Chapter 2 The dom

Angel felt completely out of her element. The club itself wasn't as intimidating as she'd expected, but the four men in front of her definitely were. Which, perversely, had drawn her to them, even though she was supposed to be a Domme tonight, not a sub. She figured it would be okay though because as a Domme she shouldn't be scared, right? So when they'd all stared her down, going for a power play, she'd stared back for as long as she could stand it. Eventually she'd had to look away, sure they could see her heart pounding in her chest.

When she'd turned back the handsome blond one was still watching her. She felt drawn to them. Him. Initially she'd wondered why there weren't subs flocking to their table, but after a quick look around she'd noticed there didn't seem to be many singles other than the men at the table. Most people were there as part of a couple. She envied those couples. Especially the woman tied to the St. Andrew's Cross who.was being very lightly flogged, warming her up for a more strenuous workout. Her Dom was completely focused on her, murmuring encouragement as he turned her skin a light pink. It made all of Angel's girly bits throb to watch them. The rise and fall of the flogger had her fantasizing about being in the sub's place-at least until she realized there were

a couple other people watching her watch the scene, and she started to worry they might realize she was more interested in being the one receiving the whipping than in wielding the flogger. So she decided to approach the small group of men instead, justifying it to herself by hoping they could give her some information about the club and BDSM in general. Their collective, appreciative gaze as she walked toward them made her quiver inside a little, but she knew nothing showed on the exterior as she smiled warmly. Acting 101 for the win! "It's not nice to stare," she said mock-sternly, as soon as she got within hearing distance, wanting to see their reactions. The blond with facial hair who kept watching her smiled appreciatively at her scolding; the look of approval in his blue eyes made her want to melt right down into her boots. Up this close she got a hint of his well-defined muscles under the crisp white button down shirt he was wearing. Strange to see a Viking in what she considered a dress shirt. Strange to see a Dom at a BDSM club in one too, now that she thought of it, even if he was wearing it with black leather pants. Tall, dark, and handsome wearing a black cotton shirt and jeans threw back his head and laughed. The other blond, who had no facial hair, grinned and shook his head almost apologetically. Since he was on the other side of the table all she could see of his outfit was the black leather vest he was wearing, but she assumed he had the leather pants to match. The last man had naturally tanned, caramel skin, black hair, and was wearing nothing but leather pants to show off his admittedly spectacular upper body; he just arched his eyebrow at her. The one in the black shirt was casually dressed but the other three together looked like a bondage ad for Studs'R'Us. Eye candy at its finest. "May I get you something to drink, Mistress?" As soon as she approached the table, a scantily dressed young man popped up at her elbow, looking up at her worshipfully. Wow. He was cute, only two inches shorter than her in her boots which meant he'd be taller than her if she had been wearing any other shoes. Too bad she wasn't actually looking for a sub or she'd try to pick him up. "No, thank you," she said. It didn't seem polite to just assume she could join their table. Looking disappointed, the server walked away. "No, thank you?" asked the gorgeous blonde pirate-y man, sounding kind of judgmental. He was studying her like she was some kind of insect pinned to a board.The scrutiny made her uncomfortable, especially because those bright blue eyes looked like they could see deep inside of her, sorting through her secrets. Approaching these men had probably been a mistake, but she'd been drawn like a moth to the flame. Even though tall, dark, and handsome was her usual type, she found herself feeling more interested in the blond. Maybe it was just the way he seemed interested in her. Not just in a sexual way, but he seemed curious and speculative, as if she'd done something wrong or unexpected. Oops. Apparently Dommes don't say thank you? "Didn't your mother teach you manners?" she asked back dryly. "Must have had a strict mother," observed tall, dark, and handsome. "I take after her," quipped Angel with a wink, making them laugh. Okay, time for introductions. They weren't taking the lead so she would. That's what a Domme would do, right? "I'm Angela." She left off the 'Mistress.' None of these men would ever use the honorific for her, just as she wouldn't use any for them while she was pretending to be a Domme. "Chris," said tall, dark, and handsome. "Nice to meet you." He winked at her. There was nothing seriously flirtatious in his face, he was just naturally flirtatious and friendly. "Andrew," said the other dark haired man, reaching out to shake her hand. Angel smiled and responded with her most professional handshake; the one she used whenever she was making a sales pitch. Firm, confident, poised. "Rick," said the blond without facial hair. He shook her hand too. "Well now I feel left out. I'm Chris." Shouldering Andrew aside, he claimed her hand and shook it as Angel laughed. Chris was fun. Turning to the gorgeous blond with the well-trimmed mustache and goatee, Angel held out her hand, arching her eyebrow. He took it slowly, deliberately, almost as if he was testing her. The easy confidence of his movements took her breath away, and the warmth of his hand wrapped around hers was almost enough to make her knees buckle. All of them were deliciously authoritative, but unlike the other men there was something about the way he was looking at her, touching her, it wasn't quite flirtatious but was definitely sexual. Covering her immediate response, which was melting arousal, Angel raised her eyebrows at him and pulled her hand away. "Adam," he said, after she'd removed her hand from his. He rubbed at the sides of his mustache with his thumb and forefinger, observing her so intently that for a moment she worried he knew he'd made her wet, just from his handshake. Jesus, he was extremely alpha and she was a little shaken by how much he affected her. It would probably blow her cover to drop to her knees and beg him to teach her everything he knew, right? Might be worth it "Ignore him," Chris said, fortunately taking her attention before she did something stupid, like confess she was actually a submissive to a whole group of men she didn't know or have any reason to trust. "He's been in a bad mood all night." Adam glared at him. "Would you like to join us?" he asked, as if trying to prove his friend wrong. "Um." She glanced around. Yeah at first she had come over because she was hoping to ask them questions but now that she'd met them she was starting to feel a little unnerved. Especially by Mr. Grouchy, whose intense blue eyes seemed to search her own, as if he could see into her head. Which, considering the situation, was more than a little unnerving. "This is my first time here, I was thinking about taking a look around." They all nodded understandingly. "Feel free to come find us later," said Chris. "And ask any questions you want. None of us are new to public scenieng." Angel smiled and thanked them-since that had been her excuse for approaching them in the first place before heading off to see what else the club had to offer. Too bad she hadn't come in as a sub; she was actually feeling like she would have been able to trust one of them pretty quickly. Especially Mr. Grouchy... but maybe that was just because of the intense spark of attraction she'd felt, and attraction was a bad bet to place trust in. There were plenty of attractive guys who were total assholes. But they seemed to have bought her Domme act and they all seemed experienced, even though none of them had subs with them. Maybe she would swing back around to get some good information off of them after she'd explored. Part of her brain thought that was a great idea, the other part of her brain was already trying to talk her out of it.

******

Watching Angela walk off through the club, Adam couldn't help but notice what a fantastic ass she had. Not just curvy, but the kind of J-Lo bubble butt a man wanted to cup with his hands. The kind of cheeks a man could get a solid grip on as he pounded into her. Shifting a bit uncomfortably in his seat, he turne5d his attention back to his friends to find they were all staring at him. "What?" "What was with the power play man?" Rick asked, looking at Adam a little askance. "You don't usually pull tricks like that. I would have expected it from Chris but not from you." "Hey," said Chris. "I was perfectly polite to the lady." Rick rolled his eyes. "Mostly." All three of them looked at Adam, even Andrew who normally didn't get involved in the interrogate-your-friends sessions. Since he didn't like to talk about his own issues, he rarely got involved in trying to talk about others'. The fact that Adam's actions had aroused even Andrew's curiosity meant he'd been less subtle than he'd thought. "I wanted to see what she would do," he said simply. It was the truth, but not the whole truth. The whole truth was he'd been hoping, from the moment he saw her, that she was submissive. The attraction he felt for her was undeniable, but not tenable if she was a Domme. Not even a switch, because he'd never be able to satisfy her dominant needs, but he'd be willing to try and work something out if she had any submissive tendencies. Even if it wasn't a lasting thing, because it had been far too long since he'd

felt such real attraction and curiosity towards a woman like he immediately had towards

Angela. For a moment he'd even thought he'd felt her respond to him, but the moment was so fleeting he wasn't sure he hadn't imagined it because he wanted something to be there. When it became obvious he wasn't going to give them the answers they wanted, his friends turned to other more interesting subjects. By the time Angela came back, her cheeks slightly flushed with arousal, Adam was the only one left at the table. Chris and Andrew had left together, Chris wanting to get back home to Jessica and Justin, Andrew was just flat out bored. Rick was still hanging on, hoping the club might get better as the night went on. Adam had driven himself down because he'd known Chris would want to go home to Jessica and Justin, and he'd wanted his own car just in case-although right now he couldn't quite say why he stayed instead of leaving, he claimed it was for Rick. But Rick would have been just fine on his own, although company was always appreciated. He had the unsettling feeling he was sticking around in hopes a certain Domme might come back to their table. Which was probably one of the most inexplicable things he'd done in months. And worth the wait. Touring the club had obviously intrigued her. Her breasts were actually heaving a little bit in the tight confines of her top and the flush on her cheeks emphasized the sparkle in her unusually bright hazel eyes and the pretty pink bow of her lips. When her tongue flicked out and licked her lower lip, it did absolutely nothing to help calm the images he had in his head of pressing the head of his cock to her gorgeous mouth. Definitely disrespectful thoughts. If she was a Domme. Not that he would question her if that's what she said she was, but there was something... off... unless it was just his imagination or plain old wishful thinking getting the better of him. He wasn't sure, which was not a situation he was used to and definitely not one he enjoyed. He wanted to sit her down and hash it out until he could be sure, but it wasn't exactly something he could order her to do."So what do you think of Chained?" he asked, curious about her impressions. She couldn't answer immediately because almost as soon as she sat down the young sub who had approached her earlier came up again. This time she ordered a Jack and ginger. Adam watched the interaction closely. Although she seemed to appreciate the young man's obvious charms, there didn't seem to be any true interest there. Maybe the server wasn't her type. Maybe subs in general weren't actually her type, maybe she only thought they were. Maybe Adam was just a big, overanalyzing idiot. That seemed like a pretty good possibility. "It's fascinating," she said brightly. Energy flowed from her, she practically quivered in her seat with it. The bouncy quality of her personality seemed almost at odds with the in-control Domme she'd introduced herself as before, her teasing had been careful but pointed, now she seemed more natural. "I'm not a big fan of the decor, but I love being able to see everything going on. Some of the scenes are..." She shivered a little, a reaction she obviously wasn't able to suppress. "And I do love a good tiki-bar, even if it's not outside." She beamed playfully at him, tugging at something instinctive deep within him that he couldn't quite decipher. If she'd been his sub he would have asked her to expound on what she found so fascinating about the activities of the club. As it was, he held the question in, still watching her carefully. Adam didn't usually make new friends. Patrick, Rick, and Andrew had been his friends since college, after which Rick's friends Justin and Chris had ended up joining their circle. Rick had met Justin and Chris at a rather specialized school and had realized immediately they'd fit right in with his other friends. Jared had been pulled in by Andrew and the two had bonded over talking about their troubled relationships. Adam had been the slowest to open up to all of them, although over the years he'd become friends with them. Still, he hadn't made any new friends on his own since Patrick, Rick, and Andrew. "What do you think?" she asked in return, shooting a quick smile at the sub who brought her drink. The young man nearly fell over himself with happiness at her notice of him, but she turned back to Adam quickly enough, leaving the young man to sigh with regret and trot off again. "About the same as you," he said. "Except I wish there were more single female subs around." Angela's eyes darted away around the room as she brought up the drink to her mouth. Internally, Adam frowned. Had she done so to hide her expression? Taking a sip of drink or a bite of food was a good way of changing the way your face looked. Or was he just reading way too much into everything? Stop it. "Our server seems to have taken a liking to you." Angela's lips curved into a sweet smile as she put her drink down. "He's cute, but not my type." Immediately he wondered again what her type was, the thoughts whizzing past him with no brakes. Did she even know? "How did you hear about Chained?" he asked, even though what he really wanted to know was how she decided she was a Domme "Oh, theater people," she said. "I got into a community theater show recently, one of the crew and I were talking and she mentioned Chained. I thought I'd come check it out." "What show?" This time he wasn't just making small talk, he was genuinely curious. He'd done a lot of theater in high school and college, although he hadn't pursued it since then. Some of his friends from theater had gone on to New York or LA, or were working the circuit in DC, and a few of them did community theater, although he almost never went to see the shows. "The Rivals. Eighteenth century comedy of errors type thing, only this production they've set at an island resort in the 1960s." Angela laughed, a cheerful and forthright sound, loud and clear. He could see her doing theater. Despite the noisiness of the club he hadn't had trouble hearing one word she said. She was obviously very good at projecting her voice to exactly the right degree to make herself heard but not include the entire room in their conversation. "So what about you? How did you end up here tonight? I'm assuming since this place just opened it doesn't really have 'regulars' yet." Adam was trying to decide whether or not to tell her about Stronghold (it seemed a little gauche to advertise another place while still in the club and she might also be like Rick and live too far away from DC for it to be an easy trip) when Rick came back up to the table. "Alright, I give in," he said with a groan. "There are no submissives I'm interested in

here tonight. Unless you're a switch?" The question was said with a complete lack of hope, making it a joke, to Angela. "Switch?" she asked, looking momentarily confused and highlighting her newness to the scene, even if she obviously had done some research. "Someone who enjoys being both dominant and submissive," Adam explained, watching her reaction carefully. Did she catch her breath a little? If she did it wasn't much, and she immediately lifted her drink to her mouth again. "Um, no," she said. "Definitely a Domme." Well that last part was said with complete conviction. Still, Adam couldn't shake the feeling he was missing something about her. There had been some hesitation, unless he was fooling himself. Maybe she was just scared of admitting to a submissive side? Or maybe his wishful thinking was getting out of hand. He really needed to find a sub to scene with if he was going to start lusting after Dommes. "That's what I thought," Rick said with another mournful sigh. "I think I'm going to be getting out of here." He switched his gaze to Adam. "Want to come back to my place for a beer?" "Sure," said Adam easily. What he really wanted to do was untangle the mystery of Angela, but that might be easier done in a more private location.