Read Stronghold (Stronghold 1) Online
Authors: Golden Angel
Stronghold (Stronghold 1)
Stronghold
By G. Angel
Published
by G. Angel
Copyright
2013 G. Angel
Thank you so much to my readers who encouraged me to write the
Venus
Rising Quartet.
I’m glad that you fell in love with the characters as much
as I did, because that’s where the
Stronghold
series was born.
And an extra special thank you to Queenie, Amanda and Fifi, who
have helped keep me motivated and made this book into what it is.
As always, love and appreciation to my ever supportive husband, to
whom I dedicate this book.
Table of Contents
Walking into the club was the hardest thing
Angel Jones had ever done in her life.
She'd deliberately chosen Chained
because it was a new club and it was in Virginia, much farther away from her
home than the club that she really wanted to join - Stronghold in DC.
There was slim chance of anyone from Stronghold being at Chained, the regulars
anyway; basic psychology, once people become comfortable in a space they tended
to stay in that space. Even kinksters who like to push boundaries.
Maybe especially kinksters, since they had to be able to trust the people they
were with.
So regulars to Stronghold
wouldn’t search out a new club because they were comfortable in their space at
Stronghold and trusted the people there, why would they drive such a distance
to check out a new club?
Easy answer: they wouldn’t.
This was the second time Angel
had ever been to a BDSM club, the first time had been years up in New York City
when she was still in college. Since then she'd realized that she was
submissive but she didn’t have any friends currently living in Maryland who
were in the scene. Actually, other than her best friend Leigh she didn’t have
any
close
friends who were female and just contemplating the idea of
talking to one of her close guy friends about her kinky desires was enough to
make her blush, so she was making this difficult journey alone. Which was
absolutely terrifying.
Getting out of her car, Angel
smoothed her hands over the long embroidered jacket she was wearing.
She'd dressed very carefully tonight because she was going to be doing something
wrong - she was going into a club as a Mistress rather than a submissive.
It was dishonest, which rankled her, but she had done her research and she knew
exactly how dangerous it could be for a new submissive entering public
scening. She'd decided that until she garnered experience in a public setting
that it would be safer to present herself as a Mistress. Of course she
couldn’t do that at a club that she planned on attending as a submissive, which
is why she was at Chained tonight instead of Stronghold.
She taught her students all the
time that the first step to keeping themselves safe was not to put themselves
into dangerous situations. To her, putting herself in a position to be tied up
and at the mercy of someone else was pretty much her description of a dangerous
situation. She had no one to watch her back and her only information about
these clubs was second hand. Once she was more comfortable in the club and
felt more confident about knowing the scene and her ability to keep herself
safe, she would go to Stronghold as a submissive. No harm done to anyone
and she'd have a nice and easy introduction into the world that she'd been
fantasizing about ever since she first heard about it.
Fervently she wished she had a
friend that she could do this with so that she didn‘t have to pretend to be
something she wasn’t. Angel was an inherently honest person, although she
also loved doing theater as a hobby and knew herself to be a good actress, and
if she'd had someone to go with her to the club then maybe she could have just
started off at Stronghold without any of the lies. Unfortunately she
didn’t have anyone she felt comfortable asking to go with her. Even though her
best friend Leigh would probably have come because she was a really good
friend, Angel couldn’t picture her enjoying it. Not to mention that there was
no way Leigh’s boyfriend, Michael, would approve. And Angel didn’t think she’d
feel like a very good friend for having forced Leigh into such an uncomfortable
position.
Twenty five years old, she’d only
ever had two serious relationships, the second one had ended over a year ago
and since then she hadn’t dated anyone seriously. Neither of them had been
able to give her what she craved, neither had been able to make her feel the
excitement that she got just reading a BDSM erotica book. Sure she’d had
orgasms when they had sex, but it always felt like there was something missing
in her life and eventually that had led to the end of each relationship. And
sure it didn’t help that most of her closest friends were guys, which tended to
cause some jealousy and misunderstandings, but she figured someone confident
enough to be a Dom would have to be secure and confident enough not to mind
that she had a lot of guy friends, right?
Lately she realized that she
wanted a man with that confidence, that security, one who was sexually
controlling in the bedroom… at the very least she needed to try it out, to see
firsthand whether or not this was a lifestyle for her. And if it was, then
maybe she could find someone into the lifestyle that she could have a real
relationship with.
Tonight she was dressed in thigh
high leather boots with six inch heels that she'd originally worn as part of
her Halloween costume this past year, leather shorts and a brocaded green skin
tight top that was boned like a corset but had an Asian inspired mandarin
collar and little capped sleeves. It covered her upper body completely except
for a wide swath between the neck of the collar and her bust, showing a
generous amount of cleavage. She'd straightened her hair and worn it
loose, letting it flow over her shoulders to swing halfway down her back –
almost two inches longer than when she let her naturally curly hair fly free.
Black lace gloves and the embroidered jacket completed her look, although she'd
take her jacket off when she got inside. It was a damn sexy outfit and
she was pretty sure that it fairly screamed 'in charge.' Because that’s
exactly what she wanted to be tonight. What she’d been practicing to be.
Tilting her chin up haughtily,
she strode towards the door of the club. It was a plain wooden door with a
discreet sign above it that said “Chained;” no lights or anything to draw
attention to itself. She liked that.
When she signed in at the front
desk (pseudonyms were allowed, although when she'd filled out her form for the
guest pass she'd had to give her real name and the pseudonym she planned on
using) she put her name down as Mistress Angela before handing her coat over to
the girl behind the desk, a sexy blonde wearing a naughty secretary
outfit. The irony wasn't lost on Angel and she gave the girl an approving
smile, which made the receptionist flush happily as she took Angel's coat.
"Welcome to Chained,
Mistress Angela," she said.
"Thank you, dear," said
Angel, sliding into the role that she'd assigned herself. She'd never
wanted to pursue theater as a career (monetary pressure took all the fun out of
it) but that hadn't stopped her from pursuing it as a hobby in her free
time. Even though she'd only moved to the area a few months ago she'd
already been cast in a show at a community theater. Which was where she’d
heard about Stronghold and Chained in the first place. Tonight was going to be
the performance of her life because she wasn't on stage. Acting was so
much easier when you knew your cues and lines.
Still, she could feel her nerves
humming the way they did when she was standing in the wings, waiting for the
curtain to go up. And that's exactly where she was right now; this lobby was
the wings and as soon as she stepped past the hulking (and kind of hunky)
bouncer through that door then she'd be center stage. Well, not quite. She'd
be surrounded by the other players, but she assumed many of them would be very
good at reading body language. At least that was always how it seemed in the
books that she read.
Hopefully her acting training
would be enough to cover up her nerves, inexperience, and the little voice
inside of her that was insisting she was submissive, not dominant.
The lobby was tastefully
decorated in dark reds and grays with hardwood floors, giving it the feeling of
a boudoir. When she walked into the main area of the club she was
surprised that she found it rather overwhelming, almost tacky. The space
was bigger than she'd expected, with a dance floor to her left, a bar straight
ahead of her, and a wall lined with little alcoves for playing to her
right. Chandeliers flickering with multi-hued lights hung from the ceiling,
red velvety curtains were tied back at the edges of the alcoves - obviously you
could use them to create a more private area for yourself if you desired, and
the dance floor had neon lights blazing over it, creating patterns on the
floor. Everywhere she looked the walls were covered with either bondage
equipment or artwork (and there didn't seem to be a theme to the photographs
and paintings or any attempt at arranging them in a way that would be pleasing
to the eye). The bar in front of her was decorated to look almost like a
tiki bar. Seriously?
It was like whoever owned the
place couldn't decide what they really wanted the space to look like and so
just threw together a bunch of ideas from different walks of life. Yeah,
this place was obviously new. There were people walking around, some of
them involved in scenes, some on the dance floor and some at the bar, wearing
all sorts of interesting and revealing clothing. Angel found herself examining
a small group of men at one of the bar tables, four of them, all extremely
attractive and wearing various amounts of leather.
Dominants, definitely. She could
feel the wash of heat straight through her body as she saw their self-assured
movements, their predatory eyes flickering around the room. But she
didn't show any of that on her face, leaving it carefully blank. All four
of them were handsome, attractive, but it was the blonde one that looked half-Viking,
half-pirate, his facial hair making a neat frame around a sensuous mouth, that
caught her attention. Or, rather, he caught her gaze in his and she found
herself struggling not to lower her eyes immediately from the sheer force of
his presence.
That's what a submissive would do,
that’s what she instinctively wanted to do, but that’s not what she was tonight.
Struggling to maintain her expression, Angel gave him a careful nod, very
slight and without taking her eyes away from him, acknowledging him as an
equal. He gave her a nod back and smiled. The hard look in his eyes
made her want to melt. Or get down on her knees and beg him to tie her up,
spank her and fuck her. Instead she straightened her spine and curved her lips
in a small smile back.
*******
Adam Rawn was not impressed by
Chained. He was only here because his good friend Rick Winter had been
hoping that every so often his friends might be willing to make the longer
drive to Virginia, in trade for him usually being the one to make a
commute. Fortunately it didn't look like Rick was very impressed
either. Normally Rick only made it to Stronghold once a month or once
every other month, because it was about a two hour drive for him to get there. Chained
was only an hour’s drive from Rick and an hour away from the rest of them, the
perfect meeting place right in the middle. It would have been the perfect
compromise, except that none of them were happy here.
Not that they would have ever
abandoned Stronghold completely, since they were also good friends with the
owner, Patrick Murphy. But they would have been able to see Rick more often.
"Sorry Rick, I don't think
I'll be coming back," said Chris. "Or recommending to Justin that we
bring Jessica here."
Rick looked around the room, his
disappointment written clearly on his face. "I know, it's not what I was
hoping either. Maybe it's just too new."
That was definitely part of the
problem. The decorations were too eclectic and whoever owned it hadn't
quite found their stride yet. Rather than a tasteful mix of eroticism, bondage
and bar feeling, all the elements had just been spattered like spaghetti on a
wall. The other problem was that there didn't seem to be too many
unattached subs here. Something that was important to Rick and, to a
lesser extent, Adam and Andrew, the fourth man in their little reconnaissance
force this evening. Not at all important to Chris, who had a delectable
little submissive girlfriend that he shared with his best friend Justin.
They scened with her at Stronghold sometimes. Rick wanted to find a meaningful
relationship like that, just without the sharing, and Adam was starting to
think that he might too. Andrew wasn't interested in any kind of relationship
after his last one had ended so badly.
The lack of unattached subs at
Chained tonight was a problem because it left them with nothing to do but sit and
drink and talk. Which they could have done anywhere. And Adam wanted to
play. It had been awhile since he'd found someone he wanted to scene with,
although he’d indulged once or twice in the past couple of months when asked to
do an Introduction or teaching scene at Stronghold. But it was ultimately
unsatisfying. He wanted to play with someone that actually interested
him. At thirty one years old he was rather surprised to find himself
yearning for permanence in a relationship, he'd always thought he'd be a
confirmed bachelor until at least his mid-thirties, but seeing the love and
devotion between Chris, Justin and Jessica, the way they came together to make
their tripod relationship work, had made him feel surprisingly envious. Their
relationship had ended up creating another one between Liam, another Stronghold
Dom and good friend, and Jessica’s best friend Hilary. And since Adam had
started considering finding a real relationship, something Rick had already
been looking for.