Page 171 of Toxic Salvation
“What if we can’t agree?”
I smile and snake my fingers down to tap-dance along his hardness again. “Then you’re going to get very familiar with your right hand.”
“That’s blackmail.”
“That’s marriage, baby.” I squeeze just enough to make his breath catch. “You use your strengths; I use mine.”
“Your strengths are completely unfair.”
I laugh and kiss him, just a quick taste before pulling away. “Meet me halfway.”
He’s quiet for a long moment, his hands moving restlessly over my back. “I should have talked to you first.”
“Yes, you should have.”
“And maybe the new protocols are a little excessive.”
“‘A little’?”
“Fine. A lot excessive.” He sighs. “We can adjust some things.”
I throw my arms around his neck. “I love you.”
“You’re trouble.”
“The best kind.” I wiggle against him. “Want to punish me for being so difficult?”
His grin turns wicked. “I thought you’d never ask.”
He stands up with me still wrapped around him and dumps me on the bed. What follows is the kind of punishment that makes me want to misbehave more often.
Much, much more often.
57
KOVAN
“What’s wrong?” Pavel asks the moment he catches me alone on the verandah.
I hold up my phone. “Two missed calls from Denis. Including a voice message that sounds like complete shit.”
“Let’s hear it.”
I press play. Static crackles through the speaker and car horns blare in the background. Then Denis’s voice comes through, raspy and weak. His words are so slurred that they’re incomprehensible. It’s a slush of Russian and English, chunks missing, chopped, and screwed.
“Do you understand any of it?”
Pavel squints at the phone, his eyebrows pulling together as he concentrates. “I think he’s talking about a promise…? Or maybe prisoner?”
“Fuck.” I raise my voice toward the house. “Osip!”
Osip rushes onto the verandah, alert and ready. “Where’s the fire?”
“Do we know where Denis is tonight?”
“I can find out where he is in under five minutes.”
“Do it. Fast. We need to get to him ASAP.”
