In the meantime, she’d just have to distract herself.
Chapter 10
The Settlers of Catan was probably the house favorite when it came to board games, unless they were feeling in a more cooperative mood in which case they’d break out Arkham which would allow the guys to harken back to their D&D days a little. Angel enjoyed both because game play wasn’t completely based on luck; a bit part of it was preparation, strategy and flexibility. Plus she loved the Arkham stuff because she’d gotten a little obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft after Sam had introduced the game to the house.
And she loved game nights with her housemates, especially ones that didn’t involve the television, because they got to talk a little bit more while that was going on. When she’d first moved into the house it had been just Q and Mark; Angel had met Kris, their housemate that was moving out, during a show and she’d been looking for a place to live. They’d been a little hesitant about having a girl move in, but Angel had always been more comfortable around guys anyway and it hadn’t been long before her “interview” with them had turned into a three hour long session of Halo. A few months later they’d finally rented out the last room to Sam.
Angel was the one who instituted game night, once a month, because otherwise the guys could get really anti-social without meaning to. Of course, when she’d started the games it had been things like Cranium and Apples to Apples. The guys had started expanding her gaming horizons almost immediately; they’d take turns choosing what game was being played, and with four of them in the house there was almost always at least one person who would need the rules explained the first time they played a game. Last month she’d demolished all three of them with Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit, tonight was now payback because she sucked at Catan. But at least she enjoyed it, unlike Risk – which had been banned from the house after a week-long game that had ended with no one speaking to each other.
“So where have you been?” Q asked as Mark took his turn. “I feel like we haven’t seen you in days.”
“I’m surprised you noticed,” she teased. After all, the three of them could become incredibly wrapped up on their computers, to the point where she’d gone away for a weekend with Leigh once and they hadn’t realized she was gone until Sunday evening when there wasn’t any fresh baking.
“And who’s the guy?” asked Sam. Startled, Angel looked up at him. He shrugged. “You were playing country music all day.”
“Angry-girl-country music,” Marc specified.
She rolled her eyes. “I’ve been out with some new friends.” True. “And there’s no guy.” Not quite true.
“New friends? Girls?” Mark perked up. He’d been single since his last girlfriend moved away and the long distance thing hadn’t quite worked out. That had been a little over half a year ago. Angel was glad to see him taking an interest again.
Unfortunately… “They’re all taken.”
“Then what good are you?”
“Good enough for… this!” Angel grinned as she took her turn.
“Pretty sure that’s not what he was talking about.”
“Don’t care.”
Smiling fondly at her housemates, Angel found her thoughts drifting to Stronghold. She might love game night, but part of her really wished she’d been able to go to the club. Although, if Master Grouchy was there then maybe this was for the best. Her feelings about him still weren’t sorted through and she still wasn’t sure what she wanted from the club. So it was probably better to wait till next week anyway. Game night just enforced that.
Still, she had some trouble concentrating on the game and not thinking about Master Adam at Stronghold. Good thing she was used to losing.
******
Something was up.
Every hair on the back of Adam’s neck was tingling, as if they were doing more than standing up straight, it was like they wanted to spring right off of his skin. The feeling had grown, from the moment he'd walked in and Lexie had given him a little smile that was somehow different from her usual. Then he'd walked into the club to see his friends all gathered around the bar. Granted, Andrew was standing behind it so that might have been why, but considering that he'd come a little later in the evening than usual he would have expected at least some of them to be off scening. Especially the couples.
Instead, every single one of them was standing around chatting. Jared, without Marissa on his arm, even Patrick, which wasn't entirely unusual in and of itself, but combined with everything else...
Yeah something was up.
And he'd bet his favorite guitar that it had something to do with Angel. Pasting a neutral expression on his face he walked over to his friends, who were all casually not looking at him. So casually that they might as well have screamed that one of them had spotted him and told the others he was coming.
He figured it was better to confront whatever this was head on. Scanning his eyes over the group, he ignored the pang of disappointment he felt when he realized that Angel wasn't among them. That had been his first guess, after all.
"Hey Adam, want a drink?" Andrew asked loudly as soon as he was within hearing distance. Which, of course, gave everyone the excuse they needed to eyeball him and say hi. Adam asked for a scotch, neat. Normally he would have just have had a beer but he had the feeling that tonight he was going to want something stronger. Patrick was downright smirking at him. Bastard.
Of course Adam was pretty sure he could wipe that smile off of Patrick's face by bringing Lexie into the club for an evening, but he'd be risking life and limb to do that and not just from Patrick. Besides which, the idea made him far too uncomfortable to consider as anything other than a way to irritate the big Dom.
"So I hear you had a scene with your girl the other night," Liam said, sidling up to him, Hilary tucked under his arm the way she often was.
The conversation around them paused, not even trying to hide that they were all waiting for Adam's reaction.
"Wasn't aware I have a girl."
"Then why-" Liam's hand clapped around Hilary's mouth before she could continue her question. The pretty blonde glared at him over his fingers but didn't try to struggle or push his hand away. Nice. Adam sighed, a little enviously.
"You know we're talking about Mistress Angela," Chris jumped in, leaning against the table he was standing next to. Like Liam he was smart enough to avail himself of a submissive shield; he'd arranged his position so that Jessica was between him and Adam. Hard to smack your friend when an innocent woman was standing in the way. Especially when she was looking up at you with big, brown, curious eyes.
"That's not her name," he snapped back, hating the reminder of her deception. Chris just grinned. Idiot.
Jessica placed a hand on Adam's arm, her features serious as she looked up at him. "We thought Angel was really nice."
"We?" Something inside of his stomach sank. Angel had been here last night and at least some of his friends that had missed out on Thursday's debacle had actually met her. He wasn't sure what made him more jumpy - the fact that she'd been here without him and hooked up with who knows what Dom or the fact that she'd met his friends without him. Again, events had spiraled out of his control and he didn't like it at all. He'd thought she'd take a night off, most submissives wanted a night to assimilate things after their first scene. How very like her to be so much less predictable and so much more frustrating than that.
She nodded. "She was talking with Lexie when we got here, and then Lexie introduced us and Chris recognized her... and then she ended up hanging out with us for a little bit."
"Who's us?"
"Me, Liam, Jessica, Chris and Justin," Hilary jumped in, now that Liam had finally removed his hand from her mouth and whispered a few words in her ear. Probably warning her not to talk about whatever gossip was being said about Adam and Angel around the group.
Which was fine by Adam; he didn't want to know.
"Great." He wasn't going to ask, he wasn't going to ask... "Do you know who she sce
ned with?"
"No one," Olivia said, making him jump a bit. That just went to show how distracted he was; he hadn't even noticed her coming up beside him, he'd been so focused on questioning Hilary and Jessica. Their boyfriends were all amusing themselves by playing the part of an audience, knowing that he'd be much nicer talking to their submissives than he would be to them. "Justin kept an eye on her until I got here and then she and I chatted for a bit before I showed her out of the club."
A knot of tension inside his stomach relaxed; he hadn't even known it was there until the damn thing unraveled. Adam gritted his teeth. Part of him wanted to take out some of his ire on Olivia, but he really couldn't. Not only had she stopped him from being a complete ass on Thursday, but he had to inwardly acknowledge that he was grateful she'd kept Angel from scening with someone other than him. Even though that gratitude just made him feel even more temperamental since he was getting all possessive over a woman that he barely knew and that had lied to him from the moment she met him.
"What did you two talk about?" asked Hilary, with every evidence of surprise. Adam mentally blessed her impetuous nature, since he desperately wanted to know but just as desperately didn't want to have to ask.
Olivia just shrugged and looked away. "Oh, this and that."
Jessica and Hilary looked as disappointed as Adam felt, obviously realizing that their friend wasn't going to expound any further. Both Chris and Andrew looked like they were about to bust up laughing, even Patrick was smiling. Only Justin and Jared were managing to keep reasonably smooth faces, although in Jared's case that might have also been because he was apparently rather distracted. Every couple of minutes his eyes would slip back to the door of the club. Marissa was probably supposed to be meeting him here; Adam could only be grateful that the disruptive sub hadn't shown up yet, even if it was causing his friend some angst.
"I'm sorry I missed it," said Rick, giving Adam and sidelong look. "She was a gorgeous Domme, I bet she looked even better as a submissive.
Even knowing that Rick was trying to get a rise out of him, Adam couldn't help but growl a little bit under his breath. He took a sip of scotch to hide his bristling.
"I liked her," Hilary announced.
"Me too," Jessica said. Both of them looked expectantly at Adam. He just met their gazes blandly. Jessica scowled at him and turned to Rick. "She's going to be back next weekend. You're looking for a sub, right? Maybe you should try a scene with her."
"No." Adam bit out the word, an automatic reaction that had him cursing internally the moment that he said it, leaving Jessica looking smug and some of his friends looking at him with speculation in their eyes. Apparently while they'd all been on board for teasing them, not all of them had realized just how interested he was in Angel.
Heck, he hadn't realized how interested he was in Angel until this very moment when he thought about her being with one of his friends. Doing a scene with another Dom in the club would be bad enough, but if she did a scene with Rick and Rick decided he wanted her, then Adam would feel honor bound to keep his hands off. The idea made him feeling even more out of control, verging on panicky.
Damn Jessica anyway. He glared at Justin, already knowing that Chris was going to be of no help when it came to keeping their girlfriend in line, not on this subject. Her other boyfriend was barely holding in his laughter, exchanging knowing glances with Andrew.
"Come here, sweetheart, time to stop teasing Master Adam," Justin murmured, reaching out and yanking his girlfriend against his body. Twisting her head around, she looked up at him and then sighed, slumping against him. The honorific had been included specifically to remind her of where she was; in the club she could - and would - be punished for bratty behavior. Justin gave him a long look, just the hint of a smile on his face. "I think we're going to go find a place to play."
And suddenly the group started to break up. Jared headed out to the lobby, probably to call Marissa and find out where she was, Patrick headed back to his office, and those in relationships disappeared downstairs. That left Olivia, Rick and Adam to keep Andrew company at the bar. Not that he was able to focus his full attention on them, it was late enough in the night that more people were ordering drinks now, having already finished their scenes.
"So you're definitely interested in Angel?" Rick asked, drumming his fingers on the table. The muscular blonde's face had gone serious. "Because if you're not... I really wouldn't mind scening with her. But not if I’m stepping on your toes."
"I don't know... doesn't it bother you that she lied about being a Domme?" The fact that everyone else seemed to accept her immediately was making him feel like he was being unreasonable.
Rick shrugged. "Not really. I mean, it did at first, but we were talking about it a bit before you got here. Chris thinks of it as a huge practical joke, but Jessica and Hilary both pointed out that we don't exactly understand how scary it was for them. Putting yourself out there as a submissive, especially when you don't have anyone around to show you the ropes - so to speak - or answer questions and soothe doubts... we were all pretty lucky. We're all naturally take-charge kind of people and we all knew each other. But Jessica went to the school, rather than the club, to explore, where she knew other people would be there expressly for the purpose of trying new things, and she wouldn't have even done that Olivia hadn't pushed her. And Hilary would have never gone anywhere near BDSM without Jessica."
"She naturally defers to others," Olivia put in. "Even though she obviously thought she was being a burden to Justin before I showed up, and on me once he passed her off, she couldn't bring herself to remove that 'burden' once we told her no. I think she's the type that if you give her an inch, she'll take a mile, but the whole way she'll be wishing that you'd pull on the reins."
"I liked her at Chained," Rick said. "I can see that she probably had her reasons for wanting to explore the scene and see what a club was like before going into one and entrusting someone else. Especially since she had no one to watch her back or to introduce her. But you seem more possessive of her than you seem angry about the fact that she misled us, so if you want her..."
"I-" Adam cleared his throat. He could feel his friends' eyes on him like heavy weights. "I thought you didn't want to do a long distance thing." Why was it still so hard to say that he was interested in her? Maybe because, in some ways, he didn't want to be. He didn't like the way she upset his equilibrium, but the chemistry between them had been so strong that he didn't like to give that up without exploring it either.
"I've started submitting my application to some of the school systems up here," Rick said easily. "If things go the way I want them to I'll be moving over the summer."
Great. He glanced at Olivia, who, for once, was sitting rather quietly. The way she was looking at him was as if she was encouraging him to go ahead and speak up. He nearly groaned.
"Yeah," he finally muttered. "I'm interested in getting to know her better. I don't know if it's going to go anywhere though."
Rick nodded and Olivia just smiled. A knowing, smug kind of smile. "Good," she said. "So that's settled. I'm going to find someone to go play with. Rick?"
He watched his friends walk off. Sure, he could go find an available submissive. Do a scene. Keep his hands off but still get some kind of satisfaction out of the evening by giving a submissive some satisfaction.
Instead he said goodnight to Andrew and headed out, passing Jared and Marissa on his way as they came into the club. The big, genial Dom had a frown on his face and his sub was somehow managing to pout and look gleeful at the same time. Great. Trouble was brewing again in that area, but there was nothing he could do about that for the moment.
He needed to go home and think about his own trouble.
******
By the time Wednesday rolled around, Adam was more than a little amped up. Fortunately Wednesday was his usual day for going into Liam’s studio for more than classes. He tried to make it to class at least a couple of times a week, although he ra
n through his forms every evening at home as well, but Wednesdays were special. Wednesdays were for individual attention and, quite often, sparring.
Any of their friends were invited to join in, but Adam was the only one who made it nearly every week. Justin and Patrick came some of the time, and the rest of their friends attended rarely.
Adam liked the mental and physical discipline that was involved. He liked the flow of his body and the way it felt when he was completely in tune with himself. Which was necessary when you were in a physical altercation with people that you cared about, as was the case when he sparred with his friends. Sometimes he wondered if he wasn’t secretly just a little bit masochistic, but he thought it was likely that it had more to do with the adrenaline rush.
There just wasn’t a substitute for a good, physical fight with an evenly matched opponent. A bit primitive, but he always felt better after Wednesday night.
Heck, he felt like he’d been waiting for this Wednesday ever since last Thursday.
Liam knew it too.
The redheaded Dom took one look at him when he walked in and pointed at the mat. “Stretch and then we’ll get to it.”
By which Adam knew he meant spar, not the regular forms and exercises that they normally did before sparring. As he began to loosen his muscles, he felt his tension uncoiling, like wire coming undone from around a spring, just from the anticipation of a good fight. Liam was already loosened up from teaching classes, so he just went through some of his forms while Adam stretched.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
Which got him a look, because he hadn’t really warmed himself up, just loosened his muscles, but Liam didn’t argue. Obviously he had some idea of how much inner turmoil Adam had to work off this evening.
“Weapons or hand?”
“Hand.” Weapons required more concentration but right now he wanted the feel of actual physical contact, the meaty satisfaction that came when a hit landed and the flash of pain when he received one in turn.
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