“Assuming we are on the same page here, Mr?”

“Sebastian Rothschild. But you can call me sir.”

I struggled to hold back the urge to roll my eyes at that comment. I knew he probably meant it way differently from the way I was taking it. 

“Alright then. Like I was saying, if we are thinking the same thing, why would you want that from me? You said I was too fit.”

“For others. For myself, I prefer a little meat and muscle on my men. What good is sex if I have to treat you like glass?” he said plainly, like he hadn’t just laid out his plans with my body if I agreed. 

“And if I decide I don’t want that?” 

The smirk on Sebastian’s face left me feeling uncomfortable. And his words didn’t help. 

“Deny me if you choose, but can you protect your brother better than I can?” 

“I thought my brother was paying back his debt for you, saving his life.” I said and crossed my arms in the truck. 

“He was, but that was before you invalidated our deal. Now I make the proposition, and you, well. You decide if you can pay the price I’m asking to protect your precious little brother, Rhory.” 

My skin felt far too tight as I debated my choice. Protect my brother, and sacrifice my body to this man, or let the hands of fate play out for my brother. Swallowing the utter disgust in myself, I told myself this was for my brother. My brother would be protected, and that would be enough. 

“Please continue to watch over and protect my brother. I’ll agree to your terms, but non-consensual sex is off the table. I still want to be treated like a human being.” 

“Perfect.” 

He drove me to a large cabin and let me out. He parked a few feet away before he joined me. 

“Your brother is staying in a small cabin off over there. You won’t have to. Friday at two in the afternoon, my driver will pick you up for the weekend. Mondays at two in the after he will drop you off, this is to be our agreement for the foreseeable future. You won’t have to bring anything. I’ll provide everything you need. If I call, I expect you to make yourself available to me, or give me an overview of why you cannot.” 

“What about my job?” I said, and he chuckled. 

“You won’t need it, as long as we are in agreement.” 

I nodded, and he turned to me after opening the door. I checked my watch and swallowed the dry lump in my throat. It was Saturday. Stepping inside, he closed the door behind us, getting into my personal space for a mere moment.

“Let me show you where you will be staying.” Sebastian said, and the smile on his face gave me shivers, but at this point I wasn’t sure If I liked the feeling or not. Taking my boots off in the doorway, and pushing them onto the boot mat, I followed behind him through the house. He opened the second last door off the living room space, and the room inside was simple and nice. “This is where you will stay, Friday to Mondays. I’ll collect your coat on my way back. You have free rein in all the common rooms, but that room, with the French doors, is off limits unless I invite you in there.”

“Alright.”

Not for a second thinking this man would trust me in his house, it was no surprise when someone came to watch me before he stepped out. The man, my new babysitter, just hovered around before he finally sat on the couch and let out a deep sigh. 

“I feel that.” I mumbled, and he looked at me. Feeling awkward now, I just sat on the other couch, and eventually stretched out, covering my eyes with my hand and really letting the last hour or two settle in. My brother, in fact, wasn’t missing. The cops had to know this, which is why they did nothing. But the weight of this was staggering. Adding to all the facts, was that I now knew my brother was using his education for manufacturing addictions. Something I could never support. I refused. Drugs were the reason Roan and I didn’t have our fucking parents. 

Roan didn’t even know who our parents were, or the extent of the problems I had faced before being put into foster care. Unlike me, he was taken at birth. He was helping to create more families like ours. I understood he was his own person, but this disgusted me. But apparently not to let him face his own problems. Here I was again, giving something to protect him. 

Closing my eyes, I rolled onto my side facing the back of the couch and laid there in silence until I passed out. Dreams eluted me and the only thing that brought me back to reality was the sound of my brother’s voice speaking with someone. 

“I beg you to let him sleep longer, Sebastian. I can’t imagine he has slept all over the last few days.”

Stretching out, I heard my brother sigh. “Rhory, we have a lot to talk about.”

Sitting up, I ignored him. Looking at Sebastian, I muttered the word bathroom, and he got up, showing me where it was. I peed, washed my hands and then my face before standing there and looking at myself in the mirror. Anger was deeply rooted in me at my brother, and god how I wanted to lash out at him.  

Leaving the bathroom, I sat back down on the couch, and my brother spoke. I held my hand up to tell him to stop. He did. 

“I don’t want to speak with you right now, Roan. The anger I have in you right now, I will say things I don’t mean to, and I don’t want to be in that position.”

“I understand. But we need—-”

“Roan, I asked you nicely. Please don’t push it.”

Roan was getting agitated that I didn’t want to speak about this matter with him. He was grinding his teeth and his leg was bouncing on the floor. Sebastian, who sat now in an armchair, took in the entire show. 

“Rhory, I know it is hard to feel ok with this. I know you’re mad. I know why your feel that way, but—”

“You know nothing about how I feel about this, Roan. You don’t. Don’t even claim that you know. You didn’t watch what that shit does to people, you have no fucking clue. But once again, even now, I can’t help but protect you. How disgusted this makes me feel to say this, but after all the things I provided you with for having a better life and you use your degree to make fucking drugs. I’m utterly fucking disappointed in you.”

“Rhory, I’m making safe drugs!”

“Safe! You have got to be fucking kidding me. There is nothing safe about those fucking drugs. Until you watch what the fuck that shit does to someone and have to call and beg for someone to save the one you love before they die. You know fucking nothing, and can’t call those fucking drugs safe.” I yelled, fully losing my temper with Roan. Standing up, I excused myself and went to the room that Sebastian said was mine. Closing the door lightly, even though I wanted to slam it shut. 

My heart was racing, and my mouth was dry. 

I hated bringing up our mother, but it was the perfect example that those drugs were not safe. At six, I called emergency services like she had instructed me in case she ‘got sick’. At six, I didn’t know what overdosing was, but I had witnessed it a few times. Roan was sheltered from all that, like he should have been. He didn’t know. 

Biting back all my immensely bitter feelings, I took a deep breath, and sat on the edge of the bed. My coat was resting on the side of a lounge chair in the corner, and all the contents of my pockets were laid out neatly. As if to prove that they were all there, safe and sound. Laying back on the bed, I let out a sigh. 

If this was how things were going to be, Roan and I were going to be putting our brother’s bond to the genuine test. I didn’t want to let him be his own adult and face his problems on his own, but I might have to. The entire situation was making me feel helpless in a way, and I was questioning if the way I raised him would have made a difference. Maybe if I had shown him the reality of our situation with our parents, he might have made different choices. Maybe if I hadn’t protected him so much, this wouldn’t be the path he chose to walk. 

After sitting with my thoughts for a while, I came back out and my brother and the other guy were gone. In their place, Sebastian sat on the couch with a book in his hands. Slipping the bookmark back into the book, he looked up at me. 

“I sent your brother back to work. Now, we can get to know each other, Rhory,” he said, smirking as he stood up and headed across the room to a cabinet. “Would you like a drink?” 

“If my options are only alcohol, then no thank you, I will pass.” 

“Of course not. I have pop, water, and juices. Please help yourself,” he said, as he pointed to a small bar fridge. “As for you consuming alcohol, if you would like to at any point while in my home, you will need my permission. I hope that is acceptable.”

“I rarely drink, so it won’t be a problem for me.” I said and watched him make his drink, getting up myself to get a drink. Opening the fridge, I took out a water bottle and went back to the couch to sit down. He went back to where he was sitting with his drink and spoke. 

“Dinner will be served shortly. I had someone pick up some pizza. I asked your brother if there was anything you were allergic to or disliked. I will make sure that you don’t ingest shellfish and fish.”

“It’s not that bad. I just get an itchy throat, hives, and some other things, but I won’t die.”

He tsked at me before tipping his drink back. “You won’t be served or come into contact with either here. I am also having someone pick up an emergency allergy auto injection. Just in case.”

I nodded, but said nothing. I should have. It would have been the polite thing to do. Yet, I felt drained emotionally.