Stronghold (Stronghold 1) Read online

  ******

  Angel felt completely out of her element. The club itself wasn't as intimidating as she’d expected, but the four men in front of her were definitely were. Which, perversely had drawn her to them, even though she was supposed to be a Domme tonight, not a sub. Besides, as a Domme she shouldn't be scared, right? So when they'd all stared her down, going for a power play, she'd stared back for as long as she could stand it. Eventually she'd had to look away, sure that they could see her heart pounding in her chest. When she'd turned back the handsome blonde one was still been watching her. She felt drawn to them. Him. Initially she'd wondered why there weren't subs flocking to their table, but after a quick look around she'd noticed that there didn't seem to be many singles other than the men at the table. Most people were there as part of a couple.

  She envied those couples. Especially the woman tied to the St. Andrew's Cross who was being very lightly flogged, warming her up for a more strenuous workout. Her Dom was completely focused on her, murmuring encouragement as he turned her skin a light pink. It made all of Angel's girly bits throb to watch them. The rise and fall of the flogger had her fantasizing about being in the sub’s place – at least until she realized that there were a couple of other people watching her watch the scene and she started to worry that they might realize she was more interested in being the one receiving the whipping than in being the one wielding the flogger. So she decided to approach the men instead, justifying it to herself by hoping that they could give her some information about the club and BDSM in general.

  Their collective appreciative gaze as she walked towards them made her quiver inside a little, but she knew that nothing showed on the exterior as she smiled warmly.

  "It’s not nice to stare," she said mock-sternly, as soon as she got within hearing, wanting to see their reactions. The blonde one with facial hair that kept watching her smiled appreciatively at her scolding, the look of approval in his eyes made her want to melt right down into her boots. Up this close she could get a hint of his well-defined muscles under the crisp white button down shirt he was wearing. Strange to see a Viking in what she considered a dress shirt. Strange to see a Dom at a BDSM club in one too, now that she thought of it.

  Tall, dark and handsome, and wearing a black shirt and jeans threw back his head and laughed. The other blonde, who had no facial hair, grinned and shook his head almost apologetically. Since he was on the other side of the table all she could see of his outfit was the black leather vest he was wearing, but she assumed that he had the leather pants to match. The last one had naturally tanned skin and was wearing nothing but leather pants to show off his admittedly spectacular upper body, just arched his eyebrow at her. The four of them together looked like a bondage ad for Studs'R'Us. Eye candy at its finest.

  "May I get you something to drink, Mistress?" Now that she'd approached a table, a scantily dressed young man popped up at her elbow, looking up at her worshipfully. Wow. He was cute, only two inches shorter than her in her boots which meant that he'd be taller than her if she had been wearing any other shoes. Too bad she wasn't actually looking for a sub or she'd try to pick him up.

  "No thank you," she said. It didn't seem polite to assume that she could join their table. Looking disappointed he walked away.

  "No thank you?" asked the gorgeous blonde pirate-y man. He was studying her like she was some kind of insect pinned to a board. The scrutiny made her uncomfortable, especially because those bright blue eyes looked like they could see deep inside of her, sorting through her secrets. Approaching these men had definitely been a mistake, but she’d been drawn like a moth to the flame. Even though tall, dark and handsome was her usual type she found herself feeling more interested in the blonde. Maybe it was just the way he seemed interested in her. Not in a sexual way, just curious, as if she’d done something wrong or unexpected.

  "Didn't your mother teach you manners?" she asked back dryly. Oops. Apparently Dommes don't say thank you?

  "Must have had a strict mother," observed the tall dark and handsome one.

  "I take after her," quipped Angel with a wink, making them laugh. Okay, time for introductions. They weren't taking the lead so she would. That's what a Domme would do, right? "I'm Angela." She left off the 'Mistress.' None of these men would ever use the honorific for her, just as she wouldn’t use any for them.

  "Chris," said tall, dark and handsome. "Nice to meet you." He winked at her. There was nothing seriously flirtatious in his face, he was just naturally overly friendly.

  "Andrew," said the darker skinned one, reaching out to shake her hand. Angel smiled and responded with her most professional handshake. The one that she used whenever she was making a sales pitch or dealing with any men. Firm, confident, poised.

  "Rick," said the blonde without facial hair. He shook her hand too.

  "Well now I feel left out," complained Chris, and he claimed her hand as Angel laughed. Chris was fun.

  Turning to the gorgeous blonde with the well-trimmed mustache and goatee, Angel held out her hand, arching her eyebrow. He took it slowly, deliberately, almost as if he was testing her. The easy confidence of his movements took her breath away, and the warmth of his hand wrapped around hers was almost enough to make her knees buckle. All of them were deliciously authoritative, but unlike the other men there was something about the way he was looking at her, touching her, that wasn't quite flirtatious but was definitely sexual. Covering her immediate response, which was arousal, Angel raised her eyebrows at him and pulled her hand away.

  "Adam," he said, after she'd removed her hand from his. He rubbed at the sides of his mustache with his thumb and forefinger, observing her so intently that for a moment she worried that he knew she was wet, just from his handshake. Geezus he was extremely alpha and she was a little shaken by how much he affected her. It would probably blow her cover to drop to her knees and beg him to teach her everything he knew, right?

  "Ignore him," Chris said, fortunately taking her attention before she did something stupid like confess she was actually a submissive. "He's been in a bad mood all night."

  Adam glared at him. "Would you like to join us?" he asked, as if trying to prove his friend wrong.

  "Um." She glanced around. Yeah at first she had come over because she was hoping to ask them questions but now that she’d met them she was starting to feel a little unnerved. Especially by Mr. Grouchy whose intense blue eyes seemed to search her own, as if he could see into her head. Which, considering the situation, was more than a little unnerving. "This is my first time at a club, I was thinking about taking a look around."

  They all nodded understandingly. "Feel free to come find us later," said Chris. "And ask any questions that you want. None of us are new to public scening."

  Angel smiled and thanked them, since that had been her excuse for approaching them in the first place, before heading off to see what else the club had to offer. Too bad she hadn't come in as a sub, she was actually feeling like she would have been able to trust one of them pretty quickly. Especially Mr. Grouchy – there had definitely been a spark of attraction there.

  But they seemed to have bought that she was a Domme and they all seemed experience even though none of them had subs with them, so hopefully she could get some good information off of them after she’d had a look around.

  ******

  Watching Angela walk off through the club, Adam couldn't help but notice what a fantastic ass she had. Not just curvy, but the kind of J-lo bubble butt that a man wanted to cup with his hands. The kind of cheeks that would give a man a solid grip as he pounded into her.

  Shifting a bit uncomfortably in his seat he turned his attention back to his friends to find that they were all staring at him.

  "What?"

  "What was with the power play man?" Rick asked, looking at Adam a little askance. "You don't usually pull tricks like that. I would have expected that from Chris but not from you."

  "Hey," said Chris. "I was perfectly polite to the lady."<
br />
  Rick rolled his eyes. "Mostly."

  All three of them looked at Adam, even Andrew who normally didn't get involved in the interrogate-your-friends sessions. Since he didn’t like to talk about his own issues, he rarely got involved in trying to talk about others unless they indicated that they wanted to. The fact that Adam's actions had aroused even Andrew's curiosity meant that he'd been less subtle than he thought.

  "I wanted to see what she would do," he said simply. It was the truth, but not the whole truth. The whole truth was that he'd been hoping, from the moment he saw her, that she was submissive. The attraction that he felt for her was undeniable, but not tenable if she was a Domme. Not even a switch, because he'd never be able to satisfy her dominant needs, but he'd be willing to try and work something out if she had any submissive tendencies. Even if it wasn’t a lasting thing, because it had been far too long since he’d felt such real attraction and curiosity towards a woman as he did towards Angela. For a moment he'd even thought he'd felt her respond to him, but the moment was so fleeting that he wasn't sure he hadn't imagined it because he wanted something to be there.

  When it became obvious that he wasn't going to give them the answers they wanted, his friends turned to other more interesting subjects. By the time Angela came back, her cheeks slightly flushed with arousal, Adam was the only one left at the table. Chris and Andrew had left together, Chris wanting to get back home to Jessica and Justin, Andrew just flat out bored; Rick was still hanging on, hoping that the club might get better as the night went on. Adam had driven himself down because he’d known Chris would want to go home to Jessica and Justin, and he’d wanted his own car just in case – although right now he couldn't quite say why he stayed instead of leaving, although he claimed it was for Rick. But Rick would have been just fine on his own, although company was always appreciated. He had the unsettling feeling that he was sticking around in hopes that a certain Domme might come back to their table. Which was probably one of the most inexplicable things he'd done in months.

  And worth the wait. Touring the club had obviously intrigued her. Her breasts were actually heaving a little bit in the tight confines of her top and the flush on her cheeks emphasized the sparkle in her unusually bright hazel eyes and also the pretty pink bow of her lips. When her tongue flicked out and licked her lower lip nervously it did absolutely nothing to help calm the images that he had in his head of pressing the head of his cock to that gorgeous mouth.

  Definitely disrespectful thoughts. If she was a Domme. Not that he would question her if that's what she said she was, but there was something… off… unless it was his imagination or just plain old wishful thinking getting the better of him. He wasn’t sure, which was not a situation he was used to and definitely not one he enjoyed. He wanted to sit her down and hash it out until he could be sure. But that wasn’t really something he could order a Domme to do.

  "So what do you think of Chained?" he asked, curious about her impressions. She couldn't answer immediately because almost as soon as she sat down the young sub that had approached her earlier came up again. This time she ordered a Jack and ginger. Although she seemed to appreciate the young man's obvious charms there didn't seem to be any true interest there.

  Maybe he wasn't her type.

  Maybe subs in general weren’t actually her type, maybe she only thought they were.

  Maybe Adam was just a big, overanalyzing idiot. That seemed like a pretty good possibility.

  "It's fascinating," she said brightly. Energy flowed from her, she practically quivered in her seat with it. The bouncy quality to her personality seemed almost at odds with the in-control Domme she'd introduced herself as; her teasing had been careful but pointed, now she seemed more natural. "I'm not a big fan of the decor, but I love being able to see everything that's going on. Some of the scenes are…” She shivered a little, a reaction that she obviously wasn’t able to suppress. “And I do love a good tiki-bar, even if it’s not outside." She beamed playfully at him, tugging at something instinctive deep within him that he couldn’t quite decipher.

  If she'd been his sub he would have asked her to elucidate on what she found so fascinating about the activities of the club. As it was, he held the question in, still watching her carefully. Adam didn't usually make new friends.

  Patrick, Rick and Andrew had been his friends since college, after which Rick's friends Justin and Chris had ended up joining their circle. Rick had met Justin and Chris at a rather specialized school and had realized immediately that they’d fit right in. Jared had been pulled in by Andrew after he started working at Stronghold and the two had bonded over talking about their troubled relationships. Something that Andrew rarely talked to new people about, but Jared having his own issues made him somewhat more open with him than with any of the others who didn’t have the same kind of experiences. Adam had been the slowest to open up to all of them, although over the years he’d become friends with them. Still, he hadn’t made any new friends on his own since Patrick, Rick and Andrew.

  "What do you think?" she asked in return, shooting a quick smile at the sub who brought her drink. The young man nearly fell over himself with happiness at her notice of him, but she turned back to Adam quickly enough, leaving the young man to sigh with regret and trot off again.

  "About the same as you," he said. "Except I wish there were more single female subs around." Angela's eyes darted away around the room as she brought up the drink to her mouth. Internally Adam frowned. Had she done that to hide her expression? Taking a sip of drink or a bite of food was a good way of changing the way your face looked. Or was he just reading way too much into everything? Stop it. "Our server seems to have taken a liking to you."

  Angela's lips curved into a sweet smile as she put her drink down. "He's cute, but not my type."

  Immediately he wondered again what her type was, the thoughts whizzing past him with no brakes. Did she even know?

  "How did you hear about Chained?" he asked, even though what he really wanted to know was how she decided she was a Domme.

  "Oh, theater people," she said. "I got into a community theater show recently, one of the crew and I were talking and she mentioned Chained. I thought I'd come check it out."

  "What show?" This time he wasn’t just making small talk, he was genuinely curious. He’d done a lot of theater in high school and college, although he hadn’t pursued it since then. Some of his friends from theater had gone on to New York or LA, or were working the circuit in DC, and a few of them did community theater, although he almost never went to see the shows.

  "The Rivals. Eighteenth century comedy of errors type thing, only this production they've set at an island resort in the 1960’s." Angela laughed, a cheerful and forthright sound, loud and clear. He could see her doing theater. Despite the noisiness of the club he hadn't had trouble hearing one word that she said, she was obviously very good at projecting her voice to exactly the right degree that she could make herself heard but not include the entire room in their conversation. "So what about you? How did you end up here tonight? I’m assuming that since this place just opened it doesn’t really have ‘regulars’ yet."

  Adam was trying to decide whether or not to tell her about Stronghold (it seemed a little gauche to advertise another place while still in the club and she might also be like Rick and live too far away from DC for it to be an easy trip) when Rick came back up to the table.

  "Alright, I give in," he said with a groan. "There are no interesting people here tonight. Unless you're a switch?" The question was said with a complete lack of hope, making it a joke, to Angela.

  “Switch?” she asked, looking momentarily confused and highlighting the fact that she was new to the scene, even if she obviously had done some research.

  “Someone who enjoys being both dominant and submissive,” Adam explained, watching her reaction carefully.

  Did she catch her breath a little? If she did it wasn't much, and she immediately lifted her drink to her mouth aga
in.

  "Um, no," she said. "Definitely a Domme." Well that last part was said with complete conviction. Still, Adam couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something about her. There had been some hesitation, unless he was fooling himself. Maybe she was just scared of admitting to a submissive side?

  "That's what I thought," Rick said with another mournful sigh. "I think I'm going to be getting out of here.” He switched his gaze to Adam. “Want to come back to my place for a beer?"

  "Sure," said Adam easily. What he really wanted to do was untangle the mystery of Angela, but that might be easier done in a more private location. He flashed a quick look at Rick, giving a slight tilt of his head towards the beautiful Domme. Fortunately Rick was quick on the uptake.

  "Join us?" asked Rick. Bless him.

  "Oh, uh..." Angela looked completely taken aback.

  ******

  Join them? Good grief... no. She couldn't possibly do that. Just being in the club and talking to Mr. Grouchy, who had become decidedly less grouchy and even more sexy as they'd chatted, was making her feel all melty inside and she was having more and more trouble pretending that she didn't want to just beg one of them to show her the ropes. Literally.

  Going back to a private place with two dominant men, one of whom she was definitely very attracted to, sounded like a recipe for disaster if she wanted to keep up appearances. And she knew that they wouldn't appreciate being lied to. BDSM was all about honesty and communication, not exactly something she was excelling at every time she lied to them about her predilections. Plus, heading off with two men that she'd just met wasn't really safe either, no matter how trustworthy they seemed.

  Especially since she’d just lied to them. Why hadn’t she said she was a switch? That could have solved so many problems in one fell swoop. They knew she was new to the scene. Instead she’d panicked and insisted that she was a Domme.

  Self-preservation maybe. After all, even if she was going to experiment with this did she really want to start off with someone as intimidatingly alpha as Adam? Rick wasn’t quite as scary, but she wasn’t as attracted to him either, despite the fact that he was definitely attractive. Also, no matter what her instincts about their trustworthiness were telling her she didn’t actually know either of them, so lying was still the best tactic. Especially since they were both obviously looking for a sub to play with.