Free A Shot in the Dark by Christine D'Abo

shoulder. The constant physical contact was enough to help keep her from frantically looking around to see if Rick was watching. Not that she had any illusions about him coming to find her again, but he would think twice about it with Carter present.
    They rode most of the way to the burger joint in silence, and Carter only filled her in on a few of the details about the happy-to-be-a-single-guy party he’d been attending. “It was sad how what we all wanted was a girl to go home to.”
    “They should go out more.”
    “That’s what I said, but I wasn’t about to tell them where.” He changed lanes and pulled down the side street leading to her house. “I don’t think any of them could handle going to a place like Mavericks.”
    Paige smiled and twisted her hair around her finger. “They don’t know about your preferences?”
    “They think I’m an overbearing jerk and they can’t figure out why any woman in the world would be interested in me.”
    “I can name a few reasons.”
    “Then I might bring you down to the station house and you can let them know personally. Use inches and diameter if you need to.”
    That had her laughing. “Next left. Third house on the right.”
    The burgers were still warm when she tossed the bag on the kitchen counter. Carter followed her right in and didn’t even check her place out. It was nice to know he respected her privacy as much as he did her body.
    “I can give you the fifty-cent tour later on if you want.”
    “Food first, tour later. I missed out on the steak.”
    They slipped into easy conversation as they ate. Paige kept her focus on his face for as much of the conversation as she could. Carter’s blond hair was messier today and his clothing more casual than she’d ever seen him in before. He wasn’t at all self-conscious about anything, and his easygoing nature wrapped around her and helped her relax.
    It was only once they’d cleared the dishes away and they’d opened up their third beer that he pulled her over to the couch and turned her to him. “Are you going to tell me what happened earlier, or am I going to have to make it a command?”
    There was no malice. Paige knew he was trying to appeal to all aspects of her nature—the woman and the submissive. He would do whatever she needed to make this easier.
    She slipped to the floor by the couch, spread her thighs and bowed her head. “If you don’t mind, Sir.”
    The silence stretched on for several moments before he set the beer bottle on the side table with a soft thunk. “Paige, who showed up today?”
    She licked her lips. “Rick.”
    “And who is Rick to you?”
    “He is…was my Master.”
    “Your…what?”
    She took a breath. “He told me to refer to him as my Master. He was my first serious partner and Dom when I was young and naïve about the lifestyle. At the time, I didn’t understand there was a difference between being submissive and being a slave. Pain for pleasure, instead of pain for…” She shrugged.
    Carter’s fist tightened where it rested on his thigh. “Did he ever cross the line with you?”
    She snapped her head up. “I didn’t even know there was a line. I figured being submissive meant I had to take everything he dished out. I liked pain, but he didn’t always know when to back down.”
    “Did you safe word out a lot with him?”
    “I didn’t know what that was until over a year of us being together. By then, it didn’t seem important. He wouldn’t have listened to me anyway.”
    The muscle in Carter’s jaw twitched and his breathing grew shallow. “What happened? You left him?”
    She nodded. “I came home late from the office one night. Everything we ever did was normally easy to conceal. The marks from the flogger, the riding crop, his belt, they were all on my back or ass. But when I was late…”
    The events of that evening weren’t as clear as she would have liked. The nurse at the hospital had told her it wasn’t uncommon for head injuries to