Mastering Lexie (Stronghold Book 4) (12 page)

Which, he realized, might be why hiding what was going on with
Lexie was so hard on him.  He wasn't used to hiding anything from
Jake.  Even when Lexie had first started working there, he'd talked it
over with Jake before hiring her.  He'd also seen the hesitation on Jake's
face before Patrick had promised that he'd watch over her - of course.  

"How's the club?" Jake asked, as if he was somehow
following Patrick's thoughts.  He did his best not to keep his expression
blank, because Jake would immediately know he was hiding something.  Instead,
he smiled and hoped like hell that it didn’t look as awkward as it felt.

"Things are good.  I've had to ask some other Doms to
help out with Introduction scenes since our friends are dropping like flies
when it comes to getting girlfriends."

"Good thing Andrew moved back into town," Jake said,
teasingly, and looking a little mournful, obviously missing home.  Andrew
had moved back right after Jake had been deployed, so he hadn't been there to
welcome him back.  "I'm looking forward to seeing that fucker. 
What about Pixie?  She's pretty excited you're letting her on the main
floor of the club."

Patrick couldn't tell from Jake's expression how he felt about his
little sister actually being let through the door of the club. 

"Yeah... she's been pretty insistent about being let
in."  His face felt like it was carved of granite as the pressure in
his chest built.  Should he tell Jake that Lexie had been down in the
Dungeon now too?  

"Ugh..."  Jake ran his hair over his buzz cut and
shook his head, like he was dispelling an unwanted image from his brain.
 "I really don't want to think too hard about that.  It's one
thing to know that your friends are all perverts, it's another to know that
your little sister is."

Definitely not the time to tell Jake about Lexie's most recent
excursion into the club.  Jake had teased his friends often enough about
being 'perverts,' and of course he didn't mean it in a derogatory way, but he
was obviously struggling to come to terms with seeing his little sister in such
a way. 

"Just don't tell me about anything she does at the
club," Jake said, grimacing in a half-joking, half-serious manner.
 "No brother should ever have to know about that."

"It's not that easy for the rest of us either," Patrick
muttered shaking his head, but Jake just laughed.

"Yeah, but she's not actually related to any of you, it's
different.  Trust me."  Jake grinned.  "So what's
going on with everyone else?  Who else has shacked up since we last
talked?"

Like Patrick, Jake was a bit in awe of the way their friends were
dropping like flies when it came to relationships.  He'd heard about Angel
moving in with Adam, and about Hilary and Liam's engagement, but not any of the
details.  They chatted for another half hour, Jake eagerly catching up on
all of the news, before they finally got around to the question that Patrick
really wanted to ask. 

"So when are you coming home?"

Jake's face lit up in a brilliant smile.
 "October.  I should be home just in time for Halloween."

Relief flooded Patrick's body.  That was a month and a half
away.  Plenty of time for him to do some training with Lexie and get an
idea of her needs and desires, but not enough time for them to get overly
involved.  He could hold out for a month and a half before Jake came home
to talk to him.  Even better, since Jake had specifically told him not to
share anything about Lexie's activities at Stronghold, he wouldn't have to feel
guilty about it. 

After all, what could really happen in just a month and a half?

The hangover that Lexie woke up with wasn't as bad as it could
have been.  She definitely felt better than Leigh obviously did, since the
other woman groaned and pulled a pillow over her head rather than getting up
when the sounds of someone in the kitchen upstairs penetrated through to the
basement.  Both of them had slept on the comfy sectional.

Lexie had a hazy memory of Adam coming down sometime in the night,
tucking a pillow under each of their heads and covering them with a
blanket.  He'd picked up Angel and carried her upstairs, unwilling to be
apart from her for even one night if he didn't have to be.  It was enough
to make a grown woman sigh with longing.  Not that she felt that way about
Adam
, but she loved seeing the caring protectiveness of her
friends.  Yeah, the guys could be obnoxiously overprotective and
overbearing, but they were also super sweet sometimes.  Sometimes she got
a little taste of that sweetness from Patrick, but then he would always pull
away again or act like he was only doing it because she was his friend or
because she was Jake's little sister.

Jerk.

Whatever, he was going to train her now.

Feeling surprisingly peppy at the thought, Lexie headed up the
stairs to see who was up and what they were making for breakfast.

******

"Delayed hangover," Lexie muttered as she rubbed her
head.  That was the only explanation.  She'd had a good breakfast
with Adam and Angel, although Leigh had slept through it, before heading back
home.  She'd felt totally fine - good even - until about half an hour ago
when all her energy slowly drained, and a major headache came on. 

Or maybe she was just hungry, now that she thought about it. 
The eggs, bacon and orange juice from this morning had probably worn off. 
Why hadn't she thought about food?

Oh yeah, because she'd been furniture shopping on her computer for
the past few hours.  Yikes... longer than she'd thought, in fact. 
The little jibes that Patrick had given her about the practically unfurnished
space in her apartment had dug a little deeper than she'd initially thought
apparently.

Her phone rang while she was microwaving some Ramen, feeling too
lethargic to do anything more complicated.  Before she even picked it up
she knew it was one of the Stronghold girls; she'd set "Girls Just Wanna
Have Fun" as the ringtone for all of them.  She'd set Patrick's to M.C.
Hammer’s "Can’t Touch This."  Checking the display, she flicked the
phone open.  "Hey Hil."

"Hey Lexie!   How's your weekend going?"

"Pretty good, how about you?  I didn't get you into too
much trouble on Friday, did I?"

Hilary just laughed, which made Lexie feel better.  At least
with Angel and Jessica, Lexie had been able to see what their punishments
were.  Since Liam and Rick had dragged their girlfriends away, and Lexie
hadn't had a chance to call them yet, she wasn't sure what their punishments
ended up being.  Rick, especially, could be a bastard when it came to punishments,
especially because Lexie had heard that one of his kinks was orgasm
denial.  She should really call Maria and make sure she was doing okay.

"No, Liam was pissed, but he had mostly calmed down by the
time we got home.  I got a bit of a spanking, but it wasn't too bad, I'm
sure the other girls got worse."  There was something in Hilary's
voice that made Lexie think the honey-blonde was also feeling a little bit
guilty.  She just wasn't set up for serious kink in a lot of ways. 
She liked being dominated, but most of her and Liam's play consisted of
role-play and him bossing her around.  Lexie knew none of the others would
think that Hilary had gotten off easy though.  Since Hilary didn't enjoy
pain, any kind of spanking punishment was much more influential on her than it
would be on a spankophile like Angel.  

"Glad to hear it," Lexie said, hoping to relieve Hilary
of some of her guilt.  "I hung out with Angel last night and she
seemed pretty happy."

"Oh good.  Jessica said her butt was smarting this
weekend, but she didn't sound like it was necessarily a bad thing," Hilary
said, making Lexie feel even better.  "The only person I haven't
talked to is Maria.  I should really call her."

"I was just thinking that too," Lexie said, giggling a
bit.  She really liked how all the Stronghold girls watched out for each
other.  Sure, they were kind forced into hanging out by default, because
of the guys, but there was definite genuine affection and friendship on all
their parts.  She just had to look at Jared's on-again, off-again
girlfriend Marissa, who never hung out with the group because everyone hated
her, to know how special that was.

"Anyway, I was calling because I have a very important
question to ask you..."  Hilary let her voice trail off expectantly,
obviously waiting for Lexie to ask what she wanted.  Even without knowing
what was going on, Lexie felt the stirrings of excitement.  That was just
how girls worked.  When something big was coming, they liked to draw it
out. 

"Oh yeah?" Lexie feigned nonchalance.  "What
important question?"

"Will you be a bridesmaid in my-"

"Oh my god, YES!  Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!"
 Lexie cut Hilary off, jumping around the kitchen and thrusting her spoon
in the air.  Tears sparked in her eyes from both excitement and warmth. 
She considered the Stronghold girls to be her best friends now, but she knew
that, other than Angel, they all had female friends outside of the club. 
The fact that Hilary considered her a good enough friend to ask her to be a
bridesmaid was a huge honor, and it made her feel all warm and fuzzy and weepy
inside.  On the other end of the line Hilary was laughing in
delight.  Lexie didn't care that she was providing her friend with
amusement, this was just too, too good to be anything but exuberant about.
 "I am so honored!  And excited!!!"

"I'm excited too!" Hilary said with a bit of a squeal.
 "There's a pretty big group of you, so be prepared.  Jessica's
my Maid of Honor of course, and I've asked Angel to be a bridesmaid as well, my
friends Brooke and Cassie, and three of my cousins."

Lexie did a quick count in her head as Hilary rattled them off.
 "Holy crap, that's eight of us!"

"I know," Hilary said, and Lexie could practically
hear
 the
other woman rolling her eyes.  "I wouldn't have included by cousins,
but my mom got all wedding Nazi about having even sides.  It doesn't
matter to me, but it matters to her... and it is nice they're included, I just originally
wanted a smaller bridal party."  Her voice turned a little bit smug.
 "Liam's going to have Olivia as one of his groomsmen, and he's
insisting that she choose whether or not to wear a bridesmaid dress or a tux,
so at least I get to watch my mom struggle with that."

Ha.  Hilary's parents were pretty rich.  Well, mostly
her mom.  She had some major trust funds, apparently, and spent a lot of
time doing charity work and was a really good person, but she also had certain
ideas about the way things should be done.  On the other side of the
equation was Hilary's father, who was a university professor, and didn't seem
to care the slightest about his wife's social rules.  Most of the time,
Hilary was pretty good about following 'the rules,' but Lexie could see some
epic battles coming up with the wedding planning.

"Are you
guys paying for the wedding or are your parents?"  Because that
always made a difference.

"They
are.  I mean, we could pay for it on our own and, I thought about it, but
honestly it's better to just let my mom have this.  We can invite everyone that
we want to, even if it does mean some extra hassle on some things, but it’ll be
amazing.  She keeps insisting that she's going to let us make all the
decisions, even though she pushed for the even numbered sides of the
wedding party.  I didn't have anything against even sides, so that
one just isn’t worth fighting, but I could practically hear her grinding
her teeth over Olivia in a tux," Hilary said, sounding somewhere between
exasperated and amused.   "My parents paying does means we can
invite everyone that we really want to, which we wouldn't be able to afford if
we were paying for it on our own.  I don't care if she has input on a lot
of stuff, but there are certain things that I am not going to compromise
on.  Olivia being one of Liam's groomsmen is one of them."

"She'll
make a hot groomsman," Lexie said.  "Five bucks she chooses the
tux."

"I am so
not taking that bet," Hilary said, snickering.  She sighed.  "I'm
feeling kind of bad about not having Maria as part of my bridal party, because
I already feel really close to her, and I think we'd probably stay friends even
if she and Rick broke up, but we're not actually close yet, you know?"

"Don't
worry about it," Lexie said, reassuringly.  "We just met her a
few months ago, I seriously doubt she expects to be asked to be
bridesmaid."

"That's
what Jessica said too."  Hilary still didn't sound entirely convinced
though.  

"She'll
be fine, trust me.  I didn't think I was going to be a bridesmaid, and I
was fine with that.  The important thing is being invited and getting to
be there.  She's still going to get to come to the wedding, and the bridal
shower and the bachelorette party, right?"

"Yeah,
and the rehearsal dinner as Rick's date."

"Are you
going to do that stupid thing with the head table where you don't let the
wedding party's dates sit with them?"

Hilary
laughed.  "Trust you to come up with the most insulting way to ask
that.  No, we're not.  We've been talking about it, and I don't think
we even want a head table.  It would have to be a mile long, and I am
not
 separating
people from their dates.  That's not an honor, it's just rude.  Even
my mom agrees that it's an antiquated tradition."

Antiquated. 
Now there was a word that Lexie didn't hear often, but that was Hilary through
and through.  Her dad used a lot of old fashioned sayings and terms and so
did Hilary.  Liam was picking up on them too, along with the rest of the
group to a lesser degree.  

"So she's
going to be involved in every step of the wedding process anyway, except that
she doesn't have to spend money or plan anything on the parties, and she gets
to wear whatever dress she wants the day of.  She'll be thrilled."

"Good
grief, you make being a bridesmaid sound awful," Hilary said, giggling.
 "Can you please say that in front of my mom?  She'd probably
faint."

"I'll try
to work it in sometime."

"You are
going to get to choose your dress though.  My mom has agreed to pay for
them just so we can pick them from this fancy boutique that she likes without
you guys having to shell out an arm and a leg - I told her it was that or
David's Bridal because I wasn't going to make you guys pay something ridiculous
for a dress - and I'm just going to choose a color and you can get whatever
style you want.  Oh, as long as it's floor length."  Hilary
rolled her eyes again.  At least, Lexie was pretty sure that she
did.  Even though she couldn't see Hilary, she could just sense it.

"Awesome,"
Lexie said, a bit relieved.  Even though she'd never seen Hilary's
cousins, the other bridesmaids that she did know (and she'd met Cassie and
Brooke once) all had very different body types.  Lexie was definitely the
smallest, in every way, and a lot of the dresses that would look gorgeous on
the others wouldn't look good at all on her. 

They chatted
for a little bit longer as Lexie filled Hilary in on the new arrangement with
Patrick.  Of course Hilary was excited for her, although a little bit
worried about breaking the news to Liam.  All of the guys were so
overprotective of Lexie.  Didn't any of them worry that maybe she could do
Patrick
 some damage?  She scowled a bit as she hung up her
phone and put it back in her pocket. 

It was
definitely Ramen time.

******

Tuesday night
found Patrick feeling much more settled.  The swinging group that came in
on Tuesdays were easy to deal with.  They basically just wanted a place
where they could meet up that was neutral territory.  The bar was in full
swing (no pun intended) as well as the dance floor, and the theme rooms were
always popular.  Especially the one with the giant bed and the video feed
to the movie theater.  The swingers were easy to deal with, especially
because he didn't need Dungeon Monitors since they basically just rented out
the club and policed themselves. 

The easy night
wasn't why he felt settled though, it was because Lexie was back at the front
desk where she belonged.  Wearing appropriate clothing.  She rarely
wore her sexiest stuff on Tuesdays anyway.  The tight, v-neck t-shirt she
was wearing was hot on her, but it wasn't an article of clothing that would be
classified as sexy.

Just knowing
she was there, back under his jurisdiction, made him feel better.  Some
people might think it was a little stalkerish, his always wanting her where he
could see her, he just figured it was common sense.  Lexie had a penchant
for getting into trouble.  Okay, maybe not trouble, but things he'd rather
she didn't do.  That was how she'd found out what kind of club he owned in
the first place.  Plus, he'd picked her up from countless girls’ nights
where she'd been too drunk to drive.  The guys always kept some kind of
watch on girls’ nights, ever since Jessica's ex had nearly gotten into a
physical altercation with them at a club.