Page 118 of Dragon Her Heels

He then tossed Yuless under the bus, declared me non-contagious, and made him serve as my personal furnace.

Sometimes, I loved the Devil more than was wise. While using the tall, dark, and handsome to keep warm hadn’t been the conquering I’d had in mind, it would do as a start.

Four days following treatment, I scrounged the energy required to take care of my livestock, feed the chickens, and resume delivering eggs and produce. Yuless accompanied me, and he shook his head each time a neighbor added some form of get well present to my wagon.

“If you eat any of that, you’re going to get sick again.”

I went through the offerings, which included numerous pies, a dutch oven filled with soup from the lecher across from Donna Leanne, and a case of chicken noodle soup. “The dutch oven is gorgeous, though. He was not playing when he bought that. I’ve looked at those before, and I shied away due to the price. They’re like five hundred dollars for one of that size. It’s a family heirloom now. I will clean it daily, hug it, and give that mean old bastard extra eggs and the best fruits for years over this.”

Yuless laughed. “I’m going to insist that an archangel confirm all food is safe for you to eat. I was worried we were going to be sending you to the hospital for a bit there.”

“I don’t get sick often, but when I do get sick, I get really sick. If you told me you thought I was going to die for a while there, I would believe you without question.” I wrinkled my nose, determined to get through my morning chores before throwing in the towel. “Tell the tyrant in the lake I’m not up for punting him today, but I will go through my emails before passing out on my desk for a while.”

“Perhaps you should take another sick day and go back to bed.”

I sighed. “Thirty minutes, because if those assholes at my old firm left any openings, I want to take advantage and destroy them.”

My boss hadn’t been able to lure Mr. Noran away from the firm yet, but I suspected the man wanted to do all the damage he could before leaving.

I understood and respected that.

In his shoes, I would do the same.

Over the months since Belinda’s death, what little there was of her estate had been settled. Her cremated remains waited in a sealed box for the day I recruited the Four Horses to go on a trip to the world’s tallest peaks to scatter her ashes to the four winds, where her essence might continue on some grand adventure while her remains returned to the land. I even recognized that the effort didn’t matter, not really.

Belinda rested, and she had found the peace in death she’d lacked in life.

I only regretted I couldn’t offer that peace to her lover.

I narrowed my eyes, wondering if I might be able to.

Surely I could convince one of the Four Horses to carry him on the venture so he might get closer.

“You have a thought,” Yuless stated, and his tone implied he expected an answer.

Any other day, his bossiness might have irritated me, but I recognized when I would benefit from his tendencies—and releasing my stress over the woman’s demise might help. “I was thinking of Belinda’s lover and her ashes.”

“Ah, I see. This is about the fancy suit that you’re trying to get to bat for your team rather than for the slime suckers.”

I snickered over how Yuless described the egotistical assholes at my firm. “I am. He’s actually a really nice person. I honestly don’t know how he managed to get up so high into the hierarchy. He won’t do sleazy shit with the financials he is assigned. He just won’t. And he’ll report it if he catches a hint of it.”

“That’s probably why. He’s their cover guy, and he doesn’t realize he’s their cover guy.”

I winced at the realization Yuless was probably right. “How do I lure him out?”

“Call him and tell him you have the woman’s ashes and that you wish to discuss the situation with him,” he suggested. “I’m sure the tyrant in the lake will be fine with you meddling. And if not, just punt him until he agrees.”

I liked the way Yuless thought. “You should move your stuff into my bedroom and permanently serve as my furnace. You did an excellent job of keeping me warm. I’m paying in conquesting, food, shelter, monthly dates, and meetings in the kitchen to bake pie. If we team up, I bet we can make pies so good we make the dragons downstairs cry. Also, we’re going to have to renovate the third floor kitchen. Right now, the second floor kitchen is my favorite kitchen.”

“Why don’t we move our new bedroom to the fourth floor, renovate the fourth floor kitchen, and then turn the third floor into guest rooms for temporary visitors and the second floor into permanent suites for those you intend on adopting for ridiculously low rent?” Yuless raised a brow at me. “You’re charging them five hundred a month to live in paradise. The two are dragons. They can afford five thousand a month each without missing a cent of it—or noticing it’s missing out of their hoards.”

“The dragons are my security, and they receive a generous discount for serving as security and keeping Ashley emotionally stable. Is there anyone stupid enough to rob a house protected by two dragons?”

With widening eyes, he stared at me. “I suppose not. And if they are, they deserve to be eaten by a dragon.”

“And right now? I have at least twenty-two dragons loitering on my property. I’m pretty sure there is a pink one living in a cherry tree, there’s an orange one in one of my mango trees, and these little shits are building actual nests. And apparently, all of them are male?”

“I believe so, yes. You have an infestation of male dragons at your home.”