by Carly Burton
Alice was standing in front of her father's desk, a frown of annoyance and obvious bad temper marring her lovely face. She glared belligerently at her father, Thomas Anderson, and her fiancé, Jason Trent, who was also present. She had been summoned to her father's office and was annoyed to find that she was in trouble.
Thomas had built a thriving partnership of chartered accountants, with four senior partners, including Jason, and Alice had just been employed as a newly qualified accountant. Her smart business suit fitted her lithe young body to perfection, her beautiful face and dark hair completed her striking appearance.
Thomas studied her sternly for several moments, increasing her nervousness, and then finally spoke.
"Alice, Jason and I are extremely concerned about your attitude and the way you treat people. You are so bad tempered lately, downright rude at times and have no respect for anyone any more. You are basically acting like a spoiled brat who is not fit to hold any responsibility. I realise that I am mainly responsible for spoiling you in the past, but that is going to change." As Alice let out a stream of angry words in protest, he stared in shock at his only daughter. "Just as I expected," he said, disappointment etched on his face.
Alice opened her mouth to further spoil her manners when he shouted, "Shut up!"
She was taken aback by the vehemence of his order. He rarely raised his voice to anyone, especially his beloved daughter.
"Do you know how many complaints Jason and I have received against you recently?" he asked her.
"Who has made a complaint?" she asked innocently, her sweet smile disguising the nerves that were swiftly invading her peace of mind.
"Well let me see, the latest, and most serious complaint came this morning from one of my very important potential new clients." Thomas paused while Alice sullenly waited for him to continue. "As soon as he arrived for our initial meeting today, he asked who the red sports car in the car park belonged to. Thinking he was simply admiring the car, I proudly announced it belonged to my daughter, also an accountant with the practice. Imagine my surprise when he told me that the young lady in the flashy car had not only cut him up on a narrow stretch of road on his way here, but made offensive gestures when he sounded his horn in protest." Thomas was seething with rage, his face turning an alarming shade of red.
Alice was feeling rather guilty now. It was true, she did have a little 'incident' on the way to work this morning. She was quite alarmed at her father's reaction; his blood pressure must be sky high.
"Calm down Dad, it wasn't that bad," she tried to reassure him, but he carried on with his ranting, regardless.
"After a very uncomfortable meeting with him, he refused to make a decision as to whether or not he will engage me as his accountant, until the young lady in question is willing to apologise," he said angrily.
"I will certainly not apologise. He was driving so slowly, he was a hazard on the road," she stated, vehemently, crossing her arms, her frown deepening.
Jason had remained quiet up until this point.
"Alice, you are well out of order. I have also received complaints from staff; the way you treat them is not to the standard we expect in our company."
He gave her a stern look of distinct disapproval, and she resented it. "What can any of them possibly have to complain about?" she asked, feigning innocence as she attempted to brazen her way out of this uncomfortable situation.
"Almost every staff member here has cause for complaint against you, although most were reluctant to admit it. You are late for meetings; you give them jobs to do with impossible deadlines. You flirt with the males to get them to help you out, all but disrespect the mature females and frankly, you use the juniors as personal shoppers. The list is endless!" Jason's voice was not raised at all, he was strictly in control and Alice was beginning to get nervous.
Thomas sighed, and then looked sadly at his daughter, saying, "I can't let it pass this time, princess." He had called her his sweet little princess since the age of five. "As of right now, you are suspended for a week."
Her audible gasp was almost comical. Her hands lifted to cover her mouth.
"Dad, you can't do that!" she retorted angrily.
"I just did," he retorted, then turned to Jason as he continued, something unspoken passing between them. "I am giving Jason full responsibility to take corrective measures to improve your manners. I expect you to do whatever he tells you. You will move into his house for the week and you will be completely under his control. At the end of the week, if you are reformed and repentant enough, prepared to apologise to my potential new client, you can return to work. Otherwise, you will resign and find yourself another job."
As soon as he finished speaking, he walked out of the room, head bowed in resignation, without waiting for her reaction.
Alice was suffering from shock. Her eyes flew to Jason, but his expression was forbidding. She realised she was in real trouble this time.
"Look Jason..." She tried to get around him, but he interrupted her.
"No Alice, you have gone too far. To add to your list of irresponsible behaviour at work, you got two speeding tickets and a parking fine in the last two months. You will have lost your licence very soon at this rate."
She was feeling more than a little guilty now, but resented Jason lecturing her; he was her fiancé, not her father. She muttered something under her breath which sounded suspiciously like a string of offensive words.
Jason stalked right up close to her, intimidating her so that she backed away, the wall halting her retreat. She had to crane her neck to look up at him, anxiety crawling around in her gut. He pinned her against the wall, lifting her arms high above her head and holding her firmly. It was an uncharacteristically dominant move, and a distinct shiver ran down her spine.
"You used to be a sweet, intelligent girl. That's who I fell in love with, not this harridan who tramples all over people." His piercing eyes bored into her own.
Her indrawn breath indicated her surprise at his assassination of her character. She tried to pull away, but he held her fast, then she spat out, "Break our engagement then, if I'm not good enough for you!" She spoke with vehemence, verging on hysteria, but he just shook his head.
"You don't get off so easily. I still want to marry you, I love you, but I do not love the way you are acting recently. Since you qualified and joined the company, I have seen you change, and I don't like it. What happened to make you act like this?" He desperately wanted to know.
"Nothing, I don't know what you are talking about," she spat out, obviously not prepared to answer, hiding something, a fleeting but disturbing flash in her eyes. He sighed and released her hands from above her head, but now held them in front of her.
"Do you still want to marry me Alice?" he asked softly. Tears were forming in her eyes now, her regret obvious.
"Yes, yes I do. I love you too, but it's so hard being the boss's daughter and being engaged to a senior partner."
He guided her towards the couch in the corner of her father's office and pulled her down to sit on his lap, cradling her close to his chest. She nestled her face into his neck and sighed, contentedly, thinking she could still get out of this somehow.
"I think we can fix this Alice, if you will let me guide you back on the right path. Will you let me do that?" He made eye contact and she whispered that she would, relief beginning to creep in to her face. "This is what will happen then. I'm taking you to my home right now, you will stay with me for the whole week as your father wishes and I will plan a program of lessons for you."
She jumped upright, suspicious now. "What kind of lessons?"
"Many kinds. You will learn how to cook and clean-"
She interrupted him. "I don't want to learn how to cook and clean, and we'll employ staff for that when we're married." She was shocked and unwilling already and she didn't know even half of the plan.
"Nevertheless, you will learn. You will complete a home study course on managing people skills; you need to learn humility, respect and obedience. And to give you sufficient incentive, I will be punishing you for what you have already done, and for anything you do wrong for the rest of the week." He paused, waiting for her outburst. He wasn't disappointed!
"What do you mean, you will punish me?" She sat bolt upright and glared at him.
He answered right away. "I mean corporal punishment ... spanking, to be precise." His face was deadly serious. She shivered and tried to get up but he held her fast. "You must submit to this week of corrective measures and accept that, as your future husband, I have the right to punish you. If not, I will break our engagement and you will leave the company, no further negotiation."
He was adamant. Her last hopes of escape were gone, and she could see no way out, other than to comply with his plan for her. Her head drooped and she admitted defeat, for the moment at least. She lifted her eyes to peek at him, and asked, "Am I really so bad?"
He took her face in his hands and briefly kissed her with tenderness, before answering, "I'm afraid so, Alice."
The softness of his tone now gave her the reassurance she needed and she clung to him, burying her face in his shoulder.
"Ok, I will stay with you and accept your punishment."
It was barely a whisper, but she had agreed and he let out the deep breath he was not even aware he was holding.
"Come on then, let's go to your place. You can pack a bag and then we'll go over to mine."
She allowed him to lead her from the office and out of the building. Her head remained bowed as she passed several members of staff, not wanting to give any of them the satisfaction of gloating, as they must all know she was in trouble.
As she followed him to his car, she considered his threat of corporal punishment. He couldn't possibly be serious about that, could he?
He would not allow her to take many of her belongings to his house; he said she would be too busy studying to have time for her usual leisure activities and wouldn't need many clothes as they would not be socialising. She huffed and grumbled and he waited patiently for her to finish packing.
When they arrived at Jason's house, she was surprised when he led her to a guest bedroom. She had stayed over several times before and always shared his room.
"Don't you want me to sleep with you Jason?" she asked provocatively, with a saucy smile.
"No. It will be easier on both of us if we have our own space. Things will get quite intense." He paused, looking deep into her eyes. "In fact, there will be no intimacy between us this week, except for good morning and goodnight kisses," he informed her, tight lipped, with a foreboding expression on his face.
His answer in no way reassured her. Her pout was back and she flung her small suitcase to the floor in a fit of temper.
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