Dungeon Master (Dungeons and Doms Book 1) Read online

  Dungeon Master

  Golden Angel

  Copyright © 2021 by Golden Angel

  Cover Model - Kevin Davis

  Photographer - Furious Fotog

  Cover Designer - Furious Fotog

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other Books by Golden Angel

  Acknowledgments

  I want to start by thanking everyone who requested a later-in-life kinky romance from me. I loved writing Dungeon Master and I know I’m going to love this whole series so much.

  I also need to give a special shoutout to my husband (though he always gets one) and my best friend Katie for helping me through some of the finer nuances of D&D since I had yet to play a full campaign when I wrote this (something that we’re currently in the process of changing!).

  Another shoutout to my friend Lisa, who is always on-call to answer questions about Pittsburgh for me.

  A huge thank you to my alpha readers, Marie, Marta, Karen, Annie, Candida, Nick, and Katherine, and to my beta readers Lesley and Rhonda. All of you helped me make this book so much better than it would have been otherwise.

  And thank you to everyone in my Facebook group who immediately jumped in to answer me when I asked about sex after menopause. If the sex scenes came across as relatable and realistic, it is entirely due to the candidness and help of my group!

  Lastly - thank you, dear reader, for picking up this book. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, reviews and/or are always appreciated.

  Take care and stay sassy,

  Angel

  Prologue

  Gavin

  The club was busy, on both floors, as always. Looking around, Gavin felt nothing but pride at what he had built. The Outlands was a safe haven for kinksters, tucked away under what was a bar by day and a popular nightclub for the college students at night. None of them had any idea there was a secret basement full of whips, chains, and an assortment of other toys beneath them while they partied away on the floor above.

  His eyes scanned the room. There were plenty of Dungeon Monitors, but Gavin liked to keep an eye on things. The club was set up as one very large room, but when it got crowded, as it did on the weekends, it was impossible to see everything going on. That was the only flaw. If he had to do it all again, he’d design this room with a balcony so he could survey the entire floor from one position.

  Control freak.

  Maybe a wee bit.

  “Master Gavin.”

  The soft voice made him turn to look down at Brianne, a sweet submissive who had a monumental crush on him. Since she was respectful about it, Gavin tried not to hurt her feelings, but she was becoming more and more forward in her requests.

  “Yes, lassie?” He kept his voice short and clipped. Despite his years in the states, he’d managed to maintain his original Scottish burr, but he tried to damp that down now. He knew the submissives thought it was sexy, and he didn’t want to encourage her.

  “I was wondering if you would like to play tonight, Master Gavin. I would be happy to be of assistance.” She peeked up at him, though her head remained down, trying to gauge his reaction to the offer.

  Clever girl. She’d chosen a night when his ex-wife, Leah, wasn’t here. Despite being divorced, he and Leah scened at Outlands on a fairly regular basis. Their marriage hadn’t worked out, but neither of them had been able to get over the other. The bedroom had been the one place they’d always gotten along, and that had continued even after the split.

  Gavin never scened with anyone else when Leah was there. He also didn’t have sex with any of the submissives he scened with other than Leah, but that didn’t seem to stop some of them from hoping. As long as Leah wasn’t wearing his collar, he knew this would keep happening.

  Raising his gaze away from the young submissive next to him, Gavin didn’t feel even a little tempted. Brianne was, what, twenty-five? Less than half his age. It didn’t make him feel virile or manly to have young women interested in him. It made him feel old. Their hopes and dreams were still intact. They hadn’t been beaten down by life yet, whereas he was cynical and jaded.

  Except…

  His eyes were drawn to the couple across the room—the ones who had come in for the first time yesterday.

  Logan had his wife, Felicity, tied to a square wooden column and was flogging her. The two of them had come to Pittsburgh for the weekend, and he liked to keep an eye on any newcomers, but that wasn’t the entire reason why his eyes were constantly drawn to them. To be honest, he wasn’t sure why. Something about them had tickled his interest.

  “Master Gavin?”

  The right words, said in the wrong voice.

  “Not tonight, lass.” Gavin shook his head, turning his attention back to her. “Would you like some help finding another Dom to scene with?”

  “No, thank you, Master Gavin.” She sighed heavily before walking away.

  Gavin’s mouth twitched. He wondered if the sigh was supposed to make him feel guilty. If so, she’d underestimated what an ornery bastard he was. It didn’t bother him to turn her away.

  He looked back at Logan and Felicity. Logan was setting up a Hitachi against the column. Gavin grinned and moved closer. He enjoyed watching a good scene as much as the next man.

  “Thanks for the ride back home and the help,” Logan said as Gavin parked the car in front of the hotel where Logan and Felicity were staying. The pretty submissive was tucked up next to her husband, lightly snoring. She’d been flying high in subspace after their scene, and Logan had needed some help with her.

  “No problem. I didna have anything better to do tonight, anyway.” That and he hadn’t been able to resist the opportunity to learn more about the couple, even though it meant leaving the club on a busy night. The DMs would have things well in hand, as well as his assistant manager, but it still made him itch to be away on the weekend. “Did you get everything out of the club you wanted?”

  He helped Logan slide Felicity out of the backseat. She stirred slightly, moaning a little, but didn’t wake.

  “We did.” Logan grinned, the expression lighting up his face. When Gavin had first met the couple yesterday, Logan had been far more tense, like something was weighing him down. Now he was much lighter. A good scene could do that, but this felt like something more. “I’m sure we’ll be back in the future. It’s been a long time since we’ve scened, and it’s hard to do at home with the kids around.” He shrugged. “We got into a bit of a rut for a while, but we both want to try to stay out of another one.”

  A rut.

  Those were familiar words. Gavin slung one of Felicity’s arms over
his shoulders while Logan did the same on the other side, allowing them both to support her. He was impressed, Logan didn’t seem bothered needing help. Not all men were so secure, but then it was a bit of a way to their room.

  “So, this weekend was about reconnecting?” Normally, Gavin wasn’t so nosy, but he couldn’t help but see the parallels between Logan and Felicity and himself and Leah. Except he and Leah had only had one kid, and they hadn’t reconnected. They’d split up instead.

  “Sort of.” Logan smiled down at his wife, who seemed to have woken up a bit. She was still out of it, but she was moving her feet as they walked her along. “We’ve been doing the reconnecting thing for weeks now, just working on our relationship. This was more intense, of course, but I don’t think it would have gone as well if we hadn’t been talking more and spending more time together.”

  “That was always the part I was bad at,” Gavin said, surprising himself with the confession. Logan’s words made his chest hurt, stirring up long-dead memories of Leah telling him she was leaving him and trying to explain why. He’d been so young and stupid, so convinced if they’d been ‘right,’ everything would be easy. It wasn’t until he’d gotten older he’d realized how wrong he’d been, but now it was too late… right?

  “What?”

  “The talking and spending time together,” he said, shrugging. They walked through the front door of the hotel, and Logan waved at the man behind the front desk to indicate they were okay. Gavin could only imagine how this looked, but the man waved back. “Sorry, I was thinking aloud.”

  “Find the right woman, and it becomes easier. We still had to work at it, though.”

  “Sometimes even finding the right woman doesn’t make a difference.” Gavin laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound.

  Then again, had he really worked at it, the way Logan and Felicity were?

  We’ve been doing the reconnecting thing for weeks now, just working on our relationship.

  Gavin hadn’t done that. He’d refused to admit there was anything wrong with their relationship. They’d been mostly happy and had plenty of hot sex, so whatever was bothering Leah couldn’t be that bad… That’s what he’d thought until she’d announced she was leaving him. Looking back, he was able to see how hard she’d tried.

  She set up dates for them, which he’d often been late to or had to cancel because of work. She invited him along to all sorts of outings she’d taken with their son, Mitch. Eventually, she asked to go to couple’s counseling.

  She hadn’t made a fuss over the dates, or when he wanted to stay home and relax while she and Mitch were out, or when he’d said no to counseling, so he hadn’t realized he’d been driving her away. Not until she finally said she’d had enough and was leaving. Then he’d been ticked she hadn’t spoken up for herself before if all those things were so important to her. He’d been convinced he was right, and she was unreasonable. He’d wanted another chance, once he’d known how much it all meant to her, but she hadn’t been willing.

  I already gave you every chance.

  But I didn’t know that’s what you were doing!

  He’d ultimately come to the conclusion while she’d always have his heart, they weren’t good in a relationship. Later, he realized he might be more of the problem. Yes, Leah should have made it clear when something was important to her, but on the other hand, he could have tried harder. Part of him felt as if he should have known if she was willing to bring something up, it must have been important to her. Leah wasn’t one to ask for things, and Gavin had taken that to mean she didn’t want anything.

  In other words, he’d been a right cunt, and she’d been right to leave him.

  Saying goodbye to Logan and Felicity, Gavin wandered back out to his car. The couple was younger than him, but it wasn’t too late for them. Maybe it wasn’t too late for him and Leah, either.

  Something to think about.

  Chapter One

  Leah

  “I might be too old for this,” Leah muttered, staring at herself in the bathroom mirror. Her blonde didn’t show much grey since it had come in silver, and her hair remained light, but she knew it was there.

  A first date at fifty-two was nothing like a first date at twenty-three or even thirty-three. At least, she assumed it wasn’t. She hadn’t had a first date since she was twenty, and she’d been married and pregnant by the time she was twenty-three, but it had to be different, right?

  For one, she had never met a man on the internet until now. Get-to-know-you conversations were in person when she’d been dating. Of course, that made her feel even older, as if she should be shaking her fist at her phone and croaking the words ‘in my day.’

  She didn’t have the body she had back then, not that she looked bad now. She liked her body and had always considered herself to be all about self-love and body-positivity, but dating meant putting herself up to be judged by a stranger. It had been a long time since she had to worry about someone else judging her appearance.

  Considering how much effort she put into primping, shaving, curling her hair, and putting on makeup—even more than she did when she went to the kink club she regularly attended—her date had better come to the right conclusion. She thought she looked pretty good, but that didn’t help the tumble of pre-date nerves in her stomach.

  Why am I doing this again?

  A plaintive meow had her turning around to see the cute little orange kitten she’d adopted on impulse the other day. She’d gone to the grocery store to get groceries, and there had been an adoption event happening a few storefronts down, and well, one thing led to another.

  “Hello, Oliver, who’s Mommy’s big boy?” she asked, scooping the kitten up in one hand and bringing him in for a cuddle. Purring like a miniature motorcycle on rocket fuel, he rubbed the underside of her chin with the top of his head, loving on her as much as she was on him.

  Right. This is why.

  Having a newly constant companion had made her realize how lonely she’d become. It was nice to come home to someone who loved her, who cared she was there, instead of an empty house with no life in it. Divorced and with her only son moving out years ago, she’d been the only one in the house until Oliver.

  Some people might enjoy the peace and quiet, but Leah didn’t. She’d grown up in a noisy household with one big brother and two sisters. The silence of the empty house had been kind of nice for a while, she supposed, but Oliver’s presence had fulfilled something she now realized she’d been missing. Suddenly, she’d seen her years stretching on ahead of her, with just her and a cat.

  Sure, she could have gone and gotten more cats, but instead, she’d found herself signing up for a dating app. Talking to Oliver was nicer than talking to herself, but having someone who could answer back would be even better. Someone she could spend the rest of her life with, who wanted her for more than sex. She shoved the thought away, determined not to think about her ex tonight.

  The door rang, making her jump. Oliver protested when her arms tightened around him a little too quickly, but he was such a good kitty, his protest was purely vocal.

  “Sorry, baby,” she murmured, hurrying out of the bathroom. She glanced at the clock in the living room on her way to the door. Her date was about fifteen minutes early.

  While Leah was all for punctuality, fifteen minutes seemed a little excessive. Should she count that against him? Then again, maybe he’d given himself extra time to find the house and had gotten here early—could be a plus, could be a minus.

  “Hi, sorry, I’m…” Her voice trailed off when she yanked the door open, and instead of the in-the-flesh version of OlderGent57, she found herself looking into the piercing blue eyes of her ex-husband, as if that one stray thought had summoned him like the devil he was. Gavin Craig was six feet of confidence and dominance all rolled into one sexy silver fox package that never failed to make her heart turn over.

  Her heart and the rest of her body. His presence had that much force.

  At least he w
as wearing regular jeans and a shirt instead of his kilt. The kilt was like a weapon of mass distraction. She couldn’t think straight when he wore it, and he knew it.

  “Hello, love,” he said with his usual hint of a Scottish accent and the same wicked grin he greeted her with when they attended Outlands together. The club, which he owned, was one of the two places where they still saw each other regularly, which was another reason she’d decided to start dating again.

  She needed to get over the man standing in front of her—the man with a bouquet of Stargazer lilies, her favorite flowers. Leah pretended not to see them. Yeah, dumb, but she was having a miniature freakout, which was perfectly understandable.

  “Gavin. What are you doing here?” He never came here. This was Leah’s sanctuary, the home she’d made for herself after their divorce. There wasn’t a single memory of him within these walls, and she had to keep it that way for her sanity. Sure, he’d known where she lived, but she never invited him over, and he never came by without an invitation… until now.

  Did he have some kind of sixth sense that said, “Leah has a date, go ruin it?”

  Instead of answering her question, Gavin locked eyes with Oliver, his brow furrowing.

  “When did ye get a cat?”

  “Last week.” Instinctively, she tightened her hold on Oliver. Gavin wouldn’t have made her get rid of a cat when they were married, but he’d always professed himself to not be a ‘cat person.’ They’d never gotten one, even though Leah had really wanted one. He cocked his head to the side, studying Oliver, who seemed to be studying him just as closely. Dammit. She needed to get Gavin out of here before Simon arrived.