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“Christina and Paul are starting a scene.” His tone was flat. Gruff. Even to his own ears it sounded odd.
At least no further explanation was necessary. Hilary had seen one of their scenes before and it had distressed her even as it had fascinated her. He felt Jessica’s fingers tighten on his shoulder–in sympathy? encouragement?—and then she and Hilary were both through the door. He had only a moment to glimpse the inside of the room, enough to see Maria wasn’t anywhere within the line of vision from the door, and then it closed again.
Shutting him out.
Clenching his fists, he debated whether or not to follow them. It chafed that Maria had gone somewhere he couldn’t follow. He almost wished she had gone out to the car and demanded to be taken home. At least then he would know what was going on.
“Rick, step away from the door.”
He groaned. “Olivia,” he said, reluctantly, as he turned around. Just what he needed.
Unlike the girls, who had been encouraging and supportive, Olivia obviously suspected he had something to do with Maria fleeing from him. Then again, she could just be reading his guilt. Or he could just be projecting because of his guilt.
The fierce redhead raised one haughty eyebrow at him, obviously displeased he still appeared to be thinking about encroaching on feminine territory. Suppressing an aggravated growl, Rick stepped away from the door.
“Come on, Patrick wants to talk to you,” she said, turning and walking back toward their table.
Under other circumstances, he doubted Olivia would have ever deigned to play messenger for Patrick. He was willing to bet she didn’t trust the other guys to keep him out of the ladies’ room. Really, all it would take was one successful breach and the sanctity of the unspoken rule probably would have been broken forever. Rick doubted he was the first Dom who ever wanted to follow his sub into the locker rooms. The Dommes would, as a group, be pretty pissed about it though. For some reason, none of them ever seemed to have the same need. Olivia would say that’s because none of them ever fucked up with their subs the way the Doms did.
He could feel the curious stares of the other Stronghold patrons as he made his way through the room, following Olivia. Rick was not normally the kind of Dom to be found at the center of a scene like that. He rarely did anything to draw attention to himself or what was going on in his personal life. Which was partly why the attention focused on him when the subs had realized he was looking for something more permanent had bothered him so much.
Rick slid into the seat between Olivia and Chris, who gave him a sympathetic whack on the back, and across from Patrick. It was the only seat left open and it had obviously been purposefully positioned so he wouldn’t be distracted by watching the door to the locker room. In order to see it, he would have to turn his head.
“What happened?” Patrick demanded, almost as soon as Rick had settled into his seat. The big black man looked more concerned than anything, but he was obviously upset about seeing a woman Rick had brought to Stronghold running through the club in distress. Nothing like owning a BDSM club to bring out the control freak in a Dom.
“Paul and Christina were just starting their scene. I didn’t realize they were down there... I don’t think she...” Rick sighed. “Maria wasn’t prepared.” Guilt welled up in him again. He hadn’t done a very good job of preparing her.
“You didn’t tell her what to expect?” Patrick asked, raising one eyebrow. On his left, Rick could feel Olivia bristling. He groaned inwardly; he really didn’t need Olivia deciding to mother hen Maria. His stubborn little tease was hard enough to handle on her own.
“I thought it would be better to show her,” he said, although even as he said the words he could feel a flash of uncertainty flicker through him. Why hadn’t he sat her down to talk things through? Maybe not beforehand, but once they’d arrived... he could have tried to explain. Tried to prepare her for some of the things she might see. Sure, she’d handled watching Lloyd pretty well but that should have just been a good opening. He couldn’t have known more extreme players like Christina and Paul were down in the Dungeon, but they definitely weren’t the only ones who did scenes which didn’t appeal to Rick personally and would be difficult for a newbie to understand.
“Does she understand Christina enjoyed what was happening?” Patrick pressed.
“I’d just finished explaining safe words to her upstairs,” Rick said, struggling against the urge to turn his head and look at the door to the ladies’ room. He would know the second Maria came back into the room by his friends’ reactions. “She took watching Lloyd well enough.”
“You... are you... ARGH!” Olivia made a noise halfway between a scream and a growl as she threw her hands up in the air. “What is wrong with you? I thought Adam had taken the prize for idiocy in the club, but it looks like we have a new contender.”
“Hey,” Adam scowled at her.
“You were an idiot and you know it. Although at least you also knew Angel had some idea what she was getting herself into, so she didn’t get completely blindsided.” Even though Rick was keeping his head down, he could feel Olivia’s glare. He didn’t even try to argue. Testament to how guilty he was feeling. “So you dragged the poor thing here, and she looked absolutely terrified when I saw her in the locker room earlier, then dragged her all over the club without giving her any preparation or a clear explanation about what was going on, and then took her down to the Dungeon and you’re shocked she went running?”
“Of course I’m not shocked,” Rick snapped back. “It’s nothing I didn’t expect in the first place.” Lifting up his gaze, he glared, only to meet Olivia’s flat, gray eyes without even the slightest sparkle of silver in them. Behind him, he could hear Liam and Andrew murmuring something to each other, but he couldn’t tell what. Adam just shook his head and shot Patrick a look, but Patrick was too busy groaning and looking up at the ceiling to notice. Fortunately, he couldn’t see Chris or Justin’s reactions. Like he didn’t know he’d screwed up. “I should have never brought her here in the first place.”
“That’s what you think you did wrong?” Olivia gave him the most pitying, derisive look he’d ever gotten from her. “I was wrong, you’re not an idiot. You’re well on your way to being hopeless.”
“What?” Honestly confused now, Rick turned his head to look around at his friends, seeing if any of them understood any better than he did. They all looked back rather blankly and then turned, almost as a group, to Olivia for explanation. At least he wasn’t alone.
“Men.” She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms under her breasts in a contemptuous motion. “Let’s see. Going by what I’ve seen so far tonight, and the overview Chris gave me, I’ll try to break this down for you. She likes you. Enough that she came here, met all your friends, didn’t run out the door when she realized what kind of club it was, stoked up her courage on her own in the bathroom after all of that sank in, went on a tour with you, saw Lloyd getting his ass beat, and still didn’t run until she was presented with what probably looked like something brutal, unloving and non-consenting... am I right?”
Rick winced and nodded.
“Then she still didn’t run for the outside world. She ran for the bathroom. Not only is she still counting on you to take her home after this, but she didn’t even leave the club. Beyond all of that, I seriously doubt you would have brought her here if you didn’t have some suspicion that she’s at least a little bit submissive. So. Given all of that, and your obvious attraction to her as well as your stated desire for a real relationship, please explain to me why you have done everything in your power to fuck it up before it even started.”
His jaw was hanging open as Olivia’s words blasted through him, along with her fierce glare and the shocked but comprehending expressions of all of his friends, and he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
“I... I—“
Olivia’s slate gaze softened slightly. “I’m going to hazard a guess you’re freaking out a bit, because you finally found someone you connect with, on more than one level.” Uncrossing her arms, she leaned forward and placed one hand on his forearm, which was resting on the table, muscles tensed along with his jaw as anxiety swirled around his stomach. “You’re a bit of a romantic. That’s not a bad thing but I’d bet money you’re already thinking all sorts of long-term thoughts and are worrying she’s going to reject you. So you’re testing her to see if you should even be thinking that way. But that’s not fair to her or you. You two just met. Stop thinking in the long-term. It’s too much pressure, and it’s too soon to start testing her to see if she might be the future-Mrs.-Winter. Now you think about that, and I’m going to go check on your girl.”
