23. Jace

It took nearly forty-five minutes to get all the goop and glitter off his face that his baby girl had put there. He was pretty sure he still had some lingering glitter, but he did the best he could with the limited time they had. Thank goodness for the dimmed lighting at the club.

By the time Ruby had finished his makeup, they realized they needed to change and get ready to head to The Playground. Even though he’d looked terrible with all the makeup on, he would do it again a million times over if it meant making his girl as happy as she was when they were playing.

Walking into the club, the men were on either side of her, holding her hands.

“We’ll drop you off in the playroom when we get inside so you can play, but we’ll check on you throughout the night and come get you if it’s not too busy. Sound good?” Jace asked.

Looking up at him, she nodded, though he noticed she looked a bit uncertain.

“You can hang out in our office if you’d prefer, but you probably wouldn’t have as much fun,” he said.

Shaking her head, she skipped toward the door. “I’ll be fine, Daddy.”

After checking her into the playroom, Jace and Zane went to their office and logged into their computers.

“I already hate leaving her,” Zane told him.

“I know, but it’s good for her to play with other Littles and hopefully make some friends. Besides, she needs time to breathe without us constantly crowding her.”

“Maybe she likes being crowded,” he grumbled.

Rolling his eyes, Jace looked at the schedule for the night so he knew who would be working in what areas.

“I know you’re ready to move her into our house and put a ring on her finger, but we need to take it one step at time. We don’t even know where she lives or who she lives with,” Jace told him.

Sometimes he hated being the reasonable one because if he were totally honest, he hated the thought of her going home at the end of the night. He hated that she wouldn’t be in their bed.

Zane grumbled under his breath making Jace grin. His friend could be completely unreasonable and stubborn sometimes.

“Come on, let’s go make some rounds, and then we can go check on our girl. I know it’s killing you to be away from her,” Jace said.

The club was packed. Jace couldn’t remember the last time it had been so busy. What was only supposed to be a few rounds turned into two hours of walking around making sure everything was okay.

There had been an issue with a submissive in the dungeon not feeling well during a scene, so Jace and Zane had both assisted the Dom with getting the woman taken care of. They’d found out she hadn’t eaten anything all day because she’d been so anxious to scene with her new Dom. As soon as they started getting some food in her, she started feeling better.

Just as Jace was walking toward the playroom, the two-way radio he was holding beeped, followed by a voice.

“Jace or Zane, we need you in the playroom. We have a Little throwing a tantrum and she won’t let any of us near her.”

Picking up his pace, he practically jogged down the hall. Somehow, he knew that the Little was their Little and he needed to get to her.

Opening the door, he looked around the room and sure enough, Ruby was flat on her back, kicking her legs and crying. The monitor looked at him with a lost expression, but Jace just nodded to him and walked over to where his girl was having a fit.

Everyone in the room had moved to the outer edges of the room, giving her a wide berth of space. Coming to a stop next to her, Jace stared down at her for a long moment until she opened her eyes and noticed him.

Her eyes widened as soon as she saw him, and she let out a dramatic sniffle that had him raising his eyebrows.

“Little girl,” he said quietly.

“You didn’t come check on me, Daddy. Neither of you did and I was sad and you guys left me and the girl over there didn’t want to be my friend and you left me!” she wailed.

If he weren’t the owner of the club, needing to set an example for the rest of the Daddies in the room, Jace probably would have smiled at her dramatics because it really was cute. But it was also obvious that their girl needed her bottom reddened and to be reminded that she was theirs and they weren’t leaving her.

Zane strode up behind him, looking concerned as he looked over Ruby.

“What’s going on?” he demanded.

“You and Daddy left me!” she cried out again.

Looking to Jace for help understanding what she was having a fit about, Jace shrugged.

“She’s having a temper tantrum because we didn’t come check on her quickly enough and because another little girl didn’t want to be her friend,” he explained.

A Little stepped forward slightly, catching their attention. Looking up at the small woman who was holding her Daddy’s hand, she looked sad.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to be her friend. I told her I wanted to finish my painting and then we could go play at the dollhouse like she wanted. I didn’t mean to upset her,” the Little said quietly.

Jace sighed and looked at Zane who shook his head.

“You got here first. You decide,” Zane said, answering his silent question.

When Littles acted up in the playroom, they were typically disciplined in the playroom even with other people around. It was in the paperwork that every Little and Top filled out when they joined the club. Since a lot of Littles and Tops enjoyed a little bit of exhibitionism, some Littles acted out in the playroom on purpose so they would be spanked in front of others.

After the first night they’d met Ruby, both men had looked over parts of her application and her paperwork, reviewing everything she marked as limits, non-limits, and interests, and Jace remembered she’d marked being punished in front of others as a non-limit and an interest. So, their little girl was about to get her cute little bottom spanked in front of everyone.

“Stand up, little girl,” he said firmly.

Sticking out her bottom lip in a pout, she reached for the hand he held out for her and got to her feet. Cupping her chin, he tilted her head back and stared down at her with a stern expression.

“We didn’t leave you, little girl. We had some stuff happen out in the dungeon that we had to attend to. A woman wasn’t feeling well and we had to help her Dom. We had meant to come check on you sooner, but we knew you were safe in here and that a monitor would call us if you really needed us. Do you think having a temper tantrum was the correct way to get our attention?”

Her bottom lip trembled, and she tried to move her head to look down, but he held her firmly, not letting her break eye contact.

“I thought you guys forgot about me,” she said softly.

“We would never forget about you, Ruby. You’re ours. Do you understand me? You belong to us and we would never leave you.”

“Sorry, Daddy,” she said, barely above a whisper.

“I know, baby, but you’re still in trouble. Do you think getting upset because another Little asked you to wait a while to play is appropriate? It doesn’t sound to me like she didn’t want to be your friend, just that she wanted to finish what she was doing before she moved on to do something else. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

Jace nodded his head and released her chin. “I want you to go apologize to her right now for making her feel bad and then come back over here.”