Trick or Treat or Kiss Me (Croft Holidays Book 1)

by Ceri Grenelle

  A door slammed to her left, and she watched in horror as Josh exited from the rear of his house and out onto his unfinished back porch. She must not have heard his car roll into the driveway. He had already changed into sweats and a long sleeved T-shirt and she could clearly see he still had a hard-on.

  She was so greedy for him. She’d already come once, him not at all, and there she was getting herself off in the grass behind her house.

  He looked over at her and stood there for a second, staring. She was frozen, hoping it didn’t look like she was doing what she’d actually been doing. Then she realized she didn’t care. Let him see. He knew what she wanted and damn it, she wasn’t going to hide from him. He had it in himself to find love again, no matter how damaged he thought he was. But she refused to batter down his defenses after what had clearly been a rough divorce. He had to come to her…but that didn’t mean she’d make it easy for him to stay away.

  She stood and looked straight at him as she lifted her shirt over her head and dropped it to the ground. It was freezing out, and her nipples stood out like hard points against the cool breeze. She kept her skirt on, afraid she might get frostbite if she took it off.

  Josh vaulted over his porch and ran to her. She braced herself, expecting him to slam into her, take her to the ground. Instead, he grabbed her hand and slowed his run to a walk until they were up against the back of her house. He turned her around, bent her—she supported herself against the wall of the house—lifted her skirt and began to spank her. One hard slap after another, alternating from cheek to cheek, sometimes landing in between, sending shivers and shakes into her cunt.

  “That was for leaving me with my dick hanging out in a classroom,” he said after a few more slaps, her ass properly tingling now, sensations that spread from the burning flesh down into her pussy. Christ, she needed him to fuck her right that second.

  “Condom?”

  “Have it.” She heard him tear it, and then a minute later his cock was pressing up against her cunt, and slowly, methodically pushing up and into her, stretching her. Shit, he was thick, and it was so good. He leaned over her, finding her clit with his hand and beginning to rub.

  “I’m not gonna last. I’m still hard from before, and I need to fuck you so bad, I don’t think I can go slow.”

  “Fuck me as hard as you want. We can go slow later. I need to feel you inside me.” She forgot about all the shit they had to deal with, all the baggage, and let herself feel him.

  He began thrusting, long and powerful snapping bursts. His hips slammed against her red ass, adding a whole new layer of awareness to their joining. He grunted behind her, his cock taking her all the way to her womb, sometimes touching, mixing pleasure with pain but never in an uncomfortable way. He bit her shoulder as he wrapped a hand around her waist, continuing to slowly torture and rub her with the other. How was his finger not matching pace with his cock? He was going faster now, taking her like an animal in heat, but his hand was a master playing an instrument he’d studied for years, thoughtful in the way he caressed her.

  His pace increased, the fucking becoming something primal and animalistic.

  “You drive me crazy,” he said in her ear, rolling his hips at the end of each slam against her thighs. Every time he fucked her it was something new, something different. He was a different person with each thrust; calm, concerned, sexy, forceful, angry, loving, needy, demanding. So many different sides to him and she wanted to know them all.

  She tried to bend over farther, wanting him to take what he needed, not concerned with her coming. She’d already come that night. It was his turn. “Do what you need to. Just fuck me, hard. Fast.”

  He gripped her hips and took her at her word, rhythmically fucking her. She bit her lips, trying to keep quiet, hoping there weren’t any kids who decided to walk past their houses and go exploring the forest this Halloween. His rapidity intensified: he was moaning, and even though she told him to do what he wanted, to focus on himself, he still curved over and continued rubbing her, jacking up her arousal in tune with the speed of his cock.

  “Come with me. I want to feel your cunt squeeze me.”

  “Yes,” she gritted out, giving him her orgasm, so turned on by how dirty her grumpy neighbor turned out to be. He’d fucked her and said filthy words to her, outside in the cold, on a full moon night, on Halloween. Perfect synergy.

  He came, grunting, his hips rolling against hers in a sensual dance, the short bursts slowing down. They stood like that for a while, his softening cock still inside her. She squeezed her inner muscles, making him groan.

  “What are you trying to do, witch?”

  “Make you hard again so you can fuck me in front of the fireplace in your house.”

  “How did you know there was a fireplace in my house?” He nuzzled her shoulder with his chin, the affectionate gesture warming her in the cold.

  “I wanted to buy it before I got this one, but I couldn’t afford the repairs.”

  He gently pulled out of her, then slipped off the condom, wrapping it up in one of the toilet paper strips on the lawn. She’d clean it up tomorrow.

  Nettie stood, enjoying the weak-kneed feeling of a satisfying and much-needed romp. He turned her, cupped her face, then kissed her softly, leisurely. She’d enjoyed the pace and fury of their coupling, but she needed this right now.

  A frigid wind blew through the backyard, and she shivered, remembering she had no shirt on, and it was forty degrees outside.

  “Come over to my house. I have a great fireplace that’ll warm you right up.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  Josh picked up her peasant blouse and tenderly helped her back into it, stroking every inch of skin the blouse touched to settle it in place. When she shivered again, he wrapped his arm around her then guided them toward his back porch. He held the screen door open for her, and she hurried into the warmth of his house.

  Without sparing a glance for what she knew was probably a very nice-looking kitchen, Nettie kicked her shoes off, then hurried into the living room and settled on the floor in front of the fireplace. The floors were hardwood, but he had a large rug to sit on and keep the cold away.

  Josh walked in directly behind her but pulled a throw off the couch before coming down to the floor. He tossed it around her shoulders, then proceeded to tuck it around her limbs and feet. When he nodded after looking over his work, she had to laugh.

  “What?” he asked, reaching for the long matches on the mantel.

  “I’m swaddled like a baby.”

  “And? Doesn’t it feel warm?”

  “Yes, but do you know what would feel warmer?”

  “What?” He struck the match, setting the preassembled wood ablaze. He probably hadn’t ever used this fireplace before tonight. What a waste.

  “Being swaddled with you inside the blankets with me.”

  “I don’t know. If I get anywhere closer to you tonight, I might combust again.”

  “Is that what that was?”

  “A little bit, yeah.” He hesitated before sitting next to her. “I meant what I said, Nettie, about needing time. I’m still fucked up from all the crap that went down with my ex. I don’t know if I’ll ever be the man I was before her again. I know I’m not supposed to talk about this shit on a first date…”

  “Date?” She snorted. “Oh, no, this is not a first date. I don’t let men fuck me up against the back of my house or eat me out in my old high school cafeteria on a first date.”

  “Second date?”

  She would have smacked him if it weren’t for the layers of blanket cocooning her. “I don’t need you to be the man you were before your wife, Josh. I never met that guy. I need you to be the man I met last week and have an unreasonable attraction for. Let’s go from there, okay? We don’t need strings, or promises—hell—we don’t even have to be exclusive if you don’t want to be. But I want to know what it’s like to be with you, intimately and on a regular basis.”

  “If we do
this, I’ll want exclusivity.” His response was instant. “I like to know what’s mine.”

  She rolled her eyes because anything else would have involved removing the layers of warmth. “Did you really just say that, caveman?”

  “Fine. It's less an ownership thing and more…” He rubbed his hair before taking a deep breath. “She cheated on me. A lot.”

  Nettie hated how these confessions caused him pain, but if they were going to have anything, any sort of lasting relationship, then she needed him to at least try to be open.

  “And it will take time to build trust, I get it.” She wiggled until she could extract an arm from the cocoon, then took his hand. She wanted to offer him something, to put them on equal footing. “My parents weren’t the best people in the world. They tried their best to raise the three of us, but they had Ophi at seventeen and then sort of gave up on birth control altogether. Luckily the house we grew up in had been left to my mom when her parents died so we didn’t need to worry about mortgage payments or rent…but most of the money went to things we didn’t need. They weren’t good with money. They never learned to be adults before having babies.”

  Josh inched closer to her and slung an arm around her shoulders, pulling her bundled self against his warm chest. “Will you tell me how they died?”

  She sighed into him, enjoying the scent of sweat drying on his skin and firewood. “Car accident on their way to a cruise. They’d had too much to drink. And you know what was the shittiest? It was a Disney cruise. Who goes on a flippin’ Disney cruise and doesn’t bring their kids? They always did stuff like that. By the time they had me…they didn’t have much attention span left for a third kid.”

  “Who took care of you afterward?”

  “Ophelia did. Ophi. She was eighteen and refused to let our family split up. We had no relatives, enough money to maybe last the year, and she was about to go to college. But she put her foot down about our staying together. Those first few years were really hard, but for the first time in as long as I could remember, we felt like a family. I had older siblings who paid attention to me and cared about me unconditionally. I feel awful saying this, but my life got a lot better after their deaths.”

  “Don’t feel bad. Ophi sounds like an amazing sister, and I already know Armie is cool. Though why he didn’t introduce himself as your brother still bugs me.”

  Nettie snorted. “He knew I had the hots for you and probably wanted to test the waters, see if you felt the same way. He does shit like that all the time.”

  He kissed her at that, sweet and simple. “How did Ophi take care of you guys all on her own at eighteen?”

  “She couldn’t have done it without Mrs. Berkin and some others from the town helping out.”

  “Why?”

  “They supported us during financial straits. Mrs. Berkin bought Ophi a car so she could drive back and forth from her college campus, and then she watched us if Ophi had to study or was in a class late. And when social services came calling on random check-ins, Mrs. Berkin always seemed to be there, showing we had some sort of adult supervision from a person who’d successfully raised children.”

  “Who else helped?”

  Nettie thought of the myriad people who’d had a hand in raising her. “Mr. Dearborne taught me how to drive.”

  “The pub owner?” He laughed, as though he didn’t believe her.

  “Yeah, and Rabbi Schultz—over at the JCA—he helped tutor me when I was struggling in school, but more than that, he became sort of a father figure for Armie, who desperately needed one after living with women for so long. He helped Armie realize it was okay to come out—”

  “Armie’s gay?” Josh was full of questions, but for some reason, Nettie didn’t mind giving him every last bit of her past. It felt right, sharing her family with him like he was meant to fit into the Croft puzzle.

  “He’s bi, and it pissed Ophi and I off something fierce when we realized we weren’t the first people he told. Of course we didn’t care what he was, we loved him, and he was our brother. My big brother.”

  “This town really loves you, huh?” Josh’s voice was quiet, his words slurring. She was getting tired too. “Seems like you can do no wrong in their eyes.”

  “Yeah, no more talk.” Nettie nuzzled her head into his shoulder and closed her eyes. The heat from the fire felt so good. She thought back on the rabbi’s words, that there was nothing she could do to make the people in her life stop loving her. She didn’t need to constantly work to earn their love and approval—she had it by simply being herself. She didn’t know what she could do to earn Josh’s love…but she sort of felt like she didn’t need to try.

  “Sleep time,” she ordered.

  “Bossy…I like it.”

  Chapter Eight

  The sound of a door slamming woke Josh. The fire was nothing more than embers, and the room had cooled. He’d been so absorbed by what happened at the high school he forgot to turn the heat on before tearing the stupid Zorro costume off.

  He smiled, unbelieving that life had led him to this street, to this neighbor. He turned, expecting to see her half in and half out of the effective blanket burrito he’d enmeshed her in. The large throw was unrolled, partly hanging off the couch, but Nettie was nowhere to be found. He searched the first floor, figuring she probably needed the restroom like a functioning adult, but she wasn’t there.

  Josh ran upstairs, his heart pounding harder. Maybe she stripped and was on the bed, waiting for him. That’s why she banged the door so hard. No one was there. He started to sweat, but the air in the house was so cold his breath released a hot steam.

  “Nettie?” he called, running back downstairs.

  A glow through the window of his entryway caught his eye. Nettie’s house lights were on, and he could see someone moving around in what he assumed was her kitchen. A figure came to the window, paused for a second, then drew the shade, shutting him out. He ran out onto his porch, but the cold forced him back, keeping him from getting past the steps. He was trapped.

  “She left me.”

  Like his wife had done on countless occasions, and now it was happening all over again. The endless cycle of being strung along like a puppet until she was bored and cut his string…until later he’d find she’d woven another line directly into his heart without his permission.

  “No!” he screamed and punched the wall.

  “Josh, wake up!”

  Josh opened his eyes. He was lying faceup on the plush carpet in his living room. The fire was still going strong, the house was warm, and Nettie—with the blanket burrito draping loosely around her shoulders—was leaning over him, her brow furrowed in concern.

  “You’re still here.” Josh cupped her face, instantly pulling her down to his lips. She tasted warm, like a spring thaw waiting to bring him out of a never-ending winter. He licked her bottom lip, and she lost her balance, toppling onto his chest. He steadied her by placing his hands on her waist, letting her lean on him, but he never stopped kissing her. Never stopped nibbling at her lips and licking into her mouth, making love to her.

  Needing to feel her beneath him and regain control, he gripped her hips tight then rolled their bodies closer to the fire. Her blanket was left behind, and she landed under him, her hands up over her head. He took advantage of her fleeting surprise to push her shirt up and off her body, sliding his hands along her skin the entire way.

  Nettie cried out when he reached her breasts, lingering there for a second to play with her rosy nipples jutting out. He could fit her breasts in his hands, but her nipples were hard, and he had to taste.

  He licked a nipple, skimming it lightly, playfully. She wriggled her hips, sliding her legs up and around his waist, bringing him in tight to her body. He took her nipple into his mouth and sucked, and she ground against his cock. He was so hard it almost hurt, the cum filling his balls needing release, but he refused to rush this like their frantic fuck outside her house.

  He groaned, thinking about what it
felt like to be inside her, how insanely amazing and tight she’d been. He wanted that again, but not yet. He needed to go slow, be patient. Before, that was about admitting something to each other and satiating a need. This was the promise, that no matter his fears and the baggage he carried, he was all in. And the crazy thing was…he was.

  Josh dug his teeth into her skin enough to leave a mark, and she squeaked in surprise that devolved into a sensual chuckle. He loved the noises she made as he nipped and sucked on her breast and nipple, how her skin broke out in goose bumps whenever he bit the plush underside. But there was so much more of her to explore, and his control was quickly waning.

  Gripping the waist of her skirt, he drew it down over her hips, and once off, pushed it out of the way. He sat back on his heels to take in the glorious vision.

  She was tall and lithe, her skin a pale ivory flecked with gold light from the fireplace. Her eyes were a shot of pure clover, the yellow now concentrated around her iris, and her long dark hair flowed around her head like a pool of water.

  “You’re so much more than I ever expected,” he said, sliding his hands up her perfect legs from ankles to thighs.

  “I want to see your body,” she said, dropping her knees wide and revealing the juicy pink lips of her cunt. There was a sheen of wetness already coating the short hairs around her pussy, and the sight made his mouth water.

  Josh yanked his shirt over his head, then stood to step out of his sweatpants, leaving him naked. She lifted onto her elbows and trailed her gaze from toes to head. Nettie’s gaze lingered on a few spots, of course, making him smile. It felt good to be wanted, especially as he still felt the cold loneliness of the dream lingering in his chest.

  “Beautiful,” she said, dropping her hand down to play with her wet folds. “Now bring that cock over here. I need it.”

  Josh knelt back on the floor, then began to crawl toward her, his cock so hard it stretched up toward his abdomen, despite his being on all fours. Her foot planted on his chest, stopping his progress.