Handcuffs and Headlocks

Handcuffs and Headlocks A Handcuffs and Lace Story

By Kim Dare

Resplendence Publishing, LLC http://www.resplendencepublishing.com

Resplendence Publishing, LLC 2665 S Atlantic Avenue, #349 Daytona Beach, FL 32176 Handcuffs and Headlocks Copyright © 2010, Kim Dare Edited by Christine Allen-Riley Cover art by CKE, www.creationsbykendra.com Electronic format ISBN: 978-1-60735-195-5 Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. Electronic release: September 2010 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.

To everyone who’s ever needed to be reminded who they are— and to the ones who do the reminding.

Chapter One

“Any questions?” Ed Rawlings leaned slightly to his left, bringing his lips to within whispering distance of his friend’s ear. “Think he’ll hit me if I ask him if he’s gay?” Kieran made an unimpressed noise in the back of his throat. “I think he’s going to hit you whatever you do.” Ed smiled to himself as he turned his complete attention back to the…Damn, what the hell had the inspector said he was? Ed vaguely remembered something about the force hiring a martial arts expert to give them a refresher course on self defense techniques. There’d been fliers posted around the station about it for weeks, and a lecture from senior officers on just how much boring paperwork would be thrown at those cops—Yes, Ed Rawlings, I’m talking about you— who tried to get out of attending the damn thing. Ed bit back a chuckle. The inspector would have saved himself a whole lot of time and trouble if he’d just had the sense to mention that their tutor was going to be hot as hell. The guy currently pacing along the line of suddenly nervous looking coppers was definitely welcome to beat up Ed any time he wanted. A big muscular body pressed against him, holding him down in all the right places sounded like a bloody good time in his book. And if the display the instructor had conducted with his assistant was anything to go by, their new expert… Duncan… Darcy… Dominic… Demetri…Whatever… The guy obviously had no qualms about getting up close and personal with another man. Ed’s smile broadened. He hadn’t contorted into most of the positions the younger man threw his

assistant into, with most of his ex-boyfriends—not even that really flexible yoga instructor he’d met while he was pretending to be a drug dealer last year. The instructor turned around and walked back down the line of men. His mouth was moving, there were probably words coming out of it. Ed made a half-hearted attempt to focus on the actual syllables, but it was so much more fun to wonder how those lips would feel covering his, or wrapped around his cock, or whispering demanding little orders into his ear. Ed rocked slightly back and forth on his heels as he tried to keep his building energy in check and failed. Kieran sent him a disapproving look out of the corner of his eye. Ed ignored him in favor of running his gaze over the instructor’s body again. The guy had to live in the gym. Turning away from his students for a few seconds, the instructor called his assistant across the room, providing Ed with the perfect chance to check out a very nice arse. The bright red track bottoms should have clashed horribly with the grubby blue mats that covered the floor, but the guy looked perfectly at home there, as if he was born to spend his days pinning people to the scuffed surface. The assistant had to be half a foot taller than the instructor. He still ended up flat on his back after a few brief seconds. The shorter man pressed his would-be rival down against the mat. His hands wrapped tightly around the assistant’s wrists, black skin encircling white. The idea of his own wrists replacing the assistant’s limbs dropped straight to Ed’s cock. He started to harden behind the scant privacy of his own track bottoms. His last undercover assignment had kept him cooped up inside all summer. He was even paler than the prone assistant. The contrasting skin tones would be even more beautiful, if he could somehow wrangle his way into the taller man’s place. Ed rocked on his heels again, before bouncing forward onto his toes, barely able to stay quietly in one place for another second. “You’re going to get whipped if you’re not careful…” Kieran muttered under his breath, a tiny smile creeping through his normally serious demeanor. Ed bit back a chuckle. “Only if I’m really lucky, and he turns out to be kinky as well as gay.” The instructor launched himself up off the floor and helped his assistant to his feet. He looked across at them as the muffled laughter seemed to catch his attention. His eyes met Ed’s gaze. Pissed off was a very good look on the man.

Ed’s grin stayed in place, while Kieran quickly reverted to his usual stone faced expression next to him. “Congratulations, Rawlings, you just volunteered to take part in the next set of demonstrations. Front and center. Move!” Ed stepped swiftly out of the line to stand in front of the instructor. He was a few inches taller than the other man, and more than a few years older than him, too. Not that he was under the impression that either of those facts were going to make the slightest bit of difference to what was about to happen next. He might have been blessed with the typical Rawlings build, wide across the shoulders and naturally strong with it, but the other man looked like one of those strange people who thought working yourself half to death in the gym every single day was a pleasant way to spend a life. Physically, there was no contest, and Ed had the distinct impression that an ability to talk himself out of any trouble he got himself into while undercover probably wasn’t going to help him in this particular situation either. He tried what was generally considered a charming smile. The instructor didn’t smile back. Straight or serious? And how to find out which? The shorter man grabbed Ed by the shoulders and spun him around so he faced the other men. Words happened again, something about the best way to take a man from behind. Ed didn’t laugh—but only because he made damn sure he didn’t meet Kieran’s eyes. You can take me any way you like, darling. Ed bit his lip to keep the words back as he felt the heat of the other man’s body soak through his clothes and caress his skin. If the guy wanted to tug down his track bottoms and bend him over right there in front of all the other cops, he’d have been more than happy to accommodate him. That last assignment really had gone on for a very long time. A man could only play it straight and be on his best behavior for so long. One moment Ed was standing on the mat, trying to work out exactly how many weeks had passed since he’d last got laid. The next second he was on his knees, with the instructor’s arm wrapped painfully around his throat, cutting off his air supply. Apparently, no one had ever told the younger man that nice guys didn’t do breath play on the first date.

Ed’s hands clawed at the stronger man’s arm, scrabbling at the immovable band of muscle around his neck. His feet kicked out uselessly against the mats. The world started to go dark around the edges. All the blood that couldn’t get to his brain seemed to think his cock was the next best alternative. As the other man’s voice continued in the distance, no doubt explaining exactly why this was such a brilliant way to incapacitate anyone who didn’t pay due attention in class, Ed just got harder and harder. Pre-cum started to leak onto the inside of his boxers. The arm around his throat relaxed just enough to let him drag one, gasping breath into his lungs before tightening again. The instructor obviously knew what he was doing, except right then it was impossible for Ed to think of him as a boring martial arts instructor. It was much more fun to picture him as a dominant in a club, far hotter to think of himself as a bratty sub who’d somehow caught the attention of a serious master than it was to be a cop right then. Ed let the idea grow inside his head, expanding to fill every bit of his mind as he fought for another breath. The man he’d been a moment before started to fade away, until he no longer existed in any real sense of the word. He was Eddie Smith—novice sub. Clueless, naive, maybe even a virgin. He’d heard about the club… No, he’d seen someone mention it on the net—that was more like it. As easily as the idea slipped into his mind, Ed Rawlings stopped being someone who could barely manage his e-mails. Eddie Smith was a true computer geek, much better at text speak than face to face conversations. And he’d only been in the leather club a few seconds when he suddenly found his every right snatched away from him. Eddie Smith belonged to his master now and everything in the world was a privilege that another stronger man could grant or deny him on a whim. Even his next breath was something he’d have to earn, and the fact he had millions in the bank from all those clever little programming jobs didn’t mean a damn thing. His nameless, faceless—yes, that was right—his anonymous hooded master, allowed him one more breath. The scent of leather filled Ed’s senses as the fantasy took true hold of him. Eyes closed, he let the vague memory of the cops watching him morph into a crowd of leather clad men—men Eddie Smith’s new master might well decide to share him with before the end of the night. Track suits and training shorts became chaps, jock straps and chastity belts.

As suddenly as he’d been captured, Eddie was released, pushed forward to collapse, gasping as he hit the mat. Air rushed into his lungs, cold and harsh, making his head spin even faster. Ed and Eddie Smith swirled together inside his head as he pushed at the padded floor a little, but his arms didn’t seem inclined to lever him upright. All things considered, the mat was quite comfortable. Ed decided to stay where he was for a little while. Eddie Smith wouldn’t get up until his master gave him permission anyway, not without getting a whipping for his cheek. In those moments, Eddie’s fear kept him on the floor just as much as anything that had ever been part of Ed Rawlings. “Damn, Derby, you didn’t actually kill him, did you?” Derby! That was it. Ed had known it was something like that. Eddie faded a little from his mind as he was pulled back to the here and now. Derby FitzGerald, champion something or other…boxing…judo…kickboxing…some weird thing he’d never heard of and didn’t have a clue how to pronounce…whatever. He could so easily be a world champion dominant if he wanted to. Please, God, just let him be gay… “He’ll be fine,” Derby said, and promptly turned his attention to the other cops and started issuing orders, pairing them up to practice the techniques he’d just demonstrated. Ed stayed where he was, Eddie still lingering in the corners of his mind. His ragged breaths slowly steadied, even as his erection pressed even more enthusiastically into the mat beneath him. “On your feet, Rawlings. Let’s see how much attention you were paying.” Ed dragged himself upright, half because the instructor ordered it, and half because Eddie wanted to see what the dominant might want to do with him next. The part Ed had cast himself into warred with the real him as his own name called him out of the fantasy while the character he’d allowed to take up residence inside his brain refused to leave him completely. Shaking his head, Ed made a halfhearted attempt to click back into the regular world. Instructor or master, the guy was obviously still pissed off with him. Ed barely reached his full height before he ended up crashing back onto the mat. The air rushed out of his lungs again. Before he could draw in another breath, Derby was on top of him, pinning him down. “If you’d spent more time listening and less time giggling like a little girl, you might know how to stay on your feet.”

Trapped under a perfectly muscled body, Ed felt a delicious shiver run down his spine as another burst of adrenaline shot through his veins. He looked up into the other man’s eyes, but it was impossible to make out an expression in the black depths. As his vision cleared, the club scenario faded a little more. Derby bounced up off the mats and loomed over him. “Get up.” Ed hauled himself back to his feet, idly wondering if his t-shirt was long enough to cover the tenting track bottoms. “The first drill I showed you.” Derby wanted his sub to take him down…? The club dominant faded away, dragging Eddie Smith with him. Ed held back a sigh and trawled back in his memories. The first one? He had a vague idea it went something like… One moment, he was reaching out to grab hold of the other man, the next he was on his back again, the instructor’s body covering his in almost all the right places. “Wishing you’d paid attention yet, Rawlings?” Ed swallowed. “You’re good at this.” The guy made a really pissed off sound in the back of his throat. “That’s the general idea.” His muscles tensed. He was about to get up again. “Would the hold be as effective if you moved your weight to the left a bit?” Ed asked, before the younger man could jump to his feet. Derby frowned as if running the scenario through his mind, checking it against his obviously extensive experience. He shifted his position a little to the left. His thigh rubbed against Ed’s rapidly hardening cock through their clothes sending a wave of pure bliss through him. The dominant’s expression changed as he met Ed’s eyes. He didn’t pull away immediately, the way a straight man would have. Any uncertainty Ed might have harbored over which way the guy swung disappeared. Then Derby jerked himself to crouch next to him. “You’re here to learn how to defend yourself, not to enjoy getting beaten up,” he snapped, keeping the words low enough that only Ed would be able to hear them.

“Thanks, but if it’s all the same to you, I’ll stick to talking my way out of whatever trouble I get myself into,” Ed said, pulling himself to his feet alongside the younger man as the dominant rose to his full height. “And when you can’t talk your way out of it?” Derby demanded, automatically squaring up to him, chin tilted back to glare into a taller man’s eyes. “Hasn’t happened yet,” Ed said, with a careless shrug. “Won’t happen in the future. In case no one’s mentioned the fact to you—I’m bloody awesome at my job.” Derby looked him up and down, apparently not the least impressed with anything he saw. “If I’d known I was going to end up training a group of pathetic little desk jockeys I’d have thought twice about agreeing to—” “What the—!” Ed stared at him, open mouthed. Derby walked away from him without another word. “Osmond!” He shouted across the room. ”You know what you’re doing?” Kieran looked across to them, his attention flickering between Ed and the instructor a few times. “Yeah.” “Since you two are such good gossip buddies, you can fill Rawlings in. I don’t have any more time to waste on him.” Ed was still slack jawed when his friend reached his side. “That obviously went well,” Kieran said, his normally serious expression disappearing in favor of him grinning from ear to ear at Ed’s obvious discomfort. “Shall I take it you’re finished with this particular crush?” Ed stared across at Derby as he walked away from him. “Hell, no!” The fun was just getting started. Unfortunately, it seemed there was only a certain amount of fun it was possible to have when the other man wouldn’t come within ten meters of him. Apparently, there wasn’t a single thing he could do that would tempt Derby to demonstrate one sodding technique on him. By the end of the session, Ed was already turning his attention to his plans for the next lesson he was due to attend with the other man. As Kieran wandered off in the direction of his car, Ed shrugged on his jacket and made his way along the gloomy little side streets to his own vehicle. Apparently martial arts centers didn’t need to be located in good parts of town.

Between the graffiti and the litter, there wasn’t a great deal that could be seen of the actual buildings or the pavements that surrounded Derby’s new martial arts school. Ed hardly noticed. With his head crammed full of ideas and scenarios for later in the month, he didn’t hear the soft fall of footsteps behind him either—not until it was too late. Ed barely had time to attempt a glance over his shoulder before his attacker was on top of him, pushing him into a dank, little alley. Past the huge bins, he stumbled on until he was forced up against a rough wall. The brickwork bit into his cheek. Pain screamed through his right arm as it was twisted up behind his back. Ed squirmed against the wall, trying to turn around, to look the other guy in the eye and get some idea of what he was facing, but his attacker’s hold on him was perfect. “What’s wrong, nothing to say?” Ed froze for a moment. Then he smiled against the brickwork. Derby! He took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. It was a good question. What did he have to say for himself? Who did he want to be today…?

Chapter Two

“My…my wallet’s in my pocket. Take whatever you want.” Derby FitzGerald frowned at the back of the cop’s head for several long seconds as the words sank in. His first impression had been right. The guy had probably never even walked the beat. A desk-cop without a single scrap of fight in him. He was about to let go and apologize for scaring him—just before re-reading him the riot act about paying attention the next time someone tried to teach him how to defend himself, but Rawlings spoke up again before he had the chance. “I’ll do whatever you want.” In some bizarre way, it actually sounded as if he quite liked that idea. Derby held him where he was, as he tried to work out what the hell was going on, what screwed up little game the cop was playing now. Spinning the older man around, he pushed him back against the wall before stepping back and putting a little bit of space between them. Rawlings stared across the alley at him, but the terrified look he expected to see in his eyes wasn’t there. There wasn’t even the slightest trace of fear in his expression. He looked more excited than anything else. As he held his hands up, for all the world as if he really was trying to pacify some mugger, Derby was sure he should have looked absurd, but somehow he still managed to look hot as hell. His hair was mussed, dark brown waves falling forward into vivid blue eyes. His jacket was half off his shoulder, where Derby had twisted his arm, his tracksuit still askew after being tossed to the mat a dozen times and more. And he was still stunning.

As Derby stared at him, unable to look away, or convince his cock that he should even want to look away, Rawlings slowly lowered one of his hands, all his movements very careful and obviously designed to be as non-threatening as possible. Reaching into his pocket, he took out his wallet. Eyes lowered to make himself appear all the more submissive, the older man offered it to him. He’d said he could talk his way out of any situation, and he’d obviously thought he’d been telling the truth. Not sure what else to do Derby snatched the wallet out of Rawlings’ grasp. If he’d been some junky, just looking for enough money to score another hit, he had to admit, at least inside his own head, he’d probably have legged it at that point. And Rawlings wouldn’t have been too much the worse for wear—limited self-defense abilities and all. “And what if it wasn’t your wallet I was interested in?” Derby asked, folding his arms across his chest as he stood between Rawlings and the mouth of the alley, blocking any attempt to escape, wondering exactly what it would take to make the older man face reality. Rawlings glanced up at him through his lashes. His hands still up on either side of his head. “I’ll do whatever you want,” he said again. His enthusiasm was deeply buried under a pretty good act, but the cop didn’t seem to be able to conceal it completely. “I’ll make it good for you, if that’s what you want…sir.” The honorific wiped away the last of Derby’s doubts. The kinky sod was playing with him, pressing his buttons and upping the ante, trying to get him to back down first. Like hell he would. Derby stepped forward. “Do you really think you can squirm your way out of everything by playing the slut?” Derby took another pace toward the other man. There wasn’t room for the cop to retreat, unless he was willing to make the graffiti covered wall part of his spine. Their bodies brushed against each other. A gasp escaped from the older man as Derby leaned forward and pressed against him, his body rubbing against the other guy’s cock through the thin fabric that barely seemed to separate them. “Do you really think you’re that good?” Derby demanded. “Yes, sir!” Rawlings obvious enthusiasm dropped straight to Derby’s cock. The other man had managed to keep him half hard and frustrated all the way through the damn class. He stiffened

further with every second he spent pressed up against the older man, and he knew there was no way the older man hadn’t noticed that. A flicker of a smile played around the cop’s lips. Success radiated off him. “Careful, Rawlings, if you’re half as good as you think you are, maybe the slutty plan would backfire on you,” Derby warned. “What makes you think that you proving to be a good screw would make a real mugger let you go after the first time? Maybe he’d keep you.” He caught hold of the taller man’s chin and made him meet his eyes, determined to be sure they were both on the same page before things really got out of hand. Rawlings quickly nodded his approval of that scenario. “Yes, sir.” If the cop was still pretending he was up close and personal with some sort of mugger, he had a very strange idea on what sort of etiquette was involved in the situation. If he really was just trying to get laid, he had an equally strange idea of just how much brattiness any man in his right mind would accept off a lover who seemed inclined to offer him his submission. With his mind still weighing his options, Derby’s body lost patience and made the decision for itself. His lips came down on the other man’s mouth, just the way they’d wanted to all through the lesson, knowing it would have been the perfect way to shut him up. Rawlings parted his lips under the kiss. Derby thrust his tongue into the other man’s mouth, unwilling to let there be any doubt over exactly who was making the decisions for both of them. Rawlings merely responded by sucking enthusiastically on the tip of his tongue. Grabbing the other man’s hands, Derby pushed them back against the wall. The older man might like playing silly little games, but as their hips started to rock and their bodies rubbed against each other, Derby lost all patience with pretense. Pulling away from him for a moment, he spun the taller man around again. Hands braced against the wall, the cop pushed his arse out in encouragement. Without even thinking, Derby brought his hand down hard on the guy’s backside, furious with him for not taking anything seriously, unable to completely forget that if it had been a real mugger who dragged him into the alley, he’d have been helpless. A smack filled the air. Rawlings moaned his approval, arching his back further. Grabbing hold the other man’s track bottoms, Derby tugged them down. His boxers came down with them, exposing the tightly muscled globes.

There was a very nice hand print growing on his right buttock. Already well aware that the chances of the guy learning anything from the spanking were pathetic, Derby still couldn’t bring himself to stop. His hand cracked against the other pale pink cheek as he added a matching mark to the left. Rawlings gasped, rocking forward with the force of the blow. He made no complaint. Derby brought his hand down again. He had no idea how the other guy had crawled so far under his skin so quickly. But he knew that he needed to let the other man know he wasn’t at all impressed with anything that had passed between them that day. He had to make sure the older man realize that he wasn’t some stupid little kid who could be toyed with. And, heaven help him, he needed to make the most of being able to spank someone and not feel like a bastard for it, because he knew the guy was enjoying every moment of it. The cop lapped it up as Derby’s hand fell again, his palm starting to burn with its own fire as he warmed the other man’s arse with it. Then, without any warning, Rawlings moved, he tried to get away. That couldn’t happen. Instinct took over. Derby’s hand was instantly on his back, pushing him against the brickwork before he had a chance to flee. “Wallet,” Rawlings rasped against the wall. “Lube. Condoms.” Derby quickly pulled the other man’s wallet out of his own back pocket and scrabbled through it. Taking what he wanted, he tossed the rest aside. Lube coated his fingers in seconds. He slid them between the older man’s arse cheeks, thrusting quickly into his hole as he threw what rough and ready preparation he had the patience for at the cop in the hope that would be enough. He tried to slow down as he realized he was acting like a jerk, but his fingers seemed to have a mind of their own as they pushed into the other man again and again, faster with each second that passed. “Enough already,” Rawlings bit out. “Not a damn virgin. Don’t have all day.” Condom rolled quickly down over his shaft, Derby smeared the remainder of the lube on the latex. A second later, the tip of his cock was pressed against the other man’s hole. As Rawlings rocked his hips back against him, Derby pushed forward, sheathing himself inside the other man in one harsh movement.

The cop tensed. His fingers clawed at the wall. Derby stilled. A frustrated groan escaped from the older man as he rested his forehead against the brickwork for a moment, apparently not as ready as he said he was. Gradually, he seemed to adjust to the way Derby’s cock stretched him open. He started to squirm, his hole clenching around Derby’s shaft as he tried to get his new lover to move inside him. One of Rawlings hands left the wall and dropped toward his cock. Derby immediately caught hold of both his wrists once again, pinning them to the bricks before the older man had the chance to touch himself. “What the—?” Rawlings tried to look over his shoulder. Derby said nothing. If the guy wanted to come, he was just going to have to come from getting screwed—that or jack off after Derby was finished with him and could watch the show at his leisure. Whatever Rawlings’ body thought of the idea, his mind obviously liked having its options taken away. Derby saw his mouth curve up into a satisfied little smile, just before his teeth bit into his lip as frustration seemed to sweep through him. Derby tightened his grip around Rawlings’ skin, refusing to give him even the slightest hint of freedom as he pulled back. Looking down between their bodies, he watched his cock slowly emerge from the tight hole, before he thrust forward again, burying himself deep inside the other man. Moans and groans encouraged him to keep going. If Derby had any doubts that the other guy liked it rough, they quickly vanished. He plowed into him, hard and fast, and for once, he didn’t hold back. No need to be gentle and treat the other guy like he was made of glass, no need to mind his manners and make it all about his lover. Rawlings wasn’t asking for a polite little hook up. The older man pushed back against him on each thrust. He clenched tightly around Derby’s cock again and again, as if trying to milk the orgasm out of him. For the first time in his life Derby really had the feeling that he could do whatever he wanted with the man he was with, and the guy wouldn’t have any problem with it. Rawlings was his. In that moment, he was more his than any of the guys he’d met in the local leather bars.

The dominant’s right hand tightened his hold on the cop’s wrist again, but the left moved to slide into the other man’s hair instead. He pulled the taller man’s head back, exposing his throat and twisting his neck so he could see the cop’s expression. The guy was lost in the moment, right on the edge. His free hand didn’t even try to go to his cock. It stayed on the wall as if he knew he didn’t have the right to move, even after his lover released his hold on him. “Come.” Derby thrust into the other man again. He moved his hand to cover the cop’s mouth just in time. His palm swallowed most of Rawlings’ yell as the older man’s cum splattered against the wall in front of him. One last thrust and Derby let himself follow the other man’s lead, just this once. He came, thrusting as deep inside the submissive as he could. Pleasure raced through him, fast and desperate. For a few seconds, nothing existed but a pure cascade of bliss that made his mind go blank and knees turn weak. Releasing the other man, Derby steadied himself against the wall, his hands resting on the bricks on either side of the cop, as he bowed his head and sucked big lungfuls of air into his body. His lover collapsed forward against the graffiti, eyes closed and suddenly completely relaxed, as if he was quite content to sleep right there, in a grubby, little alley. Derby’s mind started to come back online. He looked at the litter strewn space around them. Getting laid in the alley like some randy teenager who couldn’t control his cock…Derby shook his head at himself as he pulled away from the older man and straightened his clothes. Rawlings remained against the wall, track bottom around his knees, spanked arse on show. For a few seconds, Derby ran his eyes over the older man’s body, taking in every single detail, memorizing it for future reference. He really was stunning—especially when he was still and silent. And it was much more fun to screw the sub than try teach the brat how to keep himself from getting killed in the line of duty. A lifetime seemed to pass before the cop slowly pushed himself away from the wall. He pulled up his trousers and turned to lean back against the cum-stained brickwork, a sleepy smile still on his lips.

Derby looked away, before the other guy could tempt him into doing something else that was so stupid, so completely out of character. “Much more fun than self defense, right?” Rawlings drawled. He didn’t look the least bit cowed when Derby glared at him. He’d been right in a way. He hadn’t needed a single self defense technique. And it would obviously take a lot more than a faked mugging to freak him out. In spite of everything, Derby couldn’t help but be just a little bit impressed with him, a little bit enthralled with the man before him. Rawlings slowly pushed himself away from the wall. Without the least idea what to say now, Derby looked around the alleyway again. A shiny spot of black leather caught his attention on the ground a few feet away. Picking up Rawlings’ wallet, Derby pitched it back to the other man. Rawlings caught it with a grin. “Did I pass your test on how to deal with a mugger…sir?” “No.” Rawlings just laughed. “Still the best mugging I’ve had all day, anyway.” Derby looked the other man over. There was something different about him now that the game he was playing seemed to be over. He appeared slightly on edge, as if he couldn’t wait to be out of there. Derby suddenly decided not to suggest the drink he’d been planning on. If all the guy was interested in was a quick screw in the shadows, he wasn’t going to make a fool of himself with the older man—not even for the chance of taking the cop back to his place for another round in rather more comfortable surroundings. He quickly turned away and strode to the mouth of the alley. Rawlings made no attempt to follow him, but Derby couldn’t resist taking one last look at him over his shoulder. The cop was staring straight at him. Busted! The guy grinned as their eyes met. Well, sod that. He wasn’t going to let the guy think he was looking back at him like a little kid who didn’t know the score. “Rawlings?” he called. “Yeah?” “You act up in one of my classes again, there won’t be any pretty little games like this.” “Guess we’ll have to keep the games for outside the classroom then,” Rawlings said. “Next time you get cornered in an alley—it might not be by someone you want to screw,” Derby snapped.

“Like I said,” Rawlings said, with a shrug. “I can talk my way out of pretty much any corner if I really want to. If you weren’t hot as hell, I’d have come up with a plan B.” Derby turned away from him, shaking his head at the other guy’s stupidity, even as some idiotic little bit of him filed away that hot comment to be enjoyed later. “By the way,” Rawlings called after him. “I’m based in North Street Station. Feel free to drop by—my shift finishes around five.” Derby kept walking, refusing to look over his shoulder again. As he turned the corner, he pushed his hands into his pockets and made himself keep going in spite of the foolish temptation to rush back and make sure the other guy got to his car safely, got home okay and got into bed without any trouble. Letting himself back into the martial arts center, he closed the door firmly behind him. He sighed as he stared at the woodwork and shook his head at himself. He had a new business to run. He had responsibilities. He didn’t need someone like Ed Rawlings winding him up and turning his life upside down. He didn’t need that kind of insanity in his nice, orderly life. Derby reminded himself of all those things several times. It didn’t seem to do any good.

Chapter Three

“Anything else you need?” Derby flickered through the sheaf of paperwork the police sergeant had already handed to him. If he’d known just how many forms he’d end up filling out once he’d agreed to ‘be of service to his community and help the police with their ongoing training’, he might have thought twice about agreeing to run the damn classes. The thick wad of paper seemed to contain enough copies to account for everyone in his classes. “That’s everything, thanks,” Derby said. He was just turning away from the desk, when he caught sight of the clock on the wall above the station notice board. It was coming up to five o’clock. He was in North Street Station. As much as he’d have liked to pretend that nothing more than a complete coincidence had made him pick up the forms at that exact time, from that particular station, Derby knew a lie when he heard one—even from himself. He held back a sigh as he turned back to the reception desk. “Is there a cop here called Rawlings?” The sergeant laughed. Derby didn’t. The older man shook his head as he seemed to realize Derby wasn’t in the mood for jokes—least of all for jokes he didn’t understand. “There’s dozens of the buggers—at least it seems like it. The whole damn family’s full of cops.” Derby tried to remember if he’d read a first name on his attendance records. Damn! “White guy. Short dark hair. Six foot two. Early thirties,” he offered. “Age narrows it down a bit. Rest pretty much matches them all.”

Derby was just going to tell the other guy to forget it and scurry away before he could make an even bigger fool of himself than he already had, when he sensed someone join him at the desk. “Can I help?” A pretty little blond offered Derby his hand. “Willis Rawlings.” Derby automatically shook the extended hand. “What happened to you all looking the same?” The guy smiled, slightly shy. “I’m a Rawlings by marriage, but I should still be able to work out which man you want.” Derby held back a sigh. “Bratty guy, kind of hyper, completely insane. Talks too much. No survival instinct.” ”Ed!” Willis and the duty officer both came up with the same name at the same time. While the sergeant picked up the phone, Willis turned back to Derby. “Good description. You must be the self defense guy?” Derby nodded silently, wishing there was a way to ask the other man if Ed had mentioned him, without sounding like a pathetic little school boy. Willis took a deep breath before he spoke up again. “You do private lessons as well?” Derby looked the smaller man up and down. There wasn’t really a lot there to work with, but still… “Sure. I could probably…” Willis shook his head. Dipping his hand into his pocket, he pulled out a business card and handed it to Derby. “I volunteer with Victim Support. Maybe some of the people I work with might feel a bit better if they thought they had a better chance of defending themselves in the future?” “No luck,” the desk sergeant cut in. “Try the custody entrance around back—you might be able to catch up with him if he’s just left.” Derby nodded. He glanced to the business card one more time before looking back to Willis. His big gray eyes were very serious. His confident smile seemed to be maintained through sheer force of will. Saying no to him would have been like kicking a puppy. “I’ll see what I can do,” Derby promised, already walking backwards toward the door. Stepping outside, he pushed Willis’ business card into the back pocket of his jeans and set off at a brisk walk. There was a short cut leading to the back of the station, through an underground car park.

Derby ducked into the low, shadowy space. He sped up a little, lengthening his stride now that he was out of sight. It was unlikely he’d be caught rushing to catch up with a guy he was pretty sure he was insane to have any interest in at all. As he broke into a comfortable jog, moving quickly though the gloom, he saw something stir out of the corner of his eye. Something flashed out from behind one of the huge concrete columns supporting the upper levels of the car park. The next moment Derby was on the floor. No thought process was needed. Rolling as he hit the cold concrete, he twisted around and grabbed a flailing arm. Spinning around to face the shadowy form, he grappled with him, trying to lock him into a hold. They rolled several times. Derby’s shoulder hit into a curb stone. Glass from a broken headlight scratched at his back. The forms he’d been carrying scattered around them. Derby kicked out. A muffled yelp floated through the car park. A second later, he had his attacker pinned beneath him. When every survival instinct in Derby screamed at him to strike out at the figure beneath him, to land blow after blow until he could be sure the other man would never be able to attack anyone ever again, Derby reined in his baser impulse. He forced his training to the fore and let it overwhelm his anger. Several seconds passed. The other guy squirmed underneath him, trying to break the hold. After a few more seconds, he seemed to realize that was never going to happen. He fell still within Derby’s grip. Adrenaline pumping, success at a quick victory flooding through him, Derby glared down at his would be assailant. “That…didn’t go quite the way I planned.” Derby pulled back, snatching his hands away from the other man’s body. “Rawlings?” He clambered off him, but even as he asked the question, he already knew the answer. Grabbing Ed’s shoulder, Derby rolled him onto his back. The older man stared up at him, quite calmly. Even in the shadows, it was easy to see his lopsided smile. “What the…are you trying to get yourself killed?” Derby demanded, all the air rushing out of his lungs at what could have happened. “Not particularly,” Ed said, with a chuckle. “Not that you wouldn’t be a fun way to go, but I’d rather keep on living, if it’s all the same to you. Much easier to hook up again that way.”

Derby could only stare down at him, slack jawed and speechless. “Okay, so the whole—me mugging you thing isn’t going to work…” Ed leaned up on his elbow. Still stretched out on the glass strewn concrete as if it was his own private beach, he seemed to give the whole matter very careful consideration. “How about I’m a down on my luck rent boy who tries to mug you, but when that doesn’t work you find another way for me to earn the money I need? You’d be amazed how reasonable my rates are for guys who look like you.” Derby jerked himself up onto his feet, putting some yards between them before he really did give in to the temptation to throttle the stupid sod. Arms folded across his chest, he stood and glared down at the prone cop. Ed tilted his head on the side. “Well, if that doesn’t rock your boat, you could always be the cop for a little while. Wanna take me back to your place for a little in-depth interrogation, constable?” “How about I be the guy who thinks you’re an idiot whose going to get himself beaten senseless unless he starts taking life more seriously?” Derby demanded. “And I’ll be the guy who thinks you need to lighten up and learn how to play pretend properly?” Ed suggested, pulling himself to his feet in one fluid motion. Stepping closer to Derby. He hooked his fingers into the waist band of Derby’s jeans and tried to pull him forward—except Derby planted his feet firmly on the ground and stayed exactly where he was. Ed ended up reeling himself in toward Derby instead. If that bothered the older man, he didn’t show it. When Derby made no reply, Ed seemed to abandon the conversation without another thought. He leaned in to kiss him, but Derby turned his head to the side, not quite willing to give up on his fury yet. And worse than anything else, was the fact he was far more angry with himself than the other man, knowing he could have so easily hurt Ed by accident, before he realized who it was. “If you were on one of my training teams…” Derby muttered, pulling away from him and stooping to pick up all his forms where they’d scattered in the scuffle. “What would you do?” Ed asked, suddenly all curious. Derby shook his head as he straightened up. “Kick you off the team and be done with it,” he said, turning away, back toward the front of the station. That was the only thing a man could do with someone who didn’t respect the rules of whichever martial art they were training for,

who didn’t take the fight seriously. Get rid of them before they end up hurting themselves or someone else. It didn’t matter if they wanted in on kick-boxing, judo, capoeira or any of the other training teams he ran. Men like that had no place in his world. “Yeah, but what would you want to do?” Ed asked, catching hold of his arm. Derby went several yards, before he realized he was effectively dragging the weaker man along in his wake. “In the real world, people don’t always get to do what they want,” he snapped. “Who the hell said anything about the real world?” Derby spun around to face Ed. “You want me to say that if you walked into one of my real training sessions with this stupid attitude, I’d want to turn you over my knee for a bare arse spanking, that I’d want to make you beg to be taken back on the team, jump through hoop after hoop until I was certain you deserved a place there? Fine. That’s what I’d want to do—but I wouldn’t.” He turned and started to walk away from Ed once more. He wouldn’t do any of those things because that wasn’t the way it worked in the real world. In the real world, that was assault and sexual harassment, and probably a dozen other things he could be arrested for if he let himself do whatever the hell he wanted with a silly little brat like Ed, and— “Please take me back, sir.”

Chapter Four

The younger man froze mid-step as the words hit the air. Ed held his breath as he waited to see if upping the ante would work as well this time as it had in that alleyway. “You’re not a member of any of my training teams,” Derby said. His tone was unyielding, but he stopped walking away. He also turned around to face Ed, once more giving him his full attention. Score one for the undercover cop! Ed forced himself to keep his expression serious as he mentally whooped for joy. He had the horrible feeling that if he tried to make one of those teams, he was quickly going to lose any chance he had of getting laid. Derby didn’t give him the impression of a man who mixed business with pleasure on a regular basis. Quickly changing tack, he reached out with his mind, for another identity that might please his lover better. It only took him seconds to grasp a likely looking prospect. “But I do belong to you, don’t I, sir?” he whispered, letting a little uncertainty creep into his voice. He took half a pace toward the shorter man, then stopped. Bowing his head a fraction, he let his posture stoop. He couldn’t actually make himself shorter than the other guy, but he brought them closer to the same height. “You said that I belonged to you. You even said you’d give me a collar, if I was good.” Derby looked him up and down as if he’d just seen him beamed down from another planet. He still looked pissed off as hell, but he took half a step forward before he planted his trainers shoulder width apart on the rough concrete. Ed held Derby’s gaze as he watched the younger man make up his mind. He could almost see the possibilities race through the other guy’s brain. The would-be dominant knew what he

was talking about. That much was obvious. If he wasn’t a true fetishist, he knew enough about kink to understand what kind of game Ed was offering to play with him. “But you haven’t been good though, have you?” he said, slowly. Ed shook his head, allowing just a tiny hit of a smile to sneak through as he opened his mind and let the new persona seep into his psyche and expand to fill the gaps. Derby’s frown deepened. Ed turned completely serious. The man he was going to be that night wouldn’t be smiling like an idiot right then. Edward Thompson would be half terrified, scared that he’d screw up, that he’d fail to keep up, and even more afraid that he wouldn’t like the game half as much in reality as he did when he was jacking off thinking about it in the privacy of his bedroom. “No, sir,” Ed rushed out, a bit more of Edward Thompson seeping into his voice with every heartbeat. “I know I haven’t been good. And I know I’ll have to pay for that, sir.” “You’re right, you will,” Derby said, perfectly seriously. Ed rocked forward impatiently onto his toes as he waited for the next order, to see exactly what sort of scene Edward Thompson was going to enjoy that night. “Your place.” Ed didn’t need telling twice. Leading the way quickly to his car, he jumped behind the wheel. It wasn’t just the character he was creating inside his head that was in a rush. For once, he found it almost impossible to push what the real him wanted aside. And the real him wanted Derby even more than the scared little submissive wanted his master. Edward Thompson wasn’t quite calling all the shots. Derby was never more than a step behind him as they crossed the car park. He was in the passenger seat, before Ed even had the key in the ignition. “I live over on—” he began to say, his mind already racing ahead to work out how his flat could best be fitted into the character he was playing. Edward Thompson wasn’t a man who would naturally live in an old flat in a not so fantastic part of town. He was far more suited to a more sensible place, somewhere like— “Less talking, more driving,” Derby snapped. Ed glanced at the younger man as he drove out of the car park and turned toward home, the Edward side of him quaking, just from the harsh tone of voice.

It didn’t take long to get there. Derby apparently wasn’t a great one for small talk when he was playing the master. The guy didn’t say a single word. He didn’t fidget either. He just sat there, staring out of the windscreen when Edward would have expected him to make it clear exactly what he was going to do with him when he got him home. As they reached his flat, Ed pushed open the door. Unsettled by the silence, increasingly desperate to get them back on the script they’d started working with in the car park, he knew he had to take the initiative. He had to push Edward into doing something his master wouldn’t like at all. Grabbing Derby’s shoulders, he pressed him back against the hallway wall. The light from the corridor disappeared as the front door swung shut. Darkness surrounded them as Derby transferred them to the other side of the narrow space with one deft movement and found his lips. Ed groaned his approval into the kiss as his back hit the wall, hard. Edward’s master was back, and he brought Edward Thompson to the forefront of Ed’s brain. The man he was going to be that night was new to it all. Even a natural submissive was allowed to get carried away and cop a feel in the heat of those first few moments. In the darkness, he ran his hand over the stronger man’s short cropped hair, encouraging him to deepen the kiss. His other hand wormed its way between them and managed to slide down the front of Derby’s trousers. The dominant was already hard. He rocked his hips, pressing himself against Ed’s hand, as he pulled back from the kiss for a second. “Bedroom.” Edward and Ed both moaned their understanding. Edward obediently moved them slowly in the right direction as Ed’s psyche encouraged the more timid personality he was trapped behind to tug at his lover’s shirt with his other hand and gain access to more skin. Derby let his submissive control their progress down the hallway, even if he wouldn’t let him lead the kiss. The younger man’s tongue thrust past Ed’s lips and began to explore his mouth in earnest. There was no halfhearted ‘let’s get this bit over as quickly as possible so we can just screw’ element to the kiss. It was impossible to believe Derby wasn’t putting his heart and soul into every single thing he did. There was an earnestness to him that didn’t fit the role Ed had cast him in. Ed frowned into the darkness as he almost tripped over something he’d left on the hallway floor. Edward wasn’t a messy sort of guy. A red flag waved in the back of his mind

telling him that he was going to have a lot of explaining to do when Derby wanted to know what the hell kind of place Edward was living in. He shouldn’t have agreed to bring the guy back to his place. He knew better than that— he’d known better than that for years. His cover hadn’t been properly set up. He was going to have to wing it and pray, and he couldn’t even remember what had been left on the floor. He vaguely remembered kicking off a pair of horrible brown trainers he’d worn during a case, but couldn’t remember if that was a few days ago, or a few months ago. Pushing away from the wall as they reached the end of the hallway, Ed guided the dominant across the living room, toward the bedroom. Derby let him do that. Ed was acutely aware that he was only in control because, just for a few minutes, it suited the dominant for things to be that way. It wouldn’t last. Once he got his bearings, there was no way in hell he’d let him call any of the shots. Ed rushed them more quickly across the room, eager to get Edward and his master to that point. Then, the younger man suddenly started to slip from his grasp. Ed scrabbled in the darkness, trying to hold on to him. Hands tightened their grip on Ed’s body in return as Ed realized, Derby wasn’t pulling away, he was falling. For a second everything hung in mid air. Then everything crashed back to reality. Derby toppled. Ed followed him, his fall broken by the other man’s body as he landed on top of him. Quickly reciting all his favorite swear words, Ed tried to scramble to his feet, and pull the stronger man up with him. They almost managed it twice, only for gravity to win at the last moment. “Just get yourself up and switch the damn light on!” Derby ordered, snatching his hand out of Ed’s grip. Hauling himself up onto his feet, Ed fumbled against the wall until he finally hit against the switch. Light flooded into the room. The younger man was still sitting on the ugly grey carpet. Lifting his hand, Derby shielded his eyes from the glare of the bare bulb overhead. His other hand patted the floor until he found the wide leather belt he’d tripped over. He glared at it, before picking it up and setting it on the sofa next to him, next to the blue jeans and the cowboy style boots that it belonged with.

As Ed watched, the dominant, slowly turned his attention to the rest of the room. “Love what you’ve done with the place,” Derby muttered under his breath. Ed looked around as Edward retreated toward the back of his mind for a few moments. At some point, he supposed he should have got around to unpacking some of his stuff after he moved in, or putting some of the new stuff he’d bought since then away, or something. As it was, various identities occupied each piece of furniture, dotted around the room. The drugs job from last year covered the arm chair in the far corner of the room, the hoodie slightly stained with all that damn hair dye and the contact lens case tossed on top of the rest. Vice squad’s last case occupied a coffee table pushed into an alcove to one side of the fire place. Cheap PVC clashed with fake gold jewelry. A good black suit hung on a book case, complete with a briefcase and a impressive pile of files that had come in very handy when he’d been playing the part of an out of work stock broker trying to make a quick fortune on some very dodgy deals. Even glancing at the different identities, brought them all rushing back to compete with each other at the very front of his mind, drowning out poor little Edward Thompson. Ed rubbed at his temple as a migraine threatened, the way it so often did whenever he spent too much time in that room without a clearly defined character inside his head, one who was strong enough to do battle against the previous personalities that had camped out there in the past. Somehow he managed to scrape up a smile as he turned back to Derby. “Let me guess, you’re a neat freak?” The younger man glared at him, but Ed was already walking backward toward the bedroom. Derby pulled himself to his feet and followed along, almost absentmindedly, as if his body wanted to keep him and his new best friend close together, even if his mind still seemed to be fighting the electricity that flew between them. Fumbling behind him, Ed pushed open the door into his bedroom. A habit of stripping off before he ever reached the room meant it was reasonably tidy, if rather bare of anything more than the bed. “So, who do you want to be?” Ed asked, closing the door firmly between them and half a dozen different characters’ memories.

“Here’s a strange idea,” Derby said, closing the gap between them. “Why don’t I be me, and you be you?” Ed forced a laugh as he shook his head. “You really expect me to believe there isn’t a single fantasy inside your head, something you’d love to do if you could be someone else for a little while—if you knew you wouldn’t have to answer for it later?” Derby just stared at him as if he really didn’t get it. The back of Ed’s legs hit the side of the bed. He stopped walking backwards as he realized he’d been retreating a little more with every step Derby took. The guy couldn’t really expect him to be himself, not with all the other people in his head. Hell, Ed wasn’t even sure he knew who that was any more. No—far easier to find a nice game and to play and conjure up a character who would fit into it. The dominant took another pace forward. Ed ran his eyes up and down the younger man’s body. He really was stunning, all muscle and seriousness, all calm certainty. “Wanna play cops and robbers?” he offered. “I’ll even let you play with my handcuffs if you want.” Derby stepped silently forward again, until there was barely an inch between them. “Come on,” Ed coaxed. “Tell me who you want to screw.” For a horrible moment, he thought the dominant was going to veto the idea completely, that there would be no game, there would just be the two of them. For the first time since they met, a real shot of fear raced through Ed’s veins, more terrifying than any mugger could be. Derby closed his eyes for a second, as if he was making some sort of last ditch attempt to talk himself out of doing exactly what he wanted to do, but when he opened his eyes again, there was an expression in them that Ed had only ever seen once before, in the half light of an alley. The shorter man reached out and caught hold of Ed’s wrist, twisting slowly, he brought Ed to his knees. His other hand moved to the back of the submissive’s head, but Ed pulled quickly away from the dominant man. A frown sprung up on Derby’s forehead. “Tell me who I am,” Ed demanded. “You’re an initiate in a leather club,” Derby bit out. “A wannabe submissive who doesn’t have a clue what it means to really give himself to another man.”

He was supposed to protest, part of Ed understood that. But he didn’t say a word. Ed swallowed. He took a deep breath as he let the role settle into his mind. That would work well. As he looked up at the other man he could easily see him as the kind of guy who, despite only being in his early twenties, had the natural dominance to make a name for himself in those sorts of clubs. Or maybe he was still a bit too young to be completely accepted. Perhaps he was still proving himself to the older doms. A young cub, who would never let any submissive show him up in front of the established members of the club. Yes, that worked. In spite of everything, there was just a touch of vulnerability that snuck into Derby’s eyes at times, as if he wasn’t quite old enough to have forgotten how it felt to be a clueless teenager. Ed smiled slightly. The world came into focus through the roles they were sliding into. His pulse stopped racing quite so fast. The migraine that had threatened, faded away as if it had never been a possibility. Ed stopped pulling at the grip the other man had on his hair. He barely had to think about what to say next. The words lined up inside his head, as easily as they did when he was on an assignment. “How may I serve you, Mr. FitzGerald?” Derby liked that. He didn’t say a word, but as Ed gazed up at him, he saw it in his eyes. His new lover liked who his prospective submissive morphed into. Ed felt something settle inside him as the younger man’s approval wrapped around him, letting him know he was exactly who he should be, right then. Without any warning, Derby pulled away from him, snatching his hand out of Ed’s hair and his approval out of his reach. “On your feet.” Ed clambered quickly to his full height. The shorter man took up his seemingly natural pose, with his arms folded across his chest, tight white t-shirt straining to contain all the muscles hidden beneath. “Have you ever been tied up?” he demanded. Ed shook his head. “No, Mr. FitzGerald.” Derby’s eyes narrowed. “I…I just…” Ed stopped himself short. Edward Thompson was too muddled up with the roles he’d passed by in the other room. He was…Ned Peters now, and he wasn’t the kind of man who’d hear about whips and chains in a club or a pub. He didn’t feel like a fan of the internet either. “My ex, he wanted to… I said I wasn’t interested in any of that. But…” He lowered his

gaze and let his expression turn shy and uncertain. His ex boyfriend—his first and only boyfriend. That fitted Ned very well. An ex who was kinky enough to suggest it, but not dominant enough to really bring out his submission. Derby would like Ned. The young dominant started to circle him, very slowly, like a buyer at a cattle auction. He seemed to study every inch of Ed, assess every line of muscle on his body, and every strand of hair on his head. With each step, he seemed to settle more into a strange combination of who he might want to be in a fantasy and who he really was. Part of Ed watched the whole process, quietly fascinated by just how much of the real him he was keeping, while the lost little submissive in the front of his mind just got more and more nervous with each second his prospective master made him wait. “I’m going to tie you up, and I’m going to screw you,” Derby announced. “Would you like that?” Ned jumped at the suddenly snapped words, coming after so much silence. “Yes, Mr. FitzGerald.” The stronger man stepped up close behind him and lined up his body against his. “Ed?” He cleared his throat as he mentally added the N to the beginning of his name. “Yes, Mr. FitzGerald?” “If you’d said you wouldn’t like that, none of my plans for tonight would have changed. You understand that you gave up your right to have things exactly as you wanted them, when you offered me your submission.” Ed swallowed, letting himself feel as nervous as any virgin in a kink club ever could. Energy and life flooded through him as he looked at his lover through Ned Peters’ eyes. “Yes, Mr. FitzGerald.” Derby nodded. He didn’t issue a single order. He simply stripped Ed down, his touch rough and impatient as he pulled Ed’s t-shirt over his head and yanked down his jeans. Standing in front of the younger man, bare arse naked, Ed took a deep breath. Where would they be in the club? In front of everyone, exposing him to every member of the organization, leaving him with no choice who saw him naked? Derby’s eyes ran over every inch of skin being displayed for his appreciation once more. No, Ed decided. A back room would be more Mr. FitzGerald’s style. He was far too possessive of Ned to let everyone look at any man he had any intention of keeping for himself. And in that

moment, Ed and Ned both wanted the other man to want to keep them. With all the earnestness of a clueless sub, Ed wanted nothing more than to belong to the dominant for the rest of his life. “The dungeon monitor mentioned that the club kept its toys in that box, Mr. FitzGerald,” he managed to offer. Derby looked across at the blanket box under the window as Ed pointed it out to him. No hesitation, Derby strode toward it, and lifted the hinged lid. Ed already knew everything that was in there intimately. That one had been a particularly interesting undercover assignment. It hadn’t led to a single arrest, but it had opened up a whole new world—one that Ed hadn’t quite been able to relegate to the living room with the rest of his identities. The scent of sex and leather seemed to seep into the room, scaring Ned and exciting Ed in equal measure. Derby turned back to him, a blindfold and a set of leather cuffs in his hands. Ed stared at them, fascinated, as the dominant walked back across the room to him. The blindfold was quickly fastened over his eyes. The world turned black, not even a single shard of light making it around the edges of the leather. Arms pulled roughly behind him, Ned felt leather slide over his skin as cuffs were forced around his wrists for the first time. Strong hands pushed him forward then. Already disorientated in the blackness, he stumbled a few steps before he regained his balance. Another, harder shove toppled him. The mattress caught him. He’d barely landed, face first on the rumpled sheets, before he felt someone else join him on the bed. A knee rested on the blanket between his legs. The bed shifted as hands seemed to come to rest on either side of him. Adrenaline rushed through Ed. For the first time he could remember, most of it came from his own psyche and not just the character he played. He pushed that thought away. Ned Peters was the important one right then. A man could get in a lot of trouble if he started forgetting who he was. He was a sub. Twenty-one years old, even younger than Derby. He’d just left university. Out on his own for the first time in his life without his mother to remind him to eat healthily or his father to fix his car when it started making a funny noise. Ned Peters. He was a sub, out of his depth and struggling to make sense of the big bad world, and he’d found someone who wasn’t the least bit confused by anything.

Confidence radiated off Derby. Ed bit at his bottom lip, clinging to the fantasy when some part of his hindbrain waved a red flag and screamed that Derby wasn’t actually playing a part—he really was that man. And maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t just Ned who was about to get screwed. Ed yelped, more in surprise than anything else as a palm connected sharply with his arse, scattering his jumbled thoughts. His hips automatically rocked forward, pushing his aching shaft against the sheet. “No humping the bed. You’re not here to get yourself off.” “Sorry, Mr. Fitzgerald,” Ed murmured. A matching smack landed on his other cheek. He’d left such pretty hand prints on Edward Thompson when he’d cornered him in the alley. Ed moaned his pleasure, knowing he’d be looking over his shoulder in the bathroom mirror and seeing similar marks long after Ned Peters had faded from the front of his mind. Forcing himself to stay still as more spanks decorated his skin, Ed had to make do with groaning his pleasure. A novice wouldn’t have enough control to keep the sound back, he told himself—that was why Ned Peters let the desperate little sounds through. It was nothing to do with the part of Ed that was still the real him. Strong hands grabbed at his sides, pulling him up off the mattress. Air brushed against his spanked arse, sending a wave of sensations shooting through him. With his wrists still fastened securely behind his back, he couldn’t put his palms on the mattress to steady himself. His cheek and his shoulder remained on the sheet, bearing the brunt of his weight as his knees came under him and his arse was offered up for the other man to do with as he pleased. There were other toys in the chest—ones that would hurt him far more than a simple hand spanking ever could. Ed held his breath as he waited to see what his fate was going to be, just how pissed off the dominant was with Ned Peters. Hands landed on his arse again, but not in a spanking. They squeezed and manipulated the muscles, strong fingers digging into the flesh as palms tested him. Ed closed his eyes very tight behind the blindfold. He was being assessed, judged. When Derby pulled away from him without a word, it took every ounce of self control that both Ed and Ned Peters could scrape up between them, to stay where he was, head down, arse up and waiting for his verdict.

Part of Ed somehow expected the other man to walk away, and he had no idea if that came from the character he’d decided to adopt or somewhere deeper inside him. The rattle of a drawer being pulled open eased his mind a little. The brush of slicked fingers against his hole informed him that Derby had discovered where his submissive kept the lube. He stayed perfectly still, letting the other man offer him as much preparation as he wanted. Three fingers were soon thrusting into him, coaxing pleading little noises from Ned as they rubbed against his prostate and sent unfamiliar shock waves ricocheting through his veins. Ed could only just make out the sound of a condom packet tearing, over the din of his own gasping breaths. Derby didn’t waste any time. He must have had the latex rolled down in record time, because it only seemed like milliseconds before the tip of his cock kissed Ned’s hole. Please don’t tease, please don’t tease…Ed mentally cursed himself for picking the part of a damn virgin. For once he found himself hoping that the other man would forget who was supposed to be who right then. As Ned faded from his mind, Ed mentally screamed his frustration. Just screw me! Please! Ed kept the words back somehow, even as they circled faster and faster inside his head and he thought they might drive him insane. One hard thrust had Derby inside him. Ed groaned his relief. Behind his back, his hands reached for the other man. The cuffs were tight, the angle impossible. All he managed to grasp was empty air. Rocking his hips back granted him something. Bare skin rubbed against his arse and the back of his thighs. For all he could tell from behind the blindfold, the other man could have been entirely naked. Ed adjusted his mental picture accordingly. Those bits of the other man that he hadn’t had a chance to see in real life were quickly sketched in with what he hoped would be there if he ever got the chance to sneak a peek. At least he could be certain the other guy was hung. Even if he couldn’t see that, Ed could definitely feel it. Derby pulled back before thrusting into him once more, seeming to grow even larger inside his hole, stretching him open even further and taking over his whole world. Ed closed his eyes tighter. His shoulder ached, his back screamed in protest as he was bent into an impossible angle. Another thrust. Ed bit into his bottom lip. Derby had almost given him enough time to relax and be completely ready for him this time. Almost. Each movement

sent a delicious flourish of pleasure through him, something that was just on the edge of the sort of pain Ed had learned to love a long time ago. Derby plowed into him again. The thrust damn near sent him sprawling face first into a bound heap on the mattress. The dominant’s hands tightened on Ed’s sides, keeping his submissive exactly where he wanted him. There was no chance of waiting around for permission to come. With the freedom to play the part of a virginal little novice still clinging to the very edge of his mind, came the freedom to abandon any ability to control his responses. Ed came as quickly as Ned Peters ever would, yelling his pleasure as he spilled onto the bed sheet beneath them. Derby’s rhythm didn’t even falter. He kept pounding into Ed, relentlessly forcing more and more bliss into his body with every ounce of friction that caressed his prostate. There was nothing Ed could do. As his climax faded away, Derby remained, filling his senses as they cleared, filling his psyche as his imaginary scenario faltered yet again. Derby FitzGerald, Ed decided, had an annoying way of pushing reality into his fantasies. He frowned behind the blindfold, even as he rocked back against the other man when he pounded into him again. As he came down from his high, Ed didn’t have any of his own pleasure to distract him. It was all about the dominant right then. There was nothing he could do to change that, and he wasn’t sure he would have if he could. Behind him, the other man gasped. He thrust into Ed one last time, almost hard enough to overbalance them both. His fingers bit into Ed’s sides as he came. Then he did collapse. He fell forward, pinning Ed underneath him, as the submissive suddenly found himself lying face down on the bed. Solid muscle held him there. Derby didn’t seem to be in a hell of a rush to move. Ed tried to wriggle his hands into a more comfortable position between them. Derby made an annoyed sound, but he didn’t move. Ed fell still, with no one but himself to blame for such obedience to his lover’s wishes. The only sound in the room was their breathing. The only movement, their chests as they dragged oxygen into their bodies. Ed savored it all as perfect peace surrounded them on all sides

and, just for a little while, he was able to hide from the world without needing to clamber into someone else’s skin in the process. When Derby moved, Ed rushed to pull himself back together. A virgin in a club…what would he say now? As the dominant took away the blindfold and the cuffs, Ed found he couldn’t cling to the game any longer, but somehow he managed to grin up at the other man anyway. “I think it’s safe to say that’s one boy who’ll be rushing back to the leather clubs the first chance he gets.” Derby shook his head at him, as he tossed the toys back into the box, but he was smiling slightly. For all of the other man’s attempts to cling to his disapproval, Ed didn’t think he’d find it too difficult to tempt the man to try out another game or two with him in due course. Relief rushed through him at the realization—a lot of relief. Ed frowned slightly, as he realized just how much relief. Best not play the virgin next time, he told himself. They could be soppy little sods if he gave them too much head space. The last thing he needed was the real him, whoever the hell that was, to start falling for the younger man.

Chapter Five

“I know, love. I thought Derby might be good for Ed too.” The words paused as fabric rustled.” Pity he’s not the guy we thought he might be.” As the door into the police station changing room swung closed behind him, Derby only hesitated for a second before he stepped around the line of lockers. “And exactly what kind of guy is it that I’ve turned out to be?” A police man stood on the other side of the locker room. He already had his uniform off and his jeans on, ready to leave after his shift, but something about him still screamed that he was a cop. Another, younger, officer was putting his uniform on next to him, while a third man sat on a bench running down between the rows of lockers. One glance and Derby easily recognized the third man as the guy who’d talked him into doing those victim support classes. He seemed to remember Derby too, because he spun around on his seat as their eyes met. “Derby!” The older cop looked Derby up and down. His expression was serious, but it softened a little when he glanced down at the smaller man. “Willis,” he prompted. “Sorry.” The blond got to his feet. “Derby FitzGerald, Conrad Rawlings.” He waved a hand toward the younger officer. “And Joe Hadley—married to Mike Rawlings.” The taller man nodded a brief greeting as he pulled on his shirt. Hadley gave him an embarrassed smile and turned his attention back to his tie.

“Also known as the guy you don’t approve of,” Derby reminded them all as he squared his stance. If things went as well with Ed as he hoped they would, he’d have to face his lover’s family sooner or later. It might as well be then. “Any particular reason why?” Conrad looked him up and down again. “You have a reputation as someone who doesn’t let anyone mess you around in your classes. We thought you might have the balls to stand up to Ed. But he’s just playing pretend with you, isn’t he? Playing you the same way he does everyone else.” Derby knew nothing showed in his expression. That just made the other man’s knowing little nod all the more annoying. “He…” Willis hesitated for a moment. He pushed his hands into his pockets, shuffling his feet a little as he struggled to find the right words. Hadley cleared his throat and stepped in to rescue his brother in law. “Mike thinks that Ed just needs an…anchor. Someone he can come back to when he comes off a case, who can remind him who he really is. Sometimes we think he…forgets.” Derby looked from one man to another. As he met their gazes, Derby saw something that looked suspiciously like concern for Ed in their eyes. He had the distinct impression that it wasn’t the first family meeting that had taken place to discuss their cousin. “Ever wondered why the best undercover officer in the force is cooling his heels buried under a pile of forms and memos?” Conrad asked, as he took a jacket out of his locker. Derby said nothing. “Even the inspectors he closes all those difficult cases for are starting to worry about him. Too much time pretending to be someone else is dangerous—especially when a man’s as good at it as Ed is.” A door opened, heralding someone else’s entry into the locker room. Everyone fell silent. A moment later, Ed appeared around the corner. “Have I ever mentioned I really, really hate paperwork?” He looked around them all. “What’re we talking about?” You. Nobody said that. “Did Derby tell you he’s just started a new self defense class, especially for survivors of violent crimes?” Willis blurted out. Ed chuckled and ruffled the blond’s hair on the way to his own locker. “Like anyone could refuse once you get on the case.”

Willis blushed slightly with his teasing, but Derby barely managed to spare a glance for him before his attention was dragged back to Ed. Playing pretend. It was a good word for it. As he studied the older man, he stopped feeling quite so much of a bastard for wanting the guy to quit doing something he seemed to love and just be himself every time they were together. Thirty seconds after he walked into the room, Ed was well into a story about the assignment he’d been writing up that afternoon. Except he wasn’t just talking about the identity he’d assumed, Derby could see it in the submissive’s eyes, part of him was that guy again. The glimpse of the real Ed was fading by the moment. On the way out of the room, Derby looked back and met Conrad’s gaze once more. The concern was still there. It was even clearer in Willis’ and Hadley’s expressions. In the car, Ed had already turned in the direction of his own house, when Derby spoke up. “My place today.” Ed paused at a junction. “Got anything particular in mind?” “Yes,” Derby said, never once looking away from the road in front of them. “Going back to my place.” A home court advantage was never a bad thing. Ed seemed to give a mental shrug and turned toward Derby’s part of town. A few directions later, they were pulling up outside a block of flats. It didn’t take long for them to be on the third floor, closing the front door behind them. “So, who do you want to be today?” Derby felt himself tense at the question. He’d already heard it more than a few times over the last weeks. He took a deep breath. “Me,” he said, simply. He wanted to be himself. He wanted reality, not a fantasy. Ed stopped short, half way through a step as he strode across the living room. “And I’ll be?” “You’ll be you,” Derby told him, instinctively remaining near the door leading into the hallway, between the older man and the exit. “Where’s the fun in that?” Ed chuckled. The laughter didn’t sound entirely comfortable, in spite of the undercover officer’s best efforts. “What if we—” “No.” Derby left no room for negotiation.

Ed leaned against the edge of a book case and frowned across the room at him. “What’s with you today?” “I’m not in the mood for playing pretend,” Derby said. Ed dropped his gaze for a second. A moment later, he looked up. His perpetual smile was back. “No worries. Rain check?” He stepped away from the bookcase and Derby had no doubt he’d walk out of the room, and straight out of his life right there and then, if he let him. His palm came to rest in the middle of the taller man’s chest. Derby pushed him back into the center of the room. Ed stumbled a little, but he stayed on his feet and raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t say I’m not in the mood for you. I said no games.” “I like games.” “And I’ve humored you on that score for long enough.” Derby looked the other man over. He’d seen him be the victim of a mugging, a novice submissive, a cop out of his depth, a criminal, a would-be dominant who wanted to investigate his submissive side, an initiate into a club and a dozen other things. Enough was enough. Even without the other Rawlings men’s words ringing in his head, he’d known it couldn’t go on much longer. He wanted Ed. He wanted him more than he had ever wanted any other man, with the kind of depth of need that meant he knew he wouldn’t be able to let him walk away without it tearing his heart out. “I didn’t hear any complaints,” Ed muttered. Derby met the other man’s eyes. “You’ve played a good submissive over the weeks. Did you really think there wouldn’t be a time when I’d start to expect you to actually be a submissive—be my submissive?” Ed shrugged. “What’s the difference?” He bloody well knew what the difference was. Derby ground his teeth together, but he stayed silent, simply staring the other man down, waiting him out. Ed shuffled his feet, wandering around the room, looking at the things on the shelves. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets, his shoulders seemed to hunch in on him. “Define be.” “Be yourself. Stop pretending to be someone you’re not whenever we’re together.”

Ed finally stopped pacing. He fell completely still, his back still to Derby as he seemed to think very carefully before making his decision. He suddenly looked exhausted, strangely vulnerable on the far side of the room, with none of his usual bounce to his step. Derby moved forward, slowly narrowing the gap between them. “There are only two reasons I can think of why you’d refuse to even try to be yourself with me,” he said as he stopped directly behind the other man. Ed tensed. Derby couldn’t blame him—he could barely take a breath himself. “It’s either because you don’t care about me, or because you care—far more than you’re comfortable with.” Derby said, tightening his hands into fists in an effort to stop himself from reaching out to the other man. “Which is it?” Ed’s shoulders shifted underneath his t-shirt as he took a deep breath. There was no way Derby could keep his hands at his sides then. Settling his palms on the older man’s shoulders, he guided Ed to turn around and face him. The truth shone in the submissive’s eyes—so did fear. “Answer me,” Derby coaxed. For a few seconds, it was impossible to tell if he was going to bolt or not. “I care.” Then Ed was backing away as quickly as he could. There wasn’t far he could go before his back hit the bookcase. Derby put his hands on the shelf just behind the taller man’s shoulders, trapping him there. “Do you think I’d bother to ask, if I didn’t feel the same way?” Ed stared past him, at the blank wall on the opposite side of the room. “Okay—I’m me, you’re you. Submissive, dominant. Both soppy as hell. Get on with it.” Derby said nothing. “Well?” Ed demanded, as the silence stretched out. “You want an order?” “Yes, sir.” “No.” Derby surprised himself with how harshly the word came out. Ed met his eyes, shock clear in his expression. “Not sir, and not Mr. FitzGerald either,” Derby decided. “Not master, not chief inspector. No titles, no honorific’s. Just Derby.”

“What the hell kind of dominant are you?” Ed demanded, trying to push past him, hard enough that he was in danger of hurting himself, if not his lover. Derby stepped back and let him go, let him run away to the other side of the room. “I’m the kind of dominant that’s not going to give you any protocols to hide behind.” It wasn’t until the words hit the air that he realized how serious he was about that, how serious he was going to have to be about such things if they were going to have the slightest chance of still being together come morning. He’d known the games were a problem, but it wasn’t until that moment he realized how much of an issue they really were for Ed. As responsibility for the whole world, and for his lover in particular seemed to settle around his shoulders, Derby stood up a little straighter. Something inside himself that had been ill at ease for weeks settled. The last of his doubts of being his real self faded away. Unless he was very much mistaken, the real him was exactly the kind of dominant Ed needed.

Chapter Six

Ed stared at the other man for several long seconds. Pushing a hand through his hair he rocked on his heels. So much for a simple little hook up and a nice screw to round off yet another bloody day of paper work… “Come here, Ed.” His feet wouldn’t move. He couldn’t have taken a step toward the other man if he’d wanted to, and right then, he wasn’t sure he did want to. In that moment, without even the hint of a character to hide behind, he wasn’t sure about anything. A novice would do as he was told. A brat would throw a temper tantrum. A good submissive would drop to his hands and knees, crawl across the room to his would-be master and beg to belong to him for the rest of his life. Ed just stared across at Derby as if he’d never seen him before, as if he’d never truly been seen by him before. He tried to scramble for an identity inside his head, anyone would have done right then. But he couldn’t even raise a flicker. There was no one there to face Derby but Ed Rawlings. Suddenly, his feet were freed from their spot on the carpet. Ed stepped forward, but not toward the dominant. He headed straight for the door. A hand caught hold of his collar, just as he was within reach of the door handle. A practiced move spun him around and pushed him back into the center of the room. Ed twisted to face the younger man. Heart racing faster than it ever did when he was undercover, he dragged a breath into his lungs. Physically, he was no match for the instructor. He knew that. Hell, he really got off on that. But mentally… Ed shook his head at himself and the

situation. Mentally, he was a match for anyone, no matter what Mike and Hadley babbled on about every time they saw him. All a man had to do was work out where the other guy’s weak spots were—the tiny little cracks of inconsistency that could be pried open by any man who was truly freaking fantastic at pretending to be whoever he needed to be to manipulate the situation. With a man Derby’s age it should have been easy. He wasn’t old enough to have settled into his skin and his place in the world. Dominants were usually easy pickings, too. An unyielding manner almost inevitably hid all sorts of vulnerabilities. No man was dominant all the way through. Every master had secrets he wanted to hide, weakness he wanted to disguise. Derby stared back across the room at him, solid and sensible, practical and pragmatic. And even after all the time they’d spent together, Ed had yet to work out what his sure-fail fantasy was, exactly what would make the dominant Derby weaker at the knees than any submissive could ever be. Suddenly, knowing that fantasy was vital. It wasn’t enough to know that he could make the other guy come so hard he damn near passed out. He wanted to know what would make a shiver run down his spine and the breath catch in the back of his throat. He needed to know just what it was that would make him perfect for the other man. “Tell me your fantasy?” The words were supposed to be a demand, but they came out sounding more like a plea. For a second, he thought the other man was going to brush the question aside, the way he had so many times in the past, but Derby actually seemed to be thinking about it. “A man who belongs to me. A submissive who gives himself up to me and holds nothing back. Someone who’s honest. Someone who can look me in the eye and be himself.” Ed closed his eyes. He was pretty sure he could have matched up to any other fantasy the dominant had. He could play any role the younger man wanted, but he wasn’t sure he could stand center stage and strip it all away until there was nothing but the bare bones of the truth to be seen. “I’m not talking about a man who finds it easy,” Derby said. “If it was easy for him to be himself with everyone, then it wouldn’t mean anything when he offered that kind of truth to his master. I don’t care if the man I own is a fraud in front of the rest of the world. I don’t care if he

doesn’t even know who he really is when he comes under my protection. But I’m telling you right now, Ed. The guy I master will find out exactly who he is. I’ll see to that.” Ed swallowed quickly. “You really don’t care if he doesn’t know who he is from the start?” he blurted out. “It’s a master’s responsibility to lead his submissive forward, to help him grow into the man he should be…and remind him of the man he really is too.” Derby looked past him then, as if he was still trying to get his own thoughts straight inside his head. For the first time that day, Ed got the distinct impression that the younger man didn’t have it all worked out. He was struggling to keep up too—struggling, but succeeding. Ed swallowed. Words refused to happen. Derby walked across the room to stand behind him. His hands slid around Ed’s body pulling him back to rest against his master’s strength. There was a steadiness in Derby that called to him more than anything Ed had ever known. “It’s a master’s responsibility to be there when his submissive needs him.” “And you think I need you?” Ed managed to get the syllables out, but they were soft and uncertain, and what scared him more than anything else—they weren’t in any way an act. “Yes.” Derby left no room for argument. “I think I’m exactly what you need.” “We’ve already got a shrink in the family, thanks.” He tried to turn around and face the other man. Derby didn’t let go of him, but he let him squirm within his embrace until their eyes met. The younger man didn’t say a single damn word, as if he didn’t think the silly little jibe worthy of a reply. Ed stared off to the left for a few moments. “What do you have in mind?” “Tell me one thing you’re certain of,” Derby ordered. “Something about you that’s all you, and nothing to do with any of the parts you play in front of the rest of the world.” Ed looked inside his mind. Forget searching for something amusing, or sarcastic, or silly to throw at the other man. There wasn’t anything there. Then one fact came to his attention, tucked away in a far corner of his mind that he’d been trying to ignore for weeks. “I’m falling in love with you.” Ed’s eyes opened very wide as the words escaped from between his lips. It was all he could do, not to clamp his hand over his mouth and remove any trace of doubt that he wasn’t the least in control of what he said. Derby nodded, as if Ed wasn’t telling him anything he wasn’t already well aware of.

“That’s okay with you?” Ed demanded. “Far more okay than it would have been if you told me I was the only man in the room who felt that way.” Ed just stared at the younger man. He was so bloody calm, so annoyingly certain about everything. “Now,” the dominant announced. “I’m going to tell you exactly how things are going to be between us.” He didn’t exactly ask for permission or approval. Ed ended up nodding, just once, not sure he was offering his consent or just indicating that he’d heard his master’s words. Derby brushed the back of one of his knuckles across Ed’s lips. “No need for you to leave your mouth idle when I’m doing that, is there?” Ed smiled against the knuckles. A minute later Derby was sitting back in a comfortable armchair, his trousers around his ankles and his submissive kneeling on a cushion in front of him. He guided Ed’s head forward, his fingers quickly tangling in his hair. Ed didn’t fight it. In a world where he constantly found himself lost in a maze of possibilities for who he was, Derby was suddenly there—a solid point of reference. So was a blow job. Ed understood blow jobs even better than he understood the man he knelt before. He’d given lots of them, all different kinds. Almost every damn one of them had the details decided by one of the dozens of other men who lived inside his head, overruling the real him until he wasn’t even sure there was a real person in there crammed in with everyone else. Parting his lips, Ed let Derby guide him further forward, so the tip of the dominant’s cock slid into his mouth. Velvety soft skin brushed against his tongue. He lapped at the head, swirling his tongue around the glans as he sought for his master’s taste. He pulled back for a moment then. “You’ll be my master?” The other guy had said a lot of things, but that was one phrase that hadn’t left the other man’s lips. “Hush.” Derby guided him forward again, silencing him as the shaft slid back between his lips. “I’ll be your master,” he said. “And you’ll be my submissive.” Ed murmured his agreement around the dominant’s cock as he dipped his head and let more of Derby’s erection fill his mouth. “Do you know the first thing I’m going to buy for my submissive?”

A collar. Derby was a collar kind of guy. He had no doubt about it. Ed tried to say the words, clear and enthusiastic. A muffled little sound was all he managed. “A set of boxes.” Ed stared up at him, while pictures of all different kinds of boxes flashed through his imagination. He was sure there were plenty of kinky things a man could do with a box—but he doubted Derby would go for many of those. “And we’re going to take them back to your place, and every undercover character you’ve ever played is going to be locked away in a different box. Mixing up people you’re pretending to be, with who you really are—that stops right now, understand?” Ed attempted to pull away as his conscious mind tried to rebel at the idea, even as both his subconscious and his body tried to overrule it and keep him exactly where he was, lips wrapped around Derby’s cock and pre-cum leaking onto his tongue. The younger man’s grip on his hair tightened as if he sensed the tension in him. “I’m not telling you that you won’t be allowed to do your job. But when you’re off the clock, you’ll be mine. The other guys can stay at the other flat once they’re filed away. But whenever he’s off duty, I expect Ed Rawlings to be here with me.” No part of Ed was able to pretend that didn’t sound good. “And you’ll be turned over my knee the moment you forget it.” Ed murmured his definite approval of that too. He was already hard, his cock straining against the inside of his jeans. He stiffened even further as images of him up ended over his master’s lap filled his mind. “Not that kind of spanking,” Derby said, his knuckles caressing Ed’s hollowed out cheek. “I’m not talking about a playful little tap, sweetheart. It won’t be a game, and I’ll make sure you don’t enjoy it in the least.” Ed pulled away then, letting the dominant’s shaft slide from between his lips. Derby didn’t even try to stop him. “I’m talking about the kind of spanking that will have you crying and begging me to stop, the kind that will linger in your mind, and make you think twice about ever making the same mistake again. I’m talking about something that will help you really work at remembering who you really are.” Ed brushed his fingers against his lips, wiping away the moisture that lingered there. He’d tried to annoy the other man into punishing him that way a dozen times or more, offered to

be really punished for his amusement. The dominant didn’t look amused. He looked deadly serious. Very slowly, Ed reached out and wrapped his fist around the other man’s cock. Leaning closer, he wrapped his lips around the head again. Without trying to play a part, it was so much easier to let his instincts take over and guide him. His brain seemed to work a little more clearly when he had something else for the scared, confused part of him to concentrate on. As his lips and his tongue worshiped the other man, he tried to consider the other man’s offer from every possible angle. Derby’s hand went back into his hair, but it was less about control now, and more about reassurance. And it wasn’t because he thought he was crazy, either. He’d done the exact same thing often enough before he had any clue just how screwed up the man he’d fallen for was. The man he’d fallen for… Ed closed his eyes as he suckled rhythmically around Derby’s shaft. That was too big a thought to deal with. The blow job was far more fun to think about. He put everything he had into it. His technique crumbling around him as he lost himself in what he was doing. He sucked and licked, clumsily trying to drag the orgasm out of him until Derby’s grip finally tightened on the back of his head and he pulled him close as he spilled into his mouth. The younger man’s hips bucked, just twice, as his iron clad control slipped away for a few minutes. When Ed looked up at the other man, he was all pleasure, his lips parted and his head tossed back. As he slumped back against the sofa a moment later, he looked incredibly peaceful. Even when he blinked open his eyes and looked down at Ed, he had that slow sleepiness in his expression that only ever existed just after he came. Ed soaked up the moments, his lips remaining wrapped around Derby’s cock as the dominant started to soften inside him. The younger man’s fingers stroked through Ed’s hair before they traced down to stroke his neck. “If you agree to belong to me, I’ll see to it that you wear my collar every moment you’re not undercover, and that every moment you spend wearing it, you’ll know exactly who you are. You’ll know who you belong to, what’s expected of you, where you’re supposed to be, what you’re supposed to be doing, everything.”

Ed pulled back a little, letting the other man’s softened shaft slide delicately from between his lips. He had to say something. He just didn’t know what. “And what happens now?” he whispered. “We start putting the pieces back together,” Derby said, slowly, as if he was giving a great deal of thought into each word, working each one out as he said it. “And that means you telling me everything you’re sure of about yourself—everything you know is the real you.” Ed frowned, as panic shot through his veins. “I’m not asking for rocket science, sweetheart. Favorite breakfast cereal. Your first car. Favorite pub. All time greatest football team. You’re going to talk. I’m going to listen. Then we’ll go from there. Whatever’s missing, we’ll fill in later.” Ed nodded. He didn’t like it, but right then he didn’t really see that he had any choice. If he told his master he’d do as he said, he knew he wouldn’t get away with backing out of the deal. He couldn’t ignore Derby the way he’d ignored his entire family when they tried to bring him back to who he might have been, before all the interlopers made it into his head. “If you’re very good, I might even let you come too.” Ed half laughed as he leaned his forehead against the younger man’s chest. His family couldn’t offer him that kind of incentive either. Derby wasn’t joking. His master really meant it. Derby always meant what he said. There was a certainty to that which Ed couldn’t help but savor. He closed his eyes for a moment and just let the younger man’s strength wrap around him. He was Ed Rawlings. He was an undercover policeman who could be whoever he needed to be while he was on the job. And when he was off the job, he was Derby FitzGerald’s new submissive. His favorite breakfast cereal was Frosties. His first car had been a rolling disaster area that broke down every second street. His favorite pub was…something that he and Derby might have to work on a little. But, still. For the first time in a long time, there were some things he was sure of. He was Ed Rawlings. He loved his master and his master loved him.

About the Author

Kim Dare is a twenty-seven year old full time writer from Wales (UK). First published in December 2008, Kim has since released over thirty BDSM erotic romances. While the stories range over male/male, male/female and all kinds of ménage relationships and have included vampires, time travellers, shape-shifters and fairytale re-tellings, they all have three things in common—kink, love and a happy ending. Published since 2008, Kim also writes BDSM erotic romances for Total-e-bound. Kim loves to talk to her readers and can be found at www.kimdare.com.

Thank You! We appreciate your purchase of this Resplendence Publishing title. We hope your reading experience was a pleasurable one, and invite you to take 10% off your next electronic book purchase from website. Visit www.ResplendencePublishing.com, select any title, and enter the following code when you check out: ReadRP10. This code is valid only on our website, for electronic book purchases only. During your visit to www.ResplendencePublishing.com, you can enjoy Free Reads from RP’s hottest authors, obtain information on our Read Green charitable donation program, or sign up for our quarterly newsletter and our RP Reader Rewards program, which awards loyal readers with a $10.00 gift certificate for every $100.00 spent. You can also join us on MySpace, Facebook, and Blogspot. You will find regular updates, information on upcoming releases and appearances, as well as contests for free RP titles. We love to hear from our readers, and hope to see you there. Thank you again for your purchase, and we look forward to becoming your number one resource for high quality electronic fiction. Best, The RP Team

Handcuffs and Lace Resplendence Publishing’s Erotic Romance Line of Law Enforcement Themed Stories

Handcuffs and Leather by Kim Dare All Constable Hadley wants to do is put the last few weeks behind him. As if being taken hostage wasn’t bad enough, he’s had to deal with all the stupid publicity that’s surrounded him ever since. And the fact that he hasn’t slept since that night isn’t helping him feel any better about the world, either. The last thing Hadley needs is a shrink wandering around inside his head trying to dig up all his dirty little secrets. When he finds out he’s being sent to Dr. Rawlings—the man he’s had a crush on for months—Hadley knows his life has finally hit rock bottom. The only thing that could make things worse for Hadley would be Dr. Rawlings finding out how he feels about him. But fate wouldn’t be that cruel to him—would it?

She’s Got Balls by Mia Watts What do you do with a “wife” who is more than you can handle? When the FBI and local law enforcement team up for a mutually beneficial crime-stopping partnership, Rookie Agent Chris Tarpington and Detective Vin Pilk team up to prototype the new alliance. How better to bust a ring of drug dealing suburban housewives than to go undercover—way undercover—as a married couple? Though Chris reluctantly gets in touch with his feminine side, he quickly finds ways of making his sexy partner squirm. And Vin is definitely squirming, but will he run away from his faux wife, or right into 'her' arms? One thing is for sure: as the investigation heats up, “inter-agency cooperation” will take on a whole new meaning...

Search Me Baby, One More Time by Melinda Barron

Wren Thornberry’s life isn’t going according to plan. She let her father talk her out of marrying Bryan Stockard, the man she loves, and moved halfway around the world. Now she’s back home in Texas, babysitting her grandmother while grandma and her boy-toy work through their list of sexual exploits, making themselves the talk of the town. But what Wren doesn’t know is that things in her hometown are about to heat up even more, and it will have nothing to do with her grandmother. It seems that Bryan Stockard is still around, he wants to get back into Wren’s life—by any means necessary, and now he has just the tools to do it: a police uniform, handcuffs, and the authority to make Wren assume the position.

Ticket Me More by Tia Fanning Hailed by the bridal flower world as an artistic genius, Meli works long nights making bouquets for women lucky enough to find love, while she herself lives a life of solitude. She yearns to share her heart and body with someone other than Bob, her Battery Operated Boyfriend, but acute shyness keeps her from engaging the “living” world. However, Meli’s quiet and predictable existence takes an unexpected turn when she is pulled over and ticketed by the most gorgeous cop she has ever encountered—Officer Michael Johnson. Though he doesn’t seem to notice her as anything more than a traffic violation, Meli makes plans to overcome her timid nature and seize the police officer’s attention…using any speed necessary.

Handcuffs and Lies by Bronwyn Green Sometimes promises to friends are the hardest to keep. Undercover police officer, Michael Tanner, promised his dying partner that he’d take care of the man’s little sister. Trouble is, after her brother’s death, Doctor Tori Spinelli wants nothing to do with Michael—or any other cop for that matter. Tori has always fought against overprotective men and deception. Forced into protective custody with Michael, she’s now faced with both in the same package. Despite their differences, Tori falls in love with him, but how can she trust a man who lies for a living?

Also Available from

Resplendence Publishing Ryland’s Sacrifice by Kim Dare Principles don’t pay tuition fees. When Ryland’s math scholarship disappears overnight, he has two choices. He can borrow money from fellow student Jason Burrows, who has very interesting ways of collecting debts. Or, he can volunteer to be thrown to the werelions. One night spent playing the part of a willing human sacrifice will give him enough money to finish his PhD. It seems like a good deal-right up until the moment he finds himself naked, blindfolded, bound and surrounded by lions.

Marrick’s Promise by Kim Dare Marrick thinks that being thrown to the lions will be the ultimate adrenaline rush, and he’s not disappointed. But his plan is to try everything life has to offer once. He has no intention of visiting the lions again. Blaine and Luther don’t expect to give any of the human sacrifices they share another thought once they leave the den. This man’s different. They have no intention of letting this one go. The only question is, while they are willing to share Marrick with each other, are they willing to share each other with a human who could become as important to each of them as they are to each other?

Extinction by Carol Lynne Professor of Environmental Science/Wildlife studies at UNLV, Jack McBain has spent his adult life trying to track a legend overheard during his youth. Born and raised in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland, Jack remembers his grandparents telling stories of a race of people eradicated by European settlers in 1829. According to the legend, the Beothuk people didn’t die out as first thought, but were transformed into wolf shifters. When Newfoundland wolves began to appear in great numbers, the European settlers began killing them under the guise of population control. In 1910, the last of the Newfoundland wolves was shot, making them one of the few extinct species of wolves in the world. Following spotty leads, Jack begins to track what he believes are Beothuk/Newfoundland shifter wolves. His search leads him to the Lake Mead National Recreational Area outside of Las Vegas. There, on Spirit Mountain, he finally comes face to face with not only the shifter he’s been looking for, but the man of his dreams he didn’t know he needed.

Tropical Hedonism by Dakota Rebel After a boating accident, Sean Harris wakes up staring into the eyes of a handsome doctor. Even when he discovers that he is on an island within the Bermuda Triangle, and there is no way for him to get back to his old life, he can’t be too disappointed if it means being stuck with the doctor. Dr. Wesley Carpenter cannot believe that the younger Sean Harris would want anything to do with him. After half-heartedly turning down the advances of his patient, he realizes that resistance is futile. The men find themselves falling for each other quickly, but ghosts from their pasts and outside influences try to get in the way of their happiness. Sean and Wesley may be on the island forever, but neither is sure if that guarantees they’ll be able to continue their Tropical Hedonism.

Mind F*cked by Mia Watts Sage has the ability to read minds, but only in high passion moments when thoughts transmit at a higher frequency. But the gift is double-edged. Sage is inordinately handsome. Some might even say he’s a walking orgasm. So what’s a half-breed to do when every person he meets seems intent on seducing him, and how will he know if the man he chooses will love him for more than his looks? Joe has never been the object of anyone’s lust before. Now Sage, the hottest guy he’s ever laid eyes on, has Joe starring in his sexual fantasies. It would be perfect if only Sage could shut up for one minute, and quit talking about his own hotness—or about how he can read minds. Meanwhile, Joe and Sage must secure the last three Zodiac Stones and prevent their theft while they wait for exhibition. Can they put their sexual tension aside long enough to stop a clever thief? And even if they do, will Joe’s heart be a casualty of their inevitable fling, or could Sage really be looking for more than a one-night stand?

Also Available from Resplendence Publishing

The Not Quite Wicked Series

Wolf in Men’s Clothing by Dakota Rebel Little Red Riding Hood has nothing on Rhys. On his way to his grandmother’s house, Rhys’ car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately for him, there is a big, bad rescuer watching and waiting to sweep him off his feet.

Just Right by Bronwyn Green When Department of Natural Resources officer, Gwendolyn Locke, hits a black bear on the way home from work one night, her entire view of reality changes. She discovers that shape-shifters exist, and she’s just become Goldilocks to three gorgeous, very aroused men who also happen to be werebears. Being snowbound has never been so hot.

Open Sesame by Mia Watts Alister Baban overheard a business discussion that netted him and his Uncle Cassimer a lot of money. When the Simsim Group stock crashes and declares bankruptcy within weeks, the owners immediately suspect the Babans of playing dirty. Oz Adamo, one of four brothers who owned Simsim Group, agrees to abduct Alister to obtain information and win back the lost pensions of former employees. Tied to a bed and lusting after his captor, Alister fights the sexual attraction he has for Oz. They want information and he isn’t about to give it. But Oz loves a good challenge, and shrewd, serious, sexy Alister is naked and his—at least for now.

Heart of Ice by Brynn Paulin Kai is perfectly unhappy with his life. Cast into a role as shop boy and forced into marriage to save his family, he sees nothing good in his future. In fact, his betrothed, Gerda, seems to hate everything he enjoys. Especially winter and his attraction to dominating his partners. His prospects look grim…until the Snow Queen arrives. Wyn has spent her life alone, living vicariously through those who love winter. When she learns of Kai’s predicament, she knows she must save him. If only she could save herself. She craves his dominance, but there’s one tiny thing standing in their way. No human can touch her without experiencing chilly agony. And that might bring any relationship to an icy death.

Find Resplendence titles at the following retailers

Resplendence Publishing www.ResplendencePublishing.com Amazon www.Amazon.com Barnes and Noble www.BarnesandNoble.com Target www.Target.com Fictionwise www.Fictionwise.com All Romance E-Books www.AllRomanceEBooks.com Mobipocket www.Mobipocket.com