STORY EXCERPT

Danny Holcomb looked up into the sympathetic but extremely furious blue eyes of Jack Dalton Brown. Brown was the owner of The Black Iris Club, a private BDSM club located in the penthouse of a twenty-story downtown Fort Lauderdale office building. Danny was in pain and half out of it, but he knew he didn’t want to make his Master, Randy Newman, angrier by causing a scene.

“Please, Sir, if someone could just help me to my car, I’ll be fine. I don’t want to cause any trouble.” Danny wasn’t sure he could navigate out of the club, down twenty flights in the elevator, and to his car, but he was going to try.

“You’re not causing trouble, Danny. Just lie still. Dominick called Dr. Semanski before he came to get me. The doctor will check you out and determine if he can treat your back here, or if you need a trip to the Broward General Emergency Room.”

“Really, I’ll be fine. I don’t want to cause any trouble.” Danny was embarrassed to be the center of Jack Dalton Brown’s attention. The dark-haired Master Dom was gorgeous and straight as an arrow, damn it—and also very kind. If he didn’t stop, Danny was going to cry, and that would really be embarrassing.

“Let me worry about that. You just try to calm down for a few minutes until the doctor gets here.”

Danny was lying on his side in a black leather chaise in the dungeon theme room, and Master Randy was long gone. The dungeon monitor who had been doing a last sweep of the club before closing had found him still bound to the St. Andrew’s Cross and called the doctor and the club owner in his penthouse apartment next to the club. “I’m sorry that Dominick woke you up, Sir. This is nothing. Really.”

“Quiet, sub. It’s far from nothing. Let me take care of this.” Master Jack seemed to be holding on to his temper by a thread, and Danny didn’t want to push him over the edge. He knew from the gentle way Master Jack kept a calming hand on his shoulder that he wasn’t going to be the recipient of Jack’s fury. But he didn’t want to get his Master in hot water. If Master Randy was thrown out of this very elegant private club because of Danny, he didn’t know how he would react. Danny did know it would be so much worse for him.

* * * *

Jack Dalton Brown was fit to do murder at the moment. There was no excuse for doing this type of damage to a sub and then just leaving him hanging half-conscious on the cross. Thank goodness Dominick had heard him groaning and checked the room. It had been presumed that the sub, Danny, had left with Randy Newman earlier. Jack would have hated for Danny to be left alone in this condition for the rest of the night until the cleaning crew came in the morning.

Dominick had immediately called Dr. John Semanski, the doctor on retainer to the club for medical emergencies not requiring a trip to the emergency room. The doctor was on his way. Jack didn’t think the sub required a trip to Broward General Hospital to be patched up, but that would be up to Semanski. The bloody stripes on the sub’s back certainly needed medical attention.

Jack had been considering an intervention between the sadistic Dom, Randy Newman, and his sub of several months, Danny Holcomb. Now he was sorry he hadn’t interfered. Jack had often felt that the Dom went too far, but the sub had seemed to want or need what Newman delivered. Jack knew that there were extremes in the BDSM culture that he could personally not condone but that some participants seemed to want. This went beyond “Safe, Sane, and Consensual.” He wasn’t sure that Danny Holcomb was really a masochist. He might just be a confused sub who thought that this was the way it was supposed to be. This situation, however, went way over the line. You didn’t do serious damage to a sub and then leave him to suffer alone in a dark room. This behavior made Jack sick to his stomach.

Jack heard the doctor coming down the hall. Dominick was explaining how Danny had been found. Newman was finished in his club. He personally thought that Danny should press charges against the Dom. This conduct went against Jack’s personal ethics as well as the rules and regulations of the club that Newman had signed when he joined. Jack would have some words of wisdom for Newman before he was thrown out of the club whether his cop fiancée, Kaylin Gallagher, and his criminal attorney, Nicolette Summers, liked it or not. Newman was going to be in no doubt about how Jack felt about this behavior. No doubt whatsoever.

* * * *

Danny was sitting up in a chair in the dungeon. Dr. Semanski had just left the room to talk to Jack Brown and Domenick in the main dungeon. The doctor had cleaned the wounds on Danny’s back, treated them with a soothing antibiotic cream, and loosely bandaged them with gauze dressing. Then he had given him a pain killer and a mild sedative to settle his nerves. Now he felt slightly woozy. He just wanted to go home. How the hell had this happened to him? He knew it was his fault for calling his safe word. That made Master Randy furious.

Danny had met Randy Newman at the Black Iris Club. He had joined as a submissive about a year ago. He’d played with a couple of Dominants before he met Randy but had never been abused like this. The big, dark-haired Dom was handsome in a harsh and scary way, but Danny thought the scary was just his way of asserting his Dom-ness. Things between them at first had been extreme but tolerable. But lately they had been escalating dangerously. Master Randy couldn’t seem to control his temper, and everything Danny did infuriated him. Danny should have gotten out of the relationship months ago.

ADULT EXCERPT

Rush hugged him tighter and brushed the blond hair back from his forehead. “That’s a lot to work through. I understand why you would be hesitant to enter into another relationship, but do you want to let that bastard define the rest of your life? He shouldn’t be allowed to ruin everything good in your future.”

“That’s true. I hate him. He never treated me nice, but I thought that was the way Doms were. Then I started doing some reading online and found out that’s not true. But it’s hard for me to trust someone.”

“If you trust me, Danny, I promise not to hurt you. I have to say I wish you would trust me tonight, but if you can’t that’s okay. My prick may not understand, but I do.”

Danny turned his head tentatively and put his lips against Rush’s throat. “I want to trust you. I really do. It’s been so long.” Rush could see the indecision in Danny’s eyes and it broke his heart. No one should be afraid to seek comfort from another human being.

“Then just do it. Try to block out your reservations, and just take a chance on me.” He took Danny’s mouth gently this time. He had to get a grip on himself. Rough and ready wasn’t going to cut it with this guy, at least not to begin with. One of the reasons Rush preferred men to women was that he could just let it rip, and most men could take the rougher action while most women could not. Rush moved his big hand down to the front of Danny’s trousers and gripped his hard-on. “I can feel that you want me, Danny. Are you going to deny yourself?”

Danny hesitated again and finally said, “No. I’m not. Not this time, only please don’t hurt me.”

“Oh, baby, I won’t hurt you. I promise.”

That was what Rush had been waiting to hear. Even if they weren’t operating under the BDSM premise right now, safe, sane, and consensual ruled his life. His other hand began working on the buttons of Danny’s silk shirt.

The little dude did know how to dress, he’d give him that. Rush liked his Turnbull and Asser shirts. With his chest, it was hard to buy ready-to-wear. Most shirts came three inches above his wrist and didn’t close over his chest. The Egyptian cotton shirts he had custom-made were great, but this silk was nice stuff. When he had the line of buttons unfastened he pulled Danny’s shirttail out of his pants and undid the fly. Rush could feel Danny’s erection pulsing against his hand. He fished Danny’s cock out of the front of his briefs. He pumped it a couple of times. It was already standing and hard.

He helped Danny remove his clothes, shoes, and socks. Rush watched as the treasure that was Danny Holcomb was revealed. Danny was as beautifully made in his masculine way as the most beautiful woman Rush had ever seen. Rush stood up and quickly dropped his shirt, briefs, and pants to the floor and kicked off his shoes and socks. He stood in front of Danny naked and watched his eyes widen. Rush knew he was big, but he must seem like a giant to the smaller man.

“Don’t let my size scare you. I’ll be as gentle as it is possible for a man of my size to be. You’re going to feel my weight. If it scares you, let me know, and I’ll get off of you.”

* * * *

Danny shook his head. He felt a bit dazed. “You’re beautiful, Rush, just beautiful.” Danny had always liked a big, strong man, and Rush was definitely that. From the top of his shining bald head to his feet, he was ripped, gleaming muscle. The sight of him made Danny breathless. Danny laid back on the sofa, and Rush came down on top of him. Danny panicked for a moment when he felt Rush’s full weight and then forced himself to take a deep breath. He could see that Rush was watching him carefully, and he didn’t want to disappoint him by acting like a weenie. Danny opened his arms and wrapped them around Rush’s huge shoulders. The man was a mountain—rugged and tough, but beautiful in his own way.

Rush kissed him hard again. Danny opened his mouth to the invasion of Rush’s tongue. Danny felt his tongue slide down his throat like another man’s cock. Danny reached between their bodies and grabbed on to Rush’s huge prick. Christ. This sucker was going to hurt no matter what Rush said. Well, that was an idea. He pumped Rush’s cock a few times. “Let me suck you off first. Okay?”

“If you think that is going to satisfy me, you’re wrong, but go ahead and knock yourself out.” Rush sat up and leaned back against the sofa with his legs spread wide. How did he know that was what was in Danny’s mind? Maybe his trepidation showed on his face when he’d first seen that monster between Rush’s legs. Danny slipped to his knees between Rush’s massive thighs. He tentatively opened his mouth and took Rush between his lips. Jeez. This sucker should have its own zip code. He started to laugh and then tensed up when he felt Rush’s hand on the back of his head. Danny could hear the laughter in Rush’s voice. “I know it’s big, subbie, but it’s not a weapon. Relax.” If that had been Randy Newman, he’d be on his way to another whipping for daring to laugh at the Master. Danny was pleased to realize that those two men were actually very different. That was a huge relief. Danny went to work licking and sucking Rush’s dick. It was hard to take him all in at one time, so he used his hands to advantage to cover the territory his mouth could not accommodate. Another big difference. Randy would have been jamming his cock down Danny’s throat instead of letting him take it at his own pace. He began to enjoy his chore and started to lick the huge cock like an ice cream cone. Rush’s enormous body was as smooth as his head, except for a patch of well-groomed short, curly dark hair around his cock. Each muscle was defined. He smelled like an enticing, spicy bath gel—not too strong but nice.