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  I looked up at him in confusion. “I thought I left that at home...”

  “You did,” said Danny. “I'm sorry – I was terribly bold. I should have asked you, first. But I took the liberty of getting some of your things from your apartment with my spare key. Not all of them – just enough to spare you the trouble of going home today.” He smiled. “I must say, though, I was tempted to move everything here, just to convince you...”

  “Convince me of what?”

  “I want you to be with me,” Danny said, his voice low and urgent as he leaned in and kissed me. “All the time. Morning, noon, night. Like I said when I visited over Christmas – I want you to be with me. To live with me. At least so that I can take care of you when you're like this.” He laughed softly, bitterly.

  “I can take care of myself,” I said, too quickly.

  “Neve, I'm worried about you.” Danny's eyes bore into my own, and I could feel him taking note of my weaknesses. “You're been losing weight – too much weight – and there's bags under your eyes. You're still so beautiful – but it hurts to look at you. You haven't been eating properly, sleeping properly, now you're passing out in clubs. And all the natural beauty in the world doesn't make you look healthy.” He placed his fingers underneath my chin, kissing me lightly before he brought me the tray of food.

  Any worries he might have had about my eating habits I quickly dispelled, scarfing down the soup and several hunks of bread in what felt like a single bite, feeling a bit like a Dickensian orphan.

  “What's going to happen when I leave? It's only for a few weeks – but you need to promise me you'll take care of yourself when I'm gone.”

  Only a few weeks. Another pang in my heart. Another few weeks for Danny to wrap up Blues Enterprises' UK affairs so that he could relocate permanently to LA. So that we would finally be together, full time. In a house, not a hotel suite.

  He shook his head. “It's my fault for upsetting you,” he said. “I never should have told you about that new group RRR signed.”

  “No, it's fine,” I said. “I wanted to know. It was important. I want to know what you're stepmother's been up to. Other than making our life miserable, of course. And the blacking out – that was just a freak thing. Nothing to do with the Dusk Riders. So please, don't blame yourself.”

  “How can I not?” Danny kissed me then, a slow, searing kiss that lingered on my lips and made them tremble. “I just want to take care of you, Neve. After all I've done – after all the trouble I and my family have caused you – I don't deserve you. But I want to deserve you, Neve. I want to take back all the hurt I've caused you. And give you pleasure – so much pleasure – instead.” He kissed me and kissed me, over and over again, his need ever stronger as he awakened my entire body to his touch. It was always like this. I tried to hold back, to keep things slow, to keep my heart safe in his embrace. But he made it impossible. At the first touch of his lips, of his tongue, I was his, utterly and completely. My resolve melted away, and I wanted nothing more than to be naked, warm and ecstatic, in his arms.

  We kissed for what seemed like hours, our tongues exploring one another's mouths, one another's bodies, our hands exploring beneath our clothes, so painfully slowly that our bodies were twin balls of fire, twin stars, burning with our need. At last we gave in, both of us, to the desire that consumed us, stripping off our clothes, making love once again as we always did, slowly and all-consumingly. I had never been happier, I felt. Nothing made me feel the way he did.

  “God, I missed you,” Danny said, when at last we lay naked and sweaty in one another's arms. “It's not the same in London, without you.”

  It's not the same here, either. It had been so hard without him – so agonizing. Missing his touch, his taste, his smell. Wondering if somewhere in London, some girl – prettier than I was, more talented, with a more tantalizing laugh – had caught his eye...

  “I miss you too, Danny,” I let myself whisper. “You have no idea how much. But I do. It's been a tough few weeks...”

  “But I'm here now,” Danny said. “I'm here – and good things are just around the corner. I've got a good feeling about us, Neve.”

  “I do too,” I said.

  “Right, that's settled then,” Danny laughed softly as he began to nibble on my ear. “In that case, let's get this show started...”

  Chapter 2

  The pleasure lasted for what seemed like hours. Every touch of his hand, every brush of his lips, every path traced by his tongue in its lithe, light route across my body: my stomach, my hips, my breast – awakened in me new and more all-consuming desires. My blood grew hot – my veins felt like warm honey was coursing through them – and I could feel my cheeks flush and my lips grow dark and swollen with my need.

  You fool, Neve, I whispered to myself as Danny kissed my stomach – light butterfly kisses that made me giggle against myself. How could you let yourself fall in love like this? Was it even love, I wondered? Or was it lust – plain, simple, fiery lust – a need totally and completely physical, totally and completely overwhelming, something I could neither explain nor control? I sighed as Danny lightly nipped at my inner thigh.

  This isn't me. No – until last year, I'd been a girl completely in control of her own body, her own mind, her own heart. I'd dated around, sure, but I'd never been interested in a real relationship, a real love. I'd seen girls fall for guys all the time, all around me – not to mention vice versa – I'd counseled Steve in particular through many a bad break-up. But I'd always told myself: you've got to be different, Neve, you've got to be better. I wasn't going to be that girl, that girl who waits for the phone to ring, that girl who can't stop talking about her boyfriend – how attractive he was, how in love they were, how one day everything would work out, “when he's got his issues sorted out.” I'd been understanding, of course, nodded in all the right places, given the right, compassionate, noncommittal advice, but deep down I'd never understood. Deep down, I knew, I'd been convinced that girls who fell in love with bad boys were committing some unpardonable sin of femininity, giving into some mental weakness, giving men power over them. And I'd sworn to never be like that. I'd only ever fall into a relationship where I had both feet safely on the ground.

  And here you are, Neve, the worst of them all. I'd done everything I said I wouldn't do. I'd gotten involved with a bad boy – no, the bad boy – a beautiful, blue-eyed rocker with cheekbones like chiseled marble and hips like David Bowie, a British sex god with – oh, God, Neve – a tragic past, a girlfriend whose loss he could never really get over, a fear of intimacy. Everything about him is going to break your heart.

  But it was so easy to forget that, now, with Danny's tongue lapping at my hip bones, causing me to shudder with pleasure and anticipation. He turned my body into an enemy of my brain – a betrayer of everything I thought I wanted.

  My old insecurities came bubbling up to the surface – how could a man like Danny Blue ever be satisfied with one girl? Sure, when we were together, he acted like there was no other girl in the world, like I was the only woman who mattered – but when we were apart...

  I moaned lightly as he bit the side of my breasts – a playful, cat-like nip that sent me reeling. I trusted him enough to know he wasn't doing the same with some other girl – but for how long? London was a big city, filled with women, women far more experienced, more self-aware, more skilled at pleasing men than I was. And maybe soon enough he'd realize that the trouble I was causing, Veronica's wrath I'd brought down on both our heads, wasn't worth it. Maybe soon enough he'd realize...

  “Neve...” he nuzzled my neck. “What's wrong?” He smiled at me, cupping my cheek with his hand. I swallowed, hard, and forced myself to smile as I looked back into his eyes, so dreamily, so mind-numbingly, blue. I wanted to lose myself in them.

  You're being silly, Neve, I told myself. He loves you. Just look at him. Just look at how he's treating you, spoiling you, making you feel so special...

  But he'd made me feel special
before, I knew. And he'd also hurt me before, hurt me in ways I didn't know existed, destroyed my heart with a single word, a single glance. I'd only just put the pieces back together again. Was I really willing to risk being hurt a second time?

  “Nothing...” I said. At that moment I didn't care about being hurt, didn't care about the pain. All I wanted was the pleasure he could give me. I was desperate for it, my need causing every muscle in my body to ache, to tense up, like a bow pulled taut for the hunt.

  “Careful, Neve,” he kissed between my breasts, his tongue lapping at my nipples, causing me to bite back screams. “You really,” he kissed me again, “need,” he bit me lightly, “to take”, he began to trace circles on my neck with his tongue, “better care of yourself, you know.” He laughed. “Why don't you...eat....something.”

  I squealed with the cold as he let a chilled strawberry drop onto my stomach, savoring the pleasure as his warm mouth pressed against the flesh.

  “How's that, my love?” He laughed, and I could make out a devious sparkle in those angelic blue eyes of his. My whole body was on fire, now, and despite myself I no longer wanted to resist it. Danny knew just how to drive me over the edge.

  “How about now?” He pressed another strawberry onto my skin – this time between my breasts – laughing softly as I shuddered with the cold. He traced the cool berry up my neck, along my cheekbones, before lightly dropping it into my mouth. The berry was sweet – intoxicatingly sweet – and the juice from it trickled lightly from my lips.

  “I'll stop that up for you,” he whispered, sucking it from my mouth as I let out another, louder moan.

  “We really should get out of bed,” Danny's lips curled in a teasing smile. “Stop all this fooling around and get to work...get some food...” He poured out some chilled champagne into two crystal flutes, “and drink. You look awfully hungry. And I'm in the mood for something...delicious myself.”

  “Danny!” My voice didn't even sound like my own. Desire had made me a stranger to myself.

  “What is it?” His smile was mocking, diabolical. “Aren't you sated yet?”

  “You know I'm not....”

  “I've brought us all this lovely food. Don't you want to eat?”

  I couldn't stop myself from smiling, too. If he was going to tease me, I was going to tease him right back. “I had something similar in mind,” I said, taking a strawberry and placing it delicately between his lips.

  “Do I detect something untoward in your meaning, Neve?” He leaned back onto the pillow, letting me straddle his chest – naked and sweaty, but still rock-hard in the morning LA sun.

  “That depends,” I said. “What were you hoping I meant?”

  To my surprise, his devious grin gave way to something else – a deep, throaty laugh – a laugh not merely of teasing desire, but of genuine joy. I felt a jolt pass through me. I didn't often see Danny like this. I saw him full of desire, to be sure, or tormented by pleasure, content, often, but never happy. Danny Blue's eyes were usually too full of pain, too full of some darkness I could never understand, to be considered happy. But right now, as he cupped my breasts and pulled me towards him in a lingering kiss, intense and yet almost playful, Danny seemed happier than I'd ever seen him.

  “What are you so cheerful about?” I asked him. “Do you know something I don't?”

  “Do you still even have to ask, love?” His voice was so low, so throaty, that I could barely hear him. “I'm here, where I want to be. With the woman I want to be with. Why shouldn't I smile?”

  You fool, Neve. He loves you. Can't you just trust him – just let yourself be happy?

  “You're right,” I said, letting myself smile back, relaxing just a little. “I'm so happy you're back. And that you're in my arms again.” I leaned down and kissed him again, letting our tongues touch just slightly as our bodies melded against one another.

  “Well,” Danny said, the deviant sparkle returning to his eyes, “If that wasn't the best taste I've had all morning.”

  I pressed another strawberry between his lips. “I've got an idea for a better one...” I was surprised at my own boldness, but strangely proud. I knew what I wanted – what my body wanted – and, looking into his eyes, I found I was no longer afraid to ask.

  “I think you are thinking of something untoward.”

  “Oh, absolutely.”

  “Careful what you wish for, Neve Knight.”

  He flipped me over, so that I was leaning back on the pillow, before encircling each of my nipples, in turn, with his tongue, awakening each to the point of hardness. He bit lightly, causing just enough pain to delay my pleasure, before trailing down with his tongue, kissing my stomach, my hip bones, the insides of my thighs, blending his teeth and tongue in a heady mixture of pleasure and pain that left me desperate for more.

  When at last he moved his lips between my legs, after what felt like hours of prolonged, protracted torture, the pleasure was so intense that I could hardly stand it. I arched my back, closing my eyes, waiting with a mixture of relief and dread for that one blissful moment, after which the pleasure would end – it would be all over...

  But Danny was too skillful for that. He played me like his guitar. He knew when to start and when to stop, when to lap at me with such a frenzied intensity that it made my whole body shake so violently that the whole bed would collapse around us, and when to wait, his breath tingling the flesh on my inner thigh, for me to calm down, so that he could make the pleasure last longer. He knew when to delve deep, when to touch lightly, where and when and how to make me his, utterly, until I could no longer think, no longer even reason my own pleasure, but only experience the sheer intensity of the moment.

  When, at last, he decided to release me, the waves of my orgasm were overwhelming – I could not bite myself back from calling his name, nor did I want to. I whispered “Danny,” over and over again, as he kissed my stomach, my breasts, my neck and at last my lips, whispering my name back at me, taking me in his arms as I shook.

  “There...” Danny laughed softly. “You were right. That was the best taste I've had all morning.” He kissed me on the forehead. “But now, my love, we've got work to do.”

  “Work?” I furrowed my brow. “What kind of work?”

  He handed me my cell phone.

  “Playtime's over, Neve Knight. It's time to get your band back together.”

  .

  Chapter 3

  My mouth fell open. “Get the band back together?” I had refused to let myself even think of such a thing. Ever since Veronica Taylor had stuck her nose into our business, ever since tensions between me and the rest of the band over Danny's presence had rended apart the bonds of friendship we'd spent so many years tightening, getting the Never Knights back had seemed an impossibility, a delusion. I'd blamed myself so often for what had happened – going over those final few days again and again in my mind. How had I let things get this far? I bit my lip as I remembered the pain in Luc's eyes, the way Kyle had looked at me? They resented me – more than that, they resented Danny Blue, the boy with the devastatingly handsome smile that had stolen their lead singer's heart? The one who had brought Veronica Taylor – and the trouble she'd caused – into all our lives. The one who had transformed me from an untouchable being into a flesh-and-blood girl. A girl who dated. A girl who loved. But just not them.

  Oh, I couldn't deny it – I had my own part to play in the band's collapse. After all, wasn't this one of the reasons I'd been so careful all these years? One of the reasons I'd refused to ever consider dating someone in the band? That's the reason I'd given Kyle, back in the day, and so too was it the reason I'd given Luc when he first broached the idea that maybe he and I could be...might be... “more than friends,” as he'd said then. It's too dangerous, I'd said. Mixing work and romance. It could destroy the whole band. And now it had.

  “You're delusional,” I said to Danny, laughing. “How are we supposed to get this band off the ground? I mean – everyone hates everyone else; ev
eryone hates you.”

  “Hey!”

  “No offense,” I stumbled over my words. “I mean – they like you, but they don't like us. How are the Never Knights supposed to function as a cohesive unit when there's all that tension all around us? Not to mention – with Roni in charge of RRR, we'd never get another record out. Not even if the whole band did get back together...”

  Danny smiled wickedly. “Who said anything about RRR?”

  “What do you mean?” I furrowed my brow. “We haven't got any other options...”

  “Listen, Neve.” Danny took hold of my hands. “You know as well as I do that I'm not exactly poor. I've been fortunate – really fortunate – and the trust fund my father set up for me pays for far more than my living expenses. He wants me to be a big media mogul, a powerhouse entrepreneur – just like him. And he's willing to fund my investments. So – let me ask you this. What if I was your label?”

  “You?” Now my mouth fell open.

  “I believe in you, Neve,” Danny said. “And I believe in us. So much so that I'm willing to risk my own money to prove it to the world. Because I'm convinced that the second we get our music out there again, people will lap it up. They'll buy every single CD we put out.”

  “Danny...” I swallowed. “I can't let you put up your own money.”

  “Why not? It's mine, isn't it? Can't I do what I want with it?”

  “And this is what you want?”

  “With your name recognition, my funds – we'd be unstoppable. Just picture it, Neve. Our own label. First to put out the Never Knights' newest album – then, who knows? Finding other young artists to support, to mentor...stealing them right from under Roni's nose.”

  I couldn't help but smile. “I knew you had an ulterior motive.”

  “What can I say?” Danny grinned. “I'm a cad. But in order for me to do my part, Neve, you'll have to do yours.”