Free Gay for Pay by Kim Dare

Chapter One

    Ben Smith scanned the crowd for a third time. Every light had been turned towards the stage at the far end of the club, leaving the audience in shadows. He nudged his way through the press of leather clad bodies, trying to pick out one face from the dozens surrounding him, to spot one head of blond hair in the gloomy light.
    Smith looked down as he kicked against something. A submissive knelt ignored in the middle of the crowd, while the dominant holding his lead watched the action on the stage.
    Smith sighed and stepped around the submissive, pushing aside his desire to slap the so-called dominant around the back of the head and remind him to take better care of his property.
    Right then, he had more important things to worry about than the fact there didn’t seem to be one good dominant in the building. Things like bringing his boss’s brat of a son to heel before he caused a scandal that would send his father into palpitations.
    Smith muttered a curse. He was going to kill him. It was the only solution. He’d throttle Lockwood junior and be done with it—but not before he tracked down whatever idiot first suggested he go into the private security business when he left the police force, and throttled him too.
    Nate Lockwood wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Smith bit out another curse. So much for reliable information. So much for ‘I saw him go into the club with my own eyes’. Smith added another name to the long list of people he’d like to grab hold of by the neck.
    It was a relief to know Nate wasn’t part of the screwed up version of dominance that seemed to thrive in the club, but a larger part of Smith howled its protest at not knowing where the younger man was, at not knowing he was safe.
    A microphone buzzed back into life as another submissive was shoved up onto the stage to take his place on the auction block.
    “Oh, isn’t that sweet! He’s shy,” the auctioneer crowed.
    GAY FOR PAY
    Kim Dare
    6

    Smith glanced at the stage. The submissive was wearing a half-mask. It didn’t extend far enough down his cheeks to stop his blush being visible, but it was still by far the largest article of clothing he wore.
    A tiny leather posing pouch just about covered his cock. A collar marked him out as one of the submissives being auctioned off that night. Cuffs wrapped around his wrists and held his hands behind his back. But everywhere else was just bare skin.
    “Let’s see what we’ve got.” The auctioneer consulted his notes and let out of harsh laugh. “This one is something special, gentlemen.”
    Smith only half heard him. The mask was topped with a head of impossibly golden hair. The body on display beneath it was young and lean and horribly familiar—not with reality, but with what he’d always imagined Nate Lockwood might look like if he was wearing a few strips of leather rather than a suit that cost more than Smith made in a year.
    No. Even Lockwood’s son and heir couldn’t be that big a fool. The only reason a man like Nate could end up on that block was as part of a hissy fit over some stupid argument with his father, and even he had to be smarter than that.
    The auctioneer put a hand on the submissive’s shoulder. Smith’s hand clenched into a fist and the last of his doubts over Nate’s identity evaporated. There was only one man in the world who could raise that mixture of possessiveness and frustration inside him.
    “It says blondie here is straight,” the auctioneer announced. “He’s gay for pay, gentlemen. And apparently desperate enough for the cash that he’ll set no limits on what you can do with him for the next twenty-four hours.”
    Smith took a deep breath and somehow resisted the temptation to yell out that the stupid little idiot didn’t need the money. Nate was making a mockery of everything Smith held dear for no better reason than a bloody temper tantrum.
    “Turn around, darling, let the nice gentlemen see what they’ll get for their money.”
    Nate