The Wyandotte High Halloween Job

~ J. Tiffany Noore

Steamy Holidays 8

Kansas City, 1934. Wyandotte High’s first Halloween haunted house should’ve been simple: a few spooky rooms, a little community cheer, and no trouble. Instead, it becomes the spark that throws four unlikely people together in a storm of heat, jealousy, danger, and temptation.

Rex Byrne thought joining the CCC would be straightforward—plant trees, send money home to Ma, keep his head down. Then his favorite schoolteacher Madison Turner recruited him for the haunted house project, and suddenly he's caught between two very different girls with very definite ideas about what they want from him.

Paget Barker knows exactly how to use her curves and her Hedy Lamarr eyes to get what she wants. She’s been practicing in the mirror, and Rex is her latest—and most delicious—target.

Lizzie Sandoval, the school paper’s ace reporter, tells herself she’s just chasing the story. But when Rex catches her in his arms, she discovers some things can’t be explained away as ‘just biology.’

Madison Turner is the prim teacher who believes in second chances—even as she battles feelings for her former student that are anything but professional.

After they stumbled into a forgotten prohibition tunnel beneath the school… and into the crossfire between two crime bosses battling for control of Kansas City’s most lucrative underground route… sabotaged furnaces hiss, secrets start to slip, and the nights grow hotter than the days.

Costumes will tear. Feelings will flare. Loyalties will snap.

In Wyandotte High this Halloween… love is dangerous, danger is deadly, and the real monsters aren’t the ones in the haunted house.

Published:
Publisher: Reading at Tiffany’s (https://www.jtiffanynoore.me/)
Genres:
Ensemble HaremLit
Excerpt:

Rex walked back to the Dracula parlor. He listed things to do to calm down his pecker: coffin hinges needed oil, check the pulley handle… He found Paget bending over the mannequin, rounded butt wiggling, frilly lace exposed. His pecker found a new reason to stand up.

“Rex?” Paget’s voice was breathy. “Could you help me?” Her Hedy Lamarr face had the intended effect. She flowed upright like a dancer. One hand pressed to her chest like her heart was racing. Her blouse had somehow come partially unbuttoned—just the top two, just enough to show the lace edge of her chemise.

“What’s wrong?”

“That mannequin—when it moved earlier, it startled me, and now I can’t stop thinking about it and—” She swayed slightly, a performance so practiced it looked almost real. “I feel strange. Dizzy.”

Rex crossed to her automatically, catching her by the shoulders. Her skin was warm through the thin fabric of her blouse.

“You okay?”

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“I am now…” Her breathing quickened (deliberately), her lips parted (on purpose), and suddenly she was pressing against him with unmistakable intent.

“Paget—”

She pressed her lips against his like she’d seen Greta Garbo do. Her hands slid up his chest—the same spot where Miss Turner’s hand had been—but firmer, more possessive. Her tongue traced his lower lip, her body molding against his. She felt his stiffy against her leg. “Oh Rex…”

COLLAPSE
Reviews:Lily Chen on Goodreads wrote:

Some stories don’t just flirt with history—they pin it against a locker, slip a hand up its skirt, and whisper dirty secrets in its ear. The Wyandotte High Halloween Job is J. Tiffany Noore at her most recklessly brilliant: a Depression-era Kansas City noir where horny teenagers, corrupt principals, bootleg tunnels, and a counterfeiting ring collide in a climax that’s part Boardwalk Empire, part American Graffiti, and all sin-soaked ensemble magic. Rex Byrne—ex-student, CCC recruit, and accidental hero—gets caught between a teacher who’s done being Miss Apple-Pie, a wannabe starlet with Hedy Lamarr eyes, and a Black girl reporter who’s got receipts and a pulse on justice. (more...)

Liam Ashford on Goodreads wrote:

If you thought J. Tiffany Noore had already mastered every flavor of Haremlit—from spacefaring fembots to Persian carpets with wandering tassels—wait until you get a load of The Wyandotte High Halloween Job, a Depression-era caper that proves she can make even a Kansas City furnace room drip with intrigue, hormones, and heart. Set in 1934, this glittering slice of noir drops nineteen-year-old CCC hunk Rex Byrne into a haunted-house project that turns into a high-stakes war between bootleggers, bankers, and one very determined schoolteacher who’s tired of being the only adult in the room. Every page crackles with period slang, secret tunnels, and the kind of slow-burn longing that makes you forget you’re reading a smutty romp—until someone’s skirt rides up against a workbench and you remember exactly what you signed up for. (more...)


 

Characters in Steamy Holidays: