When she tried the door, Brande found that it was locked.
* * *
Brande paced slowlyaround the room. Then she rapped on the glass door quite loudly. She even contemplated using something to break the glass, but thought that might be heightening the drama rather too much.
Finally the door opened, and her masked lord stood in the doorway.
“Did the whipping teach you nothing?” he demanded.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Bad behavior has consequences.”
“I did not behave badly.”
“You reduced the head submissive to tears.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Don’t you?”
“You’ll ask me that as a serious question? Truly?” she snapped. “She is the one who was dressed. She claims experience. I am the one who is completely nude with a very wounded backside on display. I am the one who is brand new here and frightened over what she has gotten herself into. I only asked a question and offered a little skepticism at the veracity of her answer. Is she really so fragile, Evston? Perhaps she ought not be in charge then.”
He frowned and shook his head.
“What?”
“You slipped.”
“I was curious about your life. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask a few questions about the life of a man who has taken control of—what? Why are you shaking your head?”
“We were pretending not to know each other. You slipped and called me by name.”
“I did not. You’re—mistaken.” Had she? Oh, cold death! She was not ready for the game to be over. She’d suffered a great deal so that it could continue. Averygreat deal.
He walked to the chest, opened a drawer and held out a shift.
She took a step back, covering her collar protectively.
He glanced over and quirked a brow. “I find it very interesting that instead of covering your breasts or your sex, you choose to hold onto that collar.”
Color rose slowly in her cheeks. “I am on a journey of self-discovery. One that doesn’t allow for an excess of modesty.”
“An excess?” he echoed dryly.
She couldn’t help it. She laughed. Then she reached over and grabbed the linens from the bed and wrapped them around her. She sighed. “Dead realms,” she swore. “I suffered quite a lot today to be allowed this adventure with you.”
“My wild little firebird,” he said softly. “Why would you want it?”
“For me, everything hidden must be revealed. Gaining knowledge I’m not supposed to have is the greatest pleasure in life. That and chatting with a handsome friend whom I’ve had cause to miss for many, many days.”
“If it became known that you were here, it would be a death sentence for every one of us, except you. And you, I suspect, would be locked away for lunacy or married to some off-world barbarian.”
The king had already meant that to be her fate. “Is that why the girl was terrified? She recognized me?”
“From the first,” Evston said, pulling off his mask. “And I was supposed to come and defuse the situation. Instead, I dragged us deeper into the dunes.”
“Why did you? That’s very unlike you.”
