Sheer Cupidity: A Standalone Cupidity Romance (Heart Hassle Book 5)

LEX

My ears are ringing in a solid, constant garble.

“They cleaned away my muck,” Belren mutters beside me. “That’s unfortunate.”

For a moment, I can’t move. I’m too stunned at what just happened—at how fast things went out of control. Carefully, I sling my bow over my shoulder and grab my arrows, picking up my quiver last. One glance down confirms that the muck is gone, the inside now gleaming. My arrows land inside of it with a hollow thud.

I like control. I don’t like this. I also usually like cleanliness. But right now, I couldn’t be more furious at it.

Snapping back into action, I shove the quiver onto my back and then whirl around at the hobs that have cleared out. “I want that dirt back!” I shout at their retreating backs. Not one of them stops or even turns around. “Hey! Come back here right this instant and give me back my pile of muck! That’s stealing!”

Everyone just walks further and further away.

No.

“I need it!” I yell, my voice gone shrill and desperate. “You don’t understand!” I feel tears start to spill out over my cheeks, and I can’t do anything to stop them. The soap stall owner glowers at me, as if my tears are offending her. She’s probably worried that they’ll land on the ground and ruin the polish. “What are you looking at?” I snip at her, making her glower deepen. “Did you take my dirt? Huh? This whole thing was your fault.”

“Alright,” Belren says, suddenly sweeping in front of me with his hands up. “Calm down.”

I can hardly believe my ears. “Calm down?” I repeat through clenched teeth. “How can I calm down? How can you be so calm? They just took off with your muck! You’re going to get pulled back!”

“Oh great. Unkempt and crazy,” I hear the hob mumble.

I can still see her through Belren’s translucent body, and I stick my tongue out at her. I’ll give her crazy. “Where are my arrows? I need an arrow!”

Belren waves a hand in front of my face. “Hey. Eyes up here.”

My gaze flicks upward, where I find an amused expression and not an arrow.

“Don’t laugh at me right now,” I snap at him, wiping my cheeks.

Behind him, the hearth hob drawls, “Does it look like I’m laughing?”

I sidestep around Belren so fast that he can’t even react before I’m right up at the stall and pointing at her face. “I’m not talking to you. And your soaps aren’t even that clean looking!”

She gasps and tosses a hand over her heart, like that’s the worst insult anyone could ever say to her. “Take that back!”

I shake my head and cross my arms. “No.”

Looking positively steaming, she opens her mouth and starts yelling for the constable. “Rule breaker! Dirt maker!” She points with heated accusation.

“I didn’t make the dirt, I just carried it around with me, thank you very much!” I retort haughtily.

Belren is at my side in a flash. “Ooookay, time to go.” He instantly hooks an arm around my waist and starts pulling me away. I struggle, so it probably looks really strange to all the gaping hobs.

“Let go!” I hiss, trying to bat his hand away. For a ghost, he’s surprisingly strong.

“Do you want to get arrested?” Belren asks me with exasperation. “Stop struggling.”

I don’t though, because I’m too wound up. He yanks me off the square and into a narrow alley between two buildings, taking us all the way to the back and away from the gawkers.

“What are you doing?” I demand. “I have to go back. I need to go track down the rest of the hobs before it’s too late and try to see if we can salvage—”

“Lex,” he barks, just as he spins me around and pushes me back against the building, making my eyes go wide, a whoosh of air escaping me from the impact.

“What?”

He shakes his head while I try not to think about the way his hips are pressing against mine. “My muck is long gone.”

“No,” I argue, shaking my head. “We can still—”

He cuts me off with a pinching grip on my chin. “No, Pinky. It’s done. They got rid of every speck.”

An embarrassing wave of tears fill up in my eyes again and start to spill right over.

His eyes soften right alongside his tone. “Don’t cry,” he says, but that just makes me cry harder. His cool, not-quite-solid fingers swipe them away. “Look at me.”

I do, but my vision is so blurry I can’t look properly, which just makes me more upset.

“Lex,” he says, a light rebuke in his tone.

I quickly rub my eyes on the sleeves of my shirt. “What?” I snap.

“If I was truly anchored to that deathplace dirt, I would’ve been gone from you already.”

I just blink at him as the words slowly process. “That’s…” I frown dubiously. “Do you really think so?”

I’m too worried to believe him at first. I don’t want him to disappear. But he barrels right through my doubtful anguish.

“Yes,” he says without hesitation before leaning in closer until we’re cheek to cheek and his low voice is right in my ear. “You see, Pinky, I don’t think it was my muck after all. I think it’s just…you.” He pulls away again but only far enough so that he can look me in the eye. “I think you’re keeping me from getting yanked back. I think you’re making it so that I’m not losing my damn ghostly mind. I think I’m tied to you for this unfinished business with the princess. I had my suspicions, but it seemed even more possible once you confessed who you are to me.”

My mind trips over that last part, and I immediately open my mouth to set him straight again, but before I can actually speak, he shakes his head at me and says, “Don’t even think about trying to tell me that you’re not anything to me. I heard that bullshit the other night, but I won’t hear it again.”

“It’s true!”

Belren rolls his eyes. “Come on. Males don’t go around dying for a female who means nothing to them.”

“Well…maybe you were just altruistic.”

At that, he snorts. “I doubt that.”

My head tilts in thought. “Okay, you did steal things from people for a living, so maybe not.”

“I was a thief?” Belren asks, and for a second, I’m worried this is going to upset him.

Silly me.

Nope, he gets a grin on his face, and his eyes practically sparkle. “Now that feels more like me.”

I want to ask him how he can tell, but we’re interrupted by a male hob stomping toward us. “You there!”

Looking over in surprise, I immediately note the sewn-on emblem on his jacket that says “Constable.” Standing just behind him with her hands on her hips, is the soap stall owner. She flashes me a mean smile before turning on her heel and marching away.

“Tattletale,” I mutter.

“Shit.” Belren releases me, standing at my side as I straighten up.

“You,” the constable says as he comes to a stop in front of me, his stature just coming up to my chin, though his fluffy tuft of gray spirals gives him an extra few inches. “I’ve had several eyewitnesses saying you purposely caused a mess in the town square.”

“I did no such thing, Sir.”

He doesn’t seem convinced. “I’m going to have to take you in for questioning.”

I blanch. “For a little pile of dirt? That’s not even there anymore?”

His lips turn down, eyes going severe. “We take cleanliness very seriously here, miss. Our livelihood depends on it.”

“Yes…” I agree. “But your livelihood also depends on the act of cleaning. So when my dirt mucked up your square, it then allowed the hearth hobs to clean it up. Which means that they got a power boost from it,” I point out.

Belren chuckles. “Nicely done.”

The constable obviously disagrees. “Think you’re smart, do you? Well, you can spend the night in the jailhouse. That should make you think before you mouth off again.”

“The fuck she will,” Belren says, getting in the constable’s face.

“It’s alright.”

“No, it’s not alright,” they both say at the same time.

“Let’s go,” the constable says.

Belren motions for me. “Let’s run and lose this asshole so you can go back in the Veil. There’s no way I’m letting him put you in jail.”

I bite my lip. Of course, going into the Veil would solve the issue, but running from the law seems very uncivil.

Yet I don’t have to make that decision because right then, a female hob comes walking up to us, her eyes assessing the situation. She’s got a slightly hunched back, and some of her blonde hair is going silver, but her skin is relatively smooth, her eyes sharp. “Jarth, there you are,” she says, making the constable turn toward her. “There’s an issue down at the tea tavern.”

He sighs, making his belly rise up surprisingly far. “Another fight break out over who washes the dishes?”

She nods solemnly. “Yep. They need you immediately.”

He looks irritated by this, but he’s a man of his duty, and apparently, I’m lower on the scale of importance than a fight about cleaning. With a pointed glower, he tells me, “You make even a speck of a mess anywhere else here, and I’ll have your hide.”

“Yes, sir,” I reply with a respectful nod.

He lets his scowl linger for one more moment before he turns and walks away. Once he’s out of sight, I turn toward the female with a smile. “I’m sure you didn’t mean to, but that was very good timing for me, so thank you.”

“Oh, I meant to,” she replies, looking me up and down.

Surprise flashes through me. “You mean, you were helping me?”

Considering none of the hobs seem to even want to tell me the time, I’m shocked that she wanted to help me stay out of jail.

Belren circles around her like a vulture. “She probably wants something from you in return,” he says. “Don’t give her anything.”

I stop myself from rolling my eyes, because not everyone is out to do a good deed solely for their own gain. He’s far too pessimistic.

“I helped you because I want you to do something for me,” she says.

Belren shoots me the cockiest I was right look that makes me want to shove him.

Instead, I clear my throat and keep my attention on the female. The last thing I want is to get into another tussle with a hob. I admit, I was not on my best behavior back at the square.

“What do you want?” I ask curiously. “Money?”

My hand goes to the coin pouch at my waist, but the female shakes her head with a scoff. “Of course I don’t want your dirty money,” she says, lips curled in disgust.

“Then what do you want?”

She looks around us as if to make sure we’re still alone in this little alleyway before turning back. Her blue eyes lock onto me. “I know who you are. You’re that cupid, Emelle.”

I blink in surprise, though it’s not as if other fae haven’t mistaken me for Emelle before, because they have. After the war and the new monarchy took reign here, Emelle became a bit of a legend. After all, she’s the only cupid living in this realm. But the intensity of her statement is what’s caught me off guard. “Oh, well I—”

She doesn’t give me an opportunity to explain that I’m not Emelle though, because she flings her hand out, fingers wrapping around my wrist. She pulls me a little closer to her. “I was told that if you ever came here, that you have to come with me.”

“That’s a no,” Belren says.

I look at her uneasily, a little stooped so we’re face to face. “Go with you where?”

Her eyes are filled with secret intensity, voice dropping low. “I’m to take you to the princess.”