Page 87 of Masters of Control

“My date was a bust,” Noelle said, stepping forward to give Morgan a hug.

Q glanced over at Law and Iris to see how they were taking this, but they’d both turned away. It looked like Olivia and Luke had come up behind them and were talking to them, taking their attention away from Noelle. Possibly a coincidence, but Q wouldn’t be surprised if they’d seen Noelle and decided to stage a rescue.

Turning back to the others, he wrapped one arm around Sam to keep her by his side. They only had a few minutes left.

“I’ll go find someone to kiss.” Noelle tossed her hair. He wasn’t sure, but it seemed like she was talking a little louder than she had been before. “I’m not going to take your man or ever do anything to jeopardize our friendship.”

There was something in her tone that made Q think her words were a jab at Iris, but if they were, they missed the mark. Iris was laughing at something Olivia said and didn’t appear to have heard Noelle.

It was hard to tell, though. Noelle didn’t react to being ignored by Iris—if she’d been trying to get her attention in the first place. She just waved cheerily and walked off, disappearing into the crowd in search of someone to kiss.

He hoped Asad stayed clear of her.

Almost as soon as she was gone, Olivia looked up from her conversation with Iris and smiled at him and Sam.

“I see you two worked things out. I should have known Sam wouldn’t need the Olivia hotline.” She grinned at Sam. “Keep him in line.”

“Hey,” Q complained, sensing that he was being maligned.

“One more minute!” Someone yelled, cutting off any protest he might have made.

Suddenly there was a bustle of activity as everyone was passing champagne flutes. A server was skillfully weaving through the crowd with sparkling apple cider for those who weren’t drinking, and Law quickly snagged a glass as they went by.

Sam turned to Q, her eyes sparkling, one hand held aloft with the champagne flute.

“Did you ever hear the superstition that whatever you’re doing at midnight when the year turns over, that’s what you’ll be doing the next year?”

“You’re so hot when you spout useless trivia,” he said sincerely. “Let’s make sure we’re set up for next year.”

Wrapping his free arm around her waist, he took her lips in a kiss as everyone else started counting down. He wanted to make sure that he was going to start his new year off right—and also set himself up for the future he wanted not just for the next year, but for the rest of his life.

Freddy

As the champagne was passed around, Freddy smiled, hiding his own feelings of discontent. No one wanted a party pooper for the new year. It was no one’s fault that he was single, again, for the new year.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Emery snuggled up with Mistress Red, the two of them practically glowing as they looked at each other.

“You sure you don’t want to find someone other than me to kiss?” Steve asked, looking nervous.

“Hey, I thought we agreed we’d rather share a kiss with a friend than be kissing no one at all,” Freddy teased, before becoming more serious. “But it’s okay if you don’t want to. We can wait.”

Steve hadn’t been ‘out’ as a gay man for long. Realizing that he was gay and kinky and submissive had been a lot for him, so Freddy had taken the other man under his wing. He usually watched out for the club submissives, anyway, but Steve was a special case because he was also the younger brother of Freddy’s good friend Chris and because he was so new to every aspect of his sexuality.

Although Freddy was bi, he wasn’t sexually attracted to Steve, but he didn’t mind being there for a friend. Sure, he’d rather be kissing a hot Dominant at midnight, preferably a Domme, but this wasn’t so bad. It was better than last year when he’d kissed his champagne flute at midnight.

The countdown started.

“Ten!”

Movement caught Freddy’s eye, and he turned his head to see Master Eric headed for him and Steve with a determined look on his face.

“Nine!”

No, not toward him and Steve. Toward Steve. Oh, oh, oh! Freddy had told Steve that he thought Master Eric was interested!

“Eight!”

Steve had insisted that it was just a training relationship for the class. Didn’t look like that from the expression on Eric’s face.