Page 40 of Cirque Du Minuit (Cirque Masters 1)

Finally it was their turn. “Silks act! Finale!” called the stage manager. Kelsey couldn’t help the huge smile that spread across her face. Her muscles were warmed up, tingling to perform. Her blood rushed in her veins, her adrenaline high as a kite. They paused just inside the wings, and Theo pressed a light kiss to her forehead. “Time to fly, ma chèrie.”

They swept onto the stage, gliding over the platforms in the choreography they’d practiced untold times. They grabbed their silks, the scarlet fabric shimmering under the powerful lights. Soaring music accompanied their movements, while the lights followed their tricks, drops, and flights. They launched into the section of the act she loved, when the silks rose in the air, towed by cable, and they flew around in a grand circle, Theo soaring after her in fascination and desire. In their act, she was supposed to be afraid--and she acted afraid--but she loved this part where he pursued her. She loved the moment when she was caught.

In their act, he destroyed her, but life didn’t always imitate art. When he cradled her lifeless form at the end, it was all she could do to lie still under his touch. She wanted to jump up, hug him and laugh in his arms for all the joy he gave her. Wild applause filled the theater as the lights went down. Theo leaned close to her in the blackness, his whisper drowning out the deafening noise. “I love you, Kels. Beautiful girl.”

He was her living dream. So dashing. So daring. Her gypsy king.

Epilogue

“Come. Come!”

Kelsey turned from the brook with her hands on her hips. “No, you wait.”

Theo gave her a look. Stubborn, silly girl. He spread a blanket under the tree where they’d been flying in his practice silks. They’d found an even nicer clearing than the one in Paris. This one had a small brook and colorful flowers beneath the grand, gnarled trees overhead.

They were enjoying the afternoon away, trying some new tricks. Cirque du Minuit had been in production for a year and a half and Lemaitre had given all the performers the okay to add new variety to their acts. Kelsey had come a long way, and was full of her own ideas now. She was a born aerialist and gripping performer.

Theo couldn’t take his eyes off her, onstage or off.

“Come,” he said again. Now he sounded like he was pleading. He hardened his voice. “Come now, or else. And take off those clothes.”

She went all dreamy and soft at the tone of his voice. In addition to aerialist and performer, she was a magnificent submissive. Born to it, just as she was born to make him smile. He watched her strip, shy and yet sultry, and pulled her down to the blanket beneath his own naked form. He traced her hips, the curve of her breasts, drawing one taut nipple between his teeth. He was rewarded by a moan, and her wet pussy pressing against his thigh.

“Little hoyden,” he whispered.

“Please, Theo… Please.”

He parted her legs and impaled her, sliding into her warm heat. He was quickly lost in her, as always, in her delicious sighs and whimpers. Then a fuzzy black shape drifted before his eyes. It took him a moment to focus on what it was he saw. The ladybug landed on her hair, a tiny black circle on a blonde background.

Theo pushed her down, holding her still, determined to catch it.

“Ah,” she whispered. “I love when you’re rough with me.”

Theo laughed and held her head. “Une coccinelle noire! Don’t move.”

He offered the bug his fingers, careful not to crush it. After an initial hesitation, the little ladybug crawled onto his hand. “Regarde,” he breathed. “Une coccinelle du minuit.” They looked at it together, the glossy black creature with a smattering of red dots. It seemed content to rove over his palm while they ooh’d and aah’d.

“She’s so pretty,” Kelsey said.

Theo moved inside her, a teasing slide. “What makes you so sure it’s female?”

The ladybug spread her wings and took flight then, and they pulled apart as both of them leapt up to give chase. They ran, laughing, all the way into the forest. They hopped naked over roots and broken branches, following the little black blur until the ladybug flew too high for them to see. Theo turned back to his love, his own ladybug. Kelsey. Kel-zee...

Not bad luck, just different. What would his life be like without her? He didn’t want to know. He didn’t have to know.

He took her in his arms, there in the forest, and kissed her with all the gratitude in his heart. He made love to her under the whispering branches, marvelously aware of just how lucky he was.

Acknowledgements

As always, I owe such a debt of thanks to my writing critique partners and beta readers: Heather, Fallon, Audrey, Karen, Kati, Janine, Elaine, Leslie, Cherry, Francesca, Ruth, Jessica, and Melisa.

Thanks to Adrienne Wilder for cover art and emotional venting purposes.

Thanks also to all creative performers everywhere. You amaze me.

About the Author

Annabel Joseph is a multi-published BDSM romance author. She writes mainly contemporary romance, although she has been known to dabble in the medieval and Regency eras. She is known for writing emotionally intense BDSM storylines, and strives to create characters that seem real--even flawed--so readers are better able to relate to them.

Some of Annabel's favorite authors are Laura Kinsale, Judith McNaught, Flannery O'Connor, and Anneke Jacob.

Annabel Joseph loves to hear from her readers at [email protected] You can learn more about Annabel and her books at http://annabeljoseph.wordpress.com/

Other erotic romance by Annabel Joseph

Mercy

Cait and the Devil

Firebird

Deep in the Woods

Fortune

Owning Wednesday

Lily Mine

Comfort Object

Caressa’s Knees

Odalisque

Erotica by Annabel Joseph

Club Mephisto

Coming soon:

Molly’s Lips: Club Mephisto Retold

The Edge of the Earth

An excerpt from Molly’s Lips: Club Mephisto Retold

A free read from Annabel Joseph, coming in the summer of 2012.

In the beginning, when Mephisto first met Molly, he’d hoped she might be his. She’d flirted with him in a skittish kind of way, and he’d found her appealing. Pretty, dark haired, petite, and charmingly rough around the edges. Okay, she’d been a mess, but that had compelled him most of all.

Then Clayton Copeland showed up, and the whole matter had been lifted from his hands.

Mephisto didn’t begrudge them their happiness. Every time he saw the two of them together, he knew they were meant to be. Not in a romantic sense, because Mephisto wasn’t much into romance. No, in a realistic sense. They simply made a perfect pair.