He lay silent and still on his back upon the floor. Iliana had the brief, mad fear that she had killed him, but then she saw that his chest was rising and falling slowly and she relaxed. It seemed he was just unconscious. Iliana was not sure if that was due to the drink he had consumed or from hitting his head on the floor, but she was too relieved to care overmuch either way. For tonight at least, she need not fear his displeasure.

Feeling it was safe to allow her curiosity free rein now that he was unconscious, she let her gaze slide to his manhood. Her eyebrows rose as she stared at it. Iliana had seen chests and arms and legs before, but this was something new. ’Twas a most curious appendage. The only description she could think of was to say that it looked like a large, angry pink mushroom was growing out of his groin. Most interesting, she decided, and wondered how it might feel.

After glancing nervously at his face to be sure that he was still unconscious, she reached out tentatively to run one finger lightly over it, only to pull quickly away in surprise. The skin was soft and smooth. Not what she had expected. But that was not what had made her react as if she had been bitten. At her mere touch, her husband’s manhood had reared up, seeming to grow an inch or so out of his body like a tree seeking the sun.

Fascinated, Iliana turned her attention to the rest of him. Her husband was a fine figure of a man. His arms and shoulders were at least twice the width of her own, as was his chest. It tapered down into a narrow waist and hips, and finished off with truly magnificent thighs and calves. His feet were a bit odd, however, she decided, taking in the way his second largest toes poked up a bit higher than the big toes.

Duncan suddenly snorted and snuffled in his drunken sleep, and Iliana glanced toward his face warily, but he settled and began to snore lightly. Releasing her breath in a slow sigh, she returned to her side of the bed, blew out the candle, and eased onto her back, worrying over her husband’s reaction when he awoke in the morning and remembered her tossing him out of their bed. No doubt he would be furious. But she would not live in such filth, and she would not allow so filthy a man to touch her. Her mother had taught her too well for that. Begin as you mean to go on, Lady Wildwood had always said. And she was following that advice, Iliana reassured herself as her husband’s snores lulled her into a deep sleep of her own.