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“Good girl,” I murmured as I followed behind her.
She turned on her heel and glared at me. “I’m not a dog.”
“No one said that you were.”
“Y-you—”
“It’s a term Daddies use to express that they’re happy with your behavior.”
“I don’t think I like it.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“You’ll learn to,” I teased, unfazed by her protest. I could see that she was out of her comfort zone, but it was clearly a case of ‘thou dost protest too much’. The intricacies of the dynamic would take some getting used to, and I expected her to push back at every turn. I knew this would be hard for her.
She raised a brow at my brush aside, and frowned, again looking ready to call the whole thing off. “This was a stupid idea. I don’t understand this stuff. There’s no way you’re going to be able to help. Look at this place. I’d be better off burning it down and starting over.”
“You don’t own it, so there's no insurance money to collect, and nothing to gain from burning it down. Plus, that would be a felony, and while I don’t know too much about you, I do know you are not a criminal,” I deadpanned, before letting the corners of my mouth turn into a patient smile. “Take a breath. Why don’t you start by showing me around?”
“What is there to show? The whole place looks like this. I clean one spot and by the time I move to the next one, the first one is a mess again.”
I scanned the room. It was a mess, but it wasn't a pigsty, even though she was acting like it was. It was lived-in chaos in need of a deep clean and some organization, but it wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle, and it certainly wasn’t worth the fit she was throwing. She was getting herself all worked up and we hadn’t even discussed anything.
“Jasmine, take a breath,” I repeated, trying to snap her out of it.
“Ugh!” she huffed and rubbed her temples. “Fine, you want a grand tour? I’ll give you a grand tour, okay?”
She stomped from room to room while I followed, jabbing her finger and telling me who each room belonged to. From her tour, I gathered that she had three kids, a detail Nyla had already shared. She pointed out their rooms, and hers, then led me back to the main part of the house, where she showed me the kitchen, the dining room with a nook she used as an office, the laundry room, and what appeared to be the only bathroom in the place. I followed her around, letting her throw her little tantrum, making notes about the areas that seemed to need the most help. The kitchen looked like she had put in some effort, if the pile of clean dishes in the dish drainer was anything to go by.
No dishwasher with three kids?
I shuddered. Doing dishes was my least favorite thing, and I avoided it at all costs. “You need a dishwasher,” I mused.
“I have one, it’s broken.”
“Seems like something that should be a priority to get fixed.”
Jasmine laughed, a cold and bitter laugh, not happy in the slightest. “Sure, I’ll get right on that with all of the extra money I have lying around. Are you fucking kidding me?”
I sucked in a breath. I could put up with a lot, especially since I could tell this entire evening had been distressing for her, but at the end of the night I was here to be her Rent-A-Daddy, and Daddies did not appreciate being cussed at. “That’s enough. I’m here to help and I will not tolerate being cussed at, understand?” My stern Dom persona made itself known. “I could care less if you cuss for other reasons, but you will not cuss at me. I do not tolerate disrespect.”
She reacted instantly to my stern scolding. Her eyes grew wide and her cheeks flamed, then just as quickly, she took a step back, the anger faded, and she dropped her gaze to the floor, looking ashamed. “Yeah, you’re right, Bain. That was rude and I’m sorry. I just… this Daddy thing? I don’t know how to do it. I’m so out of my element here, and to make matters worse, you and I have nothing in common.”
“We don’t?” I could name at least three things we had in common off the top of my head. Sure, they were surface level, but they were still there. “I don’t see how you could have surmised that this early. Plus it’s simply not true.”
She didn’t respond to that, staring me down with raised brows and an unamused expression.
Raising my hand, I ticked them off on my fingers as I counted. “One, we are both good friends with Nyla. Two, we both went to school at the University of Pennsylvania. Three, we both live in Philadelphia.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes and shook her head. “That’s…that’s not what I meant, and you know it. Yeah we have a few friends and a city and our alma mater in common, but even with all that, we are worlds apart. I can barely scrape two nickels together most days, and you’re rich and spoiled. In your high-brow world, a broken dishwasher is a priority, but in mine, it’s a luxury. You have no idea what real priorities are. Unlike you, I can’t just throw money around and make problems go away.”
Her tirade had the expected result—I felt guilty for my comment. It was true I’d been born with a silver spoon in my mouth and never struggled a day in my life. Even though I worked hard to continue to fund the lavishness of my current lifestyle, it was too easy to forget how the other half lived. I didn’t want to be the insensitive spoiled bastard Jasmine seemed to think I was. More than anything, I wanted to prove her wrong. Starting right now.
“You’re right. I don’t know the entire situation yet, and the comment was insensitive. I apologize.”
The stunned expression on her face almost made me laugh. Apparently, she hadn’t expected an apology.
“I…um…forgive you.”
“Thank you,” I replied graciously. “Now, should we get your first punishment out of the way before we continue chatting?”
