Page 11 of Bump in the Night
Pumpkin
The three of us tumble into the big walk-in coat closet and the door slams behind us. No one turns on the lights for a moment. Then, another moment ticksby.
My heart is hammering in mychest.
With the lights still off, I feel one of my men come up behind me and breathe against my neck, tickling my senses. It’s Elliot. I can feel his power. John flips on thelight.
It’s dim in here and we’re crowded in, but the space between us is electric. I turn around and look up at John’s face in the shadows. His wavy hair, normally pushed back from his face, is falling against his forehead. The start of plumping beads of sweat are gathering at histemples.
“I told you we weren’t going to take our eyes off you all night,” he says, slipping a finger under my chin. A flash of heat spears below my belly button. Shit – am I in trouble? Did I imagine him smacking my ass? Did he do it bymistake?
The tension in the room is sizzling and unbearable. My clothes are too tight. I don’t think the palm of his hand on my ass was amistake.
“Are you trying to drive us fucking crazy,Pumpkin?”
When I hear Elliot speak behind me, I spin around and look up at him. If I thought he was angry before, now he’s positivelylivid. His eyes are frenzied and he’s losing his cool. He looks like he could punch a hole through a wall with a gentle tap of his knuckles. Don’t let this guy go trick-or-treating right now – he’d punch clean through your front door just to get a fun-size candybar.
But he doesn’t scare me, and there’s something else behind his eyes, too. I study him. I watch as his chest moves up and down, and he softly steps toward me. There he goes again with those soft, smooth movements against his harsh, roughwords.
“I asked you a question,Princess.”
Oh,oh– these words are different, and they make my knees feel weak. His tone is dark, but thewords…
Princess?
I swallow hard and shake my head. I feel every single molecule in my body dancing. I can feel every strand of hair on my head bouncing and swaying against my shoulders. I’m small, and golden, and warm again – like I was when I had my head against John’s chest and the music was moving us. Everything in me is alive, from the top of my head to my toenails. I bite mylip.
I’m soaked. My clit is aching with wild need for release. I’m hot allover.
Always rough around the edges, Elliot is still waiting for myanswer.
“No,” I whimper. “I…I don’t thinkso.”
Maybe I’ve become temporarily insane, because I don’t know if I understand what hemeans.
“Did you plan to use the condoms with someone here tonight?” Johnasks.
“No.”
The word is wrung from inside me. It’s frantic and helpless. I don’t want them to think they were for anyone else. They weren’t for anyone else – they weren’t for John and Elliot either, though. It was an impulse buy – like a candy bar, or a trashy magazine at the airport. I thought I could be someone else for the night. Isn’t that what Halloween is allabout?
“Then why do you have them?” Elliotgrowls.
“I-It was stupid,” I say, with a heavy sob inside my chest. “It was just some stupidfantasy.”
I gulp. John’s eyes rake up and down my body and my breathing crests in shudders. If they’re going to tease me about this, I wish they’d just get it over with. This is cruel. They’ve always been so kind to me – John, especially. Elliot has been harder to crack, and I still don’t think I’ve gotten through to him yet, and I know I can – but this is setting me back miles andmiles.
“Princess, what’s the matter?” John’s finger trails along my collarbone and he pushes my hair over my shoulder. My eyes flutterclosed.
“It was nothing. It was stupid.” I try to be emphatic. I try to be strong. “Better safe than sorry,right?”
“Do you think she was going to fuck some boy here tonight?” Elliot growls toJohn.
“No, man. That’s not her. But I do want her to quit lying tous.”
I’ve never been this close to them, all alone with no one else around. They could do anything to me right now – and I’dletthem do anything tome.
The look in John’s eyes empties a can of gasoline over my head, soaking my hair, my clothes, my body. The flashing of a match against flint is the spark of one of his strong arms wrapping around my waist, and the fire that engulfs us is his lips onmine.
