Jenny Plague-Bringer(120)

“Something happens when we touch.” Barrett’s voice was soft, but full of strength. Full of power. “Like an electric bolt. Like the moment before a storm, when the power gathers in the air. Tell me you can’t feel it.” His finger traced down her cheek to her trembling lips, and she could only look up into his magnetic dark eyes. Everything else faded away. There was only his face, his fingertip soft on her mouth.

She closed her eyes and sighed, feeling the world slide beneath her feet. His hands went to her sides to draw her closer to him, and she didn’t fight the kiss she knew was coming. His lips touched her, and she felt another shock. The tip of her tongue reached into his mouth, and her hands gripped onto his head, holding him there, as if she wanted to kiss him forever. Something vast and dark stirred inside her, woken by his touch.

The long kiss ended, and they looked at each other, holding each other and breathing. The room felt incredibly hot, as though everything in sight would burst into flames. She could feel him thick and hard against her stomach. He was bigger down there than Sebastian, and it seemed threatening and dangerous, like it would cause the most exquisite kind of suffering.

He kissed her again, on her lips, her cheek, and her neck, as if he meant to consume her entirely. He hoisted her up in his hands and kissed her breasts through the thin dress. His lips closed on her nipple through the fabric, and it turned hard as a pebble as his mouth moved on her. His tongue brushed against her breast and she clutched his dark hair in her hands. His hands tightened on her hips.

He carried her to the sprawling bed, which had a massive headboard and footboard made of dark mahogany, inlaid with red tortoise shell and sculpted bronze, something that belonged in a luxurious mansion. She had no strength to resist as he lay her across the bed’s silken coverlet. All the reasons she should refuse him passed through the back of her mind like a procession of ghosts...voiceless, powerless ghosts.

Then they were gone, lost in the surge of her uncontrollable feeling as his mouth moved down along her stomach, kissing her. If her stomach was slightly larger and rounder than he might have expected, he certainly didn’t say anything.

His hands slid down her thighs, and then he was kissing her hip, her legs, the warm inner reaches of her thigh, and she suddenly wished the cheap, thin cotton of her dress wasn’t in the way.

As though reading her mind, he lifted the dress up over her knees, then above her hips. His lips kissed the bare flesh of her stomach, then moved down between her legs. She heard herself moan as his mouth touched her throbbing clitoris, followed by a flick of his tongue. Her thighs squeezed against both sides of his head, trapping him there while he licked and sucked. Juliana screamed as her body quaked, and she grabbed onto his hair with both hands, pressing her face harder against his.

He kept licking her as he slid a finger into her, immediately finding just the right place to touch, as if they had an intelligence of their own. She cried out again as wave after wave of pleasure rushed through her body, her hips jumping up and down on the bed, far out of her control. She gripped the silk coverlet in both hands as her head tilted back, her teeth clenched together, and explosions rocked her body, shaking her to her core.

This was followed instantly by a heavy cloud of guilt. He continued working at her with his beautiful mouth and brilliant fingers, and she knew he was going to make it happen again.

“Stop,” she told him, but it was barely a whisper. With an effort, she put more force into it. “Stop. Stop!” She sat up and pushed away until her back was flush against the tall headboard. “We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” He caressed her bare leg, and it felt both terribly good and terribly wrong. “We’re meant for each other. We both know it. You make me larger and more powerful than I’ve ever been. Nothing in the world could stop us if we were together.”

“We can’t be together, Mr. Barrett.”

“My tongue was just inside you. I think you can call me by my first name.” He gave her a smile that weakened her defenses, but she held firm and didn’t smile back. “There’s no reason we can’t be together,” he said as his smile faded.

“There are lots of reasons. For one, you already have a wife and a son.”

“Both of whom would be much happier living apart from me,” he said. “I could get them a nice townhouse in Charleston. Or somewhere farther away. Savannah. New Orleans.”

“You would send your own son away?” She folded her legs under her, away from his hands, and pulled her dress down over her knees.

“I would do anything to be with you, Juliana. We were meant for each other. We can’t let a small thing like timing get in the way. The future we could have together...” He shook his head. “You give me so many dreams. So many visions of what I could do. The world will bow to us. If only I could make you see our fate, the way I see it.” He leaned closer, as if he meant to kiss her again, but she moved away and stood up beside the bed.