Mastering Lexie (Stronghold Book 4)

by Golden Angel

  "Especially not on a Saturday," said Jared. "You're too much of a control freak."

  "Like you aren't," Andrew pointed out, giving him a look. "That's the fun of being a Dom."

  "Hey, my girlfriend's off who the fuck knows where right now, and I'm just fine with that," Jared said, his voice mild. He really did sound like he didn't care, which was new. "Obviously I'm not that much of a control freak."

  "You would be if you actually cared about her," Olivia said. "You need to just dump the bitch."

  Jared eyed her skeptically. "Are you sure you're not just saying that so you can try your hand at matchmaking with me? Because that seems to be all you do lately. Maybe we should be looking for a man for you, so you can stop poking your nose into everyone else's business."

  "Good luck with that," Olivia said, tipping her glass towards him in a kind of smug salute. "I could have a harem of men, and I'd still be bugging you about Truck Stop. Just consider me your fairy godmother. Can I help it if I like seeing my friends happy?"

  "Are you sure you're not just trying to live vicariously through us because not enough of your kind of men are coming through the club?" Patrick asked, rolling his head towards her. It was the kind of question he probably would have never dared to ask if he'd been completely sober. "I could start advertising for some more challenging male subs. Big ones. With lots of muscles."

  Olivia laughed. "If I could find a man I was interested in, I would take him. I can't help it that you asshats keep stumbling across the perfect woman and then making a mess of things."

  "I haven't stumbled across anyone," Jared said stubbornly. "So you can't say that about me."

  "Ah... but you would if you came to the club and actually gave any of them a chance," Olivia said with a smirk. "That subbie whose Dom got kicked out the other week was pretty impressed with you. She's been asking everyone about you."

  "Low standards," Andrew said, nodding sagely. "That's what happens when you're in a relationship with an abusive shithead like that."

  "Did I tell you that he reapplied for membership?" Patrick asked, laughing at the audacity of the jerk. It hadn't been funny at the time, but it seemed kind of funny now. Mostly funny that the idiot thought he'd be allowed back into the club. Ever.

  Sitting up, Jared frowned, and Patrick could tell that the other man was already thinking about the abusive Dom's former sub, his protective side riled. "You're not, right?"

  "Of course not," Patrick said, giving Jared a look. His friend should know him better than that. "Just because he has some sob story about it being a bad day doesn't mean I'm an idiot. Although, if it meant you'd dump Marissa and take up with the new subbie to protect her, I'd be willing to consider it."

  Jared made a face. "You don't need to do that. I think I'm going to break up with Marissa soon anyway. Next time she calls."

  "YES!" Olivia exploded out of her seat, making all three men jump and nearly spill their drinks. Andrew actually shrieked a little bit, which would have made Patrick burst out laughing, if he hadn't already been laughing about Olivia's happy dance. Across from her, Jared was rolling his eyes, but he couldn't entirely keep the smile from his face. "YES! YES! YES!!! Praise the Lord, Hallelujah! Why didn't you say so earlier?!"

  "Because I didn't want to watch you do that," Jared said, pointing at her as she spun in an exuberant circle. Andrew and Patrick kept snickering; it was rare to see Olivia really let loose like that. Normally she was so dignified, seeing her do a happy dance like Jessica or Hilary sometimes did was highly entertaining. "Do you have to be so damned happy about it?!"

  "Honey, you should be glad I'm not throwing a party. So when is she calling next, so you can dump her ass?" Olivia finally sat back down, although she was grinning from ear to ear and practically bouncing in her seat. If Patrick were prone to giggling, watching her would make him giggle. Instead, he just kept smothering his laughter. Damned if he was going to let anyone accuse him of giggling.

  "No idea. She hasn't called in a week, and I haven't bothered to call her," Jared said with a shrug. "She obviously doesn't care enough to call, I don’t care enough to call her to find out why… and I'm done with this shit."

  "You know we're going to start a betting pool on whether or not you actually do it," Andrew said. Olivia groaned.

  "No, he's not allowed to change he's mind, he's doing it!"

  "Yeah, I am. Probably." Jared sighed at Olivia as she glared at him. "I am, I am."

  "I don't understand why you're not more enthusiastic about this," Olivia said disdainfully. "She makes you fucking miserable."

  "I still don't like hurting her."

  "A person has to have a heart to be hurt."

  "Just shut it, Olivia," Jared said, sounding weary. "I know your opinion, and I'm breaking up with her, so just leave it alone."

  "Fine," Olivia said, turning her attention back to Patrick. Jared sighed, loudly, in relief, which she ignored. "Do you know what you're going to do about Lexie?"

  Patrick shrugged. "I'm going to talk to Jake on Sunday, tell him that Lexie's been training at the club and that I want her. Then I'll see if I can get her to talk to me. She didn't answer any of my calls or texts today."

  "You mentioned that," Andrew said, giving him a lopsided smile. "A couple of times. Are you going to tell Jake that you've been the one training her?"

  "Maybe when he gets home," Patrick said, wincing. He didn't like keeping things from Jake, but he really didn't want to go into too great of detail with her brother. "The important thing is giving him a heads up that, hopefully, by the time he gets home, Lexie and I will be in a relationship."

  "At least Skype lets you do it face to face," Jared said, sympathetically. "It could be worse."

  "I still would have preferred to wait till he was home," Patrick said, groaning. He leaned his head back against the couch, closing his eyes. The room was still a little out of focus, even though he hadn't done more than take a couple sips of the beer Olivia had gotten him. "At least he's only got a few more weeks of being overseas, and I've got a pretty good idea of what kind of submissive Lexie is. I think we'll work. As long as I teach her not to pull shit like running out on me just because she's upset, and then not talking to me afterwards. It's going to fucking suck if I talk to Jake and then by the time he gets home, she's still not talking to me."

  "That's on her if she's going to act like a child," Andrew pointed out. Which was true, but that didn't help the ache in Patrick's chest. "She shouldn't have left the club last night, and she sure as hell should have gotten back in touch with you today after you called her. Twice."

  "And texted her three times," Jared chimed in. Even with his eyes closed, Patrick was pretty sure the other man was grinning.

  "Yeah, yeah, I get it, I've mentioned that a lot," Patrick muttered, groaning. "You guys suck."

  A companionable silence fell over the room, broken only by the ice cubes clinking in Olivia's glass. The kind of quiet that said everyone was lost in their own thoughts for the moment. Patrick couldn't help but fantasize about how he'd like to tan Lexie's pert little bottom for her behavior last night and today. His phone stayed silent and still in his pocket, making him want to growl.

  "I'm glad ya’ll are here," he said, finally.

  Andrew patted his leg.

  "No problem, buddy."

  ******

  Not only had Patrick not come over, he hadn't called her again either. Lexie couldn't help but feel a little sorry for herself when she woke up on Saturday, with a giant crick in her neck from falling asleep on her love seat, and an empty phone. She really thought he'd make a bigger gesture to make things up to her, and it hurt that he hadn't. Even so, she was still tempted to call him back now. Just to hear his voice.

  Ugh.

  She'd been so wrong with everything she'd said to Leigh. Had she really thought it would be so easy to hate him and be angry with him for a while, simultaneously acting like everything was normal? If only her emotions were so simple.

 
; Yeah, she was angry. Part of her hated him a little, mostly for making her feel foolish for chasing after him for so long just to be rejected when she thought they were really getting somewhere. But that wasn't all she was feeling. She was still wistfully engaged, fantasizing about how things could go from here, how he could make it better. Another part of her was still yearning to reach out and try to fix things herself; call him back and accept whatever he was willing to give, even if it wasn't as much as she wanted. The anger and depression were there, but they were tempered by so many other emotions.

  Groaning, she gingerly pressed her fingers to her neck where it was sore. Which, of course, only made her think about all the times she'd gotten a neck or back rub out of Patrick. He had freaking magic fingers when it came to smoothing away knots and aches. She could really use that now.

  Twisting her head back and forth, being as gentle as she could, she tried to loosen up the muscles. Ow. That hurt. A lot. She could really use one of Patrick’s neck massages right now. Damn him.

  Deciding that a hot shower would help, she picked herself up and stepped over the mess she'd made on her floor as she headed towards the bathroom. Some tiny part of her still wanted to stop and clean everything up, make it the way she knew Patrick would like it, but she didn't. Which was kind of dumb, because she'd found that she also liked having a nice, neat apartment, so she was cutting off her own nose to spite her face, but oh well. Back to the complicated emotions, since it made her feel a strange kind of vindication even as she wanted to clean it up.

  The hot shower did help, although the ache in her neck still didn't entirely go away. She rubbed some Tiger Balm onto it. More things to remind her of Patrick, yay. He'd recommended the pungent stuff, which she rarely used. Liam sold it out of his dojo, because it was really good for sore muscles. It also smelled awful, but she put up with it when she was really aching.

  All the thinking about aching made her realize that her nipples no longer were. They were basically back to normal, until she pinched them, and even then she only felt the remnants of their former soreness. Which, stupid enough, made her feel sad all over again.

  Because she was already feeling sad now, she figured she might as well check her phone. One text message received while she was in the shower, but not from Patrick, of course. From Leigh.

  The contents of the message made her forget her own drama.

  I had sex last night.

  Letting out a shriek, Lexie danced back and forth as she quickly hit the little green call icon. Fortunately the phone only rang twice before Leigh picked up.

  "What do you mean you had sex last night?! You can't just leave it at that! I need details, girl, details! With who? Oh my god, please don't tell me Michael - either of them."

  On the other end of the line, Leigh was laughing her ass off, which made Lexie start giggling. It felt really good to giggle and feel happy excitement over something.

  "No, not Michael or Mike," Leigh said. She sounded happy but also a little anxious. "It was one of Mike's friends. Just a one night stand thing... not even one night. One hour, maybe."

  "So, no walk of shame? Or did you take him home and then kick him out?"

  "Well... there was a walk of shame back into the party." Leigh coughed. "I ah... might have hooked up with him in Mike's bed."

  "Oh my god..." Lexie cracked up at Leigh's slightly embarrassed confession, which was also tinged with a kind of pride. It was so not the kind of thing she would have expected from Leigh. "What happened?! Tell me everything."

  "Well, Angel and I got to the party and I met Brian, his name was Brian by the way, and we were just chatting and he was flirting. It just felt good, you know? I mean, he was flirting with all the girls, he didn't really single me out, but I started flirting back, and then he started focusing on me. I got pretty drunk, and then he pulled me back into Mike's room and started kissing me. I pulled away and went back out to the main party, and I thought that he'd stop being interested in me, but he just kept flirting and everything. It was nice, you know, having him pay that much attention to me. He was cute. Kind of alpha. Not, like, forceful, you know. He was totally okay with it when I pulled away, but he was really authoritative. Not barking out orders like the Doms, but bossy in a more vanilla way."

  "Yeah, I get ya," Lexie said, hoping that Leigh would stop explaining and get going with the rest of the story. She understood what Leigh was trying to say, there were plenty of confident, alpha-type guys that weren't into kink. Hell, her brother Jake was one of them. Hmm... maybe when Jake got back she should introduce him to Leigh. That was a thought to hold on to. Well, maybe not right away. Leigh was definitely still rebounding, hardcore, if she was doing one night stands.

  "So yeah. We started kissing again, in the corner, and it was getting pretty hot, and then he pulled me back into Mike's room again... and well, this time we didn't leave."

  "Was it good?"

  Leigh giggled. "Yeah, I mean... I came. It was... different, you know? I've never had sex with anyone but Michael and, you know, there wasn't any emotion involved, but it was nice. Good. Whatever."

  "So enthusiastic," Lexie teased, rolling her eyes. Hopefully this would help Leigh realize that Michael wasn't the end all, be all. The fact that she was even willing to hook up with another guy, when (according to Angel) she never had any of the other times she and Michael had broken up, spoke volumes.

  "Well, I mean, I think part of me was just curious. I was drunk, but I was thinking perfectly clearly. I can remember every single one of my thoughts. Like, I actually debated with myself if I was going to go through with it while we were kissing."

  "What was the deciding factor?" Lexie asked, curious herself now. "Just the curiosity, or something else?"

  It took Leigh a moment to answer, and when she did, her voice was hesitant. "Well... every time Michael and I have broken up, it's been about him wanting to date someone else. Even this time, I found out yesterday that there's a woman he met that he wants to try to date. We talked about it and, yeah, I was pissed at him, but I didn't have sex with Brian for revenge. It was more like... I feel like Michael always chooses his pride over me. I've always wondered, if I dated someone else, if I had sex with someone else, would he get back together with me even if he didn’t get the chance to have sex with someone else? That’s always been one of his biggest hold-ups, I feel like, the fact that all his friends have had sex with more than one woman and he hasn’t. The past times we’ve been on breaks… I've had the opportunity, but I never pursued it. I guess I was trying to show him what a good girlfriend I still was, how faithful I was.” Her voice was wistful, and then it hardened.

  “I sometimes wonder if I would have kept that up if he’d actually managed to get together with someone else. Anyway. Then I met Brian last night, and yeah, I could tell he was a player, but he was also definitely interested in me. Even after we had sex, he wasn’t paying attention to any of the other women at the party, and he just hung out with me all night. It felt good, but I also wanted to know if Michael would get back together with me if he knew I'd been with someone else."

  "Wait... wait... hold up. Michael wants to get back together with you? And you're going to tell him you had sex with someone else?" Lexie felt like she was very, very behind on the gossip. Obviously Leigh had been keeping a lot of things close to her chest. Probably because she knew that her friends wouldn't approve.

  Not that Lexie disapproved of Leigh having a one-nighter. The girl needed to get a little wild. She'd been in the same relationship for six years and had no experience outside of it. But she definitely wouldn't support Leigh getting back together with Michael. Not that it was her decision to make, but she'd be skeptical about it, so she couldn't blame Leigh for not wanting to share.

  "He hasn't said that, exactly, but he's been kind of hinting at it," Leigh said, laughing a little ruefully. "Maybe not so much now though. I already told him about last night. He ah... didn't take it so well. He was pretty pissed."

 
"Wow..." Lexie tried to find the right words to say. This was not at all a conversation she could have ever expected to have with Leigh this morning. "Okay... so, are you okay? You don't sound too upset."

  "I mean, I was kind of expecting it," Leigh said with a sigh. "That was part of why I did it after all. I definitely don't regret it."

  "Did you get Brian's number?"

  "No. I'm so not in the right place to start dating another guy. Part of me is still hoping that Michael gets over himself and realizes that I'm the best thing that ever happened to him, even if I have had sex with someone else and he never has. If he did that, and came back without having been with someone else, then I'd know he really does love me, because he'd finally be choosing me over his pride."

  To Lexie it sounded like Leigh wanted Michael to prove his love to her, before he talked her into getting back together, but she could understand that. With the way Michael treated her, it was no wonder she needed that reassurance. Hell, Lexie was kind of trying to do the same thing with Patrick. Not that Patrick had ever treated her as badly as Michael had treated Leigh... but she wasn't going to make Patrick jump through the same kind of hoops either. Good for Leigh for finally making Michael do so.

  "Anyway, Adam's taking Angel and me to Stronghold tonight. I think Mike's going to come too. Come with us?" Leigh's voice went pleading again, and Lexie bit back her immediate response, which was no.

  She wasn't sure she was ready to face Patrick again. On the other hand... she really wanted to see him. By going to the club, she'd be able to see his reaction to her being there. Get a hint what he was thinking. And, if he was still being a jerk, rub it in his face that he couldn't control her if he wasn't willing to pay the price. Not that being her Dom should be considered a price, but he seemed to think it was.

  "Yeah," she found herself saying. "I'll be there."

  Chapter 12

  He was getting too old for this shit.

  Drinking, that was. Fortunately he'd slept through most of his hangover, but he was still dragging, and his head felt like his brain had started to turn to mush. Andrew had slept over on his couch and hadn't seemed that much better, so at least he wasn't alone in his misery. They'd gone to the coffee shop around the corner for a very late breakfast, because neither of them had felt up to making anything.