Gabriel took one look at the pajamas I’d laid out, and his brow creased. I’m not sure what his deal is; it can’t be because he thinks my so-called fiancé had bought them; he knows I have money, I’m certain he’d figured out that much with his snooping skills. Though he would be right, I hadn’t bought any of these things; they just seemed to have appeared out of thin air, another one of Colton’s magic tricks.
I’m not sure what imp tugged on my tail, but to test him, I said something along the lines of “My fiancé loved helping me look for stuff for them; it’s like a game with us since it’s so hard to find good quality things for triplets.” I didn’t look at him, I couldn’t, or he’d see that I was lying with just one look.
I did realize that he’d stopped getting baby Gabriel dressed for a few seconds before carrying on. I made a few more jabs since it was going so well, all made up crap about what my fiancé and I used to do with the kids. I told him how much of a help he’d been and then attributed all of the things Ron had done around the cabin and to make my life and the kids’ better period, to said, fiancé. Forgive me, Ron; I’ll make it up to you.
I felt kinda bummed and dejected that he didn’t say anything back that he just carried on taking care of the trips. I wasn’t sure what he was doing when he dragged a table from the sitting room over to the windows and sat the kids on top of it to look out the window at the moon.
And then he read Goodnight Moon, in its entirety, without a book. Oh yeah, it’s a squad, alright, the geek squad. At least he didn’t come at me because of the things I said; now that I think of it, that was really stupid. Gabriel isn’t the jealous type, and after two years and three babies, my body probably doesn’t even look the same to him anymore anyway.
“Um, I’m gonna go take a shower.” He looked over his shoulder at me while the kids pointed outside and babbled at the moon. Now, their babblings seem very deliberate to me. They only do it when they’re discussing something they don’t want me to understand, and since meeting Mengele, I think I get it.
Now back to Gabriel. When I said I was going into the shower, he didn’t exactly look at me; he looked over his shoulder in my direction, yes, but his eyes didn’t glance over me, and I didn’t know what that was about. Now, my sudden shower taking was twofold.
One, I wanted to leave him alone with the kids at bedtime because that won’t be good for a first timer, even though they were already about to nod off, and two, I wanted some time alone to think, the shower has always been my favorite spot to do that.
I’ve done it a few times when Connie or Ron was watching the kids, but it always felt rushed because of the guilt I felt at having someone else watch them. But with it being Gabe, I didn’t feel any of that. In fact, I felt a sense of joy to be sharing this with him and even broke a smile at the realization that this was our first night where all of us were together under the same roof.
I closed the door and started the decadent twelve-head shower. It felt like magic; these last few days, one of the things I’d enjoyed most was a nice shower, first on the island and now here. I could wash my hair, shower, and get a massage from one of the water jets all at once because Gabriel is so extra. Back in Alaska, water came from a well and had to be rationed, so to speak.
I had my hands in my hair, head back, eyes closed when I felt the slight brush of cold wind against my ankles and calves, signaling that someone had opened the shower door. There was no time to react before I felt a hand come around my throat from behind and squeeze.
I squealed, but it got cut off under the water spray as he pushed my body forward with his other hand between my shoulders.
There was no muffling the scream that came out of me when that hand tightened dangerously just as I felt something hot and hard slam into me from behind. My wretched traitorous body exploded with mind-numbing pleasure, and I had to close my eyes to keep the world from spinning.
GIANNA
Gabriel!” His name crossed my lips as little more than a silent whisper, or was it a plea? It was a cross between surprise and pleasure. He started moving in and out of me, and I could do nothing more than hold onto the wall. The fact that he hadn’t said anything, that there was no sound except for my loud breathing, and the slapping of our bodies coming together under the water heightened my senses and his hand constantly closing around my throat made my whole body tremble.