“I’m burning,” he muttered, his glance flicking downward. Capturing her hand, he pressed it over his crotch. “Do you feel what you do to me?”
Her own face flamed in response.
“Don’t let yourself be embarrassed,” Adam chided softly. “That’s just holding you back from real pleasure.” Opening her camisole, he touched warm lips to the secret places all around her breasts, watching as her nipples grew more and more erect and listening to the heightened cadence of her breathing. “That’s right, let go.”
Her heart raced at the prospect of surrendering completely to her husband, of following willingly wherever he wanted to take her. And yet, the passion was swelling as never before. It carried her higher and higher, like the dangerous ocean waves she longed to swim toward. Why not take Adam’s hand and go with him tonight?
Lightly, he licked her nipple, then took it into his mouth. She exhaled the last of her doubts in a long groan and sank her fingers into his hair. “Oh— oh!” Moonlight splashed over the bed. In the distance, she heard the sound of the Atlantic rollers booming as they broke against the sand. Cathy pretended the waves themselves were picking her up and carrying her out into the night.
Adam’s tongue swirled over the surface of her nipple as his lips tugged gently, just enough to fill her with concentrated sensation beyond anything she’d ever imagined. He hooked a thumb into the waistband of her cambric drawers and drew them down. His palm fit itself to the hollow of her hipbone before his big, beautifully shaped hands began to explore the curves of her bottom, then her thighs, touching her in unexpected places. Cathy opened her eyes. She could see him in the starlight, sitting back on his heels, the tapering lines of his chest like a sculpture. Gazing into her eyes through the shadows, he brought her foot to his mouth and slowly kissed her instep.
“Adam—” She was shocked by the erotic sensations radiating from her foot, the last place she had expected to be capable of arousal.
“You’re ravishing, Cath.”
“So are you.” Her feet curved around his neck, urging him back to her, and soon he was kissing her again, hungrily, and she was lifting her hips against his. She could feel the hot length of him like a brand against her own aching need and helplessly opened her thighs further. “Adam...”
“I love the sound of my name on your lips,” he muttered against her hair. Swiftly, he stripped of the rest of his clothing, aching to be inside her but forcing himself to hold back. He kissed her belly, the backs of her knees, then her soft inner thighs, and felt her tremble against his face.
Cathy could scarcely breathe. The smoldering heat between her legs was consuming her; it was as if every nerve in her body was there, swollen with need. Then, for an instant, she felt Adam exhale. The warm pulse of his breath sent a mad tingling sensation over her womanhood. The ache heightened.
Somehow she trusted him to make it better. In the past, she’d had glimpses of what she needed with Adam, but could never abandon herself to passion. Now, she saw his brilliant eyes focus on her in the moonlit shadows. His hands cupped her bottom. He trailed kisses over her tummy and she let her head drop back, closing her eyes, and laced her fingers through his hair.
“Please,” Cathy breathed, consumed by a mixture of shame and liberation. As she guided his mouth to the hot, swollen bud, she pictured herself being lifted by the waves.
He touched her there with only the tip of his tongue, and when she jerked, he clasped her hips and began to kiss her in earnest. Slowly, seriously, Adam made love to his wife, listening to her breathing as he brought her to the brink with his skillful mouth. When she was on the precipice of release, he would retreat slightly, then slowly begin again. It was exquisite torture. Finally, Cathy made a soft, involuntary panting sound and he changed the motion of his tongue.
Suddenly, feeling as if she were falling from the highest wave down, down, down toward the beach, Cathy lay back and held her breath as the scalding tide rushed over her. Sheer physical bliss rolled up and out, over and over again, until even her fingertips were tingling. And Adam wouldn’t stop. Weakly, she pulled at him. At last he covered her body with his own and entered her to feel the last contractions.
“Ohh!” she cried. Her eyes stung as she buried her face in his strong neck. “That feels— so good.” He filled her to the hilt, and she pushed up to meet his thrusts.
“That’s my girl.”
Cathy wrapped her arms around her husband’s shoulders and held on for dear life, wishing that she never had to return to the real world.
Chapter 25
When she opened her eyes, Cathy saw bars of sunlight filtering through the shutters. One of Adam’s lean brown arms crossed her naked midriff, imprisoning her. His face was half on her pillow, his mouth inches from her ear. When she tried to move, he made a low sound in his sleep, and she felt him stir and stiffen against her thigh.
Memories of everything that had happened the night before began to march to and fro across her mind. Waves of shame brought hot blood to her cheeks. The forbidden things she’d let him do, encouraged him to do... things she’d never imagined.
Heart pounding, she lifted Adam’s heavy arm and turned away on her side until there was a little space between them. Carefully, she drew up the sheet to cover herself.
Shameless. Indecent! Lewd. Brazen! Her mother’s voice seemed to shout the words in her mind as images of what they had shared taunted her. Turning her head, she peeked at Adam’s sleeping profile. Could she ever meet his frank stare again?
Under a spell cast by moonlight and ocean waves, she’d opened her very soul, but in the morning light, everything felt different. It seemed that no other proper woman could have ever done the things she had done or reveled in the sensations Adam’s lovemaking had evoked. She had been brought up in complete ignorance, constantly instructed not to grant any suitor even a kiss for fear of losing his respect.
Cathy had never felt more confused as a lifetime’s worth of her mother’s rigid morals collided with the erotic feelings she’d let Adam draw forth. And she was afraid. Afraid that she’d let him see how much she loved him, and now that he’d conquered her inhibitions, he’d lose interest and look elsewhere to satisfy his male urges. If her own wonderful father could do that, what not Adam?
Slowly, silently, Cathy drew back the sheet and crept out of bed, mortified by her own nakedness. It took only a moment to pull a full-length nightgown over her head and to slip her arms into a silk dressing gown with a sash that tied securely around her waist. Her slippers were near the door, but before she made her escape, she stole another glance at her husband. He’d thrown one lean-muscled arm over his head, and the sheet barely covered his narrow hips. Sleep did not make him seem more vulnerable. Like a big jungle cat, his muscles were coiled under the sleek, warm surface of his flesh as if he might awaken at any moment and spring.
Backing out of the room, Cathy nearly fell over Alice, who had dragged her bed directly in front of the door and now scrambled to avoid being sat upon by her mistress. Somehow, Cathy kept her balance and got the door closed without rousing Adam.
“Poor doggie,” she whispered guiltily.
A voice spoke from the other end of the corridor. “You look as if you’ve had too much sun. Or perhaps you are blushing, Catherine?”
“Merry Christmas, Mother.”
“Would you care to dress in my room?” Hermione, perfectly turned out in lavender crepe, lifted her pince-nez and surveyed Cathy from head to toe. “Surely you don’t intend to present yourself downstairs like that?”
“I will make use of the dressing room, thank you.” She kept her head up as she passed her mother. “I didn’t want to disturb Adam. He’s still sleeping...”
Hermione was leaning forward, squinting through the pince-nez. “What in heaven’s name is that on your neck?”
She took the bait and stopped in front of Adam’s shaving mirror. There, just below the curve of her jaw, on the spot where her pulse beat, was a tiny, mauve-tinted smudge. “Perhaps it’s an insect bite,” she mumbled, then flushed.
“Hmmm. I’ll see you downstairs.”
As mistress of the house, Cathy felt obligated to be present on Christmas morning. She could smell the breakfast cooking that she and Josephine had planned, and she wanted to distribute wrapped presents to the servants before they went off to spend the holiday with their families. At least there was plenty to keep her mind off Adam and her own mortifying behavior of the night before...
Freshly gowned in raspberry-and-white-striped silk, Cathy went down with Alice to greet the day. Over fried flying fish with lime, eggs, melon, scalloped breadfruit, and biscuits, she chatted with her mother and Auggie. Assembled on a nearby chair were the gifts the trio had chosen for one another. Knowing that all the presents had been chosen out of obligation took the pleasure out of opening them, and she postponed that ritual as long as possible.
Auggie had just finished tearing the wrapping off his new cufflinks when Adam appeared, carrying a cup of coffee. Simon was a few steps behind, his arms filled with an enormous box. He looked expectantly at his employer.