Oh, he wished he could, but he had something important to do.
“Maybe, but first, don’t look,” he said.
Gene laughed.
“Uh, I’ve seen you naked. If you want to join me, just hop in. I love me some naked Native man. You can wash my back and front. With your mouth.”
Ethan laughed because that didn’t sound like a bad plan, but he wanted to give Gene something. He was clearly worried about their relationship, and he wanted to give him something so that he’d never doubt that he wouldn’t run again.
Unless it was toward him.
“Put your arm straight.”
At first, Gene thought he was putting a plastic bag over his arm to keep it dry so they could have some fun in the shower, but he wasn’t. Instead, he heard weird sounds. Like he was scratching something.
“Uh, is this a new kink?” Gene asked. “Do you have a cast fetish?”
Ethan snorted.
“I have a fetish, but it’s not that,” he admitted, drawing a heart on the stark white cast, and coloring it in with the red Sharpie. Then, he took the black one and made some lettering on it.
The whole time, Gene was washing up with his one arm.
And.
Damn.
Curious.
“What are you doing?” he asked. “Can I peek?”
Ethan stopped him when he tried to look around the curtain to see what was going on.
“Don’t look. You’ll ruin the surprise,” he admitted.
Gene didn’t want that.
If his mate was doing something, he definitely wanted to give him the chance.
He wasn’t crazy.
Hell.
NO.
When the scratching sound stopped, Gene waited.
“Well, can I look?”
Ethan checked out his heart with their initials in it, and he smiled.
Yeah, that felt right.
In fact, everything about that moment felt absolutely perfect. In their own way, they’d made a family, and together, they’d survive the storm.
No.
Matter.
