Tobias’s mentor, the Dom who runs an exclusive club for trustworthy gentlemen in the BDSM scene, reminds Tobias that sometimes he must be cruel to be kind. As delightful as it is for Tobias and Noah to play with each other in fantasy scenes and in plain old vanilla male-on-male sex (all the blow jobs and anal sex mentioned in my review of the previous novel), they both have demons to face. Tobias realizes that if he really wants to become the proud owner of a fulfilled submissive, he must probe into Noah’s past even if it is painful for them both.

Of course, Tobias also has a past, and he still feels some responsibility for his previous “boy,” Phantom. Noah’s perception of the unfinished business between them makes him feel unreasonably jealous, even by his own standards, and his jealousy appears to be a roadblock in his relationship with Tobias.

It becomes increasingly clear to the reader as well as to the characters that all the loose ends must be tied up, and the emotional baggage dealt with, before anyone can move on.
While Tobias and Noah continue to learn about each other’s desires and fears, Noah meets Phantom, and finds him both attractive and flirtatious. Can two subs play happily together? Apparently so, but as in their relationships with Masters, physical release is not all they need.

Meanwhile, Tobias needs to know how Noah was hurt in the past, and whether the perpetrator is still causing harm to others. A network of relationships between honourable leathermen is revealed and contrasted with the shadowy world of seedy leather bars in which anyone can hook up with anyone else – no questions asked, no references checked.

The differences between BDSM as a healing journey and criminal abuse are clearly shown. Tobias is outraged that abusers so often get away scot-free because abused submissives (like heterosexual women who have been date-raped) are usually too ashamed to report the incident to police who are likely to think that they “asked for it.” However, as the tattoo-covered owner of a leather bar points out, for some of his customers the danger of an edgy milieu is a large part of its attraction.

The issues raised by past relationships in the lives of Tobias and Noah are resolved well enough that their mutual trust can continue to deepen. Tobias realizes that he needs to revive his earlier skill with a bullwhip by practicing with his mentor. The sound it makes seems to him to be emblematic of his whole lifestyle, and the pleasure he gets from it has more to do with the accuracy of the strike and the esthetic value of the resulting mark than simply with the pain or danger it represents. Acquiring competence is shown to be a lifelong process. Tobias becomes aware that sometimes a Dom (as well as a sub) needs to relearn what he learned before -- and needs to relearn that he needs to relearn it.