For a moment, Iliana was too busy considering the blood to think of anything else. To her, blood meant a wound, and a wound meant pain. Her mother had said there was a little bit of discomfort the first time but had not mentioned anything about pain or blood. Then the other part of his explanation caught at her attention and her wide eyes raised to his. “What did they want with the sheet? Why did they take it?”

Duncan grimaced at the question, knowing before he spoke that she would not like the answer. “’Twas taken to hang over the rail at the top o’ the stairs. To prove to one and all that ye came to me pure, and that the marriage was consummated yester eve.”

She did not look pleased by the news, but merely sighed and moved around the bed to her chests. She had begun rifling through the nearest one in search of a gown when she was suddenly grabbed from behind and picked up in a pair of strong arms. Gasping, she grabbed at the arms holding her and opened her mouth to ask her husband what he thought he was doing, then cried out in surprise as she was dropped upon the bed.

Duncan fell upon her before she had even bounced once upon its soft surface. His mouth muffled her startled cry and his hands moved hungrily here and there, seemingly touching every part of her body almost at once.

Gasping for breath as soon as his lips left hers, Iliana pushed at his chest in an attempt to remove him, but it was impossible. He did not even seem to notice her efforts as he tugged at the bed linens to bare her body to his view. Iliana immediately gave up pushing at him and caught at those instead, trying to retain the small covering, but she lost that battle as well. The cloth slipped through her clutching fingers until her breasts were bared.

Much to her combined relief and dismay, the moment he spied those, Duncan left off tugging at the linens, leaving them tangled and bunched about her waist and hips. Eyes lighting up like a child’s at Christmas, he released an exclamation and lunged for the two orbs he had revealed, pouncing on them like a miser on money. Testing their weight, he kneaded their softness, then fastened his mouth on one and suckled like a starving child briefly before turning to the other.

For a moment, Iliana was so stunned she forgot to fight. ’Twas just long enough for a betraying heat to steal through her body, the same heat that had assailed her during her erotic dream. Then her nose wrinkled as it was assaulted by the foul odor of him and she renewed her struggles.