Venus rising boxset, p.98
Venus Rising Boxset, page 98
Lexie and Olivia arrived, stepped in, hugging Jessica. It was the first time she’d seen Lexie in a sexy outfit that wasn’t fetish wear, and she had to admit she was a little surprised by her style. She was wearing a bright, neon blue, sequined sweater that was tight but didn’t show off any cleavage—Lexie didn’t have an overabundance like Jessica did—and a pair of jeggings with brown ankle boots. It was a daring style Jessica would never have the guts to wear, almost a throwback to the eighties but with a modern flair. On Lexie, it looked gorgeous.
Olivia was dressed in her usual power red, flaunting the fact she could wear the color despite her own flaming hair. The skin tight dress had a substantial slit up the back, showing off her legs and allowing her to walk. Her hair was piled on top of her head, and she was wearing dangling, silver earrings, and bright red lipstick.
“You two look amazing,” Jessica said, surprised and pleased at how different they all were, style-wise, yet how good they all looked together.
“Oh, wow, I love that sweater!” Hilary said as she came bounding out from the bathroom to greet them. “I could never pull off that color!”
“Most people can’t,” said Olivia dryly. “Lexie just lucked out with her black hair and pale skin.”
Shrugging modestly, Lexie gave Hilary a big hug before passing her off to Olivia.
“So, did Liam promise?” Jessica asked as she headed toward the kitchen. “Does anyone want a glass of wine?”
“Me!”
“Me too. Promise what?” Lexie asked.
“The guys have been bugging us all day about where we’re going,” Hilary explained. “I made Liam promise not to tell anyone although I told him he could tell Justin and Chris he knew. They’re insisting they just ‘want to know,’ but we were worried about them crashing. He wants me to tell him when we’re leaving and when we get home.”
“Unbelievable!” Lexie threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. “Patrick’s been doing the same thing all day! Like it’s any of his business where I’m going. Then he got Adam to call me and try to trick me into telling him.” She snorted and accepted the glass of wine Jessica handed to her. Her face was grumpy and laced with something else that wasn’t as obvious. “He takes the whole ‘I promised Jake I’d look after you’ thing way too far sometimes.”
“Well, no one asked me where we’re going,” said Olivia dryly, sipping at her glass of wine. “I’m not sure whether or not I’m insulted.”
“I’m pretty sure we’re the ones being insulted,” said Jessica. “Since apparently, none of the men think we can take care of ourselves, unlike you.”
“Is it any wonder we needed a break from them for a night?”
“I wonder why Patrick’s so bent on finding out where Lexie’s going to be,” Hilary said with a wink. To her surprise, Lexie blushed.
“It’s just the promise to my brother thing,” she mumbled.
Olivia raised an eyebrow, looking rather thoughtful, and Hilary felt bad she’d just made the Domme aware there might be more between Lexie and Patrick than she’d realized.
“Well, we have some good stuff to celebrate tonight,” she said quickly, turning the attention away from Lexie. “Jessica’s going to have a new job as of Monday, even if she’s not starting for another week!”
“About time!” Olivia cheered. “I don’t know how you lasted as long as you did. I would’ve kicked someone’s ass.”
“You basically did kick a few asses,” said Jessica with a laugh. “I watched you do it.”
“Only verbally.”
“It looked pretty darn painful.”
“Do I look too Little Bo Peep next to you guys?” Hilary asked suddenly, looking around at the sexier outfits the others were wearing in comparison to hers.
Olivia and Jessica rushed to reassure her.
“I can’t tell you how nice it is to be hanging out with a group of women,” said Lexie as she laughed, looking almost blissful as she clutched her glass of wine in front of her. “Even if one of you does look like a sheepherder.”
Hilary laughed. “To ladies’ night!” She held up her glass of wine, and the others clinked them together, echoing her.
The bar turned dance club—only on weekends—was pretty empty when they first arrived at ten thirty, which was how they liked it. The dance floor had plenty of space to move, and most of the creeptastic guys who thought dancing meant air humping hadn’t arrived yet. Lexie was a wild dancer, shaking and jumping all over the place, moving her entire body as opposed to Jessica, who was more comfortable just wiggling in place. Hilary laughed as she tried to be a little more daring and imitate some of Lexie’s bolder moves. There was no way she could match what Olivia was doing; the older woman looked like she was doing a salsa or Latin dance, just without a partner.
More than one guy was watching from the sidelines, not just them but the other women on the dance floor. It slowly began to get crowded, their little circle becoming tighter as more people began to arrive, happy to bounce to the throbbing beat of the music. Lexie’s movements, in particular, started to become more cramped, although she just laughed and gyrated her hips, focusing more on her body movements rather than her arms and legs.
“Tonight’s gonna be a GOOD GOOD NIGHT!” Jessica belted out next to her, bouncing happily.
The best part about being out with Olivia was, so far, they hadn’t had a single guy bother them. She had an unmistakable air of someone you did not want to mess with, and any guy who came up, rubbing behind one of her girls got such a death glare, and he would quickly subside. It was only the truly drunk who missed the cues, in which case, he would find the cute girl in front of him suddenly pulled away and replaced with an angry Domme in a red dress. Not a single one of them stuck around to tangle with Olivia.
Feeling dehydrated, Hilary signaled to Olivia she was going to get a drink. The other woman nodded as if giving permission, and Hilary stifled a laugh. Who knew why the guys had worried about ladies’ night—Olivia was all the watchdog they needed.
Weaving—and occasionally pushing—her way through the press of bodies, Hilary nearly stumbled when she reached the much less crowded area beyond the dance floor. Brushing her hair from her face, she decided to hit the bathroom before getting her water.
As usual, there was a line. Waiting, she looked across the room and froze. Standing at one of the bar tables with three other guys was none other than Sean.
Abandoning the bathroom line, she whirled around, reaching into her cleavage to pull out her phone, and unfortunately, ran headlong into a waitress with a tray full of drinks. They both managed to keep their footing and miraculously, most of the drinks upright, but two of the glasses crashed to the ground, garnering a lot of unnecessary attention. Darn it, why hadn’t she watched where she was going? Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sean’s table peering over to see what the fuss was about. She turned her back so he wouldn’t be able to see her face. Hopefully, he wouldn’t recognize her.
Apologizing profusely, she helped the waitress pick up the worst of the glass with her free hand before another server came by with a broom and a dustpan. Hilary stood, moving quickly out of the room and back to the main bar and dance floor.
Glancing over her shoulder, she stopped at the end of the dance floor to text Liam.
Jessica’s ex is here. We might be leaving. I’ll let you know where we go if we do.
“I might go,” said Chris, sipping his beer.
After Hilary had finally told Liam where the girls were going, he’d managed to find a low-key bar just around the corner where he and the guys could go for a drink. Patrick and Andrew had joined them, taking a night away from Stronghold for a “guys’” night out. And, Liam suspected, in Patrick’s case, so he could be near where Lexie was. One nice thing about her working at Stronghold was Patrick hadn’t had to expend much effort to find out where she was on weekend nights since she was almost always at the front desk. Of course, Patrick would ever admit to being with them for that reason.
“What? Why?” asked Justin, frowning at his friend. “We already have Jessica.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “Unlike Rick, I wouldn’t be going in search of a new face. I’m just curious what another club might be like. And it wouldn’t hurt us to do some driving to see him.”
“We go visit him at home,” Andrew pointed out.
“That’s not the same.”
“Well, I won’t be going,” said Patrick, resting his heavy forearms on the table in front of him. “But you can let me know if they have anything I don’t.” He grinned at Chris.
“What about you?” Chris asked Andrew.
“Nope. I prefer the subs at Stronghold. They already know what to expect from me.” He winked lasciviously.
The men laughed; that was an understatement. Every sub there knew Andrew wasn’t looking for anything beyond a play session or two. A lot of them panted after him, especially those who were masochists or just liked a bite of pain with their pleasure, but not a single one of them had managed to break through the hard walls he’d put up around himself after his last relationship—no matter that it had ended years ago.
Sometimes, Liam wondered if deep down, Andrew wanted more and was just afraid of putting himself out there again.
“Come on… just to keep me company on the car ride down?” Chris said, batting his eyelashes at Andrew, trying to persuade him.
“Well, since you ask so pretty…”
As the conversation moved to speculation about what Chained might be like, what kind of subs might be there, and whether or not Rick would finally find what he was looking for, Liam sat back and thought about how incredibly lucky he was to have found Hilary. How lucky he was, he hadn’t closed himself off to the possibility of a relationship with her. Well, he’d tried at first, but eventually, he’d come around. And he’d never been happier.
Unless, of course, she agreed to move in with him. Then he’d be even happier. He could already tell she was feeling more comfortable with the idea. Going to sleep with her and waking up next to her was the highlight of the past few weeks, and he was pretty sure she felt the same way. There was just nothing that beat it.
His phone buzzed, and he reached for it, laughing at Andrew’s hypothesis that Chained would resemble something out of a Dracula movie and his ludicrous descriptions of the possible decor.
Sliding his thumb across the phone to look at Hilary’s message, he frowned.
“What’s up?”
Liam looked up. “Jessica’s ex is there, they might be leaving.”
“Sean.” Justin practically snarled the man’s name. He and Chris were already on their feet, pulling their wallets from their pockets to throw down cash on the table, Liam, Patrick, and Andrew only moments behind them. “Where are they?”
“Just a block away,” Liam said, turning to lead the way. “Let’s go.”
Pushing her way through the sea of bodies with a lot more motivation than when she’d been getting out, Hilary had to search a bit to find her friends, who had drifted from their original position.
“Sean’s here,” she yelled at Jessica, who frowned and shook her head, cupping her ear to indicate she couldn’t hear Hilary over the pounding bass of the music. Great, they’d somehow managed to edge even closer to the speakers; her ears were going to be ringing for the rest of the night. She moved so she could yell directly in Jessica’s ear. “Sean’s here, in the other part of the bar.”
When she pulled away, she could see Jessica’s face had paled, and Olivia and Lexie were looking at them curiously. Hilary made a slicing motion across her neck and pointed at the door. Nodding, Olivia jerked her thumb at them in the direction of the exit, then pointed to herself and the bar before moving off to go take care of their tab.
Forming a line, with Hilary at the head, the other three women snaked their way through the moving bodies. Figured that after they’d made sure their own men wouldn’t crash their ladies’ night, there’d be an even more unwelcome guest. At least she’d seen him before Jessica had, and now they could get out of there.
They were getting their coats from the coat check when she found out she was wrong.
“Well, look who it is, everyone’s favorite slut.”
Hilary’s spine stiffened as she turned around, stepping forward, ready to do battle. Sean was standing there with his three friends. Jessica had already turned to face him, and Lexie just realized he was talking to one of their group.
“Out looking for a couple more men to spread your legs for?” Sean sneered, pitching his voice loud enough to be heard over the music—much easier to do out by the entrance than it had been on the dance floor—looking nothing at all like the fairly attractive man she knew he could be. He just looked drunk and mean.
“Even if I was, you wouldn’t be on the list,” Jessica said coldly, and Hilary felt like cheering for her friend, even though she was infuriated Sean was making it necessary.
“Get lost, Sean, no one here is interested in talking to you,” Hilary said, grabbing the coat check ticket from Jessica’s hand and giving it to the woman behind the counter, who was eyeing them with a hint of wariness.
Unfortunately, Sean just ignored her as she turned away.
“What’s the matter Jess, did they dump you once they realized what a slutty freak you are? Too bad I won’t be taking you back… although if you want a quick lay…” He leered, grabbing his crotch.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Lexie burst out, inserting her tiny frame between him and Jessica with all the furious energy of a small terrier taking on a much larger dog. “You’d better back the fuck up, asshole!”
Hilary’s jaw dropped as she spun around, her and Jessica’s coats filling her hands. Lexie was right up in Sean’s face, no matter that he was several inches taller even though her boots were heeled. The guys standing behind her were staring in amused shock. Sean looked momentarily bowled over before he thrust his chest out, glaring down at her now that she’d made herself an obstacle between him and his target.
“Lexie…” Jessica reached out to grab her just as Sean stepped forward to go toe-to-toe with Lexie.
“Back up, bitch, this isn’t any of your business.”
“And Jessica isn’t any of your business,” Lexie retorted, trying to shake off Jessica’s grip as Hilary came up beside them, glaring at Sean’s friends who were now looking slightly embarrassed and trying to get Sean’s attention. Granted, they weren’t trying very hard. He was apparently way too drunk to even notice. “Why don’t you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of. And get out of my face, your breath reeks.”
“Get out of my way, you stupid ho.” He reached out toward her shoulder, maybe to grab her, maybe to push her, and suddenly, there were a lot more bodies crowded into the area.
Lexie yelled and pushed at Sean just as a huge body shoved between the two of them, sending Lexie stumbling back into Hilary and Jessica. All three of them nearly toppled and would have if it wasn’t for the strong arms and hard body that was suddenly behind her, lifting her up and away from the floor. When she looked up again, Patrick was standing between them and Sean and his friends, and Sean was sprawled on the ground holding a hand over his eye and shouting. If Lexie was a terrier, Patrick was a Mastiff, towering over Sean, radiating protective fury.
As soon as the girls were upright, Justin and Andrew were standing beside Patrick like a massive wall of flesh, only Liam remaining with his arms around Hilary while Chris tended to Jessica and Lexie. She couldn’t hear what they were saying to Sean and his buddies, but from the few words that were clear, she got the general gist.
Stay away from Jessica. Stay away from all the girls, or get your balls handed to you on a silver platter.
It got even more confusing when Olivia suddenly arrived, having pushed her way through to the bar to take care of the tab, then through the dance floor, only to find she’d missed the excitement. If the guys hadn’t done a thorough job of scaring the pants off Sean, Olivia definitely did. She was like a warrior goddess, a modern Boudicca, and Hilary rather wished Olivia been there when Sean had approached them.
To her amusement, Lexie tried to insert herself next to Olivia. Before she could start yelling at Sean again, Patrick picked her up and started walking out the door with her. Not over his shoulder, not in his arms—he literally wrapped his arm around her waist and carried her face down against his side, arms and legs dangling as she shrieked and cursed at him. Andrew followed them out, howling with laughter. Hilary couldn’t help it, she burst out laughing too, and when she looked over at Jessica, her friend was too.
Olivia took a step at Sean, who went stumbling back into the club with his friends.
“I think Ladies’ Night is over,” Liam said in her ear. She turned to face him, sighing.
“I think you’re right.” She poked his chest. “Gate crasher. How did you guys get here so fast?”
“We were at a bar around the corner. We weren’t planning on crashing, we just wanted to be on hand in case you ladies got drunk enough to want an escort home.”
“And came running when you realized we might need you for something else entirely,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Exactly.”
She was aware of the others heading outside in Patrick’s wake, but all she could focus on was the handsome man in front of her. The man who loved her and wanted to move in with her, wanted a future with her, suddenly wondering what she had been so scared of. Liam wasn’t the kind of man who would run if things got hard, and even though he was a Dom, he wasn’t the kind of man who would try to take over her life. He was the kind of man who would be there to catch her when she fell, who would walk beside her with his hand in hers, and he’d shown that in how he’d treated her ever since they’d started dating. Yeah, moving in with him so soon was a risk, yet the way she felt about him wasn’t going to change, and she had to trust he felt the same way. Even if trusting someone else so much was a little scary.
