Page 58 of Haunted Nights & Savage Sins
He huffs out a pleased breath and rolls over onto his back.
After a few minutes, I’m able to turn my head and look at him. He looks incredibly pleased with himself.
I’m pleased with him too, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten.
Mike and his crew finished the work right on schedule. By ten this morning they were packing up all their supplies, and he was walking me around the house, taking me up on the last bit of scaffolding to show me the improvements.
I can already feel the difference. It’s actually warm in here.
Cormac was excited because the work was done and the people would leave. I’m excited for a completely different reason.
It’s Halloween. With the work completed, we can allow trick-or-treaters to come to the door.
I’d talked to Cormac about it before. What started out as a hard and fast no slowly turned into a long, drawn-out okay.
It’s obvious he’s not keen about opening his door to children who are looking for sweet treats. I’m sure having all those new people poking their heads around his property is filling him with anxiety, but I managed to convince him that it was a good thing. Once the town knows he’s not some vampire that goes around killing people for survival, maybe he’ll feel more at home.
Even though he agreed to open the gate for trick-or-treaters he made his own additions, I guess to ease some of his stress about the subject.
The next day after he agreed to my request there were boxes and boxes of new security equipment from Amazon. As I spent my days making sure Mike and his guys were on schedule to finish the work, Cormac busied himself by making sure there was a security camera in nearly every window and door in the house. It seemed like a bit of overkill to me, but if it was how he was dealing with the situation I wasn’t going to say anything about it.
Now that the day was here and the roofing work was completed, Cormac was trying to go back on his word.
He was keeping me in this bed, completely blissed out of my mind and unable to get dressed in my costume for the trick-or-treaters.
It almost worked, too.
Almost.
I turn my head and look out the window. The sun is already starting to go down, which means the trick-or-treaters have either already started or will be starting soon.
“I need to get dressed.”
Cormac closes his eyes for a second, grumbles something under his breath, and then reaches for me.
Using strength I’m pulling directly from my willpower, I scramble out of his reach. “No, you don’t. We made a deal. You can’t keep me fucked silly to get out of it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He turns over to his side and smirks at me.
“Yes, you do. Get dressed. I’m going to tell Maxim to open the gates.”
I run out of the room before I start having second thoughts myself. Laying in bed with him seems like such a much better plan.
When I get to my room I grab the makeshift sign I made and rush it over to Maxim, who is at his post right outside the front door. I tell him to open the gates and put the sign up.
Trick-or-treaters welcome.
It’s probably a first anyone in this town has ever seen here.
I rush back to the bathroom and wash up enough not to be walking around being sticky. I comb out my hair, but there’s really nothing I can do about the well-used aura I’ve got going on. Any adult with eyes is going to be able to see what I’d just been up to.
I go back to my room and pull out the fairy costume I bought at the store with Cormac and put it on. There are a lot of bells and whistles, and by the time I’m finished I’m sweating but still happy.
Grabbing the bags of candy from the corner, I rush out to the front just as I hear the doorbell ring for the first time. Usually Maxim stops everyone at the gate before they even get a chance to get to the door, so I’ve never heard the doorbell go off.
The bell is deep and sounds as if it should belong in an old church or something like that.
I skid to a stop at the top of the hall and look forward. Cormac is standing there waiting for me. Dressed in all black with the horns we bought for him on his head.
