Noble’s face grew as black as a thundercloud and he seemed to be having difficulty swallowing. “I do indeed know, although I had not thought that my wife would come to our marriage bed in possession of such knowledge!”

What on earth had gotten into the Lord of Fury? “Well, really, Noble, I know it’s not proper, but I wasn’t aware that it would be something that so upset you. I shan’t do it again, of course, since you are so unhappy about it.”

“I should hope not!” Noble thundered, ignoring the memory of the utter bliss her mouth had given him. “I will have names, Gillian, names of the men with whom you have disported yourself in such a fashion.”

Gillian looked at him in surprise. “Names of men? I never did it with men, Noble.”

He dropped his fork and shook his head. He wasn’t hearing her correctly, that was the problem. Perhaps he had water in his ears. Perhaps he was having a hallucination. Perhaps he was having the most realistic nightmare of his life. The thought that his wife, his lovely innocent Gillian, had engaged in oral acts with another man was enough to make his blood boil. To think that she had done so with a woman—it was inconceivable. He shook his head again and took a deep, deep breath.

“Gillian—”

“In truth, husband, I wasn’t with anyone in particular when I did it. I just wanted to see how it felt, you see, and, well…” She shrugged. “Since they were available, I took the opportunity.”

“They? They were available? As in more than one?”

“Well, yes, Noble. You don’t think I’d go about with just one, now do you?”

Madness. This was sheer madness. That must be the explanation. He’d gone mad and he just hadn’t noticed that fact.

“You don’t think I would have wanted to appear indecent?”

He tried to formulate words, but his brain failed him. He just sat and stared as his wife calmly ate her breakfast and informed him that she’d had relations of a sexual nature with more than one woman in order not to appear indecent. Madness. Or hell. He could be dead and this could be hell. Either explanation would suffice.

“So when the opportunity came up to do it again last night, I couldn’t resist. But I did do it properly, I hope you noticed.”

Noble’s mind ceased to function. He blinked a few times. Oh, he had noticed. She had done it more than properly; she had driven him past the point of his control within a few seconds of touching him. The fire she had started with her lips and tongue was still burning deep within him, melting layers of ice he hadn’t known existed.

“And, of course, I had Nick with me, so that was all right.”

His mind snapped back to attention. “What?”

“I had Nick with me.”

A suspicion slowly began to materialize. “Gillian, of what, exactly, are you speaking?”