Mastering Lexie (Stronghold Book 4) (30 page)

"I'm sure
Lexie can figure out her own life," Angel said, rolling her eyes. 
She reached out and grabbed Adam's hand, smiling up at him.  "Come
on, I see Rick and Maria."  Adam sighed loudly as his girlfriend
bounced forward, dragging him along with her.  If Lexie wasn't so annoyed
with him, she'd be able to admit to herself how cute they were together.  

"Come on,
ladies," Master Michael said, winking as he pulled both Leigh and Lexie
under his arms.  "Let's go get something to drink."

Something to
drink sounded good.  Lexie forced a smile onto her face, although it
didn't feel very real.  Glancing over at Leigh, she could see the other
woman looking around the club as if seeing it with new eyes.  New,
possibly interested eyes.  Man, when Leigh let go, she really let
go.  Lexie had just thought Leigh wanted to hang out with the Stronghold
gang tonight, but it almost looked like Leigh was considering doing a little
something more.

Envy panged
Lexie.

Yeah, she
might not actually be with Patrick, but there was no way she was playing with
anyone else tonight either.  Maybe eventually, but not tonight.  It
was too soon, especially knowing that he hadn't even come into work last
night.  Maybe there was hope for them yet.

It was not the
best night that she'd ever had at Stronghold though.  Patrick never came
back out of his office, although everyone else seemed to stop in there to say
hi to him at one point or another.  No one stayed in the room long, and
from what Liam said, apparently Patrick was elbow-deep in paperwork in
there.  Lexie couldn't quite gather up her courage to go knock on the
door, so she just sat out at the bar with Leigh, and they talked with whoever
wasn't scening at the moment.

More than one
Dom came by the table, mostly flirting with Leigh, although one or two made a
few comments as if they were trying to decide whether or not Lexie was
available as well.  It made her wish she'd worn the damn training collar,
because their assessing looks made her more uncomfortable than anything
else.  Fortunately she and Leigh were never left completely alone for
long, everyone came back when they were done with their scene to chat and hang,
and that seemed to be the signal for the other Doms to leave them alone.

The other
thing that got under her skin was the way her friends were reacting to
her.  Not Angel or Leigh, Angel was too focused on making sure that Leigh
was enjoying herself, and Leigh obviously didn't realize that anything was
going on with Lexie and Patrick.  She was out of the gossip loop, but it
didn't seem like anyone else was.

Maria had
whispered the advice to not scene with anyone tonight.  Not like she'd
been going to anyway, but it bothered her that Maria seemed to think it would
start some kind of drama within the group.  Why did everyone think they
got a say in her actions?

Andrew hadn't
said a word to her all night.  He'd just glared.  At least Adam
managed to act a little more naturally.  Liam and Hilary both seemed kind
of stilted talking to her, which meant they'd heard something too. 
Unfortunately, Justin, Chris and Jessica had stayed home... she felt like she
could have counted on Jessica to have her back at least.  Then again, she
didn't need more disapproving stares sent her way by the guys, so maybe it was
better the triad didn't come.  

She didn't
realize, at first, that Olivia didn't seem too happy with her either. 
That hurt more than any of the others.  Olivia
always
 had the
girls' backs, but tonight, she seemed to be avoiding talking with Lexie. 
Even if she wasn't looking at her disapprovingly, the way the guys were, Lexie
felt it just as much.  Dammit, what made her situation different?  

Finally she'd
had enough, and when Olivia headed to the women's locker room, Lexie
followed.  She was waiting by the sinks when Olivia came out of the
bathroom stall.  The Domme lifted her eyebrows when she saw Lexie standing
there, but she didn't look at all perturbed. 

"Are you
avoiding me?" Lexie asked bluntly.  She didn't really feel like
trying to tiptoe around the subject. 

She hadn't
thought that Olivia's eyebrows could climb higher, but they did.  Just the
look Olivia gave her made Lexie feel like shrinking into herself a little bit.
 

"I'm
not."

"You
haven't talked to me all night," Lexie accused.

Olivia huffed
a soft laugh as she turned on the water, bending over the sink to wash her
hands.  "I've been involved in conversations with other people,
Lex.  You could have come joined in if you wanted to."

"No one
wants to talk to me, except Angel and Leigh," she said, a little
miserably, watching Olivia soap and rinse her hands.  It was easier to
admit that when she wasn't looking the other woman in the eyes, because she
didn't want to see pity or approval or... who knew what else.  "Even
Hilary was being weird with me."

"What did
you expect?" Olivia asked, picking up a paper towel, watching Lexie as she
dried her hands.  "You and Patrick had a major blow up.  Did you
really think that wouldn't affect the rest of the group?"

"Why
should it?"  Lexie asked irritably.  "It's our lives, no
one else's."

"We're
your friends.  Both of your friends.  People are bound to feel more
sympathy towards one person over the other, it's human nature.  The guys
especially don't know what to do, because they feel protective over you, but
right now their sympathies are with Patrick."

Lexie made an
exasperated sound, frustrated with the whole situation.  "So what do
I do?"

"Deal
with it.  Either go and make up with Patrick or accept that it's going to
be awkward for a bit while everyone tries to figure out how they're supposed to
act and what is and isn't okay to say.  They're trying not to butt into
your business."

The
matter-of-fact tone and lack of sympathy rankled, putting Lexie's back up.
 "That's not true, they're all glaring at me.  I think that
counts as butting into my business."

The look
Olivia gave her was somewhere between disdainful and pitying.
 "You're the one that wanted Patrick, pushed him into training you,
and then ran out without even talking to him on Thursday.  There are
consequences to your actions, Lexie.  You insist that everyone should
treat you like an adult.  They are now.  Despite the fact that you
came here tonight for nothing more than a childish game with Patrick.  Did you
really think we were all just going to overlook you showing up, disrespecting
him and trying to force him into the role that you want him to play?  If I
wasn’t your friend, I would have blasted you out there in front of everyone for
that bullshit.  You’re better than that kind of manipulative game Lexie, or you
should be."

A tight ache
filled Lexie's chest, pushing her dangerously close to tears as Olivia walked
past and out of the room.  So even if Olivia said she hadn't been avoiding
Lexie, it was clear that she was on Patrick's side about this.  Lexie
was
 acting
like an adult, she knew there would be consequences to her actions, but she
thought that her friends would give her the benefit of the doubt too.  She
didn't think they'd turn on her.  Then again, she hadn’t really thought through
coming here tonight, had she?  She’d just taken it for granted that everyone
would act like they always did – protective of her and indulgent of whatever
mess she got herself into.  She’d just assumed they’d have her back, no matter
what she did or how she acted…  Maybe Olivia’s words had hit so hard because
there’d been a large measure of truth to them. 

Something
about showing up tonight had definitely royally pissed Olivia off.  She was a
mother-hen to all the subs, but if she really thought they’d done something
wrong… well a mother-hen was no stranger to touch love.  Lexie had just gotten
a big dose of it herself, something she couldn’t remember ever happening
before. 

Gripping the
sink next to her, she took several deep breaths, pushing back the tears that
threatened.  She was not going to cry.  Turning, she leaned forward,
staring at her face in the mirror.  Although her eyes looked a little
watery, there was no other outward indication that Olivia's words had upset
her.

She took a
couple more deep breaths before straightening up and putting her shoulders
back.  Olivia wanted her to accept the consequences for her actions,
huh?  Okay, fine.  A few of her friends were pissed.  She would
go home and give them the time to get over it and figure out how to act around
her.  Even if Hilary was being a little weird, and Olivia and the guys
thought she'd done something wrong, they wouldn't abandon her or shut her out. 
Olivia hadn’t told her to fuck off, she’d just wanted Lexie to own up to her
actions.  She could do that.  She'd had arguments with all of them at one
point or another, including Patrick.  Maybe not quite like this, but
eventually things would go back to normal if she just acted normal.

Maybe Olivia
was right and she'd been taking things too personally.  Her emotions were
just too raw right now.  Time to go home and regroup.  If she felt up
to it, she'd come back next week and try again.

Hopefully by
then she and Patrick would have at least talked to each other.

******

The cheerful
chime, indicating an incoming call, made Patrick's muscles tighten in tense
anticipation.  He hit the accept button on his computer and came face to
face with his best friend.  Jake raised his eyebrows.

"Damn. 
You look like shit."

"I look
better than I feel," Patrick said, his voice grating.  Last night had
been another late night, minus the alcohol.  He'd just had trouble
sleeping.  Every time he closed his eyes, he'd seen Lexie, walking into
Stronghold without her collar.  As good as he was at reading people's body
language, he still couldn't quite figure out her motivation.  She'd looked
defiantly at him, as if she expected him to come over and kick her out... or
maybe come over and drag her off to a theme room?  

But, even
though she hadn't said a safe word, she'd effectively ended whatever they had
between them when she'd left the way she had on Thursday.  Still, he had
debated all night whether or not he'd done the right thing by hunkering down in
his office, instead of talking to her.  Not that he'd really wanted to
talk to her with everyone else around.  Besides which, he didn’t want to
validate her tactic of trying to top from the bottom and pushing him into
talking with her, which she’d obviously been trying to do.  Forcing him to
stake a claim the last time she’d come in with Michael had basically worked in
her favor, so she’d tried to do it again.  As a Dom, he couldn’t let her get
away with that kind of manipulation.  Plus, he'd still needed to talk to
Jake.

None of those
justifications had made it any easier to sleep.

"What's
up?  Although I'm pretty sure I know."  Jake's expression turned
more serious as he folded his hands down on the table in front of him.  

A fission of
panic combined with dread slid through Patrick.  "You do?"

"I mean,
I assume it has something to do with my sister.  She's the only person I
know of that can make you look like this."  The little chuckle that
accompanied his words made Patrick feel a bit better.  Obviously Jake
didn't actually
know.

"I want
to date her."  

He'd spent
another good chunk of last night going over ways to say what he needed. 
None of them had seemed right.  Eventually he'd come to the conclusion
that blunt was best, because he didn't want Jake to misunderstand him. 
Also, he didn't want to drag this conversation out any longer than he needed
to.

All traces of
amusement were swept clean as Jake stared at him, looking... not shocked, but
definitely surprised.

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"No, I
know you're serious, but you seriously insisted on talking to me about this
today?  This couldn't have waited until I got home?"

"Trust
me, I wanted to wait."

"Dude...
I have a mission tomorrow... I need to be on point."  Jake groaned,
running his hands over his face as he leaned back in his chair.  Guilt immediately
assailed Patrick.  Dammit, he knew he should have waited.  "I
don't need to be thinking about you and my sister doing... what you do..."
 He made a face, sitting up straight again to look at Patrick through the
webcam.  "Does she know exactly what you do?"

"Um...
I've been training her."

Jake closed
his eyes, his lips moving slightly, and Patrick knew that his friend was
counting to ten.  It was a leftover from their childhood when Jake had
struggled with anger issues.  He had control over his temper now, but
little exercises like counting helped him a lot.  So had the discipline of
being a soldier.

"I needed
to make sure she could handle it," Patrick said, when Jake opened his eyes
again.  "I didn't trust anyone else to do it right or without taking
advantage of her."

"So,
you're not taking advantage of her by being the one to train her?"
 Jake said, sarcastically.

"She
knows it was just training, not a relationship."