Page 28 of The Circus

“See you two lovebirds tomorrow.”

Cash’s voice rips me from my dark fantasies, and Eden’s cheeks and neck pinken anew, her eyes narrowed as she searches my face.

As though she can read my mind and see all the dirty, kinky fantasies residing there.

“We’re not lovebirds,” she growls, finally wrenching herself free of me in my distracted state, my cock growing harder by the second. And in these atrocious khaki slacks we’re forced to wear, she will definitely notice my dick print if I don’t calm down. I’m allowed to be arrogant in that realm, at the very least.

I know I have a nice cock.

One that is now Eden’s alone.

She storms away, yanking open the metal door and disappearing into the void that is attempting to suck our lives dry like a vampire. I glance at Cash, and he must see the happiness morphing into fury on my face. His brows pull together, his lips pressed into a thin line.

“Where did those coordinates lead?” he asks, an attempt to distract me from my darkening thoughts.

My biting grin flourishes like the brandishing of a quill.

“To our future home,” I say with conviction. He grins.

“You’ve got it bad, Tedster.”

My smile fades, because he’s right. I do have it bad. I’ve never been obsessed with someone like this before. It’s entirely new and dangerous territory. I have no idea what I’m truly capable of, but I know in my bones I’d do fucking heinous things for her.Toher.

I just hope that when this all ends, she’ll still be holding my hand amidst the flames of our lives.

Not a ghost haunting those halls and my soul for eternity.

EIGHTEEN

EDEN

Teddy flipshis knife into the air, catching it by the blade with utter precision before he flips it again, and again, andagain. We’re waiting for Vic in the ring, always practicing under his watchful eye. I stand with arms crossed near the back wall watching Teddy, my soul festering, annoyed at the lack of an explanation for his disappearance today. I knowwhyI’m annoyed, but I’m not ready to broach that topic with myself yet.

I’d rather hate him just a little bit longer before I sink into the temptation he presents, before our lives become inexplicably intertwined.

“I loved it,” he says finally, his voice velvety smooth and deep, and I catch his eyes through the dusky light, the teal seeming to glow at me.

“Loved what?” I grumble, shifting from foot to foot, anxious to have any of our conversations overheard. Dick and Daniel are holed up in their office, probably plotting my demise. A few of the girls pace around the ring, Chastity casting me a glare every chance she gets now. She’s made it clear she’s attracted to Teddy, and the lack of attention he gives her makes her evenmore venomous towards me. I can’t help it; it’s not like I asked for him to sink into some weird obsession with me.

Cash confirmed it today, though, during our pickleball match against Brant and his partner. Said something about Teddy being protective of me. When I’d asked why, Cash had stood straight, paddle dangling from his hand, confusion on his pretty face.“Because he’s fucking obsessed with you?”He’d said, as though I were clearly missing out on something and very stupid because of it. We hadn’t spoken about it again, because in his distracted state, Brant had directed a hit right to Cash’s temple.

Thankfully, the hole-ridden plastic ball hadn’t done much damage. I’m still annoyed with him for picking me up like a sack of potatoes and flashing my plain white underwear to everyone in the vicinity of the bus stop, though. It’s strange, having two people—Ithink—I can now consider friends. I’ve been alone for so long, just me and my sick dad. The day the courts sided in his favor, he’d taken me home, and I’d watched a movie with him for the first time in well over five years.

But at the end of it, he’d held my hands in his and told me about the cancer, promising to fight it to the bitter end.

Teddy saunters toward me, his eyes alight with mischief, and the look digs its claws into my soul. He belongs here. Not at the circus, per se, but in all the darkened corners of the world, on the very fringes of society where evil and good meet, brushing against each other in the moonlight. I’ve always found comfort in darkness.

Maybe that’s why I find comfort in him.

He leans a shoulder against the wall, eyes tracing my face as his smile slowly unfurls. “Your coordinates.”

A jolt of heat hits my heart and fans out, centering between my thighs. The days draw ever-closer to Saturday, to prom and our agreement, and every day, I grow a little more terrified and a lot more…turned on.

“Did you…what did you think? Will it work?”

His canine teeth appear, his smile growing.

“Oh, it will work alright.”

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