 
## THE SLAVE

Free Men, Book One _  
_

Kate Aaron

Copyright 2014 Kate Aaron

Smashwords Edition

Croft House

**Croft House | Licence Notes  
**

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, except where permitted by law, or in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact: Author@KateAaron.com

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover image by Elizabeth Mackey Graphics

ElizabethMackeyGraphics.com

Edited by Theo Fenraven

KateAaron.com

WARNING: This book contains scenes of an adult nature.

**Index  
**

The Slave

Excerpt from The Soldier

About the Author

**More Kate Aaron Titles  
**

Ace

At twenty-two years old, World No.6 and England's No.1, Brian Scagill has the tennis world at his feet. Last year's semifinalist, this year Brian enters England's biggest tournament determined to win. A Grand Slam on home turf is calling to him and he's not going to let anything stand in the way of victory - certainly not a cute Croatian who doesn't even play in the same league.

The Dead Past

_Puddledown, England, 1948_. Hugo Wainwright has been denying his attraction to men his whole life. When he stumbles over a murdered body in the woods, the ensuing investigation throws him in with Tommy Granger, the police inspector's prime suspect. Certain of Tommy's innocence, Hugo vows to clear the name of the man he's falling for, but Tommy has his own secrets; secrets with deadly consequences.

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**About the Author  
**

Born in Liverpool, Kate Aaron is a bestselling author of the #1 LGBT romances _What He Wants, Ace, The Slave_ , and other critically acclaimed works.

Kate swapped the North West for the Midwest in October 2015 and married award-winning author AJ Rose. Together they plan to take over the world.

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THE SLAVE

Free Men, Book One _  
_

Kate Aaron

Copyright 2014 Kate Aaron

Croft House

CHAPTER ONE

I stood silently in the farthest corner of the dark room when I was finally admitted, head bowed, hands clamped tightly behind my back, left wrist clasped in a death grip by my right fist, shoulders straight, stomach flat, unconsciously presenting. It was a default gesture, ingrained through years of habit, and punishment if I failed to comply immediately to my master's wishes. The men talking in low voices forgot I was there once their initially curious assessment of me was over. My collar marked me clearly for what I was.

The cloying sweet scent of smoke wafted over me from the bubbling pipe that a small group shared, reclined on sumptuous fabrics, swaddled in mute light. An undercurrent of anticipation hummed in the air, making it shimmer. Everything had a mirage-like quality, or perhaps that was my own discomfort clouding my memories. My palms were slick, and I swiped a bead of moisture from my upper lip with my tongue. On the other side of those walls, the lots were undergoing their final preparations, primped and primed for sale.

Fifteen years earlier, I had been one of them, still a boy, little more than a child. Twelve summers had passed since my mother brought me forth, birthed me on the dirt floor of our simple tent. We were nomads, a small tribe that claimed allegiance to no flag but roamed the wastes of the Samatari desert. We knew nothing of the wars that raged around us, the political intrigues and power struggles of the nations that bordered our uncharted home.

The soldiers were rebel forces, I later learned, traitors to the King of Granthia to the east. They were moving west to join the lawless warriors of the barbarian Thirsk, Overlord of all the lands that lay beyond. All we knew was they were strangers, strangers in bright armour that shone and winked in the light of our two suns. They'd killed my father, my mother, my elder brothers. They'd taken my younger sister and hadn't bothered waiting in turn, too greedy for their pound of female flesh. One held me by my hair and forced me to watch as they abused her until her terrified heart gave out. Even then, they weren't finished.

They left the broken corpses of my family for the birds to peck at.

A bell rang, slicing through my memories and bringing a whole host of others to the fore. The men around me began standing, brushing creases and crumbs from their robes with impatient hands. Head bowed, I watched the procession of their feet as they left the room. I followed as my position dictated, careful to keep my balance and not trip as the long cloth of my robes swished around my ankles. At my master's compound, I was expected to wear only the bare minimum of clothing. He claimed he liked to admire the blue dots and swirls that adorned my body, the old ink stains of a culture those monsters erased that day in the desert. My tattoos were a novelty to him; they made me exotic in this land of dark, unmarked flesh. For this trip, however, he'd insisted I cover not only my pale, patterned skin, but also my long white-blond hair.

We were shown into the next room, where chairs were arranged in a crescent around the Cage. I shivered a little, even in the oppressive heat of the building. Outside, the two suns beat down on this little outpost of the Thirskan Empire. Inside, without the respite of windows, it was stiflingly warm. The room was in total darkness save the bright lights focused on the centre of the Cage. I shuddered, remembering how it felt to stand there, naked and scared, on display for who knew how many pairs of eyes hidden by the blinding lights. The Cage's bars were buried in the ceiling and in the floor of the raised platform on which it stood, the only way in or out a barred tunnel leading back to the pens below. Escape was impossible.

A few of the men took out fans, lazily wafting their faces as they settled in their seats and waited for the auction to commence. I hung back, knowing a seat would not be permitted to me. Instead, I positioned myself behind Master's chair, usually vacant because he rarely purchased new slaves, having seemingly lost the taste for them since my mistress had removed much of the household to their mountain home, abandoning him here in the desert.

I clasped my hands before me, chin up and looking straight forward as I waited. I brushed the back of his seat with an index finger, rubbed the warm, textured velvet as though seeking comfort from something that was at least his if I couldn't have him. He rarely sent me far from his sight. In small outposts like this one, the slavemarkets were slow. The best one could usually hope for was some unexpected treasure plucked from the desert, a creature like myself, young and scared enough to be docile.

He was an underlord of some sort, my master, and when some difficulty in a neighbouring village called him away, he'd ordered me to attend the auction at Otiz in his stead. "You know what I like, Tam." I had smiled a little, proud I was being trusted with this responsibility even as I was consumed with sadness that he wanted another slave at all. Couldn't I have been enough?

I swallowed the lump in my throat as he caressed me. I knew he needed more slaves—the mistress had taken so many, his compound could barely function, and if he were to host any official engagements, he needed a full complement of staff. I chose instead to be proud of his trust in me—not that I would run away, for I had nowhere to go even if I wanted to. His collar marked me as his property, and a runaway slave was not treated kindly by those who capture him. But he was trusting me with a big decision, with spending large sums of his money. The last time I had been here, I hadn't even known what money was.

"Boys were valuable," that's what I'd heard the soldiers say. That's why they kept me, why they didn't harm me. I'd be worth more. More _what_ , though? My family had taken what they needed from the desert, and even that inhospitable environment provided enough for us to live by. There was only nothing when you didn't know where to look.

A metallic door clanged open, and from somewhere within the bowels of the building, a thin wail rose bare moments before the first lot was prodded into the Cage. He stood petrified, blinking in the strong lights, blind to the men around me, who all sat a little straighter and began to take notice. They were wealthy men; only the highest owned pleasureslaves. Governors, underlords, maybe even a general or two. Some were younger than my master, most considerably older. They were of all shapes and sizes beneath their robes. Some were no doubt cruel, sadists who would delight in humiliating and hurting their new acquisition, breaking his mind as surely as they would break his body. Some were cruel; some merely looked it.

Lot One was probably in his early teens. His colouring marked him as a son of one of the Northern kingdoms, probably a trader's child sold to pay a debt. Stubborn vestiges of puppy fat clung obstinately to his stomach, thighs, and buttocks. His hair was shorn, his genitals shrivelled up towards his pelvis. He was trembling fiercely, hands cupped protectively before him. Tear tracks streaked his cheeks. Crude comments reach my ears from the other men, and I winced inwardly for the boy, knowing his immediate future looked bleak.

The bidding began, apathetic as he was only the first lot, nothing special at that. I kept my hands clasped firmly before me. He would not please my master.

The boy was sold for a paltry sum to an older underlord, obscenely fat. I hoped he'd be lucky, that his new master lacked the will or the capacity to do anything other than spoil and pet him, but I doubted it.

The next lots came and went: boys of all nations, some sickeningly young, as I had been, some almost men. Those would be harder to train, accustomed too long to their freedom. The bidding began to heat up, competition breaking out between the members. Still I had seen nothing that would please my master.

Raised voices and the smart crack of a whip caused us all to pause, staring at the entrance of the Cage with renewed interest. There was a long wait, and then the lot strode in. The men around me tittered, their fans flapping faster as they looked at the offering. He was older than the others, I judged at most only five years younger than myself, probably less. He was Granthian, no question. No other race had their peculiar combination of jet-black hair and emerald eyes. Eyes that now gazed haughtily forward, uncowed, unflinching. The tight muscles packed over his lean frame marked him as a soldier, and a fit one at that. As he turned I saw the long red lash of the whip striping his back.

The man beside me nudged his neighbour, sniggering unpleasantly. The lot's head jerked towards the sound, green eyes narrowing. His fingers flexed at his sides, arms loose but ready, I was sure, to fight tooth and nail to defend himself. I was amazed he was here, that he was considered suitable slave material by anyone. But then I listened to what the men around me were saying, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose in horror at what they wanted to do to him. He wasn't a slave, he was a trophy—something beautiful they wanted to possess only to see how much he could endure before he shattered.

The bidding commenced, and I found myself raising my hand before I even considered the folly of what I was doing, earning evil looks from the underlords displeased that a slave would challenge them, even in a situation such as this. I squared my shoulders, mindful that it was not I, Tamelik, slave, who was outbidding them, but my master.

The price rose steeply, the other men encouraged both by the sight of the soldier, now prowling the edge of the Cage, glaring furiously into the darkness before him; and by me, the slave audacious enough to compete with them, even if it was only as my master's proxy. I began to fear I would reach the generous limit he had set before the others dropped out, but to my overwhelming relief, my last opponent caved as I bid my final chit on the future of the man before me.

Sale made, I stood through the remaining three lots, head bowed, trying hard not to tremble as I realised the enormity of what I had done.

I waited until the others exited the auction room before I followed them to the holding pens. Each man, having completed his agreed transactions, was taking possession of his new property. Steaming heat rose as metalworkers stamped each collar with the owner's motif and affixed it around the slave's neck. The collars were requisite: strong, thick steel that, once fastened, could only be cut off. Since my capture, I'd had my collar changed five times as I had grown. It wouldn't be necessary again.

I reached to it instinctively, remembering how, as a bewildered, just-sold child, I had screamed and writhed against it. How Master had taken me on his knee and patted me while the metalworker completed his task and Mistress rolled her eyes at us both. I had been bought for her, a pet, but from the first, I'd always been my master's slave. The five times it had come off, I'd felt bereft.

"Bought yourself a whole heap of trouble with that one." The slaver nodded to where my new companion was thrashing in the metalworkers' strong arms, determined not to be collared. "Hope your master knows how to break him."

I nodded stiffly, took possession of the slave's papers, and went to see if I could ease his distress.

"It's necessary," I said in Granthian.

His eyes widened a fraction at my ability to speak his language. One of the metalworkers took advantage of the distraction and clapped the collar around his neck. He roared his displeasure, throwing off two of the men who held him as he fought like a madman against it being sealed. More metalworkers piled in, suppressing him by dint of brute strength and numbers.

"It's necessary," I repeated, squatting to meet his eye where he lay, held down by many hands. He squeezed his lids shut as they began welding the collar closed.

"Who says this is necessary?"

"The law requires it."

"I don't care about your stinking laws. This isn't happening to you." He glared at me, eyes blazing.

I drew the neck of my robe aside. "It did once."

That stilled him long enough for the men to do their work and release him, retreating hastily. He tried to spring to his feet, the movement abruptly halted by a short, stout chain linking his collar to the floor. It must have hurt when it jolted him back down, but he made no sound. On his hands and knees, head down, he began to tremble ever so slightly. Had I not been kneeling at his side, I would not have noticed. I judged he was on the very cusp of losing control and breaking down completely.

Unsure what to do for the best, I dithered. I wanted to touch him. Every instinct I had was screaming at me to place a hand on his shoulder, offer him some sort of solidarity, but I had no way of knowing if that would be welcome or if it would make him worse. I made my decision, and with regret, I rose and walked over to the slaver.

"I need a transport."

The man raised an eyebrow, silently mocking me. "We can distribute your purchase this evening, for a fee."

"No, now. Privately." I'd heard stories of the mass transports. I wasn't confining my new companion to one. I only hoped Master would forgive me for exceeding his allowance.

"There is no transport leaving now." The man returned to shuffling papers.

"You know who my master is," I reminded him. "Money is no object, and he will not be happy if you refuse his request."

The trader glanced over at my soldier. "He _was_ causing us trouble...."

Orders were given and I returned to crouch at my companion's side. "We're leaving now. Don't fight them."

"Why not?" He glowered at me, green eyes venomous.

"They _will_ kill you. You've come this far, don't let it end here."

The look he gave me was so bleak, my heart bled for him.

"Our master is a good man—"

"I have no master! I'm a free man." He thumped the stone floor with his fist.

I shook my head sadly. "Not anymore."

CHAPTER TWO

His papers said his name was Kai; a foot soldier with the Granthian corps. No doubt his sale into slavery was someone's particular brand of humiliation, or perhaps the troops who'd sold him simply needed the money.

The transporter took us back to Master's compound on the outskirts of Otiz, and I had Kai installed in his chamber before nightfall. Master had seen fit to have bars placed on the windows, and the sturdy lock on the door had been well oiled in preparation for a new arrival. Fresh slaves took time to train and longer to trust. I listened, feeling wretched as he systematically destroyed what sounded like every stick of furniture in the sparse room. He would be forbidden possessions until he learned to take care of the ones he had.

Sasha, the cookwoman and only remaining female slave in our household, was wide-eyed when she brought a tray of thin gruel up for him. "What have you bought? What will Master say?"

"I don't know what came over me," I admitted. "I couldn't bear the thought of him falling into the hands of any of the others."

"If anyone can make him understand, you can." She smiled, and I warmed with affection for her.

"Let me take that." I indicated the tray. "He at least knows me."

Silence had fallen in the room when I opened the lock. I entered warily, half expecting him to rush me in a desperate bid to escape, but instead what I saw moved me almost to tears. He was slumped on the floor, the furniture—as I had guessed—shattered and scattered around him. The sheets of his bed were torn, his hands and limbs streaked with blood from his excesses.

I entered and heard Sasha lock the door behind me. I placed the tray on the floor and sat beside him, my knees drawn up, legs crossed at the ankle. I had expected him to be weeping but his eyes were dry, dull and flat like something was dead inside him, too numb even for self-pity.

"Do you want me to bring you something for those cuts?" I nodded at the deep scratches and lacerations on his neck and chest where he had tried to remove the collar.

He shook his head.

"Don't let them get infected."

He seemed almost to laugh at that, the sound not quite surfacing.

"I'm Tamelik. Tam. Is Kai your real name?"

He growled low, like an animal.

"Your papers say you were a soldier. What happened to you? Were you captured? By whom?"

He drew away from me, pointedly turning his back. So maybe I asked too many questions; maybe he wasn't ready to talk about his old life just yet.

"I was a nomad. My people came from the desert." I bit back the memories. "Our master isn't a bad man."

He turned suddenly, glaring at me. "How is it you speak my language?"

"Master let me learn. He said it would do me good to educate me."

"What use is an educated pleasureslave?" He sneered the word, like it—I—was something dirty.

"Well, it means I can talk to you," I retorted, stung. "He taught me himself."

"Your accent is terrible."

I laughed. "I'll tell Master you said that."

He snarled. "Is that a threat?"

"No." I frowned a little. "He always worried we didn't get the pronunciation right. He learnt from a book when he was a boy."

"How long have you been here?"

"More than half my life." I watched him process that. "He bought me when I was twelve. Before that I was a nomad, like I said."

"And your... master. How old is he?"

"Our master." I smiled softly. "He is ten years older than me."

"Huh." He looked surprised. "That young?"

"He has been very successful. Some say he's the lost son of Thirsk himself."

Kai glowered darkly, unimpressed with old wives' tales.

"I brought you food."

"I'm not hungry."

I suffered him a withering look. "I don't believe you."

He glanced cursorily at the tray. "Is that what he feeds us? Gruel? I ate better in the army."

"It's just for today. After what the slavers have been feeding you, anything richer would make you ill."

He scowled. "Wouldn't do to have sickly slaves, would it?"

"No," I answered, perfectly serious. "It wouldn't."

"This doesn't bother you?" He eyed me incredulously. "You really don't care what he's done to you?" Realisation dawned. "He let you go out on your own, and you didn't even try to escape, did you?"

"Of course not. I belong here."

"No you don't! No person should be able to own another. Can't you see how wrong it is? Look what he's done to us!" He tugged angrily at his collar.

"Master doesn't own me here,"—I touched my collar—"he owns me here." I touched my chest, over the place where it hurt when I wondered why he'd purchase another slave at all.

"Oh." He sat back on his haunches. " _Oh_."

"Yes," I answered softly.

"Then what am I?"

"How should I know?" I spat, bitterness welling in me, acid churning my gut. "Lords don't love their slaves." I laughed humourlessly. "Not even underlords."

"You think he means to replace you?"

I didn't—I hadn't—I couldn't let my thoughts stray down that dark road. Not until I heard Kai say the words out loud, so casually, like he could perfectly understand why I'd be so easy to replace. Tears pricked my eyes, and I was half standing before he realised I'd moved.

"I'm sorry."

"Fuck you."

He looked surprised. "Your master taught you that word?"

I laughed, disarmed. "No one else did."

His expression turned sympathetic. "I'm sorry I offended you. Please, don't go. I'm sure whatever he plans for me, he'd never replace you."

I sat again, a little mollified, and prepared to forgive him for stamping so clumsily into my life. Today he'd had a lot to take in.

"Your master." He looked apprehensive again. "Does he...?"

"Fuck me?"

He nodded.

"Of course. I'm his pleasureslave." I dripped enough scorn into the last word he'd know he offended me earlier.

"Well, he's not doing it to me!" he declared fiercely.

"I don't want him to, either." My eyes flashed. "But what we want doesn't come into it. You never know, you might even learn to like it."

A ghost flitted behind his eyes, and he looked momentarily vulnerable.

"Or perhaps you already have?" I guessed.

"Not that!"

"Something close, then. You're not as innocent as I first thought."

He blushed beautifully, deep red from his chest to the tips of his ears. With everything else that had been happening, I hadn't taken time to stop and notice how attractive he was.

"Forget about him," I said cruelly. "You'll never see him again."

"You think I don't know? I don't need your master to collar me for that. He's dead."

"Oh."

"And I'm here."

"I'm sorry."

"I don't want your pity."

We glared at each other.

"I don't want any of this," he continued, suddenly plaintive.

"He'll treat you well."

"Where is he, anyway—this master of yours? Why does he send you to do his dirty work for him?"

"He isn't here. He was called away."

"Convenient," he sneered. "Was that before or after he bought me?"

I dropped my gaze. "Before."

"Wait—what?" The truth dawned slowly. "You chose me? _You_?"

I nodded.

"Why?"

"Why not?" I answered defensively. "Someone had to. Why not me?"

"But why choose me over the others? I saw them: kids—babies, most of them. Easy to train. Why me?"

"Truthfully?" I looked hard at him. "Because I wanted to. Isn't that reason enough?"

He looked back, considering my answer. "No."

"Fine," I snapped. "I did it because I felt sorry for you."

"You felt _sorry_ for me?"

"Yes. You have no idea. You came into the Cage like you were ready to take on the world. You're too old to train, you know that. What did you think you were there for? They'd have done unspeakable things to you. They'd have let their friends do unspeakable things. They'd have used you until there was nothing left of you to take. Did you want that?"

He paled. "No."

"So I bought you." I shrugged. "I know you'll be safe here, if you do as you're told."

His shoulders slumped, and he drew the thin robe I'd given him as we left the slavemarket closer around his torso. "You should have let one of them have me. At least then it would have been over."

"That's no way to die," I answered softly.

"This is no way to live, either."

I shook my head as I stood to leave. He would learn one way or another. If Master had to break him, or sell him, then that was what he would do. I hoped it wouldn't come to that. I had hoped to talk him around, that he would at least be receptive when Master summoned him, for my own sake.

"Where are you going?"

"To my chamber. You won't listen to me and maybe you're right, but I can't change what's happened to you—to either of us. If Master punishes me for buying you, then I'll accept it. I only wanted to help."

"Wait."

I paused, my hand on the door, ready to knock for release.

"I don't want you to get punished because of me."

I snorted. "That's not your decision to make."

"What can I do?"

"Other than accept what has happened?" I turned to face him. "Be obedient. He won't ask for much, not at first."

"Tell me about him."

"You really want to know?"

He nodded, patting the floor beside him. I sat.

"He's an underlord," I began. "He governs the whole area—"

"I don't want to know about that. Tell me what he's like."

I smiled involuntarily, as I always did when I thought of him. "He's handsome. Black hair, a bit like yours. Longer, though. Brown eyes. Dark, dark brown. No beard. The Thirskans don't wear beards. Sometimes he lets me shave him." I blushed at that. No doubt Kai thought I should have cut his throat while I was about it.

"And he treats you well?"

"Oh, yes. I was bought for the mistress, but I always preferred him. He was so kind to me when they first brought me here."

"You never mentioned a mistress before."

My eyes darkened. "She left."

"Oh."

"Yes. It has just been me and Master this last sixmonth."

"And then he sent you to buy me."

I appreciated that he understood how I felt.

"You say you were twelve?"

I nodded.

"He didn't.... Not then, surely?"

"No, not then. He let me keep my childhood until I had outgrown it. What was left of it, anyway."

"When you say he won't ask for much...." He swallowed; his throat sounded dry. "What will he expect?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I only know he's always been good to me. Gentle."

"Oh." He looked marginally relieved.

"He never forced me." For some reason, it mattered that Kai understood that. "If anything, I forced him." I laughed, remembering how much I had wanted it. How hesitant he had seemed at first, as though unsure his attentions were truly desired. I had never desired anything the way I desired him.

"I, I don't know if I can...."

"You haven't even met him yet," I reminded him. "He might surprise you."

CHAPTER THREE

Master returned as the second sun set, as the first rings rose in the sky, beautiful blue-white halos of ice that arced across the horizon, a celestial bridge over which the ancient sun-gods strolled. His eyes looked tired, yet still he smiled to see me presenting neatly outside his chamber door. He beckoned and I followed him in, the latch catching with a soft click. He surprised me by taking me in his arms, burying his nose in my long hair, and inhaling deeply. I closed my eyes and returned the embrace, my cheek nestled on his broad chest, listening to the steady double-beat of his heart.

"It's been a long day, Tam." He stroked a hand through my hair; long already when he bought me, it now reached almost to my hips. I shivered as his fingers pressed into my spine, coming to rest in the hollow just above my buttocks.

"You are home now, Master."

"Home. Yes." He drew my head back, and we looked at one another. He smiled and dropped a soft kiss on my forehead. The places he touched me burned. "Tell me about your day."

"I purchased your new slave." I couldn't meet his eyes.

"Oh?" He released me, turning to remove his robes and bathe his hot skin at his washbasin. "Tell me about him."

"He's too old." I blurted the admission.

The friendly sound of swishing water stopped. "How old?"

Shame at my failure overwhelmed me. "Well past twenty."

"Were there none younger?"

"Many." I risked a glance at his back, but his relaxed muscles told me nothing.

"Then why did you choose him?"

He resumed washing, wringing out a rough flannel and scrubbing his underarms.

"The other buyers wanted to hurt him."

He dropped the flannel beside the bowl and turned to face me, smiling. "That sounds a good reason." He hooked a finger under my chin, lifting my mouth for a kiss I gratefully received. "Come here and tell me more."

He settled on the bed amid his pillows, long legs stretched and crossed at the ankle. I curled gratefully into his open arms, fingers teasing the soft down in the centre of his chest as I told him everything.

"He was a soldier? A Granthian soldier?"

I nodded, then frowned as I felt Master's muscles stiffen. I looked at him. "Did I do wrong?"

"No, no, not wrong." He petted me. "How do you feel about him, given what happened to you?"

"I, I don't know," I admitted. "I hadn't thought of him as being like those men." A fresh horror slowly gripped me as I realised Kai was, indeed, of the same stock as those who'd killed my family.

"Don't, Tam." He stilled me. "I'm sure he's nothing like them."

"I don't know if he can be trained."

Master chuckled. "Of course he can—he was a soldier. He's been taking orders his whole life."

"Then you won't sell him?" I lifted my head to look into his eyes.

"We'll see. If you like him, and he performs his duties, I don't see why he can't stay."

Relief washed over me even as my heart curdled at the idea of Kai _performing his duties_.

"That is why it will be you who trains him."

I think I started. Master tightened his grip around me, reassuringly steady.

"Me?"

"You chose him, Tam. It will be up to you to make him work."

"But, I've never—"

"Are you questioning my orders?"

I silenced my protest. "No, Master."

"Good." He resumed petting me, his fingers rippling casually through my hair. "I won't rush you. I know you'll need time."

I nodded gratefully.

"But I won't coddle you, either." There was a hint of warning in his voice. "I shall leave him to settle in tonight, but he will present alongside you at breakfast. He has house duties to perform, and I expect you to begin training immediately. If he obeys and does well, I won't force the other."

I kissed the hard flesh of his chest to show my gratitude, and he shifted a little, subtly altering the mood between us from relaxed and content to desiring and intense. I didn't need explicit orders. I could read him well, and he ruled me as capably with a crooked finger or flexed muscle as any master with a whip or lash. I complied happily, twisting in his arms to kiss my way across the swell of his pectorals to the soft copper discs of his nipples.

He threaded his fingers into my hair, clasping my skull as my lips sealed and sucked, my teeth and tongue working together to pleasure him. He teased my long locks, draping them over us both, fanned out across our bare skin. I was glad I'd left it loose; it was worth the inconvenience, the endless, obstinate knots that would take me hours to comb out later.

Sometimes he would comb it, spending an age picking out all the tangles, taking the greatest care not to pull too sharply. He would plait it until it lay like a rope down my back, and sometimes he would be rough, gripping the base and using it to yank my head until he had me where he wanted me.

I turned my attention to his other nipple, scraping over the hard peak with my teeth, eliciting a low groan from him. I was not his pleasureslave for nothing. Over the years he had trained me well, teaching me all the things he loved best. He gripped my shoulders, pulling me roughly to him for a bruising kiss, his stubble burning the soft skin around my lips, his slick tongue probing my mouth. Desire pooled in my belly as we shifted closer, and I felt the insistent press of his cock through my loincloth.

I reached between us, gripped his hard length through his loose trousers, and pulled firmly up to the tip, silk sliding under my palm. His hips bucked as he thrust into my fist, and I pumped roughly, the way he liked.

"You wicked creature." His eyes flashed dangerously. "Suck it."

I scrambled down the bed, kneeling between his legs, still rubbing along the hard bulge now straining beneath his trousers. I peeled back the waistband, pulling it low enough to expose him without restricting his legs. His cock slapped against his stomach, the dark vein on the underside pulsing with his aroused heartbeat. I released his balls, tucking the waistband behind them so he was all laid out for me. I lowered my face, my eyes meeting his as I nosed his sac, licking the seam, planting sloppy, open-mouthed kisses over the wrinkled surface. As I sucked one plump ball into my mouth, he took a fistful of my hair and stroked his cock with it, feather-light.

"So good."

He grunted when I released him with a wet slurp and began to kiss and lick the base of his shaft, kneading the taut skin of his hips. I trailed my tongue from root to tip and back down, streaking him with moisture. On the next upward stroke, he placed a hand on my head and I needed no further encouragement to take him into my mouth and suckle.

His eyes squeezed shut, and he thrust upward, almost making me gag. I clamped his base in my fist, concentrating on taking all of him. His glans nudged the back of my throat, and I swallowed, curling my tongue around as much of him as I could reach, my cheeks hollowed as I concentrated on making it as good as I knew how.

He gripped the back of my neck, holding me steady as he drove relentlessly upwards, forcing me to accommodate him or choke. I spluttered and regained myself, cheeks scalding from the error, and I focused on letting him in, on doing what was required of me. He used my face shamelessly, shoving my nose into the thick thatch of his pubic hair again and again. Drool escaped, running over my chin to spot his trousers.

My dick was painfully hard in my loincloth: I reached to touch it, but he ordered me still with a single sharp word and I obeyed, clasping the flesh of his thighs as he took his pleasure from me.

His pace became frantic, scraping against my teeth while I struggled to keep them covered by my lips, but he didn't pause as he relentlessly drove into my mouth. I steeled myself, prepared when he pushed my head down, his dick sickeningly deep as he began to spurt into my throat. I swallowed as best I could, determined to drink every last drop he gave me.

He released me with a sigh and hauled me up onto his chest. I sprawled across him as we kissed messily, sharing spit and juices. My limbs were trembling, I could hardly catch my breath, and I was so hard it hurt, but all I could think was how much I loved this man.

He slid his hand along my flank to my hip and groped between us, gripping my aching, straining sex. I moaned with gratitude as he pumped my length, whined with frustration when he let go.

He chuckled. "You're not getting off that easily."

I frowned at him, confused.

"Consider this your incentive. I'll continue to use your body as I see fit, but I won't let you come unless I want you to. Nor are you allowed to touch yourself." Horror must have shown my face, for he continued, "Do I have to take measures to enforce my rules?"

"No, Master," I replied hastily.

"I shall have your bedding inspected, I think. That should suffice."

I was thoroughly perplexed and miserable, humiliated at the prospect of my sheets being examined—as they had been at my mistress's behest when I was still a teenager—and I let my distress sound in my voice. "Master, have I displeased you?"

He pulled me to him, laughing gently. "Not at all. This is an incentive, Tam. Think. If I won't let you come, and you can't touch yourself...."

_Kai_. Of course. My face fell.

He chucked me under the chin. "Don't look so woebegone. You have a beautiful prick." He squeezed it until I yelped. "It's about time you learnt to use it properly."

҉҉҉

It was fair to say I wasn't in the best of moods when I let myself into Kai's room. My erection had subsided, but my balls throbbed, and I was desperate to relieve them. I'd never responded well to deprivation, and it wasn't a technique Master usually employed to discipline me. "He'll see you in the morning," I informed my fellow slave.

"What?" He scrambled to his knees on the low mattress. He'd be cold tonight without blankets, for the desert air swiftly chilled once the suns set. Too bad.

"He wants to see you in the morning. He thought he'd give you tonight to settle in—"

A desolate laugh. " _Settle in_? Is that all he thinks it'll take—a few hours?" He glowered at me.

Something snapped. I was not patient at the best of times and right then, horny, frustrated, disappointed and heartsick, I didn't have anything left to pity an enemy soldier foolish enough to get caught. "It's more than most would give you," I snapped. "Do you think any of the others sold today have been allowed time to adjust? Any privacy? Children, most of them, half your age. Do you think anyone is going to step in and make it stop when they start to scream? Be grateful for what you've got."

He recoiled as though I'd hit him, shoulders slumping. "You're right, I'm sorry. But you have to understand, this is your life. You're used to it. I'm not. I was a free man. I had family and a career and someone I loved—" He broke off, making a little choking sound.

"What happened to him?" I asked softly.

Kai shook his head. "It doesn't matter. He died."

"I have a family," I said. "This is my family: my master, the other slaves. And I have someone I love...." I knelt beside him on the mattress. "I know how it hurts when they don't love you back."

"So why does he keep you?" In the darkness, his emerald eyes looked liquid and black.

"Because I please him. He doesn't need to love me for that." I tried to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

"Does... does he please you?"

"Sometimes." That time, I know I sounded bitter.

"Is that what he expects me to do?"

"Yes." There was no use sugarcoating it.

"I won't do it!" he declared fiercely. "He can't force me!"

"Yes, he can. But he won't, not if you perform your other duties well. He's given me some time."

"Time for what?"

"To train you."

It's a good thing Master never encouraged my ego, because the look of horror on Kai's face at that admission would have thoroughly destroyed it.

"He wants _you_ to teach me? To get me ready for him?"

I nodded.

"You'd have sex with me because he ordered it?"

I frowned a little at that, unable to read his expression and understand his inscrutable tone. "It is what he wants."

"And what about what you want?"

"I have no wants. I'm a slave, remember?" My voice dripped scorn.

"Except him. You want him."

I didn't bother dignifying that with an answer. We sat in silence, side-by-side on his low mattress. He'd kicked the bits of furniture—the little stool, the shattered remnants of his wash pot—into a corner. The bars on the window glowed dully in the light reflected from the planetary rings, shimmering like silver bands across the dark sky.

"Why is your hair so long?"

His question startled me, jolting me from an almost trancelike state of reverie. "Master likes it. He forbids me to cut it."

"He even controls how you wear your hair?" His face pulled into a scowl.

I glanced at his neat military cut and smiled. "You mean you'd have been allowed to grow yours?"

"My... oh." He coloured as he saw the parallel. "That's different."

"How?"

"I chose to join the army."

"Then you were lucky. Most don't get that choice. How is that any different from being a slave?"

"At least they pay us."

"Master provides me with everything I need. I have no use for money."

Kai gestured at his sparse room. "You call this having everything you need? He lives in the lap of luxury and keeps us no better than animals, and you're content?"

"I have a beautiful room," I answered. "I have a sumptuous bed, soft furnishings, books and trinkets he's bought me, and free run of the house. If he feels you can be trusted, there is no reason he won't be equally generous with you."

We looked at the ruined remains of the little Kai had been given.

"In the morning, he expects you to serve with me," I said, rising. "I will fetch you. Armed guards patrol this compound, so there will be no use you running away. They won't kill you—you're too valuable for that—but they will make you wish you were dead. It would be better to begin by showing you are willing to learn."

"And what if I'm not willing?" he asked as I reached the door.

I looked back at him sadly. "Then you will be punished. And if you still won't learn, you will be sold."

CHAPTER FOUR

Despite my sumptuous bed and soft furnishings, I did not sleep well. I woke with something more insistent than my usual morning erection and could do nothing other than dip a flannel in the cold water of my basin and place it on my penis to cool my ardour. It shrivelled pitifully.

Kai accepted his loincloth uniform with ill grace, and refused point-blank to surrender the robe I had given him at the slavemarket. Only the memory of the thin, keening wail that had intruded on my already disturbed sleep prevented me from arguing the matter. Kai had passed a worse night than me.

I led him through the corridors to the dining hall to await our master. His eyes flickered at every window and door we passed, the thought of escape clearly weighing on his mind. I said nothing. I had already warned him what would happen should he attempt it, and the sight of the guards through the windows confirmed I'd spoken the truth.

We were early enough that I had time to explain to him how Master dined and how he was expected to perform. Breakfast was a simple meal in our household: Master ate only a light porridge, and our presence was more ceremonial than functional. There was also a complete absence of knives or other weapons to tempt Kai into doing something foolish.

I made him present in place at the foot of the table and spent a few moments critically assessing his pose, making small alterations. He surprised me a little by admitting the posture was almost identical to that his army had drilled into him, surprised not by the similarity but by him acknowledging it. Perhaps, as Master had suggested, he would take to this easier than I'd first thought.

Master arrived punctually as the eighth hour struck and took his place at the head of the table. Kai sucked in a breath, and I smiled a little to myself. Already handsome—in my eyes at least, heartbreakingly so—Master had made a particular effort with his appearance that morning. His dark hair was brushed and curled neatly around his ears, his face was closely shaven, and the brilliant blue robes he wore emphasised his broad shoulders, the slashed neck displaying the first swell of his strong chest. Whatever ogre Kai had been expecting, it was not this.

He ate in silence, not looking at us, the sound of his spoon scraping against the sides of the bowl filling the room. Kai remained transfixed beside me, as still as a statue, and I found myself feeling proud of him. This was only his first day, and for a man accustomed to his freedom, it was a lot to take in.

Suddenly I felt guilty for being so short with him the night before. My first night, I remembered, I had howled inconsolably, scared and alone in a strange room, on my own for the first time in my life. Nothing had appeased me, neither threats nor fussing from the other slaves, not my mistress's sharp words—not even the stinging slap she gave me when I failed to heed her orders. I'd bellowed with all the selfish inconsideration and boundless energy of a wronged child who didn't understand where he was, or what was happening to him, or why.

I'd only stopped when Master entered my room, picked me up, and carried me to his bed. Nestled against his strong chest, swaddled in his blankets, I felt secure in a way I hadn't since I had last been safe with my family. My cries died down to a soft snuffling and eventually, despite the bitter remonstrations of Mistress in the background, I fell asleep.

He finished his meal and placed his spoon neatly in the bowl, the handle at right angles to his body. He rested his elbows on the tabletop and smiled at us both over the tips of steepled fingers. "Your papers say your name is Kai," he addressed my companion. "Is that your real name?"

Kai nodded. "It is."

Master's eyebrow rose. "It is, what?"

I winced at his mistake.

Kai squared his jaw, and I realised in an instant the omission had been no mistake at all.

"You were in the army?" Master didn't wait for an answer. "You addressed senior officers by rank, did you not? Whether you liked and respected them or not, you gave them the courtesy of their title. In this house I am master, and you will do me the courtesy of calling me Master. In return I will house, feed, and clothe you, have you treated when you fall sick, and do you the courtesy of calling you by your chosen name. That seems to me a fair exchange. Now, is your name Kai?"

There was the briefest of hesitations before he answered. "It is... Master."

Master nodded. "That's better. Is Kai what you wish to be called?"

"What other name would I have? Master." The last was tagged hastily onto the end of an utterance I considered borderline impertinent.

Master merely smiled. "This is your chance to reinvent yourself. Forge a new identity to distance your old life from this one. Some slaves find it helps them to transition."

I could tell Kai was taken aback by Master's proposition, and I think he gave it a few moments' serious thought. Certainly he sounded less defensive and more genuine when he responded. "Thank you—truly—but I would prefer to remain Kai. It is the name my mother gave me, the name I've always known, and changing it will not change who I am, Master."

"As you wish, Kai. Now tell me, do you speak Thirskan?"

"A very little, perhaps. Master."

I ducked my head to hide my smile. Kai was trying to remember. For now, that would be enough.

Master tutted. "You will learn. Tam will teach you. Perhaps at the same time, you can improve his pronunciation of your language?"

Kai started. "I meant no offence."

Master's eyes narrowed. "You meant no offence when you did what?"

Kai hung his head. "When I criticised Tam's pronunciation."

Master looked at me. "Tam, is this true?"

"It is, Master," I responded warily.

"And you didn't tell me our new slave was impertinent to you?"

"No, Master."

"What other secrets have you been keeping from me?"

"None, I swear!"

There was a dangerous edge to his tone, not quite like he was angry, almost more like he was teasing me, but I couldn't read his intent when he growled, soft and low, "Come here."

I stood before him, risking a brief glance down the long table to where Kai stood at the foot, also apprehensive.

"I'm surprised, Tam," Master murmured. "You're normally so obedient."

"I didn't realise I was to tell you. I apologise, Master."

He chuckled. "You don't have to tell me everything." He skimmed his fingers down my torso, and now I knew there was definitely something playful in his tone. "I'm sure between you, you can resolve things perfectly amicably without my constant intervention."

He still spoke Granthian, and Kai nodded acquiescence.

"How well did you obey me last night, I wonder?" He gripped my hip, thumb brushing roughly over the sensitive skin of my stomach. "Did you touch yourself?"

"No, Master."

"Hmm. Your sheets were clean"—I cringed—"but did Kai relieve you, perhaps?" He pulled me closer, stroking firmly downward from my belly to my groin, giving my dick a brief squeeze through my loincloth.

"No, Master," I gasped.

"No?" He stilled and looked from me to Kai. "After the state you left my chamber in last night? That seems a little heartless."

"I didn't ask him."

"And why not?"

I groaned as with a deft twist of his fingers, he unfastened the simple knot in my loincloth and the material fell to the floor, exposing my growing arousal.

"Ah, Tam. You didn't want him to touch you like this?" He gripped my cock, tugging along the length, which rapidly swelled to full hardness. "Such a beautiful prick." He pulled my foreskin back and traced the head with the tip of one finger. Sensation shot through me, and I yelped. He laughed, low and throaty.

He released my cock to cup my balls, rolling them gently in his palm. He looked at me, but it was to Kai that he spoke. "Has Tam told you of our little bargain?"

Kai's voice, when he answered, was carefully controlled. "He says you want him to train me."

"As I do." Master bowed his head to breathe lightly on my swollen flesh. "Only you can give him release, has he told you that?"

"No, he has not."

I squeezed my eyes shut, not sure if it was shame, guilt, or just plain lust I felt as Master flicked me with the very tip of his tongue. He had done that before, taken me into his mouth, and he knew exactly how it affected me.

"You will learn, Kai, or Tam will suffer for it." He tugged my balls. "Sweet Tam, he would rather suffer, wouldn't you dear?" He smiled at me even as he gave the sensitive underside of my shaft a vicious pinch to make it deflate. "Yes, it hurts, I'm sorry." He stroked my trembling flanks, dropping a light kiss on my hip bone as I gasped through the pain. "Come, dress yourself."

He smacked my arse and turned in his chair to face Kai as I picked up my loincloth and rewound it across my groin, my cheeks scalding from the humiliation.

"You know why you have been purchased." He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. "Tam thought I would give you a better life than any of the others who would have bought you, and he was right. But I have my rules. You must serve your purpose. You will learn Thirskan, and you will teach Tam to speak your language like a native. You will also have basic house duties to perform. Fulfil those requirements, and I will be lenient with you when it comes to your other duties. Unlike some, I find no pleasure in forcing an unwilling lover, and for now Tam satisfies all my needs."

He stroked a broad palm down my back, and I pressed into the heat of it, warmed by his possessive touch and the pride in his voice.

"But do not doubt I am your master. Displease me, and you will suffer. Disobey me, and you will be punished. You will respect me, my house, and the things I give you." Master levelled Kai with a pointed look. "To which end, I will not be replacing the items you destroyed yesterday until you show yourself deserving of them. If that means you are uncomfortable in the interim, perhaps it will serve to remind you what your position is now."

҉҉҉

"You let him treat you like that?" Kai turned in the middle of his room to face me, his expression incredulous.

My cheeks burned. "He's my master, he can do as he pleases. Others could treat me far worse."

Kai shook his head. "Didn't it hurt?"

"Yes, it hurt," I flared. "Of course it bloody hurt."

"How can you love someone who hurts you?"

"He doesn't, not normally." I looked at my feet.

Kai frowned. "So it was what—a display? For me?"

"Something like that."

"Proving how powerful he is?" Kai's lip curled in a sneer.

"No, of course not."

"What, then?" He laughed. "Does he think if he keeps you on edge, I'll take pity on you? Is that it? I'll succumb and fall into your arms so you can deal with my inexperience and get me ready for him?" He shuddered. "It's never going to happen."

"You're not exactly my first choice either," I snapped.

"Will you really not touch yourself?"

"Not without his permission."

"How would he even know?"

I felt my face redden again. "He'd know."

Kai snorted. "I'd do it anyway, if I wanted to."

"Well, good for you." I glared at him. He didn't understand. I didn't obey Master because he ordered me to or because I feared him. I obeyed because I wanted to please him. Because it made me happy when he was happy. It filled me with a ridiculous sense of pride when he petted me and told me I'd done well. Ever since I was a child, all I'd wanted was to earn a smile or a kind word from him, and Master was generous with both. Perhaps if he'd been cruel to me, I wouldn't have been so keen to heed him. Maybe even taken a perverse pleasure in disobeying his orders. Suddenly, a lot of things began to make sense.

"Did you ever respect anyone?" I asked. "Did you have a single superior officer you obeyed simply because you wanted to?"

Kai stiffened. "I followed orders."

"But why?"

He looked surprised. "Because I had to."

"Because you'd be punished if you didn't?"

He nodded.

"I'm not like that." I wondered how to explain. "I'd punish myself far worse than anything Master could think of doing to me."

He looked horrified. "You punish _yourself_?"

"Not the way you're thinking. He doesn't order me to"— _What methods did an army use?_ —"to flog myself or anything. I mean I'd feel bad if I failed him. He doesn't need to punish me any other way."

"He really has got you well trained," Kai sneered.

"You just don't understand," I snapped. "I don't know how to explain it to you." I huffed, annoyed at his lack of comprehension and my inability to articulate myself. "Your friend, the one you loved. Imagine if you'd failed him somehow, if you'd let him down. Think how badly you'd feel. That's how I feel if I displease Master."

Kai's face fell, the colour draining from his skin. He recoiled, his expression stricken. "You don't know anything about him," he hissed.

I stepped forward, and he took another step away. "I was only trying to explain how I feel."

"You haven't got a clue." His eyes narrowed venomously. "You have no idea what it was like, so don't presume to know me. Don't presume to understand."

"I'm sorry." I held my hands up, a gesture of peace. "It was a mistake. I'm sorry."

He turned his back, sinking onto the bare mattress, bundling himself up in a tight knot. "You don't know what it was like," he repeated, rocking slowly back and forth.

I approached, wary of upsetting him further. He didn't react when I sat beside him, save to turn from me and curl up on his side, his knees tucked under his chin. I let him be, content to sit quietly beside him as he trembled with some unknown emotion. I knew I'd screwed up. I knew nothing of his life, save the very little he had told me, so perhaps it was stupid to have tried to lever some advantage using that information. All I'd wanted was to make him understand....

I reached out, lightly stroking the tense lines of his back. The silk of his robe barely shifted under my touch but he still stiffened, on high alert. I continued stroking, my movements rhythmic and easy, non-threatening, and gradually he calmed. His breaths evened out, and he fell into a shallow doze, exhausted no doubt by his rough night and abrupt introduction to slavery. Even in states of great turmoil, the body will snatch respite where it can.

I decided to let him sleep.

CHAPTER FIVE

As darkness fell, I rose to leave him.

"Where are you going?"

"To Master." I looked at him, my face impassive. "He might want me."

"To torment you." Kai scowled.

"Why do you care? It saves him from tormenting you."

I smirked as I watched him struggle with that. He looked like he was about to say something, and I waited but nothing came. Shaking my head, I let myself out and locked him inside his room.

Master was working at his desk, dressed simply in a long robe tied loose around his firm waist. He lifted his head and smiled when I entered, placing his quill on his parchment.

"Just you?" He laughed lightly. "I suppose it would have been too much to hope for he came around so quickly."

I nodded and stepped into his open arms. He pulled me against him, and I held his shoulders for balance as he nuzzled my ribs.

"Ah, Tam. Of all the slaves in the market, you had to pick that one."

I moved to look at him. "He displeases you?"

Master chuckled and held me close again. "Not at all. He's beautiful, and feisty with it. I couldn't have done better myself."

I glowed a little with pride. Right up until Master slid a hand beneath my loincloth and rolled my achingly full balls in his palm.

"I only worry for you, Tam. Until he breaks, I fear you are going to suffer."

I squirmed a little, trying to get away from his attention. My cock was already half-hard. He took hold of it, pulling firmly up the full length.

"Please...."

"I'm sorry, Tammy." He looked like he truly meant it. "There is no other way."

I choked back a sob as he guided me between his legs so I was half sitting on his desk, then unwrapped my loincloth and took me into his mouth. The urge to buck and thrust was almost overwhelming, the heady sensation of his slick mouth, tight lips, and clever tongue tormenting me. I bit my palm on the fleshy part below my thumb to distract myself from the sudden and urgent need to come.

He was relentless, his mouth and hand working together in counterpoint, his eyes never leaving mine as he slurped and sucked. An urgent building sensation started somewhere in my groin: my balls tightened, my anus clenched, my whole dick felt stiffer, longer, broader. The orgasm tore down on top of me, unstoppable, growing and growing until there was nothing I could do to hold back or prevent it. I thrust my hips, out of control. I filled Master's face, knees locked, calves drawn tight and trembling—

He slid off me, gripping my hips to hold me back as I continued to thrust in expectation of meeting more than air.

"No, no!" I cried, needing more. Just one touch, one ghost of breath even, across my red and swollen dick.

It didn't happen. Master smirked as my thrusts weakened and the sense of immediacy and inevitability drained, leaving me gasping, helpless, and achingly hard.

"Please," I moaned, fat tears rolling down my cheeks. "Please, please, _please_...."

"No, Tam. You know the rules."

He released me and looked into my face. I looked back, my erection straining between us. He stroked up my heaving stomach to pinch viciously at my nipple, and my dick lurched, slapping my belly. A small spurt of pre-come dribbled out. He snickered as I groaned.

He opened the drawer beside my hip and drew out a long length of thin black rope. "I'm going to fuck you now," he said, wrapping the rope in quick, skilful movements around my cock and balls. "I forbid you to come."

I gritted my teeth as he continued looping the rope around me in a neat figure eight, stretching my balls away from my body. My cock reddened further, swelling as he cut off the blood. The rope was tight—not so tight as to be unbearable, but firm. Just enough to prevent a climax.

He turned me so I faced the desk, and I braced my hands on it, gripping the edge with sweaty fingers until my knuckles whitened. I closed my eyes, trying to cut myself off from whatever he planned to do next. He fastened the ends of the rope around my waist, tying them in a neat bow at the small of my back, holding my dick firmly in place before me. The rope rubbed against the sensitive underside of my glans, right where he'd secured the final loop. I hissed, the sensation painfully intense.

He rummaged again in the drawer, I heard a stopper open, then he pulled my cheeks apart and smeared me with oil. My muscles clenched as he passed over my entrance, and he circled it, pushing and probing at my flesh. His chair scraped and he was standing, pressed flush to me, his erection rubbing my arse as he pumped his hips. He gathered my hair in his hand, wrapping its long length around his arm, taking a firm grip at the base of my neck and yanking my head until my back arched and my mouth fell open.

One swift thrust seated him inside me, and he held me there trembling when I would have bucked away from the invasion. He kissed my neck and shoulder, bit and licked the fleshy lobe of my ear until I relaxed enough to let him continue.

He fucked me hard and rough, with too little lubrication or foreplay, keeping me on edge, the line of pain and pleasure blurred just enough to hold my climax at bay.

His climax barrelled down on us. He thrust so hard my heels left the floor, and I slid farther over the desk, scattering parchment and quills and ink, which fluttered and fell messily to the floor. He buried himself in me, dick pulsing, and I squeezed with all my strength, milking the last of his release as he flooded my insides.

He groaned long and loud, his face pressed between my shoulder blades, one hand still wrapped in my hair, the other gripping my hip firm enough to leave bruises. I groaned too as he eased out and his semen began to leak from my body. My hole throbbed, my balls ached, and my dick felt like it was about to fall off. For the briefest of moments I felt nothing but pure, white rage. Why would he punish me like this? What had I done to deserve it? Everything I did was for him, in the vain and hopeless hope that someday he would turn around and love me.

Hot tears splashed on the desk, staining his neat parchment and making the black ink of his handwriting run. The moment he realised, he released me, untying the rope with which I was so cruelly bound and pulling me into his lap.

I felt foolish but couldn't deny the comfort I took from his gentle rocking and shushing, his arms so secure around me, the hand in my hair soothing, protective. He was a bigger man than I. His whole race were: broad where I was slim, tall where I was not. It was no inconvenience to him to have me curled on his knee, my damp cheek pressed flush to his chest.

Still, I was a grown man, and grown men do not cry. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself and wiped my eyes, lifting my head to give him a watery smile. "I'm sorry, Master. I don't know what came over me."

His brow creased, his eyes genuinely sorrowful as he looked at me. "My beautiful Tammy, you have nothing to be sorry for." He placed a kiss on my cheek. "I pushed you too far. I'm sorry."

"No." My rebuff was firmer than I had ever been with him before, and we were both taken aback. "No," I modified my tone. "You are my master. You must do with me as you see fit."

He scrutinised me for a long moment before nodding slowly. "As I shall. But I won't push you so far again. That, I promise you."

I nodded and couldn't say I was not a little relieved. My poor erection still stood between us, flagging only slightly despite its rough treatment and neglect.

"Go—on the bed." He gave my arse a playful slap, and I scrambled to obey.

The mattress dipped as he knelt on it and drew me into a kiss, tender and slow. The satiny folds of his robe rippled across my skin, the damp tip of his flaccid penis swinging between his legs to brush against the raging head of my own. I let him kiss me, savouring the soft play of lips and tongue for its own sake, biting back the urge for this to build into something more. He was sated, languid, and still showed no intention of getting me off. I resigned myself to accepting whatever he chose to give.

He broke the kiss with a nip of teeth, cupping my face as he looked into my eyes. "Get under the covers. Stay with me until I fall asleep."

Wide-eyed, I did as I was told. He lay next to me, wrapping his arm around my chest as he spooned against my back. I felt his lips press once to my shoulder, his breath warm on the nape of my neck. He released me to gather my hair neatly between us and returned his arm, stroking my skin.

I lay still, listening as his breaths evened out in the quiet room, as his movements stilled and his grip loosened in sleep. I felt every part of him against me, keeping me super aware of him. My poor erection had almost entirely deflated; my groin throbbed as though it were on fire. I eased out of his embrace, careful not to wake him. I tucked him in, and it seemed as if he frowned a little when I placed a kiss on his noble brow before leaving for my own bed.

҉҉҉

I couldn't sleep.

I lay awake, staring blindly up towards the ethereal folds of the thin white muslin that hung from the canopy of my bed. My arsehole stung, my balls ached, the places where Master had scratched and bitten swelling and itching. My body felt like it was on fire, flames radiating outwards from my groin.

I squirmed as his semen began to leak from me, the sensation somewhere between a tickle and an itch. I covered my face with my hands as my master's juices slowly absorbed into the sheets of my pristine bed. I'd tried to clean up before retiring, smearing the worst of the oil and spunk away, but even the touch of my fingers, busy with utility, had been almost too much to bear. If I were not to disobey his orders by mistake, I had to stop.

A sound reached me through the stifling layers of misery and self-pity, the same thin wail that had soaked into my room the night before. A flash of irritation surged through me. What had Kai got to cry about? It was followed immediately by a flood of remorse. This was only his second night. He'd lost everything, and here I was wallowing because I'd not been allowed to come for two days. I really was a selfish pig.

I rose, brushing aside the thin muslin. I wrapped one of my blankets around me as my skin tightened in the chill night air and padded into the corridor. Kai didn't hear the key turn in the lock, but as I stepped inside and closed the door, he fell silent. I squinted in his direction, a pale shadow curled on the low mattress, a negative, an inverse reflection in this black and empty room.

A new sound reached me as I knelt beside him. His teeth were chattering.

Of course, he had destroyed his bedding and been forbidden more. He clung valiantly to the thin robe I had given him at the slavemarket—a whole lifetime ago, it seemed. The material was soft silk and no use to him once darkness fell and the air grew cold. Without a word, I unwrapped the blanket from my shoulders and wound it around us both.

Kai's body was like ice: all sharp, protruding points that burnt with cold. I pulled him closer to warm him, belatedly remembering as our skin connected that I was nude. He, however, still wore his loincloth. It would have to suffice.

He remained rigid in my arms as I tried to rub some heat into him, but he didn't push me away. His breaths were quick and light, sour against my face, and they paused and stuttered with alarm when, in my brisk ministrations, I passed over some sensitive spot.

I handled him with the rough care of an exasperated parent: brief, quick movements that held no sexual overture—indeed, I didn't think of sex at all. He trembled violently, fine hairs and goosebumps raised all over his skin. I rubbed our feet together, tangled our legs, swiped my palms down his back and up his chest and along his arms. I pressed us close as lovers, thumbed the tears from his cheeks, and cradled his head against the crook of my neck. His breath was hot and damp on my clavicle, and his hands were tight fists lightly brushing the base of my spine.

Slowly, slowly he calmed. His limbs acquired the looseness of almost-sleep, and we settled more comfortably. Still, neither of us had spoken a single word. I kissed the top of his shorn head and drifted off to the rhythmic tug of his fingers twisting in my hair.

CHAPTER SIX

I awoke cold, stiff and uncomfortable. I grumbled, still half-asleep and my eyes tight shut, groping for the cover and dragging it up around my chin. The resistance from the blanket was my first reminder that I was not alone, and I snapped my eyes open, for half a second forgetting I had entered Kai's room, my heart pounding in expectation of seeing Master sleeping beside me, as I had craved for so long.

Emerald eyes stared back. He was awake, curled on his side and looking at me, practically nose-to-nose and perfectly calm.

"You look disappointed."

I pulled back a little to see him more clearly. "No," I said. "Just forgot where I was for a minute."

"I was looking at your tattoos. I didn't mean to wake you."

I rolled the shoulder I wasn't lying on in half a shrug. "We need to be up soon, anyway."

"Where did you get them?" He reached out, boldly tracing the procession of blue dots that marched across my collarbone.

"My brother made that one." I wet my dry lips with my tongue.

"Is he a slave, too?"

"I wasn't born a slave," I snapped, suddenly defensive. "He was killed."

"I'm sorry."

"So you should be. It was your army that did it."

His eyes widened, and he recoiled from me. I missed his touch immediately. "My army?"

"Rebel troops. Deserters. It doesn't matter now."

"They killed your brother?"

I smiled bleakly. "They killed everyone—everyone except me. I was carried off to the slavemarket instead."

He frowned, his gaze dropping to focus somewhere between us. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault." I smiled, touching under his chin so he looked at me. "It was a long time ago."

"So, did your brother do all your tattoos?"

"Most." I pushed the blanket down to expose my chest and traced a thick swirl around my pectoral. "My middle brother did this one."

He reached out to touch the old inkstain. "Didn't it hurt?"

"Not really. You get used to it. This one was the worst—it tickled." I indicated a long band of colour that slid along my flank to my hip.

He brushed his fingers over it, and I quivered, still ticklish.

"I like the way it moves." He smiled at me, a sudden flash of white teeth.

"Master likes it, too."

His smile faded.

"I wonder what it would be like, sometimes, not to have them. Not to always stand out or have to cover them up if I leave the house." I appraised his unmarked skin candidly. It was a shade or two lighter than Master's, or darker than my own. The colour of warm caramel like I used to be before Master forbade me spending so long in the sun. He worried it would damage my skin, and I had long since faded back to my natural milk-white.

There was a ring around each of Kai's biceps where his clothing used to prevent him from catching a tan, and a small scooped line at the base of his neck just below his collar; the shape of his army fatigues. I touched that line, reaching out slowly so he had time to anticipate my movement. He shied a little, his expression wary, but held still as my fingertips connected with his satiny skin.

"Perhaps we're all marked," I murmured. "We all wear the evidence of our past lives on our bodies somewhere. At least your marks will fade."

"Is that what you want—to forget your past life?"

"No." I drew back, folding my arms together between us. "Do you?"

His face betrayed his flurry of emotion. "I don't know."

"Give it time."

He nodded. "That's all I have now, isn't it? Time." He laughed humourlessly, and I frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"This is it for us, isn't it? Unless we get sold, we'll be here every day until we die—isn't that what you've been telling me? No use hoping or planning for the future because we don't have one. Not anymore." His eyes suddenly shone too brightly. "There was so much I wanted to do...."

A weight settled in the pit of my stomach as I looked at him, suddenly vulnerable and afraid and filled with a bone-deep sadness I didn't know how to heal. I had been taken and sold before I was old enough to nurture aspirations of my own, and even if I had been more Kai's age, I came from a nomadic race of simple people. All those things Kai dreamed of—a career and wealth and physical possessions—were meaningless to my tribe. It was no loss to me to have forsaken them. There were no words of comfort, nothing I could say to make all of this better for him.

I swallowed thickly around the lump in my throat. "I'm sorry."

He blinked. "It's not your fault. You're the only one who's been kind to me in days." He laughed bitterly. "More than days."

"Your... friend. In the army," I began tentatively.

"Maal."

"Did he know?"

"That I loved him?" He shook his head. "No. I never got a chance to tell him."

"What happened?"

His face closed down. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Do you think he would have loved you back?"

"I don't know." It was barely a whisper, more the soft movement of his lips. "Even if he had, it would not have been permitted."

"Soldiers aren't allowed to take lovers?"

"Not male ones." He grimaced. "No one in Granthia is allowed _that_."

I sucked a breath. "You mean you've never—"

"I'm not a virgin," he answered sharply.

"But you've never been with another man."

"No."

We lay quietly, looking at each other. Eventually, he spoke again. "What's it like?"

"What, being with a man?" I shrugged. "I've nothing to compare it to."

"You've only ever been with him?"

I smiled wryly. "He would not have permitted anything else."

"Yet he wants us to, to...." His cheeks coloured, and he dropped his gaze.

I lay placidly. "Yes, he does."

"Why?"

"I don't know," I admitted.

"Do you want that?" He looked at me again, a thread of anxiety lacing his tone.

I considered his question. He was certainly a handsome man. My examination turned lingering, taking in his sharp cheekbones and strong jaw, rough with stubble that extended down the column of his neck almost to his collar, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. The deep dimple at its base and the soft swell of firm muscles across his chest. He sucked in his already flat stomach, and I smiled at his needless insecurity, looking into his eyes. "Perhaps."

҉҉҉

Master wore bottle green at breakfast. We presented neatly at the foot of his table, a pair of silent sentries overseeing his lonely meal, the metallic _scrape scrape_ of his spoon the only sound. He ate fast and efficiently, placing the spoon in the bowl at a careful right angle to his body when he was finished. Sasha cleared the table and closed the door behind her with a soft click.

He looked at us, dark eyes narrowed. "What is that?"

I looked at Kai, more pointedly at the thin robe he stubbornly refused to surrender.

"Tam gave it to me, Master."

If Kai thought he could appease him with the prompt use of his title or imply some other significance for the reason he sought to cover himself, he was sorely mistaken.

"Is my house cold?"

"No, Master."

"Then you will take it off."

Kai's jaw squared in defiance, and inwardly I cringed.

"I said take it off." Master's voice was low, purring, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose at the subtle danger laced in his tone.

Kai's hands flexed at his sides, but still he silently disobeyed.

Master leant forward, his eyes flinty shards of darkness. "Take it off, or I will punish Tam for giving it to you."

That, at least, provoked a reaction: Kai flinched and glanced in my direction, perhaps seeking confirmation of the validity of the threat. I pleaded with my eyes for him to obey.

"Tam, come here."

I don't think I had ever approached my master so unwillingly.

The moment I was within reach, he wrapped his strong arm around my waist and pulled me flush to his side. He looked at me, his expression unfathomable, his fingers tight at my hip. Then he turned to Kai. "Last chance."

We both watched the myriad emotions flitting over the soldier's face. Eventually, with an angry grimace, he threw the robe off and stood defiantly facing us.

"Uncurl your fists."

Master's voice was so sharp, I jumped. He smiled at me, his grip around my waist tightened, and with his free hand gave my belly an affectionate rub.

"That's better." He nodded approval as Kai complied. "Turn around. Let me see what I have bought."

The muscles in Kai's back showed in tense lines as he rotated.

"Not bad, eh, Tam?"

"No, Master." I too looked with curiosity at Kai's exposed skin. The impression of lean muscles and rude health I had garnered when he first stepped into the Cage had not been mistaken. His shoulders were broad for his frame, his waist narrow. His collar hung on a neck surprisingly delicate, vulnerable-looking as he bowed his head and simply let us stare.

I was suddenly overcome by a desperate urge to kiss the soft bump of his topmost vertebrate. Master restrained me when I made an unconscious move forward.

"What are those marks on him?"

The muscles in Kai's back tensed, and his head inclined fractionally to hear my reply.

"The slavers whipped him."

"And the others?"

We stared at the angry red line that neatly bisected the long groove of Kai's spine, and the smaller scabs and cuts that flecked his nape and shoulders.

I gritted my teeth. "The collar."

"Have you treated them?"

"He wouldn't let me."

"You must. I don't want him scarred."

We were speaking in Granthian, and I knew Kai could hear and understand us. There was defeat in his bowed head, in the faint tremors that shook him. I ached to comfort him. He was just a kid, thrust into the world barely past adulthood to fight, love, mourn, and at the last be captured, sold, and treated no better than a dumb animal or possession. He was a person, not livestock, and I suddenly felt queasy at the dispassionate way Master spoke of him. His body belied him: it was that of a powerful man, a warrior, but Kai was neither. He was a lost soul, a spirit bare inches from being broken, quivering on the brink of collapse.

Master's touch recalled me to my position, and I gave him my full attention, my long hair cascading over us both as I looked down. He reached to tuck it behind my ear, a slow, sad smile on his face as he stroked my cheek. "Go to him," he said in Thirskan. "Make this easier."

I nodded, and he released me. I approached Kai from the side, giving him warning of my presence before setting a hand on his shoulder. He cringed at my touch, his eyes in that second wide with some untold, unknown fear. I smiled in a reassuring manner and began to guide him from the room.

"Tam."

We paused, and I half-turned to Master.

"I shall return early today. When I do, I want you both to come to my chamber. Understand?"

He had spoken in Granthian, and we nodded before leaving the room.

҉҉҉

Kai suffered my ministrations in fierce silence. The whiplash had scabbed over, the swollen skin an angry red around it. I applied a cooling lotion to the area but concluded after careful inspection that, providing he didn't scratch, it would heal without a scar. The slavers knew better than to permanently mark their wares.

The scratches around his collar were worse: rough-edged and deep in places. I washed his skin and dabbed on a stinging antiseptic that made him hiss and flinch, the muscles in his shoulders jumping.

He was so tense, tense with a nervous energy that thrummed off him in waves. As I completed the task, my attention fixed again and again on the small rise of his nape. On the fine blond hairs that covered his skin. On the contrast between the thick collar and his achingly delicate neck, cruelly exposed by his severe haircut.

I placed my hands on his shoulders and massaged him almost without conscious thought. I had often done this for Master, easing the knots built during long and frustrating days attending to his duties as underlord of the surrounding area. A surprised snort was Kai's only response, and he remained docile on the little stool I'd brought to his room, head bowed, shoulders tense now more with the effort of remaining tense than aught else.

I dug my fingers into the grooves of his collarbone, pressed my thumbs against the meat of his shoulders. I felt him relax, not by increments but all of a sudden, his spine fluid as he leaned more towards me than away.

His head came up, twisting a little to either side, weaving the way of a cobra when its owner played the flute, but there was no aggression here, just an honest reaction to the simple pleasure I was giving him. His head fell back, eyes closed, and for the first time since I had bought him he seemed at peace. I ran a hand up through the short spikes of his hair, my fingers spread across his scalp, nails rooting furrows, and he shuddered, his mouth falling open and a small sound of satisfaction escaping.

He was practically purring, a few simple touches all it had taken to break through some fragile barrier he had placed around himself. I wondered, as he gripped under his knees and flexed, when he had last experienced an intimate, loving touch. Not the trained whiles of a paid whore or loose woman for whom his body began and ended with his dick, but a true lover, a companion who had both time and desire to map his flesh, learn it, and make it sing. Had he ever known such a person?

His toes curled and he not-quite groaned, his head resting on my abdomen as he looked up at me and smiled. I scraped my nails through the scruff on his neck and jaw. I had never kissed a bearded man, and I wondered in what ways it might be different to kissing Master, with his sandpapery stubble scratch.

Of course, the fledgling beard would have to go.

I gathered my shaving things and returned to him. He eyed with curiosity and not a little apprehension the collection of towels, soap, and the wicked-looking razor. I settled him on the stool, a hand on his forehead guiding him to lean against me. He blinked, quiet and trusting. I dipped the first cloth in the cold water of the washbasin, wrung it out, and placed it on his face.

"It's better warm," I apologised when he jumped. "Next time, I'll send for some from the kitchen."

Once wetted, I rubbed a little soap into his hairs, smearing lather across his cheeks and neck. He narrowed his eyes as I took up the razor, tipped his chin with my fingers, and dragged carefully along his jaw. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and I paused, waiting for him to remain utterly still before I continued. For a while there was silence, save the soft scrape of the razor and the sound of our mingled breaths.

I am not a hirsute man—none of my race are. My cheeks were still as soft and hair-free as an adolescent's, the only hairs on my body thin tufts that grew in my armpits and dark blond curled in my groin. I kept myself trimmed, but I had never needed the razor for myself. Yet I enjoyed shaving: the ritual of it, the intimacy. That Master trusted me to shave him was a source of secret joy. Not only that he allowed me to approach him with a blade—to press it to his very neck—but that he would share his grooming routine, let me see him tousled and unkempt, the real man, as he donned his mask for the day.

Shaving Kai felt different, almost like I was exposing him. He had hidden behind the scruffy beard, afraid of making the most of himself for fear of what might come after.

I wiped his chin with a damp cloth and patted it dry with another. His skin was soft, silky, and—for now at least—as smooth as my own. I cupped his jaw, brushed my thumbs over the small dimples that showed when he smiled, bent forward and kissed him.

His eyes widened, transfixed, as I descended. They were still wide when I rose, confusion warring with uncertainty and what looked like a strong desire to bolt upright and away. But I noticed his pink tongue poke out to chase the faint impression of my lips pressed chastely to his.

I smiled and stroked his cheek, signalling for him to sit up. I busied myself cleaning my razor, and returned it to its place in my room. When I re-entered he was standing, his body language awkward.

I rolled my eyes. "It was only a little kiss."

He ducked his head, cheeks flushed. His hand gave an involuntary twitch—towards his mouth, I was sure—before he regained control and kept it at his side.

"Come on." I settled on the mattress, patting beside me for him to sit. "It's time you began to learn Thirskan."

CHAPTER SEVEN

The day passed quickly. I had never taught anything before and wasn't sure how to begin, but Kai's own enthusiasm guided me, commencing with profanities until we were trading insults, laughing, Kai adamant that it was impossible to be offensive when speaking the lilting, musical language of Thirsk. Certainly the guttural quality of the Granthian words seemed better suited to the offensive, aggressive things we were saying. Yet there was no real aggression, no offence taken or meant. The crudity bonded us as it bonds all boys until we were giggling helplessly on his bed, as immature as children but suddenly friends.

The distant sound of Master's arrival wiped the easy smile from Kai's face. He shifted, head cocked as he listened to the metallic clatter of the compound gate opening and closing, the shouts of the guards drifting in through the window. I stroked his arm, and he jumped.

"Don't be scared," I tried to reassure him.

"He said he wouldn't force me." Kai swallowed thickly.

"I don't believe he will."

"So why does he want me in his room?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

In truth, my stomach was in knots as I chivvied Kai to get ready. To my knowledge I was the only pleasureslave Master had ever owned, and I had been more than eager to fulfil my obligations in that role. The puppy love of my youth had, with adolescence, grown, my desire for him white-hot in its newfound intensity. I had always felt safe and cared for and protected, sitting on his lap or sleeping in his bed, but as I grew into my teens, I found I wanted more from him.

Suddenly I didn't want to feel safe anymore. I wanted him to overpower me, use me, hurt me. Take his pleasure from my body and let me revel in simply being surrounded by him, overwhelmed and desired and owned more completely than any slave he'd possessed either before or since.

Was I jealous of Kai, that he was being summoned even against his will? Absolutely.

When I'd first shown that my interest in Master was something more than a childish need for security, he had put me from him, punishing my fledgling erections and locking me in my room when I would have crept to his. I cried bitter tears that he could so easily set me aside, too young to understand his misgivings, knowing only that I loved him and I could please him if he'd only let me try.

We waited for him beside his door, neatly flanking the entrance. He smiled, beckoning us to follow as he stepped inside. Kai could not keep still, shifting his weight nervously from foot to foot, taking in the details of Master's suite: the marble floor, the thick fur rugs, his wooden desk, open and strewn with parchments. His bed.

"Tam."

I advanced at the summons, taking Master's cloak, brushing the dust from the folds and hanging it in his wardrobe.

He splashed water on his face, patted his skin with a soft towel, and rubbed his eyes as though he were weary. I approached, concerned, wanting to ease the stresses and strains of his day and make him smile, light and carefree as when he was a young man.

He contented himself with a kiss, soft and undemanding and almost chaste. I smiled at him, willing to give whatever he needed to take.

"I have some work to do." He indicated the messy desk. "What have you been doing today?"

"Teaching Kai to speak Thirskan."

"Good." He nodded. "Why don't you continue with that for a while?"

"We won't disturb you?" I knew he preferred silence while he worked.

"No, not today. I'd like to hear how you progress."

"As you wish."

I returned to Kai, still standing apprehensively just inside the door. He calmed a little as Master sat at his desk, and I took his hand, leading him to a large bearskin rug before the empty grate.

Master took up a quill, scratching softly over the parchment. His chair creaked as he moved, the papers rustled, he cleared his throat. Kai and I sat in silence, staring at one another. It was harder with an audience to relax, to find the easy camaraderie we'd shared alone in his bedroom, even with an audience as conspicuously not listening as Master.

I commenced pointing out items in the room and naming them. Kai responded, reciting back a dull litany of books and chairs and curtains. When I didn't know the Granthian word for something I paused and asked him, the lesson growing familiar as we worked. This was how Master had first taught me, I remembered. I had come to him as a child of the desert, illiterate and fluent only in the tongue of my people. Almost-Thirskan, almost-Granthian, not quite either. Like an animal, at first I had understood more from his tone than his words, but he had been patient with me, cobbling two whole languages from my strange creole until I was fluent in both.

At least, fluent enough to be understood, if not taken for a native. Kai's laughter rang out as I struggled with the pronunciation of the hard, guttural sounds of his tongue, clear and joyful. From the corner of my eye, I saw Master sit a little straighter in his chair, his head inclined towards us and a slow smile teasing his lips.

I'd swear I heard a stifled snort as Kai cursed me fluently in Thirskan for my inability to master his language to his satisfaction.

The shadows stretched around us as the day drew to a close, the first sun set and the second sun dying in a blaze of glorious red outside the window. The faint shadows of the planet rings glowed in the sky like ghosts, striping the distant horizon over the high walls of Master's compound. The scratching of his quill stopped and he stretched, cracking his knuckles.

Kai had the objects in the room down pat, his sharp mind quick to pick up the lesson. We fell into chattering quietly on the rug as I struggled to teach the more abstract concepts of sentence construction and indefinite articles. Maybe I started in the wrong place, but I'd never taught a language before, and simply speaking about safe, easy, impersonal things seemed to be working.

Master turned in his chair and spoke. "It's getting cold. Kai, can you light the fire?"

Kai eyed the empty grate and the neat stacks of kindling and coals in their scuttles beside it.

"Tam, help him."

We knelt on the rug, the soft fur cushioning our knees and winding between our toes as I explained how to position the kindling so the air could flow properly to feed the fire and light the carefully placed coals. As it crackled and took, Master rose, moving to a more comfortable high-backed armchair before the hearth. He beckoned and I went to him, curling at his feet. His fingers found and lightly rippled through my hair.

"Kai, bring that stool." Master indicated a low seat. "Sit closer."

He complied, although warily, sitting just out of Master's reach.

"Tell me what you've learned today."

Master listened attentively as I began chattering, speaking in Granthian, Kai shyly chipping in with the occasional word. Master smiled and nodded, his attention evenly split between us as we talked, still stroking my hair.

As we lapsed into silence, he took over, discussing the theory of language acquisition, teaching the rudiments of sentence structure. Kai focused, repeating basic phrases, learning how to join them to the concrete nouns I had taught him. Master made it seem easy, slipping effortlessly between Thirskan and Granthian as he spoke, prompting Kai to respond. He asked for a hairbrush in Thirskan, and Kai passed it over before he even realised he'd understood.

"Thank you." Master smiled and took the brush, nudging me to sit between his knees. I closed my eyes as he began to draw it through my hair.

The lesson continued around me, a soft murmur of voices. Master patted my head and neck as he brushed my hair to rippling silk and began to plait it, pulling the strands tight. I only realised I'd signalled my contentment audibly when the voices fell silent. I opened my eyes and looked straight into Kai's. I gave him a lazy smile.

Master left the length of the long plait, now neatly tied off at the end, to curl his hands around my neck, teasing the skin below my collar.

Every sense in my body focused, nerves attuned to the soft press of his finger pads against my skin, the scrape of nails, his breath warm on my ear a second before his hot tongue flicked out, tasting me. He pulled me to him, palms smoothing my chest, taking each nipple between thumb and forefinger and squeezing them erect. My breaths quickened, and my whole body began to stir. I ran my hands over the soft cotton covering his calves and hitched up my knees. My belly rippled as I panted lightly, desperate for more.

Kai turned in on himself, arms clasped around his knees, huddled on his little seat as he watched me squirm under Master's knowing touch. I let my desire show on my face, how much I wanted this, craved it. Kai thought being a pleasureslave meant being subservient to the whims of my master, a vessel for him to slake his lust, mindless of my own desires. I found I wanted very much to disprove that impression, to show him I took as much pleasure from my role as I gave, that my needs also counted for something. That what Master and I shared was mutual, joyous, and not—as he thought—rape.

Another hot breath on my cheek, and I turned my head, welcoming the kiss, the soft play of Master's lips and tongue, demanding more as the kiss deepened and arousal grew. He lifted me, dragging me up until I sat in his lap, my back to him, my legs straddling his. I rested my head on his shoulder and he continue to kiss me, branding my chest and hips and stomach by grabbing handfuls of skin and squeezing in all my tender places, marking me in a primal, erotic way. I plunged my hand between us, massaging his erection through his clothes, whining a little as he thrust into my grip.

I scrabbled clumsily at his waistband, yanking it down to free him, to feel the press of hot, hard flesh against my buttocks. He quickly unwrapped my loincloth, flinging the scrap of material aside to have me naked on his lap. I sank onto him far too fast, my eagerness overriding caution, and I cried out, head thrown back, breaking out in sweat all over as I willed myself to accept him. He continued to stroke me, tongued my ear and jaw and neck, shushed my lingering whimpers and waited patiently for me to adjust.

His first thrust felt like being stabbed with a thousand hot knives, dry and rough. He slicked his fingers with saliva, reaching between my spread thighs to smear our bodies with fluid. He rolled his hips, my arsehole clenched, and he groaned, burying his face in my shoulder. I turned my head, kissing him clumsily as we began to rock.

It got easier, as it always did. I rose and fell in his lap, hitching one foot up beside his knee to drive us on, eager for more. He pinched my nipples, his nails digging small red crescents into sensitive flesh, making me hiss. Strange, guttural noises escaped us both, animal sounds of greed and lust. Sweat ran off my skin, crawling down my spine into my crack, adding much-needed lubrication.

I grasped my prick, slapping pitifully between my legs each time we came together, and tugged it a handful of times, the extra sensation forcing my hole to clench, squeezing so hard I imagined I could feel the bump of every vein in Master's cock as it slid in and out of me. My senses zeroed in on that sensation, of him being inside me, holding me open, stretching me wide as he thrust up, the slow trickle of fluids along my taint. The exhibition I was making of myself, the wanton image I was displaying to Kai with my legs hitched up and my hole exposed, Master's fat cock drilling into me.

I forced my eyes open, half fearful of what I would see, but Kai, far from recoiling in horror, was staring raptly at us, eyes glazed and mouth open, panting lightly as he gazed transfixed at my most intimate places.

Rather than shaming me, Kai's response only made me more aroused. I was hard now, as hard as I'd ever been while being fucked. I gripped the base of my shaft, holding tight as lust crashed through me, threatening to make me lose control and come right there and then: the dual senses of being fucked by Master and watched by Kai more than enough to tip me over the edge.

Master covered my hands with his, the two of us cupping my cock and balls as he drove into me. The entire room stank of sex and sweat, the musk of my pre-come and the embarrassing bubbles of air that escaped when I descended too fast. I didn't care. It was all part of it: Master's grunts, Kai's quick breaths, the slap of clammy skin on skin, the crackling of logs in the fire, the slick, wet sounds of penetration, and my less than dignified whines and yelps.

Fatigue set in, my limbs locked and ached, cramped as they were with me practically squatting on Master's lap. I hung my head and gasped for breath as everything began to spiral away from me, overwhelmed to the point of collapse.

A stinging slap on my upper thigh concentrated my senses and I moaned, bearing down hard as Master thrust in to the hilt, stretching me with a wicked rotation of his hips around his widest point. I felt him tremble and I clenched, gripping him tight as he spilled inside me.

I fell clumsily onto him, the two of us gasping for breath. He stroked from my belly to my chest, and I twisted to kiss him. Our noses bumped and he rubbed his face against mine, our eyes closed, fingers knitted over my aching, neglected cock and balls. Something painful rose in my chest as he nuzzled me. I bit it back and squeezed my stinging eyes shut against it while he brushed my cheek and chin and nose.

I loved him. In the mornings when he was silent, preparing for work, in the evenings when he was grouchy. When he talked to me, and when he wanted to sit quietly before the fire and read, his fingers in my hair, I loved him. When he kissed me, when he touched me, toyed with me, took me in his mouth and made me come, I loved him. But never more so than in the moments when, like now, he was sated and sleepy, his limbs relaxed, an easy smile on his face as he kissed and petted and praised me, his dick softening inside my body.

It was almost enough for me to forgive him for leaving me unfinished.

I curled our joined fingers tight around my poor erection, sliding slowly up the length and back down. He hummed in my ear, his tone warm and amused as he took over, stroking me from root to tip, swiping his thumb over the exposed head, rubbing the sensitive underside. I whined, bucked my hips a little, and a few beads of pre-come dribbled out, searingly intense. He rubbed his fingers in the thick fluid, holding me steady with one hand while he tickled my frenulum with the other until I thought I'd pass out. When my whines turn to flat-out sobs, he stopped, soothing the spot with a rub before sliding my foreskin over the tip and back down.

"Do you want to come?" he asked, his voice husky.

"Yes." I gritted my teeth as he pumped me again.

"How much do you want to come?"

I broke down as he rolled my balls between his fingers, slipping lower to touch where we were still joined. His cock had softened rapidly. There was room for him to press a finger in alongside, and he pushed deeper, shamelessly searching for my prostate.

A litany of pleas fell from my lips, begging him to stop punishing me and tormenting me and to let me come. I think I cried a little, a few tears dampening my cheeks as he found my spot and pushed, making my dick lurch in his fist.

He slipped from me and withdrew his finger, slick with fluid, leaving me achingly empty. He spread his legs, opening mine farther, gently teasing my exposed rim.

"Look at him, Kai," Master ordered. Needlessly, because Kai's eyes were open, staring at me in such a way my hole clenched reflexively to see it. Kai swallowed, hard.

"Do you want to see him come?" Master's voice was thick, purring, his hands teasing my genitals. "He's so pretty when he comes, Kai. So fucking beautiful. Do you want to see it?"

I forced myself to look at my fellow slave, silently begging him to release me from my torment. I needn't have feared.

"What was that?" Master smiled at the barely perceptible nod. "I didn't hear you. Do you want to see him come? Or shall I deflate him now?" His fingers closed below the head of my dick in a pinching motion, but he didn't squeeze. I bit my tongue to keep from pleading with him not to do it.

Kai made a croaking sound, cleared his throat, and tried again. "Yes."

Master cocked his head. "Yes, what?"

"Yes." Kai licked his lips. "Make him come."

"You want to see it?"

He nodded quickly, his cheeks flushing with the admission. "Yes."

"Then make it happen."

We both looked at Master, eyes wide with shock.

He smiled. "You heard me."

Kai and I looked at each other. His gaze fell to my dick, lying flat along my surging stomach, the head flushed purple and red, my balls drawn tight below, and below that, my glistening, just-fucked hole. I groaned and buried my face in Master's neck, mortified at the sight I must be presenting, but still so turned on I could hardly speak. I didn't want to think what that said about me.

Master patted me, kissing and nuzzling my face. He pumped my length one last time and let me go, the cool air closing around my flushed genitals.

"I won't touch him again," he warned Kai. "The longer you leave it, the worse it will be for him."

I made a desolate, choked sound, cleaving towards Master even as a part of me burned with resentment. There was no way Kai was going to let himself be coerced into touching me— _no way_. He was too fucking stubborn, it was too soon, and it wasn't fair. Wasn't fair for either of us. Yet when Master kissed me, I responded with as much fervour as ever, contorting my torso in a bid to get nearer and kiss him more deeply. He cradled my head, one hand at my jaw and the other around the base of the long plait he had made—hours ago, it seemed. I put my all into that kiss, gave him everything I had and surrendered myself to his whims.

I froze as alien hands touched my cock. Master caught my arms, forcing the kiss to continue as Kai tentatively explored my flesh. I tracked the progress of his fingertip as he ran it the length of my shaft, rubbed against the soft curve of my balls, and pressed my taint. He was exploring, curious but apprehensive, uncertain of his movements. He paused but Master kissed me harder, preventing me from looking down and observing what Kai was doing.

I gasped as he pressed at my entrance, his finger slipping easily past my stretched muscles. He quickly withdrew, as though he hadn't expected me to admit him in the first place. Master gripped my thigh, holding me open.

I whimpered as gentle fingers closed around my cock, prising it away from my body. Kai jerked me a couple of times, his movements nervous. Master's hand joined his, teaching him how to touch me, firming his grip and smoothing his movements into something fluid and pleasurable.

I groaned as they worked me, their hands knitted together around my cock, fingers slick with fluid that oozed from the tip. I rested my head on Master's shoulder, my wrists clasped together in one of his big hands as he guided Kai's movements. His lips rested at the crook of my neck, occasionally kissing me, his warm breath tickling my skin as he murmured gentle encouragement to us both.

Sensation began building in my groin, desire pooling, flowing outwards, the relentless need to climax descending on me, growing urgent in its intensity.

"Touch his balls."

Kai didn't hesitate before complying, his fingers slim, gentle, and warm as he took my testicles in his hand and rolled and stroked them. I shuddered, my hips jerking of their own accord, my anus clenched tight around nothingness, craving stimulation.

"See, he likes it." Master chuckled, pressing his lips to my temple. "So responsive. So beautiful." Their joined hands slid firmly along my prick. "Put your fingers in him. Make him come."

My head shot up, my gaze meeting Kai's. I panted hard, waiting for him to do it. Wanting desperately for him to do it.

His tongue darted out, swiping his lower lip, teeth fastening over it as he released my balls and strayed lower. I bucked my hips, spreading myself farther, an open invitation for him to explore.

He pushed against me, testing for resistance, the sensation thrilling in its intensity. His eyes darkened, pupils blown with lust as he pressed harder, until his fingertip penetrated far enough for my muscles to clench around it, the extra stimulation driving straight to my cock.

"Deeper," Master ordered. "Push it right in, all the way. Find his spot."

Kai burrowed into me, his knuckles pressed hard to my taint as he probed my insides, still warm and slick with Master's come. My muscles spasmed around him, squeezing tight, willing him on as he searched for my prostate.

Master released my cock, reaching lower to find my hole, circling the spot where Kai's finger entered me. He sank in beside him, their two digits stretching me wide as Master guided Kai to where I needed him most.

That did it, the feel of their fingers questing separately, both jostling my prostate, pressing relentlessly, mercilessly on it, insisting I come. The orgasm robbed me of my senses, so intense I could barely call it pleasurable, and it seemed to go on and on, aftershocks still hitting me even after my balls had drained copiously across my stomach and chest. My fluids ran in gloopy rivulets across my belly, dripping down to stain Master's robes beneath.

They slid their fingers from my body, wrenching another groan from my lips. Master held up his hand, smearing the juices that glistened on it in the firelight, and squeezed one last, milky drip from my spent cock.

"Beautiful, Tam." I basked in the heat of his praise as I came down. "So fucking beautiful, you break my heart. You're gorgeous. And you...." His attention turned to Kai, still kneeling between our spread thighs. He reached out, thumbing his chin. "You shaved. It suits you."

Kai ducked his head, and I smiled to see the tips of his ears turn pink. Whoever heard of a blushing pleasureslave? But in that moment, I thought it was adorable. Unable to speak, my limbs leaden and lethargy creeping over me, I simply smiled and remained smiling until he looked up again and caught my eye.

"Kai, get a cloth. Help me clean him up."

I knew I should move rather than put Kai through the indignity of cleaning my most intimate places, but right then I couldn't bring myself to find the energy. I lay lax across Master's chest as Kai carefully swiped over me with a cold, damp cloth, lifting my thigh to clean my hole, Master petting me all the while, soothing my burning skin.

When Kai was done, Master twisted me in his lap, swinging my legs up and encouraging me to curl on top of him, my head on his chest. I heard him speaking, his voice a distant rumble against my cheek, more sense than sound. The logs in the fire crackled and popped as they were stoked, a sudden flurry of heat blasting my skin. We had to move, I knew. It was time for us to return to our quarters and leave Master be, but my eyes were heavy, my body limp, and the soft stroke of hands along my spine encouraged me to settle down and sleep.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I woke the next morning in my own bed, swaddled in thick blankets. I had no recollection of getting there. I lay for a moment, warm and comfortable, my body sated and relaxed, my mind straying absently over memories of the night before, luxuriating in them. In the heat and desire of Master's body, the tender pride in his voice as he praised me, the softness of his lips when we kissed.

Eventually, I knew, I would have to stop putting off the inevitable and think about the other pair of hands that had touched me the previous evening. Would Kai resent me, feel that he been coerced into doing something he hadn't wanted to do? Master had promised not to force him—did he think it didn't count if he only forced him to touch me? _Had_ he been forced? I recalled the way Kai had looked at me, emerald green eyes luminous with intensity as he stared. He had wanted it, all right. Whether he would admit it was an entirely different matter.

And where was he, anyway? Not with Master, I was sure, which meant... I bolted out of bed. The thought of Kai spending last night alone in his cold, bare room, after the things we had done together, was too horrible to contemplate. I grabbed a blanket and hurried to his door.

He was sleeping like a baby, curled snugly in one of Master's comforters, his shorn head poking out the top, looking pitifully small and defenceless on the plump pillow, another new addition.

I closed the door and approached silently, unwilling to disturb him when he looked so peaceful. I perched on the edge of the mattress, wrapping my blanket around myself for warmth, tucking my feet into the thick cotton folds to ward off the morning chill of the floor. He snored, just a little, his mouth open as he slept. It was cute. His jaw was already dark, lightly stubbled with hair that felt rough to the touch. I would have to shave him every couple of days to keep his face smooth, and I found myself rather pleased at the prospect.

He opened his eyes as I was wondering if longer hair would suit him, and he blinked, a slow, sleepy smile lighting his face.

"Good morning." I smiled back. "Sleep well?"

He made an affirmative noise, pulling the covers up around his neck.

"What happened last night after I fell asleep?"

"Nothing happened," he barked, immediately defensive. "Master took you to bed and shut me in here."

"He gave you bedding."

"It was cold." Kai looked uneasy. "I don't think he realised how cold it was."

I fidgeted, picking at the bobbles on my blanket. I wanted to ask where we stood, if he was still comfortable with me after the intimacies we'd shared, but I didn't know how to find the words. Would he want to talk about it? Did it even matter? We were slaves. Our job was to please our master. In the grand scheme of things, he asked so very little of us. And yet I found I didn't want Kai's hands on my body for that reason alone. I wanted him to touch me because he wanted to touch me, not because he feared the repercussions if he refused.

I cleared my throat. "Last night—"

He pulled the covers over his head. "Do we have to discuss it?"

"I'd rather we did."

"Why?" He threw the covers back, eyes narrowing as he looked at me. His nipples tightened at the sudden shock of cold air. "What good will it do?"

I hung my head. "I'm sorry I put you in that position."

He laughed, astonished. " _You're_ sorry?"

"Of course." I looked at him, determined to be honest even if it made my skin crawl. "I don't want to pressure you, or force you to do things you don't want to do—"

"You think you forced me? You really think that?" He laughed again, a hard, guttural sound. "You were so out of it. You barely even knew your own name, you were that gone. I think you'd have let anyone do anything to you at that point, and I"—he made a pained sound—"I went right along with it. I was touching you, _inside_ you. I could smell you on my fingers, for fuck's sake!" He raked a shaking hand over his shorn scalp. "And the worst of it was, I wanted it. I wanted to know what it felt like to touch a man, to see you come.... Watching the two of you together had me so hard I could hardly think, and then afterward, you fell asleep and I realised what I'd done...."

"What had you done?"

He stared at me incredulously. "I raped you."

It was my turn to laugh. "Is that what you think?"

"What else would you call it? I violated your body without your permission, just because he told me to. I didn't even think twice. What kind of man does that make me?"

I cocked my head at him, smiling broadly at his admission. "Did it never occur to you that he told you to do it because he knew I wanted it? That he guided you, not to spur you into depravity, but because he knows how I like to be touched? He's had a long time to learn my body, Kai. If he wants to make me come, he can."

"But, you love him."

"I do."

"Then how could you possibly want anything from me?"

I shrugged, because wasn't that the very question I'd avoided asking myself? "I don't know."

He huffed, sitting up and pulling the covers around his shoulders. "It's bad enough I'm a slave," he muttered. "Without still being second best."

"Is that what you think?" I eyed him angrily. "Let me tell you something. I chose you, and you were my only choice. I didn't bid on any of the others. I spent more than Master gave me as an allowance getting you here. He might have sent me to purchase a new slave for him, but it wasn't him I was thinking of when I began bidding—and not because I felt sorry for you." I cut off his protest. "If I'd been on a crusade to save someone, I'd have bought one of the kids, or two, or all of them. I could have afforded it with what you cost. I didn't, I picked you. Because I wanted _you_."

"Hooray for me," he answered sullenly.

"Sulk then, Kai. See if I care." I rose from the mattress. "It's almost time for breakfast. Get yourself ready."

҉҉҉

Breakfast was a sour affair. Kai and I stood in silence at the foot of Master's table, refusing to look at each other. What did he want from me? I'd known him only a handful of days, and he was demanding... what, exactly? It's not like he was in love with me.

"Tam." Master's voice was sharp. "I asked you what was wrong."

I flushed, mortified he had spoken and I'd not responded. "Nothing, Master."

"Tam, don't lie to me." His voice had that low, dangerous quality to it which made me shiver.

I hung my head. "Kai's angry with me."

"Is that so?" His attention turned to my fellow slave. "Why is that, Kai?"

"I'm not angry with him, Master."

"Then why does he think you are?"

"I don't know."

Master made an impatient clucking sound. "I don't have time for this today," he said, his tone weary. "I have to go out, and I don't want you two fighting while I'm gone." He grinned, a sudden flash of teeth. "You seemed to be getting along all right last night."

We both scowled.

"So that's what's wrong with you." He smiled broadly, sitting a little easier in his chair. "Tam, tell me truthfully, did you dislike Kai touching you?"

I mumbled a negative somewhere in the direction of my toes.

"Kai, honestly now, did you not want to touch Tam?"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Kai shake his head.

"Well good, because from where I was sitting, you two looked gorgeous together. Perhaps it's something you can explore while I'm away." He rose, dropping his napkin onto the tabletop as he moved towards me, his gaze intense. "You could teach him, Tam. Teach him everything you know."

He hooked his thumb under my chin, tipping my mouth towards his. His lips hovered over mine, so close I could feel the whisper of breath as he spoke. "Show him what your clever little mouth can do. See how he reacts when you suck on those lovely nipples, taste him, make him hard." He gripped my chin, twisting my face so I looked at Kai, standing startled on the other side of the table. Master's teeth scraped over my cheekbone, and I groaned. "Yes, you like that idea, don't you? How big do you think he is, Tam? Big enough to fill you up, to stretch your tight little hole until you squeal? I think he is."

My breaths came quicker, the wicked words blazing a trail straight to my groin. I locked eyes with Kai, the two of us flushed and uncomfortable in our arousal. Apparently neither of these men had to love me to make me hard.

"And then what?" Master purred. "Once you've taught him everything you know, perhaps he can teach you something. You can learn from each other, Tam. Don't tell me you haven't wondered how it feels to be inside another man. You could spread his cheeks and lick and rub his hole, play with it the way I play with you, revel in the noises he makes. Do you think anyone's ever touched him there before? Do you think he has any idea how good it feels?" We both looked at Kai, lust rolling off us in waves. "Do you think he's ever penetrated himself?"

Kai curled his fingers around the back of a chair and whined, unable to stop himself.

Master snickered. "I don't think he has. I think he's a sweet virgin, just ripe for you to pluck. And oh, Tammy, the noises he'll make. Can't you just hear them? Do you think he'll be quiet, the first time you fill him with your lovely prick, or do you think he'll whimper and groan and beg you not to stop?"

He pulled away, looking from one to the other of us. "Yes, I think he'll respond beautifully. Just like you do." He cradled my face as he planted a soft kiss on my temple. His next words were for me alone, whispered directly into the shell of my ear. "You picked him, Tammy. Now make him yours."

CHAPTER NINE

Kai and I skirted uneasily around each other when we returned to his room, not making eye contact. We settled awkwardly at opposite ends of his mattress, arms clasped around our knees. I didn't know what to say to him. The equilibrium we'd found only yesterday was gone, our fledgling rapport strained to breaking point.

I scowled. Why was Master pushing so hard? He'd promised me time. Kai needed to settle in, to reconcile himself to his new life. And I needed to adjust, too. Did Master honestly expect us to start going at it like mindless animals the moment he left us alone?

That thought hurt in about a hundred different ways.

And the worst of it was, there _was_ something, some small spark between us. Left to muddle through in our own time, I could easily see more developing between us. Master was right. I'd picked Kai, and not for entirely altruistic reasons. He was beautiful; there was no other word for it, shorn head and all. But I was more than some dumb, brainless animal capable only of lust. Kai was damaged, that much was obvious, but I just knew that inside him somewhere there was a sweet soul, waiting to be drawn out.

I didn't want to bully or coerce him into sucking my dick or letting me fuck him, I wanted to get to know him first, forge a connection, however tentative. Even with Master.... To an impartial observer maybe I was just a pleasureslave, his to use as he wanted, but to me, we shared something. It _meant_ something. Even if it was only one-sided, _I_ made love to _him_. It wasn't fair of him to put me under so much pressure.

"I'm sorry, Kai."

He jumped when I spoke, a startled rabbit ready to bolt. "What for?"

I snorted. "Everything." My loose gesture encompassed the whole mess. "I didn't think he'd be like this."

"Like what?" He remained closed off, his words muffled by his knees.

"So... insistent."

"Would it have changed anything if you had?"

I frowned my confusion. "What?"

He turned to me, green eyes flashing. "Would you still have bought me? Would you have done anything different at all?"

"I... no. No," I admitted. "Whatever he makes us do, it can't be worse than what those others wanted to do to you."

"You think that's all that matters? Saving me?"

"What else is there?"

"What if I didn't want to be saved?" he screamed so loudly I jumped.

"I-I'm sorry. Kai, I'm so sorry...."

"Forget it."

I cringed.

"I didn't want to be saved for _this_."

He retreated again, hugging his knees tight to his chest. A fresh wave of indignation overwhelmed me.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped.

He glared at me.

"No, come on, out with it. What would you rather? You were sold as a pleasureslave. That's not my fault. Someone had to buy you."

"Just go away and leave me alone."

His shoulders slumped, his whole body curled into a tiny, desolate ball at the foot of the bed, and my heart ached to comfort him. He didn't strike me as a man easily defeated, but he'd been living on a knife-edge for who knew how long. I didn't think he had anything left to give.

"Kai, please." I reached for him, tentatively brushing the air between us. "I thought we were friends."

"Friends?" He turned to face me, voice rising. " _Friends_? Do you even know what friends are?"

I flinched. "What do you want from me, Kai? So maybe I've never had any friends, and maybe I never wanted you here in the first place, but we're stuck with each other." I swallowed a lump in my throat. "I don't want to argue with you."

For a moment he looked stricken, before he carefully schooled his expression into something neutral. "I don't want to argue with you, either. I know this isn't your fault."

We smiled sadly at each other, the smallest of understandings.

"Talk to me," I urged. "Ask me whatever you want. I won't mind."

He remained wary. "What good will it do?"

"It's got to be better than this. Please, Kai," I crept towards him along the bed.

He turned as I touched his shoulder, breaking the contact. "Have you really never had any friends? _Really_?"

"When I was younger, I had a stuffed rabbit." I tried to laugh, but even to my ears it sounded strangled, and I quickly stopped. Shame washed over me as I looked at his incredulous expression, rising in a red tide until I couldn't bear the silence any longer. "I know, I know. I'm pathetic. I know you think that. A slave who likes his bonds, who loves his master—it's pitiful, isn't it? But I've been here since I was twelve years old and this life is all I know. I live in the room he gave me, I wear the clothes he chooses.... My friends, my possessions, he dictates everything. He always has. Everything except you."

"Me?" His eyes widened, startled.

I smiled gently. "Yes, you. You're the only thing I ever chose for myself."

A small, pained moan escaping his parted lips. That simple sound hurt me in more ways than I could possibly explain.

"Please," I tried again, struggling to speak. "Please, I couldn't bear it if you hated me."

He shook his head, slowly, like a dazed animal. "I don't hate you."

"No?" I held my breath.

He smiled, and if his eyes looked a little too bright, I pretended not to notice. "No."

҉҉҉

We sat side-by-side, staring sightlessly forward at the blank wall at the foot of the bed. It was easier not to have to look at each other or make eye contact as we talked. Or rather, as I talked. Kai remained quiet, listening to me narrate the brief history of my life so far. As I spoke, I longed to ask him what he was thinking, what he made of my tale, if he thought any less of me because of it. What had I done with my twenty-seven years? Consolidated as they were into a few brief utterances, they seemed pitifully bereft of detail. Every day like the one before, stretching out behind me, a fifteen-year catalogue of failure to achieve anything at all. Playing in the grounds as a child, learning my lessons like the obedient little soul I was, throwing myself shamelessly at Master until he finally relented, took me to his bed, and made me his.

And since then... nothing. An endless round of empty days and sweat-soaked nights. Of long walks through dark corridors back to my room, cold and alone, my body aching and bruised. Fifteen years of waking up in my own bed, clasping a pillow to my chest, and wishing it was him.

Laid out like that, it didn't seem like much of a life at all.

"Tam?"

The soft brush of his fingers against my arm made me jump.

"Tam, are you all right?"

Having promised him the truth, I answered honestly. "No. Not really."

"What's wrong?"

"I suppose I've just realised what you must think of me. How little I've done with my life...."

"What, and you think anything I've ever done has made a difference?" He laughed bitterly. "I couldn't even save my best friend."

"What happened to him?" I asked quietly.

Kai shook his head. "Not yet. I can't talk about it, not yet."

"Okay." I nodded acceptance. "I won't push you."

"I know."

We looked at each other, a ghost of understanding flitting between us.

I smiled. "At least you've done something, been somewhere. I can barely remember my life outside this compound."

"You're not missing much, believe me." He patted my thigh. "Nothing much changes there, either. March, fight, make camp. Wake up in the morning and do it all again. Endless drills, not enough food, not enough of anything to go around."

"At least you were part of something bigger," I protested. "What you did had meaning."

"What meaning?" he asked dolefully. "I never knew who I was fighting, or why. The soldiers on the other side, what harm had they ever done me? What part had any of us to play in being there?" He snorted. "No, we were rich men's pawns, that's all. Better they had no armies and settled their disputes amongst themselves."

I turned his words over in my mind.

"I almost envy you," he admitted quietly.

"What? Why?"

"Your life, it's so simple. No big aim, no petty worries, no struggling to make ends meet or fearing what you're going to face today or tomorrow or the next day."

"No," I sneered. "My life is completely meaningless."

"I didn't mean it like that," he said.

We sat still, the shadows growing longer around us. When next he spoke, it was almost a whisper. "The fear, that was the worst thing."

"Fear of what?"

"Of going into battle. Of having to kill other men or see them be killed. Friends, strangers, it didn't matter. None of them deserved to die. And I didn't deserve to survive. It would paralyse me sometimes, the thought of what was coming. Relentless, a new battle every day. If we weren't fighting, we were marching to somewhere we could fight. It was kill or be killed."

"That's not your fault."

"I know." He nodded. "I do know that. But it's no excuse, is it? It almost makes it worse. I killed people because it was my _job_." He sneered the word. "What kind of solace is that? When someone dies, someone you love, you want to know why. You want the killer to give you a reason. What reason could I possibly give? Because I was following orders? You think that would satisfy the widows and mothers of those men? You think that stopped me seeing their faces in my dreams?"

I had no answer for him, no way to make it all better. Instead, I squeezed his hand. To my surprise, he held on and squeezed back.

"That's why I envy you. Your job is simple—to make one man happy. That's a far greater thing than killing ten, or fifty, or a hundred enemy soldiers."

I gave an embarrassed laugh. "I don't think the Overlord would see it that way. I don't make a difference to our nation."

"Neither did I. You think one man either way matters? That if the men I'd killed had lived, anything would have changed? What you do for him, it makes more difference than I ever could."

"You don't know that," I protested.

"Yes, I do. Because making one man happy was all I ever wanted."

CHAPTER TEN

The suns beat down mercilessly on the stone flags of the terrace, the light blinding as it bounced off the surface of Master's pool. I squinted as I adjusted to the brilliant light. Beside me, Kai let out a shout of joy as he spied the water and hurried to dip his toes. I smiled.

The silence in his bedroom had become oppressive, too weighted with subtext and meaning. I didn't venture out often, but the garden held an illusion of space and freedom I thought Kai would appreciate. A curious guard appeared at the sound of Kai splashing; I nodded to him, and he retreated into the wider compound behind the plants that bordered the terrace, creating a private little oasis in the middle of the exposed, dusty landscape.

I settled on the edge of the pool, swishing my legs slowly back and forth in the water as I watched Kai jump fearlessly into the deepest part. He emerged in an eruption of spray, laughing, and swam over to me with strong strokes. The liquid glistened on his skin and in the spikes of his shorn hair as he treaded water before me.

"Aren't you coming in?"

I shook my head. "I'll watch. You have fun."

He caught my ankle and tugged playfully. "Come on, you must be roasting."

"No, really." I braced my hands against the stone flags in case he decided to pull me in.

"Why not?"

"I'm happy here." I gave him a tight smile. "You have fun."

"It's no fun on my own." He swam to the edge, resting his arms on the flags and kicking his legs lazily behind him. He had nice legs, delicate ankles and finely turned calves stretching upward to slim, toned thighs, dusted with dark hairs.

"I can't swim." The admission shamed me, confronted as I was by his fearlessness in the water, his easy grace and fluid movements.

"Really?" He blinked. "Why not?"

"I never learnt, okay?" Growing up in the desert, I'd not exactly had much opportunity.

He looked at me incredulously. "But.... You've got this pool. You've lived here since you were twelve. How can you not have learnt?"

"I can doggy paddle," I offered weakly.

"You're scared of the water?"

"Not really."

"What does that mean?"

I sighed. "I used to be," I admitted. "When I first came here... I'd never seen so much water before. It was like a miracle. Some of the other slaves tried to teach me to swim, but it terrified me, the thought of drowning in it." I laughed. "Stupid. Like they'd have let me drown."

"Fear doesn't have to be rational," Kai murmured gently.

I nodded. "I know." I lifted one leg out of the pool, watching the rivulets run over my skin and drip onto the sparkling surface below. Kai's legs swayed like ghosts in the depths.

"The truth is, I only felt safe with Master, but he wasn't home enough to teach me. By the time he got back it was always dark, or nearly dark. Too late to go swimming."

"So learn now. I can teach you."

I frowned at him.

"I can," he protested. "I was practically born in the water. Believe me, swimming I know." He tugged my leg again. "Please? Consider it payment for teaching me Thirskan."

I looked over the edge, judging the depth. "I don't know."

Kai seemed to read my mind. "We'll start in the shallow end, okay? I promise I won't take you out of your depth until you're comfortable."

We shared a long look. Finally I nodded, rising and rounding the pool to the sweeping steps leading into the shallow water before I lost my nerve. Kai swam over, emerging from the depths like some ancient sea-god, rivulets of water running down his body, sparkling like diamonds in the light of the double suns. My breath quickened.

Oblivious to my rapt attention, Kai ran his hands across his face and over his shorn hair, brushing away the excess liquid. My throat went dry, and I wetted my lips as I watched the muscles in his abdomen ripple with movement. Part of me felt guilty for even noticing, like I was being disloyal to Master, even though it was he pushing me towards Kai in the first place. The compound was filled with men—other slaves, guards—none of whom had ever caught more than my most cursory interest.

It wasn't only loyalty that kept my eyes from straying—Master was a handsome man, and I couldn't remember a time when I hadn't been conscious of that fact. As a child, small even for my race, his big, strong body had represented safety, security, a man capable of protecting me from the monsters I knew existed in the world. I struggled to sleep unless he was nearby; I sought comfort in his broad chest and strong arms. Even now I was a grown man myself, I still turned instinctively to him when I was in need of comfort or reassurance and, looking back, despite knowing he was younger when he purchased me than I was now, he still seemed to have been infinitely older and wiser at twenty-two than I would ever be.

Had I been even slightly younger when I was sold to him, perhaps things would have been different between us. Perhaps I would have seen him as a father figure, a sexless protector. Instead, I was old enough to remember my real father and elder brothers clearly, and I felt no need to replace them. Master became something else to me, something I barely understood until I reached my adolescence. All I knew was I was insanely jealous of my mistress, that she got to sleep in his bed and demand his attention whereas I could not. Wherever I eventually fell asleep, I always awoke in my own room, alone.

He had been shocked when I first tried to kiss him. He'd put me from him with something like distaste, told me my desires were wrong, punished me when, like a spoilt brat, I cried and pouted and disobeyed his commands. I wasn't young enough to be his son—not that any master, however fond, would think of a slave in such terms—but perhaps to him I'd been a pet, an eternal child long after my body proved him false.

Yet I could not help but look at Kai and wonder what it would be like to be with a man so different to Master.... They were both strong, fit men, but Kai was lean where Master was broad, his body supple, compact, and there was something about him, some inner vulnerability that made me want to hold him, offer comfort, and keep him safe. Plus, with Kai, there were other things, possibilities I had never allowed myself to entertain with Master. Wicked thoughts seduced me as I watched him wade through the waist-high water.

I let him take my hand and lead me down the steps, the water surprisingly cool against my overheated skin. My balls retracted as they broke the surface and I jumped, shocked by the unexpected sensation. Kai did his best to stifle a laugh, and I couldn't help notice how handsome he was when he smiled, bright-eyed like he hadn't a care in the world.

"You'll get used to it," he promised as I dropped his hand to rearrange my genitals.

I grumbled a sour response, but knew he could tell I wasn't really annoyed.

"Can you swim at all?" he asked as I swished the water, chasing small bubbles of air that broke across the surface.

"I told you, I can doggy paddle." It had taken me months to get that far, most of the other slaves losing patience when I didn't simply dive in and start swimming.

"Show me," he said, releasing my hand and sinking back under the water until only his head showed above the surface.

I lowered myself hesitantly, reassured by the feel of the rough bottom beneath my feet, but still not entirely confident. The flesh of my chest tightened, my nipples peaked, and my skin broke out in goosebumps as the cold water lapped over me. I stopped with my shoulders submerged, careful to keep my chin well clear of the surface.

"Go on, then." Kai laughed. "You'll have to lift your feet up."

I really, really didn't want to. He'd looked so graceful, swimming under the water after he dived in. The best I could do was splash and thrash wildly, more panic than finesse in my technique. Kai waited, a lazy smirk on his face as he treaded water and, galled by his expression, I flung myself forward.

I kicked my legs out behind me, the water rose in a terrifying wall towards my face, and I pushed at it wildly with my hands, trying to keep my mouth and nose from going under. I scraped the top of my foot against the rough stone side, my skin dragging sickeningly as it tore. Pain shot through me and I panicked, convinced I was going to drown. My head went under and terror took over. I twisted and turned, trying to find the surface, but I no longer knew which way was up and which, down. My legs caught in some unseen snare, and bubbles burst in my face as I released a silent scream.

Strong arms encompassed me, and I was lifted bodily from the water, still thrashing like a madman. I clung to Kai, and he held me as I trembled, a human anchor, promising over and over that I was safe.

"I'm sorry," I said, mortified once I'd regained my senses. I tried to wriggle free, to stand, but he refused to let me go.

"No, I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't realise you were that scared."

I set a foot on the bottom of the pool and cringed to realise I could have simply stood upright when I'd started to panic.

"I don't like getting my face wet," I mumbled. "I was okay until something grabbed my leg—"

"Your loincloth." Kai lifted the sodden material from where it was floating on the surface of the water. "It came undone. I should have thought."

I hadn't even realised I was naked. Hastily, I scrambled out of his arms.

"I'm sorry," I said again, too humiliated to think of anything else.

"It's okay," Kai soothed gently. "Come on, let's sit on the steps instead."

I followed him as he waded to shallower water, mesmerised by the way the muscles in his back rippled as he moved. Two smooth dimples broke the surface, just above his buttocks, and my attention fixed on the way droplets of water caught in the fine golden down that covered them.

I was still staring when Kai reached the lower steps and turned to sit, revealing a sparse thatch of neatly trimmed pubic hairs. Blushing, I looked away.

"In future, we'll take our clothes off before we get in," Kai said, reclining naked on the step with a smirk. He tossed our sodden loincloths aside, and they landed with a wet slap. Immediately I set about lying them flat to dry.

"Tam, come here."

I turned, facing him apprehensively. My nakedness had never shamed me. My body was Master's to command, and he preferred me dressed in as little as possible. Still, confronted with Kai, I could not help but be acutely conscious of my drawn-up balls and shrivelled cock. It felt too intimate, an unfamiliar sensation.

Kai, for his part, seemed unconcerned. He reclined on the sloping steps, the shallow water barely covering his groin. He kicked his legs lazily in the water, the tops of his thighs and genitals occasionally breaking the surface. He looked as relaxed as though he did this all the time. Who knew, perhaps in the army, he had.

"Don't tell me you're shy." Kai laughed.

"Don't make fun of me," I grumbled. I knew I was being pathetic, knew he'd seen me in a far more compromising position only the previous night, but the sting of shame was never rational.

"I'm sorry," he said immediately. "I wasn't laughing at you. Honestly, Tam." He raked a hand over his shorn head. "I-I'm doing this all wrong. I'm out of my depth here. Last night...." He swallowed. "I'd like us to be friends."

I blinked, surprised. "You want to be my friend?"

The smile he gave me was completely genuine. "I'd like nothing more."

҉҉҉

We spent the afternoon outside, splashing in the shallow end of the pool, then letting the blazing heat of the double suns dry us as we lazed on the warm stone flags of the terrace. Kai seemed relaxed, at peace with his new position for maybe the first time.

"Do you think it makes me a bad person, to be enjoying this?" he asked hesitantly.

We were lying side-by-side on our backs, the warm air cocooning us like the softest of blankets. Kai's eyes were closed, his chin tipped up as the rays of the suns bathed his face. He was naked—we both were—his limbs long and loose and utterly relaxed. I took a moment to simply admire him.

"Why do you think it would make you a bad person?" I asked at length.

He rolled his head to face me, piercing me with his brilliant emerald eyes. "I'm a slave," he said. "I'm being held captive by a sworn enemy of my people, forced to do as he says, wear what he says, live and breathe because he allows it. Wear his collar—" Kai choked, reaching instinctively to the steel band around his neck. "I'll never be truly naked again," he said softly.

I touched my own collar, for so long an object of comfort, reminding me I belonged to my master even when he wasn't near.

"Shouldn't I be angry?" Kai continued. "Shouldn't I be doing everything I can to escape?"

"Do you want to escape?" I asked tentatively, half-afraid of his answer. Afraid because I'd have to report it, yes, but also because, deep in my treacherous heart, I wanted Kai to stay.

How I could wish that, when our master was always forefront in my mind, I didn't know. Perhaps even slaves were capable of being selfish.

It seemed forever before he answered. "No. No, I don't want to escape. Not right now."

"And that unsettles you?"

"Shouldn't it? Am I so easily bought that spending an afternoon in the sun is all it takes for me to forget who I am— _what_ I am? I'm a soldier of the Granthian corps, a man of honour. I should be doing everything I can to return to my regiment."

"Why?"

His face fell. "I don't know," he whispered.

I didn't tell Master about Kai's misgivings. It was only logical, I told myself, that he would feel conflicted, being torn from his old life to end up here. I could only imagine what he'd heard of being a slave, but I'd heard enough to know our master was not a typical man. He had never been cruel to me, never unjust, and I repaid his kindness with unwavering devotion. I could so easily have been purchased by another; my life could so easily have become a nightmare. All of us who lived under his roof were at his mercy, and I for one was grateful.

Master was quiet that night. He smiled warmly enough to see us, presenting in neat synchronicity either side of his chamber door, but there were dark rings under his eyes, and he slumped into his armchair before the hearth looking world-weary and exhausted.

"What have you two done today?" he asked as Kai busied himself lighting a fire in the grate.

"Kai tried to teach me to swim," I answered, helping Master out of his dusty travelling cloak.

"Oh?" he sounded curious. "How did that go?"

"Not well," I admitted, blushing. "I panicked."

"I should have taught you when you were younger," he mused.

"It was only his first try," Kai said, rising from the fireplace, where the kindling was crackling merrily.

"Indeed." Master inclined his head. "Tam, come here."

Obediently, I hung his cloak and sat between his knees with my back to him. He threaded his fingers through my hair, and I butted my head into his hand.

"Kai, the brush."

Kai handed it over and took his place on the bearskin rug before the hearth. Outside, the first sun had set, the second dying in a blaze of bloody scarlet, framed by the faint ghosts of the planet's rings. Already the desert heat had faded, making the cheerful fire a welcome addition.

I closed my eyes as Master brushed my hair, working out the tangles with gentle care.

"You've caught the suns," he admonished, touching my bare shoulder to indicate the spot. "You need to be more careful."

"Yes, Master."

"And you."

Even without opening my eyes, I pictured Kai freezing at Master's attention, wary, like a skittish animal.

"Master?"

"Both of you, you're positively pink. I don't want either of you to get burnt, understand?"

"It won't happen again," Kai mumbled, a sullen edge to his tone.

"I'm not forbidding you to go outside," Master said, his voice as even as the rhythmic strokes of the brush through my long hair. "Tam's skin is too pale for him to be outside for hours without protection."

I opened my eyes a crack in time to see Kai nod agreement.

My hair thoroughly detangled, Master dropped the brush to the floor and contented himself with running his fingers through the long strands, fanning it across his lap and letting it fall. Lulled by the soothing motion, I let myself drift until Master's voice startled me from my state of near-sleep.

"Kai, I want you to choose a book. Second shelf." Master's hand left my hair as he indicated the bookcase.

"Any book?" Kai asked.

"Whichever you want."

Kai rose, returning to the rug a moment later with an old, red, leather-bound tome in hand. I recognised it from the cover alone, and smiled as I would to greet an old friend.

"Sit. Open it."

Kai obeyed.

"Read aloud."

"But... it's in Thirskan, isn't it?"

"You can't read it at all?"

Kai shook his head, a little shamefaced. I frowned to myself, an old memory niggling at me.

"Isn't that _Tales of the Untold_?" I asked, sitting straighter to see the title embossed on the cover.

"That's right, Tam."

"But it's written in Granthian. I'm sure—"

I broke off as Kai flushed bright red and clapped a hand over my thoughtless mouth. _Kai can't read_. I had assumed all free men could read.

"Apologise, Tam," Master snapped, and I immediately complied. "Kai, come here. Bring the stool."

I shifted sideways between Master's legs to face Kai, who brought the stool to the side of the chair.

"Sit next to me so you can see."

Master took the book, the old, thick pages parting with a familiar stiff rustle. "Can you see it? Good. Tonight, I'll read. You follow the words."

Kai nodded briefly, curled in on himself upon the stool. I rested my head on Master's thigh to listen to the story.

It was a children's book, filled with Granthian folk stories. It had been given to Master in his childhood, and he had used it to teach me how to read, my attention captured by dashing tales of knights and princes. Master began now at the beginning, speaking slowly, moving his index finger over the pages so Kai could follow the words.

I sighed happily and settled, remembering countless other evenings spent in the sanctuary of Master's room listening to him read. Since I'd learnt to read to myself, we'd fallen out of the habit, and I hadn't realised until that moment how much I'd missed it.

"Tam? Tam!"

Large hands shook me, and I grumbled, burrowing deeper into my soft pillow. The pillow shifted, somebody laughed, and what seemed like several pairs of hands began to prise me out of my warm bed. Except I wasn't in bed.

With a start I woke, realising with a touch of embarrassment I'd fallen asleep with my head in Master's lap. Kai laughed when he saw I was awake, resuming his attempts to lift me. Turning my head, I saw a dark spot of what could only be my drool on Master's groin, and I cringed.

"Was I asleep for long?" I asked, letting Kai help me up.

"Not very." The smile Master gave me was warm and genuine. "You must have needed the rest."

"It won't happen again," I said, but he took my hand and petted it, reassuring me.

"You didn't disturb us," he said. "I'm not angry."

Still, I blushed.

"Go on." He dropped my hand and gave my backside a gentle smack. "Off to bed, both of you. It's late."

Indeed, it was. Outside the sky was dark save for the luminous rings of the planet, already halfway across the horizon. The fire still crackled in the grate, although it looked freshly stoked, and I assumed Kai had built it up before waking me.

I hesitated, unsure if Master was really sending me off to bed without attending to him, but he made no move to keep me by his side.

"Master?"

"Yes, Tam?"

"You don't want me to stay?"

"Not tonight." His smile was warm enough I knew he wasn't angry with me. "Go with Kai." He indicated my fellow slave waiting in the doorway, and reluctantly, I left.

"Why did you ask him if you could stay?" Kai asked the moment we were out of earshot.

"He might have needed me," I said, not expecting him to understand.

"Let him 'need' his right hand," he said scornfully, proving me right.

"It's not only about sex," I snapped as we reached his door. A guard stationed in the corridor motioned him inside.

"Then explain it to me."

I refused to meet the eye of the smirking guard as I bundled Kai into his chamber.

"Your friend," I hissed. "Were you jealous of his hand when he touched himself? Didn't you long to take its place, worship his body with your own?"

Even in the darkness of the unlit room, I saw Kai's cheeks redden.

"But it's more than that," I continued. "Even if he wanted nothing from me at all, I would still have taken pleasure from his company. I love him."

"So you keep saying," Kai grumbled.

"You could learn to love him, too," I insisted. "Has he treated you badly since you came here?"

"No." The admission was petulant, grudging, and Kai sat on his bed with his arms and legs crossed like a sulky child.

I sat beside him, sinking into the soft down comforter Master had given him from his own bed.

"How long was I asleep?" I asked to change the subject. I could no more force Kai to understand why I loved our master than I could force him to accept his new life with us. It had taken me long enough, and I was only a child when he purchased me. I couldn't begin to imagine how difficult the transition must be for Kai.

"A couple of hours? We finished the story. He told me he taught you to read the same way."

I nodded slowly. "That's how he was taught."

"Do you...." He picked at an invisible thread. "Do you think I could really learn?"

"Why not?"

"Why would he bother, though? What use can it be to him if we can read or not?"

"Why does it have to be useful?" I countered.

Kai snorted.

"Maybe it is. I read to him, sometimes. And I read to myself when he's not here."

"Is he away often?"

"During the day. He has duties to attend. It gets lonely," I admitted. "Since the mistress left—"

"Why did she go?" Kai asked curiously.

"It is not my place to ask."

"You were bought for her?"

I nodded.

"Then why didn't she take you with her?"

"I was never hers, not really. It was no secret I preferred him. Besides, she took most of the rest of the household with her. She didn't need me."

"And he did," Kai guessed.

I smiled. "I hope so."

We lapsed into silence. Kai tucked himself under the covers, and a moment later I joined him. His comforter might be soft and warm, but the rest of the room was bare stone and bitterly cold. Our breath showed in the damp air before us, and I thought longingly of my own chamber through the next door, of plush rugs and furs and my beautiful canopied bed.

Kai budged over slightly so we didn't touch under the covers. I understood his skittishness, although I wished he wasn't so. He came from a land where men weren't supposed to touch, and that must have made even the most innocent contact seem sexual. I was a tactile creature, and Master encouraged his slaves to be affectionate with one another. I had been raised in a household never short of someone to hug or pet me or hold my hand. Since my mistress had taken the majority of the house slaves with her when she left, I'd missed the simple, comforting contact we'd shared most of all. I still had Master, and he still called me to his chamber and fussed over me, brushed my hair, or simply let me curl up against him through the long evenings, but he was absent for much of the day and left all alone in the compound, I had often felt lonely.

In Kai I hoped for a companion, someone to whom I could turn during Master's many absences and seek comfort. It didn't need to be a sexual thing, however hard Master pushed us in that direction. Truthfully, the idea scared me a little. As attractive as I found Kai, as intrigued as I was by the possibility, I had never slept with anyone other than Master and part of me felt I would be betraying him to do so, even if it was with his blessing. I wanted him to be jealous, to want to keep me pure for himself. I didn't understand why, after I had been his and his alone for so long, he now wanted to share me with another, even if only another pleasureslave.

"I should go." I made to move, realising I was probably making Kai uncomfortable. It's not as though my loneliness was his fault. I wasn't his responsibility.

"Do you have to?" he asked.

"No, Master hasn't forbidden it. I only thought—"

"Do you ever disobey him?" Kai asked roughly, a sulky edge to his tone.

I smiled, remembering. "I have done, yes."

"What happened?"

"I was punished, of course. The same as you would have been in the army."

That cut off a dissident grumble before it really started.

"You're too quick to judge," I said with a trace of reproach. "You think everything about my life you don't like is the fault of being a slave."

"Isn't it?"

"No." I touched his arm and withdrew. "The only difference is money."

"And your ability to leave," Kai protested.

I smirked. "You mean you could have left the army whenever you wanted?"

"Well, no. But eventually!"

"That's not freedom," I said softly. "It's an illusion of freedom, and they used it to keep you obedient."

"What would you know about it?" Kai demanded, and I swore he was sulking. The truth was always an unpleasant thing, but Master had never been less than honest with me, and I didn't know how to be any other way.

"I was not so young I don't remember some of my life before I was brought here," I said. "I had freedom once. True freedom, not some pale illusion."

"What was it like?" Kai asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I had nothing to compare it with."

"But you do now. You can't have gone from that life to this and not seen a difference."

"Oh, it's different." I laughed. "I'm just not sure it was any better."

"How can you say that?"

"Life was harder in the desert. We spent our days seeking food and water, and often there was not enough of either. We were too hot in the day, too cold at night, and everything we had was dearly won. I spoke neither Granthian nor Thirskan, nor any language recognised by the kingdoms surrounding our home. We had no money, no masters, and no demands on our time save our own wants."

Kai sighed softly. "It sounds incredible."

I smiled. "You're a romantic."

"How so?"

"You're judging my life then by your standards now. It was _hard_ —I was always hungry, always thirsty, always too hot or too cold, and the future was always uncertain. When the soldiers came"—I broke off on a shudder, still involuntary, even after fifteen years—"there was nobody to protect us, to punish them or save the rest of my family from what those monsters did. The only reason I'm still alive is because of my worth as a slave.

"Here, I'm safe. Master protects me—his name alone is enough to safeguard us all—he feeds and clothes me, gives me possessions the like of which I'd never dreamed existed, offers more security than my family ever could. He can do that because he's a wealthy, powerful man, living in a land that respects his riches. I might have been free in the desert, but I have a better life and more secure future as a slave."

"Only because you trust him to keep providing for you," Kai countered. "He could sell you tomorrow."

I hated how matter-of-fact he was, how reasonable he thought Master dismissing me would be. The idea that in Kai I was training my eventual replacement made me sick.

"Then I'd better keep him happy, hadn't I?" I snapped, flinging the covers aside and rising from the bed. The cold air of Kai's room hit my skin like a slap, minute hairs rising all over my body.

"Tam, wait." He caught my hand, preventing me from leaving. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"How could you not?" I demanded, shaking myself free of his grasp. "You think I want you here? You think I don't wish he'd never sent me to the slavemarket at all? I was _happy_ , Kai. I thought he was, too."

"Tam, please...." The comforter slid off the mattress as he moved closer. "I, I know you don't want me here. I know this hasn't been easy for you. I've ruined your life and I never intended to. I never wanted this."

"You haven't ruined my life," I grudgingly admitted, trying not to pout. It wasn't Kai's fault he'd been purchased, any more than it was mine. We just had to find a way to make the best of our situation.

With a show of reluctance, I allowed him to take my hand and coax me back onto the bed. He was still hesitant about us touching, but I decided I didn't care anymore. Snuggling comfortably under the covers until only the top of my head was showing, I let my body go lax. If Kai lay awake all night in his discomfort, I wasn't conscious to witness it.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The next day was the first of what was to become our routine. After presenting for Master at breakfast, I spent the morning attempting to teach Kai to speak Thirskan, and we spent the afternoon in the pool, where I paddled in the shallow end while he tried to coax me deeper. Although I trusted him not to let me get out of my depth, a reflexive panic still seized me whenever my feet left the bottom. Undaunted, Kai declared it only a matter of time before he had me swimming with all the confidence he exhibited.

We passed the evening in Master's chamber, reviewing what we had learnt that day. He seemed pleased both with our progress and our cooperation with each other, and I preened under his words of praise.

We left him early that night, and the one following, despite my offers to linger. Master dismissed me with a world-weary wave of his hand, and I withdrew, subdued and a little upset.

The lack of sex didn't trouble me; I had been deprived for longer, and without Master teasing and tormenting me, I felt no pressing need for release. Instead, I missed the intimacy of his touch; gentle kisses bestowed almost absently, given without purpose or demand. It crossed my mind that Master was wary of making Kai jealous, but I dismissed the thought. If he truly wanted more to develop between us, as he claimed, then Kai's jealousy would be better provoked than eased.

Not that Kai was jealous.

We might not have tumbled straight into bed as Master seemed to have wanted, but I felt hopeful we could at least be friends. I found I enjoyed his company. He was sharp-witted and gentle-natured, and he had the most beautiful, infectious laugh when he forgot himself and let it out. I quickly learnt he grew morose when left alone for too long, and I took to sleeping in his chamber, keeping him company through the lonely hours of night when he would otherwise succumb to grief and remorse.

He still spoke very little of his life before his purchase, keeping those details close like precious gems; the last of his autonomy. I burned with curiosity, most particularly about his friendship with the man who had died, but Kai would clam up and grow snappish whenever I broached the subject, so I learnt to let it drop.

I couldn't conceive of a world where love between men was forbidden, and I struggled to understand how such laws were even enforced. Outside our compound, there was nobody to know what any of us did in our bedchambers, so how did a state police such private acts? And for what purpose?

I suspected, however, that common intimacies were avoided in case they were misconstrued, and it was with something almost like pity I responded when Kai forgot himself enough to welcome my simple, sexless touches with a gratitude bordering on desperation. Within a matter of days, he had blossomed from the shy, reticent creature I had bought—overly conscious of every point of contact, so quick to tremble under my hands and sleep in a tight coil in the corner of his bed—into an affectionate young man.

He also took well to our routine, seeming to find pleasure in each slow step of his lessons in Thirskan, and he loved our afternoons spent frolicking in the pool. For my own part, I was not used to life being so carefree, as even though I had only the lightest of duties to perform, I was accustomed to spending my days quietly indoors, bettering myself in order to further please Master with my progress.

At twenty-seven, I was a proficient reader of both Thirskan and Granthian; I spoke the former like a native and the latter well enough, although Kai still giggled at my accent. I had read every book on Master's many shelves at least once, and I tried to understand as much of their content—everything from agriculture to warfare—as I possibly could.

Kai couldn't understand why Master had bothered with my education at all. It was something I returned to in the darkness of the depths of night when he was sleeping by my side. I had believed Master enjoyed my companionship, that he craved an intelligent audience, but Kai's prompting had me realise for the first time that Master rarely spoke to me of any such matters, save to enquire what I had learnt that day.

It was a thought that nagged as time moved on.

҉҉҉

"What is it, Tam?"

I cleared my throat, suddenly apprehensive, although I rarely was when Master was around. We had spent the evening in his chamber, as we did each night when he returned to the compound from carrying out his day's duties. When he dismissed us, I disobeyed and approached him instead.

He looked tired, I noted with some concern. Dark circles underscored his deep brown eyes, which looked almost black in the liquid amber light thrown by the fire and the long tallow candle guttering atop his desk. Perhaps my questions were inappropriate, perhaps I had chosen a bad time. Kai's presence had distracted me, but I realised, with a sinking heart, I had never known Master to be absent from his house so frequently, or for so long.

I hesitated, unsure if I should bring up my uncertainties or offer him some clearly needed comfort instead—or even leave him in peace to rest, as he so obviously desired.

"Tam, I asked you a question."

"I-I'm sorry, Master."

His lips quirked. "Why are you sorry?"

"I... I...."

He released me from my self-imposed torment with a gentle smile, opening his arms for me to sink into.

"That will be all, Kai."

Master's voice rumbled against my chest as he spoke, and I turned in his lap, surprised to see Kai still hesitating in the doorway. I nodded to him, and reluctantly he left.

I turned to Master, and he tucked a long strand of hair behind my ear. I threw my arms around his neck and clung to him, revelling in the heat and scent of him, his strong arms and the slow, reassuring beat of his heart.

"What is it?" he asked softly, petting me as I began to tremble.

"I don't know," I admitted, my voice muffled in the crook of his neck.

He pulled his loose turquoise robe around us both and rocked me on his lap, shushing me. "It's all right," he said, over and over. "I'm here."

"Why do you even want me?" I asked at last, blurting the words before I lost my nerve.

"Tam, how could you say that?" He seemed aghast.

"But what use am I?" I persisted. "Why did you teach me to read and write, why bother wasting your time? What possible use is that to you?"

Master frowned and tutted, holding me back so I was forced to look him in the eye.

"I care about you, Tam. I thought you understood that. Necessity dictates I leave you for long stretches during the day, and what would you do if you couldn't at least read for entertainment? I wish I could spend more time with you but that's not possible right now, and I don't want you bored when I'm not here."

"Is that all?" I asked tentatively. "You don't want me to be bored?"

I should have been grateful he'd considered me at all, and none of the other house slaves had received so much thoughtful attention, but I couldn't help the rising tide of disappointment I felt at his words.

Master sighed. "Tam, what is it you want me to say?"

I bit my lip. _I want you to say you love me!_ my soul screamed. I wanted him to think of me as more than a slave, more than a restless beast to keep tame between the times he put me down and picked me up again. I wanted to be his equal, if only in that one small way. I wanted us to talk together as men, to trade information and ideas, to be useful to one another for more than just sex. Before Kai's arrival, I had fooled myself that was what we had.

Suddenly I couldn't get out of his chamber fast enough. I scrambled off his lap and was already on my feet when he grabbed my wrist to prevent me escaping.

"Where are you going?" he demanded roughly, squeezing my wrist tight enough to leave bruises.

"I, I...."

"You'll speak to me, Tam, if I have to spank it out of you. What's wrong?"

I flushed crimson, mortified by the prospect of being spanked. Master hadn't done that since I was a child.

"I wish I meant something to you," I admitted in a whisper.

"What?" He released me and recoiled, looking visibly startled. "What would possibly make you think you don't?"

"Something more," I said.

"More? Tam, no, you know we can't—"

"I know," I said bitterly. What did I expect him to do, fall in love with me? The idea was absurd.

"Tammy, come here."

He urged me back onto his lap and enfolded me in his arms. I curled up, my head tucked on his shoulder, and let him pet my long hair. If a tear trickled out as I closed my eyes, he would never know.

"I want the best for you, Tam. I always have. Even as a child you were bright. Too smart for your own good." He chuckled softly. "I had to do something. I thought educating you would help, even though I was counselled against it. 'An educated slave is never content,' that's what the old proverb says. I thought I knew better. I thought if you could learn, you'd be happier. Or would you rather I kept you as a dumb beast incapable of thinking for himself?"

I shook my head vigorously.

"No." I heard the smile in his warm, rich voice. "I wish I could do more, Tam. Shall I buy more books? Would you like that?"

"For what purpose, Master?" I asked, raising my head to look at him.

"Why do I need a purpose?" he countered. "Is your enjoyment not purpose enough?"

"But what would I do with what I learnt?"

"You could teach me."

I began to scoff, before remembering my position and schooling my features, but not before he had seen and understood completely.

"You think you can't teach me? Or you think I don't want to learn?"

I ran a hand through the soft waves of his black hair, and he allowed me the distraction.

"Tam...."

The soft sigh that escaped him gave me confidence to be bolder and I nuzzled his face and neck, relishing the rough scratch of his day-old stubble. It had been too long since we were alone, just me and him, and I had started to come adrift, lost in a sea of emotion.

"Tam, you haven't... haven't... answered my question."

I sucked the fleshy lobe of his ear into my mouth and grazed its downy surface with my teeth. A full-body shudder rippled though him and into me as I insinuated my tongue into his ear.

"I think you already taught me everything I need to know," I answered in a husky whisper.

"You're a wanton," he groaned as I flexed against him.

"I've missed you," I countered, grinding in his lap.

"You haven't.... With Kai?"

I scowled and kissed him, as hard and insistent as I'd ever been before, and was rewarded when Master returned the kiss, holding me as tightly as I clung to him. In that moment he became my whole world; his pleasure my sole purpose. He could push Kai and I as close as he liked, he could never make Kai his replacement in my affections, and he could never take away the strange pride I felt at only having had him as a lover. At least I was his, even if he could never be mine.

A deft twist of the knot securing my loincloth and I was naked, straddled across his lap, my hard length ground between our heaving bellies as we kissed and kissed. Trusting him to support me, I reached behind myself to where his dick was sliding between the cheeks of my arse, tempting me through the loose folds of his trousers. He thrust into the narrow cavity created by my hand and backside, and I moaned into his mouth, needing him to fulfil his body's promise to mine.

Locating the vial of oil he kept in his desk drawer, I unstoppered the cork, but he caught me before I could apply the slick, viscous liquid.

"Not here," he gasped, struggling to compose himself as I continued frotting against him. "The bed, get on the bed."

Pleasantly surprised, I lost no time complying, the stinging slap he gave my arse as I dismounted only spiking my lust still higher. Even so, I took a moment to fetch a fluffy white towel from beside his washstand, pulled back the thick comforter, and spread it across his pristine sheets before lying down, my head nestled in his pillows and my hair fanned out around me.

Master disrobed and I watched the unveiling of his body with greedy abandon, anticipation setting my blood on fire. I thrilled at the movement of muscles in his shoulders, the flex of his arms as he shrugged his turquoise robe free to puddle at his feet, the flexibility of his broad, blunt fingers as he pushed the waistband of his cotton trousers down his thick thighs, which were lightly dusted with dark fur. He was everything I was not, a great bear of a man, and yet I never felt scared in his presence, never feared he would use all that bulk and strength against me. If anything, I felt the opposite: that he would protect me, he would keep me safe. Maybe that's why, as a terrified boy who'd had his life brutally torn apart, I'd clung so hard to him to begin with.

He advanced to the foot of the bed, his gaze burning into me as I followed the slow, cat-like movements of his powerful body. His cock was hard, swaying gently between his legs with every step, his balls heavy and low in their sac, nudged left and right by his thighs. I swallowed.

The bed dipped as Master knelt at the foot and proceeded on all fours up between my legs, cementing the predatory illusion. His hair obscured his face, showing me only flashes of pink tongue, white teeth, and the glint of inky eyes. He spread my thighs with palms bigger than my kneecaps, and I parted for him, my breath catching in a strangled gasp as he nipped the soft flesh of my inner thigh, the graze of his stubble rasping against my delicate skin. He licked the bite mark and a whimper escaped me, my dick lurching off my belly and landing again with a wet slap. I groaned as he continued to work his way excruciatingly slowly towards my groin until his breath was hot and damp below my balls, an exquisite torment.

"Look at you," he whispered, his tone sounding to my lust-drugged ears almost reverential, almost loving. "So beautiful, Tammy."

He rested on his haunches, brushing the length of my torso with his fingertips, from my small, peaked nipples down my abdomen, over the lines of my waist and hips, where my skin was super-sensitive and ticklish. I squirmed, although not with displeasure, and a fire lit behind Master's eyes, a wickedly playful glint that had been too long absent from his bedchamber. The burden of responsibility had weighed heavy on him in recent years, and I had watched with a saddened heart as the once-carefree man I loved had become increasingly serious as time moved on. Thus I welcomed this return to earlier, happier days, the small glimpse I got of the man I first fell in love with.

More than anything else, in that moment I needed him to kiss me, needed to feel him crush me with his weight, mash our lips together, invade my mouth and claim me from the inside out. I needed to feel some fraction of the desire I felt for him mirrored back, even if it was only sexual, even if it could never be more. I was, in so many ways, still the child I had once been, still looking to him for more comfort than he could ever possibly give. Was I selfish, that whatever I had would never— _could_ never—be enough? Why couldn't I content myself, as others did, with his affection, his interest, his goodwill? I had all those things and so much more, so why did it matter that I could never have his heart?

I covered his hands with mine, lacing our fingers together, and he smiled a sad, soft smile which said he knew my heart already, knew it all without me needing to give voice to my desires. The kiss that followed was slow and sweet, full of aching tenderness that melted me from the inside out. I cupped his face, his strong, bristled jaw, welcomed him into my arms and between my legs. We made love in his bed, face-to-face, just me and him, and I could almost pretend we were both free men: two lovers doing everything lovers do. Or perhaps we were both slaves, captivated by one another, and perhaps, for the briefest of spells, I owned him as thoroughly and completely as he owned me.

He fell asleep with me in his arms, and afterwards I washed cursorily in the cold water of his stone basin and left, closing the heavy oak door softly behind myself. I turned into the corridor outside my quarters, squaring my shoulders, prepared to face down the sneering guard stationed outside Kai's chamber. I hated having to return at all, refusing to accept that there was anything shameful in waking beside Master in the morning if there was no shame in how he used me at night.

Kai's door was open.

I took a hurried step forward, my heart in my mouth, before I made out the guard's bulky frame in the dim light. He was blocking the doorway, which reassured me Kai was indeed inside and hadn't made some desperate bid to escape, but I couldn't understand why he hadn't been locked in.

"Tam? Is that you?"

I drew level with the guard, but it was not he who had spoken.

"Kai? Why are you still awake?"

I couldn't see into the room around the guard's imposing form, but it sounded like Kai was standing on the other side of him.

"Can I get in?" I asked primly, trying to put as much authority into my voice as I dared. The guards were not slaves, but free Thirskans hired for their service. This man in particular was fond of sneering at my position, but he dared not harm me, nor obstruct my free movement around the compound. We all had our orders to obey.

Grudgingly, he stepped aside, bumping my shoulder and causing me to stagger as he did so. Refusing to be goaded, I entered Kai's room and pointedly closed the door in the man's face. Always one to have the last word, I heard him promptly turn the key in the lock.

Choosing to ignore the guard's show of childishness, I fixed my attention on Kai. The room was dark, save for what little light spilled in through the uncovered windows, his face lit in stark black and white, his eyes two sunken pits in his pale face.

"What's wrong?" I asked immediately.

"You've been hours," he said, more than a trace of accusation in his tone. "What were you doing?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

I flinched as Kai scowled and turned away, flinging himself onto his bed and under the covers.

"What?" I demanded, not in the mood for another of his tantrums. After sex I was always too vulnerable, my insecurities too near the surface. I wore my heart on my sleeve for daws to peck at.

"Nothing," he mumbled sulkily, burrowing deeper under the comforter so only the top of his shorn head showed in the silvery ringlight pouring through the window.

"No, out with it. You didn't have to stay, you weren't forced to do anything you didn't want, and I _know_ you're not disgusted by it, so why are you acting like this? I've done nothing wrong!"

"You're pretty defensive for an innocent man," he said with a sneer.

I made a frustrated sound. "I'm not apologising," I declared. "You can't make me feel guilty about this, Kai. You _can't_. I love him."

"'I love him'," he parroted. "So what? Does he love you?"

I recoiled as though slapped. "That's not fair," I whispered. "You know that's not fair."

"Why isn't it?" he demanded, sitting upright and facing me. "Shouldn't you want that? Wouldn't you rather go to bed with someone who actually loves you, Tam? Or have you sold yourself to the first man who'll even have you?"

I don't remember crossing the room, or throwing the first punch, or what I said as I did it. I'd never been in a fight before, never exchanged so much as a cross word with another member of the household, and yet here I was wrestling Kai on the bed like a seasoned fighter, raining down blows and screaming for him to take his words back. In that moment I hated him completely, with a burning intensity I never knew I possessed

I got in maybe four or five decent blows before Kai overcame his shock and the soldier took over, neatly flipping me onto my back, straddling my hips and pinning my arms either side of my head. I continued to thrash and writhe, bucking to throw him off, but Kai was strong, and he'd been trained to overpower and subdue others. My anger abated as he patiently held me, subsiding into guilt, remorse, and shame.

"I'm sorry," I said immediately, going lax under him so he'd know I'd stopped resisting. "Did I hurt you?"

Kai shook his head with a smirk. "You'll have to try harder than that."

I laughed despite myself, and after a moment Kai chuckled with me, the throaty sound resonating through me. Just like that, I was conscious of our proximity and position, the way his weight rested on my abdomen, our groins separated by only the thinnest scraps of cloth. I found myself growing serious as I studied the outline of his lips in the half-light.

Kai, too, stilled, although his breathing picked up a notch: light, shallow breaths, hardly daring to make a sound for fear, perhaps, of breaking the trance we were falling into. Unconsciously I moved my hips, swiped my tongue across my lower lip, damp with anticipation.

Kai recoiled, swift and decisively. "No," he muttered. "You can't get around me like that."

"Get around you?" I sat upright, genuinely curious. "I wasn't trying to get around you, Kai."

"Well, what were you doing?" he demanded.

"Nothing! _You_ were on top of _me_ , remember?"

Even in the darkness, I could tell he was blushing.

"Not for _that_ ," he grumbled.

I smiled and crept closer. "No?" I asked quietly.

"N-No."

"But you thought about it." On my hands and knees, I approached the nervous ball Kai had become. "How long has it been, Kai? When was the last time hands other than your own touched you? The last time someone took you to bed and made love with you?"

He was trembling, I could feel the ripples through the thin mattress, but I continued my approach, emboldened by the darkness and Kai's reticence. He might be stronger than me, more worldly and experienced, but in matters of the bedroom, I definitely had the upper hand.

Maybe I was being cruel, but I didn't care. Not right then. Master used my body on a regular basis without needing to love me, and I wanted, just once, to know what that felt like. To enjoy the pleasure and release of sex without the accompanying heartache, the dirty feeling of having been used; the hollow sensation of loving and giving my all without hope of being loved in return. If neither of us loved the other, perhaps sex would be different, fun.

Kai unfurled as I crept forward, until I was over him on my hands and knees. I tipped my head, contemplating his mouth, and the long strands of my hair brushed over his torso. I heard him swallow.

Slowly, with my eyes open to watch him the whole time, I lowered my head to taste his mouth. He made a small, panicked sound as I kissed him, but didn't pull away. Indeed, he followed as I withdrew, a soft moan floating between us. I licked my lips, savouring the residual sensation.

I was still contemplating my next move when Kai grabbed me, his slim fingers sliding over my scalp as he pulled my head down, crushing our mouths together.

The kiss was clumsy, all teeth and tongues, a far cry from the gentle, measured kisses Master regularly bestowed, or even the urgent, demanding ones when he was lost in his lust enough to devour me alive. Kai clung to me with something akin to desperation. He made animal noises deep in his throat, little half-moans and sighs and grunts I couldn't have interpreted if I tried.

I let him kiss me, remaining calm and placid in his arms until we found a rhythm, the kiss slowing and deepening from its initial urgency to a more leisurely exploration of each other's mouths.

I settled across Kai's body, flexing against him, fully aligned from head to hips. He was hard in his loincloth: painfully hard. The thin material stretched over the damp tip of his sex, and I ground against him, the sensation making us both groan. I reared off him only for the space of time it took to tear the material free, stripping myself at the same time. The moment our bodies touched, he let out a strangled gasp and clawed my shoulders, wrapping his legs around mine, desperately humping against me. I could tell it wasn't going to take him long to reach his climax, but I wanted this moment to mean something to him, give him the barest understanding of what I felt when I was with Master. I wanted him to _know_ , in the very bones of his soul, that he was with another man. There would be no denying what we had done come morning.

I raised myself on one arm and reached between us with the other. His frantic movements hampered me, but eventually I closed my fingers around the full length of his cock. He was smaller than Master—smaller, I confess, than I had expected from seeing him naked—but thick, like a stout club, the usually loose foreskin pulled back tight behind the flare of the glans. Heat poured off him in waves, branding my palm as I roughly jerked him. His balls drew up against my thigh, his nails split my sunburnt skin, and he held his breath between gasps, fighting the impending orgasm.

I aligned myself with him, took my slimmer length in hand along with his, dragging my cock over the length of his, both of us fucking up into the tight fist I had made around us. Words escaped him, in Granthian but too fast for me to comprehend. It didn't matter. I understood his sentiment well enough.

He climaxed with a series of rapid thrusts, his abdomen flexing with the force of the ejaculation. The thick fluid slicked my hand and cock, and I increased my momentum, heedless of his strangled cries as he grew overly sensitive in the aftermath of his orgasm. I had already come once that night, but nothing was going to stop me from doing so again.

I released Kai when his cries turned to pitiful whimpers and continued to jerk myself frantically, kneeling over him. He watched me, his emerald eyes liquid in the low light, alive with desire. "Do it," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "I want to watch you come."

His words tipped me over the edge and with a low groan, I complied, painting his stomach with milky white seed. I smeared it across his skin, mixing it with his ejaculate, ran my fingers through it and rubbed it over his lips. When he licked them clean, the desire that spiked inside me became a visceral thing. Wherever he went from here, whatever lovers he took, however long he lived, I would always be the first man to mark him. It might have been wrong of me, but I couldn't help finding satisfaction in that thought.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The next morning I woke with Kai in my arms. The sensation was so unfamiliar, yet one I had longed for so long to experience, that I lay momentarily stunned, limbs locked. The man sleeping beside me felt, for the briefest of seconds, like the most precious thing in the world. He seemed so small, so defenceless, so _trusting_ , I was overcome by the urge to protect him. I'd have fought Master himself to keep Kai safe.

The feeling subsided almost as quickly as it arose, leaving a wash of tenderness and affection in its wake. I tightened my arms around him, buried my nose in the short spikes of his hair, and kissed the top of his shorn head. Kai stirred and mumbled nonsense, still more asleep than awake. My lips curved in an involuntary smile.

"Tam?"

Bleary-eyed and sleepy, he was adorable. I thumbed the crust from his eyes and petted him, recalling my vulnerability the day after Master had taken my virginity. All the lore and rumours I had heard led me to believe having sex made a boy into a man, but I had never felt more unmanned in my life. I hadn't been prepared for the sheer intimacy of the act, or the depth of my own devotion to the man who now knew my body better than any other, myself included.

"Yes, Kai?"

"We, uh, we should move."

He wriggled half-heartedly in my arms, but stilled the second I tightened my grip.

"It's early yet," I soothed.

We'd fallen asleep quickly the previous night—or he had, at least, turning his back and curling into a tight ball beside me, our skin not quite touching. I'd been on my side facing him, fingertips splayed across the mattress between us, longing to close the distance. Master at least let me cuddle with him before I returned to my bed. As Kai's breaths deepened into the rhythm of sleep, I'd crept closer, tentatively stroking the satiny skin of his back; explored the deep groove of his spine and the soft, downy dimples above his buttocks, until I too eventually succumbed and slept.

Now we were both awake, the first sun barely risen over the horizon, tinting the grimy cream stones of his bare chamber walls a soft orange-peach, and we had time yet before we were expected to present for Master at breakfast. I wanted to savour the morning, linger in Kai's warm bed and renew the connection we had forged so unexpectedly during the night. It was for my own sake as much as Kai's that I kissed his temples and snuggled against his lightly trembling body.

That we had succumbed and become lovers was not surprising, given the pressure Master was putting us under, but at the moment of initiation, I'd felt nothing save my own curiosity and desire. We were at but the barest cusp of all the things we could do together, and my mind raced with wicked thoughts of what else I could show him.

I had been wrong, thinking we could share sex without feeling, without love. Master might be first and last in my heart, but there was room for Kai in there, too. I didn't know if I did love him, but I understood completely that I _could_.

Master sensed the change in us at once. We had not resumed the night's activities that morning, but I felt it in myself, a softening in my affection which Master, perceptive as always, spied immediately, although he waited until he was done eating and Sasha had cleared the table and vacated the room before speaking.

"Tam, is there something you wish to tell me?"

"I did not sleep in my own bed, Master." I hoped the euphemistic response would be enough. In the cold light of day, I wasn't sure how Kai would react to the plain statement of what we had done.

"Oh?" Master quirked an eyebrow and steepled his fingers below his chin, elbows resting on the table and the wide sleeves of his plum-coloured robes billowing loosely.

"No, Master. I slept with Kai." Despite my efforts, from the corner of my eye I saw my fellow slave flinch.

Master smirked. "And how much sleep did you get?"

"A little," I admitted, fighting the urge to blush.

He tutted, although without irritation. "Two men in one night? You are growing... adventurous."

And there was my blush, rising full force across my cheeks in an unstoppable wave of heat and shame. He hadn't meant to be cruel, but he'd made it sound so... _sordid_.

"It wasn't like that," Kai snapped.

I sucked a breath at his audacity.

"Oh?" Master fixed him with a dark stare. "Tell me what it was like, then."

It was Kai's turn to flush and stammer. "We hardly did anything," he admitted in an undertone.

"Tammy?" Master looked to me for confirmation.

I hung my head. "He's telling the truth."

"Well...." His gentle smile encompassed both of us. "Far be it for me to pass judgment. Although I will say I'm pleased to see the two of you getting along so well."

Kai snorted but otherwise remained quiet, and Master let the transgression go with only an arched eyebrow for comment.

"I hate this," Kai fumed after we were excused, storming back along the corridor to his chamber.

"Hate what?" I asked, skipping a step to keep up with his swifter pace.

"This. All of it!" His outstretched arms encompassed the whole compound, the whites of his eyes showing. "We're _people_ , Tam. Not dumb creatures put here for his amusement."

"I think we're both," I admitted softly.

"Well, it's not fair!"

Old anger welled in my veins. Even after all I had told him, all his time here, he still refused to accept his new position. "Come with me." I took his hand as we reached his doorway and led him to mine instead.

I kept my room neat, my possessions laid out carefully _just so_ on their shelves, displayed with pride. Here, the first book Master bought me, when I was still but an innocent child; there a brilliantly coloured silk scarf, a gift from his journey to the mountainous Outlands, our first real separation. I had hardly entered my chamber for several days, save to wash and dress, and the air felt damp and stale. Nevertheless I closed the door behind us, shutting out the curious gaze of the household guards.

Kai stood in the centre of the room, speechless and motionless save for the movement of his toes in the thick pelt of the bearskin covering the floor. I watched his slim foot flex against the bright white fur, the sinuous ripple of tendons suddenly the most fascinating thing in the entire room.

"What is this?" Kai demanded.

"My chamber," I replied simply.

"All of these things are yours?"

I nodded and he pivoted on the spot, taking it all in. When he finally faced me again, I was startled to see a flush of what could only be shame.

"What is it?" I asked, taking half a step closer.

"This is all yours?" he repeated, his voice a cracked croak.

"Yes. This is what I've been telling you. He's a good man, Kai. You'll never want for anything under his roof if you will only obey his commands and treat him with respect."

"I, I didn't have possessions like these when I was free," he admitted, running a tentative hand across the contents of the nearest shelf. He lingered over a small effigy of a nomadic tribesman cast in bronze.

"My father." I nodded at the figurine. "It reminded me of him."

Kai's eyes were bright when he raised them to meet mine. "And he let you have it?"

I smiled, remembering. "He insisted."

Kai recoiled with a stifled cry, turning and covering his face with his hands. Instantly I was at his side, holding him as his shoulders shook.

"What's wrong? Kai? Kai, talk to me. What did I say?"

"Nothing," he said weakly, wiping his eyes and sniffing loudly. "It's nothing you've said."

"What, then?" I refused to let it drop. I'd thought it would help, showing him the possessions I'd accumulated over the years. Prove to him that being a slave didn't always mean he'd have nothing. I certainly hadn't intended to make him cry.

"You wouldn't understand," he said, but he didn't resist as I led him to my bed and urged him to sit. I folded myself down beside him and maintained contact, resting my hand on his arm, but skin-to-skin, showing him he wasn't alone. He would never be alone again.

"Explain it to me," I prompted when no further response was forthcoming.

"You don't.... You can't...." Another choked sound. He swallowed and tried again. "I was _poor_ , Tam. My family were poor. The army was the only option for me, and they paid precious little. Everything I had, I paid for in blood and sweat. I went hungry each day to save a few coins. When I was captured, they took it all. Everything I'd struggled so hard to get, and it was nothing, Tam. _Nothing._ The men, they didn't believe that was all I had, but it was. It was."

It was as much as he'd ever opened up about his past, and I had no reply, no idea how to soothe his broken heart. Instead I crept closer, holding him in the hope my jumbled thoughts would transfer through my skin and somehow make sense.

"And you." He laughed bitterly. "You have more than I could ever dream of, and you're only a _slave_! How is that fair?"

His words stung, but I refused to flinch. I knew he spoke without thought and didn't mean to be hurtful, even though he was.

"They could be yours, too," I said, trying to console him. "Master is generous—"

"Don't you get it, Tam? They don't _matter_. Things. I spent my freedom as a slave to _things_. I don't need them now."

I pouted, despite my best efforts not to. "If that's how you feel, then you're right, you don't need them."

"How else am I supposed to feel?" he demanded.

"You could try grateful."

Kai laughed angrily. "What have I possibly got to be grateful for?"

"That you're not dead? That if you have to be a slave, you at least have a master who respects you, who won't hurt you. One who will give you presents to show he cares, things to keep you entertained when he's not here, things that remind you how your life was before. I don't know much about life outside this compound, but even I know that's unusual."

"So what?" Kai muttered sulkily, crossing his arms over his chest. "So he gives you things to keep you quiet. He lets you remember your old life, but he won't let you go, will he? He won't set you free."

"I don't want freedom," I replied simply. "I told you what freedom was like for me. I'm better off here." I hesitated, then spoke exactly what was on my mind. "I think, if you were honest with yourself, you'd admit you're better off here, too."

Kai gave me a long, cold look. "If that's what you think, then you don't know me at all," he snapped. "I'll _never_ be better off here, Tam. Neither of us will!"

"Then why don't you leave?" I bit back. "Try to escape, run away. Even if the guards kill you, it'll be better than staying here and living like an animal."

Kai gasped. "Is that what you want?"

"I wish you'd never come here," I said. "I was happy before you arrived."

"Then what was last night?" he demanded. "You didn't seem so miserable then."

"Neither did you."

We glared at each other furiously. A hundred more accusations welled in my breast, waiting to be hurled at him, but as I looked deep into his emerald eyes, the will to hurt him subsided.

"I didn't mean that," I said, instantly contrite.

"Which part?" he asked sulkily.

"Any of it. I don't hate you, Kai. I admit, I didn't want you here, but now you are, I don't want you to leave."

"I don't understand why I _am_ here," he said plaintively. "Master obviously doesn't want me for a pleasureslave, so for what have I been purchased?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "But don't think he doesn't want you, Kai. He doesn't want to force you."

"He must be the only one," Kai huffed.

"Don't you _dare_ ," I snapped, riled again. "I didn't force you, and you know it!"

"I didn't mean you." He touched my hand, risking a small smile. "Last night.... You didn't force me. Far from it."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying... I don't know what I'm saying." He shrugged helplessly. "This is all new to me. I like you, Tam. If things were different, if we were free men.... I don't know."

"You think I can't decide to give myself to you because I'm not a free man? It's not you who owns me, Kai."

"What if I don't want to share you?"

I laughed, but not unkindly. "You don't get to make that choice."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Time passed. Within a month I could paddle the length of the swimming pool unaided, and Kai's Thirskan had come along in leaps and bounds, as had his reading in his own language. Indeed, I found myself growing jealous of the time Master devoted to him in the evenings, my place having been relegated to that of observer, or houseboy. I resented tidying Master's chamber and turning down his bed while he read to Kai, or Kai read to him. I would throw myself into his arms the moment they were done, demanding his full attention. Master would dismiss Kai, and I would comport myself shamelessly, reminding him that in this most fundamental of ways, he only had me.

Kai was still skittish around him when it came to matters of sex, although Master had been true to his word and hadn't pushed Kai for anything. The way he flinched when Master touched his arm or petted his hair—growing out of its shorn state and still at the awkward stage when it was more fuzz than anything, and beyond my ability to ever make truly presentable—made the green-eyed monster dwelling in my breast growl with anger, that he would snub small gestures which I would gladly have welcomed in his stead.

When it came to me, however, Kai had become a different animal. His emerald eyes blazed with anger every time Master dismissed him for the evening and I remained behind, and when I returned to his chamber—for I now slept there six nights out of seven—he would pin me aggressively against the mattress and jerk my sensitised cock until I came in painful spurts, as though my ejaculate were some sort of proof I cared more for him than I did the man who owned us.

In truth, I was growing to care for them both. How there was room in my heart for Kai alongside our master, I did not know, and the thought perturbed me. Was I so shallow in my affections, so quick to forsake the first man I had ever loved? And yet I never felt my feelings for Master diminish.

"It pains you, doesn't it, when I send you away."

We were in Master's chamber, at the close of another evening spent like so many before. I was already straddled across Master's lap, Kai having been dismissed for the night, but Master's words surprised me, and I lifted my head to see Kai standing in the doorway.

Kai grunted, and I smiled. He was surly when it came to this, still reluctant to admit all the things he desired.

"Stay."

It was an order, and Kai recognised it as such. Closing the door against the draught coming in from the darkened corridor beyond, he approached us.

"You may sit in this chair."

Master rose to make way for him, lifting me effortlessly and placing me on the end of his bed.

"Face the bed."

Kai turned the chair away from the hearth, facing it towards us. Reluctantly, he sat.

Master turned to me, blocking my view of Kai. A question mark furrowed my brow, but he clasped my face and kissed it away, then kissed lower, down the bridge of my nose until our mouths met.

I reclined on the bed as Master climbed over me, covering my body with his. His brilliant green robes—the same green as Kai's eyes, I had thought when I first saw them—fell over us both, leaving his broad chest exposed. I took advantage, rolling his nipples between my thumbs and index fingers, pulling them with a gentle pinch. Master groaned, his head drooping, and I sucked one into my mouth, teasing the erect nub with my teeth.

He sat on his haunches between my legs and clasped my head against his chest, my long hair falling over his thighs as I sucked and worried his nipple until it stood proud and red from the curve of his pectorals. Master released me to shrug off his robes, and I took them and threw them to the floor. From Kai's position, I doubted he could see more than Master's turned back and the soles of my feet, and not a sound came from where he sat and watched.

My heart raced faster in my chest as Master pushed me back against the bed, closing his hand around my neck. I swallowed simply to feel the press of his heavy palm against my Adam's apple, the barest edge of restriction to my breathing. It should have scared me, that he controlled me thus, that he held my very life within his hands, but safe in the knowledge he would never harm me, I found the reminder of how powerful he was thrilling.

He pushed at the waistband of his trousers, and I helped him lower them, smoothing my hands over the cheeks of his arse, fingertips ghosting through the hairs that lined the deep cleft running between them. He wouldn't let me explore farther, I knew, and I contented myself with pushing his trousers down his meaty thighs until they were low enough he could kick them off without having to stand. I heard them drop over the edge of the bed, and my breath caught at the thought of the sight now laid out for Kai's appreciation.

In bed, Master never turned his back on me, and so I could only imagine how he looked, arse up and legs spread, balls hanging low between his thighs. I reached between us to fondle them so Kai would see me cupping the very essence of Master's manhood. They felt heavy and swollen, and it pleased me to know he didn't relieve himself in my absence, like he was saving that small part of himself only for me. I rolled them across my palm, ran my thumb up through the hairs dusting their soft sac, closed my fingers and gently pulled, exercising the only power he'd ever let me have.

His response was everything I wanted it to be: the dilation of his pupils, the way his nostrils flared until pink showed, the surprised, aroused snort which escaped him. He kissed me again, crushing me with his full weight, and I revelled in the sheer strength and size of him.

I felt the loss of his heat and weight like a physical pain in my chest when he reared off me. He caught me under my arms and shoved me higher up the bed, until my head nestled in his pillows and my knees bracketed his shoulders. I held my breath, my eyes never leaving him as he lay more comfortably, splayed my thighs, and took me into his mouth.

A hiss of breath made me look up, and I found I was facing Kai directly over the broad expanse of Master's back. He was sitting in the chair as he had been told, gripping the arms so hard his knuckles were white, his whole body screaming lines of tension, and the erection beneath his loincloth unmistakable. I'd have been smug if I weren't so undone by the things Master's hands and mouth and tongue were doing to my genitals. I cupped the back of his head in a plea for him never to stop and for once he allowed it, taking me deeper and sucking harder on every stroke.

I knew I wouldn't last long in his mouth, and I had never much enjoyed being penetrated once I came. I scrabbled frantically in his bedside drawer for the bottle of oil, unstoppered it, and rapped it against his shoulder to gain his attention.

He took it but continued sucking me, drizzling the oil onto his fingers and smearing under my balls and around my hole, leaving my cock free for his mouth to continue tormenting. The first penetration was swift, pushing his finger into me and crooking to tap the spot inside me that made being fucked so pleasurable. I almost lost composure right there, my body curling around his, a shocked exclamation wrung from my lips.

Master chuckled around my cock, which didn't help in the slightest, the vibration running down the shaft and through my balls, centering on the place where he penetrated me.

I clenched my muscles, enjoying the sensation of being filled, of having him inside me in even the smallest of ways. Not that it remained small for long. He circled his finger and withdrew, penetrating again with two, their blunt tips forcing my muscles to stretch and admit him.

The oil was good, thick and viscous, and it eased him in and out with very little discomfort caused to me. Besides, I knew what I was doing, and I knew not to seize up and deny him entrance.

I splayed my legs, grinding on Master's hand, seeking deeper, thicker penetration. He slid out of me with a slick sound, reaching beneath himself to work the length of his cock, his arse raised to give him access. For a second I was so jealous of Kai I couldn't breathe, wanting to see everything he was seeing. Then Master rose on his haunches, nudging my legs apart with his thighs, lined up, and buried himself in me until the rough scratch of his pubic hairs tickled below my balls.

We gasped, all three of us, and I flung my arms around Master's neck and held on as he began to fuck me in earnest. The next moments were all guttural grunts, the slap of flesh, his balls bouncing off my arse with every thrust. I began to whimper, unable to control myself, biting my lip until I was sure my mouth was bloodied in an effort not to come. His dark hair hung around our faces, and he breathed through clenched teeth, the line of his jaw defined like granite, tendons in his neck standing exposed down to the deep hollows of his collarbone.

I made a warning sound as I began to spiral, driven inexorably towards the edge by Master's unrelenting thrusts. He pulled out so fast I choked, but I barely had time to react further before he sat back, grabbed my upper arm and hauled me forward onto my front, facing Kai. Then he was on top of me again, straddling my hips, separating my arse cheeks with one hand while guiding himself back inside with the other.

The bed bounced with our movements, and it was all I could do to lie there and hang on, clinging desperately to great wads of the comforter, stuffing it into my mouth to prevent myself screaming out loud.

Kai was on the edge of his seat, his eyes fixed on my face, watching my reaction as Master fucked me. Master settled a hand on the back of my neck, resting his weight against it, and used my body as the pivot to increase his momentum. He rarely fucked me so brutally, but I couldn't deny I loved every last moment of it. My cock, trapped between my stomach and the bed sheets, felt hard enough to burst, and I knew when he let me up there'd be a damp patch where I had lain.

The change of angle at least reduced my immediate need to come, although from the way Master's breathing laboured, he was fighting his own climax already. I curved my spine, jutting my arse, taking everything he gave me and demanding more. He hauled my hips higher and fucked straight down towards my belly, and I wailed around the bedding, his every stroke hitting that spot inside me which made stars dance before my eyes.

It was the look in Kai's eyes that finally undid me, the way his pupils expanded until only the barest strip of brilliant green showed around them, the heat and lust and pure want on his face as Master buried himself to the hilt, dragged my hips higher, and began to unload inside me. Tears slid down my face as I came, the orgasm forced out by the sheer intensity of everything that had just happened. I collapsed onto the bed feeling boneless and incapable of movement, still gasping for breath even after Master had withdrawn.

"Kai, clean him up."

I whimpered, wanting Master's touch, Master to pet me and tell me I had done well. It was Master I had given myself to, and yet he was discarding me, ordering another slave to take care of me in the way he always had before.

Kai's touch was hesitant at first, the damp cloth so cold I jumped. "Sorry," he murmured, barely raising his voice above a whisper, as though afraid of breaking some sort of spell.

He wiped the oil and spunk from around my arse, and I couldn't even find it within myself to cringe, no matter that come morning, I knew I'd be mortified by what he'd been ordered to do. His hands lingered around my hip, where I was sure the red marks of Master's fingertips remained, and he stroked my hair out of my face and laid it flat along my back. The bed dipped beside my head, and I raised my eyes enough to make out the dark hairs of Master's thigh. With the last of my sapped strength, I reached for him, hoping he'd see the pitiful gesture and have mercy on me.

He set his hand on the crown of my head, massaging my scalp through my long hair. I closed my eyes, happy he was touching me, as pathetic as that may seem. I'd always been at my neediest in the immediate aftermath of sex, needing him to show me he cared, even the smallest bit; that I hadn't given myself wholly to a man who saw me as nothing more than a convenient hole in which to shove his dick.

"Hold him," Master said, never letting up from stroking my head. "He needs it."

The bed dipped again, and a warm body pressed against my torso. Kai wrapped his arm around my waist, settled his face at the back of my neck, and held me close to him, letting me absorb some of his heat and strength.

"That's right." Master's hand moved, petting us both in turn. "You two look so beautiful together."

Kai's arm stiffened around me, but his nervous response was belied by the other stiffness I could feel pressing into my back. He had been turned on by watching us, that much was undeniable. Whether his arousal stemmed from watching me, or Master, or if only from the raw expression of sexuality, the act of voyeurism, I couldn't say. In truth, I was afraid to ask.

I was mostly recovered and close to falling asleep when Master told us to return to our rooms. I tottered a little as I regained my feet, and Master steadied me before handing me over to Kai with instructions to see me safely to bed. Kai led me to his room, but if he wanted to argue, or fuck, he was going to have to do it alone. I curled under the covers and slept almost immediately. If he jerked himself off beside my senseless body, I didn't wake.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Master was away from home the next three nights, an almost unprecedented absence. The first night Kai and I entertained ourselves well enough, continuing his lessons in reading in the sanctuary of my chamber, a fire roaring in the hearth and my bedding pulled around our shoulders. The second night, however, seemed to drag, and by the third he could tell I was moping. We still hadn't discussed what had transpired in Master's chamber on our last night with him, and Kai hadn't touched me since.

"Are you judging me?" I asked quietly as we lay side-by-side in my bed in the darkness.

"What for?"

I scoffed. "You watched me get fucked, and you haven't said anything about it since."

Kai shifted under the covers. "What is there to say?"

"I don't know, but _something_."

"Do you want me to judge you?"

"No." I bit my lip. Wasn't the truth of the matter that I was judging myself?

Kai turned so he was facing me. I lay on my back, watching the muslin of my canopy waft gently in the circulating air. "Tam.... I don't know what to say."

"You seemed to like it at the time," I said roughly.

"I, I won't deny that." He sighed. "I feel like I'm being manipulated."

"By whom? Me?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. Both of you. But I don't think you mean to do it."

"You're not making any sense."

"Master wants us to have sex."

I nodded.

"That makes me not want to."

"Why not?"

"Because I feel like I shouldn't want to do anything he wants me to do."

"Still?" I turned. His breath was hot and sour across my face. "Kai, how long are you going to keep living like this?"

"I don't know," he whispered, his voice cracking.

I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him against me. "What if I said I wanted you?" I asked.

"I'd think you were lying to me to please him."

I kissed his head, buried my nose in his dark hair and inhaled his scent. It was a couple of inches long now, with fine waves at the end. It would be a veritable shock of curls when it was longer, and I thought it would suit him immensely. The itchy stage had passed, and all that was needed now was time. His muscles had grown soft from disuse, his body no longer resembling that of a battle-worn soldier, although still slim and compact. He was no longer chiselled in stone, but painted in soft oils, and no less beautiful for it.

"It's not like I haven't seen you and him together before," Kai said.

"So why have you barely touched me since?"

"I don't know." He sounded miserable, and I wanted so desperately to comfort him. That I was the cause of his misery pained me. I thought we'd got over this, that he was starting to accept his new life. During the daytime he seemed happy enough, but we were Master's property, and we couldn't ever forget that fact. We were here to serve him, do his bidding, and fulfil his desires. That Master still hadn't touched Kai was something of a miracle: had he been sold to another, he would probably have been raped a thousand times already, his body broken and beaten until there was nothing left of the real Kai. Yet he still refused to be grateful for what he had.

"It feels wrong," he said, distracting me from my unhappy thoughts.

"What does?" I asked, instantly on edge.

"You and him, seeing you together. Shouldn't I feel jealous?"

"Do you?"

"I don't know. Yes, partly. I want to cut off his hands for daring to touch you—and I know, before you say anything, I have no right to feel like that. If anything, it should be him who feels that way about me."

"To be jealous, he'd have to care," I said bitterly.

"He cares, Tam. Only a fool couldn't see that."

_He doesn't care enough_ , I thought, but I kept it to myself.

"Partly, though...." Kai continued as though I hadn't spoken. "Partly I liked it, and what sort of man does that make me? I liked watching you with him. The way he flung you around." He grunted softly in the back of his throat. "It was rough, but you didn't mind, did you?"

"No." I shook my head as much as our positions would allow. "Sometimes he needs it to be like that."

"And sometimes you do, too."

I nodded, glad he couldn't see my face.

"Why is this so complicated?" he asked, although I wasn't sure he was expecting me to provide an answer. "The men in the army, they'd share women, go to whorehouses together, and it meant nothing to them."

"That's because they didn't care," I pointed out. "Those women, they were just holes for fucking. They meant nothing to those men afterwards. I guarantee, if one of them slept with another's wife, they'd have fought over the matter."

Kai chuckled. "You're probably right," he admitted. "But you're not my wife, Tam."

"I'd hope I'm more than a whore!" I said hotly.

"You know you are." He lifted his head to kiss me. "But you're _his_ , and whatever this is between us, we only have it because he lets us. I hate feeling like I need his permission to touch you."

"You're his as well," I pointed out, but gently, because the subject was a sore one.

"Not in the same way you are."

"That's only because he won't insist. I'm sure he still expects you to be, when you're ready."

"What if I never am?" he whispered.

I frowned. "Do you hate him so much? Is there nothing about him you find appealing?"

Kai pressed his face into the crook of my neck, until I could feel the blush heating his cheeks.

"You do!" I declared, surprised and not a little pleased. "You like him, don't you?"

"He looks well enough," Kai admitted grudgingly.

I laughed—I couldn't help it. "He does," I agreed. "And Kai, if only you'd let him touch you—"

"Stop!" Kai pushed me playfully, laughing. "Just because I said he was handsome doesn't mean I want him to... to...."

"Yes?" I bit my lip to quell my sniggers.

"You're impossible." I didn't need the room to be lighter to know he was glaring at me. "This is why I didn't say anything."

"Kai, I'm not angry." I petted his hair. "I love Master, I always have, and I suppose I always will, but that doesn't mean there isn't a place for you in my life as well. What we have, it's different to how it is with him. And yes, he wanted this for us, but that doesn't mean it isn't real. If I didn't like you, I don't think I could bring myself to touch you unless he explicitly ordered it."

"And has he?" Kai asked.

I bit my lip. "Not in so many words."

"What does that mean?"

"It means he wanted it—you know that, he's said it to both of us. But he hasn't ordered it. Whatever we're doing, it's real, it means something. I want you to know that. And I hope you are growing to like him, because I'm sure he likes you, and I don't want there to be any conflict between us. I, I feel selfish, asking you to share me with him, but I can't lie and tell you he means nothing to me, either."

"I don't want you to lie," Kai said. "And I don't want you to feel guilty about your feelings for him. He was all you'd ever known since you were so young. It would have been odd if you _hadn't_ fallen in love with him."

"You think that's all this is?" I asked. "You think I'm so weak I'd fall for the first man who said he owned me?"

"I didn't say that," he said sharply.

"But you're thinking it."

"I'm thinking how hot you two are together." Kai's voice dropped to a throaty whisper, his words pouring into my ear like rich treacle. "Watching the two of you, I didn't care about the rest of it—who feels what for whom. I never wanted you to stop."

"Oh?" I didn't like how breathy my tone sounded, but I couldn't control the spike of lust racing through my veins. Knowing Kai had been watching _had_ been hot. It had been the hottest, most depraved, most debauched thing I'd ever done in my life.

Some men might enjoy their slaves performing in public, but our master had always jealously guarded our time together. Not a passing guard or even the mistress had ever seen us being anything other than absolutely proper around one another, no matter the entire household knew my purpose. I had assumed him—not shy, exactly, but possessed of a certain sense of propriety. Perhaps all he'd been missing was the right audience.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The next morning found us in the pool barely past second sunrise. I had gained some confidence in the water, and while I doubted I would ever be as strong or fearless a swimmer as Kai, I could at least get my face wet without flying into a panic. We stripped and Kai dived in, surfacing in a burst of spray, the water droplets shining in his short hair like diamonds. He shook his head, sending a rainbow of splashes outward, and I smiled to see him so carefree.

I took a seat on the stone flags, my feet in the water, content for the moment to watch him swim. Once I got in, he would become too engrossed with my lesson to enjoy himself, and we had the whole day ahead of us to spend on furthering my education. I hoped a little time fooling around would show Kai it was possible to be a slave and still be happy, that the two states weren't mutually exclusive.

"What have we here?"

I started at the sound of Master's deep voice, but before I had half-risen to greet him, he sat beside me, pulling the wide legs of his trousers up above his knees and putting his feet in the water.

"Does he do this every day?" Master asked, nodding at Kai, who was completing an underwater lap and hadn't yet realised we were no longer alone.

I nodded. "He enjoys it. I think it reminds him of being free."

Kai surfaced with a triumphant shout, cut off in the middle when he saw Master sitting beside me. He swam over to us with swift, efficient strokes, and I envied him his confidence almost as much as I appreciated the view.

He came to rest in the water before us, one hand on the ledge between my knees, kicking his legs slowly to keep himself upright and above the surface.

"Don't stop on my account," Master said, smiling at him. "I was enjoying watching you."

"I need to start on Tam's lessons anyway."

"Let's see how you're coming along, then," Master prompted, and I obediently slid into the water.

At first I was conscious of having an audience, but Kai was patient with me, and Master remained silent at the side of the pool. Indeed, he hardly seemed to be watching us at all: as often as not when I glanced in his direction, he had his eyes closed and his face tilted towards the suns, his robes open and his long hair cascading around his shoulders. He was nearing his fortieth year, and yet he was every bit as handsome as I recalled him being in his twenties—if anything, even more so. The touches of grey in his hair suited his serious demeanour, but the laughter lines crinkled around his eyes showed he still had light-hearted moments.

"You're doing well," he called, opening his eyes and seeing me watching.

I waved to him and promptly sank as I stopped paddling. Kai hauled me up again in an instant, scolding me for not paying attention.

"I didn't panic," I pointed out, wrapping my arms around him, and he smiled in wonder.

"I'd rather you didn't drown," Master said dryly, and we laughed and released each other to swim over to where he was sitting.

"Are you coming in?" I asked expectantly.

"Maybe later." Master smiled at me, his expression soft with fondness. "You two continue the lesson for now. I'm going to be decadent and sunbathe."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise but offered no further comment. I couldn't recall the last time Master had taken a day off from his duties, and certainly not to laze around the pool. As Kai and I returned to the shallow end to work on my technique, I snuck a last glance in time to see Master doff his robes and recline naked on a low chaise, eyes closed and hair spilling down around his shoulders.

The rest would do him good, I decided. He carried the burden of too much responsibility, and over the years I had seen it take its toll on the carefree nature of the man I once knew. I knew little of what his duties entailed, but war raged in all corners of our kingdom, and Master was often called to the more treacherous lands surrounding our peaceful little outpost.

We swam for another hour, until the first sun was almost at its zenith and my limbs were weary. I wasn't accustomed to regular exercise, and despite having thought myself healthy, I found I was exhausted. Kai teased me gently as I declared myself done, and I climbed out of the pool, leaving him to swim strong laps up and down.

The water running down my legs provided a welcome balm against the hot stone flags as I approached Master, walking on my toes to minimise the contact between my bare feet and the burning ground. The trail of damp toeprints I left in my wake evaporated quickly, and even in the space of a few moments, my skin had dried, the flesh across my shoulders feeling too tight in the aftermath. Master's nose was pink, and I was glad to see he had taken the precaution of covering his genitals with his hand before he fell asleep. As my shadow crossed his face, his eyes opened, he squinted in the glare surrounding us, and smiled at me.

"You should cover up," I said reproachfully. "I would hate for you to be burnt."

"My skin's darker than yours."

"Still."

He chuckled throatily. "If you're so worried, do something about it."

I took the challenge for what it was, smirking as I fetched a large parasol and erected it beside him, blocking the sunlight from hitting him directly. The day was more than warm enough he'd be comfortable in the shade. All his admonishments for caution aside, I had inadvertently caught the suns on more than one occasion and knew all too well the discomfort associated with raw and peeling skin.

Master watched, amused, as I fussed around him, setting the parasol so it wouldn't block his view of the pool, where Kai was still swimming up and down. I entered the house, taking a moment to let my eyes adjust to the relative darkness after the blinding light outside, collected supplies from his bedroom, and asked Sasha to bring iced water to the poolside, which she did immediately. If she was surprised to see Master lounging so decadently on the chaise instead of working, she didn't show it.

Kai emerged from the pool at the promise of a cool drink, water cascading down his body in a glorious shower, making his tanned skin shimmer with movement. The outline of his army fatigues, once so visible around his neck and biceps, had faded as his shoulders and chest turned golden brown from being outside naked every day, although below his waist he was still almost as pale as me.

He pulled another chaise into the shade alongside Master's and threw himself down on the cushions. Master and I exchanged amused glances at the transparency of his challenge to authority, but no admonishment was forthcoming. Master sipped his iced water, placed the glass beside his chair, and reclined again, looking for all the world like he hadn't a single care in it.

I was pleased to note Kai's lack of self-consciousness in being naked. It was not so long ago he would have refused to exit the pool with Master looking on, yet now he lay not three feet from him, his limbs lax and splayed lazily.

They both opened their eyes as I popped the cork in the bottle I held, Kai's widening a little as he saw what it contained, Master closing his again calmly. The oil was not of the sort Master kept for our intimate use, but thinner, and it smelled strongly of coconut. I poured a little onto my palm, warmed it by rubbing my hands together and, kneeling, commenced at Master's feet.

He had large, slim feet. I couldn't say they were my favourite part of his body, but they were nice, as feet went. I massaged the oil between his toes, pressed hard into the arch, and smiled as he flexed, a contented rumble rising in his throat. I moved on to his ankles, through the line where the leg hairs began, over the little bones sticking out in angular bumps on the sides. His calves were thick, the muscles in them heavy, and I revelled in the way they moved under my firm hands as I manipulated his flesh. The hairs looked blacker with the sheen of oil, and I smoothed my palms over his shins to line them uniformly straight. I dug my fingertips into the backs of his knees and massaged the taut tendons there.

Kai was watching me. He pretended he wasn't, his eyes barely open, but I could see the green moving behind his long lashes, his attention fixed on me as I took care of Master. A quiver in his forearm told me he was tense, although whether from fear or arousal, or some heady combination of both, I didn't know and didn't ask. I pretended I couldn't see him and continued up Master's meaty thighs, so thick I couldn't circle them with both hands, the hair on them fuzzier, shorter, and lighter than on his shins.

His cock was mostly soft, although it had thickened a little as I worked my way closer, a chubby club nestled in a thatch of dark, springy hair. A cursory tug aside, I ignored it, straddling his thighs to work on his hips instead. I think I loved his hips best. Surprisingly narrow given the breadth of his shoulders, the bones jutted just below his skin, forming a deep V from his belly to his groin. I pressed my weight onto them, enjoying the sensation of holding him as he usually held me, the false illusion of power. I dug my fingers into the sides of his arse, soft and malleable and covered in dark downy hair.

I couldn't resist placing a kiss over his heart before I worked my way up his torso with freshly oiled hands, over his stomach—not quite as flat as it once was, but seeming so when he lay on his back—and up through the broad, thickly furred expanse of his chest. He glistened with oil, and I slid across him as I reached his shoulders, the rich scent of coconut rising between us. He held me securely, his hands wrapped around my knees. My groin was over his, my balls resting against his cock, and he was definitely soft no longer, although still relaxed enough he wasn't fully hard.

I palmed his neck, enjoying the rough drag of stubble against my slick hand, the way he tilted his head to grant me full access, his eyes still closed, completely trusting, like he was when I shaved him. I needed to move if I was to oil his shoulders, but I didn't want to climb off his lap. My cock was stirring, plump between my thighs, hyper-aware of his proximity. It would take nothing for me to reach behind myself with my oiled hands and position him at my entrance, sink onto his cock and ride him to completion. I couldn't help feel, however, that would prove too much for Kai.

My fellow slave had abandoned his pretence of not watching and was focused on us with avid interest, drinking in the show I put on with greedy eyes. I held the oil out to him, indicating for him to work on Master's shoulders. He took the bottle, looking at it uncertainly for a moment before rising from his chaise.

Master was watching from beneath his lashes, both of us probably wondering how he would react. Kai had seen me and Master together before, but he and Master had still not come close to touching one another. I held my breath as Kai tipped a small amount of oil onto his palm and rubbed his hands together.

He moved with purpose, standing behind me and bringing his hands down on my shoulders. I gasped with shock, the oil a little cool against my hot skin, but as he dug into the tendons at the sides of my neck, I groaned and went lax.

His touch was firm as he kneaded my flesh, brushing my hair out of the way with the backs of his hands so as not to get too much oil in it. I arched my spine and hung my head, splaying my palms across Master's chest, digging in as Kai found a knot of tension and worked it loose. Master's eyes were wide open now, watching with undisguised interest as the scene unfolded. Kai said nothing, and if they exchanged looks, I didn't see, too consumed with enjoying the unexpected massage. If this was Kai's way of rebelling against Master's ownership, I'm ashamed to say I wholeheartedly approved.

It felt like no time at all before he stopped, wiping the excess oil against my back, yet I felt completely boneless and content, my shoulders never lighter. I hadn't thought I was a tense person, yet the difference was unmistakable. I leant against Kai's chest, smiling as he wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled my neck. Turning my head to kiss him seemed a natural progression, and for a moment I forgot all about Master lying beneath me, my whole world consumed by Kai's presence.

I was embarrassed when I recalled myself, although Master showed no signs of being annoyed with either of us. He smiled lazily and chucked me under the chin when I turned to him, said we were beautiful together, and smirked as Kai stalked back to his chaise and threw himself down in a tantrum.

Chastened, I curled on a cushion on the floor between them feeling horribly conflicted. I owed Master everything, but I had forgotten him entirely when Kai's hands were upon me. Was I really such a fickle creature? How could I have so easily been distracted?

Master stroked my hair, his touch doing much to comfort me, but then the brush of Kai's hand against my arm left me feeling unsettled once more. Was it possible they were fighting over me? But why would Master tolerate such a thing, when we were both his property? I had thought I understood the emerging dynamic the three of us shared, but that moment served only to underline my ignorance.

"Kai, I was wondering if you'd help me later," Master said, breaking the silence which, to me at least, felt tense.

"Help you?" Kai sounded startled and suspicious. "With what?"

"Nothing much." Master gave him a reassuring smile. "I wanted to understand the Granthian corps formations a little better. As you can imagine, good information is scarce. I thought you might be able to fill in the gaps."

"I was only a foot soldier," Kai protested.

"That doesn't mean you don't know anything."

I looked expectantly between them. Master was outright asking for help, but he was also asking Kai to choose between him and loyalty to his people. Kai had fought in the army against Thirskan troops. Would he really betray them?

"I can't see anything I know being of any use," Kai grumbled.

"Then you won't mind telling me," Master said easily. "I have faith in you, Kai. You're an intelligent man."

"What would you do with what I tell you?" Kai asked, still suspicious.

"Probably nothing. I'm not in control of the army, as you well know."

"So why do you want to know anything about it?"

I sucked a breath at his impudence, but Master let it go.

"I like to be informed," he said. "We're a nation at war, and it comes closer every day. I'd like to know what my people are facing. If you tell me anything I consider of value to our troops, I'll speak to the generals." He propped himself on his arm facing Kai, his expression suddenly earnest. "This war has waged longer than any of us have been alive. More men have died in it than we can count. Don't you want to bring it to a close?"

"By helping you win, you mean?"

Master's jaw set. "Someone's got to. How many more young men must die on battlefields—how many soldiers like yourself sold into slavery? I would like to know peace in Thirsk before I'm too old to appreciate it. Surely you can understand that?"

It wasn't fair. Even I knew it wasn't fair, what he was asking of Kai. But what choice did my fellow slave have?

"Fine." A nerve in Kai's jaw twitched. "But don't blame me when I can't tell you anything useful."

"All knowledge is useful," Master replied, closing the matter.

"Is that where you've been these last three days?" Kai asked after a pause. "With the army?"

"Kai!" I couldn't help my shocked exclamation. It wasn't our job to question Master's movements, only to be grateful when he chose to spend his time with us.

"It's all right, Tam." Master petted me. "You don't need to know where I was," he said to Kai. "Indeed, the less you both know, the better."

"I thought knowledge was useful," Kai snapped in a surly tone.

I closed my eyes in despair. Had I spoken to Master like that, I'd have been whipped for my impudence. I was certain Kai was about to be handed the same fate.

Master laughed, surprising me. "I suppose I asked for that," he said, sitting upright and focusing his attention on us both. "I don't want to have to leave you alone so much, either of you. Half the reason I purchased you, Kai, was I knew I was going to have to leave Tam alone more often than he was used to, and I didn't want him to be lonely. That's why I sent him to the slavemarket instead of going myself. He didn't know it at the time, but he was choosing his companion. Inside this compound, you're safe. Whatever is going on outside, you don't need to know about. In fact, I'd rather you didn't."

"Are, are you in danger?" I asked hesitantly. I knew we were a nation at war, but it had never seemed an immediate threat to the people of Otiz.

"No more than I ever was," Master said, not quite reassuring me.

"I was a soldier," Kai protested. "I fought in the war you're speaking of. I watched my friends die fighting."

"And I'm sure you were very capable, but that isn't your life anymore," Master said firmly.

Kai glowered. I couldn't say I didn't understand his feeling of helplessness, being coddled after being a soldier for so long, but I couldn't deny I was pleased Master seemed so determined to keep us out of the conflict, either. I'd have been happier still if all three of us stayed in the safety of his compound and never left.

"I want you to be content," Master continued, looking directly at Kai. "You weren't born to be caged, and you've been too accustomed to more than one man's company. I need to know I can trust you."

Kai's breath caught. "You can," he promised, a trifle too eagerly.

Master frowned. "I hope so," he said at length. "I can't always be here to watch you, and I don't want you to be miserable in my absences. I hope I've been fair to you thus far—I think I have. I'm not interested in keeping discontented slaves. Tam tells me you enjoy swimming. I assume you were used to regular exercise in the army?"

Kai nodded, tense with anticipation.

"I've noticed you're losing muscle tone." Master touched Kai's bicep, and he flinched. I'd rather Master hadn't been so blunt about it, but what he said was true. "What would you say to joining the household guards in training each morning?"

I smiled as Kai tried to school his expression into something less eager.

"May I?" he eventually asked, his tone guarded like he suspected Master of making the offer only to immediately withdraw it.

"Morgan thinks I'm an idiot," Master admitted.

I snorted. The head of the household guard had never been friendly to the slaves in the compound.

Master smirked at my interruption, but when he turned his attention back to Kai, he was deadly serious. "He thinks you're dangerous. I disagree. I've made arrangements for you to join the guards starting tomorrow. You'll answer to Morgan and follow his instructions to the letter. You're to be allowed access to the practice weapons, but at the first sign of disobedience, they _will_ punish you, and your privileges will be revoked. Do you understand me?"

Kai nodded vigorously.

"Good." Master settled back onto the chaise. "Don't disappoint me."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

In the days that followed, we incorporated Kai's training into our routine. He would rise at dawn to join the guards on the practice grounds, a sandy paddock separated from the compound by a low wall. I took to sitting on the wall to watch him, admiring the way his strong body moved in the early morning light as he wrestled and ran and parried with wooden swords. The guards were hard on him at first, but he never complained when they tripped him or threw him to the ground, and within a matter of days he had made a friend or two from amongst their number. I realised, as I heard him trading cheerful insults with the other men, how much his Thirskan had improved.

Master was away until late in the evening for much of the following week, and so several days passed before we were once again called to his chamber. I helped him out of his travelling cloak while Kai lit the fire, this too now part of our routine. Master seemed tired and loath to talk, and he waved me to the bearskin before the hearth, settling himself at his desk, where a veritable mountain of scrolls awaited his attention. I wished I could have lifted some of the burden he carried, but whatever messages the scrolls contained pertained to life outside the compound, and he had already said he wanted both of us to be kept in ignorance as much as possible. The carefree day we had spent beside the pool already seemed a lifetime away.

Kai picked up the brush and settled in the chair before the hearth to tend my hair. Spending so much time in the sun and pool had left it drier than usual, and it crackled with static under his hands. I did my best not to wince as he ran into knots and tangles, and he did his best to be gentle with me.

At last Master put down his quill, pushing his chair back from the desk with a sigh. My heart ached as he rubbed his tired face, screwing his eyes up and blinking when he opened them, as though he were seeing two of everything.

"Please stop for today," I said, unable to watch him torment himself any longer. Whatever the scrolls required of him couldn't be urgent enough for him to continue further into the night.

"I think I will," he said, conceding defeat and rising to join us by the fire. Kai vacated his chair without being asked, sitting instead on the low stool beside it and continuing to brush my hair.

Master watched us in silence, his gaze fixed like he wasn't really seeing the interior of his chamber at all. At length, he seemed to shake himself, his attention refocusing on Kai.

"How's your training going?" he asked. "Are you enjoying it?"

"I love it," Kai said immediately, clearly deciding it was not the time to play at being grudging.

"The guards, they treat you well?"

I felt Kai stiffen as Master touched a bruise blooming across his bicep. The guards were rough, and Kai wasn't permitted armour or even a uniform. He performed his training in his loincloth, and his body was black and blue from being relentlessly hit and pummelled and thrown to the ground. I had worried about him the first morning, when he'd been stiff and sore, but Kai had laughed at my fretting and told me he'd had plenty worse in his time.

"It's nothing I can't handle," he said gruffly.

"Kai, if they're bullying you, I want to know," Master said.

"They're not."

"Tam?" Clearly, Master didn't trust him to be honest.

"They're not, Master," I said truthfully. Had he asked me after the first day or two, my response might have been different, but Kai had proved himself to the guards, and I truly believed they were starting to accept him as one of their own. Master interfering now would only damage Kai's standing with them.

"Good." I noticed Master's hand lingered, tracing the outline of the mottled purple and yellow and green bruises colouring Kai's arm. "Morgan says you're doing well."

I didn't have to be looking at Kai to know his cheeks pinked with pleasure. He ran his fingers through my neatly brushed hair, separating the long strands.

"His muscles are getting firmer," I said, only teasing slightly. Kai had been swimming every day for several weeks, and the guards' training was intense. He wasn't as solid as he had been when I bought him, but the improvement was marked.

"So I see." I heard the smirk in Master's voice as he squeezed Kai's bicep.

Kai growled, but not aggressively, and snatched his arm away. I wondered if Master could tell as well as I he was pleased by the praise.

"Let me show you how to plait Tam's hair," Master said, nudging Kai aside.

I obligingly turned my back to him and remained still as he showed Kai how to separate my long hair into three sections and twist them together. Master secured the end with a leather thong, and I shook my head to feel the long rope slide across my exposed back.

"I think it's getting blonder," Kai observed.

"It is. The suns have bleached it. And his skin's darker, too."

I glanced at my tanned arms. The blue of my tattoos didn't stand out half as clearly as I was used to seeing, and I wondered if it was vain of me to like the way I looked. Master had always been so strict about keeping me indoors during the hottest part of the day, worried I would burn and damage my skin, but Kai and I had taken great care not to let that happen.

"You are beautiful, Tammy," Master said, his tone almost wistful.

I preened as he caressed my collar.

In a trice Kai was also touching me, moving his large hand possessively across my shoulder. I can't say I wasn't shallow enough to enjoy their attention, but I wished they didn't feel they had to compete with each other. In their own ways, both men held my heart.

"When are you leaving again?" Kai asked Master, shattering my contentment.

"Not for a day or two. It will be nice to spend some time with you both. Perhaps I'll watch you train in the morning."

"You don't have work to do?"

"You don't want me there?"

I remained still as a statue, waiting for Kai to answer. I still didn't fully understand why Master so often let Kai question him in a way I'd never have been excused, but mine was not to wonder why.

"I wouldn't want to distract you from anything more important," Kai said at length.

"Kai, there is nothing I would like more," Master said, his voice soft and serious.

I cheered inwardly through the silence that followed. Kai had admitted he was growing to like Master, and I knew deep down, he wanted the man's approval. This was as close as he'd ever come to admitting it to Master.

"It's your house," Kai said at last, disappointing me somewhat. I didn't understand why he couldn't just confess to wanting Master there, when all three of us wanted nothing more than to be friends. Or was that me projecting a hopeless wish onto my two companions?

"I'd like you there," I said, surprising them and myself by speaking.

"You would, Tammy?"

I nodded. "Kai's doing really well, and I'd like you to see it for yourself."

"You're proud of him?"

I couldn't quite discern Master's meaning from his tone, and his expression gave nothing away. I glanced at Kai, surprised to see the hopeful look on his face. Did he want me to be proud of him?

"Yes." The answer was an honest one.

Kai ducked his head bashfully, and Master's broad smile encompassed us both.

"It's settled then," he said, stroking my head. "Tomorrow I'll watch Kai practise, and Tam, you can show him off."

"I'm not a prize bull," Kai said petulantly.

I sniggered. It might have been immature of me, but my reaction had an instantaneous effect on Kai, who blushed and glowered, although more I suspected with embarrassment than anger.

He looked positively lovely when he blushed: the palest pink covered his cheeks and spread down his neck and across his chest, a warm glow beneath his golden tanned skin, which rippled across newly defined muscles as he moved. His hair was too short yet to do much more than stick out in careless disarray, but its blackness brought out the brilliant green of his eyes and the full pink of his lips, currently plump, pouting, and utterly mesmerising.

I had kissed him before making a conscious decision to do so. His squawk of protest was muffled and quickly silenced, and I felt the very moment he relaxed, when he stopped accepting my kiss and started making demands of his own. It isn't easy to kiss when you're smiling so broadly you can hardly control your mouth, but somehow I managed to part my lips and welcomed the touch of his tongue to mine.

He wrapped his arms around my chest, hauling me against him. I was kneeling between his legs, splayed awkwardly half-across Master, but in that moment all I could focus on was Kai. He consumed me: the scent of his skin, the touch of his teeth against my lips, the way he wound his hand around the base of my plait and tugged my head back, demanding I open to him and grant him full access to my mouth. I made a choked sound, half-drunk with desire. In the weeks since our friendship had turned sexual, we had mastered the art of kissing.

The touch of a third hand recalled me to myself, and I recoiled from Kai's embrace, mortified to realise how easily I'd overlooked Master's presence. I turned to him, the man to whom I owed everything, ready to beg for his forgiveness if he demanded it. The heat flaring in his dark eyes, however, suggested such desperate action would not be necessary.

"Don't stop," he said, his voice thick with desire.

Kai blanched, but Master's obvious lust spiked mine.

"You don't mind?" I asked, desperate for permission to continue but needing to be sure.

He laughed. "Mind? Why would I mind? You two, you should see yourselves." He stroked my cheek, then reached for Kai, but he flinched from his touch. "I couldn't have picked a more perfect pair if I'd tried."

Kai's conflict was written clearly across his face. He might not appreciate a third party leering at us, but the idea of touching me before an appreciative audience clearly turned him on. It would take so very little to push him into continuing.

I touched his leg, stroked up his thighs, arched my back and inclined myself towards him. He leant as far away from me as he could without toppling off the little stool, but the way he chewed his bottom lip told me as clear as begging he didn't really want me to stop.

"Kiss me?" I asked, pouting seductively. "Please?"

The groan he released was one of defeat, his peck on my lips merely a precursor to resuming where we had left off when I had so rudely recoiled. I captured his mouth, sucking his bottom lip between my teeth and tugging gently.

"I can't," he said, breaking away.

His limbs trembled with tension, but I was sure he was still aroused. I palmed his groin to check, crowing to discover I was right.

"Tam, I said don't." He knocked my hand away, glowering at me. "We don't have to perform because he demands it."

I risked a glance in Master's direction, half-expecting a rebuttal. He owned us and had every right to order us to do whatever he commanded. Instead, I was surprised to see his face fall; his eyes turned sorrowful and he looked momentarily so dejected, I hurt for him. He had full command of our bodies but Kai insisted on reminding him, again and again, he could never control our hearts.

"Look at him, Kai." I took a risk, pressing closer to my fellow slave, whispering my words along his jaw. "He wants this as badly as we do. You've watched him fuck me, seen him stick me with that thick cock of his and pound me into the bed. And you liked it, didn't you Kai?"

Kai whimpered, hands balled into fists so tight they trembled.

"Don't you want to fuck me, Kai? Hold me down and give it to me rough, the way I like it? See what noises I make when you bury yourself inside me? Look him in the eye as you do it and see how beautiful he thinks you are, how powerful. Take me from him and dare him to challenge you as you own me."

Kai growled softly, tilting his head to accommodate me as I licked a damp stripe along his neck. I took his earlobe into my mouth and sucked the soft flesh as hard as I could. Master's breathing hitched, but he was otherwise silent, watching and waiting for Kai to make a decision. I curled my tongue into Kai's ear, licked over the outer shell, scraped it between my teeth, and pushed wetly into the depths, sending a delicious shiver racing through Kai. I loved how responsive he was, his reactions quivering along the knife-edge between aroused and overwhelmed. Again, the thought struck me that nobody had ever made love to him like this; nobody had ever cared enough to pick apart his defences and seduce him.

It thrilled me to know I'd be his first.

I had him naked in a heartbeat, closing my fist around his hard, straining sex, silencing his protest before he had time to voice it. I slid the foreskin over his glans and back down, revelling in the choked noises he made as it squeezed across the pronounced flare at the base of the head. What would that feel like inside me? The stretch and burn of penetration, bound to be more intense than when Master fucked me, the twinge of muscles and the swift _pop_ as the head sank inside, my body finally admitting him. _Guh._

I licked my lips and kissed him again, breathing hard through my nose. I slicked my thumb through the clear fluid collecting at the tip of his cock and rubbed over the underside of his glans in ever-decreasing circles, until he squirmed and then outright thrashed against it, the sensation too intense for him to bear. I snickered softly. I could get him off like that—had done, in fact, during Master's last absence, when we'd had the house to ourselves and felt more comfortable taking our time. I could edge him for hours using the techniques Master had employed on me over the years, reduce him to a boneless pool of need and urgency. Another time, I vowed to myself I would.

This once I took pity on him, bowing my head and taking him into my mouth, wringing a grateful cry from his lips. His knees bracketed my ears, he buried his hands in my hair, clasping my scalp and pulling stray strands free of my plait. He pushed me down until my nose touched the curly thatch of his pubic hair, my lips stretched wide around the base of his thick shaft, my eyes watering with the effort of keeping my teeth free of his tender skin. The head nudged the back of my throat, but he lacked the length to get more than an inch or two deeper. I swallowed, my tongue flattening against the underside of his shaft and pressing it hard against the roof of my mouth, repeating the action for the pure pleasure of hearing the frantic sound he made in response.

I drew off him with a wet slurp, gripped his shaft and rubbed the tip over my lips and chin, revelling in the musky scent of arousal that poured off him. His toes curled in the bearskin either side of my knees and I pushed his thighs apart to nuzzle his softly furred sac, sucking first one heavy ball into my mouth, then the other.

Kai wobbled on the stool, his perch becoming precarious, and wordlessly I pulled off and rose, leading him by the hand to Master's bed. I made him sit on the edge, facing the man who owned us, and sank to my knees, my eyes fixed firmly on Kai's face as he looked first at me and then our master. I covered my teeth with my lips and held still around him in a silent plea for him to fuck my face. It took him only a moment to understand what I wanted before he complied, gripping me by my ears and holding me steady as he thrust into my throat.

I braced myself against the bed, fumbling at the knot securing my loincloth. I let the material fall, arching my back and spreading my knees to put on a show for Master as I sucked and slurped at Kai.

He wasn't going to last. The noises he was making were taking on a new urgency, a high-pitched whine I'd come to recognise as a warning he was close to climax. I withdrew on a last hard suck, squeezing his cock near the base until I was sure he wasn't in immediate danger of coming. This was as far as we'd ever gone with each other, and for the briefest moment I considered keeping our first time private, finishing Kai quickly and letting him fuck me another night, when we didn't have an audience watching our every move.

I dismissed the thought almost as soon as it occurred to me. Not only was Master sure to be upset if I cheated him of that spectacle, I found I didn't want to cheat him. I wanted Kai inside me, and I wanted Master to watch it happen.

Rising, I pushed Kai flat onto his back, smirking as his eyes widened with disbelief. I took the bottle of oil from the bedside drawer and straddled his thighs, slicking his stout length with a deft twist of my wrist. I knelt to kiss him, my arm beside our faces blocking out the rest of the room as we shared a tender moment. His eyes asked a multitude of questions, but my calm gaze allayed his fears. I understood he was nervous, that he had never done this before—at least not with another man—and I knew whenever Master was present the matter of my consent was always forefront in his mind. I loved him for caring, but regardless of whether or not I had a choice in the things I did, I _wanted_ this. For once, I was calling all the shots.

I reached between my spread legs to oil myself, inserting first one finger, and then two, heat flaring in my belly in response to the deep groan which reverberated around the room from behind me. If I had been concerned about Master's reaction to what he was watching, that groan chased my final doubts away.

Kai's cock stuck up thick and hard between my buttocks as I repositioned myself over his abdomen. I rocked back against him, letting his length drag up and down between my buttocks, both of us enjoying the sensation. His tip rubbed over and over the tight knot of my hole, setting all my nerves to tingling. Reaching behind my back, I pressed him into me, until the thick, blunt head was at the barest point of penetration.

He grew deathly still, his arms and legs fixed, splayed across the bed, his gaze locked on my face, his chest heaving with every breath he took. His ribcage seemed too large for his body, the flesh falling from it at a sharply acute angle, tendons drawn in taut lines towards his bellybutton.

I sank onto his cock, moving slowly and breathing deeply, willing my body to accommodate him. I hissed as my muscles stretched around his girth and tugged frantically on my softening cock, wanting to show him proof of my arousal and ease the alarmed look on his face. I released my breath in short, panting gasps, pausing with his head barely half-in to let my body acclimate. Intellectually I knew he wasn't so thick I couldn't take him—in the past Master had pushed his fingers inside me while he was fucking me—but every extra millimetre felt like a mile.

Master rested his hands on my trembling shoulders, and I released a stifled sob as he kissed the side of my neck. His touch was instantly calming, reassuring me by his mere presence. He knelt behind me, wrapped his arms around my chest, and supported my weight as I relaxed against him. He lowered me gently, letting me continue to take Kai in my own time, whispering words of praise and encouragement in my ear. Kai stroked my stomach, his expression awed, and with a sudden shock the broad, blunt head popped inside, my muscles snapping to clench around the top of his shaft.

Kai and I released simultaneous cries, and my thighs trembled as I held myself still, my hole spasming frantically around his cock. Master held me more securely, his arm tucked under mine, his grip firm.

"Breathe, Tammy," he whispered, peppering kisses along my neck and shoulder.

I swallowed and breathed, accepting the feeling of fullness. The extra stretch of Kai's thick cock teetered on the razor-edge between pain and deep, intense pleasure, and I made a mental note to prep myself more thoroughly before taking him in future.

Master tweaked my nipple, sending a little _zing_ of pleasure racing to my groin and making my deflated cock twitch. He held out his hand for the oil, and Kai picked up the bottle from where I'd dropped it on the bed and drizzled a plentiful amount onto Master's palm. My breath hitched as Master reached between us and touched the place where Kai entered my body, smearing the oil across us both, taking care to lubricate around my stretched hole.

Kai bit his lip, a grunt sounding in his throat as Master's knuckles brushed against the backs of my thighs, oiling Kai's shaft. This was the first time Kai had permitted Master to touch him, and the import of the moment wasn't lost on me, but Kai was in no position to do anything other than accept the contact.

Satisfied we were properly lubricated, Master turned his attention to my softened cock, gliding his oiled hand across the length and twisting over the tip. I flexed, sliding a little along Kai's length, and Kai groaned beneath me, grasping great fistfuls of bedding and squeezing until his knuckles whitened and veins stood proud in his arms.

I'd like to say we fucked for hours, Master holding me as I rode Kai like a champion, but the situation was too intense for either of us to last long. I had barely begun moving before Kai wailed and thrashed, unable to suppress a flurry of short, shallow thrusts as his climax barrelled into him. I held still as he unloaded inside me, my eyes wide with wonder, his squeezed tight, a tear tracking its way down the side of his face, forced out by the intensity of everything he was experiencing.

As soon as Kai's climax was over, I became aware of Master moving, rutting against me. He pulled my hair and bit my shoulder as he came, hot and wet against my hip. His semen rolled down my leg in thick drips, cooling rapidly, even as Kai softened enough for my body to eject him.

I hadn't come and was no longer even remotely hard, but sandwiched between the men I loved, I felt every bit as sated and content as they seemed themselves.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The next morning Kai woke early and took longer than usual fussing with his loincloth and hair before we left for the guards' training paddock. I said nothing about his obvious show of nerves, but it pleased me to think he was eager for Master to watch and approve of his training. We hadn't spoken about what occurred the previous night, but I don't think I imagined that he held me tighter as he fell asleep.

Morgan and a few of the men were already outside when we arrived, the remainder of the household guards trooping out as I leant over the wall to kiss Kai and whisper for him to make me proud. Heat flared in his green eyes, and he held his head high as he crossed the sand to join the others. I climbed on top of the wall to watch, glancing over my shoulder at the house, hoping Master's promise to join me hadn't been idly made.

I needn't have feared. As the men gathered their weapons—long staffs today—and paired off, Master swung up on the wall beside me. He was wearing deep crimson robes, which brought out the chestnut highlights in his dark brown hair. I cast him an appreciative look, pleased to see it returned. He didn't think any less of me for submitting so readily to Kai.

We watched in silence as Morgan barked orders and the men began to spar, the dull clack of the wooden staffs reverberating through the still morning air. The first sun had risen clear of the horizon, the second not far behind, and already the day was beginning to warm. Later it would be scorching hot.

Kai was sparring with a tall, heavyset man, one of the guards who patrolled the outer walls of the compound. I winced as his staff came crashing down on Kai's shoulder, knocking him to one knee. Kai didn't falter, however, swinging his staff around and forcing his opponent to back up if he didn't want his shins smashed. In a trice Kai was on his feet again, attacking hard. Sweat glistened across his back, his body a brilliant, fluid thing. He was made for this, for pitting his strength and agility and, yes, his tolerance of pain against other men. My fellow slave was still a soldier to his core.

"How are you this morning?" Master asked solicitously as the pairs separated at the sound of a whistle and switched partners.

I looked at him in surprise. "I'm all right."

"Not too sore?"

I grimaced, acknowledging that I was, in fact, still tender.

"You should know better, Tam," Master scolded. "I expect you to take care of yourself."

The tips of my ears burnt with embarrassment. "I'll remember next time," I said, then blushed for presuming there would be a next time.

"I had assumed that wasn't the first time." He was looking at the guards, his expression inscrutable. "But it was, wasn't it?"

Kai hooked his staff behind the ankle of his opponent, a smaller man, and neatly took his feet out from under him. The man landed on his back in a billow of sand, and Kai waited patiently for him to pick himself up.

"Tammy, answer me."

"It was," I admitted, ducking my head.

"Why are you ashamed?"

"I'm not ashamed. I...." What was I? Perhaps there was some shame there, but it wasn't my dominant emotion in that moment. I swallowed thickly. "Do you think less of me?"

He gave me his full attention, his eyebrows rising in surprise. "Why would I think less of you?"

"I feel... conflicted."

"How so?"

I struggled to overcome my reticence to speak. He was my master; I owed him everything and he owed me nothing. If I spoke frankly, would it displease him?

"Tam." His tone brooked no refusal. "Talk to me."

"I think I love him," I said in a rush.

"Who, Kai?"

I risked a glance in Master's direction, needing to see he wasn't angry with me. He didn't look angry. He looked... stunned.

I nodded miserably. "I have feelings for him, I can't deny it, and I feel so horribly guilty because I'm not sure he even likes me most of the time, and I worry you'll think I prefer him when I don't, but then I wonder how I can feel what I feel for him without it changing my feelings for you, and I don't want my feeling for you to change because I love you and I always have, and you've been so good to me, and, and—"

"Tammy, _breathe._ " Master put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me against him. His body was warm and firm, and it felt like coming home. I clung to him shamelessly as he petted my hair and shushed me. "I knew you'd develop feelings for him," he said when I quietened. "Why do you think I kept you to myself for so long? You're too sweet-natured not to care about the people in your life. It was inevitable you would grow to love Kai as your relationship developed."

"So you're not angry?" I asked tremulously, needing to hear him say the words.

He lifted my head, brushed the hair out of my eyes, and kissed my nose. "No, I'm not angry with you," he said softly. "I'm pleased you two get along so well. I knew the moment I saw him you'd picked the perfect companion, despite your misgivings. He's beautiful, Tammy, and seeing the two of you together is beautiful."

"I love you," I said firmly, wanting him to know the truth of my words. Some would say I loved him because he was all I knew, because I was a dumb slave captured as a child and raised in his household and I knew no better, but I loved him for more than simply being there. He was the one who offered comfort when I was frightened, who'd taught me to read and write and encouraged me to better myself, and in his own way returned my affection to the best of his ability. He would never— _could_ never—love me, but my loving him was not dependent on reciprocity.

"I know, Tammy. I've always known that." He squeezed my shoulders, and I smiled at the affectionate gesture. "You have nothing to feel guilty about when it comes to Kai. Tell me, does he feel the same about you?"

I was saved from answering by the interruption of a triumphant bellow from the paddock. Looking up, I smiled to see Kai standing over a third fallen opponent, his staff wielded over his head. Master chuckled. "He's certainly passionate."

"He is," I agreed, my cheeks warming as I recalled the way his passion had spent itself the previous night.

"Does he tell you he loves you, Tammy?"

I shook my head, hiding behind the long curtain of my hair.

"He will." Master gave me a consoling squeeze.

"And you won't be upset if he does?"

Master sighed, and for a heartbeat, an expression crossed his face so full of pain and sorrow it stole my breath. And then it was gone, so swiftly I wondered if I had seen it to begin with. "It's what I want for you," he admitted. "Every man should know how it feels to be loved at least once in his life."

"Oh." I bit my lip, struggling to hide how crushed I was by his words. It was one thing to know he didn't love me, another matter entirely to hear him say it so casually.

I fixed my attention on Kai, smiling to see him surrounded by friendly faces, the guards congratulating him for his good showing. He looked so much in his element, it was hard to believe he was the same man I'd purchased not two months earlier. Did he love me? _Could_ he? My heart skipped a beat as I owned to myself I wanted that, however selfish it may make me. Unlike my unrequited affection for our master, however, what I was offering Kai was more than an object to love: it was loving in return. Despite Master's lofty talk, I suspected that was one thing not even he had ever truly experienced.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"What about this one?" I waved a swatch of brightly coloured cloth at Kai, who wrinkled his nose in disgust. Laughing, I added it to the Definitely Not pile that was growing on the floor beside me.

We were in Kai's chamber, although it wouldn't be such for much longer. As a reward for doing so well in his training, Master had offered him the opportunity to furnish his sparse room. It was a sign of how far we had come that he was going to be trusted with possessions of his own.

Kai, however, had declined the offer, much to both my and Master's surprise. Instead, stammering bashfully, he had admitted he rarely entered his chamber at all, spending his nights in my bed instead, and suggested we could turn his chamber into a dayroom for us both. Permission had been granted immediately, and Master had ordered several of the better cloth merchants and furniture dealers from Otiz's markets to call on us at the compound to discuss what we wanted.

I had thought myself spoilt in the past, but it was nothing to the level of indulgence with which Kai's desires had been met. After a week of meetings with various traders, we had a pile of swatches to work through and several different options as to furniture. I favoured a warm and cosy nook with lots of pillows and soft seating so I could curl up and read. Kai had a more utilitarian nature and wanted a purposeful space, somewhere he could exercise with the weights Master had presented to him after overhearing him complain he lacked the muscle strength in his arms to properly wield the heavy weapons the guards used.

A compromise of sorts had been reached, and we decided to pad the floor and walls of half the room, leaving the half nearest the door for my opulent den. That way I could keep Kai company as he exercised, and he could provide something for me to look at when I tired of reading. First, however, we had to decide on a colour scheme.

"Nothing pink," Kai growled, eyeing the swatches I had yet to peruse.

I stuck my tongue out at him.

"It's an ugly colour," he protested.

"It's a warm colour."

"And this room is already warm enough. This green is nice." He held up a square of material in a lurid shade of lime, and I made retching noises until he put it down.

"Nothing too dark, and nothing too bold," I decided. "It'll only make the space seem smaller than it already is."

"Who made you the expert?"

"I read a book."

Kai laughed. "Is there anything you haven't read a book about?"

"Not much," I admitted, unable to contain the prideful edge in my voice.

He threw himself down on the mattress beside me, ruffled my long hair and, when I objected, silenced me with a kiss. "If you really like the pink, then we'll have it."

"No, you hate it." I set all the pinks aside. "This is _our_ room, Kai. I want us to love it equally."

He gave me an affectionate look.

"How about green?" I suggested. "Not _that_ green"—I indicated the discarded swatch—"but a lighter one, perhaps."

He rummaged through the pile at our feet and produced a pale mint-coloured scrap. "This one?"

I examined it, taking it and holding it before me, trying to picture the room swathed in that colour. "I think I like it."

"Or purple." His next offering was a lilac shade. "And midnight blue."

"Evening colours."

"Exactly."

"With red highlights." I found a soft, crushed velvet in dark crimson and held it against the others he'd suggested.

"We could do the ceiling in the blue." He rose from the bed, growing animated as he waved swatches around, showing me what he envisioned. "We'll pad the back wall in the same colour, and finish the rest in the purple. Edge it with crimson braids, and your cushions could match."

I smiled to see him getting so carried away, his green eyes dancing with light as he turned in the centre of the room. "White furs," I decided. "On the floor, that is. They'll look stunning against the blue."

"And that desk you liked." One of the furniture dealers had shown us a small teak desk, perfect for one person to work at. I rather feared I had lusted after it a little too openly.

"We don't need it," I said. "What possible purpose could we put it to?"

"You could write there," Kai said. "Or read if you tire of the cushions."

"What would I write?"

"Does it matter?" He smiled sweetly. "You'd look just like Master at his desk."

I hung my head to cover my face with my hair, his thoughts matching mine too closely for comfort. I feared I only coveted the desk in hopes it would make me seem more impressive and important than I truly was. What use had a pleasureslave for a _desk_?

"Only more handsome."

I looked up incredulously. I knew my appearance was unusual, and some would say striking, but Kai couldn't possibly think me more handsome than our master, surely? Yet the heated gleam in his emerald eyes said otherwise. All thoughts of swatches and colour schemes fled as he approached, and we wasted no time adding two more stains to the soiled mattress.

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We were no nearer to making a final decision on how we would decorate the dayroom when Master summoned us to his chamber that evening, so we took a sample of swatches with us for him to have some input into our choice. It was Kai who suggested asking for his opinion, and I was surprised but delighted at the turn of events. He had responded well to the greater freedoms Master permitted him, and since being allowed to train with the guards, he had become the very model of obedience. Master's friends and staff may have thought him foolish for permitting a slave the use of weapons, in however controlled an environment, but Kai was no ordinary slave, the man who owned us no ordinary master.

It was not to be obedient that Kai wanted his input. Master had made it clear from the outset he wouldn't interfere with the dayroom, it being exclusively our space and our choice how we furnished it. The assurances had been made for Kai's sake, I was sure, yet here Kai was, wanting Master's involvement. I dared to hope it might signal a change in Kai's affections towards the man whose collar he wore.

I sorely hoped so. The two had butted heads regularly since the night Kai and I first had sex in Master's room, squabbling over me like children over a favoured toy. To my surprise, it had been Master who most frequently ceded in their little battles—fought over handholds, or brushing my hair, or not-casually-casually calling me to their sides and petting me—although I didn't for a second doubt he retained true authority over us both. Rather, he refused to rise to Kai's constant baiting, or perhaps he simply didn't consider me worth the trouble of fighting for.

Once, such a thought would have filled me with despair. I couldn't deny I was hurt, or say I didn't want him to cast Kai asunder and guard me jealously, but I grew fonder of Kai daily, and the shameful truth was I was as happy in his arms as I was in our master's. Any disappointment I may have felt when Master turned me over to him yet again was swiftly assuaged by the extra attention Kai paid me, as if in compensation.

Kai would often take matters further, cementing his victory by fucking me in Master's presence, whether or not he had been requested to do so. I knew I should feel cheapened, being used so transparently as a tool of Kai's defiance, a pawn in the pointless game they were playing, but I wanted it all too often, and Kai's strategy—if indeed he had one—was rather undermined by the fact Master seemed to appreciate watching almost as much as we enjoyed putting on a show.

Indeed, I suspected them both of dishonesty when it came to expressing their feelings about each other, for Kai now ravished me in his presence not so much to annoy him as to seduce him, although they were both careful of touching one another, no matter what they were doing to me.

Master was at his desk when we entered the room, and he put down his quill to greet us, a smile on his face.

"What have you got?" he asked, eyeing the swatches.

"Some of the samples the merchants left," I said, setting them down on the rug while Kai busied himself lighting a fire. "We thought if it wouldn't disturb you, we'd go through them."

"You won't disturb me," he said, waving his hand airily. "But how long have you spent on this?"

"Several days," I admitted in a small voice.

Master chuckled. "What's the delay?"

"We couldn't decide on a colour we both liked."

"And have you now?"

I nodded, holding up the swatches we'd chosen.

"We still need to pick the finish," Kai said, sitting cross-legged beside me.

"The finish?" Master sounded surprised.

"I never realised there were so many different materials," he said. "We've got cotton, silk, velvet, felt.... It's a bit bewildering."

Master threw back his head and laughed aloud. "I'm sure you'll work through it," he said, his expression amused. "And I'm sure the finished room will look wonderful."

Kai and I both pinked at the praise.

Master returned his attention to the many scrolls piled over his desk, and Kai and I settled quietly on the rug to debate textiles and textures. He liked the idea of having a rich cotton for his side of the room, which could be taken down and washed regularly without being damaged. I agreed in principle, but worried that sweat marks from his exercises, or from our more vigorous pastimes, might leave permanent stains.

We squabbled good-naturedly, arguing the respective merits of different cloths back and forth under our breath, conscious of the regular scratch of Master's quill against parchment.

We had reached something of a stalemate, with Kai sticking fast to cotton and me being unable to suggest a more suitable alternative, when the arms of Master's chair caught my eye. "Leather!" I exclaimed happily.

"What?"

"Look, we can pad the walls with leather, like this." I showed him the chair arms, stuffed at the end and covered in dark leather, secured with brass tacks.

Kai examined the chair, a dubious expression on his face.

"It's perfect," I said, pouting a little that he wasn't immediately thrilled by the idea. "The leather would wipe clean, it's thick enough to cushion you if you fall into it, and if we got white leather it would look incredible."

"How much would that cost?" Kai asked. "It's not a small area we're talking about covering."

I shrugged. "I have no idea." In truth, I hadn't considered the cost of anything we had discussed. Master was a rich man, and he had given us free rein to do as we wanted with the room. I was sure he wouldn't begrudge us this.

Kai shook his head. "It's a good idea, but it's too expensive, especially when we have other options available to us."

I frowned. "I thought you were over this?" I asked in a whisper, my tone accusatory.

"Over what?" He looked genuinely baffled.

"This." I gestured between us. "Refusing everything Master offers for fear it means you owe him something."

"That isn't what I was doing."

I scoffed. "What other explanation is there?"

"I don't want to spend his money," Kai answered in a hiss. "Not because I was worrying how he'll claim it back, but because... because...." He flushed red, somewhere between angry and mortified.

"Why, Kai?"

I hadn't realised Master was listening to our conversation. I hung my head and shot Kai an apologetic look. The last thing I wanted was to get him in trouble.

Kai looked squarely at our master. "I have a better idea of the value of leather than Tam," he said. "Enough to cover the area he's talking about would cost more than the army paid me in a month. Two months, even. I can't spend that much of your money on furnishing half a room, I just _can't_."

"Why not?" Master's expression was blank, his tone inscrutable.

"It doesn't seem right," he admitted. "Just because you're rich, that doesn't mean we should spend your money like it will never run out."

I was immediately contrite, both for misjudging Kai, and for being guilty of the excesses he hadn't quite accused me of. I hadn't given a thought for Master's purse beyond being surprised and pleased Kai showed no qualms about dipping into it when invited to do so. That Kai was considering the cost of Master's generosity made me feel like a heel for not having done so myself.

"Thank you, Kai," Master said, smiling at him. "But my offer to pay for whatever you both decide was made freely, and I shan't rescind it. If leather is the best material, then leather you shall have."

"Cotton will be fine," I said in a small voice. "It's Kai's side of the room anyway. He knows what's best."

"Kai's side?" Master frowned the query.

We explained what we'd decided about dividing the space to accommodate both our pastimes, and Master leant forward in his chair, seemingly interested in what we'd agreed.

"Let me see your swatches," he said, rising from his desk and joining us before the fire. I handed them over, shifting on the rug so I sat beside Kai, facing Master's chair. He looked through them slowly, rubbing some of the cloths between his fingers to get a feel for their texture. "If you don't mind the suggestion, how about this?" he asked, holding out a thick hessian-type material. "It'll stain, I know, but it will hold a dye well, and it can take a fair amount of rough treatment."

Kai took the cloth from him, turning it over in his hands. "You don't think it will burn my skin if I fall against it?"

"It might." Master frowned. "What exactly were you planning to do in that space?"

"Not much," he admitted. "There isn't the room. I thought I'd keep my weights there, and maybe a couple of jump ropes."

"Is the ceiling high enough?"

"If we don't swag it, it is."

"What if I cleared one of the stables?" he asked.

Kai frowned. "The stables?"

"To give you room for more equipment. A gymnasium of sorts. I could have a carpenter make some bars along the walls—"

"I couldn't," Kai stammered. "You've already given me so much."

"But I want to," Master countered. "Then your dayroom doesn't have to be split the way you're planning. It's really not big enough to be dual-purpose."

I nudged Kai, nodding enthusiastically for him to accept. He loved exercising, training his body harder and longer day by day. The stables closest to the house were large, airy spaces with high ceilings and sandy floors, perfect for him to practise with the staffs and wooden swords the guards used in training. Swinging such an implement inside was asking for disaster.

"I'll think about it," Kai said at length. "That is, if I may...?"

"Of course." Master smiled, handing the rest of the swatches to me. "I'm making no decisions for you, Kai, merely offering some suggestions."

"I know. Thank you."

Master chucked him under his chin. "You are more than welcome. I enjoy spoiling you."

Rather than flinching from the touch as I expected, I was thrilled to see Kai smile bashfully, accepting both Master's words and the contact. Contact which turned lingering even as I watched, wide-eyed and hopeful. Master cupped Kai's jaw, rubbing his thumb close to his mouth. My throat went dry as I silently hoped for more.

That, however, was too much to ask. The moment passed, Master withdrew his hand and reclined in his chair, a weary expression crossing his face as he briefly closed his eyes.

"Please don't work any more tonight," I said, resting a hand on his knee.

"I don't think I shall," he said, smiling at me in a way he probably thought was reassuring. All it did was emphasise the weariness in his eyes and the tight lines which had formed either side of his mouth. He looked _old_ , and I wasn't used to seeing him so. Whatever secrets he was keeping from us about life outside the compound, they were clearly weighing heavily on his mind.

I rose on my knees and kissed him, silently offering whatever he needed to make him lay down his burden, at least for a little while. He hummed in contentment, running his fingers through my hair and clasping the back of my scalp as I peppered my lips across his mouth and the side of his face. His stubble felt rough, for it had been several weeks since he had let me shave him, and he was not as adept as I at getting his skin marble-smooth. I determined to insist upon him submitting to my razor the next time he had a full day at home.

"Mmm, that feels nice," he said as I turned my attention to his neck. He had always liked to be kissed behind his ear, and I rested both hands on his thighs to steady myself as I did just that. I hadn't realised until this moment, but I had missed him terribly. I wanted to make love to him as I used to when it had been the two of us, and it felt like I was the only soul in the world who understood and loved him for who he really was.

Not wanting to be forgotten, Kai also knelt beside me, stroking down my back and nuzzling against my shoulder. I turned from Master to kiss him, capturing his mouth with mine in a wet slide of tongues before turning to Master again. I belonged to both of them equally, and the thought of seeing them together had fuelled my most secret fantasies for weeks.

Master hauled me to him, biting my mouth, his eyes open and staring straight past me, locking on Kai. Did they know how hot I found it to have an audience in these moments?

I slung an arm around Kai's neck, pulling him until we were both kneeling between Master's thighs. Their faces were close as I kissed them both alternately and I longed to push them together and make them kiss each other, but I didn't quite dare be so forceful with Master, and I was sure Kai would not be receptive to such a sudden move. Instead I contented myself with writhing between them, my lips barely leaving one before I fell upon the other. I could taste Kai in Master's mouth, and Master in Kai's, and I wondered if they could, too; if they knew the something different in my kisses was each other, and if that knowledge thrilled them the way it thrilled me.

Kai braced himself on the arm of Master's chair, and Master covered Kai's hand with his own. Panting now, unable to keep from wriggling between them for the sheer joy of feeling them press against me from either side, I fumbled first with Master's loose trousers, then with the knot in Kai's loincloth. Their cocks sprang free and I took them both, one in each hand, slowly sliding my fists from root to tip.

Master groaned and mouthed my neck as I kissed Kai, who thrust into my hand and sagged against me in response.

I felt powerful, having them both like this, being the centre of their attention. I could reduce either or both of them to a wanting mess of need with a few simple twists of my wrist. I could get them both off, make them climax together, or have them fill me up, one in my mouth and one in my arse, making them work in tandem to please me. The sheer wealth of possibilities made my head swim.

Kai gripped me around my waist, hauling me closer until he was practically humping against my thigh while I feverishly worked his cock. I released Master and slid my hand over Kai's scalp and through the short spikes of his hair, clasping the back of his skull as he rested his forehead against my shoulder. He wasn't going to last long—he never did, being a young man previously much denied. Master had had years to develop his considerable stamina in the bedchamber.

"Turn his arm," I said to Master, indicating the hand he covered with his own.

Obediently, Master prised Kai's clawed fingers free of the chair and turned his hand palm-up, exposing the milky underside of his arm.

"He likes being stroked. As gently as you can."

I pulled Kai's head back by his hair, licking into his open mouth as he groaned. Master stroked up the inside of his forearm, feathering over the sensitive skin as lightly as he could with his fingertips. I'd discovered how much Kai liked that completely by accident, but I had used it to my shameless advantage ever since. His skin was super-sensitive in the most unlikely of places, and I relished the challenge of finding them all.

A series of half bitten off gasps warned me of Kai's impending climax, and I immediately released his cock, showing no mercy as he wailed in frustration. We men are simple creatures, and however hot Kai might find his present situation before his orgasm, I knew he'd be disgusted with himself in the immediate aftermath. I wasn't having that disgust taint whatever he saw between me and Master. Tonight, as much as it might pain him, he was going to finish last.

"Oil," I gasped, when Kai's immediate need to come had abated. "Bedside table."

He sprang up in a second, returning with the small jar already unstoppered. I took it from him and slicked Master's cock, then handed it back with a gruff order for Kai to oil me.

Master held my head in his big hands, watching my face as Kai worked a finger inside me, spreading oil around my hole. I groaned, unable to prevent myself from rocking back onto Kai's hand, squeezing tight around his finger and feeling the delicious clench of muscles all the way to my balls.

Kai withdrew and I rose on unsteady legs, Master's hands falling to my hips to guide me as I sat in his lap. My cock stuck out at right angles from my body, the flushed length looking impossibly dark and needy against my pale skin. Kai took me into his mouth and I released a shout of pleasure as I was engulfed in warmth and wetness. He began to suck in earnest, and I marvelled at how much his technique had improved over the previous weeks. At first he'd been hesitant to even touch his tongue to my tip, but now he nursed me as though his life depended on it, using his hands along my shaft as he focused his lips and tongue and even teeth on tormenting my glans and foreskin.

"Enough," Master said, pulling him off by his hair as my whimpers grew frantic. The air in the room felt cold against my exposed shaft, which jerked, seeking further contact. I bit my lip and concentrated on Kai, kneeling before me. Master still held him by his hair—something else I was learning he loved but would never admit to enjoying—and his mouth hung open, his lips slick and his eyes heavily hooded, the barest band of emerald showing around the edges of his blown pupils. I hadn't realised he'd become so debauched, but the sight made my breath catch in my throat. He really was strikingly beautiful.

I thumbed his lower lip, smearing spittle and my own fluids across the plump surface. Master released him and beckoned me higher, reaching under my leg and between our bodies to rub the tip of his cock against my oiled hole. Such a simple sensation and yet so thrilling, sending pleasurable shivers through me even as I revelled in the anticipation of what was yet to come. His cock sliding into me felt like coming home; Kai's heated gaze directed at the place we were coupled spiking my lust to new heights.

When Kai braced his hands on Master's thighs and took me once more into his mouth, I lost control of my senses. His head bobbed in time with the roll of Master's hips, their movements quickly synchronising into a rhythm designed to break me in a matter of minutes. I dug my fingers into the arms of the chair, supporting some of my weight and enabling Master to thrust harder into me. He didn't take the opportunity, however, choosing instead to torment me with slow, steady thrusts that pushed my hips forward, forcing my cock deeper into Kai's mouth.

Kai choked, and the shiver of vibration felt so good I couldn't resist making it happen again, thrusting my hips in time with Master's to force myself farther down Kai's throat until he was gagging around my length, long ropes of drool sliding down my shaft. Everything was wet heat and strangled breaths and pleasure from every angle, more intense than I thought I could stand. Master grunted with effort as he drilled into me, snatching a handful of my long hair and wrenching my head back, forcing me to arch my spine and cry for mercy as the changed angle enabled him to hit my prostate on every thrust, the head of his cock dragging decadently over the spot, my muscles twitching and clenching around his shaft until I swore I could feel the bump of every pulsing vein.

I whimpered a warning and then fell apart, coming hard down Kai's throat, my orgasm like an explosion behind my eyes. Master cupped the back of Kai's head and forced him down onto me until his nose pressed flush to my groin, and he had no choice but to swallow my seed or choke. The rhythmic contractions of his throat around the head of my sensitised cock were almost too much: I wriggled and writhed in Master's lap, all my muscles pulled tight, my arsehole spasming with every spurt of my ejaculate.

A low moan told me Master was about to climax, then he bit me, digging his teeth into the flesh of my shoulder and breathing hard through his nose, transforming into something feral and untamed as he bred me.

He finally released Kai, who lifted his head, coughing and spluttering, his lips a rosy red and swollen from their rough treatment, his eyes dark, dark, _dark_ like the depths of midnight.

"Mark me," I begged.

Heat flared in his inky gaze as he rose, stood between my legs, and tugged hard on his stout cock. He climaxed in moments, painting me with splashes of hot come. Then he was kissing me, wet and sloppy and insistent, a soft growl vibrating between us. Master shifted, his dick sliding from me, and the shudder I gave at the sensation passed from me to Kai as I kissed him back. Master stroked my flanks, wrapping an arm around me to hold me more securely on his lap, then he scraped up through the slippery fluid on my stomach and pushed his fingers between our joined lips, smearing Kai's spunk into our mouths and making us lick him clean.

I broke the kiss to watch Kai sucking Master's fingers, a look of pure bliss on his face. He opened his eyes, green again as arousal faded into the warm afterglow of good sex, and Master cupped his face, brushing the pad of his thumb over Kai's lips. I smiled at the dazed look Kai gave me, then cupped the other side of his face and kissed him again, soft and tender, silently praising and reassuring him he was loved. Master nuzzled my neck and petted Kai's hair, all three of us in that moment sated, calm, and utterly content.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The next day, our world was torn apart.

Kai and I had been fooling around in my bedroom when suddenly a dull roar like thunder sounded in the distance.

"What was that?" I asked, sitting straight and listening intently.

"A bomb." Kai was instantly on his feet, dragging me up.

We ran outside and saw the guards rushing to the walls of the compound, those on duty already with their weapons drawn, more emerging from their private quarters beyond the training paddock, armour half-on and half-off as they raced to see what was happening.

"Come on." Kai took my hand and tugged me along behind him, making for the perimeter wall where Morgan was barking orders, men milling around, pointing and staring towards the centre of Otiz.

Master's compound was on the outskirts, bordering the desert. The road to the centre ran past the front gates, and we had heard the lumber of many carts, the clop of horses' hooves on the stones of the road as traders came from near and far to sell their wares at the weekly market. It was second-noon, the smaller sun at its zenith, and the light bouncing off the pale stone of the compound's walls and paved surfaces was blinding.

We reached the wall without being halted, and Kai swarmed up the ladder in front of me. Hesitating only a second, I followed, my heart thudding in my breast. Otiz was a quiet outpost, and I couldn't remember there ever being trouble before. The conflict that raged on around us had never come close, and most of the time it was easy to forget we were at war.

I took Kai's outstretched hand and let him help me up the last rungs of the ladder. We stood side-by-side on the guards' walkway and looked out over the top of the wall towards the marketplace. I sucked a breath as I saw the column of black smoke rising from the centre of Otiz and squeezed hard on Kai's hand. Chaotic sounds reached us, carried on the light breeze: screams and shouts, the braying of pack mules, the crash of falling rubble. Kai's mouth set in a thin line, his green eyes narrowed against the glare of the suns.

"Where's Master?" I asked, the panic that had been welling inside me exploding into outright fear. Master had left the compound early that morning, and I had no idea where he was. For all I knew he could be lying dead right then, buried beneath the rubble or torn to pieces by the bomb. "Where is he? Where did he go today?"

"Who let the slaves up here?" Morgan demanded, scowling in our direction.

Kai held me back as I started to advance angrily on the head of the guards. "Just tell us where he is," he said. "That's all he wants to know."

"Get them back into the house," Morgan barked to the nearest guard, turning his back on us.

"Please, Shan." Kai gripped the arm of a tall, heavyset man, whom I recognised as one of the guards he had sparred with the morning Master and I watched him in training. "Was he at the marketplace?"

Shan gave us both a sympathetic look. "He has a personal guard," he said. "I'm sure he wasn't harmed."

A thin, keening wail rose, and it took a moment before I realised the sound came from my throat. Kai caught me as I staggered, preventing me from toppling off the ledge. Shan caught my arm and half-carried me to the ladder.

"Can you climb?" he asked, his tone not unkind. His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, and without waiting for me to answer, he swung me over his shoulder as though I weighed nothing, and descended.

Kai followed as Shan carried me back to the house, guiding the guard inside and to my chamber.

"I can walk!" I protested, but he didn't set me down until we were in my room.

"We're fine," Kai said as Shan dithered. "We won't get in the way, I promise. I'll look after Tam, just please, find out where Master is. We need to know he's all right."

Shan nodded. "Morgan won't rest until we find him," he said. "He'll send men out to start searching."

I began to shiver. My teeth chattered and my limbs shook, even after Kai had sat me down on the bed and wrapped his arms around me. I took comfort from his proximity, but the thought of losing Master chilled me to the core.

"Go," Kai snapped, sounding more authoritative even than Morgan.

Shan hesitated a moment longer, looking uncertainly in my direction, then nodded to Kai and left, closing the door behind himself.

"Tam? Tammy, look at me." Kai cupped my face, forcing me to meet his eyes. "He'll be okay," he promised. "You heard what Shan said, he had guards with him. They'll have protected him. He probably wasn't even in the marketplace anyway."

"But what if he was?" I whispered. "Kai, I can't lose him, I _can't_!"

"You won't." Kai pulled me to him, hugging me fiercely. He stroked my hair over and over, but I wasn't sure if the gesture was supposed to soothe him or me. "He'll come back, Tammy. Just wait. We haven't lost him, I promise."

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That day was the longest of my life. Kai and I didn't move from my bed, huddled close and rocking in each other's arms. My sinuses stung, but I didn't cry. I almost wanted to, to relieve some of the tension thrumming in my limbs, the choked, bottled-up feeling of helplessness that consumed me. My grief was a river swelling against the dam, waiting for it to burst. If I allowed myself the luxury of even a single tear, I feared I'd never stop.

Every time we heard guards troop past the windows, or the gates opening, or the clop of horses' hooves, we stiffened, listening, straining to discover if Master had been located, neither of us daring to move and demand news that could shatter our hopes.

The shadows fell long in the dying light, my chamber grew dark and cold, and Kai pulled the edges of the comforter over our legs but otherwise remained still. The silvery ringlight winked off the reflective surfaces of my possessions. If Master was gone, I'd lose them all. Would Mistress keep us, or would she sell Kai and I to the highest bidders? Was I destined to lose them both, just when we had found each other? The handle of my razor glowed on a shelf, and I made my decision without conscious thought. I'd slit Kai's throat and then my own before I let us be parted.

A commotion at the front of the compound stirred us from our torpid state, the guards cheering and applauding. Kai and I exchanged looks, hope flaring like a brilliant flame between us. As one, we leapt off my bed and ran through the house.

Master was standing in the entrance, black with dirt, his beautiful robes ragged and stained in blood, but he stood unaided and half-lifted us both as we flew into his arms.

"I'm not hurt," he said, a smile in his voice as he clasped us close. I peppered him with kisses everywhere I could reach, while Kai seemed determined to touch every last inch of him and see for himself he was unharmed.

"Where were you?" I demanded reproachfully. "We thought you were dead!"

"You can see for yourself I'm not." He cupped my face with one hand, and rested his other on Kai's shoulder. "I was on the outskirts when the bomb went off. We made for the marketplace immediately to assist the injured."

"You should have come home." Kai scowled. "What if whoever set the bomb had attacked you?"

Master grimaced. "The bomber is dead."

"How can you be sure?" I asked.

"I spoke to enough witnesses. The man was the bomb."

" _What_?"

Kai winced. "He blew himself up," he explained.

"People do that?" I felt sick. What kind of indoctrination made someone so fanatical they would commit suicide in a busy marketplace in order to harm innocent people?

Master looked as ill as I felt. "I'd heard rumours the Granthians were using such tactics, but I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen the results for myself."

"You're covered in dirt." I touched his robes. "We should get you clean."

Master nodded, and for the first time I saw the pain in his dark eyes, the shock of what he had seen that day finally sinking in. I put his arm around my shoulders, Kai doing likewise on his other side, and together we led him to his chamber, barking an order at a passing house slave to fetch hot water for his bath.

In the sanctuary of his chamber, Kai lit a fire and helped me strip him, the two of us checking him over thoroughly. Some small scrapes on his hands and arms aside, no doubt caused when he'd joined the other men in digging bodies and survivors from the rubble of blasted buildings, he was unharmed. He trembled lightly and followed our orders as meekly as a kitten when we put him in the bath the other slaves had filled and gently sponged him clean. The water quickly turned a dirty brown, a thin layer of scum floating on the surface. We emptied and refilled the tub and washed his hair in the clean water, and I took my time massaging his scalp and shoulders, offering us both a small measure of comfort.

Kai found the largest towel Master owned, and we wrapped him in it and sat him before the fire. I dried his hair with another cloth, and Kai surprised me by wanting to be the one to brush it. I sat on the floor by Master's feet and rested my chin on his thigh, content to watch Kai taking care of him. I didn't know if my fellow slave knew how taken aback I was at his behaviour, or if he even understood he'd all but admitted how much he cared for the man who owned us. Kai had been as scared as I was when we thought Master had been killed, and not out of fear for himself, I was sure. With a dawning sense of wonder, I realised Kai was growing to love him.

"What happened today?" Kai asked at length, when Master's hair lay neat and almost dry about his shoulders. "Was it a lone bomber, or was it the Granthian forces? What was their target? Were you in danger?"

"One question at a time," Master admonished gently, putting his hand on Kai's arm and guiding him to sit beside me. "We don't know what happened," he admitted after Kai settled. "I sent a guard to the military base in Riga to inform the army what has happened. They'll investigate and send more troops to protect the outpost."

"Why here?" I asked. "There's nothing of significance in Otiz, surely?" It made no sense. Riga was a day's ride away towards the mountains, and from what I'd read, the base there was small. Being on the edge of the desert protected Otiz; nobody expected enemy forces to cross the bewildering expanse of sand in order to launch an attack on a small market community of no political or strategic worth.

Master looked at Kai. "What do you think?"

Kai frowned. "It doesn't sound like an army attack," he said. "Where were the other troops? If the Granthian forces wanted to overrun Otiz, they could do it easily. They wouldn't send one man to blow up the marketplace."

"That's what I thought." Master nodded agreement.

"But it doesn't sound like mercenaries, either," Kai continued. "They work for hire. They don't care about the cause. A mercenary would never become a suicide bomber."

"Do you think we're in danger?" I asked. "Is that why you've called in the army?"

"I'm taking precautions," Master said, teasing a strand of my hair. "The people are frightened. They want to see that something is being done. The presence of the army will reassure them and hopefully dissuade any accomplices the bomber may have had."

"But we've never had trouble so close," I continued. "Won't the Granthian soldiers follow our army if they come here? Will they start fighting? Is that why Mistress left?"

"What about you?" Kai interrupted, looking at Master. "If the army comes here, will you have to join them?"

I stared at him in horror, waiting for an answer. The idea of staying at home while Master was out fighting a war was too terrible to contemplate.

"You're getting ahead of yourselves," he said, his smile encompassing us both. "There's no indication this was anything more than the work of a lone fanatic."

"But you said the war was getting closer," I pointed out. "You're already gone far more than you ever were, and you work harder when you're here. Now a bomb's gone off not two miles from our home, and—"

"Tam." His tone was brusque. "Enough."

I closed my mouth, crossed my arms, and pouted.

"Don't sulk," he chided, chucking me under the chin. "You're letting your imagination run wild. You're perfectly safe here, and whatever's happening elsewhere you needn't concern yourselves with. Either of you."

"But—" Kai started to protest but fell silent at a look.

"I'm tired," Master admitted. "I've had a long day, and I've seen things I'd have happily never looked upon. All I want to do tonight is sit quietly and be grateful that we're all here and we're all safe. Can we do that?"

I nodded acquiescence and, after a moment, Kai followed suit.

"Good."

Kai shuffled nearer on the bearskin until we flanked him, one pressed against each of his legs. I took one of his hands in mine and pressed it to my lips, content to touch him and hear him breathing and know that he was alive, unharmed, and safe at home where he belonged.

He scratched his fingers up through the short hairs on the back of Kai's head, moving his hand almost unconsciously, and Kai shivered at the sensation, as responsive to Master's touch as he was to mine. His eyes hooded, and he inclined his head to grant Master better access, not flinching from him as he usually did. I smiled to see it, and when Kai opened his eyes, he smiled lazily back. I held out my hand and he took it, each of us giving and receiving comfort from the others, shutting out the darkness that loomed large in the distance, threatening to engulf our once-peaceful household.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The army marched into Otiz two days later. Kai and I listened to the tramp of feet all morning, a seemingly impossible number of soldiers responding to Master's summons. The generals called at our door a little before first-noon, and Master left with them, assuring us he would return by nightfall. So began our new routine.

Master spent his days with the army, whose presence was everywhere. Kai said the guards grumbled about having to share their quarters with the soldiers, a company of which were stationed around the compound to provide extra security. I thought it logical, given Master was underlord of the surrounding area, but Kai's green eyes flashed with suspicion every time we passed a soldier doing his rounds.

It was only to be expected, given Kai had, until recently, been in the opposing army to those men. Realising he was Granthian by birth, the soldiers had been surprised and unhappy to discover he had free run of the house, was allowed to train with the guards, and was unsupervised in Master's presence. Sasha confided she had overheard one of the generals berating Master for continuing to keep him, but Master had refused point-blank to send him away. The relief I felt at hearing the story was overwhelming, for I hadn't realised how afraid I was of losing Kai until I heard how very nearly it had happened. Another master would have dismissed him, for certain.

"I don't like this," Kai muttered, scowling at the world in general as we walked away from the training paddock.

"What?"

"Something's going on." He fell silent as we passed a couple of soldiers patrolling the garden, taking my arm and leading me to our chamber.

"What's going on?" I demanded the moment he closed the door.

"The guards think Master's leaving the compound."

"What? Why? When? Are we going with him?"

"I don't know." Kai frowned. "I don't think so. Some of the soldiers are packing for a journey, but they won't say where or when they're leaving. The guards are unhappy. They think they should be accompanying him."

"Is he in danger?" It was becoming my constant worry. I didn't know enough about life in the wider world to judge Master's place in it, but even I knew he was a figure of some import in the local area. If the generals thought Otiz was threatened, he would be the first person evacuated.

"I don't know!" Kai snapped. Immediately he was contrite, taking me into his arms and kissing my forehead. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to get angry at you. I'm just frustrated."

"We both are. I wish someone would tell us what's going on." Any time we broached the matter with Master, he quickly shut us down. I was getting very tired of being told I had nothing to worry about when it was so clearly a lie. "Will any of the guards tell you more? Shan, perhaps?"

Kai shook his head, chewing his lower lip. "Shan doesn't know any more than we do. I'm not sure even Morgan knows exactly what's happening. Ever since the army arrived, they've practically taken over." He sighed. "It used to irritate me when we marched into a place to protect it and the locals were hostile. Now I think I understand why. Nobody tells anyone anything."

"They think we're helpless," I said bitterly. "Or rather, I am."

"And they think I'm dangerous." Kai grimaced.

"Do you think he'll even say goodbye?" I asked. I couldn't bear the thought of waking one morning to find Master had left us, that he was out there somewhere, possibly in danger, not knowing if we'd ever see him again.

"He'd better." Kai's voice was a low growl, and under other circumstances I might have been amused to hear his possessive tone, maybe even teased him a little. As matters stood, Kai's anxiety only fed my own.

We passed the day miserable and discontented, unable to concentrate on anything for long. Neither of us would settle until Master was back under his own roof, safe for another night. The world outside the compound walls had suddenly become a dark and dangerous place, filled with nameless, faceless enemies.

The first sun set, and Kai grew increasingly restless. He threw down the book he had been attempting to read and instead began lifting the smaller weights from the set Master had given him. I focused on the movement of his arm, the ripple of muscle as he curled each weight up towards his chin and back down. He looked toned and healthy, but wound tight with tension, like a coiled spring. Master was late and I knew Kai was as worried as me, although we had no cause yet to be alarmed. The days of living according to a regular routine were long behind us.

We still hadn't finished decorating our dayroom, the activity seeming shallow in the face of our altered situation. I knew the soldiers looked down on us; they thought us vacuous whores, good only for fucking. They accorded us no respect, but I didn't want to lessen their opinion still further by fussing with swatches of materials while they were preparing for a war that seemed suddenly to have brought itself to our doorstep.

By second sunfall we were nervous. Master hadn't returned after dark since the bombing in the marketplace. We left my room and wandered through the house, gauging the mood of the soldiers to determine if anything was wrong. They bustled through the hallways, looking through us like we weren't there, or else sneering at our collars and sparse uniforms, which denoted our position and purpose as clearly as if our flesh had been branded in scarlet letters. A couple of household guards approached, and Kai, recognising them, begged for information. The men shared an uneasy look and admitted they had expected Master's party to have returned already.

"Is someone looking for them?" Kai demanded.

"The soldiers are taking care of it." The older guard grimaced, clearly unhappy his position had been usurped. "There's nothing you can do. Go back to your room."

We ignored the order, choosing instead to wait in a corner of the entrance hall, in sight of the door but out of the way of the men bustling through. I wished myself invisible as a general passed us, throwing a sour look in our direction, but Kai met his gaze defiantly, refusing to be cowed. This was our home, and we had every right to be there. It was _our_ master we were waiting on.

Sasha found us an hour later and forced us to accept a couple of bread rolls each when we refused to leave our post to eat in the kitchen. She clucked around us like a mother hen, scolding that we would both catch our deaths loitering in a draughty corridor, but short of being dragged bodily from the spot, I had no intention of moving, and Kai seemed equally determined to keep his vigil. Eventually, shaking her head in fond despair, she abandoned her attempts to make us move and instead brought a blanket to at least keep us from freezing.

Huddled together under the scratchy material, we shivered in our dark corner. The hour was late and even the generals were anxious. A party of soldiers had left to start searching, but nobody would tell us where Master had gone or what they feared had gone wrong. The bread lay like lead in my stomach, and I felt sick to my core as visions of Master lying dead at the bottom of a ravine swirled before my eyes.

At last the silence was pierced by shouting from outside, along the perimeter wall where the guards and soldiers were stationed. I gripped Kai's hand tight enough to cut off both our circulation, hardly daring to breathe. The bone-deep anxiety I felt was becoming far too regular an experience.

Men entered the hall, moving with purpose, and Kai and I emerged from our nook and led the crush as we raced to open the door. Outside, the front of the house was lit by flaming torches, placed every few feet along the drive all the way to the gate. Heedless of the stab of sharp stones under my bare feet, I broke into a run, Kai keeping pace at my side.

A soldier shouted for us to be stopped, but the guards we passed let us be, understanding better than the strangers we'd been forced to accommodate that our rightful place was with our master. The gates swung open with a squeal of metal on metal as we approached, the soldiers around the walls barked orders, and a posse of men trooped inside.

I spied Master in the centre of the press, standing head and shoulders above the others and walking unaided. Relief hit me like a ton of rocks, and I collapsed to my knees, shaking with adrenaline as I realised how certain I had been that he was dead. Again. I didn't think my heart or nerves could stand it if we continued to live like this.

Kai stopped to pick me up, and Master broke free of the group and came to his aid. Together they lifted me and set me on legs as weak as a foal's, and I clung shamelessly to them both, heedless of the disgusted snorts of the soldiers surrounding us.

"What happened?" Kai demanded roughly, running his hands over Master's torso. He touched his arm, and Master winced.

For the first time, I noticed his vibrant teal robes were covered in dark stains down his left-hand side, stains that flickered red in the firelight as another torch was brought forth. Kai held Master's arm and pushed his sleeve aside to reveal skin red with blood.

Master snatched his arm away. "I'm fine," he insisted. "It's a superficial cut."

"What happened?" a general asked, echoing Kai's words.

"Ambushed. On the Riga Pass."

"Soldiers?"

"Thieves." Master shook his head. "They must have been desperate to attack us."

"Were any captured?"

"No."

The general let out a curse.

"There's no need for that," Master said sharply. "We killed a couple, and the rest got away. They'll be long gone by now, back into the mountains."

"You let them escape?" The general turned on a soldier from Master's party who, judging by the impressive plume in his helmet, was supposed to have been in charge.

"Let's get you inside," Kai said to Master, his tone surprisingly gentle. We left the troops to argue blame amongst themselves and entered the house.

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Once more we summoned water for a hot bath, and for the second time in as many weeks, Kai and I washed Master clean. The wound on his arm was long but not deep, and he winced only a little as I daubed it with antiseptic and bound it up. Relief had loosened Kai's tongue, and he scolded Master thoroughly as he scrubbed his back, berating him for travelling such a dangerous road in the dark, with so few men to protect him. Perhaps acknowledging the truth of Kai's words, Master remained silent, letting himself be rebuked. Sitting in the big copper bath with his knees drawn up and a doleful expression on his face, he looked considerably younger than his thirty-seven years.

"Enough," I said at last to Kai, handing him the brush to tend Master's hair while I trimmed his toenails. A fire crackled merrily in the grate, and the chamber was warm and cosy.

Kai took the brush, grumbling under his breath, but I caught Master's eye, and we shared a small smile at his behaviour. He was acting like an impudent brat, but it was only because he cared. He had been as scared as I while Master was missing.

I also acknowledged to myself the truth of Kai's words. The Pass was the only way inland from Otiz through the mountains that ringed the horizon, and the brigands who preyed on unwary travellers had become the stuff of legend. People said there were whole communities up there, men and women who were born and died in the mountains without ever coming down, who hoarded the gold coins and jewels of those they ambushed in great caverns filled with treasure, the worth of which they barely began to understand. Not even the army dared go into the mountains to challenge them, and any party wishing to cross the Pass was advised to take as many armed men as they could afford to protect them.

"I won't do it again," Master said at last, when the silence between us had grown from tense and angry to comfortable, the rhythmic action of brushing his hair having calmed Kai's temper.

I looked at him in surprise. While every word Kai might have spoken was the truth, I hadn't expected Master to acknowledge that fact.

"Good," Kai growled, but his tone was more grudging than annoyed.

I suppressed a smirk, but not before both of them had seen it.

"You think this is funny?" Kai asked, his temper flaring again.

"Don't snap at Tam," Master said firmly. "We've all had something of a shock today. Let's not quarrel amongst ourselves. Come here." He turned in his chair, took Kai's hand, and pulled him in front of him. "Thank you for caring enough to be angry with me."

Kai squirmed, his discomfort apparent. "Well you were an idiot."

Master threw back his head and laughed. "I was," he admitted. "I thought we could make it back before sunset. I won't make that mistake again."

"What were you even doing out there?"

"It doesn't matter what I was doing. You don't need to worry about it."

"But we do!" Kai said hotly. "Every time you go out, we're worried sick until you return. Twice now you've come back injured. What if you'd been killed?"

"Kai, I can't stay in the house forever."

"But that's what you're making us do."

Master frowned. "What would you have of me, Kai?"

"Let me come with you."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"I can protect you," he continued. "I've been training hard—you know I have. I'm as good a fighter as any of the guards."

"Yes you are." Master smiled. "But what would Tam do all day if you and I went out together?"

Kai hesitated, looking at me. I hung my head, misery welling at the choice I felt I had to make. "I'll be all right," I said thickly. "Kai's right, he'd be a great bodyguard. You should take him with you when you go out."

"No, Tammy." Master shook his head. "I've enough on my mind already without being worried for Kai if he was with me. While you're here I know you're safe, and that's the most important thing. Besides," he smirked, "I don't think the soldiers would appreciate being usurped by a slave."

"That's not all I am," Kai growled.

"Of course it isn't." Master took Kai's hand in both of his, rubbing with his thumbs. "There's a reason they warned me you were dangerous, Kai. They know how strong you are. But you're obviously Granthian, and right now I can't afford to be seen with you in public. The people are scared, and the sight of you will only scare them more. Do you understand?"

Grudgingly, he nodded.

"One day," Master promised. "When all of this is over, when the army has left and the people feel safe in their homes again, I'll consider making you my personal bodyguard. Would you like that?"

Kai nodded vigorously and pride welled in my breast. Kai would be the perfect bodyguard, I knew: driven not by promise of monetary reward, but an honest desire to keep Master safe. Nobody wishing him ill would be able to get near with Kai at his side.

Master rubbed his thumb over Kai's knuckles, then raised his hand to his lips and kissed it. Kai stood stock still, and I watched with interest to see if he'd break his self-imposed restraint and respond. Slowly, giving Kai every opportunity to move or tell him to stop, Master touched Kai's flank. Kai jumped a little at the contact, but more I suspected from nerves than any feeling of revulsion. He was attracted to Master, I knew he was. He only needed to overcome the voice in the back of his mind telling him it was wrong.

Slowly, almost reverently, Master stroked his fingertips down the firm flesh of Kai's torso. He stopped before reaching the top of his loincloth, but that simple touch was enough to bring Kai's flesh out in delicious-looking goosebumps. I held my breath, not daring do anything that might break the spell.

Master clasped the back of Kai's thigh and jerked him closer, close enough to lay his lips against the trembling expanse of Kai's belly. A choked noise escaped, but Kai rested his hand on Master's shoulder for balance and showed no indication of wanting to stop. Indeed, his loincloth seemed a little tighter than it had only a moment earlier, and my mouth went dry at the thought of his plump cock swelling in anticipation.

"I won't force you," Master said, his lips still pressed to Kai's stomach. "I want you, Kai, but only if you want me. If not, take Tammy and leave now. I won't punish you."

Kai looked uncertain, and I watched avidly, hardly daring to hope. Master looked longingly at him, so vulnerable it hurt to see. After what felt like the longest moment in my life, Kai lifted his hand from Master's shoulder and tucked his hair behind his ear.

"Don't stop," he whispered huskily.

It was the only incentive Master needed. Holding Kai around his waist to balance him, he palmed his stomach, running his hand up over Kai's chest, crossing his nipples, which hardened instantly. Kai squirmed as Master teased them, plucking and twisting alternately at the small nubs. Kai loved having his nipples played with, and Master took shameless advantage the moment he discovered that fact for himself.

Kai jumped as I knelt upright and ran my hand up his leg, scratching my nails through the hairs of his calf, up to the sensitive skin behind his knee. Master slid his hand lower, down Kai's sternum, over his stomach and past the top of his loincloth. He pressed the heel of his palm into the bulge he found there, hefting Kai's weighty cock until its outline stood proud amid the folds of material. I loosened the knot at his hip and together we undressed him, and I smiled to see he was already more than half-erect.

Master took Kai in hand, sliding his foreskin up and down as he gently pumped his length. I shuffled forward on my knees, kissing my way over Kai's hipbone, inhaling the musky scent of arousal pouring off him as he grew harder and harder at our attention. Master held out Kai's cock, and I mouthed the shaft, licking my way along the soft, velvety skin to the flushed head.

I worked in tandem with Master, sucking the head of Kai's dick as he jerked the length. Kai whimpered through gritted teeth, the muscles in his thighs so tense, his legs were trembling. Master shifted in his chair, clearly affected by the experience, and I groped blindly between his legs until I'd pushed the towel aside, exposed his cock and commenced stroking him.

Master buried his hand in my hair, hauling me off Kai and into a bruising, biting kiss, then pulled my head back and allowed Kai to plunder my mouth. Being caught between them was a heady experience, the sight of Master touching Kai—of Kai permitting himself to be touched—so arousing I couldn't find it within myself to be jealous of either of them.

"Get on the bed," Master ordered, and Kai and I separated long enough to obey.

The moment I landed on the pillows, Kai pounced, lying over me and kissing me hard. Master untied my loincloth and ripped it from me as I writhed under Kai, then the mattress dipped as he knelt beside us. Turning my head, I was confronted with the livid tip of Master's cock, and I swallowed it instantly, Kai continuing to kiss my neck and jaw, his head so close to Master's cock that Master's pubes brushed against his face.

I palmed Kai's cheek, pushing him nearer to my mouth. He hesitated only a moment before kissing me, our lips meeting around Master's dick. Master groaned as we sucked him, our tongues sliding and twining lazily over the sensitive surface of his glans. Pre-come and spit mingled in my mouth, and for the longest spell, my existence narrowed to the bursts of salt-sweet on my tongue and the sounds of heavy breaths and enthusiastic slurping.

Master dropped to his hands and knees, half-straddling our heads as he took our cocks in hand. He squeezed Kai's hot length against mine, and I moaned and thrust into his fist, my hips jerking erratically as I chased the decadent sensation of hard flesh and satiny skin sliding against me.

I had thought I'd reached a zenith of what I could stand to experience at one time, until Master licked over the exposed heads of our cocks with the broad of his tongue.

Kai snorted with surprise, rearing back and looking down our bodies with an expression of stark disbelief on his face, his eyes widening still farther as Master squeezed us both into his mouth and sucked hard.

I nursed Master's length with fresh enthusiasm, almost grateful for the distraction of attending to his pleasure rather than concentrating solely on my own, for I feared if I allowed myself to consider what the three of us were doing, I'd come undone in a moment. As it was, it was taking all of my restraint not to thrust my hips, seeking to force my way deeper into Master's mouth.

Kai had no such qualms, humping with shallow movements, his thick prick jostling against mine within the tight seal of Master's lips. He could barely fit more than the first inch of our lengths into his mouth, but it was more than enough to overwhelm me—overwhelm us both, it seemed, for Kai had his eyes squeezed shut and was trembling violently with barely contained emotion. I urged him back into our kiss and he came willingly, sucking Master with new enthusiasm, all his reservations abandoned in the heat of the moment.

It was inevitable we wouldn't last long. Master slid off with a wet slurp, only to pump our lengths more vigorously, employing his tongue to tease the underside of our glans, sliding it between our joined pricks and wriggling it about until I feared I was going to black out from feeling too much. Not only the physical sensations, but the knowledge that all three of us were sharing this experience, that Kai was a willing participant, that this time there were no hesitant onlookers, only three men equally committed to getting each other off.

I whimpered a warning as my senses started to spiral, a tight knot forming in my groin, hiking my balls high against the base of my shaft. Master didn't hesitate, focusing all his attention on me, giving me what I needed to tip me over the edge.

The climax hit hard and fast, stealing my breath. Kai looked on in wonder as I fell apart, jerking his hips faster against me as my hot come slicked his cock and Master's hand.

Master released me when I became too sensitive, focusing his attention solely on Kai, splashes of my spunk sliding down his face as he took as much of Kai into his mouth as he could.

Kai groaned, breaking from my mouth to bite his lower lip, his eyes squeezed closed. I tipped my head to open my throat and swallowed Master deep, holding his hips and encouraging him to fuck my face as Kai watched and touched the place where he could see the ridge of Master's cock moving inside me with something almost like reverence on his face. Then the look was gone, exchanged for something almost frantic, almost pained, and I knew he was going to come next.

The aftershocks of Kai's orgasm were still shaking him when Master mashed his hips hard against my face and began to unload in my throat. It was all I could do to relax and accept it, willing myself not to panic as he cut off the air to my lungs.

I gasped for breath as he withdrew his dripping cock, still messy with spunk and spittle, and Kai surprised us both by being the one to take his softening organ and gently suck him clean.

Our heavy panting stilled into something more regular, and I laughed for sheer joy at what we had shared. Kai chuckled, then Master joined in, clambering up the bed to lie alongside me, spooning against my back and trapping me between himself and Kai.

The laughter died into affectionate smiles. Master kissed me everywhere he could reach, and I kissed Kai, trying to put everything I didn't know how to say into a hard press of lips. The bed dipped again as Master moved, rolling half over me, and I watched as he clasped the back of Kai's head and pulled him into a hot, wet, and enthusiastic kiss, feeling so extraordinarily happy I thought my heart might break.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I woke the next morning in Master's bed, sandwiched between the men I loved. Master's arm was slung around us both, his front pressed to my back, and Kai was curled in a tight ball facing me. I smiled as I watched him sleep, noting how trustingly he lay beside us. Who would have imagined, three months ago, this would come to pass?

Pins and needles skittered up and down my arm, trapped as it was under Kai's pillow, no doubt the thing that had awoken me in the still hours of pre-dawn, but I couldn't bring myself to move and risk disturbing my companions. For as long as I could remember, I had dreamed of waking in Master's bed, his arms around me, and feeling like he might actually care, that I might mean something to him beyond being a warm and willing body. It had taken Kai's presence to make it happen, but the feeling was no less sweet for being shared.

A dull banging, as of a door bursting open somewhere deep in the bowels of the house, startled Kai into wakefulness. His eyes snapped open, instantly alert.

"What was that?" Master demanded from behind me, and the three of us lifted our heads and strained our ears. A thread of apprehension ran through my veins.

"It must have been the soldiers—" Whatever feeble explanation I would have offered was cut short at the sound of a bloodcurdling scream.

"Up!" Master demanded, flinging the covers aside and jumping out of the bed.

Kai and I scrambled to our feet, casting around wildly for something to cover our nakedness. I found my loincloth and hastily wrapped it around my legs, knotting it tight at my hip. Master rummaged under the bed and rose with a long, curved scimitar in each hand. He threw one to Kai, who caught it deftly by the handle. From somewhere in the house, voices were shouting, and I heard the metallic clash of swords.

"Get Tam out," Master ordered, pausing to cover himself with his thickest robes.

Kai pulled on the loose trousers Master had been wearing the previous day, the brilliant teal silk spotted with dark bloodstains. It seemed a terrible omen.

"Where are you going?" I demanded as Master strode to the door.

"You go with Kai," he said brusquely. "Run to the town—the army set up a camp in the marketplace. Go there, tell them to send help, and wait for me to come to you. Do not come back here under any circumstances. Do you understand?"

"I'm coming with you," Kai said roughly.

"I'm ordering you to go!" Master glared at him.

"Give me a weapon," I said. "I'll fight."

Master's expression softened as he looked at me. "I'm sure you would, but whoever's in the house has got past the guards and half the army to get this far. You wouldn't stand a chance."

"I don't care. I'm not leaving you!"

I thought he was going to shout, or maybe even hit me. Instead, he crossed the room and pulled me roughly into his arms. "Tammy, don't be difficult. This is _my_ house, and whoever's attacking us is looking for me." Something crashed in the corridor, and we all jumped. "I need to get everyone out. Go with Kai, go to the marketplace. Wait for me there."

"No, I—"

"Go!" He pushed me roughly. Kai caught my arm and half-dragged me behind him as Master strode to the door and opened it.

Immediately the sounds of fighting reached us, echoing down the corridor from the entrance hall. Men bellowed and roared, swords clashed, and shadows danced in flickering light, too strong to be from the torches kept in stone sconces along the walls.

"Something's on fire!" Kai said the same moment the acrid scent of smoke reached my nose.

"Get moving," Master prompted, pushing us past him and into the corridor, away from the sounds of battle.

"Come with us," I said.

"This is _my_ house," he growled, eyes flashing. "Those are _my_ staff. I need to save as many as I can."

I wanted to berate him further for trying to be a hero, but Kai grabbed my arm and started to pull me in the opposite direction. Master turned and ran down the corridor, and I fought Kai to look back until I stumbled and was forced to concentrate on where we were going.

At the end of the corridor, the hallway split, and I had assumed Kai would take the fork that led to the garden. The intruders were inside the house; to me it made sense to get outside and try to sneak around the building. The fork Kai had taken, however, would lead us in a circle to the front door.

"Where are we going?" I hissed, trying to hold him back.

"The grounds were full of guards," he replied, barely slowing his pace. "How many men do you think it must have taken to overpower them? There must be dozens of them outside."

"But they're in the hall!" I protested.

"Now they are. By the time we get there, I'm hoping they will have moved."

A shout echoed along the corridor behind us, and Kai swore in Granthian and pulled me along faster. Glass smashed, and a woman screamed.

"Sasha!" I cried, trying again to halt Kai's mad dash and make him go back. Sasha was the only woman in the house, and I couldn't bear to think of what was happening to her. A sudden flashback from years ago blinded me to my surroundings and a sob rose in my throat.

"Tam, come on! We need to keep moving!"

"We have to help her!" I cried.

"I can't." Kai's eyes were too bright. "There's too many of them. I have to get us out. _Please_ , Tam. Don't fall apart on me now."

I sniffed and nodded, wiping a string of snot from my nose with the back of my hand. Together we ran down the corridor, and I choked down the terror rising within me as the sounds of battle grew closer.

The entrance hall was a mess. The floor was littered with bodies—some in the uniform of the household guard, some wearing that of the Thirskan forces, and others whom I didn't recognise—the marble black and slick with blood. Great sprays of it arced up the walls, and in the far corner a fire blazed where a sconce had been shattered, sending burning oil crashing over an ornamental chest. Men were fighting beyond the flames, their shadows leering at us, thrown across the room by the firelight. Kai grabbed my shoulder and held me back, our mad dash coming to a screeching halt. I looked down into the dead eyes of Shan, and my stomach heaved.

In a trice Kai had me flattened against the wall, his hand covering my mouth urging me to be quiet, although I doubted the fighting men would hear us over the cacophony.

Kai was wild-eyed as he looked around the room, and the reason for his panic soon became apparent. The front door was hanging off its hinges—was that the sound we had heard?—and more men were spilling in all the time, making escape impossible. Behind us, voices echoed along the corridor, getting nearer by the second. We were trapped.

҉҉҉

An angry roar split the air, and the men fighting in the corner suddenly fell back as though attacked by a force of nature.

Master flew after them, wielding his scimitar with deadly precision, cutting them down as though they were toy soldiers. More men piled in behind him, what looked to be the last of the army and the household guards, but for every man they killed, it seemed another two came through the door to take his place. Master looked magnificent: his robes billowing around him as he moved, his sword flashing in the light of the fire, hair waving wildly with every turn of his head. Under different circumstances the sight would have stolen my breath. As it was, my heart was in my mouth.

Master struck down another man with a blow across the neck, and he pinwheeled away, gargling and spraying blood. Another immediately took his place, a bigger man who moved well and attacked hard. They thrust and parried, jostling amongst the other fighters, and my blood pounded as I followed each of Master's movements. He seemed to be getting the upper hand when suddenly another man jumped into the fray, the two of them attacking Master as one.

Kai caught me around the waist as I tried to break cover to help him. I struggled against his grip, but his arm was like iron and the look he gave me would have quelled Master himself.

When I looked back to the bloody scene, Master was lying immobile on the ground.

I screamed then, my worst fears realised and lying before me in a broken heap. The man who had felled Master looked up, a malevolent smirk on his blood-splattered face. Hoisting his weapon, he approached.

Kai grabbed me and turned to run back down the corridor, but the men approaching from that direction had caught up while we'd been distracted and were even then bearing down on us. Kai shoved me against the wall, placing himself between me and them, and ran forward to confront the first of our attackers. His blade flashed, there was a sickening crunch of metal on bone, and the man crumpled, felled before he had even lifted his weapon. More closed in, surrounding us from all sides. I sank to the floor, unable to contain my sobs. Between their legs I could see Master's fallen body, the brilliant colours of his robes still shining in the light despite the blood and gore that coated everything. I had seen him die, and was about to witness Kai being murdered as well. I was twelve years old again, watching everyone I loved be taken from me.

Kai backed up until he was almost on top of me, the men forming a tight ring, trapping us against the wall. I started rocking, then banging my head against the cold stone, unable to stand the sight of the men advancing, the foul scent of blood, the sound of swords and screams echoing around the hall. I wanted it to be over, wanted to be dead already. They had already as good as killed me.

Kai groped behind him, grabbed my arm, and hauled me up. He was still facing the men surrounding us, his scimitar held in a trembling hand, sweeping from side to side in an effort to keep them back. Risking a glance, he looked at me, tears glittering in the depths of his brilliant green eyes.

"I love you," I said, my voice choked. I couldn't bear for him to die without ever having heard those words.

His expression twisted into something anguished, so much pain on his face I would have given anything to erase it. Then it cleared, something hard and violent taking its place, transforming Kai into a man I didn't recognise. For a second, I was afraid. Then I felt nothing, because he drew back his sword arm and swung.

Pain exploded in my head, and my whole world turned black.

###

Enjoyed this book? Keep reading to start _The Soldier_ , the sequel to _The Slave_.

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**Keep reading : The Soldier, sequel to The Slave**

**Copyright Kate Aaron 2014  
**

**Chapter One  
**

The heavy manacles binding my wrists clinked with every step I took, and it felt like I had taken a million. Around me, men trudged in silence, the jangle of their armour, the swish of leather trousers, their laboured breaths as we waded through the thick desert sand the only sounds breaking the silence of the night. We were all exhausted, ripe with sweat and blood, and I was scared as I had never been before, not even when I'd been captured and first sold into slavery.

The cart carrying the cage bogged down for the hundredth, or maybe thousandth time, and the procession stopped, muttered curses accompanying the distribution of shovels to dig it out. A man kicked the small of my back, and I landed heavily on my knees. "Dig," he ordered, so with my bare hands, I dug.

I risked a glance at the cage's occupants. The men had overrun the compound, looted everything of value, and set the place to burning. They'd dragged the limp bodies of Tamelik and Master out to the cart and locked them in the cage. Tam lay like a broken doll, an ugly gash on his forehead marking the place I had struck him with the hilt of my scimitar. He was still breathing, his chest rising and falling in brisk, shallow movements, and I offered up a prayer to the Great Overlord in the sky that I hadn't harmed him too badly.

It had never been my intention to harm him. When we'd seen Master fall, Tam had become hysterical. The attackers had advanced, and perhaps if it had been only me, I could have fought my way loose, but there was no way I was going to get Tam out as well. He hadn't know what was happening, who was attacking us or why. There I had the advantage over him. Had he not been so scared, perhaps he would have taken note of the dark hair and green eyes of the men descending upon us. Seen how closely they resembled me and realised it was my people who had torn his comfortable life apart.

Or perhaps he had realised. He had been twelve years old when other soldiers, other Granthians, had done the same thing to his family: had stumbled across their nomad tents and slaughtered everyone. Everyone except Tam. And now my people had come again to take away everything and everybody he loved.

Master was lost to us, or so I thought. I'd had a split-second to make a decision and I'd acted. Knocking Tam out had been a kindness; even if the men intended to kill us, at least he wouldn't see the final blow coming. I'd dropped my weapon and sank to my knees, throwing myself on the mercy of my countrymen.

That's how I found myself bound and shackled, chained to the cart in which Tam's senseless body had been thrown. In that moment I almost regretted leaving him alive. Then they had carried Master out of the wreckage of his home, placing him more carefully beside Tam. I reached through the bars, felt the weak pulse fluttering in his wrist, and my legs all but gave out under me. Against all the odds, he was alive.

The soldiers—mercenaries—whatever they were, led us from the burning compound as the first sun reached its zenith. The compound was on the outskirts of Otiz, a small outpost crouched on inhospitable ground between the desert and the mountains at the extremity of the Thirskan lands, and I looked hopefully in the direction of the marketplace, where the army had recently erected a temporary base. If I'd expected help from the outpost, I was sorely disappointed. The base had been obliterated, bodies strewn in the streets, and smoke rose in black curls from buildings in every direction. If any of the residents remained, they huddled in the ruins of their houses, hiding.

How had the mercenaries accomplished such a thing without rousing the compound guards? The attack had been calculated and decisive, but I didn't understand why it had happened. Otiz was an outpost of no political significance, the army presence there small, even given the increase in troops stationed in the centre since an apparent suicide bombing a few weeks earlier, and Master was nobody in the grand scheme of things. One of a hundred other minor underlords controlling the outlier regions of the Thirskan Empire. It didn't make sense.

We marched into the desert, the men around me moving without hesitation. Granthia lay to the west, many days' journey through the sands. Surely they didn't expect to make the other side alive? Both factions considered the desert a barrier, protecting Otiz from involvement in the conflict that had waged for generations. If the Granthians had found a way to cross it, the Thirskans were in danger of a second front line opening up behind their existing defences. They would be overwhelmed.

The realisation left me with mixed emotions. My first reaction was horror, my second, following almost immediately on its heels, shame. Had I been so indoctrinated by a few months' kindness that I was prepared to forsake my people for their enemy? Until recently, I had been a soldier in the Granthian corps. Victory in this endless war had been all I—or any of us—wanted.

As a soldier, I'd seen men die, watched them torn limb from bloody limb, and I'd hated the Thirskans for fighting back. I'd seen the man I thought the love of my life murdered before my eyes, but I hadn't thought of Maal in weeks. Was I so fickle in my affections?

Maal's death had killed something inside me. I'd lost hope, lay down on the battlefield with his ruined corpse, and waited to be found and dispatched alongside him. I had been found, but not killed. They'd sold me instead, a play toy for the wealthy underlords of Thirsk. Nobody expected me to survive above a few weeks, but then they hadn't reckoned on Tam being the one to purchase me.

The hot sand blistered my bare feet as we trudged through the endless desert. The suns heated the metal shackles around my wrists, burning red rings onto my flesh. Every step I took was agony, the sharp, searing pain of the surface sinking into the cooler, soothing layer beneath. A false relief, for each step required extra effort to dig my foot out from the greedy earth. I wished it would swallow me, wished I could disappear completely beneath the surface and sleep the eternal dreamless sleep.

A warm wind blew from the west, casting sand into my face. The suns scorched my bare shoulders, my head ached, and my mouth was cracked and dry from thirst. The muscles in my calves and thighs screamed from strain and, to compound my misery, when the mercenaries attacked, I had thrown on the nearest clothing I could find to cover my nakedness, and Master's trousers slid down my hips, requiring me to hold them up by the waist or risk losing them.

By contrast, the mercenaries seemed prepared for our journey. Leather boots saved their feet from the worst of the sand, and as the wind picked up, they wrapped scarves about their heads, protecting their faces from the stinging blast. Each carried a bladder filled with water, from which he regularly sipped. I looked longingly at the one the man nearest me carried but received only a swift kick in the back of the knee for my trouble.

I fell with a startled cry, and the men laughed as I was jerked along behind the carriage before I could find my feet again. I scrambled to standing, spitting sand out of my mouth as best I could, the grains sticking in the gum collecting at the corners of my lips. My eyes stung, but I refused to let them see me cry.

At least the top of the cage was covered by a dark cloth, which prevented the worst of the sunlight from landing on Master and Tam. Flies swarmed around them, settling along the bloody wounds on Tam's forehead and Master's torso. I prayed they wouldn't lay eggs, that somebody would clean the wounds before they festered and began to rot. I'd do it myself, if they would allow me.

I doubted they would. Men in Granthia were not permitted contact with one another. They wouldn't understand the relationship the three of us shared, how we tended and bathed and, yes, loved one another. Tam had been Master's personal pleasureslave for fifteen years, and he had slowly initiated me into the intimacies two men could share. Intimacies of which I hadn't dare dream on so many cold nights with the Granthian army.

In those dreams, on the rare occasion I allowed them, it had been Maal's hands on my body, and mine on his. Even had we lived in Thirsk, however, I don't know that he would have ever allowed such a thing. Instead, it had been Tam who seduced me.

I glanced into the cage. Neither man had stirred, and I was beginning to fret that the blow I delivered to knock Tam out had done more lasting harm. His long blond hair was tangled and matted, rusty orange with dried blood. His skin had darkened from mornings spent outdoors while I taught him to swim in Master's pool, but he still looked impossibly pale and innocent lying slumped on the wooden floor of the cage. His tattoos, a swirl of inky dots and stripes that adorned his limbs and torso, made him look foreign and exotic in this land, surrounded by so much dark, unmarked flesh.

Master was lying beside Tam, his face obscured by his hair, too dark to show stains but crusty with blood. His skin was splattered with the stuff, although most of it wasn't his own. He had fought well before being overpowered; he had looked magnificent, whirling his scimitar over his head, bold and fearless and resolute. Now he lay broken, his brilliant robes tattered and torn, fallen open to expose his legs. Something about his bare thighs made him seem startlingly vulnerable, and I longed to cover him up.

The suns set in a bloody blaze as we trudged on through the desert. I welcomed the respite from the blinding light and blistering heat, my temples pounding and my skin rough and sore. The planetary rings glowed in the sky like pale ghosts, silver rainbows that lit the desert in stark monochrome. The sky was full of stars, winking coldly at us through space, as empty and lifeless as the desert itself. The horizon in every direction showed nothing but black mounds of great dunes. And still we marched on into the unforgiving landscape, as harsh and silent as the grave.

###

**About the Author :**

Born in Liverpool, Kate Aaron is a bestselling author of the #1 LGBT romances _What He Wants, Ace, The Slave_ , and other critically acclaimed works.

Kate swapped the North West for the Midwest in October 2015 and married award-winning author AJ Rose. Together they plan to take over the world.

Blowing It Series

Blowing It

Balls Up

Dom on the Side

Free Men Series

The Slave

The Soldier

The Master

Puddledown Mysteries

The Dead Past

The Coward's Way

The Poison Pen

Brian & Lexi Series

Ace

Match

Lost Realm Series

Blood & Ash

Fenton, the Loneliest Vampire

Fire & Ice

Storm & Strike

Standalone Titles

What He Wants

The Rest of Forever

Four Chances: A Short Story Quartet

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