Heaven. Utter heaven.
For some reason, she smacked her lips together. She had no idea why. She was drifting. Not caring. He moved one hand from her thigh and a small whimper escaped her.
Later, she’d likely be embarrassed by all the noises she was making. But for the moment, she couldn’t bring herself to care.
“Shh, Bunny. You’re fine. I have you. Here. This might help.” He pressed her thumb to her lips.
What did he want?
Confusion filled her, followed by a hint of distress. She wanted to please him, but she couldn’t work out what he wanted.
“Shh. Shh. It’s all right. Papa should have been clearer. I want you to suck on your thumb.”
She wasn’t entirely sure that she should go along with this. Her defenses were lowered and he hadn’t tortured her or starved her or made her go without sleep for days.
All he’d done was give her a massage.
And show her gentle care.
So there was little resistance in her as she placed her thumb in her mouth.
And ohhh, that was so good. Why had she never tried this before?
Well. In all likelihood, she had as a kid and just couldn’t remember it.
“That’s Papa’s good girl,” he murmured. “Just relax. Go to sleep if you need to. I’ll watch you.”
That couldn’t happen.
She would always need to be on alert.
No way could she let her guard down.
But then his hands went back to massaging her back.
And she was gone.
Salem walkedinto the living room.
He wanted to get to the bottom of Tamsyn’s eating habits. She was too thin and he didn’t like it. She could have a very fast metabolism. She might be too busy or distracted to remember to eat.
Or there might be something more serious going on.
Either way, he wanted to prep dinner while subtly questioning her.
But when he stepped into the room, he found her lying on Alexei, sleeping, as he lay on his back on the couch.
Surprise filled him.
She often looked tired and that had been something else worrying him. But he’d decided to tackle one thing at a time.
Only it seemed that Alexei had beaten him to it.
The television was on silent.
“You got her to sleep,” he whispered.
“Yeah, all it took was my magic hands.” Alexei held up his hands.