She let out a moan, leaning back in the bath. “Oh God, your fingers are amazing.”
“I know,” he said with zero modesty.
“Do you give back massages?” Would it be too much touching for him?
He paused. “I’ve never given one. I could learn if you’d like it.”
“Only if you want to. I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.”
“Being with you could never be uncomfortable. Not when it’s the only thing in my life I truly want.”
Jeez. He was killing her.
28
“Aleki, save me!” she cried, half-running, half-limping into the kitchen.
Aleki turned and grabbed hold of her, lifting her up into the air. He was wearing an apron and the scent of something baking filled the room.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I need you to hide me from Wolfie,” she told him.
“Why? What is he doing?”
“He’s just after me to take that awful vitamin.”
Aleki stared down at her then he relaxed. He shook his head as he lifted her, placing her on the counter. He put his hands on either side of her then leaned in so they were face-to-face. “You need to take your vitamin.”
She pouted. “But it’s so big. It’s horrible. I can barely swallow it.”
“I know of other big things you might need to swallow.” He gave her a teasing look. She whacked his chest.
“Genevieve Amelia,” Wolfe thundered.
She gasped and tried to hide herself behind Aleki’s bulk as Wolfe strode into the kitchen. “Princess!”
“Princess isn’t here!” she whispered. “Leave. Go find her.”
“Genevieve,” he said warningly. “Now is not the time. Get your naughty self out from behind Aleki.”
She sighed and peeped her head around Aleki’s shoulder. Wolfe gave her a stern look. “How did you get in here?”
“Umm, I walked?”
“Try again.”
“Obian said I could walk on my ankle.”
“He said walk not run,” Wolfe thundered. “You were running on your foot.”
She squirmed around on the counter.
“Uh-oh, someone’s in trouble,” sang Aleki, moving away to lean against the other counter.
What the hell?
“No fair! No ganging up on me!”
“And no trying to use one of us against the other.” Aleki waggled a finger at her. “I’m not going to hide you if you’ve been naughty and earned a punishment.”
Her mouth gaped open. “Punishment?”
“Yep, punishment,” Wolfe said smugly, crossing his arms over his chest.
Aleki mimicked him. This was totally uncalled for.
“Nobody is punishing me. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Wolfe stalked towards her. Her heart raced, her mouth going dry. “You were told you are allowed to walk carefully on your foot. Not to run. You were told to wait while I got your vitamin. Instead, you took off to hide behind Aleki. And you tried to use him to hide you.”
“But none of that is against the rules.”
“It’s all against the rules,” Wolfe countered.
She glanced at Aleki, he looked partly amused and partly turned-on. Really? Didn’t seem like she was getting any help there.
“But Wolfie, what if I took the vitamin now and promised not to walk on my foot for the rest of the afternoon?” She batted her eyelids for good measure.
“You’re now calling him Wolfie? That’s my name for him,” Aleki protested.
“I stole it,” she said, unapologetically. After all, he was siding with Wolfe against her.
“You can’t use it anymore,” Wolfe told him with a great deal of satisfaction.
“Why can’t I use it anymore?”
“Because it’s her special name for me. It’s what her Little likes to call me.”
Aleki studied her, a strangely intense look on his face. “Her Little, huh?”
“She seems to slip out more and more lately. Is that all right?” she asked.
“Of course it is,” Wolfe said. “Enough procrastination.” Wolfe pointed at her. “You’re getting your butt spanked.”
“Nooo,” she groaned. He wasn’t really going to, right? They’d talked about it a lot but that was just talk. Wasn’t it?
They weren’t really going to spank her.
Wolfe lifted her off the counter and carried her to a chair around the big dining table. Where was Caleb? Surely, he’d save her.
Maybe she was playing them off against one another. That probably wasn’t a good thing in this sort of relationship. But how was she to know? She hadn’t been in a healthy relationship since she’d broken up with Aleki. And now she was in a relationship with three men. Three very different men.
But then Wolfe drew out a chair and sat her on it. She relaxed slightly. Maybe he was just all talk and no action. Maybe they all were.
For some reason, that didn’t make her feel any better.
Crouching, he grabbed her sore foot gently, examining it. “It’s swollen.”
“It was always slightly swollen.”
“It’s more swollen than it was before.”
Shoot. He might be right.
“If you don’t take care of it, then your recovery is going to slow down,” he scolded.
She knew this. And now she was starting to feel like an idiot.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “I was just playing around.”
“And you didn’t want to take your vitamin,” Aleki added.
She sighed. “They’re horrible. They’re huge and they taste awful.”
“All right, I’ll order some suppository ones instead. They’re probably better for you anyway,” Wolfe said. “Apparently they absorb better.”
“What?” she squeaked. “No! Fine. I’ll take the damn horse pills.”
Wolfe eyed her. “Without argument.”
Damn man had managed to corner her nicely. “Without argument.”
Wolfe grabbed the bottle of vitamins from his pocket and opened them while Aleki filled a glass of water. She took the pill and swallowed it with a grimace.
“All right, I’ve taken the vitamin. Can I go now?”
“No,” Wolfe told her. “We still have your spanking to take care of.”
“What? No!”
Wolfe studied her with confusion. “Did you forget? How did she forget?” He looked up at Aleki. “Do you think she has some short-term memory damage?”
“She didn’t forget,” Aleki told him. “She thought you were joking.”
“Me? Why would she think I would joke?”
“God knows. You never joke.”
“Especially not when it comes to your health and safety,” Wolfe told her.
“You can’t spank me. I didn’t know!” she cried as he pulled out another chair and sat. He drew her over to sit on his lap.
“You didn’t know you were supposed to wait for him?” Aleki asked, almost gently. “Or that you weren’t to run on your foot?”