Page 6 of Stripping the Sub
Patrick blinked in surprise. “A partner? To run the place?”
“Not just run it, but invest too,” Michael said, a thread of excitement started to curl through him. It was a spontaneous, almost silly, idea, that came out of nowhere and yet… he could picture it. Want it. Now all four of the others were staring at him in surprise. “I inherited some money a little while ago and, other than paying off my mom’s house, I haven’t done anything with it. I could live off of it, but…” He shrugged. He’d actually wanted to buy his mom a new house but she’d liked her neighborhood and her house, and insisted she didn’t want to bother with the care of a larger place. Which Michael could understand since he was still living in the same small one bedroom apartment he’d rented when he’d first returned to DC.
“I’m sorry,” Lexie said, her eyes filled with sympathy. “I didn’t realize you’d lost anyone.”
Feeling a bit uncomfortable, because he knew he was about to sound callous, Michael ran his hand through his hair and smiled a little sheepishly. “My great-uncle… I actually hadn’t seen him in years. He was kind of estranged from the family, but… I guess he didn’t have anyone else to leave it all to. It’s… well, let’s just say I have more than enough to invest in a business if that’s what I want to do.”
Leaning forward on the high table, one arm still looped around Lexie, Patrick’s gaze was entirely focused on Michael. “What would you want to do with it?”
“Well, I’m the first to admit I’ve never actually run a club, but I’ve worked a lot in restaurants, and I definitely know how to manage people,” Michael said. “It would need to be similar but different from Stronghold. Put it in a more central location in the city but with a discreet entrance. If people want more privacy and security, they’re going to have to pay more for it, so might as well go ahead and make it upscale in every way - food, drinks, decor.” He could feel his enthusiasm growing as he started to really warm up to the idea. “Make it kind of like a classy speakeasy - you can’t get in unless you’re in the know.”
“I like it,” Lexie said, before Patrick could reply, her bright blue eyes shining. “Not that I don’t love Stronghold, what you’re describing sounds like a snobby version, but in a good way.”
“Why food?” Patrick asked. “That’s a lot more work.”
“Yeah, but it also makes it more than a kink club, and if the new target clientele is people with money to spend, they’ll like the extras. It could be like a speakeasy, restaurant on one level, then the rest of the club on the others. Or behind a door. The restaurant takes the place of the lobby, and that way people can hang out before or after. Food could still be served at the bar in the club area, but it wouldn’t be the focus there. Hell, make it into a hotel… have some rooms where people can spend the weekend if they reserve the rooms, fully immerse themselves into the BDSM experience.”
Interest was alight in Patrick’s eyes, tempered just a bit by caution. “That doesn’t sound anything like what I was originally thinking, but Ireallylike it. Keep talking.”
“Okay, well while you guys do that, I’m going to go talk a walk over to the bar,” Jake said, picking up his near-empty beer glass. “There’s a seriously hot blonde over there who could definitely use my company.” Lexie made a faux-gagging noise as her brother walked away, but the others just chuckled before turning back into the conversation, just as interested as Patrick and Michael at brainstorming ideas.
It didn’t take long before the entire group was squeezed in around their table, suggesting ideas for what a new Stronghold club might look like while Lexie scribbled frantically on the back of a paper coaster.
Chapter 2
“How can I have so many clothes and nothing to wear?” Ellie muttered under her breath. She shot a glare at Watson who was sitting on her bed. “And, of course,someonehad to shred the exact corset I was planning on wearing.”
Completely unperturbed by her annoyed tone, Watson lifted his leg in the air and proceeded to lick his nonexistentballs. She made a face at him.
“So helpful.”
Furry little bastard. At just one year old, he still had a lot of playful kitten left in him and, unfortunately, one of his favorite things to do was play with corset strings, which often led to shredding the actual corset. Normally, she left the closet door closed, but if she accidentally left it open even a crack, her nosy cat was in there in a flash. That’s probably what she should have named him, but she’d gotten him right after she’d started watching Sherlock and he’d had a limp just like Watson in the first episode… His leg was all healed up now, just like Watson’s.
“Well at least you didn’t get fur on everything,” she muttered under her breath. He was short haired, but his orange and cream fur tended to stand out, especially on her club wear, which had a lot of black in it.
The doorbell rang and Ellie let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. When she’d realized Watson had shredded her corset, she’d done something she’d never done before… she’d reached out for help. Ellie usually wore whatever she wanted to the club; she’d definitely never dressed for a particular Dom before. She didn’t know why she’d gotten so hung up on the idea of wearing her purple corset tonight, but now that it wasn’t possible, she’d turned into a total twit, unable to make a single decision for herself. So she’d texted Lexie, begging for help getting dressed.
Hurrying to her front door, Ellie tried not to feel like a failure just because she couldn’t do something as simple as picking out an outfit. This was what friends were supposed to do in the event of a wardrobe crisis. She’d seen it in movies and read about it in books. Just because she’d never had a friend to do this with didn’t mean anything… she’d also never had a wardrobe crisis before. Lexie had been the first person to spring to mind, and, thankfully, she’d also seemed thrilled Ellie had reached out to her.
None of this felt like Ellie. Being so nervous she became indecisive… reaching out to a friend for help because she couldn’t make up her mind… yeah, she wasn’t used to any of this. It felt like she was in high school all over again. She hadn’t felt like this since she was a teenager… because nothing had mattered enough to fluster her like this since she was a teenager.
“Helloooo….” She said as she opened the door, but her voice trailed off as her eyes widened with shock.
“Hello!” chorused the group of women outside of her apartment. Lexie surged forward to wrap her in a hug, which Ellie returned even though she felt like she was having an out-of-body experience.
Giggling, Angel pushed her way into the apartment, a plastic bag swinging from her arm. She was followed by Leigh, Sharon, and Maria.
“I brought reinforcements,” Lexie said impishly as she let Ellie go.
“I see that,” Ellie said uncertainly.
It wasn’t that she was upset with all the company, she was just kind of surprised by it. All of them looked excited as they looked at her with anticipation, which started to make her feel all warm and gooey inside.Yeah, she definitely wasn’t upset.
“Sorry to just invite ourselves over,” Leigh said, almost managing to sound apologetic. “But when you texted Lexie, she texted Angel about getting a corset from her, and we were all hanging out together….”
“And we figured we might as well come along for the ride,” Sharon said, her dark eyes sparkling.
Maria snorted and shook her head, her trademark messy bun wobbling but ultimately staying in place. “By which she means a stampede of horses couldn’t have kept her away.”
