Excerpt from “Just a Bit Captivated”
…
After the auction ended, things moved so fast it was a blur.
Aiden felt like it all was happening to someone else, not him. Part of him still expected to wake up at any moment. He’d obviously known that sex trafficking was a real issue in the world, but like most people, he had never thought it could happen to him.
He had been bought. Bought. Like a thing.
Who was the buyer? That was still a mystery.
The man who had handed his kidnappers a briefcase with the money and picked Aiden up on behalf of the auction winner was covered from head to toe. His black eyes were the only visible part of him as he and the goons steered Aiden toward the waiting car. The car didn’t have a license plate. It made Aiden extremely uneasy. All this secrecy seemed to indicate that the auction winner was either very deep in the closet or intended to bury Aiden’s corpse without witnesses after he was done with him. Or both.
The car ride was long.
The man didn’t speak, completely ignoring Aiden’s questions and sitting very still in the opposite seat. Maybe he didn’t understand English.
At long last, Aiden gave up and closed his eyes, the car ride slowly lulling his tired body into restless sleep.
When he woke up, his handcuffs were gone. The man was gone from the opposite seat, too.
In his place, there was another man.
Aiden stiffened, his heart beating faster as he recognized him. “You!”
Sheikh Zain ibn Mustafa Al Rahim looked at him with his inscrutable dark eyes.
“Why?” Aiden said, feeling more than a little confused. There was nothing in Rahim’s eyes as he looked at Aiden: he didn’t stare at Aiden with lust, as many other prospective buyers had. If anything, this man seemed almost reluctant to look at him now, as if even looking at Aiden pained him for some reason.
“How old are you?” the sheikh finally said.
“Twenty-one,” Aiden said. “Why?”
The man ignored his question. “Are you heterosexual?” he said instead.
Aiden narrowed his eyes, studying him. He still noticed no carnal interest in this man’s gaze. It made no sense.
“Yes,” he replied, though strictly speaking, he might not have been entirely truthful. He definitely wasn’t gay—he liked women just fine—but there had been a few guys he’d considered attractive in the past. He’d never done anything about it, so he wasn’t sure if he really was bi or it had been simple aesthetic appreciation.
“Why?” he asked again. The uncertainty ate at him. It didn’t seem as though Zain Rahim was into him, regardless of the enormous amount of money he’d spent on him. So why the hell had he bought him? “Why did you buy me?”
“Keep your voice down,” the man said, looking out the window at the Dubai scenery.
Glancing at the partition separating them from their driver, Aiden scoffed. “What, don’t tell me you’re ashamed of buying a person? I can’t imagine why.”
The sheikh’s jaw clenched.
Aiden studied him curiously. Was it possible that he actually did feel ashamed?
But then the man turned his head and pinned Aiden with an unreadable look. “I’m not proud of it,” he said without much inflection in his voice. “I’ve never thought I’d have to resort to something like this. But I’m not the person who kidnapped you. If I didn’t buy you, someone else would have. And acquiring you was the solution to my problem.”
Acquiring him? The way he’d said the word was infuriating, as if Aiden were a horse or a car.
Aiden laughed. “What, you can’t get laid like all normal people do?” Frankly, it was hard to believe. The asshole might be intimidating, but he emanated a certain magnetism, the way confident, powerful men often did. His chiseled features helped too. Aiden might be—probably—straight, but even he could see that some people would find this man sexually appealing. Some other people.
“I have no interest in you,” the sheikh ground out, his eyes flashing with some intense emotion Aiden couldn’t identify. “I acquired you for my brother. Not me.”
Aiden stared at him. “What?”
The corner of Rahim’s mouth twisted into something hard and uncompromising. “My younger brother is an irresponsible fuck-up who can’t keep it in his pants when he sees an attractive man. I’m tired of cleaning up his messes.”
Aiden frowned, trying to make sense of it. Right—they were in a country in which homosexuality was punishable with imprisonment or perhaps even death, if rumors were to be believed. It seemed Rahim’s brother wasn’t discreet about his affairs with men, and Rahim was forced to intervene—and likely bribe the authorities—in order to protect his brother, and he was fed up with it.
“And you think buying him a personal sex pet will help?” Aiden said, not bothering to keep the snideness out of his voice.
“It will if he knows what’s good for him. I can’t forbid him from having sex entirely—the brat would never agree to it—but if I present him with an attractive, discreet solution, he’ll have no choice but to agree to my conditions. He will agree. And it will be your job to keep him in line.”
Aiden was honestly speechless.
“My job to keep him in line?” he finally managed, his hands balling into fists. “You actually think I’d do anything to help you?” He laughed. “You bought a person like cattle! You’re out of your mind if you think—”
“Stop your hysterics and listen for a moment,” Rahim said, his voice quiet but steely. “Gadiel is leaving for Oxford next summer. You need to keep him in line until then. After that, I’ll let you go. This is the best possible outcome for you, so you should be grateful that it’s me who bought you and not some sick pervert who would have used you for decades and then killed you when you stopped being so young and pretty. Gadiel is a harmless kid. He won’t hurt or mistreat you. Help me protect him from his own stupidity, and I’ll let you go.”
Aiden opened his mouth and closed it without saying anything. A year of being a sex slave really was much better than decades, but it was still a year of being a sex slave.
“Grateful,” Aiden repeated. “I’ll be grateful to you when hell freezes over. Why can’t you just ship him to the UK now? That would have solved the problem without fucking buying him a person!”
“If it were possible, I would have done it. Our father will not let him leave the country now. Besides, Gadiel is getting married next year, and he needs to be in the country for that.”
Aiden stared at him. “He’s getting married. And you bought him a sex slave. What a thoughtful brother you are.”
A muscle jumped in Rahim’s cheek. “It’s an arranged marriage to the daughter of the emir of Abu Dhabi who also happens to be the president of the UAE. Al Sharabi will not hesitate to have Gadiel killed if he ever learns of his proclivities. That’s why it’s paramount for him to be discreet this year. Al Sharabi is the richest, most powerful man in the country.”
“I thought you were the richest man in the country,” Aiden snarked.
Rahim shrugged. “The Al Sharabi fortune comes from the oil and gas industry. Mine is in real estate. It’s hard to compare. And it changes nothing. Emir Al Sharabi is a ruthless man set in his old ways, and so is our father. They both will kill Gadiel if they find out about his inclinations.”
Despite his own situation, Aiden couldn’t help but feel sorry for this guy he’d never met. If his own father would kill him for something Gadiel couldn’t help, it was beyond fucked up. Christ, sometimes it still hit him how much harder gay people had it in some countries. It was the twenty-first century, for god’s sake.
“Why can’t you just tell him to keep a low profile until Oxford?” Aiden said. “Surely he isn’t suicidal?”
Rahim looked out the window again and said nothing. His silence spoke volumes.
Jesus. This was a whole new level of fucked up.
“Then he needs a therapist, not a fuck toy,” Aiden said.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion.”
Aiden scoffed but didn’t say anything. It was pointless. This man didn’t see him as a person, just a thing to serve as a distraction for his brother.
“How old even is he?” Aiden finally asked, breaking the tense silence.
“Just turned eighteen.”
Aiden’s eyes widened. “You’re forcing someone this young to marry?”
“The marriage isn’t my idea,” Rahim said. “Our families arranged it more than a decade ago.”
Aiden’s gaze dropped to Rahim’s hands. They were good hands, with strong, capable fingers. There weren’t any rings on those fingers, but Aiden knew it didn’t necessarily mean anything. Muslim men didn’t have to wear wedding rings, if he remembered correctly. “Are you in an arranged marriage too? You’re older, so you should be married by now, right?”
For a moment, it looked like Rahim wouldn’t reply, but at last he said curtly, “I’m not married.” From the finality in his voice, it was clear that was all he would say on the matter. “And that’s not relevant for you. Only Gadiel is.”
Aiden took a deep breath before letting it out loudly. “I feel sorry for your brother, I really do, but his problems aren’t my problem, and you’re kidding yourself if you think I’ll be fine with being his sex slave just because you’ll supposedly let me go next year.”
“Stop using that term.”
Raising his eyebrows, Aiden said, “What term? Sex slave? But that’s what you bought me for, no matter how you dress it up. You might be a good brother who wants to protect his sibling, but you’re still a shitty human being. I have a brother too. I have a family too, and they’re probably freaking out of their minds, because I’ve been missing for months.”
Aiden almost thought he saw a flicker of remorse on the asshole’s face, but it was gone so quickly he was sure he’d just imagined it.
“I’m not the one who kidnapped you.”
“No. You’re just the one who bought me. At least my kidnappers did it for money. You bought me to use me, just because you could.”
A weird sort of hush fell after his words.
Aiden’s face felt a little hot as he held the other man’s gaze, an odd, uncomfortable feeling tightening his stomach. The tension already swirling in the air between them turned thick and ugly with… with… Aiden wasn’t sure with what, but he knew he wasn’t the only one feeling it. It was an almost tangible thing.
He breathed out only when Rahim looked away. “Thanks to me, you’ll get to return home eventually,” he said stiffly. “That wouldn’t have been the case if I allowed someone else to buy you. This is a glass-half-full situation.”
Rationally, Aiden knew it. He knew that dealing with a harmless teenager for a year was far better than being mistreated by some disgusting old pervert for decades. But god, this situation—this infuriating, haughty man—angered him so much.
“And you’re not a slave,” Rahim said, still not looking at him. His Adam’s apple moved. “You were an impulse buy. I knew you could be the solution to my problem, but I’m not interested in ending up in jail. If you cooperate, you’ll be rewarded handsomely.”
Aiden’s brows furrowed. He eyed him suspiciously. “And if I refuse to be your brother’s sex toy?”
Rahim shrugged. “You’ll enjoy my hospitality for a year. You won’t be forced into anything.”
“Right,” Aiden said, scoffing.
“You’ll see.”
When they finally arrived at Zain Rahim’s house, Aiden understood what he had meant.
The huge, sprawling house was located on an island dozens of miles away from Dubai. They’d arrived here in a helicopter, and the more Aiden looked around, the lower his heart sank. The beauty of the sprawling, white mansion didn’t even register, nor did the immaculate landscaping surrounding it. The manicured lawns, sculpted shrubs, and colorful flowerbeds couldn’t distract him from the glaring, stomach-wrenching fact: the house was the only one on this island.
Zain Rahim most likely owned the island—possibly had even built it, given the popularity of artificial islands in the UAE. There wasn’t anyone on the island except for Rahim’s people. There was no way off of that island.
If he refused to cooperate, there was no escaping it—or him.
Read it Now on Amazon
Copyright © 2023 Alessandra Hazard