Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (43 page)

"I'll call you at nine.  Be
good."

From someone else that might have sounded
almost patronizing, from Adam it was teasing and not at all filled with any
kind of expectation.  Laughing, Angel pushed him towards his car and got
into her own.

Her heart felt light, joyous and she turned
up the Miley Cyrus that came onto the radio.  If Adam hadn't been watching
as she pulled away, she probably would have indulged in some serious happy
dancing.  

That night Adam called her, exactly when he
said he would, and they ended up talking for hours.  Angel wasn't always a
phone person, and when she told him that he confessed that he rarely talked on
the phone either unless it was to someone who actually lived far enough away
that he couldn't speak with them otherwise, but somehow it was easy to pass the
time on the phone with each other. 

He told her about his parents and their
divorce, which gave her a better understanding of why he was always so rigidly
controlled all the time, and his mother's new husband and life in England, his
father's long-term girlfriend that he refused to marry although they'd been
living together long enough that they might as well have, and a very little bit
about his brother.  She got the impression that he rarely talked about
Brian, and almost never about his death.  Instead she heard about them as
children, playing pranks and accidentally sending each other to the hospital
while practicing their wrestling moves. 

And in return she told him about her parents
and their rather eclectic lifestyle growing up.  Percy's impatience with
his family, her brother Captain Captain and his ship, and the camping trips her
Dad used to take them on.  Mom would come too, but she wasn't a camper,
she just enjoyed being with her family, even if it was out in the middle of
nowhere, but Dad thrived on it.  Adam just laughed, sounding much more
relaxed than she'd ever heard him. 

By the time the phone call ended, they'd made
plans for him to come over for dinner on Thursday.  After she'd spent the
night out, and considering the way things had gone down on Saturday, she wanted
her roommates to be able to get to know him.  He'd sounded a little
hesitant, as if he still wasn't quite comfortable with the idea of her living
with three guys and had hoped to kind of ignore that fact, but Angel wasn't
having any of it.  Adam wouldn't be the first to be taken aback by that,
but she had found it was best to push for acceptance from any man that she was
dating.  Otherwise it was just the big pink elephant in the room that no
one talked about.  

She'd gotten the impression that he was
trying.  Especially in terms of Mike, who she had noticed that Adam hadn't
really spoken to at all last weekend.  But the important thing was that
Adam was trying, and since he was obviously feeling possessive and a little
jealous, which she had to admit she kind of liked, she was going to give him
full points for trying. 

It probably did help that Michael was now in
his own apartment.  Angel was honest enough to admit that if the shoe was
on the other foot, she probably wouldn't like the idea of a woman staying with
Adam, even short term.  But he was going to have to get used to her
roommates, because she wasn't moving.

They ended up talking on the phone all
evening Tuesday too, despite the muttered imprecations of her roommates outside
her door.  She knew that they were a little worried, because she'd never
spent quite this much time on a guy so quickly, but Adam made it easy.
 Fun.  And a little sexy as he would send her flirtatious text
messages throughout the day and tease her on the phone in the evening.
 She flirted right back, of course, and sent him a picture of her in the
red leather outfit, which she was planning on wearing again the next time they
went to Stronghold.

Which would hopefully be that weekend.

******

When Adam's phone rang at 8:30 on Wednesday
night, he picked it up without looking at the I.D., assuming that it was Angel.

"Hey sweetheart."

A masculine chuckle greeted his response.
 "Well hello yourself, sweetheart."

Rolling his eyes, Adam went back to rolling
out the dough he'd been working on.  He'd told Angel that he'd bring a
dessert for dinner at her place tomorrow and he'd decided to make a pie, using
the recipe that Justin had given him.  Made from scratch, filled with
peaches, and hopefully both delicious and impressive.  

"Rick."

"I take it you're expecting a call from
the delectable Angel?  Don't worry, I won't take up too much of your
time."

"What can I do for you?"

"I'm hoping you can put me up for a
couple of days.  I want to come up to your area in a couple of weeks and
do some apartment hunting, I was thinking Thursday evening through Sunday
morning if I can find a place to stay."

"Of course, not a problem."
 Adam was usually the first call on everyone's list when they needed a
place to stay, for whatever reason.  He'd put up most of his friends at
one time or another.  Hell, he liked doing it.  Sometimes the house
got a little lonely.  He'd particularly liked having Angel overnight and
in his bed, definitely something he hoped to repeat again soon.  Possibly
as soon as the upcoming weekend.  "Any weekend you'd like."

"Thanks, man."  Rick paused.
"So ah... things are going well with Angel?"

"Yeah."  Adam grinned.
 They'd talked on the phone for the past two nights, and even more
surprisingly, it hadn't just been her talking.  She'd insisted on an equal
exchange of information, which was something that wasn't easy for him.  He
much preferred face to face conversation, but she was good at asking the right
questions to get him going.  "She stayed the night on Sunday.
 Surprised you hadn't heard already."  Especially since he'd
finally given in to Justin's probing questions and told him earlier today.

"Well... Nothing like hearing it from
the source, anyway."

Adam laughed, for once not bothered that
their friends were talking about him. 

Rick sighed.  "Gotta tell you, I'm
starting to feel like I'm always a day late and a dollar short lately."

"Yeah?"

"Well, I mean... look at it from my
point of view, I was the first one to start really looking around for a
serious girlfriend.  I wouldn't have minded getting to know Jessica
better, even though the Venus School prohibited that kind of thing between
Instructors and students, but Justin and Chris were already there anyway.
 Then she brings Hilary along to things and Liam gets there first."

"Not that you and Hilary would be well
matched when it comes to what you want," Adam said, amused.  It was a
well-known fact that Rick wanted even more control over a woman's body than
Hilary gave to Liam.  In some ways Jessica might have been a good match,
and Hilary might have been a good match, but he doubted either of them would
have lasted long with Rick.  "And neither of them are bratty enough
for you, really."

"I'm just saying, it doesn't seem fair.
 And then Angel comes along I didn't even realize she was
submissive."  The chagrin in Rick's voice was obvious, but Adam knew
that it wasn't towards Angel specifically so he stepped on the little jealous
voice inside of his head.  It wasn't like Rick was going to try to steal her
away or anything.  

"Somehow I don't think she'd enjoy your
idea of punishment," he said dryly.  "I'm pretty sure orgasm
denial won't work as regular discipline for her, she might actually hurt
someone."

"I know.  And it's not really about
her or Jessica or Hilary.  It's just... frustrating to see everyone get
what I want.  Especially when you weren't even looking."

"I was thinking about looking.
 Maybe you need to just stop looking so hard and someone will pop up when
you least expect it."

"Maybe," Rick said a little glumly.
 "I thought about doing the online thing, but even that seems
pointless until I know exactly where I'm going to be living up there.  I
can't wait until this school year is over.  Right now it feels like my
entire life is kind of on hold."

"That sucks," Adam said,
sympathizing.  

"Yeah well, enough about me.  If
Angel's got any cute, submissive, single friends, make sure to send them my
way."

"Too bad Leigh got back together with
her ex."

"Well, I wasn't looking to do the
rebound thing anyway.  And I think she's another instance of being too
sweet for me."

"Very true."  Adam's phone
beeped at him and he glanced at the screen, trying not to transfer too much
flour from his hands to the screen.  "And, that's my cue to go.
 Angel's calling.  Just let me know what weekend you want to come up
and I'll have a guest room ready for you."

"Thanks man, tell your girl I say
hi."

Hanging up on Rick, Adam switched over to
Angel, feeling a little spurt of pleasure that she’d called him even though she
hadn’t said she was going to.  While he might be dominant, both in the bedroom
and a fair amount in life, he could still appreciate being the one to receive a
phone call instead of being the one to make it.  It was nice to know she wanted
to talk to him as much as he wanted to talk to her.

“Hey sweetheart, guess what I’m doing?”

“What?”

“Making pie.” 

Angel’s delighted laugh burbled over the
phone waves.

******

Hearing footsteps out in the hallway, Angel
opened her door and jumped out.  Q stopped in his tracks, unable to get past
her unless she turned to let him by.

“Is this too slutty?”  Angel gestured to her
outfit.

The poor guy groaned, his eyes darting left
and right as if looking for some means of escape in the narrow upstairs
hallway.  Ha.

“Is this a trick question?  Where’s Leigh?”

“She’s having a date night with Michael
tonight.  Come on Q, seriously, what do you think?”

Angel spun around.  She was wearing one of
her favorite skirts, which was navy blue with pink and orange flowers and was
nice and flowy, it went down to about mid-thigh, but she wasn’t sure it was
really appropriate for winter or if it looked like she was trying too hard. 
The peachy-colored sweater she was wearing with it had a rounded neckline that
showed just a hint of cleavage and clung to her body like a second skin. 

“I don’t know,” he said, his eyes sweeping up
and down her body to take it all in.  “You look pretty.”

“Q, come on… seriously, your real thoughts!”

“You look like you’re going out on a date,
not having someone come over for a casual dinner,” said Mark from behind her. 

Turning, Angel ran her hands over her skirt. 
“Really?  Crap…”

“Stop stressing, just go put on some pants.”

Behind her Q coughed.  “Yeah, what he said.”

“Okay.”  Angel sighed.  “Thanks guys.”

Jeans, jeans, jeans… she was
pretty sure that was what Leigh would have told her too. But she’d wanted to
look pretty. 

Tugging on the pants, she looked
in the mirror.  Okay, the peachy sweater still did nice things for her
complexion and hair but now she didn’t look like she was trying so hard. 
But eventually she wanted to be able to wear a skirt around Adam that wasn’t
for the club.  Considering how much he liked her butt, she figured he’d
appreciate easy access.

Sigh.

Something for the future.

The doorbell rang and Angel dashed
down the stairs.  She’d purposefully done dinner to minimize the amount of
things she would have to do now.  Most of it was already done.  The
roast had been taken out of the oven ten minutes ago – as long as Sam had done
the one task assigned to him and if he hadn’t she would kick his butt – and was
resting while the twice-cooked cauliflower baked.  Again, as long as Sam
had followed her instructions.  But there was a reason she’d told Sam and
not Mark or Q; when it came to food instructions he was a lot more reliable
than either of them.  They always forgot what she told them to do. 
And when they were ready for dinner, she would just need to take five minutes
to do the asparagus.

Which meant that she had a good
ten to fifteen more minutes to make sure her housemates didn’t go into their
parent imitations with him.  Sure, they’d had some time to talk to him
last weekend, but that was before they knew she was getting serious with him.
 Well... she thought they were serious.  That had been her interpretation
of his desiring exclusivity, although she'd later realized that he might just
not like to share.  But would they have talked every night this week after
Sunday if he hadn't had some feelings for her that were a little more serious?
 From her experience, that's usually what his behavior meant.

When she opened the door she
wasn't surprised at all to find him looking incredibly good in a long navy
coat.  She could already see from the collar that he was wearing one of
his usual white button down shirts.  The man needed more color in his
life.  

"Hi, come on in."

A tremor of pleasure and surprise
went through her when he stepped in the door, handed her the pie, and leaned
down to kiss her, soundly, before he even took off his coat. 

"And hello there to you,
too," he said when he was done, blue eyes twinkling merrily.
 Sometimes, when he looked at her like this, she wondered how she'd ever
thought him to be Mr. Grouchy.  But that was just part of him too.

"Hey man!  Welcome
back!"  Sam came sauntering into the room, looking quite pleased to
see Adam, which surprised Angel a little bit.  Out of her three roommates,
Sam usually took the longest to warm up to new people.  Not that he was
unfriendly, just usually shy.  Mark was the most outgoing and Q had a confidence
that Sam just couldn't match.  Of course, once you got to know Sam he
talked constantly, he just didn't usually start with people so quickly.