Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (12 page)

"Well I'm so flattered!" she said.
"I had no idea you missed me so much."

"Pest.  Anyway, I'm calling cuz
Kirk has someone who's willing to take over my lease here, but he wants to do
it in two weeks, not a month, so I need to get out of here and my place in D.C.
isn't available yet because I didn't realize that I wouldn't have a
month..."

"So you need a place to stay."
 Angel grinned.  "Are you sure you want to invade the nerd
castle?  You remember what happened the last time."

The last time Mike had visited he'd spent the
weekend sleeping on Angel's couch and had gotten absolutely no rest because
he'd somehow gotten involved in one of her housemates' marathon Halo games.
 They'd connected two televisions and two X-boxes and eight of them had
battled it out the entire weekend.  Mike had left more exhausted than he'd
arrived and hadn't left her house the entire time.

"Well Amy and I broke up last week when
I told her I want to move back to D.C. so unless something's changed with you
since we last talked, I won't have to sleep on the couch anyway."

"Nope, still single, although I'm going
to Stronghold next week for my Introduction Scene, so no promises," she
said teasingly.  

She couldn't count the number of times she
and Mike had slept together, completely platonically.  It had all started
when she'd been with her last boyfriend and Mike had been single and she'd
ended up passing out on his bed after a cast party at the house he'd been
living in at the time.  Of course by the time she was single again he was dating
her (now ex) friend Monica and after they broke up and Angel stopped being
friends with Monica, she so wasn't going there.  But they'd shared a bed
numerous times and she liked it because she was a cuddly person and Mike, funny
enough, liked being the little spoon.  Despite the fact that he was a Dom and a
sadist.

"You're going to Stronghold?"

"Yeah, they accepted my application!
 I could have gone this week if it wasn't for the show."

Mike chuckled.  "Well
I'm looking forward to hearing about it.  When I get in town we'll have to
go together."

"Sounds good."

"Alright darling, I have to
go.  I'll call you later and we'll hash out the details."  Like
many things Mike said, it came out as an order rather that a question.
 Angel didn't mind, she'd always been easy going and honestly, that part
of Mike's personality had been what attracted her to him.  It was part of
what told her she was submissive.  Of course, that didn't mean that she
didn't poke at him, because that was part of
her
personality.

"Okay, pretty boy."

"Pest."  The
insult was said affectionately.

Angel sighed as she hung up the
phone.  She really hoped that she did meet someone at Stronghold that she
could connect to the way she did with Mike.  At least, the way she had
when she first met him before he'd dated and slept with one of her best
friends.

Adam had invaded Justin's office and was
sitting and eating lunch with him when his phone rang.  Pulling it from
the case that kept it permanently attached to his hip, he checked the caller ID
and flipped it open.

"No."

"Come on, you don't even know what I'm
going to ask!"

"Yes I do and the answer is no."

From across the desk, Justin's dark eyes were
laughing as he watched Adam talk.

"I need the night off, my sister's ride
to the airport fell through."

"Tell her to take a cab."

Andrew sighed.  "You know she never
asks me for anything.  I don't want to tell her no, and Olivia can't
because she's gonna be at some conference.  Please, Adam."

He groaned, knowing that he was already going
to say yes.  Andrew's complicated relationship with his family was
something all of them were well aware of, especially his younger sister Iris
who had been giving him a hard time for years now.  As if Andrew's
break-up with his ex hadn't been bad enough, Iris had definitely taken sides
and it hadn't been her brother’s.  If she'd actually asked Andrew for a
favor then Adam couldn't be the bad guy and stand in his way.

"Fine, but you owe me."

"Thanks, man."

Hanging up the phone, Adam let
out a huff of air and glared at Justin, who was obviously amused.  This
was already not the best Monday he'd ever had and it had already gotten worse
because he was definitely not interested in dealing with an Introduction Scene
this week.  

"I blame you," he said,
glaring at Justin.  The other man just raised one dark eyebrow.
 "If you and Chris hadn't gotten together with Jessica then Liam
would have never met Hilary and all three of you would still be helping out
with the Introduction Scenes."

"And if you were actually
trying to find a sub, instead of just talking about trying, then you might not
be helping out with them anymore either," Justin said, completely unfazed
by Adam's bad temper.  It was something he'd gotten pretty used to dealing
with now that they were working together and he knew that it would pass quickly
enough.  

"You and your logic."

"Gets you every time."

But it was true and Adam knew it
was.  Normally that would be enough to help him get back on an even keel,
but he'd been decidedly off kilter for weeks now and the weekend hadn't helped
the way it was supposed to.  

Dammit.  He'd still been
attracted to Angel, mistress or not, and he'd found himself more intrigued
rather than less.  Last night he'd had a dream about her.  Sadly not
an erotic one.  No, it was all too obviously a correlation for his life;
he'd spent the entire dream chasing her, never quite catching her.  She'd
been wearing the costume from the first act of the play that she'd been in, a
soft pink sundress that matched her lips and made her look like innocence ready
for debauching.

Once he'd woken up he hadn't been
able to get back to sleep and it had put him in a pretty bad mood first thing
in the morning.  Followed by even more of a bad mood when the roads were
slick and icy, apparently rendering everyone incapable of driving.

He studied Justin.  In some
ways he'd always considered them to be fairly alike.  Despite that they
managed to get along well and even work together.  "How did you
know?"

"Know what?"

"About Jessica."

"What about her?"
 Justin looked at him with exasperation, not an expression normally seen
on the intimidating Dom's face.  Subs would probably cower at the almost
threatening tone to his voice.

"You and Chris... you two
barely knew her but you were drooling over her long before you followed her to
the Venus School.  How did you know she'd be right for you?"

"We didn't," Justin
said simply.  He looked at Adam and sighed, clearly seeing that such a
concise explanation wasn't going to cut it.  A little smile played on his
face, but he didn't mention Mistress Angela.  Adam decided he liked Justin
even more than he'd thought.  "We were both attracted to her.
 We both liked what we saw, and even though she never gave us the chance
to talk to her really, we had observed her talking with the people she was more
comfortable with.  We went to the school because we wanted to get to know
her and we wanted to see if either of us would connect with her."

"And you both did."

"Yes."  The smile
on Justin's face now was that of a happy, smitten, and smug man.  "But
we couldn't have known that in the beginning."  He paused, obviously
thinking back to the time before his last stint at the Venus School.
 "And Olivia thought she was probably a submissive, and she was
friends with Jessica so we trusted her judgment."

Inwardly Adam groaned.
 Olivia again.  Except that Olivia thought he should leave Angel
alone.  

He rubbed his hand over his face
again.  He'd been doing that a lot lately.  Because, deep down, he
knew Olivia was right.  It was time to get his head out of his ass.

******

"So did he tell you
anything?"

"Shh, I'm
concentrating," Angel said a low voice before raising it again.
 "Now, one two three and
turn
 two three and come back
together... good!  We're going to go through the pattern again, rotate
your partners!"

As she moved on to the next man in line,
Leigh gave her a little glare.  Angel ignored it.  She had warned
Leigh that the beginners waltz class was usually pretty crowded, and since
she'd promised to cover this class for her mother she hadn't been able to back
out of it when Leigh had come calling.  Which meant that Leigh had
followed her to the class, hoping it would be small and they could gossip - and
by gossip she meant pump Angel for information about the upcoming weekend that
Michael had planned for her.

Her friend was understandably excited
considering how distant Michael had been lately; knowing that he had planned
something big and romantic had put the sparkle back into her mismatched eyes.
 It had also given rise to some expectations which Angel had no idea how
to address because Michael hadn't hinted at anything and Angel wasn't sure how
she felt about the idea. 

What if Leigh did come back from this weekend
engaged to Michael?  

While Angel wanted her friend to be happy,
she wasn't sure that marriage to Michael was the way to go about doing it.
 Then again, it wasn't her life so she kept telling herself that she
should butt out.  It was something she had to remind herself of often,
since Leigh didn’t like hearing that opinion too many times.

Once she'd become angry enough to point out
that Angel didn't know what it was like to find a man that she wanted to spend
the rest of her life with, so how could she understand Leigh's perspective?
 It was a fair point, but Angel still couldn't see tying herself to a man
that made her emotions as jumbled as Leigh's often seemed to be.  The girl
flitted between almost manic highs and depressive lows, often based on
Michael's behavior. 

When the class was finally over, Leigh
cornered her again. 

"Seriously... just the tiniest
hint..." She was practically begging.

"Seriously, he didn't mention anything
to me," Angel said a little waspishly as she took off her ballroom shoes
and tucked them into their bag before pulling on her socks and sneakers.
 She smiled and nodded at a few of the students who thanked her on their
way out.  "He just asked me to help him pick out a few things that
you might enjoy - and I don't mean rings."

"Hmm... but if he
did
 say
something, then he'd also make you promise to keep it a secret," Leigh
said, following Angel down the hall to the front door like a playful puppy.
 Her long hair swung down her back and more than one of the entering male
students paused to look at her, not that she noticed.  As far as Angel
could tell, Leigh was always unaware of the effect that she had on men.
 More than one of the guys Angel had dated in the past had been dumped
after she'd noticed them checking out Leigh multiple times.  Once was
understandable, twice was frustrating but not a deal breaker, but by the third
time she figured they should have been with her long enough to  be more
interested in her than in her best friend.  The ones that she'd stayed
with the longest had always been the ones that didn't give Leigh more than a
once over. 

"He probably would, but he didn't.
 I'm pretty sure he believes I wouldn't be able to keep a secret from
you."

"Except that everyone knows you always
keep your promises."

True.  Angel had never broken one in her
life.  Promises meant something to her.  It also meant she didn't
make them very often.

"Okay, but he didn't."  Angel
turned to face her friend before they walked out into the cold.
 "Look, why don't you ask him if this is so important to you?"

Leigh made a face.  "Because a
proposal is supposed to be a surprise."

"Yeah, but you guys have been together
for years.  You've talked about marriage right?"  Leigh nodded.
 "So why is the timing of when up to him?  You've been waiting
forever for him to actually pop the question, at what point do you get to speak
up and say 'this is what I want and I want it now'?"

Not that Angel really wanted Leigh to get
married to Michael, but one of the things that bothered her the most about
their relationship was that Michael always seemed to be calling the shots.
 Which wouldn't be so bad if he was more concerned with what Leigh wanted,
but from the outside looking in, it seemed like Leigh was always the one
compromising or waiting.  Sure, that was partly Leigh's fault for not
being more assertive, but Leigh had always been kind of a doormat for him.
 Eager to please.  Kind of submissive really, now that Angel thought
about it. 

"I don't know..."  Leigh shifted
uncomfortably, putting her hands in her coat pockets.  "I mean... I
guess it's partly that I'm just a traditional kind of girl.  I just can't
really see myself doing it.  And I don't want to push him if he's not
ready yet."  She looked down at the ground and Angel's heart went out
to her.

Leigh didn't want to push him because she was
afraid he'd want to take a break again.  The whole him wanting to see
other people because he didn't have the same kind of experience with women as
his buddies really messed with their entire relationship.  When they'd
been on their break Angel had tried to convince Leigh to see other people, but
Leigh had insisted that she knew what she wanted and so she wasn't going to
mess it up by looking for something else.  

And even if it wasn't for that, Leigh wasn't
a pushy person anyway.  She definitely was the epitome of a traditional
girl.  Michael had initiated everything in the relationship.  

Wrapping her arm around her friend, hating
the situation that she was in, but loving her anyway, Angel squeezed her and
opened the door.  The icy cold hit them like a blast, making Leigh cuddle
up even closer to her. 

"I know you think I'm stupid,"
Leigh mumbled.  "But I love him."

"I know sweetie.  And I don't think
you're stupid.  Just stupidly loyal.  But that's why I love
you."

"I love you tooooo.  Even if you're
a meanie."

Giggling, Leigh wrapped her arm around
Angel's waist and squeezed her back as they hurried to their cars.  

******

Breathe.  You can do this.

Easier said than done.  Breathing in a
corset was never easy in the first place.  Breathing in a corset when she
was sitting down was even more difficult.  Although this one was at least
slightly less constrictive than some of her others; it was one that she'd made
special - basically a waist cincher with a shelf for her breasts to rest on.
 She'd put on a filmy shirt that gave the illusion of possibly being
translucent underneath it; the high neck and long sleeves were edged with lace
and looked faintly Victorian.  All of it was pure white, as was her skirt,
her fishnets and the incredibly high heels she was wearing.  

Tapping her fingers on her steering wheel,
Angel stared at the behemoth of a warehouse that was Stronghold.  

It reminded her strongly of how she'd felt
when she'd gone to Chained weeks before.  Except that this was so much
harder because she'd just been there to observe; tonight she was going to have
an encounter with a real, live Dom.  Who was going to touch her and more.
 Spank her.  Tie her up.  Let her try all the things she'd been
fantasizing about.

The fabric of her shirt rubbed against her
nipples and she blushed when she realized how hard they'd become.  

Glancing at the clock she decided to go
inside.  She was twenty minutes early.  Testament to her nerves,
she'd gotten ready early and then couldn't stand sitting around the house so
she'd come to the club early (putting a jacket over her ensemble before leaving
her room so the boys didn't become suspicious).  Now she was sitting in
her car because there had been no traffic and she couldn’t stand just sitting
here either. 

Might as well go into the club.  Maybe
they'd let her poke around for a few minutes.  At any rate, there had to
be more to look at than the inside of her car.