Page 242 of Masters of Control

Brian’s phone dinged, and he looked down at it. The air around him immediately changed as he frowned at it.

“What’s wrong?” Asad asked.

Morgan was still tapping away at the keys in front of her, back to fully focusing on her work.

“Cassidy got a weird note in her mail, telling her to ‘watch out.’ She told Kincaid, who passed it along to Patrick, who is passing it along to the other Doms. It might be nothing, but…”

“But it might be something.” Asad frowned, too. Poor Cassidy. She’d gotten away from her nightmare ex, thanks to Iris and Law, and she’d just started to relax. “Do you think it’s her ex? The time limit for Law to press charges against him just ran out, right?”

That was how they’d kept Douchebag Dom—Iris’ nickname for him—away from Cassidy for the past year. They hadn’t been sure they’d be able to make charges stick for any amount of time, and they hadn’t wanted him going after Cassidy or blaming her for anything that happened to him.

Law had hoped the threat of charges being brought against him would be enough to keep him in line and eventually forget about Cassidy and move on with his life. They had blackballed him from any BDSM clubs in the area to keep him away from any other vulnerable submissives, and Asad was pretty sure that someone had been tasked with keeping an eye on him, though he wasn’t sure who. Kincaid maybe.

“Right,” Brian said grimly. “We can’t be sure it’s him. It’s not really a threat… it’s just concerning, especially because it’s anonymous.”

“Who else could it be?” Morgan asked, looking up from her computer. “Has she been having trouble with anyone else?”

“I don’t know, and Patrick didn’t say. I’ll talk to Kincaid later if I can catch him. He’s been busy with the job change.”

“Job change?” Asad echoed. He was clearly out of touch with the gossip… which was fair since he was usually the last to know things. Apparently, having a girlfriend wasn’t going to change that since Morgan was also not in the middle of the gossip train.

“Oh, yeah, he’s leaving the police department and going to work for a security firm that’s opening up a branch down here,” Brian said.

“The same firm Drew works for,” Morgan chimed in, still looking at her computer.

Okay, scratch that. Apparently, his girlfriend did know the gossip. She just hadn’t been sharing it. Well, at least now he had a good reason to punish her during their scene tonight. That was always fun.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Morgan

Being Asad’s girlfriend was fun, and it didn’t seem like he was getting tired of her, which had been her main concern the first few weeks they were dating. After all, that was what everyone else was worried about—that he couldn’t commit. During her last session with Mistress Julie, the Domme had made the comment that maybe he’d just never wanted to.

But he did want to with her.

Whenever they went to Stronghold, he didn’t seem to be interested in any other submissives—though a few had tried flirting with him at first. None of her friends, of course. Asad had been polite, but it was as though there was a wall there that hadn’t been there before, and only Morgan was allowed on the other side of the wall.

They occasionally watched scenes together, but it didn’t seem as though he wished he was scening with anyone else. He was endlessly, sadistically creative with their scenes.

He invited her to spend time with him and his friends, which was a bit awkward the first time Domi and Rae were there, but Sam and Iris helped bridge the gap between them. It didn’t hurt that they were very close to another submissive named Avery, who was very nice and whom Morgan hadn’t really interacted with until now.

Asad also spent time with her and her friends. Q was there a lot, which didn’t hurt since now he had someone to talk to other than Jeremy and Carolyn’s husband, Chuck. Neither of them was very talkative, and Q had been struggling to try to make friends with them. Now, he didn’t have to, which made Sam more relaxed and happier, too.

It was all going really, really well until their one-month anniversary. Which wasn’t really an anniversary as far as she knew, but Asad had pointed it out and was excited about it, which made her excited about it. But when he got up to go to work that day, she struggled to open her eyes. She was so tired. And achy.

She felt his kiss on her forehead and his whispered goodbye, then she fell back asleep.

She didn’t feel any better when she woke up.

With a groan, she made herself get out of bed and stumble out to the kitchen. Brian was out there, to her surprise.

“Why are you here?” she grumbled, rubbing her eyes. Her throat felt scratchy and so sore, it was hard to even grumble. Brian frowned at her.

“I’m going on that work trip today, remember? I don’t leave for another hour.”

Oh, right.

No, she hadn’t remembered. She’d forgotten. Asad had been all excited about Brian being gone for a week because it meant they could fuck all over the house if they wanted to. They’d already had sex in every room of Asad’s apartment, and he wanted to do it at her place now.