Cirque Du Minuit (Cirque Masters 1)

She gripped the silks, frustrated and unsatisfied. No condoms. Damn him. “Are you clean? I mean...”

Theo shrugged. “I was with Minya only. Five years. We did tests.”

“Then just...” Kelsey squirmed. “Can you pull out? I’m not on the pill.” God, it was so reckless. He made her feel so out of control.

He let her knees down, considering. “How do I know you’re clean?”

“I’ve only been with one guy. Besides you. And he was a virgin too, when we...”

Theo smirked at that. Asshole. He took his pants down, kicked them off. “We’ll say you’re clean then, yes? I’ll make you dirtier. That’s what you want.”

Kelsey felt caught somewhere between laughing and screaming. Her wrists were still trapped over her head in silken bonds of his making. “Just pull out. Please don’t come inside me. Can you do that?”

He shrugged. “I’ve done it. Many times.” He came to her, unleashed and wild again now, to take her. He began with a kiss, mashing his mouth against hers. Their tongues dueled, and he won, of course. She could taste her scent on his lips, sharp and salty. One hand locked on the back of her neck, while the other splayed on her ass and pressed her against him so she could feel all his broad, hard length.

He lifted her again, and she watched as he pressed his cock to her center. He looked up at her then, watching her. She couldn’t hold his gaze. She couldn’t look away from the sight of him sliding into her. His abs rippled and his chest tensed as he drove in to the hilt. He started to fuck her and she struggled against him instinctively, locked in the silks like an insect in a spider’s web, waiting to be devoured. He grasped her breasts, pinching her nipples, squeezing them until they hurt almost as sharply as her pussy ached.

She rode him, swinging from the silks, reveling in every pounding thrust. He’d sparked a flame in her with his lips and tongue; now he was stoking it into a fire that was burning out of control. Each long, firm stroke of his cock pushed her closer to ecstasy. Her pelvis grew heavy, tingling and building to the apex she sought, but her arms ached and she was growing weak with the need to come.

“Theo...” She tried to reach for him, but couldn’t, flailing in the silk. He helped her unwind her hands, clasping her close when she hung from his neck. She was falling apart. “Theo!”

He took her down to the ground, covering over her, driving into her while she held on to him for dear life. They rocked together while the silks sailed free above them. The tails brushed across her arm, across his back. His breath was heavy against her shoulder, and his cock was touching her more deeply than she ever thought possible.

She clenched against his length, so warm, so hard, arching her hips to take every inch. The tingling in her pelvis grew and then seemed to collapse in a pinpoint motion to one center--the place where he and she were joined. Soft silk slid over her face and she cried out.

It was like a veil lifting. She stared up at sun and blue sky and clouds and felt Theo over her, and the earth under her, and her body contracted around that part of him she hungered for. The pleasure wrung her out, left her to die. But she wasn’t dead. She was more alive than she’d ever felt before. Her heart raced, her pulse pounding in unison with her orgasm.

Kelsey fell away from him, spent. Theo grunted and jerked back, and she felt hot wet spurts of cum land on her stomach and breasts. One last low moan, and he collapsed beside her, his head propped on his arm.

Kelsey stared at him, fascinated. He never looked tired or weak. Never. Except for now, after sex. He seemed fixated on the fluid decorating her body.

“Thank you,” she said quietly. “For pulling out.”

He looked at her then, and she could see the war in his face. He wanted to mock, and he wanted to be cold. But he had enjoyed their encounter as much as she had. He had gripped her and ridden her so hard she could still feel the ghost of his girth between her legs. He finally settled on a lurid smile.

“You’re dirty now.”

Kelsey laughed, and reached to stroke a hand through some of the semen, but he stopped her. “Let me.”

He reached out for one of the silk tails that still fluttered about them, and dragged it across Kelsey’s stomach and chest. He smeared his ejaculate over her, over the fabric, up to her nipples and down to her pussy. He nudged her legs open and wiped the silk over her lust-glazed slit.

Kelsey cringed inwardly. The fabric was yards and yards long, and undoubtedly required specialized cleaning. “Stop,” she said. “Your silks will be dirty.”

He ignored her, drawing it right against her clit. “This is not dirty. This is you and me, partners now. These silks are not mine anymore.” He gave her a penetrating look. “Ours.”

He let the fabric go, to billow back out in the breeze. He brought her clothes, and donned his while she stumbled around trying to dress, think, and walk correctly again.

Ours.

They were going to Marseille to do an act together. To collaborate, to trust. He already accepted her, and she...she feared and worshipped him at once. More than that, she was smeared all over his practice silks. It was a commitment. In that moment, Kelsey knew she would do anything he asked her. She would go to be in a circus with him in Antarctica. Anywhere. She would make him glad he’d trusted her, and committed to her. She would work hard and be a damn good aerial partner.

But she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to climb trees like him. He was already up there again, undoing the knot. He looked down at her. “Catch it, Kelsey.”

Kelsey. Finally, he was using her name instead of “girl.” And not saying it in such a sleazy way. She reached up and gathered the silk as it fell over and around her. All together in one bundle, it was heavier than it looked. Theo scooted down the tree and showed her how to lay it out and fold it carefully to minimize wrinkling, which could weaken the fabric. It took almost fifteen minutes to do it properly, working side by side.

“Theo,” Kelsey asked when they’d finally finished folding it into a surprisingly compact bundle. “Does this silk ‘belong’ to anyone else besides, you know...you and me?”

She didn’t know why she had to know. She just did.

Theo smiled at her and winked. “For now, just you and me. But we will see...in Marseille...”

In Marseille... Hmm.

Chapter Five: Warnings

Theo drove home with her in a silent funk. He knew he shouldn’t have said it. If he could have stopped the words coming out of his mouth, he would have. Ours. He was such a fucking idiot.

Theo had sworn to himself, after Minya, that he would not get close to a partner again. In the haze of grief and alcoholic mourning he had doubled over with the pain of losing her and berated himself. Never again. Never again.

He was so weak, so pathetic. Minya was barely gone. He could still remember the smell of her skin, the wispy lilt of her broken French in his ear, and now he was starting up with this new girl. Kel

sey. Silly and impulsive and American. The horror. There were so many things about her he disliked in theory, but when he took her all together, she was irresistible to him. It was frightening, the attraction he felt when she was near.

He could push her from his thoughts, even talk himself into despising her, but then he’d see her--her cute little mouth, her shiny hair swinging in a ponytail, her compact and very American curves--and he’d want to touch her again. He even liked to talk to her, to tease her and make her mad. He wanted to know everything about her when they were together.

And then he wanted to push her away.

Theo dropped her off at the dorms, watching her walk to the stairwell, watching the sway of her tight, sculpted ass. He wanted to fuck that ass, fuck every hole in her body. Today she hadn’t even made him use a condom. So trusting. He could have come deep inside her and made a baby in her. He would have forced her to keep it, found a way, somehow. He didn’t even want children. He just wanted her, wanted to have power over her. Ownership of her. He wanted her.

Disgust settled over him as soon as she was out of his line of sight. He spun his car toward home, realizing with a start that he hadn’t had a cigarette in hours. He fished one out and lit it, then forgot to take a drag. He finally tamped it out and tossed it from the window, imagining Kelsey’s tsk. She probably hadn’t littered in her life. Never crossed anywhere but a crosswalk, never mixed her whites and darks in the wash. Shit, he needed to do laundry.

Shit. Jason Beck was standing in front of his house.

Theo parked, glad he’d ditched his cigarette. He didn’t need any more disapproval from squeaky clean Beck than he already got on a daily basis. Since Kelsey had taken an interest in him, Beck gave him dire looks every chance he got. The coach probably wanted her for himself. It was bad form for the coaches to fuck the performers, but it happened all the time.

Not Beck though. Jason Beck was far too proper for that. With his propriety and Kelsey’s perfectionism, they actually would have made a great couple, raising the next generation of cutters and anorexics. Theo tried to smile at the coach, but it came out a sneer.