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, sohappy, 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, Dirkand 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 fightingagain 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.”
