Page 46 of Always Salty

His eyes gleamed then. “I have it recorded.”

I barked out a laugh around another bite of sushi.

Food went everywhere.

He didn’t seem to care, only grabbing a piece of paper towel and wiping it all up into his palm before depositing it into the towel and folding it in quarters.

Once he was done, he said, “I don’t know that I should have kids. I’m violent, Keely.”

“I haven’t gotten that far into my thought process on us,” I told him honestly. “I’m just getting comfortable with an idea that there is an us, let alone an us and more.”

He nodded once. “Fair.”

“So what next?” I asked.

He held out another bite of sushi for me before saying, “Now we dance.”

I always offer to cook, not because I’m nice, but because I want the food to taste good.

—Keely to Dima

DIMA

Her eyes were confused for a bit before I stood up, hauled her off the couch, and made my way to her bedroom with her over my shoulder.

Her cute squeak of ‘eeeep!’ was enough to have me smiling as I made my way down her hall toward her bedroom.

I knew exactly how to get there, following the steps that I knew to take after I’d placed the cameras in her bedroom a few weeks ago.

She didn’t comment on the way I’d known where to go, nor did she say a word when I threw her down onto the bed and followed her onto the plush comforter.

When I went to a plank over her, my dog tags slipped out of my shirt and fell against her torso, the metal pooling on the middle of her chest right beneath her collar bones.

Her eyes were an intense shade of green as she stared up at me with anticipation.

“You know who I am,” I said as I leaned closer, my lips skimming a line along the apple of her cheek. “You should probably be telling me no right now.”

She snorted. “We both know that I’m not going to react normally, Dima,” she whispered. “I’m nervous, sure. I’m excited, absolutely yes. But I’m also a little bit crazy. So no, you won’t be getting a ‘no’ from me anytime soon.”

I leaned even closer, inhaling the scent of her between her throat and chin.

“This is about to get complicated,” I admitted. “Your brother’s married to my sister.”

“Maybe we just don’t tell them for a bit,” she teased.

“They’re going to know that something’s going on with us the first time they see us in the same room together, but I might be able to make it look like I hate you.” I chuckled.

She shivered as she leaned her head back, giving me more access to her throat.

I skimmed my tongue along the center, not stopping until I reached her lips, which I then devoured.

Only when we were both breathless did she say, “Let’s just be clear about one thing, though.”

Before I could pull back, she wrapped her hand around my dog tags and yanked.

I had no other choice but to move forward with them or risk them breaking.

She opened her mouth, and once again, I was kissing her silly.

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