Everyone was there, other than Lexie and Patrick. Jessica was sitting between fiancés, Justin and Chris, with Justin’s arm around her waist and Chris’ hand on her thigh. Next to them were Hilary and Liam, with Hilary on Liam’s lap. As usual, Hilary was wearing her signature pink, making her look like a rose in a garden of leather. Beside them, Jake was there, dressed in dark blue jeans and a black button down shirt, almost blending in with the other dominants. He was definitely an alpha-male, but apparently ultimately vanilla in the bedroom. Rick had his arm slung around Maria’s shoulder, his fingers tracing over her skin while she had the distracted look of a sub who was seriously aroused and knew she wasn’t going to be getting off for a while.

Adam stood behind Angel, his arms around her, hands resting on her stomach; she’d pretty much given up doing club wear thanks to her ever expanding waistline and now just wore cute babydoll lingerie. Tonight’s was black silk trimmed with white lace and looked incredibly comfortable. No longer constantly trapped behind the bar, Andrew was standing next to Olivia, with Kate seated in front of him, much like Angel was in front of Adam. Beside Kate, Leigh was sitting on Jared’s lap, his big arm wrapped around her waist to hold her securely in place. Like Angel, she was wearing lingerie rather than PVC or leather. They had more of a Daddy Dom, domestic discipline relationship than anything else, and Leigh preferred to wear lace and satin over leather. Sharon was next to them, without her boyfriend Brian, in an attention-getting black corset which nearly shoved her breasts up to her chin and a black mini-skirt that was just as short and clingy as Ellie’s.

“Alright!” Sharon said loudly, holding up her hand for Michael to high-five as soon as they got close enough. “You officially have a new nickname! Magic Mike!”

Angel and Leigh cheered while the others laughed and Michael made a face. He slid onto one of the bar stools, pulling Ellie in between his legs to lean back against him, caging her with his body. The entire time, though, he kept hold of her hand. Ellie relaxed back against him, thankful he was there so she wasn’t the center of attention on her own.

“Why Magic Mike?” Michael asked, sounding slightly pained. Sharon was known for giving everyone nicknames. When she’d first started coming to the club, she’d described everyone to Kate using their nicknames... it wasn’t until Kate joined her at Stronghold that some of those nicknames had started coming to light. Michael had originally been Master Hell No after Sharon had seen him perform an intense scene (Sharon was so not a masochist).