Chapter 28

CHAPTER28

Nancy clung to her husband as he walked her backward up the four wooden steps that led into the small pagoda on the north shore of the lake. His lips never left hers, his hands gripping the dripping wet fabric of her swimming dress, his body pressing against hers, nudging her in the right direction. And though she was no longer in the water, she was utterly breathless.

“Should we not… dry ourselves in the… sun?” she gasped, for the pagoda was shady and cool.

Adam ran his palm up the curve of her waist, skimming past the side of her breast on its way to her neck. For a strange moment, she thought he meant to strangle her as his hand curved around her throat, but there was no pressure, only the gentle massage of his fingertips before his hand moved around to the back of her neck. His thumb remained, stroking a line down her throat.

“We do not need the sun,” he told her, dipping his head to kiss the other side of her throat while his other hand grasped the material at her hips, urging her closer to him.

Melting into his embrace, Nancy arched her neck, biting her lower lip as his tongue tasted her skin. And as his hand caressed down from the nape of her neck to the swell of her breast, she shivered at his touch, though not out of fear—she had learned to swim, she could overcome anything without trepidation now.

All of a sudden, the hand that had gripped her waist slipped down to her thigh, lifting it until her leg curved around his. Nancy grasped at him in a panic, worried she might fall, her hands grabbing fistfuls of his shirt as he bent her backward. But as his lips caressed her neck once more, his body bending with hers, her doubts vanished into the humid air.

Adam knew what he was doing. All she had to do was trust him.

He bent his knee, and he lowered her gently to the floor of the pagoda, laying her down as if she were the most precious thing in the world. And as he lowered himself on top of her, she remembered her dream. A dream that had stopped where her knowledge did. Yet, she had a feeling she was about to learn more than she had ever anticipated.

“You are my greatest torment,” Adam said silkily, gazing down at her. “Do you know that?”

She smiled. “I do now.”

“There you go, tormenting me again.” He chuckled, and she felt the vibrations in her chest. “Now, do you know the first rule of warming yourself after you have been in cold water?”

She shook her head.

“You must remove your wet clothes.” He rolled onto his side, robbing her of the delicious weight of him, and the feel of his loins between her thighs.

Propped up on his elbow, his eyes never leaving hers, Adam began to undo the buttons of her swimming dress. They lay in a neat row from neckline to hem so the dress could be worn over the top of other dresses and petticoats for added opacity, and he unfastened them as if by magic. One by one, they released to his skilled touch, his hand easing further and further down her body.

Her breath caught in her throat as his palm smoothed over her flat stomach and paused at the mound where her thighs met. His tongue rolled over his lower lip as he took a few seconds longer to undo that particular button, his fingertips sliding lower, adding pressure to a part of her she had not known existed—a powder keg, and his touch was the spark.

“Oh…” Nancy swallowed thickly.

But just as quickly as he had ignited something, he moved his hand onward, undoing the last of the buttons until the two sides of her dress lay open. As if she were a longed-for gift, Adam drew his gaze from hers and let it wander down the thin line of flesh and undergarments that peeked through the gap.

“Extraordinary,” he murmured, lowering his head to kiss the spot just above her navel.

His tongue seemed to desire a taste too, as he ran it down the line of her stomach, pausing between her breasts to steal a kiss. Wherever his lips wandered, his hands followed, peeling aside the damp fabric of her dress, pulling it free of her shivering limbs and glistening skin.

Considering they were supposed to be swimming and nothing more, Nancy had not bothered to wear stays or petticoats, certain that the thicker fabric of the dress would be enough to conceal any bare skin from him. A foolish notion, she realized, as she lay there naked on the floor of the pagoda, dressed only by his kisses and the roughness of his palm’s caresses.

“What if someone… comes this way?” she panted. “Perhaps we ought to go ins—”

Her back arched, a sharp breath cutting off her suggestion, as his mouth closed over her pert nipple. And as he sucked gently, any complaints abandoned her, her mind swirling as fireworks exploded across her chest and pulsed down into her belly. There, a warmth gathered, more potent than the wine she had sipped beneath the apple tree.

Adam kissed between the valley of her breasts and closed his mouth around her other nipple, her body responding to him in ways she did not know it could respond. Her hips bucked as he sucked on her, her muscles tightening, her limbs shaking slightly, though she was no longer cold.

“Oh, Adam,” she breathed, every sensation new and exciting and strange and wonderful, all at once.

She felt him smile against her skin as he kissed back down the path that his tongue had forged earlier, his hands following the contours of her waist and hips, sparking fresh bursts of bliss with each touch and kiss and taste.

But as he drew closer to the apex of her thighs, she had to wonder what came next. She thought she knew, but this was nothing like the act that her sister had detailed. For one thing, he was still wearing his shirt and trousers.

“Oh… Oh, Adam…”

A soft cry escaped her lips as his tongue slid down between her thighs, rolling against that intimate part of her. A slow, teasing taste that held her entire body frozen.

He lay down on the wooden floor, scooping his arms underneath her thighs and curving them back over her hips. All she could do was allow him to guide her, eager to discover what surprises he had waiting.

His tongue rolled against her secret spot once more, before he parted her lips and sucked on her, sending her spinning into a frenzy of bewilderment and bliss.

Indeed, there was nothing of this nature in her beloved fairytales and romance novels, and as his tongue stroked her swollen bud in measured circles, teasing that frenzy into a powerful storm of untold pleasure, she rather thought they were missing a valuable part of the story.

“Oh, goodness!” she cried, arching her neck back. “Oh, my darling… Adam…”

His tongue never paused in its lavish attentions while he drew one arm from under her, tracing his fingertips up and down her inner thigh until her legs were shaking. And once he had her trembling, he trailed his fingertips higher, pausing at the entrance to her sex.

It was akin to what Nancy had been told by her sister, yet nothing at all like it. Indeed, she doubted she could ever have imagined her body being a vessel for so many sensations at once, all thrumming and throbbing and pulsing as if she had become lightning itself.

Slowly, Adam eased his finger inside her. Her fingernails scraped at the wooden floor, her hips bucking at the delicious intrusion. And as he urged a second finger into her hidden depths, she thought she might truly explode from the bliss of it all, her body writhing, no longer caring if anyone were to pass by.

In truth, she imagined her gasps and moans could be heard all across the vast gardens.

Taking his time, Adam drew his fingers in and out of her silken depths while his tongue continued to tease her secret bud toward unknown heights of pleasure, every tortuous lash sending shivers up into her abdomen, where something was growing—a sensation like the prelude to a sneeze, but ten times as intense.

“Oh my… Adam… Adam!”

Nancy writhed and strained as if her body could not bear the power of what was happening within her. Every muscle tightened, every vein white-hot, every nerve pulsing, every inch of her skin tingling with a swelling heat as if she had succumbed to a fever once more. Only, she did not feel sick. Far from it. She had never felt more alive.

And just when she did not think she could endure anymore without fainting or burning up into nothing but glowing specks of raw pleasure, that strange and glorious sensation in the depths of her abdomen finally detonated. A blast of pure paradise ricocheted through her, and as she squeezed her eyes shut, golden lights erupted, her mind swirling as her body braced against the force of her ecstasy.

Her back arched off the floor, her neck arcing, her hands balling into tight fists, while her legs trembled with such violence that she did not know if she could ever walk again. Her stomach pulled tight, feeding the wave of bliss that thrummed through her every vein, and as it reached its most powerful peak, Adam’s name peeled from her throat in a desperate cry of passion.

But like a sudden summer storm whipping an ocean into chaos for a short while, the intensity of it had no choice but to ebb. And as the tide of her euphoria withdrew, the lightning of bliss becoming no more than dancing sparks, she collapsed onto the hard floor, panting as if she had been swimming for her life.

“Do you feel warmer?” Adam asked, his tone amused, as he slowly drew back his fingers and placed one last kiss on her swollen bud.

Nancy jolted at the light touch, a smile turning up the corners of her lips. “Much warmer,” she gasped.

“Good.”

He kissed his way up her thighs, over the flat of her stomach, and across the peaks of her breasts until he found his way back to her bruised and eager lips.

But before he could kiss her mouth, she pushed on his chest, keeping him at a small distance.

“What was that?”

“What was what?” he asked coyly.

“What just happened.”

He grinned. “Pleasure, my darling, in abundance.”

“But that was not…” Nancy trailed off, suddenly embarrassed, which seemed rather ridiculous, considering her current condition. Still, she had not been raised to talk about the acts between a man and woman openly, and she was not entirely certain if she was still a virgin or not. “Am I… deflowered?”

Adam shook his head. “No, my dearest Nancy. That was but one of the many things I can do to pleasure you.”

“Many things?” She smiled.

He grinned and dipped his head, catching her mouth with his. “Many,” he murmured against her lips. “As long as you continue to swim.”

“You have tricked me,” she said, pulling him closer by the front of his shirt.

“Never,” he replied, kissing her hard.

And though she did not dare to believe it, it felt like the beginning of something. A marriage of true joy and affection and love and passion that she would not have thought possible when he had first put his arms around her by that fated lakeside.

But as she kissed him, a few words slithered into her mind, spoken by the lips that were kissing her in return.

“I cannot love you either. Do not hope for it. That is impossible.”

There were things Adam had said, and things he had done, that made Nancy think that was no longer true. After all, he had confessed that he wished they had met in a more ordinary fashion, and that she was the one he had been pursuing that night by the lake. Perhaps that was now what his heart desired—a more ordinary life, with his wife at his side, enjoying the rest of their days together in love and loyalty.

Or perhaps she was just fooling herself.