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The bright red lipstick might have been a little much, but it made her feel confident. Something she’d been sorely lacking since yesterday.
Usually she liked to spend Fridays working on new projects to put online for Etsy or working on orders. Today she’d barely been able to concentrate. Yeah, she wanted to go back to Stronghold to explore more, but she had to admit to herself that a big part of the reason was because she wanted to see Master Adam again. He had seemed so... angry with her last night. Even after he’d started being nicer, he’d been stand offish and distant.
But in the middle of the scene he’d been hot, hot, hot.
Angel didn’t like people being mad at her. It made her feel itchy and jumpy all over with the need to fix things and make them right. Of course, there were times when she could convince herself she didn’t care, usually if she was also mad at the other person. But she didn’t want Mr. Grouchy to be mad at her. She wanted to fit in at Stronghold and he obviously had a lot of influence there if he was trusted enough to be doing Introduction Scenes.
Okay, if she was being honest she didn’t want him to be mad because of more personal reasons too.
While last night’s scene might have been amazing because it was her first time exploring her fantasies, she had a feeling a big part of it was who she’d been exploring her fantasies with. The same man who had been starring in them lately. Was it the scene or him drawing her back to Stronghold now?
Chemistry was an ineffable, inexplicable force.
Walking into Stronghold again was a little easier than last night, although her stomach was still churning with tension. Just for a different reason.
Lexie was behind the front desk again, a chipper, friendly face that eased some of the bubbly twisting in her stomach. A new face was guarding the door, not nearly as intimidating as Jared had been the night before. Tall and muscular with spiked brown hair.
“Hey Angie! Welcome back,” Lexie said, beaming as Angel approached.
“It’s Angel,” she said, feeling a little weird about giving a new name. But she’d told Master Adam last night so she might as well keep it up. “I decided to go by my real name.”
“Hey, Angie’s pretty close anyway. That’s cute. Did you have a good scene last night?”
“Yeah,” Angel said, a little surprised. For some reason she’d thought Lexie would have heard about it already. It was obvious she was close to the members of the club, and usually the front desk was a good place to overhear gossip. “My butt was a little sore this morning though.”
Looking rather envious, Lexie gave a little sigh. “From what I’ve heard that shouldn’t last very long unless it was a really hard spanking.”
Feeling a surge of sympathy, Angel leaned against the desk. She wasn’t in a hurry to get into the club anyway and she liked Lexie. It wouldn’t hurt to stop and talk for a bit, especially since Angel wouldn’t know anyone once she walked in.
“Why do you work here? Wouldn’t you rather join the club?” It had to be hard to be on the outside looking in, especially when Lexie very obviously wanted to be in and was close with the people who were.
“I would, but Patrick won’t let me. I threatened to go to another club, where he wouldn’t be able to watch over my shoulder all the time, so he gave me this job. I think he thought by now I’d be frightened off by the people who come in and the very little bit I get to see being out here.” The little smirk on her face said the big man had thought wrong. Angel grinned. Dressed in another fishnet shirt, this one the same color blue as her eyes, Lexie’s lacy bra left very little to the imagination. As did the skintight shorts she was wearing. “Supposedly I’m doing this job until I decide the scene is what I really want.”
“You seem like you already know.”
Rolling her big baby blues, Lexie let out a little derisive snort. “I do. But Patrick’s adamant I don’t know enough yet to decide.” A smug smile curved her lips. “I’m looking forward to getting in for Valentine’s Day. Even if it’s the main room. I figure baby steps are best. Give the guys time to get used to the fact I’m not a little girl anymore.” She glanced down at her attire. “Although you’d think they would have figured it out by now.”
“What’s this Valentine’s Day party?”
At the question, Lexie perked up. “I’ve been after Patrick to do some theme nights and holiday parties. Especially for things like Valentine’s Day. Get attendance up during those times and make them a little more fun rather than having it be a regular night. He finally gave in on the Valentine’s Day thing when he heard about the plans the guy I’m seeing was making.” The gleeful smugness in her voice said Lexie had known exactly how Patrick would react and she had made sure he heard. “Now we’re having a party and he’s insistent since it was my idea, I have to be here to help him run it. I said no until he agreed to let me onto the main floor.”
“You might be kind of disappointed,” Angel warned. “There’s not a whole lot on this floor. All the interesting stuff is upstairs and downstairs.”
“Yeah, but it’s a step in the right direction. I’ve been working here for months now and this is the first time Patrick has agreed to let me step beyond this room.” Lexie rolled her eyes again. “You wouldn’t believe how stubborn these guys can be. It’s a small step for the man, but a giant leap for me.”
Angel giggled at the moon landing reference. Yeah, she could see how that would be true.
“Well I’ll have to come and hang out on the dance floor with you.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll get to do more than that,” Lexie said, with a bit of wistful envy. “I had more than one dominant stop by my desk after you left to ask if you were new and available.”
A flush of pleasure heated Angel’s body, considering at least some of them had probably seen the scene and the tense aftermath. Nice to know someone wanted her. Even if she wasn’t sure she wanted any of them yet.
“Hey guys!” Lexie called out, looking past her. Angel turned to see three very large men and two women walking in, a brunette and a blonde. Two of the guys were tall, dark and handsome, the other had auburn hair and was a little bit shorter than them but built with some major muscle and he moved with a kind of lethal grace that belied his boyish looks. Both of the women hurried up to say hello to Lexie.
Shifting to the side, feeling a little shy now that there was a large group moving in, Angel realized one of the tall, dark and handsomes was looking at her. He looked kind of familiar but where—
Aw shit. She’d met him before. At Chained.
