by Golden Angel
Silence fell between them again. Andrew took a sip of his beer, his dark eyes heavy with some kind of emotion that Leigh couldn't quite decipher. The defeated slump of his shoulders made her feel sorry for him. She patted his arm reassuringly.
"We all know you're a good guy overall, even if sometimes you're an ass."
He barked a short laugh. "Thanks, I think."
"Master Andrew?"
Both he and Leigh turned. A pretty blonde was standing there. Not blonde like Kate, but a darker blonde with lighter highlights, dressed in a tight fitting black leather corset, garter, panties and stockings. She ignored Leigh, smiling flirtatiously at Andrew.
"Yes, Tracey?" he asked, almost tonelessly. Even Leigh knew that submissives weren't really supposed to approach Doms in the club. It wasn't a hard and fast rule, just one of those underlying guidelines of behavior that everyone seemed to know and follow. Most of the time.
"I just wanted to say Kate's wrong. You don't make us feel used. I've never felt that way with you." The invitation in her voice was clear as she practically batted her eyes at him.
Andrew just looked at her, his eyes and voice chilly. "Then you should probably go talk to someone about that, because Kate's right... you should have."
The self-condemnation in his voice made Leigh pat his shoulder again as he turned around. Pouting Tracey, flounced off, looking hurt. Leigh wasn't going to castigate Andrew for that though; he'd done the right thing this time.
He was quiet for another minute or so, just sipping his beer while Leigh sat next to him, her eyes roaming the club. No one else seemed inclined to approach him after seeing Tracey flouncing away. Most of the other Doms were keeping a watchful eye on Andrew's back, while the subs in the Lounge were whispering to each other. Marissa came back out of the locker room with the brunette that had followed her in there, joining a pretty blonde who was sitting in the Lounge. Going by the animated gestures of the blonde and the occasional looks over at Andrew and Leigh at the bar, she was updating Marissa and the brunette on what had just happened. All three of them kept shooting dirty looks at Leigh, so she turned away.
Leigh couldn't help but think that, once again, the drama between Kate and Andrew would overshadow everything that was going on with Jared, her, and Marissa... and she was kind of relieved by that even though it made her feel bad.
"She told me she doesn't like who I've become," Andrew said quietly, slowly turning the bottle between his fingers as he stared at it. If Leigh hadn't been waiting for him to say something, she might have actually missed it, he was speaking so quietly. She tried to think of something to say, but came up empty. Andrew turned to look at her, pain in his dark eyes and Leigh's heart went out to him. "You were with Michael for years... do you still love him? Would you still want to be with him if he came back?"
Reaching out, Leigh laid her hand over his, squeezing it. "No. I wouldn't. But I don't think it's the same thing. Michael and I... we just don't work together. I wanted us to. But what I wanted from him, what he wanted from me, one of us would have to change into an entirely different person in order to satisfy the other. I love him. I will always care about him. I'd be devastated if anything bad ever happened to him. But I'm not willing to change who I am for him and I don't want him to have to change who he is for me... I'm happier trying to figure things out with Jared because I think that we fit."
Andrew nodded, his expression thoughtful.
She smiled at him. "I get the feeling that's not the same thing as what's going on with you and Kate. You two have been apart for so long that you really have changed into different people. I can only imagine how hard it is, to see someone that you used to know completely, only to discover that they're not the same anymore. Especially because, and correct me if I'm wrong, I get the feeling that when you two broke up there was a lot of unfinished business between you."
"That's an understatement," Andrew said with a short, bitter laugh. "But you're wrong. She's basically the same good, kind person. I'm the one that's changed. I didn't want to admit it, but I have. I just didn't want to hurt anyone else and I kept telling myself that what I was doing was better than the alternative... but she's right. I always knew when a sub was getting in too deep and it didn't bother me at all that I hurt their feelings. I would do it deliberately sometimes, telling myself it was better to hurt them emotionally than to..." He cut himself off, scowling down at his nearly empty beer bottle. Leigh's heart picked up, she couldn't help it... everyone was dying to know what really went down between Kate and Andrew, and if anyone had found out the truth, they weren't telling. Which, in this group of friends, meant that no one knew. "And I don't really like who I've changed into any more than she does."
"So don't stop changing. There's no rule saying you have to stay the way you are now." Leigh leaned her head on his shoulder, hugging his arm. "You've already started changing... we've all noticed that since Kate started coming here, you haven't scened with anyone other than Ellie."
The tension in Andrew's arm relaxed as he perked up a bit. "That's true."
"Do you want to get back together with Kate?" Leigh asked, daringly.
"I don't know..." Andrew said slowly. "I think... I think I want to know if I want to get back together with her."
"Oh. Well that makes total sense," Leigh said, rolling her eyes. They both laughed and he put his hand over hers on his bicep.
"One woman's man isn't enough for you, you need two?" The nasty voice belonged to Marissa. "Or can I have my boyfriend back now that you've moved on to Kathy's ex?"
"What a whore."
Both Andrew and Leigh jerked upright, spinning around to face Marissa and the brunette that she'd come in with. Both of them were standing about a foot away, arms crossed, looking down their noses at Leigh. Well, as much as they could look down their noses when she was on a stool and they were standing.
"I was comforting a friend, not that it's any of your business," Leigh said, reaching out to put her arm around Andrew. She wasn't going to let them make her feel bad about that. Yeah, so she was a tactile person. With Angel as a best friend, she had to be. And yeah, maybe sometimes people misinterpreted what all that touching meant, but she knew that Andrew and Jared didn't and she didn't really care if Marissa did.
"Go back to the Lounge," Andrew said, in a deep voice that sent a shiver down Leigh's spine. His Dom voice. "You're not welcome over here."
"Yeah, back off, bitch." Angel was suddenly there, sliding in between the twosomes, like a human shield. A growling Adam was right behind her, giving Marissa a supremely unfriendly look.
Outnumbered and outgunned, Marissa and her buddy were smart enough to retreat. The Doms sitting at the nearby tables chuckled, one of them leaning towards Andrew. "Got any more entertainment for us this evening?"
"Shut up, Mitch," Andrew said, flicking the other man off. He just laughed even harder as he turned back to his friends.
Hands on her hips, Angel turned to face Andrew and Leigh. "Sorry we're late. What the hell is going on here tonight?"
Chapter 13
Once his shift was over, Jared practically sprinted to join his friends. Kate and Sharon had left a couple of hours ago, not long after the showdown she'd had with Andrew in the middle of the main room. On their way out, Patrick had come out of his office to give her a short admonition about being respectful towards the club dominants - and then ruined his image as a hardass by giving her a hug.
The showdown was the big talk of the night, although Andrew had popped into the lobby for a minute to give Jared a heads up about Marissa approaching him and Leigh. Which had made him all sorts of antsy that he was stuck here in the lobby while both Marissa and Leigh were in the club. Not that he expected Leigh would have any more trouble with Marissa tonight. Angel and Adam had shown up - finally - and not long after that Olivia, Rick, and Maria had arrived, followed closely by Liam, Hilary, Justin, Chris, and Jessica. There was no way Leigh would be left alone tonight.
Still, he wanted
to be the one in there, by her side. Not just because of Marissa, but because he didn't want Leigh taking any flak from anyone else either. It bothered the hell out of him that Caroline had called Leigh a homewrecker, when she was anything but. He wanted to make it crystal fucking clear to everyone that he was with Leigh now. Period. The back and forth with Marissa was over, he was no longer chained to her or their past, and he wasn't going to pretend like he was.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Marissa in the Lounge area with Caroline and Amy. He turned his head away, not wanting to accidentally make even the smallest amount of eye contact, his gaze easily finding his group of friends at the bar.
Leigh and Angel were sitting next to each other, of course, with Adam standing between their stools, his arms around each of them. Going by the way their arms were hanging, he was pretty sure the two women were holding hands.
It was kind of funny - he'd always been incredibly possessive about Marissa, but with Leigh it was different. He didn't feel jealous or angered by the way she, Angel, and Adam were constantly touching. It didn't feel like she was trying to manipulate him or make him jealous by doing so; it was just the natural way things were. Maybe it was because he'd met Angel first and she was one of the most naturally tactile people he'd ever met - something that Adam had struggled with at first but now seemed to accept as matter-of-course. Angel touched everybody, constantly and non-sexually, so it only seemed natural that her best friend would as well.
Seeing Leigh under Adam's arm made him want to replace Adam, but at the same time he felt grateful that Adam had been there when he couldn't be. It wasn't that he cared about Leigh less than he had Marissa, he realized, it was that he trusted her more. Despite the fact that they'd been together less time, he already felt more secure with her.
Upon Jared's approach, Adam grinned and slid his arm off of Leigh, almost like passing the torch. Glancing down between the two women, Jared just grinned when he saw that he was right. Leigh and Angel were holding hands underneath the table.
"So I'm dancing with my dad to 'My Girl,' and Liam's dancing with his mom to 'One Moment in Time,'" Hilary was saying as Jared slid into place behind Leigh, wrapping his arms around her body and resting them on her stomach. She leaned back against him, her eyes still on the giggling Hilary, putting her arms over his and folding her hands atop his. Hilary's eyes flickered over to where Liam was engrossed in a conversation with Justin and Chris. "She picked it and he's going along with it because it's her favorite song."
"Are you guys still arguing about your first dance song?" Angel asked. Beside her, Adam shifted his weight, listening intently to the conversation, which made Jared grin. It was kind of funny watching the stoic man soaking up all this wedding information stuff. Adam was such a control freak, Jared didn't doubt that he would be just as involved in the wedding planning as Angel was when they got married. Whereas Liam and Hilary were leaving most of the planning of their wedding up to Hilary's mother - who was also footing the bill for the whole thing.
Hilary wanted to make her mother happy and Liam wanted to make Hilary happy, so they were having a much bigger and grander wedding than they probably would have planned on their own. The good thing was that when Hilary wanted something specific, her mother immediately acquiesced, so there weren't any fights on that front. It was only when Hilary and Liam wanted to tone anything down that there were problems, and since Hilary's mom was willing to pay for bigger and better, the happy couple mostly just let her.
Which left them to bicker over the small stuff, like what song they were going to dance to, what flavor the cake was going to be, and whether or not there was going to be a bouquet and garter toss.
While the conversation continued, Jared leaned down to whisper in Leigh's ear. "Hey there."
Twisting around slightly, she smiled up at him and he dropped a kiss on her lips. The back of his neck itched and he was sure he was getting death glares from the Lounge area where Marissa was. Or maybe he was just imagining it. Either way though, he wasn't going to let it change the way he treated Leigh. Did he want to hurt Marissa? No. Did her feelings matter to him more than Leigh's at this point? Absolutely not.
"Hi. How was your shift?"
"Pretty good. I think all the drama was happening in here."
She rolled her eyes heavenward with a small groan. "It's been a little crazy. I don't think Andrew and Kate were ready to try scening together yet."
"I was also talking about you and Marissa," he said.
"Oh... right." Leigh fidgeted, looking uncomfortable and Jared frowned.
"Were you going to tell me about her talking to you?"
Leigh shrugged.
Sighing, Jared pulled her tighter against him, giving her a firm look. "I want you to tell me if she bothers you, okay? That's something I should know."
"Okay," she said, making a little moue of disgust. "I'm hoping that she's going to leave me alone now. I think she realized approaching me was stupid, especially here, and it's not like I'm going to be seeing her anywhere else."
"That's true," he said, caressing her waist with his fingers. Leigh hummed her approval, so quietly that he couldn't even hear it, but he felt the vibrations through his fingertips. Blood pooled in his groin in response, now that his mind wasn't on Marissa's antics or worrying over Leigh.
Of course it was at that moment that Marissa's laugh, high and loud, ripped through the air. While Jared hadn't been looking, she'd apparently been approached by another Dom and now she, Caroline and Amy were sitting down at a bar table about ten feet away. He shifted, even though he couldn't turn his back on them unless he wanted to either turn his back on his friends or move around to the opposite side of the table, at least he could change his position so that he wasn't facing her.
Leigh looked up at him, a sympathetic expression on her face. "I'm sorry. We don't have to stay if you don't want to."
"I want to," he said, leaning in to brush a kiss over her lips. "I'm not going to give up spending one minute with you because of her. Her being here doesn't bother me. I just don't like looking at her."
******
Looking up at the big, protective man that was crowding her, Leigh couldn't help but smile in amusement. Jared might say that Marissa being there didn't bother him - and in a 'jealous ex' way she was sure it didn't - but her presence definitely had him on edge in an entirely different way. This wasn't how he usually acted at the club. Normally he was relaxed and cuddly, and he'd almost gotten that way a minute ago, before Marissa and her friends had convinced the Doms that had approached them to go to the bar.
If anything, Jared seemed to be protectively anxious over Leigh, not possessively jealous over his ex, which was probably more what Marissa was going for. He was totally focused on Leigh, although she had preferred the glint of erotic hunger in his eyes that had disappeared when he'd registered Marissa's nearness. He'd gone into protection-mode rather than sexy-mode, which is where he'd been headed and where, if she was being honest, she'd really wanted him to go. Of course, if his reaction hadn't been so protective and focused on her, she might not have felt secure enough to want him to make a move sexually.
He wasn't the only one who had tensed when they'd realized Marissa was near. It was like she'd cast a pall on the entire group. They ignored her, but it was like ignoring the sound of nails on a chalkboard - you could pretend you didn't hear it, but it still made your shoulders scrunch and the center of your spine hunch. The only one not ignoring Marissa was Olivia, who had turned around completely on her bar stool and was giving Marissa a death stare.
Leigh choked on a laugh when Marissa glanced over, looking to see what effect she was having on Jared, and caught Olivia's eyes instead. The other woman was no dummy; she blanched and immediately averted her eyes from Olivia's. It would be so funny if it didn't make everyone so damned uncomfortable.
Whatever, Leigh wasn't interested in playing whatever game Marissa was playing. Everyone had been telling her to fight for Jared. She s
till wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but what it meant to her right now was that she should stop holding back and be up front and honest about what she wanted from him. Right now. And this looming protector bit wasn't it; she'd had very different expectations for tonight. Especially since next week at this time, she might be getting her very first disciplinary spanking from him.
She leaned into Jared, enjoying the way his arms felt around her, while his fingers lightly stroked the fabric of her dress. She gave him her most flirtatious look, lowering her long lashes and peering up at him through them. "You don't have to give up spending time with me because we leave... I don't have to go home with Angel and Adam tonight."
Jared blinked, looking almost surprised. That hungry look in his eyes was back, sending a shiver of anticipation down her spine as his fingers stopped stroking and gripped her flesh. "Really?"
"Yes."
His eyes blazed. "Fair warning, if I take you home with me, I'm going to take that as permission to do whatever I want to you."
Leigh licked her lips. "Yes, please, Sir."
Not entirely surprisingly, Angel and Adam elected to leave at the same time, while the other couples (and triad, in Jessica, Justin, and Chris' case) headed down to the Dungeon or up to the private rooms. Olivia went over to the Lounge where two male subs immediately perked up and started fawning on her, hoping to be chosen to scene with her for the night. Walking by, Leigh couldn't help but smile as Olivia cocked her head at them, one unimpressed eyebrow raised at their antics.
With Jared's arm around her, she deliberately didn't look in Marissa's direction and she noticed that he didn't either. Her nipples peaked as she leaned into him, anticipation welling in her body. There was no pretending that his and her exes didn't exist, but that didn't have to stop them from moving forward.
******
"Fucking beautiful," Jared murmured as he leaned back on his haunches to admire his handiwork.