Page 119 of Flirty Fall Fling

He hangs it back up by the ear and reaches for the one beside it instead. A weird elf with a sagging face and enormous rubber ears.

“How about this?” he asks, holding it beside his own head.

“No. Not the right vibe.”

He turns it toward the light. “You’re right.”

We make our way down the wall, looking at the masks from the top of the ceiling down to the floor. There’s a goat with horns and a devil with bloody teeth. We pass an alien with a slick gray head that Jamie decides looks like a thumb. I consider a unicorn with a glittery pink mane. When I put it on, he laughs, and his eyes soften.

“Watch where you’re pointing that thing,” he says.

“Be nice to my horn,” I say, poking him with it.

I pull it off, and my hair sticks up on my head. He reaches over and smooths it down. I like that he cares.

Then he kisses me, laughing, and I return to the mask wall with my body burning.

At the end, there’s a section of animals. A fox, bear, bison, and rabbit. On the second shelf is a wolf head that’s black and gray with soft fur.

I take it down and show Jamie. “You should be the Big Bad Wolf.”

“Oh, I like,” he says.

I turn it over. The inside is soft, with a strap to make it more comfortable to wear.

He puts it on over his head and crosses his arms over his chest. “Yes, this is the one!”

“Oh, maybe I’ll be Little Red Riding Hood.”

He pulls me over to the sexy dresses and pulls one from the rack, handing it to me. “This one.”

“Really?” I ask, holding it up to my body. It’s my size.

He nods, leading me back over to the wall of masks, pulling another wolf that’s all black from the wall. “But with this. Be a sexy, big red baddie with me.”

“Okay, let me try this on,” I say, moving to the dressing room.

When I walk past him, I grab his hand, tugging him to the back with me. We step inside the room. The curtain is heavy velvet, and it leaves a gap, and I don’t care.

I grab a fistful of his shirt and pull him toward me.

There’s a mirror on the back wall, and a wooden bench along the side, and both masks are set on it.

I turn around and lift my hair off my neck. “Unzip me?”

He takes it down slow. His knuckles drag along every vertebra on the way. The dress loosens, and he pushes it off my shoulder, then it drops on the floor.

He leans in and puts his mouth on the soft curve of my neck. It takes my breath away.

“Feels good,” I manage.

“It’s supposed to. Now, let me see you in that dress, sweetheart.”

I pull the red satin over my head. It slides down my body and lands at my upper thighs. The hood falls between my shoulder blades, and I have to reach behind myself again. It fits me like a glove, giving me the perfect amount of cleavage to be sexy and not slutty. Sometimes, that is a fine line. He watches me, and I wrestle with my desires.

“Look at how fucking pretty you are,” he says, moving my hair over my shoulder.

I see myself in the mirror.