Page 75 of Enticing the Elf
Noah rolls his eyes. “Because you’d take it the wrong way.”
“Time!”
I blink toward Steffen, who hasn’t lost sight of his goal while the rest of us bickered. He narrows his eyes on Caolan. “Next task.”
Caolan doesn’t look happy, but he nods. “Dáithí already said this was a pass. Unless he’s changed his mind?”
“Nope.”
“Then let’s move on. Cleaning Dáithí’s apartment.” The dildo clicks, and he shoots me an approving look. “The scent spell was very clever. I’m borrowing that idea to impress David.”
Andrew laughs. “You’re going to make your place smell like itemized lists and excellent timekeeping?”
Caolan’s smug smile suggests there are a few other things David likes the smell of.
“This task is a pass too,” Dáithí says, and Alistair groans.
“You’re taking all the fun out of this.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say. The place was cleaner than I’ve ever gotten it, smells amazing, and is more organized. And he improved Elsking’s hutch. We should probably combine the discussion of this task with the living entity one, because the hutch extension covers both.”
“If it means we finish faster, yes. Please,” Noah begs.
“Hold on.” Jared half raises a hand. “Before we talk about the hutch, I want to know if Eoin used spells to clean.”
“He was allowed to,” Niamh defends before I can open my mouth.
“Yeah, I know. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I just want all the details.”
Faces turn toward me.
“No. I didn’t know the exact spells I wanted, and it would have taken longer to design and fine-tune some than it did to just clean manually,” I explain.
“Damn,” Jared mutters. “Guess I can’t throw out the mop yet.”
“Let’s stay focused,” Caolan says with a worried glance toward Steffen, who’s watching his phone intently. “Eoin not only improved Elsking’s living conditions, he did research on rabbits and adopted one that had been mistreated so they could both be happier. Thoughts?”
“Don’t forget the custom collars,” Ari chimes in. “The whole team wondered if he had kinks.”
Dáithí laughs so hard, he has to grab the table for support. Across from me, the king raises a brow. “The whole team? This is one of those things happening in the office that I’m better off not knowing about, isn’t it?”
I cringe. “They only jumped to that conclusion because they have dirty minds. The site I was looking at is specifically for pet products.”
That just makes Dáithí laugh harder, and I can’t help smiling. When he finally subsides, he adds, “Even before he did all that, Eoin was looking out for Elsking—and he did it without knowing it was one of the challenges. This task is a pass too.”
A round of applause breaks out.
“What’s next?” Hagen asks. “Taking care of something important to Dáithí, right?”
Nerves try to take over my stomach, and I concentrate on breathing evenly. We wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t at least somewhat met the criteria for this task. I just wish I knew?—
“This one’s easy,” Dáithí says confidently. “He’s been doing it all along—when he was so careful not to mess things up on reception, when he didn’t reorganize my house the way he would have it, when he extended Elsking’s hutch, when he put my feelings ahead of everything else. He takes care of everything he thinks might be important to me, and he always has. Including my heart.”
My love for him is so overwhelming in that moment, I can barely breathe. Every word he said is true, but I don’t do it because I’m trying to curry favor. It’s just that what’s important to him is important to me—he’simportant to me. But I can’t find the words for that, so instead I haul his chair right up beside mine and kiss him until he’s just at breathless?—
“Time!”
Dáithí’s mouth trembles with suppressed laughter under mine, and my lips curve in a smile to match. We might have been swept away by the moment, but Steffen wasn’t.
