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“Anyway, Adam’s taking Angel and me to Stronghold tonight. I think Mike’s going to come too. Come with us?” Leigh’s voice went pleading again, and Lexie bit back her immediate response, which was no.
She wasn’t sure she was ready to face Patrick again. On the other hand... she really wanted to see him. By going to the club, she’d be able to see his reaction to her being there. Get a hint of what he was thinking. And, if he was still being a jerk, rub it in his face that he couldn’t control her if he wasn’t willing to pay the price. Not that being her Dom should be considered a price, but he seemed to think it was.
“Yeah,” she found herself saying. “I’ll be there.”
12
He was getting too old for this shit.
Drinking, that was. Fortunately he’d slept through most of his hangover, but he was still dragging, and his head felt like his brain had started to turn to mush. Andrew had slept over on his couch and hadn’t seemed much better, so at least he wasn’t alone in his misery. They’d gone to the coffee shop around the corner for a very late breakfast, because neither of them had felt up to making anything.
Now that he was at Stronghold, he just felt drained. No more late nights drinking for him. It was amazing the difference between his twenties and his thirties, because he could remember not long ago when he’d have been up and fine a hell of a lot earlier than he’d woken up today. It made him feel incredibly old, especially when he thought about Lexie.
Maybe the age difference between them was a bigger deal than he’d thought. After a certain point, age differences didn’t seem to make much of a difference, but she was still a hell of a lot younger than him. Just because all her friends were older and she acted older most of the time didn’t mean she was actually ready for a relationship with someone who was ready to settle down and soon. Maybe she was still too young for him. Having graduated college, and from the way she talked, he’d thought they were on the same playing field now, but... maybe he’d been wrong.
Ditching him the second he did something wrong wasn’t the action of someone who wanted to be in a real and meaningful relationship. Or maybe it was as Olivia had said, and she’d put him up on a pedestal and didn’t know how to deal with it when he proved he wasn’t perfect. Either way, he wasn’t going to put up with this radio silence from her for much longer. Today she got another free pass, because his head hurt and he was needed at the club, but if he didn’t hear from her by tomorrow, he was going to take matters into his own hands. Because, even if she didn’t want to be his submissive, if she didn’t want to be more than friends anymore, than as her friend, he still deserved better than to be shut out. He’d call her again tomorrow, and she’d better pick up.
Putting his cell phone in his desk, so he didn’t give into the temptation to text her now, he headed out into the club. He paid a cleaning crew to come in and clean the club every morning, and everyone was supposed to clean up their station after using it at night; but every so often, when he needed the cleaning therapy, he would go through and do some additional polishing. There was something incredibly satisfying about polishing the crosses and benches till they gleamed. He also used the time to check over everything riveted into the walls to make sure nothing was coming loose.
On a day like today, when he couldn’t concentrate on any kind of paperwork, it was exactly the kind of activity that he needed. Mindless, yet important.
He did the upstairs first and then finished down in the Dungeon, not coming back to the main floor until people started to trickle downstairs to scene. The time had passed a hell of a lot more quickly than if he’d just been barricaded in his office - been a lot more relaxing for him too. The muscles in his shoulders and neck had loosened and he was feeling ready for the night ahead.
“Hi Patrick.”
“Hey Patrick.”
He nodded his own greetings back to the people coming down the stairs as he went up. It never failed to fill with him a sense of satisfaction to see all the smiling faces in his club, knowing he was providing them with a safe place to come play. Master Will was headed downstairs with Gina again. Nice to know someone’s relationship was working out, he thought. Even if his wasn’t, he could feel good about other peoples’.
The bar and Lounge were filling up with people. Doms and Dommes mostly at the bar, subbies kneeling in the Lounge, giggling to each other while they waited to see if someone wanted to play. There were a few subs at the tables around the bar as well, either because they were with someone, they weren’t ready to play yet, or they were just there to socialize. Most of the single ones stayed in the Lounge though, to talk with their friends, because they weren’t as comfortable surrounded by dominants.
A few people were already on the dance floor, with varying degrees of intimacy, bodies undulating against each other. Olivia was dancing with Lance, a rather beefy sub who came in on occasion. At one point, the guys all thought there might be something between the two of them, because Lance was definitely her type, but Olivia said she needed the scene more than he did. He only came in every couple of months to fulfill his needs in a scene, but outside of the scene he wasn’t interested in submitting. Olivia preferred to be in charge ninety-nine percent of the time in the bedroom, which Patrick could understand since he preferred it one hundred percent of the time.
“You look better than you did this morning,” Andrew said, when Patrick slid into a seat at the bar next to Maria. Rick was standing behind her, one arm wrapped around her body, his free hand holding his beer as they chatted with Andrew.
“I feel better,” Patrick said, smiling at Maria, who ducked her head slightly. It always amused Patrick to see how intimidated she became in the club, because outside of it she was all confidence and sass. “Nice to see you two out and about. Are you scening tonight?”
“Yeah, I’ve reserved the Locker Room,” Rick said, grinning. “Apparently Maria had a thing for the wrestling team in high school.”
“What can I say?” she asked, tilting her head back to look at her boyfriend with sparkling eyes. “They were hot. But you’re hotter.”
“Glad to hear it, gorgeous,” Rick said, laughing as he kissed her temple.
As happy as he was for his friends, Patrick couldn’t stop the envy welling inside of him. On the other side of the bar, Andrew was just shaking his head, an indulgent smile on his face. Still, Patrick had to wonder if seeing all these couples was just as hard on Andrew as it was on him. After all, Andrew had been the first to try and have a serious relationship with a woman who was both his girlfriend and his submissive. One which had crashed and burned badly enough he hadn’t tried again. Then again, since he wasn’t interested in trying again, maybe it didn’t bother him.
“Does that mean you brought one of those unitards to wear?” Andrew asked, amused.
“Hell no,” Rick said, scowling as Maria burst into giggles at the idea. “I’d look fucking ridiculous.”
“If you were serious about the role-play, you would have,” teased Andrew, winking at Maria. “You should have insisted, sweetheart.”
“Maybe I’ll just suggest the scenario to Hilary,” she said, giggling again. They all laughed then, because Liam was dedicated to his role-play, but it was doubtful he could ever be talked into one of those outfits. The farthest Patrick had seen him go was when he’d worn a football jersey to play with Hilary in the Locker Room, a wrestling unitard would be a whole other level.
“Oh fuck...” Andrew suddenly said, his face sobering as he stared towards the door.
Some instinct tapped at Patrick’s consciousness, and somehow he knew what he was going to see before he even turned to look.
Lexie.
