Page 10 of Naughty Elf: Merry

Or he wouldn’t come after me and I’d be in a strange place with no friends, home, or job.

And no mate!

Chapter 8

Hernan

I just still wasn’t understanding exactly what was happening—how Merry came to be in my studio and why. But one thing was for sure—my dragon felt toward him something he had never felt toward another. It was a combination of desire, protectiveness, and intrigue. My human side was feeling the same.

There was just something about Merry. Sure, he was hot, but it was so much more than that. He was funny and sweet, and there was this blend of naughty and innocence that called to me.

As much as it didn’t make sense given the few minutes I’d known him, I wanted Merry. It was all I could do not to lean forward, to press my lips against his, to claim him as mine. But it wasn’t time for kisses, and it sure as rain wasn’t time to think about claiming him, although the way my dragon perked up at that thought told me he’d be down.

Truth was, I wasn’t sure it ever would be time. His coming here seemed to be as confusing to him as it was to me. What if he was gone as quickly as he came? For now he would stay with me, but that could be for an hour or a week or a year. I had no idea, and from what he indicated, Merry didn’t either.

My dragon pushed forward, wanting to take his wings and cover Merry with them. He wasn’t willing to even think about the elf being whisked away from us. In my dragon’s mind, Merry was ours, our mate, our future. He was all in. If I allowed myself to sit with that thought any longer, I would be too. That was a dangerous path to go down.

We needed to figure out what came next first. No matter what that was, “what next” included having him blend in just a little bit more. Fine, a lot more. It took Penelope less than a second to clock Merry as an elf. Sure, she thought I’d hired him, which worked out for me. But blending? That hadn’t happened, and if he was going to stick around for a while, he needed to not stand out this much.

My dragon growled at the thought of him leaving. He was going to need to pipe down because it was hard enough for me to navigate my own feelings on this. Micromanaging his wasn’t going to happen.

“We need to get you into the house and get you some clothes.” I wasn’t asking. As adorable and sexy as his outfit was, he needed human clothes, too.

“I’m not naked.”

And with that one sentence, he had me envisioning him lying on the bed, naked and ready for me.

“No, you’re not naked, but that doesn’t mean you’ll blend in.”

He switched his mouth from one side to the other, as if it were helping him concentrate.

“Okay,” he finally said.

When I looked down, I saw that Holly was pulling her famous foot-sitting move—only not on me or on my beast. Nope, she had claimed Merry’s foot. It was adorable.

“Holly, get up.”

Merry looked down, a smile blooming on his face at the cuteness looking up at him.

“Holly, is that your name?” He sang it to the tune of Jingle Bells.

“She thinks that you’re gonna pick her up and carry her.”

“Do you not want me to?”

“It’s up to you. You can if you want to. She tends to be bossy, so no is always an option.” Not one I’d been able to use. Her cuteness was a superpower.

He bent down, and I averted my eyes, not wanting to stare at his ass, while at the same time, very much wanting to stare at his ass. He held Holly close to his chest. She rubbed against his chin.

“I think she likes me.”

“Yeah, I’m getting that sense too.”

I brought him back to the house and into my bedroom. It was a mistake to have him there, my mind wandering to naughty places and my jeans now beyond tight.

I dug through my clothes to find anything I had that might fit him. Being a dragon, I was pretty large even in human form, and being an elf—he wasn’t. Merry was going to swim in all of my clothes.

An elf. That still blew my mind. Just when I thought I knew about all the creatures in this world, an elf showed up in mystudio, a hot one at that. I still hadn’t pieced together the why him and why here.