Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
“I’d consider selling my body at that stage.”
Had I been thinking clearly, I would have remembered Yuless had gone horse shopping, sparing myself from heading back to Lucifer’s house proper to find the man. Upon realizing I was an idiot and had walked right by him, I marched back, huffing and puffing over my stupidity.
“Everything okay?” the tall, dark, and handsome asked.
“Not really.” I gazed at him, deciding hard work and horses was a good look on him.
Rather than ask him to take his shirt off, I prowled around his new horse, who stood pretty as a picture in the cross ties while he worked at grooming her.
“She sure is pretty. What’s special about her?
I mean, beyond being beauty on the hoof. ”
“Both of her parents are champions, and they aren’t the kind of champions that are from lines of many other champions.
Their lines are from casual breeders who just loved thoroughbreds and decided to breed the best they could get at prices they could afford.
They were auction dumps from work farms, that sort of thing.
Her genetics haven’t been bled dry in the other horses. ”
I could understand why Yuless had wanted her in that case.
“And if you’re wanting to improve the breed and eliminate health issues, you get good horses that weren’t bred solely for racing, find the ones in the line that have an aptitude, and breed out the issues.
That’s great. So, I may have bargained with an archangel to help my rescues, and I require you to sacrifice yourself for the cause.
I’m required to go on a date, and you are an eligible person to go on a date with.
Apparently, the archangel has already made the dinner reservation, we will be properly clothed, and transportation will be provided.
As the thought of wasting the trouble he went through is enough to make me want to literally vomit, here I am, begging for you to go on a date with me so I don’t have to deal with that. ”
Yuless laughed. “I think I can manage rescuing you from having to disappoint an archangel. He’d survive, by the way.”
“He’s helping those poor horses, and at this stage, I’d do a lot more than go on a date to make certain they get through tonight and tomorrow. Without his help? I doubt either would make it.”
“I’d be doing a lot more than agreeing to go on a date with an immaculate gentleman of exceptional reputation and breeding,” he replied in a solemn tone. “I’d consider selling my body at that stage.”
Even I could identify a flirtation attempt, although I had no idea what to do about it. I licked my lips. “What does it say about me that I’d consider paying to have you take your shirt off?”
“It tells me that you have good taste in your gentlemen.”
How had I surrounded myself with men with insane egos?
However, as the discussion went roughly in the direction I wanted it to go, I replied, “I have good taste in general, thank you.” I pointed at the Queen of Hell, who stretched her nose in Peach Pie’s direction.
The stallion reached back, and the pair sniffed each other before settling into the serious business of nuzzling.
“I’m concerned Peach Pie and the Queen of Hell will be sharing a pasture for all eternity, resulting in me having an entire herd of demonic yet sweet horses.
If they are related, I’m going to be heartbroken. ”
“They are not related,” he assured me. “I checked into that after you picked her. Their lines diverged twenty generations ago.”
In the horse world, they may as well have been unrelated. “That’s great. I’m going to end up having a pasture of horses, and Peach Pie will live with those horses, and I will be rolling in foals. Then I will have to find good homes for those foals.”
Yuless chuckled. “After watching Moon grow up the past few months, I’m considering hoarding horses as well, and this beauty here is the start of my hoard.”
“Where are you going to board her?”
“Lucifer is going to keep her in his conservatory for now until I can come up with a boarding arrangement.”
I stared at him and waited.
“While I do not have a girlfriend and have not had a girlfriend for a long time, even I recognize when I have made a mistake. What did I do wrong?”
“You literally visit my home most days of the week to work with my horses, as we are in the racing season and I need you to groom my beasts. Frankly, you’re about to get an invitation to move in for the remainder of the race season so you aren’t commuting all the time.”
“I mean, I do have work to do, but it’s not far from your home.”
“You can escape my residence to go do your actual job, which is reasonable. If you have a house and want to sell it, you can get excellent rent on my place. It’s five hundred a month and is all inclusive.
I’ll even feed you, because I enjoy cooking and the rest of the people dwelling in the manor sniff around for when I’m cooking and gather, staring hopefully.
This morning, I had an entire flock of dragons on my wall!
I’m up to twenty-three dragons, and one of them is my boss.
Also, I’m probably the next one my boss is going to skewer for skipping out on work to buy horses and take my groom on a date.
Honestly, I’m concerned over how many more dragons are going to be showing up.
At least only one of them ate a few cities.
The rest just go after cows and might cause a beef shortage at the rate they’re going. ”
“Are you okay?”
I sighed and bowed my head, and I made use of his pretty mare, draping my arms across her back and resting against her.
“I don’t know if my boss knows what mental health days are, that I could use at least a week of them, and that I haven’t made appropriate plans for when I require mental health days.
I used my sick days at my old place, never told them what I was sick with, and never had enough days. ”
“Dare I ask what a mental health day is?”
“I see you have been cruelly abused by corporate society as well. It’s a day you take off so you feel better emotionally or mentally.”
“Ah. Right. I just take sick days, too, in that case.”
I nodded. “Some days, we just really don’t feel like going in, and a mental health day can help a lot.”
“Do you have sufficient days off for that?”
While I hadn’t acted selfishly yet to get a new phone, I had put all my employment information onto the device I had.
While the Destroyer of Georgia was technically my boss, he paid Lucifer to handle my employment, resulting in me working with both of them—and my dragon of a boss allowed Lucifer to borrow me if he was willing to pay my hours separately.
Lucifer hadn’t actually made use of me.
I tapped on the appropriate places in the app to check on my sick days, discovering I received an equal number of sick days as I did vacation days, and my sick days had a mental health category I could select when claiming one. “Oh. Apparently, I get mental health days as part of my package.”
“You didn’t know what days off you get?”
“I only cared about the vacation days and paid hours,” I confessed.
“This is nice. I assumed I was getting five. I will absolutely be making use of my sick days and making certain I take a mental health day when I get to the point where killing off my boss feels like a good idea. At my old place of employment, that was at least once a month. For good reason. They were not kind people.”
Once again, I grieved for Belinda, and I hoped when she found her way back into the world, she had a life full of love and happiness.
“From what you’ve told me, they really, really weren’t good at all—or even decent. You should use your sick days to rest if you need rest, especially if it might prevent you from attempting to kill your boss.”
I waved my hand in a dismissive gesture.
“Is anything actually capable of killing that old dragon? One of the perks of employment is being able to grab his tiny ass when he’s pissed me off, take him to the lake, and punt him back to his castle.
Then he goes on his spire to sulk over having become the plaything of hundreds of baby alligators.
He should be paying me a raise for me telling the local wildlife dragons are not edible. Playthings? Yes. Snacks? No.”
“Have you told him that?”
“Why would I tell him that? Half the fun is watching him bail for his castle like a bat out of hell when every alligator in the lake goes after him like they mean it.” I smiled.
“He has no chance against me. The lake and everything in it, excepting him, is mine. He snoozed. When you snooze, you lose, and I was making myself at home while he was napping. He lost. It’s cute he thinks he can conquer me, though.
Thwarting him is my second favorite hobby. My horses are my favorite hobby.”
“How do men you’re dating fit into your hobbies?”
I giggled, and I snuggled with his beauty of a mare, determined to be her friend.
“Should such a man mystically appear in my life, he would slot into the lifestyle category, which is separate from hobbies. I wouldn’t punt a boyfriend into the lake unless he is really weird, likes it, and wants me to.
I mean, if that’s a kink, it’s one I’d be happy to help him with should he happen to have a diminutive form.
My boss? He’s basically a winged squeaky toy the same size as a football.
Sometimes, he squeals all the way to the water, and there’s little as satisfying as that little protest of his splashing to a halt. ”
Yuless bowed his head, and a moment later, he chortled. “When you describe it that way, I can understand the appeal. I wonder if we could talk Lucifer into becoming a winged squeaky toy we can take turns punting into the lake.”