Page 34 of Kissing Kayley
“Do you think they have trouble with the pet-play people running off with balls in their mouths?”
He snorted, which turned into choking. I sat up as he turned to set the can on the table as he still choke-snorted.
“Dammit,” he said when he finally recovered. “It should be illegal to make me do a spit-take with soda.”
I smiled. “I didn’t think it wasthatfunny.”
“Well, when I thought about two different kinds of balls it was.”
Now it was my turn to laugh.
This was something else—I never laughed so hard as I did when with Vic. We managed to crack each other up on the regular. When alone, I frequently caught myself smiling over something I knew would have sent him howling.
His gaze caught and held mine for a long moment. “I love you, Kayley,” he said, all humor vanished from his tone. “I really want this to work between us.”
I took a breath to allow me a moment to collect my thoughts. “No fair trying to make me brain in the middle of a pancake coma,” I said.
He reached out and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. He loved to do that, and he’s the first partner I’d ever had who did it and it didn’t annoy me.
From him, it always felt tender and loving, not patronizing.
“It won’t always be like this,” he said. “We’ll have a ‘normal’ life.”
I folded my legs to sit criss-cross. “You keep using that word but I don’t think you know what it means.”
At least that earned me a smile. Something else we had in common was that we understood each other’s pop-culture references, like movie and TV show lines randomly peppered in conversation.
“We can make ‘normal’ mean whatever we want it to mean,” he said.
“Yeeeaaah, no. I call bullshit. Between you and Leo, ‘normal’ is the last word I’d ever use to describe my future. The two of you are twins like that. I get it—you both love me and want to protect me. But as long as my brother is still breathing and holds sway with the Secret Service, I will never know ‘normal’ again, and that doesn’t even take your precautions into consideration.”
An unexpected wave of resentment washed through me.
Huh. I thought I’d dealt with that.
Mostly.
Kinda.
Sort of.
Vic cocked his head as he watched me. “Talk to me, baby.”
I sighed and slowly shook my head. “SSDD. I don’t begrudge his happiness, or Jordan’s. Or even Elliot’s. I just wish it hadn’t come with this particular price tag.”
He took my hands in his. “Once he’s out of office?—”
“Yeah, yeah. ‘Once Elliot’s out of office. Once everything calms down. After the next election’.” I studied his hands, the calluses on his right index finger I knew were from the long hours he spent when off-duty training at the shooting range.
“We should talk about this,” he said.
“Can we add it to the list?” I pulled away and climbed out of bed. “On second thought, let’s take that walk now, while it’s nice out. Maybe it’ll help me digest breakfast faster.”
Although I wasn’t fooling either one of us, I needed the distraction to help me digest the choking portion of reality I hadn’t truly started eating yet.
CHAPTER 14
Victor
