Page 229 of Skate the Line

Sunny laughs, and I flick my eyes past Ellie and her friend. She is holding another facemask in her hands with a teasing smile.

“I am not putting a facemask on,” I say in a panic.

Ellie and Jacie both laugh. My mouth twitches because they look ridiculous with an entire sheet covering their faces. All I see are two eyes, a nose, and a mouth split into giant smiles from both of them.

“Pozhalusta,” the Russian word for please slips with ease from Sunny’s mouth, and my stomach dips.

She is playing dirty.

My eyes narrow.

Sunny knows exactly what she’s doing by using that word. Quick snippets of her beneath me in bed from the night beforefill my head, and all I hear is her quiet voice full of pleasure, sayingpleasein Russian over and over again.

Damn her for asking Marco to teach her the language during the day while Ellie is at school so she’s “prepared for our trip.” She’s been using it to her advantage since the first lesson.

I’m not going to lie, though. I loveit.

Sunny opens her mouth, and my eyes flare. I reluctantly agree to the facemask, just to keep her from saying the word again. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to steal her from the girls and disappear to some hidden part of the house to have my way with her, so I quickly stop her before I can’t stop myself.

After the facemask is on my face and the three of them get over their fits of laughter, Sunny snaps a photo and lets me take the horrible thing off.

It smells like coconut, which reminds me of her, so Iguessthere’s a benefit in the end.

“Here we go,” I say after I get the projector set up so the girls can watchTangledwhile snuggled in their sleeping bags.

The movie is playing on a sheet that Sunny hung from the exposed wood, and the girls are fully engrossed. She comes over and stands in between my legs while I sit on her favorite stool. Her back presses against my front, and I wrap my arms around her waist, bringing her in even closer.

God, I fucking love her.

Ellie and Jacie giggle at Pascal, and a thought slips into my head that would’ve scared me months prior, but now it no longer does, especially with her in my arms.

A bigger family would be nice.

Seeing Sunny pregnant with mybaby would be nice too.

I press my head onto her shoulder and skim my nose along the slender part of her neck. She shivers, and I smile against her skin.

Her whisper is only loud enough for me to hear. “Better stop it. You know I’m sleeping up here with the girls, right?”

I want to pout, because she’s mine. But then I remember that I’m in my thirties, and it’s a bit much to throw a tantrum.

“Mm-hmm,” I whisper back. “I’ll miss you, though.”

A faint laugh leaves her. “You will not.”

“Will too,” I argue.

Her warm hands fall to mine wrapped around her waist. “I’ll miss you too,” she admits.

A question rushes from the tip of my tongue. “Do you want kids?”

Her spine stiffens.

It’s a question that packs a heavy punch, and I’d be perfectly fine with whatever she wants. Though, again, the thought of her carrying my baby issoenticing. “You can tell me,” I stress quietly.

“I do,” she answers. “But?—”

“Should we try now or later?” I ask, interrupting her.

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