Page 51 of Masters of Control

“A little.”

“I could say ‘don’t be,’ but I’ll be honest. This group of people is a lot all at once. At least you already know most of them from the club. So, you kind of know what to expect.” Although she hadn’t actually hung out with the whole group of them outside the club, as far as he knew.

It was a lot louder and more rambunctious when they were all packed into one house, without kink protocols and a lot more people. Angel had the habit of inviting whoever she wanted, not just their kinky friends, which meant everyone pretended to be vanilla. He’d already given Sam the heads up that not everyone there would be kinky.

“I guess I’m just nervous what they’ll think about me,” she said after a moment. “Which is silly, because, like you said, they’ve already met me. I guess I assumed they didn’t have an opinion about me before, or I didn’t care if anyone had an opinion. I mean, I cared, but it wasn’t like the end of the world if someone didn’t like me.”

Laughing, Q gave her hand another squeeze.

“It’s not the end of the world if someone doesn’t like you now. I like you and that’s what matters.”

This time the look she shot him was a little irritated.

“I still care if they like me… especially if they’re your friends and their opinions mean something to you. My friends like you, and if they didn’t, I would wonder why and try to decide if there’s a good reason for it.”

“That’s valid,” Q said ruefully, thinking back to some of his exes and some of his friends’ exes. When they hadn’t liked someone’s significant other, there had been a good reason. Sure, sometimes people rubbed each other the wrong way, but none of them had disliked anyone for no reason. There was a difference between ‘not getting along’ and thinking ‘you shouldn’t be with that person.’ “Still, I already know they all like you.”

“Yeah, but that was before I was with you. They all liked me when I was just around. They might not like me as your…”

“Girlfriend?” Q suggested, jumping on the chance, even as a little voice in the back of his brain screamed that it was too soon, and he was making a horrible mistake. “I mean, if that’s what you want to be.”

She giggled and the high, happy sound went straight through his chest, relieving the tension around his heart. That didn’t sound like she hated the idea.

“I feel so high school right now, but yes,”—turning to look at him, their gazes caught and held—“I would love to be your girlfriend.”

Q grinned back at her, the emotion expanding inside him making him feel warm all over.

The moment hung until the car behind him honked, and he realized the light had turned green.

Releasing Sam’s hand just long enough to raise his in apology as he put his foot on the gas pedal, he quickly recaptured her fingers. She made a happy sound as their hands found each other again. Q felt the same way.

Sam

“And you’ve met my girlfriend, Sam.”

That was about the fifth time Q had ‘reintroduced’ her to someone she already knew, emphasizing that she was his girlfriend, and it still hadn’t gotten old. Pure happiness rushed through her every single time. From the twinkling amusement in Leigh’s and Jared’s eyes, they thought it was endearing as well.

“We have, I’m so glad we’ll have a chance to get to know you better,” Leigh said, leaning into Jared’s side, her eyes bright with interest. “So, you’re official now?”

“As of about thirty minutes ago when we were in the car on the way over.” Q was preening and Sam laughed. He looked so darn smug, it was impossible not to take his attitude as a compliment.

“Oh! My baby!”

To Sam’s surprise, he suddenly dropped her hand and darted off into the crowd of people, leaving her standing there staring after him with Jared and Leigh.

“Um…”

“Don’t worry, he’ll be back in a moment,” Leigh reassured her, amusement on her face. “Melody just woke up from her nap.”

Melody? It took a moment for the name to click in Sam’s head—she knew everyone here, but she didn’t know-know them. Melody was Angel and Adam’s almost one year old daughter.

Leigh hadn’t lied. Q was back almost as quickly as he’d left, grinning from ear to ear as the baby tugged on one of his ears.

“Coo! Coo!”

“Oh my God. Is that how she says Q?” As if her ovaries weren’t already freaking out. She wasn’t even sure she wanted kids, but seeing the adorableness of Q holding a grinning baby was enough to make her question the possibility.

Damn, she had it bad.