Page 47 of Slaying With Sylphs

Lou looks up. “I promised Bellami I’d help him for a few hours this afternoon, but dinner sounds great.” When she glances at Dirk, his lips split into a lascivious grin.

“I’m always available to the two o’ you. So, whatever your question is, my answer will always be yes.”

Lou rolls her eyes, but pink dusts her cheeks. Chuckling, Dirk swipes his fingers through the paint dripping down his chest. He reaches forward and scribbles on her neckline as she shifts backward, trying to see what he’s writing. I can’t stop looking at the way his long fingers move over her soft skin. When he’s done, I chuckle.

Lou frowns. “What did he do? What does it say?” She glances down again but can’t see the writing from her angle. It’s tucked at the base of her neck.

“Mine,” I say on a growl, my wolf’s tone threading through. He’s at the front of our consciousness, watching for her reaction when I say it.

On cue, she blushes, the pink traveling over her cheeks and neck and, gods, down into her shirt. I want it off, want to see how far that pink shade goes.

She lifts her chin and crosses her arms over her chest. Doesn’t she realize all that does is highlight how soft her large breasts look? Before I can think too hard, I lift a hand above her in the doorframe, backing her against the wood surface. She purses her lips and stares up at me as Dirk comes to my side, caging her in.

“Mine,” I say again, nostrils flaring to drink her scent in. The way she smells caresses my mind. Not for the first time, I wonder, if I bit her, would we develop a bond the way wolves do? She has no wolf…so what does that mean for us?

She lifts her chin higher. “This sure is a lot of alpha male posturing. I’m human, you know, maybe I don’t even like this.” She waves her free hand between us.

A laugh rumbles out of me. Bending down, I bury my nose in the base of her throat and drag it up to her ear. “Your scent’s calling you a liar, Lou.”

Throaty, soft noises leave her lips.

“Yer made for this, Louanna,” Dirk continues. “Made to take us separately, together, all in a tangle. Best to give in now, my beauty.”

The moment he says “give in,” she tenses and tightens. My woman’s competitive, and giving in equals losing, in her mind. Breaking her bratty nature down in the bedroom will be so fun. That final submission is a beautiful thing. And it’ll only happen if and when she trusts us—trusts me—enough to surrender control.

Parting my lips, I nibble a gentle, teasing path to where her neck and shoulder meet. When I reach that spot, the spot I’d bite to claim her, I nip harder. Lou jerks and gasps, head falling against the doorframe as she seeks to give me better access.

Now is the perfect time to pull away, to leave her wanting, to edge her so, when she comes to dinner, she’ll be aching for more of me.

Of us.

She’s soft and pliant against me, eyes fluttering closed as she waits for my lips.

Pulling my shirt over my shoulders, I step backward and smile at Dirk. But his eyes aren’t on my face. No. They rove mychest and stomach and…lower. When he drags them back up, his grin is bigger than I’ve ever seen it.

“Beautiful,” he sighs.

It shouldn’t feel good for another male to call me that. But my wolf preens and drops to his belly, fully focused on the other male. Wolves are pure instinct, and where normally he’d assess a non-packmate male in a critical way, he’s interested in Dirk, searching for a wolf who isn’t there. I bite my lip to hold back a smile and turn to Lou, wiping the paint from her upper chest.

“Aww, that was a lotta work,” Dirk grumbles playfully.

Lou and I say nothing, but her amber eyes flash in the afternoon light as I brush my shirt over her skin until all the purple paint is gone.

Dirk nudges me in the side. “Wolf, let’s go drag wood for Louanna so she doesn’t have to do it herself, shall we?”

Without pulling my eyes from hers, I smile. “I’d be delighted to pull wood for her but I have another client soon.”

Her eyes flash and narrow, then she dips out of the cage of my arms, her bratty side rearing its head. Muttering under her breath about dudes always needing something from her, she tosses her long braid over her shoulder and heads up the street toward the gnome village. Before she disappears, she turns around and shouts something about returning with a cleaning potion.

“I’ve got one, Sweetheart. See you soon?”

She beams at me before spinning on her heel and continuing on her way, hips swinging as she walks.

Dirk and I stand companionably in front of my office, watching her go. When she disappears into the village, he turns to me with a grin. “Looks like you two had fun, Wolf. Shall I help you clean up?”

I think he’s offering more than cleanup help, but I’ve got another client in ten minutes, and I’m still feeling out what itmeans to be in this sort of relationship. Being alone with Dirk feels different now, knowing what he imagines our future to be.

“I’ve got it,” I say softly, hoping he doesn’t feel like I’m rejecting him as a monster. “I’ve got another client coming in ten minutes, and somehow I feel like your cleanup might take a little longer than that.” I jerk my head toward the kitchen. “I’ve got a cleanup potion to make it relatively quick, but…”

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