Cirque Du Minuit (Cirque Masters 1)

Great. Now Theo was picturing Kelsey letting Wayne into her room, inviting him to sit on the bed...

“He’s such an asshole,” Theo hissed as soon as they were away. “Why do you talk to him?”

“He’s my friend! And he’s not an asshole. Even if he was...talk about the pot calling the kettle black.”

“What are you talking about? Pot? Kettle? What?”

Kelsey waved a hand. “It’s a phrase, in English. It means, like--”

“Whatever. Are you really going to go out with him?”

“Why not? He says he wants to get to know me better, which is a lot more than I can say for you.”

“Get to know you better? Ha. This is bullshit. He wants to sleep with you.”

“He does not.”

Theo pulled her to a halt and shook his head. “So naive. All men always want to sleep with all women. He, in particular,”--Theo pointed back in Wayne’s direction--“wants to sleep with you.” He darted a finger at her chest. “This friend nonsense is one of the many strategies men use. And gullible women like you, they believe.”

Kelsey put her hands on her hips. “You’re so cynical. You don’t think there are any men out there who truly want to be friends with women? Who have no ulterior motive about sex?”

Theo threw back his head and laughed. “No, there aren’t.”

“You think you can speak for all men?” she asked. “Because I wouldn’t exactly call you typical.”

He might have taken it as a compliment if her voice hadn’t sounded so cruel. “Come on,” he said, in an equally cruel tone. “We’ve wasted enough time today.”

*** *** ***

Kelsey sat in her room that night and stared at the sugar straws in her palm. She hadn’t eaten one in over twelve hours--a record for her. She didn’t need them, not really. She could live if she didn’t have them.

The greater issue was, why did she feel the need to obey him? Even now, when he would never know? Well, knowing Theo, he could bust down her door and walk in any time. He could be erratic that way.

Maybe he hadn’t even meant what he said.

Maybe he only meant she couldn’t eat candy during practice times.

Well, there was only one way to find out what he meant, and that was to go see him. Go to his room and…

Who was she kidding? There was only one reason she wanted to seek him out. She walked down the hall to his room, feeling like a total slut, but he wasn’t there. Or didn’t want to answer his door. She looked in the kitchen and common room and was just about to give up when she saw the door to the back garden was ajar.

They called it a garden, but it was just a poorly kept backyard with a broken stone patio. There was a raised spot in the corner that may have been a garden once, but it was overgrown with wildflowers now. In the middle of that spot, Theo Zamora sat alone on a blanket in the dark.

“What are you doing out here?” asked Kelsey, crossing the yard.

“Wishing for a cigarette.”

Kelsey sighed. “I miss my candy too.”

He turned a stem in his hand, ripping the petals off a wildflower. She had to step closer to see his face. “So...I have a question.”

His face looked slightly pained. “I might answer, if it’s not too hard.”

“What did you mean exactly, when you said I had to give up candy?”

Theo threw the shredded stalk down. “No more candy, Kelsey. That’s what I meant.”

“Well...okay. No more Licky Stix, or no more candy in general?”

He lay back on the blanket, crossing his arms behind his head. “No candy, girl. You are sweet enough without it. And athletes like you should not have these things.”

Yeah, Jason had told her that too, and her old coaches, and her parents, but... “That’s going to be really hard for me. I might not be able to do it,” she said.

He turned and gave her a long, searching look. “If you want to be good, you’ll do it. If not--” He shrugged, his lips drawn down in a moue. “Good or bad girl. You decide.”

Kelsey wondered if being a bad girl might result in more punishments like she’d gotten in the utility closet earlier in the day. If so, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to obey or not. She sighed in frustration, running a hand over one sore ass cheek.

Theo chuckled. “I see you are weighing your options.”

That’s what he always forced her to do--weigh options. Good or bad girl. You decide. “Is there enough room on your blanket for me?”

He moved over and patted the comforter. “Come.” She lay down beside him and crossed her arms behind her head like he did. She looked up at the sky and her eyes went wide.

“You’re stargazing.”

“Mmm.”

It surprised her he would admit it. He didn’t seem the whimsical stargazing type. But then, he was full of surprises.

She settled back and took in the bowl of the night above her. The sky was black-dark and cloudless. The stars were brighter than she could ever remember seeing in Laguna Hills.

“Why do the stars look different here? Because I’m on a different continent?”

Theo snorted. “There are the same stars everywhere.”

“That’s not what I meant. I know they’re the same stars. But they look different here.”

He paused a moment before he answered. “Maybe it’s because you’re different. Different than you were.”

He had a way of speaking that cut through all the bullshit that cushioned her life. She was different now. She was struggling, coming to terms with it. For him, it was just a fact. She wrapped her arms around her waist and shivered.

“Are you cold?” he asked.

“No.” It wasn’t a cold night. The temperature was perfect. The stars were beautiful. Theo sprawled lazy and relaxed beside her, but she was agitated and confused. “Theo, why did I enjoy what you did to me in the closet today? What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing’s wrong with you. You’re a sex freak, like a lot of people.”

She turned on her side and propped her head on her arm. “So how did you know I was a sex freak? You knew, didn’t you? What is it about me that gave it away?”

His expression tightened for a moment, although he still gazed skyward. “You remember, I saw your face that day in the storage room. Your interest was clear as day. Then you came to my house, and when I tried to frighten you away, I turned you on instead. Then I knew, beyond a doubt.” He laughed softly. “It’s so intense in you, I don’t believe you didn’t know all your life.”

“I didn’t know until you showed me.”

She turned onto her back, picking out the brightest stars, and then searching out the dimmest ones, the ones you could barely see. Maybe she only imagined them there.

“Do you know the constellations?” Theo asked abruptly. “Ursa Major. Ursa Minor. Centaurus.” He pointed them out, his strong hand raised up to the sky. She was torn between staring at his hand and the formations he was showing her. “And there, Cassiopeia.” He chuckled, lowering his arm. “When I was little, I couldn’t remember the names, so I made up my own names. Snake. Ladybug. Kitty with a long tail. My grand-mère would make up stories for all the animals I saw in the sky. She told me a story once about a ladybug who was black with red spots, instead of red with black spots. All the other ladybugs made fun of her and the children wouldn’t catch her on their fingertips because they said she was bad luck.”

It was the most he’d ever said to her at one time. “Mean old ladybugs,” she murmured. “Mean kids.”

“But you see, the black ladybug knew there was nothing wrong with her. That she was just different.” The corner of his lips turned up in a smile. “I don’t know why my grandmother would have told me that story.”

“Or why you’re telling it to me now,” replied Kelsey with her own grin. “Are we just a couple of black ladybugs, you and me?”

“You are, anyway.”

“Hey!” Kelsey nudged him and Theo caught her hand. He t

ickled her side until she squealed and rolled up against him. He put a finger to her lips.

“Shh. This is a quiet, peaceful night. No shrieking witch.”

“I’m not a shrieking witch, you ass.” She subsided, resting her head against Theo’s shoulder, looking back up at the stars.

“Do you know about it, Kelsey?” he asked after a while. “Dominance and submission? This thing we’re doing? I don’t know so good how to explain it. Only how to do it.”

Kelsey couldn’t explain it either. But she knew. “There’s just a dominant person, right? And a submissive one?”

“Yes, that’s you. You like submitting to me, yes? Doing the things I make you do?”

Kelsey was silent a moment. “If I didn’t like them, could I make you stop?”

“If you wanted to. You can always make me stop just by going away. It may not seem so, but I only have as much power as you give me. What I take is only what you give. Nothing more. You understand?”

She nodded against the curve of his shoulder. “Yes. But even then...sometimes it feels scary to me. Like I’m not in control, even though you say I am.”

Theo shot her a wicked grin. “That means I’m doing it right. You feel me, yes? In your mind and your body.” His hand slid between her legs to rest against her center. “You feel me here every time I’m near, even if I don’t touch you.”