Surit rarely forgot things, even under pressure. Even—like now—under the pressure of being faced with an unexpectedly attractive, unexpectedly naked stranger at what Surit had thought was a routine introduction. Surit remembered faces and images particularly easily, so easily that it had almost felt like he was cheating in exams when he read the answers off a mental picture of the textbook. And so he was sure he hadn’t met this smoothly confident civilian, one with an intensity that belied the sallowness under his eyes, but he’d seen that face before.

The defined features, the strong nose, the green eyes, and the sweep of brown hair over his forehead. Not on a capture; it had been a still image. On a trip to Exana, on the news—

“You’re one of the legislator’s family,” he said, more in shock than anything else. He could see the caption under the billboard image. “Sen … Tennalhin?”

“No, I’m the commander’s hired courtesan,” Tennalhin said, swinging his legs over the other person in the bed. The other naked person in the bed, as Surit was trying not to officially notice. “Thanks for visiting—now get out. Not you,” he added to his partner, who was stirring at the noise. “Go back to sleep. I don’t know who this lump of muscle is. He just walked in.”

“Lieutenant Yeni,” Surit said. He could have commented that Tennalhin had known his name seconds before, but Surit didn’t like to give in to someone baiting him. “I’m sorry to—” He swallowed, deeply uncomfortable with the whole situation. He knew soldiers slept with each other, even though it was officially disapproved of, but he had taken care to avoid anything he wasn’t supposed to see. Tennalhin was supposed to be a ranker, as was the curly-haired person half-buried in the blanket, so at least there weren’t any chain-of-command relations going on, but Surit still didn’t want to see it. “I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Surit temporized. He looked at the other ranker and said, “I think maybe you lost your way to your room.”

“Well, you fucking are interrupting.” Tennalhin unfolded himself to his feet. He shrugged a civilian wrap-jacket onto his shoulders, obviously from last night, which just drew deliberate attention to the fact he was wearing nothing else at all. “In fact,” he said, with the precise, razor-sharp diction that Surit had mainly heard from the very rich Exana set, “you are interrupting my fucking.”

Surit felt the heat of embarrassment rise to his face. “Do you think,” he said, carefully measuring his tone, “that you could get dressed?”

“Can’t see where I put my trousers,” Tennalhin said, without bothering to take his eyes off Surit’s face. Behind him, his partner gave a bleary groan and put a pillow over his head. “Are you offering yours?”