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PROLOGUE
A MYSTERY IS AFOOT
BRADEN
Application Accepted.
Braden Elliott glared at the bright red letters scrawled across the top of the email he’d just opened. His application to the sex auction his club was supposedly running had just been accepted by the mystery person—or persons—who were using his club to legitimize their illegal activities.
How charitable of them.
Leaning back in his office chair, he sipped a glass of the exceptionally smooth whiskey he was taste testing for the bar. It, like the rest of his club, was extraordinary. The best of the best.
A secret online sex auction, especially one that preyed on young virgins, did not meet those same requirements.
Not that the ‘merchandise’ wasn’t top-notch. At least from what he could see, considering most of the people putting themselves up for auction had chosen photos with their faces cropped out, or they’d opted to wear a mask. But the full body pics were certainly impressive, and a nice mix of everything from toned and athletic to muscular to full and curvy.
Still, he ran a respectable business. And if money ever exchanged hands for ‘services provided’ in his club, he preferred not to know about it. The idea of Club BDE sponsoring this kind of activity sat in his stomach like a lead weight.
The sooner they could figure out who was actually behind the auction so they could get it shut down, the better.
Sheer curiosity moved him to click out of the virgin auction to the other areas of the website. As he’d seen when Damian had first shown him the site, there were plenty of his members auctioning off various other fantasies. Like Princess Raven—whose real name he knew to be Ivy—who was available for a whole list of fantasies, as long as her girlfriend was allowed to watch. Ivy and Cordelia had come to work for him years ago, and even before they’d officially become a couple, they’d been so attached at the hip they’d affectionately earned the nickname ‘The Twins’. Delia enjoyed watching others torment her poor little subbie as much as she enjoyed doing the deed herself, so it didn’t really surprise him to see Ivy’s listing.
Some of the others, however, did. Men and women alike who he knew were in committed, monogamous relationships, offering themselves up for various fantasies he knew for a fact their partners would never engage in.
Not that he wasn’t sympathetic to their plight. He had his own needs, his own desires he’d learned to ignore over the years. Even at the club, he never indulged his more intimate fantasies. Truthfully, he rarely played at all anymore. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a willing subbie up on a cross with his welts crisscrossing down her body from a thorough flogging. Or bent over a bench with the lines from his cane neatly stacked down her bottom and thighs.
Longer, still, since he’d had a woman to warm his bed.
It wasn’t even that he had particularly unusual or depraved needs. Running a BDSM club on a daily basis, he’d seen enough to know he was nowhere near as sadistic as some of his friends. But he’d grown tired of scene after scene with the subs who all but fell at his feet. He’d come to realize over the past few years that what he really wanted was someone to match him, to challenge him. Someone who could walk confidently on his arm and match wits with the wealthy, educated types he tended to surround himself with. A graceful, sophisticated lady in public.
And Daddy’s filthy little whore in private.
Such a woman, he’d yet to find.
Shaking off the melancholy settling over him, he stood and drained the rest of his drink as he made his way over to the one-way glass that allowed him to keep an eagle eye on his club while keeping his own privacy intact. He scanned the restaurant area on the upper floor briefly before shifting his attention to the lower floor, where the real action was happening.
To his relief, he recognized everyone who was playing tonight. Ever since he’d found out about that damned auction, it hadn’t set well with him whenever he’d spotted someone he didn’t know, especially those coming in as guests of his existing members. Newbies who wanted an actual membership had to undergo a thorough screening and in-person vetting process, so he wasn’t as concerned about them.
But those who were brought in on guest passes had a much more surface-level background check. Which had never been a problem before, back when he’d trusted his members. Now, however…
Turning away from the windows, he made his way back to his desk and pressed the button on his phone that connected directly to the security room. “Martin. I need a word with you in my office, please.”
“Uh, sure thing, boss. Be right there.”
Settling back at his desk, he scrolled through the other fantasies, making mental notes as he waited for his head of security.
“Come in,” he called at Martin’s tentative knock.
“You wanted to see me?”
Tall and thin, with thick-framed glasses and a head of dark hair that always seemed in desperate need of a comb, Martin Hall looked every bit the computer geek Braden knew him to be. “I did. I want to change the process for screening guests. Until further notice, every application must be reviewed and approved by me once it has gone through our usual process.”
Behind his glasses, Martin’s eyes went wide. “Every application, boss?”
“Did I stutter, Martin?”
“Ah, no. I just… that’s a lot of extra work for you to take on and I know how busy you are.” Color rushed to the other man’s face, giving him the look of a ripened tomato and making him seem much younger than he was. “I can take on the extra review, if you want.”
