The Sun and the Moon [Wattys 2015 winner]

Chapter 23: Pop Rocks

By 9:45 on Halloween night, the following Friday, all of the trick-or-treaters had ceased ringing my doorbell and asking for candy. Ryan had come over to help pass out candy and now looked at me, with an undecipherable, but intent, look on his face, when I went to the front door to turn off the porch light, signaling that we were closed for business.

"Amelia."

I looked at him. We had spoken on the phone or texted every day that week and he had spent the night on Wednesday night, leaving super early in the morning to get to Southwinds on Thursday. It felt like we couldn't get enough of each other, and we were spending as much time with each other as we could. But both of us were busy at work—me with my new case and him with running a business—and I was really looking forward to a quiet, long weekend with him.

Neither one of us had dressed up for Halloween, although we had felt the Halloween spirit—such that it was—by checking out the dozens of Disney princesses and Ninjas who had knocked on my door. We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II, and ate dinner, in the spaces between visitors.

Every time I handed out candy, Ryan answered the door with me, talking with the kids, asking them about their costumes or how many more houses they were going to go to, and generally being an active participant in the process. This had the added bonus of him kissing me every time I closed the door. Score! In my neighborhood, there were a lot of families and a lot of kids, so we were up and answering the door all night long. Just so you know, that's a lot of sucking tongue with Ryan. No complaints.

But now the stream of ankle-biters had finally petered out and the doorbell had stopped ringing for about a half hour.

I raised my eyebrows at him. He raised his eyebrows back and said, "I think we need to cross all of the rest of your rules off of your list, tonight."

I burst out laughing. And then I immediately felt a pulse run through my body at the thrill of his words. Dammit, Ryan. He still had this effect on me. But of course I couldn't let him get away with a pronouncement like that, even if I was ready to at least try it.

"Oh you do, do you?" I sassed back.

"How many rules have you broken?" he countered.

I thought about it for a moment and then answered, "1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 10, with likely 6 and 9 gone too."

He rolled his eyes. "That doesn't help, Movie Star. Nobody but you has this crazy sex list memorized. Name the ones we have broken."

"Rule 1. We have sex in the light."

He smiled. "As it should be. Well, maybe we'll have to have a go at it in total darkness, just for contrast."

I considered this. Feeling my way around Ryan instead of seeing where I was going. Running my fingers down his... Yeah, that would be fun. Time to consider putting a rule back on the list for the sake of completeness. I started to tell him the next rule, and said aloud, "Rule 2," and then remembered, oh shit, that's masturbation. Of course, being Ryan, he totally figured it out from the panicked look on my face and shook his head.

"Doesn't count," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I mean, it's good that you broke this ridiculous no masturbation rule, but I haven't seen it. I've seen a picture of your magic wand and I expect to see you show me how it works. I want to see you make yourself come. Put it on the list for tonight."

"Does that count as a toy?"

"Sure."

"Then that's breaking Rule 6."