Free The Accidental Slave (Aya's story Part 1) by Elin Peer Page A

of him, and her fight was
more with herself than him. Of all the men in the world, why did
the one man with a direct link to her libido have to be a Masi
warrior?
    With a scowl she took the bowl and pushed him
away. This time he withdrew with a small smile. “You chose the rice
over me, and here I was hoping you would pick me.”
    “Never!” she snarled and took a spoonful of the
rice, eating in silent protest.
    Five minutes later she put the bowl down empty.
“What time is it?”
    “Why?” Kato asked.
    “I’m losing sense of time in this place with all
the windows barricaded.”
    “It’s about ten in the evening.”
    “I thought it was much later. This day feels
endless.”
    “Are you tired?” Kato asked her.
    “Yes, and worried about Aston.”
    Kato ignored the subject of Aston and took a
seat in one of the other chairs in the room. “Do you want to go to
bed?”
    “Yes, but I won’t sleep in Jonul’s room,” Aya
said firmly.
    “You can sleep in my room if you want,” Kato
offered.
    “Where is your room?” Aya said but already knew
the answer. There was only one door she hadn’t been through in the
apartment, and that was the room adjacent to the living room and
next to Jonul’s.
    “That one,” Kato said and pointed to the door
she had guessed at.
    “Where will you sleep then?”
    “In my bed,” Kato said with an innocent
smile.
    Aya wrinkled her nose. “Then no thanks.”
    “As you wish.” Kato got up and walked to the
bathroom. She could hear him shower, and ten minutes later he
walked through the living room with a towel around him revealing a
trim torso. Stop looking!
    Aya pretended to be completely unaffected by
him. “So where do you suggest I sleep then and what about a
toothbrush?” she asked, annoyed.
    “You can use mine until we get you a new one,
it’s the blue one and you can sleep anywhere you want to.”
    Aya knew he meant anywhere in the apartment and
resisted giving him a sassy answer that the only place she wanted
to sleep was at home or in the refugee camp. It wouldn’t help her
to provoke him.
    “Can I at least have a pillow and a blanket if
I’m to sleep here on the floor?” The room offered no comfortable
furniture and the thought of sleeping on the cold and dirty floor
wasn’t appealing.
    “Sorry, I only have the ones I sleep with, but
as I already told you, I’m happy to share with you.”
    Aya rolled her eyes. “And as I already told you,
I’m not interested in sleeping in your bed. I’ve been in enough
Masi warriors’ beds for one day.”
    Her words changed everything. Suddenly Kato
looked disturbed, and she wondered if he saw the image of her tied
up in Jonul’s bed.
    “Listen, Aya, I promise you that if you sleep in
my bed tonight, I won’t touch you unless you ask me to.”
    She snorted. “I’ll never ask you to. And I don’t
trust you,” she muttered.
    Kato looked tired and she noticed the dark
circles under his eyes more clearly now.
    “It’s your choice, do as you please; but if
Jonul wakes up, my bed will be a safer place than this floor.”
    “Would you protect me?” she asked with hope in
her voice.
    “I’m sure I could talk some sense into him.”
    “And if you can’t?”
    “Then he’ll probably kill me for thinking I
slept with his slave.”
    “Don’t call me that.”
    “What… slave?”
    “Yes.”
    Kato shrugged. “I’m going to bed. I’ll see you
tomorrow.”
    Aya watched him leave the door to his room
slightly open and then she lay down on the floor. It was cold and
hard. There were no pillows or blankets to warm her or bring
comfort. She tossed and turned for half an hour and when she heard
a quiet snore from Kato’s bedroom she made a decision. She was
going to make a run for it. Her parents, friends, and family would
be worried to death – and she wouldn’t be anyone’s slave. She had
to at least try to escape and now was her chance. Quietly she got
up from the floor and internally cursed the creaking