Page 120 of Ghost Note

Forty-One

Imade it to the late hours of the night, and I drifted through the firstTwilightmovie, butNew Moonproved too much for my mind. The scene where Edward leaves Bella without much warning struck too close to home, reminding me of times I no longer wished to remember.

They were gone now. I had new memories that deserved my attention, and I still wore the bruises of those delicious memories on my skin. If I pressed on one enough, the beauty of Danny’s brutal touch brought my skin to life with a fresh wave of goosebumps.

Closing my laptop, I pushed it away from me on the bed and stared down at my phone. My finger hovered over Danny’s name before I hit the call button and brought it to my ear.

The ringing seemed to last a lifetime—he could have been doing anything, I supposed. Playing a gig, busy in a recording studio, or he could have been sleeping—and when the generic voicemail told me to leave a message after the beep, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do or say.

“Hey, Danny,” I said, picking at an invisible piece of thread on my duvet. “I thought you’d like to know that Edward just left Bella inNew Moon. I know how much you hated those movies, so you’ll take loads of pleasure in blaming them for my sombre mood. Really, though, I’m blaming you. I’m sad because you’re gone. I’m sad because I’m scared of change, and I have a feeling that I’m going to have to make some soon because I’ve come to realise something while you’ve been gone. There’s no villain in our story, is there? There never has been. We’ve no one else to blame for those lost years but ourselves.”

That would have been a good place to end it, but with a deep inhale for courage, I went on…

“I don’t know how I went so long without hearing your voice. Now it’s the one thing I think I need to get by, so call me when you get this. Oh, and one more thing…”

I sangSuperstarbecause I wanted him to hear something in my voice that would make him smile. I asked him if he remembered when he told me he loved me… and when he said he’d be back one day, ending it on a string of cries for him before I laughed and shook my head at myself.

“Okay, so that’s enough embarrassment for one night. Don’t say I never give you anything.”

With that, I ended the call, and I turned off my light and allowed myself to fall asleep. There wasn’t anything else for me to do now.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this, Zee?” Danny panted.

Staring up at his handsome face, I lost myself in pools of green I couldn’t look away from. “I want it more than anything in the world,” I whispered.

Danny hovered over me. We’d been kissing and working up to this moment for so long already, that unexplored ball of need that was sitting in the very depths of my stomach had turned painful. We were guiding each other by instinct, neither one of us having done this before—two virgins, about to give up a part of their life they could never get back and would hopefully never want to.

He’d already rolled the condom on, and the sight of his huge erection hadn’t scared me as I once thought it would. The candles around us flickered, and I could smell the roses from the garden, while we hid in the treehouse in his parents’ back garden one hot summer’s night.

“I want you,” I assured him.

He trailed a finger down between my naked breasts, his stroke slow and teasing, even though the hunger in his eyes was desperate.

“I want you, too,” he breathed. “More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I can’t believe you’re mine.” He smirked. “I’m the luckiest guy.”

I had no idea how he thought he was the lucky one in this, but I tugged on his arms, needing him closer—needing him inside me.

“I’m not scared.” Reaching up, I held his face in my grip and parted my legs wider.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“The pleasure will outweigh the pain in the end.” I smiled up at him.

With a low groan that told me he could no longer hold off, Danny dropped his arms to the sides of my head, propping himself up, and he held my gaze. A few slow rolls of his arse later, and he was positioned right at the very entrance of me.

“Remember that I love you, Zee,” he groaned.

“Get inside me, Danny.”

His smirk held all the satisfaction in the world, but when he thrust inside of me slowly, his mouth dropped open in surprise, and Danny’s Adam’s apple froze in his throat, making his groan break and his eyes squeeze shut. I hitched in a breath and took him in as much as I could before I tensed around him. The fire down there made a whimper escape me, and it took a second or two for either one of us to speak before Danny’s eyes fluttered open, and he stared down at my face.

“Stay with me,” he whispered. “Remember… the pleasure will outweigh the pain in the end.”

I woke with a start to the sound of my phone vibrating on the bedside table.

Danny’s name lit up my screen, and so I answered with a grunt as I flopped back down on my pillow and threw my free arm over my eyes.

“Hello,” I croaked.

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