He carries me into the house and up the stairs to the primary bathroom, where he sets me on the vanity and gets to work starting the bath.
“I want you to soak in some Epsom salts for your joints. Let me see your hands.”
Without arguing, I show him my palms, and he lifts one to his lips and gently kisses it, then raises his gaze to me.
“I’ll get you gloves. You’ll wear them from now on.”
“I’ll get calluses. It’ll be okay.”
“No, you’ll use the gloves.” He leans on the counter on either side of my hips and presses his lips to my forehead. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”
“You are?”
“Hell yes. Watching you do the course, all pissed off and stubborn, determined to make it through, was the sexiest thing I’ve seen. And then you broke my heart when you got to the top of the rope net and froze.”
“It scared me.”
“You should have told me that you don’t like heights.”
“Why? I still would have had to do it.”
His lips flatten, and he doesn’t look happy, but he can’t argue because he knows I’m right.
“Get in the bath,” he says before kissing my lips. “I’m going to make you lunch.”
The bath actually sounds really nice, so I don’t argue.
Once Gideon has left the bathroom, I gingerly hop off the vanity and wince. Now that the adrenaline is all gone, I’mreallysore. Probably because I did the first half of that course at least a dozen times before I could move on to the next thing.
I slip into the water, and it stings my hands, but then I relax against the edge of the soaking tub and take a deep breath.
This is actually really nice.
If I’m not careful, I could fall asleep in here. The warm water makes my eyes so heavy. Next thing I know, I feel lips pressed to my forehead.
“I’m not sleeping.”
Gideon smiles against my skin. I love it when he does that.
“No, not at all. You snore while you’re completely awake all the time.”
“I wasn’t snoring.”
He pulls back, and I open my eyes to find him still smiling at me. “I made lunch.”
“What is it?”
“Leftovers from last night.”
“That sounds really good.” Gideon helps me up and out of the water, and then he wraps me in a gigantic blue towel and hugs me to him, his hands rubbing up and down my back. “I need some ibuprofen or something.”
“I have that ready for you too.” He kisses my forehead. “Come on, my little badass rebel. I have a surprise for you.”
That grabs my attention.
“What kind of surprise?”
“You’ll see when you get your sexy ass downstairs.”
