Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (51 page)

"I wonder what would happen if I tried
that," Lexie said.  Hilary actually half-screamed with drunken
delight before she rolled back and forth, her hands on her stomach as she
laughed.  None of them could talk.  While it hadn't explicitly been
said outright tonight, it was very clear to all of them exactly who Lexie would
want to try that on. 

Angel thought she had balls for even imagining
it.

"If you ever do that, you
have
 to
take a picture of his face!"

"If any of us ever do that..."

"Well, except for Olivia, that's the
norm for her."

"Ok, Liv, if you ever have a sub and
-"

"None of them of them would
dare
."
 The way Olivia drew herself up, regally disapproving, had all of them
sucking in their breath for a moment, worried that they'd gone too far.
 Then her eyes sparkled and she burst out laughing again.  "Oh
my god, your faces..."

By the time Angel drunkenly slid into sleep,
her head pillowed on Jessica's arm, she realized that for the first time she'd
had a ladies' night with a group of girls where she truly liked every single
one of them.  It was a novel experience.  She was sad that Leigh
hadn't been there to share it.  

The morning after involved going
to a nearby diner, a lot less conversation and a lot of vows about never
drinking that much wine again.  Afterwards Angel went over to
Adam’s.  To her surprise, he wasn’t at all interested in going to
Stronghold again that night, even though Rick went.  Instead they ended up
curled up on his couch, watching
Condor Man
, one of his favorite movies
from childhood.  It was silly and ridiculous and a lot of fun.  And
after it was over he took her up to his bedroom and paid her back for every
single teasing remark she'd made during it.

******

A week later, Adam was sitting at
the Stronghold bar, chatting with some of the Doms that were there while he
waited impatiently for Angel.  Not that she was late, he was just feeling
impatient because she'd spent the evening before and all of today with her
friend Leigh.  He'd gotten a lot done around his house but he'd missed her
presence.  It had only taken a couple of weeks for him to get used to
having her with him all weekend. 

They'd had another good week
together.  And he was still trying to convince himself that all the smooth
sailing wasn't a bad thing.  Just because it kind of reminded him of his
parents and the way his dad had thought everything was fine when it really
wasn't, that didn't necessarily mean that something was wrong.  Maybe
everything really was fine.  Sometimes he felt like there was no possible way
one of them wouldn’t mess things up.  Maybe this was why he hadn’t had a real
relationship in a while, the risk to his emotions were high.  The more invested
he became in her, the more worried he became that something was going to go
wrong. 

"Hey man, can I talk to you
for a second?"

Adam swiveled around on his stool
to face Patrick.  Excusing himself from the other Doms, he and Patrick
moved away towards the less populated side of the bar, closer to the entrance.
 Since Andrew was running late, everyone was down on Mistress Lisa's side
of the bar.  

Just then, Angel came in through
the entrance, her face lighting up when she saw him, followed by Liam, Hilary
and Michael.  The tall lanky Dom hadn't been to Stronghold in a couple of
weeks, Adam realized.  Angel had mentioned that he was busy most evenings.
 Although he'd been showing up and doing good work at his temp position,
Adam had already been contacted by the company that Michael was currently
contracted to.  They liked him a lot. 

He was pleased to realize that it
didn't bother him at all that Angel and Michael had shown up at the same time.
 Smiling back at Angel, he waved a hand at the others as his pretty little
sub came and snuggled up under his arm.  She was wearing a soft dark green
velvet bustier, rather than one of her corsets, and a short black skirt.
 While he liked her corsets, if they were going to play then the bustier
was a lot easier for him to get into.  Last week when he'd chosen her
outfit he'd known that she was surprised he'd picked something that was almost
modest.  Not that he didn't like the blatantly sexy as well, but he knew
that she would choose that on her own, which made him want to see her in
something slightly different.  Today's outfit was almost a mix between the
extremes.

"Hey sweetheart," he
said, brushing his lips over her forehead before turning his attention back to
Patrick.  "So, what's up?"

The big man's dark eyes flickered
over Angel and then back to Adam.  He raised his eyebrow, pulling at the
scar across his cheek.  "This was the last week of you being out of
the Introduction Scene rotation; I wanted to know if you needed to be taken off
permanently."

Underneath Adam's arm, Angel
stiffened.  Adam inwardly cursed.  He'd completely forgotten about
the rotation.  

"Give me a second," he
said to Patrick, stepping away and pulling Angel around to face him.  Her
eyes were practically glowing with anger as she glared up at him.  Dammit.
 "Look, I wanted to talk to you about this..."

"Oh really?"

"I'm sorry this is getting
sprung on you like this -"

"Oh yeah, cuz
that's
the problem -"

"- I just wanted to talk to
you about how my friends are going to view this -"

"- I don't know what
exclusive means to you -"

"- When the other guys said
they weren't doing Introduction Scenes anymore -"

"- but to
me
 it
means that you aren't getting down with anyone else, period."

"- everyone knew it was
because they were in serious relationships."

"Oh, so now our relationship
isn't serious?"

Angel had pulled away completely,
hands on her hips, eyes flashing, and her voice was getting louder. Grabbing
her by her arm, Adam started to pull her in closer, but she wrenched them
around, pulling her neatly out of his grasp.  Dammit.  He'd forgotten
that she'd know how to break a hold, not that he wanted to hurt her or
anything, he just wanted to touch her to reassure both of them that this was
not what she obviously thought it was.  She was such a tactile person, it
made him feel almost panicky that she didn't want him touching her.

"That's not what I
meant!"

Crossing her arms, Angel's finger
tapped against her bicep as her lips tightened.  Behind him, he could see
Liam, Patrick and Michael all watching in amusement.  Hilary was safely
tucked into Liam's lap, her big eyes wide and incredulous.  Frustrated,
Adam focused on Angel dragging his fingers through his hair as he tried to
order his thoughts.

"Maybe you should explain
what you
meant
then."

He didn't know why he'd been so
worried that Angel might end up being like his mother and hiding away her
problems.  That was obviously not the case.  Which was a good thing,
although he really wished she was maybe a little less willing to have a fight
right here, right now.  It would have been a hell of a lot better if she'd
just let him explain right from the getgo, rather than providing entertainment
for whoever wanted to watch.  Sure, he could forcibly remove them both
from their current location, but he didn't think that would go over well with
her either.  Better to explain first, then move them when she was willing
to be touched again.  Hopefully to somewhere that he could spank her ass.

"I just meant that when
Justin, Chris and Liam stopped doing Intro Scenes, it meant... I mean..."
 Angel raised her eyebrow as he fumbled over his words.  "Look,
I think our relationship is serious.  I do.  But I hadn't talked to
you about what my friends expectations would be if I stopped doing Introduction
Scenes, that's all I wanted to talk to you about right now.  I didn't want
to assume that you would be okay with what ends up being a really public
gesture about our relationship."

"Well I am!"

"Okay!"

“Okay!”

"Fine!"

"So if we agree, why are we
yelling?"  Adam threw his hands up in utter frustration.  Liam
and Michael were laughing at him.  Out of the corner of his eye he could
see several other people watching with interest, although thankfully the
background music and conversations going on at the other end of the bar were
loud enough that they probably couldn't hear everything.  

Angel just glared at him again.
 "Because you didn't answer Patrick immediately and tell him to take
you off of Introduction Scenes which made me think that you didn't
want
 to
be taken off!"

"Dammit, that was a
rhetorical question!"

"Well I decided to answer
it!"  Angel snapped back.  Making another sound of frustration,
Adam dragged his hand through his hair again.  She laughed.  She
actually laughed.

Scowling, Adam took a threatening
step towards her.  "Don't laugh at me right now, sweetheart."

"You need to lighten up,"
Angel said, still laughing up at him.  “How could you not have found all that
funny?”  The blaze in her eyes had simmered down, now they were sparkling
with suppressed mirth.  How the hell did she switch moods so suddenly?
 He was still feeling all ramped up and irritated.

"You need to let me give you
an explanation before you get all pissy with me."

"Well I have a temper.
 You're lucky I didn't get Patrick and Jared to hold you down so I could
paddle your ass."  

Okay, now she was just asking for
it.  Adam went for her, and even though she backed up quickly she wasn't
fast enough to evade him; he hefted her up onto his shoulder, leaving her hanging
down behind him with her ass up in the air.  One of his hands wrapped
around her thigh, settling between her legs, the other rested on the bare curve
of her ass.  Somebody wasn't wearing panties, which meant that everyone
else was probably getting quite a show.

"
Adam
!" she
shrieked, her hands coming up to uselessly tug at the hem of her skirt. 

He ignored her, turning towards
their friends.  At least he could thank his lucky stars that Olivia wasn't
around to personally witness that little scene.  Or Chris or Andrew.
 They'd hear about it, of course, but at least neither Patrick, Liam nor
Michael would be stupid enough to tease him right now.  Hilary was
actually smiling up at him approvingly.

"Patrick, I won't be doing
Introduction Scenes anymore.  And Angel and I are using the school room
for the next hour."  Adam spun around, heading for the stairs at the
back of the club.

"Oh good," Angel's
voice drifted up behind him, full of sass.  He could feel her push herself
upwards with one hand on his waist, probably to look at his friends behind
them.  "I'm feeling hot for teacher."

SMACK!

Adam snarled.  She was so going
to regret doing that.  He resisted the temptation to give her ass a slap back
immediately.  He was going to wait until they got up to the school room where
he could take his time.  Laughter followed them out of the main room, not
just his friends, but every single person who had just seen her spank him.
 He wondered if Angel realized that they were all laughing because they
knew she was going to really regret doing that.

Going by her giggles, he didn't
think so.

******

Ooooooh she was in so much
trouble. 

And she didn't mind at all.
 Angel had to admit that she rather liked the occasional caveman thing.
 Having Adam do it in front of everyone who was in the club, after
definitively telling everyone that he was off the market, was even better.
 She'd stopped being mad once she realized that, in his own way, he had
been trying to be respectful of her input into their relationship by not
immediately telling Patrick that he wasn't going to be doing Intro Scenes
anymore.  Even though she wished he had just told Patrick immediately.

But, as Lexie had said last week,
boys aren't psychic.  And, as Olivia had said, sometimes they’re kinda
stupid.

Besides, Angel wasn't the type to
stay angry for long or to hold a grudge.  Especially not when seeing Adam
so frustrated and pissed off had actually been pretty hilarious.  Their
argument hadn't been the scary kind of angry; he'd been trying to placate her
while he explained.  Which she had been able to see the amusement in once
she'd gotten over the initial flash of anger. 

Stalking down the hallway, Adam
took her to the last room on the left of the upper floor.  When he set her
down on the teacher's desk, seating her on the edge, she did a quick scan
around the classroom.  There were some student desks scattered around the
room, which didn't look particularly comfortable, and a blackboard and what
looked like a children's play area in the corner.  She wondered if that
was for the Daddy Doms and their subs.  

When she finally focused on Adam
again, he was waiting fairly patiently, a rather wicked gleam in his blue eyes.
 With his arms crossed over his chest and that crisp, white collared
shirt, he really did kind of look like a teacher.  A really hot teacher
that all the girls would have crushes on.

That kind of thing had grossed
her out in high school, but right now it was a fun little fantasy to
have. 

"So professor, what's
up?" she asked impertinently, unable to keep from teasing him.  Going
by the hard gleam in his eye and the barely controlled energy that was
simmering just beneath his surface, Adam's temper didn't just slide away the
way hers often did.  Which, perversely, just made her want to poke at him
more. 

Watching him lose his usual
amount of control had been satisfying, when she was angry, and once she'd
stopped being so irritated it had just been kinda hot. 

He muttered something under his
breath before he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and began rolling them up,
exposing the muscles of his forearm.  Who knew a forearm could be so sexy.
 Pretending meekness, Angel just tilted her head and waited for him. 

"You are in a ridiculous
amount of trouble," he said, once he had finished rolling up his sleeves,
the action evidently having calmed him a bit.  Looming over her, he
planted a hand on either side of her thighs, leaning in so close that they were
almost kissing.  "In fact, Miss Jones... I believe you are a
discipline problem."