Either she really was the world's greatest actress or that scene had been just as intense and mind-blowing for her as it had been for him.
Leaning back in the couch, he thought over what Olivia had said. Was his anger at Angel's deception really that unjustified? She'd lied. The scene was all about trust, how could he trust her when she'd lied to him from the moment that he'd met her? And she was damn good at it. Sure he'd suspected something was slightly off, but he would have never guessed what the truth was. And he'd been the only one to think that maybe she wasn't what she appeared to be.
So what was he supposed to think?
And Olivia's accusation about his mom... So what if he didn't like surprises? He hadn't liked them before his mom left either. Sure she'd left without any warning, but it wasn't like he had any hang-ups thinking that she hadn't wanted him or Brian. The reasons his parents divorced had nothing to do with their kids and their subsequent dealings with each other had been so acrimonious because both of them had wanted the kids and weren't above trying to make them take sides. The year after his mom had left he’d immediately chosen his dad, because he’d been so angry with her. She’d spent so much time basically lying to all of them, pretending she was happy and then she just up and left… so yeah, okay, he could see how Olivia might think that some of his anger tonight could possibly be an overreaction due to his past. Adam couldn’t be sure it wasn’t.
Angel shifted in his arms, murmuring. Soft, warm woman, wriggling against his dick, which apparently didn't care that he shouldn't be lusting after her. Thinking over the scene, he wanted to believe that she hadn't acted or pretended for any of. It had all seemed like honest, instinctive, open reactions. The kind of giving responses that a Dom dreamed about.
Looking down at the woman in his arms, he tipped her back and she smiled rather dreamily up at him. The cloudy, hazy look in her eyes said that she wasn't all there. Again, the kind of thing he liked to believe couldn't be faked.
"Angel, how are you doing?"
She sighed and turned her head into his chest, snuggling into him again. Shifting her weight, he held her closer, pulling her head into his shoulder and just enjoyed the sensation. Most of his anger had drifted away, although he still hated the uncertainty about whether or not he was reading her correctly.
Lisa and the submissive she was scening with that evening, Maureen, stopped by on their way back upstairs.
"That was a hot scene, Adam. Is she new?" Lisa nodded at Angel. She was sincere, but she was also looking at him in a questioning manner that said she was curious about what the hell had happened at the end of it. And what his and Olivia's conversation had been about.
Fortunately they'd been speaking low enough that no one should have been able to overhear what Olivia had said to him. She would probably tell Patrick though. So he had that to look forward to.
"Yeah, that was her Introduction Scene."
"Nice." She gave him a look that said she was still curious, but that she wouldn't push it. Unlike Olivia. Caressing Maureen's blonde-streaked hair, Lisa led the pretty little sub towards the stairs.
Adam watched them go.
Lisa was right. It had been a hot scene. The hottest Introduction Scene he'd ever done before. Sure, he'd been attracted to other women that he'd scened with, but it had never been quite like this. That desire to figure out "Mistress Angela" had been rather obsessive, he could admit to that. But his anger over her deception should have made his interest wane. Instead it hadn't seemed to affect their chemistry at all.
As was becoming almost habitual around Angel, Adam felt unsure of himself. And he didn't like it at all.
******
He hadn't kissed her. Not once. That's what was bothering her. She made a face. There were a million other things that should be bothering her - like the fact that she'd gotten naked in a room full of people and then let what was basically a complete stranger put his hands all over her body - but what was really getting to her was the fact that he hadn't kissed her.
Not once.
After she'd come out of her pleasure induced stupor - which had been more than a little embarrassing - he'd helped her get dressed, gotten her water and chocolate, and put her back upstairs to Patrick's office so that she could talk to the big man on campus. Kind of like an exit interview.
She hated to admit how much it bothered her the next day when she thought over the encounter and realized that he hadn't kissed her. Angel liked kissing. She liked it a lot. And with her body still tingling and thrumming every time she thought about all the other things he'd done with her, she really hated that she'd missed out on that.
Maybe it was a Pretty Woman kind of thing. No kissing because it was too intimate. After all, he hadn't chosen to do a scene with her. He'd been chosen for her. Just because she'd had the most amazing sexual experience of her life, that didn't mean he felt the same way.
Hell, maybe it was just because it was her first time with a man doing the things she'd always fantasized about and he'd known exactly what he was doing. Maybe she'd have the same reaction to any strong dominant man who was experienced in the things that she craved. All day she’d been wondering.
All she knew was that she had to find out.
Good thing she hadn't made any plans for tonight, although she normally had something going on Fridays. She was going back to Stronghold.
Chapter 9
"Knock, knock." Justin matched the deed to the words, standing halfway in the doorway of Adam's office. Adam scowled. He’d purposefully avoided lunch with the other man today. "Can I come in?"
"Depends on what you want to talk about."
After being lectured by Patrick last night and receiving a blistering e-mail from Olivia after he ignored her call, he wasn't really in the mood to be lectured by anyone else. Not that he was sure Justin knew, but the way gossip went around their group of friends they seriously resembled a bunch of giggling high school girls sometimes. When Justin shut the door behind him, Adam scowled even more, knowing that Justin would only do that if he wanted to talk to him about something serious.
Since he knew there wasn't anything going on with the company, that meant it had to be personal.
"So." Justin sat down in one of the chairs, stretching his long legs out in front of him to lounge comfortably. "Thank God it's Friday, huh?"
Tapping the base of one of his pens, Adam just stared across the desk at him. The smile on Justin's face widened to a grin that made him look even more like Chris than he usually did. Silence stretched between them, but it was obvious that Adam's reluctance to speak was amusing Justin more than anything else.
"What do you want?" he asked, a little sourly. He was not in the mood for chit chat. Even after he'd gone home last night he hadn't been able to sort out his conflicting emotions.
Discovering Angel's deception, followed almost immediately by one of the most intense scenes of his life, and then a lecture about his own failings from Patrick had not left him in the best state of mind. A good night's sleep would have been helpful, if only he'd been able to fall asleep. Instead he found himself picking apart the scene over and over again, trying to remember every movement, every word, and every facial expression.
Trying to figure out if all of it had been real. Wondering what the hell he was going to do if the answer was 'yes.'
"I heard you had an interesting scene at the club last night."
Adam stopped tapping the pen and just gripped it tightly in his fist. "I really hate our group of friends sometimes."
"They wouldn't have known anything was up if you hadn't blown it at the end," Justin pointed out. "Jared texted me last night, he wanted me to check in on you this morning. Make sure you were okay. Any reason he should have been worried about that?"
Well at least it wasn't Olivia. She knew far more about what had happened than Jared did, and if Justin was in here questioning him then it meant she probably hadn't shared any of it. Thank God. Adam hadn't exactly explained himself to Patrick last
night either.
"I'm fine."
"Yeah, and you look it too."
Adam opened his mouth and then closed it again, frowning. He was about to ask Justin what he would do if he found out that Jessica had lied to him or misled him about something important, when he remembered that both Justin and Chris had actually done that to Jessica. They'd not only known who she was when she went to the Venus School, they'd used their connections to ensure that they'd be there at the same time as her. And they'd known the entire time that she was there that they'd be seeing her when they went home, since they all worked at the same company.
At the time he'd thought their tactics amusing. But he'd known them for a long time, he knew that Justin and Chris were trustworthy and that they weren't habitually liars.
Theater girls... well he'd done enough shows in high school to know that theater girls could be kind of crazy.
So which was Angel? A liar who was possibly crazy, or just a woman who had lied because she felt she had a good reason to but was usually honest?
Maybe he should be talking to Jessica.
"Why do you think Jessica forgave you?" he asked, finally. “For the Venus School.”
Justin's brows rose. "Probably because she's a heck of a lot nicer than I am." He grinned. "Honestly, I was always surprised she didn't make us crawl for it. But maybe that's just because she felt like she'd really gotten to know us, and she'd put her trust in us enough times at the school that it was kind of like second nature. Also, once we started pursuing her in real life, we didn't give her another reason to distrust us."
The pen tapping started up again. Unfortunately none of that really helped him. He didn't know Angel. The first time they'd met she'd lied. But he'd thought her responses last night were real. Honest.
"How much did Jared tell you?"
"Well, I know that 'Angie' is really Mistress Angela."
"Her real name is Angel." Adam sighed. "She says she's new to everything and she didn't want to come to a club alone because she was scared, so she pretended to be a Domme at Chained, thinking that no one at Stronghold would ever know."
"So she knew she was submissive all along."
"Yes. She flat out lied to me about it when I..."
"When you what?" Justin arched his brow as Adam's voice trailed off.
He grimaced. "When I asked if she was a switch."
"You tried to proposition her at Chained?" Chuckling, Justin shook his head. "No wonder you're so pissy. We've been making fun of you for weeks now and it turns out you were right."
Crap. He hadn't even thought about it that way. Was part of his resentment towards Angel because of that? While he didn't like to think so, he couldn't be sure that didn't play some part in it. Not only had she gotten him all turned upside down when he'd thought she was a Domme, it wasn't exactly like his confusion had been private.
"I didn't proposition her, exactly." Adam sighed, but the corner of his mouth turned up in a little smile. What Justin had said was true - he had been right at Chained. Something had been off and he'd realized it. Even though his friends had teased him afterwards, there was a reason why he'd been so focused on "Mistress Angela."
So maybe he could trust his instincts after all. At any rate, Justin’s observation made him feel a little better.
"So she was scared?" Justin said, although Adam could tell that he wasn't actually asking the question, he was just repeating what Adam had said as he thought it over. Leaning back in his chair, Justin rubbed his fingers along his jaw and then through his thick, dark hair.
"Or she's just playing some game," Adam felt compelled to point out. He wasn't sure he really believed that anymore, but it had definitely been on his mind last night. Although, even if she was scared, he hated dishonesty and hidden motives.
Hm. Olivia might have a point about his issues over the way his mother left after all.
To his surprise, Justin just grinned again. "You really have it bad, don't you?" He laughed. "Stop fighting it or you'll end up just like Liam was when he was trying to scare Hilary away, stressed and cranky. Although I’m not saying you shouldn’t punish her. I sure as hell wouldn’t tolerate Jessica lying, no matter her reasons. But Angel could still be worth getting to know." Standing up he headed for the door, only stopping once he had his hand on the knob. "Are you coming to Stronghold tonight?"
"No, I'll be there tomorrow."
He needed a night away from the club and his friends to get his head on straight. Giving him a nod, Justin exited, leaving Adam with even more things to think about then he'd had before.
******
Today's theme was red.
It was a big departure from last night when she'd been decked out in all white, but that was the point. Angel needed armor in the form of a power color. She'd had to work herself up to get out of the house and headed towards Stronghold at all. The corset she was wearing today covered her breasts completely and was made of a black and red brocade that went well with the short, pleated red faux leather skirt she was wearing. A red thong was under the skirt and her red crotchless fishnets slid into black pumps with a three inch heel. A wider, much sturdier heel than the stilettos she'd been wearing the night before.
The bright red lipstick might have been a little much, but it made her feel confident. Something she'd been sorely lacking since yesterday.
Usually she liked to spend Fridays working on new projects to put online for Etsy or working on orders. Today she'd barely been able to concentrate. Yeah, she wanted to go back to Stronghold to explore more, but she had to admit to herself that a big part of the reason was because she wanted to see Master Adam again. He had just seemed so... angry with her last night. Even after he'd started being nicer, he'd been stand offish and distant.
But in the middle of the scene he'd been hot, hot, hot.
Angel didn't like people being mad at her. It made her feel itchy and jumpy all over with the need to fix things and make them right. Of course there were times when she could convince herself that she didn't care, usually if she was also mad at the other person. But she didn't want Master Grouchy to be mad at her; she wanted to fit in at Stronghold and he obviously had a lot of influence there if he was trusted enough to be doing Introduction Scenes.
Okay, if she was being honest she didn't want him to be mad because of more personal reasons too.
While last night's scene might have been so amazing just because it was her first time exploring her fantasies, she had a feeling that a big part of it was who she'd been exploring her fantasies with. The man that had been starring in them lately. She’d met several other Doms that night at Chained but he’d been the one to stick in her head. So was it the scene or him that was drawing her back to Stronghold now?
Chemistry was an ineffable, inexplicable force.
So here she was again. Walking into Stronghold. It was a little easier than last night, although her stomach was still churning with tension. Just for a different reason.
Lexie was behind the front desk again, a chipper, friendly face that eased some of the bubbly twistings of her stomach. A new face was guarding the door, not nearly as intimidating as Jared had been the night before. Tall and muscular with brown hair that looked kind of spiky.
"Hey Angie! Welcome back," Lexie said, beaming as Angel approached.
"It's Angel actually," she said, feeling a little weird about giving a new name. But she'd told Master Adam last night so she might as well keep it up. "I decided to go by my real name."
"Hey, Angie's pretty close anyway. That's cute. Did you have a good scene last night?"
"Yeah," Angel said, a little surprised. For some reason she’d thought Lexie would have heard about it already. It was obvious that she was close to the members of the club, and usually the front desk was a good place to overhear gossip. But she didn't really want to get into some of the less happy parts of the scene. Not that she really remembered them clearly, but she knew that Adam had been kind of pissed off at the end of it, and that
Jared had been cuddling her before him. "My butt was a little sore this morning though."
Looking rather envious, Lexie gave a little sigh. "From what I've heard that shouldn't last very long unless it was a really hard spanking."
Feeling a surge of sympathy, Angel leaned against the desk. She wasn't in a hurry to get into the club anyway, not really, and she liked Lexie. It wouldn't hurt to stop and talk for a bit, especially since Angel wouldn't know anyone once she walked in. Of course she could go right to the lounge area that Master Adam had pointed out last night and hope that a Dom came by, but she wouldn't mind having some time to work up to that.
"Why do you work here? Wouldn't you rather just join the club?" It had to be hard to be on the outside looking in, especially when Lexie very obviously wanted to be in and was close with the people who were.
"Of course I would, but Patrick won't let me. I threatened to go to another club, where he wouldn’t be able to watch over my shoulder all the time, so he gave me this job. I think he thought by now I'd be frightened off by the people who come in and the very little bit that I get to see being out here." The little smirk on her face said that the big man had thought wrong. Angel just grinned. Dressed in another fishnet shirt, this one the same color blue as her eyes, Lexie's lacy bra left very little to the imagination. As did the skintight shorts she was wearing. Obviously, even if she wasn't allowed in the club yet, Lexie was dressed as if she might be let in the doors at any moment. "Supposedly I'm just doing this job until I decide that the scene is what I really want."
"You seem like you already know."
Rolling her big baby blues, Lexie let out a little derisive snort. "Of course I do. But Patrick's adamant that I really don't know enough yet to decide." A smug smile curved her lips. "I'm looking forward to getting in for Valentine's Day. Even if it's just the main room. I figure baby steps are best. Give the guys time to get used to the fact that I'm not a little girl anymore." She glanced down at her attire. "Although you'd think they would have figured that out by now."
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