Page 58 of The King of Halloween
“Your car is that way, I believe.” Adam pointed toward a ring of lights that was probably Main Street.
“What about you?” Raj asked.
“I’m afraid I parked over there. It’s a free lot.”
“No, I mean…” He bit his lip, his stomach churning at the unfair encounter. It’d be one thing if this were just a random one-off meeting, but he liked Adam. He wanted to fuck him.
Adam laughed. “How does Thursday night sound? We could do dinner.”
“Then, I do you?” Raj asked.
It had to be his imagination, but he’d swear Adam’s face fell for a second. But what man doesn’t want a free blowjob? It was the strange light.
Adam swept closer. He took both of Raj’s hands in his. “Sounds heavenly,” he whispered before kissing him. Just as it started to turn hot, with Adam teasing his tongue across Raj’s parted lips, he slipped away.
Raj collapsed his fingers and found that velvet rose clutched between them. Rolling the petals across his palm sent a pulse of hunger through his exhausted cock.
“Until Thursday, my little bird,” Adam called out, his form fading into the shadows.
Do you want to have children?
Please tell me you don’t, because I think I might be falling harder for you than I should.
Raj opened his mouth, about to ask him, before he chickened out. “I await your kidnapping,” he said instead, getting a laugh from his phantom.
The progeny question could wait for date two, or fifteen, or a hundred. No reason to crush this rose just as it was starting to bloom.
His pocket jerked, and he groaned. For as tempting as this fantasy was, real life awaited him.
?CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
?
WHISTLING LIKE A damn fool, Adam waved to people as he strutted down the street toward his shop. Sure, most of the people he passed returned the greeting before turning around and eyeing him up. Maybe one or two made a snide comment about it being too early for someone this drunk, but he didn’t care. He’d had a good first date. Dare he even say it, a great one?
In the annals of Adam Stein’s romance history, there were three top first dates. There was the time a man took him to an aquarium and spent all night making eyes at the shark. The one when the guy’s husband stopped by the bar to pick up an order of wings. Oh, and—best of all—the hot air balloon ride with a man terrified of heights. It’d been his idea, and he spent the whole time screaming it was immersion therapy while huddled up in the basket. The rest were a hodgepodge of men staring him down, asking if he brought condoms, then the two of them slipping out to fuck and forget.
Last night, he got the best of both worlds. And the way Raj melted when Adam got a little domineering… For a brief second, he let himself hope he’d found his diamond in the rough. But, upon some post-nut clarity, Adam realized it was probably the mask and cloak. Good thing he had a lot of those.
“I put a spell on you…” Adam sang, his keys jangling against the door as he shoved it open. Raising his arms, he swept in through the front with a “…because you’re mine!”
“Morning, boss.” Chrissy leaned at her post, her chin in her hand as she watched him yank out his keys.
Adam tried to reel in his joy. “Morning.”
“Someone’s in a chipper mood.”
“Oh?” Adam did his best to appear uninterested by doing his job. It would have worked, too, if his only employee wasn’t staring him down like a dog watching a new bone.
“Whistling, singing…unlocking the front door an hour before opening.”
“Damn it.” He caught one of the older ladies sniffing around and dove to push the glass shut before she could open it. “Sorry,” Adam mouthed to her as he relocked the entrance and spun the sign back to closed. “Check back in a half hour.”
“Humph.” She looked about to drag him into the street, but Adam melted into his mess of costumes. What’d she think she’d get by stopping into a costume shop a half hour early? A special edition clown nose? A purse full of blood capsules?
Speaking of, it looked like he needed to restock. “Chrissy, how much corn syrup do we have in the back?”
“Why would I know?” she asked.
