turn shortly."
Ia lifted her head enough to shoot Taffy a quizzical look. They were both surprised to hear that they were getting any kind of reprieve, and neither of them thought that was going to be a good thing for them in any way. Why hadn't he already sent them to their rooms? That worried both of them. And, as it turned out, with very good cause.
A bit belatedly, Daniel spotted the girls' robes on the floor, handing Ia hers and practically having to dress Taffy, or she would have ended up in a heap on the floor with the effort. "But before I do that," he began, rubbing the back of his neck agitatedly before he took each of the girls by their arms again to guide them, none too gently, toward the dining room. It was there, they both came to the horrifying realization that a stranger had witnessed everything that had just happened. "I have someone I want you to meet."
Granted, the man's back was turned to them, and he was politely standing at the end of the room—as far away from their humiliation as he could get without going outside—peering out the sliders at the deck and the back yard. He only turned back around when they approached him, but that didn't make either one of them feel better in the slightest. He'd heard the whole thing, the scolding as well as the—however oblique—reference to the fact that he was going to spank them. Not to mention the fact that he'd likely also seen them in nothing but their nightgowns and underwear.
Ia's face could not have gotten any redder, if Taffy's was anything to judge by.
"This is the man I've been working very closely with on the London deal, and to whom I've been bragging, every time I see him, about my wonderful wife whom I love to distraction, and who makes such a beautiful home for us, and my smart, independent sister, whom I also adore, and of whom I have always been so extremely proud."
"Oh, God," Ia groaned softly, covering her face. She heard the lovely words—rare praise from him indeed. But she couldn't feel anything but embarrassment and remorse.
Taffy had begun crying softly as soon as he'd mentioned how she'd kept a "beautiful" house.
But Daniel wasn't going to let either of them off the hook easily "Douglas Martin, meet my apparently delinquent wife, Taffy."
Since the older woman chose that moment to throw herself against her husband and dissolve into tears, obviously hoping that this was all just an alcohol-fueled nightmare, Mr. Martin didn't get a chance to shake hands with her. "A pleasure to meet you," he murmured quietly, averting his eyes.
Ia had no one to cling to, so she ended up standing there alone in all of her glorious mortification.
"And this naughty young lady is my sister, Anna Maria, who is more usually called Ia," Daniel intoned in a manner that left no doubt as to the fact that he was severely disappointed in her, too.
Dear Lord, he'd called her "naughty" in front of a man she didn't know!
Unlike Taffy, she couldn't just ignore the introduction, much as she might have wanted to at that moment, so Ia gamely put her hand out while keeping her eyes on the man's spotless dress shoes as she fought back tears.
Her head snapped up, though, when she found the fingers of her cold, nervous hand taken by a large, warm one. But he didn't shake it. Instead, he turned it very gently over and brought the back of it to his lips, lying effortlessly in an impossibly cultured and low, undeniably soothing British accent, "I'm charmed to meet you, Miss Baldwin."
She pulled her hand back more in surprise than anything, because not only had he done the unexpected in not shaking her hand, but when she'd finally forced herself to meet the man's bright, intelligent green eyes, they were smiling ever so slightly—if fleetingly—as if he had a long acquaintance with situations like this and was quite at ease with them. It was not an unkind or even an overt smile—she doubted that Daniel had seen it—but he was definitely letting her know that he was far from horrified by what he'd witnessed. Instead, he was thoroughly amused by the pickle in which she and Taffy found themselves.
Ia had no idea what to make of that, or him, or her reaction to him, which went beyond recognizing that he was keenly aware of her plight. When he touched her, when his warm, soft lips were gently, briefly pressed to her hand, she'd felt something she'd never experienced before—something strong and intoxicating and stark that made her heart beat faster and her breath catch more than slightly.
She dismissed those feelings as fanciful, of course, mere remnants of the alcohol in her system, concentrating instead on his annoyingly accurate intuition about the fact that she was moments from being spanked by her brother. She didn't know how he knew, but he knew, darn him!
Her first instinct was to dislike him, even though she didn't sense any menace from him. But there was no mistaking that look. Anyone else would have been at least somewhat abashed, and it had been her understanding that the Brits were an extremely reserved, unemotional people.
Apparently, she had been mistaken, not that she'd ever met an Englishman before.
So, the discomfort was all hers, and she had more than enough to go around. Perhaps her unusual reaction to him was normal—she wouldn't know the difference, since no man had ever kissed her hand. No man other than her brother, or the occasional assorted cousin, had kissed her anywhere. Ia knew that she should say something as he continued to look at her with that benign but intense stare, although she just couldn't find any words that she thought sounded right.
As she stood there, feeling like six kinds of dolt and twelve kinds of a fool, twin teardrops rolled down her cheeks, and Ia used the same hand he'd kissed to brush them away, hoping to forestall more of them, because she knew that many more were going to be forcibly conjured in the not too distant future.
Then she noticed that not only had the stranger brought in a gorgeous, expensive looking leather briefcase that was tucked against the far wall, but he'd also brought his suitcase.
Daniel had brought him home to stay here while they were working together.
Ia closed her eyes, losing two more tears. This day could not possibly get any worse, but then she knew that was a lie. She still had a punishment to get through.
With the formalities out of the way, Daniel pushed Taffy slightly away from him, kissing her forehead gently. "You two are to go to your rooms and wait for me there while I make Douglas comfortable."
Only too happy to extricate themselves from the awful awkwardness, the girls each made it back to their rooms in record time.
Ia closed the door behind her and leaned back against it, nearly giving in to the impulse to weep piteously, but she didn't. There was no telling when he was going to come through that door. Would he see to Taffy first? For some reason, she really didn't want to have him find her dissolved in tears.
Besides, it wasn't as if she didn't know that it wouldn't garner her any mercy.
Ia walked as if in a trance. Holy moly. This was really happening! And with a stranger in the house, no less! Sinking down on the bed, she put her head in her hands. Darn, the waiting was almost—almost—worse than the punishment itself.
She still wondered if he would spank Taffy first, but there was no way to know, since she'd never heard him discipline her.
Chapter 3
Daniel didn't bother knocking. It wasn't as if she wasn't expecting him; he just appeared in her room, shutting the door tight behind him. Ia stood up to immediately bend herself
