“I kind of hate you, too.”
There used to be more truth to that statement, as Adam had struggled with jealousy over Angel and Michael’s close friendship, but there wasn’t even a little bit of bite in his voice when he said it now.
Still, Michael couldn’t help but tease him. “Blame your baby momma.”
Adam scowled. Although Angel had finally said ‘yes’ to his proposal, she was still resisting actually planning a wedding. Apparently, she couldn’t decide whether she wanted to get married before or after the baby came, but if she kept prevaricating, the baby may end up making the choice for her. It was driving Adam nuts, especially when Angel called herself his baby momma rather than his girlfriend or fiancé. He kind of had a stick up his butt and Michael was a sadist… it didn’t matter that Adam was a man, he still enjoyed messing with him.
“We’re all going to go,” Angel said, flashing a smile around the table. The kind of smile Olivia often used when she was going to be pushy. For a submissive, Angel could be awfully bossy.
Neither of the other Doms argued with her though, and Leigh just looked excited, which meant Jared would definitely be going. Actually, going to the zoo would probably appeal to the two of them anyway. Although they didn’t actually have an age-play relationship, Michael saw a lot of a Daddy Dom in Jared and signs of a baby girl in Leigh. A trip to the zoo would be right up their alley; Leigh could act like the excited little girl she sometimes was, and Jared could enjoy indulging her.
A flash of pink out of the corner of his eye made Michael turn his head to see that, yes, Ellie and Hilary were out of the ladies’ room and on their way back to the table. Hilary almost always dressed in her signature color, or at least something with pink on it, which made it incredibly easy to spot her in the club. Ellie, of course, wore darker colors when she wasn’t wearing black, like most of the other submissives.
The slightly mincing way she walked made him grin, and when she met his eyes and saw his grin she blushed again. Yeah, having her wear the plug in the club was one of the best ideas he’d everhad. Not only did it mean he got to play with her a little every time they were in the club, it also ensuredshe was thinking about him the whole time they were here.
Baby steps.
******
Walking around the club with a plug in was a completely novel experience, and one which was making her really regret telling Michael she’d rather not play tonight… but she’d been really torn about whether or not they should play again. After last night and this morning, she’d wanted to, but she’d been scared to; plus she didn’t want to lead him on and make him think she was ready to move faster. She definitely wasn’t. But she had wanted to play. So she’d decided to leave it to fate.
If there had been a private room available, she would have agreed to another scene, even though part of her was worried it would be moving too quickly. If there was no private room available, she’d ask to wait till next week when they could have one reserved.
Yeah, they could have played in the Dungeon, but that wouldn’t be leaving things to fate. This way she hadn’t had to endlessly go over all the possible outcomes of playing or not playing and make a decision. Much easier.
“So how’s married life?” she asked Hilary as they headed towards the bathroom. Although Hilary was always friendly, they hadn’t really spent much one on one time together. Ellie had initially been friendliest with Sharon before Lexie and Angel started pulling her into their group of friends and inviting her to everything. Now she felt like she was probably closest to the two of them, as Sharon hadn’t been spending quite as much time with the group since she’d started dating Brian, a newer Dom at Stronghold who tended to hang out with the other guys he’d had the new Dom class with.
“Good!” Hilary said cheerfully. Fortunately, Hilary was very friendly, even if she was kind of a prude about sex stuff - which everyone loved to tease her about when she was in the club. Her outfits were becoming more daring though; tonight she was wearing a hot pink bandage dress which barely covered her ass and dipped low in front to show off a lot of cleavage. Sometimes she wore corsets or lingerie, but they usually covered more than this dress did. “We’ve decided to start looking for a house.”
“Oh, good!” Ellie said. She felt a little awkward since she didn’t really know what to talk to Hilary about when it was just them.
“Yeah,” Hilary said, pushing open the bathroom door. Ellie followed her inside. “I mean, we’ve been pretty comfortable in the apartment, but it’s just starting to feel like a black hole for our money… plus I’d like some more space. Every time I go to Jessica’s I get house-envy now.”
Ellie giggled. Since Jessica lived with two men, they lived in a fairly large house, so she could definitely understand the envy.
“Plus, you know, if babies happen,” Hilary said with a wink before heading into a stall. Her voice echoed against the walls and ceiling as Ellie moved into her own stall. It always amused her how girls could happily just talk through the entire bathroom process, ignoring the bodily functions that were happening. “We’re not planning on it yet, but I’d rather be settled into a house by the time we are.”
“That makes sense.”
Geez. Marriage. Babies. Things Ellie wanted and yet…
“So what about you and Michael?” The toilet in Hilary’s stall flushed.
“Umm… well, you know, club contract,” Ellie said. She flushed her toilet and came out of the stall to see Hilary washing her hands, but looking at Ellie in the mirror.
“Yeah, but you never do those, so it’s kind of a big deal, right?”
“Kind of a really big deal to me,” Ellie admitted, moving to the sink.
Hilary leaned against the sink she’d been using, watching Ellie as she chewed her lower lip, and Ellie suddenly knew what was coming. She’d told Angel and the others who had hung out after the self-defense class to tell rest of their friends in the group what had happened to her. Probably Jessica had told Hilary.
She’d given them permission because she didn’t really want to have to go over it again and again and again, and she’d known it would probably happen eventually if she kept hanging out with all of them. The topic would come up, they’d want to know why she was so skittish - hell, they’d mostly already guessed - and she’d just wanted to get the telling over with. Better they do it for her.
“Is it because of what happened to you?” Hilary asked in a low voice, full of sympathy. “My high school boyfriend tried to push me a lot faster than I was ready to go and I had to shove him off me and practically knee him in the balls to make him stop. It was hard to trust another guy for a while after that.”
While, in some ways, it was almost nice to know she wasn’t alone, it also killed Ellie that every single one of these other women had a story to tell. One which could never be guessed just by looking at them or seeing how they behaved. It was good not to feel so alone, which was not what her experience had been before this, and to see how they were all in normal, happy, healthy relationships now… but she also felt really sad and angry that they’d all had some kind of shitty experience. There just wasn’t any winning with her emotions.
“Yeah, that’s some of it,” she said, grabbing some paper towels to dry off her hands. Hilary reached out to take her hand as she tossed the paper towels in the trash, giving it a squeeze, and Ellie’s heart stuttered a little at the blatant gesture of support. She smiled at the other woman, around the lump growing in her throat. “I’ve also just never had a normal relationship after that. Well, not that that relationship was normal, I hope. I tried in college, but the only guy who was really willing to put up with all my issues… well, after a while he started getting frustrated with me and… yeah. I haven’t even tried since then. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
