Page 78 of The King of Halloween
“Really?” Adam gulped like he had to pull back in tears.
Holding Adam’s cheek, Raj smiled. “It’d be the perfect date.”
?
The basement door rattled open. A shaft of light barely pierced down the rickety stairs, and a moan, like the wounded cry of a giant, erupted from the darkness below.
“Don’t do it.”
She clicked on her flashlight, which flickered once. With determination, she whacked the side.
“Why do they always do that?”
“Better question, why does that always work? I hit any of my flashlights, and the cheap plastic is cracking in half.”
With a raised head, she cried out into the darkness, “Dan, are you there?”
“And she’s heading down the stairs.”
“Take a drink.” Adam leaned up, following Raj, and they both reached for their lukewarm wine. Just as he was about to take a sip, the music clanged, and a shadow shot across the screen. “Oh, shit. Cat. Two drinks.”
“This movie is going to eat my liver before the cannibal gets hers,” Raj said, then he hiccuped adorably. “Excuse me.” Holding his fingers over his lips, he settled back on Adam’s warm and waiting chest.
They’d started the night on opposite ends of the couch, doing their best to eat pizza like they were in a five-star restaurant and not about to drop molten cheese on their thighs. By the time the first movie had rolled over to the second, and they’d gone through a bottle of wine, Raj had fallen cheek-first onto Adam. Then he’d stayed there, cuddled against him like it was fate.
“Mr. Whiskers!” the lady who owned the certainly cursed mansion shouted at her cat as it skittered across the screen.
“You ever think the cats are in cahoots with the ghosts? Like, the demons promise them extra treats if they distract their owners.”
“Sounds like every cat I’ve ever known,” Raj said.
“So not a cat lover?”
“Eh. Maybe not all cats. It was an ex’s. Fat ass tom, bigger than a beagle, I swear. Hated me, and the feeling was mutual.”
Adam chuckled at how exuberant Raj got telling the story. Though there was a twinge in his heart at the mention of another man in his life. “Was this the baby guy?”
“No, another. Though he did have a baby face, come to think of it.”
Two boyfriends. Most likely more. Why was Adam surprised? Raj was handsome, sweet, hard and soft at once, masculine without being a gym rat, and approaching forty. He should have tons of ex-boyfriends. That was normal, probably.
“What about you?”
Third date was not the time to be talking about exes, or the hookups that he convinced himself were exes.
“The cat thing? Or pets in general? You seem like a gerbil man.”
Adam laughed at the idea. He reached for the tub of popcorn resting in Raj’s lap, which also let him graze his forearm against the man’s chest. “I can’t be trusted to keep a plastic plant alive, so…”
“I almost adopted a dog,” Raj declared.
“Oh? What stopped you?”
“I moved out here.”
Interesting. “That raises a question. Hook on the handle!” Adam shouted, catching the movie he’d seen a few dozen times. They both took a drink. “I’ve been wondering what it was that drove you out of your fancy job and, I assume, much warmer house for here.”
Raj went quiet. The hands that’d been rubbing up and down Adam’s spread thighs plummeted into his lap instead. In low definition, a woman screamed as a chainsaw plunged through her chest. Blood erupted across the walls, spelling out the killer’s name.
