She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Ferry souls and find beloveds. Now. Don’t make me say it a third time.” She pointed at me. “Not you. Bond.”
Shit. I met Elliot’s gaze. “I swear it’s not because she’s telling me to.”
Elliot chuckled again. “As long as you still want to.” He leaned in and pressed his cheek to mine, whispering in my ear. “I’ve been thinking about what you look like naked for days.”
The comment put me at ease. I stopped worrying about whether Elliot actually wanted to. He was as eager as I was. “Which way to your bedroom,A stor?”
Elliot pulled away, scowling. “What the hell did you just call me?”
“A stor. It means my treasure in the old language.” When he stepped closer, I wrapped my arms around him, holding him close. “Gaelic wasn’t spoken much where I came from when I was a boy, but the cook used it from time to time. I’ve always liked the way the language sounded, so I picked up a few words here and there. They stuck with me, even after all this time. That’s a minor miracle, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is, smarty pants. I thought you mispronounced a bad word.” He rubbed his hands down my arms. “You have strong shoulders.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the reason for his distraction. “I would never call you anything bad. There’s nothing bad or wrong about you. In fact, you’re everything good in every realm of existence, including this one.”
“Up the stairs. Last door on the right.” Elliot pulled out of my arms, grabbed my hand, and pulled me up the stairs. “You say the nicest things about me, even though you know everything about me, or near enough, anyway. You know my flaws.”
He pulled me through a door, then turned to face me and threw his arms around me. “I like you, Elliot Coyne. I like you a lot.”
“Are you sure? I’m impulsive and sometimes do crazy stuff. I fall for guys named Grymley Reaper, for one.”
“Falling for me isn’t a flaw,A stor. You’ll never regret me.”
Elliot smiled just before he kissed me. He kept it brief, then pulled away, kicked off his shoes, and sat in the center of the bed with a little bounce. “I want to see you naked.”
I chuckled and took off my shoes, setting them by the door. I picked up Elliot’s shoes and put them by mine. “Is that so?”
“Are you going to dust the top of the dresser, too?” Elliot rolled his eyes. “The shirt, Grym.”
I grinned. “And what do I get?”
“You get to be naked in front of me.”
I took off my coat and hung it on the chair. Teasing Elliot with the delay was more fun than I had expected, even though I hadn’t planned it. His eagerness to see my body was heady. “If I take off my shirt, you’ll take off yours. Agreed.”
Elliot didn’t answer with words. Instead, he pulled his shirt over his head and discarded it on the bed. His arms were lean and strong, probably from the carpentry work he did. He had lean chest muscles and a little meat around his middle, which was sexy.
“Your turn.”
I pulled my shirt off. I intended to fold it, but Elliot held out his hand, so I handed it to him.
He threw it on the floor, hooked his finger around my buckle, and pulled me to him. He knelt on the bed in front of me and ran his hands from my waist up to my pecs. “You’re beautiful.”
“I’m just a stable hand from the king’s castle in Evans Shire.”
“Is that in Indiana?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “You're thinking of Evansville.”
“Right. Yes. Near the Kentucky border.”
“I didn’t come from Indiana,A stor.”
I wrapped my arms around Elliot and leaned in, kissing him. I wanted Elliot more than I’d ever wanted anything, even the promotion I’d lost the second I laid eyes on him. I made sure Elliot knew just how deep my desire for him ran.
Elliot melted into me. I cupped the back of his neck, holding him in place so I could take what I wanted, what he was eager to give me.
He held me around the waist. When I deepened the kiss, his grip tightened. His hands were hot against my skin.
