Spank or Treat (2 page)

“Apparently. I might have to talk to Askel about renting warehouse space from him for storage. Between this and Christmas, we’ve now officially outgrown the garage, not that we could park a vehicle in there before.”

Tilly passed the tablet off to Loren, who looked at the pics. “Wow.”

“Tell me about it. And he’s planning on decorating inside the house, too. He hasn’t even started that part yet.”

“So what are you going to be for Halloween?” Loren asked.

“Tired,” Leah said, only half joking. “He wants to make another run up to Tampa later today for more outside decorations.”

Tilly giggled. “Sorry, but that’s adorable.”

“I know it’s adorable, but he’s wearing me out. He woke me up last night to show me something else he’d found online that he wants to buy for the yard.”

“Aww,” Loren said. “That’s adorable.”

Leah shot her stink-eye. “I said that. But he’s like a kid at Christmas.”

“Maybe it’s just how he’s dealing with stuff,” Tilly suggested. “Now that he knows you’re okay.”

“Maybe. I thought about that. I just wish he’d do it a little less…enthusiastically. I’m going to be picking fake cobwebs off my bookshelves and out of my knickknacks for months at this rate.”

“Eh, just leave them,” Loren said. “Say they’re decorations and come next October 1st, that’s one bit of decorating you don’t have to do.”

“Ha. Ha.”

“I’m
heeelp
ful,” Loren said.

“Yes. Yes, you are.” Leah picked up her mug of coffee and took a sip.

Loren finished looking at the pics and returned the tablet to her. “So, any special fun we can expect at the Halloween party?”

“That would be your sadist’s department. Didn’t Ross mention something about an ‘ass-o-lantern’ contest?”

“Yeah, but Clarisse already had the twins,” Loren said. “And Essie had her little rug rat. He was looking forward to someone drawing a face on a pregnant belly.”

“I find that simultaneously funny and disturbing,” Leah said.

“I know, right? You should see some of the crap he’s done to me over the years. All I know is I’m probably the first and only woman you’ll meet who now has ‘permanent marker’ on her hard-limit list.”

Leah snorted. “I gotta hear
that
story.”

“We don’t have enough time,” Loren said. “Or booze. And I’m driving, so I can’t drink anyway.”

Tilly laughed. “I have heard that story, and trust me, it’s a whopper.”

* * * *

Leah had no sooner walked in the door after returning from lunch with her friends than Seth came rushing out of the office and intercepted her. He had the bright, wild-eyed look of a five-year-old on a sugar high on Christmas morning.

“Babe! Guess what I found!”

“Your sanity?” She set her purse on the couch.

“Haha. No. Come look. I’ve got to show you this.” He grabbed her hand and dragged her into the office. On the screen was a picture of a large black cat inflatable.

“Holy…how
big
is that thing?” She leaned in to read the screen.

“Twenty feet! The legs are nine feet tall. It’s going to look great!”

She turned to him. “You already bought it, didn’t you?”

“Second day air, baby.” His smile faded. “Don’t you like it?”

“I love it.” She leaned in and kissed him. “Please don’t start doing this for other holidays, okay?”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, but I don’t want our house to be nothing more than a series of holiday displays. Christmas, yes, definitely. Halloween, okay. It’s obvious you love doing this. But you try to bring in giant hearts or dancing leprechauns or something, I’m going to start sabotaging them.”

“I’m going a little overboard, huh?”

She pinched her fingers together in front of her face. “Just a little.”

“Can we still go to Tampa for more shopping today?”

“You’re the Master. You tell me.”

He grinned. “Good. Then we’re going to Tampa to do more shopping.”

She hoped she successfully concealed her eye roll until her back was turned to him. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “Yes, Sir. I’ll go get my purse.”

* * * *

Ed Payne got off the phone with Seth and stared at it for a long moment. Seth and Leah would be having a Halloween party at their house, for their kinky friends.

And Ed and his wife were, of course, invited.

After a few minutes of contemplation, Ed stood and went to the large safe in his office. Opening it, he withdrew an envelope.

The last envelope.

The last one he had, at least.

The last thing he needed to do to fully complete his promise to Kaden.

He wasn’t sure what lay inside, except perhaps another index card, based on the feel of it. There was something else, or some things—small, flat objects. The instructions that had accompanied this particular envelope were odd, to say the least.

Staring at it, a mix of emotions rushed through him. Before he’d died, Kaden the control freak had given Ed a series of index cards and envelopes to give to Seth following Kaden’s death from pancreatic cancer. Things to give to Seth at very specific times, starting immediately after Kaden’s death. Mostly having to do with how to get Leah through the process.

He knew a couple of other people had also been given envelopes to give to Seth and Leah, but Kaden never told Ed who they were, or how many.

I know you asked me to do this, Kaden, but I wish you’d given this particular burden to someone else. I really do.

* * * *

Leah watched as Seth eagerly unloaded his new purchases from the truck and started setting them up in the yard with the rest of the display. No, she didn’t want to be a wet blanket on his fun. He was having a shit-ton of fun.

Just like Kaden used to with Christmas.

She knew it was odd she didn’t feel like this when Seth put up the Christmas display. That was different. That was for fun and to keep Kaden’s spirit alive for both of them. She didn’t want them to stop doing that.

This, however…this painfully reminded her of Kaden.

He even sounded like Kaden, talking about the new items he wanted to get to put into the display.

Just like Kaden.

Which shouldn’t be a surprise to her, considering how the two men had practically grown up together from infancy. They’d sounded alike when Kaden was alive, some of the same turns of phrase, the same mannerisms. They truly were more brothers than friends.

I need to get over this. It’s my problem, not his.

If only he’d acted differently while doing this. If only he didn’t remind her so damn much of Kaden, it wouldn’t have bothered her.

Add to that the fact that she felt guilty about feeling this way.

She could never admit it to him. He’d want to take the display down, not understanding the problem wasn’t him, or what he was doing, but her.

It was
her
issue to deal with, and deal she would.

He couldn’t fix this for her.

She didn’t
want
him to fix this for her.

She knew she needed to get through it on her own, to adapt and overcome. Hopefully, next year, she’d be better.

This year, it had blindsided her.

She wanted to share his joy in this.

It would mean a long road of tiny steps forward, with the occasional step back. She knew from the past that she could now walk it.

Only
she could walk it.

He plugged in another inflatable he’d staked out, a waving Frankenstein monster.

Seth turned. “Well? What do you think?” he asked as it slowly came to life.

She smiled. “I love it. I think it’s great. It’s going to be a great new tradition.”

She knew in her heart that it was the truth.

Now she just had to keep repeating it until she could believe it.

“
You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to this party tonight,” June said. She was dressed as a pornographic Tinkerbell, complete with a sparkly pink strap-on adorning the front of her outfit. Over that she wore a long trench coat that hung to her ankles.

Her husband, Mark, also known as Scrye to his friends, let out a snort. “Nooo. Enlighten me, please. You’ve only been talking about it nonstop for the past two weeks.”

“Well, look how long it’s been since we’ve gotten out. What, Valentine’s Day? I can’t help it. I want to see everyone.”

“Sorry.”

“I wasn’t blaming you.”

“Yeah, you were.”

“Okay, I was, but I didn’t mean to sound bitchy about it.”

He smiled. “You weren’t bitchy. I just like banking the guilt trip.”

“Sadist.”

“That’s ‘sadist Sir,’ to you.”

June blew him a raspberry. Their daughter, Sonya, had withdrawn from UF and moved back home for most of the summer. Then she’d applied to USF, was accepted, and now shared an apartment up in Tampa with her younger sister, Maren. Maren not only excelled in academics, but with her competitive swimming, too.

Sonya was working part-time to help pay expenses. Mark and June had done some financial juggling that wouldn’t hurt their retirement plans too much, but Sonya was now a lot happier and thriving in her classes, instead of being miserable and struggling.

It had taken Mark a while to ease June into the idea that one of their daughters wasn’t quite as perfect or driven as the other. It hadn’t hurt that he brought up the point that, if Sonya moved back from Gainesville, it meant no way would she get back together with the little asshat she’d been dating. Mark had had to drive up there to have a man-to-man conversation with him on Valentine’s Day night.

But having Sonya living at home for a few months had put a crimp in their kinky lifestyle, which hadn’t helped June’s mood any. Fortunately, that didn’t last long. And now that June wasn’t teaching kids’ gymnastics anymore and had focused solely on teaching adult yoga, her demeanor had calmed dramatically.

Something Mark was desperately grateful for. People who saw the two of them together, and didn’t know them very well, saw June’s calm exterior and his sometimes hyperactive one and then felt sorry for June.

She could run him ragged even on her worst day.

And frequently had.

Yes, he was the Master and husband, but June was no shrinking violet, either. Not really.

Especially not when her dander was riled.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m going to make it up to you tonight.”

“You’d better.”

He gave her side-eye.

“Sir,” she added.

“That’s better. Don’t think I won’t spank you in the bad way for getting mouthy. Just because I was lenient the past few months doesn’t mean I’ll stay that way. Tax season’s over, Sonya’s moved out—again—and I’m feeling pretty damn feisty.”

“Promises, promises,” she muttered sotto voce.

“Just remember that when I’ve got you strung up tonight.” Kel would be bringing his large wooden swing frame, which was a great portable bondage suspension solution.

“That’s what I’m hoping.
Sir
,” she snarkily added.

* * * *

When they pulled up to Seth and Leah’s, Scrye stopped the car on the street, taking the sight in.

“Holy crap,” he muttered. “That boy obviously needs a hobby. A different hobby. I know you said it’d be big, but I had no idea.”

It looked like their elaborate and extensive Christmas display…only done in Halloween. Yes, Seth went nuts at Christmas, because it had been Kaden’s thing. Scrye got that.

But
this
?

“I think this
is
his hobby,” June said. “I don’t even know where to look first.” She leaned forward and craned her neck to see. “Is that a freaking
cat
? It’s bigger than their damn
house
!”

He actually backed the car up a little to take it all in. “Yep. That’s a
really
big black cat.”

“Biggest pussy contest winner, right there.”

He laughed. “Hey, that’s a good one.” He finally pulled into their long, winding driveway and parked. Which wasn’t difficult, considering it looked like they were the first arrivals.

Halloween lights dripped from the trees, illuminating the parking area in a soft orange- and purple-hued glow. As they unloaded their gear and headed toward the front door, Leah stepped out to meet them on the porch. She was dressed in a French maid outfit that was almost long enough to cover her ass. Up top, a corset pushed her breasts up and nearly out, her nipples barely concealed.

“Spank or Treat!” Leah greeted them. “Well? What do you think?” she asked, indicating the yard.

“I know you said he was going nuts,” June said. “But this?”

“I know, right?”

“I’d hate to see your light bill,” Scrye said. “Wait, I do your taxes. I will see your light bill.”

“I don’t even want to know what the light bill is,” Leah said. “I’m just glad he’s happy.” Leah took the homemade cheesecake they’d brought from June. “Feel free to go walk through it, if you want. He set up a path that leads to the lanai out back.”

“Right now?” June asked.

“He really wants people to enjoy it.”

June exchanged a glance with Mark.

“Why not?” he ruled. “Let’s see what he did.”

Mark left their bags just inside the front door and they headed through Seth’s spooktacular maze of horrors.

Well, the happy fun-time version of horrors. Even a four-year-old likely wouldn’t be scared by most of the props.

There was even an animatronic zombie that looked incredibly lifelike. June had leaned in to get a better look at it when it reached out and grabbed her hand, making her scream.

Mark burst out laughing, as did the zombie.

Who, it turned out, was Seth.

June started laughing. “That wasn’t funny!”