Breaking the Chain

by Golden Angel

  Since Mike and Andrew were both sadists and Ellie and Kate were both masochists, it made sense... just the pairs were wrong.

  Smiling up at Mike, Kate's expression was flirtatious, but not really interested. Leigh wondered if Kate and Andrew even realized how much they lit up when the other was around.

  "I wouldn't mind a scene," Kate purred. "Got a room?"

  Stepping back, Mike offered Kate his hand. "Why yes, yes I do."

  As the two of them walked away, Leigh couldn't help but think that they really would make a beautiful couple. Mike was a stage actor, although lately she knew he'd been thinking about doing something else because the life of an actor could be extremely wearing, and he was always getting lead roles because he was both talented and gorgeous. With the sun-streaked, brown hair that brushed his sculpted cheekbones, strong jawline, and lean, muscled body, he was more than a match for Kate's Barbie-doll, movie-star-quality gorgeousness.

  "They would have the most beautiful babies," Sharon said, a bit dreamily and everyone laughed.

  "Think that's going to cause any drama?" asked Angel pensively. Some of their group, mostly Hilary, had had some trouble accepting Kate's presence. Even though it had been made clear that the assumptions everyone had made about Andrew and Kate's breakup were wrong, there were still some undercurrents of tension and Hilary, in particular, was very protective of Andrew.

  "If it does, someone needs to smack Andrew upside the back of his head," Leigh said. "That would be incredibly hypocritical."

  "Uh, I don't volunteer as tribute," said Sharon, shaking her head. "He's scary!"

  The laughter was welcome, helping Leigh forget about the man standing outside the door to the lobby and the itch on the back of her neck which felt like it was coming from the Lounge area. She was sure she was imagining things, since the couple times she glanced over, Marissa was deep in conversation with her friends, but it wouldn't go away. Maybe the itch was just guilt. Or anxiety. Or jealousy.

  Ugh.

  Ignoring the little pit gathering in her stomach, Leigh put her biggest smile on her face as Jessica, Justin, and Chris joined them at the table. She loved her friends and her friends were enough for her. Who needed men anyway?

  ******

  When Marissa found her, she was alone. Of course. Somehow, she'd chosen a moment to go to the bathroom when everyone was involved in a scene or watching a scene or on the dance floor... whatever the reasons, the women's locker room was completely deserted except for the two of them.

  "Hi," said Marissa, her tone confrontational and unfriendly.

  She was standing between Leigh and the door to the outside, arms crossed over her chest, legs wide in a balanced stance despite the very high heels she was wearing. Narrow-featured already, her narrowed eyes just made her look sharp and pointy all over. The black leather top and skirt she was wearing showed off what curves she had up top, and made her hips and ass look fantastic, but it also made her look even skinnier than she actually was overall. The effect might have been intimidating, but Leigh was pretty sure that, in a physical confrontation, she could break Marissa in half. Kind of hard to be intimidated by someone you knew you could take in a fight.

  Not that she thought it would go there at all, but it kept her from feeling even the slightest hint of intimidation. Her stomach roiled a little nervously, just because she had no idea what Marissa might want with her, and this was just not a fun spot to be in, but if Marissa thought Leigh was a pushover, she was going to be in for one hell of a surprise.

  "Hi," she said noncommittally. Keeping her arms free and hanging at her sides, she found her own balance. Okay, so her outfit wasn't all black leather like Marissa's, and she probably didn't look very scary, but she could at least show that she wasn't threatened by the other woman.

  "Stay away from Jared."

  "Excuse me?" Leigh blinked. She hadn't expected Marissa to just come out and say it. Plus it pissed her off that Marissa thought that she could just interfere in Jared's life that way, and that she thought Leigh would listen to her. She had no idea how much Marissa knew about her and Jared but, whatever she'd heard, it was definitely none of her business.

  Obviously she'd been expecting some kind of confrontation once she'd seen Marissa standing there waiting for her, but to just come out and tell her to stay away? Thinking that she looked intimidating enough for that?

  "I don't know what he's told you, but he and I have been together for years, and he always comes back to me," Marissa said coldly. "We had a bit of a fight, but we'll work it out. We always do. If you hang around, you're just going to make things harder on us, and you'll still going to end up getting hurt. You should save everyone a lot of pain and just stay away from him."

  Leigh hadn't expected the sudden surge of sympathy for Marissa, but it happened anyway, and it was strong.

  This could have been me.

  Hell, if things had been just a little different between her and Michael, this might have been her. If she hadn't had her friends, if she hadn't met Jared, if she hadn't been a stronger person... if she'd come across some woman whom Michael seemed to be interested in, but she'd still been holding on to her beliefs that she and Michael were meant to be together, that they would work it out in the end... yeah, Leigh had spent enough time fighting for her and Michael's relationship that she could recognize that same determination in Marissa. It didn't matter that Marissa hadn't fought for the relationship in the past; obviously she'd woken up to the fact that she could no longer take Jared for granted, and she was willing to fight now.

  But she didn't get that it wasn't a competition between her and Leigh.

  "It doesn't matter what I want," she said, tilting her head, her voice softer and more gentle than before. Marissa's narrowed eyes went wide at Leigh's unexpected reaction. "I'm not going to try to come between you, but it honestly doesn't matter what you want or what I want, it matters what Jared wants. I like him a lot, I'm not going to stay away from him, but I'm not going to try to take him from you either. I have no interest in fighting for yet another man who doesn't want me. But if he doesn't want you, there's nothing I can do about that, and you're just going to have to accept that eventually."

  Marissa's jaw dropped, her strong stance faltering, and Leigh took advantage of that to push past her and get the hell out of there. She had no desire to continue that conversation, or to engage with Marissa at all. Despite the way that her night had begun, she'd started to relax and enjoy herself hanging out with her friends. Sharon had decided she wasn't in the mood to scene tonight, so the two of them had been keeping each other company while everyone else rotated being at the bar and scening. Once Maria and Rick had shown up a few minutes after Olivia, Angel and Adam had gone to scene and hadn't come back yet.

  At the moment, everyone was waiting for Andrew and Ellie's scene in the Dungeon to finish because they wanted to see what would happen when the pair found out that Michael and Kate had gone to one of the rooms upstairs. Leigh couldn't even judge them for their nosiness because she wanted to know too. And not just because their drama was a distraction from whatever possible drama was kind of going down between her, Jared and Marissa tonight. Which was probably why no one had wanted to go to the bathroom with Leigh. Maybe it was a cliché that girls went together, but it was also true, and Leigh rarely went to the bathroom at Stronghold alone. Tonight though, no one had wanted to risk stepping out and missing anything.

  It was probably better none of them had come to the bathroom with her anyway. Honestly, Leigh was probably the only one who felt sorry for Marissa; if one of the others had been in the room with her, it probably would have gotten really ugly, really quickly. She probably shouldn’t mention it to anyone either.

  As soon as Leigh stepped back in to the main room, she could see that the only thing she'd missed was Jared getting off of work and joining the group at the bar.

  The little knot in her stomach, which hadn't entirely disappeared after Marissa's confrontation, seemed to grow
a little larger. Ugh. Couldn't she catch a break?

  At least the expression on his face wasn't so blank, he was looking at her with concern... and then, as she moved towards the group, his face hardened again, his focus behind her, and she knew he was seeing Marissa following her out of the bathroom. She couldn't tell what he thought of that - and shock engulfed her as he strode purposefully forward, his eyes back on her and determined. It was an expression she recognized - the same look he got in his eyes last night when he'd tried to convince her that she was too tired to drive home and then when he'd insisted on walking her out to her car. A protective look. Which meant she was definitely going to have to tell him what had happened, so he didn’t make it into a bigger deal than it was in his head.

  She tilted her head back at him as he came up beside her, wrapping his arms protectively around her shoulders. She was pretty sure it was protective at least. He didn't even shoot a backwards glance at Marissa.

  "Can we talk?" he asked, his voice tight and strained, as he halted, making her come to a stop as well.

  "Can we talk later?" Leigh asked, glancing over at the table of their friends, who were too far away to hear what was being said, but were unabashedly staring at her and Jared, or behind them at Marissa.

  "We can talk in private upstairs," he said, following her gaze.

  She blew out a breath. "Yeah, okay then."

  Chapter 7

  The tight band around Jared's chest was making it hard for him to breathe. He didn't know if he was furious or terrified or what... anxiety was crawling up and down his skin and he felt like punching a hole through the wall. Seeing Marissa following Leigh out of the women's room... god, he'd wanted to go over and demand to know what Marissa had said. He'd wanted to go back to his friends and yell at them for letting Leigh go to the bathroom unaccompanied while Marissa was in the club. Not that any of them could have known she’d follow Leigh in there… and he doubted she’d done anything that could get her kicked out of the club after Patrick’s warning, but still. His protective instincts were completely riled.

  Since neither yelling at Marissa or his friends would be helpful, and would probably just cause more drama, he'd done the only thing he could do - get Leigh out of there so he could find out what had just happened. Find out if he needed to do anything.

  Sweeping Leigh out of the main room and up the stairs to the Arabian Nights room helped. He'd reserved the room just in case she wanted to experiment more with spanking tonight, although he'd also known there was a chance they might not use it. Now he was relieved that he'd done so - if he hadn't, there was no way they'd have been able to talk with any privacy.

  Once they were in the room, with the door closed behind them, he blinked and really looked at her. She didn't look distressed, just confused, defensive, and a little shuttered, as though she was trying to keep her face blank of emotion. Fortunately she wasn't as good of an actress as Angel, so she was pretty easy to read.

  "You look gorgeous," he blurted out as he took in the whole sight of her, something that he hadn't been able to properly do yet. The dress she was wearing laced up the back and pulled in her waist, but not much because she didn't have a whole lot to pull in. Her breasts were pushed up, almost as if they were being offered up like little delicacies for a man to appreciate and savor. She looked sweetly feminine, the green of the dress bringing out the green in her eyes, and the long hair hanging down her back... geezus, he just wanted to wrap the long strands around his fingers and drag her to him and -

  Fuck. Enough of that.

  Especially since she crossed her arms over her chest, becoming even more defensive, rather than appreciative of the compliment.

  "Nice of you to notice," she said snippily.

  Yeah, she wasn't happy with him ignoring her earlier. Jared sighed and walked over to the round bed that was set up in the room. The luxuriant surroundings seemed to mock him as he sat down, facing her. He'd deliberately chosen the bed rather than the kingly throne at the center back of the room because he knew he needed to grovel a little bit. Although she turned to face him, Leigh kept her arms crossed over her chest and her face as blank as she could make it, but he hated seeing that little hint of hurt in her expression. He really hadn't meant to do that.

  "I'm sorry I ignored you earlier," he said, folding his hands together and letting them hang between his legs. He knew that this scene would probably look a little silly from the outside; all the deep reds and golds of the room and the soft bed, while he sat penitent on its rounded edge and Leigh stood imperiously watching him.

  "Why did you?" she asked, a little bit more of her hurt creeping into her voice. "That's what I don't understand. It's not like I was going to jump on you or kiss you or anything in front of your ex, and I didn't expect anything like that from you, but I also didn't expect you to just completely blow me off."

  Fuck his chest ached. Jared reached out his hands, hoping that she would come to him. "Aw, sweetheart, come here. It wasn't like that."

  To his relief, she came willingly, letting him pull her onto his lap and cradle her in very much the same way as he had last night after her spanking. But she was a little stiff in his arms and she didn't lean into him. But at least she'd come; she was willing to meet him halfway. Even if she was mad, she was still willing to listen and didn't immediately shut him out or try to play games or make him suffer. She was just honest, real, and willing to listen. After Marissa’s constant manipulations, he almost couldn’t believe someone like Leigh was actually real, but she just kept proving over and over again that she wasn’t trying to play him or anything – she just laid out what she was feeling and let him decide how he wanted to deal with it.

  "Alright," she said, once she was perched on his lap, one hand on his hand resting on her thigh. "So what was it like?"

  "Right..." Jared paused, trying to gather his thoughts; even more appreciative that Leigh didn't pressure him. She just let him get himself together and waited. "So, obviously you saw Marissa was there. She was... kind of making a scene. Even though I was really clear that she and I are over, she's... having trouble accepting it I guess. Now that I'm the one to dump her." The bitterness in his tone made him wince, but he couldn't help it. He still felt pretty bitter and resentful that she was choosing now to put any effort into their relationship, yet she'd always felt totally comfortable dumping him whenever she felt like it.

  "Does she have any reason to think that you might take her back?" Leigh wasn't accusatory. If anything, her voice was soft, almost comforting, and Jared soaked up her lack of judgment and her gentle understanding like it was a balm. He was so used to having to defend himself, to feeling attacked about his relationship with Marissa (even though his friends had the best intentions), that he appreciated Leigh's response more than he could ever express.

  "No." He sighed. "I mean, other than the fact that I always have before, no. And honestly, I've been up front with her about this, but I also don't want to hurt her more than I have to, so I haven't been as mean as I could be either."

  "Hey, hey," Leigh said, cupping his face in her hands and bringing his eyes to hers. The warmth and understanding in them nearly undid him. Leigh actually, truly, understood what he was going through, and that wasn't why he liked her, but it was what made him hope that this could actually work out. Because she didn’t expect him to be cruel to Marissa, she understood why he wanted to be compassionate, and she understood exactly where he was coming from when no one else did. "I get that. You don't want to be an asshole or make things worse than they have to be. Although..." She hesitated, but only for a moment. "Speaking from a personal preference, having things dragged out just makes it more painful."

  "Painful for me too," he said grumpily. "Anyway. I didn't want to rub it in her face, but I also didn't want her focusing on you."

  To his surprise, Leigh scowled at him. "I could take her."

  "I have no doubt," he said, smothering a chuckle. He really didn't doubt her, but just seeing her brist
le with indignation over it was amusing. "But she can be a pain in the ass, she has no problem with being at the center of drama, and I just... I guess, I just wanted to protect you from her."

  Now Leigh looked amused. "That's really sweet, but you realize that's totally unrealistic, right? She already figured out that there's something going on between us. And honestly, I don't care if she makes a scene. I'm not going to be embarrassed by it, unless you leave me hanging and get back together with her because of it. Although, I'd mostly just be embarrassed for you in that situation."

  "Not a chance of that happening," he said, shaking his head. "I'm done. She'll figure it out sooner or later. I just hope I don't have to be a complete asshole to make that clear to her."

  "You don't have to be an asshole unless you want to be," Leigh said, patting his cheek. "Although, even if you were an asshole, it would be a 'cruel to be kind' situation, which would actually make you less of an asshole than if you didn't act like an asshole."

  He blinked. "That kind of circular logic is painful."

  "It's high school," Leigh informed him cheerfully. "You wouldn't believe the shit that goes down between my students. If Marissa wants to act like them, that's her deal. You and I can choose to act differently."

  For a long moment, Jared just looked at her, seeing the earnest honesty in her expression and thanking whatever divine intervention brought her into his life right when he most needed her.

  "Thank you."

  "For what?"

  "For not... pushing. Being jealous. Ranting. Making me feel like an asshole. Any and all of the above."

  "You're welcome," she said cheerfully. "You can make it up to me in the future by never ignoring me again. I don't like being ignored. I'd rather be yelled at than ignored."