Page 58 of Stripping the Sub
“Hello Ellie, how are you doing?” she asked.
“Good, Mistress Olivia,” Ellie said, her smile much more strained than Olivia’s.
Across the table, Patrick’s lips twitched. Lexie looked at Ellie with sympathy, obviously recognizing the signs of a subbie who desperately wanted more than she was getting. Dressed in a black t-shirt that practically swallowed her up, she was sitting so close to Patrick she was practically in his lap, his arm curved around her waist and resting on her thigh. Next to them, her brother Jake pretended there was nothing odd about his sister’s attire as he sipped his beer. Unlike the Doms in their leathers, he was dressed in jeans and a grey t-shirt, buthis casual attiredidn’t stop any of the subs from checking him out. He still had his army crew cut, but even the small amount of black hair made his blue eyes stand out, the same way his sister’s did, and his muscles filled out the shirt in a way that made even Michael a little envious. It also always amused him to see the subbies staring blatantly at Jake. They wouldn’t dareto stare so brazenly with a real Dom, but since Jake was vanilla and didn’t really know how to handle it – since he wasn’t interested in the kinds of things whichwould satisfy the subs of Stronghold – he just tried to ignore them, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes Michael thought the subs might be making a game out of seeing whether or not they could make the man blush.
“We’re talking about how all the couples in this group seem to be nesting,” Lexie said with a laugh. “Patrick and I are looking for a house,Liam and Hilary are looking for a house, Andrew and Kate are looking for a house, –“ strangely, Jake scowled suddenly,“and I think Rick’s going to propose to Maria soon. It’s making me feel old!”
“Which should make the rest of us feelreallyold,”Chris said laughing. Lexie stuck out her tongue at him.
“I just bought some stuff for my apartment,” Michael said. “Does that mean I’m nesting too?”
Ellie gave him a sidelong look.
“What’d you get?” Lexie asked, looking interested.
“Just some small furniture pieces, tables, and some decorative stuff. Someone told me it looked like my apartment had recently been robbed, so I figured I’d better make it look a little homier.”
“Sounds like nesting to me,” Olivia said with a chuckle as Ellie blushed. Michael squeezed her hand. The way she was looking at him was almost awe-struck, as if she was amazed her words had had a real effect on him.
She’d learn. Everything she did had an effect on him.
“It’s not nesting,” Patrick said, his tone one of a long-suffering man. “Buying a house is just the natural next step.”
“Actually, I’m pretty sure most people consider the next natural step to be marriage, but our group seems to do it backwards,” Chris said.“Liam and Hilary are the only ones doing it right so far.”
“It’s not backwards, it’s just modern,” Olivia said. “We do what we want!”
“Exactly!” said Lexie. “I do what I want! It’s the one thing I’m really good at.”
Patrick’s smile was amused. “It’s not theonething.”
Jake immediately pointed a finger at his best friend. “I don’t want to know the other things.”
His sister batted at his finger. “Get over it. It’s just sex.”
“Oh, so you’d be totally okay with hearing about my sex life?”
“If you were doing anything interesting with it.”
“Okay children,” Olivia said, interrupting the siblings. She waved her hand at the space between them, making a slicing motion. “That’s enough of that. I’m not particularly interested in hearing about either of your sex lives.”
“Yes, mom,” Lexie and Jake chorused together before catching each other’s eyes and cracking up.
Shaking his head, Michael leaned closer to Ellie, just enjoying being in the company of their friends. While he tended to think of himself as an extrovert, their friends were fairly loud. He’d noticed Ellie had a tendency to just sit back and enjoy the floor show rather than trying to join in.
The others made sure they were a part of the conversation without actually putting them in the center of it, and with Michael back at the table it didn’t take long until they were talking about Marquis again. Olivia was not thrilled to hear they were thinking about taking on a new partner, one she’d never met before, but slightly reassured when she heard he wanted to be silent.She still wasn’t too happy about it though, like any good control freak.
“You realize you’re going to be answering to me and Patrick too, right?” Michael teased her.
“Yeah, but I know you two,” she said. “I know you’re not going to do anything stupid. Or, at least,I knowI can stop you if you try to.” She raised her eyebrow at him and Michael grinned. Too true. Olivia wasn’t just good with a whip, she could flay a man with logic.
“I’m sure you’ll be able to handle him as well,” Patrick said dryly. “He’s got a lot of inner confidence, but he’s not an idiot, and he’s definitely willing to compromise.”
“So not as domm-y as you,” Lexie teased giggling. Scowling, Patrick lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered somethingwhichimmediately cut off her mirth. Probably something about how callinghim ‘domm-y’ wasn’t very respectful.
“Do you want him as a partner?” Ellie asked, leaning closer to Michael for a more private exchange while the others continued to talk about Luke.
“I want what he has to offer,” Michael said, leaning closer to her as well and enjoying her nearness. “I do wish we knew him a little better, but what I do know,I like. We’re looking into him, and as long as nothing comes up to indicate he’d be a bad partner, or that there would be serious personality clashes, I think it could work out really well for all of us.”
