"You'll catch a fever doing that." A deep voice said from behind me before his black cloak was wrapped around my cold body.

"I feel better though." I answered as his warmth still within the fabric began to warm my flesh.

"You weren't that dirty to begin with." He countered still hovering behind me.

"Glad you noticed." I half heartedly joked feeling very nervous all of a sudden and not knowing why.

His arms suddenly wrapped around me and his hot breath fanned my ear and cheek. "It's hard not to notice you." He whispered in a husky voice.

His words caused me to tremble within his hold. "Guess I won't be able to escape you then." I laughed stupidly.

"You wouldn't get far." He growled and tightened his hold possessively upon me.

I felt so small and fragile within his grasp yet at the same time I had never felt safer. "I don't think I want to escape you." I answered in a whisper as I leaned back against him while still clutching tight to my shirt and blanket.

"Good." He answered, spun me around, and again caught me by the lips kissing the breath right out of me.

If he wasn't holding me as he was I would have withered to the ground before him. Every sweep his tongue made across my own made we want to melt right there in his arms.

When he pulled away from me I stared up into his dark eyes not understanding what was happening between us. Was I not a slave he was delivering to someone else? Unless he did indeed buy me for himself. Yet if that were true I don't think it would have taken this long for him to kiss me or do anything else to me for that matter.

"Wh…" I started but was silenced when he grabbed me by the chin and pressed his thumb to my lips.

"You draw me to you." He whispered as he gently stroked my lips with the appendage and watched himself do so. "It's a pull I can no longer ignore." His eyes moved up to meet mine. "The way you press yourself against me when you wrap your arms around me. How easily you put so much trust into me," he snorted. "you do these things without knowing what you do. I cannot fight it any longer."

I grabbed his hand off my face. "But I'm not yours." I whispered with a frown then suddenly glared. "I shouldn't be anybody's possession."

"True." He agreed. "Yet that is the way of man, to be God."

"Let me go," I nodded. "and keep me."

"If I did I would be hunted and killed."

I scowled at that. "Then don't return. They never have to know you found me." I pointed out.

He smirked at that and I had never seen anything more beautiful. "Perhaps." He nodded. "However I would be losing a lot of gold by not turning you over."

I narrowed my eyes upon him. "And do tell what do you need so much gold for?"

"That my dear little boy is none of your business." He smirked that beautiful smirk at me then turned and walked over to Shadow.

Well that just made me rather angry and I wasn't even sure why. He could kiss me like that not once but twice and he couldn't tell me why he needed his precious gold. As near as I could tell he was nothing but a nomad anyway running jobs for bastards that'd be better of dead.

"Finish what you're doing we have a lot of ground to cover before nightfall." He ordered. "I feel like sleeping in a bed and the next village is some distance from here."

That certainly got me moving. The thought that I was going to be in a warm room sleeping on a bed instead of the ground forced a huge smile to my lips. I pulled his cloak off, put the shirt back on, turned the cloak inside out, and wrapped myself back in it wet side out.

I walked over to him as I folded my blanket and drew my brows. "How many of those do you have?" I questioned as I handed him the blanket and eyed the new black cloak he was wearing.

"Just the two." He took the blanket and tied it to the back of the saddle. "It's always wise to have a clean set of clothes with you in case you get dirty or stabbed."

"What?!" I stared wide eyed at him. "Stabbed? What do you mean stabbed?"

"Are you simple?" He questioned suspiciously.

"Of course not!" I bit out. "I mean I've never heard anyone talk about being stabbed like it was common place."

"Well you haven't been to the places I've been now have you." He answered then picked me up and set me on the saddle.

I instantly wrapped my arms around him when he mounted behind me and held tight. "Why would I?" I questioned and buried my face into his chest when he spurred Shadow into a fast trot. "My life was never about drinking and women."

"Then that would make you better than the bottom half of society."

"Is that you," I looked up at him. "the bottom half?"

He gave a small shrug as he stared at me. "If I choose it but for the most part I try to stay out of society's eye."

"Why?"

"Look at yourself and the situation you're now in and tell me why." He nodded curtly at me. "Man always wants to rule another man and take what they have for their own. They don't care what they do or to whom as long as it gets them the end they desire." He growled in a low voice.

I stared up at him with my brows drawn deeply. "Something happened to you didn't it. Someone took from you all you had because you wouldn't bow to them."

He pressed his lips into a thin tight line and I knew I had hit very close to the truth. So instead of pressing for more I looked away and laid my head against his chest. He didn't want to talk about it I could tell based on how tense he suddenly became.

"I'm sorry." I whispered causing him to wrap an arm around me and hold me tight.

xx

I crawled onto the bed, sprawled out on my back, and sighed happily. "A real bed and hot food." I smiled up at the ceiling of the room.

It had been a long day of riding and little to no talking. Both of us apparently had too much on our minds to want to talk to the other. Though all I could think was about was how to convince Sebastian not to deliver me to whoever hired him. So far my ideas equaled none beyond escaping him; which I didn't really want to do either.

"You act as if you've never had either." Sebastian said as he closed the door behind him and locked it.

I lifted up and looked over at him. "Well I wouldn't say never but it has been awhile since I've had either."

"The slaver didn't feed you?" He questioned as he pushed the hood off his head.

"I'm not sure that what he gave us could be considered food." I nodded at him. "He made sure we had the bare minimum to keep us alive."

He slipped his robe off and laid it on the back of the chair by the small table. "Greed." He shrugged. "The less he has to pay for his slaves the more money he gets to keep in his pouch."

I scowled at that thinking about the other slaves I was with and wondered what happened to them. "I don't want to talk about that." I laid down and turned onto my side putting my back to him.

I felt him sit down on the edge of the bed behind me. "Painful pasts are always hard to forget."

"Does anyone ever forget?" I rolled over and looked up at him.

His eyes became hard as he stared at me. "No." He answered coldly.

I sat up and for reasons I couldn't understand wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight. "I'm sorry." I whispered not knowing why or for what I was apologizing for.

He snorted as his arms found their way around me. "It's not your responsibility to apologize nor do you know what you're saying sorry for."

"True but sometimes it's just nice to know someone is sorry for the pain you suffered."

"Only if it's the ones who caused the pain." He pointed out. "Even then if you were the one who caused the pain I assure you that you would not be sitting here alive." He growled coldly.

I pulled back and looked up at him wanting to know what happened but afraid he wouldn't tell if asked. "You were beat." I nodded.

He stared down at me and narrowed his eyes slightly. "Do not press for it's none of your concern." He growled.

"Why?" I scowled up at him. "What harm is going to come if I know what happened to you?"

"None but as I said it is none of your concern." He released me and stood up. "Do not press." He growled deadly when I opened my mouth to respond to that.

"Why?" I argued. "I want to know."

"Enough!" He bit out and narrowed his eyes to deadly little slits. "Do not question business that does not concern you!"

"Just tell me why I can't know!" I glared right back at him.

His hand shot out and caught me by the neck as his eyes turned cold and hard.

I could do nothing but stare up at him with wide fearful eyes.

"I'm," he started as he slowly released my neck and looked away from me.

He muttered something that sounded like an apology then grabbed his cloak, put it on, and swept from the room. I could do nothing but sit there and stare wide eyed at the now closed door.

What had happened to him? Who did it and why? I wanted to know especially for him to react like that to me asking meant it was serious. Actually I was pretty sure that it was a lot worse than anything I went through. I decided I was someday, somehow, someway going to find out.

xx

It took me awhile to fall asleep, I couldn't stop watching the door waiting for Sebastian to come back. This was probably my one chance to escape but I didn't want to, not from him. I didn't know what was happening between us. I just knew I didn't want it to end and leaving him would have done just that.

However my exhaustion from a hard day of riding outweighed my need to see Sebastian when he came back. So I buried myself under the blankets and let darkness take me into another world only my mind could create.

I don't know how long I slept before I felt a warm body press against my own. Somehow even in my sleep I knew who that body belonged to along with the long arms that encircled me and held me tight.

It didn't take long for the smell of alcohol to enter my nose bringing me fully awake. "You're drunk." I accused pulling from his embrace and sitting up to look at him squinting my eyes against the dark room.

"Not completely." He answered, grabbed me by the wrist, and pulled me back down.

"But enough." I tried to break free of his hold and only succeeded in forcing him to hold me tighter.

"A man is allowed a few drinks in life." He growled, rolled us over so I was under him, and pinned my hands above my head.

I could barely make out his dark features against the dark room. "I guess." I nodded. "But it was a bottle of drinks that brought me to be where I am now." I pointed out.

"You think the worst." He leaned in closer to me. "Is where you are now so bad?"

I stared up at him letting his question settle. "With you?" I shook my head lightly. "No. It's after." I whispered and turned to look away from him. "When you give me to someone else so they can own me."

He leaned down and rested his forehead against the side of my head. "You believe with me your life would be easier? Better?"

"Would it?" I questioned back.

"Always on the move, hired to do jobs you don't like, fighting, living off the land." He pressed his lips to my ear. "You believe that would be easier."

"Than a sex slave?" I whispered. "Yes."

"Again you may or may not be used as that. You don't know what you'll be when you arrive at your destination."

"If you would tell me I would know."

"I don't know anymore then you do." He nuzzled my ear. "I never actually met the man who bought you."

"Was it you?" I questioned hopefully.

I felt him smirk at that. "How does a man not meet himself?"

I sighed deeply. "I can hope."