Page 76 of Enticing the Elf
Breaking our kiss, I push my chair back a little and pull Dáithí into my lap. He gives me a stern look but allows it, relaxing back against me.
“We’ll mark that as a pass,” Alistair declares, grinning sappily. “I love romance.”
“Last one, then.” Caolan clicks his dildo, and I wonder who signed off on the design of it. They had to realize what it looked like, right? “Surprise Dáithí.”
“That was the clubbing date,” Brayan says, but Brandt frowns.
“I thought it was the hutch extension?”
“Wait,” Noah cuts in. “Are we allowed to count those for two tasks?”
Hagen folds his arms. “Dáithí?”
“You guys wrote the rules. It never said anywhere that any of the other challenges had to be a surprise for me, so I’ve been counting every surprise since we started this toward this task.”
“Really?” That surprisesme. He’s been counting all of them?
“Sure.” He starts ticking off on his fingers. “The suite at the baseball, Adjoa K., the scent spell and Elsking’s hutch, Butterscotch… they were all surprises that made me happy. And then when I told you I wanted to call the challenges off and just be happy together, you surprised me again by insisting on completing them all. You knew what I needed better than I did, and that was the point of this task.”
“That’s not why—” He puts his hand over my mouth.
“I know. But that just makes it mean more.” He glances around the table. “He passed this one too.”
The cheers that break out this time put the earlier ones to shame, and Dáithí and I grin foolishly at each other.
“Just checking,” Alistair shouts over the noise, “this means you’re staying together as boyfriends?”
In the blink of an eye, Dáithí’s grin turns to a scowl, and he aims it at the big hellhound. “We already were. I told you, if it was up to me, we would have called this off a month ago.”
“So we’re done, then!” Noah jumps to his feet. “I’m happy for you both, blah blah. Let’s go, Andrew.”
Steffen’s already hovering beside Brandt’s chair, but the wingleader doesn’t seem to be in any rush. As everyone begins to rise and gather their things, talking loudly, I kiss the side of Dáithí’s neck.
“Hi, boyfriend.”
His body shakes with his chuckle. “You’re ridiculous.” But his eyes are soft with affection as he stands and pulls me to my feet. “Let’s go home.”
We manage two steps before Raðulfr and Jared stop us.
“Congratulations,” Jared says, hugging Dáithí. “It’s good to see you this happy.” He offers me his hand to shake. “We didn’t start off right, but it’s hard to hate you when I see how much you love my friend.”
I clear my throat, stupidly touched. “Thank you. I’m sorry for?—”
He shakes his head. “No apology needed. I understand your actions—I did even then.”
It’s not hard to read between his words. He understands why I did what I did, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t dislike me for it—I had to earn more than that.
Raðulfr clears his throat. “We’ll let you sneak out in a moment, but before you go, I just wanted to ask if there’s anything you want me to tell you.”
Huh? He’s not usually this cryptic. Is he hinting that we should ask for a day off work or something?
“You mean do we want to know if we’re paired souls?” Dáithí asks, and my jaw drops. Fuck! I hadn’t even thought of that, because?—
“Yes,” Raðulfr says.
Dáithí looks at me. “What do you think?”
“This could be an extra assurance for you.” It could also go the other way, which would be a disaster for me.
“You’re right.” He turns back to the king and Jared. “Thank you, but I don’t need to know. I love Eoin, and whatever the future might hold in store for us isn’t important to who we are now.” He smiles up at me. “I don’t mind if you want to know, though. I can wait over there.”
It takes me a moment to speak, because I’m choking on the emotions his words caused. “I don’t need to know.” My voice is hoarse. “All I need is you.”
Forever.