Chapter 2 He Bought Me, But He Doesn't Own Me

• "I'll take her." He'd already hardened at the thought. He pulled coin out and poured it in his hand.
• "Good luck." The slave trader laughed. "I'd watch for teeth."
• I plan to do more than bite! I looked from one to the other of them like a feral animal.
• Mardichi caught my arm. And took the key to my shackles from the slave trader. Paid for me in the purchase price they'd agreed on.
• A bit lower than the original.
• Then he drug me to his cart. Tempted to toss me over the cart door and take me right there on the edge.
• "Enjoy the woman." The slave trader crooned.
• "Oh, I plan to." Mardichi countered. Giving me a long look.
• I didn't like that look. It seemed to remove all my clothes as it lingered over my body.
• "You gonna make it until you get her back to yer hut?" The trader grinned. "Or take her there in the cart midway."
• "Hmm...I haven't decided yet."
• I yanked at his grip on my arm so brutally, I was sure his fingerprints would leave bruises on the inside of my biceps.
• Though his grip didn't hurt it was unrelenting.
• Like he was cast of iron.
• "I'm tempted. But it'll have to be far from the village so when she fights and shrieks like a little animal it willna draw a crowd." Mardichi grinned. Baring big square teeth.
• I eyed his huge frame. So wide shouldered he'd have to squeeze his elbows together to get through a normal doorway. And his chest looked like to shields molded over his shoulders above a washboard abdomen. His hips were lean and his legs well-muscled as though carved from stone.
• Every inch of him looked solid as a rock.
• I'd only gotten as old as I was in my village, without a man, by my parents being overprotective and my own ability to fight the boys off.
• So, I was ready to show this man no fear. Despite that I was inwardly petrified.
• How the Hell do I fight off a man this big?
• He'd crush me if he laid on me. I was certain. He looked five times my size. Literally.
• The only thing he wore was a bit of leather which draped over his man part in the front and flapped over his buttocks in the back. With a strap crossing his bare chest that he hung a dagger scabbard and an axe from. Obviously, a formidable man. The scar told me that.
• Hardly clothing.
• "You could take her here." One man said. Clearly excited to watch him intrude into me.
• "Nay, Friend. I'd rather enjoy her in private."
• It was the first thing he'd said all day I was happy to hear.
• But even as he was loading me into the cart, I felt the need to announce acidly for everyone's benefit. "You won't be having me. Neither in public or private!"
• He laughed. "Tell yerself what ye wish, Gel."
• ***
• The girls of my village knew better then to be out. But I'd always been stubborn. I cursed my foolishness all the way to the slaver market.
• I should've stayed with my sisters.
• If I'd waited to go with them, would I have escaped captivity entirely or condemned my sisters to join me? I grimaced at the thought.
• That would've been even worse.
• But I'd never been so afraid as when I saw the size of the barbarian inspecting us.
• I was aggravated to find that apparently my fight intrigued him. All I could think was that I'd make sure he regretted it.
• Be more trouble than I was worth.
• "You won't want me in a sennight!" I vowed.
• "I may be done with you by then." He laughed. Hooking the chain from my shackles to his waist and tossing me in the back of the cart.
• The ride there was rough and jouncing.
• And I ached a little inside from him stretching me with his finger. Something I was unaccustomed to.