Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (27 page)

"I'm going
to start off slow and not too hard," he told her.  "If you start
to feel uncomfortable or like it's hurting too much or you get scared, just say
yellow and I'll stop and we can talk about it.  Okay?"

Angel nodded
her head.

"I need to
hear you say it out loud, sweetheart."

"Okay,
Sir."  Her voice was husky, strained.  Needy.  He felt an
answering surge in his cock.  Was it possible to pass out from having too
much blood pooling in one's groin?  He was starting to feel almost
light-headed, he was so hard.

Flexing his
wrist, he gave a couple of experimental swings to make sure that he had the
weight and aim that he wanted.  Angel's eyes followed the strands of the
flogger.  It was lightweight, soft leather, about two feet long, and it
could caress or it could sting depending on how hard he swung it.  

Right now he
planned to caress. 

She tensed as
the strands came towards her and then shuddered as the soft leather wrapped
around her hips, her body relaxing as the soft slap registered on her nerves.
 Just hard enough to be felt, not hard enough to be painful.  Adam
grinned and swung the backhand, catching her other hip, letting the strands
wrap around to her backside.  Then he flicked his hand up and caught one
breast... then the other... and back down to her hip.

It was a series
of figure eight shapes made with his wrist, sensual and skilled.  She
didn't even notice when he began to swing the flogger a little harder, her body
was moving with the strokes, her hips lifting to accept the kiss of the whip
and then her back arching to present her breasts.  The buds of her nipples
turned darker and darker as her creamy skin began to pinken under the assault
of the flogger. 

Watching Angel was
beautiful.  He could feel the weight of the crowd at his back as it gathered
and was surprised to find himself feeling jealous again.  Adam knew that he
could be a bit of an exhibitionist; he enjoyed showing off his skill as well as
garnering admiration, but for the first time he found himself almost wishing
that he could keep the sight of Angel in the throes of erotic ecstasy to
himself.  Because ecstasy was what was on her face, shining from it
practically.  She trusted him completely and it showed in her easy acceptance
of her flogging, in the way her body moved to meet the strands as they came
down, and the obvious pleasure that she received from it.

Sometimes he could be
involved in a scene like this and feel mental pleasure, something that
transcended the physical.  This evening he felt that and more; watching Angel
aroused him almost painfully – even more so because he knew that he wasn’t going
to find his own culmination tonight.  He hadn’t last time either, but he had
been working out some of his own issues then.  Tonight he wanted to make this
experience completely about her.

A low moan interrupted the
almost hypnotic rhythm that he’d established and he glanced up at Angel’s
face.  Her lips were parted, her golden eyes glazed and dark with pleasure, and
her cheeks were flushed almost as pink as her breasts and hips now were. 
Appreciative murmurs behind him had him squashing another bout of unreasonable
jealousy. 

Experimentally he flicked
the flogger at her inner thighs and watched her body arch as she processed the
new sensation.  He flicked the other thigh and then very gently directed the
flogger right at her splayed pussy folds.

Angel moaned again,
shuddering, and her fingers clenched and then opened.

“What’s your color,
sweetheart?”  There was no response, just another shudder through her body. 
Adam stepped closer, letting the flogger droop downwards.  Was she in
subspace?  “Angel, what’s your color?”

She blinked and her eyes
refocused on him.  Not in subspace then, that elusive headspace that a
submissive could go to during a particularly intense scene.  At that point the
color and safe word systems ceased to work because a sub would accept just
about anything done to her or him.  Which is why the dominant had to be
completely in control and know exactly where the hard limits were, so that they
didn’t abuse a submissive’s trust.  Because being able to go into subspace with
a dominant, during a scene – especially a public one – was the ultimate in
trust. 

In some ways Adam was both
relieved and disappointed that Angel wasn’t there yet, although he could tell
she was close.  But he wanted her fully aware of who she was with and what they
were doing; they didn’t have a close enough relationship at this point yet that
he wanted to send her literally out of her head with the pleasure. 

“Angel, what’s your color
sweetheart?”

For a moment she seemed to
search for the words and then she smiled up at him, a beautiful smile of
complete trust and bliss.  “Green.”

“Good girl.”

And he rewarded her, and
himself, but switching his flogger to his left hand and thrusting his right
hand between her legs.  She was so very wet, practically dripping, as he found
her entrance and pressed two fingers inside of her; not too fast, but not too
slow.  Heat convulsed around him as he stared into her eyes, filling her vision
as he stretched her pussy. 

Angel rocked against him
with a whimper, her swollen, wet folds rubbing against his palm and the heel of
his hand. 

“Please…”  Her voice was a
thready, needy whisper.

“Please what, Angel?”

Her head fell back as she
moaned; he worked his fingers inside of her, reveling in her abandoned
sensuality, the way her body spasmed in response to his manipulations.

“I want you… please… more…”

Shit.  Adam’s cock pulsed
as he realized what she was asking for, knowing that it wasn’t possible.  During
her Introduction Scene she hadn’t given him permission for more than hands and
toys and they’d established at the beginning of this scene that they would
continue to use those parameters; just because she wanted it now when she was
lost in an erotic haze of need, that didn’t meant that he could go about
changing the scene.  He
had
to honor the agreement they’d come to
beforehand, even if every cell in his body was screaming at him that she’d
consented.  It was the same as getting her drunk; right now she was blitzed on
pleasure and she wasn’t completely in her right mind.

He wouldn’t take advantage
of her, but he would give her a mind-blowing orgasm and maybe next time…

“Shhh,” he murmured,
leaning into her and allowing himself the titillation of feeling her body
pressing against his, as much as he could with his hand between them.  Their
foreheads pressed together, lips only an inch or so apart, so that he could
look right into her eyes.  He would find satisfaction in the incredible
closeness of their bodies and the intimacy of the moment, and that was
all
the satisfaction he would find from her tonight.  “I’m going to take care of
you.”

“More… please… Adam… I want
to… oh god… please… fuck me…”

Even as she said the words
it was as if the very idea propelled her over the edge and into glorious
climax.  Her entire body shivered as he leaned into her, pressing her against
the cross as her pussy tightened around his fingers.  Rubbing the heel of his
hand over her wet flesh, he could feel the swollen nub of her clit pressing
back and he worked it as relentlessly as his fingers did inside of her.  Angel
sobbed his name over and over again, making his knees feel almost weak with his
desire to be inside of her as she came, to make her
scream
his name.

As her orgasm slowed and
then subsided, Adam found himself leaning against her almost for support.  The
scene had taken more out of him than he’d realized, as the sounds of the
Dungeon came flooding back.  He’d almost forgotten where they were and that
they had an audience.  Ignoring the appreciative sounds behind him, Adam knelt
down to hastily undo the ankle restraints, before holding her up with one of
his arms as he released her wrists.

Mistress Lisa was working
as a Dungeon Monitor and she was there to hand him a blanket to wrap Angel in,
giving him an approving smile before she disappeared back into the crowd.  Knowing
that she would send someone over to clean the equipment, Adam tenderly wrapped
Angel up in the blanket and carried her over to the aftercare section.

Settling her onto his lap,
she nuzzled right into his chest.  Actually, she insisted on unbuttoning his
shirt so that she could stick her nose right into his chest hair.  It tickled
as she rubbed her face against his chest for a moment, and then subsided with a
happy sigh. 

She wasn’t in subspace
exactly, but she wasn’t quite coherent either.  From what he could tell, all
she wanted to do right now was cuddle and he was quite happy to fulfill that
desire for her.  Aftercare was about taking care of whatever the submissive’s
needs were following a scene, and while he knew that he was going to need to
get her a bottle of water in a bit, right now he was just going to enjoy
holding her in his arms. 

Quietly hoping that she’d
want to repeat scening with him as desperately as he wanted to with her.

The Dixie Chicks blared from
Angel’s iPod speakers as she tried to concentrate on her latest project – a
corset for Lexie.  It was going to be the exact same shade of blue as Lexie’s
eyes, which would look electric against all that black hair.  Although Lexie
had a very different body shape from Angel’s, which much less in the boob
department and a flatter stomach, so Angel had changed the pattern slightly to
accommodate for that.  Lexie’s breasts didn’t need a shelf so much as something
to just gently cup and present them.  A little smile flitted across Angel’s
face as she thought about how much it would piss off all of Lexie’s “big
brothers” to see her in such a garment, because she was pretty sure there was
no way Lexie would want one of the high necked shirts that Angel had worn when
she’d donned the same corset for a night at Stronghold.

Pissing off Lexie’s big
brothers sounded pretty good right now.

Well, okay, really only one
of them.  The others were kind of innocent bystanders, but she didn’t care if
this drew their ire as well.  Right now she was feeling a bit pissy.

It was Tuesday evening,
three
days
since her visit to Stronghold, and all she could think about was
Master Adam.  Mostly she thought about how incredibly humiliating it was to
have begged him to fuck her and basically be rejected, although logically she
knew that he couldn’t really have done anything else.  She was more upset about
her own loss of control and letting him know how much she wanted him when she
didn’t have any kind of idea as to his own feelings.

After their scene, their
incredibly intense and soul-baring scene, he’d delivered her back upstairs to
Mike without a single qualm.  Hadn’t seemed bothered that Mike had taken one
look at her and declared that he was driving them home.  Hadn’t said anything
other than good night – although there had been a hot, intense look in his eyes
when he’d said it – and then let her go!

The next morning she’d
tormented herself wondering what he’d done after she’d left the club, because
goodness knows he hadn’t gotten off with her… and she’d been well aware while
they were cuddling in the aftercare area that he’d been hard as a rock. 
So
what do you think he did?

Shut up!

It wasn’t something she
wanted to think about.  She wouldn’t think about it.  Because she had no claim
on him and whatever he did once she left, he was perfectly within his rights to
do so.  They’d just scened together.  They hadn’t kissed or anything.  He
hadn’t even asked for her phone number. 

But some part of her mind
insisted that the scene had been more than just a scene and that she hadn’t
imagined the incredible intimacy that had sprung from it. 

“She held Wanda’s hand and
they worked out a plan

And it didn’t take them
long to decide… that Earl had to die…

Na-na-na-na-na-na-naaaaaaah…”

Singing along with the
slightly cheery, slightly angry country music helped a little bit.  Gave her a
bit of an outlet to vent some frustration.  Unfortunately she didn’t really
have another arena where she could do that at the moment because she hadn’t had
a self-defense class today.  Yesterday had been good, but today she’d woken up
with a bunch of pent-up energy that she really needed to work off.

Unfortunately it was cold
as balls outside, to the point where if she’d tried to go running the air would
have just frozen in her lungs and she’d have ended up coughing and choking. 
Angel didn’t like running much anyway, but she’d found that she absolutely
couldn’t in extreme temperatures.  She didn’t have asthma exactly, but her
lungs would seize up unpleasantly, to the point where more than one gym teacher
had insisted she get tested for it.  Bah.

The door to her room opened
and Angel glanced up, already knowing who it would be.  None of her roommates
would enter without knocking and Mike was out at a job interview, so that only
left one person. 

Musical notes clashed
together before Angel reached over and turned off her speakers and a distressed
looking Leigh held out her phone to Angel.  It was playing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t
Wanna Miss a Thing,” which was Michael and Leigh’s “song” ever since their high
school prom when that had been the theme for the evening. 

“He keeps calling and I
can’t… I’m just not ready to talk to him yet,” Leigh said, holding the phone
out towards Angel beseechingly.  “I don’t know what to say to him.  Please…
answer it and tell him I’ll call him soon.  Just not yet.  I don’t know what I
want from him so I don’t know what to say to him.”

Wow… that was new.  Angel
blinked, but reached out to take the phone from her friend.  The fact that
Leigh was even considering that maybe she wanted to do something other than get
back together with Michael… it killed her to think how much her friend must be
hurting to come to such a conclusion, but at the same time she wanted to
support that.  Maybe this time things would be different.

She slid her finger over
the little arrow to accept the call.

“Hey Michael, it’s Angel.”

“Oh… um.  Is Leigh there?”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t want
to talk to you right now.”  Leigh glared at Angel.  “She just needs some time…
she’ll call you in a couple of days, okay?”

“What does she need time
for?”  Michael asked, sounding frustrated.  “I told her I love her and I didn’t
realize that she didn’t want to take an actual break… I would have never
suggested it if I didn’t think it was something she wanted.”  Angel tried not
to roll her eyes.  Maybe he wouldn’t have suggested it
this time
, but he
sure as hell hadn’t had a problem trying to take advantage of it to date other
women.  She wondered if he’d been shot down already or if he’d just realized
how much harder he was going to have to work to find someone to bang that
wasn’t Leigh.

“She just needs the time
and you need to give it to her,” Angel said sharply.  “If you don’t want to
then that’s your decision, but at the very least stop calling her and give the
girl some space.”

“Is she seeing someone
else?  Is that what’s going on?  Because I thought she didn’t want us to see
anyone else!”

“No, she’s not, she’s just
not ready to talk to you, yet.”

As much as Angel would have
loved to have told Michael that yes, Leigh was considering dating other people,
she knew that it wasn’t true and that Leigh would be pretty pissed if Angel
lied about it.  It pissed Angel off how much antagonism and affront there had
been in Michael’s voice when he’d asked if Leigh was seeing other people.  So
it was okay for him to, but not for Leigh?  Ugh, she wished she could reach
through the phone and punch him in the balls. 

“Just give her a couple of
days, she’ll call you when she’s ready to talk.”

“Okay.  Fine.  Just tell
her that I’m not going to wait around forever.”

Angel bit her lip to stop
herself from retorting that Leigh shouldn’t have to wait around forever for his
proposal either.  Not her business. 

“Okay,” she said instead,
forcing down the bile that was rising in the back of her throat at having to
keep all her antagonism inside.  “Bye.”

She ended the
call without waiting to hear if he said anything else.

Leigh seemed to
sag in front of her eyes, going over to sit on her bed and looking pale and
almost wraith-like.  Immediately Angel folded the corset fabric so that
she could find her place again and went to her, wrapping her arm around Leigh’s
slender shoulders just as they started to shake.

“Hey baby… it’s
okay…” she murmured.  “You know you don’t have to get back together with
him if you don’t want to.”

“But I do want
to…” Leigh said, turning her head into Angel’s welcoming shoulder, tears
muffling her voice slightly.  “I just don’t know if I should.  What’s
the point of sitting around waiting for him to get to the perfect place in his
life to propose to me if he’s just going to spend the rest of his life wanting
to date other women?”

“Shh…” Angel
hugged her.  “You are the best damn thing that ever happened to him and
you know it and even he knows it.  He sounded pretty impatient to talk to
you.  He said he loves you.”  Angel truly believed that he did, at
least inasmuch as he was capable of.  Michael was kind of a narcissist,
but as much as he could, she believed he cared for and loved Leigh.  He
would just never put her before himself, in any way.

At least from
what Angel could see, but she was trying really hard to be there for her friend
and what she wanted.  And she hated to see how Leigh’s self-esteem rose
and fell with her perception of how much Michael cared about her.  As if
her worth only came from how much he thought she was worth. 

"I know he
does.  And I love him.  I just don't know if it's enough
anymore."

There wasn't
really anything she could say to that, so Angel just hugged her friend and
thought about how much men sucked. 

******

"Knock
knock."

Adam looked up
from the papers spread out on his desk and tried to quell the immediate surge
of bundled negative emotions that clenched his gut.  The man in the
doorway hadn't done anything to deserve his animosity.  Not really.
 It just seemed to be an automatic reaction ever since he'd met him. 

Granted, it
came and went.  Michael obviously hadn't had a problem with Adam taking
Angel away for a scene on Saturday.  But then he'd taken Angel right back
under his wing when she and Adam had come back upstairs.  Insisted that
they go home.  If it hadn't been for that then Adam could have kept her at
the club for a while longer to give her more time to recover.  Michael had
wanted to take her home to do so.

Since Adam
wasn't her Dom he hadn't felt that he had the right to protest or try to keep
her at the club.  

But it had
grated on him to hand her over to someone else.  Especially someone that
she was so comfortably tactile with.  There hadn’t
seemed
 to
be anything sexual in the way she and Michael touched each other, but that
didn't make watching it any more fun for him. 

"Hey, how
was the interview?" he asked.  

Finding out
that Michael wanted to sign up for a temp agency while he waited for the usual
D.C. cattle call of auditions had prompted Adam to offer some help.  A way
to prove to himself that it did not bother him how close this man was to Angel,
that he didn't see him as a threat.  

With an easy
grin, Michael leaned on the door frame, hands in his pockets.  He had the
kind of confident nonchalance that Adam had always envied.  Michael looked
like the kind of man who could relax easily, even though he wasn't as playful
as Chris.  Maybe it was the way his hair fell in his eyes.  Adam had
a feeling that was the kind of thing that a lot of women found attractive, and
it had probably helped the man a lot in his career, but he knew that such a
look would never work for him.  Adam needed his hair short and easily
styled. 

"It went
fine, I think they'll probably call you about taking me on.  I just wanted
to stop by and say hi and thank you."

Adam waved his
hand in acknowledgment.  "No problem.  It benefits my company to
have plenty of people to place in jobs."

"And makes
sure I won't end up back on Angel's couch in a month or two if I can't pay my
rent, right?"

He felt his
face freeze, an immediate reaction to covering up his emotions.
 "Sorry?"

Michael just
laughed and Adam had to squash another surge of emotion, mostly anger. 

"You
should call her.  She's been pacing around the house and making her housemates
nervous because she keeps muttering under her breath and they have no idea
why."

"I didn't
get her number."  
It
wasn't a real excuse.  He hadn't asked for it because he knew that he
could get it from Patrick any time that he wanted.  Of course, the day
after scening with her it had occurred to him that calling her without having
asked for her number made him kind of look like a creeper.  "And I
figured she'd be at Stronghold this weekend."

For a moment Michael looked
at him with something akin to pity.  "You know, most women don't like
to be taken for granted."

"I'm not... I just
don't want to rush her."  He didn't know why he was talking to this
man.  He barely knew him.  Hell, he hadn't even told any of his
friends this, and Justin had been in his office at lunch asking about Angel.
 "She's new to all of this," he muttered.

Looking amused, Michael
just shook his head and stood up straight.  "Just don't take too
long.  Angel's not the most patient person in the world, not once she
knows what she wants."  He chuckled, gave the door frame one last rap
with his knuckles, and left.

Great.  Now even
people Adam wasn't friends with were butting in.  Sighing, he dropped his
head down to look at the social media numbers that Justin had brought in for
him.  They were doing better than ever, but lately success in business and
the expansion of his staff weren't enough to make him feel completely
satisfied.