Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (53 page)

"I didn't know what my ideal
woman would be like, but I never guessed that she would have more guy friends
then female friends, or kick my ass at video games, or make me laugh quite so
much, or make me feel like being silly, or make me utterly lose my shit in
front of my friends.  I would have begged if you hadn't been willing to
listen to me before walking out tonight, and I wouldn't have cared who knew it. 
I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in our relationship and tonight I
thought it had because of something stupid that
I’d
done… and I hate
that you felt insecure and unsure of me and I know that’s my fault.

"So, what I'm saying is...
you drive me crazy and I think I've fallen in love with you."

"Oh... Adam..."
 Angel's voice choked up and she launched herself at him.  Well, as
much as she could launch herself when she was already wrapped up in his arms
and only inches away from his face.  She kissed him.  Desperately.
 Passionately.  With all the emotion that had been bubbling around
inside of her since the day she met him.  

Chuckling, he pulled away.
 "What, I give a long, involved speech and all I get back is 'oh
Adam'?"

"How am I supposed to top
everything you just said?"  she asked, gurgling with laughter.
 "Or even match it?"  She stroked her finger down his cheek
before rubbing her hand through his facial hair, feeling almost awestruck that
this controlled, closed-off man was hers and that he had just opened himself up
to her in such an incredible, vulnerable way.  "You aren't the kind
of guy I thought I'd fall in love with either.  Too controlled.
 Almost prissy sometimes, actually."

"Watch it, brat," he
growled.

Angel smiled at him, brilliantly.
 "I love you, Adam.  Every grouchy, silly, demanding bit of you.
 And you drive me crazy too."

And grabbing his lapels, she gave
into the little bit of Domme inside of her that he'd first met and been so
intrigued by, and pulled him in for another kiss.

It would be amazing if he had any
friends left by the end of today.  Free beer and pizza just did not make
up for having to drag the endless line of boxes and furniture up two and a half
flights of stairs.  Especially since it was kind of unseasonably warm for
June.  

"Goddamn, Rick,"
Patrick groaned as he shouldered his way into the front door for the umpteenth
time.  "What the hell do you have in this box?"

Setting his own box down on the
pile that had been started in the corner of the main room, Rick glanced at the
label on the box that Patrick was setting down and grinned. 

"That's gotta go in the
kitchen, it's got the Cuisine Art in it," he replied.  Which also
made it one of the heaviest boxes that he had.  Was it wrong to say a
quick prayer of thanks that he hadn't been the one to have to bring it up the
stairs?

"Well then you put it in the
kitchen," Patrick grumbled.  "I'm done with it."

"Thanks for bringing it all
the way up."

The big man sighed.
 "This better show you how happy we all are to have you up here.
 I'm not sure we'd do this for anyone else."

"No one else would dare
ask," Liam said as he came in through the door.  His muscles bulged
around the box that he was carrying.  Books, going by the orange label on
the side.  Probably some of the heavier ones going by the strain he was
showing.  "When Hilary and I move, I'm hiring movers."

"I'll do that next
time," Rick muttered guiltily.

"Don't worry about,"
Liam said, adding his box to the pile in the corner.  "We're just
glad you're up here.  Plus you've helped all of us move before.
 Turnabout's fair play."

Ever since Liam and Hilary had
become a couple, Liam had started spouting off all sorts of weird old sayings,
courtesy of his girlfriend and her father.  Rick just grinned.  Being
a high school English teacher he had his own language quirks when it came to
old words and phrases.  

And it was true that he'd helped
the others move before, but to be fair, none of them had moved in a long time.
 They hadn't accumulated the amount of stuff that he had at the time
they'd moved.  But every single one of them had shown up today to help
him.  Girlfriends in tow.

Speaking of which, Jessica came
in the door carrying what was obviously one of the lighter boxes.  "I
think this is the last trip!  Angel's got the other box that's going in
the bedroom, Andrew and Chris have the couch, Jared and Adam have your
mattress, Lexie and Olivia are handling the box spring, and Justin and Hilary
have the last box."

"The heavy one?"
 Liam sprang up, but Jessica glared him back down.

"It's not that heavy and
don't you dare insult her by insinuating she can't handle it!"
 Jessica said warningly before turning to go down the hall towards Rick's
bedroom.

He couldn't help but sigh a
little that the first five women in his bedroom weren't there for anything enjoyable.
 

Last summer, almost a year ago,
he'd met Jessica for the first time.  Unfortunately Justin and Chris had
already had dibs.  All three of them had been working at the Venus School.
 Rick had decided to forego the school this summer.  He didn't want
more meaningless sex, even if he'd enjoyed being an Instructor there, he wanted
a relationship.  Had wanted a relationship for a while.

Then he'd watched Jessica fall in
love with Chris and Justin and they'd moved in together.  Not that
everything was perfect with them of course, but he knew that lately they'd been
talking about what form their relationship might take in the future.  For
a while Chris and Justin had been trying to work it out between themselves, but
Jessica had bulled right in there and said that she had just as much right as
they did when it came to deciding who was going to marry who or whatever they
were going to do.  They hadn't worked it out completely yet, but they were
well on their way.  

Liam and Hilary had been next and
they had already moved in together, although they were talking about moving to
a new place since the apartment they were living in now had been Liam's for
years and Hilary was feeling a bit like an intruder into his space.  And,
most recently, Adam and Angel had gotten together and he knew that Adam was
working his way towards getting Angel to move in with him.  They'd been
dating since almost the beginning of the year and Adam made it no secret that
he was head over heels serious about her.  So far Angel had been ignoring
his hints that he wanted her around on a 24/7 basis, but Adam had told Rick
that more and more of her stuff was slowly finding its way into his
house. 

Even Lexie and Patrick’s
situation seemed to be coming to a head.  He'd actually let her onto the
main floor of the club twice now - more if you counted Angel's self-defense
classes that Lexie took part in twice a week, but Rick didn't count those - and
it would be a third time in a couple of weeks.  She was running the theme
night parties at Stronghold that Patrick had decided to allow her to hold for
holidays; they'd done Valentine's Day and Saint Patrick's Day, the Independence
Day party was next.

As the rest of Rick's friends came in the
door, carrying the last of his possessions, he thanked each of them.
 Guiltily, he also felt better when he saw Jared and was reminded that
just having a relationship wasn't what he wanted, he wanted a good
relationship.  Jared's submissive and girlfriend Marissa was off on
another one of her overseas jaunts; she'd been thrilled to be offered a small
modeling contract in Italy.  Not surprisingly, she'd once again told Jared
that she wanted an open relationship while they were apart. 

Man he hated that bitch.

So it wasn't just about having a
relationship, it was about having a good relationship.  But really, Jared
was the only one of his friends who had the kind of relationship that Rick
didn't aspire to.  

He was ready to settle down, find
a submissive for the long haul.  Hell, he'd been looking to for months
now.  Knowing that he wanted to move and then finding a new job and a new
apartment had helped to relieve some of the impatience he'd felt about it, but
now he was up in Maryland near his friends and near the club.  Patrick had
asked him if he wanted to be put on the Introduction Scene rotation, figuring
that would be a good way for him to meet new submissives, but Rick had
declined.

It wasn't that he was against
newbies, but he'd be able to meet those subs eventually anyway.  And he
didn't want to have to deal with the whole, "when to stop doing the Intro
Scenes" issue, the way Adam had with Angel. 

Looking around at his amazing
friends, who had all come together to help him move into his new apartment, he
couldn't help but think about what an incredibly lucky he guy he was in so many
ways.  It was just the one way he was missing that bothered him.
 Going into the kitchen to grab the beers that he'd bought while they
waited on the pizza, he glanced out the window.  He had a fantastic view
of the pool outside from both the kitchen window and his balcony.

There weren't too many people out
there right now, surprisingly.  He'd been told it was a pretty quiet
neighborhood.  A couple of skinny teenage boys, rough-housing in the pool
itself, and a curvy brunette sunbathing by herself.  Rick took a moment to
appreciate the scenery, as she had very nice curves.  It wasn't like he
could enjoy any of the very nice curves that were currently in his apartment,
so it was nice to have a bit of eye candy for a moment.

"Rick, are you getting the
beer?"  Olivia's voice came closer, as if she was heading for the
kitchen, and he turned away from the window.  

"Yeah, coming."  

He grabbed the cooler that was
filled with beer and ice that he'd set up that morning.  They should be
nicely chilled by now.  

Putting a smile on his face, he
returned to the main room.  Everyone was sprawled out on either his couch
or the various chairs that had been pulled over from the dining room area,
looking sweaty but satisfied.  Rick noticed that all of the couples - and
the trio - had ended up on his sectional so that they could sit next to each
other.  Patrick, Olivia, Jared and Andrew were all sitting in chairs.
 Although Lexie was sitting on the ground in front of Patrick, a pretty
frequent position for her.  He wondered when the big man was going to
notice that Lexie often set herself up in the position that would normally be
reserved for his submissive.

"So... I just wanted to
thank you all for coming and helping me out today.  It means a lot.
 Pizza is on the way, and here's the beer."  With a grin, he set
the cooler down in the center of the room as everyone cheered.  The mood
was relaxed and happy, but Rick couldn't help envying those on the couch as he
sat down in one of the chairs.

He hated feeling jealous, but he
had to wonder, when would it be his turn?

Look for Rick’s story,
book two of the
Stronghold
series,
Taming the Tease
,
coming in Spring 2014.

About the Author

About me? Right… I’m a writer, I should be able to do
that, right?

I’m a happily married young woman, no kids so far, and I
like tater tots, small fuzzy animals, naming my plants, hiking, reading,
writing, sexy time, naked time, shirtless o’clock, anything sparkly or shiny,
and weirding people out with my OCD food habits.

I believe in Happy Endings. And fairies. And Santa Claus.
Because without a little magic, what’s the point of living?

I write because I must. I live in several different
worlds at any given moment. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You can follow along with my blog at
http://goldeniangel.blogspot.com/
. I
try to update it regularly.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the
story… and don’t forget, the best thing you can do in return for any author is
to leave them feedback!

Stay sassy.