“No! You’re not ready. There are innocent children around.”
“Megan Milano, move your hand right now,” I say, reaching up to pry her fingers away from my face.
Ignoring me, she says, “One of you needs to go away. You know Mia can’t handle this all at once. A captain and a pirate? What are you, the cover of a kinky 80’s bodice ripper? Just… no. Adrian, go away.”
Wait, what? A pirate and a captain? Adrian and Mateo? Why is she trying to ruin my life?
“No!” I claw at her hand, but she practically has me in a headlock. “Get off me, crazy. I want to see!”
“I’m doing this for your own good.” Then, not to me, she says, “I know you’re an evil man, but come on.”
Now Mateo’s deep voice washes over me as he moves closer and I relax, even with Meg shielding me like a toddler who just walked in on her wrapping Christmas presents. “Oh, come on, it would’ve been fun.”
“Evil,” Meg accuses.
“Fun,” he counters.
Bella chimes in. “You’re going to get Mia’s paint all over your sheer sleeve.”
Gasping, Meg pulls her hand away and inspects her right arm. I straighten, giving her a mild glare of censure before turning back to Mateo.
My heart stalls, my face warms, and Mateo smirks.
She was a little bit right. I wasn’t ready. I did know that Mateo was going to dress as Fiyero from Wicked, perhaps fittingly, the man both Glinda and Elphaba fall for at different points in the story. I had not, however, seen him in the costume before this moment.
Fiyero had a few different costume choices, but because Mateo has absolutely no respect for my ovaries, he decided to go with the absolute sexiest—Captain of the Guard Fiyero.
So, right now, standing before me, my badass criminal lover is dressed like a nobler man, in a legit Captain’s uniform. His snugly tailored, hunter green uniform jacket hugs his muscular arms and shoulders, the front adorned with fake gold medals he sure as hell wouldn’t earn by his own deeds, even in the fictional land of Oz. A black leather belt is secured around his trim waist and gold braided cords are draped ornamentally from the shoulder of his uniform, denoting yet another honor he would never have earned. Mateo does nothing half-assed, so even though no one outside our home will ever see this, he commissioned a higher quality costume than the theater companies themselves probably use.
“Daddy looks like a prince,” Bella states.
“A Disney prince,” Lily agrees.
“Nope,” Meg disagrees, shaking her head. “That’s a king, kiddos. I’m experiencing some buyer’s remorse. Mia, you still want to be Glinda? We can switch.”
I smirk, my eyes glued to Mateo as I take in each sexy inch of him. “Nope. Three days with my captain. Enjoy being the good witch.”
Mateo winks at me, encircling my waist with his arms and tugging me close. “You look good green.”
“You look good in green. You should just wear this to dinner sometimes. On my nights.”
“Well, we have three of them now,” he informs me, leaning in and brushing his lips against mine. It’s a gentle kiss, more teasing than anything, but my heartbeat still kicks up several speeds. The things this man does to me, I swear.
I smile as he tugs me closer, bringing a hand to his chest and running it down the front of his jacket. “Three is my new favorite number. You look so much sexier in this than the actor we saw at the theater.”
“I’m sure he sings much more capably than I could. We all have our strengths.”
“Ruff, ruff, ruff!”
My eyebrows rise and both our heads tilt down to regard the little Dorothy, shaking her Princess Sparkles/Toto at us.
Rosalie raises her eyebrows. “Come on, Princess Sparkles wants candy!”
“Princess Sparkles?” Mateo questions.
“Don’t ask,” I advise, leaning in for one more kiss before pulling back. “She’s right; candy first, then movie, then bedtime.”
“I love bedtime,” Mateo states.
“No bedtime,” Rosalie says, scowling. “I don’t want bedtime, I want candy.”
“Yeah?” Mateo asks, reluctantly letting me pull away, but keeping a firm hand on my waist so he can keep me at his side. “What kind of candy do you think you’ll get?”
“The good ones,” she enthuses. “Lollipops and candy bars and fruit snacks!”
“I think sugar is the last thing she needs,” Bella states.
“It’s tradition,” Lily insists.
“Not for us,” she disagrees. “Elise usually makes pumpkin muffins for Halloween—now that’s a tradition I can get behind.”
“Muffins are just sad cupcakes,” Lily states.
“That’s my girl,” Meg says, nodding proudly.
“Candy, candy, candy,” Rosalie chants, skipping ahead toward the media room doors. They’re open, typical of movie nights, but instead of the brightly lit room we’re used to, it’s dark and decked out for Halloween.
Inside, the dimly lit media room is decked out with spider webs and rows of glowing Jack-o-lanterns. We carved the Jack-o-lanterns last night—with Adrian, not Mateo. Apparently carving pumpkins is not a thing Mateo does. Meg told him he was being a stick in the mud, but Adrian is an acceptable surrogate to me.