Jenny Plague-Bringer(61)
She spotted Jonathan Barrett among the crowd on the land. Apparently, he hadn’t driven off at all. He stood with his arms crossed, smoking a cigar, standing apart from the rest of the crowd. Even from this distance, she could feel his dark eyes picking out her form on the upper deck, watching the stiff, salty wind tousle her white dress and dark hair. She looked back at him, and her heart beat at a faster tempo. He was dangerous to her, even at a distance.
Sebastian circled an arm around her waist and drew her close.
“You have a look in your eyes,” he said. “What are you looking at?”
She turned to face him, hoping he wouldn’t notice Barrett watching from the dock.
“It’s such a long way,” Juliana said. “Aren’t you scared?”
“I’m scared of sleeping in that little closet for nine nights.”
“Then you’d better enjoy your days, hadn’t you?”
“This one’s already looking much brighter.” He drew her close and gave her a long kiss, long enough to wipe out any thought of Jonathan Barrett until he was just a tiny shadow, lost over the horizon.
I feel nothing for Mr. Barrett, Juliana told herself. Nothing at all.
She and Sebastian explored the ship, which was filled with entertainments for the passengers. There was a tennis court, a restaurant, a lounge with a piano player and a singer. They amused themselves sitting on deck chairs and reading each other stories from the pulp magazines Sebastian had bought from a newsstand in Charleston. The magazines had lurid covers and names like Amazing Stories and Weird Tales, and they were filled with stories about aliens, ghosts, and detectives.
They ate steak with smoked mussels, accompanied by summer salad and a great deal of Spanish wine. In the lounge, they found themselves playing cards with a minor French diplomat on his way from New Orleans to France, accompanied by his strikingly attractive young mistress, a stage actress. Juliana tried to get them to talk about life in Paris, but he stubbornly returned to his favorite subject, horse breeding, which he discussed in long, graphic, and highly specific detail. When the music slowed, Juliana coaxed Sebastian into a dance, which continued for the next two songs.
Later, they walked the promenade deck, her arm tucked into his, with a billion stars glowing in the cloudless sky above. Their walk slowed considerably after they turned a corner and found themselves alone on a stretch of the deck. Jenny looked up at the stars. Rain was starting to fall, but it was warm, and neither of them ran for shelter.
“Do you think there’s life out there, like in Amazing Stories?” she asked him.
“You mean three-eyed monsters with blue tentacles who fly around in metal bubbles and shoot rayguns?” Sebastian asked, referring to a story they’d read earlier.
“Just any life at all. It looks so dark and cold. And lonely.”
“My mother told me that the stars were all alive. She said they were angels watching over us.”
Juliana smiled. “Imagine something that’s alive, but made entirely of light. Or darkness.” She looked down at her hands, imagining the demon plague inside her, which she always pictured as a swarm of tiny, poisonous black flies.
“Beats the three-eyed tentacle alien,” Sebastian said.
She looked up at him and traced her fingertip along his cheekbone. “Maybe there really are angels. How else could I have been fortunate enough to find you?”
“You make a good point,” Sebastian told her. “I’m a pretty good find.”
Juliana looked at him for a long moment, then said, “Walk me to my room.”
They walked quietly down the passenger corridor. He opened the door to his narrow closet.
“Have a good night,” he told her.
“You don’t have to sleep in there!”
“That’s right. I can curl up on the rug in your room. Sleep by the fireplace, which you probably have, too.”
Juliana took his hand. Inside her stateroom, there was no talk of sending him to sleep on the couch or the rug. They kissed each other hungrily, and his hands explored all over her body, caressing her through the summer dress.
She stepped back from him, lifted her dress over her head, and tossed it on the carpet. He gazed at her, desire in his eyes.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
She didn’t answer, but she walked to the bed, turning off all the lamps in the bedroom, and he followed. He took off his cotton shirt and dark trousers, and she could see him thick and hard inside his underwear. The two of them together, almost completely undressed now, made her shake in anticipation. She’d longed to get out of their clothes together, to let every part of him touch every part of her, skin on skin, a sensation she’d never experienced. She wanted it so much it frightened her.