The Touch of the Outcast_A Gothic Mystery Romance

by Amalia Altman

  “What if—what if I want both?” she asked, looking at him with her eyes wide.

  “That just makes you a greedy girl,” Julian said, grinning at her. “Is that what you want? You want both?”

  “Yes, my lord,” she said, her eyes on his as he settled between her legs. Julian wanted so badly to be inside of her in that moment but he stopped himself, instead guiding the head of his cock up and down her slit. Elise squirmed, trying to take him inside of her, and the look on her face was so frantic and sexy he found that he couldn’t bring himself to tease her as long as he wanted to. Julian pushed inside of her and she took a deep breath, letting out a low moan as he sank his cock fully inside of her tight channel. He stayed there for a moment, buried deep inside of her as she clenched around him, their eyes locked together.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking, Elise,” Julian said as he started to grind inside of her. Her body had already begun to move underneath his, her hips lifting and falling to match his rhythm. She bit her lip, unable to form any words as he pushed deep inside of her. He stopped, pulling all the way out, but she lifted her hips and took him deep inside of her again, not letting him get away.

  “I think I want—I want you to fuck me,” she said, her eyes wide and innocent. They were words she had never said before, words that scandalized her even as they came from her lips. Julian watched her face as he sped his hips up, beginning to fuck her in long, quick strokes.

  “Like that?”

  She nodded, her eyes wide as she took him deep and hard. Her body squirmed beneath his as he rocked in and out of her, relishing how tight she felt wrapped around him. She was wet, so wet, dripping over his cock, and her body only seemed to be growing more responsive. Julian found that his hands were on her hips, moving her body in a desperate rhythm with his, the movement of his hips feverish and aggressive. Julian felt as if he had lost control as he spread her legs apart and pounded into her roughly, knowing she could take it just by looking at the wild heat in her eyes. It was exactly what she wanted—he didn’t have to read her mind to know that, and he didn’t have to read her mind to know that she was about to come all over his cock.

  “Julian,” she whimpered, her hands on his back. Her nails dug in, stinging the sensitive skin there, and Julian took them and pinned them above her head instead. That seemed to make her wild—he felt her gush around his cock as she came, her eyes rolling back, hips bucking forward against his. He used one of his hands to keep both of hers pinned and brought the other down between her legs, rubbing her bud as he continued to fuck her through her climax, making her come again with that sweet whimpering sound. Julian found that he couldn’t stop his hips, couldn’t stop fucking her, and he felt like he never would. She seemed to be fine with that now she had come, satisfied just to lay there taking his cock over and over, gazing into his eyes. He would have liked to have spent all night that way, yet he had promised her something tender and loving, and so he slowed down and pulled out of her.

  “No—“ she protested, trying to grab for him, trying to pull him back inside. It made him crazy to know how badly she wanted it, how long she could take it without ever getting tired. Julian took her hands, pausing so that she could get a read on what he was going to do to her next. She blushed again, looking at him as he moved down her body, spreading her legs with his hands. His mouth was positioned over her sex, and though he wanted to bury his face between her legs and devour her, he started by simply licking her slit from the bottom to the top of her slit. She tasted sweet and, creamy as he lapped at her, dipping his tongue into her channel to gather the moisture there and spread it all over her folds.

  “Julian,” she said. “This is too much, I can’t—“

  “You can,” he said soothingly, licking her bud, teasing it with his tongue. She spread her legs instinctively and began humping his face as he started to traced his tongue in circles, humping against his face. He licked her up and down, relishing the way she squirmed on his mouth, never quite making her come. Elise got desperate beneath him, her hands on his head, trying to rub herself against his mouth in the rhythm that would suit what she needed. He had never felt somebody so small react sohow powerfully before, and Julian couldn’t help but to wonder what it would be like if she moved like that on top of him. He looked at up at her face as the thought passed through his mind, focusing on it, trying to make her experience the fantasy the way it was in his head. She looked down at him with wide eyes and he grinned at her, kissing her folds again, tasting them one more time.

  Julian sat up then, pulling her by the hips and shifting her body so that she was on top of them, both of them sitting up with her straddling his hips, their chests pressed together.

  “Julian,” she said softly, her voice shy,. “I’ve never done this before.”

  Julian lifted her hips, then lowered her so that he filled her up again with his cock.

  “Just move with me,” he said, looking into her eyes as he guided her hips in a slow rhythm. “You move with me so perfectly, baby.”

  She allowed him to move her, rolling her hips slowly, occasionally speeding them up when he let her. It seemed that if he didn’t control her, she couldn’t stop herself from moving more roughly against him.

  “Slow down, Elise,” he said to her, grinning when once again she lost control of her bouncing hips. She moaned and tried to slow down, moving in long, slow downward strokes on his lap, losing her breath each time he filled her completely. “Look into my eyes.”

  She opened her eyes, meeting his, and he put his hand to her cheek to hold her face still. He stroked her parted lips with his thumb, their bodies moving and slipping against each other in slow motion until her eyelids squeezed shut and she came with a loud cry that she couldn’t control. Julian felt himself let go inside of her, no longer able to hold it, filling her up with his come as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He watched her face as their bodies slowed down and she caught her breath, lifting herself off of his cock. He repositioned their bodies so that they were laying on their sides facing each other, their legs intertwined. Julian stroked her Elise’s cheek, marveling at her flushed beauty, at how perfect she was in every way. They stared at each other for a long moment, and she smiled when he leaned in to kiss her lips.

  “You are so perfect, Elise,” Julian said, marveling at the way she looked at him.

  “You didn’t always think so,” she said. “In fact, you used to dislike me quite a bit. I remember you threatened to kick me out onto the streets.”

  Julian laughed. “I did no such thing.”

  “You did,” she insisted with a sly grin, kissing his lips. “Several times. You would have had me be a pauper.”

  “You are so dramatic,” Julian said. Elise giggled as he tickled her side, rolling on top of her, kissing her until she was breathless with desire again. They made love one more time, slowly, falling asleep like that in each other’s arms.

  Chapter 24

  Elise woke up on top of Julian, her entire body able to fit comfortably on his. Her head was on his firm chest and she turned her face, burying herself in him, breathing him in as he stirred beneath her. Elise lifted her face to look at his, and when his eyes opened and he met hers, his smile was almost as sweet as the thoughts he was having, that she was beautiful, an angel, perfect in every way.

  “Good morning, my lord,” she said, lowering her face to kiss him, feeling almost ecstatic that it was something she knew she would get to do any moment she wanted to from then on. Elise didn’t think she would ever get enough of kissing Julian. She did so once, then again until he tasted her mouth, wrapping his arms around her body.

  “Are you ready to do this again first thing in the morning?” Julian asked, his voice gruff as his cock grew hard underneath her. She nodded and wasted no time in taking him, riding him for a few long hours into the morning. By the time they were finished, they were sweating, and Elise watched as Julian got up naked to open the window
s back up, allowing a breeze to blow through the room. He got back into bed and pulled her against him, and they snuggled against each other for a few long moments. Elise closed her eyes, surprised as after a few moments a familiar face passed through his thoughts. Elise immediately shot out of bed, staring at him with wide eyes.

  “My sister,” she said.

  “What?” he asked, a look of confusion on his face. Then he sighed. “Oh, god. You can read my mind.”

  “Yeah,” Elise said. “Why are you thinking about my sister?”

  He sighed, looking up at her where she stood.

  “Come back to bed,” he said softly, patting the mattress beside him. Elise stood there naked with her hands on her hips. When she didn’t move, he gave her a half -grin.

  “Do I need to bring you back to bed?” he asked. “Or are you going to do what I say?”

  Elise felt a familiar tingle run through her body, along with a streak of defiance that would always win out. She crossed her arms over her breasts, covering them up, and he gave her an exasperated yet amused look as she stood there waiting for an explanation.

  “After I found out about your powers, I went to Longmont,” he said.

  Elise stared at him.

  “Why?”

  “Because I needed to know what you were, where you came from. I knew nothing about you, only that I had fallen in love with this mystery girl who apparently had powers that I didn’t even know existed.”

  Elise felt her lips quirk up in a smile when he used the word love, something he hadn’t said out loud before.

  “Say that again,” she said.

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “Say what?”

  “Say that you’re in love with me,” she said.

  He shook his head.

  “Only if you come back to bed,” he said. Elise stayed where she was and he shook his head, chuckling as he rubbed his hand over his mouth.

  “I am in love with you, Elise,” he said softly. “Now come get in bed with me right now or there will be consequences.”

  Elise shivered, chewing on her lip and doing as he said, gratefully crawling into bed with him. She looked at him, studying his face. Elise knew that she had to open up to him as he had opened up to her by allowing her to touch him again.

  “So you went to Longmont,” she said.

  “I went to Longmont, to a tavern there. Talked to your sister.”

  “What did she tell you?” Elise asked, looking at him apprehensively. Elise knew that if her sister had been the one to tell the tale, Julian had gotten the absolute worst version.

  “She told me about Father Orton and your accusation. And she told me that nobody believed you.”

  “Nobody did believe me,” Elise said. “But I saw him kill that little girl. I saw him in his head.”

  “Tell me what happened,” Julian said, reaching out to take her hand. In his mind, there were no solid images, but a hazy, halo view of herself, basking in something like sunlight.

  “Father Orton had always been strange. There were rumors about him in surrounding towns. I used to hear about them because I went riding all the time—the rest of my family mostly stayed a home, but I liked to travel around when there wasn’t much to do on the farm.”

  “What kind of rumors were they?”

  “He did mission work in other towns,” Elise said, her face wrinkling up in disgust. “That’s what he called it: ‘m. Mission work.’ He took—he took little girls into the booths with him and—“

  Elise cut herself off, unable to finish. Julian nodded to indicate that he knew what she was going to say. She took a deep breath and pushed on.

  “One day I was riding and he was on the way back home from the market carrying a couple of bags. He was old, —I think he had bad knees. He told me—he said he needed my help carrying the bags, so I took one for him and we carried it to the church.”

  Julian watched her face as she spoke, holding her hand patiently. She swallowed.

  “I put the bag down on the ground and he told me he wanted to give me coin for helping him. We didn’t have any money at the time and I was saving to get away. I—he grabbed my wrist when I went to take the coin and I saw it.”

  “What did you see, Elise?” Julian asked gently, squeezing my hand in his.

  “He was—in his mind, he was —thinking about me, dead, the same way that girl had been. I saw my body in his mind and then—it played out like a stage show, what he’d done to her, like he was reliving it right in front of me.”

  “What did he do to her?”

  “He forced her,” Elise said, having trouble allowing the words to come from her throat. “He forced her and then—then he strangled her. Threw her body in the creek.”

  Julian stared at her, then closed his eyes.

  “So who did you tell?” he asked.

  “I told Lilith,” Elise said, her voice going cold when she talked about her sister. “I thought I could tell her about my powers. I didn’t know—she was having an affair with Father Orton. She never believed me. She told him what I said and he—he hanged himself.”

  “Lilith was having an affair with him?”

  “I saw it when I touched her. After I told her about what he did. She told my family about my powers, said that I forced Father Orton to kill himself, told everyone that I was a witch. They were going to burn me.”

  “I know, baby,” Julian said, a kind, sympathetic look on his face. Elise saw something flash through his mind then—a man’s face, one she recognized well. She yanked her hand away from him as if he’d burned her.

  “You saw Josiah?” Elise asked.

  He looked at her in confusion.

  “Oh, right,” he said. “I saw a man, yes. On my way out of town. He told me that he’d seen what had happened with Father Orton, but that he didn’t back you up.”

  Elise gave a bitter laugh. “He didn’t. He was too scared. He thought that since we were—Josiah was my first, my only—before you—we were supposed to be married.”

  “You were supposed to marry that man?” Julian asked, a look of annoyance passing over his face.

  Elise had to laugh.

  “Yes,” she said,. “Until he decided to let me be burnt alive.”

  “Josiah was the one who touched you before me,” Julian said.

  Elise looked down at her hands.

  “Yes,” she said softly. “I thought we were going to be married. It was stupid, I should have saved myself, I—“

  “Stop it,” Julian said, cutting her off with a kiss. “You’re mine now.”

  “I’m yours,” Elise agreed, her voice breathy. She bit her lip, kissing him again. “Can we stay in bed all day?”

  “Yes,” he said, smiling at her. “We can stay in bed all day and all night and all day after that.”

  Elise looked up into his eyes, lifting her hand to stroke his cheek. She had never seen anything so perfect as he was, never felt as peaceful as she did in his arms. She started to roll underneath him but he chuckled, stopping her.

  “Let’s go eat something,” he said. She grinned at him, taking his hand and placing it wantonly between her legs.

  “Am I not enough to satisfy your appetite, my lord?” Elise asked. He bit his lip as he stroked gently between her legs for only a few seconds before he smiled at her and got out of bed. She pouted at him but he lifted her up and they both got dressed. They were about to leave the bedroom when Elise looked up at him.

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean—do we go out together? Should I—should I go out first and then you follow?”

  “It’s up to you, Elise,” Julian said. “If you want to walk out of this room together and make it known that you are mine and I am yours, we can do that.”

  “But I’m just a commoner, my lord,” Elise said. “I don’t—people won’t look at y
ou the same. You found me in a brothel.”

  “I really don’t care how people look at me,” Julian said, staring into her eyes. “Do you want to walk out of this room together?”

  “I think you should tell Nikola and Potts first,” Elise said. “I think you should talk to them. Especially Nikola.”

  Julian sighed, running his hand through his hair.

  “You’re right,” he said, then paused as he leaned in to kiss her softly. “I’ll meet you downstairs in a few minutes.”

  Elise nodded, then watched as he left the room. She crossed to the window and looked outside, scanning the gardens with her eyes. They landed on somebody standing near the edge of the maze, looking up at the house. Elise squinted, but the man’s head was in profile and she couldn’t make out his features.

  It was then that the man turned his face to look directly at her, and Elise let out a scream that started low in her throat and burst from her chest. She backed away from the window, stumbling, trying to get away from it as if the man could climb up and get her. It was the same man from the road and from the party, the one who had killed Annalynn and threatened Elise. She saw the man move in the direction of the house and Elise turned to scramble outside of her room and down the stairs. She ran into Julian on the landing and he caught her in his arms, steadying her as he looked at her with concern on his face.

  “What’s wrong?” Julian asked.

  “The man is outside,” Elise said, her heart racing in fear. “I saw him—he was looking in through the window.”

  Julian’s brow furrowed. “Who, Elise?”

  “The man from the party, the one from the road,” she said.

  Julian shook his head.

  “Elise, baby, I can’t read your mind. I don’t know who you’re talking about. What man?”

  “I’ll explain it to you later, we have to go,” Elise insisted, taking his hand, alarm flashing up in his mind.

  “Elise, let me go look around outside,” he said.