Dungeon Master by Golden Angel

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 was 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.

“Gavin, what are you doing here?”

His eyes lifted to meet her gaze, and he gave her a lopsided smile. Not the smile he’d given her before. No, this one was a little less confident, a little more vulnerable, and so much harder to resist. When he spoke again, his Scottish burr was much more pronounced, a subtle declaration his emotions were higher.

“I’m here to win ye back, love.”

Her heart thudded into the pit of her stomach as the declaration sent her reeling.

Crap on toast.

* * *

Gavin

It was a good thing he hadn’t expected Leah to throw herself in his arms in a fit of joy, and he was ready for a challenge, but he hadn’t expected the first words out of her mouth.

“I have a date.”

Still holding the tiny orange ball of purring fluff against her chest, her expression was more ‘deer in headlights’ than ‘my secret hopes are coming true,’ which would have been hell enough on his ego, even without the admission. They’d carried a flame for each other long after they split, and even though she’d been the one to leave him, he’d hoped she’d be a little more amenable to the idea.

Then again, this was out of the blue for her, whereas he’d had months to think about it. To plan. Still, he hadn’t expected that.

“A date?”

Leah didn’t date, not since they’d divorced. Neither of them did. They’d both scened platonically with other partners at Outlands but always kept coming back to each other.

Her chin lifted, and her blue eyes flashed. Gavin looked her up and down. She was dressed for a date, but he’d initially assumed ladies’ night out or something. Her little black dress hugged every curve—though he couldn’t see how low it dipped in the front when she currently had the cat snuggled against her breasts—and her blonde hair was done up in a pretty twist, the kind of makeup that looked so natural it probably had taken twice the amount of time to do than her usual, and high heels that showed off her legs. She was always beautiful to him, but she did look particularly fine this evening.

“Yes, a date, and he’s going to be here any minute, so you need to go.” She waved her hand at him as if she was trying to shoo him away. She didn’t really expect that to work, did she?

“What’s his name?” Gavin crossed his arms over his chest, almost hitting himself in the face with the flowers and metaphorically digging in his heels. Leah glared at him. He stared back at her, silently waiting. She knew the fastest way to make him go away was to tell him what he wanted to know.

“Simon Keyserling, a professor of engineering at Pitt. He’s fifty-five with no criminal record, and he’ll be here in ten minutes. Please go away.”

There was a true plea in her voice, but Gavin couldn’t go, not yet. Leah going on a date was a wrinkle he hadn’t anticipated, but that didn’t change his goal.

After meeting Logan and Felicity, he started thinking maybe he could reconnect with Leah. He started reading books about relationships and watching some of the other successful couples at the Outlands. A couple weeks ago, he visited his son and saw Mitch was starting to follow in his footsteps. Thankfully, Mitch had ended up doing what Gavin hadn’t been able to with Leah. He’d made himself vulnerable and got his girl.

It was time for Gavin to do the same. He didn’t want to do the half-arsed thing with Leah anymore, taking stolen moments and scenes at the club but otherwise not having anything to do with each other. He wanted laughter and movie nights, arguments and conversation. He wanted to wake up every morning next to the person he loved.

Clearly, she agreed if she was starting to date again. He wasn’t opposed to that, but he meant for her to date him. Give him another chance and prove they could make their relationship work outside of the club or the bedroom.

“How long have you two been dating?”

Leah rolled her eyes, jiggling nervously. The cat in her arms wriggled, and she relaxed, stroking its tiny head. The little lad was pretty cute, Gavin had to admit, even though he’d never been much interested in cats. He was willing to make an exception for Leah, and she was clearly already attached.

“This is the first date, so I would really appreciate it if it didn’t begin with my ex standing on my doorstep.”

Ah. So, she was going to ignore Gavin’s declaration he was there to woo her back. That was fine. He was going to ignore her request to go away because her words incensed him.

“First date? And he’s picking you up here? Don’t you know you’re supposed to meet them somewhere, not give out your home address?” He snapped out the words as if they were in the club, not on the doorstep of her house.

“Oh, please, Gavin, we’re in our fifties. I hardly think I need to worry about a local professor being some kind of Ted Bundy.”

Gavin grit his teeth. This was a side of Leah he’d never quite understood. She was extremely careful about her safety in most regards, but she had some peculiar blind spots. His hand itched to spank her until she understood her safety was always paramount, and she was just as appealing at fifty-two as she had been when she was a lass in her twenties. Since they weren’t at the club, he didn’t have any rights to discipline her the way he longed to. The next time they were there… If there is a next time. An uneasy feeling rippled through his stomach.

He’d expected a long road to win Leah back—he hadn’t expected competition.

There was a long moment, then the side of her mouth twitched, and her eyes sparkled. Dammit. She was having him on.

“I’m kidding, Gavin. Jax knows him from around campus and signed off on him, and I let Cyana do a full background check on him. It’s fine. Now, will you please go?”

Little minx, having fun at his expense. Invoking the name of two of their mutual friends did help him relax. Jax was also a professor at Pitt, and Cyana… well, Cyana would do an even deeper dive into someone than Gavin could since she was a private investigator. He’d used her services more than once when researching new club member applications. He would definitely be asking her for the report on this Simon Keyserling.

He wasn’t going to go on his merry way. He’d come here for a specific reason, and even though his timing was apparently shite, he wanted to make sure Leah knew he wasn’t going to let her go without a fight. That was one of the mistakes he’d previously made and not one he was planning to repeat.

“I’ll go. Enjoy your date, but don’t forget what I said, love.” He grinned at her. “I aim to win ye back.” He held out the flowers he’d almost forgotten about during their conversation.

She took them reluctantly, but he saw the flash of appreciation in her eyes. The lilies were her favorite, and he hadn’t bought them nearly often enough for her before. Something so small hadn’t seemed to matter, but from the books he’d been reading about relationships, the small things often mattered a great deal.

“Thank you for the flowers,” she said primly. “But we are not getting back together. That’s the whole point of me dating someone else.” Despite her prim tone and her glare, she still hugged the flowers to the side where the cat wasn’t. The kitty reached out to bat at the cellophane.

Gavin’s grin widened as satisfaction laced through him. Yes, she appreciated the flowers. He wasn’t nearly as confident as he was pretending, but he did like seeing Leah with her dander up. It meant he still affected her, even if frustrating her wasn’t the emotion he’d been aiming to invoke. This wasn’t indifference. He could work with that.

“Challenge accepted, mo chridhe.”

Leah’s eyes widened at the Gaelic endearment he hadn’t used since they’d signed the divorce papers. It was something he’d heard his grandfather call his grandmother when he was a child, and he’d used it for her while they were married. Never since.

My heart.

Because she still was. Always had been.

Gavin turned and sauntered back toward his car.

“That was not a challenge, Gavin Craig! Do you hear me? That was not a challenge!”

He waved to his ex before getting into his car, leaving her fuming and forewarned. Bet she thought about him on her date. His therapist was going to have a field day when he told her about this, but it was worth it.