Page 87 of Ghost Note

Every doubt and worry about seeming weak or too fragile didn’t seem to exist as I stood there, clapping my hands, begging for more with the audience.

Halo’s talent and charm with a microphone couldn’t be denied. His voice was rough around the edges, yet silky-smooth when they dropped from the faster-paced beats to the more intimate and seductive rhythms. Archer was a natural-born drummer, and Saff made sure to wolf whistle and shout out her praise to him at every chance she got. Whenever she did, he’d hear it and smile to himself, and she’d nudge me to shout in my ear, “See… that idiot needs me! He’s always gonna need me.”

When Danny struck his last note, and Halo bled out the song, I was hungry for Danny to get to me.

My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I clapped them off the stage.

“Oh, shit,” Saff laughed. “You’ve got that look in your eyes. Silver is in for some gold!”

But I didn’t look her way, not even to laugh at her appraisal of that twinkle in my heart. The only thing I saw was Danny. New, hot, talented Danny.

Halo came off the stage first, his arms in the air and his head thrown back as he yelled out a gigantic “Yeah!” to anyone who would listen. Fletch and Theo weren’t far behind, leaving Archer and Danny to walk off last, but definitely not least.

Archer caught Saff as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

“Jesus, you guys were on fire tonight!” she cried as he caught her, Archer laughing with happiness when he spun her around and walked the two of them past me.

I gave myself a one-armed hug and brought my thumb up to my mouth to try and hold myself back from throwing everything I had at Danny the same way. I rocked from side to side, unable to ease this built-up sexual tension that was making my bones ache.

He came to a stop in front of me, and he ran a hand through his soaking wet hair, pushing it back to reveal his red cheeks and his devilish smile.

“You stayed,” he breathed out, teasing me with his proximity but not touching me.

God, I wanted him to touch me. I needed him to lay those fingers across my skin and for him to bring me to life the way he’d brought four thousand others to life for the last two hours. I needed him to be as violent with his hands on me as he’d been with them on his guitar.

Danny dropped his hand, his eyes searching mine before they narrowed. “Fuck, Zee. The way you’re looking at me now. It’s—”

I pounced, the sexual energy within me charging me forward to close the gap until I’d risen onto my tiptoes, wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled his mouth down to mine so I could own it. I had to own it. His talent wasn’t just a hobby; it was in his veins, and who he was always meant to be. I understood that now. I saw it, and I hated myself for ever thinking that music could ever destroy a life just because he’d dared to follow his dream.

His hands caught my waist, and I leaned back as Danny pressed over me with a seductive moan that told me he was as into this kiss as I was.

My tongue slipped against his, massaging it with a desperate need for this to lead to more.

I wanted more.

Danny’s grip on me tightened, and I was about ready to beg him to pick me up in his arms and carry me to the first dark corner he could find when I felt him pull away.

“No… no,” I groaned, my eyes closed. I tried to pull his lips back to mine. “More… I want more.”

His neck strained, holding the distance between us until I was forced to look up at him. Danny’s face was alive, his eyes sparkling with nothing but happiness and arousal, while I no doubt looked like a petulant child who’d had her toy taken from her greedy hands.

“I take it you enjoyed the show?” he asked with a voice that hit the G-spot to my soul.

“I enjoyedyou.Fuck the show.”

He raised a brow before he brushed his lips over mine. “Has the music turned my girl horny?”

“Not the music. Just you,” I breathed back, the knot in my stomach impossibly tight. “I want you. Right now. Any way I can have you.”

When he pulled back this time, his face had turned from playful to destructive, the heat in his eyes making me want to come right there on the spot. I was pretty sure that all he’d have to do was touch the seam that ran over the crotch of my trousers and I’d climax.

“Please, Danny,” I groaned, desperate and pleading.

“Are you begging me to fuck you?”

“Yes.”

“Shit,” he hissed before he devoured me with one more kiss and then rolled my body up to standing with very little effort on his part. I stumbled and clung onto him, dazed and confused. “Shit, I… I can’t right now. I have to… ah…shit!” Danny closed his eyes slowly… right before the crowd roared to life again, and I heard someone shout into a microphone, “Who wants more?”

---