Page 73 of Ghost Note

“That part was easy. Living without you was way harder.”

His face fell, and Danny stared at me helplessly. He didn’t stop rubbing his thumb over my cheek, and the weight of it felt heavy now, like sympathy was attached to the moment. I tried to pull away, but he held me in place and shook his head against the pillow.

“Stop trying to leave me,” he whispered. “I have some things to put right while I’m here.” Without another word, he pulled me back against his warm chest, wrapping his arms around me and lulling me into a false sense of safety I knew was temporary. “Tomorrow night. Keep it free. I’ve got something I need you to see. And no, I’m not telling you what that is. You’re just going to have to trust me.”

* * *

I woke to an empty bed with no idea what time of day it was.

Exhaustion had turned my body to a limp noodle, and when I checked my phone screen through squinting eyes, it read 7:37 a.m., forcing me to drop back down into my pillow with a dramatic thud. Today was going to be a long day. I’d barely slept a wink, but the beautiful ache between my thighs and the satisfied hum in my belly reminded me that it had been worthwhile.

Everything I’d ever put in a box and shoved into the darkest corners of my mind had now been dragged to the front and reopened. The dust had been blown off the top, the moths dying in there had been set free, and all that was left was this great big foggy confusion that was giving me a headache.

And now I was alone again. Danny had gone.

Turning over, I shoved my head under my white pillow, and I wrapped it around my ears, groaning loudly into the mattress as I kicked out my legs in a temper tantrum that only I would see.

“Way to go, Daisy,” I mumbled against the sheets. “Way. To. Go. You’re such a weak arse. Five years, thrown down the drain in five days. You stupid, stupid, stupid,stupid—”

“Is this going to go on for a while? Because I may need to turn off the stove so that the bacon doesn’t burn if it is.”

Danny.

“But don’t stop on my account.” He chuckled. “This is entertaining.”

Clearing my throat, I lifted an edge of the pillow up to see him leaning against the doorframe, wearing nothing but his jeans. His strong arms were folded over his chest, and that smug, satisfied look he wore should have made me angry. Instead, it made me melt, and all the tension I’d woken up with drifted away with the return of my smile.

“I thought you’d left,” I croaked.

“Clearly.” He smirked.

“How much of that did you catch?”

“All of it. I even saw your just-fucked hair when you checked your phone. Sexy, by the way. Not many women could pull that look off the way you do.”

I raised a hand and gave him the middle finger. Danny laughed before he pushed away from the door and walked over to yank the pillow off me. I tried to protest, but it was useless the second he ran a hand down my naked spine.

Back tickling had been our thing when we’d been together. I could be mad as hell with him over something, and the second his fingertips trailed up and down my spine in that soothing, yet hypnotising way, I forgave him. I often forgot what I’d been mad about to begin with.

Danny sat on the edge of the bed, and my eyes closed as he drew patterns on my skin.

It was almost better than sex… but not quite. Although it had, more often than not, led to that when we’d been together. Tickling had been his tool to get whatever the hell he wanted from me.

Now, it seemed like a tenderness that was too intimate in the broad light of day. Still… I couldn’t tear myself from his touch. In all the time he’d been away, my body had been wound up tightly, and I was only now realising just how much so.

“I could let you do that all day,” I mumbled, half of my face mushed up against the mattress.

His fingertips were soon replaced with his soft kisses, and that sleepy arousal within me stirred to life. He trailed them up and down my back, with a single fingertip following the path of his lips until he ended up by my ear.

“Get up,” he whispered, nipping my earlobe lightly with his teeth. “I’ve made coffee, and I’m making you breakfast with what little food you have in.”

“I don’t want food. I want—”you,but my words were cut off by the obnoxiously loud rumbling of my stomach. Blinking my eyes open, I looked up to see his face next to mine, and his brow raised.

“You were saying?”

“Okay, maybe I do need food.”

Danny chuckled and pressed a kiss to my forehead before he stood back. “Get some clothes on. Your house is freezing first thing in the morning.”

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