The night went by fast, at least. Ripp was back to his usual bouncy and energetic self, entertaining both Arze and I, keeping our minds off of our impending talk, unbeknownst to him, of course. He’d talked a lot about his brother who lived in a community in a place in Maine that was a safe haven for ausserknoch. When we’d asked why he’d relocated to Phoebe, Ripp had turned into a somber puppy, unable to accurately talk about it without his emotions shining bright through his pink rimmed eyes. He said that was too long of a story to tell, and went back to his bubbly self by telling us tales of his childhood, which apparently we’re littered with better memories than his later years.
During the night, I’d been glad to hear that any sort of talk about the romp Arze and I had shared in the haunted house wasn’t getting thrown around like day old gossip. The last thing I wanted was for Jane to know what we’d done. Having the others know would have been bad enough, but I didn’t want to lose my job because I’d been unable to resist Arze’s charms.
Not that I felt all that sorry for finding him irresistible.
When our shift was finally coming to a close, I was bursting at the seams to talk things over. While we walked toward the exit of the haunted maze, Ripp took notice of the looks Arze and I kept trying to keep under wraps, rolling his eyes as he turned around from in front of us and gave both of us an even look. We stopped dead in our tracks.
“Will you two get it over with already?” He crossed his half-bone covered arms across each other, tilting his head and scrutinizing us with serious intent.
“Get what over with?” Arze offered, trying to resist looking at me.
“Whatever the hell this is,” Ripp took a hand and passed it in the air in both our directions and back again. “I can feel the energy pouring off you guys and it’s been a really long night dealing with it.”
Fuck. I didn’t want Ripp to be that affected. I wondered if him being ausserknoch meant he was more susceptible to our energies than other humans and Orbs. “I’m sorry, Ripp.” I nodded, shaking my head. “Won’t happen again.”
“Yeah, good.” Ripp nodded. “Talk things over or whatever it is you need to do but remember,” He paused to stare directly at Arze, miming each side of his head where his ear holes were located. “They aren’t far and listen well.”
I hated when Ripp got serious and full of wisdom. Arze just gave him a nod, grabbing my hand. “Thanks, Ripp.” He set his sights on me then. “The haunted house has music.”
Ahh, I was connecting the dots now. Ripp was referring to what Arze had told me yesterday, that there were tythwig near the haunts that could potentially overhear the conversation we needed to have. And by being in the haunted house, with the music blaring, we’d have less chance of being overheard.
“Right now?” I questioned.
“Go.” Ripp smiled. “I’ll distract the others.” As he said that, we saw Abigail, Chase, and Khalice walking toward Jane’s house, having already left the haunted house. “I’ll buy you some time but you don’t have a lot of it.”
“You’re the best.” Arze clapped his free hand on Ripp’s shoulder. “I owe you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ripp chuckled, waving him off. “Be quick.”
Without wasting another second, Arze gave me a nod and once I mirrored it, he was leading the way as we ran to the haunted house to finally come to a conclusion on where the hell we were headed and what we wanted.
Cutting through the different zones within the haunted house, we returned to the scene of the crime by heading to Spore Sector where the main sound system was located. Arze led me to the exact backroom part where we’d had sex so that he could walk over and access the music. He turned it on, setting the music loud enough that anyone outside wouldn’t be able to hear us talk but not loud enough that Jane and the others might overhear from the house. It also helped that the song playing was just an instrumental, helping our voices to carry more than they would have with a lyrical song.
“So?” I said, too keen to attain an answer to hold the tiny question trapped in my throat. “What’s the verdict?”
“Impatient, huh?” A rippled chuckle vibrated from Arze’s throat. “I appreciate your tenacity.” When it was obvious that I wasn’t going to say anything until he put me out of my misery, he added, “You’re leaving, which makes this case really unique. I’d be more apprehensive about exploring our mutual attraction if you weren’t planning on leaving Phoebe after Halloween.”
Hope radiated like lightning strikes of want from my toes all the way to my fingertips. I couldn’t take his words as speculated gospel, though. I needed to hear him confirm it without any detected doubt.
“So you’re saying…” I wanted him to fill in the blank I’d set up because I just needed my wish for him to finish the sentence was, thankfully, answered in kind.
Arze grabbed my hands, feeling the ridged skin of his thumb skidding over the back of my hands in a sweet but torturous caress. “That I think we can have a lot of fun between now and the time you leave.” Before relief had enough time to build up and barrel out of my next response, his face took a stern turn, his orange eyes glistening from the overhead lights. “But we have to keep things a secret. If any tythwig overhear us or see us alonetoo often, we both could suffer the same fate as the first human and tythwig couple of legend.”
I nodded, not needing a reminder that both of them had endured horrible deaths and while I was really into horror movies and things of that nature, I wasn’t particularly interested in living one out.
Shaking his head, he leaned in, delivering a whisper to my ear that made my spine tingle. “You’ve been so much trouble for me.”
And then I felt his lips on my neck, slithering kisses that sent shivers deep down into my skin, the only ailment in sight was more of his touch, more of his scent, just more ofhim. I pulled back so that I could stare into his beautiful apricot eyes. The wild intensity that had been there the first night we’d had sex had returned, and I wanted to be the fuel in that fire.
My lips crashed against his, my hands roaming across his back so that I could pull him closer to me. Arze’s hands traveled down my back and settled on cradling my ass with purposed affection. The action ripped a groan from me, and just as our tongues teased one another, I broke the kiss with a heavy breath.
“What’s wrong?”
“Absolutely nothing.” I stated with a light laugh. “I just want to get the hell out of this haunted house so we can appropriately celebrate.”
Realization dawned on him. “Right, we told Ripp we’d be fast.”
To be fair, I’d forgotten as well. In fact, I’d completely lapsed that we were supposed to be making our conversation quick because I’d finally had Arze’s tongue in my mouth again and I wanted to keep setting the fire of desire we both seemed hellbent on keeping alive.
