Page 128 of Masters of Secrets

Still, it was their first time publicly at the club. Once people got used to seeing them together, got used to him as a submissive, all the interest would die down. Hopefully, her possessiveness would as well.

“So, Julie, tell me about yourself.” Asad sent a winning smile her way, which made her snort. He was a charmer, all right. At least, he certainly thought so. Next to him, Morgan elbowed him in the side. The look he shot her way was full of heat. “Behave, Red.”

She wrinkled her nose at him.

Damn, they were cute together.

“What do you want to know?” Julie asked, amused, when Asad finally turned back to her. Beside her, Q and Sam were involved in a conversation with Connor and a male submissive named Steve, who had come over to say hi. On her other side, Law was now watching her and Asad’s exchange. Iris was, too, though she was openly grinning while Law was harder to read.

Julie still wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about her and Connor hooking up. It was one thing to accept Connor as a submissive, another to accept two of his closest friends dating. Though if things did end up going south between her and Connor, she was going to do her level best to make sure it didn’t affect any of the friendships.

“Oh, you know… any crazy exes in the past we need to watch out for… if you were ever the crazy ex… if you have a police record… all that kind of stuff.” He winked at her, but his tone was semi-serious. It was always hard to tell with Asad. Julie’s lips quirked.

“Not as far as I know.” The answer to all three questions. John wasn’t crazy. Her family might be. But Asad hadn’t asked about them. “How about you? Because I’m pretty sure I remember something about getting arrested after stealing a goat.”

“It was supposed to be a high school senior prank! Who calls the cops on the high school senior prank?” He shook his head. “Besides, that’s been expunged.” Beside him, Morgan’s mouth had dropped open.

“I didn’t know you got arrested for stealing a goat! Why would you steal a goat?”

“Because it was our rival high school’s mascot.” Asad shrugged, though he looked a little sheepish. “They stole our mascot’s uniform, so we stole their mascot. It was only a small escalation.” He looked over at Julie. “How did you even know about that?”

“I have my ways,” she replied airily, making a mental note to ask Olivia for more dirt on Asad. If he was going to give her a hard time, even jokingly, she was going to dish it right back.

With his kind of personality, he’d probably just respect her more for it.

“Hey, Connor… can I ask a favor?” The question, asked by a deep, masculine voice, grabbed Julie’s attention.

“Sure, what’s up?” Connor replied to Master Will.

“Do you mind taking my Dungeon Monitor shift tomorrow night? Sorry about the late notice. Gina’s mom needs some help tomorrow, and while they could do it with the baby there, it⁠—”

“But I’m a sub,” Connor interrupted, sounding a little shocked. Will stared at him.

“You’re still you, man.”

Connor opened his mouth. Closed it. Julie gave him a nudge. If he wanted to take the shift, he should. It might go a long way to showing him that nothing had really changed. There was a part of her that was a little sad, though. They hadn’t discussed getting together tomorrow, but now that it wasn’t going to be a possibility, she wished they had.

Still. At least she’d know where he was. She could always come by. Dungeon Monitor duties didn’t take all night.

“Um, yeah. I can cover for you.”

“Thanks, appreciate it.” Will clapped Connor on the shoulder and walked away.

It wasn’t until he was moving away from the table that Julie frowned. Sure, Will could have asked Connor because he realized Connor was struggling with being publicly a submissive and wanted to show him that things hadn’t changed, but she wasn’t sure Will and Connor knew each other that well. Would Will have realized that was going to be a problem?

She looked around at the other Doms at the table.

“What’s wrong?” Law asked, frowning back at her.

“Just trying to figure out why Will only asked Connor to cover for him, instead of asking if any of you were available.” Any one of them could have served as Dungeon Monitor tomorrow, including her.

“Oh, everyone always asks Connor because he never says no,” Asad replied easily. Julie blinked, turning to look at Connor, who shrugged.

“I don’t mind helping out.”

Hm. She was going to have to poke at that further. There wasn’t anything wrong with helping out, but she also didn’t want anyone taking advantage of her submissive’s giving nature. At least she knew this was a long-running thing and not because people knew he was submissive and, therefore, thought he’d say yes.

Having Will ask did seem to make Connor happy, though, so she’d leave it alone.