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of the tub. She tried once to return the favour by gripping his cock under water, but he pulled her hand away from it and placed it against his chest. “This was to relieve your tension. It is my duty as host to maintain your faculties in a calm and relaxed state.”
    “Duty? Oh.” She tried to get away from him, but he held her on his lap.
    “The duties of a host on Rai are manifold. Keeping you relaxed and calm is high on my list of priorities, next to you being clothed and fed.”
    She winced. “Like a pet.”
    He lifted her chin with two fingers. “An honoured guest, not a pet.”
    She looked up into his eyes and tried not to let her confusion and upset show, but when he pressed a soft kiss to her lips, she knew she had failed. Since when did one make out naked with a guest? Rai was a very strange world.
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    The next morning, she got up, stood to be dressed and sat to have her hair combed and pinned up by Porali. After the bathing the night before, she had walked back to her room for a restless night’s sleep.
    Lord Akutan was waiting breakfast for her. He smiled and put aside the documents he had been reading. “Excellent. I was beginning to worry.”
    Amy smiled shyly. “Porali was insistent on getting my hair just right.”
    She knelt across the table from him as protocol demanded, but he shook his head and patted the cushion on the floor next to him.
    With an internal groan at the ache in her legs, she rose as gracefully as she could and moved to his side. It was not a position given to a supplicant guest. It was the spot reserved for a wife or confidant. Teriki had been sure to drill that much into her.
    Akutan patted the back of her hand. “I was thinking about going riding this morning. Would you care to join me?”
    Amy twisted her answer in her mind. “I would love to, but I have never been riding in my life. I would not wish to embarrass myself and this clothing is not suited to it.”
    He smiled as Teriki supervised the slow entry of the breakfast dishes. “I am sure that my niece’s clothing will fit you. It will just have to be gathered up a little.”
    Teriki looked down at her place at the table and then glared at her.
    Amy gave a helpless shrug.
    “Stop trying to stare a hole through our guest, Teriki. I asked her to sit there to ease conversation.”
    With his lordship’s opinion expressed, Teriki nodded and focussed on adjusting the plates of the morning meal.
    Amy poured tea for both of them, carefully setting the pot back on the trivet. “I hope your sleep was good.”
    He grinned and lifted his cup to his lips. “That is my question. How did you sleep?”
    “I don’t know. I was asleep. I believe that it was fine.” What there was of it. She raised her own tea to her lips and took a tiny sip.
    He arched one brow and took a portion of a minced cooked vegetable. “Interesting. It seems that you are losing your fear of me.”
    She blushed and took a portion of the vegetable and some rice into her own bowl. “There is a lot of etiquette on Rai, and until I figure out what to do next, I need a place to hide.”
    “So, you think if you don’t address me correctly, I will eject you back to Janial?”
    “No, but I don’t want to put any pressure on your hospitality. It is an act of generosity that I am very grateful for.” She studiously kept her gaze focussed on her eating implements.
    He extended two fingers and lifted her chin so that she was facing him again. “I will not send you off world. You are safe here for as long as you wish, and I am enjoying being your host.”
    She read truth and honour in his expression. He wouldn’t send her away, and he was enjoying her presence. It relaxed a knot of tension inside her that had been brewing since Janial.
    She nodded and gave him a small smile. “Thank you.”
    “Do not thank me, it is my honour to show you my world. Now, eat your breakfast and we will go for a ride. There is nothing like