Undercover Sir. Carolyn Faulkner

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СКАЧАТЬ she interrupted, "May I go now?"

      "Yes, you may."

      Daniel had frowned after her for a good long time after she'd disappeared into her room before he grabbed the evening paper and sank down into his easy chair to watch the latest episode of The Milton Berle Show.

      That place hadn't worked out, and now, many long months later, she was still stuck here with her brother and his wife. She didn't mind Taffy so much, and even suspected that he spanked her, too, but that didn't bear thinking of, and it was of absolutely no comfort to her, anyway.

      Daniel had tried to talk to her—not about why she wanted to move out, which he thought might lead to an argument—but instead trying to emphasize the fact that she'd be wasting money.

      "Think of how much of your hard-earned dough you're saving by living here! Why would you want to waste your money like that when you don't have to? I don't understand it. You would have so much more to spend." He was reaching for something she might spend her money on. "Like filling up your hope chest or buying clothes and makeup or whatever."

      She'd laughed at that, but not in a humorous way. "If I had a hope chest, it would be old and dusty by now."

      He looked uncomfortable at being reminded that his little sister was an old maid. "Well, you never know."

      "Yes, I do, Daniel. I'm twenty-five, and I've never even been on a date."

      "Yes, you have! I fixed you up with…" He frowned. "…well, I forget his name."

      "Ernie Parker, whom we both know went out with me to try to score points with you toward a promotion. He barely looked at me the entire night. And his mother, with whom he lives, came with us to the movies and made us dinner at their house later. That does not count as a date."

      "Did he pay for the movie?" he asked, as if he'd found a loophole in her logic.

      "She paid for the movie, Daniel. You have to face facts—I have. Men don't have any interest in me. They never have, even when I was younger. I wear glasses, I'm bookish, and I won't act stupid just to make them like me, and I'm nothing special to look at whatsoever. Marriage and children just aren't in the cards for me, and that's okay." She swallowed hard at that lie but forced herself to continue with her timid little speech. "And this is your house—yours and Taffy's. You'll have kids one day, and what am I going to be then? The pathetic maiden aunt, still living with her brother and his wife? No, thank you; I need to find my own way."

      She had to give it to him. He looked appalled at what she'd just said. "We would never see you that way."

      "You don't have to. I'm doing it for you," she admitted, on the brink of tears and desperate not to cry in front of him, even though he'd never made her feel bad when she did.

      Daniel was at a loss for what to say. "Can I at least hug you?" he asked, arms already out to her as he took a step toward her—as if he'd never considered that she might refuse his request.

      Knowing that his genuine kindness would break her down into a pile of disagreeable fluids, Ia shook her head, then turned tail and literally ran away from him, down the hall to her room as fast as she could.

      And that was where she had spent the majority of her time until, one afternoon when she was holed up in her bedroom with yet another Barbara Cartland novel in her hand, and she heard a knock on her door.

      "He's gone. You can come out now," Taffy said, wandering back toward the living room as if she didn't care whether or not the younger woman followed her or not, which wasn't necessarily the truth. She liked Ia but didn't want to get between a brother and sister, so she let them work things out as much as possible. And she wasn't much interested in spending the time he was away on business alone in the house, either.

      At first, her friendship with Taffy was just due to the fact that they lived in the same house, and Daniel was their only common bond. But as they spent more and more time together, they found they liked a lot of the same things, and while the cat was gone, the mice played. Surprisingly, though, with all of their late-night chats and the booze that inevitably accompanied them, they had never discussed the fact that they had each spent time with his hand blistering their bottoms. That said a lot about how embarrassed they each were about that state of affairs, she assumed.

      When Ia appeared in the living room, her sister-in-law informed her, "He went on some big overseas trip—England? Ireland? Somewhere in that vicinity," she mused, wrinkling her nose as if having to think about the geography of it hurt her head. "He'll be gone for a couple of weeks. Wanna go get a pizza and some beer?"

      "I admire you, you know," Taffy said as they slipped into one of the few empty booths at Alfredo's Pizzeria fifteen minutes later.

      Ia snorted. "You do? Why? I haven't done anything whatsoever to deserve admiration."

      "Yes, you have. You're not waiting around to get married. You've got your degree, you've got a good job and a car and Daniel told me that you're even looking to move out. Good for you!"

      Ia couldn't decide whether it was actually good for her, or good for Taffy, but she gave her the benefit of the doubt. "Thank you. I-I'm not what men want, apparently, never had been, so I figured I should make my own way."

      And get out of a house where my brother feels he has the right to spank me, she thought but didn't say.

      But Taffy did. "Yeah, and living alone means that Daniel won't be enforcing a curfew, either." The older woman stared into Ia's eyes boldly "And spanking you when you break it, I mean."

      She knew that her complexion was an unbecoming shade of red, and her face was already unbecoming, and that knowledge just made her blush even harder. It was a vicious cycle.

      "Uh, no. He won't." Ia wasn't at all sure that she wanted to talk about this.

      But Taffy wasn't giving her the option. "I wish I could get him to lay off that stuff!" she moaned. "I mean, jeez. Most nights, I can barely sit in those damned wooden dining room chairs. I asked him if we could replace them, and he said no!"

      Ia shrugged. "So replace them yourself You get an allowance, don't you?"

      Two beers were placed in front of them and they gave their usual order—a large pepperoni and sausage with extra cheese.

      Taffy took a swig of her beer. "Can you imagine what he'd do if he came home and they were gone—especially after I've already asked him to get rid of them? I'd never sit down again!"

      Ia had to laugh at that. "You're probably right about that. I withdraw my suggestion."

      It didn't go any further than that, but it was a nice icebreaker, too, something they'd been dancing around for too long. It drew them even closer to each other than they had been while he was gone. Having a sister-in-law whom she'd had to adapt to kind of gave Ia a bit of insight as to what it might be like to live with someone else, and it reinforced her feeling that she really didn't want to move in with someone who was a complete stranger.

      On Saturday night, they decided to treat themselves by going out to dinner and a movie. They debated about several of the films but ended up going to see "Jailhouse Rock" because Ia wanted to drool over Elvis, on whom she'd had a crush since the first time she'd heard Don't Be Cruel.

      She rhapsodized over him during dinner. Taffy thought he was all right but said that her husband was much better СКАЧАТЬ