Ghosts of Halloween: A Dark Why Choose Romance

“You didn’t!” she squeals, gripping the doorframe of my bedroom and leaning inside. “Guys, this is… How did you even do this? How did you know?”

I smile so widely, my cheeks hurt, but I can’t stop. She whips around, her brown eyes full of stars, and she’s so lovely with the excited blush staining her cheeks. Happiness suits her. My sweet, beautiful princess.

“Well, you told me this morning,” I say, beaming. “But we planned this two weeks ago. Just had to arrange everything to make it happen.”

“I love you, guys,” she says, and for a moment, my chest squeezes painfully when I see tears glinting in her eyes. But her smile is so wide, I know they are happy ones.

When she falls into my arms, I move away from the doorway so the guys can hug her. We surround her, Caden and Silas embracing her, too. Our girl is right in the middle, pressed close to us all, and when I catch Caden’s eye over her head, he winks.

My stomach tightens with anticipation because we’re finally doing it tonight. All four of us. Like on Halloween.

“So you like it then?” Caden asks, and Harlow extricates herself from the group hug and turns back to the room that used to be my bedroom.

It’s still a bedroom all right. But all the furniture is gone. In its place, two massive mattresses fill the entire floor surface from wall to wall. We picked my room because it had the perfect dimensions for this. Now, the entire space is one enormous bed that will comfortably hold all four of us.

Just like Harlow said this morning. A four-people bed. Except for the bed part, but I don’t think she’s going to mind it’s just mattresses.

We’ve piled nice bedding on top of them, with a plethora of cushions and blankets, and it looks more like a nest than anything else. The curtains are drawn, and we went the extra-mile decorating, too. Soft Christmas lights wind up and down the walls, and we’ve put low, handy shelves on two walls for anything we wanted to keep on hand.

I know Harlow and Caden like reading in bed, so we fixed two small reading lamps to the wall where the headboard would normally be. There’s a row of gleaming wall hooks by the door if anyone wants to hang up a bathrobe or stuff like this.

Harlow hasn’t looked that way yet. She hasn’t seen what currently hangs on the hooks. It’s part two of her surprise and another thing she’s asked for today.

“This is perfect,” she says, her voice trembling with happiness. She steps out of her slippers and walks inside, falling to her knees when she’s on the mattress. She crawls deeper in, and we follow. When we’re all inside and Silas closes the door, the space turns into a cozy, softly lit nook, and Harlow gazes at us with such gratitude, it almost breaks my heart.

“It’s the best surprise ever,” she chokes out, her voice breaking. “Guys, I don’t even know how to… I can’t…”

Then she cries, and we surround her again. We comfort her with soft hands and murmured words, and she leans into us without reservations, completely open and vulnerable. I don’t know for sure, but something tells me Harlow’s never cried openly in front of anyone but us and maybe Noah in the past.

A part of me wants to stop it—violently. Her tears distress me on a visceral level, and I automatically shush her, hands stroking her hair with growing urgency. I can’t help it. The sound of a crying woman catapults me back into the past, helplessness clawing at my guts. My hushing and stroking gets frantic until I catch Caden’s eye. He shakes his head wordlessly and grips the back of my head, bringing my face closer over the top of Harlow’s head.

Our foreheads touch, and Caden murmurs softly, “Breathe, Jack. You’re good. You’re safe.”

I gulp in a shaky breath and release it. Caden tilts my face and rewards me with a tender kiss, just at the corner of my mouth. I take in another breath and he kisses me again, lips pressing to lips, and the jittery feeling inside me shifts. Warmth spreads in my belly. When I breathe in again, Caden captures my lower lip in a possessive kiss, and Silas pulls Harlow into his lap, moving away to give us more room.

Her sobbing has stopped, anyway, replaced by excited breathing. I think she watches us, but I don’t open my eyes. The velvety, hot feeling of Caden’s mouth on mine, the commanding glide of his tongue pushing in, and his rough hands holding my jaw and nape carry me away.

I make a hoarse, hungry sound into his mouth, and he grunts in response, the hand on my nape sliding down my back. It settles on my ass, pulling me closer in a rough tug until my hard cock rubs against his through our jeans.

“Fuck, Caden,” I gasp, pulling away from the kiss. “It was supposed to be about her tonight.”

Because that’s what we agreed on. We’d fuck Harlow to heaven and back, shower her in affection, praise, and orgasms. She deserves it, and Caden sees how unsure she sometimes gets. We have to remind her, over and over, how much we want her.

So tonight is about her. Now, I’m angry at myself for stealing her spotlight with my fucking issues.

“And it is,” Caden murmurs in my ear, his tongue swiping out to lick the shell as he palms my cock through my jeans. “Look at her, puppy.”

I bite back a moan when my cock bucks against the pressure and look up, instantly understanding what Caden means.

She sits between Silas’s spread legs, her cardigan unbuttoned and pushed down her shoulders. He looks straight at me, a smirk playing on his lips as his fingers draw slow, sensuous patterns on her skin. Harlow’s head is tipped back, her eyes hooded, mouth open and panting. She stares at Caden’s hand, half-wrapped around my cock through the fabric, grinding until I grunt, hips flexing.

This scene is familiar despite the wildly different surroundings and vibe. I suddenly see it, recognition twisting in my belly with a sharp spike of want. It’s how our Halloween night started. Except it was me at Harlow’s back, giving her sparks as she watched Caden suck Silas off.

It got her so horny, I remember. She couldn’t contain her trembling and moans as I touched her, her eyes glued to them. This is a reenactment, then. Or did we fall into the same pattern?

As my eyes snag on the hooks by the door, I realize one thing is missing.

“Cover her eyes,” I say, my cock twitching eagerly. It’s been a long time since I had a cock in my mouth, and the prospect makes me salivate. Fuck. So much has changed.

I pick up Caden’s hand and kiss the back of it, my face flaming. He rumbles in pleasure and catches my wrist, pulling me in for a kiss. “You make me so hard, puppy,” he growls when I pull back, staring at his face made sharper by lust. My cock reacts, the wet tip sticking to my underwear. Fuck.

“Just a minute,” I say, getting up on weak legs. I check that Harlow’s eyes are covered with Silas’s hand, his long fingers stretching across her face. With his other hand, he strokes feather-light fingers down her right arm to the edge of her prosthetic. She shakes, her feet flexing in the thick, woolen socks Caden got her.

He keeps buying her clothes, because she refuses to spend our money on her needs. He’ll text her pictures of a few items when he’s out shopping and make her choose the one she likes best. At first, she told him not to buy her anything. He got her the same shirt in all five colors, and since then, she grudgingly chooses every time he asks.

I drive her everywhere she wants to go and clean the bathroom when it’s her turn. I get her favorite brands of yogurt and cheese when I shop for groceries. I keep the fruit bowl full so we never run out.

Silas is the one who reminds her how much we love and want her. Every single day.

He’ll say shit like “Sit by my side, angel. I need you to keep me warm,” when we settle down to watch a movie. Or he’ll drop little comments out of the blue. “Couldn’t have done it without you,” when she helps out with paperwork or gets the printer to cooperate. “You fit so well in here,” when she sits between me and him, snuggled close to us both. “We’re so lucky to have you.”

Little things, but they made me realize how uncertain she still feels about her position with us. Silas sees it and works tirelessly, hacking at her doubts and fears.

Now, he leans down and whispers in her ear. “I can’t wait to see you riding two dicks, angel. You’ll be so full with Caden and Jack stretching you. Such a beautiful, horny girl.”

She moans, her hips arching on reflex, and I get the masks. When I try to hand Silas his—the demonic Krampus one, with charcoal skin, curving horns, and a lolling red tongue, he smirks and doesn’t reach for it. His hands are busy fondling Harlow, so I kneel behind him and put the mask on his face. It’s a rubbery, full-head kind of mask and tugging it on takes an effort. Silas hisses when it snags on his nose.

“Whoops,” I say, not even trying to sound apologetic. He should have put it on himself if he doesn’t like the way I did it.

When I move to the side to survey my handiwork, Silas faces me. The mask is so awful, an icy shiver runs down my spine, tinging my arousal with sick excitement. The demonic face is twisted in fury, sharp teeth filling the open mouth, the long tongue looking almost real. Damn, he’ll make Harlow wet her pants.

“Looking good,” I say with a grin, throwing Caden his set.

He snickers, putting on the silver beard. When we were getting the masks, he announced he was going to be Daddy Santa for Harlow. His costume is nothing more than a fake beard and a red-and-white Santa hat pulled low on his forehead. Under its edge, his eyes glitter with mischievous amusement.

My mask only covers the upper part of my face. It’s a reindeer mask, complete with the big red nose and antlers, and I picked it because I love how the holes for the eyes are shaped. They have a menacing slant to them. I’m an evil Rudolph.

“Guys, is this what I think it is?” Harlow asks, squirming in her seat between Silas’s thighs. Her eyes are still covered.

“I don’t know. What are you thinking, love?” He runs his fingers across her collarbones until gooseflesh appears.

“You’re wearing masks,” she says with certainty, and I laugh under my breath.

“Smart girl,” I say with a grin, reaching for Caden’s fly. “Ready for the show?”