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The little idiot had tried to convince Lexie to sneak off the main floor and to one of the private rooms - something Patrick had expressly forbidden her to do. She’d refused to leave the main floor, like she’d been told to, and the dumbass had decided to push things on the dance floor. There were plenty of other couples around them doing similar things. Patrick had thought he was just going to have to sit back and watch it, but at the first frantic glance Lexie had sent him as she tried to push Trevor away, Patrick had been beside her in an instant.
It was one of the first times he’d lost control over himself in years. He’d just meant to separate them and give her boyfriend a firm lecture about safe, sane and consensual, but then the kid had told Patrick to leave them the fuck alone and grabbed Lexie’s breast. Hard enough to make her cry out, and she’d pulled back, tripping over her feet and falling to the ground. So Trevor had ended up with a black eye, a sore jaw, and some bruised ribs by the time Justin had pulled Patrick off of him.
He’d sent Patrick to his office to cool off, which he was only willing to do because Hilary had already been holding and comforting Lexie. Adam and Liam had helped Justin restore order while Jessica kept everyone away from Lexie, and Chris guarded Patrick’s office door. It was not Patrick’s best night, despite the fact that everyone had really enjoyed the theme night and attendance had been at an all-time high. He was kind of sad he’d missed Olivia scaring the shit out of Trevor though. As far as he knew, he was the only one who knew exactly what had gone down; the others thought Trevor had accidentally pushed her. Otherwise, he might not have gotten out of the club alive.
The only good thing to come out of the night was Lexie breaking up with Trevor immediately, and Patrick hadn’t had to go through the torture of watching her date anyone else since then. Just the torture of knowing he couldn’t claim her for his own, which was bad enough.
Today was a bit of a test. He wanted to see if Lexie would follow a non-sexual order that wasn’t part of a scene. This wasn’t just a series of scenes to Patrick, it was the way he wanted to live his life, and he wanted to see if Lexie would follow through or not. Although he liked a sassy sub, he didn’t want every minute of his life to be a battle, which meant his submissive needed to follow orders some of the time. Especially when it came to how she kept her home, because he sure as hell wouldn’t put up with his own home ever looking the way Lexie’s apartment had last night.
He didn’t even get a chance to knock on the door before it opened. A cheerful Lexie was practically bouncing on her feet as she grinned up at him.
“Five thirty, right on the dot,” she said. “As expected.”
“Hey Pixie.” Damn she was cute when she was like this. Wearing a grey t-shirt advertising some restaurant and blue jean shorts, she was completely casual and completely beautiful. Her short hair was tucked behind her ears, and she wasn’t wearing any make-up at all, and Patrick had the strongest urge to wrap her up in his arms and never let her go.
“Come on in,” she said, bouncing back from the door, pride practically emanating from her body. Patrick already knew she had done everything he’d told her to. Everything about her demeanor screamed proud submissive, and part of a Dom/sub relationship was acknowledging and rewarding good behavior.
Warmth flooded his chest, seeing her like this. Knowing she’d done everything he’d told her to, and that she’d found satisfaction in it rather than resentment or boredom.
The apartment was spotless, and the number of boxes stacked against her wall had been halved. Granted, other than the clothes, her place hadn’t really been all that messy. Still, Patrick liked things neat, and it had made a good test for her. Especially since she’d never been messy before, but, as she’d pointed out, she’d always had her mom on hand to make sure her room was clean.
“Good girl,” he said, enjoying the way her bright blue eyes lit up from within at his words. He’d said them before, but this time it had more weight. Because this time, they both knew she’d crossed some invisible line, that it meant something just a little bit different.
“So now what?” she asked, practically bouncing on her toes as she tilted her head back to look at him, stepping a little bit closer and getting into his personal space.
Patrick raised his eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I did what you said, right? And I proved I can handle Stronghold. So now what?” She wasn’t just eager, her voice was a little bit challenging. Even if he tried to let the situation slide back to the status quo, she wasn’t going to accept that.
He knew it, but he still felt a bit of exasperated resignation at hearing the confirmation of that in her voice. For the past year she’d been working towards this, and they both knew it. There wasn’t anything he could do to stop her, really, but he could at least make sure she took things slowly.
“Go have fun at your girls’ night. Come back to work at Stronghold on Tuesday, and I’ll start training you on Thursday.”
Even though she felt anxious showing up at Angel’s, considering she wasn’t sure how Adam or Angel felt about her right now, Lexie still felt like she was walking on sunshine. Literally. Like the entire world was glowing and she was so light on her feet that she was practically floating.
Patrick was going to train her! She was finally not only going to be one of the submissives of Stronghold, but Patrick was going to train her. Okay, so it wasn’t as good as being his submissive, but it was a start. Getting to this point had already been a seriously long haul, she wasn’t going to lose patience now when the finish line was finally in sight.
Hopefully her friends would also feel whatever punishments their Doms had come up with for them were worth it.
She was very reassured when Angel opened the door and immediately enveloped Lexie in her usual greeting hug. “Hey honey! Come on in!”
“Hi,” Lexie said, caught somewhere between guilt and bursting with excitement to tell Angel her news. Even though Angel didn’t seem upset that she’d been spanked last night on Lexie’s behalf, Lexie still couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.
Glancing over her shoulder, Angel leaned in, her voice lowering to a whisper. “Leigh’s already here, and she’s not in a good place. Please tell me you have good news, she needs something to cheer her up. Or at least, distract her.”
“Definitely good news,” Lexie said, feeling her sparkle come back to her eye, even though now she was worried about Leigh. Angel’s best friend was a total sweetheart, but she didn’t get to come around Stronghold much because her boyfriend wasn’t into the scene, and Leigh didn’t think he’d approve of it either. Lexie knew they’d been having some trouble, although obviously she didn’t know as much about it as Angel.
“Great.”
Not waiting for anything more, Angel latched on to Lexie’s wrist and practically dragged her through the front hall to the kitchen, where Leigh was sitting at the breakfast bar. Granted, all three of them were wearing pajama pants and tank tops for girls’ night, but somehow Leigh still looked listless, like she’d managed to put less effort into picking out her pajamas than Angel. It was just the way her body was slumped, her shoulders rounded... everything about her looked defeated.
She did perk up a bit when she saw Lexie though.
“Hey lady,” she said, sliding off of her stool to give Lexie a hug.
She clung, just a little bit too long, but Lexie didn’t mind. It was obvious Leigh needed the nice long hug. When they pulled away, Angel was bustling around on the other side of the island, pulling out a wine glass for Lexie and finishing up setting out the snacks, a worried smile on her face.
“Where’s Adam?” Lexie asked, as Leigh slid back onto her stool and Lexie pulled out her own. She really wanted to share her good news, especially if it would give Leigh something to think about other than whatever was going on with her and Michael, but just how much Lexie shared would depend on where the man of the house was.
