Page 48 of The Circus

Body still witheringfrom the high coursing through my veins, it pushes out all of the fear I’d been feeling earlier. How can any one person make another feel so…alive?Electrified? Is this normal, or is this Teddy?

Because the way he’s grinning at me after he just licked all my wetness off his fingers stretches those bounds of normality until they threaten to snap. And him calling me agood little girl? Why does that have me getting even wetter? Idowant more, greedily so, and emboldened under his stare that makes me feel seen and womanly and sexy, I slowly slip one side of my dress down my shoulder, his eyes zeroing in on the movement like a tiger prepared to pounce. Slowly—as slowly as I am undressing for him—a wicked grin stretches his cheeks, his eyes glinting with a touch of madness.

He rises up on his knees between my spread legs, ripping off his jacket, loosening his tie with one hand and unbuckling his belt with the other. It becomes a race for him, as excited as he is, and it’s then I feel it leisurely pushing through my veins.Power. I have power in this situation, over someone as immense as Teddy, and it feels so fucking good. He really is obsessed withme. He held himself in check, because Cash let slip how badly he wanted me.

I think I finally believe it.

So I pause, watching him strip for me, utterly entranced by his dark beauty, his muscles moving sinuously beneath his skin, as taut as a stretched rubber band.

“Eden.” His deep voice snaps me from my bemused staring, and my eyes jump up from the bulge in his slacks to his dancing eyes. Chuckling, he nods to my dress. “Fair is fair.”

Blushing a little, I say softly, “I…I need help.”

Leaving his pants on, he drops down onto his hands to hover over me again, grinning like a fool as he studies me. “You taste so fucking good.”

Well…now I’m not blushing just a little. I didn’t know I could taste good to someone, but the truth is there in his eyes and in how enthusiastically he did all that with his tongue and fingers. I’m thankful that when I came to the circus last year, Jess told me to go get waxed. Wearing those skimpy outfits makes me self conscious on a good day, especially if I forget to shave my legs or it's time to rip the hair from my nether regions again.

“Thank…you?” I say. He laughs, the sound so beautiful and rich, his grin stretching his cheeks wide. When his smile fades from his face, it still lingers in his eyes.

“I was serious. I want to do that to you every goddamn day. More than once a day. Even if you say no.”

A million different emotions hit me at his words, but that subtle threat at the end has my thighs rubbing together, an ache growing between my legs anew.

“You can’t make me,” I whisper, throwing the line out to see what reaction I’ll ensnare. His pupils dilate so quickly that the black consumes the teal in less than a second. He visibly shivers, but I can tell it’s not from the cold beginning to seep in from the broken window.

“Is that so?” He quirks a dark brow, and biting my lip to hide my playful smile, I nod. His nostrils flare as he answers my grin with one of his own—albeit one a wolf would wear.

“Eden, I’d hunt you across this entire fucking earth if you ever tried to run away from me. I’d lock your ass here, in this asylum, if you ever eventhoughtyou could escape me,” he says, his voice low, his oaths spoken from the deepest, most wicked parts of his dark soul. “You made your little deal with me, but you were mine long before that, even when I was too wrapped up with the voices in my head to see.”

Lightning strikes my veins, because he’s just shared something with me, something I’m not sure he meant to. Swallowing hard, I whisper, “Did…Did I earn a secret?”

His smile morphs and grows again, and it’s then I understand that hedidmean to tell me. So he hears…voices? Is he schizophrenic? Or is it something like me with seeing the dead?

AmIschizophrenic?

“They’re obsessed with you,” he says breathily. “So please don’t make me wait any longer toreallymake you mine.”

Shocked, I hide it by smiling coyly.

“Then do it.”

“Fuck,” he breathes as soon as I taunt him, shaking his head and tearing his eyes from mine. The muscles and tendons and veins winding up his arms are stretched tight, his frame trembling with the exertion it takes him to not claim me right this instant. I…I think I like torturing him, pushing his resolve to the brink, seeing what will make him snap. “You little fucking sadist.”

His eyes come back to mine, shining anew in their obsession, and my heart soars.

“You’d really hunt me down?” I ask, studying his reaction. For some reason, I need to know, need that reassurance thathe’d be my knight in shining armor when the day comes. I also kind of want to know if he’d…playhunt me down, because I’m not sure why, but I really, really like the idea.

“In every sense, Eden,” he swears, and I shiver. With no more hesitation, he begins to pluck at the strings of my corset, loosening them one by one until the bodice slips from my torso. He casts the entire dress aside as I cover my breasts, only the ballet flats still wrapped around my feet. He reaches back, fishing in the bag beside the bed for a moment, coming back with a gold and black plastic square in his hand.

With his other, he frees his cock, and my eyes widen. I skipped school the day Seattle Prep had the sexual education course, because I knew Brant would make my life hell by teasing me. So Teddy’s dick is the first I’ve seen, and as uneducated as I am, Istillknow it’s huge.

He tears open the packet with his teeth as he strokes the length, veins winding their way to a soft, purplish tip. Something shiny leaks from the end, an enticing droplet clinging there. He watches me as I watch him, both of us equally as fascinated with the other’s reactions. I’ve even forgotten that I’m bared to him, completely naked.

My brows furrow and my lips pout as he rolls the condom on, cutting off my view.

“Don’t give me that, little ghost,” he jests, and my eyes bounce to his. Fire simmers there, but his entire frame vibrates in anticipation.

“What?”

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