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)
“Ew.” Salem snatched his hand back with a look of horror. “Did you just lick my hand?”
“You’re lucky I didn’t bite it.”
“I think I would have preferred it,” Salem muttered, wiping his hand on his pants.
“I don’t think she should be allowed to leave. It’s not safe out there without us. What if someone attacks her? Hmm?”
“If anyone attacks me, I will chop off their balls and tongue and feed them to the pigeons,” she told him.
Alexei grinned. “Good girl.”
“Alexei, could you go get another ice pack?” Salem asked. “This one is melted. Please. We do not want her foot to start swelling again.”
To her surprise, Alexei grumbled but deposited her onto Salem’s lap as he got up and stomped out.
Roman took his place. “Ignore Alexei. He’s . . .”
“Nuts?” she suggested.
“Possessive,” Salem said. “And overly protective. I can be as well. But when Alexei lays claim to someone, well . . . they become his. Whether they want to or not.”
“That’s kind of what happened with us.” Roman smiled. “He still won’t let me drive after I drove with him in the car once. He claims that I drive like a biopic grandpa with a drinking problem. I’m really not sure what that means. But when we got home, he hid all the keys to my car. Of course, he doesn’t realize that I have copies. And that I just sneak out when he’s not here.”
“We all have to make allowances for each other’s, uh, quirks. However, that doesn’t mean that anyone gets to take your freedom or boss you around. Too much,” Salem added as an apparent afterthought.
Right. She was having trouble believing the bossing her around part. It seems these guys were made that way.
Especially Salem and Alexei.
“There will be some things we might need from you. Like not touching other people around Alexei. Is that a good compromise?” Salem asked.
She turned to see Alexei standing in the doorway. He nodded with a grunt. “No touching anyone else but these two when I’m away.”
“Unless in an emergency or it’s a child,” Roman said. “Or family.”
“Let me think about that for a moment,” Alexei muttered as he walked over to put a new ice pack on her foot.
Dear Lord.
Surely, he couldn’t be jealous of her touching a child.
“For me, it’s about control. Sometimes, I might need it more than others,” Salem told her. “When everything else is chaos, I need a space where I feel I can control everything. If you can handle that.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.”
Yikes. That might be tougher than the no touching rule. But she wanted to give each of them what they needed.
“I can try.”
“It doesn’t have to happen today or tomorrow or even next week. I know you will need to trust me fully.”
“What about you, Rome?” She turned to him as Alexei sat on the coffee table, making it creak.
“Damn fragile old furniture,” Alexei muttered.
“That coffee table is only around a hundred years old,” Roman countered.
“Only a hundred, he says. Like that’s young,” Alexei muttered.
“It is compared to that vase with bird poop on it,” Roman countered.
“Oh no! The bird poo!” How could she have forgotten? “I need to clean that all up.”
She attempted to scramble off Salem’s lap, but Roman held up a hand on her lap, stilling her.
“Stay. The bird poop will be easy to get off. And I was never fond of that painting anyway.” He waved his hand at a painting that had poo on the ornate frame. She couldn’t see any on the painting, but no doubt that frame alone was expensive and old.
Drat.
All right. She supposed he was right about it not going anywhere.
“What do you need from me?” she asked Roman.
“Probably patience.” He smiled. “You know I struggle with having people touch me or touching others. Although I don’t find it as difficult with you. I’ve never been in a relationship before. And I have . . . uh, quirks I think was the word used. More than most people, I think. I have several hang ups from my family abandoning me. So, yeah, patience.”
Her heart hurt for him. She still couldn’t believe his family had abandoned him. He was the very best person that she knew.
And aren’t you going to abandon him?
Not if she could help it.
She leaned into him without thought and to her surprise, he opened his arms and accepted her hug. Tamsyn sighed happily.
“You give amazing hugs,” she told him.
“So do you,” he whispered back. “I never enjoyed hugs until I experienced one of yours.”
“That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She leaned back into Salem’s chest and they both smiled at each other.
Alexei snorted. “The two of you are sickeningly cute. But are we going to ignore our girl putting her safety in danger and talking badly about herself?”