Page 9 of Naughty Elf: Shimmersnap

He looked at me like I had grown two heads. For a moment, I worried that my ears were visible, but I checked, and all my glamors were in place.

“Well, you’re enthusiastic. I’ll give you that. Now, let’s get to work. I don’t really like a lot of chit-chat, so keep to yourself, and we’ll be just fine.”

Well, that wouldn’t do at all. I needed to get to know my mate. I needed him to get to know me.

“Okay,” I said, continuing to smile brightly.

He wasn’t going to dull my shine. I kept my smile in place while he walked me through what he was working on and what he needed from me. I only understood about half of it, but that was no bother. I only needed my mate to like me enough to keep me.

This was going to be a piece of sparkly cake.

Chapter 6

Walter

The assistants never lasted long. This one was going on quite a record. Not only had he done well working with me, but he was highly sought-after when his three-month evaluation came up. Another accountant—one of the few in the company that had been there longer than me— tried, but failed, to steal him from me.

Apparently Shimmersnap had told HR that he liked working for me. That was a first.

They probably asked if I had bribed him to say it.

Had Shimmersnap decided to leave, I would not have had a choice but to let him go work with another accountant, except Shimmersnap insisted that he stay with me. And so here we were, going on five months, and he was darn near perfect. Incredibly cheery, which I had gotten used to—hell, I even looked forward to it. I thought perhaps Shimmersnap was the closest thing I had to a friend, and somehow—I swore it was magic—he always seemed to anticipate my needs before I even had them.

One day, I spilled coffee on my tie but didn’t have time to swap it out. I arrived at work to find that Shimmersnap had just picked up a little something for me. It was a tie, bland by Shimmersnap standards, but it was practically a marquee billboard for me. I wore it that day but hadn’t worn it since—I didn’t want Shimmersnap to know just how much I liked it.

On another day, I was running late, and my toaster was on the fritz, so I didn’t have my morning bagel. I arrived at work to find that Shimmersnap had brought in bagels for everyone, and he had saved me my favorite.

The man was a treasure.

A sexy minx treasure that I was having a hard time resisting.

It was November now, and it seemed that Shimmersnap’s outfits were getting more and more festive by the day. It started small with a sparkly Christmas-tree tie pin, and then yesterday, he hadworn a full Christmas vest that shined so bright I blinked when I saw it. It wasn’t even Thanksgiving yet.

“Good morning, Walter,” Shimmersnap said as he floated into the room. There was no other way to describe how Shimmersnap moved. “Isn’t it beautiful out?”

I snuck a glance out the window where it was pouring rain, and not just rain, but a cold rain, the kind where if the temperature dipped any lower, it would turn to ice.

“Glorious,” I said.

“I thought you’d like it.”

I snuck a glance at him to see if that was a dig toward my relatively sour mood, but it didn’t seem to be. Shimmersnap didn’t quite get sarcasm yet, so I’d cut back on how much I let out.

“I organized the paperwork that you were looking for yesterday, and it is on your desk. I plan on getting started on the other things you handed off, plus we have a new account coming in today. Is there anything else you need?”

With any other assistant, I would just start piling on the work or find something to complain about, but with Shimmersnap, it was nearly impossible.

“I can’t think of anything,” I said. “You’re doing great.”

He smiled broadly, his face lighting up like the Christmas-tree tie pin he still wore.

“That’s fantastic to hear.”

I needed to speak with my boss about making sure Shimmersnap got a raise, potentially a Christmas bonus along with the rest of the senior staff. I had been able to finish out more accounts with him helping me than I ever had before. Our clients loved him. Even when he was delivering bad news, they seemed to accept it better coming from him.

Speak of the devil, my boss knocked on the open door, then stepped inside.

“Walter,” he said.

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