by Golden Angel
"Maria, these are my housemates, Sam, Q and Mark," Angel said cheerfully, pointing to each of them in turn. Ah, that explained it. Maria had heard about the three of them, from both Rick and Angel, and she knew that Adam was still frustrated about the fact that technically, Angel didn't actually live with him. Going by what Maria had seen around the house, Angel had basically moved in, but the fact that she still had a room with her old housemates was a bit of a bone of contention between the couple.
"Are Leigh and Mike coming?" she asked. She'd only seen Leigh one more time since meeting her, and last week Angel had come in with a tall, dark and handsome friend named Mike. If she wasn't already involved with Rick, Maria might have been drooling over him. Then again, that was true of all of Rick’s friends, but he was the only one that she really had a spark with. Still, they were all fantastic eye candy individually, and en masse the whole picture was pulse-pounding.
"Nah, Leigh's got date night with her boyfriend and Mike's in a show right now. I'm gonna head back upstairs to check on my man. Anyone need anything?"
There was a chorus of no's, so Angel just waved her hand and headed back upstairs. Maria and Rick made their way over to the couch to squeeze in between Olivia and Jared. The Domme was talking with Angel's housemates, making Maria bite her lip in amusement when she remembered Olivia referring to them as Angel's harem. And talking about making them her own. As if she could read Maria's thoughts, Olivia gave her an amused look before turning back to the conversation.
"So how was meeting the family?" Andrew asked, leaning forward so that he could see Rick and Maria, despite Jared's hulking form between them.
"I thought it went pretty well," Maria said with a laugh. "He made it out alive." Andrew and Jared both chuckled; Andrew slapped Rick a high five.
It didn't take too long until everyone was gathered down in the basement room. As soon as Hilary was done playing, Maria did the girl thing and demanded to see the ring. The center diamond was gorgeous, a one carat princess cut with two smaller emerald cut diamonds on each side, set in an intricate, delicate gold band.
"Wow," Maria said, impressed. The ring looked exactly like the kind of thing Hilary should be wearing. "He did a good job."
"I cheated," Liam said, his eyes dancing as he kissed Hilary's temple. "Jessica helped me pick it out."
"Don't listen to him." Hilary patted his chest with her free hand. Her soft brown eyes glowed with happiness as she looked up at her fiancé. The tenderness in his eyes as he gazed back at her was heart-warming. "He picked it out, Jessica just approved it."
The two of them were so obviously happy together that it made Maria's heart ache. She wondered if Rick would ever look at her like that. Sometimes she felt like she got a little hint of it from him. Yeah, they'd only known each other for about a month and a half, but at her age she wasn't going to be dating someone unless she could see a future with them and she knew he felt the same way. Even if they hadn't really talked explicitly about it, since they hadn't been together that long, they'd both expressed that much.
Angel put on some dance music and all the girls except Olivia ended up on that side of the basement, dancing in between their turns playing Mario Kart. The final battle came down to Mark, Q, Angel and Patrick. The girls stopped dancing to watch, Jessica insisted, and Maria soon found out why.
Her sides ached from laughing so hard; Angel was the meanest, loudest video game player she'd ever seen. The smack talk was epic. Adam sat behind her on the couch, occasionally putting his hand over her mouth whenever he thought she was becoming too offensive. Which, once or twice when Angel was particularly frustrated, led to him getting bitten.
"You're gonna pay for that," he growled, but he didn't interrupt her game to punish her. It was kind of sweet in a threatening, scary way.
"Dammit, I thought Asians were supposed to be terrible drivers!" Patrick cursed as Angel shoved his Luigi right into some hot lava, overtaking him. "Princess Daisy is supposed to fucking suck."
"Suck it up, buttercup. I'm only half-Asian and the white half's driving!" Angel said, laughing as she zoomed around another corner, using a mushroom to get her closer to Q, who was driving Mario. “Take that you mangy bastard!”
"She refuses to play anything but the girl characters, so she's had a lot of practice," Sam said, rolling his eyes at Angel's idiosyncrasies. Maria had the feeling that Sam used whatever character he thought was the best, regardless of gender.
"You fucker, come back here!" Angel roared as Q managed to sideswipe her, knocking her slightly off course and keeping his lead. The small smug smile on Q's face said it all.
"Your friends are crazy," Maria whispered in Rick's ear. It was so crowded on the couch that he'd gotten her to sit on his lap. He squeezed his arms a bit tighter.
"They're your friends now too," he whispered back, amused. Maria giggled.
Q ended up winning the tournament, much to the disappointment of all the females in the room, who - of course - had been cheering for Angel. Afterwards, everyone trooped upstairs to gather round the kitchen counter while Adam and Angel poured glasses of champagne.
Adam held his up and turned to face Liam and Hilary who were standing at the end of the island, their arms around each other, faces glowing. "To Hilary and Liam. Who, despite Liam's original intentions," everyone laughed, "managed to find the person they want to spend the rest of their life with. Congratulations."
Everyone cheered and raised their glasses as Hilary and Liam kissed. Looking around, Maria saw Adam giving Angel a kiss, his arm wrapped securely around her waist, Jessica wedged between Justin and Chris with a giant smile on her face, and then she felt Rick's arm slide around her. It was a moment for celebrating love and hope for the future. Smiling at him, she pressed back when he leaned down to kiss her, tasting like champagne and chocolate. A little hope kindled in her heart that one day, all the people gathered here might be toasting them like this.
******
Somehow, as the evening wound down, it was the people in relationships who were left at Adam's. Since there were less of them, they'd ended up in Adam's entertainment room on the main floor, which had a slightly smaller television than the one downstairs, a large couch and several armchairs all situated for talking. Well, people in relationships plus Lexie and Patrick. Rick grinned to himself. He wondered if they'd noticed that. Maybe. Lexie was sitting between Patrick's legs, both of them with their attention apparently completely focused on the conversation they were having with Jessica, Justin and Chris.
He'd pulled Maria onto the armchair he was sitting in, which had a large enough seat that she was only half on his lap; her butt was on the chair but he had her legs across his and she was all snugged up under his arm. Just where he liked her.
Liam and Hilary were sitting in another armchair, lost in their own little world, murmuring things that no one else could hear and exchanging kisses. It was fucking adorable is what it was, but for once Rick wasn't overcome with envy. Because he had his own gorgeous woman on his lap and he felt like their relationship was actually going somewhere. He felt a kind of hopefulness that he was looking at his and Maria’s future.
Adam and Angel came back into the room, Angel looking both a bit aroused and uncomfortable. Rick coughed, hiding his laugh. They'd disappeared for about twenty minutes and he had no doubt that Adam had come through with some kind of retribution for when she'd bitten his hand during the Mario Kart tournament. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes a little glassy, and she didn't have the sexy rolling gait to her walk that she normally did.
When she sat down gingerly on the couch, Maria stiffened and Rick looked at his girlfriend only to realize that she was watching Angel with a worried expression on her face.
"Are you okay?" Maria asked, looking Angel over with concern.
"She's fine," Adam answered immediately, settling himself down next to Angel. His face was bland, but his voice was filled with smug satisfaction. "Probably a little uncomfortable, but fine." He leered at
Angel who scowled back at him, shifting slightly. Maria relaxed, seeing the interplay between them.
She'd taken so easily to Rick's brand of kink that he sometimes forgot she wasn't used to the scene and the many different ways it could be implemented between couples.
Shifting her slightly on his lap so that her ear was near his lips, he whispered directly into her ear. "Remember when he told her she'd pay for biting him earlier? Angel probably just got spanked. Or she's got a plug up her ass. Which is why she's sitting so carefully... but look closely at her. Whatever just happened, she enjoyed it. Adam doesn't really care that she bites, it gives him an excuse for to punish her, except that it's more like funishment."
Maria turned her head to whisper back in his ear. "A plug?!"
She sounded slightly shocked... and also interested? Rick's cock twitched.
"Would you like that sweetheart?" His fingers caressed her inner thigh, making her squirm slightly and his cock came to attention, thickening against the softness of her body in his lap. "Maybe next time you're a mouthy little brat, I'll put a plug up your ass."
"I didn't check off anal as one of my interests on the survey."
"You didn't put it as a hard limit either." Going by the way she was getting even squirmier, her breathing coming faster, she was more interested in it than she thought. At least in the play part. Rick was open to whatever she wanted; he wasn't a complete ass-man like Adam, although he did like the idea of breaching what he was pretty sure was Maria's virgin hole.
Someone saying his name caught his attention, which was probably a good thing, because he needed a distraction from the sweet armful of woman in his lap before he ended up with a painful erection that would have to wait. He looked up at Lexie, who was grinning at him from between Patrick's knees.
"I said you haven't been to the club in a while, are you guys coming back soon?"
To his surprise, Maria didn't stiffen on his lap this time. Instead, when he looked at her, she seemed rather thoughtful and he felt a small spurt of excitement. As much as he loved having Maria to himself at home, he did miss the club. They had equipment that he didn't, plus the theme rooms provided a more exotic atmosphere than he could ever have at home. Plus, he kind of wanted to show off his gorgeous girlfriend, since everyone there knew he'd been looking. Quite a few of them had been there the last two times that Maria had; it'd be nice for them all to see that things had worked out.
"We've just been giving it some time," he said casually, just in case Maria still wasn't comfortable going back.
"I think I'd like to go sometime when everyone else is going to be there," Maria said, only a little bit hesitant. Rick suddenly felt like jumping into the air, pumping his fist with excitement. Which, if he'd been alone, he might have actually done. Instead he just sat there quietly, with a stupid grin on his face that he couldn't get rid of.
She's ready!
It wasn't just about being in the club, it was a testament of her trust in him. Even if they didn't play there, she trusted that nothing was going to go wrong this time and that meant a lot to him.
"Most of us are usually there on Saturdays," Angel said. She gave Adam a fond look. "If it wasn't for the party tonight, that's where we all would have been."
"Come next Saturday!" Lexie suggested, a big smile spreading across her face. "I'm sure Patrick won't mind someone covering my shift, if it will make you more comfortable to have people you know around."
"Oh it does, I would appreciate that," Maria said, completely sincerely, obviously not realizing the way Lexie had just manipulated the situation. Patrick's face looked like a thundercloud. Lexie hadn't been on the main floor since the glitter incident and Rick was pretty sure that the big Dom had been planning on milking her punishment for that for as long as possible. He was glaring at the back of Lexie's head, his eyes narrowed and his jaw tense, but he didn't say anything. Like any Dom, his larger concern was going to be a new submissive’s comfort level; but Rick knew that Patrick would probably be breathing down Lexie’s next the entire evening.
"Great!" said Lexie, ignoring the rise of tension in the room. Rick was pretty sure Maria noticed it, but she also chose to ignore it, possibly not realizing what the issue was. Even if she did know, all of the women sided with Lexie when it came to her desire for entrance into Stronghold, so it didn't surprise him that Maria would too.
"We're free next Saturday, so we'll be there," Hilary said, Jessica chiming in right after her with her own promise to be there as well.
With Lexie on the floor next week, Rick didn't doubt that all of the others would come out too. Olivia to support Lexie; Andrew and Jared to help Patrick watch over her. He realized that his own level of caring what Lexie did had definitely diminished since he'd become involved with Maria. Maybe it was because he was realizing that she was finally growing up, or maybe it was just because he had something better to focus on. Either way, he trusted his friends to look after her; especially because he was pretty sure that Lexie didn’t have an interest in scening with anyone other than Patrick. Which definitely wouldn’t be happening any time soon.
He wasn’t the only one who seemed unconcerned with Lexie's determination to get back on the floor of Stronghold. Chris was more amused than anything else, Liam hadn't done anything but roll his eyes and Justin just looked resigned.
Only Patrick was truly bothered.
Chapter 22
Wednesday night, while Rick was at Liam's dojo, Maria found herself in a place unlike anywhere she’d ever been before.
"Oh my god," she whispered, staring at the huge toy, too horrified to even touch the plastic packaging. Just in case touching it made the thing come to life, escape the protective cover and come after her. It was that scary. Her voice went up to a squeak. "That goes in your ass?!"
Coming into the aisle, Angel took one look at the big, round plug and snorted. "Not my ass, that's for sure. Adam might be an ass-man, but he's not a sadist. Maybe Andrew would."
"Nah, he prefers impact play for causing pain." That came from Lexie who was browsing one aisle over in what looked like toys exclusively for nipples. Maria had had no idea there were so many different kinds of things to torture people’s nipples with. Some of them even vibrated. They looked a lot less frightening than a lot of things in her aisle though.
"Ladies, you've gotten distracted again," Olivia called from the clothes section, where she was standing with Hilary. Jessica had wandered too, although Maria couldn't see what toys were displayed in her aisle. Kinky ones, she was sure.
Ostensibly they were all there to help Maria find an outfit for Saturday. She didn't want to go back to Stronghold wearing something that anyone on the street might wear. Rick hadn't understood what the problem was, so she'd texted Angel who had organized a little girls’ night out shopping for an outfit. Of course, that had devolved almost as soon as they'd gotten to the store. It was filled to the brim with all sorts of interesting things, from clothes, to shoes that had the highest heels Maria had ever seen, to vibrators, to restraints, etc. etc. Maria had never seen so many things related to sex in one place.
A whole new world had opened for her when she'd met Rick, but she was still learning new things about it.
At first she'd started wandering the aisles until Olivia had pulled her over to the clothing. Then she'd been looking at the clothing, but had gotten distracted by a purple knobby vibrator on the shelf, and then from there she'd moved around the corner of the aisle to look at the realistic dildos, and then she'd just kept moving until she'd ended up where she currently was; surrounded by giant butt plugs called crazy names like "The Dominator" and "The Destroyer." Okay, it wasn't really called the Destroyer, but it might as well have been.
While she was willing to maybe try some anal stuff with Rick, this was so not inside her comfort zone. But it was kind of like a train wreck, she just couldn't look away.
Angel grabbed her arm and tugged her out of the aisle. "Don't worry, Rick's not going to want to put anything
like that in you, I promise."
"He'd better not," Maria muttered as she let Angel drag her over to Olivia and Hilary.
An hour later, Maria walked out of the store with several bags, all filled with clothing. She had a dress, two tops and two skirts that were interchangeable, a corset (which she still wasn't too sure that she liked, mostly because she'd always liked breathing), and a pair of four inch heels - which were the shortest the store offered. It was, hands down, the sexiest stuff she'd ever bought. She couldn't wait to show it to Rick.
******
For the first time in a while, Rick felt a little nervous as he bounded up the stairs to Maria's apartment. They'd gotten pretty comfortable in each other's spaces, easily interchanging whose place they stayed at. Even though they lived so close to each other, a lot of their things had started to travel. They both had a toothbrush at each apartment, Maria had a small case of extra make-up and hair things in his bathroom, and both of them had clothes in both closets.
Rick had found that he rather liked seeing her things around his place. He liked that he had his things in her place as well. He'd fallen for her. Hard. Probably since day one and his feelings were only getting stronger.
The intermingling of their lives gave him a sense of profound satisfaction and also of possessiveness. Now that they were going back to Stronghold, he felt that even more so. His nervousness about tonight came from the items he was carrying in a small bag.
He wasn't really sure what Maria's reaction was going to be, but he was hoping for a positive one.
When she opened the door he nearly said fuck Stronghold. Maria looked like a kinky wet dream come true. She was wearing a dark purple PVS dress that wrapped lovingly around her curves and showed off every inch of her gorgeous cleavage. In fact, it looked like her breasts could easily pop out the top, which was really just two large triangles over each breast, connected to the dress on the bottom. All he'd have to do to access those beauties was pull down the straps.
