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“Yell it as loud as you can, every time,” Angel reminded Priscilla—one of the women who often got so into hitting the pads that she would forget to yell—before moving on to watch the next pair.
Her mind kept wandering though. She still wanted to go back to Chained. At least one more time before she turned around and went to Stronghold. She’d go this Friday instead. Next weekend her show opened and if she went Chained she’d have to stay until two in the morning to make the drive worth it.
Sighing, she reminded herself she hadn’t wanted to run into Mr. Grouchy again anyway. Right?
Angel
Friday night at Chained wasn’t as bad as last Saturday night—it was worse. There were no major interruptions to the evening, thank goodness, the Dungeon Monitors didn’t need to do anything other than walk around and keep an eye on things, but none of the men she’d met last Saturday were there either. She wandered around and watched the various scenes, even met a few other Doms and Dommes who were very nice although none of them were as friendly as Chris, Andrew, Rick, and Mr. Grouchy. As she explored, she found herself feeling disappointed rather than interested. Bored rather than intrigued. The only big difference between this week and last week was no Mr. Grouchy. She found herself sitting back at the table she’d sat at with him last week when everything had seemed shiny and new, thinking about Adam. Master Adam.
Looking around the club, Angel decided there was nothing for her here. Being in the club made her want to shed the Domme persona she was hiding behind and be who she truly was. She felt like she could be brave enough to do so now. Especially, if she went on a Thursday and did an Introduction Scene, the way the club recommended.
With one last regretful sigh, Angel glanced at the clock on the wall and headed for the door, trying not to feel like she’d wasted gas by coming down here. She wouldn’t be back. After this weekend she had dress rehearsal Thursday nights and then shows on the weekends for the next three weeks.
After closing night of her show, she’d finally go to Stronghold and get what she really needed.
On Saturday, Angel met Michael, Leigh, and their friend Owen at the benefit dinner, glad of the opportunity to dress up in her favorite red silk floor-length dress she hardly ever had an occasion to wear. She got to spend some time with Leigh, eat good food, and her date, Owen Michaels, was very charming and fun.
“Your wife is a riot,” Angel said, handing the phone back to Owen after reassuring his wife that he was behaving himself.
“I can’t believe you haven’t seen my show,” he said as they wound their way through the crowd to meet up with Leigh and Michael.
“Nope. I hardly ever watch television. I wait for the shows I’m interested in to come out on DVD.”
Owen rolled his eyes at Leigh as they joined her orbit. “This crazy woman in red has never seen my show, can you believe it?”
“That’s because reality television is made up of a bunch of attention whores,” Leigh said teasingly, laughing loudly.
“Leigh!” Michael’s voice interrupted the conversation and Leigh winced, smoothing her face over in a bland mask as she turned to the businessmen Michael had been talking to. One of them looked appalled, the other amused, and Michael looked infuriated. Angel’s lip curled. Okay, maybe Leigh had been a little loud when she’d said ‘attention whore’ but that didn’t mean Michael had to use that tone of voice with her. And his uptight colleague could suck it.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen,” Leigh said. Although she was in complete control of herself, Angel knew very well Leigh only went expressionless when she was covering up emotion. They’d done theater together so Angel knew Leigh was more of a singer than an actress, and when it came to situations where she was feeling upset she shut down rather than being able to pretend everything was truly alright. “I didn’t mean to be so crass.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Michael said to her in a low undertone the businessmen couldn’t hear. Owen looked rather uncomfortable at the entire situation and Angel had to exert all her self-control not to toss her drink on the patronizing ass. When had Michael turned into such a jerk?
“Come on, Leigh,” Angel said, grabbing her friend’s hand. “Let’s go to the bathroom so these men can finish their super important discussion.” It was an effort not to let any sarcasm drip from her voice but she managed. Lacking the sarcasm made the remark sound even more biting. She could practically feel Michael’s eyes glaring daggers into her back as she pulled Leigh away, but she didn’t care. What an asshole. When had he started acting like this? Was this why Leigh had been so upset lately?
She managed to calm Leigh down, and they returned to the party, yet the mood had changed. Although Angel was glad to be there for her friend, she wondered if she’d have been better off going to Chained.
3
Adam
They’d ended up taking a van down to Chained because Chris, Justin, Jessica, Liam, and Hilary had all decided to come with Adam to “see Rick.” Although it was obvious the main goal was to see the Domme Chris, Andrew, and Rick had told everyone else about. All in all, Adam was almost surprised it wasn’t a larger party. Despite the many questions his friends kept asking about Angela, Adam kept replying she was nice and she was not the reason he was going there again.
Liar.
Although the look on the others’ faces when they got their first good look at the tacky decor inside Chained was almost worth the drive in and of itself. Chris sighed as he looked around.
“I kept thinking maybe I was remembering wrong when I thought about the decor, but it’s worse than I remembered,” Chris said, his fingers wound firmly through Jessica’s hand as she looked around the space with an expression caught between horror and amusement as she took in her surroundings. Hilary was snuggled up under Liam’s arm, giggling to herself with wide eyes. She’d come a long way from being the terrified little tourist who had practically run for the hills after her first night at Stronghold. Liam was a lucky man.
“Where’s Mistress Angela?” Justin asked, scanning the people rather than the decor. His interest was in seeing “Adam’s Mistress,” as he’d been calling her all week, not in seeing the club. Adam had a feeling Justin had picked up the nickname for Angela from Chris, but Chris would never use it in front of Adam because he knew he probably wouldn’t be able to get away with it. Since Justin worked for Adam, he had to show a little more restraint. Beating up his employees didn’t exactly do much for morale, even if they deserved it.
“I don’t see her,” Chris said, scanning the room now for the same thing. “I do see Rick though. Hey man!”
They all turned to the direction Chris indicated as Rick walked up to them, looking rather surprised at the large group. Of course, it didn’t take him long to figure out why.
“Well if I’d known a Domme was all I needed to get you guys down to Virginia I would have found one a long time ago,” he joked as they headed to a table near the bar. Well, some of them. Justin and Chris split off to play with Jessica since Angela wasn’t there yet, leaving him, Liam, Hilary, and Rick to sit at the table. Liam pulled Hilary onto his lap, stroking her silky blonde hair as she settled into him. Both Rick and Adam watched enviously.
It had been way too long since he’d had a relationship. The last one had been Brooke, after college, and had lasted a little over a year. They’d both been interested in BDSM but it hadn’t worked out because the more they’d learned, the more they’d realized they weren’t compatible. Brooke was more of a masochist than Adam was a sadist. While he liked to see a pretty butt reddened from spanking as much as the next Dom, Brooke wanted hard whippings and canings along with a little bit of needle play. Which was too much for him. When Brooke had gotten a job across the country and had to move away, it had been a relief to end a relationship which had already been on its way out.
