Page 106 of Pucking Obsessed

Robyn chuckles. “Are you sure?”

“Am I sure that Shay will dine out on the story of my fear of Freddy Kreuger masks for at least the next month? Yes I am.”

Robyn twists back to me, before dragging a bright clown costume, which is splattered with blood, from the rack. “What about a killer clown? Shay would love this one.”

I pull a face. “Don’t encourage our little horror fanatic.”

“He doesn’t need any encouragement.”

True.

Well, unless it’s with deepthroating.

Then Shay needs a lot of encouragement as I train him, mostly tugs on his hair and strokes on his bulging throat, while his eyes water.

Shay looks at his prettiest, when he cries for me.

Afterward, he’ll need petting andgood boys, when he manages it.

You must reward effort, after all.

Robyn lets the killer clown costume drop, which is a relief.

Then she looks down. “Halloween is hard for me too. I don’t talk about it to anyone but Cody, but Mom died on Halloween.”

I suck in a sharp breath, tugging Robyn closer, until her head rests on my chest. “I wish that I’d known. If you want to get out of going to this party…”

Robyn shakes her head. “Dad will make a fuss, and things are already difficult. It’s good though to finally have someone that I feel close enough to talk about this with. I tried to with Wilder, but he just shut me down. He told me that I was beingmorbid. It’s not morbid to remember someone you’ve lost, right?”

I tighten my hold on Robyn. “How about you label everything that jerk said to you as bullshit?”

Robyn nods. “When your mom dies, when you’re still a kid, you never really know her. I mean, I have these fragments of memories. But she’s never been a fully rounded person to me, outside being a mom.A saint.Recently, finding out that she had flaws and a life before me, actually made her feel more real. I’m weirdly grateful for that.”

“I don’t think that I ever knew my mom,” I say, quietly. It’s strange that in the narrow aisle between ranks of kinky outfits, I feel safe to finally talk about a wound that’s still raw. “Now, I remember how loved she made me feel, wrapping me up in woolen scarves because she constantly worried about me being cold, cooking my favorite meal every Monday, and giving me dinosaur stickers as a reward if I scored full marks on spelling tests. Yet she went along with everything Dad did to me. She didn’t want me the moment that I kissed a boy. She says that I’m dead to her. But actually, she’s dead tome. The mom who I remember doing all those things died a long time ago.”

I blink the tears from my eyes.

I didn’t mean to say all that.

1001 Fantasies is silent.

It’s intimate and smells of an intense leather and intoxicating, musky perfume.

It’s decorated with masks, corsets, and whips.

I feel at home here and free to be myself.

Robyn meets my gaze. “Then we grieve both our moms on Halloween. We also have a new family now. This is our second chance to move on together. How about we choose the most decadent, sexy outfits that we can get away with? It’ll make a statement to the boring board members that they haven’t broken us. Then we enjoy the hell out of the party.”

Happiness surges through me.

I grin. “Who’s become the wicked puck bunny now? PR Director, I thought that I wasn’t meant to be the devil any longer?”

Robyn leans up and kisses me.

It’s more tender than I’m expecting.

I close my eyes, allowing Robyn to lead for the briefest of moments.

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