Chapter 17

Giving Olivia a tour of his house had been a nice little break from reality, especially the kiss in his bedroom, but it all came crashing back down when they reached the downstairs and her worried and upset friends. Olivia moved through them, doing her best to calm everyone—and only wincing a little when Angel burst into tears on her shoulder—and reassure them she was okay. 

She was fine.

She wasn’t worried.

That last was a lie, but Luke didn’t call her on it and neither did anyone else. For right now she really was all those things. After all, they were here at his place and there was no reason to think the shit-gibbon would do anything while there was a house full of people. 

Luke went around getting people drinks and showing them where to set their things. Adam, Angel, Jared, and Leigh were the only ones not staying over—they were going to go back to Adam and Angel’s later in the evening. Although Angel insisted the girls’ night the ladies had planned tomorrow would go on as usual so she wouldn’t be missing out on anything.

He set out the food Maria, Leigh, Justin, and Kate brought and the drinks everyone else had brought and made sure Olivia got a glass of white wine. As quickly as he could, he gathered up the papers on his dining room table to make sure people could sit in there as well. He’d never really considered his house small, but right now it felt like it was full to bursting of very large personalities and quite a few large bodies.

Molly spent the half hour of meeting everyone frantically running around attempting to love on all the people who were happy to love on her right back. She eventually ended up panting with exhaustion, laying across Maria’s lap and snuggling into the curvy beauty while Lexie pouted about not being the ‘chosen one.’ Next to Maria was her boyfriend Rick, who was leaning up against her, arm around her shoulders and whispering in her ear. Both of them were petting Molly, who looked like she was in heaven, pressing her head against Maria’s pretty generous breasts and unsuccessfully trying to turn her head up and lick Maria every couple of minutes, making the woman giggle. 

Sitting on the floor between Maria and Patrick’s legs, Lexie was doing her best to get in on the Molly-loving action while Patrick just watched with a kind of resigned amusement as Lexie dropped many broad hints about wanting a dog for Christmas. Jessica and Hilary were cuddled up in one of the armchairs while Leigh and Jared were in the other in much the same manner, all of them adding to Lexie’s list of the joys a dog could bring to a household.

Angel was in the kitchen holding court and insisting she was too uncomfortable to sit down right now because of the position the baby was in. Because he was never far from her side, Adam was keeping a close watch on her while chatting with Olivia and Jake. Ellie, Kate, and Sharon all had their hands pressed to Angel’s belly and were softly laughing in delight as the baby kicked for them. Justin, Chris, Andrew, and Liam had all taken over Luke’s dining room to sit around the table and chat and that’s where he found himself drifting as well. It was a good spot for sitting down and taking a breather as well as keeping an eye on Olivia through the wide doorway into the kitchen in case she needed anything.

Grabbing a beer, he headed into the dining room.

The guys all turned and smiled at him as he came in. 

“Come, sit, join us,” Chris said in a humorously magnanimous way, obviously fully enjoying the irony of acting like a host towards Luke while in Luke’s house. Next to him, Justin snorted and rolled his eyes. Watching the two of them was always so interesting because they looked so alike, shared the same girlfriend, and yet often acted very differently. Although he’d been told they were rubbing off on each other a little. Justin was apparently a lot more relaxed than he used to be and Chris less lackadaisical. They were sitting across from each other, with Andrew next to Chris and Justin beside Liam.

“Thanks for having us all over,” Justin said as Luke took the open seat next to him at the foot of the table. He could have sat at the head but then his back would have been to the kitchen. Now he could see straight in to the other room and keep an eye on Olivia. She was working on her second glass of wine so when she got low he wanted to be ready to get her some water. “I know it can’t be fun having all of us crashing in on you like this.”

“It’s okay,” Luke said, although he appreciated the sentiment. “I think it’s helping her to feel more comfortable in general, plus you all aren’t so bad.”

They all chuckled at that.

“Plus, having us all here to boss around helps,” Andrew said—although Luke noticed he said it quietly. “Means she’s not taking it all out on you.”

“I wouldn’t mind if she did,” Luke said without thinking. He winced, thinking they might tease him about being her bitch, the way his brother had, but all of them were looking at him with a kind of hushed respect and admiration. Maybe even a little bit of awe.

Chris leaned over to clap him on the shoulder, his face almost comically serious except Luke could tell he truly wasn’t trying to be funny this time. “You are a brave, brave man.”

Feeling a little odd, Luke shrugged his shoulders and took a swig of his beer. Sometimes he didn’t quite understand exactly why all the guys seemed… not quite afraid of Olivia, but almost like they could be. Curiosity always made him want to know what they knew that he didn’t; caution reminded him that curiosity killed the cat.

******

It was one o’clock in the morning. Adam, Angel, Jared, and Leigh had left several hours ago, with Angel still protesting that she was just fine and could totally stay up. Olivia had hugged her and told her she’d be over tomorrow for ladies’ night and ordered her to go home and rest. When Angel acquiesced, Adam looked like he didn’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed that his wife listened to Olivia when all she’d done was argue with him. 

Olivia was pretty sure he was keeping a tally in his head though and when Angel was recovered from childbirth and ready to play again, she was going to be in for quite a scene.

Even though they’d brought stuff to stay over in case they wanted to, not all of them did. Patrick had taken Lexie up to one of Luke’s guest bedrooms around midnight because she was completely wasted. He wasn’t at all drunk but Olivia got the feeling he was feeling the need to hover over Lexie right now. Hopefully after a couple days he wouldn’t be feeling so protective. Ellie was up asleep in the other guest bed while Michael and Luke chatted in the dining room. Rick had fallen asleep on the couch’s pull-out bed, drunker than she’d ever seen him before, and Maria had stepped out onto the back porch even though it was freezing out. 

Grabbing her coat, she let Luke and Michael know she was going to keep Maria company before following her out there. 

Although they hadn’t spent any time together just the two of them before. Other than the ladies who were best friends before they became part of the group, none of them really got together one on one. Olivia always felt a kind of kinship with Maria. She wasn’t a dominant but she was definitely a bit of a mother hen, which possibly came from being the oldest of three sisters. On nights when alcohol was involved, she was definitely a blessing to have around. She was just as much about fun as everyone else was, but, like Olivia, she was also all about making sure everyone survived the fun with as small a hangover as possible. 

When Olivia slid the door to the porch open, Maria half turned to see who was coming out. She was bundled up in a sleek royal blue wool coat and pink scarf with her long curls tumbling around her shoulders and down her back. At her side, Molly was leaning her head against Maria’s thigh but had started wagging her tail in excitement as soon as Olivia had appeared on the other side of the glass door. 

The dog had barely left Maria’s side all night. 

Rick was completely wasted, to a state Olivia had never seen him in. 

Maria had been quiet. Which wasn’t unusual—she usually was quiet in comparison to some of the louder ladies, like Angel or Sharon. But now she was out there in the dark and the cold by herself.

Olivia was pretty sure it all added up to something being wrong.

When she saw the wet tracks glistening on Maria’s cheeks in the light coming out the door she knew she was right. 

Instead of asking if Maria was alright, she came forward and leaned on the porch railing Maria had been. Slowly, the other woman turned and rested her weight back on the wood. Sitting between them, Molly whined a little until Olivia reached down to stroke the silky top of her head. 

The air was cold but not bitingly. For a week before Christmas it was actually a pretty nice night. The stars were out, although she couldn’t see them too much. Through the trees surrounding Luke’s backyard she could still see a few lights in houses where the occupants hadn’t gone to bed yet, as well as some streetlights. 

The two of them stood there in silence for a long moment, looking out into the darkness, at the yard and the stars. Olivia waited. If Maria wanted to talk then she would. If she didn’t, then at least she wasn’t alone. 

Molly snuffled and her head moved away from Olivia’s fingers to press against Maria’s thigh again. 

“I had a miscarriage,” Maria whispered. 

Pain for her friend panged through Olivia’s chest, making it ache. She leaned over and wrapped her arm around Maria’s shoulders—much in the same way Rick had been doing all night and no wonder. 

Maria leaned into her, body quivering slightly from the effort of not crying. Olivia could feel her own body starting to shake the same way as she pushed down her tears. Her voice was an anguished hush. “Almost a month ago.”

“Oh sweetie.” Olivia turned, wrapping Maria into a hug and Maria turned towards her, wrapping her own arms around Olivia to soak up the comfort. She sobbed into Olivia’s shoulder, her body wracked with her pain. Holding her tightly, Olivia rubbed her back, hating the helplessness sweeping through her. But there was nothing she could do except let Maria cry it out. 

At least she could do that. 

Slowly, Maria’s tears dwindled, her breathing coming back under control. “Sorry… sorry… Oh geez, you shouldn’t have to be worrying about me with everything you have going on…”

“Hey, no need to apologize,” Olivia said, refusing to let go when Maria first tried to pull away. The other woman slumped against her and returned to clinging. “I can’t believe you came out tonight and it means the world to me. I’m so sorry, honey. Is there anything I can do? Any of us can do?”

“Don’t tell anyone,” Maria said pleadingly, her voice slightly muffled. 

“I can do that. Can I ask why though? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” But Olivia couldn’t quite help her curiosity. She hated to see Maria and Rick going through this alone when their whole group of friends would be happy to do whatever they needed to help—whether that be act normally or cry or whatever.

Maria gave a little hiccuping breath and this time Olivia did let her straighten up. She could practically see Maria’s strength returning after her breakdown, and she had a feeling the other woman had been doing this a lot the past month. Grieving. Composing herself. Grieving again. Composing herself. She kept one arm around Maria’s shoulders and the other woman continued to lean against her.

No wonder Rick had gotten wasted tonight. Olivia was going to have to give him a really big hug when he woke up tomorrow. Along with some aspirin. 

“I don’t want Angel to know,” Maria whispered. “I just… she’ll feel bad if she knows. You know she will. And if she starts crying then I’ll start crying and it’ll be a whole big thing and I just… we just wanted to keep it private for a while.”

“Then it will stay private,” Olivia promised her softly. Because that made a lot of sense. Angel was a powder keg of emotions lately and she definitely would feel guilty about being happy over her own condition if she knew what Maria was going through. “Is this why you didn’t come to ladies’ night out? And why we’ve hardly seen you two lately?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t actually with my sisters. Some days are better than others. Sometimes I forget and I’m fine for a bit and other times all I do is cry.” Her little laugh didn’t have a speck of true amusement in it. “I didn’t even know I was pregnant until…” Her voice trailed off. “I would think that would make it easier, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t at all.”

Olivia didn’t know what to say so she just tightened her hold around Maria’s shoulders and they stood there, clinging to each other, with Molly between them. Because that’s what friends did.

******

The women were outside long enough that Luke was up in his room when Olivia came back in. He heard the door sliding open and then closed—and if that hadn’t been enough of a clue, a minute later Molly came barreling into his bedroom looking for him. She made a soft woofing noise as he petted her, sniffing him and checking him over as if to make sure he was okay, and then she was back out the door.

Luke raised his eyebrows. Molly had barely left Maria’s side all night, which was pretty unusual. She was a social creature who normally wanted to keep everyone company and didn’t just latch on to one person. In fact, the last time he’d seen her like this had been when Nick and his fiancé had broken up and Nick had ended up on Luke’s couch for two weeks, a complete emotional wreck. During that time, Molly had been his constant companion. 

Luke had known his brother was getting better when Molly stopped spending all her time with him. 

“Everything okay?” he asked as Olivia practically sped towards him from across the room. His hands came up immediately to catch her as she pressed herself against him. Although there was no proof of it in her expression, he could tell she was upset about something.

“No,” she said. “But I can’t talk about it right now. Someone else’s secret.”

“That’s okay,” he said, just enjoying hold her. Whatever it was, it had to do with Maria and Rick. From the way they’d been draped around each other all night he doubted the problem was their relationship, but he’d find out sooner or later. Or not. Olivia was kind of like a vault. “Is there anything I can do?”

“This is good,” she said, sighing and resting her head against his chest. “Although I’m getting really tired too. Oh my god…” Luke started pushing his fingers into the muscles of her back, walking them up either side of her spine and he felt her practically melt against him. “You can stop doing that never, thanks.”

Chuckling, he rested his cheek against the top of her head as he walked his fingers back down, digging in a little more on the muscles which felt particularly tight. She hummed with pleasure, her arms looped around his waist as she leaned on him to stay upright.

After a few more minutes of that he smoothed his hands down her back and she sighed, pulling away reluctantly.

“Do you have anything I can wear for bed?” she asked, brushing her hair back from her face with one hand. Luke wrinkled his nose, making her laugh, a sound he was very glad to hear. Some of the unhappiness eased from her eyes. “A t-shirt and boxers maybe? I don’t sleep naked.”

“Well that’s disappointing,” he grumbled. But he got her the requested clothes and, as she curled up around his back, spooning him in his bed, he reflected that he actually didn’t feel disappointed at all.

Despite everything, he felt really good.

The next morning found Maria and Rick curled up on the pull out with Molly laying over their feet. She thumped her tail at Luke but didn’t come into the kitchen until she heard her food being poured. Whatever was wrong with them, it was definitely calling to his dog. He remembered when he’d gone to Patrick’s and Molly had been all over Rick then.

Huh.

Still unable to figure out what the problem might be, Luke shrugged and got to work preparing breakfast for everyone.

Eggs, sausage, cinnamon French toast, orange juice, and coffee.

It didn’t take too long before everyone was drawn to the kitchen by the delicious smells wafting out of it, although they did try to keep it down until Rick finally woke up. He looked awful and Maria fussed over him until he finally snagged an arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap, threatening to feed her the breakfast if she didn’t just eat something on her own.

The at-home dynamic of dominants and submissives wasn’t really something Luke had gotten to see before and it was fascinating. Rick let Maria up to make her own plate and sit down next to him. Patrick fixed a plate for Lexie and brought it to her at the table. Michael and Ellie did their own thing, although they flirted the whole time and then held hands under the table, forcing Michael to eat with his left hand. Luke filled up a plate for Olivia and handed it off to her to carry herself. With vanilla relationships he probably wouldn’t have thought anything of the various ways everyone did things; in this group, seeing how they handled a meal was interesting. They all could have been totally vanilla couples, but because he knew they weren’t he could see how and why they were doing the things they were doing.

Molly sat between Rick and Maria, pretending she was too well-behaved to beg for food and just happened to be sitting there for reasons. The couple seemed a little better this morning, although Rick was definitely groggy. Maria smiled and even laughed during the conversation.

When what to do about Olivia’s day came up, everyone tensed.

“I have some things I need to get done at Marquis,” Olivia said, which set a muscle ticking in Luke’s jaw. Good thing he hadn’t had any plans for today because there was no way she was going there alone. “I didn’t get to finish everything yesterday.”

“I want to go back as well,” Patrick replied blandly.

“Me too,” Luke said, a little grimly. Olivia leaned over to put a reassuring hand on his thigh and he placed his hand over hers. It might not be ideal but he didn’t want to have to let her out of his sight sooner than he had to today. He had the unnerving feeling that if he did, something terrible might happen. He knew it was a bit of an overreaction, but he just couldn’t quite shake it.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be needed with so many hands on deck, but I don’t want to be left out,” Michael said dryly.

Next to him, Ellie winked at Lexie. “F.O.M.O.,” she whispered.

Olivia snorted. Fear of missing out? Hopefully there wouldn’t really be anything to miss out on.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing Marquis too, if that’s okay,” Maria said, a little shyly.

Lexie immediately perked up.

“Ooo, yes, Ellie and I can show you and Rick around if you want while these four work!” she offered. Maria glanced at Rick who looked back at her and then nodded, agreeing to the visit.

Olivia was going to have quite the guard today.

******

The guys had invaded ladies’ night. It was really sweet and tonight Olivia did feel a bit relieved to have a completely full house of people all around her rather than having to go home or anything, but she had a feeling the smothering was going to start wearing thin on her nerves pretty quickly.

Right now the guys were pretending to be good by staying upstairs but…

“It’s not the same,” Angel grumped, glaring at the tater tot she was currently dunking in some ranch. “We know they’re up there. How are we supposed to get wild when we know they’re right upstairs?”

How, exactly, she thought she was going to get wild when she could barely waddle up and down those stairs was a different mystery to be solved, Olivia thought with amusement.

“They’ve been waiting for an excuse to do this,” Lexie said darkly. She was sitting on the floor, as usual, in front of Angel and Leigh and was in charge of making sure Angel didn’t have to get up for anything. Or, barring that, being part of the human forklift to get her off the couch. That’s not how Olivia had put it, those had been the exact words to come out of Angel’s mouth. Apparently she was feeling fat today and being pregnant was no excuse. No one had been brave enough to try and argue with her. “You just wait, we won’t be able to have another real ladies’ night ever again. The Sentinels have returned!”

The Sentinels had been Lexie’s nickname for the guys when they’d been overprotective of her while Jake was overseas, after the X-men villains. She’d dubbed Patrick Master Mold at the time, but she hadn’t called any of them that in a looooong time.

Olivia snorted, drawing everyone’s attention.

“I think it’s hilarious you think I would allow that,” she said regally in her best stern Domme voice, raising her eyebrow censoriously. Her chin tilted up and she nearly spilled the whiskey in her glass before Maria helped catch her hand. Molly’s head lifted from where it was on Maria’s lap before settling back down again. Rather tipsy, although probably more sober than Olivia currently was, Maria was smiling and looking like she was having a good time.

On the other side of the sectional, Sharon immediately flung herself off the couch and forward onto her knees, her arms raised high in the air as she bowed, supplicating herself, rising back up and down as she intoned:

“All hail the Queen of Peen! All hail the Queen of Peen!”

From beside the spot Sharon had just vacated, Kate lifted her vodka and lemonade in the air, shouting over Sharon’s chanting and everyone’s laughter. “To the Duchess of Dongs!”

“The Baroness of Ball-Torture!” Jessica exclaimed, laughing as she raised her own glass.

“Our Lady of Strap-ons!” Angel yelled, raising the small ramekin she was keeping her dipping-ranch in.

No one heard the door to the basement open until Andrew was suddenly bellowing down the stairs. “What the hell is going on down there?!”

The laughter cut off immediately, almost everyone either scowling or pouting.

“Dammit,” Hilary cursed loudly, which was definitely not the usual for her (unless she was watching football). “It’s not the same!”

Without saying a word, Olivia rose to her feet.

“Ooooooh shit snacks!” Sharon whispered, watching with big eyes from where she was kneeling on the floor. Behind her on that side of the couch, Ellie and Kate looked like they were practically vibrating with excitement as Olivia moved to the foot of the stairs and looked up the stairwell.

Andrew looked back down at her, the expression on his tanned face turning a little sheepish.

She put her hands on her hips.

“Right… sorry… we’re not here,” he muttered. Olivia nodded as he meekly stepped back and closed the door.

Turning back to the room, she opened her arms wide.

This time everyone except Angel—who pumped her fist in the air in time to the chant—got on their knees to give her a twisted kind of Wayne’s World tribute.

“Queen of Peen! Queen of Peen!”

There was a stalker after her, a club to run, and her new submissive was also her boss… but fuck all that.

Olivia was the Queen of Peen.

She drank the rest of her whiskey as a shot.

“To the windooooows!” she sang.

“To the walls!” The other women joined in, jumping up to start bouncing as they sang. Well, except for Angel. But she kept her fist pump going hard and was probably scream-singing the song twice as loud as anyone else. “Till sweat drop down my balls! Till all these bitches crawl!”

Yeah. Olivia would teach those guys to invade ladies’ night.