Last Mastering Lexie Teaser Until Release!

Soooo... it's December!!!! i.e. release month for Mastering Lexie.  I am a typing fiend.  No kidding, I got three chapters written last week... unfortunately, it's still not enough for me to make ML available for pre-order =/  The way Amazon works with pre-order is that I can submit a draft copy at any point - but it has to be a full draft - and then I have to submit the final, edited, ready-to-go version at least 10 days before the release date.  This means that, to get the book out on December 20, I would have to be completely finished with it by December 10th.  While I might be done writing it by then, I'm almost positive I won't have time to edit it.  And we all know, reading unedited books sucks.  So I'm not going to be able to do the pre-order thing... but the release date is definitely December 20.  Hopefully at some point in the future I will get better about guesstimating my writing time so I can do pre-order stuff.

Anyway.  Like I said, things are really moving along with the book, which is super exciting.  The beta readers all say they're enjoying it so far (which is even more exciting lol) and have come up with a lot of good stuff for me which has really been helping with the creation of the book.  I'm really happy with it at the moment, even though I wish I'd managed to finish it sooner.  I had originally planned to try and have it done by today, so that I would have the next ten days to work on editing and stuff.  *sigh*  Oh well.  Can't do it all!

In the meantime, to celebrate the fact that it's now release month, here's the last teaser before the book comes out:

******

Returning to Lexie's apartment the next day, Patrick beat down the feeling of anticipation that had haunted him ever since he'd left the night before.  It had felt incredibly good to give her directions, knowing that he would check up on her, knowing that there would be consequences.  He was a bit torn about whether he'd deny her Stronghold or if he'd spank her, but either way, it was the first time in far too long that he'd exerted his dominance over a woman in any kind of real way.

Once Lexie had started working at the club, he'd stopped playing there... and since he didn't really enjoy casual scenes, he didn't play at home either.  Hell, he hadn't dated since Lexie started working at Stronghold, even when she was going out with that little jerk Trevor.  That had driven him nuts.  The little bastard hadn't deserved Lexie at all, although at least she'd figured that out.  And Patrick had gotten a couple good swings in before they'd been pulled apart.  She'd brought Trevor to Stronghold for the very first theme night that Patrick had allowed her to hold.

The little idiot had tried to convince Lexie to sneak off the main floor and to one of the private rooms - something Patrick had expressly forbidden her to do.  She'd refused to leave the main floor, like she'd been told to, and the dumbass had decided to push things on the dance floor.  There were plenty of other couples around them doing similar things.  Patrick had thought he was just going to have to sit back and watch it, but at the first frantic glance Lexie had sent him as she tried to push Trevor away, Patrick had been beside her in an instant.  

It was one of the first times that he'd lost control over himself in years.  He'd just meant to separate them and give her boyfriend a firm lecture about safe, sane and consensual, but then the kid had told Patrick to leave them the fuck alone and grabbed Lexie's breast.  Hard enough to make her cry out and she'd pulled back, tripping over her feet and falling to the ground.  So Trevor had ended up with a black eye, a sore jaw and some bruised ribs by the time Justin had pulled Patrick off of him.  

He'd sent Patrick to his office to cool off, which he was only willing to do because Hilary had already been holding and comforting Lexie.  Adam and Liam had helped Justin restore order, while Jessica kept everyone away from Lexie and Chris guarded Patrick's door.  It was not Patrick's best night, despite the fact that everyone had really enjoyed the theme night and attendance had been at an all-time high.  He was kind of sad that he'd missed Olivia scaring the shit out of Trevor though.  

The only good thing to come out of that night was that Lexie had broken up with Trevor immediately and Patrick hadn't had to go through the torture of watching her date anyone else since.  Just the torture of knowing that he couldn't claim her for his own.

Today was a bit of a test.  He wanted to see if Lexie would follow a non-sexual order that wasn't part of a scene.  This wasn't just a series of scenes to Patrick, it was the way he wanted to live his life and he wanted to see if Lexie would follow through or not.  Although he liked a sassy sub, he didn't want every minute of his life to be a battle, which meant that his submissive needed to follow orders some of the time.

He didn't even get a chance to knock on the door before it opened.  A cheerful Lexie was practically bouncing on her feet as she grinned up at him.

"Five thirty, right on the dot," she said.  "As expected."

"Hey Pixie."  Damn she was cute when she was like this.  Wearing a grey t-shirt advertising some restaurant and blue jean shorts, she was completely casual and completely beautiful.  Her short hair was tucked behind her ears and she wasn't wearing any make-up at all, and Patrick had the strongest urge to just tuck her under his arm and never let her go.

"Come on in," she said, bouncing back from the door, pride practically emanating from her body.  Patrick already knew that she done everything he'd told her to.  Everything about her demeanor screamed proud submissive, but part of a Dom/sub relationship was acknowledging and rewarding good behavior.  

Warmth flooded his chest, seeing her like this.  Knowing that she'd done everything he'd told her to, and that she'd found satisfaction in it rather than resentment or boredom.

The apartment was spotless and the number of boxes stacked against her wall had been halved.  Granted, other than the clothes, her place hadn't really been all that messy.  Still, Patrick liked things neat and it had made a good test for her.  Especially since she'd never been messy before, but, as she'd pointed out, she'd always had on her mom on hand to make sure her room was clean.

"Good girl," he said, enjoying the way her bright blue eyes lit up from within at his words.  He'd told her that before, countless times, but this time it had more weight.  Because this time, they both knew she'd crossed some invisible line, that it meant something just a little bit different.  

"So now what?" she asked, practically bouncing on her toes as she tilted her head back to look at him, stepping a little bit closer and getting into his personal space.

Patrick raised his eyebrow.  "What do you mean?"

"I did what you said, right?  And I proved I can handle Stronghold.  So now what?"  She wasn't just eager, her voice was a little bit challenging.  Even if he tried to let the situation slide back to the status quo, she wasn't going to accept that. 

He knew it, but he still felt a bit of exasperated resignation at hearing the confirmation of that in her voice.  For the past year she'd been working towards this and they both knew it.  There wasn't anything he could do to stop her, really, but he could at least make sure she took things slowly.  

"Now, you go have fun at your girls’ night.  Come back to work at Stronghold on Tuesday and I'll start training you on Thursday."