Undercover Sir

by Carolyn Faulkner

  "Has she never—" Ia squirmed a little.

  "What?"

  "Been angry at you for, you know." She didn't want to say it, but she'd been thinking about it—and everything Douglas had said to her yesterday about her attitude toward her big brother in regards to him having spanked her so long ago.

  "Yes, she's been mad, and I understand that. I usually try to give her some space afterward—although she knows that I'm always available to talk, or if she just needs a hug, so that she can work through it. But apparently, she doesn't have your staying power. Within a few days, she's usually fine. And what's more, I don't think she's ever done anything that got her punished again, which is proof that it works." He got a little misty eyed and didn't try to hide it from Ia. "She loves me, and I love her. She knows that I would never punish her on a whim. I haven't, and I wouldn't. And the older she gets, the less I have to discipline her, which is also proof that it works."

  Douglas didn't wait for the waitress to bring their bill, and this time, she watched as he dropped the bills onto the table.

  They were two one hundred dollar bills, or more than ten times what their bill was. That tip would be remembered by that waitress for a very long time.

  Ia couldn't believe it. "Douglas, do you know how much money you just spent on dinner that you didn't have to?" she asked as he helped her into the car.

  "Enough so that the waitress, who was excellent, by the way, might have some extra money to put toward groceries or a new TV, or shoes for her kids. I'm careful with my money in a lot of ways, but I also believe in spreading it around some."

  Ia knew her mouth was still hanging open, but she didn't say anything, even when he reached over to push it closed with his index finger. "You're going to catch flies that way, my dear."

  When they got home, Daniel and Taffy were grilling. They joined them, but just for the company.

  "Good food?" Daniel asked.

  "Amazing!"

  Ia was about to mention the enormous tip Douglas had left, but then she decided against it.

  When they were done, Daniel excused himself to his study, and—to their surprise—Douglas gave them a hand with what he called the "washing up". He proved an invaluable asset, since he was tall enough to reach the cupboard where Taffy kept the trays she only used occasionally.

  "I knew you had to be good for something," Ia mumbled, just loud enough for everyone to hear her.

  "Yes, tall works out really well." He proceeded to prove that fact by lifting her up against him and holding her there, so that her body was pressed against his and she was at his mercy, feet well above the floor.

  He loved the way she clutched at his shoulders. Douglas kissed her loudly and comically, since Taffy was there, while Ia laughed and shouted, "Put me down!"

  "You know what the magic word is, I'm sure." His kissing attacks continued unabated.

  "Please put me down, Douglas," she asked nicely.

  Her feet were on the ground immediately, and for a big man, he knew his own strength really well, having made certain not to hurt her as he was holding her and then very carefully setting her down once he had his due.

  The three of them cleaned up the mess in no time, and when he would have taken her back onto the deck to talk, Ia excused herself and went down the hallway to knock on Daniel's door.

  "Come," he said, expecting it to be Taffy with a cup of coffee for him, or Douglas to ask questions about what his next move should be with his sister, which put him in an awkward position.

  But it was Ia who came through the door.

  He stood immediately. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit?" he asked. She hadn't been in here since the incident at the lake, which she'd decided warranted a response that had her withdrawing her affection from him for so long.

  As he stood there, having come out from behind his desk to stand next to it, she ran toward him and glommed onto him so hard that she nearly bowled him over since he wasn't expecting it.

  For a moment, he kept his arms away from her just in surprise at what she was doing, before she squeezed him hard—as hard as she could, considering that her arms didn't reach all the way around him—and his settled around her slim, fragile shoulders.

  "Honey, are you okay?" he asked, not a little concerned by her behavior. "Did Douglas do something he shouldn't have to you?"

  But she was shaking her head, although she was crying, too, which didn't help.

  "He didn't? Then what is it, buttercup? I hate to see you like this."

  "It's not him—but he helped a lot. It's me! I'm so sorry, Daniel! I am. I'm terribly, terribly sorry!"

  "For what, honey?" He was absolutely bamboozled, having no idea what she was talking about.

  "What for, Ia? What did you do?" Daniel couldn't imagine what had brought this on.

  She took a step away from him, although he was reluctant to let her go, and looked up at him. "Douglas talked to me a bit about our situation and my reaction to it." She paused and gathered herself. "I love you, Daniel. And I'm sorry that I've been so cool to you for so long. Can you ever forgive me? I really do appreciate everything you do for me, although I guess I appreciate that a lot less."

  Daniel was blinking back tears, and his voice was raspy when he spoke. "Aw, honey, it's okay. And I love you, too. Always have, always will. Thank you for coming to tell me that. It took a lot of guts and maturity, and I'm proud of you."

  That was almost too much to hear as Ia stepped back into his big bear hug, crying on his shoulder for a little while before he kissed the top of her head and put her away from him.

  "You don't want to spend the rest of your evening in here with me. Go sit on the deck with Taffy and Douglas. I've got some things to do, but I'll be there eventually."

  "All right," she agreed, heading for the door.

  "Ia?"

  "Yes, Daniel?" she asked, turning to look at him before opening the door.

  "I love you very much, buttercup."

  She smiled. "I love you, too, Daniel."

  "You're a good girl," he praised as she closed the door.

  He did join them a while later, and Taffy rose when he appeared. "Can I get you a drink, my love?" she asked, and he took her hand as she passed him on the way to the kitchen.

  "Yes, please, my usual. Douglas?"

  "Whatever you're having is fine."

  Then he looked at Ia. "Little sister, what would you like to have?"

  "I can drink?" she asked, and he couldn't detect the slightest bit of sarcasm in her voice.

  Daniel nodded. "What would you like?"

  "G&T, please. Lots of lime."

  "I knew that," Taffy claimed.

  "Do you need help?" Ia offered.

  "No, you stay there with your brother and your boyfriend."

  Ia squeaked at that. Douglas couldn't tell whether or not it was in protest, but he liked to think not.

  Eventually, the women drifted off to bed and just the men were left.

  "So, Ia tells me that I am in debt to you quite considerably."

  Douglas' eyebrow rose. "Oh?"

  Daniel chuckled. "You look just like I did when she walked into my office after dinner. She hasn't been in that room voluntarily since the incident where I spanked her—I used the belt on her little bottom, actually."

  "Ouch."

  He nodded. "Yes. Very. And it wasn't at all easy for me to do. But that was the last time she was in my study. And the last time—until this evening—that she hugged me voluntarily and said that she loved me." He swallowed hard and raised his glass in a toast to the other man. "Thank you, man. I don't know what you said or did—and I'm not sure that I want to know—but just thank you. I feel like I have my little sister back."

  "I'm glad." Douglas was at least as amazed as he was that their discussions had born fruit, especially so quickly.

  "I mean it, man. If you get results like this, I'm going to start lobbying for you guys to get married."

  Douglas looked a little uncomfortable
at that.

  "What? Did you ask her to marry you already?"

  "No, although I want to let you know that the idea has crossed my mind. I really like Ia a lot. In fact, I think I'm pretty much in love with her. She's lagging a bit behind me, I think, because she's not thrilled that I will continue to make sure that she toes the line, in much the same fashion as you have."

  Daniel nodded. "Can't say as I blame her for that, really."

  "Well, we differ there, but it's of no matter at the moment. And I had the advantage of knowing you all these years and listening to your wonderful stories about her. When you talk about your sister, it's very obvious to anyone who sees and hears you that you adore her. So, I came here knowing her reasonably well, just from your stories about her. But you didn't talk to her about me, understandably—"

  "I didn't talk to her—just end there. About anyone or anything."

  Douglas put out his hand. "I know, and I'm not faulting you at all. I'm just stating the facts She doesn't know me anywhere near as well as I do her. Which is why, tonight, I introduced the idea about her coming to see me in England, perhaps this spring or summer, which I kind of assumed would be okay with you."

  "It's fine with me, but what did she say to that?"

  "She seemed somewhat lukewarm about the idea. She was worried about the cost, and I kind of let the cat out of the bag a little, letting her know that it would be all expenses paid. She seemed surprised that I had the money to do that, which is exactly what I wanted her to think. I gather that she's a bit of an Anglophile, though, and that might work in my favor."

  "She is. She went crazy for the royal wedding and the coronation. Read everything she could about it."

  "Yes, well, I wanted to plant that idea, because I would very much like to see her as soon as possible after I leave on Friday. My question to you is about whether or not you would like to accompany her? Or maybe Taffy? Someone as a chaperone? Or would you like me to engage one on my side of the pond?"

  "A chaperone?" Daniel mulled the word over.

  "Yes, I figured that you wouldn't be able to get away. I gather she has three weeks of leave to use this year, and I'd love for her to use all of it staying with me. Taffy would be the obvious choice, unless you'd rather she not."

  "I don't know. I'll have to think about all of this."

  "Of course. I'm sorry to spring it on you, but I just want to keep you informed about what I'm thinking. If all goes well, I would really like to propose to her when she's in England."

  "Really?"

  "Yes, Daniel. I don't want to appear wibbly-wobbly about my intentions. I am very taken with your sister, and I would very much like to make her my wife, with your permission." Douglas looked at him nervously, his heart in his throat.

  But Daniel was still trying to get over "wibbly-wobbly" and was snickering, which didn't help.

  When he'd sobered himself up a bit, Daniel said, "Well, you must know that you have it, my friend. The only person you have to worry about now is Ia."

  "Yes, and she is a formidable force, for such a tiny woman."

  Daniel nodded vigorously. "Welcome to my world, Douglas, only it's two tiny women for me."

  Douglas laughed. "I just thought about that. You know, if Ia marries me, our roles will completely reverse. I'll be the one with two independent, stubborn women who occasionally need to be reminded to take care of themselves and adhere to the rules."

  "Then you'll be ranting to me when we're on what's supposed to be a business call."

  Douglas smiled and nodded. "That brings up something else. She doesn't appear to eat or sleep much. Are you concerned about that?"

  That was news to him. "I-I don't know. I don't think that I've ever paid much attention to either of those things, which might well reveal me as a bad guardian. I guess I just assumed she was doing both of those things just fine." He mulled it over a bit in his mind. "Come to think of it, though, she does say she's tired a lot, and she's very thin—thinner than I can ever remember her being."

  "Yes. At home, she takes a very small portion of everything and doesn't finish that. I've seen it. And when we eat out, she doesn't come anywhere near to finishing her portion, although, granted, you Yanks eat enormous portions of everything."

  "Yes, we do, and I'm feeling a bit guilty because, when she brings home a doggie bag, she never eats it. I do."

  "She's up in the middle of the night, too. She has insomnia, I guess. I know. because I naturally don't need much sleep, and she's gotten up, while I was still up to read a book until she can fall asleep. I just wanted to mention these things and see if you'd noticed. I don't want to mandate anything for her. She's not mine to do that for yet, but I wanted to bring it to your attention."

  "And she will be in good hands if you can get her to say 'yes'. Thank you for mentioning it, though. I'll keep an eye on her in regards to those two things."

  "You're welcome. Let me know what you decide about England as soon as you can, please."

  "I will."

  Chapter 10

  The rest of Douglas' visit was a whirlwind of movies, dinners, flower shows, ice cream dinner dates, and necking in her brother's car while sitting in the driveway, although they didn't do much of that because Douglas didn't want to insult his host. He knew he wouldn't be very happy if Daniel and Taffy decided to sit in his car, in his driveway, and snog, so he'd made them go inside, over Ia's pouty objections.

  He'd patted her bottom a bit more than firmly as they walked up to the door to remind her that he was less likely to put up with her acting spoiled and defiant than her brother was.

  Friday came very quickly indeed, and even though his flight was very early in the morning and she could have made it to work, Douglas had insisted she take the day off so that she could rest when she got back.

  Daniel and Taffy said goodbye to him at the door to the house, with him issuing an invitation for them to come over and see him anytime they wanted. With that, he and Ia left. This time, they were using her car instead of her brother's, because Daniel would need it to get to work.

  Ia figured she'd be driving, but she was wrong.

  "No one drives me but me," he pronounced, tucking her into the passenger's seat.

  When they got there, she went in with him and waited in the departure lounge with him.

  "I'm going to miss you something fierce, Miss Ia," he confessed. They'd taken chairs in the waiting area that were tucked away in a corner, and he sat facing her, with his arm around her shoulders.

  "I'm going to miss you, too," she answered shyly, earning herself a gentle kiss for that.

  "You're going to write me, though, yeah? Religiously? Every day and twice on Sunday?"

  Ia shook her head. "You would be bored to tears if I wrote that often. I'll write you every other day or so."

  Douglas caught her chin and brought her eyes to his. "You're not going to let some young whippersnapper…" His fastidious accent made those words sound utterly ridiculous. "…come along and whisk you away from me, are you?"

  She snorted derisively but stopped immediately at the look he gave her. "You're very lucky that we're in public, lovely, or you'd, right now, be getting your fanny spanked."

  Ia blushed, since he had told her the difference between an American "fanny" and a British one. She didn't relish either being spanked, but the British one sounded infinitely worse to her. Not that the American one was any joy, either.

  "Douglas!" she whispered loudly. "You can't say such things to me!"

  "Of course, I can, lovely. In fact, I hope to soon be contractually obligated to do so." He grinned at her obvious discomfort with that idea, which he'd been slipping into their conversation every time he could, just to get her used to the idea.

  "Have you thought about when you want to come see me?"

  She shook her head, which made him feel a bit deflated. "What season is best, would you say?"

  "Well, summer is hot and can be muggy. Spring is rainy."

  "Spring is my
favorite season."

  "I'll have to remember that. Fall is nice, but it's much too far away, so I vote for spring."

  "But you just said it rains!"

  He winked at her. "I'll make certain that most of our activities take place indoors."

  She smacked him, and he pretended grievous injury, until his flight was called.

  Then he stood, taking her face between his palms. "You're going to be good, right? And behave for Daniel?"

  "Yes!" She practically rolled her eyes at him but didn't quite dare.

  "Because why?"

  "Because if I get in trouble with Daniel, I'm in twice as much trouble with you."

  "That's my girl," he praised, leaning down to kiss her warmly until she began to yield her body to him, arching against him and very nearly unmanning him right there, at gate 24 A. He gathered his carry-on bag and briefcase, stealing another kiss before he joined the line of passengers. Just as he did, he looked back at her and said in a loud voice, "Behave!"

  That got the other people around him looking at her and laughing at him.

  And it made Ia blush beautifully, which had been his evil intent.

  Although she forced herself to dive into work and try to forget him, firmly believing, despite what he'd said to her over and over again about how much he wanted to marry her, that she was just some kind of dalliance, a distraction for him while he was staying with them.

  But she couldn't.

  She was surprised to realize that she missed him much more than she had thought she would. He was so intense and so focused on her that she'd gotten used to someone who paid that level of attention to her. He was usually awake when she couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, and Douglas had introduced her to new ways of spending that time when she couldn't sleep that were much more pleasant than the ones she'd come up with.

  He'd coaxed her—with alarming ease—into doing things she would have sworn she would never do, although he had a kind of strange code of ethics about it, too. He would not touch her inappropriately inside Daniel's house. So, when he did that, they had been in the comfy, cushy lounge chairs on the deck.