GENRE: Gay BDSM Thriller Spicy Romance
LENGTH: 77,870 words
RATING:

Sequel to Be Brave

MI6 assassin Kael Saunders is a larger than life, dominant master who finds himself becoming a Daddy to nineteen-year-old Angel Button. Over the last year and a half, Kael and Angel have settled into a loving Dom/sub relationship. But no matter how comfortable the highly intelligent and ruthless assassin and his sweet, eager, loving boy become with each other, Kael is still the boss and Angel wants him to remain so, whether in the dungeon, the bedroom, or the kitchen. Naturally submissive, Angel has learned how to be a good Daddy’s boy and a good slave, but his childlike willfulness still makes itself known now and again.

When Angel is kidnapped by an enemy of Kael's, he'll stop at nothing to save his boy and keep him out of danger. But Angel is determined to learn how to gather intelligence and be a good MI6 operative. Will conflict tear them apart?

EXCERPT:
Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

Across Stephen Conran’s extensive and beautifully appointed drawing room, Kael watched Angel chatting easily with a small group of young people. But Angel’s very pale blond hair and beautiful gray eyes set him apart. The shirt he had chosen had a wing-tip collar and he wore a floppy bow tie, making him look just as smart as the others but unique and interesting as well.

The room was packed with men in tuxedos and white ties and women in designer ball gowns. White-coated waiters sailed by holding aloft trays crowded with tall glasses of champagne. A string quartet played classical music in an adjoining room. The place reeked of money and class as much as it reeked of expensive perfume and oysters on ice. Upper-class accents stretched their vowels all around him.

“Angel looks happy.” Conran came up beside him in the crowded room. “That’s my niece and nephew he’s chatting with. The other two are the children of the new Labour member for Lambeth. I don’t really like the woman, but I couldn’t leave her out.” Glancing to his right, Kael looked down into Conran’s eyes, his best feature despite their paleness. Conran took the empty glass from Kael’s hand and waved over a waiter. Before Kael could pick up another glass, Conran picked one up and handed it to him.

A gesture of submission?

“Angel’s always happy. Why wouldn’t he be?” Kael never said thank you to Conran. It had been months since he had allowed the other man into his dungeon, and it would not be long before Conran asked again.

“Is he doing well in school?”

Kael’s gaze gravitated naturally back to his boy. He smiled automatically at a sudden burst of laughter from Angel. He loved to see his boy enjoying himself. Their fourteen-year age gap sometimes made him wonder if Angel found him boring, so Kael encouraged him to spend time with people his own age. Briefly Angel met his gaze before turning back to his companions. “Of course he is. He’ll get his A levels, no problem.”

“He’s a lovely boy. He would have ended up on the streets if not for you, even with his mother being married to that French billionaire.”

The very thought made all of Kael’s protective instincts scream. Without guidance Angel would probably have done what most emotionally lost and neglected teenagers do: made very bad choices. “He hasn’t heard from her since early last year, which is probably for the best.”

“Have you chosen a university for him yet?”

“He’s going to Cambridge like I did,” Kael said decisively. “But we’re supposed to apply to three. I’ll put Cambridge as his first choice.”

“He can come straight into the service if you change your mind,” Conran said quietly. “The training you’ve already given him and the experiences he had in Bosnia last year and France earlier this year put him ahead of the pack. Another year or two and he’ll be very good.”

“He’s only just turned nineteen. I was twenty-two when you recruited me. But I was a ruthless bastard from the day I was born. Angel’s not like that. He still thinks you only send me after bad dudes.” Kael imitated Angel’s American accent.

“You don’t want him jaded like you and me?” Conran asked.

“If he didn’t get jaded from his life in foster care and then living with his gunrunner stepfather, perhaps nothing can make him jaded.”

In a whisper so quiet a normal man would not have heard him, Conran said, “I don’t suppose I could visit you soon, just for an hour or two?”

Even though he didn’t move a facial muscle, Kael was grinning inside. “Why would you want to do that? For tea and a chat?”

A long, almost weary sigh escaped Conran’s pursed lips. “You know what I want,” he whispered.

“And you know I have enough on you to blackmail you for the rest of your life, Stephen.”

“Yes, of course I know,” Conran said.

“You can’t resist me, can you?” Slinging his arm around Conran’s shoulder, Kael crushed the smaller man to his side. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said as if promising a young child a longed-for treat.

Squirming, Conran hissed, “Get off, for God sake. Why can you never be discreet?”

Kael laughed, squeezing him for another second before letting him go. “I am the soul of discretion. How else could I do my job?”

“Yes, well, I wish you’d be as discreet about other things too. Come along to my study. I want to talk to you about something.”

Glancing out into the hall at the grandfather clock, Kael said, “It’s almost midnight.”

“This won’t take long.”

Kael followed him into the relative quiet of the hall and along to Conran’s study. Inside he put his champagne glass on the desk and helped himself to a whisky from the bottle on the bookshelf. “Do you think I’m too old for Angel?” It must have been all the champagne, because he never exposed himself emotionally. He wasn’t even sure what he wanted Conran to say.

“Good grief! Is the man who rules the world actually having fears his lover’s heart may be divided?”