Mastering Lexie (Stronghold Book 4) (40 page)

"Seriously
though, you're good with him, right?" Leigh asked, breaking up the
incessant giggles and side comments.  "It's not one of those things
where you built up the fantasy and the reality sucks?"

The plug
somehow seemed even more noticeable right now.  Maybe because she was
squirming a bit.  Sighing, she felt herself slumping, just a bit.
 "Everything we've done has been amazing..."

"But?"
 Maria asked, a frown starting to form on her face.  "I hear a
'but.'"

"But we
haven't had sex."

"What?!"
 Angel asked, looking shocked as she put down her drink, an expression
echoed by nearly everyone else at the table.  Hilary actually gasped, and
even Olivia looked surprised.  "Seriously?  You've spent the
last three nights together, fooling around, but no sex?"

"I mean,
oral sex, but that doesn't really count."

"Okay,
Bill Clinton," teased Olivia, laughing.

"Oh, you
know what I mean," Lexie said, although she couldn't help grinning.
 "It's been... mind-blowingly hot, but he makes sure we both get off,
sometimes multiple times, and then he tucks me into bed and we go to
sleep.  Which, I mean... it's not bad, but it's a little
frustrating.  Last night we went to Stronghold, because he likes to be
there when it's open, even if it's just the swingers, and he had me sitting
across from him at his desk the whole night, with my feet propped up on the
desk and my legs spread.  Seriously, he spent hours with my pussy on
display, right in front of him, and when we got home, mind-blowing orgasms
followed by no sex."

"Wow...
that's some serious self-control," Maria said, looking both impressed and
a little bit like she was imagining something in her head.  Considering
that her boyfriend's fetish was orgasm control, it was no wonder she'd be a
little interested in that.

"It's
seriously annoying is what it is," Lexie muttered.  Last night had
been torturous.  Although Patrick had let her read while she'd been
sitting in his office, she'd barely been able to concentrate on her book. 
She sure as hell didn't know how he'd gotten any work done.  Every time
she'd looked up, his eyes had been on her splayed pussy, which meant that she'd
stay wet and ready the entire time.

For a man who
had wanted to jump right into a serious relationship, he didn't seem to be at
all interested into jumping into sex. 

She hoped
tonight would be different, because tomorrow they were going to her parents'
for dinner and she had a feeling that would be a libido killer.  Not
because they meant to be, but just because... well... parents.  It was
harder to debauch someone's daughter right after sitting down for a meal with
them, even if the daughter desperately wanted debauching.

"Have you
tried seducing him?" Leigh asked.

Olivia stepped
in before Lexie could answer.  "I wouldn't recommend that," she
said dryly, turning her attention to Leigh.  "Unlike a lot of guys,
most Doms wouldn't appreciate that.  Especially one who is as big a
control freak as Patrick is."

"Yeah,
whenever I put on lingerie, I never know whether I'm going to get fucked silly
or spanked," Angel said, smiling happily at the memory.

"You
still get fucked after the spanking though, don't you?" Hilary asked her,
looking a bit surprised.

"Well,
yeah.  Most of the time.  But not always.  Sometimes he gets all
control-freaky and pissy about me trying to top from the bottom.  I tried
to explain to him that I'm just horny but..."  Angel made a face and
glanced at Maria.  "He took a page out of Rick's book.  I
couldn't look at my Hitachi for weeks, he made me cum so many times."

"Ouch."
 Maria winced sympathetically, and Lexie got the impression that the other
woman was pressing her thighs together underneath the table.  She'd never
used a Hitachi herself, but she'd seen a BDSM video where it was used and...
yeah.  That looked like some serious vibrations.  It was all too easy
to imagine how something that intense could go from pleasurable to painful
after a couple of orgasms.

"Do you
still put on lingerie sometimes and try to seduce him?" Hilary asked, her
big, brown eyes wide with a kind of morbid curiosity.

"Hell
yeah, I just don't tell him it's because I'm horny anymore."

They all
laughed, and then quieted it down to guilty giggles as their server arrived
with their food.  The conversation devolved, the way it always did, into
more individualized conversations as everyone claimed their plates and the
shared stuff all went into the middle.  Even though Lexie had already
finished most of her drink, she just asked their server for a water.  She
definitely wasn't going to be giving Patrick any excuse to punish her right
now!  

Hilary updated
them all on wedding plans while they ate, her eyes sparkling with
excitement.  Everyone else was just as excited, not to mention full of
questions.  Even Olivia was into it, with some surprisingly good suggestions
about flowers when Hilary said her mother was letting the budget get out of
hand with exotic blooms.  She also warned them all not to go too overboard
with the shower and bachelorette party.

"Aw, no
Vegas?" Lexie complained, teasing.  She'd never actually been, but
she didn't think she could afford to go either.

The
bride-to-be shook her head emphatically.  "Vegas is so not me at
all."

"So what
do you want?" Leigh asked, curious.  Out of all of them there, she
and Hilary were the most similar in temperament, more low-key and not as out
there as the rest of them.  

"Don't
worry, I've got it covered," Jessica said, cutting off whatever Hilary was
going to say.  "It's gonna be a surprise, so we can all talk about it
later, but we've talked about the kinds of things she'd like to do."
 The best friends exchanged smiles.  

"Aaah,
this is gonna be so much fun," Maria said, bouncing in her seat.
 "Weddings are the best."

Not like Lexie
would know, but she was excited for the first wedding that she'd be going to as
an adult.  The last time she'd been to a wedding, it had been for one of
her mother's friends’ daughter's, and Lexie had only been ten at the
time.  The only thing she remembered from it was the bride crying in the
bathroom because her dress had a small rip in it after a particularly energetic
dance.  She'd wanted to do something, but she hadn't known what, so she'd
just gone and gotten her mom.  Twenty minutes later, the bride had
been back on the dance floor and smiling for all she was worth.  That was
the sum total of what Lexie actually remembered about that day.

It suddenly
struck her that one of these days, she could be a bride, and Patrick could be a
groom.  Yeah, okay, she'd always fantasized about that kind of thing, but
the reality of the idea, the fact that it could actually happen... that slammed
into her like a freight train.  Her ass tightened around the plug in
it.  Yup, way to ruin the romance.  A plug in her ass was so not
something she'd dreamed about when she'd had wedding bells ringing in her
head.  One man, for the rest of her life...

Okay, maybe
she could understand a little more why Patrick was taking things slowly. 
Making sure to do them right.  They were old enough that this relationship
really meant something, especially for him.  She hadn't really thought
that the age difference would be that big of a deal, but thinking about it, she
realized that the women all around her were with men that they could actually
picture having a future with.  Fun-and-games time was over for them, they
were all looking at the long haul.  Maria and Olivia were the oldest of
the women, and Patrick was a year older than Maria.  

For him, a
serious relationship with her meant that he was thinking all those same thoughts
about her.  Heat and icy coolness ran through her as the implications all
really started sinking in.  Geezus... Patrick was actually thinking about
marrying her.  Not in an immediate sort of way, but in an "I could
see myself with her for the rest of my life" sort of way.

She didn't
know why the reality was such a smack in the face, but it felt completely
different than when she'd just had the pictures in her head.  

Someone
touched her hand, and she realized the conversations had been going on around
her while she stared into space. 

"You
okay?" Maria asked, looking a bit worried.  "You went kind of
pale for a minute."

"Yep. 
I'm okay..." she smiled a bit weakly.  Everyone else was talking to
each other in private conversations; Leigh and Olivia; Angel, Jessica and
Hilary.  Which was good, because Lexie didn't really feel like explaining
to all of them all the thoughts that had just rushed through her head.
 "Just kind of realizing how serious a relationship with Patrick
is."  Maria looked confused for a moment.  "You're all
older than me, and I don't really think about it often, but I just realized,
you're all at the point in your lives where you're ready to settle down. 
I am too, but it's just... I've never had a reason to really think about it
before now, but Patrick's the guy that I've wanted to have for the rest of my
life, and the idea that I might actually get that... well it's a little mind
blowing."

Nodding, now
that she understood, Maria smiled sympathetically.  "I don't think
our age has much to do with it, honestly.  People are ready when they're
ready.  My sisters were all ready before me... I couldn't see settling
down with any of the guys that I dated, and I am definitely at the point in my
life where, if I don't see a future with a guy, I also don't see the point in
dating him."

"Exactly,"
Lexie said with relief that Maria totally got what she'd been trying to say.
 "I just realized that Patrick must feel that way about me, that
there's a point to it.  I guess... looking at it that way, waiting a
little bit for sex doesn't seem like such a big deal."

"Well
that's a good way to look at it," Maria said, laughing. 

"What's
so funny?" asked Leigh, turning from her conversation with Olivia to look
at them. 

"Lexie
just realized she can deal with waiting for sex, as long as Patrick marries her
eventually," Maria said, grinning.  Everyone burst out laughing,
Jessica shaking her head as she grinned merrily across the table.  

"That is
not what I said!"  Lexie protested, laughing in exasperation. 
Although it really kind of was.  

"Oh my
god, do you think he's making her wait till he marries her?"  Jessica
asked, laughing even harder.

Lexie groaned,
putting her face in her hands.  "If he is, I will kill him."

******

The dojo was
full of men.  Not too surprising, since all of their women were at Happy Hour
together.  Patrick couldn't help but grin.  With the club closed,
since Angel was on a two-week break from teaching her self-defense classes
there, and all of their girlfriends out together, apparently no one had
anything better to do than come practice their Kung-Fu.  Even Chris was
there, and he rarely came, as evidenced by his less than stellar flexibility,
which both Liam and Justin were ragging on him for as he tried to touch his
toes.  

Adam and Rick
were side by side in horse stance, watching Chris in the mirror, looking
completely relaxed as they joked around.  Off to the side, Andrew was
doing his own warm-up, also grinning at, although surprisingly not joining in,
Chris' teasing.

"Full
house tonight," Patrick said, putting down his gym bag next to the others
and sitting to pull off his shoes.

"Almost,"
said Liam, looking up just as Jared walked through the door.  "Okay,
now it is."  He made a face full of pretend-misery.  "Damn,
nobody had anything better to do?  I was looking forward to going home and
just having a beer."

"Sure you
were, going home to your empty apartment and having a beer, all by
yourself," Andrew teased.

"All
alone, in the darkness," Chris picked up the thread, obviously looking to
get some of his own back.  

"In the
dark?  Really?" asked Liam, dropping his act as he chuckled.

"Sure,
why not," chimed in Rick.  "Probably jacking off and crying at
the same time too."

"That's
the best lube," Chris said, nodding sagely.  He grunted as Liam put
his foot in the middle of Chris back and pressed.  Reaching for his toes,
this time Chris almost managed to touch them, since Liam was helping.

"You're
all a bunch of sick fucks," said Patrick, laughing, one eye on Jared, who
actually was looking pretty miserable as he sat down and slid off his
shoes.  He wasn't sure if anyone else had noticed, they were all too busy
joking around.

"He'd
spill the beer if he was jacking off," Adam pointed out, as usual the only
one interested in applying logic to the ridiculousness.

"Not if
he did it veeeery carefully."  Justin grinned and leaned away as Liam
removed his foot from Chris' back and tried to reach for Justin's instead.

As the
ribaldry continued, Patrick leaned over towards Jared.  The big man wasn't
even smiling, Patrick could see, even though his face was somewhat obscured by
the way he was leaning over.  Jared being quiet wasn't unusual, but there
was something more to it.  Everything about his body language said that he
was unhappy, and that he was holding it in.