Normally, Leigh wore nothing but classy little suits and stylish outfits, helping her present a certain 'image' to the world. It was all for the good of her long-term boyfriend, Michael Rock, whom she'd been dating since their freshman year of college. Leigh used to be a theater person, too. That's how Angel had met her in high school when Leigh tried out for the school show, but that part of Leigh's life had slowly been taken over by the many dinners and events she had to attend with Michael. She needed a more flexible schedule than even community theater could provide in order to be there fully for him. Fortunately, her job as a high school English teacher meant she had a lot of time in the evenings and on weekends as long as she had time to plan her classes and grade papers. However, whenever she came over looking like this it meant there was trouble in paradise again. Angel had really liked Michael at first. He was charming, charismatic, and head over heels for Leigh. At least, he had been in college. Neither of them had dated very much in high school, they'd been each other's first real relationship, and they had both been virgins when they met. For a while it looked like true love and Leigh was still convinced Michael was her soul mate, but last year they'd gone on a break because he wanted to try dating other people to make sure she was 'the one' for him. Apparently, he couldn't know for sure without dating other women. At the time Leigh said she understood, and Angel supposed she kind of did too, but Angel had a feeling it was more about the teasing he'd gotten from some of his friends who'd realized he'd only ever had sex with one woman in his entire life than about true uncertainty over whether or not Leigh was who he wanted to be with for the rest of his life. Fortunately for Leigh's heart it had only taken him three weeks (and a few failed attempts at getting a date) to realize he was being an idiot and Leigh was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Plus, realizing there were plenty of other guys interested in Leigh. Angel hadn't really trusted Michael since, although Leigh had thrown herself completely back into the relationship, just as starry eyed as ever. "Leigh?" Angel asked, closing the front door as her friend didn't answer. Whatever it was it couldn't be too bad because Leigh didn't look like she'd been crying. She just looked upset. "I don't know," said her friend with a sigh. Her mismatched eyes looked miserable as she met Angel's gaze, one greenish hazel and the other just hazel, framed by some of the longest lashes Angel had ever seen. There were times when she'd joked about finding a way to steal them from her. "Michael's acting weird again and I'm just...Annoyed. Frustrated. Antsy." "Come into the kitchen and tell me about it," Angel said, giving her friend a big hug. Leigh clung to her for a moment before letting go and they went into the kitchen. "Where are the guys?" Leigh asked, referring Angel's housemates. Angel had responded to a Craig's list ad three years ago and ended up getting along so well with the guys when she first met them that they'd accepted her application immediately and they were all still living together in the same house three years later. Leigh liked them too, although she preferred not to talk about her Michael-issues when they were around because they'd get all defensively protective, despite the fact that they weren't exactly poster boys for male aggression. Angel snorted. "They're at a LAN party so they've been gone all weekend. I don't expect them back until late tonight." About six times a year her housemates would go to a friend's, hook up their computers with about five other guys, and play whatever new gaming release had just come out. Or they'd have friends over to do so at the house. They were always trying to get her to start gaming with them, especially World of Warcraft, but she already knew she didn't have the time for the kind of commitment they gave to their characters. She also knew if she started, she probably wouldn't be able to stop, so it was better to just never start. Grabbing the hand mixer off the counter and returning her recipe, she flipped the mixer on again, cupping her hand around the edge of the bowl to keep the dough from flying out. "What are you making?" Leigh asked, speaking extra loudly to be heard over the whirring. "Salted caramel butter bars. I just need to run the mixer for another minute and then we can talk." Pulling over one of the chairs from the table in the breakfast nook, Leigh scooted it closer to Angel as she watched the mixing process. The kitchen was a little warm, thanks to the pre-heating oven, but Angel had the window open to let in some of the icy winter air to counteract how warm the kitchen got when she was baking. Once the batter was evenly mixed, Angel put the hand mixer to the side and divided half of the dough to go into the bottom of the greased pan. "Okay, speak." "I mean... I can't really pin anything down. He's just being distant. And every time he gets distant I get paranoid." "Isn't he in the middle of some big project right now?" Angel didn't entirely understand what Michael did. Something to do with business consulting about... something. She had the bad habit of letting people run on and on about work and just letting it go in one ear and fly out the other. There was a reason she didn't have an office job. "Yeah, the one in London. They're looking to start trying to branch out to the international market and possibly open an office over there, and he's in the thick of things." "So maybe he's just really busy with work stuff. That sounds like a lot of pressure." While Angel didn't really like Michael, she often found herself playing Devil's Advocate for him ever since he'd broken Leigh's heart. Leigh's heart had healed enough to give him another chance, but Leigh also still worried sometimes that he was going to do it again. Especially since he hadn't really gotten the experiences in dating other people he'd claimed had been the whole reason he'd broken up with her. She admitted to Angel she would have found it more reassuring if he had seen other people and then chosen to come back to her. She was so torn up by the idea of him being with anyone else that she had grabbed the chance when he returned to her. But it didn't stop the fear he'd one day decide getting back together with her was the larger mistake. Pouring the melted caramel layer on top of packed down dough, Angel sprinkled a little bit of champagne sea salt she'd gotten from a specialty store over the caramel before crumbling the remaining dough to make the top layer of the bars. Glancing at her friend she could see the worry still on Leigh's face and her stomach clenched. Leigh's instincts might be all messed up since last year when it came to Michael, but she usually saw reason once Angel reassured her. The fact that she was obviously still anxious made Angel even more anxious. "He hasn't wanted to have sex this week." "That happens sometimes," said Angel soothingly, although she knew the truth was it rarely happened with Michael. Leigh didn't believe in TMI, not when it came to her best friend, and so Angel was well aware Michael and Leigh's sex life was pretty regular. As in once a day regular, or at least every other day; sometimes more if Michael was stressed or under pressure and needed an outlet. Privately she'd sometimes wondered if that was the real reason Michael had come crawling back to Leigh after a mere three weeks, because he'd realized he couldn't get steady, reliable, safe sex as a single man. Especially a single man just out of a six year relationship who didn't have the time to build a new one due to work and yet also didn't believe in one night stands. "Not with us," Leigh said, shooting her a look which said she knew Angel knew better. Angel pursed her lips. There really wasn't much she could say on the topic she hadn't already said before and she didn't think Leigh needed to hear more on Angel's theory that Michael used her for sex. Well, and because Angel believed he truly did care about Leigh, although she didn't believe for a second he cared more about Leigh than he cared about himself. But the remnant of love he carried was just enough for Leigh to survive on. Of course, that was just Angel's opinion and she also knew she couldn't see what happened when it was just Leigh and Michael alone. She could see he treated her well for the most part. Angel just couldn't get over the callous way he'd treated their short separation and the reasons he claimed he'd come back after his failure at dating someone new. Angel felt protective over her friend, even though she knew her opinion on their relationship didn't actually matter in the long run. Leigh sighed and rubbed her hands over her face as Angel popped the pan into the oven. "Let's watch The Tudors and have some wine, we still haven't finished watching the fourth season." Probably because it wasn't nearly as interesting as the previous seasons, but both of them loved that point in history and were determined to finish it. Sure it wasn't completely historically accurate, but overall the series had done a pretty decent job. It was their standard downtime activity. They'd lived together for a while during college, before Michael and Leigh moved in together, and had often indulged in days of sitting around marathoning various television shows while eating junk food. Pretty standard girl stuff actually. Leigh brightened a little. "Got any tater tots?" "Better, smiley fries." Angel grinned as she pulled them out of the freezer. They'd take a little longer because the caramel bars needed a lower temperature than the smiley fries, but that didn't matter. They could wait. "They're just so happy to be eaten!" The girls giggled as Angel dumped the fries onto a tray and Leigh got out the wine and wine glasses, already looking a little better just at the thought of having some Angel and Leigh time. About an hour later they were ignoring the smiley fries and gorging on the salted caramel butter bars, which had to be the best freaking thing Angel had ever tasted in her life. "We can't eat all of these," she said for about the tenth time as she picked up her fourth one. "There's a pound of butter in them. Don't let me forget that." She was pretty sure she could actually feel her arteries clogging with every bite, and yet she couldn't stop. "That's only half a pound each if we share the whole thing," said Leigh rubbing her stomach. She was on her fifth one. They'd eaten about a third of the pan already. They were warm, crumbly, caramel perfection, with a little bit of salt to balance out the sweet and tingle their taste buds, and wonderfully gooey, melted yummies. "What else are you going to do with them?" "What I do with all my leftovers, leave them out for when the guys come home." Angel smiled smugly. During the past year she'd picked up on the perfect way to try out her recipes without gaining a hundred pounds: bake when the guys weren't home, eat what she wanted while it was still warm from the oven, and feed the rest to the human garbage disposals she lived with. "This is the perfect pick-me-up food. Mmmmmm. Oooooo that's good." Leigh let out a moan better suited to sex than food. They'd both been doing that all morning. Fortunately, the weather was way too cold in January for the windows to be open so the neighbors couldn't hear them or they'd probably think there was an orgy going on. Of course, that just made Angel think of all the incredibly sexy, authoritative men she'd met last night. Mmm... Dom orgy. Maybe one in particular. Just thinking about the way Adam's eyes had seemed to burrow into her, demanding all of her secrets, made her insides clench. "What's that look for?" Leigh asked, her own eyes looking rather demanding. They'd known each other for long enough she could read Angel like a book. She sat up, looking excited. "You got all far away and dreamy looking. It's about a guy, isn't it?" Angel moaned and picked up a pillow, burying her face in it for a moment. Her friend knew her way too well. "I met a guy yes, and he's super-hot and incredibly sexy and no I'm not seeing him again. I just met him at a club." "When?" She hesitated. "Last night." "I thought you were staying in last night." Leigh was looking at her expectantly. Angel felt like burying her face in the pillow again. Even though they were seated on opposite sides of the couch she knew Leigh wasn't going to give this a rest, and if Angel took too long about answering she'd find Leigh invading her side of the couch and probably poking Angel's side with her finger. First came the begging though. "Come on Angel, I need to live vicariously through my single friends. It will make me feel better and distract me from all my woes." She gave Angel a comically miserable face with her lower lip pouted out, but Angel could still see the real hurt in her friend's eyes, the desire to forget about her problems with Michael. "Okay but you can't tell anyone." Leigh rolled her eyes. "You know I won't." "I know, but I'm just saying. Like, seriously. This is kind of embarrassing." "You? Embarrassed about something?" Leigh raised one of her eyebrows, looking surprised. "This must be good." Angel stuck her tongue out at her friend. But it was true, she was rarely embarrassed about anything anymore. Too much time as a nerd and a klutz growing up that she'd become immune to the feeling. "Um... so do you know what BDSM is?" "Yes..." It was obvious from the way Leigh dragged out the word and her tone of voice that she wasn't really sure where Angel was going with this. "We've talked about it before, remember Stop stalling." "Well I went to a BDSM club last night." Well that got Leigh's attention. She just about shot up like a rocket and bounced closer to Angel on the couch, her eyes alight with interest and curiosity. "No way! Wait... alone?" "Yeah, don't worry. I was pretending to be a Domme so no one messed with me." "Domme?" Leigh knew what the word meant but she obviously wanted it explicitly spelled out since it was now a word pertaining to her best friend and she wanted to make sure she wasn't misinterpreting. "As in Dominatrix. Woman with a whip. That kind of thing." Leigh's brow furrowed. "Wait, pretending to be? Why would you do that? Why didn't you just be yourself?" "I didn't want to put myself in a dangerous situation so I pretended for a night at this club that just opened up down in Virginia. I just wanted to see what a club was like before I put myself out there." "So you're going to go back as a... as a submissive?" Now Leigh just looked confused. Not her fault. The entire situation was a little confusing to Angel too. At least, her feelings were confused. If only she could go back as a submissive and see Adam again, but she didn't think he'd appreciate the deception. And, to be honest, she would hate to have to fess up to it. Honesty was a big deal for her and yet she was doing something which was inherently dishonest. It bugged the crap out of her and she didn't really want to have to admit it to anyone. Telling Leigh was a little bit different, of course. They'd been friends for so long, and out of all of her friends Leigh was probably the only one who could keep it entirely a secret and who wouldn't judge her. Plus, she knew some of the terminology thanks to the new BDSM book craze. Leigh was nothing if not an avid reader; not at all surprising since she was an English teacher. "No, not back there. There's a club in DC I want to go to, called Stronghold, but I didn't want to start out there because I was too scared to go into a fetish club for the first time as a submissive. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't have anyone to go with, and there are too many bad things that can happen." "I can get that," said Leigh, nodding her understanding. "Especially alone. Why didn't you call me?" "You can't come," said Angel immediately, looking at her friend aghast. "Michael would flip out! Not to mention it's not something you're interested in... Is it?" Her friend hesitated and then shrugged. "I probably could be if Michael was. I like it when he ties my hands to the bed but we haven't really done anything other than that. It's fun to read about. But you're right, he wouldn't want me there." She sighed and then brightened again. "So tell me about the guy." "There was actually a whole group of guys," Angel said, keeping her tone casual. She knew Leigh wouldn't entirely buy it, she was the one person who almost always managed to see through any of Angel's acts. "They were all very attractive. Very alpha-male. And very friendly. It almost made me wish I had gone there as a submissive." "But you can't go back there as a submissive cuz then they'd know you were lying. That sucks." "Yeah," Angel shrugged. "But there will be other Doms at Stronghold." Would any of them have the surprising attraction for her that Adam did? She hoped so. Otherwise she was really going to regret this plan. But she found herself not wanting to tell Leigh about her attraction to the one man in particular, because it wasn't something which could ever lead somewhere. After all he must live somewhere down in Virginia to be at Chained rather than at Stronghold-and she'd lied to him. The former might not be a huge deal but the latter probably was. "Good. Well I'm glad you're getting out there and looking." Angel just had to laugh. Leigh was always trying to hook her up with guys, not that Angel really felt like she needed it. None of her relationships had worked out because she hadn't been admitting what she truly needed. Now she was finally admitting to what she wanted and she was going to get it. Going to Chained had just been the first step. For the rest of the afternoon she and Leigh finished the fourth season of The Tudors and she told Leigh all about Chained. By the time she left, Leigh was in a much better mood and feeling much more optimistic about her relationship and life in general. Angel was feeling a lot better too. The impromptu girl time had definitely been something they both needed. Smiling to herself, she cleaned up the kitchen, left the bars out for the guys just in case they came home while she was up in her bedroom, and went to study her lines.
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The S*xy Submissive 
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