All I Want for Halloween

by Marie Harte

  Landon guffawed, and Ava bit back a grin.

  Sadie would reward Elliot later for adding some levity to this lovely family gathering. Did her father really have to put on this dog-and-pony show every time she brought someone home? Although, to be fair, she hadn’t brought anyone home since Adrian. And Tony hadn’t liked him at all.

  “Elliot.” Her father glared, but Sadie thought she’d spotted a glimmer of amusement on his face. “Well? What are you doing with Sadie?”

  “I’m not knocking her up.”

  Sadie covered her face and groaned.

  “That was said to annoy my parents. Your daughter and I are enjoying each other’s company. She’s smart, funny, obnoxious—”

  “Hey.” He’d been doing so well.

  “And throws a mean right hook. I appreciate that in a woman. Plus, she makes the most delicious molasses cupcakes you’ve ever tasted.”

  Elliot brightened. “Oh, so they turned out okay? Awesome.”

  She nodded. “He ate them both in, like, two seconds. I barely had a taste—well, after the two I ate at the shop.” More like three. She really needed to hit the gym. “They’re even better after a few hours.”

  Ava frowned. “I notice you didn’t bring any for us.”

  Landon crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah. We manly types burn off a lot of calories. You might have brought us some cupcakes, cupcake.” A look from Tony had Landon rolling his eyes. “I’m just sayin’…” he mumbled.

  Her dad turned back to Gear, his gaze intense. “So in essence, you’re hot for my daughter’s…sweets?”

  Gear opened and closed his mouth. “Um, I guess. Is that a euphemism? Or are we really talking baked goods? God’s honest truth, I’m hot for both. So yeah.”

  Tony rubbed his temple. “I think I have a headache.”

  “You know what’s good for that?” Gear asked. “Pressure points here.” He showed them by pressing his thumbs in the under-arches of his brows. “And if it’s sinus related, here.” He pushed on his cheeks on either side of his nose. “You can also use peppermint oil on your skin, or oil of lavender in a warm bath.”

  Sadie stared at him.

  He shrugged. “Sorry. My mother’s studying naturopathy in addition to running the fair. But it really works,” he told Sadie.

  “Fair?” Her father’s resistance was weakening. She heard the interest he couldn’t hide.

  “Gear’s parents run Renaissance Daze, that medieval fair in the summer that’s gotten so popular.”

  “Oh.” Ava smiled. “We went to that this past summer. It was a hoot.”

  “A hoot,” Landon deadpanned. “Ow. Stop kicking me, woman. Yeah, it was fun.” Landon glanced at Ava with the look of a man in love. “She made me go, and I was glad I did. The turkey legs and corn on the cob were amazing.”

  Gear smiled. “That was my idea. The buttered husks of corn are popular at the county fair, and they sold out the ass.” At her father’s look, he coughed. “Er, they sold well.”

  Tony nodded. Sadie thought her father had begun to thaw toward Gear, who appeared less sophisticated than Sadie’s usual type, she guessed. Not that she had a type.

  “Do you work with your parents then?” Of course her father would approve of that. “Learning the family business? Making them proud?”

  She stuck her tongue out at him, saw her father’s smirk, and knew he’d baited her deliberately.

  “I did as a kid. Learned how to work hard from Otis.”

  Tony frowned. “Otis?”

  “My dad.”

  “You call him by his first name?”

  “If I called him some of the other names he’s earned, he’d kick my ass,” Gear said, blunt yet honest.

  “He would.” Sadie nodded. “Otis is huge.”

  Her father seemed fascinated. “So you won’t work with your father?”

  “No way. He’s in charge, and that’s cool. But I’m in charge of my business. We butted heads too much when I was younger. I need to be my own boss, or so I’ve been told.” He squeezed Sadie’s hand, and she flushed, feeling warm all over.

  Across the table, Ava gave her a subtle nod, as if to say things were going well.

  Her father watched them. “I tried to get Sadie to come work with me out of college, but she has no drive.”

  “Sure she does,” Gear said. “It’s just not financial.”

  “It’s not managerial either,” Elliot added. “She likes not being the boss.”

  “‘Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too,’” Gear said.

  Landon laughed. “Caddyshack. Spot on, man.”

  “What?” Tony asked.

  Sadie grinned. “Come on, Dad. You know you love that movie.”

  “Well, maybe I do. But I’d like it if you weren’t such a ditchdigger and more a business owner.”

  “Um, hello? I co-own the place with Elliot and Rose.”

  “Yes, but they do all the work. You just help out.” A familiar argument they’d had forever.

  “That’s bull. She carries her weight,” Gear argued. “For the record, your daughter is one of the best people I’ve ever met. She’s loyal, hardworking—”

  “Seriously?” Elliot said.

  “—and amazing in the kitchen.”

  “He means making confections, Dad. We haven’t done it in the kitchen yet,” Sadie said, just to be nasty.

  “For God’s sake, Sadie. I work there!” Elliot exclaimed, clearly enjoying himself.

  “Oh man. This is so much better on the other end,” Landon said to Ava. “Now I see why Joe was so thankful when I showed up for family dinner.”

  Sadie glared at them and said to her dad, “I really don’t appreciate this dinner turning into a witch-hunt. Can’t you just appreciate my job and my boyfriend and let it go already?”

  “I’m sorry. Your boyfriend?” Tony asked, apparently not believing them to be a couple.

  “You’re damn right.” Gear pulled their clasped hands out from under the table and placed them on top, clearly visible. “And if you don’t like it, you can go to—”

  “Get yourself a new attitude,” Sadie interrupted, and just in time. Her father would stand for confrontation, an argument, a discussion. But not disrespect. Granted, he’d started it. But in his eyes, Gear was the interloper, the one who had to prove himself. Not Tony.

  Gear stared down her father, and it was a glorious sight to behold. Inside, she composed ballads about her brave and stalwart boyfriend. Jesus, I called him that. Out loud. In front of everyone.

  “So, guns at dawn?” Gear asked.

  Her father cracked a smile. “Don’t push it, Blackstone.” He turned back to his meal. “So Landon, Ava tells me you just got promoted. Is that right?”

  Sadie relaxed. Dinner hadn’t ended yet, or gone as easily as she’d hoped, but she thought they’d weathered the storm.

  * * *

  In the SUV on the way home, she turned to Gear, pleased they’d made it.

  “Your dad hates me,” he groused.

  She swallowed. “No. He’s just an ass when you’re new.”

  “I gotta say I wasn’t too pleased with him either.”

  She started to get nervous. Gear wasn’t laughing off the dinner. “He was rude, but you held your own. I think he respected you.”

  He grumbled, “My parents were a lot nicer to you than he was to me.”

  “Well, I’m amazing.”

  “And I’m not?”

  She’d thought he might be teasing, but Gear seemed genuinely upset.

  “Hey. Where are you going?”

  “I’m taking you to my place. You’ve never been, and frankly, I need to be back in my own territory.”

  She’d been so concerned about how her father would take Gear that she hadn’t thought about how Gea
r would react to her dad. That Big Tony might have pushed him away before she was ready to watch him leave.

  She had no illusions that at some point, Gear would find someone better. Sadie knew she was awesome, but men seldom remembered that after time spent with her. Still, she hadn’t thought their new relationship, such as it was, would end so soon.

  She sat back in her seat and turned on the radio, needing something to fill the ugly silence.

  She roused herself from the blurred view of the city and noted they’d crept into West Seattle. The Craftsman-style house they pulled up to was beautiful. Prettier than she would have thought for Gear. He pulled into a tiny driveway and parked.

  They sat in silence.

  “Sorry for being a dick. Your dad pissed me off.”

  She shrugged, wanting to cry and feeling angry at the pathetic emotion.

  “Come on.”

  She followed him out of the SUV into the house and couldn’t help comparing it to hers. It was bigger, nicer, more expensive, and looked like something out of a home-and-garden magazine. Hardwoods, cream-colored walls decorated with vintage photos of motorcycles and landscapes, a killer sound system and big-screen TV, and a fireplace drew the eye. She drooled over his kitchen with its granite countertops, white oak cabinets, and glass-tiled backsplash. And the appliances. Gear had a double oven, a six-burner gas-top range, and a prep sink.

  “Do you even cook?” she asked as they passed through the kitchen.

  “Sometimes.”

  “So this was all Sahara’s doing?” Now she really hated the skank.

  “Not all. Most of it was mine and Iris’s. Oh, and Orchid’s too.”

  She followed him up the stairs past the media room—her media room consisted of her ugly couch and a TV—to what appeared to be his bedroom. Gray dominated his walls, the huge bed littered with pillows and strewn blankets. He favored dark mahogany furniture, and she wanted to hate the sense of style—just in case it had been Sahara’s—but couldn’t.

  He followed her gaze to the bed and grimaced. “Don’t worry. I chucked the other bed the minute I found them fucking on it. This one has only ever had me in it.”

  “No one else?”

  He angrily yanked his sweater off, then his boots and socks. “Nope. Too busy being a deviant and illiterate thug to screw half the population. Sorry.”

  “Gear, stop.” She planted her hands on her hips. “No, no. Keep undressing. Just stop with the attitude.”

  To her relief, he stripped down to his boxer briefs, and hel-lo womanhood, he looked amazing. A veritable twelve-pack with the most amazing obliques.

  “I’m not good enough for you, is that it?”

  “Are you high? Of course you’re good enough.” Not wanting him to be the only one getting naked, she tossed off her boots and socks, stepped out of her skirt, and threw her jacket over a nearby chair, then did the same with her shirt. “Happy now?”

  “No,” he growled and shoved her back onto his bed. She couldn’t help noticing how aroused he’d become.

  And now, so was she.

  “What the hell do you want?” she asked him.

  “The truth. So you don’t think I’m not good enough for you?”

  “Wait. I don’t think you’re not…?” That meant he was good enough, right? “Yes, yes, you’re fine. You’re great. I never said you weren’t. What are you, crazy? You’re the one with the expensive house and TV show and fiancée with fake boobs and hair. You know, the one I can’t possibly compete with.”

  “Ex-fiancée.” He loomed over her, staring from her lace bra to her lace panties. “The hair wasn’t fake, by the way.”

  “I feel so much better now, thanks,” she sneered. “Maybe it’s you who’s too good for me.”

  He gave an angry laugh. “You’re high. I just think it’s funny that I’m good enough to fuck, but not good enough to marry or have kids with.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” What exactly had her father said to him that she hadn’t overheard?

  “It’s all a big joke that we’re dating. That I’m calling you my girlfriend. I’m no professor like Adrian was.”

  “Why bring Adrian up at all?” Was he drunk? He’d only had a beer at dinner. But maybe she’d missed him tucking away a few others?

  “Or a fancy accountant like your dad.” He slid his fingers in the waistband of his underwear, the head of his cock peeking out with each pass.

  “So what?”

  “So if I asked you to marry me and have kids with me, you’d say no. Because I’m just a grease monkey with no education.”

  She gave an angry laugh and leaned back on her elbows on the bed, glaring up at him. “Fuck you. You have more of an education than I do. I graduated high school and got my certificate from culinary school. Then I majored in real life.” She looked at him with disappointment. “If I asked you to marry me, you’d tell me no. Be honest. I’m not half as pretty as your ex and not nearly as wealthy.”

  “Fuck that. You’re hot, and you know it. Did you ever think I don’t care about money either? That I got carried away with my bikes and the show? That maybe if you did ask me, I’d say yes?” he hissed and came down on top of her.

  Oh my God, he was sexy as hell in his rage. “Yeah? Well, maybe I’d say yes if I was asked, too.”

  “I’d knock you up first, because that’s how us low-brow monkeys do it,” he said, breathing hard, getting as worked up as she was. He yanked down his underwear, and she felt his cock spring against her belly.

  “Go for it, big guy,” she dared, wanting nothing more than to be with Gear forever. A dream she’d never have. But so angry with that denial, she reached for insanity and yanked him down to her.

  He fell on her like a starving man, kissing her, nipping at her, giving it to her as rough as she gave it back. He teethed her through her bra, swearing when he couldn’t tear it off fast enough. Then his mouth was there, sucking her nipples and laving them with attention.

  “Damn it. More,” she demanded.

  He groaned, sucked harder, and had her arching off the bed into his hot, wet mouth.

  Gear ground against her belly, his cock hard, thick, and more than ready to enter her. But her panties were in the way.

  He literally ripped them off. She’d never had a man tear her underwear off, and the wildness of his excitement fed hers.

  Before she could say a thing, he nudged her thighs wide and thrust.

  She cried his name as he fucked her with a raw need he couldn’t disguise with words. He pounded into her, and she took every single inch.

  She whispered naughty things in his ear, things she wanted him to do to her. Things she wanted to do to him. He groaned and strained, his body rubbing against hers in all the best places while he stretched her tight sex.

  He kissed her, penetrating her mouth with his tongue. Then he slipped his lips to her cheek, her neck, and moaned her name as he catapulted her into an orgasm that ripped her apart.

  She took him right along with her, because Gear swore as he came inside her, the rush like nothing she’d ever felt.

  Gear and Sadie, together, floating in pleasure she couldn’t deny.

  After some time, he kissed his way from her neck to her face. But when he pulled his head back to look down at her, she saw that his attitude hadn’t softened. Nor had his cock all the way, still stuffed inside her.

  “You think I can be a real uneducated asshole, huh?”

  She groaned. “That was my dad, dumbass.”

  His mean grin made her shiver. “Yeah? Well, I’m a demon in the sack, baby. And it’s time you found out just what that means.” He paused and rotated his pelvis, letting her feel him deeper. “Oh, and I’m not wearing a condom for any of it. You said the timing wasn’t right, remember? We’ll just have to deal.”

  Her heart raced, her desir
e for a baby, for Gear, too much to handle just then. But she could work with sex.

  “Yeah. We’ll have to deal,” she agreed, glaring up at him. “So you’d better think twice before bailing on me.”

  He laughed, a harsh sound that soothed the ache in her soul. “Nuh-uh. It’s too late for you, Xena. Because I’ve already decided to keep what I want. And what I want is you.”

  He kissed her again, and their angry sex turned more passionate, more intense. Then Sadie was feeling nothing but orgasmic, dying that little death all over again.

  “You really are the devil,” she panted sometime later, after her third orgasm.

  “And I’m just getting started.”

  Chapter 15

  Gear groaned, hanging his head over a steaming cup of coffee.

  A week after he’d lost his mind with Sadie, and after the absolute best sex of his life, he contemplated the mess he’d made. Or hadn’t made.

  What kind of an unmarried, uncommitted idiot wanted to get a woman pregnant? That was no way to make a relationship work. He didn’t want to trap Sadie with a baby. But damn, he wanted to practice making one with her all the time. And hey, if in the meantime she had a kid, even better.

  He groaned again. “What am I thinking?”

  For a week, they’d been spending nights at his or her place. He worked out at the gym while trying to figure out how to deal with the future. He’d been checking out places to build his new empire, small though it might be.

  Sadie continued to work at Sofa’s, constantly bringing him new treats to try. Nothing had come close to those molasses cupcakes, and he’d asked if she’d been trying to kill him with the amount of sugar in her homemade candy-corn cookies.

  They felt like a couple. They talked, laughed, and bounced ideas off each other about their respective jobs. But they hadn’t discussed their insanity last weekend, fucking without protection. And it hadn’t all been fucking either. They’d made love for hours. The sensual hedonist that was his girlfriend had fried his circuits. She’d actually tired him out after their marathon weekend. Though ever since, by unspoken agreement, he wore condoms.

  Sadie was so Sadie, acting all tough, as if what they’d done didn’t scare her. He could see she was as freaked out as he was about their actions. He wished he didn’t know why he’d been so angry.