Page 181 of Masters of Control

It was incredibly relaxing.

“You look fantastic,” Asad said after a long moment. He gave his head a little shake. “Way out of my league.”

Morgan laughed, dropping her hands back to her sides. “I doubt it, but thank you.”

He grinned at her, doing up the rest of his buttons and hiding the view. Morgan sighed inwardly. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it before, but it had been a while since they’d last scened together and—more importantly—the lack of anyone else in the room watching made everything feel different.

Sharper.

More exciting.

Anticipation fizzed and bubbled in her, but she pushed it back. Now wasn’t the time.

Shrugging his shoulders to settle his shirt properly on his frame, Asad tugged on the bottom of his shirt, which he apparently wasn’t tucking in. Morgan rather liked the look of something associated with formal wear worn casually. Her parents would have called it sloppy.

“Alright.” Taking a deep breath, he moved over to her and put his hand on the small of her back.

Morgan felt her skin tingle, where she could feel his palm through the fabric of her dress. Yup, this was going to be a fun week.

Though, first, she had to get through meeting the parents as his fake girlfriend.

“Should we go over our story again?” she asked nervously as they headed to the car.

“Sure,” Asad said easily, his hand moving slightly on her back as though he was rubbing it to reassure her.

She took a deep breath. Between her excitement that they were alone in the hotel room and her anxiousness over meeting his parents and pulling off being his fake girlfriend, she was feeling a little overstimulated. Every touch of his hand rasped along her skin, though not in an unpleasant way.

It was just a lot.

She was almost relieved when they got to the car, and he had to stop touching her to let her get in. But then, as soon as he got in, he took her hand again, the same way he had during the drive. It was just pretend, just practice for being in a fake relationship, but it still made her heart jump.

No one had ever held her hand. Not even Master Jason.

It’s not a big deal. It doesn’t mean anything.

She knew that, but there was a part of her that wanted to pretend it did. Just for a little while. To fall into the ruse and enjoy being in a fake relationship, a romantic relationship like she saw other people have. Even though, technically, she’d been in two sexual relationships previously, she had no idea what it was like to be in a romantic relationship. And wasn’t that sad?

Mistress Julie would tell her it wasn’t her fault, and she’d be right, but Morgan was still right that it was sad.

Did she want a relationship like the ones she saw her friends in?

Yes, but she wasn’t sure she was capable. Not with a past like hers.

Sometimes, it seemed like even people who thought she’d been through something traumatic weren’t any better at getting their personal lives together than she was. Brian was constantly worried about what she was doing and who she was doing it with. Meanwhile, he was pining over a woman who didn’t want him. Mistress Julie had cackled when Morgan had made that observation during one of their sessions.

She knew Mistress Julie thought this week away would be good for her, but she wasn’t sure what her therapist would say about actually pretending the relationship was real for the duration of it. Would she think that was healthy? Or that Morgan was delusional?

“Okay, so our mutual friend Patrick introduced us at a party, right?” Asad said, giving her hand a little squeeze as he maneuvered them out of the hotel parking lot. It took a moment to realize he was going over their story the way she’d requested, and she made herself focus.

She could call Mistress Julie later if she really wanted to talk through things.

“Right,” she said.

They spent the rest of the drive going over their backstory. Asad winked at her several times, helping to ease her nerves as he made her laugh. It wasn’t until they pulled up in front of a huge house with a perfectly manicured lawn and a half-circle driveway, she realized how tense he was.

The smile faded from his lips as he looked up at the house, and he didn’t look all that excited to go in and see his family. He’d called himself the ‘black sheep’ and made jokes about it, but clearly, he was more affected by it than he’d been pretending. Now, it was Morgan’s turn to squeeze his hand.

“We could pretend I got sick and can’t go in,” she offered.