Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Iris
“So, he just left? No hug, no kiss, he just got up and left?” Rae sounded as though she was torn between being confused and insulted.
“Did he seem happy?” Domi wanted to know.
After an afternoon of running through the encounter in her head, Iris decided she needed to call reinforcements.
Noelle hadn’t come home yet, and Avery would already be at work, but she’d known Rae would definitely be available.
She’d lucked out that Domi had been there, too, so she’d told them the whole story.
“He was smiling, so… yes?” Iris answered Domi instead of Rae’s rhetorical question. He’d smiled a lot, actually. Iris hadn’t expected that. Especially when he’d smiled about her pouring a drink on that Dom’s lap. He sure as heck hadn’t smiled when he’d been scolding her in the club.
Maybe that’s because that was Master Law, and today, she’d met normal Law. Regular day Law. Lawyer Law. She was getting weird in her head because she’d been weirded out.
“Is it a date-date or just a scene-date?” Rae mused out loud. Another rhetorical question. It was nice to hear she wasn’t the only one wondering.
Master Law had confused the heck out of her today, there was no denying that.
“It sounds like a scene-date… right?” Iris asked. Master Law wouldn’t want to go on a date-date with her. Even though he’d come over to sit with her today. And talked to her. Then offered to scene with her.
Lordy, she was brutally confused.
“Probably.” Domi sounded sorry, but it was a relief to hear someone else say it. Yeah, her stomach dipped, and she wished the answer was different, but as long as she wasn’t going into this, hoping it was one thing and it turned out it was another.
Hearing the door open behind her, Iris turned around from where she’d been pacing in the living room and waved as Noelle came in. Noelle opened her mouth, then closed it, frowning when she realized Iris was on the phone.
“Go with that,” Rae said. “That way, if it isn’t a date-date, you won’t be disappointed, and if it is, it’ll be a nice surprise. Assuming you’d want it to be a date-date. Um… am I assuming that correctly?”
“Yeah, I think you are.” Even though it was kind of weird to say it out loud.
“You’re right, though. Keep my expectations low but allow myself to hope for more.
” That way, she wouldn’t be hurt if he met her expectations, but if he wanted more, it would be a wonderful surprise.
“Alrighty, I gotta go, but thank you so much.”
“Of course! We’re going to expect regular updates.” They both giggled, and Iris grinned, though her expression faded when she caught the sour look on Noelle’s face.
Dammit. She hated how jealous Noelle got about her new friendships, but she wasn’t sure what she could do, short of avoiding talking to or about Domi, Rae, and Avery except when Noelle wasn’t around.
Iris knew that wasn’t really reasonable, yet it didn’t stop the guilt.
Especially when Noelle looked at her like that.
Sighing inwardly, Iris looked away from Noelle so she didn’t have to see her roommate while she was saying goodbye to Rae and Domi.
As soon as she hung up, she pasted a smile on her face and turned back to where Noelle was getting a snack together in the kitchen.
It might seem like she was behaving normally, but she was closing the cabinet doors a little harder than normal, putting the plate down harder than normal…
the warning signs Iris had learned preceded a blowup.
If she was really lucky, she could head it off before Noelle got up a full head of steam.
“Hey, so good news,” she said cheerfully, pretending she didn’t notice Noelle’s little signs. “I don’t have to work at Stronghold tonight. I took it off so we could spend tonight together. Have some girl time. Maybe watch some chick flicks.”
They’d used to do that all the time, and she was gratified to see Noelle’s expression change immediately. Thank goodness. Blow up averted. Iris couldn’t handle another late night of talking her friend down, but a night doing girl stuff would be fantastic.
“Oh, that sounds great. Can we order in Chinese?”
“Of course.”
Tonight was about Noelle, and Iris had expected the question. Not like she would ever say no to Chinese delivery, even if she preferred Indian.
“How was today?” Iris asked, moving to stand on the other side of the peninsula counter and sitting on one of the barstools, so she could be comfortable while she watched Noelle get her snack together.
Noelle liked to eat an apple when she got home, but she always sliced it up instead of eating the fruit whole.
“Not bad. Tyler messaged me to say he was sorry about last night.” Noelle shook her head. “I haven’t answered him yet. I guess I probably should, but I’m still mad.”
“Yeah, but if you don’t give him the chance to make it up to you, you’ll never know how sorry he is,” Iris pointed out.
She wasn’t sure if Tyler and Noelle were good for each other, but she’d never seen Noelle in a relationship that didn’t have some drama, and Tyler seemed to really care about her and jumped through her hoops.
“Yeah, that’s a good point.” Noelle picked up a slice of apple, crunching on it thoughtfully. “Alright, I’ll call him now.”
“Awesome.” Feeling as though she’d done her good deed for the day, Iris retreated to her room, so Noelle could have some privacy to eat and make her call.
Settling on her bed, she opened the book she’d been reading when Law interrupted her at lunch.
He would never know he’d been accorded an honor, considering she rarely reacted well to interruptions when she was in the middle of the newest Lexi Blake book.
Hopefully, she’d be able to finish before Noelle was ready to hang out.
She was just in the middle of muttering curses under her breath at the bombshells being dropped on the page when there was a knock on her door.
Stifling the much louder curse she wanted to utter, she swallowed it back and lifted her head.
Damn. Normally, Noelle wanted more time to herself after getting home.
“What’s up?”
The door opened, and Noelle peeked her head in, her eyes bright.
“Hey! So, Tyler was at work when I called, but he had a break, so he picked up and said he realized I was so upset last night and asked if I wanted him to take off tonight. I said, of course, so he asked one of his coworkers to cover for him, so we’re going to hang out tonight!”
Wait, what?
“But…” Iris started, then stopped. Noelle seemed really excited, but… Iris had taken off tonight, so they could hang out.
“But what?” Noelle’s expression had gone from thrilled and happy to annoyed so fast, Iris felt like she had whiplash.
“I just thought we were going to hang out tonight, that’s all.” Since she’d taken time off work.
Noelle sighed with exasperation, canting her hip to the side and putting her hand on it.
“You were the one who told me to call Tyler! Didn’t you mean it?”
“No… I did, I mean…” Iris shook her head. “I’m sorry. You should definitely go out with him. I was excited about our girls’ night, but we can do it some other time.”
“Ugh, well, if you’re going to make me feel guilty…”
“No!” Iris dropped her e-reader onto her lap, holding up her hands and shaking her head. “I swear, I mean it. Don’t feel guilty. You and Tyler should go out. Have a good night. I didn’t mean that to sound accusatory.”
“Okay. As long as you’re okay with it.” Noelle eyed her.
“Yup. I’m good.” Iris picked her e-reader up again and held it up. “Gonna finish reading my book and have a nice chill night.”
“Okay, cool.” Noelle grinned at her. “Don’t wait up for me.”
Iris snickered.
“Have lots of filthy make-up sex!” she called as Noelle closed the door behind her. She heard Noelle laugh on the other side.
Grinning, Iris snuggled back against her headboard and started reading again. Having a night to herself wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Law
Being at Stronghold felt… odd. He’d thought not having Iris there to watch over would be freeing, but instead, he was at loose ends.
Worse, he didn’t even want to try to scene with anyone else, even though he could.
The realization grated.
He was looking forward to going to Marquis with Iris next week, probably more than he should be, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t scene with someone else tonight. He should scene with someone else tonight, if only to work off some of his built-up tension.
He didn’t want to.
He also didn’t want to sit alone at the bar, which was never a good spot for him, so he decided to do the rounds, even though he wasn’t on Dungeon Monitor duty tonight. It was sad to realize he didn’t know what else to do with himself.
Walking through the upstairs, he slowed as he looked through the open windows.
Some scenes had spectators, some didn’t.
Friday night was always busy, though Saturday was the busiest, as was true at most places for socializing.
As he passed by one of the Dungeon Monitors, he nodded his greeting before moving on and heading to the Dungeon on the lowest floor.
There were a lot more people in the Dungeon since it was mostly open space and had a lot more room to play, though there were three private rooms. The private rooms at Marquis were a lot more private, though, since they were set up like hotel rooms, albeit with security for the occupants that normal hotels didn’t have.
“Hi, Master Law.” Two of the submissives he passed as he headed back to the main floor broke out in giggles when they greeted him.
Inwardly, Law sighed as he nodded to them.
Why the subs got such joy out of the nickname they’d given him, he didn’t know.
Maybe because they felt as though they were getting away with something since he’d been the one to cave and give in on the nickname rather than continuing to fight what had clearly been a losing battle.
“Tori, Vicky.” He kept moving after greeting them. While he’d scened with both, he still wasn’t feeling the urge any more than when he first came in.
Walking into the main room, he looked around.
No sign of Asad or Connor. He didn’t see Q, either.
As he was about to head out, a flash of red caught his eye on the far side of the room.
There was only one submissive with that color hair and that much of it.
Automatically, he turned his head to see who Morgan was talking to.
If watching out for Iris over the past month was his responsibility, watching over Morgan’s was all the Dominants’ responsibility.
Interestingly, it looked like she was arguing with Brian. Arms crossed over her chest, chewing on her lower lip… arguing but uncertain. While Law knew Brian was a good Dom, he still veered over to see what was going on.
“I don’t want anyone to hate me,” Morgan was saying as he approached.
“No one is going to hate you.”
Law’s eyebrows shot up.
“Why would they hate you?” he asked, coming up alongside them. Both turned to him with expectant expressions, which made him want to step back. He’d been ready to intervene, but he hadn’t expected to be welcomed.
“Morgan’s roommate is moving out, and she can’t afford her apartment on her own. I think she should move in with me,” Brian explained.
“Um…” Of all the things he might have guessed they were talking about, that hadn’t been on his list, and he didn’t really know how to respond.
“Half the subs here already hate me. I don’t want everyone to hate me.” Morgan blinked, tears filling her hazel eyes.
“They don’t hate you. They just don’t know how to relate to you,” Brian said soothingly. “You’ve made some friends.”
She had. Morgan’s social skills had gotten much better, although she still tended toward an almost abrasive bluntness and struggled with misconceptions she had about kink and people.
However, she had been the object of envy from some of the other Stronghold subs, thanks to the special treatment and attention she received from the Dominants.
Moving in with the only currently single Daddy Dom might make for another point of jealousy, but it didn’t mean everyone would hate her.
“So, this would be as friends, or…” He looked at Brian.
“As friends,” Brian said firmly. He grinned and glanced at Morgan. “We have definitively determined that Morgan does not want a Daddy Dom.”
“No, I don’t,” Morgan said as firmly as Brian had. Both men smiled encouragingly at her. Feeling secure enough to say there was something she didn’t want was huge. “It would be purely platonic. Brian is my friend.”
She hadn’t called him Master Brian. Law felt like giving her a hug of congratulations, but he also didn’t want to overdo it. They were all trying to wean Morgan off of doing things for approval and instead doing them for herself.
Maybe he should see if Iris and Morgan would get along. Morgan could use a little bit of Iris’ ‘I do what I want’ influence.
“I think it sounds like a good idea,” he said carefully.
“If you don’t want to, there are other options, and anyone who ‘hates’ you because of where you live or who you live with isn’t worth your time.
In fact, that would be a good way to determine what kind of person they are.
Someone who is overly jealous or possessive will show it a lot sooner if you’re living with Brian. ”
Morgan opened her mouth… closed it, and a thoughtful expression slid over her face. After a moment, she nodded and looked at Brian again.
“I’ll think about it.” She kept her voice firm, and Law felt like cheering, but he didn’t want to make too big a deal of it. He could tell from Brian’s expression, the other Dom felt the same way.
“Good. Thank you.” Brian grinned. “I could use a roommate, too, you know. Cut down on costs. I used to have a roommate, and now I’m stuck paying for a two-bedroom condo on my own.”
“Okay… oh, hey, there’s Caroline.” Morgan gave them both another smile as she waved. “I promise I’ll think about it.” She flounced off to her friend.
“She’s making good progress,” Law said.
“She is.” Brian sighed. “I hope she takes me up on it, though. I’m a little worried about what kind of situation she might end up in on her own.”
Weren’t they all? It was a delicate balance, trying to give someone like Morgan the space she needed to make her own decisions while also keeping her safe as she learned to navigate her own life.
“Oh, hey, Kincaid and Zach are here. Want to join us?” The invitation seemed sincere, so Law nodded.
“Sure, thanks.” It had been a while since Law had tried hanging out with anyone new, but Asad and Connor were still MIA, and it had been good getting to know Q the other night. Maybe he needed to relax and branch out a little.
Plus, conversation with people he didn’t usually talk to would hopefully help him keep his mind off Iris and the unsettling realization of how much he was looking forward to scening with her next week.