A Moment in Time

Adam pushed her door open, obviously angry. "It's about time you came home." He had his robe on and she was just beginning to undress. She pulled her arms out of the dress' sleeves and let the dress drop and puddle around her feet. She daintily stepped over the dress, then kicked it aside and stood before him in her corset and petticoats.

"I'm surprised you care, Adam," she said, her jaw jutting. "After all, you thought it would be doing me a favor to find a husband for me and Royce wants to be just that. He actually talked of marriage tonight. I should think you'd be happy at succeeding in your task."

"No decent woman is out with a man this late."

"You forget, I'm not a decent woman." She half-smiled, taunting him.

Adam was at a loss for words. She infuriated him with her smug expression. "Royce won't marry you if you keep on this way. Have you let him kiss you?" Adam asked. She laughed, surprising him. To him, her laugh sounded like harmonious musical notes. "Hush! You'll wake up everyone," he chastised.

"What does it matter, Adam? Do you think that your family would be surprised to find you in my room? Do you really think they aren't already suspicious? And your father-he's not stupid, he can tell. Why you sweat like a stallion whenever you're close to me" She moved nearer and then leaned into him and kissed his exposed chest.

He caught his breath at the feel of her lips against his skin. He was flooded with sensual memories of when they were together in San Francisco, of her lips on his body, her mouth taking him and how she pleased him so many times, of the times she kissed and bit his nipples. There was both pain and pleasure from her. Adam felt himself heat up and his arousal and hardening disturbed him; she could cause him to react with just a swish of her hips.

She looked up at him from under her eyelashes. "Wouldn't you like to take me over your knee, Adam? Punish me for my-what did you call it? Oh, yes, my insolence. Remember how I feel under your hand? I remember how it felt. The heat and the pleasure and then you would take me." She moved in a dance-like movement to his side and he turned his head to follow her. "Why haven't you asked me if I've laid with him? Do you think that after two outings with Royce I haven't allowed him to kiss me? Maybe even more. Do you imagine it as you lie in your lonely bed only a few doors away? Me and Royce, our bodies pleasing one another's."

Adam grabbed her arm and swung her around. He wanted to throw her on the bed and mount her but he held himself in check; she wasn't going to win. "Don't do this," he warned through gritted teeth.

"Oh, Adam sometimes you're so foolish. You could have had me, had me and your precious Laura as well, but no, you want to clean your conscience and marry me off to a wealthy man. How kind of you. But tell me one thing-will your darling Laura allow you to do what I have? Will she let you use her for your pleasure and enjoy your doing so, let you do the things to her that you've done to me? Will she, Adam?"

He dropped her arm. She noticed that he looked wounded and confused. Adam moved toward the door as if to leave and she suddenly regretted the way she had spoken to him. But she desired him so and to see him with the woman he was going to marry, even if there appeared to be no great passion between them was like a knife in her heart.

"Adam," she almost whispered and he turned to look at her. "You can have me even after you're married if you desire it. I'll serve you always because I'm yours. I didn't mean to be cruel-I just-I long for you so. Every night as I lay in bed and burn for you, ache for you and you never come to me. My breasts burn for the feel of your mouth on them and the empty ache between my legs needs to be satisfied. I try but my fingers are a poor substitute. Help me, Adam. Make me feel that you want me-any way you desire. Take me as you did when we were alone in San Francisco."

Adam looked at her face, the face he adored and reached for her and pulled her to him pressing his lips against hers, forcing her lips apart with his tongue as he did her moist sex when he entered her. And he knew what he wanted, what he had been desiring ever since his return to the Ponderosa with her. He couldn't give her up-he wouldn't. He swept her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck, looking into his smoldering eyes. Knowing what was coming, she shivered slightly. And Adam carried her over to the bed. Tonight would be as all their nights had been-ineffable, filled with passion and ecstasy, thrilling in one another-and in the morning, he would tell them all that he was going to marry her. Her. She was whom he loved and had to have.

~Finis~