Stronghold (Stronghold 1)

by Angel, Golden

  This time the look that Adam gave her was amusement tempered with a sensual hunger that made her insides feel all jumpy. "Are we still going to Stronghold tomorrow night? We can play there... or you can come home with me afterwards. Or both."

  "Yes," she purred, pressing her breasts against his side.

  Adam chuckled and brought his mouth down on hers, much more roughly, stealing her breath away with the intensity of his kiss. When he finally released her, her body was throbbing. "I really do have to go though. If you don't have any plans, I'd love to have you stay the weekend with me."

  "I have to teach a dance class on Saturday for my parents..." she smiled hopefully up at him. "Want to come?"

  "Sure."

  This time the smile she gave him was nothing short of brilliant.

  Chapter 23

  When Angel arrived at the club, she still felt the same amount of nervousness as last week as she pulled off her coat. Lexie gave her an approving once-over.

  "Hot damn woman!"

  Angel laughed. "If I'd seen you last weekend, you would've seen this outfit already."

  The crisscrossing leather straps were surprisingly comfortable, or would be once she got in the club. The entryway was a little cold though. The low whistle by the door separating the lobby from the rest of the club made her glance over; Jared was on duty tonight and he gave her an encouraging wink.

  Lexie groaned. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I heard you got here just in time for all the drama."

  "Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine," Lexie said stoutly. But Angel couldn't help but notice that tonight she was dressed a little more modestly in a baby blue corset and hot pants. Seeing Angel looking at her clothes, Lexie shook her head. "People have been telling Patrick all week how much they enjoyed the Valentine's Day party. I think Stronghold needs to do more themed nights, so I'm going to try to convince Patrick of that tonight... which means not pissing him off with what I'm wearing."

  Looking over Lexie's outfit again, which was incredibly sexy on her slim little body, Angel could only shake her head. "You think this won't piss him off?"

  "Well in comparison to what he knows I could be wearing..."

  They both giggled.

  "Well, good luck," Angel said. "I love the idea."

  "Thanks. Have a good night tonight - uh... where's Adam by the way?"

  "He should be here soon," Angel said. They'd decided to take separate cars to Stronghold. Well, she had decided. She'd agreed to spend the entire weekend at his house, but for her that meant that she also wanted to be able to leave when she needed to or go out and run an errand if she wanted to. Not that she thought there might be any negative reason to want that, but she just liked the freedom of having her own car there.

  "Great, well go on in. No one else is here yet except Andrew, he's behind bar."

  "Thanks!"

  She stopped to chat with Jared for a couple of minutes on her way in. The big guy wasn't looking so good; his eyes looked tired and even though he smiled at her, there was an exhausted resignation hanging about him that she didn't like. To be honest, it kind of reminded her of the way Leigh was when things weren't going well with Michael. Adam had told her a little bit about Jared's relationship with his submissive Marissa, and to Angel it sounded like she was dragging the big Dom around on all sorts of strings. Kind of emotionally abusive really, which was weird to think about when the victim was a big, hulking guy like Jared, but that was life. At least she managed to make him smile, telling him a little about Adam's evening with her housemates the night before.

  Then the door to the club opened and she shivered, she'd almost forgotten that she was basically completely unclothed, and Jared scolded her and shooed her into the club. He was such a nice guy, like a gentle, caring giant.

  It really sucked that some bitch was taking advantage of that.

  Seeing some of the looks that she was getting from the few available Doms scattered around the tables at the bar, Angel decided she should head right to one of the barstools and wait for Adam there. Not that she couldn't take care of herself, and she knew that Stronghold took care of its own, but she had to admit that she did feel safer when one of his friends was around. Besides, she taught the women in her classes to act defensively in all aspects of their life, and right now all of her goodies were covered but not much else was, and she was in a sex club with a bunch of men - and women - who were sexual dominants while she was a sexual submissive. While her pride and independent nature might want to sit at a table by herself, it was silly to go asking for trouble when no one would proposition her while she was under Andrew's eye.

  As soon as he saw her, Andrew shook his head. She just grinned at him as she sat down.

  "Are you looking to start a fight tonight, little girl?" he asked, leaning on the bar. There weren't too many other people there yet, so he could pay the attention to her. "Adam's going to flip his shit when he sees you wearing that."

  "Then he shouldn't be running late tonight. Besides, he already saw me wearing it at the party," she countered. "Not that he did anything about it then."

  "Ah. Yeah, things got kinda messed up on Friday. What do you want to drink?"

  "Just a water. Adam should be here soon and I think we're going to play."

  Andrew laughed. "Dressed like that, you'd better believe you're going to play."

  The big Dom flipped a glass off of its stack and grabbed the soda hose. Angel admired the economical grace of his movements. It was something she'd noticed that a lot of Adam's friends had in common; they were large, and in charge, but surprisingly graceful about it. Maybe it was the fact that most of them went to Liam's dojo. Angel knew that Adam went there most Wednesdays nights and he said the other guys would show up on a fairly regular basis as well.

  "So what's doing, little girl?"

  "I'm not exactly little, you know," she pointed out.

  Andrew raised his eyebrow at her, those dark chocolate eyes looking rather reproving. "You'd better not be running yourself down."

  She rolled her eyes and gestured to the leather straps crisscrossing her body. "Does it look like I've got body insecurities?" Okay, well that wasn't entirely true, she had some, but for the most part she liked her curves and her body and she wasn't afraid to wear something crazy. But it really hadn't been what she was talking about. "I meant that just because you're a freaking giant, that doesn't make me little."

  Staring at her for a moment, Andrew barked a laugh. He smiled, tilting his head as if he didn't quite know what to make of her.

  "Oops... that was disrespectful wasn't it?" She made a face as Andrew laughed again.

  "You're fine, little girl, I can tell you didn't say it to be a brat. You aren't that type."

  "Why do you make that sound like a bad thing?"

  She'd surprised him, she could tell from the way his eyebrows jerked up when he looked at her before his gaze slid away. Then he smiled, a slow, hot, flirtatious smile and crossed his arms on the bar, leaning forward across the wood.

  "Because I'm a sadist, little girl, and I like to hurt little brats."

  Wow... her pulse was racing and not because she was turned on. Nope, because she wanted to run.

  "You're kind of scary," she blurted out, falling back on an old tactic - whenever she was uncomfortable she would say the first thing that came to her head, because she'd found that it usually broke the tension.

  And, as usual, she was right. Andrew laughed, a deep-throated, full-bodied laugh that suddenly seemed to take years off his face. She stared, absolutely fascinated. While she'd seen him laughing and joking with his friends, she'd never seen him laughing like this, with complete abandon. It changed his face completely and she suddenly realized how often he looked almost angry; it was just that before she assumed that was the natural shape of his face.

  Turned out, it wasn't, and when he lost that air of tension, he looked a lot more approachable and open.

  "So ah... what's with this song?" Angel asked, wa
ving her hand up in the air, when he finally stopped laughing, although he hadn't lost the twinkle in his eye. The throbbing strange noises were kind of getting to her, she hadn’t heard anything quite like it before.

  "It's called 'Timestretch' by Bassnectar, why? Don't you like it?"

  "I don't know... it kind of sounds like Transformers having sex."

  Andrew lost it again. Around the bar, Angel could see people's conversations slowing or stopping as they stared at the big Dom. Good to know she wasn't the only one surprised by his unusual enjoyment of her quips. Then again, she'd never had a one on one conversation with him before. But she really hadn't been trying to make him laugh, that was really just what it sounded like to her.

  "Holy crap, Angel... no wonder Adam's finally starting to loosen up," Andrew said, grinning at her. "The shit that comes out of your mouth, you kind of remind me of..."

  His voice trailed off and the joy leeched from his face so fast that Angel almost wondered if she'd imagined it. Most people would let it go. Most people would realize that it was something he didn't want to talk about.

  But Angel always liked to ask. Especially when she sensed the kind of pain that she was feeling from Andrew right now; sometimes talking about it helped. Adam had mentioned that Andrew’s mom had passed away years ago, was that somehow connected to the sudden loss of joy in his face?

  "Remind you of..." She trailed off the same way he had. There was a long pause, one of his fingers drumming on the wooden expanse of the bar. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

  For some reason, those were so often the magic words. Andrew gave her a half-hearted smiled that didn't make it up to his eyes. "I was going to say you kind of remind me of my ex."

  He said it without heat or even anger. Angel reached out her hand and put it over top of his. Partly to comfort, and partly because the incessant tapping of his finger was starting to drive her crazy.

  "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

  There was another long moment of Andrew studying her again. She met his gaze calmly, sensing that this was a strange moment for him. But she truly wanted to know. No one had been willing to talk much about Andrew's ex, although she knew enough to know that the break-up had been bad. Bad enough that he hadn't had a relationship since, nothing more than club play with submissives who understood the score. She didn't want to increase his pain by reminding him of his ex if it was a bad thing.

  "You know... I think it might be a good thing," he said, his half-grin spreading a bit. "Kate would always say ridiculous shit too, but she did it because she knew it would make me laugh. You just say shit and it's ridiculous."

  "Yeah, my verbal filter's kind of like Swiss cheese," she said a little ruefully, and was rewarded with another chuckle from Andrew.

  It wasn't the same as his laughter before, but at least it was genuine.

  Then his eyes flicked over her shoulder and he pulled his hand away. "Hey man."

  Hands slid around Angel's waist, over skin and straps, and Angel twisted her head around to look up at the man whose heat was suddenly surrounding her. "Hey you."

  ******

  Adam really hated the twist of jealousy that he'd felt seeing Angel's hand on Andrew's. When he'd come in, they'd been in the middle of what looked like a serious conversation, with her hand over his, and Adam had felt some of his stupid doubts rising up again. After all, she'd wanted to experience BDSM and he'd taken over that completely, not allowing her to try anything with anyone else.

  Was she craving something rougher than Adam could give her?

  Fortunately he had enough brains to take a deep breath and stamp on his doubts before they welled up and overtook him completely. Angel wasn't that type. And Andrew would have been an extremely poor choice for her even if she was. Besides, if she wanted a session with a sadist, all she'd have to do is ask Michael. There was no doubt the man would oblige, with or without sex as part of the scene.

  Looking down into those gorgeous, golden eyes, which were so obviously filled with pleasure at seeing him, he couldn't doubt that she'd been nothing but friendly to Andrew. Angel was just a tactile person and he really needed to get used to that.

  "You look stunning," he told her, lowering his head to hers for a rather searing and possessive kiss.

  Just in case anyone in the club was wondering. He hadn't missed the looks that other Doms were giving Angel, but while she was talking to Andrew it wasn't like anyone was going to try and interrupt that. However, everyone also knew that Andrew never played for more than a night, although after a period of time he might come back around again.

  Kissing Angel in the bar, outside of a scene, let everyone know that she was spoken for far beyond the Introduction and second scene that Adam had done with her. He heard some of the surprised murmurs behind his back and when he came up for air again, Andrew's eyes were glinting in appreciation.

  "You kids go have fun," he said, clearing away the glass of water that Angel had been drinking. The look he gave Adam was indecipherable, something intense and complex enough that Adam wasn't entirely sure what Andrew was feeling. "Hold onto this one Adam, she's a keeper."

  It wasn't unlike Andrew to say something like that, but the tone in which he said it - there wasn't any laughter or teasing in his voice at all. Not quite a warning but... just something.

  Andrew turned his back and walked down the bar to a couple of Doms that were sitting down there, obviously deciding whether they wanted to drink and socialize or head over to the Lounge area where a couple of the submissives were gathering. Adam felt nothing but relief that he no longer had to do that.

  No, instead he got to spend his evening with the delightfully enchanting little submissive in front of him. Who was wearing her leather straps again. He stifled the impulse to take off his shirt and cover her up. In the past he would've said that he liked it when a submissive showed off her body, that he enjoyed the spectacle, but Angel did seem to bring out the worst of his possessive qualities.

  "So what were you two talking about?" he asked, his curiosity aroused by Andrew's unusual intonation.

  A little line appeared in the center of Angel's eyebrows, she swiveled around on the bar stool to face him, tilting her head back and to the side, somehow simultaneously being both cute and sexy. "He said I reminded him of his ex-girlfriend, Kate."

  Incredulous, Adam shot a look down the bar at Andrew, but the man was fully involved in the conversation that he'd started up with the two Doms down there.

  "He what?"

  "He said it was a good thing," she offered up. Which only made Adam feel even more off kilter.

  He muttered under his breath and Angel poked him in the stomach. "What?"

  "I can't remember the last time Andrew actually said Kate's name."

  "Oh..." Angel seemed to think that over for a minute, chewing on her lower lip, while Adam tried to gather his thoughts. "He said it was because I made him laugh by saying silly shit, and that she used to try to do that."

  "Yeah, she did." He was just shocked that Andrew was willing to remember anything good about her. They'd all liked Kate and the outrageous comments she'd made, right up until the day that she'd ripped Andrew's heart out and made him out to be a monster. But no one really talked about that, or her, anymore. Least of all Andrew.

  "So... are we going to play?" Angel asked, almost wistfully, and Adam shook himself.

  Now was not the time to get contemplative over Andrew's past relationship or his current issues with any kind of commitment. It was pretty obvious that he had no intention of talking to Adam about it or he wouldn't have walked away the second Adam showed up. The poor guy was probably as shocked as Adam was that he'd even brought Kate up.

  Somehow, Adam wasn't entirely surprised though. Shocked, but not surprised. Angel seemed to have that effect on people, especially guys; Q was right that she made them feel relaxed. So relaxed that even the most stoic of them would end up dropping tidbits of their lives that they didn't mean to.
He remembered how he'd inadvertently brought up Brian and the issues he had with his parents and their divorce, something that normally would take him months to even mention to someone new.

  Definitely time to get her into a room to himself, before she ended up drawing out any more revelations from poor, unsuspecting Doms. Maybe he could set her on Olivia later for amusement’s sake and see if Angel worked as well on her.

  "Actually sweetheart, I think you're going to jail." Adam grinned at Angel's sudden confusion, stroking his fingers along the bare expanses of skin that her outfit made so readily available to him. "For public indecency."

  ******

  Angel couldn't stop her giggling as Adam led her downstairs to the Dungeon. She was relieved that he'd arranged for a private room this time. Not that she didn't like the Dungeon, but considering that this was their first time playing at Stronghold as a couple she was glad that they were going to have some privacy because she was feeling a little nervous.

  Excited too, though. Although some part of her brain was still pondering over Adam's reaction to her and Andrew's conversation. She was dying to know what had happened between Andrew and his ex; there was obviously a lot more to the story than a simple break up if Andrew really hadn't even said her name for a really long time. But she couldn't really concentrate on that because Adam kept giving her the most wicked looks that was making her belly fizz.

  He looked absolutely delicious in the black leather pants and the white button down that he was wearing; the outfit should have looked incongruous, but it fit him perfectly. Buttoned up, in control, and incredibly sexy. Yep, that pretty much described him.

  The Dungeon wasn't very full yet, but Adam steered her right into jail. Closing the door behind him, he took the opportunity to shutter the view through the window as well, giving them complete privacy.

  Turning, he looked her up and down, leering a little bit and she giggled again. Adam shook his head at her. "No laughing, ma'am, public indecency is a serious charge. Now get that exposed ass of yours behind those bars."