she was doing, academically as well as emotionally. All those things brought them much closer. She didn't know it, of course, but he consciously arranged things so that he spent less time away than he might have if he hadn't had her to look out for.
Not that he resented it in the least. He was genuinely glad to be in a position to take care of her. And, as such, he had to maintain a delicate balance between spending the time to make sure that his company was a success and making certain that he had plenty of time to spend with his little sister, too.
Unfortunately for Ia, Daniel was much more of a disciplinarian than either of her parents had ever been with her. As a result, when she became his responsibility, she was a bit spoiled. It wasn't anything awful or even overt. She never threw tantrums or was prone to histrionics, but she wasn't used to having much expected of her in the way of complying with rules or doing chores and was generally used to getting her own way. Their parents had indulged her too much as far as he was concerned.
Daniel loved her—and quickly came to adore her as he became her defacto parent—but he was not going to put up with any kind of spoiled or bratty behavior. Ia had to find out about that the hard way, and in a manner which caused her great embarrassment.
Being spanked by him was horrible—horribly painful, yes. Even though he no longer played football, he maintained his athletic physique, and he was strong as an ox, with wide shoulders and well-muscled arms and legs. And that enormous hand was utterly unbearable when there was that much strength behind it.
But as far as Ia was concerned, the humiliation she felt when he spanked her was almost worse than anything he could do to her.
As a result, several things happened. She learned to be quite sneaky, and when she did something that she knew might well get her in trouble with him if she was caught; she made damned sure not to get caught. It wasn't as if she disobeyed him all the time; it was very occasional and never in an overt manner He never checked up on her—he was too busy, and thus Ia became quite expert in covering her tracks. She was very careful never to push things too far, knowing that if he found out she was being so devious, it would go that much worse for her, on top of the punishment she'd earn for doing whatever it was that he didn't want her to.
As a result of her careful machinations, Daniel found that he rarely had to punish her. In the years since she'd lost her parents and he'd lost his dad, he'd only actually spanked her three times.
One of those times was relatively recent—or much more recent than she was comfortable with, even though it had happened more than three years ago.
She'd assumed that, once she was a legal adult—twenty-one—and had graduated college, too, that he wouldn't continue to discipline her. But she was wrong about that assumption—very, very wrong.
When she left high school, she had a curfew of eleven. She hadn't spent much time at home during the summers between college years, preferring to spend it with friends she had met, some of whom were extremely well off, and spent their summers travelling. She often went along with them, with Daniel's permission, which he gave without her ever having to ask as long as it was someone he knew and trusted, and she made sure that those boxes were checked before she mentioned her plans.
That should have told her something, but she preferred not to confront the fact that he was still acting toward her as if he was her father. So the issue of whether or not she still had a curfew remained unaddressed for four years.
The summer after she'd graduated and came home to live, she'd stayed out one Friday night with a group of guys and girls who had stolen under the fence at a local state park in order to night swim, drink, smoke, and party around a campfire.
She hadn't gotten home until almost two in the morning, but he was awake, mostly because he'd been worried sick about her.
Ia didn't like to think about what had happened next, and she really hadn't forgiven him for it, either. Not only had he spanked her—first with his hand, then finishing with the wide leather belt that he had been wearing at the time—but he'd also grounded her from going out for a month because she'd broken the law by trespassing at a state park.
Since he owned the house she lived in, the car she drove to get to work, bought all of her clothes and food and everything else in regards to the household, plus giving her a generous allowance, there wasn't much she could do.
It drove a bit of a wedge between them for a while, and it still stuck in Ia's craw. That night when she was still standing in her bedroom, where he usually spanked her, afterward, she surprised him by declining his offer of a comforting hug.
Daniel had frowned darkly at that, brows drawn. It was the harshest punishment he'd ever doled out to her. He'd never used his belt on her before, and if anyone needed a hug at that moment, it was her. But she actually took a step away from him, with her hand up.
"No. No, thank you," she'd declined coolly, not looking at him as she pulled her pants up, refusing to give any sign that doing so was incredibly painful.
"I hope you really understand why I punished you, Ia. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't bother."
There was no response from her, so he left, although he hated to leave things like that between them.
As soon as the door closed, Ia allowed herself to fall apart in the way she couldn't in front of him, crawling onto her bed to lie on her stomach, breath hissing in through her teeth from even just those small movements. She was still fully dressed. He never bared her completely for a spanking, and this time was no different, but he did expose her panties, which might as well not have been there.
As she lay on her bed sobbing, Ia made the decision to take some steps to become more independent from that moment on.
It helped that she found out the next morning that she'd gotten the job she'd applied for at a small, regional bank. It was an entry-level position that didn't pay much, but she knew that—even for a woman—there were a lot of chances for advancement. The person who had interviewed her was a woman, and her hopes had been buoyed to see that.
The bank gave her a free checking and savings accounts as an employee perk, and she'd already closed out her small savings at another bank and deposited the money at the one where she was working. It was annoying that they only paid once a month, but that first Friday of the month after she'd started, she'd gotten her paycheck and felt like she could conquer the world.
That evening, when Daniel handed Ia her allowance for the week as usual, she'd refused to take it, saying a coldly polite, "No, thank you."
Daniel had continued holding the money out to her, looking confused. "You don't want your allowance?"
"No, thank you."
He'd sighed in exasperation but didn't force it on her. "You can't be making that much at the bank, honey."
"No, thank you."
"Well, it's here for you if you should ever need it."
"Thank you," she answered stiffly.
As his little sister walked away from him, he sighed again, putting his hands on his hips. He wished for the thousandth time that he could find a way back to the closeness they'd had before. But he wasn't going to apologize for disciplining her for something she should have known better than to do in the first place. She wasn't a kid anymore, and they had been trespassing and could have been brought up on charges if they had been caught.
She hadn't sat comfortably for a week, but he didn't regret his behavior in the least, except that it seemed to have driven a wedge between them that he couldn't get around.
Still, he had to admire her for wanting to stand on her own two feet. Most women would have been just as happy to get two paychecks—one from the bank and one from him. Hell, most women wouldn't have gone out and gotten a job in the first place. She knew she didn't have to—he'd told her as much—but she had gumption and guts, his little sister, and he was very proud of her
He wished he thought that