Costume Capers

By Alex Winters

Boone Parker has just gotten a special delivery. The only problem is, it was sent to the wrong address. Lucky for him, the right address is next door, where a sexy nerd named Dayton Fairchild -- that’s what it says on the address label -- has just moved in. Seizing his opportunity, Boone shows up on Dayton’s doorstep to return the package.

Dayton Fairchild has a secret: he’s been crushing on the sexy jock next door and, when his Gamma Man costume shows up just in time for Halloween, he slips it on his neighbor’s doorstep before ringing the bell and scampering away. The ruse works, but his shy neighbor isn’t picking up on any of Dayton’s sexy hints when he returns the package. Or is he?

When Dayton steps out on Halloween in his new costume, he’s thrilled to see his neighbor dressed as Radon Ralph, Gamma Man’s trusty sidekick. When the costumes come off and the lovers indulge in their wildest fantasies, their frisky “meet cute” turns into a night of steamy confessions and daring discoveries. What will the morning bring?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Sep 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685504311

Alex Winters

Alex Winters is the pseudonym of a busy restaurant manager whose curious young staff would love nothing more than to follow him around the dining room reading his steamiest, most romantic passages aloud! When not writing romantic holiday stories of various heat levels, he enjoys long walks with his wife, scary movies and smooth jazz. Visit him at www.awintersromance.com to see what stories are brewing up next!

Book preview

Chapter 1

Boone

Were you expecting someone?

Boone Parker glanced across the kitchen counter at his BFF Mona Sinclair and gave an appropriately sarcastic snort. Are you insane? When’s the last time you saw anybody knock at my door? I mean, besides you, that is?

Mona gave a curt little nod, glancing down into her pumpkin shaped coffee mug as if it might magically fill itself with another serving of seasonal cider. Ain’t that the truth?

Hey, he chided playfully, setting his own matching mug down on the cluttered countertop between them and drifting cautiously toward the front door. He certainly wasn’t expecting anyone, and the last thing he wanted to do after another long day of tending bar at Barnacle Bill’s was talk to another living soul.

Besides Mona, that is.

He stood reluctantly, legs sore from eight straight hours of slinging overpriced rum runners on non-skid shoes, and took several cautious steps across his rented cottage to reach the front door.

Anyone there? Mona stood at the kitchen counter, patiently waiting for another pod of gourmet apple cider to brew as she, too, wound down from her long day of managing the same oceanfront bar and grill where they’d both worked since getting jobs there the summer after graduation.

Not that I can see, he murmured, glancing cautiously past the half-open curtain he was holding just wide enough to see the empty front stoop.

Mona chuckled, leaning against the counter in her frilly pirate wench uniform, the one that clung to her curvaceous body in such a way that she was hit on at least 2,356 times a day. You might see better if you, you know, open the damn door?

What? And get trapped talking to Mrs. Johnson next door about her shrubs again? For thirty straight minutes? No thanks…

Mona snorted, Boone’s hand wavering closer and closer to the doorknob just the same. Yeah, that’s one neighbor, but…didn’t you say someone else had moved in next door recently? You know, that…let me see, what was it you called him again?

Boone grinned despite himself, heart already racing at the thought. Nothing, he chuckled, finally gripping the doorknob. I called him absolutely nothing at all.

She raised her mug triumphantly, chubby brown fingers wrapped around the handle shaped to look like a pumpkin vine. "I remember now: ‘that sexy ass nerd next door,’ wasn’t that what you called him?"

Fine, yes, but… He glanced down at his own ridiculously pirate-themed costume. Though slightly less provocative than Mona’s sexy getup, it was still nothing he wanted to be seen in, especially by the sexy ass nerd next door. Do I really want to meet him for the first time in…this?

She frowned over her oversized jack o’ lantern mug. They didn’t always hang out together after work, maybe once or twice a week at most. But Mona had just been dumped by her latest girlfriend and had been vaguely needy all month, so…another workday evening spent sharing hot apple cider and even hotter gossip from Buccaneer Bill’s. Well, it’s been ten minutes since the bell rang so I doubt he’s still standing there even if it was him, Boone.

The thought made him vaguely anxious. What if it had been his sexy ass nerd of a neighbor ringing his bell, standing on his seasonally appropriate Hey, Boo welcome mat with his fashionably stubbly head and sexy thick glasses and those long, wiry arms hugging his frail, pigeon chest as his baggy jeans hung off his lean, narrow waist.

Not that Boone had noticed any of those things, of course. But…just saying. He whisked open the door just in case, only to find a generically bland, brown cardboard box tossed upon his doorstep. Shit, he huffed, snatching it up and whisking it inside after a cursory glance told him his nerdy neighbor’s front porch light was already out for the night. Just a package.

Ooooh, what is it?

Boone chuckled. Mona was so easily excited. Maybe that’s why she was always dating someone new, he thought, and not for the first time. Maybe that’s why her relationships never lasted and she was in his kitchen, grousing about this girlfriend or that, every few months after another random breakup.

He didn’t mind for himself, per se. Mona was good company, on and off the job. But he felt bad for her perpetually breaking heart, and longed for her to find the right one. As for himself, he learned from her example and rarely dated, none too eager for that sad, hollow, empty feeling that followed every one-night stand.

At least, every one so far…

Probably just that Doctor Deranged action figure I ordered earlier this week, he murmured without thinking of the obvious repercussions.

Mona rolled her eyes predictably. And…who’s calling who a nerd?

Stop, he said with a self-deprecating chuckle as he tore open the box, surprised to find not a new action figure from his favorite movie franchise nestled inside a nest of eco-friendly packing foam, but a costume for some cheesy retro superhero TV series instead. The hell?

What is that? Even Mona was appalled by the garish red and yellow colors of the Spandex-heavy costume, which clearly looked like it belonged in the cheesy bargain bin of some 1980s mall.

No idea, Boone murmured, glancing at the label on the costume wrapper. Gamma Man? The hell? He glanced at his favorite manager and best friend. You send this as a joke or something? I know you and the gang at work have been trying to get me into the Halloween spirit but…this?

Mona rolled her soft brown eyes. "I