The Slave (Free Men, #1) (Completed)

Part 3

                 

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.