The Girl Who Joined the Circus

The world went quiet then, muffled by the water pressure, and I shut my eyes tightly. My lungs burned in my chest as my last breath oozed out in bubbles through my lips as I desperately tried to cling to consciousness.

I floated, letting the cold overcome me as it sapped all of my strength. People say your life flashes before your eyes right before you die, but no images appeared in my mind.

Instead, I just felt utterly alone.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

In a state of semi-consciousness, I barely registered the sound. But suddenly there was a great sound of glass shattering and I felt myself moving, my body forcibly launched to the side as a wave of water rushed out of the tank. I hit the floor hard, coughing and gasping for air, spitting up water I didn’t realize I’d swallowed. Glass shards stabbed my skin, but that pain was nothing compared to the pain in my lungs when I breathed in deeply.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around me and picked me up. Sapped of all my strength, I swung my arms weakly, doing my best to resist my captor, to push him away, but it was no use—I had no energy left.

“Bindi, stop! It’s me!”

Rex’s face slowly came into focus, his expression wrought with concern. It took me a moment to get my bearings and realize he wasn’t Robb or the twins. That he was Rex and that he’d just saved me—he and the axe beside him, that I now saw lying on the muddy floor.

Rex gathered me tightly into his arms, swaddling his coat around my shivering body. Blood trickled down from his hand, and huge chunks of glass stuck out of him like monstrous claws. The Incredible, Indestructible Man had saved me.

“R-Rex.”

My tears flowed freely now that I was no longer trapped inside that watery prison.

“Shh, I’ve got you,” he crooned.

And when I looked up at him, he was staring down at me. A clung to his lapels, pulling myself closer, not even realizing what I was doing until I brought my lips to his. There was no surprised lapse, no hesitation on his part. As soon as my lips met his, his opened and I felt his tongue in my mouth as he clutched me even more closely, running his hands up and down my hair.

And then it was as if fireworks went off in my head and I was no longer there, wet and clinging to Rex with a broken water cage behind us.

Instead, I was somewhere else—lying on a bed full of velvet pillows and Rex was on top of me. As I glanced down, I realized we were both naked, my breasts pushed against his chest. When he leaned over to place a kiss on my lips, I could feel him pushing inside me, thrusting into my most private of places and in response, I arched beneath him, wrapping my fingers around his as he pinned me to the bed beneath him.

I could hear myself calling out his name as he repeatedly thrust within me, building his momentum.

“Rex,” I called out and when I blinked, I found myself back in his arms and I was soaking wet and he was holding me, carrying me.

When I looked up at him, I could see the shock in his gaze. Shock and desire that was so thick, I could have cut it.

“What…” I started. “What just… I…”

He swallowed hard. “It was nothing.”

I shook my head. “No, it… I just saw you… and you were above me… you were inside me.”

“Bindi,” he growled and I wasn’t sure whether it was a warning to stop talking because I was delirious or because he was close to losing control of himself.

“You saw it too,” I said as I realized as much.

“I didn’t… see anything.”

“You’re lying.”

Without another word, he lifted me off the ground and carried me out of the tent, clutching my body like I was a newborn baby.

“You were inside me, Rex,” I repeated, shaking my head. “You saw what I just saw.”

He looked down at me as he breathed in deeply and then said, “sleep.”

I could have sworn his lips touched my forehead, but I was too groggy to be certain. My eyes fluttered shut, and then darkness overtook me.