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Finally, they were gone, and the doorbell was immediately ringing with the first of a parade of kids, possibly because of those four jack o’lanterns grinning from the front steps. Or the fake cobwebs and giant spiders he’d helped Quinn drape over the trees and porch over the weekend, rigging up work lights to illuminate them and the life-size skeleton in the middle of the lawn, which was sitting up out of a fake grave complete with tombstone. Quinn took her Halloweens seriously.
Including handing out treats in costume. Unfortunately for him, her costume was a snug, short, sleeveless black dress that bunched up over the hips and legs, so you could tell exactly how stretchy it was and how easily you could pull it off. He’d certainly never seen that before, because he’d have remembered it. That was only the base layer of the costume, though, because she was also wearing something on her legs filmier than any tights he’d ever seen, and most of all, pale-pink butterfly wings that stretched from over her head to her calves and were held in place by some kind of flexible framework. Not to mention lacy pink fingerless gloves that went all the way up to her bare biceps. Hence his general feeling of being pushed past his limits.
That and the black heels she was wearing, which, like the tight black dress and the couldn’t-be-tights, said nothing like “Quinn.” She seemed oddly nervous, too, which came out the way it usually did: in her jumping up and down every thirty seconds even when she didn’t have to, going out to check the candles in the jack o’lanterns or to make sure the cobwebs weren’t falling down, and casting him quick looks when she didn’t think he was watching.
He finally said, when he couldn’t stand it anymore, “Seems like a good night to have a glass of wine.” There was a fire burning in the wood stove that he’d been keeping well stocked, and the scent of it in the air. It was necessary, because the sun-porch door was open, and he hadn’t replaced the glass out there yet.Start that next weekend,he told himself.Get the measurements and order the glass.It was oddly satisfying, fixing Quinn’s house, maybe because she always seemed so surprised by it, and also because it kept looking better.
“Oh,” she said. “OK. Sounds good,” and ran her hands over her hips in the black dress. In another woman, it would’ve been seductive. In Quinn, it was clearly nerves.
The doorbell rang, and he said, “Wine,” and went to get it. An Aussie one from the Barossa Valley that he’d bought on Saturday with the idea that they might have an outing. If he got Carly back to babysit next Saturday night and got a room at the Sinful Inn, maybe … Nothing said you had to stay there all night, if she was still insisting on preserving the illusion. But a room would be good. Sneaking aroundwasa bit hot, but he was more than ready to take her to the point where she couldn’t be discreet anymore. He wanted head-banging, soul-searing sex.
He was opening the wine now instead, because who knew whether she’d go for the Sinful Inn. If she did, he’d buy another bottle. He poured two glasses, making them generous, and took them out to her.
She closed the outer door. “A vampire and a clown. I know it’s a cliché, but clowns always seem creepier than vampires, even when the vampires have trickles of blood coming down from their mouths.” And shivered.
He said, “Come sit down. That dress isn’t warm enough to keep opening the door like that, and those shoes can’t be comfortable. I’ll do the rest of the door duty. And try this.” He handed her the wine.
She hovered a moment more, all but fluttering there like the butterfly she was and wasn’t. “I’d have to take off the wings. I can’t sit down with them on.”
“Then take them off,” he said. “Say you’re done for the night.” He didn’t need the wings, not when he had her in that dress. And those shoes. And thosegloves.
“Oh,” she finally said. “Sure.” And slipped out of the wings and sat on the couch as the doorbell rang again.
* * *
All right.Role-play fail. Who was she kidding?
She should’ve been a witch. She wasalwaysa witch. Not a particularly sexy one, just your garden-variety Wiccan with a green velvet dress, a pointed hat, and, yes, a black laced bodice, because you were allowed to be alittlesexy on Halloween. She should never have let Lily take over dressing her. Shewascold, and so out of character, it was farcical. Beckett hadn’t said much at all when she’d come out of the bedroom other than, “Well, that’s a surprise.” And he'd smiled. Smiled! Unlike Janey’s friends, who’d exclaimed over how pretty her costume was. She wasn’t wearing it for Janey’s friends, though, and mostly, Beckett had looked at her tonight with a sort of … bemused expression. Or possibly “measuring.” For a straitjacket.
Who was she fooling? Certainly not him.
She couldn’t even have said how it happened. Yes, she’d gone to Sinful Desires on Saturday after swimming, when Beckett had been doing the grocery shopping with the kids.
Well, naturally she had, even though there was plenty of laundry that needed folding. Beckett never said anything, but he couldn’t be finding her Fruit of the Loom underwear and sports bras seductive. Besides, Martin and Terrell had both assured her that “presentation isvital,”back on the morning after the dropcloth, and she owned exactly one alternative, which he’d seen too many times. And, she’d discovered, Beckett could summon the energy for sex every night. It didn’t even seem like making up for lost time, it just seemed like he trulywantedher that much. She was walking around in such a state of arousal by now, she was surprised all the dogs in town hadn’t started following her, instead of just the crows. She put on her black robe every day like a disguise, and when she took it off? There the lust was, flooding over her again. It was all she could do to make it through dinner.
She didn’t need to go crazy here, she’d told herself, barely inside the door of the pinkly plush environs of Sinful Desires and already engulfed by a tidal wave of lacy femininity. She was here for a couple of bras that she could still wear to work, with a sheen to them and a little bit of trim, that was all, and here the shop was, right in town. Half an hour, in and out. She’dpossiblyconsider some lace. And matching bikinis, or maybe just high-cut briefs, if they were more comfortable. The kind of lingerie wardrobe that every single woman in the world and most of the married ones probably had, so it wouldn’t seem ridiculous at all, not like she was trying to be sexy. And nothing red or black.
She’d explained all that to Lily Blackstone, who was looking as ethereally beautiful as always in slim, dark jeans, a silver belt, a filmy pale-blue top over a sapphire-blue tank, tucked halfway into the jeans in the artful way some women managed and Quinn could never figure out, even if she’d had a filmy top, which she didn’t, and the kind of perfect boots that she probably bought at the perfect-boot store. Plus her silver earrings and necklace, and with her perfect shiny blonde hair falling perfectly around her shoulders. Showing you, possibly, why she was married to a movie star. It was unfortunately impossible to hate Lily for any of that, though, because in addition to being beautiful, she was one of those genuinely nice people. It was annoying.
Lily said, after Quinn’s explanation of her no-red, no-black, possibly-lace-but-not-too-much rules, “Oh, I see. So you want to be a little … restrained.”
“Yes,” Quinn said. “Definitely.” And rubbed her palms over her thighs and tried not to feel like an idiot.
Lily’s assistant, Hailey, who definitelywasn’tglamorous or ethereal, but was the kind of woman who wore her jeans with plenty of stretch and her reading glasses on one of those beaded chains, said, “So it’s not true that you’re dating Beckett Hughes? Darn it, that was the best rumor I’ve heard all year.”
“Well, uh, actually,” Quinn said, trying for some judge-type self-possession and probably failing miserably, “he’s my tenant.” And tried not to feel like she was five and Hailey was helping her into her footed PJs, because unfortunately, Hailey had beenherbabysitter.
Ugh, small towns.
“Uh-huh,”Hailey said. “So Maggie Halvorsen saying that you’re seeing each other is …”
“Well, yes,” Quinn said. “We’re, uh, involved. Casually,” she hurried to add. “Casually involved. Not really good gossip, I’m afraid.”
“Uh-huh,” Hailey said.
Lily said, “I’m so glad you came in. You have such a beautiful figure, this is going to be a pleasure. Let me show you this one set I’m thinking of.” And took her out from under Hailey’s sharp gaze.
Quinn said, “Thanks. She used to be my babysitter. I’m afraid she knows my lying face.”
