Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (5 page)

"Okay but you can't tell
anyone."

Leigh rolled her eyes.  "You
know I won't."

"I know, but I'm just
saying.  Like, seriously.  This is kind of embarrassing."

"You?  Embarrassed about
something?"  Leigh raised one of her eyebrows, looking surprised.  "This
must be good."

Angel stuck her tongue out at her
friend.  But it was true, she was rarely embarrassed about anything
anymore.  Too much time as a nerd and a klutz growing up and she'd become
immune to the feeling.  "Um... so do you know what BDSM is?"

"Yes..."  It was
obvious from the way Leigh dragged out the word and her tone of voice that she
wasn’t really sure where Angel was going with this.  “We’ve talked about it
before, remember?  Stop stalling.”

"Well I went to a BDSM club
last night."

Well that got Leigh's attention.  She
just about shot up like a rocket and bounced closer to Angel on the couch, her
eyes alight with interest and curiosity.  "No way!  Wait... alone?"

"Yeah, don't worry.  I was
pretending to be a Domme so no one messed with me."

"Domme?"  Leigh knew
what the word meant but she obviously wanted it explicitly spelled out since it
was now a word pertaining to her best friend and she wanted to make sure she
wasn't misinterpreting.
 

"As in Dominatrix.  Woman
with a whip.  That kind of thing."
 

Leigh's brow furrowed. 
"Wait, pretending to be?"

"Yeah.  I'm not. 
Dominant, that is.  But I didn't want to put myself in a dangerous situation so
I pretended to be for a night at this club that just opened up down in
Virginia.  I just wanted to see what a club was like before I put myself out
there."

"So you're going to go back
as a... as a submissive?"  Now Leigh just looked confused.  Not her fault.
 The entire situation was a little confusing to Angel too.  At least, her
feelings were confused.  If only she could go back as a submissive and see Adam
again, but she didn't think he'd appreciate the deception.  And, to be
honest, she would hate to have to face up to it.  Honesty was a big deal
for her and yet she was doing something that was inherently dishonest.  It
bugged the crap out of her and she didn't really want to have to admit it to
anyone.  Telling Leigh was a little bit different, of course.  They'd been
friends for so long and out of all of her friends Leigh was probably the only
one who could keep it entirely a secret and who wouldn't judge her.  Plus
she knew some of the terminology thanks to the new BDSM book craze.  Leigh
was nothing if not an avid reader, not at all surprising since she was an
English teacher.

"No, not back there.  There's
a club in DC that I want to go to, called Stronghold.  But I didn't want to
start out there because I was too scared to go into a fetish club for the first
time as a submissive.  I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t have anyone to go
with and there are too many bad things that can happen."  It was one of
the first things she taught women who took her self-defense classes – one of
the best defenses is not putting yourself in a dangerous situation.  Ideally
women would be safe no matter where they were, but the truth of the matter was
that they weren’t and the best defense was a good offense and that meant not recognizing
bad situations and avoiding them.

"I can get that," said
Leigh, nodding her understanding.  "Especially alone.  Why didn't you call
me?"

"You can't come," said
Angel immediately, looking at her friend aghast.  "Michael would flip
out!  Not to mention that it's not something you're interested in... Is
it?"

Her friend hesitated and then shrugged.
 "I probably could be if Michael was.  I like it when he ties my
hands to the bed but we haven't really done anything other than that. It's fun
to read about though.  But you're right, he wouldn't want me there."  She
sighed and then brightened again.  "So tell me about the guy."

"There was actually a whole
group of guys," Angel said, keeping her tone casual.  She knew that Leigh
wouldn't entirely buy it, she was the one person who almost always managed to
see through any of Angel's acts.  "They were all very attractive.  Very
alpha-male.  And very friendly.  It almost made me wish that I had gone
there as a submissive."

"But you can't go back there
as a submissive cuz then they'd know you were lying.  That sucks."

"Yeah," Angel shrugged.
 "But there will be other Doms at Stronghold."  Would any of
them have the surprising attraction for her that Adam did?  She hoped so. 
Otherwise she was really going to regret this plan.  But she found herself not
wanting to tell Leigh about her attraction to the one man in particular,
because it wasn't something that could ever lead somewhere.   After all he
must live somewhere down in Virginia to be at Chained rather than at Stronghold
and she'd lied to him.  The former might not be a huge deal but the latter
probably was. 
 

"Good.  Well I'm glad that
you're getting out there and looking."

Angel just had to laugh. 
All of her friends were always trying to hook her up with guys, not that she
really felt like she needed it.  None of her relationships had worked out
because she hadn't been admitting what she truly needed.  Now she was finally
admitting to what she wanted and she was going to get it.  Going to
Chained had just been the first step.

For the rest of the afternoon she
and Leigh finally managed to stop eating the caramel butter bars (they were
slightly easier to resist once they had cooled a little but only slightly), finished
the fourth season of
The Tudors
and she told Leigh all about
Chained.  By the time she left, Leigh was in a much better mood and feeling
much more optimistic about her relationship and life in general.  Angel
was feeling a lot better too.  The impromptu girl time had definitely been
something they both needed.
 

Smiling to herself, she cleaned up the kitchen, left the bars out
for the guys just in case they came home while she was up in her bedroom, and
went to study her lines.

******

Despite the busyness of his work
week, a certain hazel-eyed Domme kept popping up in Adam's thoughts.  He
owned his own temp agency that also did head hunting for people who preferred
to hire immediately and it had been getting busier and busier lately thanks to
a recent hire of his friend Justin to handle social media marketing.  For
the first few days he would push the image of Angela aside - was that her real
name or was she one of the ones who had assumed a name for the club? - and find
something to distract himself with.  Then on Wednesday he found himself
looking up the play
The Rivals
online.  The description of the character
of Lydia made him grin.  He could definitely see Angela playing a part like
that; bouncy, seductive, a little manipulative in a comedic and enticing way,
and overly dramatic, the queen of all she surveyed.  Telling himself he’d just
been curious about the play, he turned his mind back to work.
 

During his lunch break on
Thursday he searched the internet to see what community theaters in the area
were doing a production of The Rivals.  There weren't any in Virginia, but
there was one in Maryland.  Not too far away from him actually, by a group
called The County Players.  The theater they performed at was only about a
twenty minute drive from his house and the show opened in two weeks. 
Interesting.  So what was Angela doing performing in a community theater
show an hour and twenty minutes away from Chained?  Did people travel that far
to do community theater?  Or maybe she was just traveling that far in
order to be in the particular show?  It looked like there were plenty of other
options for her to perform at if she lived near Chained that were much, much
closer.
 

So why was she in a show up here?
 

Frowning he grabbed his cell
phone and pulled up Rick on his contact list. 
 

"Hey Adam, what's up?"

"Are you going back to
Chained this weekend?"  Adam hated talking on the phone so his friends
knew not to bother with small talk when he called and he knew Rick wouldn’t be
surprised by a more cordial greeting.
 

"I was thinking about
heading up to Stronghold actually, why?  Wanted to see if you could run into
Mistress Angela again?"  Rick emphasized Angela's title a little, as if
reminding his friend that he needed to give up on this.  They'd talked
about it Saturday night when he'd gone back to Rick's place and even though his
friend agreed that Angela might have submissive tendencies that she wasn't
aware of, he thought that Adam needed to let her explore and come to that
conclusion on her own without outside interference.  After all with all of his
experience and his naturally dominant personality, it was possible that he
could end up pushing her into something that she didn't actually want just
because it was what
he
wanted.
 

"Maybe."  He
decided not to tell Rick about his internet searches.  Somehow it seemed a
little too much like stalking. 
Seemed?  Keep telling yourself that.
 "I
won't push her Rick, I promise.  I just want to see if she's there again. 
And maybe there will be other available subs this weekend."  

Rick chuckled.  "You don't
believe that any more than I do.  Alright man, I'll take one for the
team.  Just watching you moon over a Domme is worth it in entertainment
value and it'll save me some gas money."

"Thanks," said Adam
dryly.  "I'll see you Saturday.  Nine p.m.?"

"Works for me.  See you
then."

Adam snapped his phone shut.
 

"Was that about the Domme
Chris told me about?"  Justin drawled from the doorway of Adam's
office.  He was leaning against the frame, arms crossed over the broad
expanse of his chest.   While Adam and Rick looked alike enough
superficially because of their hair and build, Chris and Justin really did look
like they could be brothers or possibly even twins.  Even their facial
features were somewhat similar, and the more time they'd spent together in
their threesome relationship with Jessica the more their behaviors had rubbed
off on each other as well.  Two years ago Justin might not have even asked
that question, and if he had it wouldn't have been with amusement in his eyes
or the slight teasing note in his voice.  Although he was glad to see his
friend more relaxed, thanks to Chris and Jessica's influence, Adam rather
missed those days sometimes.  Like now.
 

"Yes."  There was no
point in denying it, Rick would just tell on him anyway.  Sometimes their
group of friends could be as bad as teenage girls when it came to gossip, sad
to say.  "What do you need?"

Fortunately Justin retained most
of the “get down to business” aspects of his personality.  Chris would
never have let the subject go that easy, but Justin just walked forward into
the office to stand by his desk.  One of the reasons he and Adam got along
so well was because neither of them minced words.  Whatever Justin needed
he obviously didn't think it was going to take a long discussion because he
didn't sit down.
 

"I'm going to need some help
soon," he said.  "Everything's expanding so quickly that I'm going to
start running behind eventually with everything that needs to get done.  Especially
since Linda's going to need some maternity leave soon."  Linda was
Adam's main marketing person (as well as wearing several other hats), she
worked closely with Justin, and while the original plan had been for him to
pick up the slack while she was out, the truth was the entire department was
getting busier the more successful the company became.  Adam also wanted
to open up the possibility of consulting services in the near future and that
was going to need a whole new marketing angle.
 

"Okay," he said. 
"Talk to Victor and let him know what you need.  If we're really lucky
maybe one of our temps will be interested, otherwise he can start the ball
rolling on looking."  It wouldn't take him long, he was one of the
most efficient HR people Adam had ever met.
 

"Thanks."  Justin
turned to go and then stopped once he got to the doorway again. 
"Maybe I'll come down with you on Saturday and bring Jessica."

"Chris told me he didn't think
you would be interested."

"In Chained?  No.  In
meeting Mistress Angela?  Absolutely.  I bet Olivia will want to come
too."

Adam growled at him but Justin
just laughed and walked away.  Maybe he should rethink Saturday. 
He’d finally decided that he wanted a serious relationship.  Ready for
commitment.  He should be out looking for a sub who was interested in that
too.  But he knew he wouldn’t.  The mystery of Mistress Angela was bugging him
too much at the moment.

*******

“Saturday?”  Angel asked,
feeling her heart sinking.
“Please, please, you have to,” begged Leigh. “I know it’s last minute, but I
can’t be there alone.  I can’t.  Michael’s acting so weird lately and I’m
likely to fall apart if I don’t have a friend there to keep me sane.”

Angel groaned.  It was
Thursday morning and her plans for returning to Chained on Saturday again were
falling apart.  So much for her secret hopes of seeing Master Grouchy.  Now
she was the grouchy one.  Leigh had called her during one of her classes,
which she never did, and Angel had answered her cell phone thinking that it
must be some kind of emergency.  Well, according to Leigh it was.