A masked man in a grey suit and black undershirt stands in the hallway, watching me. He wears a half mask that covers his eyes and part of his nose, but I can tell from the little of his face I can see that he’s breathtaking. The suit fits him unbelievably well, emphasizing the lines and form of his masculine frame. His eyes bore into mine and I realize a split second too late that I was staring. Do not make eye contact or a guest may deem it appropriate to punish you. My hands clench at my sides and I slowly turn, trying to walk away before he has time to decide to punish me for my boldness.

I’ve only taken two steps when a strong hand grips my arm, turning me around.

He’s standing inches from me, looking down with an unreadable expression. “Come,” he says simply.

You may refuse any request that makes you uncomfortable. Madam Montpierre was very clear about that, but I find my curiosity overpowering my fear. There’s a power to the moment. A power to him. It’s something tangible and thick. It’s undeniable and as irresistible as ice cold lemonade on a hot day.

So for once in my life, I don’t resist. I let the current take me. I let him take me.

He leads me by the arm down the dark hallway to the back and up the stairs. Toward the private rooms. My throat goes dry. What is he planning? I know there is security stationed throughout the building, and nothing can happen to me I don’t want, but the knowledge doesn’t stop fear and panic from rippling through me.

He says nothing until we’ve reached a private room and stepped inside. He closes the door behind me and I’m left with nothing to do but take in the scene. Leather straps dangle from a hook in the ceiling. There’s a table that looks like it came from a chiropractor’s office, a rack of whips, paddles, chains, handcuffs, and silk ties on one wall. Another wall displays butt plugs, clamps, spreaders, and other devices I can’t begin to guess what they are used for.

He steps close to me, caressing my cheek as he tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear. His eyes drop to my earrings.

“White,” he says thoughtfully. The way his voice rasps in my ear like gravel sends heat blossoming from my chest to my core. It’s a vaguely familiar voice, but I can’t place where I’ve heard it. He exudes control and power, and my body responds to it. “Someone needs to teach you your place.”

He pauses, and I realize it’s his way of making sure I want this. He’s giving me a chance to back out, to escape. I could smile politely and slip out right now with no harm done, but I don’t want to. The tingle of electric excitement across my skin has me more than curious. It has me hungry. I already feel something I’ve never felt before.

“Yes,” I say quietly. “Someone should teach me.”

He bites his lip and I’m transfixed as I watch his bottom lip flick back out from beneath those white teeth. I want to feel those lips against mine. I want his heat.

“Red means you want me to stop, yellow means slow down. Do you understand?”

Safe words. Yes. He’s giving me the safe words. The thought that things might get so intense that I would need them sends a fresh jolt of excitement through me. “Yes, Sir.”

“Good.” He moves to the wall with paddles and whips, walking slowly as he drags a finger along them. He settles on a paddle, unhooking it from the rack and flipping it once in his hand before nodding with satisfaction. “This will serve,” he says.

His eyes meet mine and I nod, sucking in long, ragged breaths. My heart pounds and I’m already so wet I can feel it soaking my panties. I’ve never been so turned on and he has barely even laid a finger on me.

“Turn around and put your hands on the wall.”

I find myself obeying without question, as if his words are as strong as his hands, forcing me into submission. My palms slide up the smooth wall. I’m still playing mental catch-up, replaying the last hours rapidly, trying to put my finger on the precise point where my relatively normal life took such a strange turn. I push down the thought that I’m selling myself. Five grand a week and I’m willing to enter a private room with a stranger and become the object of his desires?

It’s not just about the money though. Money may have given me a push in this direction, but the reason I went through with it was deeper than that. I’ve spent my life watching my relationships fall to pieces because sex feels like a joyless exercise to me. When Scarlett described the club, a deep longing rose up in me. A deep, irresistible curiosity that I had to sate. I needed to know if this was the missing piece.

My thoughts are ripped back to the present by the touch of the rubber paddle being dragged from my neck down my spine to my bottom. His fingertips graze my thigh, pulling my dress up over the swell of my ass. Goosebumps prickle across my exposed skin. My fingertips dig into the wall and I squeeze my eyes shut, biting my lip hard. I’m putting myself at his complete and total mercy, letting him have control, and it feels good. Fuck. It feels fantastic.

His lips brush my neck, hot and wet, making me gasp. Smack! I jump, pressing my cheek into the wall as the circle of pain pulses on my ass where he hit me with the paddle. He soothingly rubs his hand over the spot, melting away the tingle of pain with his warmth.

“That was for making eye contact,” he growls into my ear.

I whimper, fighting back the urge to turn my head and look into his eyes, to kiss his lips. Giving in feels too good. It feels so right that I don’t want it to stop.

His hand slips between my legs, cupping my wet panties. “So fucking wet,” he says, voice full of lust. “You would love to have my fat cock inside you, but you don’t deserve it. Not yet. You’ll have to learn to behave first.”

I hear him walk away and wait, every nerve on my body tingling in expectation. At first I think it’s a tease. I think maybe he’s just dragging this out to make me want it more. It’s working, you beautiful asshole.

There’s a long pause but I’m afraid to look. Then I hear his quick footsteps pass me and the door opens. He leaves the room, closing the door behind him and leaving me trembling, dress hiked up over my hips. I step away from the wall, confused and hurt.

What?

I follow after him, but he’s already at the other end of the hallway, stepping down the stairs when I leave the room. I follow toward the lobby and see him leaving the club without looking back. He just left? Did I do something wrong? I spend the rest of the night sulking around the club in a haze, wondering what I could have done to make him leave.

“I’ve never felt like that,” I say to Scarlett as we pack a box full of onsies. This shipment is going to Florida, and it gives me chills to think my business has grown so far already. Those chills are followed by something verging on nausea when I realize how quickly I could crumble beneath the weight of it all if I don’t keep working at Club Crave.

Scarlett whistles appreciatively. “Damn, girl.” She jumps up on a table, nearly loses her balance, and rights herself at the last second. Once she has her balance, she crosses her legs beneath her and perches. Scarlett has a distinctly catlike tendency to want to sit in high, hard to reach places. She even adopts the same smug look of disinterest a cat would wear in her position. “I worked there almost a month before one of the doms so much as touched me. I can’t believe he took an interest in you so quickly.”

“Gee, thanks,” I say.

Scarlett laughs. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just saying it’s not normal. You should be proud.”

“Except for the part where he rushed out of the room without so much as a word? You’re sure that’s not just some normal BDSM thing?”

“Not that I know of, no. You’re not going to back out of the job, are you?”

“No,” I say. As mortifying as it was, being left by the masked man only made me hungrier. Even talking about it has me wet and throbbing. It has been three days and I still haven’t stopped thinking about him. “I need the money.”

“Right,” says Scarlet, seeing straight through my excuse. “The money. Especially if it’s wrapped around Mr. Masked and Gorgeous’ “fat cock”.”

“Shut up.”

After we finish work for the day I step outside and check my phone. More texts from my mom and now my dad has been texting me too. I’ve been deleting his texts without even reading them, but I catch the preview and see “Please call me. Need to ta--”. I jab the delete button with my finger without opening it. The hurt from what he did is still too raw and fresh. It is reopening all the old pain from the divorce and I can’t deal with it right now. Maybe I won’t ever deal with it. That would probably be more than he deserves.

My mom is still pushing about a cruise for her and Ronnie. I’m tempted to just dig myself that much deeper in loans to give her the money for it and get the stress off my mind. But I ignore her text too, shoving my phone in my purse. I’ve paid her back a hundred times over for raising me. I helped pay the bills and never took anything from her once I was able. Knowing it doesn’t erase the guilt and the need to help her anyway, but it helps.

When I look up from my phone, I gasp.

Logan fucking Steel is sitting on the bench outside my building, feet planted wide and looking gorgeous as sin. I try and fail not to stare as I walk past, suddenly so self-conscious that I nearly forget how to walk like a normal person.

He clears his throat, and I falter, daring to turn my head toward him. He’s looking straight at me. I pause, not knowing what to do until he pats the bench beside him. I stupidly glance behind me, making sure he’s not looking at someone else. He’s not.

I quietly move toward him, drawn to obey by some unspoken power in his eyes. I sit, and there’s not enough room on the bench to avoid my thigh touching his as I settle on the cold bench.

“It wasn’t easy finding where you worked,” he says smoothly. “Once I realized you weren’t actually my employee, that is.”

I look down, biting one side of my lip. “Why did you want to find me?” I ask quietly.

He looks thoughtful, as if he hadn’t even considered his motivations. “You intrigued me,” he says finally.

Silence hangs between us as I’m lost for what to say. Even if he is gorgeous and wealthy, I can’t help feeling a little put off. “So you stalked me?” I might be accusing him of stalking, but as little sense as it makes, being stalked by a guy like him doesn’t have the same creepy vibe it might from another man. It’s actually turning me on.

He quirks an eyebrow. “Call it what you want, but I’ll walk out of your life if you wish it.”

I frown. Out of my life? Why does the innocent phrase spark desire in me? Why does the idea of this man being in my life appeal to me so much? “I don’t know what I want yet,” I say eventually. My mind goes to Club Crave and the masked man who paddled me, the man who had me dripping wet with anticipation and desire. I feel a slight pang of unease at accepting Mr. Steel’s attention, but then I remember how the masked man left me without a word. I didn’t make any commitment to him and he certainly didn’t to me.

“Then maybe I can buy you a coffee?” suggests Mr. Steel.

I don’t know if I’m driven to accept his offer because the list of reasons to say no is so short or because I’m trying to get back at the masked man somehow, but I accept his offer.