Oliver gently moves me around so I’m facing him, and then he dips his head and he kisses me. Soft at first, just a grazing of his lips, but slowly the kiss deepens. Little by little, he coaxes my lips apart with his, gently running his tongue over my bottom lip, sparking my entire body to life. I curl my fingers around his biceps and pull myself closer, loving how his muscles flex in my palms. He’s perfect. So damned perfect.

The kiss turns passionate, growing deeper and deeper with every passing second. My hands slip to his chest, kneading at the muscles there, and one of his hands goes down to my bottom, pulling me closer until I’m forced to straddle him. I kiss him with everything I have, tongues and lips colliding, the small space heating up very, very quickly. His rigid erection presses hard between my legs, causing a whimper to escape my lips.

“Goddammit,” he growls, pulling his lips from mine and dropping his head into my shoulder. “As much as I’d love to do this, as much as I’d love to see how incredible you’d feel, I can’t keep going right now. It’s not the time or the place.”

He’s right, but dammit, stopping almost physically hurts.

“You’re right,” I whisper, sliding my face to the side and kissing his cheek, loving how the hair on his face scratches my lips just a little.

“Don’t think I don’t want it, though. I do, sweetheart. So bad. But I’m not here to use you. I like you. I really like you.”

Goddamn.

Could he get any better?

“I respect that, thank you. Really, thank you.”

“You better get off my lap, honey, or I won’t be able to keep my word.”

Laughing softly in the quiet space, I slide off his lap and sit down beside him. He reaches over, clutching my hand and curling his around it, then we sit in silence for a minute, both of us panting, both of us no doubt wishing we were in a different situation right about now. I know I wish that, yet at the same time, him wanting start this right makes my heart swell.

So big.

“Do you think they’re okay?” I finally ask into the silence.

“Been a while since I’ve heard anything, so I’d say yes. I hope so.”

We sit in the silence a little longer. Then, out of the blue, the lights outside and inside the closet switch on. We have power back. I glance over at Oliver, and he squints. We’ve been in the dark so long, it takes our eyes a moment to adjust. When they do, I study his face. His lips are swollen and full. I have no doubt mine are the same. I’ve never been kissed like that in my entire life. Not once. It was absolutely incredible.

“That’s got to be a good sign,” he murmurs.

“Oliver? Jade?”

We hear Marlie’s voice in the distance. If she’s calling out, it must be safe for us to call out, too.

“We’re in here!” We both yell at the same time.

A moment later, the door opens and Marlie steps inside, looking down at us. She smiles a little, her eyes scaning over us. “I’d ask if you got locked in here by choice, but I know you’d deny it.”

Oliver grunts. “It wasn’t by choice.”

He stands and pulls me to my feet.

“Well, it certainly wasn’t a bad thing by the looks of it.”

I flush and say, “Did they find who did this? What happened?”

Her face loses a little of its light. “Come downstairs, the police are here. We’re figuring out what the hell happened now, but I just wanted to make sure you guys were safe first.”

“Was anyone injured?” I ask her, following her down the stairs.

“Not majorly. A few panic scrapes, Kenai got tripped up, but everyone is mostly okay.”

Thank. God.

We arrive downstairs to police officers, people standing everywhere, media—how the hell did they get here so fast?—and three people handcuffed. I look at the three people, studying them. They’re young, maybe seventeen or so, and there are two boys and one girl. They’re half dressed in Halloween costumes and all of them are just staring at the officers, scowling. Are they the ones who did this? A bunch of teenagers?

“They did this?” I ask, stopping and staring as officers speak to them.

“Apparently,” Marlie mutters, crossing her arms. “One of the boys has a mother who comes here. He started following her. Apparently he was angry that she was spending all her time here and not at home being some sort of slave to him. He got angry, and decided to pull a prank when she told him about the party. Clever kids, pulling it off the way they did. They thought it through.”

“They were trying to hurt people,” I whisper.

Marlie nods. “Kids like that, raised in what is obviously a difficult environment, often have no control over themselves. The boy rallied his friends, they got in on it, and they decided to pull a prank. They did a good job at it.”

“No wonder the mother comes here,” Oliver murmurs. “With kids like that. I’d be ashamed to call them my own.”

“Well, I agree.” Marlie nods. “I can’t imagine what her home life is like if the kids can take jealousy and obsession to this degree.”

“They threw a bowling ball at Oliver’s head,” I say softly. “He could have been seriously injured.”

“The police officers think they’re likely high and on something.”

“No excuse,” Oliver murmurs. “I hope they get punished. Someone could have been hurt, or worse.”

Marlie and I both nod and watch the teens as the officers drag them out to the car. Kenai is speaking to a man and a woman, both in uniform, and after a moment he nods and then joins us. “They’re going to the station. The main instigator’s mother has just been located. The woman is a mess.”

He nods and we look over to see Jenny, a frequent at Sanctuary, talking to an officer. She’s clutching a handkerchief, dabbing at her eyes and nodding her head. She looks so upset, and I can’t blame her. She comes here for peace and quiet, and even the demons she was obviously trying to escape from have come and followed her into her only place of rest. Not only that, they could have hurt someone. I can only imagine how that feels for her.

“It’s Jenny,” I whisper sadly to Marlie.

“Yes, that hurts my heart. She’s such a nice lady. I know her husband is a drunk, and her kids walk all over her. I guess they didn’t like her not giving them attention—well, at least, the boy didn’t.”

“Poor woman.”

A police officer walks over, stopping at our group. “We’ve taken them into custody and had officers check the place to make sure there is nothing else dangerous on the ground. It’s all cleared. You should be safe to clean up now. We’ve taken a few witness statements. Any you wish to give us will be appreciated, but you can wait until morning to do that.”

We all nod, tired.

“Thanks, Jack,” Kenai says. “Appreciate it.”

“No problems, Kenai. I hope the cleanup isn’t too bad, and we’re glad no one was injured.”

He nods and the officers leave. A few stragglers hang around and offer to help clean up, but Marlie sends them all home. She looks exhausted, and she’s limping quite severely. She must be sore. Her knees must be hurting.

“Marlie, go home and get some rest. I’m not tired, I’ll stay and start the clean-up and we’ll finish the rest tomorrow,” I tell her.

“I’ll stay with her,” Oliver adds with a nod. “Kenai, take your woman home, she’s exhausted.”

“You sure?” Kenai asks.

“Yeah, go,” Oliver insists.

“I can’t leave you both to clean up, it’s been a terrible night for everyone,” Marlie says, her voice weak and tired.

“It’s fine, Marlie, please. We insist, go home.”

She looks at me, then slumps and nods. Kenai wraps an arm around her. “Where’s Kaity, we’ll take her, too?”

“She was out front on the phone, we’ll catch her on our way out.” Marlie yawns. “Thank you guys so much. I’ll double your pay this week for this. Don’t stay too late if you’re tired. We can finish it tomorrow.”

I step forward and hug her. “It’s fine, go home and get some rest.”

“You’re both okay?” she asks once more.

“We’re fine.”

She nods, and Kenai leads her out the front door. Oliver and I turn toward the mess. Well. This isn’t going to be easy, or fun, but we’ll manage.

“God,” Oliver murmurs under his breath. “They sure did make a mess.”

Every decoration has been pulled down and shoved all over the floor, glasses are smashed, tables are upturned, and whatever they rolled down the stairs just scattered things everywhere. Punch is going stick on the floor and food has left crumbs strewn about.

“There’s only one way to do this,” Oliver says, looking at me.

“And that is?”

“Naked.”

I burst out laughing.

At least he can make light of the situation.

* * *

I squeal as Oliver chases me up the stairs wearing a wolf mask. My laughter turns into giggles as he catches me, flattening me on the floor. His big body pins mine and we roll around across the floor, both laughing. Hearing his laugh is an incredible sound, the best I could have ever hoped for. We both come to a stop halfway down the hall and flop to our backs, still laughing, still wearing wolf masks.

Our night started off seriously, we got to cleaning, and then Oliver started throwing food at me, and before I knew it we were having a full on war with food, decorations, and costumes. Our laughter turned into playing and we chased each other around the place for well over an hour, laughing until our bellies hurt. It was the perfect way to end a long and draining night. We both needed the break, the distraction, and a way to put the events behind us.

We found a connection. Humor.

Oliver pulls his wolf mask off and tosses it to the side, before reaching for mine and doing the same, then he rolls, propping himself up on his elbow and looking down at me. He reaches down, swiping something off my face, finger coming up with a tiny piece of icing from one of the cupcakes. I giggle. “I spent hours on those damned things.”

“Well it’s a good thing they went to good use. Well, at least, use . . . anyway.”

I laugh. “Yeah, not sure it was good use, but anything is better than nothing, right?”

He sticks his finger in his mouth, sucking the icing off. “Right,” he murmurs.

My heart does a little pitter-patter and I swallow. The way he’s looking at me right now, the intensity in his eyes. It’s . . . God, it’s making my heart pause and my body come alive.

“Goin’ to kiss you again, because I can’t stop myself.”

I nod, no words forming, and let him lean down and press his lips to mine. He kisses me slowly at first, building the intensity, and then little by little the kiss gets deeper. My hands find his hair and I tug, bringing him closer, needing more. His body moves a little over mine and he rocks against me, causing electricity to explode deep in my belly. “Oliver,” I whisper as his mouth leaves mine and slides down my neck, finding the pulse there. He sucks the spot, and then keeps moving to my shoulders, kissing a little path along them.

Meanwhile his hands get lower, and lower, until they’re at the hem of my dress.

“This dress has been drivin’ me crazy all night. It’s so fuckin’ hot.”

I whimper and his lips find mine again, kissing me deep, lips and tongues tangling.

“Let me touch you, just once. Nothing more.”

“Yes,” I say quickly, too quickly, but I can’t help it.

I want him to touch me.

I need him to.

His fingers dip to my panties, sliding beneath them. It’s been so long since anyone has touched me there. I’m wet. I can feel it already. He slides his fingers up and down with a ragged hiss, his kiss become even more frantic as he starts slowly rubbing that aching nub, driving me wild, building me higher and higher until I don’t think I can take it anymore. I kiss him so hard he makes a throaty sound in his throat, but he doesn’t stop me.

“Oliver,” I rasp, arching as an orgasm takes over my body, starting as a slow burn and building into an intensity I can barely handle.

“God. Fuck. Yes.” Oliver groans, removing his fingers from my panties and sliding them into his mouth with a look in his eyes that has my entire body coming alive.

“We’re going to do so much more of that, sweetheart,” he rasps. “Startin’ real slow. I’ll light your body on fire.”

I swallow and look up at him. “I’m okay with that,” I whisper.

He leans down, kissing me again, and I can taste myself on him. It’s so erotic. So damned incredibly erotic.

“Best Halloween I’ve ever had,” he says against my lips.

Dammit.

Me, too.