Never Land (3 page)

            “Come on, Neve, take off your clothes or I’ll take it off for you. I’ve only been wanting this since high school, you know. But you were off-limits, the legendary Keith Knight’s daughter - pretty, popular without even trying, and always surrounded by guys, who you thought were friends. You were so into the music, so deep into the art, that you never notice how the guys all thought you were the hottest girl in school. A girl as hot as you, how can any guy just want to just be friends? We’ve all joined your band, hoping to get closer to you. Now you’re all mine. Here.” He shuddered, running his finger up and down my legs while I resisted kicking him.
The tape.
“But I haven't got all night.”

            “First, the video,” I said, my voice shaking. “How do I know you're not bluffing – that you've even got one?”

            “The video, huh?” Geoff laughed. “You want to see it? I've got it – tons of copies. I jerk off to it every single night – did you know that?”

            I wanted to vomit. “You're crazy.”

            “I'm not crazy,” Geoff said. “Just lucky. Lucky I got a glimpse of that nice, round ass. I always knew Keith Knight's daughter would have his full lips – and your mother's smoking body. I jacked off to loads of girls. Posters, images. Videos. But you I just needed to imagine. I remember seeing you naked and wet in the showers at camp when we were sixteen – and that one little slice of you was all I needed to imagine. But you'd never give me a chance, would you? Keith Knight's daughter was too good for any boy? Rock royalty, is that what you think you are? Untouchable? Unapproachable?”

            “What the hell are you talking about, Geoff?” Deep down, I wanted to reason with him, to talk him down. To shake him out of this haze. “We're friends. We've always been friends. I never thought I was too good for you or anyone of my friends.”

            “I remember before I met you. I was a nobody. A geek. Like Steve. But being around you – it made all the guys notice. Girls, too. Thinking I was a somebody because I was hanging with Keith Knight's beautiful daughter. And then you think you can just drop me the second I get injured...”

            “It wasn't just the injury, Geoff. It was the drugs...”

            “Like your daddy dearest never did any?” he scoffed.

            “Do you really want it like this, Geoff?” I asked, softly. “Me – not wanting you? Doing it because I have to?”
Just reason with him, Neve. Talk him down.
I reached over and brushed his cheek, trying to stifle the bile. “How are we supposed to work together after this? Don't you care about the band? Do you really want this?” His face softened for a moment and then he grew angry.

            “This is
exactly
how I want this,” he spat. “You finally forced off your high horse. Finally realizing that you're no better than a groupie slut. Realizing you're not some untouchable princess who can do whatever she wants just because of Daddy's money.” His words stung. “This is exactly how I've fantasized about having you for so long.” He grabbed my wrist. “On your back. Unable to resist. I watched you sing tonight, Neve. I wanted you so badly. I watched how your full lips nearly wrapped around the microphone and imagined your lips on me. I don't even have to touch you to get hard...”

            “We're
friends
, Geoff.” My voice was shaking. I knew now that what I was saying was untrue, had never been true. Whatever was wrong with Geoff, it had gone deep. Too deep. I couldn't save him. When did he stopped being friends and started objectifying me?

            “And you think Kyle and Luc are your friends, too? Please, you're kidding yourself. They're hard as fuck over you, too – and you think by pretending to ignore it you can just lead them around like puppies, wrap them around your little finger. But I know you. Jessica Botano's daughter. Same soft silky hair. Same large tits. Same luscious ass.”

            “Geoff, stop it, now!”

            “I know what you look like under those skimpy clothes you wear.” He shoved his phone in front of my face. “I know who you are.” He started playing a video. “This is just the beginning.”

            My mouth dropped open. I recognized the clip immediately. It was the morning I'd just come back from Danny's hotel room– I recognized the earrings. Recognized the way I'd taken off my bathrobe, my hair sopping wet from the shower, and looked at my naked body in the mirror as if for the first time. Looking at my body for the first time as an instrument, something capable of receiving and giving pleasure. Touching myself between my legs, closing my eyes in rapt ecstasy as I relived Danny's hands and tongue there. The most intimate, the most private moment in my life – captured on camera for Geoff to jerk off to. My facial expressions – at the moment expressions of pleasure – looked to me now ugly and ridiculous, shameful.

            My cheeks burned with rage. “How dare you?” I said. “How fucking dare you?”

            Geoff's hand was at his groin, softly rubbing, and his pants were unzipped. I wanted to be sick. And I knew then that no matter what Geoff did to me, no matter whom he showed the video to, I didn't care. There was no way I was going to spend another second in this room, another second with him. I grabbed the phone from his hand and threw it across the room, watching in sick delight as it shattered into hundreds of pieces on the floor.

            “Careful, Neve. I told you I had copies.”

            “Erase them!” My voice was frenetic with rage. “All of them. Or I swear I'll rip out your balls and stuff them down your throat so far you're shitting them out. My father will make sure you never work again – make sure you can never use your cock again, you sick fuck...” I scoffed. “Go on, send that video. Send it to TMZ. And then when my family and I press charges, see how you like it in jail...”

            “Neve...”
            At that moment, the door flew open, and my whole body flooded with relief. Danny Blue was standing in the doorway, along with five of the burliest security guards I'd ever seen. He’d never looked more handsome and sexier than at that moment.

            “Neve, thank God!” His voice was so soft, so tender, so loving, that tears filled my eyes.

            The words started flowing out, all at once. “He got video of me – naked clips. Bugged my dorm room. Tried to blackmail...” But my voice failed me. As the security guys seized hold of Geoff, pinning him down, everything began to spin around me.

            Then everything went black.

Chapter 3

            When I came to, I was resting in Danny's arms. He was holding me close… tenderly – almost gingerly, the way you would hold a baby bird. His fingers lightly stroked my hair. “Baby,” he whispered. “Baby, what happened?”

            “It was Geoff...” I spluttered. “He set up a hidden camera in the dorms before I moved to the apartment – to take footage of me. Of us. He threatened to send it to the tabloids unless I slept with him.” My voice shook. “I thought if I could buy time – but Danny! You can't let him near his computer...”

            “There's no danger of that,” Danny said. “He tried to fight me. Fortunately, I've been trained in self-defense, and he was in no condition to fight. Knocked him out cold with a single punch. He's still unconscious. I'll have my dad's security check out his computer, see what we can find.” His voice was professional, almost cold around the security he brought. When they left, and we were alone then the emotion broke in, all at once. “That scumbag!” he exclaimed. “That absolute prick. He had no right – to violate you like that...”

            “If you hadn't come...” I shuddered. “He wanted to rape me – he said so himself.” My whole mouth tasted like vomit. “I can't work with him anymore – I won't!”

            “We can call the police – press charges...”

            I shook my head. “And get negative publicity for the band right after our first big show?” I sighed. “No, no – just get him away from me. For good. That's all I want. To forget.”

            Danny held me tighter. “I'm so sorry, babe,” he whispered. “If I hadn't stepped down, if I hadn't left the band, this never would have happened. I should have stayed by you.”

            I reached up and brought his face down to mine, kissing him softly. “Don't worry,” I said. “It's not your fault. We should have found someone new – shouldn't have asked him back...” I traced my fingers along his cheeks. “I missed you, Danny. It's been weeks.”

            “I know,” he groaned. “I'm so sorry for what happened, Neve...”

            “He thought I'd be with him. After everything he did. He thought he could force me to have sex with him – that I'd just let him have his way with me, after everything...”

            “My men searched him after we knocked him out,” said Danny. “That fellow has more drugs on his person than your average dealer in Camden. Heroin, cocaine, ketamine. He wasn't himself – that's for sure. That man you saw tonight wasn't your friend. He wasn't the Geoff you knew.”

            “He was a monster,” I said.

            “Or a very, very sick man,” he replied. “It's why I don't do drugs,” he said. “I know the harm it can do...” I knew he was thinking of Peyton, of his old life, and my heart sank.

            “I got us another room,” Danny said softly, leading me lightly by the hand out of the room. “We don't have to do anything, not after what you've been through. Don't worry. We can go to sleep, side by side. I'll be holding you. That’s what I want to do, just hold you safely against my chest.” He used his key card and swiped us into a gorgeous suite, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the London Eye.

            “Danny...” I tried to control my voice. I was shaken, still in shocked at what could’ve happened with Geoff.  “What happened with Geoff. It made me feel dirty, filthy. Like I'd lost control.” I looked up at him. “But with you – I feel in control. All the time. Even when you make me scream...or moan. I feel safe. I want to feel safe again, right now. With you.” I gulped. “I want you to make me feel safe having sex with a man again and not disgust.”

            He looked up at me, his eyes shining with longing. “Are you sure, Neve?” He brought his finger up to my chin so I would look him straight in the eye. “We don’t have to, and I’m fine with just holding you all night.”

            “I want to choose what I do with my body.” I smiled playfully. “And with yours.”

            He kissed the top of my head and smiled gently. “Lie back,” he said. He hiked up my leather dress so that it reached my stomach. “Black panties,” he said, kissing the border of my lingerie. “My favorite.”

            “I wore it just for you,” I murmured, as he lightly tugged them off my hips, taking them into his teeth as he pulled them off my body.      

            “Of course,” he whispered, “my favorite of all is with you wearing nothing at all underneath...” He worked his tongue back up towards my inner thighs, making me shudder. “Just tell me if you want me to stop, Neve.”

            “I won't tell you to stop...”

            When we woke up to the soft morning light streaming in through the window, Danny and I were both covered in sweat. The morning felt glorious. My whole body ached – but the ache was not painful. Rather, it was the sensation of all my muscles relaxed at once for the first time in a month. Relief spreading through my veins. Even after the stress of last night, Danny had been able to bring me to screaming climax not once but three times in the course of the evening, delaying his own pleasure until the very end. I'd learned that the sight of his face, rapt in ecstasy, the feeling of his body shuddering beneath my own, the sound of his soft moans – these things were almost as pleasurable to me as the orgasms he gave me. His body against mine – his pleasure became my own.

            I leaned over and took him all in. His long, ebony-dark hair streaked with sweat, falling around his shoulders, a dark nimbus surrounding his preternaturally beautiful features. There was almost something androgynous about his face, his enormous blue eyes, his full, plush lips. But his body was decidedly masculine. Rock-hard abs, chiseled hips that framed his perfectly-formed shaft. Immediately I tensed up with desire for him. I wrapped my arms around him, pressing my lips against his shoulder, lightly tracing my tongue up and down his chest.

            “Here,” he said in a low, gravelly voice. “Use this.” He lightly stroked a peacock feather up and down my naked body, making me shiver. “It was in the vase on the coffee table. But I figured we could put it to...less decorative uses.” My body tingled all over.

            Clearly morning hadn't limited Danny's stamina. Immediately he was all over me, cupping my breasts with his lips, lightly kneading my flesh with his fingers so that it ached, just slightly, with a glorious pain that only intensified the pleasure. He had me screaming in seconds, my thighs quivering at his touch, as his nimble fingers found the spots that made me writhe when brushed, licked, sucked upon. Before I knew it I was dozing in his arms again, exhausted and drained, the bedsheets smelling of sweet sweat.

            Danny's eyes were closed as he lay next to me, his gaze peaceful at last, his long lashes closed.
Do you still have nightmares?
I wondered. Did he still dream of Peyton, the girl he had once loved, the girl whose death had broken something deep within him? I longed to comfort him, to hold him, to wipe away his tears, to take away that pain...

            “Get some sleep, love,” he moaned. “You'll need it. You won't get much today”

            “Aren't we done for the day?”

            “Not even close...” He grinned. “When have you ever known me to last only a couple of rounds?” This time he focused solely on my breasts, leaving the area between my legs untouched as he cupped my breasts in his hands, lightly tonguing my nipples. The sensation was new to me, gloriously strange – my body was so sensitive by now that even this slight touch was enough to make me arch my back and moan aloud.