Page 21 of Ghost Note

“First time I’ve ever been thanked for breaking up with a girl.”

“We were only a thing.” I smirked, wiping a stray tear away.

“Right.” He laughed. “I’m going to miss kissing you, though,” he said, and my heart betrayed me by thinking of all the ways I missed kissing Danny. The heart wanted what it wanted, and I was having a hard time retraining mine to know what was good for it and what was bound to make it irreparable. “But feel free to call me for some benefits any time you like… once you’ve figured shit out, I mean.”

“What? I don’t get a goodbye kiss?”

“Whatever my thing wants.” His hands cupped my cheeks, and I allowed myself to close my eyes in the middle of Hope Cove and let him kiss me—something I hadn’t allowed too much before.

His warm lips met mine, and I stood there limply, basking in his safety and accepting his kiss before he pulled back. When I opened my eyes, he was smiling, and so was I.

“You’re the hottest woman in Devon, Daisy Piper. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

I was about to respond with a compliment of my own when something caught my eye over Ben’s shoulder.

Danny was standing there, rigid, not a few metres away, wearing the same clothes he’d been wearing the night before, with his arms hanging by his side, his hair wild, and his lips parted. He stared at me, unblinking, and I swallowed at the sight, feeling that temperamental heart of mine begin to stutter and race.

I had no idea what he wanted, but he wasn’t getting it that easily. I looked back up at Ben and tried to hide what I’d seen, no longer sure if Danny was a figment of my imagination or a reality. What I was sure of was that I didn’t need Ben to get caught in the middle of anything… if there was going to be anything here. I had to get him away.

“Parting drink in the Harbour & Hope?” I suggested. “My treat.”

“I thought you’d sworn off wine for life?”

“I swear off a lot of things. What can I say? I’m weak. You grab us a table. I’ve just got to call Gina and warn her that the shop is shut before someone tattles on me.”

Ben gave me a nod and let me go, walking away until he was pushing through the door of the pub with no idea that one of the world’s most sought after rock stars was only a few feet away…

Staring at me like he hated me.

Staring like he had something to say.

Seeing him in the daylight was harder than I thought it would be. His skin was tanned, and the sun wasn’t afraid to highlight all the freckles on his face or the way the muscles had grown in his forearms, which were on display, thanks to his rolled-up sleeves.

I folded my arms over my chest and raised a brow at him. “You got something to say, or are you just going to stand there staring all day?”

Danny didn’t blink. “Is that your boyfriend?”

“Yep,” I lied.

He took a step closer, his expression giving nothing away. “How long have you been together?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“But you’ll tell me anyway… unless you’re lying.”

My teeth ground together. I jutted my chin out in defiance. “We’ve been together a while.”

“A while, huh? Then how come he doesn’t kiss you the way you like to be kissed?”

“My preferences have changed over the last five years. I’m not the girl you once knew.”

Danny drew closer. By step six, I was glancing down at his feet in warning, and he came to a lazy stop. “You can change what you tolerate, Daisy, but you can’t change the things that get you off, and that kiss…” he gestured to the door Ben had disappeared through, “did nothing for you.”

The embarrassment I felt at having been read so clearly made my stomach roll, and becoming the girl who did, in fact, throw a punch, had never sounded so appealing. Instead, I decided to hit Danny where it might have hurt.

I was the one to take a step closer to him, my face tense as I stared him down. His eyes fell to the way my arms were pushing my breasts up, and I thought I saw that old look of hunger in Danny’s eyes before his jaw tensed—the muscles there twitching when he looked back up at me.

“You want to know why it didn’t, Danny? Because I saw you there before the kiss happened, and even the sight of you turns me sick now.” I glanced down at his body, taking in every inch slowly before I curled my lips in fake disgust. “You have no idea what gets me off anymore, but in case you wanted a little bit of information to take away with you before you finally get your rotten arse out of Hope Cove, here you go: Ben is ten times the man you could ever dream to be, and that alone is enough to make me fall at his feet and spend a lifetime there, because for him, I’m good enough.”

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