Halloween Next Door: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 78)

by Flora Ferrari

  “But you don’t.”

  “No. I run my classrooms my way and students take one look at me and know I’m not here to mess around. I’m getting paid directly by the students or their parents to give them the highest quality education I can, and that’s exactly what I do each and every day.”

  “That sounds pretty intense.”

  “I take pride in what’s mine. That includes my work and the people in my close circle.”

  “Like my dad,” I say and wish I could pull the words back into my mouth.

  “Like your dad. Yes. Peter’s a good man and he did an excellent job raising you right.”

  “Let’s see who can pick out the best pumpkin,” I say. I don’t really feel like talking about my dad right now with the guy who’s pants I just had my hands down.

  “Okay, if I win you have to make me a pumpkin pie,” he says.

  “And if I win you have to carve up the pumpkin for me,” I say.

  “Deal,” he says.

  “With your shirt off,” I throw in at the last minute.

  “Okay then, but then you have to make that pie in nothing more than an apron.”

  I can’t hold back the smile. “You’re on,” I say and we both start hunting through the pumpkin patch for a good one.

  “Can I help you?” a voice says and I look up to see a guy in a flannel shirt that looks like maybe he works here.

  “Oh, sorry. Are you closing soon?”

  “No, I just noticed you over here by yourself and I wanted to help.”

  “I’m not by myself,” I say, now realizing his true intentions and hoping he’ll get the hint.

  “Well I don’t see anyone else here, and I mean…if I were here with you I certainly wouldn’t wander off and just leave you. I’d want to spend as much time as I could with you.”

  Just then out of my peripheral view I see a big object block out the light from the light pole and this guy falls into a shadow, even though there’s no sun out.

  Suddenly his body is going skyward as I watch his hipster boots leave the ground and his feet dangle a good six inches off the straw lined walkways between the pumpkins.

  “You keep bothering woman that are already spoken for and I’ll make sure you spend as much time as you can in a hospital bed in a full body cast, you understand me?”

  “Yes, I’m really sorry,” the college-aged boy says.

  He’s no slouch either. He’s built well, lean like an Abercrombie and Fitch type model. You can tell even with that flannel on. But even though he’s probably six feet tall or maybe six feet one the difference between a lean boy and a muscular man is like night and day.

  “Apologize to her for not respecting her wishes,” he says.

  I should tell Bishop that it’s no big deal or to stop, but for some reason my mouth just doesn’t open.

  I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t want us to look divided in public, or because as a smaller woman I never really get a chance to “fight back” against all the little b.s. that goes on on a weekly, and sometimes daily basis.

  I’m not sure if it’s because I’m small, or because I’m a woman, or I just look like an easy target or what, but I swear it seems like people are often trying to take advantage of me left and right. Maybe some of those old adages are true. I need to do a better job of sticking up for myself and not let people try and walk all over me half the time.

  But that nonsense ends right here and now as I’m very much witnessing first hand.

  This near-violence, especially in public like this, should almost be embarrassing, but it’s not…at all.

  It’s exhilarating and I feel myself getting turned on once again. I swear Bishop can excite me from my head to my toes, and especially in the middle of my body, in more ways that I could have ever guessed.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

  Oh my god. No one has ever shown me respect by calling me “ma’am”. One little incident with Bishop and this boy suddenly found his southern manners.

  “It’s okay,” I say.

  “Not it’s not okay,” Bishop says literally shaking him like a wet rag. Somehow the boy’s flannel doesn’t rip. At least that’s one good thing about being a hipster…they do buy some really expensive clothes that hold up well. I bet when he was studying the thread count on the tag he never expected he would need it like this. “She’s letting you off easy because she’s a woman and she’s forgiving. I’m not. And I never forget a face.”

  Bishop rolls his fist literally turning the boy in the air to face him. “Especially one that’s pissed me off…and tried to take what’s mine,” he says before he takes a big step forward and heaves the guy into a big stack of hay bales.

  It’s not hard to see he gets the wind knocked out of him, but he manages to stumble to his feet and wobble away somewhere.

  “How do you like this one,” Bishop says as if nothing just happened.

  I shake my head in disbelief and smile at his transition from what just happened to our pumpkin challenge.

  “It looks…perfect!” I say.

  “So I win, then?”

  “Yes, you win,” I say going up on my tiptoes as he gives me a hug and a big kiss on the cheek.

  “This should be on the house after what just happened, but let me go pay real quick.”

  “I can go with you,” I say.

  “Nah, you can just enjoy this nice place right here.”

  “It looks like it belongs in a postcard doesn’t it?” I say taking in all the pumpkins and the darkness and the light posts that shine on them. And the straw paths are so quaint and cute too.

  “You belong in a postcard, with me, on some far off deserted island.”

  “I can free up my schedule real quick,” I say and he flashes me that smirk.

  “I’ll be right back and we can talk about it.”

  “What if someone else tries to talk to me while you’re away?” I ask, just teasing him as he turns to go.

  “Believe me. They won’t. And if someone else tries the next time I’ll have to ask you to turn your head while I take care of it,” he says as he turns back around to go find the cash register.

  I replay his words in my mind realizing he’s one hundred percent serious about what he just said.

  And I’m ninety-nine percent sure I wouldn’t want to turn my head, and I’m not quite sure what to think about that.

  But I am one hundred percent sure about one thing. This is going to be the best Halloween ever.

  CHAPTER 12

  Bishop

  I pull into my driveway wanting to take her inside and finish what we started at the haunted house.

  But just like it wasn’t right then, it’s not right now.

  But damn it’s not stopping me from thinking about it.

  Or her either. I can see she’s nervous, fidgeting with the bottom of those shorts. One second she’s got a white knuckle grip on them and the next second she’s smoothing them out.

  I want to grab them by the sides and yank them down my damn self. No fidgeting, just flicking…my tongue across, around, and on top of what’s underneath.

  “Thanks for a really fun evening,” she says as she reaches for the handle.

  “I’m getting out too,” I say, reminding myself out loud not to grab her and pull her body into mine.

  “Oh,” she says as her hand lingers on the handle as her gaze lingers on my lips.

  Suddenly I open my own door and get out. I couldn’t say anything even if I would have tried. It would have just come out like a hungry groan and I’m not sure I could have stopped myself.

  But I’ll be claiming her soon enough, I know that with one hundred percent certainty.

  And the look in her eye tells me she does too.

  But tonight I’ll conjure up ever ounce of self-discipline I have and walk her to her door like a gentleman. She can go inside and bask in the glow of our time together and I can go spend some time underneath an ice cold shower.

  But no matter wh
at little tricks I try I know none of them will work.

  My blood runs hot for her and I will have her.

  Tomorrow.

  CHAPTER 13

  Penelope

  October 31st (the next day - Halloween)

  “You okay,” my classmate Teresa asks me in our morning Business Management 101 class.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I say.

  “Really, because that’s the third time in a row I just asked you,” she says.

  “I was just thinking about what the professor said,” I say, trying to hold back a giggle.

  Why? Because I’m not talking about this professor. I’m talking about Professor Boudreaux, or Bishop as he insists I call him.

  “Good, then you can tell me because I missed that last thing he said.”

  “He said,” I begin realizing I have no idea what this professor said. “Something that will be in the class notes,” I say.

  “Uh huh,” Teresa says. “What’s his name?”

  “Who?”

  “This isn’t veterinarian school, girl. Don’t be acting like an owl up in here,” she says and I almost bust out laughing. “The guy you met?”

  “Who said I met anyone?”

  “Well, let’s see,” Teresa says. “You were late to class, which you never are. You’ve been staring off into space, which you never do. And you haven’t taken so much as single note or heard one thing the professor said, which you always do. So,” she pauses. “I’ll ask again. What’s his name?”

  “Just a man I met here at the university,” I say.

  “A man, huh? Well you must have found the only one then, because I haven’t seen a single one yet. All I’ve seen are a bunch of boys and some grown boys who are taking a break from the real world to make some money calling themselves professors while they mess around most of the day. So if you found a real man, please do me a favor.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Ask him if he has a brother!” Teresa says.

  “Ladies. Something you’d like to share back there?” the professor says.

  “No, we were just discussing the global trade imbalance and how an increase in tariffs can affect consumer spending,” I say.

  “Uh huh,” the professor says and the entire class laughs.

  “Well, let’s keep the trade talks down or else I’ll have to ask you two to trade seats,” the professor says and then turns back to his blackboard and gets back to the lesson.

  But there’s another lesson I’m much more interested in and that happens tonight.

  I’m an eager student who’s ready to learn everything Bishop has to teach me.

  And hopefully I’ll be both good and bad. Bad so I get spanked and have to do it all over again.

  Because having my hands down his pants wasn’t enough. Now I need to hold that rock hard cock of his…inside my walls as he opens me for the very first time.

  CHAPTER 14

  Bishop

  I couldn’t stay focused at all today…at least not on my lesson plan.

  I was completely focused on her. And while some might say that she was becoming a distraction I would say the opposite.

  My job was becoming a distraction.

  Why do we work anyways? To have purpose in our life? To make money so we can feed our families?

  Well the only family I need right now is her and she gives me more purpose and fulfillment than anything or anyone else ever has.

  So for the first time in my life my priorities are straight.

  Life isn’t about all the things we think it’s about. It’s about that one person that makes you realize why you were put on this earth, and the lengths that you will go to make them yours.

  I managed to get through my classes today. It wasn’t that hard in hindsight. I just brought up the topic of Elon Musk smoking week on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

  Then I asked the question if drugs are beneficial for creative purposes or if the risk is too great, which we saw after Tesla’s stock price fell precipitously after the interview aired.

  Tulane is widely regarded as the number one party school in the country, named so by numerous publications, so it wasn’t hard to find plenty of the boys in class taking the pro-drug side.

  Personally, I was disgusted, but I let them say what they had to say.

  And then, with only ten minutes left in class I brought up another topic.

  Switching gears I threw out the idea that what if the feelings you have for another human being are the ultimate drug? That which can inspire men to build amazing things like bridges and buildings just to impress that one girl that they want more than anything in the world.

  Most of the boys predictably dismissed it out of hand without giving it much thought.

  The girls in the class grasped onto it right away though.

  But the most interesting dialog was the internal one I was having with myself.

  Had you asked me that question a week ago I would have sided with the boys. Ask me today and I’m clearly on the side of the women.

  I feel like I’ve awakened from a deep sleep…it’s like I’ve been sleepwalking through life this entire thirty-eight years, and then suddenly…bam!

  She comes along and shows me why I’m here.

  To claim her. To make her mine. And to make a family together.

  And that starts tonight at the Halloween party I’ve been planning at my house for weeks now.

  At the time I planned it the goal was to get in good with the other faculty members so I could eventually get strong recommendations when it’s time for me to be considered for tenure.

  But now I don’t care. The only person I care about impressing is her.

  And she’s the reason I’m throwing the party now, but there’s no way I’m letting her come in that Elastigirl costume.

  That thing was too damn sexy. It showed her curves too much, and I’m not letting another man see that. Not now. Not ever.

  I’ll take her to a deserted island for a beach holiday if I have to. That body is mine and for my eyes only.

  And part of her body is her hair. Damn, it turns me on. And that costume she had on a couple nights ago did include a wig.

  I don’t want to see her in that. I want those long locks of hers hanging down to her mid back where I can run my hands through them…and give them a tug or two or ten when the time is right.

  And the time is going to be right real soon. I had an important shopping errand to run before the party, but I got it done. I don’t remember ever focusing so much on shopping in my life, and certainly not like this.

  In a perfect world I’d have had more time to pick out what I wanted, but the world already showed me perfection and that perfection is her.

  And I made this purchase because I don’t want to wait another second.

  She’s mine and she knows it, but I want the world to know it too.

  I want every student on this campus to see that she’s taken. And not just the students but the professor…everyone, it doesn’t matter.

  I’m so damn proud to have her by my side and I’m ready to show her off to the world.

  And that’s my plan.

  But I still haven’t figured out a way to tell her dad.

  CHAPTER 15

  Penelope

  Bishop told me last second not to wear my Elastigirl outfit, which left me little time to put together a proper costume.

  So I ask myself the question that never fails me.

  What would Audrey Hepburn do?

  And an hour later I have a makeshift black lace mask and an outfit that resembles hers from the 1966 heist classic How to Steal a Million.

  The mask isn’t perfect and there aren’t eyeholes, but that will add to the mystery.

  And I have just the perfect black dress with lace sleeves to go with it.

  So I’m very well covered, which will make Bishop happy, yet my arms will feel sexy and mysterious as will my face as I doubt anyone will be able to guess who I am.

&nb
sp; Then again this party will mostly be professors only, so I won’t have to worry about any boys that might be in my classes showing up there tonight.