Page 106 of The Sadist and the Brat

She was behind schedule on Saturday night, thanks to one of her new clients running late, and since the outfit she’d planned took a while to put together, she was still putting on her face when the knock sounded at her door.

“Coming,” she called from the bathroom, and set down her makeup bag to hurry down the hall.

She flipped the locks and opened the door. “Hi, sorry. I need two minutes.”

“We have time,” Jack said, a smile creasing his beard as he stepped over the threshold and shut the door behind him. He wore his fancy camel overcoat, but she could see he’d broken out the leathers again. “You probably shouldn’t open the door like that. You might have given your neighbors a show.”

She was already hurrying back to the bathroom, her laugh trailing behind her. “I forget sometimes that not everyone has seen me naked.”

“Their loss,” he called, and she laughed again and dug into her makeup bag.

She worked quickly, playing up her eyes with sparkly shadow and dramatic liner, and had just begun to add a layer of mascara when a thought occurred to her. “Are you going to make me cry tonight?”

“It’s not my primary goal,” he said from the doorway, and she jumped. He grinned in response. “But it’s always a nice bonus. Why?”

She uncapped the mascara on a half laugh and leaned into the mirror. “I’m going to start buying cheaper makeup if it’s just going to end up in streaks on my face.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll clean you up afterwards.”

“Great, a paper towel facial,” she muttered and gave her lashes a quick coat.

“I have makeup wipes in my toy bag.”

She paused, her gaze flicking to his in the mirror, the mascara wand forgotten in her hand. “You do?”

“Sure.” He flicked one of her pigtails, his lips curving when the curls bounced. “Part of the job.”

She capped the mascara and replaced it in the makeup bag. “Your job is to clean up my makeup?”

“When I’m the reason it’s running down your face, it is.”

She risked a glance up and found him watching her in the mirror. His eyes were warm, his smile soft in a way that made her belly clench and her toes want to curl inside her boots. She forced herself to speak past the lump in her throat. “You could just, you know, not try to make me cry.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” he wanted to know. “And speaking of fun…”

“What?”

“This outfit.”

She laughed and chose a lip gloss. “You like?”

“’Like’ is a very tame word for what I’m feeling,” he said. “I assume it lights up?”

“Of course,” she said and slicked color on her lips. She smacked them together, pleased with the cherry-red color, and dropped the tube back in her makeup bag. She reached up and straightened the festive red bows she’d tied around each curling pigtail before bending down to flip the switches on the battery packs hidden in her boots. Then she turned to face him, hands on her hips, and struck a pose. “Well?”

He dropped his gaze to her feet, encased in shiny red vinyl boots that came to mid-calf, and slowly traveled up. Where the boots stopped, the lights started. She’d wound the strings of Christmas lights around each leg in a spiral pattern all the way to the crotch, then up over her hips to wrap around her torso. They wrapped around her back, crossing over her belly and again between her breasts before going up over her shoulders. She’d brought the ends together and taped them down with medical tape at the center of her back, and besides the boots, it was all she wore.

“Sadie,” he finally said, “I think you’ve outdone yourself.”

She beamed, looking down. “The lights have different settings, too. I can set them to static, twinkle, or chaser.”

“Chaser?” he echoed, and she bent to make the change. When the lights switched from a steady glow to a running wave, he started to laugh.

“You look like you’re auditioning for a holiday-themed porn parody ofTron,” he said, leaning against the doorway with a delighted grin.

“I know, right?” She switched them to twinkle. “I can’t decide which setting I like best.”

“Let me see the back,” he said, and she obediently turned. “Can you sit in that?”

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