Salem felt his eyes widen. Did he mean that he’d brought her to orgasm? That wasn’t the plan.

Not that Alexei was ever likely to stick to a plan. He was forever going rogue, which was annoying.

Except for when he saved your sister.

“What did you do?” he demanded.

“Gave her a massage,” Alexei explained. “Cool your jets.”

Oh. A massage. Why hadn’t he thought of that? She looked so young lying there with her thumb in her mouth.

“It didn’t take much encouragement to get her to suck on her thumb.”

“It’s probably not good for her to sleep this close to bedtime,” Salem pointed out.

Alexei raised an eyebrow. “It’s not even six.”

Wait. Did games usually play at this time? He turned to look at the screen.

“It’s a pre-match,” Alexei explained.

Salem nodded. He was torn. Did he want to wake her because he thought she wouldn’t sleep tonight? Or because he wanted her with him?

No. He couldn’t be that selfish.

“I’m going to make dinner now. We’ll wake her up when it’s ready.”

“Sounds good.”

But he didn’t want to leave. He liked seeing her like this.

She appeared so soft and young.

“You really want to do this? You’re sure?”

Alexei met his gaze with his piercing blue ones. “I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. And I’m not ever going to give her up.”

Salem sucked in a deep breath. He got it.

He felt exactly the same way.

17

Urgh.

She really didn’t want to wake up, but someone was shaking her.

“Nooo! Go away! Sleeping!”

Then she realized what she’d just said.

Fuck.

Rolling to her side, she put her arms over her face to protect herself as she landed on something hard. Glancing around, she saw a coffee table that she could likely fit under.

Sure, she should probably just take her licks. Delaying them would only make them worse. But her instincts screamed at her to get somewhere safe.

So she slid under the coffee table.