Free Perfect Stranger by KB Alan Page B

collar he was wearing, leash attached but hanging freely down his chest, then travelled to the cuffs that held his wrists together.
    Making herself look away, she scanned the area and spotted Vince. As if he felt her regard, he turned and met her eyes. There was no way to know what he saw in her, but he gave an encouraging nod and a little head tilt towards the stage.
    “All right, enough of that now,” the MC declared. “Let’s get this thing started.”
    * * *
    When the woman now walking in front of Eric had grasped the leash hanging down his chest, turned on her heel, and begun leading him out of the room, the audience had given an audible gasp. He suspected she hadn’t noticed. As she’d approached, he’d tried to get a read on her. Expecting flirtatiousness of either the shy or audacious variety, he’d instead found grim determination and a hint of sadness. All right, he could work with that. She’d just donated a nice sum of money to a worthy charity to get him alone for two hours. He supposed that earned anyone the right to be singularly focused.
    They stopped at the door leading to a long hallway of playrooms. Marcos, one of the club managers, offered the list of available spaces. His nameless purchaser scanned the list and quickly pointed out her desired room before he could consider taking charge of the decision himself. Marcos shot him a look, but managed to keep any smirks to himself before turning to show them to their door.
    She wore what could theoretically be called a plain black dress, but was in reality a sinful delight. It showed off her curves, stunningly long legs, and a whole lot of luscious, tan skin. What it didn’t do was give a clue as to her kinky preferences. Top or bottom? Could go either way. And there were no accessories to make the proclamation. No wrist cuffs, no riding crop, not even plain jewelry. Just the dress with the low back and high hem that made him want to get his hands busy exploring the landscape.
    Marcos opened a door and she swept inside without a pause. He eyed the other man, hoping for some explanation, some clue, but received only an elegant shrug before the manager pulled the door closed behind him, leaving Eric alone with a woman who he had yet to exchange a word with. Not that that was a problem. He just wasn’t used to being…unsure of what was happening. It left him unsettled and he pulled in a deep breath as unobtrusively as possible.
    At the sound of the door closing, she pulled her shoulders back, dropped the leash, and finally spoke. Her murmured “stay here” wasn’t exactly what he would have expected, had he gotten around to trying to anticipate what she was going to do rather than anticipating what her legs would look like wrapped around his ears. He curtailed his immediate impulse of responding with, well, anything, and managed to hold his tongue. He needed to figure out what was going on, what this woman was looking for, and, more importantly, what she needed, before he did or said something that would screw it up. It was pretty obvious that she wasn’t just a sub looking to tease a Dom she’d never met before. Something was going on and her vulnerability called to his instincts, strongly. Of course, her beauty only intensified those instincts.
    He considered himself a damn good Dom, which meant resisting the nearly overwhelming impulse to yank her to him, dropping them both to their knees so that he was surrounding her, letting her take comfort in his strength. No, unfortunately being strong for her right now was going to be a whole hell of a lot harder than that. It meant staying where he’d been when she’d issued her command and trying to figure out what this woman needed. Her tense shoulders, short breaths and the fact that she’d crossed the room, braced her hands against the bedpost and simply stared at the wall told him she for sure needed something. She hadn’t just bid on him for a lark. The fact that she’d been allowed into the