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She shook her head. “Nay.”

“You’ve never happened upon your father’s men, barechested in training?”

Reina seemed confused. “They train in armour. So nay.”

Of course they did.

English.

“I can assure you, as inappropriate as our position is here, the fact that you freed me is even more so.”

“’Tis not that.” She swallowed. “My desire to see more of you, to touch you. That is to what I refer.”

Ahh, hell. Galien was not strong enough for this. Their clothes were not yet dry. He had nowhere to escape. But damned if he’d add deflowering the earl’s daughter to his list of transgressions. That he’d put her life in danger was something he’d have to atone for already.

“There is very little inappropriate about that fact, my lady. If there is, I gladly join you as a sinner. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to haul you up to me and touch every bit of bare skin I see, and more that I do not.”

Her lips parted, Reina’s eyes widening at his honesty. “Oh.”

12

Galien was unclothed and standing close enough for her to reach out and touch him if she so desired. And she did desire. Even more mortifyingly, she had told him so. Unlike most maidens, however, she had Joan. From her, Reina learned things she never expected to experience having been betrothed to Lord Hurste. Galien must think her forwardness most unusual.

“I will not, of course,” he added.

“Of course.”

“I am honor-bound to protect you, and I mean to do so.” He paused, standing fully upright. Reina could not help but stare. She’d been bred with better manners, but they seemed to have fled the moment she’d first spied Galien in the nude. Nay, on second thought, the moment she’d seen his face clearly for the first time. Or maybe when he’d said, I am indebted to you, my lady, for the remainder of my days.

Reina could not be certain. She did know that the urge to know what it felt like for a man such as him to kiss her was nearly as strong as her will to evade her father’s men. They remained in danger even now, and yet it was all she could think of.

“Even if it is from myself.”

Reina had to remember what he’d first said. To protect her. Aye. From himself. A worthy cause, as it seemed she might need protecting. Reina had been betrothed for so long, she’d never thought of herself with any other man than Lord Hurste. The king’s favorite had looked nothing like Galien, nor did she ever wish to see him unclothed. She shivered at the thought.

“You are cold still.”

“Nay,” she said, pulling her eyes from Galien’s shouldered muscles to his face. “I am becoming accustomed to the water.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” he said. “If you can tolerate it a bit longer, we would do well to allow your shift to dry.”

“The one that will serve as my gown,” she teased. Reina realized she had been silly to put her own modesty over the seriousness of their situation. If her velvet gown would not dry, so be it.

“That very one.”

His smile could make Reina forget the fact that she swam, naked, with a man that was just yesterday a prisoner in Anbarth’s dungeons. “How did you come to be at Anbarth?”

Submerging himself once again, thankfully, Galien watched as if to decide how much he should reveal. At that moment, a splash caught their attention. She moved away, realizing it was likely a fish.

“They are more afraid of you, lass, than you will ever be of them.”

“That may be true, but I would remain over here if it pleases you.”

He moved toward her. “The current is not so fast that I worry to be in here, but it moves more quickly than I’d like. This is why I remain close to you.”

Oh. Of course. That was the reason. Though he did say it would give him pleasure to “touch every bit” of her bare skin. She touched her own chin and ran her finger down toward her neck. “How did you get that?”

She’d first noticed the scar when the rain had washed away the dried blood and dirt from his altercation with her father’s men.