Free An Original Sin by Nina Bangs

the color matter? You won’t see them.”
    He smiled. “Aye, but I can imagine.”
    “Then you can imagine white.” Cool white. Calm white.
    Shrugging, he wandered over to another bin.
    Making sure he wasn’t looking, she put the white panties back. Colored ones were prettier. She wouldn’t think about why prettier should matter now when it never hadbefore. Just this once. She pulled out a blue pair, a black pair, and…a red pair, then balled them up in her fist so he wouldn’t see. Somehow she didn’t want to give him even this small triumph.
    Trying for casual, she joined him beside another bin.
    He glanced down at her with heavy-lidded intensity; then he smiled—a wicked grin her body understood instantly even as her mind fought the good fight. “I’ll enjoy sliding the red ones over yer smooth thighs and down yer long legs.”
    “And what virtual world will you be visiting when this happens?” She tried to ignore the mental picture of his hands touching her, the sensation of his fingers…
    He frowned. “I dinna know what a virtual world is, but I must do penance before I can return to Scotland.”
    Now it was her turn to be puzzled. “Penance? What does penance have to with anything?”
    His expression cleared, and he smiled. “Ye’re right. ’Twill be no penance at all.”
    Somehow she’d lost control of this conversation.
    Glancing down, she studied the contents of the bin beside them. Bras. Braving more comments from an intensely interested Leith, she defiantly grabbed three white ones.
    “What are those?” The evil glitter in his eyes told her he knew exactly what those were.
    “Bras.” If he could play games, so could she. “Bras have a force field that’s activated by the wearer’s body heat. If someone touches me, poof, the toucher disappears.” Careful . Violent images were not healthful images.
    His playfulness vanished. “And who would ye fear touching ye, lass?”
    You . “Who, indeed?” Time for a dignified retreat. “Wait here while I try on these bras.” Relieved, she quickly escaped behind the curtain of a small dressing room.
    Stripping off her jeans and shirt, she hung them on a hook, then slid on the red panties. For some reason they made her feel…protected. Protected? Against what? Not what, whom. Leith. No way did he have so much power over her, but she still couldn’t bear to remove the panties. She’d tell the clerk she was wearing them and pay when she left.
    Without warning, someone ripped open the curtain. Even as she instinctively crossed her hands over her breasts, a sense of inevitability overwhelmed her. “Jupiter’s balls! Don’t you dare look, Leith Campbell. Get out of here. Close the curtain.”
    From his dazed expression, she guessed he didn’t know which command to obey first.
    “Jupiter’s balls?”
    “I never use that kind of language, but you make me so…Get out!”
    Carefully he pulled the curtain closed behind him. No . That wasn’t the command she’d wanted him to obey first.
    “I chose a bra for ye.” He dangled a piece of cloth from two fingers. He looked uncertain. She refused to melt even a little bit. He’d be lucky if she didn’t remove his fingers along with the bra. “I meant only to hand it through the curtain, but then I spied the tail.”
    “Tail?” Fortune glanced down. Ganymede. Could a cat smile?
    She glared at Ganymede. “Scat!”
    Flattening his ears, whipping his tail from side to side, and growling his dis pleasure, he stalked from the room. Fortune wondered how well “scat” would work on Leith.
    “How’d he get out of the taxi? You have to take him back.” She glanced longingly at her shirt and jeans. Could she get them on without exposing her breasts to Leith’s view? One look at his predatory gaze told her he hoped she’d try.
    “But the bra…” He held it up. Only one finger this time. Smart man .
    “There’s nothing to it, just a little piece of lace. And can’t you pick something that