They stepped outside and when he went to shut the door, Alexei shook his head.
“Leave it open so I can see her.”
Fuck.
They really needed to get Alexei some help. He’d hidden this well. Salem knew he had some issues from his family’s murders. Who wouldn’t?
To go to school as a seven-year-old with everything and then return to find them all dead . . . killed at the hands of your grandfather who then killed himself?
Yeah, that would mess anyone up.
But Salem had thought he’d worked through it better than this.
“You cannot have her every night,” Salem told him firmly. He’d had her in his bed every night since she’d left the house and gone back to her apartment.
You had to put barriers in place with Alexei or he might try and walk all over you.
“That’s why I waited until you were finished,” Alexei told him.
As though he’d done him a favor.
“But now I want to sleep with her as well.”
“And if I want her to myself?” Salem asked.
“I need to sleep with her . . . I can’t sleep without her,” Alexei muttered.
That had to be hard. Alexei didn’t like relying on anyone or anything.
“I can sit in the chair if you don’t want me in the bed.”
Fuck.
Salem sighed. “Is there anything we can do to help with that? Because I don’t think it’s healthy or fair to her for you to sneak in and watch her sleep.”
“She said I could.”
“What?”
“She said I can watch her any time after I told her about . . . about what happened to my family. She said that anytime I needed to, I could watch her sleep or call her or whatever . . .”
Damn.
He hadn’t expected that.
“She was made for us, wasn’t she?” Salem whispered.
Alexei’s shoulders dropped. “Yeah, I think she was. And I don’t want anything happening to her.”
“I know. I get it. What about . . . what about a camera?”
“On her?” he asked.
“Yeah, I could turn it on after she goes to sleep and then whenever you need to see her, you can watch her on the monitor. If she agrees,” he added hastily.
“She’ll agree.”
“And it’s only for at night while she sleeps,” Salem added.