I gave them what they needed – #Halloween #HauntedMotel #MFRWHooks

It’s only a few short days until Halloween. My Book Hooks post for today takes place on All Hallow’s Eve, and captures, I hope, some of the magic of that special night. The story, Rendezvous, is on sale for only 99 cents until the end of the month.

Blurb

I am who I am, and I know what you want.

Rebecca believes in magic. She has never lost her childhood love of Halloween, when she can don a costume and step away from her boring, ordinary self. For one night, she transforms into someone else – someone mysterious, daring, sensual and seductive.

When All Hallow’s Eve finds her stranded at a seedy motel a hundred miles from her friend's annual party, she is desperately disappointed. Then she discovers that her room is haunted by the invisible but unquestionably virile ghost of a rake who seduced local women nearly half a century earlier.

The Hook

Perhaps I could call him. I'd always read that spirits could be summoned, and he must be a spirit, or something similar. “Hello? Sir?” I listened to the silence. A train whistle wailed faintly in the distance, a lonely sound in the empty night. “Please, I didn't mean to send you away. You can come back, if you want to.”

I paused, and was astonished to discover tears in my eyes. “Please, sir. Won’t you give me another chance?”

There was no answer. I sighed. What did I expect? Perhaps the whole thing was the result of my overactive imagination, and my long months without a boyfriend. But what about the bite, the blood? I laid back wearily against the pillow, forearm over my eyes. It was going to be a long night.

“I'm here, Rebecca.” His voice, warm, welcoming, challenging, at the bedside.

My eyes flew open. Of course I saw nothing, but when I reached out my hand, it encountered solid flesh, encased, it seemed, in leather.

“You came back!” My heartbeat accelerated. New moisture seeped out of me.

“You called me. I had to come.”

“But...who are you?”

“Most of my lovers called me Tony. A few called me 'Master'.” I heard him sigh. “How long ago that was! The Ranch wasn't such a dump, in those days. I could make this room a chamber of delights. Or a heart-stopping dungeon.”

“You used to come here?”

“They would meet me here at the motel. The frustrated housewife. The waitress stuck in her dreams. The college girl back for the holidays and wondering how she would bear two weeks of hometown hell.”

“And you...?”

“I knew what they wanted. My insight, my power, my discipline. I gave them what they needed.”

I couldn't believe that I was having this conversation with an empty chair. But maybe I wouldn't have been brave enough, if I'd had to look into his eyes. “What did you do to them?”

“I bound them and beat them. Teased and tortured them. Sometimes I'd use candle wax, or clothes pins, or some lewdly cylindrical vegetable that stretched them to the point of pain. I told them what horny sluts they were. Finally, I fucked them and gave them the release that they craved.”

“And then? What happened?”

“They came, of course. Moaning, wailing, calling my name.”

“No, I mean...what finally happened? Why are you in my room?”

He gave a short, despairing laugh. “Halloween night, 1962. Someone tipped off the owner of the gun and tackle shop in Cottonwood Falls. He found me here with his wife, and blew my head off. Poor Loretta. I'll never forget her screams. Of course, she was tied to the bed, so she couldn't do anything to stop him.”

I swallowed hard. I was so turned on that I forgot to be frightened.

“Murdered! And now you're condemned to haunt this room forever?”

“So it seems. I really don’t know. I never remember, when I appear, what happened the last time I was here.”

“You won't remember me.” The thought was like a knife in my chest.

“Most likely not, Rebecca.” I could imagine him smiling, sadly.

“How—can you read my mind? Is that how you know my name?” I blushed furiously. If he could hear my thoughts, he'd know all the wild, wicked things I was picturing at the moment.

“I read your credit card when you checked in.” He laughed. “I don't seem to possess any powers now that I didn't have when I was alive.” I felt his cool palm briefly caress my cheek. “But I'll bet that I can tell you what you're thinking now.”

 

Rendezvous is only 99 cents until Halloween, as part of my Month of Magic. Find the buy links on my website: https://www.lisabetsarai.com/rendezvousbook.html

Be sure to visit the other authors participating in today’s Book Hooks!