Page 9 of Slaying With Sylphs (Haven Ever After #6)

CHAPTER NINE

LOU

A shiver travels down my spine as I stock empty potion bottles in the back storeroom at Alkemi. I lose myself to the work, my mind spinning over how Dirk spilled the news to Connall. Poor Connall looked so shocked and discombobulated. Then he rubbed his stubbly cheek on mine, and I nearly combusted.

Dirk put the damn idea in my head of all three of us together, and it just won’t leave.

Out of nowhere, something hits my ear, and I jump, knocking into the shelves as my arms fly sideways. Eyes wide, I whip around as bottles tumble off the shelf and fall back into the box.

At my feet, a red and white mushroom stuffie rolls across the floor. What the fuck?

A snicker at the door draws my attention. Fucking godsdamn Bellami stands in the doorway with his tiny arms crossed, a mischievous grin on his round face.

“Scared the shit outta you, didn’t I?” His voice is so small, I have to focus crazy hard to hear him.

I bend down and grab the mushroom, launching it back at him. He ducks, but I nail the top of his hat. It goes flying, along with the mushroom, out of the room.

Bellami scowls. “Hey now, that was rude. A mushroom is nothing to you but could seriously injure me!”

I plant both hands on my hips as the heat of being terrified drains from my face. “You know what, Bellami? We humans have a saying, ‘Don’t start no shit, won’t be no shit.’ You should really, really take that to heart.”

He snorts and ducks out of the room, returning a moment later with the hat back on his head. “I like that. I’m gonna use that. Except, as you know, gnomes are great lovers of starting shit.”

“I’m aware,” I mutter, turning back to the bottles.

Out of the corner of my eye, I follow as he crosses the room. When he taps my shoe, I scowl down at him. “Yes, Bellami?”

“We need your help in the gnome village, Lou. Remember?”

I slap my forehead. I’d forgotten, what with stalking Connall like a creep and all.

Bellami climbs onto my knee and uses my shirt for leverage to pull himself up. After hopping onto my forearm, he uses it like a bridge to get close to the shelf. He crawls onto it and stands there, looking at me as I debate whether to remind him that it’s not all that polite to crawl up a girl’s boobs like a ladder.

“Can you help us tomorrow night?”

I snort. “I work here until eight, but then?—”

“Eight’s perfect,” he interrupts. “Our best work is done at night once the moon comes out. It helps us identify where to place all the toadstools and moss, et cetera. They prefer nighttime, as you know.”

I sigh. “Eight sounds fine. What exactly is it you need me to do? And why do you even need a new village?”

He grins. “Haul logs, move houses, dig holes. The heavy stuff, basically, as I previously mentioned. While we’re industrious, it’ll go a lot faster with your help. We’ve been living in the tree trunks, but we’ve outgrown them, so it’s time for a formal village. It’s a big deal for us.”

I glance down my nose at him. “You know, there are a million other monsters in this haven who could also help you.”

“Gotta be you,” Bellami says in a final tone. “We trust you, and we don’t allow most outsiders into the village.”

Cocking my head to the side, I absorb his words. “Why on earth would you trust me?”

Bellami’s usual scowl falls, replaced by the tiniest of smiles. “You have a beautiful aura, Lou, a gentle, loyal aura surrounded by a circle of fierce protectiveness. You’re basically a gnome at heart.”

“I don’t find you all that gentle,” I say with a laugh. “You think gnomes are gentle?”

He shrugs tiny shoulders. “Do we look that way to outsiders? Probably not. We have to be fierce and act big and loud, or else nobody pays us any attention. But that’s not who we really are. It’s just who we have to be because of the world we live in. You’ll see tomorrow when you help us.”

Something pangs in my heart at his words. I was always a nerdy kid, way more into plants and magic than people. And then I was a nerdy, witchy teenager far more interested in the occult than anything I learned in high school or college. And now I’m a grown-ass woman with three nieces who’re witches, trying to find my place in a monstery world that’s far too cool for me.

The front door bell dings, announcing a patron.

Bellami tips his hat at me before leaping onto my arm and army-crawling down it to my elbow, where he executes a dainty little flip onto the floor. “Eight p.m., Lou, don’t forget!”

“I won’t,” I return, standing to follow him out of the storage room.

I pick my way past chunky wooden tables piled high with specialty mosses and crystals and potions of every kind, and I avoid looking at the new batch of sleeping potion Malik made when I couldn’t complete the recipe.

I’m not surprised to find Dirk standing at the front, leaning against the tall wooden checkout table with his elbows propped on it. His feet are crossed at the ankles, blue lightning moving over his chest and arms. I take it in like I always do. I’ve never told him because he’d be insufferable, but I find his lightning beautiful. Especially now that I touched it, and it came to me. That was so…cool.

“I like the way you stare at me, Louanna,” he rumbles, his voice going low, navy eyes hooded.

I cross my arms and stop next to him. “So you’ve said.”

His grin becomes a lascivious beam as he licks his lips, dark eyes traveling down my body and slowly back up. Lightning sparks across his chest, moving in fascinating rivulets over his smooth skin. If I tell him I’ve stared enough to notice he has tiny blue freckles, I’ll never hear the end of it.

“Louanna,” he draws my attention.

When I look up, he wears the most serious expression I’ve ever seen on him.

“Yesterday was an emotional rollercoaster, my sweet. Do you want to talk about it?”

A harsh chuckle leaves me. “Oh, you mean spying on Connall like creeps? Or how you blurted out that you wanted to pursue him? Or maybe how he looked totally horrified?”

“All of it.” He reaches out with his right hand, curls his fingers through mine and pulls me flush with his chest. When our bodies touch, he drops his hold on my hand and tucks my ever-wayward bangs behind my ears. Dark eyes scan mine, as if he can see how I’m feeling simply by looking. Perhaps he can. Despite his effusive charm, Dirk’s the most observant male I know.

He waits silently for me to answer. After a long moment, I sink into him. “I’m stressed.” It’s hard to admit it. I’ve tried so hard to be strong for the triplets with all the shit they’ve had to deal with. I don’t cry in front of them. I wait to get to my room before I fall apart. But sometimes, I wish I didn’t have to hold myself together quite so well.

Dirk says nothing but slides his warm hand up the back of my tee to stroke. Shivers of electricity kiss my skin everywhere he touches. It should be shocking, but somehow, it just feels good. Without allowing myself to overthink it, I turn my head sideways and press my cheek to his chest.

A happy sound leaves him, but he holds me, rubbing slow, comforting lines up and down my skin. It feels so incredibly good. His heart beats fast like a bird’s, an insistent flutter that seems right for someone who can turn into the wind.

“Louanna, my sweet,” he says after long minutes of simple touch. “Let me shoulder some of this burden. Please.” His voice is soft, soothing. “Give me some of yer stress, sweet girl. Let me handle some things so you dinnae have to.”

“That’s a nice offer,” I muse, allowing myself to take comfort in him for just a minute. “But maybe handling burdens is something we should reserve for some time after the first weird date.”

A little sigh leaves him. Reaching down, he tips my chin up so I’m forced to look into wide, beautiful blue eyes.

“There’s nothing about dating you that I want to put off, Louanna. I want you tae be fully you when yer around me. I need the good, bad and ugly, as the triplets say.”

When I say nothing, he grips my chin a little harder. “I’m serious, my sweet.”

I fall back on humor because it’s an easy way to defuse real feelings. “What about Connall? Maybe he’s got baggage too. You might be in for a lot of big feelings, Dirk.”

He smiles. “I intend to pursue the both of yeh. Nothing that happened yesterday will halt that pursuit. I told yeh he’d come around, and he will. There is no amount of baggage either of yeh could hold that would stop me.”

If he keeps repeating that, I’m in real danger of believing it.

Looking up, I give him a wry smile and pull away slightly, although his hand on my back flattens, not allowing me to move far. He wears the same serious expression he did when he came in.

“Is your pursuit going to involve anything other than spying on him?”

“Yes.”

“Like what?”

“Conversations. Invitations. Touching. Romantic dinners.”

Heat flares through me. Gods, the idea of Connall and Dirk touching is exhilarating. The truth is, Dirk is so intense, he scares me a little bit. I’ve imagined what he’d be like in bed, and I bet he’d be wild. But add Connall to the mix? He’s got to be three hundred pounds of solid muscle. Quiet strength and dominance exude from him.

Dirk sucks in a deep, ragged breath. “Ah, Louanna. You’ve imagined it, then, haven’t yeh? The way your scent blossoms when yer hot under the collar does things to me, my sweet.”

A hot blush pinkens my cheeks. I’ve always held Dirk at, well, not quite arm’s length. But away from me a little. I’ve never let him fully in. And despite my reticence, he’s never stopped being there. He’s as constant as the earth beneath my feet.

“Are you sure you’re not an earth elemental?” I ask with a lilt in my voice.

His nostrils flare. “Why, Louanna? You achin’ tae feel my rocks, pretty girl?”

I slap his chest. “Can you sexualize anything ?”

He snorts. “O’ course. You cannae do it?”

When I can’t hold back a smirk, his own wide-mouthed smile grows insufferably huge. For long, heated moments, he stares at me like I’m the center of the universe, dark gaze roving over my face and neck before landing on my eyes again. It’s the gaze of a lover, someone who knows all of your secrets and wants to help you make new ones.

For the first time ever, maybe, I stare back, not telling him to stop, not slapping his chest or playfully pushing him away. I just let him. And it feels nice.

Better than nice.

Malik’s old cuckoo clock chimes from the depths of the store.

“Nearly closing time, my sweet.” Dirk is still smirking at me.

I groan. “I’m not done with everything. I was still putting inventory away in the stockroom when you got here.”

Dirk waves the comment away. “No matter, Louanna. Put me to work. The sooner I can get yeh out of here, the sooner I can take yeh on that date I mentioned yesterday.”

I blink my eyes. Date?

Dirk’s smirk grows bigger, eyes wrinkling at the edges as he plants both hands on his hips. “Louanna, you don’t mean tae tell me yeh forgot our date, do yeh?”

I straighten. “I was distracted.”

“Oh, Louanna,” he murmurs, stepping forward into my space, his chest pressed to mine. He grabs the end of my long braid and twirls it around his fingers. “Good thing yeh have me here tae remind yeh. After I assist yeh in yer closing duties, we’ll be headed to Herschel’s Fine Dining for a lovely dinner. He’s prepared something especially for us, at my request.”

Worry and awe fill me in equal measures.

“Are we really doing this?” My question comes out so softly, I’m not sure he could even hear it.

His grip on my braid tightens. “Yes, my sweet. You deserve a happily ever after and I want to be the one to give it to yeh.” He dips down, gripping my chin with the fingers of his free hand. His lips are so close to mine, he could kiss me.

I stand frozen, staring into eyes as dark as the deepest parts of the sea, both terrified and praying he takes this tension a step further.

“Oh, Louanna,” his lips pull wide to reveal double rows of conical teeth, “when I kiss yeh for the first time, it won’t be at yer workplace, my love. I want yeh to think about it every second until I do it, too.”

Irritation sparks and sputters, and I move to pull away, but Dirk laughs and holds me tight, dipping lower. His lips brush faintly against mine, his gaze locked onto me. The soft touch of his mouth nearly has me screaming at him to kiss me already. But he holds the position as we breathe the same air.

Dirk drags his lower lip along mine, teasing me before he takes an abrupt step back. He spins and heads into the depths of the store, calling out over his shoulder, “Come, Louanna. Let’s get yeh closed up.”

Fuuuuck me.

I refuse to grumble about his intense teasing, so I force myself to zip my lips as I follow Dirk to the storeroom.

It takes the better part of an hour to get everything put away, but Dirk is a dutiful helper. He stocks shelves and organizes bottles and refills potions, all without complaint. As we head to the front door to lock up, it’s on the tip of my tongue to thank him when the bell rings and Connall steps into the store.