‘Dani?’
Even where Dani was sitting, a foot away, Xane’s devilish purr reached across the ether to scramble her senses. Her insides had been knotted tight, but they instantly relaxed. Her pulse leapt and joy bubbled through her veins like she’d dived into a champagne bath. She hadn’t dared believe it. But he’d done it. Xane had kept his promise. He’d called.
‘It’s him.’ Ginny mouthed unnecessarily. Her eyes lit with glee. ‘What shall I say?’
Dani held out her hand to take the phone, but Ginny warded her off. ‘This is Ginny, Dani’s house mate.’ She hit ‘speaker’, so that Dani would hear Xane’s reply. ‘Dani’s not available right now, but I could give her a message.’ She wound a strand of black hair around her finger, just as she did when she was flirting face to face.
Dani rolled her eyes in disbelief. ‘Would you hand that over?’
Ginny slipped out of her chair and danced backwards across the kitchen out of reach.
‘Listen, Ginny, was it? Could you let Dani know that I’m on my way over, and to pack some summer clothes and her passport? I’ll be there in about five minutes.’
‘Are you guys going somewhere?’
‘What? No,’ Dani insisted, shaking her head.
‘Hopefully,’ Xane replied.
‘Where?’ Dani mouthed, and, for that matter, how on earth did he know where she lived? She’d only given him her phone number, not her address.
‘What number flat is it?’
While Ginny explained how to access the building and find them, Dani clutched the worktop for support. She’d dreamed of stuff like this back when she still lived at St Agatha’s. How Xane would turn up and whisk her off, away from the silence, the prayer and the all-pervasive sense of being judged and found inadequate. She’d ride off in a Ferrari with him to be wild and free, and would never look back.
Great fantasy though it was, she couldn’t really drop everything and run away with him. She’d end up in so much shit, she’d never be able to dig herself out again. Uni would want to know why she was skipping lectures, and her mum would completely lose it and send the God squad out after her. And then, when she was found … No. She wasn’t even going to contemplate how bad that would be. She clenched her fists and resisted the urge to scratch at her hips. She might as well retire to a nunnery now.
‘Um, dude, you might need to explain how you found her,’ Ginny purred into the receiver while a bemused smile stretched her lips, ‘because she’s looking kind of confused about it.’
Xane’s strong, warm laugh filled the tiny kitchen. ‘The same way people find me. The Internet. It took about three minutes. You girls ought to be more careful about the information you give out. I definitely can’t recommend putting that stuff on Facebook.’
‘Point taken,’ Ginny replied, but Xane had already hung up. ‘Although, given that a lack of care has led you to our door, why would we want to be?’ She offered the now silent phone to Dani, who failed to take it. Ginny tucked it into Dani’s back pocket instead. ‘You all right, Saint?’ She patted Dani’s cheek. ‘Let’s pack your stuff.’
Dani clasped her friend’s arm tight. Circumstances last night had given her courage that she couldn’t find now. ‘Ginny, I can’t. What’ll people think? I can’t just drop everything for a man I barely know.’
‘Duh – yeah, you can. Stuff what people think. They might say you were crazy if you were running off with portly Dave from the local drive-thru, but this is Xane Geist we’re discussing. You know, Xane Geist, scary sexy god, multi-millionaire, born for girls to swoon over, Xane Geist. What they’re going to say is the same thing I’m thinking. “You lucky, lucky, bitch.” Now pack. Or I swear I’m going to whip your ass black and blue.’
Pack! She didn’t even know where she was going. Would it be far enough? ‘Gin, what if my mum finds out? She’ll cut me off.’
‘Uh, Xane Geist! Who gives a damn? And you can always flip burgers to top-up the stupendous student loan, like I have.’
‘What about the essay I have due?’
‘Dani. Fuck the assignment. Like you haven’t already written it. I’ll hand it in for you. Happy? Now, come on.’ Ginny squeezed her tight. ‘You’re going to have such a fabulous time, you sly frog. You’d better tell me all about it when you get back. I want every detail.’ She froze a moment, her head cocked to one side. ‘You are coming back?’
‘Course.’
‘Right then.’
Inside Dani’s bedroom, Ginny overturned her case, spilling the contents onto the floor. ‘Nice underwear. Make sure it matches, and none of your belly-warmer pants.’ She left Dani to do the actual sorting and sashayed over to the wardrobe. ‘What do you have that’s halfway nice?’
‘Not a whole lot.’ Clothes had always served her on a practical level rather than a superficial one; hence the need to borrow something of Ginny’s to wear to the gig last night.
‘This isn’t bad.’ Ginny held a thigh-length dress with a pattern of red roses against her front. ‘You should take this, in case he wants to eat dinner. Um, and I can lend you my pleated skirt to go with this top. Do you know how long you’re going for?’
‘I don’t know anything. You’re the one that spoke to him.’
Ginny deposited another few items into the case, including Dani’s cosmetics bag that she snatched up off the floor. ‘Do you have a bikini?’
‘No, and I’m not wearing one. Gin, you’re acting like I’m going to the Bahamas, when he’s probably going to take me to the Holiday Inn down the road and attempt to screw me senseless for the weekend.’ Dani wrenched the coat hanger from her friend’s grasp.
‘Well, if you’re objecting, I’m fine going in your place.’ Ginny tugged back.
‘Like hell.’ She stopped glaring at her friend and put the back of her hand to her mouth to cover her smile. ‘Do you have any condoms?’ she asked. ‘I think I might need them more than –’ she waved her hand over the mess across her bed ‘– well, more than any of this.’
Ginny’s grin stretched from ear to ear. ‘Course I do.’ She scampered off to get them. Meanwhile, Dani spent a moment taking stock of her possessions and putting a few of them in the case. Whatever Xane had planned … She knew what he had planned. It didn’t take a genius to deduce that he intended to finish what he’d started that morning. He wanted her naked beneath him, with his big cock right up inside her, and damn, if she didn’t want that too, though the notion of being so soundly taken put more knots in her intestines than an entire hellfire-and-damnation sermon from Sister Anna.
She put her hand to her mouth again, this time to contain a wave of nausea as her stomach churned.
It’ll be worth it, she told herself, trying hard to ignore how much potential there was for things to go spectacularly wrong.
‘Nervous?’ Ginny asked her when she returned with a jumbo pack of prophylactics.
Dani nodded. At least this time he wouldn’t be asking her to control a moving vehicle while his presence robbed her of her senses.
No, he’d be treating her to another round of glorious sex.
A small smile broke through her fears. She hadn’t lied about never having come with a man. She was looking forward to learning how good it could get. The early signs were definitely promising. Of course, there remained the small issue of not exposing herself, but maybe Xane wouldn’t mind doing it with the lights off. He was a member of a gothic rock band. They normally hung out in the dark.
Ginny gave her a hug. ‘Just remember you can call me any time,’ she said, her normally cheery face growing serious. ‘And you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. It doesn’t make a jot of difference that he’s more famous than God. If he does anything you don’t like, you tell him to stop it. Then, if he doesn’t oblige, call the cops on the goddamned domineering arsehole.’
‘Gin,’ she squeaked in alarm, a thick lump having formed in her throat. ‘Where the hell did that come from?’
‘I’m just trying to keep you safe, Saint. Sometimes you get your head stuck in the clouds. He’s Xane Geist, not Prince Charming. He’s not here to rescue you. He wants to plumb your furrow.’
Dani sank onto the bed and hid her face with her hands. ‘Ginny, I don’t think I can do this.’
‘Rubbish,’ her friend replied. ‘You’ve been dreaming of this for ever, and when he walks through that door you’re going to say “yes” to whatever he suggests, then leave holding his hand.’
* * *
Naturally, Ginny was right. When Xane showed up, the mad panic making spaghetti of her insides transformed into butterflies of pure glee. She beamed. She restrained herself from squealing, and then got into a car with him with barely a backwards glance.
The ladies at St Agatha’s would have died on the spot if they’d witnessed it. Hadn’t they properly drummed it into her that guys only wanted to get girls alone for one purpose?
Too bad she wanted Xane for the exact reason that made him so dangerous – and boy, did he look dangerous at the mo, with his piercings, that waist-length sheet of black hair and the wraparound shades he had perched on his aristocratic nose. Dani’s arousal level jacked up a notch every time he so much as looked in her direction. Whenever he touched her, it felt like someone had tripped a mains switch and loaded her with a thousand volts. Course, that didn’t entirely override her fears. She was still looking over her shoulder a hell of a lot in case somebody she knew saw them together.
Thankfully, Xane showed no signs of pouncing as they sat side by side in the back of the taxi. He looked perfect – icy, more than anything else, as though he’d deliberately locked a mask into place. She knew the truth was that he was far from cold. Given what had gone down the night before, maybe it was a front for the horde of paparazzi that were likely on his tail.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked, praying it was far, far away, where she wouldn’t face the possibility of bumping into someone she knew, who could report back to her mum.
He didn’t answer.
Dani continued to stare at him, expecting a response. She’d lived ten years in a community of women, where her every deed, disaster and accomplishment was shared with everyone else. No one had any privacy. Secrets didn’t exist. If she went somewhere, she explained on autopilot where she was going, when, who with and how long for. When she came home, she repeated the same details with the relevant highs and lows of the experience thrown in. She never acted on a whim. She didn’t go places with strangers and anything remotely risqué only took place in her head.
‘Xane.’ She appreciated that living in the public eye might make him wary about giving out too many details. Privacy was a highly valued commodity in his line of work, but … she wasn’t a journalist, she wasn’t about to sell him out to some tabloid. He’d turned up at her flat and just about ordered her to run away with him for an unspecified time. Was it too much to ask to be told the location where they were headed?
It couldn’t be far. He hadn’t brought any luggage. She’d noted that when the driver opened the boot to stow her case.
‘Do you often kidnap dates?’
Xane played his tongue against the inner edge of his lip piercing. ‘Kidnap implies unwillingness, which you’re not. If you don’t want to, I can stop the car.’
‘I’d just like to know where we’re going.’
‘The airport.’
Damn, his answer shouldn’t have made her smile, but it did. Not because they were headed out of the UK, but because he hadn’t actually told her anything. ‘And then where?’
‘On a plane.’
‘Are you always this obtuse?’ Really, she was trying to keep a sense of humour about the situation, but the lack of detail was giving her another reason to panic.
Xane sighed and scrubbed a hand across his unshaven jaw. She hadn’t noticed until that moment that a faint trace of golden stubble was peeping through the skin. The line grew thicker above his lip. ‘Aren’t I allowed to make it a surprise?’
‘Give me a few clues. Hot or cold?’
‘Warm.’
Like his hand capturing hers.
‘It’s somewhere I know. Somewhere I feel safe, but where we can have some fun together.’ He kissed her knuckles. ‘I appreciate you running away with me like this. I hope it’s not going to cause problems for you.’
‘It’s fine,’ she said with her fingers crossed. ‘Did you get things sorted out with the band?’
Xane immediately grimaced. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
Oh, hell! They really were running away.
Monte Carlo. Monaco.
How am I even here?
Dani gazed around at the interior foyer of the Hotel de Paris in jaw-dropping awe as her heels clicked against the spotless marble floor. Around her, mirrored surfaces reflected the glitter of countless lamps. She barely maintained her wits enough to troop along after Xane, who seemed strangely savage amongst so much bright elegance. Not that his manners weren’t refined. He could be the perfect gentleman when he chose. He’d been very sweet, quelling her nerves over flying.
OK, he’d cracked jokes and been extremely lewd, feeding images of what he’d like to do with her into her ear every time there was even a bump of turbulence. It’d worked though. She’d been grinning too hard to worry about the fact that they were flying above 10,000 feet.
While Xane spoke to the concierge in fluent French, Dani lapped up the splendour of the towering columns, and the upper balcony with its quaint iron railings. The whole place harkened back to the Victorian era, and yet still seemed to have one foot firmly in the present. ‘You’ve come
here
to escape media attention?’ she remarked, when Xane appeared at her side, ready to draw her further into this decadent palace. When he’d claimed they were going somewhere quiet to chill and unwind until the storm surrounding the band dispersed, Monaco hadn’t once crossed her mind as a destination. It wasn’t until they’d boarded a plane for Nice that the French Riviera had become a possibility, and then she’d envisaged a beachside lodge on some secluded stretch of coastland, not a trip to the glamour capital of Europe.
‘Ever heard of hiding in plain sight? There are far more interesting people to watch around here than me. I might be big news back home, but I don’t generate much interest here.’ He smiled warmly in that special way of his that quirked one side of his mouth. ‘Shall we go up, or do you need a drink first?’