Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (22 page)

They were surrounded by Jessica, Justin,
Chris, Olivia and Rick, apparently all having arrived at around the same time.
 When Justin and Olivia headed in their direction, Angel finally looked
his way and their eyes caught... and held.

******

What good was being in the middle of a herd
when the wolf singled you out? 

Master Adam's eyes were practically drilling
into hers and she yanked her own gaze away, looking down and then peeking back
at him.  His hard gaze hadn't wavered one iota.  Was he still mad
that she'd lied about being a Domme?  He didn't look particularly happy to
see her.  Again.  Although he didn't
look
 pissed this
time either. 

And it apparently didn't matter to her body
that he didn't look particularly pleased, her heart had started beating in
triple time the moment she spotted him.  

It seemed to take forever to get across the
room to where he was sitting with Master Patrick, even though she was in the
middle of a group that swirled and chattered around her.  Being in the
center of such a group was kind of fascinating because she noticed that Justin
and Olivia immediately took point, leading them in the direction that they
wanted to go, whereas Chris and Rick sort of hung behind, as if they were going
to rope in any stragglers.  It really did kind of feel like being in the
middle of a herd.

When they got there Angel introduced Leigh to
Master Patrick and Master Adam as everyone ordered their drinks, by which time
Liam and Hilary had joined them as well and were chatting with Jessica and her
boys.  Mr. Serious But Not Yet Grouchy just listened and watched Angel as
Master Patrick welcomed Leigh to the club and ensured that she'd read and
signed the appropriate forms with Lexie when she'd come in.  Master Adam
looked over Leigh appreciatively for a few moments, but then his gaze returned
to Angel.

She wasn't sure if she felt relieved about
that or not.  If he'd switched his interest from her to Leigh, it wouldn't
be the first time a guy had done that.  But it would have hurt a lot more
than she liked to admit.  Still, his unwavering focus on her was more than
a little unnerving.  

"So what do you think?" Hilary
asked Leigh, coming up beside them, her pretty brown eyes sparkling.
 "Do you want to see the private rooms?"  Liam had one hand
on the small of her back although he had to stretch to do it, since he was
currently talking with Justin and Olivia.  Chris and Jessica had moved to
the bar, having a whispered conversation with Andrew as Rick looked on without
contributing.  Angel though that Liam's desire for continuous contact with
his girlfriend was incredibly sweet.  In fact, in made her a little
wistful. 

Even though she was pretty sure that a Dom
would claim it was only about control, it was obvious that he didn't like
Hilary being too far away from him. 

"Um... I'm not sure..."  Leigh
confessed, her eyes drifting up to some of the black and white photos behind
the bar.  The one directly in front of where they were sitting was of a
woman kneeling facing the camera, her hands were behind her back but it was
impossible to tell if she was bound, and a man standing beside her.  The
woman was completely naked, the man could only be seen from the waist down but
he was obviously fully clothed since he was wearing a suit and the jacket could
be seen in the photograph.  His hand was cupped under her chin and she was
looking up at him with such an expression of trust and desire that it was
breathtaking.  "I'm mostly here because I didn't want to keep Angel
at home while I'm staying with her."

"Oh, are you from out of town?"

"No," Leigh grimaced, obviously not
sure how much of her personal drama to thrown down in the middle of this group.
 

"Us girls have to band together in times
of men being assholes," Angel said solemnly, throwing a supportive arm
around Leigh's waist.  Her friend gave her a relieved smile.  Hilary
nodded knowingly as Patrick and Adam gave each other a look. 

"Cheers to that," Hilary said,
holding out her glass.  Angel and Leigh grinned and clinked theirs with
hers.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Master Adam roll his eyes.
 

He was starting to look grouchier but she
didn't know why.  After all, it wasn't like she'd done anything.

******

Trying to reign in his patience as Angel and
Hilary started informing Leigh about the various rooms in the club, as well as
pointing out some of the areas and more interesting aspects to the decor in the
main room, Adam kept quiet while he debated with himself.  Angel bringing
her friend tonight had thrown a bit of a kink in his plans.  After all,
Leigh had come to Stronghold so that Angel could, but he couldn't imagine that
Angel would ditch her friend to go actually participate in a scene.  

Especially not since her friend was
apparently having relationship trouble.  That kind of thing broke
girl-code.  Not that he was an expert on girl-code, but there were some
things that were universally understood.  

Which left him in a bit of a quandary.
 Angel was unlikely to want to be separated from her friend while they
were supporting each other, but he desperately wanted to have at least a few
private moments with her.  He'd like to apologize for the way her
Introduction Scene ended.  And if he couldn't scene with her tonight, he
could at least plant the idea of doing a future scene together in her
mind. 

Jessica and Olivia drifted over to join in
the girl talk, making it even harder for him to interject and ask for a moment
with Angel alone.  Who could break through all that giggling?

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Chris and
Andrew watching him with looks of amusement on their faces, as if they could
sense his frustration and were enjoying it.  They probably were, the
assholes.  Justin and Patrick were both watching over the entire group
with a kind of benign eye, although Patrick's attention wasn't entirely focused
on the group, but more on the club in general.  And his gaze wandered to
the door to the lobby every time it opened, as if he could see into there too.
 Olivia had positioned herself next to Leigh, although she was obviously
keeping an eye on Angel as well.

Mother-henning, as usual.  Now that
Jessica and Hilary were safely taken care of, in the sense that they were
Justin, Chris and Liam's to deal with, she was obviously turning her attention
elsewhere.

And Liam, as usual, was behind Hilary, with
his hand stretched out to keep contact with her.  Rick stood beside him,
his eyes flicking back and forth between Angel and Leigh.  Adam had to
keep himself from shifting closer to Angel.  He had absolutely no reason
or right to feel possessive over her.  Even if he had told Rick that he
was interested, to keep the other man from propositioning her.

"So you dominate men?"  Leigh
seemed rather fascinated by Olivia, which made Adam smirk a bit.  She was
obviously, to him, submissive.  Even more so than Angel, because she
automatically positioned herself to follow Angel's lead.  

Unless of course Angel wasn't really
submissive, in which case Leigh’s deferral to her would make a lot of sense.

Stop that.

His instincts said that Angel was and he
needed to stop over thinking it.  Just because she'd misled him the first
time they'd met, that didn't mean she would again.  At the time, she felt
like she'd had reason to. 

For some reason that wasn't entirely
reassuring, but he pushed back his own issues.

"Usually men, sometimes women,"
Olivia said with a smile, giving Leigh a little wink.  She blushed
prettily, although it didn't seem to make her uncomfortable.  "I do
tend to prefer men though.  Especially the ones that are more...
challenging."  Her smile was almost predatory and it made all of the
men shift uncomfortably.  None of them had a problem with a woman
dominating a man, as long as the man enjoyed it, but by the same token, none of
them could be completely comfortable with Olivia when she had that look in her
eye.  It was the same one she got right before she trussed a submissive up
and tortured his cock and balls. 

Adam didn't care if it made the sub hard, he
couldn't watch without cringing.  Or think about it without cringing.
 None of them could. 

"But aren't they stronger than
you?"  Leigh's hand clapped to her mouth as she realized that in some
ways, what she had just said could be construed as an insult.  "Oh,
I'm sorry... that's not really the point is it?"

"No, it's not," Olivia said, giving
her a reassuring smile.  For all her fierceness when dealing with
experienced submissives, especially naughty or bratty ones, Olivia could be
incredibly gentle and patient with the newbs.  "They submit because
they want to.  But yes, there are some that enjoy the sensation of being
forced to submit.  It's not something I've ever had a problem with."
 She said it without conceit, although Adam had seen some of the subs that
she'd had to physically enforce her orders with. 

They wanted it of course, although it was
harder for a large, muscular male to play the brat and then be physically
pushed into position.  A lot of the men who wanted rougher play like that
tended to be gay or bisexual and would look for another man to dominate them.
 There were a very, very few that wanted to challenge and then be slapped
down by a woman and those were the ones that Olivia honestly preferred. 

She didn't come to Liam's dojo often, because
her workouts consisted of kickboxing and Krav Maga, although he'd also seen her
take down more than one sub with one of the nerve holds that Liam had taught
them.  While nerve holds didn't work well in actual sparring or combat,
because it was hard to find such a tiny space on a moving target, when a
recalcitrant sub was standing still and waiting for retribution, it worked
beautifully.  It could also work well coming up behind someone and taking
them by surprise, which is why anyone who was a Dungeon Monitor went over some
of the basics with Liam before beginning their duties.

"You're not worried about..."
 Angel's voice trailed off as she looked worriedly at her friend.
 "I mean, you don't need to come to one of my classes for a refresher
course do you?"

"Oh, no, of course not!"
 Leigh looked shocked at the very idea and Angel relaxed and smiled at
her. 

"Okay, good, just checking."

"What kind of class?" Jessica
wanted to know. 

Angel's cheeks darkened a bit in a blush.
 "Um, I teach women's self-defense classes."

Both she and Leigh looked a little
uncomfortable and Adam suddenly realized that Angel must have worried that
Leigh's "guy troubles" had become physical.  He could have told
her not to worry.  From his reading of Leigh's interest in Olivia, he
would say it was just a fascination that a new submissive had with someone who
was obviously dominate and yet approachable.  A lot of new subs went to
Olivia with their questions, finding her less intimidating than the other
Dommes and Doms roaming the club. 

"That's so cool!  Where do you
teach them?" Hilary asked.

Immediately she was yanked backwards and into
Liam's arms.   Angel and Leigh looked surprised and almost a little
alarmed before they realized that everyone else was either chuckling or
observing the couple with amusement. 

"You don't need self-defense classes,
honey-girl," Liam said, frowning down at his girlfriend.  "And
if you do, you can come to the dojo."

"Women's self-defense is different from
martial arts," Angel said, interrupting whatever response Hilary was about
to give.  She was giving Liam a rather hard look, not at all submissive.
 Adam watched with interest, an uneasy feeling starting in the pit of his
stomach as he wondered if these were her true colors showing through.  "It's
about learning how to avoid situations where you'll be at risk and about
getting away once you're in them.  It's not the same as fighting, because
the goal isn't to win, it's to escape.  
Every
woman should take
self-defense at some point in her life, because you never know when you might
need it and it’s not like you can be right next to Hilary every second of every
day.  And a woman needs to know that she can make herself safe."

She said it so fiercely that even Adam,
wrapped in his suspicions, realized that her rather forceful demeanor came from
passion about the subject and not because she was now hiding dominant
tendencies.  Something angry and protective rose up in his chest as he
wondered if there was a reason from her past that she was so fervent, if she
had personal knowledge of why a woman should need to defend herself.  He
completely understood Liam's reaction; a Dom considered it his duty to care for
his sub, and that included protecting her.  For a martial arts master like
Liam, that would go double. 

But Angel's argument was also
unassailable. 

In fact, Angel's little speech had roused
both Chris and Justin's protective instincts as well.  Both were frowning
and had shifted closer to Jessica, their too-alert stances indicating that they
were suddenly searching for any threats that they might need to eradicate for
her.   Patrick was suddenly eyeing the door to the lobby as if questioning
the wisdom of leaving Lexie out there without his personal protection, never
mind the bouncer that was always guarding the door.