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

  HALLOWEEN NEXT DOOR

  AN OLDER MAN YOUNGER WOMAN ROMANCE

  _______________________

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, 78

  FLORA FERRARI

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  A Man Who Knows What He Wants Series

  Halloween Next Door

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Extended Epilogue

  Series

  Newsletter

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2018 by Flora Ferrari.

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. It is intended for mature readers.

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  Book 1: Baby Lust

  Book 2: Veteran

  Book 3: Built

  Book 4: Bambino

  Book 5: Rescued

  Book 6: Leader

  Book 7: Professor

  Book 8: Burned

  Book 9: Worldly

  Book 10: Pistol

  Book 11: Policed

  Book 12: Driven

  Book 13: Lucky 13

  Book 14: Lumberjacked

  Book 15: Protector

  Book 16: Carpenter

  Book 17: Italian Stallion

  Book 18: Gardener

  Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin

  Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 21: Cocky CFO

  Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th

  Book 23: Mechanic

  Book 24: SEAL’s Secret

  Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch

  Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina

  Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy

  Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol

  Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess

  Book 32: Statham

  Book 33: Bodyguard

  Book 34: Greek God

  Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter

  Book 36: Mountain Man

  Book 37: SEAL’s Justice

  Book 38: Royal Romance

  Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery

  Book 40: Crocodile Dan D

  Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby

  Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby

  Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter

  Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door

  Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace

  Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny

  Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter

  Book 49: Steamy

  Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend

  Book 51: Possessive Professor

  Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter

  Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby

  Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day

  Book 55: Doctor Next Door

  Book 56: Possessive Policeman

  Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter

  Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter

  Book 59: Virgin in New York

  Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby

  Book 61: Possessive Protector

  Book 62: Possessive Australian

  Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother

  Book 64: Possessive Cowboy

  Book 65: Summer Romanced

  Book 66: Possessive Prince

  Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy

  Book 68: Cop’s Best Friend

  Book 69: Possessive Firefighter

  Book 70: Football Next Door

  Book 71: Doctor December

  Book 72: Possessive Canadian

  Book 73: Blue Collar Billionaire

  Book 74: Possessive K-9 Cop

  Book 75: Possessive Brazilian

  Book 76: Hockey Obsession

  Book 77: Possessive Boston Irish American MMA Fighter

  Book 78: Halloween Next Door

  Book 79: Possessive Russian

  HALLOWEEN NEXT DOOR

  Halloween next door gets interesting when my dad’s best friend invites me to his Halloween party.

  Not only is this possessive professor my next-door neighbor at college, but he’s also my next-door neighbor from the small town where we’re from.

  But this is the first time my dad’s best friend isn’t next door to my dad…only his best friend’s daughter.

  But when a surprise visitor shows up in an unexpected costume, will my perfect professor disguise his desire for me or will he show everyone for the first time, not just the neighbors and his Halloween guests, that I’m his Pumpkin and not just a neighbor?

  And will he make me his sweet treat every day of the year or will he tell my dad it was just a Halloween trick, making me think all men are devious devils…forever?

  *Halloween Next Door is an insta-everything standalone instalove romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

  NEWSLETTER

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  CHAPTER 1

  Penelope

  October 29th

  My heart thumped wildly in my chest.

  Am I finally going to do this?

  “Are you okay, Penelope?” Amber, my “little” from Big Brothers Big Sisters asks.

  “Uh huh,” I say, not able to take my eyes off the very faintest of light coming through his front windows. He must be in the back of his house, doing his best to avoid getting caught up in the Halloween holiday.

  “Why are you squeezing my hand so hard then?” Amber asks.

  It takes me a second to process her comment. “Oh my gosh, honey. I’m so sorry,” I say, squatting to her eye level to apologize.

  “It’s okay,” she says and I give my little eight-year-old friend a big hug. “Are we done trick or treating for tonight?”

  My eyes wander next door, where I have my apartment off-campus, and back to his front door, and finally to Amber’s gigantic plastic pumpkin that’s overloaded with chocolate, candy corn, and enough sweets to last a kid at least a couple of years…which happens to be the length of time I’ve been fantasizing about the kind of treat that I want for myself.

  Bishop.

  And there�
��s no time to wait any longer.

  “You want to try one more house?” I ask.

  “Yes,” she says and I stand up straight realizing Halloween may be two more days away but I’m already feeling terrified of how this might go down.

  “Okay, here we go,” I say as we slowly leave the sidewalk and walk up the path to his front door.

  CHAPTER 2

  Bishop

  “Doesn't anyone pay attention in my classes?” I say as I read another essay that misses the main parts of my lecture by a country mile.

  Ding-dong!

  “And doesn’t anyone pay attention to the fact that my front light is off?” I say not even caring that I’m talking to myself.

  My first thought is to ignore the doorbell and pour myself a second glass of bourbon, which sounds very relaxing, but what doesn’t sound relaxing is cleaning up a smashed mailbox in the morning if some boys from the university think I’m not home and decide to start smashing it up with a baseball bat or a neighbor’s pumpkin.

  My bare feet move across the parquet floor and I quickly consider if I should put on something more than the navy blue sweatpant shorts and white V-neck I’m currently wearing, but considering these “guests” are uninvited, and ones I’m going to see off my front step quickly, I shelf the idea.

  But the second I swing open the door an entirely different idea overtakes me.

  Every muscle in my body tenses as my eyes pour over her body like that smooth bourbon would have rolled over my lips.

  But this is better…much, much better.

  Even with a skintight red spandex superhero costume on.

  Even with a black mask painted on her face.

  Even with a yellow and black superhero symbol on her chest, which has grown much bigger since the last time I saw her.

  I know exactly who this is.

  “Penelope,” I say.

  “Hi Mr. Boudreaux,” she says. “I’m supposed to be Elastigirl.”

  “You’re supposed to be…” I pause as my mind immediately thinks of all the ways I’d like to bend her if she’s as elastic as she says she is. “Elastic Girl. Of course,” I say having no idea what in the heck she’s talking about, but frankly I don’t care. All I care about is her and how incredible she looks.

  “And this little cutie is Edna Mode,” she says.

  I look down at the little girl in the oversized Coke bottle glasses and black dress and try to pull myself together in the presence of this child.

  “Hi Edna Mode,” I say extending my hand.

  “Hello Mr. Boudreaux. Nice to meet you,” she says as her little hand takes mine and she shakes it and then does a little curtsey.

  My mind is spinning right now.

  What’s Penelope doing here?

  How did she find me?

  When did she grow up?

  I haven’t seen her at all in the two years since I left our small little town and moved on to become a university professor here in New Orleans. And apparently there’s more to see of her these days.

  Good lord.

  Her reddish brown hair that was sleek and straight and halfway down her back appears to be gone. It’s a different shade and cut high, or maybe it’s just the lack of light. Or is that a wig that goes with her costume?

  And she went from a rail thin beanpole to a woman with hips. When did she get those curves?

  And the curve in her hips isn’t the only one I’m doing my best not to ogle at. That tight red spandex suit is hugging her form like my motorcycle hugs a sharp turn. And she doesn’t have to turn around for me to see she’s got a curve to her backside too…one I want to slap my hand down on hard feeling it jiggle as I knead it in my hand like a baker and his dough.

  And how about that yellow superhero logo that draws my eye right to her very developed chest?

  Did she knock on my door just to show me she’s turned into an absolute knockout?

  And if I keep staring at her I’m going to need some time alone in the shower the second she’s gone to knockout something else, as in the pain quickly shooting through my balls.

  “Let me get you some candy,” I say, taking a step back and trying to keep my mind from thinking about how sweet Penelope must taste. “Please, come in,” I say.

  Penelope goes to take a step, but little Edna Mode just stands there.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  “Penelope said we shouldn’t enter a stranger’s house.”

  “I’m not a stranger,” I say, but Edna Mode doesn’t budge.

  “I’ll be right back,” I say, realizing a quick second to myself is better anyways. I make it to the kitchen where my forearm finds the bar and my head finds my forearm.

  I close my eyes and take a deep breath before grabbing a shot glass and quickly filling it with bourbon and tipping the whole thing back.

  I’ve never been unable to catch my breath like this in my life. I’m never out of breath like this even after a hard workout…one where I push truck tires up hills or do sprints for an hour straight with only fifteen second breaks in-between.

  I just had a physical last week. I’m thirty-eight now and as a man approaches forty apparently things start to break down.

  But right now I’m very apparently up.

  I open my eyes and see the very clear erection you can’t miss trying to pierce my shorts. Damn, I can’t go back out there like this.

  I run into my bedroom and grab a pair of compression shorts. I take off my shorts and slide on the compression shorts, trying to press my erection up against my stomach. It’s so damn hard it’s already pointing straight up.

  Perfect.

  I slide the shorts back on and then hike them up high.

  I run back into the kitchen and find some junk food.

  “I shouldn’t be eating this stuff anyways,” I say to myself.

  “Everything okay in there?” Penelope calls out from the front door.

  “Yeah. Be right there,” I say.

  I grab a couple candy bars from the fridge and head back to the door, and the woman who’s completely showed up out of nowhere and turned my world upside down.

  “Here ya go,” I say to the little girl, dropping a Snickers into her bucket.

  “And this is for you,” I say handing the other candy bar to Penelope before I realize what it is.

  “Thanks I’ve never had a…whoa,” she says as she reads the label. “A ten-inch white chocolate bar,” she says.

  “Amazing these concepts that Toblerone is coming up with all the time,” I say trying not to think of the ten-inch bar that’s a lot more like steel and a lot less like chocolate that twitches underneath my underwear and two pairs of shorts at her words.

  “Thank you, Mr. Boudreaux,” little Edna Mode says.

  “You’re welcome, sweetheart,” I say. I don’t think I’ve ever called a kid, or anyone, that in my life. But there’s just something about seeing this little girl standing there with one hand in Penelope’s that makes me think about what it would be like for us to have our own kid one day.

  I chase the thought from my mind quickly, but it comes right back.

  “Nice to see you again, Mr. Boudreaux,” Penelope says.

  “Nice to see you too,” I say, the most obvious understatement of my lifetime. But oh do I want to see a lot more of her…with that costume off. “Are you going to be in town for awhile?” No way is this conversation going to end without me getting her number.

  She smiles and then the cutest little giggle escapes her lips.

  Sweetheart. Cutest little giggle. What in the hell’s wrong with me? These feminine words have suddenly entered my mind completely out of nowhere.

  And sweetheart and cute are the last things on my mind when it comes to my thoughts of Penelope right now.

  Maybe it’s because I’ve never seen such a perfect woman before in my entire life.

  I don’t know what it is, but I do know I need to see her again as soon as possible…and alone.

  “Yeah,
you could say that,” she laughs. “I live really close.”

  “How close are we talking?”

  Her body pivots slightly and she points to the apartment building right next to my house.

  “Next door.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Penelope

  The second I got accepted to Tulane last spring I started looking at Zillow trying to find Bishop’s house.

  And the second I did I started looking for rentals close by.

  And I sure did luck out when I found one right next door.

  I was sure we’d “accidentally” bump into each other in the first few weeks, but it’s been just over two months since the semester started so I had to take matters in my own hands.