When the masks come off, they know it’s real.Dan Colton was once the CIA’s golden boy—a get-things-done cowboy who believed it was better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. But performing the devil’s work was easier when he had the face of an angel—a damn good asset to have whether he was charming agency superiors…or training submissives in his dark dungeon role-plays. But that face was … face was taken away, disfigured in a fire during an act of bravery.
Tess Lesange, known around the CIA’s Vegas office as “The Laser,” has only one Achilles’ heel—the brooding agent who once wouldn’t give her the time of day. Since Dan Colton’s accident, they’ve become friends, even trusting each other with some of their kinkier secrets. What are friends for, right?
Wrong.
Still seeking the submissive dream, Tess takes matters into her own hands and journeys in disguise to one of the desert’s most elicit kink clubs. When the Dominant she meets is beneath a mask and wielding a familiar voice, she wonders if karma has conspired to fulfill her deepest fantasies…and how high a price she’ll have to pay for it to come true. Is she willing to sacrifice the friendship she’s built with Dan for one unforgettable night in his dungeon?
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I so loved this one! Dan and Tess are now my favorite Honor Bound couple. While we still have the Wild boys doing their thing, it is more a back seat issue in this one. Dan let his scars drag him into darkness. Tess is the light at the end of the tunnel but he refuses to let himself see it. That is until she dips herself into his dark world. This one had it all. Drama, pain, humor, angst and so much heat you will need a\c! It tears you up and then makes you giggle. Bravo Angel Payne!!! You have succeeded in surpassing yourself. This series has everyone by the throat and I am no different
The Honor Bound Series just keeps getting better! In this book you get Dan and Tess both work for the CIA and have developed a close friendship since Dan was hurt during a rescue. Dan has pretty much withdrawn from life except for his relationship with Tess. This story is so much more than a romance,you have people who also struggle with body image ,learning your not just what appears on the outside. Angel created a story with real struggles and characters that are flawed but beautiful. I couldn’t put it down. If you haven’t read this series you are definitely missing out!!
Um wow! Just wow wow wow!!!! I cannot, CANNOT get over how much I loved this one!!!!! This series is intense and emotional and sometimes you need a little break and escape to a super sexy and somewhat easy love story! THIS. WAS. IT. I am literally, shamelessly, 100% in love with Sir Daniel Colton! He is one of the best Dom’s I have ever read. He’s everything. Did I mention I love him??!! He is a survivor, a strong and intelligent man who is trying to overcome a facial disfigurement. This injury happened because he was bravely going his job, now he hates his face and he thinks he doesn’t deserve happiness and anything good. It is so easy to turn to the shadows when all you want to do is hide. Enter Tess. This is the first time in this series we have met Tess. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know how much I would care for her. I mean who does she think she is coming into the series this late in the game, pining over sexy Daniel?! Yes, I know that was the jealousy talking!! I love her, love her love her!! She is one strong and selfless woman! She has been Daniels rock and true friend through his year of healing. She is smart and witty and independent and she is looking for her Sir! She hopes for that to be Daniel but sadly he doesn’t want to risk their friendship. How very Noble right? Luckily his “knightlyness” doesn’t last long. By chance he sees Tess in a club, fishing for a Dom to help her with her submission. Daniel can’t bare the thought of just any Dom having her once he sees her sitting so prettily, so he lets “nobody” have her. In a disguise to protest both of them, he brings Tess into his world. One taste certainly isn’t enough once their OFF THE CHARTS CHEMISTRY is explored. Daniel can’t stop himself from seeing Tess again. Tess is falling quickly and easily for her mystery Sir but doesn’t know how to voice it. Sounds complicated?? Complicated but so delicious. I couldn’t put this book down. I was obsessed with finishing while praying for more pages! Angel always delivers sexy and witty stories. She has such an incredible mind and imagination and her description and detail is amazing. She weaves all the Honor Bound men and their ladies so seamlessly into each other’s lives, they are a true brotherhood and family. I highly recommend the series and I am saying now that Masked has been my favorite book yet!!!Angel Payne
Holy Hotness! Dan dealing with his own scars and pulling Tess along for the ride. This book was HOT!
How can I just have one favourite couple from the Honor Bound series when with each book I read from it, I fall in love with each character and each couple?
Masked is book 7 in the Honor Bound series (previously names WILDer Kind Of Love (book 7 in The WILD Boys of Special Forces)
In Masked, we meet Dan and Tess and honestly this book was not only HOT as hell but it was a unique story and grabbed my attention from page one!
Dan: An irresistible Dominant, a man that had it all, and could get who and want he wanted with a snap of his fingers, he was a man that used his looks to get the job done. Use his looks to his advantage. But that all suddenly changed and after a devastating mission and severe burns to his body, he’s no longer able to rely on his looks, and his charm has slipped, he goes into a deep and dark place, he withdraws from his family and friends, not only having scars on the outside, he’s suffering with some on the inside, but isn’t one to open up about them. He becomes a shell of his old self. He finds himself in a vanilla relationship with a woman wants nothing whatsoever to do with the BDSM lifestyle, yet Dan continues to crave it, he needs it, and he knows this relationship isn’t right for him but he continues to lie to himself and put himself through torture denying himself something he needs.
Tess: A smart, driven and hard woman craving to dominated, not just by any man, by Dan. She doesn’t seem to have many weaknesses, but her one weakness is Dan. They’ve worked together for a while now. She knew him as the sexy as hell god that cracked a smile and every woman in the room swoon and dropped to their knees, and now she’s seeing a side of him that not many others don’t.
They work a long side each other and Tess’s longing for this man only intensifies, her longing for him to bring her to her knees, to submit to him. The closer they get to each other, the more they open up to each other, both sharing the darker desires they both have. You’d think they’d be a perfect match, right? Well Dan refused to believe it. Continue to deny himself who and what he truly needs and as much as she tries to show him, he keeps her at arms length. Even after she point blank asked him to be her Dom. He refuses.
But Tess wants a taste of being dominated and takes matters into her own hands, wanting to experience the submission and domination herself, and one night at a BDSM club Tess finds herself drawn to a Dom behind a mask, a familiar voice fills her ears. It’s none other than Dan himself, but she’s not about to tell him she knows it’s him.
Dan knew it was her, and behind the wall he’s had build up trying to fight off his feeling he had for her is a man that needs to dominate, he needs it, he craves it and he secretly craves her.
When the mask comes off and the truth is revealed. Will it all turn to hell? Will they ruin what is an amazing friendship and bond? Or will they fly high together? Embracing each other’s desires and needs, and coming together and coming alive? You have to read it to find out!
THESE TWO TOGETHER? Jesus Christ. The heat, the chemistry, the longing, the desire, the dominance and submission! It’s page burning HOT. This friends to lovers romances is beautiful and hot, and heartbreaking, and intense.. and amazing… I got all the feels from this book!!
Part of this brings up a few home truth for myself, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow but it was also insightful and has gotten my brain on overdrive.
READ THIS! Seriously, you will not be disappointed.
Angel Payne, you continue to blow me away with each book I read, it makes me discover things that I didn’t even know about MYSELF. But this book, it’s something more to me than the rest. Something about this love story that’s grabbed me hard and it’s not letting go. I found myself crying through half of the book and laughing insanely through the rest.
AMAZING. Well done, Ms. Payne, you’ve nailed it flawlessly!
5-INTENSELY-AMAZING-STARS!
An awesome story about a man who has a life changing event and a woman who loves him even more because of it.
4 Star Review of Masked (Honor Bound Book 7) by Angel Payne
This is the story of CIA special agent Daniel (Dan) Colton and Tess Lesange also known as The Laser in the CIA’s Vegas office.
Dan was badly burnt in his last mission and has withdrawn from most of his family, friends. colleagues and the lifestyle he loves. Prior to the mission he used his good looks to complete his missions successfully. Now that he is scared he has withdrawn from life and hides in the shadows.
Tess has always had a thing for Dan and when he was injured she finally had an opportunity to be noticed and became the friend he needed, even though Dan remained in a vanilla sexual relationship with Brynn. Dan and Tess are very good friends and have emotionally connected.
Brynn has no interest in the BDSM lifestyle than Dan has lived and so he turns that side of himself off. I felt he casually discarded Brynn and that is not something I would have expected from Dan.
Tess on the other hand is intrigued and desperately wants to submit. So much so that she has read “all the books”. She actually asks Dan if he will be her Dom and he refuses. Intent on exploring the lifestyle she goes to Catacomb, a club run by one of Dan’s friends.
Tess meets a masked Dom who reminds her of someone, but as his voice is as masked as his face, she has no idea that it is in reality Dan. Tess is desperate to experience submission as it is calling to her very soul. Dan cannot stand the thought of another Dominant touching her and so he connects with Tess offering her one night. Tess accepts and is led off to a themed room. Her masked Dom hands her the key to unlock the room (symbolic on so many levels) and so begins their night.
Perhaps if Dan had left it as one night I might not have minded so much but he contacts Tess again arranges another intense night at Catacomb with Tess to continue their journey together into Dominance and Submission.
Sadly it is based on a lie. Tess really has no idea that it is Dan even though at times the masked Dom seems familiar. I have to say I really didn’t feel that Dan’s actions were appropriate. I truly understand his desire to give Tess what she so desperately needs but I really felt it went against his character which has been shown to be so honourable throughout the series. But then that is just my opinion. Perhaps it is because they had emotionally connected as friends on such a deep level I was incensed that Dan would contemplate masquerading as someone else. I felt that Dan was being dishonest, not only in lying by omission to Tess but to his own integrity and hiding who he really is, not just physically but emotionally. Both have scars from their pasts that need to be addressed before either of them can move forward.
The sex is certainly intense and being honest it was scorching. But I kept thinking “what will happen when Tess finds out it was Dan all along?” and that distracted me a bit. I was fully invested in Tess’s feelings and her submission. As always these scenes of BDSM were beautifully and sensually written, so much so that I wished to be Tess, I freely admit.
When danger rears its ugly head in the form of a group of assassins hired to take out all of the men and their families from the last mission, Dan has no choice but to destroy his friendship with Tess and admit that he was the masked Dom at Catacomb. Tess is totally devastated and feels betrayed and rightly so.
I felt that this section let this book down. The danger and subsequent outcomes seemed rushed and when Dan announces to the world publicly that he is taking over his families company and leaving the CIA I felt it was all a bit too hurried. Tess suddenly forgives Dan (all because he holds a rose at his press conference, s symbol that only Tess would understand) for his behaviour and goes to him and all is forgotten. A bit too easy for me, I felt that Dan should have worked for Tess’s forgiveness and I was disappointed that Tess who had showed so much bravery in going after what she wanted would suddenly cave without demanding more form Dan. I wanted to see them work out their differences and how she overcame her feelings of betrayal. I wanted to see how they got to their HEA and I felt let down that I didn’t get that. Of course all of this is just my opinion.
Having said all of that, I love catching up with these men and their women and I enjoyed Masked and cannot wait to more books in the series.