Page 21 of Stripping the Sub
“I won’t tell if you don’t bring up my scening with Michael again,” Ellie said quickly, making sure to make it clear she was teasing by her tone of voice.
They all stopped and stared at her, Maria’s jaw dropping a little. Then Olivia held up her hand for a high-five.
“You tell her, Ell.”
Grinning, Ellie slapped Olivia’s hand. Okay, so maybe the Domme wasn’t so scary. Well, actually, she really was, but she was pretty cool too. Happily, Ellie dug into her sandwich while the conversation turned back to Patrick and Michael’s new business venture, which she was happy to hear all about. Part of her was a little sad she hadn’t heard about it first from Michael, but… it’s not like he even had her phone number. And they didn’t hang out or anything. They just saw each other at the club.
Maybe she’d ask him about it this weekend. If they had time before their scene.
Chapter 5
Walking into Stronghold, thinking about how they were going to do the new club differently, made Michael look at the whole place with new eyes. He tried to ignore that though, because he wasn’t there to think about the new club (they really needed to think of a name), he was there to scene with Ellie.
Focus.
He didn’t want to mess things up with Ellie just because he now had a new thing going on with his work life. Plus, it wasn’t like the new club was going to be ready to be open for a couple of months. Even though their offer on the building had been accepted (thanks, in large part, to the substantial down payment Michael had been able to provide), there were a lot of renovations needed - and some of them needed to be done discreetly. Fortunately, Andrew had already offered to help on those, and the rest of their friends would probably step up to help too. Obviously, if the club was going to be discreet, they didn’t want an entire group of contractors to know what it was being used for. However, they’d be able to take care of setting up the entire restaurant and doing some of the basic work on the private rooms before Andrew and the rest of them came through and added all the kinkier elements.
But, as excited as he was about this new business venture (especially after putting in his two-week notice to his less than stimulating day job), he didn’t want to let it distract him from Ellie. She deserved his full attention. Not only that, but he probably wasn’t going to get what he wanted from her unless he gave her his full attention. She had a lot of practice at holding herself back and keeping herself apart from the Dom she was scening with.
Angel waved at him from where she was standing next to Adam at a table in the bararea. Adamhad her tucked under his arm, and Michael grinned when he moved towards them as Ellie’s shorter head came into view around Jared’s shoulder. Sharon was the shortest of their group of friends, but Ellie and Lexie were close behind in the petite stakes, even when wearing heels. Seeing him, Ellie smiled nervously but with a light of anticipation in her eyes, which just made him grin even more broadly. Leigh and Jake were also at the table chatting together, and Ellie looked relaxed, surrounded by people she was comfortable with.
“Hello, pest,” he said, ruffling Angel’s curls as he slid in next to Ellie. From the other side of her, Adam narrowed his eyes at Michael in warning.
Of course Adam didn’t really think there was anything going on between Michael and Angel, it was just in his nature to be possessive, and it was just in Michael’s nature to want to rile him.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said, turning his attention to Ellie, who flushed a very bright red and stared at her drink.
“Hi,” she said, her voice wavering a little although she struggled to keep it normal. The way grins were popping up around the table, it was probably a good thing she was focusing on her drink and not on their friends.
“Hello, everyone else,” he said grinning at Ellie’s reaction.
He wasn’t just calling her beautiful to compliment her though, she really did look lovely, wearing a black leather halter-top that dipped low in front before being tied together with laces. Her entire upper back was left exposed, creamy skin just begging for a whip or flogger. The black leather mini-skirt hugged her ass, curling around her curves invitingly and barely covering them. The strappy shoes on her feet looked more like torture devices than footwear, but they also made her legs look incredible.
Michael wanted to touch her, the way Adam had his arm around Angel’s waist as she leaned against him, or the way Jared had Leigh tucked between his legs, but he didn’t want to scare her off either. Slow and steady. Instead, he just stood close enough to her so he could feel her body heat, so she couldn’t move without brushing against him; invading her personal space but not actually claiming her the way he wanted to.
Across the table, Jared lifted his beer glass to his lips to hide his slow grin as he watched. Leigh was more interested in Ellie, coming to Ellie’s rescue when it appeared she was continuing to pretend unnatural interest in the bubbles of her soda.
“So uh,” Leigh cleared her throat. “I heard about this thing on the radio today,which I can’t believe I’d almost forgotten about, that I think we definitely need to revisit. Push presents.”
“Push presents?” Ellie asked, obviously jumping on the new topic to distract from her reaction to Michael’s arrival. The color in her cheeks was still high, but fading a little. “What on earth is that?”
Leigh’s eyes slid over to where Adam and Angel were canoodling, smirking slightly. She brushed her long, brown hair back from one shoulder, and shooting Jared a smile when he began running his hand through the long strands. “Apparently, it’s a fad for having a baby; like a thank you from the father to the mother for carrying his progeny for nine months…”She looked meaningfully at Angel.
“And then pushing it out of her!” Angelsaid, finishing the sentence as she cracked up.She looked up at Adam, almost gleefully. ”I can’t believe I forgot to tell you about this. But now you know, after I give birth to your baby, I expect a ‘push present.’”
“It should probably come in a Tiffany’s box,” Michael added helpfully, earning another glare before Adam’s narrow-eyed focus returned to his fiancé. Next to Michael, Ellie giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. Jared, Leigh, and Jake were a lot less discreet about their own amusement.
“I don’t know how we would fit me-not-leaving-you into a Tiffany’s box,” Adam said dryly.
Angel’s mouth dropped open as everyone else burst into laughter at Adam’s unexpected response and her reaction. Jake looked like he was choking on his drink, laughing so hard he finally gave up and just put his head down on the table.
“You’re expected to not leave me!”
Raising his left hand, Adam wriggled his fingers at her, his expression completely serious but his blue eyes were dancing. “No ring, no guarantees.”
Leigh was holding onto Jared for support she was laughing so hard. Michael would be laughing a lot harder, but he was distracted by Ellie leaning into him as she giggled incessantly, trying to hide her face against his arm. To put his arm around her, or not to put his arm around her… that was the question…
Fuming, Angel raised her own hand, where her diamond engagement ring glittered, her chin jerking up with a challenge. “You already put a ring on it, you’re stuck with me.”
