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Huh... this was harder than she thought. Lexie hesitated for just a moment, gathering her courage and then blurted it out. “Patrick and I are dating.”
Which made it sound so much less than it actually was, but it was better to put it in terms her parents could understand. Although, they did know what kind of club he owned, but it was one thing to know and another to know. For them, knowing was more an academic exercise than anything else. Jake’s knowledge was a little more involved, and it still wouldn’t encompass everything.
“Brandon! Brandon!” Lexie groaned as her mother excitedly called her father’s name. “They’re doing it!”
“Phrasing, mom...”
“Who’s doing what?” Her dad asked, his voice sounding faraway since he wasn’t right up next to the phone. Closing her eyes, Lexie stifled another groan, along with the impulse to bang her head on the wall. Well, she hadn’t wanted them to be upset.
“Lexie’s dating Patrick! Finally!” Her mother had moved the phone away from her mouth, but Lexie could still hear every word perfectly clearly.
“Isn’t he a little old for her?”
“Oh hush, don’t ruin this for me.” Mom suddenly spoke into the phone again, her voice much louder. “This is so sweet! I just knew you two would end up together.”
“Geez Mom, slow down, it’s not like we’re getting married!” Lexie said, with sudden wariness. The last thing she needed was her parents putting pressure on their newly-budded relationship. Good grief, at least her dad was a little cautious. Her mom was sounding alarmingly like Hilary’s mother. “We just started dating.”
“Yes, but you’ve had a crush on him forever, I remember when you used to follow him and Jake around everywhere...”
Great, just what she needed, childhood reminiscences about how much she’d embarrassed herself mooning over Patrick. Still, she couldn’t help but smile at her mother’s enthusiasm. In the background she could hear her dad grumbling about how there was no rush. At least one of her parents wasn’t going full steam ahead.
It occurred to Lexie that she took after her mom a bit more than her dad, and she suddenly had more sympathy for Patrick’s position. It was a good thing he was such a strong Dom or she’d probably end up steam-rolling him. Not that her own father was a pushover, but he did have a tendency to just do his own thing while letting his wife do hers.
“Does Jake know? Or are you telling him when he gets home?” Not that her mom seemed to really care either way, she sounded like she was just asking because she wanted to make sure she could talk to him about it too. Probably because Lexie’s dad wasn’t giving her the enthusiastic response she desired and she was hoping for something more from Jake. Poor mom.
“Patrick talked to him.” Which she was really, really trying not to be bugged about. Yeah, it irked a bit that Patrick had wanted to talk to Jake first... but her own conversation with Andrew had helped a lot of her irritation over that. Besides, the point was that now Patrick was being wonderful and possessive and all the things she’d wanted in the first place.
If he’d needed to work out his friendship stuff with Jake first, then she needed to accept it and just be happy with the outcome.
“You two should come over for dinner sometime this week, so we can catch up with both of you. We haven’t seen Patrick in a while. How long have you two been dating?”
“Not long mom... officially, since last night. I’ll talk to him about coming over, but no interrogating okay?” Even as she said it, she knew the plea was probably useless. On the other hand, it was probably going to be pretty entertaining watching the ever suave Patrick dealing with her mom in matchmaker mode. It was something he’d always managed to avoid before, by pushing her attention onto Jake instead.
Her mom sighed, that awful guilt-tripping sigh only a mother could do. “Goodness Lexie, you make me sound like the Inquisition.”
“Just leave the thumb screws in their drawer, okay?” she teased. “So... how are you and Dad?”
It was actually really nice chatting with her mom while she packed up her stuff. When she’d been living at home, she’d always kind of dreaded the nightly ‘how was your day’ conversation over dinner. Trying to find something to say that would placate her mother’s need to know what was going on in her children’s lives, while still maintaining her growing desire for privacy hadn’t always been easy. Mostly she’d gotten around it by asking her mom a lot of questions about her own day. Now, she realized she kind of missed listening to her mom prattle on about whatever she’d been up to. After all, most of Lexie’s current dinners were eaten in front of the television, unless she was visiting her parents (which she was definitely going to do more often) or was eating with friends.
Of course, now her evenings were going to be filled with Patrick. She had no doubt he was going to have dinner ready for her tonight. One of these days, she was really going to need to cook for him, instead of the other way around.
Wanting to spank Lexie for sharing her happiness with her friends wasn’t entirely fair, but he was considering it anyway. He’d fielded calls from Olivia and Andrew first thing that morning, who had been supportive, if a bit wary. Adam’s phone call had been more along the lines of ‘what the hell are you thinking?’ - mostly because of the debacles Thursday and Saturday night, so Patrick couldn’t really blame him for that. Not that Adam had anything against Patrick and Lexie as a couple at this point, he just didn’t believe in rewarding her bad behavior. Neither did Patrick, but he did believe she hadn’t quite realized what she was doing; her apology had been sincere. Besides, now he had the right to punish her.
Justin and Chris had called mostly for confirmation, while Liam, Rick and Jared had settled for texting. They seemed more amused than anything else. From the first call - Olivia - to the last text - Jared, it had only taken five hours for the news to get around their entire group of friends. In some ways, Patrick was surprised it had taken that long. Although, at least everyone had their information right; he supposed it could have been worse if he’d been correcting them.
The interruptions to his day, when he was trying to plan and shop, were not exactly appreciated. While it was always nice to know his friends cared, he could have done without the constant blare of his phone.
For Lexie he’d bought several new toys, including a paddle that had the word “BRAT” carved out of the center. It would leave the word imprinted on her skin when he used it. He’d stopped by Stronghold, just to check in on the job the cleaning crew had done, and to sit down and revise a standard contract to suit him and Lexie. A relationship contract was always more complex than a club contract, but he wanted one in place anyway, so the rules and guidelines for the domination and submission part of their relationship was clearly written out and agreed upon.
He kept the standard one on his computer at work, since he never needed a contract at home, and it took him several hours to get it worded to his satisfaction. Mostly outlining infractions and punishments, as well as duties and rewards. Lexie could negotiate, of course, on any points she didn’t agree with, but he had it written out to exactly what he wanted.
It was the kind of contract he’d only put together twice before, because most of the time the kind of woman who was willing to be a full-time submissive was actually too submissive for him. He needed someone who was still willing to stand up for herself, who would sass at him, and occasionally act the brat so he had an excuse to punish her. Not that he wouldn’t spank or whip her anyway, in a scene, but he needed the satisfaction he got from doling out real punishments as well. Lexie would strive to please him, but she’d never lose herself in a quest for perfection - her mouth would always get her into trouble.
One of his previous girlfriends had completely let her personality be subsumed into her submission, which was not at all what he had wanted. She was very happy now, as a slave with a Master she’d met at Stronghold, but she hadn’t been for him. The other had taken one look at the contract, the clearly written details, and realized his expectations were more than she was willing to give.
Some small part of him still feared Lexie would do that, even though she knew the kind of man he was, but he wasn’t going to hold back, because he’d lose her in the end anyway if he did that. During her training she’d shown herself to be willing to submit, not just in a scene but also outside of it; he just had to hope she’d enjoyed it as much as he had.
Maybe that was part of the reason he’d taken so long to write the contract, and make sure everything was in there. Because he didn’t want her to be surprised by anything. Of course, the constant interruptions from his friends hadn’t helped either.
