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“Fine.”
Snatching up her coat, Lexie pulled it back over herself with jerky, angry movements, spinning on her heel so that he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. The fabric brushed against her ass, which was still hot and sensitive from the spanking she’d just received. She felt exposed and vulnerable, and not in a good way like she had when she’d been bent over his desk.
“Pixie...” His voice followed her out the door, but she slammed it behind her, practically running to get out of there. Thanking her lucky stars the lobby was still empty.
That stupid nickname. That stupid man.
In her car, Lexie took several deep breaths to keep from sobbing. She had to get out of there and she couldn’t do it while she was crying. If she took too long, there was always a chance Patrick might come out here after her and she was so done with him for the day. She had about an hour until her friends were gathering at Olivia’s, and she was so, so glad that she’d chosen to do this before a girls’ night. She was going to need some serious girl time after today.
Possibly some therapy too.
Elbows firmly planted on the desk, hands on his scalp, Patrick rubbed them over his head. Wrong head to be rubbing over, but his erection had wilted at the look on Lexie’s face as she’d run out of the lobby. The hurt. The tears that had nothing to do with being spanked.
Fuck she’d been perfect.
Defiant. Submissive. Needy. Eager.
It had killed him to pull back, to pull away, but he’d known that if he hadn’t gotten himself under control, he would have taken her right then and there. Bent over his desk. And then what would he have said to Jake?
With a groan, Patrick pushed away from the desk. He needed to get out of this room. As if he was ever going to be able to sit in here ever again without thinking about Lexie and picturing her perfect, hot pink ass, bisected by that tiny black string, in his mind. Or her shock and hurt at his rejection.
When Jake finally got home, if he didn’t punch Patrick in the face for even daring to think about Lexie in a non-brotherly way, Patrick was going to have a lot of making up to do. Maybe it was a good thing that she’d quit, now he wouldn’t have to deal with temptation on such a regular basis. On the other hand, he was going to miss having her around too.
He just couldn’t win.
1
Girls’ nights were the best. As soon as they saw she was upset, Lexie’s friends surrounded her with their love and warmth. They’d put her in the center of the couch, with Angel and Olivia on either side of her. Both of them were the mother-hen type. Olivia was the only Domme in the group, but unless Adam was around, Angel was more than a match for her bossiness. Across from her, Jessica and Hilary were looking at her worriedly, while Maria, Rick’s girlfriend and the newest member of their group, kept glancing at everyone else as if trying to figure out what was going on.
Olivia brushed a strand of hair back from Lexie’s face, her touch so gentle and caring that it made tears spring to Lexie’s eyes again. “What happened honey?”
“Okay...” She took a deep breath, glancing at Maria again. Although she was pretty sure the other women knew exactly how she felt about Patrick, she didn’t want Maria to feel left out just because she didn’t know the background. “I’ve never actually come right out and said, but I think everyone knows I have a thing for Patrick.” Ha, that was putting it mildly, but saying that she had a crush seemed like understating the issue and saying that she was madly in love with him just sounded overdramatic. Everyone nodded, including Maria, which made her smile just a little bit. Yeah, as she’d gotten more desperate for Patrick to wake up and smell the coffee, she’d also gotten a lot more obvious. “So today, I decided to go for it. I showed up at Stronghold and told him I had something I wanted to show him...”
Recounting it for her friends made her heart ache, even though she kept the story to a bare minimum. Their excitement over her nipple rings helped though, especially when they started laughing about the probable reaction of all the guys. By which they meant, their men. All of whom were Jake’s friends and acted like her big brothers. Her Sentinels.
It fit too, because they all just blindly followed orders (mostly Patrick’s) about her, whether it was what she wanted and whether it was even necessary or not. She called Patrick Master Mold, after the lead Sentinel. Because that’s exactly what he was. Even Jake wasn’t as protective of her as Patrick was, which she used to think was a good thing.
“I did everything perfectly dammit. I did exactly what he told me to, but all he did was spank me and then kick me out of his goddamn office. He told me I wasn’t allowed to dress like that in the club, ever, as long as I was working for him... so I told him... I told him I quit.”
It wasn’t exactly professional, quitting without notice, but she still couldn’t regret that she’d done it. As soon as she told them, Angel pulled her into a hug, and then Olivia came in from the other side, and suddenly Lexie found herself in a pile of women, all telling her how awesome she was and that she’d done the right thing and that if he couldn’t see what was right in front of him then he was a blind idiot. The tears that Lexie had been holding back surged, and she found herself sobbing into Angel’s shoulder, surrounded by the loving warmth of her best friends.
They might all be older than her, but she’d always been more comfortable with people who were. Probably Jake and Patrick’s fault, since they’d always let her hang out with them, and their friends had done the same.
Her sobs finally started to slow, and the other women pulled back; Olivia handed her a tissue to blow her nose. Angel kept her arm wrapped around Lexie, lending her support.
“I just thought... I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ve had a crush on him for so long, and then I grew up and I think I might be in love with him, but how can I be in love with someone that I’ve never done anything romantic with?” She sniffled again. Not that it mattered. She’d tried to date other guys, to get over him, but everything always came back to Patrick. Besides, would she feel this heartbroken if she wasn’t at least a little in love with him? “He was just always my white knight, you know? Rushing in to save me from whatever... but then instead of getting kissed, I always got a pat on the head.”
Angel squeezed her. “I’m sorry honey, but sometimes your knight in shining armor is just another idiot in tinfoil.”
Staring up at her, Lexie choked on a giggle. Then giggled again, and then suddenly everyone was laughing hysterically... it was somehow all too easy to picture Patrick wrapped in tinfoil, stomping alongside her or hovering over her in the lobby of Stronghold. Scaring off all her other potential suitors along the way. Like he’d done whenever he thought one of them wasn’t good enough for her. Which seemed to be all of them.
“I think he definitely has more than friendly or brotherly feelings for you,” Olivia said, looking around the room for support, and getting a bunch of nodding heads in return. The redheaded Domme had known Patrick for a long time, and she was really good at reading people. Lexie felt a little surge of hope that Olivia thought Patrick was into her. Yeah, she’d gotten hope today when he’d been turned on, but maybe that had just been a standard male reaction to a naked woman. She’d started to doubt that it had anything to do with her personally. “He just doesn’t know what to do about them. He’s the biggest control freak out of the bunch, and he has no control over how you’ve grown up. My guess is he has no idea what to do now that he sees you as a woman and not a little sister.”
Lexie rolled her eyes. “It’s not that hard. Naked girl in front you, insert penis here.” She pointed between her legs, at which point Angel lost it completely and burst out laughing again, setting off another round of hilarity. Lexie smiled, a little reluctantly, because she hadn’t actually meant it to be funny. She was still hurt over being so thoroughly rejected... seriously, what guy didn’t want to stick his dick in a naked and willing chick when she was standing right in front of him?
“So... if you quit, are you able to go back to the club?” Maria asked, once they all got their giggles under control.
“I can bring her, any time she wants to go,” Olivia said. Her smile was almost evil. “In fact, it would be my pleasure.”
