Chapter Ten The House on Haven Way
“It’s so cute! And it smells amazing.” Honey clomps into the house looking like a cross between an undead ringmaster and a hooker—high platform shoes, a purple velvet tailcoat, striped stockings, and her hair tied in neon green bows.
“That would be my pumpkin spice cake. We can have some cake and coffee before the ball, but I don’t want to spoil your appetite. I know the ball is going to have some amazing food.”
“I don’t care about the food as long as they have some amazing guys—like this Johnny Miller you can’t shut up about.” My cousin fixes me with a pout and clicks her long nails together. “Spill, baby.”
“Oh, you’ll see him. He’ll be here any minute. We match.” I spin in my outfit, black leather jacket, fishnets, mini skirt, hair gelled within an inch of its life in Marcel waves, and chic little flats.
“What are you, some Black Betty Boop with a biker fetish?” Honey asks, giving me a critical look.
“I’m a vintage biker babe, and Johnny is my biker bad-boy ghost.”
“Why a ghost?”
“Because it’s Halloween,” I say, as if that should be obvious, and hope that it works.
I’ve been in Pine Ridge for six weeks now, and I’ve learned a lot. Changed a lot.
Honey comments on that, too. “You seem like a different person. Are you on the happy pills?”
“Nope. Just high on happy. This is a happy place.”
No, honestly, it is. Yeah, there are monsters in this town, but all the ones I’ve met are super nice.
The regular people seem nice, too. My life is moving swiftly but peacefully—all the drama’s behind me.
I’ve graduated to twice-a-week therapy. I’ve got my new career in the works, and a couple of business courses lined up starting in January.
Best of all?
Johnny.
“Where is he? Meeting us there?”
“No, he’ll be home soon.”
“Home. Soon? Girl! Are you serious? Do you live with him?” Honey hisses, green eyelashes about to fan themselves into flame.
“I do. And I’m gonna, until we’re old and gray together,” I say with perfect ease.
“Oh, you have been skimping on the details. I need to know all the dirt. Job, income, college, stock portfolio—”
“He’s a former sergeant in the Army, he cooks like a god, looks like a sexy Italian-American version of James Dean, and he gives the best massages. Ever. Bar none.” I lean forward, lower my lids, and look dead into Honey’s eyes. “Any toy you name? I’d trade it for an hour with that man.”
Honey rocks back in her chair, fans herself, and clutches some imaginary pearls. “Brothers?”
“Not available,” I reply, and that’s true. “Come on into the kitchen and let’s have something to nibble on.”
Honey follows, teetering on her heels. “Do your parents like him?”
“They spoke on a video chat, but the connection was bad.” Johnny kept looking fuzzy. That’s not the technology; that’s the spirit world, which seems to have a free pass in Pine Ridge. They’ll have to deal. “We’re planning a Halloween wedding next year. In costume,” I say quickly.
“Wedding? You barely know him!”
“Ah, but when you do know, you know. And there is nothing else like it,” I say, cutting a slice of the heavenly-smelling pumpkin spice cake and plopping it on a plate.
“Fine, I’ll believe you. God knows I don’t know anything about that right now.” She moodily stabs the cake and looks at me with a pout. “And you’re going to go back to school to... Do what?”
“I’m slowly finding my love of architecture again, but not the architectural firm rat race.
There’s a job opening up in the permissions and planning office in Pine Ridge, and I applied.
I start training with the man who’s retiring in December, and they’re totally happy I’m taking a business course because they work closely with the Chamber of Commerce. ”
“That couldn’t have been any neater if it came to you tied up with an effing bow!” Honey cries.
I think back to the first three weeks of moving into the house on Haven Way, meeting Johnny, hating him, falling for him, loving him, losing him... “Yeah,” I force a smile, “super neat.”
“How’s my sweetheart? Ready to go to the ball, princess?” Johnny calls from the front door.
“He, uh, has a key,” I explain to Honey, racing to him.
Honey follows, just in time to see Johnny bend me backward in a kiss that proves my spine is as good as new.
“Johnny. Honey,” I gasp when I can breathe again.
“Nice to meet you!” Johnny keeps his hands on me, which is great, because shaking hands with anyone else would be a dead giveaway—if that person could even see him.
“Hi,” Honey says in a breathless voice. I know she has boyfriend envy, and she should. “You sure all of his brothers are unavailable?” she hisses as we part.
“Extremely,” Johnny chuckles. “But this is a great town, Honey. You might find your Prince Charming at the ball.”
Honey doesn’t find a prince, but a troll. Hugo. I don’t think they’re a love match, but his innocent charm and enormous stature are keeping Amber’s cousin happy. Which is good, because now that I can move around in my spirit bottle, I want to see the world with my girl.
Right now, we’re bopping along to the music, twirling in a beautiful ballroom at the White Pines Estate. Monsters, humans, costumes, no costumes, we’re all together.
“I think Honey will be fine for a while,” I whisper in Amber’s ear. “I want to show you something. Blue Moon Lake. The Pine Walk.”
“Ooh?” Amber smiles up at me.
“The old kissing spot,” I whisper.
“Ooooh!” Amber’s tone changes, and so do her eyes, lids lowering, lashes sweeping those beautiful cheeks that make up the heart-shaped face I adore. “I’ve never been to a lovers’ lane.”
“I have lots of firsts in mind. I walk past Manny, and he nods, nice and subtle.
I give him a thumbs-up, and we saunter outside.
“We should take the car.” I steer Amber to the mass of vehicles in the parking area and find her little car.
“We can’t be too long,” Amber protests, but she trots along into the driver’s seat while I simply slide through the car door and land beside her.
“Go up towards the woods. We’re going to go to the lake first.”
“How romantic. But also—it’s Pine Ridge. And Halloween. Are we going to be safe?”
“Oh, yes. This is a BYOM special.”
“Bring my own what?”
“Monster,” I say, running a possessive hand over her leg.
“Someone’s feeling beastly?” Amber winks.
“Moonlight and beautiful women do that to me.”
Blue Moon Lake is large and silent. Tranquil. It might be a popular spot, but not tonight. The rest of the crowd is in the giant 1920s mansion at the lavish ball.
I’m leaning against Johnny’s side, hand in his lap. Stroking the seam of his jeans, not that I can feel it exactly, just see it. My hand sinks through, and Johnny moans. Shifts.
“I’ve been waiting for this,” I sigh, and lick my lips.
Somehow, even in a month of desperate, addictive sex, I haven’t been the one to “give,” only to receive.
I blame Johnny, though. Once he starts something, I’m helpless until he stops, a puddle of pleasure that wouldn’t be able to muster the willpower to stop the chain of orgasms unless I had to avert nuclear war.
“I’ve been waiting for this, too. You know, a long time ago, this used to be the spot to fool around. And that’s all it was, just fooling around.” Johnny stops me as I shift in my seat, reclining his seat with the touch of a button.
I move over him with more flexibility than my original doctors would have believed possible, straddling his lap, taking his hard cock, which feels warm and not quite solid in my hand, and rubbing it against my fishnets-covered thighs.
Johnny’s thoughts derail, and he pushes my leather skirt up over my ass, tearing the fishnets easily, moving the sexy black skeleton print thong to the side of my pussy. My wet lips brush his sensitive head, and I have to stop myself from sinking down.
“You were saying?” I ask, pressing Johnny back and then crooking my finger up.
Obediently, he floats. His hips rise. My mouth slowly descends, capturing his cock with a long, slow suck that makes my entire mouth feel like I’m swallowing fizzing candies.
It tickles and tingles, and it’s strangely addictive. My tongue curls and swipes.
I reach into my pocket. Hit the playlist on my phone while I look into his eyes.
Johnny’s favorites come on. The hits that I’ve come to love, too. Soulful and vibrant—just like us.
“Amber... You spoil me, baby.”
“You spoil me. But that wasn’t what you were saying.”
“I was saying that you are my one true love. The one you wait for. An eternity. A lifetime. A lifetime. The fooling around is incredible, but so is every moment of life with you. All the small things. Not being alone anymore. Seeing you smile every day. I’m a dead man, but you bring me to life.
And somehow,” Johnny stops me before I can sink my lips down around him again, “I got a second lifetime—with you. So, can you open the glove box, sweetheart?”
I have to twist to open the latch, but Johnny helps. He pulls the air currents or water vapor, or whatever the heck he does, and floats a white box towards me.
“Manny put it there tonight. Helped me pay for it. I’ll work it off,” Johnny whispers, stroking my hair. The ring box pops open and reveals a perfect, sparkling round-cut stone, so clear that it’s tinged blue. It’s small, but perfect.
“A blue moon,” I whisper, awed.
“A perfect circle. For my endless love. ‘Cause you make me all poetic,” Johnny coughs.
I slide it on my finger, but his motion pushes it into place.
When I lean forward to kiss him, he pushes my hips into place.
“I was trying to give you a Halloween treat,” I protest.
“You give me one every day. Watching you ride me is the best thing in this world,” he grunts. “Unless it’s watching you underneath me. Or getting nice and close to your juicy little pussy. See, I don’t think you can taste me the way I can taste you. You sucking me doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if it feels good for you, babe,” I moan, posting on his cock, hips rocking. His thumb strokes circles over my nub and one hand comes up to grasp my breast, another tingly cascade flowing from nipple to pussy, making everything in me throb as I sink down and stay there, wanting him in deep.
“You deserve to see all the beautiful things, precious. Now you’re not stuck at home with me. We can make love out here, with the lake, and the moon, and the trees. All the beauties in nature, but you’re the most beautiful,” Johnny says, staring up at me with starry eyes.
“That’s such a lovely thought, honey,” I whisper, looking at how my ring sparkles against his silvery skin when I cup his strong jaw. “But you wanna know a secret?”
“Is it how you always make every time feel like the best time?” he asks, pulling me down and keeping me there, his hips grinding up into mine, his cock warm and full, putting pressure on every sweet spot while his hands take me over the edge, leaving me a shaking, speechless mess.
Somehow, I push myself to make words as I feel the pressure burst inside of me, making warm, throbbing waves that squeeze inside and radiate out. “That’s not my secret. That’s yours.”
“Then what’s the secret, sweetheart?”
“I don’t need any beautiful secluded spots, or any big cities with tall towers and skyscrapers.
“No?”
“I’m glad we can travel, but that’s not what I want anymore.
You know what I want?” I steal a kiss from him as I muster the strength to keep squeezing him, bringing him closer and closer to the edge.
“I just want my husband, and our home, and to sit in your lap every night in our little house on Haven Way. How’s that sound, baby? ”
Johnny’s essence floods me, and his spine arches up. He looks into my eyes, his own wide and dark, dreamy. “That sounds like heaven, sweetheart.”
He should know.
I nod and kiss him again. “Heavenly, indeed.”
Ready to meet some more characters in Pine Ridge? If you’d love to read Manny and Rhea’s story, you can find it in Monsters, Marriage, and Mistletoe. Get a sneak peek of Lazarus and Victoria’s story, Secondhand Soul below!