I waited for him to tell her not to hit him but he didn’t. I had to bite back the reprimand on the tip of my tongue. It wasn’t my place to parent the little girl, not when her father was right there. It made it impossible for me to say please to him. He wanted manners from me but wasn’t going to tell Lee that hitting was wrong? I just couldn’t do it.
Theo walked in, thankfully, and plucked my glasses out of Leon’s hands. He positioned them on my face and smiled before turning back to Leon.
“Lee ripped those off and threw them across the room.”
Charlie showed up at Theo’s side and scowled at Lee.
“Someone’s going to smack you back, LeeLee.”
Leon held Lee out in front of him and stared at her while she wiggled around, giggling at him.
“Did you throw Sutton’s glasses, Lee? That’s not nice.”
There was something so funny about hearing the mountain of a man who looked like a dangerous criminal telling a child that something wasn’t nice. I had to turn away and tried to hide the fact that I was so amused. I tuned them out while they spoke quietly about right and wrong and stuck my head in the fridge to see what all there was for me to cook. A whole lot of nothing, I quickly realized. When I shut the door Leon was behind it and I jumped and clutched my chest.
He leaned in and whispered so I’d be the only one to hear him.
“Keep laughing at me, Angel, and I’ll have to think you want to be spanked.”
I gasped and looked down to hide how red my face was.
“You can’t—”
His lips brushed the shell of my ear.
“I can. I’d fucking enjoy every second of it, too.”
Trying to regain some sense of control, I scooted away from him and moved to the other side of the island.
“How do y’all eat? There’s nothing for me to cook.”
Dominic walked into the kitchen with Ollie running behind him to keep up with his long strides.
“You’re the nanny, Angel. Not the cook.”
I waited for him to answer my question and when he didn’t seem bothered to do more than pour himself a giant cup of black coffee I had to clear my throat.
“Okay. I’m still wondering how the kids eat.”
Theo moved over to stand beside me and handed me his phone. I could see another kitchen with two men cooking away.
“There’s another kitchen in the south wing of the house. None of us can cook worth a shit but we still wanted the kitchen to be an area we could be without strangers trampling through.”
“Did Theo just show Angel his phone?” Leon elbowed Dominic. “He never ever lets us see it.”
“She’s special.” Theo said it while looking at me with those intense blue eyes and I sagged against the counter. He looked across the kitchen at Dominic and Leon. “Right?”
Dominic planted his fists on the counter across from me and leaned in.
“She is special.”
I was so busy looking at the three men who seemed to have lost their minds that I didn’t notice Ollie sneaking up on me. Before I knew what he was up to he had lifted my skirt and crawled inside. I squeaked and jerked backwards into Theo.He wrapped an arm around me and planted his hand over my stomach, unknowingly sending my blood pressure through the roof. The last place I wanted him touching was my stomach. I was too soft, too pillowy.
“Ollie.” Theo held me tighter. “You do not crawl under a woman’s skirt without permission.”
“Oh.” Ollie’s gray eyes watered. “Can I crawl under your skirt, Sullie?”
“Oh, great.” Dominic circled the counter and scooped his son up. “Ollie, what’s the deal??”
