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“What the hell, Patrick?”
Olivia burst out laughing as Patrick raised his eyebrows. The Domme grinned and jerked her thumb at the irate blonde Dom. “How many people do you get in here asking the same question?”
“On a good day?” Patrick let his voice trail off, both amused and a little pissed. Normally no one dared speak to him that way, and now two of his friends had come barging in, cursing him. Not exactly the start of a good night. Especially because he hadn’t wanted to call Adam in the first place, figuring it was better to have the Dom watching over Angel, Leigh and Lexie. Unfortunately, no one else had been able to come in on such short notice, and he’d been forced to call Adam as a last resort. It was that or be short a Dungeon Monitor. Even though they rarely had problems in the club, Patrick couldn’t help but feel he was risking the safety of his members, and that was something he refused to do. Since the girls were staying in, it should be fine. At least, that’s how he reassured himself. “What now, Adam?”
“Lexie says you’re going to be training her.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Adam glared down at him. “What the fuck? We’ve been keeping her out of the club for months, and now you’re going to train her?”
“What ever happened to minding your own business?” Olivia snapped, stepping up beside Adam and glaring at the big, blonde Dom. Even though she was a little bit shorter than Adam regularly, with her wickedly spiked boots they were right on eye level. All the amusement she’d shown upon Adam’s arrival was wiped away. “What the hell is wrong with you idiots that you can’t see Lexie belongs in the club? And she wants to be trained? Specifically by Patrick.”
Behind his desk, he winced a bit at Olivia baldly stating what everyone knew, but no one talked about. Adam winced too. None of them wanted to acknowledge Lexie’s interest in Patrick, or his returned interest in her, because it was too uncomfortable. It messed with the status quo. It also messed with the group, because obviously people were already taking sides - and there was more than two sides to take.
“She’s too young.”
“There are plenty of submissives in the club who are younger than her,” Olivia said flatly, crossing her own arms over her chest. The end of the crop waved rather threateningly in the air. “Try again.”
“She’s like a little sister to us. It’s... incestuous.”
“No one’s asking you to train her, and if Patrick doesn’t feel that way, then that’s his business.”
“She’s too innocent!”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Please tell me you don’t think Lexie is a virgin.”
Silence fell over the room. Adam shifted uncomfortably as Patrick grimaced. No, neither of them thought that... but neither of them wanted to think about her having sex either. Patrick, because he didn’t like to think about anyone else touching Lexie, even though he knew he had no right to think that way. Adam, because no older brother wanted to think about his little sister having sex, even if she was an adopted little sister. Which, of course, was the crux of the problem. Other than Patrick, who had initially been horrified to realize he was attracted to Lexie, all of the guys saw her as a little sister.
None of them wanted to see her as a sexual object.
In the club, it would be hard to avoid unless Patrick kept her to the private rooms, like Liam did with Hilary. But it was obvious Lexie liked the exhibition aspect of kink, which meant if he was going to fulfill her needs, they would need to spend some time in the main Dungeon. Where her ‘older brothers’ might see her in all her naked, ecstatic glory.
Patrick couldn’t say what had finally flipped the switch in his head, to make him see Lexie differently, but he could still sympathize with what Adam was feeling.
“I just...” Adam scrubbed his hands over his face, one of them lingering to rub over his goatee.
“You just want her to never grow up,” Olivia said, her voice full of false sympathy. She let her arms drop from their crossed position and patted Adam on the shoulder with her free hand. The one not full of riding crop. “She’s already grown. Welcome to the real world, sweetie; where women have male friends and little girls grow up and have sex. I know this year has been oh-so-difficult for you, but you’re such a trooper.”
“Fuck off,” Adam said, brushing her hand away. The others in their group had, mostly, stopped ribbing Adam about his jealous reactions to Angel’s friends, but it was a topic that never got old for Olivia. Probably because she and Adam had always been close, and she thought his reaction to Angel’s guy friends was both hypocritical and ridiculous, along with being amusing. She didn’t have a whole lot of sympathy for any of the guys when she thought they were dealing badly with their women.
Sitting quietly wasn’t normally Patrick’s thing, but he was happy to let Olivia fight this battle for him. For one, his first response would have been to be defensive, and it probably would have ended in a shouting match between himself and Adam. For two, he wouldn’t have been nearly as eloquent as Olivia, because he still wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing. He was doing what he wanted to do, after having resisted those desires for months, but was it the right thing to do?
“What about Jake?” Adam demanded, looking back and forth between Patrick and Olivia. Patrick winced. “What are we supposed to tell him?”
“Nothing,” Patrick said, firmly. “Not until he gets home and then I’ll talk to him about... whatever it is I need to talk to him about at that point.”
“Oh my god, you Neanderthals!” Olivia exploded. The crop whacked down on Patrick’s desk, making both men jump. Not a normal occurrence for Patrick; he’d never been anything but completely in control when in his office. This thing with Lexie had him all sorts of fucked up in the head when he couldn’t anticipate Olivia’s reactions. “Jake doesn’t get a say in who Lexie dates. You don’t get a say in who Lexie dates.” She poked Adam in the chest with the crop and then swung it around to point at Patrick. “The only reason he gets a say is because he’s who she wants to date.”
“We’re not dating,” Patrick growled. “I’m just training her.”
“Call it whatever you want,” Olivia snapped at him. “The point is, it’s her life. She’s an adult, and she gets to make her own decisions. Not that I think Jake will be an asshole about this, but even if he was, it’s still Lexie’s life, not his. You all need to get your heads out of your asses.”
“You don’t fuck around with your best friend’s little sister,” Patrick snapped back, his fist coming down on the desk as he glared at Olivia. “Not without talking to him about it. I get that you don’t understand, but that’s just the way it is.”
Adam nodded, although he turned his own furious gaze back on Patrick. “But that’s exactly what you’ll be doing if you train her.”
“We’re. Not. Going. To. Fuck.” Patrick clipped the words out with finality. Even though the back of his mind was already chafing at the restriction. “What the hell kind of options do you think I have, Adam? I can’t keep her out of the club if she wants to come in here with Michael. Even if I do keep her out of the club, what’s to stop her from going to Blush? Or Chained?” He named two of the other club options for BDSM activities. Blush, despite its discreet name, didn’t have the best reputation. Patrick abhorred Blush because it didn’t screen its members and he knew of more than one submissive who had had an “incident” while at Blush. Incidents in which the club’s so-called Dungeon Monitors didn’t intervene. Chained was newer, and so far they hadn’t heard anything bad, but it was way too far away for any of them to be able to keep an eye on her there.
To his credit, Adam winced and stayed quiet, not having an answer for any of those questions.
“Tell the others,” Patrick said, taking back control of the reins from Olivia and Adam. They both immediately turned their bodies more towards him, responding to the seriousness of his tone. “I’m training Lexie. No one is going to distract Jake by running to him with the latest gossip. I’ll talk to him when he gets back. People can think whatever the hell they want privately, but Lexie will be safe, here, at Stronghold, with me. I’m not going to explain myself twenty different times. We’re not going to have people fighting in the group about this. Like Olivia said, it’s nobody’s fucking business.” He barked an unamused laugh and looked at her. “Hell, if anyone else has any questions or objections, I’m sending them to talk to you.”
