Page 14 of Slaying With Sylphs (Haven Ever After #6)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
LOU
F orty minutes after beginning work at the gnome village, I regret ever meeting Bellami the effing gnome. I’ve hauled at least five enormous thick logs from pretty far in the forest back here via rope and sheer gumption. Then, of course, they have to be pulled into gnome village and placed just so at some specific fucking angle the gnomes swear is important.
Five degrees to the west, or is it the east? I don’t even care anymore. I’m coated head to toe in sweat. I bet I stink, and my shirt is plastered to me, soaked through.
“Okay, Lou,” Bellami shouts. “Shall we do another log tonight, or are you ready to start stacking?”
“Oh my fucking gods,” I shout. “Are we putting logs on top of these ones?!”
Bellami turns and looks at the stacked log village to his left, then meaningfully back up at me. “Uh, yeah? Obviously?”
I groan and let my head fall back when the first shout rings out: “You’ve got this, Lou!”
I whip around to see Connall and Dirk standing on the sidewalk, clapping. Fuck me, they look kind of tipsy, grinning and elbowing each other. Dirk stands close to Connall, close enough that their bodies brush together.
Now my panties are wet too.
“Lookin’ good, Louanna!” Dirk shouts. “Way to go, girl!”
Oh my gods, he couldn’t possibly sound like more of a weirdo than using human sayings.
I choke out a laugh and shake my head, planting both hands on my hips as Bellami and I turn and head for the forest again. No sooner do I leave the bounds of gnome village than Dirk appears, grinning at me.
“Hello, Dirk,” Bellami shouts up.
Dirk pops down to a knee and dips his head at Bellami. “My friend, how’s my Louanna doin’? I see yer workin’ her hard.”
I have to physically hold myself back from gathering the sweat at my brow and flinging it at him.
“Connall and I’d be honored to help yeh, if yeh’ll allow it.”
Aww. His sweet words warm my heart. Maybe I won’t throw sweat at him.
Bellami looks at me, tiny eyes falling to my soaked-through shirt, then moving to Dirk. “Okay, that’s fine, you can help move the logs, but just to the boundary. Don’t attempt to come through, or?—”
“Technically, I’ve got diplomatic immunity,” Dirk says with a wink.
“Do you?” Bellami snarks right back. “’Cause after that stunt you pulled with Richard and Lola, I’m surprised Evenia didn’t snatch that right back.”
Dirk’s smile falls slightly, but he purses his lips together and jerks his head toward the forest.
Connall appears then, jogging along the back of the building. He halts next to Dirk, who glances up at him with a smile. Connall’s cheeks are pink, and he’s breathless. But he’s in fucking good shape—I watched him run.
Oh my gods, I’m desperate to know if they went for a beer and what happened, and why do they look so guilty, and did they touch?!
Dirk elbows Connall softly, although he doesn’t look away from me. “We’re allowed to help drag logs to the village barrier. Wanna manhandle some wood with me for a bit?”
Connall’s cheeks turn bright red as I muffle a laugh behind my hand. Okay. Dirk is never changing. I don’t know why I expected anything else.
“Lead the way,” the big shifter says with a soft laugh. “Anything for Lou.”
“Yeah, boys,” I tease. “How much gnome wood can you handle?”
Bellami spins in place and glares at all three of us. “What are you three talking about? Why are you laughing? I don’t get jokes, and this feels like one.”
I zip my lips and shrug.
“We’re flirting,” Dirk offers with a wink.
“Yuck, I’m not interested.” With a final grossed-out look, Bellami spins in place and jogs off into the forest.
I stare in shock, trying to process his response.
Connall clears his throat. “Well, hmm. There go all my dreams of being fucked by a gnome.”
Dirk and I burst into laughter at the same time as I risk a glance at the two males to my right. They look happy, so happy , laughing together.
As our laughter fades, Bellami’s clear mumbling drifts to us from the path he disappeared along.
Dirk gestures for me to go on. “Go ahead, Louanna. Connall and I wanna stare at that beautiful peach while yer hauling wood.”
I mutter but jog to catch up with Bellami. For a creature who stands eight inches tall, he’s shockingly fast. Behind me, Dirk and Connall must be shoving one another off the path because there’s a series of taunts and then a crashing sound.
I spin in place as Connall leaps out of the underbrush, winks at me, and crashes into Dirk with a mighty roar. Dirk slaps the jewel on his chest, and they disappear on a gust of wind, appearing right in front of me in a heap, legs tangled together.
But Dirk is definitely, one hundred percent, on top of Connall like he’s riding him. I skirt them both with a grin. “Don’t let me get in the way,” I tease.
Connall’s muscular chest heaves as his beautiful green eyes flick to mine. “Never,” he murmurs. “You could never be in the way, Lou.” He stares at me like a man starved.
“Gods help me,” Bellami shouts. “Do I need to let Lou go so you three can run off and roughhouse somewhere else? We have shit to do, you know!”
Dirk lifts gracefully off Connall with a little smirk. When he stands, he reaches a hand out to help Connall up. When Connall takes it, I almost swoon at how romantic it is. But then he yanks Dirk down in a smooth move and flips him over his head, slamming Dirk to the ground on his back.
They burst into delighted laughter as Bellami and I share a concerned look. I round the giggling males and join Bellami. It’s hard not to laugh right along with them at how lighthearted they’re being. For some reason, it reminds me of my best friend trio in high school. How we were always silly, always laughing, all together.
And I might have that again. Connall comes up behind me and slings his big arm around my waist, his huge body dwarfing mine as I try not to fan my face at having him so close.
“Which log is next?” I question Bellami as he looks disapprovingly from one male to the other. It’s hard to keep a straight face. Any moment, they’re going to start play fighting again or making wood jokes. Connall’s fingers play at the edge of my tee as if he can’t stop himself from touching me.
Makes a girl feel pretty damn good, if I do say so.
Bellami shakes his head and points at the log to his right. “This one’s next. It’ll go on top of the first one you put down tonight, at a precise fifteen degrees to the southwest, so we ca?—”
“Got it,” I mumble, picking up one of the many ropes he must have laid out for this project.
The moment I struggle to wrap the rope around the log, Dirk and Connall are by my side. Connall grabs the end of the log in both hands and squats down, lifting it as if it weighs nothing. Dirk slips the rope around a knot in the log and ties it off, then winks at me and Connall.
“Giddyup, Wolf,” he says with a lilting tease in his tone.
“Work it, Connall,” I cheer as Bellami ignores us and takes off back up the path.
Connall grins and throws the rope over his shoulder, walking up the path with the log dragging behind him.
“Gods, he makes that look easy,” I mutter.
Dirk slips his fingers through mine. “Or maybe it’s just so fookin’ easy to look at him that it wouldn’t matter what he was doin’.”
I glance up to see a familiar smirk.
He pulls me up the path, along the tracks from where we’ve dragged all the logs. “How much longer have yeh got, Louanna?”
“I don’t know,” I grumble. “But I’m going to be so sore. I’ve already dragged so many logs, and now I have to lift them.”
“I’ll ask them again to allow me in.” Dirk slips our intertwined hands to my lower back. “Yeh shouldn’t have to lift those logs on. They tend to build eight and ten stories tall.”
I groan as the gnome village comes back into view. Connall drops the rope and rolls his shoulders, muscles popping in stark relief beneath his dark tee.
He turns and grins at us, eyes dropping to where Dirk holds my hand at my lower back. Plush lips part into a sensual smile.
Bellami stands by the rope, giving me his best foreman scowl. “C’mon, Louanna. This is the last one tonight. I can tell your attention is—” he eyes the two males, “—flagging.”
“More like my muscles are flagging,” I correct, stepping over the log.
Connall gives me an apologetic look and bends down to grab the rope and hand it to me. “I’m so sorry,” he says with a soft smile. “You’ve got this, and we’ll reward your hard work with a drink after. And maybe a massage,” he tacks on, reaching out to stroke my long bangs back behind my ear.
His offer sends a thrill zinging through me as I shoulder the rope. When I pull the log over the barrier, a cheer goes up from in front of me. Glancing up, I realize half the fucking Hollow has now gathered on the sidewalk, staring at me. There’s Malik with Alba standing shyly by his side.
As if it’s not weird enough to see Alba looking shy, my fucking nieces stand there with their mates, grinning at me. They’ve all got milkshakes in their hands. Bitches. Just teasing me with all that creamy goodness while I haul shit around like a draft mule.
“Get it, girl!” Thea shouts.
“Crush it, Lou!” Morgan shouts right after her.
Laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, I turn to Bellami with a smile. “Okay, friend, tell me exactly where you want this to go.”