Page 59 of Keep It

“I talk to her most days but it’s still not enough sometimes.”

“Where is home?” Danny asks, like he can’t believe he doesn’t know.

“A small village with about a thousand people and a pub. The people who live there have always lived there. I moved out after uni but go back as often as I can to see people. What about you? You grew up in London?”

“Mostly. We moved around a lot so it was a base of sorts. But as soon asBetter You Knowkicked off, I left school and had on set tutors. So I didn’t have, like, school friends or anything, no one I keep in touch with.”

“Wait, so you don’t have all the people from school on Facebook?” I ask, puzzled.

He shakes his head.

“But how do you keep up with who’s gotten married or started fights in the pub or named their babies something stupid like Hawk?”

Danny snorts. “Hawk?”

“There are two from my year alone.”

“You have to be famous and audacious to get away with that.”

I laugh. “Please name your future child something like ‘Candle’.”

Danny chuckles, “Nah, I’m more partial to a food themed name. Broccoli.”

“Parmesan.”

“Lasagna.”

“This is an Italian child of course.”

“Well, obviously.”

I stop my snort escaping with a hand to my mouth.

“You have a beautiful laugh,” he says.

I chuckle. “Shut up.”

Danny reaches out with his finger and brushes it along my temple, pushing my hair off my face. “I should probably go,” he says.

I clear my throat. “Yeah of course. Well thanks for the…” I wave my hand.

“The orgasm?” he asks.

“Yeah, that.” My cheeks burn.

He grins and steps into my space. He cradles my face and lowers his lips to mine. I melt into his kiss and whine as he releases me, looking into my eyes. “I’m going to need my shirt back.”

Ignoring the sinking feeling in my chest at the thought of him leaving, I whip it off without looking at him. What am I doing? This is a casual hookup. I shouldn’t expect him to stay.

I cover my body the best I can as I pull my clothes back on. The rustling I can hear behind me indicating that he is doing the same.

The awkwardness makes me cringe. I have no idea what to do now. I just face-fucked Danny Covington and now he’s doing a walk of shame out of my apartment.

When he is ready, we walk towards the front door.

I don’t look up as I open it. A strong hand appears over my head and closes the door before his hard body backs me up to it. “Stop freaking out, freckles,” he says gently, catching my eye.

“I’m not freaking out,” I mumble.

---