“Hey, guys.” The brunette glanced around. “Where’re your masters?”

“You don’t want to know,” Jessica said firmly. “Sally, this is Kim, who is—”

“Master Raoul’s submissive.” Sally’s eyes widened. “I didn’t see your fireplay scene, but I saw you together afterward. God, he really dotes on you, doesn’t he?” Her envy was obvious and heartening.

“I—” Kim sighed. “Maybe. But I have a question about his past. Can you help?”

“Sure. If Jessica says it’s okay, then I figure it’s okay.” Sally nodded to a group of chairs by the munchie tables. “Sit and I’ll get provisions. Gossip is hungry work.”

“She’s so cute,” Kim whispered to Jessica as they sat down, and Gabi headed for the bottled water. “I can’t believe she doesn’t have a dom of her own.”

Jessica grinned. “She’s totally sweet and fun, but during a scene, usually some poor sucker of a dom finds out she’s also incredibly smart. She’s had a couple of relationships, but she can’t give up control unless a guy is sharper and stronger than she is.”

Gabi set down bottles of water, giving the bar a wistful look. “I sure could use a drink.”

Sally brought over a plate of tiny egg rolls and another of minipizzas, then dropped into a chair. “Okay, what information do you need?”

Kim hesitated. This felt like a betrayal, poking into Master R’s business, but—

“Raoul’s ex,” Gabi said firmly, winking at Kim. “Something ugly happened with her, and Kim needs to find out what.”

“Oooh,” Sally waved her hand in the air. “Pick me, teacher. I know the answer.”

Jessica and Gabi laughed.

Oh God, there really was something. Kim’s stomach clenched.

Sally sobered and said slowly, “There’s like two parts to this, and I shouldn’t know this first part, right? But it’s not like I snooped or anything. See, Master Raoul had just filed for divorce, and he was here real late with Master Dan, and they’d both been drinking more than normal.” She grimaced. “Um, I’d rather they not find out I spilled. I got the impression Dan’s the only person who knows.”

“I won’t tell him,” Kim promised firmly.

“Dan drinks?” Jessica asked.

“He stopped a while back.” Sally munched down an egg roll. “It boils down to this: Master Raoul came home, went into his dungeon, and found his wife screwing her sister’s husband. Very willingly.”

“Holy shit,” Gabi said. “Poor Raoul.”

“Yeah.” Sally opened a bottle of water. “It gets worse. The bro-in-law had whipped the hell out of her first.”

Kim frowned. “She made love to the guy after he hurt her? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Oh, it does. See, she was a serious pain slut—even kinda warped about it, you know? Into scars and blood, anything. I’m not sure she even had limits, but Raoul—well, you know him— he’s got a line he doesn’t cross. He’d deal out bruises and welts and stuff, but not permanent damage. They were definitely mismatched.”

Alicia’s injuries hadn’t come from Raoul? Kim frowned.

“God, this is good gossip,” Jessica said. “I mean, it’s horrible of us to share, but…” She wiggled. “Go on.”

“So there I was, carrying over their drinks with Raoul talking about it. Just totally wrecked.”

“God, that must have hurt him bad.” Kim felt the ache deep in her bones. Master R was so careful of everyone and so insistent on honesty. To have his wife cheat on him—and in his home. “But didn’t he have a clue? He always knows if I’m lying.”

Jessica wrapped an arm around Kim and squeezed gently. “Even the Shadowlands Masters are only human—although it’s not easy to remember sometimes. When they’re in dom mode, they’re really, really perceptive, but they can’t stay that way all the time.”

“You could see their marriage had problems. Raoul, he’s so honorable, he wouldn’t give up, but Alicia—” Sally shrugged. “She was nice enough, and everybody liked her, and she had this great sarcastic sense of humor, but she was…hmm…maybe not all that honest.”

Adultery wasn’t exactly honest, no. But why had Alicia gone to Master R’s family with that bullshit story? It wasn’t like he’d been the one screwing around on her. “So she divorced Master R, and they went their separate ways? I heard…” How could she put this? “I heard she said some stuff about him.”

Sally popped an egg roll in her mouth, holding up her hand for them to wait. “Okay, this is the second part of the story. I got it from Vanessa, who got it from Alicia since they were BFFs back then. And it’s not a big secret. See, Alicia demanded a prenup ’cause Master Raoul had just started his company not long before, and she was making the big bucks. She didn’t want to share, you know?”

The woman sounded like a cast-iron bitch, Kim decided.

“What a loser,” Gabi muttered.

Sally continued, “But then Raoul’s company takes off, and he’s mad at her cheating, and he sticks to the prenup—yours is yours and mine is mine. Even worse, he filed for divorce the day after he found them. So she goes ballistic, saying he’d screwed her over.”

“Only she was the one doing the screwing.” Gabi shook her head. “Poor Raoul.”

“Yeah. She came here after she’d gotten the papers and was screaming her head off in the dressing rooms. She stripped to show off all the damage—and the bro-in-law had really messed her up. But she was saying Raoul did it.”

“Oh my God,” Gabi said. “I bet people believed her too.”

“Not for long.” Sally grinned. “This was before Raoul was a master, so Z hadn’t a clue about what had really happened, but you know how Z is. Superpsychologist-plus and a layer of dom on top?”

Jessica snickered. “That’s him, all right.”

“Anyway, he, like, stalks into the women’s room—and really flusters some naked women too—and Alicia has her back to him. He listens to the bullshit.”

Kim realized she was holding her breath. “Were you there?”

“Yeah, all us trainees were getting dressed.” Sally gave a mock shiver. “Z was—God, he listened, and his face got that really pissed-off, cold expression of his, the one that can shrivel everything up inside you? And he says right to her face that she’s lying.”

“Oooh,” Jessica said. “Z never makes a mistake about liars.”

“What happened?” Gabi grabbed Kim’s hand.

“She didn’t even try to deny it. Not to Master Z.” Sally waggled her water bottle. “He told her she had one minute to put her clothes on. Then he booted her out and canceled her membership.”

That explained why Master R’s ex had been out for revenge. But what about the other part? That he hadn’t let her leave. “And was she his s-slave?”

Gabi said, “Kim—”

“I need to know.”

Jessica frowned. “He and Z and I were talking one night. Z’d swatted my butt for being impertinent, and he told Raoul about how we’d started off keeping the D/s stuff to scenes and bedrooms, but how it had edged out into our lifestyle.” She shrugged. “It really has. Knowing Z might pick up the reins at any minute means it’s always simmering under the surface—and I love it.”

Sally gave an audible sigh.

Jessica grinned at her. “Anyway, Raoul said his went the other way. He and Alicia started off in a Master/slave relationship, but it had died away.” She bit her lip. “He looked, I don’t know, empty.”

Kim could feel the ache in her chest. “So—why start and then stop?”

Sally shook her head and said slowly, “I think new love makes you crazy, and if you’re new to BDSM, maybe it’s difficult to tell what’s what. But if you don’t have that need to serve or submit, then a power exchange won’t work very long. On the other end, there’s solid M/s and D/s relationships where the people aren’t in love, but they’re both fulfilled.”

“That’s pretty convoluted, but I almost understand what you’re saying,” Gabi said.

Sally grinned. “Anyway, Alicia wasn’t into service or even submission. Straight-shot masochist. And it was obvious. But it was hard on Master Raoul. He’s dominant right down to his bones.”

Could I keep Master R happy? Kim frowned. Do I want to serve him just because I love him? Oh, wonderful. More questions. But for right now… “What time is it?”

“A little after nine. Why?” Jessica asked.

“I have a visit to make.” She rummaged in her purse and pulled out the note she’d made earlier. It was downright scary how easy it was to use the Internet to get a person’s address.

She started to ask Gabi to lend her the car, then rethought. Panicking on someone’s doorstep wouldn’t be smart—she should have brought her escort dog. “Gabi, can you come with me?”