Page 128 of The Sadist and the Brat

“This,” he said over her shocked squeal, “is for not telling me where you were going last night and making me worry about you.”

She bit her lip. She had done that, and deliberately. “Okay.”

“Once I think you’re sufficiently contrite, I’m going to take you upstairs, tie you to the bed, and make you come so many times you can’t remember your own name. When you’ve regained the power of speech, we’ll discuss your punishment for the licorice.”

“Do I get any vote here?”

“No.”

“Is this how it’s going to be from now on?” she demanded.

“Of course. I’m the Dom.”

She pressed her cheek to his leg and smiled. “Just checking.”

Epilogue

Three months later

Jack walked through his front door, shut it behind him, and shucked his coat. He didn’t bother hanging it up, just tossed it over a chair on his way to the stairs. He took them two at a time, coming to a stop outside the closed bathroom door.

He checked the time, frowning. He was a little earlier than he said he’d be, but not by much. She should be ready by now. “Sadie?”

“Hi,” she replied, her voice faint through the closed door. “How’d it go?”

“Fine,” he called back and crossed to his closet. The shirt and jeans he wore were grimy from helping set up the various apparatus needed for the party in James and Amanda’s basement, so he stripped and tossed the clothes in the hamper. “Nick and Cade both showed up, so the four of us made quick work of it.”

“That’s nice.”

“How did your new client go?”

“Good, but she was a talker. I just got home fifteen minutes ago.”

Every time she called his apartment ‘home’, it gave Jack a warm glow of satisfaction. They weren’t living together, not yet—she was insisting on a full year of dating before she’d agree to give up her lease. But they spent most nights together, either at his place or hers, and he was counting down the days on his calendar before they could make it official.

“How long is it going to take you to get ready?” he asked, checking the time again. They weren’t due at James and Amanda’s for another hour, but he had something to do before they left.

“Two minutes,” she promised, and he would have scoffed, but when Sadie said two minutes, that was exactly what she meant.

He pulled the polished wooden box off the top shelf on his side of the closet and set it on the bed. He dressed quickly in black slacks and an emerald-green sweater that Sadie had given him for Christmas and was just slipping on his boots when the bathroom door opened.

“Ta-da!” she exclaimed then squealed with delight. “Oh, you’re wearing the sweater!”

“You’re not wearing anything,” he said, looking at her costume with amusement.

“Hey. There are stickers,” she pointed out haughtily, then frowned. “I got body glitter, too, but that shit gets everywhere, so I decided not to use it.”

“Thank you for your restraint,” he said, eyeing her nipples. She’d pasted two glittery green shamrocks over them. “What, no rainbow?”

“What do you take me for?” she demanded, and spun around to present him with her ass.

“I stand corrected,” he said, eyeing the rainbow that curved from the top of her left hip and down, disappearing into the crack of her ass. “Is that paint?”

“Yeah. Nikki came over to help me,” she admitted. “I couldn’t quite get the hang of doing it in the mirror.”

“Uh-huh. One question.”

“What?”

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