...a Daddy and His Submissive Partner...

So yeah...I'm this guy who's been into DDLG stuff for a while now. I'll be twenty-five next month, so not really that young anymore but still kind of figuring things out you know? My partner...let's call her Alex...she’s in her mid-twenties too...so it feels weird calling myself 'Daddy' sometimes because we're the same age basically...but she likes it...and I like taking care of her, guiding her, being that protective figure. We met online and it just clicked right away. She told me about how she had this fantasy for a while about having an older partner who could be strong and comforting but also demand respect and obedience...she needed someone to lead her in ways she couldn't do on her own. It made sense, so I agreed to be that 'Daddy' figure for her. We started out slow, just discussing rules and boundaries...it was a lot of back-and-forth about what felt right and what didn’t...but we got there eventually... One night...we were having dinner at this fancy restaurant downtown...and everything seemed fine. But then Alex made a mistake, she broke one of the house rules we’d agreed upon earlier that day...she touched her food before being given permission to do so by me. I was in public though and had to keep it together there but when we got home...I felt frustrated and disappointed in how easily she slipped up...so I decided to put her over my knee for a spanking as discipline. She hadn't been spanked since childhood playfulness between siblings or friends...and now here we were doing something similar but different because everything was consensual, adult stuff... It was embarrassing yet strangely comforting somehow too...feeling the connection and understanding of what needed to happen in that moment. I made sure it wasn’t harsh...just enough to be a meaningful reminder of the boundaries we set together. She cried afterwards but understood why it had been necessary and felt closer to me after that...it was just odd how grown-up life could still include those kinds of lessons learned from childhood experiences... Sometimes I worry though about all this...Am I taking advantage? Is she just playing along for attention? We're not really that different in age or experience so it doesn't feel natural most days...but somehow when we’re together like this, it feels right and we both benefit. It's complicated. I guess what I’m asking is if anyone else has dealt with similar dynamics where the roles don’t exactly match up perfectly but still work out okay? ...