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Her head was so confused. So was her body, apparently, because she was still kind of hot and bothered by the half-formed images flitting through her mind of Rick looming over her with his hands between her legs while her own hands were tied above her head and she moaned and begged him to—
Okay, yeah. Enough of that.
“Think you’re ready to go back out into the club?” Olivia asked. Maria looked up and realized the other woman was watching her quite closely. She blushed, wondering if Olivia could see any of her thoughts on her face. Man she hoped not. Talk about embarrassing. Like the other woman didn’t know enough about what was going on in Maria’s life already, whereas Maria didn’t really know anything about her.
“Yeah... I think...” She paused, trying to gather herself. “I think I’m ready to go home, actually,” she said slowly.
“Oh...” Hilary looked disappointed, and a bit worried. “I hope we haven’t scared you away.”
“Oh no, it’s nothing any of you have done,” Maria said, a bit of steel finding its way into her voice. Yeah, she was still ticked at Rick for his little trick tonight. Talk about a surprise date. “I just need to... think. Process. Figure out how I feel about well... all of this.” She waved her hand.
“Understandable,” Olivia said, standing up. Angel looked like she wanted to say something, but when Olivia gave her a look she subsided. Yeah, Olivia was definitely dominant. “Stop by the front desk on your way out and let Lexie know I said it was okay to give you my phone number.”
“Me too,” Angel said.
“Us too,” Hilary said, waving at Jessica, who nodded her head in agreement. “Even if you don’t get together with Rick, you can still hang out with us, right?”
Maria smiled gratefully. Nice to know the connection she felt with them wasn’t one-sided, although she didn’t doubt they’d try to play matchmaker given the chance. “Yeah, I’d really like that.”
Olivia basically herded them out into the main club area as they each grinned and either hugged Maria or squeezed her hand, and Maria noticed more than one woman made a beeline for the locker room door after giving Olivia a dirty look. Apparently she had the redhead to thank for their continued privacy while they were in there, which made her feel both guilty and relieved.
Across the room, at the table they’d been sitting at before, she could see Rick’s back and his friends as they all took notice of their girlfriends coming towards them. Heads came up, watching with expressions both admiring and protective. After all, they weren’t the only ones watching. And Maria had to admit, she could see why.
They were a diverse group, with Olivia in all leather, Jessica in her tight corset and short skirt, Angel’s latex dress and Hilary’s more demure but still sexy pink top and shorts. And Maria, in the black clothes she’d wear to a regular night out, definitely not in line with the outfits everyone else in the room had on. It made her feel a little out of place, not to be dressed for sex like the others were, but at the same time she was glad. Now that she was paying attention, she could see more than one man checking her out—and not being at all shy about it. Which would have been awesome if they all didn’t scare the crap out of her. Not because they were scary in and of themselves, but because who knew what they’d want to do with her?
Seeing his friends’ reactions, Rick knew the women had finally come out of the locker room. Taking a deep breath, he turned around, preparing for the worst. Instead he saw Maria, walking in the center of the woman, looking around with a calm expression. As though she was soaking everything in, maybe even seeing it with new eyes.
He bristled as he noticed how many of the other Doms were eyeing the small group with appreciation, but he couldn’t blame them. The girls looked hot. If he hadn’t been so nervous about how Maria was doing, what she might want now, he’d probably have even enjoyed the way it looked like they were following Olivia like they were her ducklings.
Olivia had been completely right. He’d been putting way too much pressure on the situation, and on Maria. Which hadn’t been fair at all. There were things he could have said to prepare her. Hell, once they’d gotten in the club and he’d started explaining BDSM to her, he should have given her a fuller explanation. One misstep after the other, because he’d felt some stupid need to test her.
Stupid, really, to set her up like that. As if any woman, who wasn’t given any warning, would take one look around the club and be on board with whatever he wanted to do. Hell, if she had been, he wouldn’t have trusted it. If he’d given her more prep or brought her here and given fuller disclosure instead of just shoving everything in her face to see how she dealt with it, maybe tonight would have gone differently.
“Don’t push her,” Patrick murmured in his ear, clapping his hand on his shoulder. “She likes you, but she’s probably going to need some time.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Rick said, but there wasn’t any bite to his reply. He knew Patrick was just watching out for him. Right now Maria was looking anywhere but at him.
Dammit. He really hoped he hadn’t fucked this up beyond repair. At least she hadn’t run straight for the front door, he supposed he should take heart she was still comfortable enough coming over to him.
The girls split off, going straight to their boyfriends, while Olivia stayed close by Maria’s side, as if offering support. Not that he really wanted Olivia acting as mother hen to Maria, but if it was going to help his little tease then he’d be grateful for it at this point.
Maria took a deep breath before looking up to meet his eyes, her own face composed but anxious. “I think I’d like to go home now.”
The words ‘if that’s okay with you’ went unspoken but he could feel them lingering in the air. And somehow he’d managed to convince himself she might not be submissive? Ha. He really was an idiot sometimes. Even though she’d been occasionally more aggressive than the submissives he was used to, she responded in a lot of ways like a submissive. She obviously wanted to please the people she cared about, the people around her. And she looked to him for approval.
As much as he really would have liked to stay and show her Stronghold wasn’t as scary as it had looked, he knew he needed to listen to what she wanted. Like Patrick had said, now was not the time to push.
“Of course,” he said gently, keeping his voice low. “If that’s what you want.”
She hesitated for just a second, and his heart leapt with hope she might change her mind and say she wanted to stay, but then she nodded her head. “Yes please.”
The ride home was uncomfortable and silent. It was obvious the women had all taken to Maria. She’d gotten all of their phone numbers from Lexie before they’d left, and Lexie had insisted on including hers as well. Followed by a suspicious, dirty look at Rick, even though she couldn’t possibly already know how he’d messed up. Apparently Maria’s subdued countenance was enough for Lexie.
Rick was torn between wishing he’d never taken her to Stronghold, wishing he’d managed the evening better, and berating himself for being stupid enough to expose himself to one of his neighbors. Not that he thought Maria would make trouble for him, she wasn’t the type, but it still would make for the occasional awkward encounter around the pool and in the stairwell. Every time, he’d feel the sting of regret for getting so close and messing it up so monumentally.
He walked her up to her door, keeping his hands in his pockets and to himself, which really sucked when all night he’d been able to reach out and touch her as much as he’d wanted. So far she hadn’t really looked at him, she seemed lost in thought, at least she didn’t seem afraid of him. Just distant. Untouchable. No longer his to protect or claim. It made the inside of his chest hurt.
When they got to her door, he took a deep breath and faced her. She peered up at him through thick lashes, and for a moment he could almost pretend tonight had gone well and she was waiting for a kiss. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. “Maria, I just wanted to say I’m really sorry. I should have... well we should have talked more. A big part of... well, of the lifestyle,” he said, changing his words just in case any nosy neighbors were listening at their doors, “is communication. Not that you would have been able to tell from how I behaved tonight. I fucked up. I put you in an uncomfortable situation and I just wanted to say I’m really sorry.”
