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“How am I supposed to top everything you just said?” she asked, gurgling with laughter. “Or even match it?” She stroked her finger down his cheek before rubbing her hand through his facial hair, feeling almost awestruck that this controlled, closed-off man was hers and he had opened himself up to her in such an incredible, vulnerable way. “You aren’t the kind of guy I thought I’d fall in love with either. Too controlled. Almost prissy sometimes.”
“Watch it, brat,” he growled.
Angel smiled at him, brilliantly. “I love you, Adam. Every grouchy, silly, demanding bit of you. And you drive me crazy too.”
And grabbing his lapels, she gave into the little bit of Domme inside of her that he’d first met and been so intrigued by and pulled him in for another kiss.
Epilogue
Rick
It would be amazing if he had any friends left by the end of today. Free beer and pizza did not make up for having to drag the endless line of boxes and furniture up two and a half flights of stairs. Especially since it was kind of unseasonably warm for June.
“Goddamn, Rick,” Patrick groaned as he shouldered his way into the front door for the umpteenth time. “What the hell do you have in this box?”
Setting his own box down on the pile that had been started in the corner of the main room, Rick glanced at the label on the box Patrick was setting down and grinned.
“That’s gotta go in the kitchen, it’s got the stand mixer in it,” he replied. Which also made it one of the heaviest boxes he had. Was it wrong to say a quick prayer of thanks he hadn’t had to bring it up the stairs himself?
“Then you put it in the kitchen,” Patrick grumbled. “I’m done with it.”
“Thanks for bringing it all the way up.”
The big man sighed. “This better show you how happy we all are to have you up here. I’m not sure we’d do this for anyone else.”
“No one else would dare ask,” Liam said as he came in through the door. His muscles bulged around the box he was carrying. Books, going by the orange label on the side. Probably some of the heavier ones going by the strain he was showing. “When Hilary and I move, I’m hiring movers.”
“I’ll do that next time,” Rick muttered guiltily.
“Don’t worry about,” Liam said, adding his box to the pile in the corner. “We’re glad you’re up here. Plus, you’ve helped all of us move before. Turnabout’s fair play.”
Ever since Liam and Hilary had become a couple, Liam had started spouting off all sorts of weird old sayings, courtesy of his girlfriend and her father. Rick grinned. Being a high school English teacher, he had his own language quirks when it came to old words and phrases.
And it was true he’d helped the others move before, but to be fair, none of them had moved in a long time. They hadn’t accumulated the amount of stuff he had at the time they’d moved. But every single one of them had shown up today to help him. Girlfriends in tow.
Speaking of which, Jessica came in the door carrying what was obviously one of the lighter boxes. “I think this is the last trip! Angel’s got the other box that’s going in the bedroom, Andrew and Chris have the couch, Jared and Adam have your mattress, Lexie and Olivia are handling the box spring, and Justin and Hilary have the last box.”
“The heavy one?” Liam sprang up, but Jessica glared him back down.
“It’s not that heavy and don’t you dare insult her by insinuating she can’t handle it!” Jessica said warningly before turning to go down the hall towards Rick’s bedroom.
He couldn’t help but sigh a little that the first five women in his bedroom weren’t there for anything enjoyable.
Last summer, almost a year ago, he’d met Jessica for the first time. Unfortunately, Justin and Chris had already had dibs. All three of them had been working at the Venus School. Rick had decided to forego the school this summer. He didn’t want more meaningless sex, even if he’d enjoyed being an Instructor there, he wanted a relationship. Had wanted a relationship for a while.
Then he’d watched Jessica fall in love with Chris and Justin and they’d moved in together. Not that everything was perfect with them of course, but he knew lately they’d been talking about what form their relationship might take in the future. For a while Chris and Justin had been trying to work it out between themselves, but Jessica had bulled right in there and said she had as much right as they did when it came to deciding who was going to marry who or whatever they were going to do. They hadn’t worked it out completely yet, but they were well on their way.
Liam and Hilary had been next and they had already moved in together, although they were talking about moving to a new place since the apartment they were living in now had been Liam’s for years and Hilary was feeling a bit like an intruder into his space. And, most recently, Adam and Angel had gotten together and he knew Adam was working his way towards getting Angel to move in with him. They’d been dating since almost the beginning of the year and Adam made it no secret he was head over heels serious about her. So far Angel had been ignoring his hints that he wanted her around on a 24/7 basis, but Adam had told Rick that more and more of her stuff was slowly finding its way into his house.
Even Lexie and Patrick’s situation seemed to be coming to a head. He’d let her onto the main floor of the club twice now and it would be a third time in a couple of weeks. She was running the theme night parties at Stronghold that Patrick had decided to allow her to hold for holidays.
As the rest of Rick’s friends came in the door, carrying the last of his possessions, he thanked each of them. Guiltily, he also felt better when he saw Jared and was reminded that having a relationship wasn’t enough, he wanted a good relationship. Jared’s submissive and girlfriend Marissa was off on another one of her overseas jaunts. She’d been thrilled to be offered a small modeling contract in Italy. Not surprisingly, she’d once again told Jared she wanted an open relationship while they were apart.
Man, he hated that bitch.
Jared was the only one of his friends who had the kind of relationship Rick didn’t aspire to.
He was ready to settle down, find a submissive for the long haul. Hell, he’d been looking to for months now. Knowing he wanted to move and then finding a new job and a new apartment had helped to relieve some of the impatience he’d felt about it, but now he was up in Maryland near his friends and near the club. Patrick had asked him if he wanted to be put on the Introduction Scene rotation, figuring it would be a good way for him to meet new submissives, but Rick had declined.
