Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (11 page)

It irked him that he couldn't figure her out
or his reaction to her.  Even when he was trying to concentrate on other
things, he was constantly playing and re-playing their interactions in his
mind.  Trying to remember exactly how she phrased things, trying to
remember every nuance of her reaction when he held her hand or gaze.  And
then he'd drive himself crazy wondering if he was misremembering or putting too
much emphasis on the wrong thing.  

"Adam, you're not listening to me!"

"You're not saying anything I'm
interested in hearing."

A strange noise made him look at Olivia
again.  He raised an eyebrow.  "Are you grinding your
teeth?"

"You said you would try this
weekend," she accused.

He sighed.  "I am... I can't help
it if I'm not interested."

Throwing up her hands, Olivia
turned away and then whirled back around on her very high heel.  "I
give up.  We're going to this woman's play next week because you're
obviously not going to be able to concentrate on talking to anyone else until
you get what you want."

"Did you really expect anything
different?"

With another growling type sound,
Olivia turned and stalked off towards the submissives area.  The two male
submissives in the Lounge, and a few of the females, perked up as they saw her
coming.  Adam hid his smile.  Whatever sub Olivia picked out would
have a long night of it; the irate Domme had plenty of frustration to work out.
 Not that she'd take it out on them, exactly, but it would give her plenty
of energy and motivation.

He had plenty of that same
frustrated energy and he did want to work it out... but he didn't feel like
doing it with any of the people in the room.  

Surely Mistress Angela couldn't
be what he remembered her to be.  Hopefully he'd go see the show, maybe
chat with her afterwards and realize that she wasn't nearly as intriguing as he
remembered, and then he could come back to Stronghold and start seriously
looking for a submissive that suited him.  The play really was the key; if
he hadn't realized she was so closely accessible he was pretty sure he would
have forgotten her by now.   But add that mystery in with all the other
little curious things about her and he just couldn't let it go. 

******

The best, and worst, part about
community theater was how small it was and how close front row was to the
stage.  Sometimes it could make it really hard to concentrate, especially
if you saw someone in the front row that you knew. 

Sure, Leigh, Michael and Leigh's
mom Mrs. Douglas (whom Angel affectionately called Momma) were all friendly
faces, but they were still distracting.  Especially since Momma liked to
give Angel a thumbs up every time she thought Angel might be looking at her.
 Which always drew her attention even if she hadn't been looking at the
older woman. 

Fortunately she'd been doing
theater long enough that she'd gotten pretty good at blocking that out.
 Her technique involved staring over their heads out into the darkness
behind them, since only the first two rows were visible in the stage lights and
after that the audience might as well have been sitting in a black hole.
 It was a pretty good crowd for a Friday night, not just large but boisterous.
 

The matinees were always the hardest for
comedies because for some reason people just did not feel like laughing on a
Sunday afternoon.  Saturdays were always the best because everyone was
happy that it was the weekend.  Fridays were hit or miss; either people
were thrilled that it was the beginning of the weekend and were nearly as loud
and happy as a Saturday crowd or they were so dragged down from the work week
that they chuckled more than laughed.  And it was hard to hear someone in
the back row chuckling.

Actors thrived on more than applause, they
thrived on being able to hear the audience's reaction.  Especially when
they were pausing for laugh breaks.

******

The lobby where the audience gathered after
the show to greet the actors that they knew was surprisingly full.  Adam
and Olivia hung around on the outskirts, in one of the nooks.  He'd
purposefully placed them near a trio that he'd heard mention Angel's name when
he'd walked by them.  

It was nice to know her real
name, and interesting that she'd used a version of it for Chained.  

"That was... not what I
expected," Olivia said, looking rather thoughtful.  She'd enjoyed the
show as much as Adam had, it had been funny and surprisingly easy to follow,
despite the dated language.  

"Me either," he admitted. 

Partly because he'd expected the
vivacious and confident Mistress Angela to be playing Lydia, the vivacious and
spoiled heroine.  Until she'd actually appeared on stage he'd assumed that
the Angel listed in the program had nothing to do with Mistress Angela.
 Instead, when she appeared, it was as Julia.  A sweet, quiet,
wistful Julia who did everything she could to please her love, Tommy, and, when
he was unable to give her what she needed, broke up with him in a quietly
passionate and tearful monologue, setting him up to redeem himself and win her
back.  In fact, her character could almost have been called
submissive. 

"She was very good."

He nodded, trying not to look
like he was trying to overhear what the trio nearby was saying.  There
were only a few words here and there; the man was quiet while the two women
chattered.  Probably mother and daughter, they looked a lot alike, and
they were talking about how well Angel had done with her part.  He heard
the word 'typecast' but he couldn't tell
who
 they were talking
about.

Then his attention was drawn,
rather obviously away from Olivia, when the pretty brunette started jumping up
and down yelling Angel's name and waving.  Instinctively he drew back a
bit, wanting to observe without being seen himself.  He almost didn't
notice Olivia as she coughed and hid a smile, subtly moving herself so that it
would look like they were talking but he could actually look past her to where
Angel and the brunette were colliding like two mac trucks.

She looked... very different.
 Most of her stage make-up was still on, but it was more and less than
that.  With her curls ruthlessly pulled back into a pony-tail that they
were obviously trying to escape, a few wisps hanging around her face, and a
bright, open expression on her face she seemed somehow younger.  More
vulnerable.  Or maybe that was just the impression he was getting now that
he'd seen her as Julia... but Julia wasn't Angela - Angel. 

Bouncy.  He'd noticed that
at the club.  Only now she was even bouncier and she and her friend were
talking a mile a minute while the older woman nodded and occasionally inserted
a comment.  The man just stood off to the side looking slightly pained by
the high rate and volume of the conversation, until Angel finally turned to him
and gave him a hug.  Definitely not a romantic prospect, since as soon as
she released him he sidled closer to the other brunette and put his hand on her
back. 

Dressed in figure hugging jeans
and a button down shirt with a ruffle and a high collar that had some kind of
pin at the throat, she looked like some weird cross between historical and
modern.  But it was an interesting look.  Not one that he'd seen
before.  It made him want to look at her longer, study her more.

Or that's the excuse that he gave
himself.

"Is she everything you
remembered and more?"

He looked down to see Olivia's
grey-green eyes laughing up at him.  They were more blue than grey right
now which meant that she was highly amused. 

"I'm not sure," he said
honestly.  Angel was different than he remembered, but this was a very
different setting.  

"Do I get to look now?"

Sighing, Adam obligingly moved so
that they circled each other naturally, allowing Olivia to peer around him
without making it obvious that they were staring.  The redhead watched for
a few moments, her face rather thoughtful. 

A wry smile curved her lips.
 "Do you know, they rather remind me of Jessica and Hilary."
 

Adam had to smile at that.
 Those two were the only submissives to hang out on a consistent basis
with his group of friends.  Well, and Lexie but she didn't count as a
submissive to him.  She was just Jake's little sister.  None of them
wanted to think about her like that - except maybe Patrick but Adam knew he
would fight that for all he was worth.  

"Do you think she's
submissive then?"  He cleared his throat as Olivia laughed again,
realizing how damned hopeful he'd sounded. 

"I'm not going to be able to
figure that out just from watching her like this," she said, shaking her
head, grinning.  "Man, you have got it bad, don't you?"

He scowled.  "She's
just a mystery and I don't like mysteries."

"Oh, she's answering her
phone... I think she's saying goodbye to them... oops she's headed this
way!"

Well of course she was, they were
standing right on the way out.  Of course Adam's back was to her but he
could still swear that he could feel her approach.  And after a couple
hours of watching her on stage he definitely recognized her voice as she walked
by him.

"Hey pretty-boy just give me another
second to get outside... it's crowded in here and I can't hear a word you're
saying - no stop trying to talk to me!"

Then she was gone and past.
 He glanced over to watch her walk away.  Even without the super high
heels she had a nice little swing to her walk that did delightful things to her
ass.  The jeans cupped and hugged her body, emphasizing the bubble of her
bottom in a way that made it hard for him to tear his eyes away, even knowing
that Olivia was watching and laughing at him again.

Hey, could he help it that he was
an ass-man?

"Sorry boy-o but I think
you're out of luck," Olivia said when he turned back to her.

"I thought you couldn't
tell."  He certainly couldn't.  Something about her just called
to him and he wanted to explore it.  Especially after seeing how sweetly
submissive she could be onstage.  Part of him insisted that was just an
act -
but what if it wasn't?
a little voice in his head whispered.

The Domme snorted.
 "You did hear her call whoever that was on the phone 'pretty boy,'
right?  If I didn't know she was into the scene I wouldn't think anything
of it, but since Mistress Angela was at Chained, I'd guess that she has at
least once submissive and that was him.  Stop scowling at me, it's not my
fault."

Damn.  He was scowling.
 Rearranging his features he tried to ignore the stab of disappointment
that went through him.  Olivia was right.  

"Well at least now you
know," she said pragmatically. 

"Right."  Adam
rubbed his hand over his face and through his goatee before looking around the
room.  "Let's get out of here.  Through a different door."

******

 
"Hey pretty-boy
just give me another second to get outside... it's crowded in here and I can't
hear a word you're saying - no stop trying to talk to me!"

Wow, for a moment Angel actually thought she
saw Mr. Grouchy from Chained... but it wouldn't have been the first time she
thought she’d spotted him and had been wrong.  Any tall male with sandy
blonde hair made her heart leap a bit before she'd look at his face and realize
it wasn't him.  

Putting one finger in her ear, Angel tried to
hear what Mike was saying as she practically bolted out the door.

"Okay, now I can hear you, what?"

"We need to work on your respect,
darling," Mike said in an exaggerated Southern drawl.  He usually
only had a tiny twang, but when he was talking to her - especially when he
called her darling - he would lean on it.  Cuz he knew she loved it.
 

"Kind of hard to give me a spanking from
the other side of the country," she teased.  Not that Mike ever had.
 Their relationship just wasn't like that.  Unfortunately.  But
she had a lot to thank him for, including pushing her into exploring BDSM; he
was the one to take her to her first club, to encourage her to apply to
Stronghold, and he gave her a sounding board when she needed it. 

"Ah, but I'm not going to be on this
side of the country for very much longer," he said, and she could hear the
wicked grin in his voice.

"You're coming back to D.C.?!"

"Yeah, I'm not enjoying California as
much as I thought I would."

"I thought you were doing really
well."

"I am.  But I was doing just as
well in D.C. and I miss my family and friends and having all four seasons.
 I also miss doing the stage stuff; I don't think television or film is
for me."

"Didn't you just get cast in
something?"

"I turned it down."

He said without any regret or pride, just a
fact, even though Angel was pretty sure she remembered him saying that it was a
fairly decent role in an actual movie.  Then again, Mike had always been
pretty decisive when he'd put his mind to something.