Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Billionaires
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
One night. One auction. One dangerously irresistible deal.
Theo Marlowe was supposed to be invisible—just another caterer at an elite gala. Instead, he ends up the unexpected star of a secret, high-stakes auction… with a ruthless billionaire bidding six figures to own him for a week.
Dominic Vale doesn’t lose. Ever. But Theo? He’s not playing by anyone’s rules—not even his own.
What starts as a forced arrangement spirals into seven days of tangled power plays, forbidden desire, and soul-stripping honesty. But when secrets are uncovered and control slips, both men are left to ask: Was it just a game, or something much more dangerous—something real?
This red-hot MM romance delivers:
- Billionaire x working-class tension with delicious dominance-submission undertones
- A shocking secret-auction setup that flips the power dynamic in seconds
- Emotional slow-burn laced with edge, mystery, and layered trauma
- Steamy, intense scenes that melt more than just resolve
- One week to surrender… or walk away forever
He was never supposed to be more than a pawn.
But he may be the one thing the billionaire can’t control—or forget.
The Review
The Billionaire’s Game is part two of Power and Possessions trilogy within the Private Encounters series that has two main characters plus two important secondary characters. It is a bit of a respite from book one (Before The Game) in not being quite as dark. It may not be dark but it is definitely on the edge of right and wrong.
Here we get to meet the second main character of the trilogy: Theo Marlowe. What you see immediately or suspect, if you’ve read Before The Game is that Theo is a good match for Dominic Vale’s perfect man. As with all my comments here, you do not get real confirmation from the author. You are left to make assumptions. You are engaged and want to know what is going, on and build on the tidbits of information you are offered. You end up digging deep like Dominic has done before attending one of the secret auctions.
Theo is a twenty-three year old student working his way through college, taking what jobs he can to survive. He finds himself thrust into the auction, when all he was hoping for was a break from serving drinks at a gala. He has no idea what he has got into but he is not going to make it easy on who ever has the winning bid. He may be young but life has rarely been good for him and he has always been strong enough to get through the stuff he encounters on a daily basis.
Dominic, the billionaire business man who goes against his usual non-participation in the bidding, ends up purchasing Theo for seven days. If you have read Before the Game, you will have some idea why. There’s more than one interpretation as to what he is up to, but I’ll leave you to work that out, other than remind you that Theo looks like someone who was once familiar to Dominic.
Their interactions are tense and not necessarily rewarding to each other. Things come to a head when Theo discovers some documents in a drawer. And although not something I expect an answer to, when did Theo end up in a cabin on the estate in chapter 5? It seems rather pointless inclusion as Theo could just as well be in a studio / work room within the house.
A tense and a bit ragged around the edges story about control, acceptance and attraction that does not take an easy way out. Dominic is a bit more settled after the fragile state he was in Before The Game but nothing is ever easy for him. Both characters come to a sort of understanding, but whether that is enough is anyone’s guess.
That’s what book three, After The Fall, is for.
Read this and the rest of the trilogy. Well worth a few disturbed moments during your sleep.
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.
