Free Gay for Pay by Kim Dare Page A

made a slow revolution on the stage. A chorus of cat calls went up. Smith’s frown deepened as he momentarily turned his attention back to the audience. All the gear, no idea. He’d bet his last penny he was the only true leather master in the club.
    “And how much will one of you pay for the privilege of trying to change Mr. ‘I’ll-only-ever-be-gay-for-pay’s mind?” the auctioneer asked, giving Nate a slap on the backside.
    GAY FOR PAY
    Kim Dare
    7

    The dominants in that club that night might have been half-arsed idiots, but they were rich idiots. The price hit five figures and kept going. Smith stood still and silent in the middle of the crowd, letting the bidding go on until most of the players fell by the wayside.
    “Going once?”
    Smith raised his hand and the bid.
    Ten bids and twenty-five thousand pounds later, he was the proud owner of one gay for pay pillock. As Nate was pulled down off the stage, Smith pushed his way through the crowd, shoving pathetic excuses for dominants aside while keeping one eye out for submissives who might have been left where they could be tripped over.
    Tossing his corporate credit card on the desk leading into the back room, Smith scrawled his signature and snatched the key to Nate’s restraints off the table.
    “His clothes?” he asked.
    The guy behind the table smirked. “It seems we’ve misplaced them—so sorry.”
    Smith turned away without a word.
    Calm, he reminded himself. He had a job to do. That job was to retrieve Nate and take him home. Nothing more, nothing less. It wasn’t his business to sort the club out and turn it into somewhere a good master wouldn’t be ashamed to be seen.
    Just like it wasn’t his place to explain to Nate exactly what would have happened if one of the guys playing at being dominant had bought him. Nor was it his place to tell him he needed to grow up and stop acting like a spoilt brat.
    Someone had parked Nate by a wooden pillar in the middle of the room. A length of chain ran from the post to his collar. He looked glorious. Even the surroundings, the situation and that stupid mask couldn’t change that. And he was all his for the next twenty-four hours.
    Smith’s step faltered. No. Nate wasn’t his. He couldn’t forget that. Professional. The fact he was half hard, and seeing Nate in bondage was making him harder by the moment, wasn’t important. The knowledge that he’d wanted Nate to belong to him since the first moment he set eyes on him wasn’t relevant.
    Professional.
    Nate looked across at him. Through the holes in the mask, Smith saw the fear and the uncertainty in his eyes. Sudden sympathy surged inside him, pushing aside lust until he GAY FOR PAY
    Kim Dare
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    wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around the smaller man and tell him he was safe. Yes, he was a fool, but—
    “Smith!”
    Smith held back a sign. Professional. There would be no sex. There would be no possession. There would be no sympathy and there sure as hell wouldn’t be any hugging.
    “What are you doing here?” Nate blurted out.
    Smith yanked his collar to one side and undid the padlock. Quickly freeing Nate from his restraints, he tossed them aside.
    “Smith—” Nate tried again.
    “I have no interest in anything you have to say,” Smith snapped. “Come on.” He marched Nate back through the crowds, ignoring all the suggestions for how he should spend the next twenty-four hours. They stepped out of the club, straight into the underground car park. Nate shivered as his bare feet met cold concrete and the damp night air closed around him.
    Smith led him across to his car, trying not to feel guilty for not taking his coat into the club with him. He wasn’t bloody well psychic. He couldn’t have known Nate would have been for sale rather than one of the jackass’ bidding. But right then, that didn’t matter. Nate was the submissive. He was the dominant. There weren’t any excuses for failing to take care of him.
    He undid the