Page 80 of Masters of Control

“Arms up.”

She complied immediately, though confusion bubbled up inside her.

“Why?” She couldn’t help but asking even though she followed his order. He tugged the sweatshirt off and over her head, revealing the utilitarian bra she was wearing underneath. At least it was clean, even if there was nothing inherently sexy about it.

Being stripped naked the moment he walked in the door had not been what she was expecting, and she felt wildly off kilter.

“It has been suggested to me that part of your problem is that you have trouble feeling vulnerable. We’re going to make you vulnerable before we get to talking, so you’re already in the right mindset.” Q flashed a grin at her before crouching down and pulling down her stretchy pants.

“Who suggested that?”

“Law and Freddy.”

Dammit. They would know. Not the same way Morgan or Noelle might, but they’d both worked with her and knew where she struggled. Which made it really hard to argue against Q stripping her down.

Did she even want to?

Heck. Maybe they had a point. Maybe it would be easier to talk when she was already feeling vulnerable.

A few minutes later, she was butt naked and draped over Q’s lap, wondering if she’d made a horrible mistake, though his hand caressing her buttocks was nice. She wasn’t sure the position made her feel more talkative, although not looking at his face seemed to help while she was explaining why she’d done the interview, even though she didn’t plan on taking the job.

“I know it sounds a little weird to want to know if I have an option so I can reject it, but I needed to know if it was an option, so I could weigh it against my other options.” She blew out a breath, wriggling a little as she felt his fingers tapping against her upturned ass cheek, as if he was thinking. “Especially since I wasn’t exactly being offered any other job options.”

There was a long silence, and she got the impression he was thinking about what she’d said. She tried to twist around to see his expression, but it wasn’t exactly the easiest position. Feeling her movements, he rubbed his hand on her lower back, the other one sweeping over the curve of her ass and down to her thigh, making her body tingle with awareness.

This was the first time she’d ever been over his lap where he didn’t have an erection. It didn’t feel sexual, it felt intimate. Also, a little intimidating since she was pretty sure he wouldn’t hesitate to spank her if he thought she’d earned it. That had the effect of making her very invested in explaining herself.

“I’ll be honest, I can’t say I understand it. It doesn’t particularly make sense to me… but I get that it’s how you feel and how you process things, so I can accept it.” Q patted her bottom gently, as if in encouragement.

She bit back her lip against trying to explain it further, because she knew it wasn’t how he did things, so he might never get it. That he accepted what she needed was what was important. She’d probably never understand how he could make a decision without considering every side of every single option.

“The real question is, why didn’t you tell me about the interview and the offer? Why not let me know it happened?”

“I don’t know.” Even as she said the words, she knew they were a mistake, and she shrieked when his hand came down hard on her ass. “Ouch!”

“Try again.”

Q

Rubbing his hand over the spot he’d just spanked on Sam’s ass, Q had to admit he liked this way of talking. He felt a lot calmer. There was a lot to be said for having a serious discussion with a subbie while she was over your lap.

He didn’t entirely understand why Sam felt the need to make her decision the way she had, but he understood it felt necessary to her.

That being said, he wasn’t going to accept ‘I don’t know’ as an answer for why she hadn’t talked to him about it. Even if the answer was that she hadn’t trusted him or she hadn’t wanted him influencing her decision, he wanted to be able to talk about that.

Sam huffed out a breath of air.

“I wasn’t sure what you’d say.”

“So, you didn’t want to know what I’d say.”

There was a moment of silence.

“That’s fair. I didn’t want to know what you’d say,” she confessed. “If you asked me to stay that would have factored hugely into my decision, but I also didn’t want to make an important life-changing decision for a guy. I didn’t want to be that girl.”

Q gave her ass a little squeeze.

“Gorgeous, I don’t think you could ever be that girl. Though I would also like to point out there is absolutely nothing wrong with including your significant other in life-changing decisions and taking their feelings into account. I know we haven’t been ‘together’ that long, but I am completely serious about you. I want a future with you. Whether that future is here or somewhere else.”