Page 152 of Masters of Control

Her hands twisted in front of her.

“I don’t really want to say, I don’t want to single anyone out, but… I guess I just want advice on how to handle it. I noticed Doms don’t want to scene with me, and subs don’t want to be friends with me because… It’s people who are popular here and no one wants to go against them.”

Freddy frowned. He definitely hadn’t heard of anything like that. No one was saying not to be friends with her or not to scene with her, though because of the gossip train, some people knew about how she’d treated Iris and might react accordingly. As far as he knew, everyone had been encouraged not to treat her any differently, and she’d made several friends—including some who were friendly with Iris—and had scened with several Doms. Still, he couldn’t dismiss her out of hand since he was a little out of the loop at Stronghold these days.

“If it makes you feel better, I haven’t heard of anyone saying anything detrimental about you, and I always end up hearing the gossip. I’ll look into it, though, okay? It would help me if you told me who was bothering you.” As soon as he said the words, she was shaking her head.

“Oh, no, I can’t do that. I don’t want to stir anything up, or cause any drama, I just…” She huffed out a breath of air. “I’m glad you haven’t heard anything, but I’m worried that maybe no one is saying anything to you because they know how you’ll react, and they don’t want me to have your protection.”

She seemed completely sincere, and if she was anyone else in the club, Freddy would take her words at face value, but because of what he knew about her, it was difficult. On the other hand, he also knew he needed to look into this. There definitely were people who would believe what she said, and it could cause a lot of drama, even if she didn’t mean to. Especially if she ended up naming names.

He could guess who she thought was behind any bullying, although he wasn’t sure that’s what he’d call it, even if there was something going on. So, that’s where he’d start.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Camille

Sunday morning and Freddy was in her bed after a wonderful night at Stronghold. Even the memory of their interrupted dinner couldn’t entirely kill her buzz, though her worry about the consequences of Junior’s threat was higher today. No more distractions.

“Good morning.” Turned out Freddy was awake, too. “What are you thinking so hard about?” Facing her, head on his pillow, his brilliant blue eyes were both curious and slightly worried.

“Junior and work but also how happy I am to wake up with you here. That definitely outweighs any worry.” She grinned as he smiled, delight lighting up his expression.

“Happy to be here. Would you like me to go get started on breakfast? Or… started on breakfast… I’d be happy to distract you.”

Oh, well with that kind of offer on the table… Camille was perfectly happy to let Freddy have a first breakfast in bed. As a distraction technique, it was a lovely one. Instead of starting her morning off worrying and letting her anxiety grow, she started it off with Freddy’s blond head between her thighs, his wicked tongue eliciting louder and louder moans, until all of her tension was released in a glorious orgasm.

Then they went to the kitchen where he made crepes.

If this wasn’t living her best life, she didn’t know what was.

“So, what’s your plan for dealing with Junior? If you’re okay with talking about it,” Freddy said, sitting down next to her with his own plate of crepes. He’d made them each one savory and one sweet, and there was more batter if they were still hungry afterwards. “If you’re not, please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do until I find out how he spins this to the other partners. I’ll tell them the truth, but I’m sure he’s already told his dad, and it’s spreading around today. I suppose I could reach out to some of them before him, but they’ll probably take that as an admission of guilt. Like I’m making a big deal out of it because I have something to hide, not because Junior is.”

“Whereas, if he’s the one calling around, it’s clear he thinks it’s a big deal, but you don’t and therefore, you’re not treating it like it is.” Freddy nodded. “I can see that. Though it could backfire since he’s going to be coloring their thoughts before they even ask you what’s going on.”

“Yeah, but there’s nothing I can do about that except hope they’ll be reasonable, even though he got to them first. If they’re not willing to listen to what I have to say because of when I say it, that says an awful lot about them.”

“Hmm.” He didn’t answer right away, and she thought maybe he was savoring a bite of food, but when she looked over, he wasn’t chewing, and his eyes were unfocused, as though he was thinking hard about something.

“What?” she asked.

“Just thinking about how that’s applicable to Noelle last night,” he admitted. On the ride home from Stronghold, he’d told Camille about Noelle’s request. She’d bristled at the idea of bullying happening and had absolutely agreed he needed to look into it.

Privately, she’d thought he was maybe being a little too hesitant to give Noelle the full benefit of the doubt because he was starting off from a position of bias against her, but she could see what he was saying. Especially as it applied to herself. Since she didn’t know anyone involved in the situation, she was more willing to entertain the idea that perhaps some of the people Freddy was friends with at Stronghold were being unkind to the woman. However, was she being influenced by the fact she’d only heard Noelle’s allegations and that she’d heard them first?

Definitely something to think about.

But a different scenario since she already knew the partners would be biased against her and treat Junior’s account as the whole truth. Since there was nothing she could do about that, she was trying not to let it ruin her day. She thought attempting to get to them first would make some of them view her even less favorably.

“I can see that,” she said. “It’s a good reminder not to go in thinking you have the whole story when you’ve only heard one side of it.”

“Which can be hard to remember when you’re constantly representing only one side of something.” He chuckled. “One of the hazards of our job.”

Camille laughed. “Yeah, but sometimes there really is only one side worth considering. I can tell you right now that you did good work with Mrs. Alexander. She deserved much more than she got from that asshole.”

“Probably, but I’m not always one hundred percent on the side of the angels, as much as that’s where I want to be. When it comes to people I like, whose lives I’m invested in, I don’t want to believe they’d behave badly, but that doesn’t mean I’m right.” He made a face, as if it pained him to make that admission.