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Shouting at the entrance cut off his sentence. Will was standing guard at the door, blocking whoever was trying to get in. Rick’s eyes widened as he recognized the very irate, very frustrated, very feminine voice.
“Dammit, Will! Get out of my way! I’m allowed in there now!” Lexie’s shriek was easily heard over the music, and all conversation had stopped the moment someone had started yelling. Everyone wanted to know why there was a commotion in Stronghold, where there was very rarely such a thing. In fact, Lexie had been at the center of the last commotion, at the Valentine’s Day party when things had gone a bit south with her now-ex, Trevor.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rick saw Patrick wince.
“You didn’t...” None of the guys had been particularly comfortable when Patrick started letting Lexie on the main floor of Stronghold. They all tended to view her as their little sister, especially since Jake, her big brother and Patrick’s best friend, was overseas fighting in Afghanistan. That made them all feel especially bound to look after her.
However, all of them knew it would be a really, really bad idea to try and renew the restriction.
“You didn’t!” Even though Angel’s words were the same as Rick’s, they were said in a completely different way. He’d been almost as awed as wary; she was obviously outraged on Lexie’s behalf. “Patrick—MMmmmfff!”
Adam’s hand had found its way over her mouth and he was whispering in her ear. Probably telling her to stay out of it. Patrick just shot a glare at all three of them and then got up, unfolding his large frame from the barstool he’d been sitting on, with all the reluctance of the mountain about to make its trek to Mohammed.
“Some of the Doms were starting to ask me if she was available for scening,” he said flatly. Rick shuddered. Not with their Lexie, dammit. Obviously, the Stronghold Doms were starting to get ideas just because she was in the main room. None of her self-appointed big brothers were going to stand for that.
“Mmmff, mmm mmMMMMMMMMFFF!”
Although if Angel’s reaction was representative of the submissives’ reaction, which Rick had a sinking feeling it probably was because all of the subbies loved Lexie, then this was going to cause a lot more problems than Patrick had anticipated. Seeing Angel was actually trying to kick Adam’s ankle in her struggle to get free and speak her mind, Rick decided it might be marginally safer to follow Patrick as he headed to face off with Lexie. Plus, he wanted to know what was going to happen. He was only human after all.
As they approached the entrance, they could see a couple of people in the lobby, watching with amusement. Will looked completely relieved to see Patrick coming. Tiny little Lexie might be the size of a pixie, but she was a vicious one. Like the ones in Harry Potter, but with even more bite. Rick didn’t have any doubt that she might have tried to start forcing her way in physically if she hadn’t seen Patrick coming to sort out the situation, and Will would have then had to worry about hurting her. It was a lose-lose scenario for the Dom and he knew it.
Seeing Patrick headed towards her calmed Lexie down a bit—she had stopped bouncing and shouting and was just waiting for him to reach her.
“Lexie,” he said, in his deep voice, nodding at her. Rick positioned himself along the wall so he could see both of their faces. He couldn’t help but grin as Will sidled out of their way, back into the lobby. Which meant Lexie was marginally standing inside the club, but that couldn’t be helped.
“Don’t you dare stand there acting like nothing’s wrong! You said I could come onto the main floor from now on!” Lexie jabbed her finger into Patrick’s chest, her head tilted back to glare up at him. Tonight she was wearing another one of her fishnet shirts with a bright blue bra underneath, one matching her eyes exactly, and a short black skirt. Rick was just relieved to see she was wearing a bra, for a while she’d been donning electrical tape and pasties and they’d all worried she was about to move to being completely uncovered beneath her see-through tops. The return to a bra was surprising, but also reassuring.
The slight quiver in her voice was not.
Patrick heard it too, tensing and hesitating from whatever he’d been about to say. Shit. The big man looked over at Rick, as if searching for some kind of support against the thread of hurt in Lexie’s voice. Rick shrugged but stood his ground; he was going to be silent support.
“We’re not going to have another party for a while, Lex, you don’t really need to be on the main floor.”
“It’s not about need you big lump, it’s about finally getting to spend time with my friends in their usual hangout!” The unhappy ragged quality to Lexie’s voice was definitely increasing, indicating she was moving closer to tears. Rick shifted uncomfortably backwards but Patrick shot him a glance that said don’t you dare.
“It’s not a good place for you, Pixie.”
Yeah, the big man was definitely losing control if he was calling her by her childhood nickname, the one which only Patrick and Jake were allowed to use.
“My friends are all in there. So it’s a good place for Angel and Hilary and Jessica, but not for me?”
“They’re submissives.”
Lexie’s chin came up stubbornly as she crossed her arms under her chest and stared up at Patrick. Suddenly her stance was a lot more challenging than upset. “I could be too. I want to be, if it’s the right man.”
The undercurrents of this conversation were starting to make Rick feel extremely uncomfortable. They’d all noticed the tension which had sprung up between Lexie and Patrick over the past year, but no one really talked about it. Neither Lexie nor Patrick had seemed to push the status quo... until now.
Shit.
Now he wished he’d stayed at the table with Angel and Adam, even though they (like everyone else) were watching the scene at the front door. He doubted they could hear what was being said. The little looks Patrick kept shooting at him begged Rick not to leave him alone with Lexie.
Normally Rick would be entertained by seeing Patrick on the retreat for once, but not about this. Fuck. It was one thing for Lexie to have a crush or for Patrick to see her as all grown up—that was pretty hard to miss considering the outfits she chose to wear to Stronghold—or even be attracted to her... another for either of them to actually do anything about it. Did Lexie really understand the kind of relationship Patrick wanted? That he demanded?
“You can come in. But only if I’m here or one of the other guys is here to sit with you,” Patrick said, apparently deciding to completely ignore her challenge. Rick let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.
“Fine. Oh look, you’re here.” Lexie looked over, directly at Rick. “Hey look, Rick’s here too. Hi Rick. And over there are Angel and Adam. That’s three Sentinels to sit with me. I guess I get to come in.”
Obviously royally pissed, Lexie pushed her way past Patrick and headed for the table where Adam and Angel were. Rubbing his head, Patrick stepped over to where Rick was standing, as grinning patrons began to trickle in through the doorway.
