Cupid Falling

BONUS Chapter: Halloween

In the kitchen, I find sliced pizzas and various finger foods with Halloween themes, as well as crisps and sweets. I pick up a sausage that's been cut to resemble a finger.

"Charming." I raise an eyebrow at him. "I will need a guarantee that this isn't actually a human finger. It is Tuesday after all."

He laughs, the sound warming my insides even further. "I can promise it's not. Halloween is my day off from being a serial killer."

I slide back into his arms, food temporarily forgotten. "Everyone at this party thanks you."

He nuzzles into my neck, pushing the hoodie back for access, his breath hot against my skin. "I never realized cats could be so sexy," he mumbles, the movement of his lips creating delicious friction that sends a shiver of anticipation down my spine.

"Have you not seen the sexy cat costumes?" I tilt my head slightly to the side to give him better access as he places soft kisses on my neck.

"Sexier than this one?" He nips me gently, making me grip his shoulders a little harder.

"This isn't the most common cat costume," I admit, even as I'm struggling to remember what we're talking about. His presence is always intoxicating, and tonight is no different. I slide my hands down along his bare torso, reveling in the feel of his warm skin against my palms.

Someone clears their throat and in a daze, I take a step back, embarrassed to have forgotten myself so completely. We're at a party with at least two dozen other people. Not the time to be feeling up your boyfriend.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," my best friend Amy says, though the smirk on her face suggests she clearly knows she is. "I just wanted to come over and say hi. It feels like I haven't seen you in forever!"

She leans in and gives me a hug. As she pulls back, I laugh at her costume. She's dressed as a basketball player, but she's cut the middle of her top out to allow space for her big baby bump, which has been painted to look like a basketball.

"Love your costume!"

"Thanks!" She beams at me as her hand instinctively wraps around the bottom of the bump—or ball. "It was this or having an alien burst out of me, and the latter felt like it hit a little too close to home."

Her husband, Luke, comes over and gives her a kiss on the cheek. "Nothing will burst through, I promise."

She scoffs. "That's easy for you to say."

I take the opportunity to scoff down a couple of sausage fingers as they continue talking to Eros. After having to give a gastric lavage to a dog—after the owner had foolishly used shoe polish to turn the dog brown for Halloween, which it then licked off—I had lost all appetite during the day and never ate lunch. By now I'm starving.

The others are still talking, now discussing getting together for a movie night before the baby is due in a few weeks, so I eat a slice of pizza. And maybe a cookie in the shape of a pumpkin. I catch sight of Trevor on the other side of the room, standing close to his fiancée, Sophia. They're adorably dressed as Danny and Sandy from Grease. He waves as he sees me, and I wave back. After he stopped hoping for a relationship with me, we've become good friends and Eros and I have even gone on some double dates with him and Sophia. They also regularly join game nights at Amy and Luke's house. My friend finally has the couples' nights she's always dreamed of.

Stuffing my face with a couple of candy corns—which I instantly regret, as they are still the distant disgusting cousin of real candy—I turn back to Eros only to catch him frowning at something on the other side of the room.