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“Please do,” Olivia said, smiling with a sweetness that was as dangerous as it was false. “Now if you two will excuse me, I’m going to go find an accommodating subbie to beat on.”
Both men were silent as she left the room, Adam sinking down into one of the chairs across from Patrick. The door slammed shut behind her, and Adam winced.
“I feel sorry for whomever she picks up tonight,” Adam murmured, his hand automatically going down to cradle his groin. Patrick didn’t think the other man even realized he’d made the gesture.
“She’ll choose someone who can handle it,” Patrick said, although he felt the same. But he knew whoever Olivia chose would be ecstatic at her attention, not to mention her viciousness. Just because he didn’t understand the appeal of having his balls in a vise... well, to each their own.
“Can you seriously handle Lexie?” Adam asked, his voice concerned instead of combative. “Not to mention Jake? I’ll tell the guys but... we’re all used to thinking of her like a little sister.”
“You’re telling me,” Patrick said. He picked up the pen he’d been using to do paperwork and then put it down again. “I don’t know how things changed between her and me. I don’t know why. I was thinking about talking to Jake... but then he got deployed, and I didn’t want him worrying about her while he was gone.”
Adam nodded. “When does he get back?”
“I don’t know.” Patrick glanced at the clock. “He’s supposed to Skype me sometime this evening, and I’m hoping he’ll be able to give me a clearer idea. But in the meantime, I’ve started thinking maybe it’s better this way. Lexie is definitely submissive. She needs to be trained, and I don’t trust anyone else to do it right and keep their hands off of her while doing so. If I handle it personally, then I can at least explain everything to Jake and be solely responsible for her. I’m not sure how he’d take me just handing her off to someone else.”
“What if you two aren’t compatible?” Adam asked, his face serious.
That was a much harder question, because it was one very close to some of Patrick’s deepest fears. He really didn’t want to break Lexie’s heart, but he’d rather do that then have her constantly trying to be something she wasn’t in order to be with him. He also didn’t want to lose her family or her friendship, but the way things were going, that was going to happen whether he trained her or not. The best case scenario would be finding out they were completely compatible, she was happy having something close to a total power exchange, and their relationship would just grow and change from friendship.
The worst case scenario was all of this blowing up in his face, hurting not just his group of friends, but also the people he considered his family. He wasn’t actually their son, even if the Standishes treated him as such, but Lexie really was their daughter.
Training Lexie meant testing the waters without actually starting anything with her. If they didn’t match up in their needs and desires, if there was anything they couldn’t compromise on, they’d find out before starting an actual relationship. It would suck, and it would probably kill him to watch her with another Dom at the club, but at least it wouldn’t cause a serious issue with everyone in their lives.
“That’s why I’m just training her,” he said, finally, answering Adam’s question. He knew the other man would follow his thought process, and he’d share it with the others. They might have their own doubts and opinions, but they’d keep it to themselves. At least until Jake got home.
Even Adam was looking a little bit more sympathetic now. “I’d better get out there and start working,” he said, rapping his knuckles on the desk.
“Yes, get out,” Patrick ordered, but his heart wasn’t in it. Adam just chuckled and left.
Bracing his elbows on his desk, Patrick got back to work, doing his best not to think about Lexie or Jake or his friends. Right now, thinking too much was liable to drive him crazy.
Lexie, Angel and Leigh had decamped from the kitchen and ended up in the basement, where Adam had a pretty sweet set-up. The basement was where all his video games were, along with the biggest screen tv he had, and there was even a fridge. Fully stocked with booooooze. They’d moved the food trays down to the coffee table and were now sprawled out across the huge sectional.
“I’m so fuuuull,” Angel said, rubbing her stomach and taking another sip of wine. “Full and drunk!”
“Drunk is good,” Leigh said, leaning her head against Lexie’s shoulder. Lexie hadn’t been drunk with Leigh before, but she was starting to conclude Leigh was a bi-polar drunk. She shuttled back and forth between energetically excited and depressingly morose. Twisting her head, Leigh frowned at Lexie’s half-empty wine glass. “Lex, you’re way behind us. You have to catch up.”
“I am, I am... just slowly,” Lexie said, giggling a little. The truth was, Lexie and Angel were both way behind Leigh.
Leigh poked her in the side. “Come on, hurry up and drink that. There are sober children in Africa!”
All three of them burst into giggles.
“That’s so wrong!” Angel declared, between gasps for breath. Lexie couldn’t stop giggling either, even though it hadn’t really been that funny, but as soon as she caught either Leigh or Angel’s eye, she started laughing all over again.
“I’m serious!” Leigh said, even though she couldn’t stop laughing either. “I don’t want to be the only drunk one here!”
“You aren’t, you’re just the drunkest,” Lexie pointed out.
“I need to be the drunkest,” Leigh muttered, her giggles quickly dying as she made one of her lightening shifts in mood. Angel and Lexie both glanced at each other. So far Leigh had dropped a couple hints about why she was upset, but they hadn’t really talked about it. She just seemed generally unhappy with her boyfriend. Lexie got the feeling Angel had been purposefully getting Leigh a little bit plastered, so she would open up a little bit more.
“Why?” Lexie asked, a little bit cautious. She didn’t want to force Leigh to talk if the other woman didn’t feel like it.
“Just, you know. Stuff.” Leigh said, biting the ends of her words off. Angel and Lexie exchanged another glance as Leigh stared at the wall above the television. Her eyes were unfocused, like she wasn’t really seeing what she was looking at. “I think Michael’s going to break up with me. Again. That or I’m going to break up with him.”
Both of Angel’s eyebrows went up. “Really?”
Leigh gave her a baleful look. “Don’t sound so excited.”
