AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, sorry,” Q echoed although it was obvious he wasn’t giving her his full attention. “We kinda uh... decided to continue the LAN party from the weekend... here… I forgot to let you know…”
With a sigh, Angel kicked off her shoes and nodded a greeting at their company. No point in yelling at the guys now, they wouldn’t pay attention to her anyway. Maybe later, although probably not. They weren’t bad guys or bad housemates, even if they were a little forgetful sometimes.
It was a good thing she didn’t have the standard office job though, or she’d be a lot angrier. She knew from experience that the guys were going to be up all night, chances were they’d called out from work tomorrow already, and they wouldn’t mean to be loud, but they wouldn’t be quiet exactly. Which was why she had the room furthest away from the main room.
Her bedroom was her refuge. Unlike the guys she didn’t spread out all over the house, although her sewing machine was down in the main room. She usually enjoyed being surrounded by the guys while she worked on her latest project or order, but not when they were doing a LAN party. Then they were way too involved in their game to be able to talk with her at all and they didn’t want the TV on because it was too distracting. At least she had some stuff that needed to be stitched by hand she could work on tomorrow.
Sitting down at her desk, she flipped on her laptop so she could go through her nightly routine. She had three email addresses, one for personal emails, one for women who took her self-defense classes, and one for her Etsy store. It was easier to keep it all separated so she didn’t lose track of things.
Unsurprisingly, Michael had already sent her the email. A little smile played on her lips as she scanned through it. Couples massage, body wrap, mani-pedi, horseback riding, and a wine tasting. It was going to be cold, but Leigh loved horseback riding even though she’d never had lessons, so she’d appreciate the gesture. It looked like a good combination of things both Leigh and Michael enjoyed, but it was obvious Michael had put a lot of thought into pampering Leigh with the spa treatments.
Lucky girl.
Angel sighed. Michael could be an ass, but he was good at grand gestures. He might suck at the small stuff and the day-to-day stuff, but what girl wouldn’t like celebrating her anniversary with a guy who planned out an entire romantic weekend? And the B&B was gorgeous. Just looking at the website and the description of the restaurant made her wish she had someone who would do that.
Typing out a quick email to Michael telling him he’d done a great job and Leigh was going to love it, Angel decided it was time to do a little something for herself.
She clicked on the button she’d created on her Favorites bar which took her straight to the Stronghold website. Their application process was more involved than Chained’s. Hopefully she’d be accepted as a member by the time The Rivals closed. Then closing weekend might not be so depressing, since she’d have something to look forward to the next weekend.
The first bit of the application was the standard personal information, including asking if she wanted to use a pseudonym in the club. She chose Angie. Again, close enough to her real name, but softer. Checked the box indicating she was new to the scene. Filled out a little blurb about what interested her in BDSM, why she wanted to try it.
And then a page came up with a list of kinks and dirty deeds, asking her to indicate her interest on a scale of one to ten. One being “hell no absolutely not” and ten being “yes please!” At least that’s how she interpreted it.
There weren’t too many things she said no absolutely not to. Needles, knives, and blood. Full hoods—she was too claustrophobic for that. Same thing with mummification. Shiver. Piercings. Anything to do with excrement or golden showers.
A couple of the more severe toys scored a two. Especially the scarier looking whips. So did sex with a member of the same gender. While she didn’t think she was entirely opposed to it, she didn’t have an interest in it either. She wanted to be open minded, so she figured a two was probably the way to go. After all, it was almost a “hell no.”
In the middle were things like group sex (which she’d always been curious about but felt kinda slutty for indicating an interest) and double penetration, Shibari, electricity, and some of the heavy toys which didn’t seem quite so scary. Clamps, paddles, a cane that didn’t look too threatening, etc.
Bondage restraints, spanking, the Saint Andrew’s Cross, most of the anal toys (none of which were too big or frightening), anal sex, vibrators, verbal orders, etc. were all on the “yes please!” side. In fact, checking those things off was getting her hot and bothered.
Feeling very daring, she clicked the ‘submit’ button (giggling a little too herself as she thought “yes please!” again). A little notification popped up saying she’d hear back from them within the week about her application.
“Woo,” she said, grinning.
Okay, time to get off the computer. She needed to get some rest so she could concentrate on sewing tomorrow. Maybe write a few proposals for some new locations for self-defense classes. Q had given her a pretty good template for churning those out, since he was a proposal writer when he wasn’t gaming, and she only turned to him for edits now once she was done with a proposal. And she liked to try and keep a regular schedule or she’d end up sleeping too late. It was too easy to waste time sleeping in.
Grabbing the book she was reading, a steamy Cari Silverwood book, she tossed it onto the bed before stripping down and putting on her nightshirt. The sounds of the guys talking and laughing were faint enough that she could snuggle into her bed and shut them out, diving into a world of alternate Victorian history with automatons, wild inventions, and vampires.
4
Adam
Strumming his guitar, Adam absently went through the fingering he’d memorized in high school for Scarborough Fair. It was his go-to song for when he wanted to sit and think; it was a soothing song to listen to and he’d played it so many times that his fingers went through the motions without him having to pay attention to what he was doing.
His brother had been the one to teach him how to play guitar. Brian had been incredibly musically gifted. Adam knew his friends were impressed with his ear for music and his apparent ease with stringed instruments, but he was nothing compared to how Brian had been. As he played, his eyes wandered around the den and over to the one family picture he kept up there. That picture was the reason he hardly ever went into this room.
It had been taken when he was seven and his brother was ten, the year before their parents’ bitter divorce. At the time he hadn’t understood why his mother had left so abruptly, although he’d completely understood his father’s anger. Eventually he realized he’d rarely seen his parents together during the last two years of their marriage. His father had always remained shut up in the basement working while his mother did her best to pretend she wasn’t lonely and didn’t feel neglected. But the worst part of the divorce hadn’t been the separation, it had been the way both parents had used him and Brian as weapons against each other after the marriage had ended.
For a long time after his brother had overdosed on drugs, he’d blamed both of his parents for Brian’s descent into oblivion. It was during that time he’d started refusing to choose between them for holidays. In high school and college he’d gone to friends’ houses, and once he’d gotten old enough he’d started having his own celebrations. Ever since his brother had spiraled wildly out of control, Adam’s life had been focused on maintaining control. In and out of bed.
Sometimes he wondered if his parents’ influence was the reason he’d held off on having a real relationship for so long. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He had cared about Brooke, the closest he’d ever come to falling in love with someone, and it wasn’t because of his parents the relationship hadn’t worked out. It had been almost a relief to know a relationship could end on good terms, that he wasn’t necessarily destined to crash and burn like his parents had. Then again, he and Brooke had both been honest enough to know they weren’t meeting each other’s needs. Last he’d heard she was very happy in a relationship with an accomplished sadist.
And his parents weren’t doing so badly themselves anymore. His dad had started dating a woman named Claire while Adam was in high school and they had been living together since then, although they didn’t seem inclined to actually marry. Last year his mother had remarried, an Englishman named Sam who worshiped the ground she walked on and made her blissfully happy.
Maybe his parents’ ability to move on was why he was finally feeling ready to have another go at a real relationship.
So why the obsession with Mistress Angela? A woman who obviously wasn’t right for him. All week he’d been debating whether or not to go see the show she was in. Last weekend at Chained the answer had seemed obvious, but the more he thought about it the more he waffled.
