"No, sir," Alina said stubbornly, trying very hard not to smile. "You are still the principal here."
"Lina," he whispered, his voice dropping into that husky, dangerous tone that made her brain short-circuit. "I'm so sorry… baby."
Alina choked.
Actually choked.
She coughed once, eyes wide, staring at him like he had just spoken an alien language. "What the heck, Dee?" she blurted out before she could stop herself.
He frowned slightly, genuinely confused by her reaction. "It's… not cute?" he asked slowly.
Her mouth opened, then closed again.
Inside his mind, a quiet chain of reasoning unraveled.
He had read it somewhere. During one of those rare, empty hours after everything finally settled. Short human novels. Easy reads.
According to them, female leads liked being called baby. Baby girl. They blushed. They melted. They forgave everything.
At first, he had taken it as information. Humans had strange emotional patterns. This was probably one of them.
