Chapter Twenty-One Halloween #2
King nods and sits, wide-eyed. “I don’t know if the fact that half of them had knee replacements made them more or less of a threat at limbo. Maybe they don’t have the normal human constraints anymore.” He rubs his lower back. “I was never going to make it past the first round. Not on crutches.”
“It’s okay, baby. Wanna back rub before we get into our party clothes?” I lay my hand on King’s shoulder. He’s seemed quiet ever since I showed him the text from my mom.
Damn it. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything. Shouldn’t have sent it.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to,” he murmurs, eyes closed, head bowed as he rubs the back of his neck. “I think Mrs. Y forgot young people still need to breathe.”
“I told you not to bob for apples when you can’t kneel.”
“But they went to all that trouble to move the apple tub onto the table... Wait, that was probably good for the seniors, too.”
“Probably don’t feel like getting a shower, huh? Wet enough for the day?” I tease, ruffling his hair, hoping to see his smile and his flirty chatter come back. I move to undo Chip’s cape. Daisy snuffles, yawns, and walks to King to get hers undone.
To my surprise, King ignores Daisy and looks up at me. All at once, I understand the expression, “With his heart in his eyes.”
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I demand, my stomach cramping into a ball of nerves.
“I’d love to shower with you. To be with you again.
I miss you around me. I miss you on top of me.
I miss... I miss all the physical things, but for the first time in my life, physical stuff hasn’t only been about feeling good.
Like, outwardly feeling good.” He swallows, jaw working, trying to hold a smile.
“I was falling in love with you. Loving you.”
“Was?” I whisper. What changed? What did I do? Did my mom scare him off?
How is that possible, if I didn’t scare him off, and I opened this relationship with a shove and a shout?
“You looked so upset when your mother saw my picture. She didn’t ask if I was in a costume or wearing green makeup, so she must not be able to see that I’m an Orc, just like most humans.
So it wasn’t that. You just—you’re not in the same place that I am, and I don’t want to keep asking you to give me such special pieces of you if I don’t have your heart first. I’m stupid, aren’t I?
” He suddenly wipes his wide jersey sleeve across his eyes, the broken smile completely disappearing.
He looks back down at Daisy and undoes her costume, voice thick, eyes blinking away tears as he strokes her head.
“I didn’t live like an Orc for so long, flirting and fucking around, and I screwed up courting you.
Went for the physical too fast, and you don’t want to move at the same pace.
I even said I’d wait for your signal, but I—”
“Oh! Oh my God!” I interrupt with a full-throated shout that sends Daisy scampering as I drop to my knees, grabbing King’s face.
“King, no! I love what we do, I love you, I love being together in bed, in the kitchen, just hanging out at the park! No, no, no. You didn’t do a damn thing wrong.
You’ve been ‘courting me’ like a pro, I promise.
I’d write a testimonial about it to an Orc dating site.
” I stop for air. “Are there Orc dating sites? No, never mind. No, baby, I just... I wasn’t ready to tell my mom about you yet.
I like my relationship with my mom the way it is—where I don’t give her a chance to butt in and try to direct me.
Control me. Frown when I don’t do things her way, or use guilt to manipulate me.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think she does those things more than any other parent, but.
.. I like that I’ve been able to have it on my terms.” I hold up a hand. “Before you say I’m a bad daughter—”
“I would never say that. I think you’re amazing.” King’s voice is low and raspy, what I think people might call “gravelly” with emotion.
“I lived on my parents’ terms for a long time, and sometimes I was put into situations I hated.
I finally have a situation with you. That I like.
With something that feels real and comfortable.
I don’t want her to pick it apart. To tell me you’re too young for me.
That I’m not supposed to be interested in some sexy young hockey player. ”
“You’re still interested?”
“So much. More than I thought possible. I don’t want anyone to burst my bubble. Everyone here just seems so happy that we’re together.”
“Because they like you. And for some reason—they like me. Probably because I can shoot a puck past the goalie five out of seven times,” he mutters.
“Sure. And now because you’re the local hero.
The guy who went and read “Pine Ridge Pumpkin Tales” to the second-graders.
The guy who spoke to the high school about helping old people get pets.
The guy who talks up everyone and everything.
Even me.” It’s my turn to fight as the smile drops off my face, and my lips tremble.
Halloween, and all the masks come off.
“I don’t believe you were arrogant. I believe you didn’t realize how much you could hype up people, how much love you could give them, so you just focused all your attention on yourself.”
“It’s hard to do that if you’ve never been in love before. Maybe?”
At that, I have to nod vigorously. This feeling of falling, and rushing, and yearning, and clinging... And yet, you end each day happier and better? “Probably. I was never in love before, either. Not like this.”
King’s eyebrows rise. “Did you say you’re in love?”
I lick my lips. “Yeah.”
He sits back, stares, then leans forward, cupping my cheeks. “With me, right?”
“Yes, skates-for-brains, with you.” I push myself up to kiss his lips. “I was just teasing. I love your brain.”
The knot in my stomach unravels slowly, as if someone were carefully unpicking a tangle of nerves, fears, and emotions.
My hands glide up his legs. His chest. “I love your body.”
“Mm.” The next kiss is directed by my sexy Orc boyfriend, and it’s hungry and sweet. Long and drawn out. “I love your body. Your hips. Your thighs. Your breasts. That perfect little spot where your stomach is all soft and pillowy.”
“Only you could make me want to keep my problem area, the thing I’ve been trying to get rid of for the last six years,” I groan.
“You do, and I’ll rebel. I’ll... I’ll convince the dogs to join me.
We’ll bark and chant until you admit that you are as fine as fuck and every part of you is huggable and delicious.
” King hauls me into his lap, hands mauling the black nylon top I’m wearing.
Fingers dig in—and the shirt is in two pieces.
“Hey!”
“You’re lucky I can’t run right now, because if I could, I would chase you, catch you, and mate you right here, anywhere I could catch you. You love me. I love you.” King grunts against my neck and rocks his hips against mine. “I thought I might have to let you go. Now... Do I get to keep you?”
Keep me.
My throat freezes after a long, low moan escapes it.
Keep me?
What a beautiful, wonderful, terrifying thought.
But isn’t that what the goal of real love is? To last?
“You want this to last?” I whisper, letting him tear, letting him thrust, and giving it back as good as I get. My hands ball up his jersey, and I scramble to get it over his head, so my chest can melt into that smooth, muscular green oasis.
“Want me to prove it? A little ritual on a holy night?”
“What kind of ritual?”
“A little anointing.” King arches one eyebrow, and everything in me turns to molten liquid. The knot in my middle comes back, but this time as a steady throb, pounding between my thighs.
“A little magic?” I rise and pull him carefully with me. King uses me as one crutch and braces against the wall in place of the other.
“Every time with you is magical.”
We light two candles (mainly because that’s all I can find, and they’re the big votive ones that came from some holiday gift basket from one of our sponsors).
The room smells like cinnamon, and flickers of light make shadows in the steamy shower.
I wait on my ledge, warm and wet, watching her rinse under the spray.
“You’re sure?” she whispers, voice tight.
“Always sure about you. Come here, baby. If you're my goddess, I want to make a little offering.”
“Nothing little about it.” Ingrid laughs and comes over to me. “I still drink the tea. A cup every morning and evening. I would do more if we... If I’d thought I’d be using it this week.”
“My vote is for constant vigilance. Always be prepared,” I joke, but I know how serious this is, how taboo it is to many people, and how many walls Ingrid is breaking down to let me in.
Someone, somehow, made her so cautious about being loved and giving love back.
“I’m the luckiest man in the world,” I whisper.
“Just to have you by my side. Tonight can be about death, you know. Death of old things, like loneliness. And arrogance. How’s that for a dumb jock? ”
Ingrid kisses me, eyes half-lidded and smoky in the wavering blend of gold and shadows. “The end of one year and the beginning of the new. The harvest?”
I nod, under her spell. “They made offerings.”
“We make offerings.” She slowly turns and sinks down against me, her back to my chest.
My hands greedily grab her cheeks, nestling my cock under her, feeling how wet she is already.
I let out a long, thankful sigh and bury my face in her damp hair, just holding her to me.
“Feels like Thanksgiving and Halloween in one. I have the greatest thing in my life in my arms. Something I’m so thankful for. ”
“Mmm.” Her hands grip my forearms as we maneuver, ever mindful of my leg.
“Think it’s going to be easier this time?” she whispers.
“Let’s see.”
I don't know about easier, but I know about hotter. Whether it’s the extra fluids or the steam in the shower, her pussy feels hotter and wetter than ever, and sticks to my cock like a second skin.
Ingrid gasps as I stretch her, squeeze past the protesting bands of muscle.
One push, two, three, and I slip home with a breathless curse, deep inside my goddess.
“Does that make your pussy feel better, baby?” I ask, kissing away beads of water from her shoulder.
“I think I’ve discovered a cure for cramps,” Ingrid sighs, head back, the edge of a giggle in her voice.
“Oh, this is the treatment, not the cure. The cure happens when I make you come,” I vow, wrapping my arms around her waist.
We move together, slippery and soaked, bouncing her on my cock until she rests against my knot, but doesn’t take it in. “Someday. Maybe for Christmas,” I tease.
“Oh, much sooner.”
“Fine. Then I’ll get you something else for Christmas.”
“One large boyfriend with two working knees would be amazing. Then we can hold hands when we walk without you needing to hold onto crutches.
“Yes, brilliant gift! I think I’d like a girlfriend upgrade. Let’s wrap her in something sparkly.” My hands trap hers under mine, and I lace my fingers tightly around hers. A shiny, sparkly diamond. Or an opal. Or just anything that shows the world she’s mine.
“Upgrade? Sparkly?” Doesn’t upgrade usually mean the old model wasn’t wanted?
“Oh, you’d get an upgrade, too.” His hands squeeze around mine as he holds me firmly in his lap, his cock thrusting hard, short, and shallow, attacking all the nerve endings inside in the most delectable way.
For a minute, I’m too busy riding waves of pleasure that are pushing me fast and hard to an orgasm to think about what he’s saying.
“You mean wife!” I suddenly blurt.
Yes, Ingrid. Apparently, your brain shuts down during sex. The next stage up from girlfriend is wife. Well, duh.
“Mmhmm. But think of it, you’d get a husband. It’s a two-for-one deal.”
“You can’t tease me about that stuff. It’s barely been three weeks.”
“Not teasing. Serious. Ohhh, fuck, squeeze down on me like that, beautiful.”
I obey, muscles spasming, then fluttering in turns. “But... Wife?”
“What do you think happens when someone says they love you and want to keep you?” King’s raspy chuckle is like a waterfall down my spine, a tickle that makes me smile inside.
“Ummmm. I don’t know. If you listen to a lot of women, nothing.”
“Hm. Maybe listen to a lot of Orcs, instead.”
“I don’t know a lot of Orcs.”
“Then I’m the expert, and I say that I’m serious.
” King lets go of my hand and brings his fingers to his lips.
I crane my neck and watch him sucking on his first two digits, his tongue working over them like he works over my clit, and my pussy jumps.
His fingers descend, working between my thighs and attacking my clit with firm circles, then hard strokes up and down, just the way I like.
“Oh... Oh, God!” I whimper.
“If the expert makes you come, will you consider wearing something shiny on your finger for me?” King demands. His fingers stop, and I groan at the loss, quivering on his cock.
“Yes! If you make me come. But that’s not fair.”
He’s silent, working me inside and out, and kissing my neck with his sharp tusks tracing over the softest, most ticklish part.
“Ah!” I let out one short, harsh cry that’s followed by a babble of curses and happy noises as my peak hits.
“Totally fair,” King says, all smug. “Maybe just a little trickery.”
He’s still rock hard inside of me, and so big that I ache, but the ache is like that epic post-workout burn that makes you want more, combined with orgasmic bliss.
It’s my turn to drive. I brace one hand on the shower wall and start to pound my still spasming pussy around him, knowing I’ll bring myself off again and cause King to burst.
“I suppose a little trickery is in order tonight—along with a very,” I squeeze down hard and listen to him whimper, “big treat.”
“Oh, fuck,” King moans, slumping back as I use his cock like my personal toy. Hm. I suppose it kind of is.
“Happy Halloween.”