Free With or Without Him by Barbara Elsborg

been on the moon. No wonder he’d reared away when Tyler had thrown himself at him. I’m an idiot.
    In any case, why was he even wasting energy thinking about him? Haris had been at the BDSM event which showed which way he leaned and that wasn’t a world Tyler wanted to know any more about than he already did. But thank fuck Haris had looked at him and understood about the ball gag. He’d even tried to persuade Lu to take it out. Tyler stumbled. Then what? Haris hadn’t persisted. He’d given up and walked off. And the lights had gone out. The alarm had gone off. And Haris had come back.
    Tyler turned the corner to find he’d returned to the warehouse. Two fire engines stood on the street but there was no sign of fire, no smoke, no panic. As he approached the building, the fire tenders pulled away and a group of people made their way inside.
    Had Haris turned off the lights, activated the alarm? Tyler’s gut told him he had. So was he an experienced Dom? Someone who knew Lu had gone too far? Someone who wanted to show Tyler how a Dom/sub relationship should work? But he’d recoiled from him which was hardly Dom behavior. Maybe he already had a sub. No way am I a sub.
    Fuck it. What did it matter?
    No Mex on the door, so he made his way up the stairs. Inside the gallery, people were packing up. Prescott wouldn’t be happy his event had been spoiled. Tyler spotted him with Jeremy and headed straight over.
    Prescott frowned. “Where have you been?”
    “Burning to death in a fire.”
    “What fire? It was a false alarm.” Prescott clenched his jaw. “Some wanker has cost me a lot of money. We hadn’t even got to the main event.”
    “Aren’t you insured?” Jeremy asked.
    “Only if there’d been a fire. Pity there wasn’t.”
    A red haze filled Tyler’s vision. “Good thing for me there wasn’t. You didn’t tell me this was what you wanted me to do.”
    Prescott laughed. “You’ll do anything for money. You’re like me.”
    Tyler glared. “You like having fucking clamps biting into your tackle? Having a ball gag strapped to your head? Not being able to give a safe word? It was fucking awful. And Lu left me. If there’d been a fire, I’d have died.”
    “What are you talking about?” Prescott glanced toward where Lu was packing up his things.
    “As soon as the lights and the alarm went off, Lu disappeared. He left me tied up and gagged. My safety was his responsibility and he fucked off. I hung there in the dark with the bloody alarm blaring and thought I was going to die.”
    Jeremy gasped.
    “Then how the hell did you get free?” Prescott asked.
    “I was untied by someone who didn’t freak out like everyone else.” Tyler stepped right into Prescott’s personal space. “Lu is a fucking moron.”
    “I’ll have words.”
    Tyler laughed. “Yeah, right. What are you going to say? ‘Don’t do it again?’ I want my money. And don’t try and tell me I didn’t do what you wanted. I did.”
    Prescott pushed him back and pulled out his wallet. “You were supposed to be here all night. There. Five hundred. Half. That’s all you’re getting.”
    Tyler shoved the notes into his pocket. He’d worried Prescott wouldn’t give him anything.
    Prescott sighed as he looked around the room. “Now clear off, both of you. I’m no longer in the mood.”
    Tyler stalked across the floor, Jeremy on his heels.
    “Hey, wait up,” Jeremy called.
    “No.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    Tyler slammed to a halt at the entrance to the gallery and turned to face him. “You left me too.”
    “I had no choice. Prescott dragged me outside.”
    Tyler shook his head. “There’s always a choice.” He hurried down the stairs.
    “There was no fucking fire,” Jeremy called.
    Tyler emerged onto the street and took a deep breath of cold air. There was a fire and he’d just walked out of it. He never wanted to see Prescott again.

Chapter Five
    Tyler held it together until he was safe in his room with the door