Come on, April. The weather would be consistently warm then, making her life much more comfortable.

Still, as he pictured the men in her mind, she saw no harm in wishing. I wish those two men were big and hard in my bed. h.e.l.l, even if it was only in her vibratory fantasies, she'd take it.

Allan stared in the mirror as he fussed with his outfit and made sure the lines were straight. "Are you almost ready?" he called out to Ben.

"Almost."

He turned when Ben stepped into the bedroom doorway. "How do I look?" Ben asked.

Ben had refused help and settled on a generic black vampire cape from a discount store, along with fake plastic vampire fangs. Allan successfully held back the snort. He didn't want to hurt Ben's feelings, but Ben was the dorkiest non-sparkly vampire he'd ever seen.

More importantly, he didn't want Ben to back out of helping Libbie. "You look great."

"I feel stupid," Ben rumbled. "I had enough of disguises working undercover."

Allan gentled his tone. "You look fine. Let's get downstairs and help before Libbie tries to set up on her own."

"What are you, anyway?" Ben asked as he followed Allan to the front door. "That's the weirdest-looking zebra getup I've ever seen."

Allan had spent a day online searching for the zentai suit with vertical black and white stripes. He'd used one of their prepaid credit cards to order it, and had it shipped overnight to Many Blessings, where he picked it up. "I'm not a zebra. I'm the Doppler effect."

Ben blinked. Allan watched as he tried to process that. "The what?"

"You don't watch The Big Bang Theory, do you?" Allan asked.

Now he got the arched eyebrow. "The what?"

"It's a TV show. Never mind." He opened the door and headed down the hall toward the stairs leading to the bakery.

All I care about is that Libbie will like it. If he was lucky, maybe it would make her smile and take the pain away from her sweet face for a few moments.

If he was really lucky, maybe she would laugh for him.

Libbie examined herself one more time in the downstairs bathroom mirror. This is stupid. I look ridiculous. Why did I let Mandaline talk me into wearing this?

The gauzy, short, low-cut peasant-style blouse emphasized the deep valley created with the help of the black sequined push-up bra underneath, giving her natural B-cups an artificial boost. The beautiful embroidered silk scarf in tones of turquoise and gold wrapped around her hair looked gorgeous.

Too gorgeous for me.

The layered, handkerchief skirt swirled around her ankles with every movement. At least it was warm out tonight, or she wouldn't have been able to wear the skimpy outfit.

The large hoop earrings, jingling bells on her ankle bracelet, and flat, strappy sandals completed her gypsy fortune-teller costume.

She turned at a noise behind her to find Ken and Charles standing there. She wondered about the look of surprise that flitted across Ken's face before he schooled it back to his usual stonewall expression.

Charles, on the other hand, looked delighted.

He gently grabbed her hands in his and held her arms out so he could get a better look at her. "You look beautiful, sweetheart."

She felt the warm flush fill her face despite her best efforts to hold it back. "Thanks," she mumbled before focusing on his costume. "Nice! The Doppler effect. Where on earth did you manage to find that?"

"You like it?" Charles asked.

She nodded, grinning. "I love it. That's great!"

He turned to Ken with a triumphant grin. "Ha! See? Told you she'd love it."

If I didn't know he was gay, I'd think Charles was trying to impress me. She ignored the painful little thump her heart made at the thought and pushed it away.

"What do you need us to do?" Ken asked.

"Well, the folding tables are in the back. If you want to set them up inside the doorway, then we can get the boxes of cookies moved out there."

Ken nodded and headed off to do it.

Charles c.o.c.ked his head at her. "You feeling okay?"

"I'm a little tired. That's all."

"How's your pain?"

Her breath caught in her throat at his tone. Stupid, he's just a concerned friend. "Maybe a six."

He frowned. "Did you take a pill?"

"No. A six is okay. Not a bad day, actually." She forced a smile. The skintight outfit he wore showed off every etched muscle in his body. Too bad he's wearing the running shorts over it. The loose black shorts concealed the muscle she'd most like to see outside of her hot, wet nighttime speculations.

"Just take it easy tonight," he cautioned. "You've got us to help you. All you need to do is sit there and look cute." He caught one of her hands again and brought it up to his lips, where he brushed them across her knuckles. "And you look d.a.m.n cute. Let us be your brawn tonight."

She nodded, her voice failing her. I wish!

They were fifteen minutes past the official start time when Mandaline, dressed as a s.e.xy, yet PG-13-rated zombie princess, bounded into the store with a Many Blessings bag in her hand. Ken and Charles were busy handing out cookies. Mandaline grabbed Libbie's hand and pulled her around the counter.

She leaned in close. "This is for you for tonight."

Libbie took the bag, which was heavier than it looked, and peeked inside. A large bottle of homemade cider took up most of it. "What is this?"

"Sachi made a batch of her favorite Samhain beverage," Mandaline admitted with a giggle. "It's strong, so don't go driving after you've had some. And there's a little something in there for you and hopefully those two hunks."

Libbie felt deeper inside the bag, her face heating to supernova proportions when her fingers found the plastic strips of condom packages.

She jerked her hand out of the bag like she'd just been bitten. "Thank you," she mumbled. "I think the cider will get a lot more use than the...other stuff."

Mandaline hugged her. With her lips pressed against Libbie's ear, she gently scolded, "Don't forget. Wish big, dream hard. Especially tonight of all nights when the veil is thinnest. The Universe will hear you, believe me." After pressing a kiss to Libbie's cheek, she bounded out of the store as fast as she'd entered after giving a wave of her fingers to the men.

"What's in the bag?" Charles asked.

She grabbed the bottle of spiked cider and quickly shoved the bag out of sight under the counter. She'd also caught sight of three small bottles of flavored lube in the bag along with the condoms. "Adult beverage, courtesy of Sachi. I'll go get cups."

The evening went well. Ken had ditched his plastic fangs early on when he realized they interfered too much with his speech. After two cups of the delicious spiked cider, Libbie relaxed and completely enjoyed herself and the trick-or-treaters that filtered through. Grover stopped by with his daughter, son-in-law, and the twins, who were both dressed as little princesses.

Libbie felt giddy, whether from the spiked cider Mandaline had brought over, or the attentiveness and flirting of Ken and Charles all through the evening, she didn't know. The three of them finished off the cider and she didn't think it was her imagination that the men were friendlier and more flirty with her than normal.

She wouldn't question it, and she'd enjoy every minute of it. She couldn't remember the last time she felt this good or had this much fun. By eight o'clock they'd handed out nearly all the cookies and the flow of young trick-or-treaters had ended with just the occasional high school pair or trio stopping by.

"I think it's time to close up shop," Charles said.

She licked her lips, fighting the urge to beg them to take her to bed and knowing that couldn't possibly end well for her ego when they would inevitably refuse. "Okay."

Ken locked the door and pulled the shades in the front windows. "How you feeling?"

h.o.r.n.y. Reeeally h.o.r.n.y. And probably intoxicated. "I'm okay. Good." Make that definitely intoxicated. I hope I have enough batteries for Bob or I'm going to be a really sad panda later.

"How's your pain?" Charles asked as he broke down one of the folding tables.

"Good, really. I'm okay." She walked over to help him. Only a few feet away from the table, her feet somehow got tangled up in her skirt and she let out a little yelp as she started to fall.

Charles dove for her, snagging her with a strong arm around her waist and pulling her body tightly against his.

She was startled to feel a hard, generous bulge pressing into her lower back.

That's...oh my.

"You all right?" Ken asked as he rushed over.

She nodded, barely able to speak as Charles righted her on her feet. "Yeah, just tripped. You know me, klutzy."

Libbie suppressed a disappointed moan when Charles released her and stepped away. He quickly turned his back to her to finish collapsing the table, meaning she couldn't see the front of his shorts.

Ken touched her hand and she found herself staring up into his eyes.

She wanted them both. Really wanted them.

Why can't life be more like those books I read?

"You sure you're okay?" Ken asked.

"Uh-huh." She threw a glance over her shoulder. Charles still managed to keep his back to her as he worked on collapsing another table.

Hmm.

She wasn't so intoxicated, or had been celibate for so long, that she couldn't recognize a generous erection when she felt one pressed against her a.s.s.

She threw her arms around Ken's neck and wiggled the length of her body against his. When she did, his arms encircled her waist as if on autopilot. She immediately felt a generous bulge spring to life against her lower belly.

Hmm. That's promising.

His eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Are you okay?"

"I know what would make me feel better." f.u.c.k it. Either they'd put a stop to it immediately, and she could feign no memory of it in the morning and blame it on being drunk on Sachi's cider, or...

Or.

It was that or upon which she hung her hopeful hat.

She didn't miss how he swallowed, hard. "What?"

She looked back at Charles again and found him staring at them, his jaw slightly agape. She crooked a finger at him before draping her arm around Ken's neck again.

Charles looked at the table he'd been fumbling with before forgetting it and hurrying over to them.

Ken started to speak. "Libbie, I-"

She laid a finger across his lips. "Shh." She reached behind her and pulled Charles close. Fortunately for her, he appeared to be a quick study and pressed against her back.

Yep, that was definitely a well-endowed erection rubbing against her a.s.s. Front and back.

Bookends. Yum! She stifled the snicker as she put her hand back around Ken's neck yet again. She was afraid to let go of him for fear that when she did, it would all be over. Standing on tiptoe, she angled her lips, closed her eyes, and prayed for a touchdown. Or a field goal. Or...whatever the h.e.l.l it took to score.

Ben wasn't sure what to do. The thought of shoving her away and shooting her down broke his heart.

Not to mention it wasn't like she couldn't feel his cast-iron hard-on trying to f.u.c.k her through his costume and hers. Lying to her about them being gay was useless. With a groan, he locked down his brain, closed his eyes, and kissed her. His tongue brushed against the seam of her lips, which parted immediately, welcoming him.

f.u.c.k.

She tasted like cookies and cider and all the sweet dreams he'd had about her. Heaven in a kiss. He couldn't stop, couldn't turn back now, no matter what they'd sworn, what they'd promised. This little baker had done in the s.p.a.ce of two weeks what he'd avoided for over three years. She'd broken into his heart and stolen it.

And he wasn't about to let her go now.

His eyes opened just long enough to see Allan kissing the back of her neck, his hands cupping her b.r.e.a.s.t.s through her flimsy outfit. His d.i.c.k had ached all night long seeing her in that getup, and his first order of business would be to bend her over her bed, flip that skirt up, pull down her panties, and f.u.c.k her...

"s.h.i.t!" he gasped.

Her eyes flew open. "What? What's wrong?"

"I don't have any rubbers."

Her playful smile filled her face and lit his world. "Mandaline strikes again. She brought us a care package."