Mastering Lexie (Stronghold Book 4) (4 page)

The other subs were ranged
around her.  Not just Angel, Hilary, Jessica and Maria, but also others
that she'd befriended during her time working at the front desk.  Ellie,
who was Andrew's most frequent play partner, had positioned herself at Lexie's
side - although she was also shooting little looks at Michael.  Possibly
disapproving, but in his distraction, Patrick couldn't quite interpret what
those little looks meant.  The only reason he even noticed was because she was
the only sub whose focus wasn't entirely on Andrew.  He looked like he was
holding back an army of rebelling submissives.  

Off to the side, perched on
a bar stool, sat Olivia, looking like Queen Bee.  The fiery-haired Domme
was stunning in all black leather that clung to her like a second skin. 
Her legs were crossed, and the look of amusement on her face was completely out
of place with everyone else's expressions.  

Dammit.

Patrick knew exactly who she
was going to side with.  Every step he took towards the group felt like he
was actually being pushed, down into a pit that would be impossible to escape,
and yet he couldn't do anything else.  Lexie was here, in his club and
ready to scene, but with another man.

Probably the only man who
would have dared to do this.  Master Michael didn't come to the club very
often, he'd been too busy, but he'd had a membership for a long time.  It
had lapsed when he'd moved away and then been reinstated on his return.  A
decision that Patrick was definitely regretting now.  Like Andrew and
Chris, Michael was a bit of a prankster with a penchant for trouble.
 Unlike them, he didn't have a history that would make him feel
protective, like a brother, towards Lexie.

"Move Andrew, you're
being ridiculous," Lexie said, biting out the words.  Patrick could
see the tension along her slender shoulders.  With her arms crossed under
her breasts, the small mounds were pushed even further up than they had been by
the bustier. 

As if sensing his approach,
Angel turned her head and saw him, her eyes widening.  She reached out to
her side and grabbed Jessica's hand, alerting her.  Not that they looked
any less rebellious.  If anything, they looked more defiant than
ever.  Probably because they knew their asses were going to be grass once
their Doms found out what they'd been up to.  They shouldn't be at the
club by themselves, period, much less involved in a mass revolt.  Which every
single one of them knew damn well that it was.  Their awareness of him
passed through to the others next to them.  Both Hilary and Maria
were avoiding his gaze, but then, Hilary was extremely submissive and Maria
didn’t know him that well.  Not that it made either of them step back,
of course.  Even the other little subbies who would normally fear his
wrath were bracing themselves.  Dammit.  It didn’t look
like anyone was going to be backing down any time soon.

"What's going on?"
he asked, pitching his voice to carry.  Not that he needed to be very loud. 
Conversation around the club had completely stopped, so, other than the music,
there was no sound for him to compete against. 

Lexie stiffened, but didn't
turn her head.  He felt like growling as he saw Michael's fingers stroke
her neck soothingly before he turned to face Patrick.  Holding Lexie by
her neck was a surefire way to keep control over her, especially if it was
stroked or massaged, something that Patrick knew damn well because he was the
one that had trained her to it.  She probably didn’t even realize that she
responded immediately to pressure on her neck, he’d been doing it for so long.

"Your bartender is
keeping us from going downstairs," he said, mildly, although his hazel
eyes flashed with amusement that didn't quite go with the neutral expression on
his face.  Andrew bristled.  Not too surprisingly, since he and
Michael had actually become pretty good friends.  The other Dom would see
this as a kind of betrayal.

"Lexie's not allowed
downstairs."

He kept his gaze on
Michael's face as Lexie opened her mouth, her eyes blazing, but Michael's grip
on her neck tightened a bit and she pressed her lips together in a straight
line.  Letting Michael continue to speak for her.  It fucking killed
Patrick to see her responding to another Dom.  The inside of his chest
felt like it was tightening around his lungs. 

"I was informed that
Lexie no longer works for you," Michael said coolly.  A murmur of
agreement went through the subs surrounding them, a few of them crossing their
arms over their chests and nodding.  "Therefore, you have no
authority over her in the capacity of an employee.  My membership has been
approved to allow me to bring in a submissive, of my choice, to scene with for
the evening.  I have chosen Lexie."

Patrick's jaw clenched, his
mind racing as he fought for control over his emotions.  The determined,
defiant jerk of Lexie's chin made him want to spank her ass again.  Anger
swirled, along with a sense of loss.  He was on the verge of telling
Michael that his membership was canceled and to get the fuck out when Olivia
hopped up from her perch. 

"It's clearly written
out in 
your
 rules, Patrick," she said, her voice
hard.  Those dazzling grey eyes of her were as unyielding as slate. 
A small smile grew on her face, but it didn't reach those stony eyes.
 "The only right you would have to deny them a scene would be if
someone else claimed Lexie as his or her submissive."

From the emphasis she put on
'someone else,' Olivia made it clear that she meant him.  Beside Lexie,
Michael stood waiting, looking entirely nonchalant, as if it didn't matter to
him what Patrick's decision was.  But the stillness in the other
submissives standing there, and the Doms hovering on the outskirts, said that
they were all waiting to see what Patrick would do.  If he denied Michael,
it would undermine all of their trust in him.  He made the rules, if he
didn't follow him, then why should they?

His fists clenched. 
Goddamn it all to fucking hell.  

They'd planned every last
detail of this.  He didn't believe for one second that Lexie had come up
with this on her own, and his quick appraisal of her friends confirmed
that.  Angel might look as defiant as Lexie, but she also looked
nervous.  Out of all Patrick's friends, Adam was probably the strictest,
and he was not going to be happy with her.  Especially because she'd
involved Michael.  Adam and Michael got along fairly well now, but he
still struggled with the fact that Angel had a bunch of very close guy friends
and that her friendship with Michael had always been flirtatious.  Liam
rarely punished his fiancé, Hilary, but Patrick doubted she was going to get
away with a light spanking for showing up at Stronghold without him there, not
to mention in support of Lexie getting into the downstairs portion of the
club.  Maria looked like she was ready to bolt, but she was also the
newest member of their little group and probably felt like she’d fallen in way
over her head.  Privately, Patrick was surprised that Jessica had managed
to get away from both of her boyfriends in order to be here tonight.  All
of them had probably lied their asses off to do so.  Which would mean even
more punishment coming their way.

Lexie would have known that
Eric was going to be working as bouncer tonight.  He was the only one who
would have let her through the door without contacting Patrick, because he was
too new to know better.  He was also the only one who wouldn't realize
that her friends shouldn't be here without their Doms.  Having Michael and
Olivia with them would have been enough, he wouldn't have thought twice about
letting them in without notifying anyone. 

Obviously Patrick was going
to have to do a more thorough job training anyone who spent time at the front
door.  Although, now that Lexie wasn't working for him, it wasn't like
she'd know what the schedule was after this week anyway.  Jared or Will
would have never let her in without contacting him first.

The public stand-off worked
in Lexie's favor too.  He had to follow his own rules or invite chaos, not
to mention a lack of respect from everyone else in here for not following his
own goddamn rules. 

"She hasn't had an
Introduction scene," he said, his voice clipped, even though he knew that
the excuse wasn't going to work.

"Michael can handle
it," Olivia said, raising her eyebrow at him.  If it had been anyone
other than Olivia, he probably would have taken them out front to go a few
rounds in the parking lot.  But Patrick didn't hit women, he only spanked,
whipped, flogged and caned them when they asked nicely.  Besides, if he
was being 100% honest with himself, he wasn't sure that he'd come out on
top.  Olivia took her Krav Maga seriously, and he doubted she'd have any
real concern about damaging him, whereas he would never be able to make himself
go all out against her.  "Besides, you don't require an Introduction
scene for submissives who come in with an established Dom."

No, he didn't, although he
usually assigned someone to 'oversee' any new couple in the club for their
first few scenes.  Just as a precaution.  Not that Michael was new
exactly but... fuck, he was going to regret this.

"Fine.  Andrew,
get back to work."  There was a loud exhalation, as if everyone
suddenly started breathing again all at the same time.  It would have been
funny if he wasn't so righteously pissed off.  He looked Michael directly
in the eye.  "I'm going to be overseeing."

Master Michael raised one haughty eyebrow.  Damn, he was
nearly as good as Olivia at that.  Beside him, Lexie looked like she was
caught between being thrilled and scared.

Patrick could only hope that scared would win out. 

******

"Holy shit."  Hilary's soft voice didn't carry far,
probably only Lexie and the others within a two foot radius of her could hear
it, but it was enough to help break the tension she was feeling.  The
pretty blonde almost never cursed.  She was incredibly outgoing and
bubbly, but she was also incredibly prim in some ways.  In fact, Lexie was
pretty sure that she could count the number of times she'd heard Hilary curse
on one hand.

Swallowing hard, she was tempted to drop a few choice words of her
own, but she didn't want Patrick to see how anxious she was.  She'd had no
idea whether or not this would really work.  Just getting into the club
had been a major victory.  Poor Eric, she hoped she hadn't gotten him into
trouble.  It wasn't his fault that he was new and she'd taken advantage of
that.  Patrick was fair though, he wouldn't blame Eric for something he
had no control over.  Especially because Patrick would blame himself for
not giving Eric the four-one-one.  But she knew that this was the first,
last and only time she'd be able to get into the club without Patrick knowing
the second she set foot inside the door.

Only Michael's steady presence and soothing hand on the back of
her neck had kept her from doing anything stupid.  Like opening her big
mouth and saying something disrespectful enough to get her kicked out of the
club, no matter that he’d brought her in.  Respecting the Doms, especially
those who worked there, was a big thing.  Respecting Patrick even more so,
and she had to remember to curb her temper and her tongue, something that she
wasn't used to.  Michael had also kept her from her immediate impulse to
drop to her knees and beg Patrick's apology as he looked at her with those big,
angry, hurt, chocolate eyes.  

She kind of felt like she'd kicked a puppy.  Not that Patrick
resembled a puppy in any way, except for the eyes.

The only thing that kept her from feeling too guilty was that
Patrick was obviously not going to step in the way she'd secretly hoped. 
She'd known from the beginning that there was no way she was going to get
downstairs without some kind of confrontation.  Olivia had promised that
there was nothing Patrick could do to stop them, not without seriously
undermining himself, and she'd stepped in just in time to keep him from saying
anything he'd regret, but there was another option too.  If Patrick had
claimed her, or asked her if he could take over, she could have chosen to go
with him instead of Master Michael. 

Instead he was just going to watch?  If he didn't have those
puppy dog eyes, she'd be feeling pretty hurt and rejected herself, but she
could tell that he was upset in a way that had nothing to do with big brother
feelings.  Not like Andrew, who looked like he wanted to kick Michael's
ass.  She really hoped this didn't mess up their friendship, although
honestly she couldn't figure out why it would anyway.

Why was it anyone's business who she hooked up with?  Or
scened with?  She could kind of understand Patrick's reluctance because of
his friendship with Jake, but why did
everyone
 think they got a say
in who she dated?  And the whole thing with Jake was why she was doing
this now!

She didn't think her brother would be thrilled about her going to
Stronghold, but this was what she wanted.  It was what turned her
on.  There's no way he'd prefer her going to a different club, when this
was the safest and closest one in the area, not to mention, it was filled with
people who would watch out for her.  The hardest part would be if she and
Patrick started dating, and then it didn't work out.  That's why she
wanted to try and push her fantasies about Patrick into reality now, before her
brother came home.  Having him home would just put more pressure on them,
because he’d always be looking over their shoulders.