Page 90 of Masters of Control

Turning her head, Camille looked at the couple who had just walked through the door, along with everyone else. The handsome black man had his arm around a curvy blonde who was nearly as tall as he was, and from the way they were looking at each other, they were completely smitten. Her heart melted a little at the sight, the same way it had been all evening when she’d seen happy, kinky couples.

It gave her a bit of hope.

“You’re lucky that worked out,” said Luke, Olivia’s boyfriend and submissive, shaking his head. Just as tall as she was, even in her heels, he was a good-looking, muscular guy. Camille was rather envious of the easy way the two of them had with each other. That was what she ultimately wanted. “I really thought they hated each other.”

“They did.” Olivia was more than a little smug. “But that didn’t stop the sparks from flying. Forced them to deal with each other and get past their issues, and all those sparks were able to catch fire!”

“Olivia likes to think of herself as a matchmaker,” Lisa said, laughing as she curved her arm around her girlfriend, Sharon. The pretty blonde was actually the second Sharon Camille had been introduced to—the other had been petite, with black hair and a wide smile. Other than the smiles, the two Sharons were complete opposites. “It’s kind of hard to argue with her results.”

By which Camille assumed Lisa and Sharon had benefited from Olivia’s matchmaking.

“Who would you pair me with?” she asked curiously. Olivia’s eyes immediately lit up with interest, her entire focus zeroing in on Camille. The intensity in her grey eyes was uncomfortable, and Camille fought the urge to look away.

Next to her, Julie sat up straight, a scowl marring her delicate features.

“Don’t you dare.” She pointed a finger at Olivia. “I already have someone picked out for her.”

This was the first Camille was hearing about that.

“You do?”

“I do.” Julie sighed. “I didn’t want to tell you because you almost didn’t come tonight. I thought if I told you there was someone specific I wanted to introduce you to, you would dig in your heels even more.”

“You don’t know that I would have done that,” Camille retorted as she crossed her arms over her chest. Yes, she probably would have, but she still felt the need to defend herself. Julie didn’t know everything.

Julie rolled her eyes.

They both knew that Camille’s automatic response to someone telling her what to do tended to her doing the exact opposite. Which was partly how she’d ended up at Donaldson when everyone she talked to told her that she shouldn’t accept their offer but didn’t want to talk about why. It was also something she didn’t get to do very often since she had to follow the partners’ directions at work… even when they were inane.

“Uh huh. Well, I’m not going to tell you who I picked. I’m just going to point out the options, and Olivia is going to stay out of it.” Julie lifted her chin, shooting Olivia a defiant look. The other Domme smiled like the Cheshire cat, as if she was enjoying Julie’s challenge.

“Maybe I can pick for myself.” Camille looked around the room and caught the eye of an absolute giant standing on the other side. He was a cutie. “What about him?”

The big man stared back at her before his eyes dropped to Julie and lingered for a moment before he looked away.

“That’s Connor, one of our shyer Doms,” Olivia replied, running her fingers over her chin. “He’s a total teddy bear, but I’m pretty sure he’s not going to be interested in what you’re offering.” Teddy bears didn’t really do it for Camille, but he was a big cutie. She might have been willing to make an exception. “I think you’d like Freddy.”

Julie glared across the table at Olivia.

“She’s not going to choose anyone you try to pair her with.” Julie shook her head.

“You don’t know that.” Camille spun around in her chair. “Where’s this Freddy?”

“He’s here somewhere. I saw him earlier,” Olivia said, waving her hand. “I’ll point him out to you. There are a few others here you might like better, though. Don’t go for Freddy just to spite Julie.”

Nodding, Camille looked around as Olivia and Julie started giving her a rundown on the possibilities, with Luke, Lisa, and Sharon adding in their own thoughts about the single submissive men who were present.

Freddy

As the champagne was passed around, Freddy smiled, hiding his feelings of discontent. No one wanted a party pooper. 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 kiss 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 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.