Page 35 of Enter if you Dare: Part One

She writhes beneath me, moaning my name—not Scarecrow, but Cave—and I love how it sounds. As I drive into her and rotate my hips, her eyes close and her mouth falls open in ecstasy. She is extraordinary, and she is mine.

Her body tightens around me, and I drop my hand from her hair to wrap it around her throat. I feel her pulse against my palm and the sounds that she makes as she comes apart beneath me. Her whole body bows as she cries out, and I feel it everywhere. I drive into her twice more before I follow her, and when I do, I press my mouth to the bite on her neck and growl, “Mine.”

Neither of us move for a moment, both breathing hard, but once I can, I push off her tiny body and pull her up and cradle her in my arms. She is unsteady on her feet and chuckles as she looks down to where she is covered in dirt, with just the moon glowing down on her.

I wish we could stay like this forever; I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.

When I pick her up, she doesn’t protest. She pushes her face against the side of my neck, and I carry her back through the rows to the middle of the field.

When we emerge, Noa is sitting, still shirtless, with his hair a catastrophe, and a huge grin on his face. Cipher is on his feet, and I stop in front of him to let him look at her.

Valli reaches out and lays her hand against his jaw. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he says back, blushing slightly.

Plenty of women have requested Cipher for the chases, and every single time Nixie has had Ares talk to me about it, I shut him down. Cipher is mine, and I have never wanted to share him with anyone until now. The same goes for Noa. He was requested a year ago, after a woman came across him in the cemetery. I heard the things she said about him, and when the woman arrived at night and her wristband flashed green, I ripped it from her wrist.

Then she ran into the cornfield, after she had been warned not to come in. So I picked her up and carried her across the park—she screamed the entire way—and threw her over the bridge. Unfortunately, she knew how to swim, and Khodi jumped in and helped her to shore. Since that night, Nixie removed Noa from the rotation too.

I carry Valli over to Noa and place her into his arms. He wraps them around her and cradles her while Cipher removes his jacket and drapes it over her body.

“She good?” Noa asks me, and I nod.

Then I turn back to Cipher and grab him, scooping him up into my arms. He doesn’t fight me like he normally does; instead, he presses his face into my neck and smells me. I’m not the monster everyone thinks I am—I know tonight meant something to him. Sex can be a primal thing, and that doesn’t interest him much at all, so I take what I need from him, and that is how he likes it. Yet with her it was different. I saw the way he looked at her, like something unlocked in his brain. As if all the spare pieces of himself he saved just in case he needed them one day locked into place.

Noa follows behind me, talking Valli’s ear off about how amazing she is. His spiritual awakening makes another appearance, and she listens patiently. Most people lose interest once he gets excited about something, as it becomes all he talks about, but I find it soothing—his voice is like white noise.

When we reach the shed, Noa follows me around the back of the building, and we walk into the shower Cipher built us outside because I barely fit in the one inside and sometimes he likes us to shower together. It’s big enough that we can all fit inside, but I carry Cipher in first.

After I set him down, I turn on the shower as we both get undressed. He lets me guide him under the water and wash him down, and I run the silly loofah he loves over his body, cleaning the dirt from his skin. I look down at him, putting my hand on the back of his neck, and lean down to lay my forehead gently on his.

“I’m good,” he whispers.

Once Cipher is clean, I leave the water running and get out with him. I wrap a towel around him and walk naked to where Noa and Valli are waiting. I grab Noa’s hand and drag him in next.

He lets me strip his pants off, and when he steps in, he talks the entire time I clean him off. Noa gives an animated narration of tonight’s events, as if I wasn’t there. I wash the dirt off him and lift his wrists to inspect the damage.

“They don’t hurt. I’ll put some cream on them and wear the marks like trophies,” he crows.

With a smirk at his words, I wrap him in a towel and motion for Valli to join me. I left her for last, since she was the last to join us, and I wanted Cipher and Noa to understand that they both matter to me. Plus, I want to take my time with her, to make sure she’s clean. So I pull her under the water and wash the dirt from her arms first, working my way down to her feet, then back up. When I reach the marks I left on her, she tilts her head to give me better access. I run my thumb along the deepest bite, and she shivers.

“Sore?”

She looks up at me and nods. “A little.”

I won’t apologize for marking her. It helps ease the tension I feel when she leaves, knowing I won’t be there to murder anyone who looks at her. There is no hiding the marks I have left on her, and that makes me happy.

When we finish up, I wrap her in one of the towels Cipher brought for us, and we go back into the shed. Noa’s already passed out and is snoring as we walk past. Valli stops and grabs the throw blanket off the back of the couch and puts it over him.

Cipher is sitting at his workbench with a small bottle of antiseptic and a cloth. “I cleaned Noa’s wrists already, can I clean you?” he asks her. I see the uncertainty in his eyes, and I hate how nervous he is.

Valli doesn’t hesitate, walking over and taking a seat on a stool he pulled out for her. Cipher looks over the marks on her neck and shoulder, then opens the tin. He tips her chin to the side with one finger, then works slowly, checking and cleaning each mark.

She keeps her eyes on his face, studying him as he tends to her skin. There is something between them, something Noa and I won’t ever have with her, and that makes me happy.

“That one is going to bruise,” he murmurs, cleaning the deepest bite.

“Do you think I will turn into a scarecrow now?” she jokes.