“Luke Davis,” he said, looking her directly in the eye. There was something almost apologetic in his tone, even though he’d only said his name, as if he was hoping to make up for the way he’d entered the class. “I’ve always liked bossy women and one of my ex’s friends pointed out to me that I obviously wanted one in the bedroom as well. I did some research, but didn’t know how to go about getting involved with BDSM in real life until I heard about Stronghold.”

Caught in the sincerity of his gaze, Olivia couldn’t help but note he didn’t say exactly how he heard about Stronghold. Her Baby Doms would have seen him at the club the past few weeks, but no one outside of Patrick’s immediate group of friends knew Luke was the third, silent partner in Marquis. Patrick probably would have tried to keep the information even more contained, but keeping secrets within their group was nearly impossible. Obviously Luke was just as determined to truly stay silent.

And she knew she was focusing on that instead of the rest of it because part of her was still struggling with the idea of him as a submissive.

As a man she could actually become involved with.

Since she definitely couldn’t become involved with him since he was part-owner of the club she was now managing and she therefore reported to him. There weren’t any actual rules about fraternization, but Olivia couldn’t even begin to imagine how the dynamics of such a relationship—even a strictly sexual one—would work.

She needed to remember he was still off limits.

Which sucked a lot more now that she had a feeling he might turn out to actually be sexually submissive.

Good thing she already had her plan on how to keep her distance tonight.

“All right, so that’s everyone,” she said, her tone a little more clipped than she’d intended. Looking away from Luke, she did her best to soften her voice a little as she started to give her usual spiel about the general information they needed to know.

He had definitely not imagined the flare of attraction between himself and Olivia, especially when he’d stated his lack of experience but the reason why he thought Stronghold could be a good fit for him. The look in her gray eyes was one he’d never seen directed at him before, and his body had responded immediately.

Which was truly unfortunate since he should definitely be paying attention to everything she was saying about limits, being safe, sane, and consensual, and safewords. Michael and Patrick had gone over the initial survey with him, explaining what everything was and answering any questions he had so that he could decide on his limits. He still needed to listen, though, just in case they’d missed anything.