Page 92 of Ghost Note

With a gasp of happiness, I clasped my hand to my mouth and felt tears form. The reality of everything the last few days had shown was that he still wanted me.

He’d been around the world, found success, chased his dream… and he’d come back here for more. There was a chance, however big or small, that he was seeking comfort in me to deal with his grief instead of dealing with it face on… but my time with him hadn’t felt like that. It didn’t feel like I was being used—only ever adored. Danny would look at me now likehewas fragile, andIwas the bomb waiting to go off. Like the decisions about us were at my feet, and he’d deal with the consequences of my choices for the two of us.

That respect was unexpected and intoxicating.

My super glued heart throbbed under the weight of the feelings I was trying to stuff back inside it, like an overloaded tumble dryer, or a memory box packed with too many trinkets.

Somehow, I managed to shower. I washed my face, rubbed cream over every inch of my skin, and I walked back to my bed with a towel wrapped around my body. My bedside lamp lit up my room, and I wasn’t sure if it was from my thoughts alone or not, but everything around me suddenly seemed romantic again.

If someone came by right now and told you that the world was about to go to shit overnight, and you had nothing or no one to think about but yourself, who would you want to lie next to you in bed and hold you while the sky came down around us?

I cast a quick glance at my pyjamas draped over the back of my vanity chair before I dropped my towel and climbed into bed naked, my warm, sensitive skin brushing against soft cotton sheets as I buried myself under my duvet and turned on my side.

My phone stared at me, but I soon turned the lamp off, letting nothing but the moonlight shine through my thin curtains.

I lasted ten minutes before I reached for my phone and scrolled through to find Danny’s number.

Me: There’s a spare key to my front door in the grey stone flowerpot under my window ledge.If the sky were about to fall down, I’d want you to use that key to walk inside, climb my stairs, and slip into bed behind me.

Me: P.S. I think life as I know it might actually be ending tonight.

Twenty minutes later, I heard the front door open before it closed quietly, and the latch was put in place. Footsteps creaked on the stairs, no matter how quiet he tried to be, and I smiled against my pillow, my hands tucked under it as I waited for him to come to me.

Danny pushed the door open and slipped inside, his silhouette making my skin prickle. My eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, but his vision hadn’t yet, and he felt his way along the walls, guiding himself around a room he’d only ever been in once before.

I listened to him undress from the other side of the bed.

I heard him curse under his breath when he stumbled out of his jeans, only managing to correct himself at the last minute.

When the weight of him made the bed dip, I closed my eyes and let myselffeel.

Once under the covers, his arm slid around my waist, and his aftershave washed over me, making me want to cry with contentment I hadn’t felt in so long.

He fit, his knees slotting into place behind mine, and my back against his chest. With a deep exhale, his breaths washed over my hair, and Danny moaned with deep satisfaction when he pulled my arse into him.

We were skin on skin, more open and vulnerable than we’d been since his return.

“Not even Heaven can beat this feeling right here,” he whispered against my hair. “I’ve got you, Zee.”

“Yeah,” I whispered back. “You have.”

I’d remember this night forever. The night he came to hold me tight.

Thirty-One

“What is with all the banging?” Danny grumbled sleepily.

“I don’t know,” I said, my eyes still closed.

“Maybe the world really is ending.”

“Let’s stay here if it is. I’m too comfy to move.”

“I’m not going to argue with that.”

He was still wrapped around me, the heat of his naked body pressed up against mine.

The banging started again before my phone rang on the bedside table. With a huff of annoyance, I reached over to see Gina’s name lighting up my screen. It soon rang out, and a text message followed.

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