Page 68 of Tempted By her Daddies

Roman flushed, having the grace to at least look a bit ashamed. When Salem looked at Alexei, he raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Does someone want to explain how Tamsyn came to hurt herself?”

“It was all the bird’s fault,” she muttered. “Last time I’m nice to a bird.”

“The bird. What bird?”

“The one that pooped everywhere!” She waved a hand around. Then she sat up.

“Lie down,” barked Alexei.

Roman even reached for her, his hands hovering over her.

“I’m not sick.”

“Let her sit up,” Salem ordered quietly. He walked around and sat facing her on the coffee table after pushing the medication to the side.

“She should keep her foot elevated. It was swollen,” Alexei said.

Salem grabbed the cushion she’d been using and pointed at her foot. “May I?”

“I, um, I guess.”

Salem lifted her foot onto the cushion on his lap. He examined her foot carefully, watching for signs that she was in pain. She did her best to hide them, but they were there. And it did look slightly swollen.

But probably not enough to warrant the worry police standing behind him.

“I’m so sorry, Roman. You can take the money out of my pay.”

“What money?” Roman asked, sounding startled.

“He won’t be taking anything from your paycheck. Will you, Roman?” Alexei boomed in a threatening voice.

“You can’t tell Roman what to do,” Tamsyn countered, glaring at Alexei.

Hmm. She was getting far braver.

Most people would cower away from Alexei’s scowl. They’d been known to run when they saw him coming.

But she just huffed and . . . and . . .

“Did you just stick your tongue out at me,Malyshka?” Alexei asked.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to,” Roman said hastily, moving closer to Tamsyn.

He didn’t believe that Alexei would harm her, did he?

“I did mean to,” she countered. She glanced up at Roman. “Um, you’re not worried about Alexei hurting me, are you? Because he wouldn’t, you know.”

“Of course I wouldn’t,” Alexei grouched. “Although, you should be careful what you do with that tongue, or I might take it as an invitation.”

For God’s sake.

Had Alexei really just said that?

Wait . . . what had he called her? He didn’t know a lot of Russian but he was fairly certain that he’d basically just called her baby girl or little one in Russian.

A glance at Roman, who was far better at languages, confirmed his suspicions.

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