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wear?"
    I felt the immediate urge to shrink away, to drop my shoulders, to somehow feel ashamed of myself. But I pushed that away and put my chin up. "I have no one to impress," I said pointedly, eyes daring him to say otherwise, to remind me that I was told that I was supposed to wear my uniform under my clothes even when off-duty, to, well, be the jackass I expected.
    But all I got was a shrug. "Fair enough. You'll be in my room at seven a.m., Miss. Marlow," he said, turning and moving up the stairs.
    I took a deep breath then followed up the stairs, making sure to keep more than half the staircase then half the hall between us at all times. I locked my door and set the alarm on the dresser before climbing into bed.
    I fell asleep wondering what the hell the next day would have in store for me.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    FOUR
     
    Prue
     
     
     
    The alarm startled me awake, making me shoot up in the unfamiliar bed in the unfamiliar room and it took my sleep-sated brain a long minute to realize where I was and what had woken me up. Alert, I scrambled off the bed and ran across the room to hit the snooze button before turning the alarm off. I stood there for a long minute, hand over my heart as I tried to settle my frazzled nerves.
    "Great way to start a shitty day," I told my reflection in the mirror over the dresser, taking in the pillow marks on my cheek and the sleep in my eyes. "Alright, you can do this," I told myself, going to the closet to grab another 'uniform' out of the box and heading into the bathroom for a quick shower. I climbed into my clothes, making sure I tucked in my shirt, raked a brush through my hair, and decided that was just going to have to do as I didn't have a blow dryer and I didn't have the time to let it air dry.
    At five to seven, I walked into the hall and knocked on Byron's bedroom door, listening for a response. Hearing none, I paused, uncertain what the protocol was. I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to just go into his room without permission, but he had said the night before that I was to be in his room at seven in the morning. With a shrug, I pulled the door open and stepped inside.
    "Mr. St. James?" I called as I walked in, taking in the mussed-up sheets.
    "In here," he called from the bathroom and I followed, rolling my eyes, wondering what menial task he had planned for me. Cutting his toenails perhaps? I stopped dead inside the door though, my entire body going ramrod straight.
    Shit.
    Okay.
    There was no way he meant for me to follow him into the bathroom.
    No.
    He was just telling me where he was.
    I wasn't supposed to come.
    I knew that because as I walked in, I saw him standing in his shower bay, under the steaming spray. Naked. Yes, naked. But more so than that, his hand was wrapped around his hard cock and he was stroking it.
    Jesus.
    Alright. I needed to quietly and slowly enough to not draw attention to the motion, back the hell right out of that room before he saw me.
    "Don't," his voice called as soon as I moved one foot backward. I froze, my pulse pounding hard in unusual places: wrists, throat, and, um... another place.
    "Sorry, I, ah .... I'll go," I said, dropping my head to look at the floor, squeezing my eyes so tight that it hurt.
    "Miss. Marlow," his voice called, a little rough, a little sex-raspy. And the sound had a physical effect. Crap. Crap crap crap. "Eyes up," he commanded and I felt my head shaking since, one, I didn't hear the water shut off so he was still under the spray, and two, I was pretty sure my cheeks were beet freaking red. "Eyes now, Miss. Marlow," he snapped in such a cruel tone that my head jerked up and my eyes opened. As I had expected, he was still in the shower, under the spray, naked, his hand still around his cock. The only difference was, his eyes were on me. They were heavier than usual but just as intense as ever. "Right there, like that. You move, you blink, and I am having one of my men go find your father."
    The