Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (38 page)

"And he never uses any of it,"
Justin said mournfully, cutting off Chris' recitation.

"Then why does he have it?"

"Lots of people have gave him kitchen
stuff when he first moved in here, because it was the only stuff he didn't
have, and then he just kind of started collecting it.  He always says that
if he uses it once, then it's worth having."

"And he uses three different kinds of
coffee makers?" she asked, amused. 

"Regular coffee maker, French press and
espresso.  They all serve different needs," Chris said, winking at
her.  She giggled.  

"Don't forget all his specialty
spices," Liam said, throwing open one of the corner cupboards.
 Angel's jaw dropped.  It had rotating circular shelves, five of
them, and they were all filled with spices.  Not only that, it was obvious
that they were
organized
 by the little labels at intervals along
each shelf.  This wasn't a case of repeat spice buying like she did, he
seriously just had that many spices. 

"Does he use all of those?"

"Nope, but I do," Justin said
happily as he unwrapped aluminum foil from one of the dishes they'd brought it.
 He was a lot less intimidating looking when he was cheerful and preparing
food, Angel decided.  It made him look a lot more like Chris in fact.
 "I'm just going to sprinkle some of his truffle oil on this and
stick it in the over... I've got a couple other things to do that to and then
I'll come join you guys."

She was going to ask where, but she just
followed the rest of the group out into the hall and down a staircase that had
been hiding behind a door.  Adam's basement was split into two rooms, the
first of which was obviously a group entertainment room.  If she'd thought
the television upstairs had been big, this one was gigantic.  There was a
split section couch arranged in a U shape in front of it for people to sit on.
 Next to the television were several different gaming systems, to her
surprise he still had the regular X-box and a PS2 rather than the more updated
consoles.  

The entertainment center was filled with
DVDs, but there were also two rows of video games.  

"Wanna play something?" a deep
voice behind her asked, and she looked up into Chris' laughing brown eyes.
 "He's got a bunch of different kinds of games.  Something for
everyone, really."

"So I noticed," she murmured.
 They were arranged in alphabetical order too, which she liked.
 She'd done that for the guys' games at home.  It just made things so
much easier.  There were a couple of her favorites, but she should really
choose a game that more than one person could play...

Her finger lingered on one.  Blinking
innocently, she let her eyes go as wide as possible as she pulled it from the
shelf and looked back up at Chris.  "How about this one?"

******

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO, NO -
ooooOOOOOO!"

"Fuck, you little bitch!"
 Patrick's voice bellowed, drowning out Angel's 'no's.

It was the first thing Adam heard when he
walked in the front door, echoing up from the basement and he bolted for the
stairs, Olivia hot on his heels.

"Suck it, asshole!"

"Damn it, not
again!
"

Adam came to a grinding halt halfway down the
stairs when the room finally came into view and he realized why he wasn't
hearing anyone but Angel and Patrick.  The rest of them were in tears,
gulping for air because they were laughing so hard.  Chris was actually on
the floor, holding his belly, while Lexie, Hilary and Jessica were hugging each
other on the couch, trying to keep from following Chris to the floor as they
writhed with hilarity.

Liam and Angel were sitting next to each
other on the couch with a space separating them from Patrick and Justin.
 She was flushed, the sleeves of her sweater pushed up, and he could see
the curves of her breasts from the deep V of her neckline.  She looked
beautiful and excited, not frightened or angry like he’d almost thought.

"Yes!"  Angel jumped into the
air, pumping one fist. 

"Watch out behind you," Liam
warned.  He was grinning, but most of his focus was on the screen and
front of him and the controller in his hand. 

"Don't help her, she doesn't need
it," Justin snapped grimly as Angel, still standing, took the controller
back in both hands, muttering under her breath.

"Your loss, she's on my team," Liam
chortled.

Not one of them looked up to where Adam and
Olivia stood, panting and gaping on the stairs.  

Patrick growled and leaned forward, looking
almost as grim as Justin.  "I'm back in."

"Not for long..."  Angel said
tauntingly. 

"I just got back - no... CRAP!
 FUCK!  How did you do that?!"

Angel just laughed.  

Making his way down the stairs, Adam could
finally see what they were playing.  Halo.  And from the stats listed
on Patrick's screen as it counted down the time until his character came back
to life, Angel was dominating it by a large margin.

"You!"  Adam looked over to see
Patrick glaring at him.  "This is all your fault!"

Lexie fell off the couch onto the floor,
tears streaming down her face as Jessica and Hilary both made 'Oh no!' noises
through their giggles and reached for her.  

"I can't..." Lexie gasped, batting
away their hands.  "I can't... oh god, it's too good."

"Hi!"  Angel said cheerfully,
giving him a wave before turning her attention back to the screen.
 "Hey Justin... I seeeeeeeeee you... oh wait... no, come back
here!"

******

Later, gathered around the island in Adam's
kitchen, Angel was surrounded by the rest of the women who all wanted her to
teach them how to play video games.  Jessica seemed especially interested,
which wasn't too surprising considering how much Chris loved to play; Justin
was less into them although he was more competitive than Chris, so when he
played anything he did so to win. 

Which was probably why he was still glowering
at Angel from across the island.  Kudos to her, she ignored the dark looks
that she was getting from both him and Patrick.  Whenever she glanced at
Adam, he grinned at her, and then she would glow as if lit up from some light
within.  He got the feeling that as long as he approved, and the girls
approved, she didn't much care that Justin and Patrick were being sore losers. 

Not that he could blame them; she'd wiped the
floor with them, with very little help from Liam.  On top of that, she
could smack talk with the best of them.  Once he and Olivia had gotten
downstairs, the Domme had soon joined the other giggling women at some of the
creative insults Angel had come up with.  As if Olivia needed more of a
mouth on her.  

Actually, he still wasn't quite sure how to
handle that either.  It was an entirely different facet to Angel that he
hadn't seen yet and it made him wonder how many other hidden sides she had.
 Sure, the gamer thing was kind of hot, but he'd barely heard her curse
until today.  Normally he hated it when a woman cursed, and he still
wasn't enamored of it with Angel, no matter how funny it was, but it was obviously
something she considered integral to her gameplay.

Still, they were going to have to have a talk
about respecting the big, bad Doms.  Maybe not while she was playing video
games, but the rest of the time. 

"She played us," Justin said
darkly.  "She's a... a... video game shark."

"Like a pool shark?"  Chris
snorted and then grinned at Adam.  "You should have seen the
innocence shining from her when she suggested Halo.  It was practically
pouring out of her and these guys fell for it like they'd been dropped off a
cliff."  He cackled.  "Liam thought he was doing her a
favor by offering to be on her team.  I think these two idiots just wanted
to show off."  He laughed again as Patrick and Justin switched their
glowers from Angel to him.  

"She said she'd played before with her housemates,
what were we supposed to think?" Patrick said crossly.  "I
thought we could go easy on her, show her some things that she could take back
to show her housemates... I was trying to be nice."

"Maybe you should ask
her
 to
show
you
that secret passageway that she ambushed you from, what, three
times?"

"Her housemates are all video game
fanatics," Adam said.  "I met them yesterday.  Sam, Mark
and Q.  They thought I was there for a LAN party."

"Three guys?  She's got three guys
for roommates?  Unless Q's a woman..."  Liam frowned as Adam
shook his head.  "And you're okay with that?"

"I'm trying to be." 

"Not sure I'd be," Liam
muttered. 

"What, you don't trust Hilary?"
Chris teased, elbowing Liam.  

"Of course I do, but... it's..."
Liam fumbled, knowing that he'd walked into a verbal trap.  He glanced
over at the women, but fortunately they were too involved in their conversation
for him to have to come up with a viable explanation for his girlfriend.
 "You know what I mean.  I doubt you'd be thrilled if Jessica
had been living with a guy instead of Hilary.  It's just...
semantics."

"Yeah, I know," Chris said
cheerfully, popping one of the bacon wrapped green bean bundles that Justin had
made into his mouth.  "But we would have dealt with it."

"They seem like nice guys," Adam
said, trying not to feel stoic about it.  

As if on cue, to mock his determination to be
completely jealousy-free, Michael chose that moment to show up, accompanied by
Andrew.  Since the girls were closer to the front door entrance, they were
the first ones to greet the new arrivals as they appeared from the hall.  

While he would have liked to say that he
didn't even notice Angel's greeting to Michael, it would have been a complete
and utter lie.  But what he did notice was almost shocking.  

Leigh had been right.  The tension, the
flirtatious air that had always tinged the air around Angel and Michael had
completely disappeared.  They hugged, Angel called him 'Pretty Boy' again,
he growled at her... but something was missing.  Some connection between
them that had definitely been there before.  

Was it really as simple as Leigh had
indicated?  One of them becomes involved in an exclusive relationship and
the attraction between them would just melt away?  He'd been prepared to
deal with it, knowing that Angel and Michael wouldn't work in the long wrong -
just as he and Brooke hadn't - and that they both knew that.  But he
thought he'd at least have to deal with the fact that they were still attracted
to each other.  

Instead, she now had the same air around
Michael as she did around his roommates.

That was reassuring, right?  Or was it
her acting skills popping up again?

"Get it together, grouch," Rick
said, elbowing him in the side.  The admonition was for Adam's ears only,
easily covered by the chatter that had exploded in the kitchen.
 "Stop glaring at Angel or she's going to think you're mad at
her."

Dammit. 

Adam rearranged his features to a more
neutral expression just before Angel looked over at him and smiled, her eyes
bright.  The air between them seemed to shimmer with the same tension he
noticed had disappeared between her and Michael, but much more intense.
 No one could fake that.  Rick was right, he needed to get it
together.

Moving over to the other side of the island,
Adam led the way for the rest of the guys to mix things up, undoing the
unintentional "boys vs. girls" separation that had occurred.  

"Glad you could make it," he said
to Andrew, slapping the other man's palm in greeting while he snaked out his
other arm to put it around Angel's waist and pull her into him.  It was
the kind of physical declaration that he hadn't made yet in front of his
friends, and Andrew grinned in approval. 

"Sorry I'm late.  My sister seems
to have changed tactics from ignoring my existence to trying to drive me
completely insane."  He rolled his eyes as Adam made a sympathetic
noise, but he could tell that Andrew was kind of relieved that Irene was at
least talking to him again.  Even if she was being annoying.

"Well come on in, shockingly there's
still food left.  Although we ate all the cheddar puffs already."

******

As if by unspoken agreement, Angel lingered
on as everyone else left.  Adam hadn't asked her to and she hadn't said
that she would, but she wanted to get a few moments alone with him.  Not
that she hadn't loved today and spending time with his friends.  She'd
especially appreciated that he'd invited Mike, who was already blending into
the group.  It was obvious that he and Andrew got along really well
already, and the other guys seemed perfectly welcoming.  

Which was kind of incredible, considering
what a tightly knit group they were and how long they'd all known each other.
 But she guessed they were getting used to hanging out with new people,
considering that Jessica and Hilary had only started dating their men within
the past year.  

"So, do you have anywhere you need to be
tonight?"  Adam asked as he shut the door after Rick, Andrew and
Michael.  The three of them were going over to Andrew's place to hang out
a little longer, all of them being rather obvious that they were leaving to
give her and Adam some alone time.  The very unsubtle hints and teasing
had made her beet red for a bit, but it was worth it to be left alone with
Adam.  The look he was giving her made her think of a large predator,
pacing around prey that was already caught and deciding whether or not it was
going to pounce.