Tempted by her Daddies: Chapter 15

Salem watched Tamsyn stare at Alexei with wide eyes.

Poor girl.

This had to be a lot and while he didn’t want to railroad her, he also didn’t want her to worry about what they intended. He wanted to be clear from the start.

“Are you all right with being spanked as a punishment?” he asked.

“I think I have to be,” she joked.

“No. I want you to think about this and answer me seriously.”

“Sorry,” she whispered, her shoulders hunching.

He hated that.

Who had taught her to do that?

He needed a name so he could fucking kill them.

“It’s all right,” he reassured her. “You don’t need to apologize. I’m not angry at you. I know we’ve been joking around about Alexei and his love of your bottom. But I want to make sure you’re really all right. This whole relationship centers around you. Your needs. Your desires. Your wants.”

“But I don’t want it to be just about me,” she said, looking worried. “I want everyone to be happy.”

“And that’s why this would work,” Roman said. “We all want you. We all care about each other. And we each want the other to be happy.”

“It won’t work without trust and honesty and communication, though,” Salem warned. “Which is why we need this chat from the start. Okay?”

“Okay.” There was a strange look on her face, one he couldn’t figure out.

“You’re the center of this. Without your happiness none of this works. So you need to tell us if anything we do makes you uncomfortable or scared or upset,” Salem added.

“Just like in our books,” Roman added.

Salem really should read these books.

“So there are some rules for our relationship. There might be extra rules from each of us depending on the situation. For instance, when you’re Little, there might be a rule like no entering the kitchen without one of us.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “The kitchen?”

“Hmm, we don’t want our little one hurting herself by touching the stove or trying to get something out of the fridge, do we?” he murmured, testing her slightly.

“Oh.” She nibbled on her lip. “What if I was hungry?”

“Then you would ask one of us to get you a snack.”

To his surprise, that came from Roman.

But she simply nodded. Had Roman been showing her bits of that side of himself? Perhaps he had, maybe without realizing it.

“So all of you want to be my Daddy?” she asked.

He cupped her face. “First of all, you’re being so brave asking us these questions, I’m very proud of you.”

A flush filled her face.

He was pretty certain that being praised was rare for her. And that angered him. But he’d just need to ensure that she received plenty of it from now on.

“Secondly, I would very much like to be your Daddy when you’re Little and your Sir when we’re playing. I always want to be in charge, but the rest of the time, I’m Salem.”

“I like being your Rome,” Roman told her. “I don’t know about being a Daddy, sorry.”

“That’s okay, I understand.”

“I’m Papa,” Alexei said suddenly. “I like Papa.”

“All right,” she whispered.

“But you can call me Alexei the rest of the time. Or, you know, sexy, handsome, gorgeous, or my personal favorite, intelligent, gorgeous sexy god.”

“I might stick with Alexei,” she told him.

He huffed out a breath. “All right. A bit boring, but I suppose that’s fine.”

She grinned as Salem barely refrained from rolling his eyes.

“Thank God you chose that option,” Roman told her. “His ego would be out of control if you chose the others.”

“Shut your mouth!” Alexei replied. “My ego is already as massive as other parts of me.” He winked at Tamsyn.

Another giggle.

Salem shook his head. “Back on track. Rules for the relationship. Roman?”

“Right. Yes. I wrote some down. On my phone.” Roman stood and retrieved his phone.

“I thought you would have them memorized,” Alexei said.

“I do,” Roman said as he sat on the coffee table with his phone. “But it’s good to check them off.”

Salem nodded.

“These two.” Alexei pointed to them both. “All checklists and emotional check-ins.” He shook his head as though in disgust, but Salem knew he was listening as Roman went through everything.

“Number one is communication. We need you to tell us if something is wrong. If you’re upset or hurt or angry.”

There was a glimpse of worry on her face.

Shit.

He knew this was likely a lot.

“If you need us to back off, that’s fine, but we just need you to tell us if you need time to yourself,” Salem said.

“Wait, wait,” Alexei held up a hand. “I never agreed to that. Time to herself? Why would we want to give her that? Having time to yourself just means thinking more. And that’s never a good thing.”

“What’s wrong with thinking?” Roman asked.

“Then you start to overthink shit and nothing gets done. Just act.” Alexei folded his arms over his chest, giving them all a stubborn look.

“People can have time to themselves,” Salem said.

“People, yes. My girl, no.”

“Dear Lord. How has no one smothered you in your sleep?” Salem snapped.

“They’ve tried. They never succeed,” Alexei said.

Hmm. But he’d never tried, had he?

Salem didn’t say that out loud, though. Alexei would likely dare him to try.

“It’s all right,” Tamsyn said, taking hold of both of their hands. “I don’t need a lot of alone time. I feel like I’ve been on my own for most of my life.”

He didn’t like that. It also reminded him that they didn’t know a lot about her early life. Roman had done a bit of research into her when they’d hired her to make sure she was who she said she was. But he hadn’t gone in-depth and Salem knew he wouldn’t want to now. It would feel like an invasion of her privacy.

But she kept things so close to her chest that it made him wonder what life had been like for her up to this point.

They’d find out in time.

“If you do want some, you can tell us,” Salem told her, giving Alexei a firm look.

“Yes, well, I might like to go to the bathroom alone,” she said dryly. “And I doubt you’ll want to be around me when I’m sick or it’s that time of the month.”

What?

Salem was taken aback, and Alexei was silent so he guessed she’d shocked him too.

“I think those are the times when we definitely wouldn’t want to leave you alone. Or when you’re upset or scared,” Roman told her. “We’d want to be there to support and take care of you.”

“But wouldn’t that be annoying? I might be moody. Or I might get you sick. I wouldn’t want that.”

“You think that we’d worry about a bit of grumpiness or germs?” Alexei asked.

“Yes, if that was the case we’d never be near Alexei,” Roman added solemnly. “He’s grouchy all the time.”

A smile graced her face, and her shoulders relaxed.

Poor girl.

Was that what her family had done? Left her when she was ill? That sickened him.

“We always want to know if you’re not feeling well. No matter why. Understand? That’s part of the communication rule. We want to know if you’re unwell or in trouble so we can help you.”

“It’s kind of part of rule three too,” Roman said. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. But I can circle back. I’m flexible.”

Now she was hiding her smile behind her hand.

“Let’s move on,” Salem suggested before Alexei could make any remarks about Roman’s flexibility. “Number three rule is about safety. We don’t want you to put yourself in danger and to tell us if you ever are. Danger can include your physical or emotional health.”

“All right. What is number two?” she asked.

“Respect,” Alexei said. “That’s gonna be a hard one. You seem to like to speak badly about yourself.”

Roman gave her a firm look. “Yes, no disrespecting yourself or us. No speaking badly about yourself. Understand?”

“Yes, Rome.”

A flush entered his cheeks. “I like when you call me Rome.”

“I know, Rome.”

Roman cleared his throat. “The next rule is trust. We know that trust will be built, but we would need you to trust us to look after you, especially during any scenes or Little time.”

“We can work up to that,” Salem added. “If you need us to. But that is something I would definitely need if we scened together.”

“And me,” Alexei added.

“I don’t want to take part in scenes or discipline, I think,” Roman said. “But I will take care of you to the best of my ability.”

She knew a vow when she heard one.

Wow. These men.

They were incredible. Her every dream come to life.

“Those are the main rules,” Salem said. “With things we might add later, but we didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“Like what?” she whispered.

“Well, when you’re in Little headspace how young do you regress?” he asked.

“I, um, do you know, I’m not really sure.” She shrugged. “I’ve never had a chance to find out.”

Did she sound sad and pathetic?

Kind of.

“That’s all right,” Salem told her soothingly. “Is there anything you like to sleep with or that gives you comfort? Like a favorite stuffed toy?”

She shook her head.

Had she ever had a favorite stuffed toy? Yes, she could remember one when she was younger.

“I used to have one. He was a wolf.”

“A wolf?” Roman asked. “That seems an unusual choice.”

She smiled. “I don’t know why I had a wolf. But they’re very loyal and pack creatures. I don’t know what happened to Angus, though.”

Likely thrown away.

She didn’t really like to think about that. It left a huge hole in her stomach. A dark, swirling pit of rage and sadness.

So she tried to ignore that part and focus on something happier.

“We can explore that side of you more fully later,” Salem told her. “I have a few ideas for that.”

“I don’t want to let my Little out at the club,” she said. “I’m not . . . I’m not even sure about going to the club again.”

She’d kind of burned her bridges with them. And even if she was allowed back, she wasn’t sure she’d feel safe enough there to let go. Even though she was lying to them all . . . she didn’t want to lie about her feelings for them. She didn’t want to pretend or act a certain way beyond having to protect her true identity.

“That’s all right. I don’t need the club,” Salem told her.

“I definitely don’t want any other assholes staring at her,” Alexei said possessively. “Only the three of us.”

“Did you just call yourself an asshole?” Roman asked.

“Yep,” Alexei grunted. “But I’m Tamsyn’s asshole.”

“Um, thanks?” she said, unsure if that was actually a good thing or not.

“And I don’t want men ogling her,” Alexei said. “Or women for that matter. It’s an equal dislike of either sex ogling her. No one gets to ogle Alexei’s girl but me. Or the two of you, I guess. But she belongs to us. No one else.”

Dear Lord.

She was starting to understand why people had tried to smother him in his sleep.

Yet at the same time she couldn’t help but feel a surge of happiness at the idea of belonging to them.

Her . . . the girl that felt alone for so much of her life now had three people in her corner.

Three people that she now had to protect.

Hmm. There was that to consider. Because while they thought they were protecting her, in truth she would be doing the same for them.

She had to protect them from him.

She wasn’t sure exactly how she could do that. Only that she had to protect them as well as making sure that everyone else in her life remained safe from him.

Could she do it?

The thought of failing made her feel ill.

“All right. No club. And one of Alexei’s limits is no ogling from anyone but us,” Salem said with a hint of dryness in his voice.

“How are you going to avoid people staring at her when she’s out of the house?” Roman asked curiously.

“Nobody will stare at me.”

Three sets of eyes moved to her and she gulped at how serious they appeared.

“What?” she asked.

“Do we need to remind you of rule number two, Bunny?” Alexei asked in a low voice. “Because I will happily do that.”

“I wasn’t talking down about myself!” she said hastily, clenching her bottom cheeks together.

“Weren’t you?” Salem said in a silky voice.

A shiver ran through her. That silken voice was more powerful than if he’d spoken harshly.

“Seriously, I wasn’t. It was just the truth. People don’t stare at me when I’m walking around.” In fact, she did her best to make certain that they weren’t staring at her.

That was kind of the point. To be invisible.

“You’re beautiful,” Roman told her suddenly, surprising her. “Why wouldn’t they look at you? They would be mad not to. But it’s not something she can do anything about.”

“Well, they won’t have a chance to look if she’s not allowed to go out,” Alexei said.

“What?” She tried to scramble off his lap, wincing as her foot protested and the icepack slid off.

“Careful,” Salem told her.

Salem grasped hold of her feet again. He placed them both on his lap, inspecting them. He ran his hand over her foot, pressing his fingers into it. “How is this feeling? It’s not looking swollen anymore. Can you move it all right?”

“Um.” She moved it around slowly. “It seems to be fine now.”

“You winced just now, though,” Roman said, crouching in front of Salem. “That would indicate that your foot isn’t fine.”

“All right, it’s a bit sore. But it will be fine to walk. And sit by myself.” She glared at Alexei who raised one eyebrow. “Let me go.”

“If I do, are you going to try to leave?” Alexei asked.

“Am I not allowed to leave?” she challenged.

“No,” Alexei said.

“Yes,” Roman said at the same time.

Salem sighed. “Of course you are. No one is keeping you prisoner.”

Alexei opened his mouth and Salem reached over and put his hand over it.

“Ew.” Salem snatched his hand back with a look of horror. “Did you just lick my hand?”

“You’re lucky I didn’t bite it.”

“I think I would have preferred it,” Salem muttered, wiping his hand on his pants.

“I don’t think she should be allowed to leave. It’s not safe out there without us. What if someone attacks her? Hmm?”

“If anyone attacks me, I will chop off their balls and tongue and feed them to the pigeons,” she told him.

Alexei grinned. “Good girl.”

“Alexei, could you go get another ice pack?” Salem asked. “This one is melted. Please. We do not want her foot to start swelling again.”

To her surprise, Alexei grumbled but deposited her onto Salem’s lap as he got up and stomped out.

Roman took his place. “Ignore Alexei. He’s . . .”

“Nuts?” she suggested.

“Possessive,” Salem said. “And overly protective. I can be as well. But when Alexei lays claim to someone, well . . . they become his. Whether they want to or not.”

“That’s kind of what happened with us.” Roman smiled. “He still won’t let me drive after I drove with him in the car once. He claims that I drive like a biopic grandpa with a drinking problem. I’m really not sure what that means. But when we got home, he hid all the keys to my car. Of course, he doesn’t realize that I have copies. And that I just sneak out when he’s not here.”

“We all have to make allowances for each other’s, uh, quirks. However, that doesn’t mean that anyone gets to take your freedom or boss you around. Too much,” Salem added as an apparent afterthought.

Right. She was having trouble believing the bossing her around part. It seems these guys were made that way.

Especially Salem and Alexei.

“There will be some things we might need from you. Like not touching other people around Alexei. Is that a good compromise?” Salem asked.

She turned to see Alexei standing in the doorway. He nodded with a grunt. “No touching anyone else but these two when I’m away.”

“Unless in an emergency or it’s a child,” Roman said. “Or family.”

“Let me think about that for a moment,” Alexei muttered as he walked over to put a new ice pack on her foot.

Dear Lord.

Surely, he couldn’t be jealous of her touching a child.

“For me, it’s about control. Sometimes, I might need it more than others,” Salem told her. “When everything else is chaos, I need a space where I feel I can control everything. If you can handle that.”

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

Yikes. That might be tougher than the no touching rule. But she wanted to give each of them what they needed.

“I can try.”

“It doesn’t have to happen today or tomorrow or even next week. I know you will need to trust me fully.”

“What about you, Rome?” She turned to him as Alexei sat on the coffee table, making it creak.

“Damn fragile old furniture,” Alexei muttered.

“That coffee table is only around a hundred years old,” Roman countered.

“Only a hundred, he says. Like that’s young,” Alexei muttered.

“It is compared to that vase with bird poop on it,” Roman countered.

“Oh no! The bird poo!” How could she have forgotten? “I need to clean that all up.”

She attempted to scramble off Salem’s lap, but Roman held up a hand on her lap, stilling her.

“Stay. The bird poop will be easy to get off. And I was never fond of that painting anyway.” He waved his hand at a painting that had poo on the ornate frame. She couldn’t see any on the painting, but no doubt that frame alone was expensive and old.

Drat.

All right. She supposed he was right about it not going anywhere.

“What do you need from me?” she asked Roman.

“Probably patience.” He smiled. “You know I struggle with having people touch me or touching others. Although I don’t find it as difficult with you. I’ve never been in a relationship before. And I have . . . uh, quirks I think was the word used. More than most people, I think. I have several hang ups from my family abandoning me. So, yeah, patience.”

Her heart hurt for him. She still couldn’t believe his family had abandoned him. He was the very best person that she knew.

And aren’t you going to abandon him?

Not if she could help it.

She leaned into him without thought and to her surprise, he opened his arms and accepted her hug. Tamsyn sighed happily.

“You give amazing hugs,” she told him.

“So do you,” he whispered back. “I never enjoyed hugs until I experienced one of yours.”

“That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She leaned back into Salem’s chest and they both smiled at each other.

Alexei snorted. “The two of you are sickeningly cute. But are we going to ignore our girl putting her safety in danger and talking badly about herself?”

Salem’s hand ran up her spine to cup the back of her neck as she tensed.

“She wasn’t ours when she climbed on the table,” he pointed out.

Alexei’s gaze narrowed and she waited for his protest. But, to her surprise, he nodded. “All right.”

“The putting herself down is something that needs to be addressed, though,” Salem said. He spoke in such a calm tone that it took a moment for her to fully comprehend his words.

“What?”

“It seems to be a recurring pattern and we need to get on top of that negative behavior,” Roman added.

It was not a recurring pattern! What was happening right now?

“Do we have more rules we need to talk about?” Salem asked.

“We need to collate the rest,” Roman said. “Those were the major ones that sort of encompass everything else. For example, texting when she gets home, when she leaves, and when she arrives somewhere fall under safety.”

Wait. They didn’t expect her to do that, right?

“That seems quite intense,” she said. “I mean, I’ve traveled around just fine up until now.”

“I don’t want her taking the tube anymore. We’ll need to use a car service,” Alexei said.

“Noted,” Roman said as he typed something on his phone.

“I don’t need a car service!”

“And it’s not just about coming to and from work. It’s everywhere,” Salem added.

“What about getting enough sleep and eating properly,” Alexei said.

“Those all come under health,” Roman said. “I don’t believe she does either of those properly.”

They all stared at her.

“I do!” This was all . . . crazy!

“Those are things we can talk about later,” Salem said, no doubt reading the panic on her face that she hadn’t tried to hide.

Because her mind was racing too much for her to hide it. Which wasn’t good because normally she was the master of her emotions.

“Are you feeling overwhelmed?” Salem asked.

“Um, a little bit.”

“Then I think it’s best we come back to this later. Just know that you’re expected to look after yourself. Okay? If it’s something that puts your health or safety at risk, don’t do it.”

Um. Right.

Like that would be possible with the life she led. But she couldn’t tell them that, could she?

But it wasn’t like they’d know when she left her apartment. Or that she barely got any sleep and ate the bare minimum.

“Any limits we should know about? Other than what you told me at the club,” Salem added. “I’ve told the others about them.”

“I . . . I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“There might be limits while in Little space. Do you know any of them?” he asked.

She still wasn’t sure.

“Using a diaper?” Roman asked.

“Oh. Uh, hmm. I . . . guess.” How did she know until she tried?

“Would you like to sometimes wear one to see if you liked it?” Salem asked.

She knew she was bright red. She could feel the heat in her cheeks. “Is that something you guys would want?”

“This is about what you want,” Salem told her. “We’ve talked a lot about ourselves.”

“I like to talk about myself,” Alexei said. “But I like to talk about you more. Which is quite surprising.”

“I guess I could try it and see if ILI,” she said shyly. “I do enjoy you reading to me about it.”

“ILI?” Alexei asked.

“See if I Like It,” she explained.

Roman nodded. “We’ve read lots about adult baby girls who like to be swaddled and have a pacifier.”

“But I might like other things too,” she said.

“Like creating giant cities made of Lego?” Roman queried.

“Yes! Especially a Christmas village.”

Roman grinned. “I’d help you with that.”

“Imagine the Christmas village we could create. With markets selling hot chocolates and waffles and snow on the ground.”

“You like Christmas?” Alexei asked.

“Yeah, I do. It just seems so magical. Like anything could happen.”

“In the orphanage, I gave up dreaming about Santa when I realized he never brought me or the other kids anything,” Alexei said abruptly.

Oh.

Silence filled the room.

“My parents never understood or liked me, but I always got gifts,” Roman said quietly.

“We didn’t have a lot,” Salem said. “But my parents made it as magical as they could. Even though my mother never celebrated it as a child.”

“I stopped getting presents when I was around nine or ten,” she said. “It’s hard, but I still kept believing. I needed that hope that there was someone out there who knew I was a good girl.”

“Of course you’re a good girl,” Roman said in a surprisingly fierce voice. “Who said you weren’t?”

She forced a bright smile on her face. “It doesn’t matter. I should really clean up that bird poop.”

“Stop worrying about the darn bird poop,” Alexei grumbled. “Worry about yourself.”

“Should I worry?” she asked.

“We do need to talk about appropriate punishment for putting yourself down,” Alexei said.

“What are your limits?” Salem asked.

“Urgh, I think being permanently scarred is out. So is knife play.”

“Permanently scarred?” Roman whispered. “Knife play? Holy heck.”

“Um. Well. I might have some others.”

“What are they, Bunny?” Alexei pressed.

“I don’t want to be humiliated,” she blurted out. “I don’t want to be told that I’m useless or ugly or anything like that.”

She was shocked that she didn’t have to force herself to show some emotion. Showing none would be a red flag. However, her chest heaved without prompting and she could hear a hint of horror in her voice.

Either she was becoming a very good actor, or her barriers were growing thinner around them.

The latter wasn’t smart, so she hoped it was the former.

“Shh,” Salem said. “No one here wants to humiliate you. That’s not our kink.”

“I wouldn’t feel at all comfortable doing that,” Roman said with certainty. “I’d much rather praise you.”

She nodded, knowing that about Roman already.

“I like to tell the truth,” Alexei said. “And the truth is that you’re beautiful, smart, and courageous. I mean, if you wanted to be called a dirty little slut, I’m sure I could have done that. But I’m more than happy to praise you.”

Yikes. Okay.

“Anything more?” Salem asked.

“I don’t mind being tied down but only my hands or my feet, not both at the same time. And I don’t want to be blindfolded while my hands are tied.”

“All right,” Salem replied. “What about punishments? You okay with spankings with our hands, belts, paddles?”

“Yes.”

“What about things like corner time? Writing lines?” Alexei asked.

“Those are fine.”

They would be a breeze compared to all of the punishments she’d experienced in her life.

Being waterboarded, starved, shut in a dark room on her own where there wasn’t enough room to stand . . .

Calm down.

Don’t get upset.

In truth, knife play didn’t actually scare her at all. But she wasn’t sure how she would react if she saw someone coming at her with a knife.

“Good. Then you’re going to sit and write a hundred times that you are beautiful, smart, and courageous,” Salem announced. “Roman, could you get a pad and a pen? Alexei, could you get a stool and cushion for her foot? We’ll sit her at the desk in the corner so we can keep an eye on her while we clean up the room.”

They all started to move and Salem stood with her in his arms.

“Wait, wait, wait!” she cried out.

They all stopped and turned to stare at her.

“What is it, Little one?” Salem asked. “Are you saying your safeword?”

What? No.

“No, I’m not using my safeword. I just . . . are you serious? That’s my punishment?”

“Yes,” Salem replied as he set her down at a writing desk. “You’re ours now. We take care of you in all ways. Physically and emotionally.” He kissed the top of her head and she swore she started to melt.

Alexei walked over and grasped hold of her chin, tilting her head back. “You aren’t allowed to talk badly about yourself. You break a rule, you get punished. Simple.”

Simple.

Uh-huh.

Sure.

Roman just sent her a small smile before he left the room.

So. It seemed like she was writing lines.

After Alexei put her foot up on a stool and cushion to elevate it, Roman returned with a lined notebook and some pens.

“Please number each line to make it easier,” he stated.

“I really have to write lines as punishment?” She knew she was repeating herself.

But it was so . . . easy.

But then, the only punishments she’d known were extremely painful or a complete mindfuck.

“Yes. Are you all right? Do you need a moment?”

“I’m fine,” she said.

He was so caring. They all were in their different ways.

“If you need to stop and rest, you can. Do not push through if you’re sore or anything. I want you to tell me,” Roman told her firmly.

“All right.” She didn’t understand why he thought that she would need to stop.

It was just writing lines.

With a shrug, she started. Then she noticed that they were all cleaning the room.

“Oh, I should be doing that,” she said, putting the pen down.

Salem turned and pinned her with a stern look. “Are you using your safeword?”

“Um. No.” There was no need for that.

“Are you in pain? Do you need a break?”

Sheesh, she’d just started. She was only on line number nine, why would she need a break?

“No. I don’t need a break.”

“Then no talking and no stopping unless you do, understand?” Salem ordered.

“But—”

“Do you need to be gagged while you do your lines?” Salem asked in an almost casual tone.

“I, um, no!”

“Too bad,” Alexei said. “I had some ideas on what to gag her with.”

He had?

What had he been going to gag her with? Her gaze went lower, between his legs.

Oh hell.

He didn’t mean that, did he?

When her gaze rose back up to his face, he was smirking.

That’s exactly what he’d meant and now she was intrigued.

“Maybe another time, huh?” Alexei murmured.

“What is another time?” Roman asked, looking confused.

“Bunny is thinking of all the ways I could gag her.”

“With a . . . gag?” Roman asked.

“Yeah. A gag like my cock.”

Roman’s eyes widened. “Uh, right. Well . . . how would that work while writing lines, though?”

Was he seriously thinking about the logistics? Was that big brain of his picturing her sucking on Alexei’s dick while trying to write lines?

And now that was the image filling her brain. And she wasn’t certain that she could get rid of it.

“What if she sucked and rested the book against my stomach? Or thigh?” Alexei asked.

“Hmm. No, I think that would be awkward,” Roman said. “It might be better for you to sit on the table with your legs parted and for her to write on the paper resting on the desk between your legs. Provided she could see, that is. We might have to act that out.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary right now,” Salem said, breaking through Roman’s train of thought. “Right now, Tamsyn needs to write her lines and not interrupt us again unless it’s to say her safeword or that she needs a break.”

Right.

Okay.

How the heck was she meant to concentrate now? She turned back to her book. She still felt bad that the three of them were cleaning up her mess. But who was she to stop them?

They were grown men who could do what they wanted.

About halfway through the lines, she’d had enough. She hadn’t realized how annoying it would be to write the same thing a hundred times.

It was sooo boring.

She sighed and glanced around at the guys. They’d finished cleaning. Surely one of them would show her some sympathy and let her off.

Most likely that person would be Roman. But just as she laid her eyes on him, Alexei stepped into her line of sight. He pointed at the book in front of her, then leaned down, his mouth brushing her ear.

“Keep going,” he ordered. “You don’t want Salem to notice you stopping again. Or you’ll be sitting on a hot bottom and finishing the rest of those lines.”

She groaned quietly but got back to work before Salem reappeared.

As she worked, her brain churned over everything that had just happened.

Part of her couldn’t believe she’d agreed to a relationship with the three of them.

Was she crazy?

This would never work.

You weren’t supposed to get close to them, you idiot.

And now she didn’t know how to keep herself under control around them.

Three men.

It was nuts, but what was more insane was the level of trust she had in them. She was going to give them a big part of herself, and she didn’t know if she could even do that.

It was such a dumb idea. If he found out how she felt about them, then he’d make her use it against them.

So he couldn’t find out.

“Hey, you can stop now.”

She jumped at Roman’s words and looked up at him in surprise. “What?”

He nodded at the piece of paper in front of her. “You’ve gotten to a hundred and eight lines.”

Shoot. She had?

“You mean I wrote eight more lines than I needed to?” she cried. “That sucks.”

He picked up the piece of paper and ran his fingers over the lines.

“That’s something we’ll need to watch,” Salem said as he stepped closer, studying her. He grasped hold of her right hand and started to massage it.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“If you zone out like that during other punishments, you might not notice if you’re in pain or things are going too far. You might not say your safeword. That is something to be careful of.”

“It was only because doing the lines was so boring,” she said.

“They were meant to be boring,” he told her. “That’s part of the punishment.”

“Well, now I’m bored,” Alexei said. “Can we get back to the part where Bunny comes and sits on my lap? There’s a game on in an hour. I want her on my lap during it.”

“Oh, but we were going to start a new book,” Roman said.

“I’m going to make dinner,” Salem said. “I wanted her with me.”

Uh-oh.

She stared around the three of them.

Salem reached down and lifted her onto the desk. “I wonder if you might consider staying the weekend with us.”