Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (3 page)

"I wanted to see what she
would do," he said simply.  It was the truth, but not the whole truth.  The
whole truth was that he'd been hoping, from the moment he saw her, that she was
submissive.  The attraction that he felt for her was undeniable, but not
tenable if she was a Domme.  Not even a switch, because he'd never be able to
satisfy her dominant needs, but he'd be willing to try and work something out
if she had any submissive tendencies.  Even if it wasn’t a lasting thing,
because it had been far too long since he’d felt such real attraction and
curiosity towards a woman as he did towards Angela.  For a moment he'd even
thought he'd felt her respond to him, but the moment was so fleeting that he
wasn't sure he hadn't imagined it because he wanted something to be there.
 

When it became obvious that he
wasn't going to give them the answers they wanted, his friends turned to other
more interesting subjects.  By the time Angela came back, her cheeks
slightly flushed with arousal, Adam was the only one left at the table. 
Chris and Andrew had left together, Chris wanting to get back home to Jessica
and Justin, Andrew just flat out bored; Rick was still hanging on, hoping that
the club might get better as the night went on.  Adam had driven himself
down because he’d known Chris would want to go home to Jessica and Justin, and
he’d wanted his own car just in case – although right now he couldn't quite say
why he stayed instead of leaving, although he claimed it was for Rick.  But
Rick would have been just fine on his own, although company was always
appreciated.  He had the unsettling feeling that he was sticking around in
hopes that a certain Domme might come back to their table.  Which was probably
one of the most inexplicable things he'd done in months.
 

And worth the wait.  Touring
the club had obviously intrigued her.  Her breasts were actually heaving a
little bit in the tight confines of her top and the flush on her cheeks
emphasized the sparkle in her unusually bright hazel eyes and also the pretty
pink bow of her lips.  When her tongue flicked out and licked her lower
lip nervously it did absolutely nothing to help calm the images that he had in
his head of pressing the head of his cock to that gorgeous mouth. 
 

Definitely disrespectful thoughts.
 
If
she was a Domme.  Not that he would question her if that's what she
said she was, but there was something…
off
… unless it was his
imagination or just plain old wishful thinking getting the better of him.  He
wasn’t sure, which was not a situation he was used to and definitely not one he
enjoyed.  He wanted to sit her down and hash it out until he
could
be
sure.  But that wasn’t really something he could order a Domme to do.

"So what do you think of
Chained?" he asked, curious about her impressions.  She couldn't
answer immediately because almost as soon as she sat down the young sub that
had approached her earlier came up again.  This time she ordered a Jack and
ginger.  Although she seemed to appreciate the young man's obvious charms
there didn't seem to be any true interest there. 

Maybe he wasn't her type.
 

Maybe subs in general weren’t actually her type, maybe she only
thought they were.

Maybe Adam was just a big,
overanalyzing idiot.  That seemed like a pretty good possibility.
 

"It's fascinating," she
said brightly.  Energy flowed from her, she practically quivered in her
seat with it.  The bouncy quality to her personality seemed almost at odds
with the in-control Domme she'd introduced herself as; her teasing had been
careful but pointed, now she seemed more natural.  "I'm not a big fan
of the decor, but I love being able to see everything that's going on.  Some of
the scenes are…”  She shivered a little, a reaction that she obviously wasn’t
able to suppress.  “And I do love a good tiki-bar, even if it’s not outside." 
She beamed playfully at him, tugging at something instinctive deep within him
that he couldn’t quite decipher.

If she'd been his sub he would
have asked her to elucidate on what she found so fascinating about the
activities of the club.  As it was, he held the question in, still watching her
carefully.  Adam didn't usually make new friends.  

Patrick, Rick and Andrew had been
his friends since college, after which Rick's friends Justin and Chris had
ended up joining their circle.  
 Rick
had met Justin and Chris at a rather specialized school and had realized
immediately that they’d fit right in.  Jared had been pulled in by Andrew after
he started working at Stronghold and the two had bonded over talking about
their troubled relationships.  Something that Andrew rarely talked to new
people about, but Jared having his own issues made him somewhat more open with
him than with any of the others who didn’t have the same kind of experiences. 
Adam had been the slowest to open up to all of them, although over the years
he’d become friends with them.  Still, he hadn’t made any new friends on his
own since Patrick, Rick and Andrew.

"What do you think?"
she asked in return, shooting a quick smile at the sub who brought her drink.  The
young man nearly fell over himself with happiness at her notice of him, but she
turned back to Adam quickly enough, leaving the young man to sigh with regret
and trot off again. 
 

"About the same as
you," he said.  "Except I wish there were more single female subs
around."  Angela's eyes darted away around the room as she brought up
the drink to her mouth.  Internally Adam frowned.  Had she done that to
hide her expression?  Taking a sip of drink or a bite of food was a good
way of changing the way your face looked.  Or was he just reading way too
much into everything?  
Stop it
.  "Our server seems to have
taken a liking to you."

Angela's lips curved into a sweet
smile as she put her drink down.  "He's cute, but not my type."

Immediately he wondered again
what her type was, the thoughts whizzing past him with no brakes.   Did she
even know?

"How did you hear about
Chained?" he asked, even though what he really wanted to know was how she
decided she was a Domme. 

"Oh, theater people,"
she said.  "I got into a community theater show recently, one of the crew
and I were talking and she mentioned Chained.   I thought I'd come check
it out."

"What show?"  This time
he wasn’t just making small talk, he was genuinely curious.  He’d done a lot of
theater in high school and college, although he hadn’t pursued it since then. 
Some of his friends from theater had gone on to New York or LA, or were working
the circuit in DC, and a few of them did community theater, although he almost
never went to see the shows.

"
The Rivals
.  Eighteenth
century comedy of errors type thing, only this production they've set at an
island resort in the 1960’s."  Angela laughed, a cheerful and forthright
sound, loud and clear.  He could see her doing theater.  Despite the
noisiness of the club he hadn't had trouble hearing one word that she said, she
was obviously very good at projecting her voice to exactly the right degree
that she could make herself heard but not include the entire room in their
conversation.  "So what about you?  How did you end up here tonight?  I’m
assuming that since this place just opened it doesn’t really have ‘regulars’
yet."

Adam was trying to decide whether
or not to tell her about Stronghold (it seemed a little gauche to advertise
another place while still in the club and she might also be like Rick and live
too far away from DC for it to be an easy trip) when Rick came back up to the
table.
 

"Alright, I give in,"
he said with a groan.  "There are no interesting people here tonight.
Unless you're a switch?"  The question was said with a complete lack of
hope, making it a joke, to Angela.  

“Switch?” she asked, looking
momentarily confused and highlighting the fact that she was new to the scene,
even if she obviously had done some research.

“Someone who enjoys being both
dominant and submissive,” Adam explained, watching her reaction carefully.

Did she catch her breath a
little?  If she did it wasn't much, and she immediately lifted her drink to her
mouth again.
 

"Um, no," she
said.  "Definitely a Domme."  Well that last part was said with
complete conviction.  Still, Adam couldn't shake the feeling that he was
missing something about her.  There had been some hesitation, unless he
was fooling himself.  Maybe she was just scared of admitting to a submissive
side?  

"That's what I
thought," Rick said with another mournful sigh.  "I think I'm going
to be getting out of here.”  He switched his gaze to Adam. “Want to come back
to my place for a beer?"

"Sure," said Adam
easily.  What he really wanted to do was untangle the mystery of Angela,
but that might be easier done in a more private location.  He flashed a quick
look at Rick, giving a slight tilt of his head towards the beautiful Domme. 
Fortunately Rick was quick on the uptake.

"Join us?" asked Rick.  Bless
him.
 

"Oh, uh..."  Angela
looked completely taken aback.
 

******

Join them?  Good grief... no.  She
couldn't possibly do that.  Just being in the club and talking to Mr.
Grouchy, who had become decidedly less grouchy and even more sexy as they'd
chatted, was making her feel all melty inside and she was having more and more
trouble pretending that she didn't want to just beg one of them to show her the
ropes.  Literally. 

Going back to a private place
with two dominant men, one of whom she was definitely very attracted to,
sounded like a recipe for disaster if she wanted to keep up appearances. 
And she knew that they wouldn't appreciate being lied to.  BDSM was all about
honesty and communication, not exactly something she was excelling at every
time she lied to them about her predilections.  Plus, heading off with two men
that she'd just met wasn't really safe either, no matter how trustworthy they
seemed.
 

Especially since she’d just lied to them.  Why hadn’t she said she
was a switch?  That could have solved so many problems in one fell swoop.  They
knew she was new to the scene.  Instead she’d panicked and insisted that she
was a Domme.

Self-preservation maybe.  After all, even if she was going to
experiment with this did she really want to start off with someone as
intimidatingly alpha as Adam?  Rick wasn’t quite as scary, but she wasn’t as
attracted to him either, despite the fact that he was definitely attractive. 
Also, no matter what her instincts about their trustworthiness were telling her
she didn’t actually
know
either of them, so lying was still the best
tactic.  Especially since they were both obviously looking for a sub to play
with.

Before she could decide whether
or not to accept their invitation there was a small commotion to the side,
Dungeon Monitors converging on one of the scenes to her right.  Rick and
Adam turned in their seats to see what was going on as an angry Dom punched one
of the DMs who was dragging him away from the bound sub.  Two of them were
unhooking her from the St. Andrew's cross and she was obviously crying.  Angel
bit her lip. That kind of scene was exactly why she was experimenting at Chained,
getting her bearings before going to the club that she really wanted to be
at.  The scene must have gotten out of control and either the sub didn't
have a safe word, didn't say it or the Dom ignored it.  Or maybe it was just
inexperience, although the way the Dom was fighting the DMs made her doubt
that.
 

No, she shouldn’t be trusting
strange men that she didn’t actually know, even if her instincts told her they
were okay.  And not even if they were both staring at the scene with
contained violence, like they wanted to jump in and help the DMs drag the
recalcitrant Dom from the club.  The gist of what he was saying seemed to
indicate that he was more of an abuser than a Dom or a sadist.  She only caught
a glimpse of his sub as they wrapped her in a blanket, undoing the ball gag
from around her head before hustling her off to a private room.

“They’ll take care of her,” she
heard Adam say, and felt his soft touch on her hand.  Very gently. 
That was when she realized she was trembling.  The feel of his hand on hers
sent a shiver of lust straight through her, despite the upsetting scene she’d
just witnessed.  Time to go.  She definitely did not want to actually try the
lifestyle out tonight, on her first visit, no matter how good looking and
tempting Master Adam might be.  He’d probably hate her if he knew that she was
lying, only pretending to be a Domme, and who could blame him?  
  

Pulling her hand away from Adam
she gave him a nod, her face carefully blank to control the emotions roiling
underneath.
 

“I think I’ve had enough for
tonight,” she said firmly, even though there was still a little bit of drink
left in her glass.  “It was very nice to meet you.”

He frowned at her and she got the
feeling that he was disappointed she wasn’t going to accept Rick’s offer to
join them.  Why?  While she was very attracted to him, he couldn’t possibly be
interested in her considering that he thought she was a Domme.  Unless maybe
he
was a switch but she didn’t believe that for one second.  He had an
incredible aura of power and confidence around him, just from his personality.  Although
being over six feet tall and muscled like a professional athlete probably
didn't hurt either.  It was an aura that she could project when she needed
to, but with her it was just an act.  Apparently an effective one, but still
just make believe.