“In military camps, perhaps. Soldiers need stress relief. Military camps might be quite isolated. So there would be little opportunity for people to access other services. That is merely a guess, sir,” he added, meekly dropping his head. “I apologise if I’ve made an incorrect assumption there.”
That brought me back to reality with a jolt. Because from Jai’s perspective,Iwas the man who’d asked for him to be trained that way, and therefore,Iwas the man who expected him to allow himself to be fucked byfifty menat a time.
Well, that brought a lot of things into focus in a hurry. No wonder he’d been so belligerent, right from the start. No wonder he was doing the bare minimum in terms of obeying me. Hehatedme. And from the sounds of it, he had very good reasons for doing so.
We were going to have to have a serious conversation about what my expectations of him actually were, but right at the moment, I couldn’t figure out how to explain that the only two people he wouldeverbe required to sleep with were myself and Kade. And Kade was optional – like I’d said to Kade before, any activity between the two of them was conditional on both of them willingly agreeing to it. Based on the current conversation, Jai willing agreeing toanykind of sex was looking highly unlikely.
In the meantime, while my brain chewed on that conundrum, I decided to tackle the other side of the equation. “Let’s talk about your combat training instead,” I said. Even if I didn’t know all the details of his sexual training, I was getting a pretty clear picture of how badly the Eumadians had abused him. “Was there a particular focus for your combat training? Firearms, for example, or hand-to-hand combat?”
Jai nodded, and I had to wonder what he was making of all this. “I was predominantly trained to carry out solo missions.”
I paused. Once again, I suspected that ‘solo missions’ meant something very different to Jai than it did to me. “You were expected to go into dangerous situations without anyone else with you?” Very rarely, the Alliance military might require such a thing – to diffuse a bomb, for example, where the risk of injury was very high and the task required technical skills, rather than strength or fire power. But even then, the soldier would be in constant contact with their CO via their comm, and have a team on standby to intervene if anything went wrong.
“Yes, sir,” Jai said.
“What sort of assignments were you trained to carry out?”
“Traversing difficult terrain. Stealth operations, infiltrating enemy territory. I was trained to know how to get myself out of a dangerous area even if I was injured. I was taught not to rely on anyone else for assistance. I must know everything I needto know to complete the mission myself, and it was impressed upon me that if I failed, then no one would be coming to aid me.”
Somehow, I’d reached such a level of disgust with the Eumadians that Jai’s answer didn’t even shock me anymore. But on an intellectual level, I had to wonder just what sort of activities his intended master had been involved in. It sounded a lot like a smuggling ring, perhaps – the kingpin had a sex slave that his minions were free to use, and then they’d toss that same bastard into a high risk operation, with the option of simply cutting and running if things went south. Jai was expensive, so they’d be walking away from a fair amount of cash if they abandoned him, but on an emotional level, he would have been entirely expendable.
It was a horrifying scenario, and once again, I couldn’t muster the slightest surprise for the fact that Jai hated me.
The real question, though, was what was I going to do about that? There was no way in hell I was ever going to throw Jai into either of those situations, solo combat or marathon sex, but he didn’t know that. And how long could the three of us keep living together without going mad, if Jai was constantly waiting for that hammer to fall?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
AIDEN
Isettled myself on my bed, two pillows at my back, and checked once again that the door was fully closed. I was being paranoid – I could see perfectly well that it was closed – but the conversation I was about to have would be devastating if Jai accidentally overheard it.
I contemplated the options again, then shook my head and pressed call on the name on my screen. Captain Ezekiel Rhodes. He was the best person I could think of to help me out of my current conundrum.
“Hi Zeke,” I said, when his face popped up on the holographic screen. “Sorry to call you so late. But I desperately need some advice.”
Zeke laughed, and it struck me how good it felt to hear that. When I’d first met him, he’d been near suicidal. He’d come a hell of a long way since then. “After the number of times I’ve called you at some ungodly hour for urgent advice, I think I can cut yousome slack just this once.” He settled himself more comfortably into his chair. “What do you need?”
“You know the new dimari who arrived in that crate? Well, I ended up adopting one of them. He’s a combined combat specialist and erotic companion. And I’ve been doing a bit of… Wait a second,” I cut myself off. “Is Dax around?” Dax was Zeke’s dimari, and a most unusual creature at that. He’d been trained as a domestic servant, but we’d pushed him into a far more complex role, and from all appearances, he seemed to be thriving in it.
“Yeah, he’s right here,” Zeke said, tilting the camera to show Dax sitting on a nearby armchair.
“Right. Well, I… kind of need to talk to you privately,” I said, as politely as I could manage.
“Ah. I see. Give me a minute then…” The camera cut off, along with the sound, and I waited… and then a short time later, the screen came back to life. “I’m in my bedroom with the door shut, and I’ve got my earpiece in,” Zeke told me. “I take it you need to say some things that Dax shouldn’t hear?”
I nodded. “It’s about how none of us are actually the dimari’s intended masters.” Dax was still blissfully ignorant to that reality, and though there was a distinct likelihood that he would find out one day, dimari tended to find that sort of thing highly traumatic. So Zeke, like so many of the other dimari owners, was hiding the truth for as long as possible.
“Right. Your new one found out already, did he?” Zeke guessed.
“Not exactly, no. And I’ll apologise in advance. This conversation might push a few buttons for you. I mean, that’s kind of why I picked you to talk to. Since you have experience dealing with PTSD.”
I paused to let that sink in. Zeke had been badly injured in a mission gone wrong, which had also killed a large number ofhis crew mates. Coming to terms with all of his experiences had taken a long time and a lot of effort.
I watched as he visibly braced himself, then nodded. “Okay. Hit me with it, then… Wait, hang on. Who’s got PTSD?” he interrupted himself.
“Jai. The new dimari. Or, at least, that’s the overall impression I’m getting.”
“How can he have PTSD? He’s only just come out of the box.”
