“Greyson, wha—”
“Answer the question. Is the gate closed?” I say a little more harshly than intended.
“Yes,” she answers quietly.
“Open it.” She reaches for the latch on the other side to open it, but I grab her wrist before she can. “No. Just open it.”
She looks back at me with furrowed brows as I nod my head toward the gate and release her wrist. She turns back to it and, with a trembling hand, pulls on the metal frame of the gate.
“What?” she says, confused, as the gate simply opens without any real force required. She pushes it closed, making sure it’s properly in place, then pulls on it again. And once more, the gate opens easily.
“I noticed it on my way down from putting Gracie to bed when my foot hit the frame and the door flew open.”
It’s one of those simple one-handed opening gates, where all you have to do is squeeze the handle and the inside latch detaches. When I took a closer look, I noticed the latch was stuck inside the handle section, meaning even though the door is closed, it doesn’t lock like it should.
“Gracie must have seen you go up and wanted to follow you. All she had to do was pull slightly on the frame, and the door opened for her.”
“How did I not notice?” she questions herself.
With my hands on her shoulders, I turn her to face me. “You couldn’t have known. I’ve used it three times since we got home and didn’t notice until the last. See, baby? This wasn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong. You have no reason to blame yourself for what happened. I don’t blame you, and neither does anyone else. The gate is simply defective.”
Another sob breaks free. “It wasn’t my fault…”
“No, Bunny. It wasn't your fault,” I say as my fingers slide through her hair and I cradle the back of her head, bringing her body against mine as she cries silently. The guilt finally leaves her body.
“We need to change that gate immediately, Greyson,” she tells me sternly. The drastic change in her tone makes me chuckle.
“We will. I’ll take the one from the hallway and place it on the stairs. We’ll just need to keep the doors in the hall closed until we get another one.”
“Good. I need my phone. That company is getting a one-star review from me!” She leaves my arms and stomps off toward her phone that rests beside her untouched wineglass. Her mood swings always give me whiplash.
I walk up behind her, circling her waist with one arm. I pluck her phone out of her hands with my free one and set it back down. “That can wait until tomorrow. I missed my Bunny today, and I’d really like for us to end the night in a good mood.”
She sighs and leans back against me. “What did you have in mind?”
I walk around her and sit on the stool, then grab her hips and pull her into me as one of my hands lifts up and fists her hair painfully. I pull her head back until all she sees are the ceiling lights above us. She gasps and places her hands on my chest while I lean in and slowly lick from the base of her neck, up the center, then glide to the side until I reach right below her ear.
I bite her earlobe gently before whispering into her ear, “I thought we could rehash our first night together. What do you say, Bunny? Wanna play with me?”
“I always want to play with you, Wolf,” she says breathlessly.
I chuckle wickedly against her neck, kissing the delicate skin before gliding my nose back up until my mouth reaches her ear.“Good.” I flick her earlobe with my tongue before whispering once more, “Get on the counter, Bunny.”
Chapter thirty
Emma
Baby Hulk.
~ One Week Later ~
It took me a full day to recover from my guilt after the incident. I watched Greyson remove the broken gate from the stairs and replace it with a brand-new one he bought that very same morning.
Originally, he wanted to put the one from the hall in its place, but since it was the same model, I feared it could happen again. So instead we went with a more complicated one, where youneed to push a button at the top back with your thumb, then lift the gate slightly to get it to unlock. There’s no way for that to be faulty.
After he was done installing both new gates, I walked over to Gracie, who was playing on her own in the living room. I took her into my arms and cried against her for a good half hour, draining the last of my guilt.
Something has changed over time with Greyson. I find myself crying in front of him more and more, which is something I would have never let myself do normally. But every time I’m around him, it’s as if all my defenses just disappear and my emotions become raw. I don’t fear him seeing me this way, as if I know he wouldn’t see me differently even if I’m at my worst.
