Page 53 of Masters of Control

Had she been nervous that Sam wouldn’t like her?

Maybe?

Either way, as they started to chat it became easier to forget the things Noelle had said about her. Iris was perfectly friendly, and Noelle’s name never came up. By the time everyone was sitting around the table—which was long enough it went through two rooms so it could fit everyone—Sam was comfortable being across from her and Law, talking with them.

The table was way too big for everyone to talk to each other, so it ended up being segmented with those across from each other. The conversations did shift some, so she also ended up chatting with Angel, who was sitting beside her, and Patrick and Lexie, who were sitting across from Angel, but she spent the most time talking with Iris and Law.

And she enjoyed it.

21

Girlfriend Privileges

Q

“I ate too much.” Q groaned, leaning back against the couch and rubbing his stomach right above where Sam’s head rested in his lap. “I feel like I’m going to explode.”

“I told you two pieces of pie were too many,” she teased, then winced when he poked her stomach. “Hey!”

“You can’t tell me you’re not feeling it, too.”

Yeah, she was. Sam had done a lot of work to be happy with her body and feel okay eating what she wanted to eat, but she may have overdone it a bit today. Everything had just been so good. It turned out Angel had done a lot of the desserts, but her friend Justin had done most of the actual cooking. He was as good as a professional chef, and Sam had already been full before the desserts came out.

She hadn’t been able to say no to a piece of apple pie, but unlike Q, she had refrained from choosing a second option. Though she had had one bite each of his pecan chocolate chip and the pumpkin.

Girlfriend privileges.

He hadn’t even protested.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t,” she retorted, poking him back. He groaned again, rubbing the spot where she’d gotten him, and she giggled.

“Did you have fun?”

“I did.” She closed her eyes as his fingers stroked through her hair, spreading it out across the thigh she wasn’t resting on. The scalp massage felt good.

“You and Iris seemed to get along well.” His tone was cautious. Careful.

“We did.” She wasn’t sure how much more she wanted to say. Clearly, he’d realized there was cause for possible friction since she was friends with Noelle, but she expected him to be on Iris’ side. He’d never been rude to Noelle when they’d interacted, but she wouldn’t expect him to be, no matter how he felt personally. “She seems really nice.”

Keeping her eyes closed was easier than opening them and studying his expression since she wasn’t sure what he would see in hers.

Iris had been really nice, but it was impossible to forget the things Noelle had said and the sadness over the ending of their friendship. She didn’t really know what to do about that.

It had been a while since she’d had any close friends, but she was pretty sure befriending a friend’s ex-bestie was as big a no-no as dating a friend’s ex-boyfriend. Maybe bigger. She would still be polite to Iris when she was around her, and if she enjoyed the other woman’s company… well, it wasn’t like she was choosing to hang out with her. It was just a side effect of dating Q.

But she did feel just a little guilty.

“I’m glad,” Q said. “I wasn’t sure how it would go after the things Noelle was saying about her.”

Sam’s eyes popped open in surprise, looking up at him. It wasn’t the best angle, but it gave her a fairly decent view of his expression. He looked more thoughtful than anything else, his gaze meeting hers, and one of his eyebrows lifting questioningly, as if wondering what had startled her.

“Noelle said something to you?”

Now that she hadn’t known. When had he and Noelle been around each other without her there to hear what Noelle was saying? She didn’t think Noelle had ever said anything about Iris while Q was around.

“The first day of class before you got there.” His fingers rubbed over her scalp, and she felt her eyelids drooping back down again. “She said something about losing her best friend because she didn’t understand kink and made it sound like Iris had ditched her.”

“I didn’t realize she’d said something to all of you.” Sam blinked. That was kind of ballsy. Noelle hadn’t even known any of them yet. That was a heck of a lot to put out in front of strangers, but then, not everyone was as closed-off as Sam was. Some people didn’t mind sharing their personal business, and that was fine, even if it wasn’t what she would be comfortable with.