Page 156 of Tempted By her Daddies

“Hey, don’t talk to my Salem like that.” She stepped between the two of them and glared up at the big Ox.

“Or what?” Amusement filled his face.

“Or you’ll answer to me.”

Salem wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her back. “It won’t happen again, Oxford.”

The big man just grunted. “Littles running around on their own is just going to cause trouble, you know that. Also, aisle twelve holds all the spanking implements. You might want to pick up one or two. Save your hand.”

What? That was so rude!

As the Ox strode off, she attempted to run after him. She was going to give him a piece of her mind. But Salem drew her up off the ground.

“He’s so rude! Let me down! Let me at him. I’ll teach him. I don’t need any spanking implements to teach him a lesson.”

“Whoa, calm down.” Salem turned her around and held onto her shoulders. “You need to stop and calm down. Oxford might be somewhat stiff and stern, but he owns this place, and he can make the rules.”

Stiff and stern?

“He’s got the manners of a donkey and the personality of wet cardboard.”

To her shock, Salem’s lips twitched. “Wet cardboard?”

“Uh-huh. Nothing worse than wet cardboard, it’s just mush. He’s got the personality of mush.”

Salem’s smile grew and he shook his head. “You are so much trouble, you know that?”

“I am?”

“Uh-huh and you’re also in trouble.”

She pushed her lower lip out. “But, Daddy, why am I in trouble? The big Oxen was the one being mean.”

“The big Oxen . . . oh, is that a play on his name? Or his looks?”

“Both.”

“I like it. I’ll have to tell Alexei. He and Oxford do not get along.”

“Because Alexei doesn’t like people telling him what to do,” she guessed.

“Exactly. Now, Oxford’s mushy personality aside, you’re in trouble because you knew that you weren’t meant to leave my side. And I don’t want to talk about the definition of meandering. Because you know you should have asked me to take you to the bathroom.”

“But I can do it on my own, Daddy.”

“That isn’t the point. The point is that you knew the rules and you broke them. What happens when we break the rules?”

“We get ice cream!”

“Nope. You get punished.”

“Well. That wasn’t the outcome I was hoping for.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t. Come on.” He took hold of her hand and led her back to the cart. Then he lifted her into it and did up the seatbelt.

“I don’t think I even want to know how you got out of this.”

“It really wasn’t that hard,” she told him.

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