Page 173 of Masters of Control

Groaning, Connor rubbed his hands over his face.

“Anyone want something to drink?” Law asked. As a recovered alcoholic, Law didn’t keep alcohol in the house, so they all asked for either water or soda. Law insisted he didn’t mind if they drank, but for the most part, they all still tried not to around him, especially not in his own home.

“Did you hear that Nick and Avery got engaged?” Q asked, taking his root beer from Law.

“No, when did that happen?” Asad settled on the other side of Connor, leaving Law on the opposite side of the counter alone, which was how he liked it.

Lifting the veggie and dip tray he’d been preparing, Law slid it in front of them.

“Last night.”

“Then how were we supposed to hear about it?” Connor asked.

“I knew,” Law said. “Avery called Iris.”

“And Nick told Luke, who told Olivia, who told Angel, who told me this morning.” Q lifted his root beer in a kind of salute, chuckling while the others shook their heads.

The Stronghold gossip train was something to behold. Asad had used it for his benefit when he’d put out the word he needed a fake girlfriend for his brother’s wedding, but he was also wary of falling prey to it. Taking Morgan as his fake girlfriend was putting him in a bit of the spotlight, but since everything was out of town, he hoped it wouldn’t be too bad.

“Seems like there’s something in the water,” Q said, looking pointedly at Law. “Lots of people getting engaged.”

“Wait, is there something we should know?” Asad asked, his head gaze whipping back and forth between Law and Q. The grin on Q’s face seemed to say so, but Law looked completely unamused and unperturbed.

“Not anytime soon for me and Iris. Maybe you should ask Q about him and Sam.”

“You’ve been together longer.”

“You’ve known Sam longer.”

“Hmm. Good point.” Q stroked his chin, causing all three of his friends to turn and look at him with surprise. He laughed. “No, we’re not there yet, either, but that’s definitely where we’re headed. For now, we’re having a good time living in sin.”

“As are Iris and I,” Law said pointedly. There was a little smile on his normally grumpy face, and Asad couldn’t help but think that maybe things were a little farther along there than Law was willing to admit.

Chapter Three

Asad

Hanging out with his friends the Saturday before his trip was exactly what Asad had needed. He didn’t like to admit that he was nervous about his plan to bring Morgan home as his fake girlfriend, but now that the time was almost upon him, he was feeling his nerves. Far more than he’d expected.

Maybe some of it also came from having to spend a week with his family, something he hadn’t voluntarily done since he was a teenager. A few days was usually his limit.

Normally, he would think Morgan was a delightful distraction, but with Patrick and Lexie’s edicts that there was to be no sexual contact, that had gone up in the air. At least he would still be distracted by making sure she was okay, and at the end of it, he’d be able to come home to his friends.

Relaxing on Law’s back porch and shooting the shit was the perfect way to spend his last afternoon… at least, it was for most of the afternoon.

“So, what’s going on with you and Morgan?” Q asked, as though he’d picked up on Asad’s thoughts.

“Nothing.” Asad shrugged. “She’ll go up to Pennsylvania with me for the week, then we’ll come home.”

“And she understands this is just for the week?”

“Yes. We talked about it last weekend and had a whole dinner to go over things. I think she’s excited to go someplace where everyone won’t be watching her every move.” He gave Q a pointed look. Though Q wasn’t the worst of the bunch who kept an eye on Morgan, his girlfriend Sam was friends with her, so Q was a little more invested than some of the other Doms. “She’s not stupid.”

“No, but she is naïve about a lot of things.” Q arched his eyebrow at Asad, as if daring him to argue, but of course Asad couldn’t.

He remembered what Morgan had said about her parents. Though she hadn’t explicitly asked him not to tell anyone, he’d gotten the sense she hadn’t told many people about her family. So, he held his tongue and didn’t say that he probably had a better sense of how naïve she was than Q did.

Any parents who were willing to kick their daughter out of the house at sixteen because they’d caught her with a boy… well, there were a lot of assumptions that could be made. He also couldn’t be one hundred percent sure his assumptions were correct, so better to just stay quiet.