a row would likely make him look every bit as stupid as he felt. What did having an iPad and liking to read have to do with dungeons? And then his brain finally made the connection. “You’ve read Fifty Shades of Grey ? That isn’t real BDSM, you know? It’s not at all true to the real lifestyle.”
“I know that, but Tymber Dalton’s books are genuine. As are those from quite a large number of other erotic romance authors.”
Fortunately Vallen took over the conversation just then because Diego’s brain was about to explode at the thought that Zoe knew all about BDSM from reading books by authors he hadn’t heard of, yet likely needed to read in a hurry so he would know how much she knew. How long were these books? How fast could he read them? All his spare time lately seemed to be spent washing dishes in her mother’s kitchen, and sooner or later, his Alpha would demand he and his brothers get back to their real job.
In fact, it was almost a miracle their Alpha had let them, as well as the Reillys and the Stewarts, spend so much time at the church lately. Luckily the Alpha approved of them finding their mates, but the company had to perform its tasks or the money would run out, which would affect everyone. So their free time was probably going to come to an end sooner rather than later.
“Would you like to see inside a real dungeon, Zoe? Maybe climb on the spanking bench and learn what it feels like to have someone whip your ass?” asked Vallen.
Monty continued, his voice so deep and smooth that Diego was almost surprised at his own brother. “Or perhaps you’d like to try out the St Andrew’s Cross or one of the other pieces of furniture. We’d be more than happy to accommodate your interests.”
When Monty said interests , Diego almost swallowed his tongue. Fuck yes. Her interests in a dungeon were absolutely what he wanted to accommodate, as long as she accommodated him. Preferably inside her hot, wet body.
“Just what, exactly, would this visit to the dungeon involve?” asked Zoe.
“Nothing you don’t want it to,” Diego answered, taking the exit off the freeway and heading toward the warehouse. He hoped like hell Vallen had remembered to make a booking for the damn dungeon. Arriving and finding someone else using it would be a real turnoff for them all.
* * * *
The moment they’d started talking about the panthers’ dungeon Monty had pulled out his cell phone and gotten into the panther booking calendar. There were quite a few common use rooms in the warehouse. Most families had a small apartment in the huge building, and a lot of areas were shared use. A panther who wanted to use the area put their name in the calendar and received a text message with a code to enter into the security pad by the doorway.
Monty was almost holding his breath as he checked the calendar for the dungeon. When he saw their names already listed there and was able to download the code to use onto his cell phone, he heaved an enormous sigh of relief.
Of course, he’d been so intent on what he was doing he’d missed the last few minutes of conversation, but he gave a thumbs-up in success to his brothers. So far so good.
He jumped out of the car when they reached the warehouse and unlocked the high, wire security gate, locking it immediately behind them. The parking lot was large and only half full, but that was mostly because many families, like theirs, shared a single vehicle. The pack as a whole had several cars securely parked inside the basement of the building, out of sight, and these vehicles were used for covert jobs. Cars so nondescript and ordinary that bystanders could rarely identify them. The rest of the time each family used its own vehicle.
Instead of going back to the car, he let his brothers escort Zoe and hurried across to the entry to the warehouse. Each panther had a pass code to punch in to enter the building. Their family number was 75429. Vallen’s number was 754291, his was