Page 18 of Jade

“Personally, I don’t see how you’re ever gonna move the relationship forward if you’re not naughty,” Mariah piped up.

“Yeah. I mean, I feel like having our own rules helped a little, but then it went sort of stagnant after a bit,” Jade mused, feeling a twist in her gut that she was actually considering being naughty on purpose.

“If he’s really a Daddy, you hafta be naughty every once in a while to keep him on his toes. It’s actually good for the relationship,” Margo assured her.

“You’re incorrigible.” Jade giggled. She was already starting to feel better and less guilty. “Maybe just a little makeup. Just like some lip gloss and mascara.”

“What if he doesn’t notice?” Jilly asked.

“Jilly is right. Men don’t know too much about makeup. If you’re gonna break a rule on purpose… I say go big or go home!”

Luna was giggling maniacally at this point, and Jade was starting to have second thoughts.

Seeming to sense that, Mariah came up and put her arm around her former roommate. “Do as much or as little makeup as you want. A Daddy will notice.”

That didn’t make Jade feel any better. What if she wore makeup and after all this agonizing, he didn’t even notice? Would that mean he wasn’t a Daddy after all? That would break her heart. She took a deep breath and voiced her fears to her friends.

They were unfazed.

“Trust me. He’s a Daddy. Hundred percent. He’ll notice. You’ve got nothing to worry about.” Luna dismissed her fears in the easygoing way she had about her.

“He’s totally a Daddy,” Tessa agreed.

“I will literally eat my diaper if he doesn’t notice,” Margo cried.

Jade was disgusted. “Ew! Margo! What the heck?”

Margo rolled her eyes. “He’s totally a Daddy. That would never happen. That’s all I meant. So… are you wearing makeup or not? You have to decide before you run out of time.”

Glancing at the clock, Jade saw that Margo was right. She was supposed to meet Ryan downstairs in twenty minutes.

“I’m doing it,” she declared, walking to her closet and bringing out the makeup kit Baze had bought her.

Her friends all cheered.

She felt like she was gonna throw up.

Ryan

He’d gone down to the lobby twenty minutes early just to ensure he’d get there before her. It seemed like something a Daddy would do.

Actually a Daddy would have insisted on going to her door to pick her up, but Jade had put a hard veto on that idea, claiming her friends would embarrass her, and that she wasn’t ready to share. What they had was new and she wanted to keep him to herself. He couldn’t argue with that, so meeting in the lobby it was.

Jade wasn’t early. She came off the elevator exactly one minute before their agreed meeting time. He watched her as she strode across the casino toward the lobby, looking more like a sassy preteen than he had ever seen her in a tight green sweater, a black pleated schoolgirl skirt that gave him all the wrong ideas in the best way, green knee-high socks and black platform Mary Janes.

Even though in real life, Jade was all woman, despite her Middle tendencies, she was giving him all sorts of high school fantasies in that outfit.

“Hi,” he said as she approached.

“Hi yourself,” she said when she reached him.

He noticed the makeup right away. It wasn’t much and it wasn’t overdone, a shiny tinted gloss on her lips, mascara on her eyelashes and a tiny bit of shimmer on her eyelids.

He didn’t say anything, but inside, his brain was working a mile a minute. Since they’d agreed on their own set of rules, Jade had followed them to the letter. She read the Bible every day, she was in church on Sundays, and she’d never even worn a smidge of makeup any time he’d seen her. He was naive when it came to the lifestyle, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew he was being tested. And he knew he would pass the test. He just wasn’t sure when or how.

Deciding to ignore it for now, he took her hand and escorted her out of the hotel and onto the strip. It was a balmy March evening, with the sun just starting to peek behind the clouds. He’d chosen fun over fancy for their date and escorted her to a high-end soda shop down the strip that specialized in specialty burgers and epic shakes. They made small talk as they walked. Jade seemed pensive and a little tense; probably because he hadn’t mentioned her blatant naughtiness yet. Either that or she felt guilty. For a moment he felt bad for not saying something right away, but as he figured it, he was the Daddy in this situation and how and when to handle something was up to him. He’d looked forward to their date all day, and he was starving. Food was first. Anything else would have to wait.

“Have you ever been here?” he asked as they entered.