Page 2 of Bump in the Night
John
Ihave half a mind to ask if she needs us to stay with her tonight,” I say as Elliot rings the doorbell. We take a small step backward in unison, as if the person on the other side of the door is going to be so bright and beautiful that we’ll get knocked on our asses if we aren’tcareful.
“No,” Elliot says to me. “We can’t stay here with hertonight.”
“You know you exaggerate sometimes? What do you think is going tohappen?”
He lets out one of his rarechuckles.
I glance up at the security camera trained on the front stoop. There’s another one inside the entrance to the house, and another at the entrance to the small courtyard out back, and still another pointed toward the backdoor of the brownstone. If it were up to her dad, Pumpkin would beHome Alone-ing the shit out of this place with paint cans, nails – theworks.
My cock begins to stiffen the moment she opens thedoor.
“Hello, boys,” she says warmly, giving us a little wave. “Make yourselves athome.”
Elliot glances over atme.
I return thelook.
Iknow,man.
“Hey, Pumpkin,” I say, stepping inside as she holds the door open for us. I bend down to give her a kiss on the cheek and put my hand on the small of her back. She softens under my touch and I linger a beat longer than I have to. She looks up into my eyes and smiles. When I see that smile on the security cameras, I feel like a dirty old man. When I see the smile right in front of me, in the flesh, I want to pull her toward my body and cover her lips with mine. I want to know if she tastes as good as shesmells.
I step inside and make my way into the living room. The only Halloween decor is upstairs – a string of orange and purple lights hung in Pumpkin’s window. Her father and stepmother are at a police fundraiser tonight, but I don’t think Cynthia likes the holidays verymuch.
Behind me, I hear Elliot give Pumpkin a stern hello and a squeeze on the shoulder. That’s hismodus operandi. I choke back a laugh to myself. I’ve told him time and time again that he needs to stop being so fucking weird around her – and he’s told me thatI’mthe weird one for wanting to openly show her affection. I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong by simply offering a friendly hug and a kiss on the cheek – at least not outwardly. Of course, if anyone knew what was going on inside our heads – most of all her father – he’d be throwing both of us right intosolitary.
And that stuff going on inside our heads? It all started in aninstant.
The moment Elliot and I saw Pumpkin, we knew she was everything we wanted – everything we needed. From across the room, she’d shot an arrow right through us and ended us right then, rightthere.
It was Thanksgiving afternoon two years ago, at one of the food pantries that gives out free meals to the needy on Thanksgiving. They offer hot meals and canned goods to folks in need all year round, but most people only have time to volunteer a few times a year – if that. Not Pumpkin. She’s there with her dad everyweek.
The moment my eyes first laid on hers, my breath was takenaway.
Age: Nineteen. Nickname: Pumpkin. It had said so right there on her name tag. Pretty and petite, with long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, a tiny waist, and thick hips leading down to the most round, perfect ass I’d ever seen in all my thirty-six years on this earth. My tongue was instantly like lead when our eyes met, while my cock had felt likesteel.
I’d placed my hand on my chest to make sure my heart was still there, to make sure she hadn’t stolen it by some form of magic orwitchcraft.
I’d wanted to run over to her – to take her face in my hands and crush my lips to hers. Bring her home with me. Sink my raw and dripping cock right into her perfect, tight, thick young body. For a moment, I hadn’t known if I was supposed to be in line to eat or in line to serve. I was…Well, I was fucking confused. Nothing around me made sense. How could I feel this way in an instant? For a woman I hadn’t even spoken toyet?
But the confusion had been squashed by certainty from some deep, unknownwell.
Mine.
“Don’t try it,” Elliot had barked to me, tearing me out of my trance. He knew what I was thinking. “Captain’sdaughter.”
I’d felt my world tumble like a house of cards, but it hadn’t shaken my need – my obsession. No, that was firm, with a solid foundation. Now, the cards just happened to be in shambles around myfeet.
I’d looked over at Elliot and I’d known what the look on his face had meant. It meant he’d fallen as hard as I had. Something had climbed out of us, grabbed her, and pulled her inside. An equal force took hold inside the both of us, shook us up, and then pulled out our hearts and laid them at her feet. It all happened fast. So fast that despite feeling it, it was as though she’d always been part of me – part ofus.It was in the tick of Elliot’s jaw, in the intensity behind his eyes. It was inside my lungs, in the air Ibreathed.
She wasours.
“Have you met her before?” I’d asked him thatnight.
I’d known the answer before he told me. The shift in energy around us had been sudden and new. If he’d met her before, I’d have alreadyknown.
“No,” he’d said. “Don’t have to. I know it’sher.”
