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Liam shifted and Hilary looked up at him with a demanding look. Covering his smile with his hand, Adam didn’t give away that he’d seen the little blonde pinch her Dom. “You could hold one at my dojo,” he said. “Advertise to the subs here, I bet a lot of them would be interested.”
“Hell, we could have one here,” Patrick said, gesturing at the stage. “Usually I rent the club out Sunday through Wednesday for other groups, but I can co-op one of those nights for classes. Especially since it’s something which would help the subs.”
Looking absolutely thrilled, Angel was practically bouncing on her feet. “That would be amazing! I’ll have to think about ways to tweak the curriculum to apply it directly for people who are involved in the scene. Although it’s usually best to do something like this twice a week, once a week doesn’t give people the time they need, although outside practice is encouraged as well.”
“Mondays and Wednesdays then. It can’t hurt to have extra emphasis on how to be safe in the scene,” Patrick said agreeably. “We try to have a class about that at least once a month, for both the Doms and the subs. Now, does it have to be only women’s self-defense? We have a lot of male subs here who I think would also benefit from having some kind of self-defense class.”
Angel hesitated, her tongue flicking out over her lower lip before her teeth dragged across it. Knowing what they were talking about was serious, Adam tried not to find the gesture erotic. “It does change the dynamic to have any men there at all... especially when it comes to discussions. Maybe I could do two sessions? One all women, for those who feel more comfortable in that setting, and one mixed? They’d run for about an hour each, so two hours total each night.”
And in the meantime, she’d have secured two full sessions of classes for herself rather than one. Adam had to admire her business sense along with her logic. Patrick nodded, apparently willing to concede the point—and an extra night.
“So, no men at the one session at all?” asked Justin, looking a little displeased. Having already been the object of censure, Liam looked relieved he hadn’t been the one to have to ask the question.
“None,” Angel said emphatically. “There are some things women can’t talk about when men are around.” Then she smiled and batted her eyes at Justin. “But we could certainly use some male assistance for the practical exams.”
The big man looked at her suspiciously but there was no way he and the other Doms weren’t going to butt in wherever they could. “You’ll have it.”
“Great!” She bounced on her feet a little bit, looking adorable. Adam wondered if he could convince her to go apart with him for a few minutes now that she was in such a good mood. Leigh and Hilary were talking quietly about the classes already and surely Angel wouldn’t feel like she was completely abandoning the other woman if she went to have a private conversation with him for a few minutes.
But then Olivia asked if Dommes could come and Angel immediately said yes, which led to Justin looking disgruntled again about not being able to be included, which started a debate about whether or not the Dommes would inhibit the submissives even if they were fellow women. Adam wasn’t sure why Olivia wanted to go, unless it was to play mother hen some more, since she could already kick ass when she wanted to, but that was her prerogative.
Justin eventually pulled Jessica away, he’d been so focused on Angel he hadn’t even noticed when Chris had disappeared to go set up a room. Rick was gone too, apparently having picked a sub out of the lounge.
For once Liam didn’t seem inclined to drag Hilary off to a room, probably because she was having too good of a time making new friends. Adam knew some of the friendships she and Jessica had had become strained after Jessica started living with two men at the same time, since Hilary was very vocal about her support for the unconventional relationship.
Adam realized his friends were already integrating Angel into their group as if she belonged. Or was she naturally working her way in there? It was hard to tell, because she was naturally friendly. But he knew his friends wouldn’t have taken as much interest in her if it wasn’t for his own interest, despite what their girlfriends did.
He needed to get her alone to talk for a bit. Apologize. Ask if he could see her again. Scene with her again. Get to know her better.
Just as he was shifting to move closer to her, to ask her to step aside more privately with him, she looked up towards the lobby door as it swung open. Her expression brightened, like the sun had risen in her eyes as the biggest smile he’d ever seen lit up her face. And it wasn’t at him. Jealousy sliced through him as he turned to see who could possibly have put that expression on her face.
“Pretty boy!” she squealed, at a high enough pitch that everyone next to her winced, before she was pelting head-long across the club.
Adam stared. Olivia stared. Chris rubbed his ears, cringing dramatically. Leigh laughed.
“That’s ‘pretty boy?’” Adam asked in a strangled voice.
While he had longish straight brown hair, the ends of which brushed the sides of his square chin, there was nothing at all feminine about the man. He was tall, over six feet and possibly approaching Jared’s height although without the bulk of the other man; lanky but muscular, in the way constant swimmers had long, lean muscles. Which was very evident when Angel literally launched herself at him from about two feet away and threw herself into his waiting arms. She wrapped her legs and arms around him, hugging him with her entire body. Dressed in black leather pants and a button down black shirt and with an aura of authority in his every movement, he was obviously a Dom.
Jealous fury rose, only to be smashed down by more anger. Was this another way in which she’d lied? Did she already have a boyfriend? A Dom? He and Olivia had assumed ‘pretty boy’ was her submissive when they thought she was a Domme. While he couldn’t imagine a Dom willingly going by such a sobriquet, maybe Angel was a brat who said it to get herself in trouble.
“Well he is very pretty,” Olivia murmured admiringly under her breath. Adam shot a glare at her. His temper was already dangerously roiling, he didn’t need Olivia to feed the flames.
Cool fingers touched his hand, surprising him, and he whipped his head around to look down at Angel’s friend. For the first time he noticed Leigh had mismatched eyes; not immediately obvious when you first looked at her because one was hazel brown and the other was hazel green, blending enough that only someone standing very close to her could see they tended towards different hues.
“It’s not what you think,” she said in a soft voice, barely audible over the music.
“What do you mean?”
She gave him a little smile and glanced down at his hands. Dammit. He unclenched his fists for the umpteenth time that night.
“It’s not what you think,” she repeated, and nodded towards Angel and Pretty Boy. Pretty Boy had set her down, although his hands were still on her waist and her head was tilted up towards him as if asking for a kiss, her hands gesticulating wildly between them as she chattered up at him. “They’ve never been an item. They never will be.”
Adam raised his eyebrow at her naiveté.
“I’m not saying they never wanted to be an item in the past,” she said. “But Angel had a boyfriend when she first met Mike. He ended up dating another friend of ours.” Leigh’s lips pursed. “Monica was our other best friend, until she decided she didn’t like Mike being so close to Angel, even though there was no tension between them once he started dating Monica.”
“What do you mean?”
