Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (15 page)

The way he gathered himself and stood up
straight was just as controlled as his descent had been.  She wondered if
he did any dancing.  He must be doing something physical on a regular
basis to have that much deliberate muscle control.  Maybe not dancing.
 Probably some super-masculine sport.

"I've read your survey.  It seems
like there are a lot of things you haven't tried.  My plan was to have you
try some of those things tonight.  How does that sound to you?"

She swallowed convulsively.  "Good.
 That sounds good."

Hell, if it sounded any better she might just
orgasm on the spot.  Her nipples were already trying to drill holes
through her shirt and she was more than a little thankful that she'd chosen to
wear a white thong
and 
lacy white boy shorts underneath her skirt.
 Otherwise she'd be leaving a mess behind on Master Patrick's chair.

"Sir."

"That sounds good, Sir."

"Right, sorry Sir."  Good
grief she was a mess.  She'd fantasized about this man more than once over
the past couple of weeks, but she'd never thought she'd be in this position or
with
him
.  If she'd known what she would be walking into, she never
would have come.

But she had to admit that she was glad she
had.  So far at least.

"And it indicated that you're
comfortable with the demonstration involving toys and hands?"

"Yes, Sir." 

"Good.  Alright, Angie, let's
go."  He stressed her name and Angel felt something inside of her
stomach twist.

"Angel.  My real name is
Angel."

The look he gave her was both sardonic and
approving.  Almost as if he knew that was her real name and appreciated
her honesty.

******

As he led Angel down through the
main room and the upstairs, giving her the tour, he was quickly revising his
game plan for the evening.  No private rooms, that was for sure.  He
was too angry to completely trust himself with her privately.  And part of
him wanted to expose her publicly.  

It was
difficult to hold onto his anger as she stared at the private rooms with a kind
of awe, the same little bounce in her step that he'd noticed at Chained.
 His body, in particular, was less interested in being pissed and a lot
more interested in the glimpses of lace he saw when her skirt flounced up or
the way her breasts jiggled on the shelf of that corset.  The
slutty-innocent look of all white in such revealing clothing appealed to him in
a way he would have never guessed. 

He saved
the downstairs for last.  The Dungeon was the best place to deal with her,
right in the center of the room where the spanking benches were.  They
were one of his favorite pieces of equipment anyway, and if anyone deserved a
spanking, Angel definitely did.

Once he'd
shown her the doctor's office, jail and the interrogation room, he led her to
one of the many open benches.  Since it was Thursday there weren't as many
people here, especially since it was fairly early in the evening.  Off to
the side he saw that Will had Ellie tied up to a Saint Andrew's cross and he
was using a single tail on her buttocks.  Tom was nowhere to be seen.

Noticing
that Angel was watching the display as well, he decided to give her a few
minutes to soak it in.  By the way she flinched every time the whip
landed, leaving another welt across Ellie's ass, it wasn't something she'd be
interested in trying.  Which was just fine with him, he preferred to stay
away from the whips anyway.  Floggers on the other hand...

Suddenly
her attention jerked back to him and she flushed as she realized he was
studying her. 

"Sorry...
Sir."

"See
anything you like?" he asked, gesturing at the cross.  Angel shook
her head, winding her fingers around each other as she lowered her gaze to the
ground.  Not entirely unexpected, going by her survey.  At least it
looked like she'd been truthful about some things.  And he was slightly
reassured about his ability to read her.

Sometimes.

Seeing
that she was eyeing the bench he was standing next to, Adam gestured to it.
 "This is a spanking bench.  Have you ever been on one of these
before?"  She shook her head again and he sighed.  "Answer
verbally, Angel.  I need to hear your responses and you need to get used to
giving them.  Clear communication is quite possibly the most important
part of scening."

"No,
Sir, I have never been on a spanking bench."

"Have
you ever been spanked?"  He asked, trying to ignore the way her low voice
was making his cock throb in his pants.  Considering that he'd been hard
basically since he'd started showing her around the club and thinking about all
the dirty things he could do with her, the fact that she could arouse him even
further with just her voice was more than a little disconcerting.

She
shifted her weight on her feet, color heightening her cheeks.
 Embarrassed?  It was impossible to fake a blush, right?
 "A couple times.  I asked one of my ex-boyfriends to and he did
it but it... it wasn't like what I thought it would be."

"And
you think I'll be able to do better?"  He wasn't able to completely
keep the amusement out of his voice.  

Angel
peeked at him in a shy little way that made him almost forget that she was a
liar.  "I think you have a better chance of knowing what you're doing."

Okay,
that made the side of his lips twitch, but he smothered the grin that wanted to
sneak out.  

"Very
likely.  I'd like to start off by putting you over this bench and seeing
how you respond to being restrained.  From there we'll move on to toys and
then a spanking, my hand first and then possibly a paddle or a flogger and see
how you feel after that.  How does that sound?"

From the
way her eyes had practically glazed over as he'd spoke, he would bet it sounded
damn good.  She certainly reacted the way a submissive would.  A
flick of her tongue across her lower lip, followed by a quick drag of her teeth
- a reaction that he was starting to think was instinctual rather than learned,
not to mention enticing as hell - and she took a deep breath.

"That
sounds good, Sir."

"Do
you have a safeword?" 

"Uncle."

"Uncle?"
 His voice came out half-strangled.  Good god, did he want to know
the reasoning behind that one?

A sneaky
little half-smile crossed her lips as she tipped her head to the side, the
loose curls in her hair flopping sideways.  "As in 'Say Uncle.’
 Didn't you ever wrestle when you were a little kid?"

"Right."
 
That
grin was trying to sneak out again.  He stamped on it.  No need to let her
know that he found her entertaining and adorable as well as sexy.
 "You can also use the club safeword which is 'red.'  Although
if the Dungeon Monitors hear anything that sounds like it's outside of a scene
then they come running - and you absolutely shouldn't need it during your
Introduction Scene, but things happen."  Like Stephanie who had
thought her pain tolerance was much higher than it had been.  And he
certainly wasn't planning on going easy on Angel.  If she was a little
wannabe or just playing games then she was going to regret coming into the club
tonight. 

He might not be a
sadist like Andrew, but he wasn't going to tolerate any bullshit either.

******

Watching Master Adam
and trying to figure out his thoughts could be a full time job, Angel thought.
 His facial expressions were mostly neutral, but his eyes betrayed him.
 Any time he was amused, she could see it in the little crinkling around
his blue eyes and the way their glacial depths warmed.  But he could flash
back to cold and hard in seconds, for seemingly no reason at all.  More
than once she saw him looking at her as if he was attracted to her but didn't
want to be. 

And that downright
sucked because she was damn sure attracted to him.  Hell, she'd been
attracted to him at Chained and having him order her around and being all
alpha-male and kinda-pissed was just fanning the flames.  She couldn't
tell how pissed he really was about her deception; somehow she thought it was a
lot more than he was showing on his face.

Nothing she could
really do about that though.

"Yes, Sir,"
she said, in response to his lecture on safewords.  She'd purposefully
chosen one that she found amusing, and that she was used to yelling out anyway
(legacy of growing up a tomboy), and she thought that she'd seen the glimmer of
a smile before he'd gone all mean and distant again.  

"Good.  Now
strip."

The command was so
authoritative that her hands were going to her blouse before she could even
think.  Damn!  How did these men do that?!  As her fingers
fumbled with the buttons at her neck, she glanced around the room again and
realized that more than one person was watching.

Heat and ice warred
within in.  Okay, so she'd kinda fantasized about getting down and dirty
in front of people before but she'd never done it. 

"Um... how
far?"

Adam glared at her.

"Sir," she
quickly tacked on.  "How far should I strip down?"

"All of
it."  The look that he gave her was pure challenge.  His voice
practically purred.  "You didn't indicate that you would have a
problem with public nudity on your survey." 

No, but she hadn't
expected to have to completely strip down on her first night here.  That
had been the point of wearing the special corset.  But the look in his
eyes said that he didn't think she'd do it.  That she'd say her safe word
and pussy out.  It was the same look she'd gotten when she was younger and
she wanted to play football or shoot hoops with the guys, the one that said she
should just turn around now and go home or put her money where her mouth was.

Angel had never been
one for going home.

The same stubbornness
that had served her well when she was younger came roaring to the fore.
 But she didn't say anything.  She just started unbuttoning her shirt
and doing her best to pretend it didn't bother her.  Heck, she was used to
getting undressed in front of people, she reminded herself.  Half of
theater was stripping down as fast as you could for a costume chance and it
didn't matter who was standing next to you or in front of you.

Of course there
hadn't been anyone so blatantly watching as Master Adam was.  And none of
them had been nearly as devastatingly attractive.  With his arms crossed
over his chest, his crisp white shirt tucked into dark leather pants, and the
black dress shoes he was wearing, he looked like some kind of bondage GQ model.
 

Doing her best to
ignore Mr. Serious and Sexy (not to mention Grouchy), Angel focused on
stripping down.  She felt her cheeks turning red as she noticed some of
the glances she was getting from other parts of the room and the various people
walking by.  But she wasn't going to let that stop her.  Heck, some
part of her liked it.  By the time her shirt and corset were off and piled
neatly on the floor beside her, that was obvious by the rigidly hard points of
her nipples. 

And her panties were
soaked through, although no one could see that.  Yet.

If she wasn't
imagining things, Master Adam's breathing had picked up a bit as she let her
skirt drop to reveal the lacy boy shorts she was wearing.  As well as the
fact that the white fishnets were not tights, they were very high thigh highs.  Angel
had long legs so she usually wore the size up from the recommended size on the
back of the box, which meant that they were a little long but that was better
than being a little short.  The lacy tops of these particular stockings
were only an inch or so below her ass cheeks.

Angel hesitated and
then began to step out of her shoes.

"Leave the shoes
and the stockings."

Was it her
imagination, or did his voice sound a little bit hoarse?  Taking another
peek, Angel nearly turned and ran just looking at the hungry expression on his
face.   Master Adam didn't look like Mr. Grouchy or even Mr. Serious
anymore.  No, he looked like he wanted to devour her whole.  Her body
responded with a tingling warmth that she'd never felt from just stripping
down.  Hell he hadn't even touched her yet!

It was her body's
response that was making her want to run.  She so didn't feel ready for
this.  But she was already more than halfway there, plus she'd have to get
re-dressed again, so she stayed in place and just pulled down the lacy shorts
followed by the g-string.  

Angel didn't look at
the very obviously wet piece of fabric as she laid it on top of the pile.
 It was too embarrassing.  

"Hands at your
sides," he barked out as they started to drift in front of her.
 Angel snapped them back to either side of her hips. 

She felt decidedly
vulnerable, almost completely naked - and what was covered wasn't anything that
really needed to be - in a room that had been slowly filling up with people as
she stripped.  It wasn't full by any means, but there were definitely more
people than when she'd first arrived, and she didn't know any of them.
 The sensation was both exciting and unnerving.