Genre: Contemporary, Billionaire
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
The sizzling prequel to the bestselling MM romance The Billionaire’s Game!
Before the game, there was power. There was desire. And one man who made control feel like chaos.
Dominic Vale has built his empire on discipline, wealth, and unshakable control. Every deal is calculated. Every relationship—detached. But when he enters the shadows of an elite underground auction, his world begins to fracture.
What starts as curiosity spirals into temptation. In a world of hidden transactions and moral gray zones, Dominic is forced to confront the one thing he never expected—his own vulnerability.
This slow-burn MM romance explores the origins of a man shaped by power, and the moment that changed everything.
Inside Before the Game, you’ll find:
- A ruthless billionaire who’s losing his grip on control
- A raw, psychological journey through obsession and restraint
- A luxury-soaked setting filled with secrets and seduction
- Elite underground auctions that push every boundary
- Deep emotional stakes wrapped in slow-burning tension
Before the Game is the emotionally charged prequel to the Power & Possession series—a darkly intimate MM romance where power isn’t just currency… it’s survival.
The Review
Before The Game is part one of a trilogy (Powers and Possessions) within the Private Encounters series that has two main characters, plus two important secondary characters. Here we have a prequel that takes place days before part two and before Theo, one of the main characters, appears on the scene. Before The Game tells the reader about Dominic Vale and his rapidly unwinding state of mind.
Dominic is a billionaire business man who keeps everyone at arm’s length, including the vetted male escorts he ‘indulges’ – his fantasy of being in control of his perfect vision of a past lover. We do not get to know much about this man, only that he exists and may or may not live in Paris.
Dominic has strict rules of contact with his escorts. They must not touch him or show any sign of attraction, and must do what he says. We do not get to experience a successful encounter but we do see a couple of failed ones, where an escort reached out to touch him. Dominic wants nothing of the sort. He just wants to stay behind the walls he has created.
Everything about his life is vetted, by himself and his PA Alice. Everything is researched and checked out continuously. What he doesn’t realised is that he has also been observed and vetted in turn, at least until he gets invited to participate in a new venture – a secret auction of vulnerable men, men who for some reason or other are not making the breakthrough they hoped for in their area of expertise.
They are offered help, advice, finance and / or useful introductions if they become an auction lot to be sold to the highest bidder. They then spend time with that bidder, providing sex or whatever is required, in exchange for what they need. At least that is the way things are sold to them. I’m assuming here as a lot of the goings on are kept in the shadows and carried out by shadowy people.
This is where Dominic begins to have doubts, and either a crisis of conscience or a breakdown of sorts. He has been following up his research and has determined something that has begun to worry him as the years pass. He attends all the auctions, never bidding, but he watches and documents his findings, just like everything in his life.
The story ends at the point where he has just been informed that another unexpected lot has been added to the upcoming auction.
A tense piece, with a darkness that begins to leak out across the pages as Dominic tries but fails to ignore what is happening. Thinking about it still gives me shudders, even though little is made clear, which makes it even more disturbing.
You will need to read the next two books to get resolution but don’t think it will be easy going.
Good and nasty.
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.
