It had been an amazing day. Not only had they had a great opening night, but she'd received an email back from Stronghold saying that her application for membership had been accepted. Unfortunately they wanted her to come in on a Thursday for a look around the club and an "Introduction Scene" where she'd meet one of the Doms and test out whether or not BDSM was really for her, and she had a pick-up rehearsal next Thursday before the weekend's shows so she had to wait a week and a half before she could go... but just knowing that it was coming up made her incredibly excited. A week and a half really wasn't so long to wait, especially since she knew she'd be able to keep herself busy between now and then.
Too bad she didn't have any rehearsals other than on Thursday next week, but she could always find other things to do. And hopefully going to Stronghold would help erase the piercing blue eyes that were popping up so often and so inconveniently in her head. She needed someone new to focus her fantasies on.
******
"You're not even trying," Olivia complained. "You've barely talked to a single sub all night!"
Adam gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore her. At least she was complaining quietly where none of their other friends could hear her. So what if he hadn't played with any of the subs? He'd chatted with several of them and had known pretty quickly that he wasn't in the mood to do anything with any of them.
Ever since Olivia had promised to go see Mistress Angela's show with him next week he hadn't been able to get that woman out of his mind. Not that he'd been very successful at it beforehand.
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.
"Well I'm so flattered!" she said. "I had no idea you missed me so much."
"Pest. Anyway, I'm calling cuz Kirk has someone who's willing to take over my lease here, but he wants to do it in two weeks, not a month, so I need to get out of here and my place in D.C. isn't available yet because I didn't realize that I wouldn't have a month..."
"So you need a place to stay." Angel grinned. "Are you sure you want to invade the nerd castle? You remember what happened the last time."
The last time Mike had visited he'd spent the weekend sleeping on Angel's couch and had gotten absolutely no rest because he'd somehow gotten involved in one of her housemates' marathon Halo games. They'd connected two televisions and two X-boxes and eight of them had battled it out the entire weekend. Mike had left more exhausted than he'd arrived and hadn't left her house the entire time.
"Well Amy and I broke up last week when I told her I want to move back to D.C. so unless something's changed with you since we last talked, I won't have to sleep on the couch anyway."
"Nope, still single, although I'm going to Stronghold next week for my Introduction Scene, so no promises," she said teasingly.
She couldn't count the number of times she and Mike had slept together, completely platonically. It had all started when she'd been with her last boyfriend and Mike had been single and she'd ended up passing out on his bed after a cast party at the house he'd been living in at the time. Of course by the time she was single again he was dating her (now ex) friend Monica and after they broke up and Angel stopped being friends with Monica, she so wasn't going there. But they'd shared a bed numerous times and she liked it because she was a cuddly person and Mike, funny enough, liked being the little spoon. Despite the fact that he was a Dom and a sadist.
"You're going to Stronghold?"
"Yeah, they accepted my application! I could have gone this week if it wasn't for the show."
Mike chuckled. "Well I'm looking forward to hearing about it. When I get in town we'll have to go together."
"Sounds good."
"Alright darling, I have to go. I'll call you later and we'll hash out the details." Like many things Mike said, it came out as an order rat
her that a question. Angel didn't mind, she'd always been easy going and honestly, that part of Mike's personality had been what attracted her to him. It was part of what told her she was submissive. Of course, that didn't mean that she didn't poke at him, because that was part of her personality.
"Okay, pretty boy."
"Pest." The insult was said affectionately.
Angel sighed as she hung up the phone. She really hoped that she did meet someone at Stronghold that she could connect to the way she did with Mike. At least, the way she had when she first met him before he'd dated and slept with one of her best friends.
Chapter 6
Adam had invaded Justin's office and was sitting and eating lunch with him when his phone rang. Pulling it from the case that kept it permanently attached to his hip, he checked the caller ID and flipped it open.
"No."
"Come on, you don't even know what I'm going to ask!"
"Yes I do and the answer is no."
From across the desk, Justin's dark eyes were laughing as he watched Adam talk.
"I need the night off, my sister's ride to the airport fell through."
"Tell her to take a cab."
Andrew sighed. "You know she never asks me for anything. I don't want to tell her no, and Olivia can't because she's gonna be at some conference. Please, Adam."
He groaned, knowing that he was already going to say yes. Andrew's complicated relationship with his family was something all of them were well aware of, especially his younger sister Iris who had been giving him a hard time for years now. As if Andrew's break-up with his ex hadn't been bad enough, Iris had definitely taken sides and it hadn't been her brother’s. If she'd actually asked Andrew for a favor then Adam couldn't be the bad guy and stand in his way.
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