Page 106 of Masters of Secrets

Law was already hyperfocused back on Connor again.

“Why didn’t you just tell us you were the secret admirer so I wouldn’t be so worried?”

Oh. Right. That made sense.

“Because I wasn’t sure how you’d take knowing that I’m a sub.” There, he’d said it, out loud, to the people most important to him. No ‘think.’ No hedging. He’d said he was a sub. And it felt scary and good at the same time. It felt right.

“Why would I care that you’re a sub?” Law threw his hands up in the air, one of them coming down to scrub over his bald head in frustration. “I mean, of course, I care because I care about you, but not in a bad way.”

“Is it because everyone thought you were a Dom?” Q asked, his voice full of sympathetic understanding. Connor nodded, relieved that one of them got it. He should have realized Q would get it first—after all, he’d thought he was a Dom at first, then realized he was a switch. Of course, being a switch meant he was both. People hadn’t been completely wrong about him like they were with Connor.

“I… I didn’t want to tell you that you were wrong.” He snuck a peek at Law. It was hard to tell what the other man was thinking. “Or that I wasn’t like you. Or that I wasn’t the person you thought I was.”

“Oh, buddy, you’re still the guy we thought you were.” Asad released his hold on Morgan, coming over to nudge Iris out of the way. She went willingly, though she stood off to the side, looking over at Law, appearing to be ready to jump back to Connor’s side if she felt it was necessary.

Asad patted Connor on the back of his shoulder.

“You’re still like us. You’re kinky. We serve our subs. You serve… well, your mistress. Okay, that’s going to take some getting used to,” he admitted. “But it doesn’t really change who you are.”

“If you have any questions, let me know,” Q chimed in. “You can come join the cool club that these guys don’t get to be a part of.”

Frowning, Asad looked around Connor at Q.

“Cool club?”

“Yeah, you know…” Q grinned. “The pegging pack.”

“Oh my God, that is not what you call yourselves.” Sam put down her phone and shoved it away from her across the table with one hand, the other one coming up to cover her face as she groaned.

“Freddy came up with it,” Q insisted, grinning wider, even as he reached over to take Sam’s hand. “We’re talking about getting t-shirts. Only people who have been pegged get one.”

“I could get pegged if I wanted to.” Asad frowned. “You don’t have to be a sub to get pegged. And not all subs get pegged.”

“Know a lot of Doms who have been pegged, do you?” Q asked, raising his eyebrow.

“That doesn’t mean we couldn’t be.” Asad put his hands on his hips, looking highly affronted. “I did the course. I’ve been plugged.”

“Plugged isn’t pegged.”

Behind the counter, Law groaned and leaned forward, elbows braced on the counter, as he buried his head in his hands. Giggling, Iris scooted back around to his side of the island and patted him on the shoulder.

“I’ll peg you if you want, honey,” she said.

His head jerked up so fast, Connor was almost worried Law was going to need his services. But he didn’t seem to have hurt himself, or if he did, it was hidden under his epic glare.

“The fuck you will.”

“What’s wrong with getting pegged?”

“Nothing’s wrong with it, but we’re not doing it.”

“What if it was something I really wanted to try?” Iris asked so earnestly, it seemed to stop Law in his tracks. His mouth snapped shut, and a muscle worked in his jaw where he was clenching his teeth.

Rather than answering her, he turned toward Q and Asad, who were still arguing over whether Asad would actually go through with getting pegged.

“Would you two shut up?” Law threw more pieces of pepper at them, this time fast and hard enough that one of them bounced off of Asad’s forehead, which made Morgan start cracking up.

Chuckling, Connor ambled over to the other side of the kitchen table, out of the firing line, and sat down. An odd feeling of contentment stole over him as he watched his friends bicker like they always did, as if nothing had changed.