Page 69 of Ghost Note

“Just because I don’t belong to another man doesn’t mean you can make me yours again.”

“Now try saying that with conviction.”

I searched his face, my own flushed with heat as desire tore through me. A small smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth. I couldn’t control it no matter how much I tried.

Danny took a step forward. “You’ve got thirty seconds to make your mind up and say no to me, otherwise I’m walking in, and I’m carrying you up those stairs to do things to your body you couldn’t imagine a man doing before tonight.”

I hitched in a breath, feeling it stuttering in my chest. Years of frustration had built up within me, and now the only man who could rid me of that and set my body free was staring at me, asking me to come up with a reason to say no. There was no solid reason to say no except for that of my wounded pride, and that was currently being drowned out by the fiery arousal that was making my stomach burn with need.

If I was going to my new reality of another living Hell anyway, I may as well have some fun along the way.

“How many seconds do I have now?” I asked him, ending the call and tucking my phone into the pocket of my jeans.

“I’d guess around twenty.”

“Nineteen… eighteen,” I whispered.

Danny’s eyes lit up, and he pushed his phone into his own pocket before he raised his arms and pressed them against the doorframe and leaned forward. His biceps stretched and popped, and his smile grew. He was ready to pounce, and I was ready to fall backwards. As much as that war within me raged on, only one side was ever going to win tonight.

Sometimes you just had to charge into the carnage and pray for your survival.

“Eight,” he mouthed. “Seven… six… five...”

I took another step back towards the stairs. “... four… three…two…”

“One,” he whispered. As soon as the word left his mouth, he stepped inside, closing the door behind him, and he marched over to me with eyes of hunger and seduction.

I was up in Danny’s arms in no time, and with a grunt of approval from him, I wrapped my legs around his waist, letting him hold me under my arse cheeks so I was looking down into his alluring green eyes. I was pushed up against the nearest wall with a force that sent the air pouring out of my lungs, and then Danny kissed me violently. His lips took ownership of mine, hot and needy, desperate and wanting as my breaths mingled with his, and the two of us moaned into each other's mouths. Denial met arousal. Frustration met need. Daisy met Danny, and those damn sparks flew between us.

I ran my hands through his hair, dragging nails over his scalp and tugging at the ends with vicious intent. He kneaded my arse cheeks, digging fingers into denim and flesh as though he couldn’t get enough.

A ball of fire burned in the lowest parts of my stomach, begging for him to strip me bare and touch my heat—stroke my clit, and make me come in a way no one but him had ever done. Sex without attachment was great, sure, but sex with that soul-deep connection always seemed to burn so much hotter and brighter.

“Take me upstairs,” I begged against his mouth in between kisses. “Now, Danny.”

Curling his arms around me, he stumbled up the stairs, holding onto me and never taking his mouth from mine. Not even when he occasionally had to reach for the bannister to steady himself.

“Which room?” he growled at the top of the stairs, his teeth sinking into my bottom lip.

“One… on… right.”

His groan was an acknowledgement before he marched us into the room, the door meeting the wall with force. When his feet hit the edge of the bed, he turned and sat on the mattress, letting my knees sink into it as I straddled him and pulled away to take him in.

Danny reached up, cupping my cheeks in his hands. “You kiss differently now.”

“I do everything differently.”

His smile was slow to rise. “Me, too.”

Our lips met somewhere in the middle—the struggle to resist too hard for either of us. Danny fell back, bringing me down with him, my body rolling in waves of desire over him. He was right; I was different now, and that need for some kind of justice and for this to be onmyterms raged within me.

After our kisses began to feel like they were bruising, I raised myself up and peeled off my top, letting my bare breasts fall free. Danny’s eyes fell to them while his hands rose to caress the soft, ivory skin he’d been away from for so long. His rough palms fit against them perfectly, and his lips parted as I tossed my top on the floor and let my hands fall beside his head. My braid fell forward, but he didn’t notice. The only thing he could see was my partially naked body.

“You’re so much better than I remembered you,” he said softly before he pulled my chest down to his lips and began to assault my hard nipples with his hot tongue. I groaned, letting my eyes close as a sharp jolt of pleasure shot down from my chest, straight to the intimate parts of me.

His name echoed around in my head—a soft whimper of demands rolling around in there.

If this was our ‘once’ I wanted it to be our everything.

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