Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (14 page)

"I have a situation I have
to see to... I don't want to have to leave you here alone though.  Hold on
a moment."  Getting up, he went back to the door that they'd come in
from, the one that connected to the lobby.  Angel clasped her hands
together.  A situation?  What did that mean?  Was it a sub that
had gotten hurt?  Someone's scene gotten out of control?  Why would
the owner of the club be needed if unless it something bad?

As her panic started to well,
Patrick stuck his head out of the door.  "Jared.... oh hey, good
you're here.  Never mind, Jared."  He shifted so that more of
his body was out of the door, his voice still loud enough that she could hear
every word he said.  "I've got a situation downstairs... Tom offered
Ellie a club contract last week but she refused."

"Of course she did,"
another deep male voice said.  "Ellie never signs club
contracts."

"Yeah but she's been scening
with him a lot lately, I think he got his hopes up."

A derisive snort. 

"Anyway, she turned him down
for a scene tonight and accepted an offer from Will, so now I've got to get
downstairs because Tom's throwing a hissy fit, Ellie is making it worse by
ignoring him, and Will is pissed."

"As he should be if Tom's
interfering with a scene over a sub that he has no claim to."

"Yes, thank you for telling
me what I already know."  Master Patrick's voice was dry, but she
could tell that he respected whoever he was talking to.  He was sarcastic
but not derogatory.  "Anyway, Angie's in here, so you can chat with
her before choosing a room for the scene.  Interrogation, jail and school
are all open."

"Okay, thanks."

Then Master Patrick was moving
away and another man was entering.  Angel was starting to stand, feeling
that she should get up and introduce herself, but as soon as she caught his
crystal blue gaze her knees and lungs locked up and she found herself sinking
back into the chair.

Very tall, very attractive, with
very blue eyes, blonde hair and a goatee... and he looked more than grouchy as
recognition flashed across his face.  

He looked downright pissed.

Adam had
studied the survey and information that Patrick had sent him on Angie and hoped
that the Introduction Scene wouldn't be as frustrating as his one with
Stephanie. From the survey, as long as she had filled it out truthfully, it
seemed like it should be an enjoyable scene for him.  And from the amount
of question marks and indications of "never tried, would like to"
answers that she'd given, he assumed she was being truthful.  Stephanie’s
survey had been full of confidence that she would like her fantasies, Angie
obviously didn’t have much experience but wanted to try a whole lot.

He was
okay with that.

Especially
because, going by the survey, she was interested in trying a lot of his
favorite things.  There was nothing more that Adam liked than playing with
a woman’s ass and Angie had indicated that she was familiar with and enjoyed
anal play and sex.  From the survey she looked a lot more compatible to
him than Stephanie from his last Intro Scene had been, so he'd tried building
up his anticipation on the drive over.

It almost
worked.  At least he wasn't dreading the evening.  When he stepped
into the club Jared grinned at him in an encouraging way, which was good.
 Lexie was behind the desk, her expression rather grumpy.  She looked
at him in surprise as he approached.

"I
thought Andrew was doing the Intro scene tonight."

"He
had to take Irene to the airport."

Lexie
scowled.  "Nice of Patrick to let me know."

"You
two need to learn how to play nicely," he teased. 

"I
will if he will," she retorted.  Adam just grinned.  He wasn't
one hundred percent proof positive that Lexie had feelings for Patrick that
went well beyond sisterly, and that Patrick was fighting his own feelings in
that regard, but lately it seemed more and more likely.  

Which was
a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Just
then, Patrick stuck his head out the door. "Jared..."  His eyes swept
around the room and landed on Adam.  "Oh hey, good you're here.
 Never mind Jared." 

Adam
walked around the desk, heading for Patrick. 

"I've
got a situation downstairs... Tom offered Ellie a club contract last week but
she refused."

"Of
course she did.  Ellie never signs club contracts."  In fact she
was almost as well-known as Andrew around the club for her refusal to
participate in anything that even resembled any kind of relationship.  Which
was why they most often partnered each other to play, especially since Ellie
was a masochist and Andrew was a sadist.  They could satisfy themselves without
making any move towards something more.  Even Adam had had some short club
contracts since Brooke, usually not lasting more than a month and he'd never
been interested in taking them outside of the club or extending them.  But he
had them.

Club
contracts were for people who wanted to play inside the club, exclusively with
each other, for a certain amount of time.  Some could last up to a year or
more if the participants felt they had the right chemistry.  The contracts
clearly outlined what was expected of each party, but they only existed for
inside the club.  It was for those people who wanted stability in their
play but weren't interested in a relationship outside of the scene. 

"Yeah but she's been scening with him a
lot lately, I think he got his hopes up."

Adam snorted.  To his knowledge, Andrew
and Ellie were rather unique in that they never signed club contracts.
 They only scened.  Still it had been obvious to most of them that
Tom was more than a little interested in Ellie; if she really had been scening
with him on a regular basis then he could understand how the man got his hopes
up.  They had good chemistry, although he sometimes thought that Tom might
be a little softer on her than she wanted.  

"Anyway, she turned him down for a scene
tonight and accepted an offer from Will, so now I've got to get downstairs
because Tom's throwing a hissy fit, Ellie is making it worse by ignoring him,
and Will is pissed."

"As he should be, if Tom's interfering
with a scene over a sub that he has no claim to."

"Yes, thank you for telling me what I
already know."  Patrick gave him a look, but Adam just shrugged.
 "Anyway, Angie's in here, so you can chat with her before choosing a
room for the scene.  Interrogation, jail and school are all open."

"Okay, thanks."  Maybe school.
 He hadn't been there in a while and that was always a good scene for an
Introduction.

Patrick moved out of the doorway heading for
the club and Adam walked into the door of his office, a room that he was very
familiar with.  Angie, the submissive, was sitting in one of the chairs in
front of his desk, and she started to rise as he walked in. 

With her brown hair piled on top of her head
to show off her unadorned neck, she was a vision in white.  The corset
pushed up plump breasts, offering them up despite the thin, high-necked top she
wore underneath in.  In fact, that top only invited someone to rip it away
and reveal the lush curves underneath.  A short white skirt flirted around
her thighs, white fishnets clinging to her long legs, and white high heels that
would dig into a man's back when she wrapped her legs around him. 

She was innocence and sin, wrapped together
in a sensuality that couldn't be denied.  She was a fallen angel. 

Adam's fists clenched as adrenaline and anger
rushed through him in equal measure, a roaring sound filling his ears as he
sucked in a deep, shocked breath. 

"
You
."

Tottering on those thin, high heels, Angel
sank back down, her eyes incredibly wide as she stared up at him.  Those
pouty lips opened in shock, temptingly pink and inviting.  All too easy to
remember how he'd fantasized about sliding his cock between them on the very
first night that he'd met her. 

"Oh my god..."  Her voice was
breathy and high, nothing like he'd ever heard her sound before.  Not at
Chained or in
The Rivals.
 "What are you doing here?"

Slamming the door shut behind him, Adam
stalked forward to tower over her.  He could see the pulse fluttering in
her neck, her hands grasping the arms of her chair and her fingers wrapping
around them so tightly that her knuckles turned white, and her pupils dilated
as he moved closer.  Shock, fear, and arousal all in equal measures.
 Usually the emotions he enjoyed eliciting in a sub, right now he was too
overwhelmed by his own raging emotions.

Part of him was thrilled to see her.
 Another part was feeling completely blindsided.  What was she
playing at, coming to Stronghold as a submissive, when she'd been so very clear
in telling him at Chained that she was a Domme?  And what about
"pretty boy?"

"My name is Master Adam," he said,
crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down at her.  "I'm
supposed to be giving a submissive named Angie her introduction scene.
 What are
you
doing here, Mistress Angela?"

The bite in his voice made her shiver, she
seemed to shrink in on herself, exactly the way a submissive caught in bad
behavior would.  Her hands left the chair and curled in on each other on
her lap, as if she wanted to wrap her arms around herself.  It wasn't hard
to ignore her obvious discomfort with the way he was looming over her. 

He purposefully didn't tell her that he knew
her real name.  Or that he'd seen her show last weekend.  Already he
felt like the control had been knocked from his hands.  Keeping something
from her, when she'd obviously kept things from him, helped his equilibrium a
bit.

At least she looked as shocked as he felt -
but then again, she was an actress.  How would he really know?  She'd
certainly fooled all of them at Chained.

"I'm Angie."

Her voice was so low he almost didn't hear
it.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

Sitting up a little bit straighter now that
the initial shock was over, Angel raised her eyes almost defiantly to his.
 They were even prettier than he'd realized with her head tipped back like
this, and the black and gold liner accentuating their almond shape and bringing
out flecks of gold in the bright amber color. 

"I'm Angie.  That's my... that's my
name for this club."

Well she definitely had some spirit.
 She was eyeing him warily, as if she expected to need to run at any
moment. 

"I see.  And what happened to
Mistress Angela?"

Angel took a deep breath, which drew his
attention to her breasts.  Not where it needed to be if he was going to
stay in control of this situation.  She was staring at his crossed arms.

"She never really existed.  I
just... I'm new to this and I was... I was scared to go to a club without
knowing anyone or knowing anything about it.  So I went to Chained as a
Domme because that seemed like a good way to find out what the clubs were like.
 I always intended on coming to Stronghold later."  She met his
eyes again, briefly, warily.  "I definitely didn't expect anyone else
to go to both... they're far enough away from each other that I thought I'd be
safe.  And I couldn't imagine why anyone would go to a new club like
Chained if they were already a member her."

The look in her eyes was almost
accusatory. 

"I was visiting a friend who lives down
there," he said, even though he didn't owe her an explanation.  He
had a much better reason for being down there than she had, as far as he was
concerned.  Especially since he hadn't been masquerading as anything.  The
dishonesty rankled; trust and honesty was integral to BDSM and if she wasn’t
willing to trust then she couldn’t really be trusted.  "So you played
at being a Domme at Chained and now you want to play at being a sub here at
Stronghold?"

She sat up straight, obviously indignant at
his sarcastic tone.

"I'm not playing at anything," she
said sharply, glaring back.  One of her hands rubbed along her upper
thigh.  On purpose to distract him by making him look at her short skirt,
or just a nervous movement?  "I am submissive... I was just-"

"Scared.  So you said."
 His tone was clipped, abrupt, cutting her off.  Like that excused a
deliberate deception.  How would he even know what she was telling the
truth about?  She'd pretended to be dominant well enough - if she was
actually submissive like she claimed.  If she wasn't, how far would she go
with the deception?  

Was she just someone who got her kicks by
visiting the clubs in various guises and doing whatever she felt like?
 Toying with the people there? 

"Yes Sir."  

He raised his eyebrow at her.  She might
have said "Sir" but her chin was tilted up defiantly.  Not quite
a brat... but not exactly submissive either.  Leaning over her in a slow
and deliberate manner, he placed his hands on the arms of her chair as she
scooted back.  Her head tipped back further and further, eyes wide as her
breathing accelerated.  

Such a quick and instinctive response had to
be real.  So he knew that some of her responses were submissive, and that
she was excited.  

"I'm not in the mood for games tonight,
little one," he growled, coming close enough that she would feel like he
was invading her space.  She was pressed up against the back of the chair
and if his legs hadn't been against the seat, in between hers, he was pretty
sure that she would have been sinking down as well.  "If you aren't
really a submissive then you need to get out.  Now."

******

Geezus... the man was practically threatening
her and all she could do was cream her panties.  If she ever needed proof
that she was submissive, surely this had to be it!  

She could understand that he was a little
upset, even angry, although she thought that his reaction was just a tad
over-dramatic... but part of her felt like she should at least be pissed back
at him.  After all, she'd told him why she'd pretended to be a Domme at
Chained and he acted like it didn't matter why, even though it was a good
reason.  Instead he just tried to intimidate her into leaving.

Well joke was on him, all he was doing was
turning her on.   

Flicking out her tongue across her lower lip
before dragging her teeth across it, a nervous habit she'd never quite been
able to get rid of, she noticed that his eyes dropped to her mouth.  So
Mr. Very Grouchy wasn't quite as immune to her as he acted.  That was
something at least.  More than something since it would have been pretty
embarrassing to be all heated up about him if he wasn't the slightest bit interested
in her. 

"I'm submissive.  I want to be
here.  Sir."  Her voice was back to that high, breathy squeak
that she hated.  It only came out when she was feeling particularly shy or
vulnerable.  

Then again, with six feet something and who
knows how many pounds of sexy, muscular,
pissed
 male leaning over
her, how could she feel anything other than vulnerable?

And damn her body for finding that so
freaking hot.  

A muscle in his jaw clenched as she stared up
at him, fascinated.  "All right."