SS: Authors Choice

One of the best things about writing is when one, or more, of your secondary characters come alive. That’s often how series’ are born. At least that’s how my Dungeon series started. Karl was a throw-away character in Bound who showed up,unplanned, as the hero’s best friend in Trouble. Half way through Trouble I knew he had to have his own story, and that was Wicked.
In Wicked there’s a scene where Karl has to meet with the owner of The Dungeon, the BDSM club he hangs out at. The owners name is Mason Hardin, and he’s not an easy man to get a meeting with. I have no idea why, he just came to me that way. The scene is short, yet for some reason Mason has stuck in the back of my head for a couple of years. I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately, trying to figure out what his story is, but he’s not sharing. I think the only way to learn his story is to start writing it, and see what happens.
With that in the back of my mind I thought I’d share the scene from Wicked that he’s in, and see if you find him as intriguing as I do.

The Dungeon was pretty quiet on Monday nights, which is why he’d planned his visit for that night. He had a few things to accomplish, first off being a visit with the owner.
“Mr. Hardin, Thanks for seeing me tonight.” Karl held out his hand to the clean-cut man standing behind the desk.
“Not a problem, Karl. Please call me Mason. Valentine Ward spoke very highly of you. He also said you had something I really need to know about?”
He’d had a hard time getting a meeting with the mysterious owner of the club, so he’d had Val give him a call. Being the owner of one of the hottest nightclubs in town, Val had been able to set up the meeting as a favor.
Once they were both settled, Karl got straight to the point. “Someone’s taking compromising photographs of your members, while they’re within The Dungeon.”
As a lawyer, and a Dom, Karl was pretty good at reading people’s expressions, but Mason didn’t give anything away. A breach in security like that would mean the clubs business. Members of The Dungeon pay highly to be able to play in a safe, protected environment. “And you’ve come by this information how?”
“I’m sure you’ve read my membership file, so you know I’m a divorce lawyer. One of my clients is going through a bit of a nasty one, and she’s procured some photos of her soon-to-be-ex husband as leverage. She refused to tell me how she got them, but I will find out. I just figured you could work it from this end as well.”
The muscle in the club owner’s clean-shaven jaw twitched. “You saw the photos?”
“Yes.”
“Describe them.”
“To be blunt -a well known male client, strapped to a padded spanking bench in the Shared Room with a dildo shoved up his ass and a cock down his throat.”
Suddenly Mr. Clean-cut didn’t look so calm. “The Shared Room,” he said. “Do you know when they were taken?”
Karl shook his head. “No, and I’ll do my best to make sure my client doesn’t use them, but I think you’ll need to do some damage control there anyway.”
Karl stood and the two men shook hands. “Sorry I had to bring this to you, but we both know how important it is.”
“Yes, thank you,” Mason said. “It’ll be dealt with, and quickly.”
Karl left the office and put that issue in the back of his mind.
* * * * *
Ofcourse there’s more to the scene, but that’s all there is of Mason Hardin.
So…intriguing? I find him very much so…the clean cut man who owns/runs a BDSM club. In re-reading the scene I realized that the air of power and slight dangerous vibe didn’t really come across. Maybe it was all in my head…but it’s there, and I can’t wait to dig in and figure him out.
if you want to learn more abotu WICKED, visit my book page here. or purchase it at Amazon here.
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