Page 105 of Dragon Her Heels

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?”