Page 56 of The Circus

“And you like the pain,” I retort. “Now grab the fucking headstone and scream my name, little ghost.”

Her eyes flare, and at the same moment I thrust back into her, I sink my teeth into her shoulder. She screams as I piston in and out of her furiously, claiming the prize I won. Her sweet, coppery blood pools in my mouth as she sobs, her cunt gripping my cock so hard it almost hurts me in return. Her knees skid across the dirt as I pound into her, her cries and moans music to my trained ears.

“Ow…oh, fuck,” she whines, and I feel the beginning of her orgasm. She clings to the old stone for dear life, her cheek now pressed to it because of the force of my thrusts, and I wind a fistinto her hair, yanking her head back to watch her eyes spark as she comes undone around me.

“That’s it, that’s it,” I encourage, ramming into her as she sobs, her eyes on mine. “Let me see you come.”

Her body goes tense, and her cries choke off in a guttural moan that has my balls tightening in preparation for my own climax.

“Teddy,” she sobs, withering around me, her cunt clenching me rhythmically, stroking me from the inside until I can’t contain myself anymore.

“Fuck, baby,” I hiss, ripping myself out of her and jerking myself just as hard and fast as I’d been fucking her. Ropes of cum paint her back and ass as she collapses with a cry into the dirt. The teeth marks on her shoulder still bleed bright blood, and I fall over her, blanketing her trembling form with my body as she spasms and comes down from her own high. “Good girl, Eden. You took me so well.”

“Mmm,” is all she manages to mumble, and I smile against her, nuzzling my face in the crook of her neck as more rain cools my body.

“Are you okay?” I ask gently, the voices slinking back into the furthest corners of my mind, satiated and content. Without their demands to brutally claim my woman, my nerves begin to take root. Did I hurt her, scare her? That’s the last fucking thing I want, for Eden to be afraid of me—trulyafraid of me.

But she nuzzles me back, and I can feel her cheek lift in a small, satiated smile.

“I earned a secret, I think.”

I chuckle against her, wrapping her in my arms and pulling us back so she’s in my lap and we’re sitting in the middle of a crumbling graveyard. A few hundred feet away, a massive, imposing raven sits atop another headstone, his keen black eyes watching us. Everything feels so right in this moment, but also asthough we’ve been here before in another life, another time not so long ago. It’s strange, but somehow beautiful.

“What secret do you want, Eden?” I’d give this girl anything she wanted, right now and forevermore.

She twists in my arms and blinks lazily up at me, that little smug smirk on her perfect lips.

“Who else do you hunt, Teddy?”

My smile slips from my face as the storm clouds finally close in on us, darkening the shades of her pale features until only her eyes seem to shine. She knows, in her heart. I’ve sensed it for a while, and I’m not afraid of her knowing my greatest secret. It’s undoubtedly going to be used to protect her in the near future.

So I hold her close, my eyes on the raven, and say, “Whoever the voices demand, little ghost. And I’ll kill them all for you, before the end.”

My eyes drop to hers, and she’s smiling up at me.

“I know you will. And I can’t wait to watch.”

THIRTY-TWO

EDEN

“Hey, lovebug.”My father’s raspy voice has my face snapping in his direction, my tattered book forgotten as I sit perched on his windowsill. He’d been sleeping so peacefully when I’d arrived late this afternoon amidst a new wave of thunderstorms, and so I’d pulled outLooking for Alaskaand began to read, attempting to distract myself from the memories of the last twenty four hours.

I don’t want to forget them, for they are beautiful and dark and powerful. But if I keep thinking about Teddy, how he makes me feel, that dirty mouth and all he can do with it…I’ll be changing my underwear for the umpteenth time today. As sore and bruised as I am, I still want more. If he’s obsessed with me, then I am addicted to him, and our twisted tryst has just cemented those feelings for the two of us, I think.

Setting aside my book, I drop my feet over the side and slip down, dizzy as I stand. Cash picked us up from the asylum late this morning and we all stopped in Hangman Hollow for breakfast, but with how much my poor body has gone through, I will need to sleep for two days straight at this point to recover.

Dad pats the side of his bed, and I slip onto it, so tired that I simply fall down next to him and curl into his warm embrace. He holds me against him; his strength is nearly nothing now, and I worry my bottom lip as reality begins to close back in around me. It was nice, having a reprieve from everything, but that doesn’t mean the hard parts of life don’t exist in the peripherals.

“Are you going to tell me about prom, or keep me guessing?” he says, pecking a kiss to my forehead. Despite the storm that looms in my heart, I smile against him and snuggle in further.

“It was…good.”

He chafes my arm with a tired chuckle.

“You’re definitely a teenager.”

My smile grows, but I hide it against him. It’s quiet for a few long heartbeats as soft rain patters the window. I almost drift off to sleep, feeling so warm and content, but his voice rouses me from my impending slumber.

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