Page 30 of Hot Irish Halloween

Penny raised the cup to her face and smelled the liquid inside. She paused. “Well.Sláinte!” Then she took a cautious sip, then another. “Hm. Doesn’tseempoisoned.”

The others laughed hard at her “joke,” but Jack didn’t. He wasn’t so sure anymore that she’d been wrong about this risky gamble he’d lured her into.

Once they’d both had several swallows of the strong honey-based drink, spiced with cinnamon and some new earthy flavor Jack didn’t recognize, Clarissa said, “Let me show you around.”

She took them through a series of drawing rooms and galleries, hung with the typical tapestries and paintings. Typical, except on closer inspection, many of the scenes were of naked people frolicking and fucking.

Clarissa’s voice droned on, describing the history of the castle and how the FitzGerald family had been installed as landlords at the bidding of Queen Elizabeth Tudor herself in the 16thcentury. After his arrival from England, the original FitzGerald had reportedly married a descendant of a Celtic high priest who’d held onto their traditions in secret. Their bloodline had followed those traditions ever since.

“Bollocks,” Jack murmured to Penny when Clarissa had been distracted by a servant. Between the strong mead and the incessant, repetitive beats of the erotic neo-Celtic music playing, his head was starting to feel off. “Prancing around with little braids in her hair and blue paint four times a year doesn’t make her a fucking Druid.”

“You need to start acting nice…nicer,” Penny responded. Her words were starting to slur. Her eyes held that shine again, but this time, Jack was sure it was from the sweet drink in her handrather than his sweet words. “Better get that money.” Then she giggled.

Uh-oh.

He’d seen her drink wine before, but she hadn’t gotten tipsy. Jack tried taking the goblet from her, but she turned so he couldn’t reach it.

“Take it easy, angel. That stuff is strong.”

“You don’t tell me what to do. You’re just a fake husband, not my real one. Even the real one never toldmewhat to do.” Penny stumbled away, and Clarissa caught her arm again. Quietly seething, Jack followed.

Fake husband? He’d see about that.

“Time to go outside,” Clarissa announced, clapping her hands with her long, black-manicured nails. When the guests looked at each other with uncertainty, she sighed. “Yes, I know it’s chilly out there. But if our ancestors could bear it, so shall we.”

The servants were rousing the guests, some of whom had been lying on the couches. A few had been wearing capes with their costumes, and Jack could swear he saw them swiftly adjust those robes over naked bodies and erect cocks. A couple was openly kissing and fucking on one of the chairs, the woman rising and falling with her yellow dressed hiked up her waist.

Penny grasped his arm and tip-toed to whisper in his ear, “Told you everybody and their mama was gonna come dressed like Beauty and the Beast.”

He should have been shocked at what was happening, but he wasn’t. Not anymore. What he felt was a return of the deep hunger that had gone unfulfilled time and time again since the day Penny had casually sauntered into his life and turned him inside out. And with the simmering desire came the stiffening of his cock, to his frustration. Most likely, he’d only get relief if he rubbed one out by himself again later that night after she went to sleep.

With a laugh like the tinkle of chimes, Clarissa called to the woman, “That’s not what we’re having for appetizers, Rebecca.” The woman got up and giggled as she adjusted her dress with hardly an ounce of embarrassment. Clarissa rolled her eyes and smirked as she strutted through the room. “Some people. Can’t take them anywhere. The dining hall is this way.”

“Told you,” Penny whispered again. Then she laughed.

11

FIRE

PENNY

If it was one thing Penny loved, after her prized Stradivarius and her mother’s spiced apple pie, it was being proven right.

Or, at least, somewhat right. Her new favorite thing was the dazed expression on Jack’s face when he’d seen the couple fucking and the other bodies that were obviously naked under their robes.

The real question was, why wasn’tshemore upset about this turn of events, right or not?

It was this place. It was seductive, like everything and everyone in it, like it belonged to another space and time entirely. The luxurious decadent décor of black velvet, crystal, and gold that sparkled into her eyes. The ripe apples and wheat in golden bowls on every table. The delicious drink that spiced her tastebuds on the way down. The tribal music that emanated from hidden speakers, a steady throbbing in the background that was infiltrating her senses. It was a strange blend of Celtic flutes played on a low register, along with uilleann pipes andcymbals layered over a sensual modern drumbeat. Even if she didn’t belong to this tribe, its music still captivated her and stole its way into her body.

The constant drone of Clarissa’s words wove through the score, at the same time soothing and compelling. Those almond-shaped green eyes barely blinked while she spoke. If Penny didn’t know better, she’d think she was being spelled.

Jack was feeling it, too. She could tell. He seemed to be fighting it, blinking several times rapidly and slightly shaking his head, but he was aroused again. The stretchy olive pants hid nothing.

Clarissa and Simon disappeared through a side door as the guests were ushered in the other direction. They filed out of the castle to the gardens in the back that Penny had surveyed earlier. It was nearly sunset. As the last rays of the sun pierced the overcast sky, the effect was strange, like lemon, lavender, and carnation pink tinting a cobalt gray painting.

The torches were flaming and illuminating the path to the pile of broken sticks and thicker chunks of logs. It was colder than in the city, crisper and quieter. They waited, mumbling and drunk, making off-hand jokes until the FitzGeralds suddenly reappeared, both wearing white cloaks wrapped with golden rope at the waist and carrying white sticks of wood.

Damn, they must be cold. Penny kept the joke to herself because everyone else had quieted at their appearance. Clarissa was given a torch by an older female server, who very solemnly stepped back. Clarissa then passed the torch to Simon, who stepped forward with equal solemnity and looked at each face in the crowd.

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