“I believe you, Elise,” Julian said. “But who is this man?”
“Is it possible he’s somebody who’s working for your uncle? Somebody who knows him?”
“My uncle doesn’t have contact with many people. Only Mary, Potts, and—“
The door flew open then, banging against the wall. Julian had no idea what was happening before somebody was flying at him, lunging at Elise with a howl. Julian’s eyes widened as he saw Nikola moving with more speed and strength than he’d ever thought possible, her fist tangled in Elise’s hair, trying to hold the girl’s face underwater.
“Nikola!” Julian shouted, wrapping his arms around the woman, trying to tug her away from Elise. He pulled them both back so that Elise’s face was out of the water, but he couldn’t get Nikola to let go. Elise thrashed, throwing her head back, catching Nikola’s nose with her skull and hitting it hard with a sickening crunch. Nikola flew backward, crumpling next to the tub as her nose bled, all while Elise held her head and sobbed in the tub. Potts came flying in the room then as Julian knelt next to Elise, taking her face in his hands and looking into her wide, frightened eyes.
“It’s okay,” Julian said, stroking her hair. They both looked down at Nikola, who was lying prone on the floor, eyes opened. Elise clamped her hands over her mouth when she saw that the woman had died, and Julian stared down at the body in disbelief. He felt something sink in his chest as he looked down at Potts holding Nikola in his arms, and let go of Elise to kneel beside the old woman.
“Jason,” Julian said, putting his hand on Potts’ shoulder. “I’m so—“
Potts shot a look up at Elise. “This was your fault.”
“Potts—“
“No, it’s okay,” said Elise softly. She was covering her breasts with her arms, looking up at Potts with a sad look on her face. “It is my fault.”
“Elise, you didn’t do anything,” Julian insisted.
“She’s a witch,” Potts spat. “A demon. She’s been haunting Nikola every night, my lord. I’ve—I’ve seen her.”
Julian looked over at Elise, who only stared at Potts with a blank gaze. Then she looked up at Julian.
“I haven’t left my room at night, my lord,” she said. “You know that.”
Julian didn’t answer. He thought back to the night she was in his room, wild and feral, tearing things off the walls, able to move almost inhumanly fast. Julian shivered, swallowing the lump in his throat as he looked down at Nikola on the floor.
“I know that,” he said, though he made sure that he wasn’t touching her when he said it, knowing that she’d have no problem telling that it didn’t quite feel like the truth in his mind.
Chapter 26
Elise grumbled as Julian got out of bed, opening the curtains to let the light in. She squeezed her eyes shut, picking up a pillow and throwing it at him, and he tossed it back at her with no humor on his face.
“Where are you going?” she asked him.
“I have to work,” he said, not looking at her as he undressed from his nightclothes. He had taken to wearing them to bed with her, anything to avoid touching her skin as much as possible. He had become good at positioning them in bed so that their skin wasn’t touching, and the only time it ever seemed like he was comfortable being pressed to her skin was when they were making love, otherwise he stayed away from her, and barely met her eye. His mind in those moments they were fucking was blank, consumed with nothing but pleasure, his thoughts deliberately gone as he enjoyed her body over and over. It made Elise feel used and cheap, but every time she opened her mouth to speak about it, she found that she couldn’t.
“My lord,” she said softly, taking his hand. An image of Nikola flashed through his mind, fierce and hot, before he was able to go to his customary blankness. “I love you.”
Julian looked down at her, then lowered his face to kiss her head. He didn’t say anything in response, but left her in the room after getting dressed. She sighed when she heard the door close to his office. Since Nikola’s death, he had barely spoken to her. He was good at shutting off his mind, but in certain moments she had got glimpses, pieces of what he was thinking. It was usually about Nikola, although sometimes he saw the orange-haired girl in the window, the one who almost looked like Elise from the back. Elise wanted to ask him who it was, but she knew better than to pry into his specific thoughts. It would only make him angrier than he already was and , push him further away. Elise didn’t know how much further he could even go before he was completely gone, anyway, and she couldn’t help but to wonder if that moment was coming sooner than she realized. Julian no longer looked at her the way he had before—with love and tenderness, but now there was suspicion in his eye, something that cut Elise deeply to see.
Elise set to cleaning for the day, glad to have something to keep her body occupied. The house was big and empty without Nikola or Potts, who had left the day after Nikola died, taking her body back to their family’s burial plot over in Lancaster. Potts had told Julian that he wouldn’t be back, and Elise had choked up when she’d watched the two men saying goodbye, knowing that it was somehow her fault.
Elise was in the library on the second floor when she glanced out the window to see Julian by the gardens, standing with a man. Elise’s heart dropped into her stomach when she saw the man’s face—it was him, the one from the party, and he was standing with Julian near the edge of the maze, both of them smiling as they spoke. Elise felt herself go pale all over, and found herself rushing through the house, running as fast as she could through the halls. She burst out the backdoor and ran across the lawn toward the gardens, charging toward the two men.
“Elise—“ came Julian’s voice, but he was too late to stop her as she barreled into the man, knocking him to the ground. In his mind she saw confusion, anger, then blood. And more blood. She looked into those eyes and she knew who he was—the man who had killed those women, the one who had threatened her life.
“What are you doing?” Julian asked, his arms wrapping around Elise, his mind filled with alarm. He pulled her off of the man and Elise was surprised to see that the man on the ground was crying, his face buried in his hands, sobbing in a huge, pitiful way on the ground. Elise gaped at him as Julian crouched next to the man.
“Thomas,” Julian said softly. “Thomas, I—“
“Get away from him, Julian,” Elise said, grabbing Julian’s arm, trying to drag him away from the man. She was filled with panic knowing that at any minute, the man could get up and hurt or kill either one of them. “He’s—it’s him. He’s the one who killed them.”
Julian shot her a look as the man whimpered on the ground, rocking back and forth.
“Elise, he’s barely more than a child,” Julian hissed through clenched teeth. “He can’t even read. Look how terrified he is.”
“Julian, I saw it,” Elise insisted, pleading with him. “I swear it’s him.”
Julian shook his head. “It’s not possible, Elise. Go inside. You’re only going to scare him more. I’ll talk to you later.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with him,” Elise said, crossing her arms over her chest. At her words, Thomas began to sob harder.
“Elise, please,” Julian said. “Go inside.”
She opened her mouth to speak but he gave her a look that told her not to argue. Elise took a deep breath, trying to fight back the tears that were forming in her throat. She looked down at the man on the ground, who took a moment to peek up at her between those fingers. Julian saw something there—something dull and blank, but Elise could see what was really in those eyes. It wasn’t blankness, but shadows. Elise didn’t say anything, but left them behind, going back upstairs to the library and watching from the second floor as Julian sat beside Thomas, rubbing the man’s back. Thomas sat up, his face tear-stained as Julian led him into the gardener’s hut. A few moments later, he reappeared. Elise waited for him in the library, expecting him to come find he
r. He did after a moment, appearing in the door.
“Elise,” he said.
“You don’t believe me,” she said softly, looking over her shoulder at him. “Do you?”
“I believe you know what you saw,” he said. “But no, I don’t believe you have the right man.”
“Nobody thought Father Orton was the right man,” Elise said. “Nobody believed me then, either.”
Julian sighed. “This is different, Elise. Father Orton wasn’t a simpleton.”
“I don’t care what you think about that man, Julian,” Elise said. “He’s a murderer. He murdered all of those women. He’s going to kill me and you’re just going to let him.”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” Julian said, but his voice didn’t sound as fierce as it once had when he’d spoken the words. “You don’t have to worry about Thomas.”
Elise almost growled in frustration, her hands at fists at her sides.
“I can’t believe you of all people don’t believe me,” she said angrily. She was trying to keep tears from rising to her eyes, tears of frustration and anger. “After what you know. After what I’ve been through.”
“Elise, please,” Julian said, though there was a coldness on his face that made her shiver. Elise reached out to him and, took his hand, but she saw something tender just before he forced the blankness into his mind. It made her go to him, take him into her arms and kiss him on the lips. He didn’t respond, so and she kissed him again, and this time she saw a flash of something else in his—his bed, empty. Elise gone. She stepped back and stared at him as if she had been stricken.
“Is that really what you want?” she asked. “For me to leave?”
Julian only gazed at her for a moment, gritting his teeth. “Are you always going to pry into my mind like this, Elise? Is this what I’m to expect from now on?”
“What you can expect from now on is to be sleeping alone in your bed just like you want to,” Elise said, nearly choking on her words. “I’m not going to pry into your mind or your frozen heart anymore.”
“That’s it then? You just want to live as my little maid?” Julian asked, raising an eyebrow at her that made her absolutely infuriated.
“That’s what you treat me like, anyway. A maid. Somebody to take care of you and warm your bed.”
Julian raised his eyebrows. “That’s how I treat you?”
“You barely touch me,” Elise said, her voice trembling. “It’s like—it’s like you’re afraid of me.”
He stared at her. Elise had half -hoped that the words would make his expression soften, but they didn’t.
“I barely touch you because I don’t know what you’re capable of,” Julian said. “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know why everybody seems to be dying now that you’ve come into my life.”
“What?” Elise asked, gaping at him. “You want to blame that on me?”
“I’m not blaming anything on you. I’m only saying that you haven’t had the most fortunate effect on my life or on my household.”
“I’ll find another household, then,” Elise said.
He raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah? Where do you think you’ll go, Elise? Back to the brothel? To Lord Bishop?”
“I’d rather spend a year laying underneath that fat pig Lord Bishop than to ever have to look at your face again,” Elise hissed, and in that moment she meant every word. “Leave. Now.”
“You can’t order me out of my own house, Elise,” Julian said, a hint of warning in his voice. “You can’t even order me out of this room. And you’re not going anywhere tonight.”
Elise rolled her eyes and tried to move past him, but he blocked the doorway with his body, standing in front of it.
“Move,” she said, looking up into his eyes with a defiant look on her face.
“No, Elise,” he said softly. “It’s going to be dark soon. You can’t leave right now. And you’re not—you’re not going back to Lord Bishop.”
“I can go wherever I want to go,” Elise said, trying to push past him, but he stayed where he was. She glared up at him.
“I don’t care how angry you are at me,” Julian said. “I’m not going to let you act like a fool again and get yourself killed.”
Elise didn’t know what she was doing before she reached up and slapped him across the cheek, hard. The flash of his mind she got in that brief second was surprise mixed with anger. He caught her arm before she could pull it away and held it firmly, not squeezing it. He held her eye and an image passed through her mind of her on all fours in front of him, her body being stretched out by his long cock from behind. Desire quickly flowed through every single part of her body, filling her up, making her instantly wet with need.
“You’re not leaving this room,” he said, pressing her backward into the room, his hand on her arm. Elise closed her eyes, riding his fantasies, almost feeling how good it felt to be pounded into him from behind. Elise had never done it before and it felt so dirty, so wrong, but the thought and the image made her whimper with need.
“You like that, Elise?” Julian asked, moving her body further into the room, pushing her forward over the desk. He was behind her, his hips pressing hers to the desk, his cock hard against her backside. She knew she shouldn’t be doing this, and yet all she could do when she turned to look at him was beg him with her eyes to do more. He met her gaze, his hands working on her clothing, pulling her skirts up and her underclothing down until she was bare and ready to take his cock. He was inside of her within a moment, filling her up, and Elise closed her eyes and whimpered as he started to grind against the back of her channel just how she liked it. It felt good from behind—better than she could have imagined, and she found herself grinding back against him, forgetting about her anger as the pleasure took over her body.
“God, that does feel good,” he said in a hoarse voice, arching his hips upward, hitting Elise in the most sensitive spot within her. She squirmed away from him instinctively, the pleasure overwhelming, unlike anything she had ever felt before. Julian chuckled and pulled her back, holding her hips still.
“Julian,” Elise gasped, her cheek pressed against the wooden desk. “Please—“
Julian took a handful of her hair in his fist, pulling her head back, arching her back as he started riding against her.
“My lord,” he corrected her. Elise felt anger spread through her, almost as intense as her pleasure.
“Say it,” he growled. His hips slowed down and his strokes became longer, pulling out more before pushing deep, all the way in.
“My lord,” she moaned. “I—that feels—“
“Feels good,” he finished for her, pulling her head back even further, pressing his lips to her ear. “If you’re leaving here, it won’t be until I make you come as many times as I want first. Only then will I let you leave.”
“Okay,” Elise said as he let go of her hair, letting her collapse forward as he took hold of her hips instead. He used his hands to pull them backwards against them, meeting them with forward thrusts, pushing into her over and over. Elise could have stayed there forever, especially when he reached down and began to rub between her legs with his fingers as he rode in and out of her, filling her up while he pleasured her bud. Elise came within seconds, her hips bucking, whimpering softly against the wood as he continued as if nothing had happened. She came again and again, even when he slowed down and spent what felt like hours just rocking against her until he was spent and finished with his cock buried deep inside of her. Elise closed her eyes and could see his thoughts on the back of her eyelids, flashes of pain, of love, of regret. He pulled away from her and she turned around, adjusting her skirts and looking up at him.
“I’ll leave in the morning,” she said.
“You’re not going back to Lord Bishop,” Julian said, and he looked as though he had every intention of stopping her. Elise searched his face, putting h
er hand on her cheek, and warmth washed over her body as a flood of emotion swelled through him looking into her eyes.
“I don’t know where I’ll go,” she said. “But I’m going to bed right now. Do you want me to say goodbye in the morning?”
“No,” Julian said, looking away from her. “No, this is fine.”
“Okay,” she said softly. She couldn’t take her eyes off of his handsome face. “Good night, my lord.”
“Good night, Elise,” he said, and disappeared from the room, leaving her behind.
Chapter 27
Julian didn’t wake up until the hands were around his throat, squeezing as tightly as they could. He gasped, opening his eyes, writhing underneath the person who was on top of him. She was wearing a blank black mask, but Julian could tell that it was Elise—her hair was long and red, dangling over her shoulder, tickling his chest as she choked him.
“Elise,” he choked, trying to fight his way out from under her. He didn’t want to hurt her, but she was strong—stronger in this situation than he would have imagined. Julian put his hands on her arms and pulled hard, trying to get her off of him. When she didn’t let go, he tried her fingers, pulling them painfully backward until she screeched and started to claw at his face. Julian pushed her off of him and she scrambled backward, but when he got out of bed, she followed him, trying to tackle him to the ground. Julian dodged to the side, but not in time to avoid her grabbing him around the throat again. He didn’t let her squeeze before he pushed her roughly away, and he watched in horror as she stumbled backwards, crashing through the window and falling two stories to the ground below.
Elise shrieked the whole way down, and Julian’s heart froze in his chest as he looked over the ledge at her broken body, flat on her back face on the ground with a puddle of blood spreading around her.
“Elise!” Julian shouted, tempted for an instant just to jump out the window, to get to her as quickly as possible. He shook his head and instead flew through the house and down the stairs, outside and around to where her body lay. She was naked, her skin pale as she lay there still and battered. Julian knelt down next to her and touched her back, her soft skin, her hair. He ran it between his fingers as his chest tightened painfully, feeling as though it was going to completely tear in half. He noticed something then as he touched the strands—there was something in her hair, something slightly sticky and orange. Julian brought his hand up to his nose to smell the tips of his fingers. He rubbed them together to see that it was some sort of paste.
The Touch of the Outcast_A Gothic Mystery Romance Page 22