Page 2 of Masters of Control

“I’m single and ready to mingle,” Iris said with a friendly grin. Samantha made herself smile, but her stomach turned over again when she realized there was a good chance, she was going to have to watch Q play—scene—with another submissive during training.

Not over a high school crush, huh? Pathetic.

Yeah, it really was since she hadn’t seen him since graduation. It wasn’t that she wasn’t over a silly little crush, she just had some what-if thoughts. Not regrets exactly, just curiosity over the path not taken.

Not that it was worth dwelling on.

I’m not that girl anymore.

“I’m Samantha, but I go by Sam,” she said, giving herself a mental shake, trying to make her wayward emotions straighten out.

“Welcome to the party.” Iris seemed completely unperturbed by the interaction between Q and Sam, which was good, though Nick and Avery appeared to be a little uncomfortable. Hopefully, the introductions would get them all past that, though by sitting so far away from Q, she’d also put a bunch of space between her and them.

Ugh.

At least they knew what she liked to be called, so hopefully, things would get less awkward. Samantha had always felt too formal. She’d liked the more casual Sam, even when kids had teased her about it being boyish.

Friendlier.

Hopefully.

She’d hated Samwise. Just because she’d loved Lord of the Rings didn’t mean she’d wanted to be known as the fat hobbit. She’d been too tall to be a hobbit, anyway.

Thank you, Q, for sticking me with that name.

It grated that it still had the ability to get under her skin a decade later.

The room had been set up with a small semi-circle of chairs around the circular stage in the center of the room. The booths that were used for dinner, eating, and watching the stage shows were along the edges of the room, their heavy curtains currently drawn. Samantha recognized the setup from when she’d taken the subbie class.

The stage was where demonstrations were done and on weekend nights, actual kinky sex shows happened for the titillation of the watching diners. Sam had come once with one of the girls from the submissives class. She and Morgan weren’t besties or anything, but they’d formed a friendship, despite their differences.

It hadn’t been the same as seeing a show with someone she was actually interested in, which was still on her list of ‘things I want to do sometime soon.’

Finding someone she was interested in romantically would be step number one. Maybe she’d have better luck finding a submissive than a Dominant. That’s why she was here. Olivia thought Sam might be a ‘switch,’ someone who could do either or both.

Sam was willing to explore. She loved being a submissive a lot of the times, but sometimes, it just didn’t suit how she felt. She wasn’t a brat, which someone had suggested. It had taken Morgan pointing out Sam sometimes acted like a Dominant when a Dom was trying to scene with her. Sam had decided to talk things out with Olivia.

“Okay, everybody’s here!” Freddy’s cheerful voice filled the room as the entrance door opened again. Sam twisted around in her seat to see the flamboyant submissive, who also ran the host station at Marquis, and was apparently a shark of a divorce lawyer by day.

Freddy had volunteered to be her submissive for the class. Samantha liked him a lot, but there wasn’t a spark between them. Still, she had someone to practice on. She occasionally found women attractive, but not enough to consider herself bisexual, and she really preferred men.

Freddy was also smart as hell. Sam saw his eyes flit around them, taking in where everyone was seated, and he frowned for a fraction of a second before his smile returned. She knew that meant he would be questioning her about it later. She would have to think of something to tell him other than “I had a crush on a boy in high school, and ten years later I didn’t want to sit too close to him.”

Behind Freddy was Morgan and a huge man well over six feet, considering Morgan came up to his chin in heels. Morgan and Sam were both taller than average, so Sam was sure she would feel petite standing next to him. Morgan was a stunning redhead with a model’s body, while Sam was blonde and ‘pleasantly plump,’ as her mom liked to say.

They went through another quick round of introductions while Freddy went to get Master Law and Mistress Julie, who would be teaching the class. Sam wished Mistress Olivia was instructing since she didn’t know Mistress Julie. She’d hoped for some mentorship, but she knew Olivia was busy running Marquis. Plus, Olivia’s boyfriend and submissive was Nick’s older brother, so she didn’t think Olivia would jump to teach this particular class, even if she didn’t have a huge workload.

Morgan sat next to Samantha, giving her a bright smile, while Connor sat down next to Morgan. It wasn’t as if people were choosing sides, but Samantha felt a little better having people next to her.

If Morgan and Connor had left the seat beside her for Freddy, it would have been understandable, yet also made her feel like even more of an outsider. Not that it was anyone’s fault. She’d chosen her own seat.

Just once, she wished she could feel like she was making the right decisions instead of floundering like a fish out of water.

It was going to be an interesting class.

1

6 Months Later – An Introduction to Submission