Chapter 16
“Ash, you’re not being fair,” I grumble, my body thrumming with pent-up desire. “I don’t understand why you insist on waiting!”
He crawls up next to me and pulls me into his arms. “Because while I appreciate the fact that Paul and Esther are allowing me to stay with you in your room, I’m not going to disrespect them by having sex under their roof,” he replies, kissing my temple as he pushes back my sweaty hair.
“Then maybe we need to go back to my apartment,” I mutter. When he laughs, yes, laughs at me, I swat at him. “It’s not funny, Ash.”
“Sweetheart, you haven’t been cleared by the doctor yet to resume all activities,” he says. “So, no, we can’t go back to your apartment. Stairs, remember?”
I growl while pounding the mattress. So what if I’m unstable on my feet!
He’s strong enough, he could carry me up and down if he had to, for fuck’s sake!
I start to say that very thing when he rolls halfway on top of me and puts his hand over my mouth.
I can feel his erection digging into my side, so I know he wants me as much as I want him, but his skewed moral compass is keeping me from getting well and truly fucked.
“Marnie, I’m unwilling to let my brothers at the clubhouse hear us.
Those walls are paper thin and I’m a jealous fucker.
Your moans and sighs are for my consumption, no one else’s, do you understand?
Plus, I know you could probably manage stairs by now, but it takes you twenty minutes just to go down the ones on the back porch and there are only four steps.
There are at least fifteen steps up to your apartment from the inside, and twice that many if we went in through the back.
Sweetheart, you still fatigue easily as well.
I promise, I want you with every breath in my body, but now’s not the time. ”
“You’ll probably make me wait until Christmas,” I snap, now in a total snit.
I feel like such a bitch right now, and don’t know how to stop myself.
I guess everything’s getting to me at this point; the assault, the kidnapping, what happened to Holly.
I haven’t taken the time to process all of it, just choosing to go with the flow.
I mean, I only have a few more weeks before my twelve weeks is actually up at this point.
I probably would’ve been released already, but mine and Holly’s kidnapping adventure set me back.
“It’s going to be okay, babe,” he whispers, curling around me.
“But you won’t even let me reciprocate,” I whine. Not that I think I could fit his massive dick in my mouth, but I’d give it one helluva an attempt, that’s for damn sure.
“Because orgasms, specifically your orgasms, release endorphins or some shit and those help with healing,” he patiently states. “Mine won’t do that for you.”
“How do you know? How do you know that if we had hot monkey sex, they wouldn’t be so explosive that I’d have a miraculous recovery?” I question.
I start to giggle when it dawns on me just how ridiculous what I just said sounded and soon, his chuckles are joining mine. “I’ll try to contain myself,” I whisper once I’ve got myself back under control.
“It’s kind of a boost to my ego that you’re so upset. I know when people are hungry, they get hangry, but I have no clue what the hell to call how you’re feeling,” he admits.
“Horny. That’s the word, Ash,” I tease. Sighing, I feel today’s events roll off of me and say, “I’ll be okay with waiting. I don’t think I’d be able to keep quiet if we did play hide the sausage here anyhow.”
“Babe, it’s bigger than a sausage.”
I roll my eyes even though the light is so dim in the bedroom it’s doubtful he can see me. “It’s an expression, Ash.”
“Just making sure you’re aware.”
“Kiss me good night, Ash. I know we’ve got a lot to do before the haunted houses open tomorrow night.”
He leans over and takes my lips in a kiss that’s so sweet, I swear I feel a cavity pop through. Snuggling closer, I listen to the steady thud of his heart as it lulls me to sleep, my mood temporarily assuaged.
“No. Nope. Not happening,” I sputter as I step back with each word. “I’ll take your word for it that it’s going to scare the shit out of everyone who enters.”
“Come on, Marnie, the whole club’s going through first to make sure all of it works the way it’s supposed to,” Ash cajoles while the rest of the club watches, their heads bouncing between us like ping-pong balls.
“Don’t let me stop you,” I retort, waving my hands. “I’ll wait right here and be perfectly fine, I promise.”
“Please, Marnie?” Holly asks, begging me to come along with her. “Don’t make me be the only woman with this group of Neanderthals.”
“You won’t be, I saw the three wailing sisters earlier,” I jeer as a shudder courses through me.
The drama club outdid themselves with their makeup.
When the three girls showed up, they looked like normal teenagers, which was fine and dandy.
But I was in the garage setting up the interactive station when they came out of the small trailer that Rebel had in the backyard for the actors to get their makeup done and put on their costumes and seeing them scared the living bejesus out of me.
All three were wearing wispy dresses, with torn, jagged hems, and cloaks.
Their skin was made up with ghostly white makeup, with hollowed out eyes and black contacts, and blood red lipstick.
Long, pointed fingernails that looked like talons and were painted black moved through the air as the three girls waved them in the air while walking to the back door so they could get in position.
Seeing them in the early dusk, when there was still sunlight chilled me to the bone so there was absolutely no fucking way I was going through the dark house with fog machines going and lights flickering.
Ash had a screw loose if he thought it was going to happen tonight or even in this lifetime! I was a proud, card-carrying member of the Chicken Little club. I owned that shit and wasn’t ashamed that scary things frightened me half to death.
Seeing he wasn’t going to win, he leaned in and kissed me then winked. “I was kind of hoping you would go so I could protect you when you got scared,” he admits. “But it’s okay, you get Prophet finished up while we check it out, alright?”
I nod happily as I get the roll of gauze so I can continue to wrap it around Prophet.
He’s still recovering from when he laid his bike down thanks to those fuckers, and the club decided he would be a mummy.
He’ll sit right outside the door and say, “This way” while pointing toward where the kiddy haunted house starts.
He insisted on being a part of it, but since he’s in a wheelchair, we had to compromise.
“You really don’t like scary stuff, huh?” Prophet asks as I work on rolling his arms to cover them. He’s wearing a tight black Henley which will probably peek through some of the gauze, giving him a somewhat authentic look.
“If he had forced the issue, I’d have gone through, but he’d have had to learn to sleep with the lights on,” I reply, snickering.
“I’m a wimp and I know it. I can handle this one because it’s more fun than scary if that makes sense.
Although, I won’t crawl through the mini maze in there because of those spiders. ”
“How in the hell did you get those tools from the barn corner then? I know from what the brothers said, it had a lot of creepy crawlies,” he questions.
“Because I was worried about them hurting Holly,” I admit. “I wouldn’t let myself think about what was possibly in there because it would’ve frozen me in place. Going through the haunted house isn’t a necessity.”
“Makes sense. Okay, go make sure the rest is ready, I think we’re going to be opening soon,” he instructs as I hear screams coming from the house.
I take one final look at my handiwork then head into the garage to make sure everything else is ready.
When the kids come out, they’ll receive a Halloween tote full of candy and small surprises.
I hope we have enough bags ready, but worst-case scenario, Esther and Paul will be bringing more when they come by with Mina and Ruby.
“We’re going to have enough money to help a lot of families for the holidays,” Ash says as we drive back to Esther and Paul’s house.
Tonight was a resounding success if the screams coming from next door were any indication.
The funniest part was, more of the teenage boys and young adult males that came out looked like they were scared shitless than the women.
I’m not sure if it was the sound of chainsaws following behind them, or when they got to the room that Paul and his friends did and saw lifelike coffins with bodies in various stages of decomposition that did it.
I think the bodies, though, because depending on who came through, one of the actors would say something specific to one of the attendees.
I mean, seeing Ben Rawlings running out of the house screaming while yelling, “How did he know I stole that gum?” was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I heard his girlfriend yelling at him as they walked away and don’t see that relationship lasting very long at all.
“We really are and what’s even better, Esther says we have another two weeks, which means we’ll also be able to put together food boxes for both Thanksgiving and Christmas,” I reply. “Oh! And she thinks we should scramble up some eggs to add to the interactive area.”
“What would they represent?” he asks.
“Well, if we add them to the bowl of spaghetti, it’ll feel like busted guts,” I tell him. I know I’m ping-ponging around a bit right now, but I’m wiped out and that’s when I tend to ramble. Today was the first time since the assault that I didn’t have a nap and it’s definitely showing.
“Were the kids scared of Prophet’s rendition of a zombie mummy?” he asks.
“No, not really. In fact, a lot of the kids who are able to write signed his leg casts,” I admit, giggling. “Damn, I’m so tired.”
“Same. But Rebel’s already got some ideas to change a few things for next year’s haunted house,” he says.
“So, it’s going to be an annual thing, huh?” I query.
“Looks that way. Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you inside so we can go to bed,” he says, having shut the truck off. I was so tired I didn’t realize that we made it back to the farm already.
“You’re a man after my own heart,” I whisper as he helps me out of the truck, kissing me deeply.