Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (35 page)

"I'm sorry... I just thought that
because of the kind of club it was... I didn't want to assume one thing and so
I ended up assuming something else and... I'm sorry," she finished a
little lamely.  

To her surprise, Adam gave her a rather
encouraging smile.  "I realize that you're new to the club scene, and
I can't blame you for some of your assumptions.  But, just to clear things
up, I had no interest in Laurie last night.  Patrick had asked me to stay
out on the floor while he handled something in the office and when I saw you, I
wanted to drag you off to a private room so that I could be the only one to
enjoy that rather delightful outfit that you were wearing.  Then I didn't
want to interrupt your dance with Rick because it's not like I had a claim on
you for anything other than scene, whatever I might want.  So I stayed
away for a bit longer than I probably should have.  But I had no intention
of scening with anyone else other than you, nor do I have any interest in
scening with Laurie or any of the other submissives who approached me last
night."

At that, Angel couldn't help but giggle.
 He just sounded so
affronted
that the submissives had been
approaching him last night rather than following the usual order of things.
 The look that he gave her as she covered her mouth with her hands was
both sardonic and slightly amused at her amusement.

"I did try to let them down easily, and
when I told Amanda ‘not tonight,’ that’s all I was doing.  And as soon as
everything from the Lexie-Trevor-Patrick situation was settled, I went
home."

"Oh.  Sooo...."  She
couldn't quite bring herself to ask if that meant he wanted more from her that
just scening at the club, even though his actions and explanation seemed to
indicate that.  As brash and blunt as she could be, when it came to making
the first move with a guy she was just terrible at it.  She'd assumed it
was something to do with being submissive because she was usually pretty good
at sharing her thoughts and feelings but not very good at actively going after
a guy.  

"So I would like to take you out to
lunch."  He glanced at his watch.  "A late lunch.  Or
an early dinner.  Where we can talk and get to know each other some more.
 Because, while we might make really good friends, that wasn't really my
intention."  

"And... you aren't going to scene with
anyone else?"  Man she hated the needy note that was in her voice,
but that was definitely something that she didn't want to be making assumptions
about.

Adam shook his head, standing up.  

"No, and you aren't either."
 Go figure, any other guy in her life and that simple edict would have had
her bristling.  He said it and it made her feel all melty and special
inside.  The smile that he gave her was pure temptation as he held out his
hand.  "So, food?"

Adam was in a damned good mood
and it had nothing to do with the fantastic food he was eating.  Well,
maybe something to do with it.  But it had a lot more to do with his
current company.  Taking her out of the house for dinner while her
housemates looked at him with something approaching awe - even Q - had done
wonders for him.  While part of him still struggled with the whole three
male housemates thing, he was working on that.

The little speech that she'd
given him back at her place hadn't been at all what he'd expected.  After
all, he'd gone there half thinking that maybe she was a little bit of a crazy
drama queen, but it turned out that she had real reasons for calling things to
a halt the way she had.  They'd both made assumptions rather than talking
things out, something that he'd meant to fix even before they had their scene
last night but they hadn't gotten the chance.  Because he'd been dense
enough to stay away and keep talking to Laurie without thinking about how Angel
might interpret that, and because he hadn't clarified with Angel exactly what
he wanted their relationship to be, she'd ended up feeling insecure and
rejected.

Well he could definitely fix that
over dinner tonight because every minute he was spending with her was making
him want to spend even more time with her.

She was bouncy entertainment
outside of the club.  While he'd gotten a glimpse of that when they'd been
decorating for the Valentine's Day party, it became even more apparent when
they were in the car.  She laughed at signs that contained puns, giggled
at funny bumper stickers that she read out loud, danced to the songs on the
radio that she particularly liked and sang under her breath.  As if he hadn't
already heard her singing when he'd been at her house.  

While she'd never make a living
with her voice, it was still a nice one to listen to.  The only time she
seemed self-conscious was when she'd catch him watching her dance or bounce.
 Then she'd blush, giggle and say she was sorry.

"Don't apologize," he
said, shaking his head.  "It's cute."

Some girls didn't like to be
called cute.  Most guys too.  Adam wasn't too fond of it himself.
 But Angel just beamed at him like he'd told her that she was the most
beautiful woman in the world.  It took her a few minutes to get lost
enough in the music and then she was bouncing again.

Once they'd gotten to the
restaurant it had been surprisingly full - surprising until he remembered that
it was Valentine's Day weekend.  Fortunately it was still early in the
evening and Angel knew the hostess, so they'd managed to get a seat.
 Turned out she knew the waitress too, who had immediately come over with
a plate of piping hot fresh bread, the kind that had obviously been made at the
restaurant rather than ordered in.  It was filled with herbs and spices
and had a cheesy crust. 

And the way he and Angel were
both going at it, they were going to have to ask for some more.

"Did you use to work
here?" he asked, after a third server stopped by their table to say hello.
 

"No, Q did.  He was a
bartender here.  Eventually he cut back to weekends and now he just comes
in occasionally if he needs extra money or if someone needs a shift
covered."

"Oh... I didn't realize
restaurants allowed things like that."

"Normally they don't, but
Q's uncle bought into the restaurant a couple of years ago and he's now married
to one of the other owners," Angel said, grinning.  "So we still
come here all the time."

Their server, a peppy blonde, appeared
with a plate of piled fried food in her hand, setting it down on the table even
though they hadn't ordered anything.

"From Cara," she said,
before briskly stepping off again.

"I love this place,"
Angel said with a dreamy sigh, reaching out to snatch one of the little morsels
off the top of the pile and dunk it in the creamy looking sauce.  She
glanced at Adam.  "Fried artichoke hearts.  I always order them,
so now they just bring them to me without asking."

"They look good," Adam
said a little cautiously.  Fried food wasn't normally his favorite thing,
but he'd never had fried artichokes before so he figured it couldn't hurt to
try.  Following Angel's lead he dipped it in the sauce.  

Watching him, Angel smiled as he
took a bite and then eyed the plate.  Quickly he reached out and knocked
over half the pile of fried hearts onto his bread plate.

"Hey!"

Laughing, Angel reached out to
snatch some back, dragging the rest of the pile back onto her plate. 

"What?  They're
good!"  They were more than good.  Crispy on the outside, creamy
textured on the insides, and the dipping sauce gave them a tangy taste that had
his taste buds singing.  

"They're mine!"

"Sharing means caring,"
he intoned piously, causing another outburst of laughter from her.  

"I've stabbed people for
less," she threatened.  "Mike had fork marks for a week."

Although he laughed, Adam did
feel another little spurt of jealousy.  That was definitely something he
was going to have to work on getting over.  Angel had guy friends,
including one that was an accomplished dominant.  It was just a fact.
 And apparently she didn't share food with Mike, but she was sharing with
him.  Why that should make him feel so smug he was sure didn’t reflect well on
him, but oh well.  

"They're worth the
risk," he told her, shaking off his doubts.  

By the time they'd ordered and
their food had come, at least half the servers and one of the managers in the
restaurant had swung by their table to say hello.  The rest had waved to
Angel.  It didn't make for the steadiest flow of conversation, but it did
give Adam an opportunity to observe her with other people.  It was obvious
that everyone at the restaurant liked her, she was friendly but not flirtatious
with the guys, although more than one of them gave Adam a challenging look.
 From what he could tell, she was just a friendly, tactile, outgoing
person.  Some of the guys might misinterpret a hug from her, but they
couldn't miss the fact that she was obviously out on a date.

When they would try to engage her
in conversation beyond a simple hello she would just smile politely, give a
short answer, and tell them that it was great to see them but she was being
rude to her date and would need to catch up with them later.  And from how
she acted after they were gone, she hadn't even noticed that they were being
anything more than friendly with her.  

And contrary to what her
housemates had said, the girls seemed just as happy to see her as the guys.
 

"Why did your housemates say
that you don't like girls?" he asked when it was just the two of them
again.

Angel shrugged; she was still
smiling but he was pretty sure he could see a hint of sadness around her eyes.
 "Girls can be catty bitches."

"And guys can't?"

"Some of them, but if you
confront them about it 90% of them will apologize and respect you for it.
 Girls will lie.  Plus, it's not really that I don't like them, but I
don't have as much in common with them."  She shrugged.  "I
grew up with two brothers in a neighborhood that was mostly guys.  I'm
used to having one or two close girlfriends and the rest of my friends being
guys because that's how it was when I was younger."  She smiled and
this time it reached her eyes.  "Doing theater helped.  People
there are more accepting about personality quirks.  And Leigh helps a lot,
everyone likes her."

"Everyone seems to like you,
too," he said, waving his fork in a little circle to indicate the workers
in the restaurant who kept stopping by to say hello. 

"I'm friendly with a lot of
people," she said with a little shrug and another smile.  

Friendly with, not
friends
with.  It was a small but important distinction.   

"Well, all of my friends
like you," he said.  "In fact, I'm pretty sure that you'll be
hearing from one of the girls soon.  Jessica and Hilary are dying to spend
more time with you."

Immediately Angel's face
brightened.  Strange how that made him feel like a superhero when all he'd
done was tell her the simple truth.

******

She just barely managed to keep
herself from saying "really?!"

"I like them too," she
said instead.  "And Lexie.  And Olivia."  

It wasn't that Angel didn't like
girls, she just didn't always understand them.  Sometimes it felt like
they were speaking a secret language that no one had ever taught her.
 Heck, Leigh had been the one to teach her how to shave her legs and do
her hair and make-up outside of theater.  It wasn't that her mom wasn't a
good role model, she was just busy and those weren't really things she thought
about since she didn't wear make-up and her hair was usually back in a pony-tail.

Actually, that was how Angel
operated the majority of the time as well, but it was just one more thing that
she didn't have in common with other girls.  She'd rather play video games
than watch a movie, she'd rather watch Star Wars than Bride Wars, and she'd
rather spend an afternoon out hiking or playing football than at the mall.
 Not that she didn't enjoy the other things too, but just not as much as
other girls seemed to. 

Pedicures - now those were
something she could bond with other girls over.  Unfortunately pedicures
usually meant gossiping too, and most of them wanted to gossip about guys, and
if they happened to be dating a guy that Angel knew they would sometimes get
upset that Angel knew more about their boyfriends than they did.  Like it
was somehow her fault that guys found her easy to talk to. 

So far none of the girls in
Adam's group of friends had made her feel that way, but she hadn't had much
time to get to know them either.  Still, they'd seemed pretty friendly and
Jessica hadn't been at all upset when Justin had stayed with Angel while she
and Chris went to set up their scene.  Or maybe that was just the benefit
of having two boyfriends.  Still, Angel didn't think that could entirely
be the case because she thought having two boyfriends would make a lot of girls
even more insecure.

"Angel?  Where'd you
go?"

She blinked.  "Sorry, I
was just thinking about your friends."

The look that he gave her
reminded her of Mr. Grouchy.  As if her answer had disgruntled him
somehow.

"What about my friends?"

"I was just thinking that
Jessica seems incredibly secure... I'm not sure I could handle a relationship
with two guys," Angel said, repeating her thoughts out loud for him.
 She trusted that he knew she wasn't being judgmental.  "I'd
always be worried that I wasn't keeping them both happy.  It must be
exhausting."

The expression on Adam's face
lightened as he chuckled.  "I think Jessica would agree with you
about the exhausting part, but she certainly doesn't seem to have any trouble
keeping them both happy.  As long as she's happy, they are."

Which seemed a little opposite to
Angel.  Wasn't it the submissive who was supposed to keep the dominant
happy?  Then again, she supposed in any relationship, if one person wasn't
happy the other one wouldn't be either.  Well, any good relationship.
 

The rest of dinner they ended up
talking about each other's various interests.  They had a lot in common,
like their taste in books and movies, and just as many things that they were
complete opposites on.  While Adam was obviously athletic and spent time
in Liam's dojo, he also loved to solve math problems for fun.  Angel
hadn't done math that wasn't necessary since her freshman year of college.
 When pushed, he admitted that he was just as likely to be playing his
guitar as he was playing with numbers, but it still boggled her mind. 

For his part, Adam seemed
somewhat disturbed by her lack of desire for a nine to five job.  He
wasn't the first person to have that reaction, but he was definitely the
pushiest, despite how subtle he was.  Once they got on the topic of jobs
and careers she found herself listening to a carefully worded spiel about how
his company helped people find jobs.  It wasn't until about ten minutes in
that she realized he wanted to do the same for her. 

And was disgruntled when she
called him on it and when she told him that she liked having part-time jobs.

"What about health
insurance?  And retirement?"

Angel just shrugged, enjoying
teasing him.  "I'm pretty healthy and when I get arthritis and can't
sew or teach self-defense anymore, I'll just take over at my parents' dance
studio."

"How are you going to do
that if you have arthritis?" he asked, almost fiercely.  It was kinda
cute how concerned he obviously was, although she didn't know whether or not to
be insulted that he didn't seem to think she was capable of taking care of
herself.

Then again, it's not like she was
giving him any other kind of impression.  Angel laughed.

"Relax, I have an IRA that I
put money into, I'm just teasing you."  She grinned at him, but Mr.
Grouchy was not entirely appeased.

"What about health
insurance?"