone silences the din of other people’s lives, and envelops him in the sweet beauty of her inner self. Every moment he’s with her—every touch of her skin—brings him closer to the peace that’s been eluding him his entire life.
But Fiona harbors secrets that she is too terrified to reveal. After Nikolai confesses his unique ability, she is caught between wanting to believe him and fearing he’ll eventually unearth her own dark past. When the unthinkable happens, Fiona’s plans come crashing down, and Nikolai discovers his hated ability might be the only thing that can save the woman he loves.
Sugar & Gold is a new adult romance with shades of the paranormal and is the second book in the Dreamcatcher novels, a series of interconnected STANDALONES.
She breathed a genuine laugh and held my gaze. Everything about her was pink; her drink, her hair, the bright halo of glimmering dust that surrounded her.
Kindness, compassion, charity. Those were the feelings I associated with pink.
I hadn’t seen it this strong in anyone in a long time.
Fiona clinked her glass to my bottle. “Thanks for taking care of my over-eager dance partner, Nik. And for the drink.”
“Sure.”
She sipped her Cosmo. “Not much of a talker, are you?” Her eyes were impossibly bright, her smile showing a broad mouth and full lips.
“Club’s not a great place for talk,” I said.
“True,” she said, “but here we are.”
Here we are…
A short silence fell.
“Nik,” Fiona mused. “Nik, Nik,” she said again, in a light, sing-song manner. “Short for Nicholas?”
“Nikolai,” I said.
“Oh, I like that.” Her colors warmed and sweetened, like an invitation, drawing me closer. “Are you Russian? You don’t have an accent.”
“My mother is.”
“Do you speak it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I picked some up.”
She scooted closer on her seat. “Say something in Russian.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not picky. I can’t speak a word so anything is going to sound good.”
I thought for a second and then spoke aloud the only thought I had in my head.
“Ti samaya krasivaya devushka na svete.”
Fiona’s smile widened and the bright wisps of her happiness wrapped around me. I wanted to take in more of it. Which made no sense at all. With other women, their scents were so often cloying and unwanted like the air wasn’t mine to breathe.
What the fuck is wrong with you? Get a grip.
I sucked down a long swig of beer. Fiona watched me, her eyebrows raised, then she laughed. “Um, Nik? You realize you’re supposed to tell me what you said, right?”
I shrugged and my lips twitched. “Don’t remember.”
Fiona laughed again. “Liar.”
We both took a sip from our drinks and let a little silence fall between us. A nice silence.
“That was lovely, your Russian,” Fiona said eventually. “Whatever you said, it sounded…sexy.”
My gaze swung to her eyes. “Yeah?”
She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Yeah. I was going to say something harmless like ‘unique’ or ‘exotic’, but I’d rather be honest with you, Nikolai. I don’t like playing games.” Her brow furrowed slightly. “I don’t like it at all.”
I sensed a shadow starting to creep over her. Something old and full of pain. Driving it away suddenly became my only goddamn purpose in life.
“I guess you’re not going to like me much then,” I said. “I play games constantly. Every day.”
A smile crept over her lips. “Is that so?”
“Sure,” I said. “Omaha, Texas Hold’em, stud, draw, lowball, high-low split…”
She laughed, flaring pink again, and the shadow around her retreated. “A joke and a smile too. I was beginning to wonder if you ever smiled.”
I shrugged. “It happens.”
“And those games, they’re all poker, right? You play poker every day?”
“Not every day. Most days.”
“For a living?”
“No, I’m a…” I coughed. “I’m a salesman. Motorcycle parts. I travel a lot for the job, and finding poker games in each city is sort of my hobby.”
My standard lie, though I hated laying it on her. I knew plenty of grinders who lived off their poker winnings, but that was for the love of the game. I played because thanks to the ken it was easy to win, and I’d never cared that it was cheating. It was the only way to put my strange ability to use that I knew of, and it allowed me to give a big fuck you to the universe for cursing me with it in the first place.
But lying to Fiona felt dirty. Even when haunted by bad memories she was luminous, while I was tatted and stained, as if the ink on my hands would bleed out and onto the white of her dress if I touched her.
She cocked her head at me, wearing a perplexed little smile. “You don’t look like a salesman.” Her eyes drifted over my tattooed arms and neck, to the talons piercing my ears. “When I think of ‘traveling salesman’ I picture a middle-aged guy in a suit with a suitcase full of encyclopedias.”
“No suitcase,” I said. “Catalogues and order forms.”
“And you travel a lot?”
“Almost non-stop.”
“That sounds lonely.”
“You do something long enough, you get used to it.”
“I know what you mean,” Fiona said, a tinge of darkness around her words—that shadow started to creep back until she buried it. “But the poker makes it fun?”
“Breaks up the monotony of the road.”
“Do you make a lot of money?” she said, then laughed, beautiful in her self-consciousness. “Sorry, I’m not asking for your bank balance, I just meant, are you any good at it?”
“I’m really fucking good at it,” I said.
Her eyebrows shot up and she nudged my arm with a laugh. “If you don’t say so yourself.”
“Maybe I feel like being honest with you too.” I could feel where she touched me, a tingling heat that was slow to fade.
“I like that.” She swirled her cherry around in her drink by its stem. “So are you in town, selling motorcycle parts, for very long?”
“Couple of days.”
“I hope the storm doesn’t put a damper on your business.”
“It won’t.”
“You’re lucky. At my job, we’ve been given the next few days off.”
“You sound bummed about that.”
“Every penny counts.” She met my eye. “I’m moving out of the country very soon and want to save up.”
I took a sip of my beer. I’d known Fiona for five minutes, but the idea of her moving any further away than her seat at the bar filled me with inexplicable dread.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
But it wasn’t what was wrong with me, anymore. It was what was right. The girl exuded a calm that danced along my skin, and when I inhaled, it was like breathing in the scent of something delicious but far away. The thrumming life all around me grew quiet. For the first time, I felt close to peace, and I wanted more.
If I touched her…
“Nikolai?” Her blush matched the color of her drink. She rested her chin in her hand. “Not to sound cheesy but you’re undressing me with your eyes.”
I felt heat creep along my neck and a bumbling apology rose to my mouth. Instead, I held her gaze, leaned closer to her. “You want to know what I said to you in Russian?”
Her eyes were bright and I could feel her draw closer to me. “Yes. Tell me.”
“I said that you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
The deep pink of her darkened to red. Not the ugly red of hate or anger, but the heated red of intense want. Hers matched mine. I wanted that strange sense of peace she exuded, but I wanted to touch her too. To take her hard and lose myself in her completely.
Fiona held my gaze. “I don’t think that’s true, but the way you look at me…I can almost believe it. Like how you watched me on the dance floor. I liked you watching me, Nikolai. It was as if I could feel your eyes on me before I found you.”
You found me…
Emma Scott writes romances with flawed characters, characters with artistic hearts: builders, poets, and writers of various makes and models. And love always wins. Always.
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SUGAR AND GOLD
Dreamcatcher #2
by
Emma Scott
Oh my. Where do I even start?
"Love and hope. Love and fucking hope…"
When Nik was a kid he was treated with shock therapy because he claimed that he could see, feel and taste other people's feelings and thoughts. His own mother thought he had the devil in him.
Today he uses his ability in poker games. He never loses if he doesn't plan to. Ever. But the constant buzz of other people's variety of feelings is oppressive. For that reason Nikolai avoids big cities if it can be helped. The tattoo needle gives him reprieve for a short time because that pain is his own and not other people's. After leaving behind his last poker game in Atlanta Nik sets up camp in a small town just outside of Savannah. He relishes the quiet.
Fiona works at the garden center. The job is a means to an end. Her plan is to move to Costa Rica, away from the past that still haunts her. But before that she intends to do things she has never done before. Like, say, a one night stand? At the local bar a tattooed and pierced guy saves her from an overly enthusiastic dance partner. Fiona allows herself to have one night of sensual bliss. But neither of them seem to keep away from each other and one night becomes three nights.
Nikolai finds peace from the onslaught of human emotions when he is with Fiona. For the first time he feels a resemblance of normalcy but he knows he can't stay. When Nik finally leaves either of them keeps telling themselves that it's better this way. Fiona can't have anyone in her life who keeps her from fulfilling her dream to go to Costa Rica. She lost too much when she left her ex-husband. Especially her ability to trust in her own gut feeling when it comes to people and her self esteem. So how can she trust a stranger?
And beneath the peace, was something clean and pure and simple. I missed her. Her. Fiona.
Emma Scott has an infallible knack for writing lovable and deep characters you can't help but care about. Nikolai is a beautiful soul, tormented, so much so that his despair drives him to thoughts of ending his life. Not because he doesn't want to live but his ability is making his life a living hell.
I didn’t want to die but this wasn’t living. I wanted an end.
The person who was supposed to love him unconditionally couldn't even look at him because of the ability he was born with and which had been more curse than gift. That massive hurt still lingers inside of him. His loneliness slayed me.
The way Nikolai takes care of Fiona, sensing her every mood change and adapting to it, giving her room when she needs it is endearing. He is selfless, giving and generous, has a wicked sense of humor and is a beast in the sack. I love the way Nik sees his girl, shades of pink and gold, her kindness, sweetness and love.
“I want to take you out tomorrow and…talk about it.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “Sure. If you want to.”
“No, Fiona,” Nik said, his voice low. “If you want to.”
Fiona is this beautiful girl who seems carefree on the outside but her demons still rattle her cage. And living in a cage she does - until she realizes that she can't outrun the monster in her mind and needs to face her ex-husband, otherwise she will never really be free, because, when has it ever worked to run away from your problems? Fiona doesn't realize how strong she really is.
"My heart is telling me one thing and my mind is telling me another and I don’t know which to believe. Story of my life.”
She is a sweet, kind young woman with a goodness that radiates from the pages. She gives Nik the appreciation and gentleness his broken soul craves. Nik gives her back the self esteem that was cruelly taken away from her and makes her feel beautiful. Their connection was gorgeous, I felt completely wrapped up in love.
Emma Scott has a successful formula of writing stories that make you feel deeply. She is one of those authors who write their heart out. She bares her soul in every book. They are packed with emotion and will move even the most jaded reader. Every word in it is perfection, there is no room for fillers and she still comes up with 520+ pages that feel like half of that. You just can't make yourself stop reading, it's that good.
Ms Scott's writing style is unbelievably engaging and captivating with a little grit to keep it from getting too sweet. And when she cranks up the feels it's like a punch to the guts. I hope Emma keeps writing, she has already a very loyal fanbase and I'm sure they will stick with her if she keeps knocking these stories out of the park!
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