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the perfunctory knock on his bedroom door, she walked in. Her heart was in her throat as she scanned the living area then the bed.
    Relief flooded through her on realizing he was nowhere in sight. Setting the vacuum cleaner and her plastic box filled with cleaning supplies on the floor, she dared to look at the big bed where just yesterday, Jamar had made love to her. Did she detect the scent of musky sex in the air? Had Jamar brought another woman into his suite last night?
    Her heart plummeted. He’d told her he loved her, yet he could bring another woman, probably a Jaquill, into his bed. She yanked a duster from her box. It wasn’t any of her business what he did. It never had been. She was a kattanee and was supposed to know her place. Then why did she hurt so much just thinking about Jamar being with another woman?
    Because she loved him, that’s why. She ran the duster along one corner of a sunlit window with such vengeance she startled a spider in its web and it raced away. If only she could flee as freely as it had. That she had no choices bothered her more than it usually did. She worked from before morning light until the sun disappeared behind what the kattanee called Dead End Mountain. If any tried to flee servitude, they were usually found there, climbing its craggy rocks like mountain goats.
    She didn’t hear Jamar silently walk up behind her. “I’d give a duke’s ransom to know what you’re thinking.”
    Kierra jumped and dropped the duster. It fell with a soft thud at her feet. “Jamar,” she whispered, wondering how she must look to him. Her eyes must have been wild and her ragged dress was worn where her neck met the fabric at the collar and her hem was crooked.
    On the other hand, he towered over her, and despite herself, his magnificent presence comforted her. His white shirt was open at the collar, revealing the dark skin underneath. His trousers hugged his thighs in a warm caress as she suddenly longed to do.
    He threw his keys on the coffee table. The pair jingled as they hit the wood. He faced her, his expression, for once, unfathomable. “What were you thinking?”
    This was an unfamiliar side of Jamar Reserved, coolly assessing her, unblinking. She licked her dry lips slowly, struggling to find the correct words and buy her some time. She could hardly tell him he looked different this morning. The sun angled across his body as if it were placing him on display for her eyes only. Broad shoulders, muscled chest, small waist, and lean thighs and oh goodness, but his engorged penis strained against the seam of his pants.
    “I—” Lost in the pleasure of simply looking at him, she didn’t know what to say.
    “Go on,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest, and accentuating his lower body and the massive bulge below his belt.
    “You’ve changed,” she said, disbelieving her own ears. How could she talk to him like this when she’d promised herself she’d keep her place?
    “To what?” he demanded, his husky voice low and authoritative.
    She averted her gaze from his erection. He wouldn’t have to say much more to her and she’d run to him and beg him to make love to her with every ounce of her being.
    “I don’t know,” she replied, shaken by her thought.
    “I see.” He uncrossed his arms and sat in one of the armchairs by the window. “Take your clothes off.”
    The order frightened her. Jamar rarely commanded her to do anything. He’d always treated her more as an equal. “Why?”
    “That’s not your place to ask why. Just do it.” His golden eyes were cold, almost hostile.
    Kierra decided to disobey, a risky choice at best until she could size him up. What had changed him? “No, not until I know what you want.”
    He shook his head from side to side, as his lips drew together in a thin and frightening, line. “Kierra Vonne, I’m not in the habit of repeating myself. Take your clothes off.”
    So she wouldn’t get a straightforward reply. Overnight, he’d