Tyler lifted the top of the last illuminated Jack-O-Lantern and blew out the candle. He held the pumpkin up and smiled. He liked the way the smoke seeped out through the carved out facial features of the gourd. Placing it back down at his feet, he stood on the steps of the now much more darkened porch to his house. In fact, all of the houses on the street were a lot less bright, the height of the trick-or-treating ending a couple of hours earlier.
Only a couple of stragglers in homemade costumes were running down the deserted street, possibly chased by some haunting forces seeking to reclaim the night for their own. More likely, they had ventured too far in their quest for sweet treats and now were rushing back home before curfew.
Off in the distance, in the cool, dark night, he heard a dog howl. Perfect. That was a wrap for this year's Halloween, he figured.
Back inside his house, Tyler walked into the living room and dimmed the lights, letting the fireplace cast a flickering glow around the room. He still had one small Jack-O-Lantern burning away on the mantle, its wicked eyes and sneering mouth glowing a fiery yellow. He picked up a pillow case and paused, surprised by the weight of it. He took a peek inside and whistled, impressed.
His wife, Sora, came down the stairs looking at the little halo and feather wings she carried in her hands. She had a melancholy look about her as she held up the costume and pouted, "Our baby's first Halloween."
Tyler smiled. They had somehow managed to wait until their daughter, Jamie, had turned 2 to take her out trick-or-treating. They both agreed it was ridiculous to see infants being carried around by their parents on Halloween night just to get some free candy. But it had been certainly tempting to do so.
Tyler walked over to his wife and took the small, golden halo from her. He grinned and asked, "So any comments about our little angel being led around by a hot She-devil?"
"Oh yeah," Sora winked. She returned a coy smile and stepped back. She brought her chin to her shoulder and struck a cover-girl pose, fluttering her eye-lashes. The dancing colours of the fireplace cast the perfect effect. Her red satin devil costume looked like it had been vacuum sealed over her skin. It covered her body from her ankles to her neck accessorized with spiked heels, dainty little horns on the top of her head and a full length tail at the back. Tyler liked the way it highlighted his wife's long, slim body, and hugged her round bottom like a glove.
Sora laughed as she straightened the headband that held her horns in place and fixed her neck-length chestnut hair. She reached back for her "tail" and then twirled it around. "Do you know how many fathers said that they wouldn't mind playing with my tail?" she remarked, "And right in front of their kids, too. It was embarrassing."
She didn't really believe that. Her pleased grin made that obvious.
"Dirty buggers," Tyler squinted. He indulged in the image of the many husbands and dads in the neighbourhood his wife had titillated that night.
"And you, Mr.Greek god," she nodded towards him, "How did Zeus fare minding Olympus this evening?"
Tyler shrugged and adjusted his laurel and toga. "It was kind of cold," he said, noting his one exposed pec and legs.
"Tell me about it. I probably should have had a sweater out there," Sora remarked. She looked down at herself and blushed, thinking about the likelihood that her "headlights were on high beam" beneath her skin-tight costume all evening.
They both laughed. Sora asked, "So no kids made a comment about a man being in a dress?"
"Nope," he said. A satisfied grin affixed over his jaw. He raised his arms, flexing his muscles. The rowing team did wonders for his physique. He inhaled and added, "Though Janice asked if she could take a peek under my skirt."
He froze in mid-pose and looked at his wife. Sora, her arms folded, didn't appear amused. Their neighbour, Janice Kimball, was at least 10 years their senior but she still had a body, and a sex drive, that could do much damage.
Hesitantly, Tyler eased from his posing and looked downward and away in silent, sheepish apology. It was probably a good thing that he didn't bother to mention that Janice had come around in a faux-fur Wilma Flintstone costume.
Sora arched a fine-trimmed brow. "As long as you don't act the same way as your over-sexed, Father-of-all gods counterpart," she chided him.
"Nope. This Zeus kept his lightning bolts in his pants," he said smiling as he walked over to her. He pinched the horns on the top of her head then took her in his arms. He added, "Besides, I'm only horny for one sexy she-devil."
He pulled her in close and locked his lips over hers. They embraced closely, the very little they were actually wearing barely separating their skin.
They parted slowly after the sensuous kiss. Tyler grinned at her and asked, "So is the angel asleep?"
"Passed out on her cloud." She threw him a seductive wink.
"You want to do this now?"
Sora nodded slowly. She said, "Been waiting all night long."
The two pushed aside the coffee table and sank down onto the rug. Then Sora dumped the bag of collected candy onto the floor between them into a huge heaping mound of sweetness. The couple stared at it with curling grins on their lips.
"That," Tyler declared as he arched his eyebrows upward, "Is a huge pile of bellyache and hyperactivity."
Sora rolled her eyes. Her husband was ever the health nut. She selected and unwrapped a molasses taffy and popped it into her mouth. She spoke as she slowly chewed, "Now, now. Everything in moderation. It'll be fine."
She picked up another piece of licorice and unwrapped it as well.
"Moderation, huh?" Tyler snickered. He could see the difficulty she was having chewing the sticky candy. He could also see that she was clearly enjoying the sugary sweetness.
They began to sort through the loot, tossing aside open wrappers, putting the chips into separate piles. The more they separated, the more they found lying underneath. This was a bounty.
"Jeez, this is a helluva lot of candy," Tyler remarked.
"We picked the right neighbourhood to live in I guess," his wife said playfully. She was right about that. There were no dark houses in their area that night. Every home was decked out with jack-o-lanterns, scarecrows, tombstones, bats, cats, rats...and every neighbour seemed to dump handfuls of candy into each trick-or-treat bag that passed their doorstep.
"Hey, candy corn! And Twinkies! And Pixie Sticks! And candy cigarettes!" Tyler exclaimed reveling in childhood memories of the various confections. He picked up a piece of sponge toffee and eyed it.
Sora leered at him. "You know you want it," she cooed.
Tyler looked at her then back at the candy, an anxious expression on his face. Finally he tore off the little piece of plastic and tossed the whole chunk into his mouth. He chewed and smiled like he had just been pumped with morphine as it crunched and melted and stuck to his teeth.
"Told you it was good," Sora giggled.
He shook his head. "You are the devil," he sighed then nodded towards her, "What're those?"
Sora held up a couple of little tubes shaped like baby-bottles. Yellow and green viscous fluids shifted inside of them. "I think they're candy syrups," she said.
Tyler cringed.
"Hey, don't knock it till you try it," she remarked.
They continued to sift through and sample the candy. Sora's eyes lit up and she reached out and grabbed another big stick of candy with her hands.
"Damn. That's a big Tootsie Roll," Tyler exclaimed.
The woman held the long candy bar lovingly up against her cheek. She said with a gleeful smile, "Uh-huh! And it's all mine ! Aaron down the road said he was saving it for me."
Tyler paused and grimaced. "Aaron Mayberry? He gave you that?"
Sora nodded slowly. "All ten inches of it," she breathed.
Frowning and chewing on his tongue, Tyler tried to think of what to say. Aaron Mayberry was their 6'3", 215-pound black electrician neighbour who liked to stop his van in front of their house whenever Sora was doing her gardening on the front lawn. Once he had even hit the curb when she was planting begonias in a pair of cut-off jean shorts and a tank top one particularly hot and steamy day.
Sora continued to caress the length of Tootsie Roll with her cheek before she stopped, her face turning red. She started to sputter then broke out laughing. She thumped the contentious length of candy on Tyler's bewildered head and said, "Oh don't be so stupid! Aaron Mayberry was too busy playing Blackula with Gracie Mayberry. I don't know who the heck dropped this thing into the bag."
Tyler sighed, trying not to make his relief so obvious.
"Still," Sora said as she peeled back the wrapper exposing the rippling, shiny, dark brown bar of chewy chocolate, "It does sort of remind me of Aaron."
Tyler smirked and said, "How would you know?"
Sora shrugged and sighed wistfully, "Woman's intuition."
He was about to comment further but instead his mouth hung open as he watched Sora round her lips and slide the end of the Tootsie Roll slowly into her mouth.
"Mmm," she hummed as she closed her eyes and pushed it up against her throat. She lolled her tongue around it. A creamy cocoa flavour filled her mouth.
Tyler's mouth widened further.
Sora pulled it out. The chocolate was glistening with her saliva. She licked her lips and swallowed with an audible gasp before repeating the action, sinking it seductively into her mouth. Her cheeks flattened as she spun the length in her mouth and she continued to swirl her tongue over it.
The bottom of Tyler's toga twitched from underneath and he had to adjust his seating on the rug. He gazed at his wife, stunned by her actions. He also had to gulp down the spit accumulating at the top of his throat as he remained slack-jawed.
His wife was the devil.
Once more she withdrew the long stick of candy from her mouth. She smiled wickedly at her husband. "You want to taste?" she asked holding it out to him, all slick and shiny with her spit.
Tyler nodded then hesitantly leaned forward over the pile of candy and opened his mouth. Sora quickly pulled the Tootsie Roll away and, instead, also leaned over and planted her mouth over his, her chocolate coated tongue leading the way. Tyler tasted the sweetness of her soft lips, on her twisting tongue, in her warm mouth. He inhaled deeply as they locked their lips together, sucking her in. They licked and gasped and swallowed until the flavour in their mouths subsided.
They leaned back, the two of them exchanging a long, wanton look. Tyler knew one more thing about sugar: it was highly addictive.
Without a word, Sora leaned back against the base of the sofa as Tyler rifled through the candy. He picked up several pieces then brushed the pile aside, scattering bits of colourful confection all over the rug. He pulled himself forward on the rug towards his wife as she sat with her legs spread apart.
Dropping his clutch of candy onto the floor beside him, he picked out a small piece of sour-apple tangy taffy. He placed the soft candy between his teeth and leaned in close to his Sora. She wrapped her mouth around it and quickly the two of them worked to pull the stretchy, sour-sweet candy between them with their lips, tongues, and teeth.
"Mmm," Sora moaned softly as she licked her husband's upper lip, claiming the last bit of taffy for herself.
As she savoured the taffy in her mouth, Tyler continued to kiss her, moving across to her cheek then to her chin. He slid down to her neck as she tilted her head back. He covered her with wet, loud kisses. His fingers moved to the collar of her costume, hooked the zipper, and slid it down to her belly with a deliberate ease. Parting her red costume slightly, his tender kisses resumed their downward course along her soft, tan flesh.
Her breathing growing heavier by the second, Sora reached down and picked up a pack of large jelly rings. She fumbled with the packaging with one hand but managed to pull out one of the squishy loops of jelly just as Tyler had peeled back one side of her costume revealing a firm, sloping breast.
"Wait. Wait," she breathed.
Tyler leaned back a little and watched quietly as she took the ring and placed it over her dark brown areola, her nipple barely fitting in the hole of the sweet. He smiled crookedly then quickly attacked his wife's literally sweet breast with his tongue. He licked and socked at the soft candy covering the it and her nipple, along with her fingers that held it in place, with his saliva.
Sora curled her bottom lip back over her teeth, cooing softly each time his tongue brushed over her stiffening nipple. Her high cheeks were glowing pink as the heat within her intensified.
As the candy slowly melted away from the incessant lashing of his tongue, Tyler reached up to her shoulders and yanked her costume down, pulling it past her elbows, fully baring her heaving chest.