Chapter 1
Chapter One
Asad
Asad was feeling oddly nervous about meeting his soon-to-be fake girlfriend for a real date. Though Asad didn’t like to think of it as a date so much as a prep meeting. He and Morgan were going to have to sell themselves as a couple to his parents and extended family for a whole week.
Granted, most of the focus was going to be on his brother, Cyrus, and Cyrus’ bride, so it shouldn’t be too hard.
Asad fully expected to fly under the radar, even though he was bringing a girlfriend home with him.
In fact, the whole reason for bringing Morgan was so his mom didn’t spend the entire week trying to fix him up.
He didn’t need her help to get a date, dammit.
Considering his mom never hovered over him when he was a kid, it was damned annoying when she’d suddenly decided to once he was an adult, as if trying to make up for lost time. Like getting him married off would solve everything.
If anything, he needed help keeping anyone from getting too invested in him as a romantic partner, which was why he liked BDSM. Everything was nice and neat, and expectations were clearly laid out.
Bringing a woman home to a family event was going to muddy that, even though it was a fake relationship.
Walking into Marquis’ restaurant, Asad looked around.
The place was already busy, with most of the tables full and the bar both loud and packed.
He glanced around, and it only took him a moment to spot Morgan’s red hair among the tables.
She was sitting perfectly still, hands folded neatly on her lap, staring at her menu.
He happened to know she had the menu memorized since she occasionally worked on the second floor of Marquis.
Maybe she was nervous, though she hadn’t seemed so when the owner of the kink club they both belonged to had suggested her as the perfect solution for Asad’s dilemma.
Patrick’s submissive, Lexie, seemed to think it would help Morgan out as well, which Asad privately agreed with.
She had a traumatic past, it was true, but the Stronghold and Marquis Doms had gone a little overboard trying to protect her from what he could see.
Getting away from all the Doms breathing down her neck for a week was supposed to be good for her. And Asad got a fake girlfriend who was gorgeous, happy to be there, and not looking for a relationship.
The only thing that sucked for him was the ‘no sex’ rule, which even Lexie had supported.
He and Morgan had scened together before at the clubs, but Lexie had pointed out that having sex while on a trip to meet his family could cause some emotional entanglements.
Asad wasn’t worried about that for himself, but Morgan…
So far, she hadn’t fully latched on to any of the Doms, but that was partly because they’d all gently rejected her the first go-around when she’d been like a lost little baby bird, trying to find a place to land.
Once she’d realized she didn’t need to do that, she’d changed.
But it would be better not to muddy the waters, so Asad had agreed.
No sex.
Which really was too bad, he thought, as he waved to the hostess and made his way past her to the table where Morgan was waiting for him.
The scenes they’d had together had been hot as hell, and she was gorgeous.
Keeping his hands to himself wasn’t exactly his natural state, but it was only for a week.
As he approached the table, Morgan looked up and met his gaze. Her face relaxed into a smile. Fuck, she really was gorgeous. Her makeup was flawless, as usual. He knew enough about women and makeup to know that looking so natural took a lot of effort.
“Hello,” she said, still smiling. The color on her full lips made them look like a delicious pout. “You’re late.”
“I am. I’m sorry,” he said cheerfully. He was only a minute or two late, but anyone who spent time with Morgan knew that wasn’t an argument they would win. She wasn’t saying it to be censorious, the way his mother would have. She was just stating a fact. “You look lovely.”
As always, Morgan preened at a compliment.
“Thank you.” She paused for a moment. “You look very handsome.”
“Thank you.” Asad sat down across from her, smoothing his hands over the button-down shirt he was wearing.
He hadn’t wanted to dress up too much, but on the other hand, he hadn’t wanted to appear slovenly next to Morgan, who always looked incredible.
The dark purple dress she was wearing tonight dipped low in front and made her skin appear even creamier than normal, and her auburn hair glowed where the curls spilled over her shoulders and down to her breasts.
Sometimes, he wondered how her hair would look straight, but she never wore it that way.
“How was your day?” he asked, glancing down at the menu.
“It was good. Yours?”
“Exhausting.” He flashed a grin at her. “But looking up now.”
Morgan frowned for a moment, then her expression cleared with understanding.
“Your day is better because you’re seeing me?” She sounded pleased, and Asad nodded.
Sometimes, his efforts to be charming with Morgan backfired.
She took things very literally and often seemed surprised anyone would put in the effort to compliment her.
That was why Asad made it a point to do so as often as he could—not that he was being insincere.
He always kept his compliments legitimate.
A moment later, the server arrived with a glass of water for him, and they both put in their orders.
Asad hadn’t needed to look at the menu any more than Morgan did—Marquis was his favorite place to eat or hang out at the bar, even when he wasn’t heading up to the second floor where all the kinky stuff was.
“So, what did you want to talk about tonight?” Morgan asked, placing her hands on the table, one atop the other, her head tilting to the side in curiosity.
“I figured we should try to get a little more natural about being a couple. Talk about things that might come up with my family, and well, everything that we didn’t really talk about before.”
The night that Patrick and Lexie had suggested Morgan as his date, he and Morgan had agreed to a few things—namely that she would go with him, and he would pay for everything.
He’d given her a bit of information about his various family members, but that had been it, other than agreeing to meet and talk again.
“Like what?”
“Well, for starters, I don’t really want to tell them that we met at a kink club,” he said with a grin. “As funny as it might be at the moment, the longer-lasting repercussions would be a lot less amusing.”
“I see.” Morgan pressed her lips together, her eyes unfocusing. “We could say friends introduced us. It’s true.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too. And that we spent some time together just hanging out, and we hit it off… it was casual and has only gotten more serious lately.”
“Like when you asked me to come with you to the wedding?”
“Exactly.” He chuckled. “I thought we should also probably know more about each other. We’ve scened together, but we haven’t really had a whole lot of conversation, at least not the kind that people who are spending time together would.”
“Oh. What do you think we need to know?”
This was where it was going to get a little tricky, thanks to Morgan’s past, but Asad figured he’d better prepare her.
On the off-chance his parents decided to actually pay attention to him and Morgan, there might be some nosy questions.
He wanted to know if there was anything that would be particularly upsetting to her or that he would need to protect her from.
No, stepping in to shield someone else wasn’t his norm, but he was going to be responsible for her for a whole week. Thankfully, no longer than that, but for that week, he would take the responsibility seriously, even if it made him uncomfortable.
“Well, for one, I told you that my brother is the one getting married, but I didn’t tell you that Cyrus had childhood leukemia, which is something a girlfriend would probably know.
” There was a heavy feeling in his chest, remnants of the fear he’d felt growing up, far too aware he could lose his little brother any day.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. That must have been hard.”
“It was.” In so many ways. “There’s a good chance my family will ask me about your family as well.”
Understanding flashed in Morgan’s hazel eyes, then she shook her head.
“I’m no-contact with them.”
“I know,” Asad reminded her gently. He also knew that was the line she’d been told to use when people asked. “It’s possible they’ll try to pry, which I want to prepare you for. If there’s anything specifically you want me to say or that you think you might say, so we’re on the same page.”
Morgan
Master Asad’s—no, just Asad since they were in a restaurant, not at a club—statement made sense.
She’d seen a lot of television shows and movies with nosy parents.
She just didn’t have any firsthand experience since she’d never been allowed to date, then she’d been with Master Jason—who definitely hadn’t introduced her to his parents—then with Master Richard, whose parents had already passed away.
She didn’t like the idea of having to talk about her past with people who were meeting her for the first time. Even though she would be Asad’s fake girlfriend, she still wanted to make a good impression. She didn’t want to be treated as an oddity or breakable.
Part of the appeal of going away for a week was to be around people who knew nothing about her or her past. To see what it would be like to be around people who knew nothing.
That was why she’d always liked scening with Master Asad.
Rather than treating her like she was made of glass or like she didn’t know her limits, he seemed to trust her to tell him what she wanted and didn’t want.
Most people accepted that she was no-contact with her parents, and if they did press, she brushed them off with “I don’t talk about that.”
It might be harder to brush off her fake boyfriend’s parents.