Free Sin and Surrender by Julia Latham

is far superior to the green,” he said.
    She ignored him, packing away her damp laundry, knowing she would have to lay it out again that night.
    “It shows a daring hint of cleavage, but the obvious wealth and craftsmanship of the gown gives it enough refinement. Of course, the waistline of the green gown does flatter you more than the yellow.”
    “And why is that?” she asked with studied indifference, as she checked the edge of her blade before sliding it into her boot.
    “This really means nothing to you, does it?” he asked at last.
    “Nay, not a bit. The gowns are lovely, they all mark me as a wealthy concubine. ‘Tis enough for me.”
    “Do you ever even wear gowns?”
    She glanced at him. “Never, except on assignments.” Perhaps her dearth of femininity was a way to make him keep his distance.
    “Because you never see other women.”
    “And neither did you,” she said thoughtfully. “Surely as a young man, that must have been difficult. Or did you take journeys away from the League fortress?”
    He turned away, folding up every gown but the pink one with its fine bodice.
    She’d struck deep, she realized with interest. “You did not, did you? Did you even know about women?”
    “Of course I did,” he answered almost crossly.
    She held back her triumph at bothering him the way he so easily bothered her.
    “Was I the first woman you saw—nay, wait, you’d already been on missions before I arrived.”
    “Robert saw a woman before I did.”
    He took off the shirt he’d slept in, a deliberate attempt to distract her from what he obviously wished he hadn’t said.
    She approached him, interested in his faint touch of wariness. “How did Robert see a woman? Did one arrive at the Castle, lost in the mountains?”
    “You have a vivid imagination. As some boys do, Robert simply ran away.”
    “Ran away?” she echoed.
    He unlaced his breeches, lowered them a bit with his thumbs, until she could see his hipbones, which framed the ridges of his abdomen. She refused to back down and turn away.
    He sighed. “He simply wanted to meet girls. Adam was sent to retrieve him. Robert was quite excited to have kissed a dairymaid before he was captured.”
    “Surely you made him tell you all about it,” she teased.
    Did his face actually turn a bit red? Her good humor was beginning to feel restored.
    He lowered the breeches even more, until she glimpsed a scrap of linen, and even more dark blond hair. She turned around at last, feeling a bit too breathless.
    “You could ask me to give you some privacy,” she said crossly.
    “And you could realize when I need it.”
    “But what I most realize is your embarrassment. You do not need to feel so, Paul, especially not with me. I know how you were raised. Young men are drawn rather obsessively to girls.”
    “Obsessively, is it? What a choice in words. Did someone obsess over you?”
    She suddenly remembered the Bladesman maneuvering her into a dark corridor, and the way she’d let him know with her fists that she wanted him to stop. The incident had changed all of her training.
    She laughed lightly. “Obsess over me? The girl in breeches? Nay. But I live with men, Paul, and I do not idealize your sex.” She didn’t risk facing him, but did cock her head with exaggeration. “Hmm, so you never saw women. At all. You did tell me of the concern that your parents’ murderer was looking for Keswick’s heirs. So of course, they kept you well protected. But you never walked through a village when you were young? After all, who would have known your face?”
    He didn’t answer, and she risked a glance over hershoulder to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling on his boots.
    “How did you feel the first time you saw a woman?” she asked. “What did you do?”
    He set down his foot and looked at her for a moment. “Do you want the truth?”
    “I do.”
    “The girl I first saw seemed like a magical creature, all soft, pretty hair and a secretive