Page 115 of Strange Seduction
“Hm, I suppose we can.”
That made her grin. “So you’re in?”
“I’ll play along.”
“Alright then.” She tossed her half-eaten slice onto the coffee table and crawled up to straddle my lap. “Let’s go get masks.”
God help me.
?????
The Halloween store smelled like cheap rubber. Carmen was already three aisles deep, holding up ridiculous options while I leaned against a rack of slutty nurse costumes, scrolling through my email.
“Oh my God,” she gasped. “Teddy, look!”
She held up a full-on latex Catwoman mask, complete with tiny cat ears and stitching detail. It looked like it came straight out of a Tim Burton movie.
I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
She ignored me and shoved it over her head, adjusting the eyes. “Is this turning you on?”
“Maybe if I was thirteen.”
She flipped me off, then turned to check herself out in the mirror, adjusting her ponytail so it fell sleek and high and very blonde. “This one’s it.”
I kept scrolling.
“I don’t know why you even bothered picking one up. People would recognize you by your hair alone.”
“Shut up!” she snapped, tugging the mask off. “It’s the fantasy, okay? You’re the one who wanted masks.”
I smirked. “Right, right. Continue the fantasy, baby.”
She ignored me and strutted toward another rack labeledCLEARANCE - SCARY GUYSin Italian.
I followed at a slower pace, hands typing on my phone, watching her riffle through a pile of tangled headpieces.
“I’m gonna pick something for you too,” she declared. “I’m thinking… werewolf. Or vampire.”
“You want me to fuck you wearing plastic fangs?”
She turned and looked at me over her shoulder with that slow, wicked grin. “You ain’t afraid of a little roleplay, are you, Teddy?”
“I’m afraid of looking like an idiot,” I muttered.
“You’re too strict, then.”
“Keeping my dignity intact is strict now?”
She sighed. “Theodore. No one on earth is more uptight about their dignity than I am. You know how I feel about being embarrassed. But it’s just us, and I promise I won’t judgeanything we do. Let’s just let loose, okay? We had fun yesterday, didn’t we?”
The thought of her in that cowboy hat ran through my head. “Yes, we did.”
“Exactly. Trust me on this. I know we’ll have a good time.”
She suddenly held up a Ghostface mask, grinning like she’d just found buried treasure. “Wait. This one’s kind of nostalgic.”
I stopped all movements. “Oh, hell no.”
