Page 11 of Hot Ghoul Summer (Pine Ridge Universe)

“ W hat... What is that?”

“Um. Tiki bar, I reckon.”

When we return to the kitchen of Toby’s vacation home, the house looks different. The plain rectangular table, gray and blue counter and paint scheme, and electric kettle and tin of biscuits are all gone. Instead, there’s a soft, tropical breeze, a wooden bartop with two frosty glasses, and palms and hibiscus everywhere.

I swallow as Toby opens the doors that lead down to the beach. “Yep. There are tiki torches out back, and the lawn’s gone all sandy. I think the house likes you. Prob’ly because I like you.”

Nodding, I move to the bar and grab our drinks. Sizzling skewers of meat and grilled pineapple are waiting beside it. My stomach suddenly growls. “Hungry?”

“Mmhm. Is this your dream date?” Toby demands.

I grab a skewer. “Sort of? I’ve always wanted to go someplace tropical and finally managed it last year for Spring Break. It was nothing like I pictured. It was one long, loud, drunken party.”

“Not much of a date?” Toby joins me, back in his customary black hoodie. I think black is his color. He looks pale, but the pale and the dark colors—well, they work on him.

“I met a guy. We got together.” I lace my fingers together with a pointed look. “But he didn’t stick around until breakfast. It wasn’t like I wanted my trip to be boring, but I wanted it to be something special and memorable. Something I’d never forget in a good way.” I wince. I will never forget waking up to a puddle of bright green puke.

I bet it was all the guacamole and green Jell-O shots...

“I like this place—when you’re in it. I’ve never been one for the tropics. I’ve been in England or the Eastern United States for my whole unlife. I’ve worked in a bunch of different areas, but this one the longest. Every few decades, I get restless, but I haven’t felt the urge to move on from here.” He looks at me. “I know why Pine Ridge and the surrounding areas never bored me.”

“Sera and someone who breeds half-hellhounds?” I asked.

“Not just that. I was waiting to meet you.” Toby takes my hand and spins me. Somewhere in the distance, a steel band starts to play.

“That’s not in my perfect date,” I warn him.

“It’s in mine. My perfect date is when you think it’s a perfect date.”

I listen to the soft metallic noise, so melodic as it drifts on the lakeside breezes. I have to remind myself that this isn’t actually a tropical paradise. I’m hiding for my life, and Lake Erie sees its fair share of blizzards.

But the music, the breezes, and the scent of hibiscus, lime, and sizzling steak and pineapple convince me I’m in paradise.

And when Toby scoops me up and carries me outside onto the beach that’s suddenly right at our door, you can’t convince me otherwise.

“It’s not right to be so afraid and feel so safe at the same time,” I whisper, letting him whirl me around on the sand.

“It’s not dangerous here. That’s why I did everything I could to make you stay,” Toby whispers back, forehead to mine. “When I wasn’t trying to get some Heavenly assistance, I was warding this place. Uh—setting up better mystical defenses. This place was only revealed to you because I wanted it to be, but I’m a little concerned that because I told Gary, that...” Toby gropes for words. “That somehow his information could reveal the location to a third party. I don’t think it can, but I don’t take chances with you.”

I smile as he sets me down. I stay close to him, swaying in his arms. In the moonlight, I see outlines of a skull and dark hollows around his eyes. Angry Toby. Not at me, at the threats around me.

“I do appreciate the extra protection.” But what would he be like in normal life? He seems so sweet, but what would he be like if there wasn’t a crisis? Would he be worrying about me getting hurt at all times? Would he turn into a controlling person who still keeps me a prisoner, trying to protect me from everyday threats?

“You’re frowning. I promise, the wards will hold unless Cross has one hell of a magical assassin on his team—and that doesn’t seem his style.”

“There are magical assassins?” I yelp, eyes wide.

“Um. Not many. Margarita?” Toby runs to get my drink.

“Hey. Tell me something. What happens when this is over? I mean, I can’t hide out forever. Hopefully, you get things taken care of soon.” I push the shadowy fears aside for a moment. I couldn’t have done that a day ago. I guess Toby gives me hope as well as uncomfortable truths.

“Wh-what do you want to happen?” he stammers, sipping from his own glass.

“I want to get a job at a hospital that actually understands the value of nurses and has the right ratio of staff to patients for the level of care required. I want to date a nice guy.” I want to get married. Have kids, maybe. I don’t know if that could even happen with Toby. Then again, I know for sure it would never happen with any of the other losers I’ve dated. I want a man who treats me like a queen, but not always a queen in peril.

“Pine Ridge has one of the nicest hospitals I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot. I know some folks on staff there. I could put in a good word.”

“Pine Ridge? Where you live?”

He gives me a bashful look. “Mhm.”

“Answer the question this time. Don’t pass it back to me.” I stare him down. Good. My fighting spirit wasn’t charmed or fucked out of me—not entirely.

“When this is over? I mean, if I’ve still got a job, I’ll go back to work. If I don’t take any further ‘unsanctioned actions,’ I’ll be fine. I’ll go home, back to the little place I have in Pine Ridge.” He looks at me. “You don’t have a job lined up anywhere, yet, right?”

“Not yet.”

“Maybe you’ll end up in my neck of the woods. You could come over for dinner.”

“Dinner?”

“And a movie?”

“Like... we date?”

“Yeah! And...” He stops, a sad smile on his face. “Was this a test? Did I flunk?”

“No. I mean, yes, it was a test. No, you didn’t flunk. That sounds pretty normal.” Normal is suddenly such a prize right now. Normal with a side of amazing, ultra-flexible-tongue boyfriend would be even better.

“Death is a normal part of life when it comes at the right time. Together, we’ll be on the same side. You keep people on this plane until they’re properly supposed to get off,” Toby encourages, clinking his glass to mine.

“I’d like that.” I swallow a large gulp of the icy drink and move to the big purple beach blanket that’s spread on the sand. “Life is full of ordinary dangers, especially when you’re a nurse. There are drunk patients, drug addicts, contagious viruses, stress, lifting-related injuries, and so many more.” I tick off the problems I’ve pledged to face.

“There are dangers in every job. That is a natural part of life, too.” Toby joins me on the blanket.

“Would you let me live a natural life, or would you be popping up every five minutes, telling me ‘Don’t touch that patient, she’ll give you a cold!’ ‘Stay in the house! Today you’re going to get in a car accident!’ Actually, that would be handy.”

“But you can’t live like that, and I can’t work like that. If you like, I’ll make sure your scroll is sealed when this is over. I’ll never be able to peek again. Whatever happens, happens. I’ll just be loving you while it does.”

My heart bounces like a diver on a springboard. “Love?”

Toby flops backward, empty glass now on his chest. “I can’t help it.”

Slowly, I sip my drink, watching the moonlight on the water and the moonlight on the being beside me. He reaches for one of my hands and holds it, simply content to have me near him, not pulling away.

When my glass is empty, I lay down, too, smiling at him. “I can’t help it, either.”

Toby nods, frowns, and then sits back up. “Can’t help what?”

“Falling a little bit in love with the guy who saved my life and takes me on epic first dates. Not everyone can build a paradise in the backyard.”

“A little bit in love? You? Me?”

I could say no.

But then I’d be lying.

I don’t want to lie to him.

“A little bit in love. You. Me,” I confirm.

With a laugh that turns from pure delight to absolute deep, dark chocolate sin, Toby claims my mouth in a kiss and tackles me on the warm sand.

SHE LOVES ME. A LITTLE . I don’t know if it’ll grow to a lot or stay just a smidge, but I don’t care. Tomorrow is not promised.

Tonight, Molly is kissing me back, her tongue working in my mouth as her hands push at my jeans. In a muddle of thoughts, I switch our outfits, with a little assist from the house. I’m in a loose black tunic with nothing underneath, and Moll is in a pink bikini that would sizzle any man’s sausage.

“Oh, my God. You’re so exquisite,” I moan, hands seeing for me.

Long legs with curves at the hips. A soft mound that rubs pointedly against my hardness as if guiding me home. Arms that are so soft, but strong as they lock around my neck.

I try not to ruin our first date by turning it into a sexual marathon, but Molly has other ideas. When I try to be a gentleman and extricate myself from her embrace, she holds me tight, pulling the cups of her bikini top to the sides to let her breasts fall free.

“You don’t play fair,” I moan, greedily diving to capture one perfect handful of heaven in my mouth.

“Neither do you.”

She has a point.

“You’re going to make me forget my manners,” I whisper between sucks on her nipple.

Molly’s hips thrust impatiently against my hand. “I’m okay with that.”

I’m not sure she would be. Hell, I’m not sure I would be either. I’ve never had this chance at love. I didn’t know it could fuel such unbridled lust.

I don’t want Molly to reject my advances, so I try to go slow.

She doesn’t want me to. I feel one of her hands pulling my tunic up my back, her fingers digging into my bottom as she pulls me closer.

“No one can see us or get in, right?” she whispers.

“Nope.”

“Beach sex has always been a fantasy, especially with adequate coverage so sand doesn’t go where it’s not supposed to,” she pants in my ear.

I nod, not trusting myself to speak.

“Something wrong?”

“No.” It’s not wrong. Just too much.

I want to devour that pussy. I want to be in every part of her, buried deep until I feel her coming on me. I want to pound into her until she whimpers in pleasure and loses every word but “Toby.”

I’m not sure I know how to do that, but I want to try. “You make me want to lose myself in you. Lose control,” I warn.

I expect Molly to pull back, to caution me, to remind me not to blow things.

“What’s that look like?” she gasps.

My form shifts without control, flickering as I yank the crotch of her panties aside to drag my fingers through her slit. One second they’re soft and fleshy, the next, hard and bony. I feel her clit throb as I squeeze it, spreading wetness from her core to her nub. My tongue feels too big for my human mouth, but just right for my bony jaw, just right to split her heavy, pouting labia, the one I want to play with until she floods my mouth with her juice.

Two fingers lodge deep inside of her while I bend her neck back with a forceful kiss, long tongue going in deep, diving where it doesn’t belong.

I pull back when she gags, wishing I hadn’t given into centuries of loneliness, ages of lust I didn’t even realize I’d been waiting to unleash.

Molly looks at me with an open mouth and wide, startled eyes.

Her hand moves between my legs and strokes, the first touch finding my normal male genitalia, and then as I shudder and shift again, she comes across something wider and more unholy-looking, a shaft of dark, thick flesh that isn’t much larger than my normal manhood, but moves much differently. Like my curious tongue, it slides through her grasping fingers and lodges between those pretty, plump lower lips.

“Oh, God.”

“I... I’ll work on this,” I promise. “I didn’t change forms like this before. Never have.”

“Can you fuck me like this?” she asks. Molly looks up at me with lowered eyelashes and her bottom lip between her teeth.

I didn’t read her scroll carefully, so I must’ve missed the part where she studied under Aphrodite in seduction. If she asked if she could set me on fire right now, I’d agree quite happily.

“You want me to?” I ask.

In answer, Molly grips my cock, squeezing until the pulsing, swirling rod thrusts helplessly in her hand. “Oh, yes. Yes, I do.”

TOBY WAS THE PERFECT size before, a size most men aspire to. Toby’s “Reaper Cock” (something I should trademark, maybe?) is just a little bigger, but it does things. It moves on its own, pulsing and filling me while his tentacle-like tongue fences with mine. My pussy stretches to take the way he curves and swirls, slick pre-cum easing his entrance.

His face stays between forms, as if his skull-like visage is hiding just under his skin, or is it the other way around? I don’t know. I really don’t care right now. All I know is that I’ve never, ever been so full, and something is coming over me. Pure animalistic lust.

Did the house put aphrodisiacs in the margaritas?

The thought gives me pause, but my body doesn’t take a break. I know if I told Toby I was worried about that idea, he’d stop at once, and frankly, I don’t want to stop.

In fact, as Toby kisses me and I feel his hips sync into a rhythm with mine, that thought flees. I don’t need any help. I just need Toby.

My hand slides between our bodies so I can stroke my clit and rub where we join, feeling the thick, pulsing shaft slide into my slippery pussy on each thrust. Sometimes my hand finds the soft, smooth skin of a normal penis, and other times it’s thicker, almost rubbery, and so slick.

“Why do you have different equipment? And why wasn’t I told dating you would give me a two-for-one deal?” I pant.

Toby kisses my throat. In seconds, I feel that long, flexible nightmare tongue curling halfway around me, squeezing every so slightly. It moves down and does the same thing to my breast.

I guess I don’t mind waiting for an answer. For long moments, I’m just lost in the fullness inside me and the pulling suction that flickers from breast to throat to other breast.

When Toby finally answers, he smiles down on me, handsome human features in place. “I didn’t know I could do this. I could do anything for you, Moll.”

My muscles squeeze, pulling him into me as sharp pulses of pleasure course through me. We hold each other tight, listening to distant music and the lapping of waves.

He could do anything for me. Has done so much for me.

His cock may stretch me, but his love stretches me, too, expanding my heart. Letting him in.

In my mind, I can glimpse a future, days and years away, where I hold him as we make love and the words flow easily, like the motions we exchange.

“Toby,” just a breath that he steals from me, kissing me while his hips pick up the pace, hammering into me. My knees squeeze around his hips, holding him tight, wanting him in deep, so deep that he can never leave.

That’s right. All the men in my life leave.

He won’t. I have to keep him with me, keep him safe from trading his soul for mine. I don’t want him to leave this mortal world just when we meet.

Thoughts of pleasure and pain mingle, the feelings overwhelming my body unable to completely outweigh the sudden sadness in my heart. I love him—and each little pebble of affection is building a mountain. I’m falling for him—for all the things he is and everything he isn’t.

Unselfish.

Loving.

Protective.

What I want, in the oddest package.

His thick phallus swells in me as I come, and I feel thick ropes of cum coat my insides. He still keeps rocking, and I realize his human cock is now dominant—and it’s still hard and full.

“Again?” I gasp.

“Think so,” he murmurs, pressing passionate kisses along my jaw. “You feel so good, baby. Can I come in you again, sweetheart?”

“God, yes. Over and over again.” I clutch him tight.

Toby works himself harder and harder against me, almost as if his first orgasm took off the edge and he has to build back up. Whatever it is, I appreciate it, pussy fluttering as small orgasms shake me, each one rippling to build to a harder one as my fingers and his erection create a vise of pleasure around my clit, trapping it from the inside and outside at once.

“Oh. Oh, Oh, fuck, Moll...” Toby’s shoulders tense, and his head flings back.

I pry my eyes open long enough to watch his face spasm in relief. Jaw and limbs locked.

He’s not just cute or adorable. My Toby is a beautiful monster, and something closer to an angel than a demon.

I’m a nurse. I still fight against untimely deaths. Toby will not die if I can save him, just like I won’t die if he can save me.

“My God.” I stroke his face as he rests it next to mine.

“Good.”

“Better.” I blink back tears of realization.

“Oh, precious?” Toby kisses my eyelids. “Did I go too hard, Moll?”

“I just realized—you’re my partner. The real thing. You’d live or die for me. You want the best for me. What makes me happy makes you happy. I know it’s too soon, but I just got it.”

“You did?” Toby beams at me, happy tears standing out on the surface of his eyes, too.

“I’m not going to let you leave here, okay? We’re smart. We’re stubborn.” I clasp his hand in mine. “We can stop Theo and Gary. We can save each other.”

“Yes, Moll. Yes! We’ll do it, love.” Toby kisses me, and I hug him hard.

“Love you,” I risk whispering.

Because what if this is my only chance?

“I love you, too. And don’t worry. I’ll still go slow,” he promises.

My teeth scrape against his lip as I kiss him back. “Not too slow, okay?”