Chapter 49

Adam's kiss was mesmerizing. It had been years since Marietta had been kissed, but she was sure she'd never before experienced anything so beautiful.
He tasted of tea, of the dinner they'd shared, and of something else she couldn't define. His scent was rich and masculine with just a faint citrus tang from soap or cologne. Whatever it was, the combination made her swoon. His lips were gentle at first as he shaped her lips with his and cupped the back of her head with one big hand. His other hand dropped to her thigh. He nudged the dressing gown aside, branding her cool skin with his warmth. Marietta clutched his shirtsleeves, holding on for dear life as she melted under his caress.
Her body softened and moisture pooled between her thighs. She opened her lips, welcoming the thrust of his tongue as he swept inside, tasting her and claiming her. He stroked it gently along her cheeks and tongue, as if memorizing every nook and cranny. Her breasts swelled, her aching nipples rasping against the fine cotton lawn of the shirt she wore and she leaned closer, intent on rubbing them against the hard planes of his chest.
"Are you warm enough," he asked huskily when he drew his mouth away from hers.
She blinked at him. She'd forgotten all about being cold. Between the crackling fire, the warm meal and the heat radiating from Adam's body, she was warm as could be. "I'm fine," she said. Then she gathered enough courage to lean forward and kiss him this time.
Adam's strong arms wrapped around her as he tugged her down off the settee to straddle his lap. She went willingly, desperate to be closer. The kiss continued unbroken as he settled her astride his knees, bringing her bare mound against the prominent bulge beneath the rough wool of his trousers.
Marietta slipped one hand up under Adam's shirt, smoothing her palm along the firm surface of his muscled back. Her other tunneled through his wavy hair. Their tongues chased one another back and forth, and they pressed their bodies as closely together as possible through their clothing.
Eventually that veiled contact wasn't enough. Adam insinuated his hands between their bellies and untied the knotted belt of his dressing gown then pushed it down off Marietta's shoulders. He tugged his shirt up over her head, leaving her completely bare. His lips kissed a line down her neck to her collarbone then lower still to capture the furled peak of one of her breasts.
"Adam," she cried. She clasped his head to her nipple. Oh God, it had been so very long since she'd been touched and probably never with this kind of reverence. His tongue lashed the tender bud as he suckled. Marietta's belly tightened as pressure built in her womb and moisture slicked her thighs. When he stopped, she cried out in protest until he moved to lave her other breast, causing her cry to turn into a moan.
He kept up the onslaught until her breasts ached in time to the throbbing between her legs. Then he lifted her up off his lap and stood. Pausing only to arrange the quilt she'd been wrapped in on the floor near the fire, he pressed her unresisting body down onto it then stood, gazing at her intently as he sat to remove his boots.
"You are lovely," he said as she started to cover her heavy breasts with her arms. "Don't hide from me."
"I'm a bit..." she began, "stout, I know. I'm sorry."
"Why should you be sorry? What man would want a wasp-waisted woman when your curves are so natural and healthy? Not to mention extremely feminine and very, very delectable."
Her heart skipped a beat then she remembered another concern. "Adam," she began, licking her lips. Her thoughts had only just cleared enough to remember why this was a dangerous course of action. "Do you have...something to protect us? Surely as a physician you have access to..." she hesitated on the word, one a lady shouldn't even know, according to society's dictates. But as they taught the older girls at the school, society liked unwed mothers even less. "Condoms?"
His eyes, which had been so heavy, flew open. "Of course. Forgive me for forgetting." Barefoot and with his trouser buttons gaping, he hurried across the room and into his surgery, returning moments later with a paper packet in his hands.
"These are not foolproof, Marietta," he warned. After stripping off his shirt and trousers, he knelt beside her on the quilt and opened the packet.
Marietta was too intent on staring at Adam's naked body to pay much attention to his words. The man was magnificent, a golden god in the dancing firelight. His frame was lean and toned, without an ounce of fat to soften it. A light pelt of dark gold curls covered his broad chest and narrowed down to a thin line that bisected his flat stomach before thickening again to surround his genitals. Her heartbeat raced as her gaze followed that line then took in the sheer size and beauty of his erection. The fact he was clearly aroused - and by her - took her breath away.
"You must promise," he said as she watched him roll the French letter on, "to inform me at once, should our precautions prove ineffective."
"Of course," she said, barely registering his words. She was too intent on watching him cover himself and wishing it were her hands doing the job. It was one of the new rubber condoms which stretched, requiring no strings or ribbons to tie it in place like the older-style ones made of sheep's gut. She'd read about those, though she had never seen either kind in person.
Once sheathed, Adam moved to kneel between her thighs. Marietta expected him to simply spread her legs and take her, had even closed her eyes in preparation for the invasion. Her lids flew open again in shock as she felt him slide his hands beneath her buttocks and his lips kissed her mound.
"Delicious," he murmured, using his tongue to trace the seam of her nether lips. "So warm and wet. Is all that for me, my beauty?"
Her face flamed. Who else? But she only nodded. This type of loving was entirely outside her limited experience.