Page 1 of The Lasso Master

1

HARPER

If Harper had a dollar for every time a man in leather pants tried to order her around, she’d be able to retire somewhere warm and suspiciously lawless.

Unfortunately, tonight she was the one in leather—or more accurately, in barely there black lace with matching stilettos that screamednot here to play, here to slay. Subtlety had never been her strong suit. Getting away with it? Now that was her art. Her pulse quickened—not from nerves, not yet—but from the quiet thrill of stepping back into the game. The air smelled like leather and money, layered over something darker. Anticipation prickled beneath her skin, a silent itch that only came with danger. This wasn’t just recon. This was theater. And tonight, Harper was center stage.

Iron Spurloomed in front of her like temptation dressed up in wrought iron and velvet. Classy. Private. Expensive. And allegedly, the last known location of a stolen Spanish artifact that had once hung innocently inside the San Antonio Museum of Fine Arts. It had gone missing last month. So had Harper’s name from polite society. Coincidence? The cops didn’t think so.

Harper touched her collar—the temporary kind, satin, adjustable, and blessedly not symbolic—and walked into theclub like she owned it, or at least like she’d already changed the deed and was charging rent. Confidence was ninety percent of the con. The other ten? Pure nerve, great legs, and two lock picks tucked into the discreet lining of her bra. One for doors. One for emergencies. She wasn’t planning on using either... unless she had to.

Underneath the calculated swagger, though, was a familiar layering of emotions—calm on the surface, nerves curled tight just below. It was the armor she wore into every con: confidence stitched over unease, curiosity laced with adrenaline. She told herself it wasn’t fear. It was focus. Sharp and necessary. Showing fear was worse than getting caught.

“Name?” The front desk Dom was built like a linebacker and had the voice of a man who owned way too many canes.

“Harper Langston.” She smiled sweetly. “New to the club. I believe I’m expected?”

Total fabrication. Well-delivered, but still bold-faced fiction. Most clubs and Doms frowned on lies, but fiction was another matter altogether. After all, wasn't the Iron Spur the home of bestselling romance novelist Vanessa Ellington?

A tech sub—twinkling with more piercings than clothing—tapped at a tablet. “You’re on the guest list. Sponsored by… Jesse Bryant?”

Harper blinked.Oh, thank God for small favors.Jesse Bryant owed her—big. Last year, he’d landed himself in the middle of a scandal involving a missing Fabergé egg, an ambassador’s wife, and a poorly timed fire alarm. Harper had gotten him out of it with only minor bruising to his pride. Apparently, Jesse hadn’t forgotten.

“Right this way, Ms. Langston.”

The club’s interior was rich with dark leather, low lighting, and heat that wasn’t just from the air. St. Andrew’s crosses, softrope stations, private booths—all tasteful, all deadly serious in the world of D/s. Harper didn’t flinch. She wasn’t here to play.

She was here to find a stolen piece of history—and not get spanked in the process... unless, of course, someone askednicely.

She made it two laps through the lounge, hips swaying just enough to make the curious look twice, before locking eyes with him. He wasn’t lounging or flirting. He wasn’t pretending. He was assessing—eyes sharp, expression unreadable, posture like judgment wrapped in silk and steel—like a predator deciding whether the prey in stilettos was worth the trouble.

Tall. Dark-haired. Broad-shouldered. And dressed like he didn’t care about the dress code because hewasthe dress code—refined, unapologetic, and impossible to ignore. His posture was pure command: spine straight, chin slightly tipped, like he owned the room and was just deciding whether to burn it down.

His outfit—black leather pants with a laced-up fly and a silk shirt that shimmered under the low lights—wasn’t just expensive. It was strategic. Designed to draw attention but warn you not to stare too long.

Harper blinked. That shirt probably cost more than her food budget for the entire month. Not that it said much—her food budget often consisted of discount boxed wine and ramen, with the occasional guilty splurge on frozen seafood linguine when she felt fancy and could afford it.

Harper felt it like a wire pulled tight in her chest, the tension thrumming low and dangerous. The weight of his gaze didn’t flirt—it dominated. It settled on her skin like a command she hadn’t agreed to but still obeyed. There was no soft edge, nowarm invitation. He exerted raw pressure, thick with intention, unmistakably suggesting that pursuing her would either wreck or remake her.

He stood with one hand in his pocket, the other curled loosely around a glass of something neat. Power rolled off him like a thunderhead. He wasn’t watching her like he wanted to play. He was watching her like he wanted to drag her over his knee and demand answers.

Harper turned her back and kept moving, her heels clicking against the polished floors like punctuation marks in a sentence she hadn’t finished writing yet. One antique artifact. That was it. Just a quick look through the gallery rooms, confirm its presence, grab the evidence, and ghost out of this place before anyone figured out she wasn’t just another curious sub with a thing for candle wax and control.

She wasn’t here to get tied up—she was here to tie off loose ends. Clean it up. Erase the trail. Retrieve the artifact and vanish again before her past caught up with her. Because the truth was, she wasn’t just walking a fine line—she was dancing barefoot on barbed wire. And while the game still thrilled her, there were moments—quiet, creeping ones—when she wondered how many more escapes she had left, or what it might be like to just disappear. Again, which was a shame because she liked San Antonio and had actually thought about making friends..

Then she made a mistake. The kind her gut warned against, but curiosity and obsession steamrolled over, anyway. She spotted a Dom leading a sub past her—a tall man in a tan leather vest with a walk that screamed practiced authority and zero patience for nonsense. Harper’s attention snapped to the delicate necklace draped around the sub’s throat.

Not the missing artifact. But the design was close. Too close. The kind of close that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise and her heartbeat quicken—not from fear, but from thethrill of a lead. The details matched the artist’s signature down to the telltale lopsided flourish on the left side of the pendant. The signature asymmetry that marked it as the work of Barroco Morales, a master artisan and infamous kleptomaniac whose stolen pieces were more recognizable than his legitimate ones. Someone had either gotten very lucky at auction or very dirty under the table. Harper was betting on the latter.

Harper’s heart gave a sharp twist. Her mind whispered ‘Bingo.’Followed by:Don’t.Followed immediately by:But what if…?That was the problem with being good at this—spotting a thread and feeling compelled to yank it. Just a peek, just a question, but it never stayed just a peek. Curiosity wasn’t just a cat killer—it was a professional hazard. And Harper was the damn poster girl.

Harper’s instincts lit up like a neon sign in a blackout. And when that happened, her mouth tended to jump the fence long before her brain caught up. Subtlety might’ve been the smarter play, but subtlety had never been her love language. Wit and provocation? Those were her comfort zone.

“Excuse me,” she said, stepping right into the couple's path. “That’s a lovely piece. Is it… a Barroco Morales?”

The sub blinked, her eyes darting nervously to the Dom like she’d accidentally triggered a minefield. The Dom didn’t just frown—he exhaled a slow, deliberate breath through his nose, the kind that warned earthquakes might follow. His hand tightened ever so slightly on the leash, and Harper could practically feel the temperature around them drop three degrees.

“It’s from a private collection,” he said coolly. “And it’s not up for discussion.”

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