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Chapter 1
Archer
"What in the world is going on?" A high-pitched shriek broke through the regular Friday -night chaos in the owners’ lounge of the Penthouse, the BDSM club I owned with my five best friends from college.
I stopped mid-swing in the ping-pong game I was playing with Lennon and looked over to where Nyla was sitting with her fiancé, Bas, beside her and a stack of papers in front of her.
"What's that?" I asked, pointing to what she was working on. It couldn't be anything financial because that was Bain's Department. Nyla was our marketing and design guru.
"They're Rent-A-Daddy applications!"
I blinked, not understanding the problem. Rent-A-Daddy was our brand-new, spin-off business, providing submissives needing extra support with long-term Daddy Doms willing to give more than just a one-night playdate in the club. We'd only started it a few months prior, and business was still slow.
Sometimes I wondered if we'd overestimated the need. But maybe it had just needed time to get off the ground. "Isn't that a good thing?"
"Well, it would be, but for some reason that I cannot figure out, every single one of them has requested to be matched with you." She glared at me accusingly.
"Me?" I repeated incredulously, pointing at my chest. "Why me?"
Five more heads jerked in my direction, staring at me with interest. Lennon, Bas, Theo, Bain, and Bain's fiancée, Jasmine.
"How many applications?" Theo asked. The hint of jealousy was obvious in his voice. Both back in college, and now here at the club, Theo was used to being the BMOC. Big man on campus.
"It's probably ‘cause he looks like that redhead kid from that murder show. You know, the one based on the comic books?" Bain spoke up.
I laughed when the interest quickly swung from me to him. Had he just compared me to a TV-show heartthrob? Out loud and in front of everybody?
"Archie?" Nyla squeaked. "You think he looks like Archie from Riverdale? Are you kidding me? Besides the name, and the red hair, they have nothing in common. Besides, since when do you watch teen dramas?"
Bain shrugged, nonplussed. "I don't. I don't even know the actor's name or what he looks like. I didn't even know he had red hair. I was just repeating what Jasmine said."
Beside him, his fiancée, the newest addition to the chaos that was our Friday-night meetings, blushed. "There's a lot of resemblance. But I don't think that would be the reason for everyone to request him. It's not like he looks like Brad Pitt."
"Gee thanks," I scoffed.
Still frustrated, Nyla smacked her hand palm down against the stack of papers. "Well there has to be a reason. And I'm with Jasmine. No offense, Archer, but I don't think it's your looks, even if you do kinda look like that actor."
Across the ping-pong table from me, Lennon snapped his fingers. "You know what? I bet it has to do with that rumor." He lowered his voice and leaned toward me. "The one that went around in college."
"College? That was over a decade ago." Bas dismissed his theory out of hand.
"I know, but I heard it again the other day. There were two subs whispering about it on the floor. That new girl who always wears a different color corset with a g-string and stilettos, and uh… what's her name? That busty blonde that you used to play with all the time?"
"Angela?" I answered with a smirk. Angela was a long-time member of the Penthouse and we'd done a lot more than just play at the club. But that had been a long time ago. "Maybe."
Nyla scowled. "What rumor? What are you guys even talking about?"
Shooting daggers at me with his eyes, Bas leaned over and whispered in her ear.
His timing was awful; Nyla had just taken a big sip of water and promptly spit it out in front of her, with drops of spittle landing all over the papers in question.
She was on her feet in a second, running across the room to where the bar was and grabbing a pile of napkins to dab at the papers. They didn't look too bad. Most of the water was on the floor in front of the table, not on it.
She was still wiping furiously when she looked up at me with fire in her eyes. "Did you seriously start a rumor about your dick? What is this? High school? That crude 90's movie? Like what is going on here? Are you that hard-up that you had to stoop to such drastic measures?"
My jaw ticking, my mouth flattened into a straight line. "Certainly not," I responded, deadpan. "I did not now, nor have I ever, started a rumor about my dick size. Not in college, not in high school, and certainly not now."
"Oh right. It just started organically, and then sprang up again on its own over a decade later," Nyla scoffed.
