Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
She didn’t need to look to know it was Salem. She couldn’t look. Because she was dying of freaking embarrassment.
Was Roman for real right now?
“Well? Who is ill?” Salem asked, walking into the room.
“No one!” she said quickly as Roman and Alexei both opened their mouths. “No one is ill. These two are just completely overreacting. All I did was try to help and what do I get? Lectured about going outside. Forced to lie down. And threatened with punishment and diarrhea medication. TIN!”
This is nuts!
12
Um.
Okay.
Salem stared down at Tamsyn in shock. Then his gaze moved to the veritable pharmacy worth of drugs on the coffee table, then over to Roman and Alexei.
Roman seemed flushed and worried while Alexei was scowling.
Right.
So nothing new there, really.
But Salem was starting to think he was missing a few things from this story. Like how she’d come to be lying on the couch with her foot elevated and an ice pack on it.
And why Alexei had sent out an urgent message for them to get home and bring liquid painkiller with them.
He set his single bottle of painkiller on the coffee table next to all of Roman’s stuff. Did he buy every brand of liquid painkiller that the pharmacy had in stock? He shot the other man a look.
Roman flushed, having the grace to at least look a bit ashamed. When Salem looked at Alexei, he raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Does someone want to explain how Tamsyn came to hurt herself?”
“It was all the bird’s fault,” she muttered. “Last time I’m nice to a bird.”
“The bird. What bird?”
“The one that pooped everywhere!” She waved a hand around. Then she sat up.
“Lie down,” barked Alexei.
Roman even reached for her, his hands hovering over her.
“I’m not sick.”
“Let her sit up,” Salem ordered quietly. He walked around and sat facing her on the coffee table after pushing the medication to the side.
“She should keep her foot elevated. It was swollen,” Alexei said.
Salem grabbed the cushion she’d been using and pointed at her foot. “May I?”
“I, um, I guess.”
Salem lifted her foot onto the cushion on his lap. He examined her foot carefully, watching for signs that she was in pain. She did her best to hide them, but they were there. And it did look slightly swollen.
But probably not enough to warrant the worry police standing behind him.
“I’m so sorry, Roman. You can take the money out of my pay.”
“What money?” Roman asked, sounding startled.
“He won’t be taking anything from your paycheck. Will you, Roman?” Alexei boomed in a threatening voice.
“You can’t tell Roman what to do,” Tamsyn countered, glaring at Alexei.
Hmm. She was getting far braver.
Most people would cower away from Alexei’s scowl. They’d been known to run when they saw him coming.
But she just huffed and . . . and . . .
“Did you just stick your tongue out at me, Malyshka?” Alexei asked.
“I’m sure she didn’t mean to,” Roman said hastily, moving closer to Tamsyn.
He didn’t believe that Alexei would harm her, did he?
“I did mean to,” she countered. She glanced up at Roman. “Um, you’re not worried about Alexei hurting me, are you? Because he wouldn’t, you know.”
“Of course I wouldn’t,” Alexei grouched. “Although, you should be careful what you do with that tongue, or I might take it as an invitation.”
For God’s sake.
Had Alexei really just said that?
Wait . . . what had he called her? He didn’t know a lot of Russian but he was fairly certain that he’d basically just called her baby girl or little one in Russian.
A glance at Roman, who was far better at languages, confirmed his suspicions.
Did that mean that Alexei was interested in having an age play relationship?
It was hard to know. It could just be a term of endearment.
Then he watched as the other man picked up a juice box from the floor. He sat next to Tamsyn on the couch and placed the straw by her lips.
“Drink your juice,” Alexei bossed.
“Is this what you meant by doing things with my tongue?” she asked him suspiciously.
“Oh, you wish it was. Now, be a good girl and drink your juice. Then you can have some medicine.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want it.”
Salem’s eyebrows rose in shock, and he glanced over at Roman again to see how the other man was taking all of this.
Roman appeared surprisingly thoughtful as he took them in.
“Well, you need to have it. You’re in pain and I won’t have you in pain,” Alexei said firmly.
“What is happening here?” Roman whispered to him. Thankfully, neither Alexei nor Tamsyn seemed to hear him.
“I don’t know,” he whispered back. “But I’m hoping it’s a move in the right direction.”
He also thought it might mean that they were going to have to move faster and explain to Tamsyn what they wanted. And how they really felt.