“What are they doing, Lucas?” Lexi’s voice had the slightest shake to it. Lexi hated the sawhorse. Lucas would never put her over one.

“I’ll find out.” Lucas gave her hand a squeeze.

Lexi preferred the comfort of the whipping chair or the St. Andrew’s Cross. When he’d started playing the role of Lexi’s Dom, he’d introduced her to all of the equipment in the dungeon. Some of it hadn’t appealed to her at all, and he’d never pushed her on it. He had the handcuffs he’d had made for her. They were lined with faux fur so her wrists never chaffed. He pulled them out as he approached Master A.

The enormous mountain of a man picked up a strap and tested it against his own hand. He had a table full of torture implements. None of them were the ones Lucas had brought.

“There seems to have been a miscommunication, Sir.” Lucas was exceedingly polite. He was suddenly intensely aware that he’d agreed to sub for this man. At the time, it had seemed like an afterthought, something incidental. BDSM scenes required a chain of command. When he’d signed his name to the bottom line of the contract, he’d been thinking more of Lexi than himself. Now, as Master A turned and his dark chocolate eyes pinned him, Lucas suddenly thought it was pretty damn serious.

“What’s wrong, Lucas?” His voice was like gravel, as though something had damaged it, but a lyrical quality still held. Up close, his scars were like rivers crossing his powerful chest. Some were thick and wove across his skin, others a mere whisper, but together they were a map of the man. “Why aren’t you waiting with Lexi?”

Lucas felt that voice deep inside him. It was much more than mere sexual attraction. He could be sexually attracted to any number of people. He’d learned to ignore it entirely. His cock didn’t have the best of taste, but it had stopped ruling his life long ago. This was more. This was the instant, soul deep recognition of someone he knew could top him. Master A was a true Dom.

But he wasn’t Lexi’s Dom. He might be for the evening, but that was Lucas’s full-time role. Though he’d signed over control of the punishment to Master A, surely the man would take advice from the sub’s permanent Dom. “We need to move that sawhorse out of here. Lexi prefers a whipping chair. Actually, it would be better if we just used a whip. She’s very used to a St. Andrew’s Cross.”

There was a long pause as Master A stared a hole through him. There was no hot dimple in his cheek now. There was only a simple stony silence emanating from the man. Lucas fought not to fidget under his stare. This was how he’d felt when he’d done something stupid at the ranch, and Jack wanted him to know he was a dumbass.

“So, should I set up the whipping chair?” Lucas asked. Master A was obviously not amenable to the cross for some reason. Lucas silently cursed himself. He should have tightened that contract, but Julian had been negotiating, and Lucas placed a lot of trust in Julian.

“Lucas, you should take your place beside Lexi. I’ll let you know when I need your help. We’ll be using a sawhorse. If Lexi has a problem with it, she can use her safe word. Leo is waiting in case she requires assistance off the grounds.”

Lucas felt his face flush. Bastard wanted to play rough? “So, it’s your way or the highway?”

Master A took a slow step forward, his boots thudding across the hard floor of the stage. “Yes, it is, sub. Welcome to D/s. I was told you weren’t a tourist, but every word that comes out of your mouth is proving to me that you are.”

Lucas’s heart started to pound. He hated someone questioning his seriousness. Years and years he’d spent under his father’s disdain. He’d been compared to his siblings and found lacking in every way possible. Lucas had never been good enough for the great Senator Allen Cameron. Looking down on him was the one button sure to set Lucas off, and Master A had firmly pushed it. “I’ve been in the lifestyle for years, asshole.”

He’d been in the lifestyle since the day he’d met his half brother, Jack Barnes. Everything about his brother’s life fascinated him, including his D/s relationship with his lovers, Sam Fleetwood and their wife, Abigail Barnes. Lucas had emulated his brother from the day he’d met him.

Master A’s head shook. “No, you’ve played at it for years. You’re no Dom, or you wouldn’t be over here telling me what she will or won’t accept and expecting me to change my plans for her. You agreed to allow me to top both of you, and here you are making demands. Here is the bottom line. She will accept her punishment meted out my way with respect to her hard limits, or she will leave. And you will cease cursing at me, or we will have some trouble, you and I.”

Lucas started to move forward, ready for a little trouble, but before he could make the first move, Master A had a hand in his hair. That big hand pulled his hair back and drew Lucas close enough that he could feel the heat pouring off the other man’s body. Master A towered over him, and at Lucas’s six foot one, that wasn’t an easy feat. He’d rarely met a man who could utterly overpower him.

Master A’s voice was a low, gravely growl in his ear. “Don’t test me here, Lucas. I don’t want to start this way. I want it to be easy with us. We should be partners in her pleasure, but I’m the Dom, and I won’t accept being treated like your lackey. I am not some hired hand brought in here for your convenience. I’m here for a reason, and I won’t allow you to disrespect me.”

Put like that, it did sound bad. Lucas had signed the contract. It was reasonable for Master A to expect that he wouldn’t have to deal with a bratty switch. Lucas was close enough to see that his hair was a sandy color. It was cut in a close crop military style that highlighted the Master’s rough hewn bone structure. His face was marked, a long jagged line running from under his mask down to his neck.

“I’m just looking out for her,” Lucas tried to explain.

The hand in his hair softened, and the tension ratcheted down. When Master A spoke again, it was in a cajoling tone. “I know you’re doing the best you can, but this isn’t your strong suit, Lucas. You’re a nurturer. You’re the one to take care of all the small details that make a life run smoothly. You’re smart and strong, and you’ll do anything for someone you love, but not this. You’re too soft for this. I can give her what she needs. I can give you what you need if you let me.”

Lucas wanted to take a step back. It seemed this Master had done a lot of homework on him. Master A sounded almost as though he admired Lucas. It wasn’t something he was used to. Lucas had been admired for his money and his connections. He’d been looked up to for being one of the Camerons, even if he was the black sheep of the political family. Only Lexi and his small, cobbled together family ever admired him for what he could do, for the care he gave to the people around him. Lucas felt like the stranger had seen far too much of him.

“What’s wrong?” Lexi’s voice pulled Lucas out of his panic. He looked down at her, so beautiful and vulnerable.

Master A’s hand came out of his hair, and Lucas felt strangely cold as the large man stepped back, taking his body heat with him. It had been oddly comforting to be held like that. It had been so, so long since he’d felt like someone else was in control and he could relax.

“There’s nothing wrong, Lexi,” Master A said. Lucas could see their small encounter wasn’t completely lost on the Dom. He was sporting an impressive erection in his leathers. Apparently Leo had been right. Master A liked it both ways. “Lucas and I were having a slight disagreement over the equipment we’ll use for this evening’s scene. We’ve settled it now. Go back to your place and get into slave position. I’ll call on you in a minute.”

Lucas saw the moment they got into serious trouble. Lexi’s eyes flared, and her hands came up on her hips. The world moved in a strange slow motion as her gorgeous, painted red mouth came open.

“Fuck you. I’m not getting on that sawhorse. It’s uncomfortable. And what right do you have to put a hand on Lucas?”

Lucas felt the room go ice cold as all that intimidation turned on Lexi’s petite, curvy body. Master A stared at her for a moment. The room had gone deadly quiet as though the crowd realized the scene had started without the traditional opening. Everyone was watching as the universally acknowledged problem child of The Club turned her bratty mouth on the new guy.

Even Lexi seemed to realize she’d gone too far, but she held her ground. His girl wouldn’t sweetly apologize. Not to a Dom she hadn’t felt had earned her respect.

“Lucas, I need to know if you’re in or you’re out.” The words rang from the Master’s mouth and seemed to swell in the otherwise silent room.

Master A hadn’t turned to him. Those cold eyes held Lexi in their snare like a cobra waiting to strike at a pretty little bird he’d caught in a trap. But Lucas understood. He was the one who was really trapped. He could take his girl and leave this world they had come to love. He and Lexi had played at the edges of this particular ocean, but they’d never waded into deep waters. He could scoop her up and walk away and never know if they could have been happy if they had only learned how to swim.

Or he could do what every switch had to do from time to time. He could gamble and give up control and hope that he found paradise for his trouble. Lucas Cameron might have grown more stable and settled in the past few years, but he hadn’t forgotten what it meant to take a risk.

“I’m in.”

* * *

Lexi realized she was in serious trouble the minute the words left Lucas’s mouth. Hell, she’d realized she was in trouble the minute she opened her own damn mouth. What was she thinking? She knew damn well how to behave in a dungeon, but something about this Master made her want to push him. Damn it. She’d been this way all of her life. She just had to push. She thought about taking a step back, but before she could make her feet move, Master A had her in a fireman’s hold.