Page 74 of A Forgotten Mistake

“Is your nose okay? I see you got it cleaned up before coming in here.”

“Just a simple nosebleed,” he assures me as he eyes my hand some more.

I stand up and hug him so he’ll forget all about this whole nonsense with my hands. Instead of letting me hug him, he presses a hand against my face and peels me off while glaring at my knuckles.

“This, I’m mad about,” he declares before tugging my shirt off in a rather vicious manner that only accomplishes turning me on.

“What? Noooo. Lucy Fur mauled my hands, not me. You always think it’s cute when she does this stuff.”

Gabriel gives me a look that just makes me grin at him as he urges me into the shower. Clearly, I’ve been forgiven. “Does the water sting your hands?”

“Nope. All I can feel is the warm embrace of your loving eyes boring holes into me,” I say as my hands sting a bit, but it’s nothing compared to the pain I’d felt when I thought I would have to leave him.

His eyes bore a little deeper. “Yeah? You feel that? Weirdly, I feel like you’re confused, but maybe I’m the one who is confused.”

“It’s definitely you,” I assure him as I draw him under the water. I love holding him and could hold him all day if he let me. It definitely wouldn’t be awkward at work—or anywhere else, for that matter.

“So after this, we could eat dinner,” Gabriel says, finger trailing down my chest.

I smile, liking that idea. “Of course. And then I’ll put on a very engaging movie for you. I’ll make you some caramel popcorn and put it in a little bowl for you.”

“What? While you run off to stalk this Cameron guy?” Gabriel asks, weirdly suspicious.

“You’re so silly.”

“You’re not stalking him alone.”

I grab my heart. “That’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.”

He pushes me under the water. I think he’s trying to drown me just a little, but I don’t even care. He can do whatever he wants because he’s made me a very happy man.

“Stop smiling so much! Stop loving it when I’m mean to you!” Gabriel demands.

“I can’t,” I admit.

Gabriel starts laughing as he squeezes me against his naked body. I can forget about everything when I’m like this. I can just close my eyes and feel at peace for the first time in a very long while.

When we finally get out of the shower, he forces me to sit on the edge of the tub as he dutifully gets his first aid kit out and starts cleaning my wounds. He’s so gentle that I weirdly get hit with a memory of my mom cleaning up my knees after I’d gone flying down a hill and flipped my bike. At the time, I’d thought her telling me how unsafe it was to even go down that hill on a bike was ridiculous. I never realized how I’d actually miss those moments—miss what it felt like to have someone care.

“You really need to be careful,” Gabriel scolds. “And stop smiling! Why are you smiling? I’m being serious!”

“I know you are, but I’m only smiling because of how delightful you are,” I say.

His sigh tells me that he’s not impressed. He bandages me up ridiculously well. I feel like I just got done at Dr. Gabriel Hyde’s office.

“You’re the cutest,” I declare. “What do you want for dinner?”

“You’re going to ruin my beautiful bandage job by making dinner?”

“I’ll be careful. How about shrimp scampi?”

“That… does sound delicious.”

I hurry off to the kitchen to make my one true love absolutely anything he wants. He starts clearing off the counter to give me a bit of space but frowns when he picks up the bread.

“What the fuck? A mouse got into my bread.”

“You should take that new cat back and ask for a refund if he can’t even do his one job properly,” I say.

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