All of them stared at it.
“That’s not mine,” Duke said, hurriedly grabbing it.
“Spoiler alert,” Hubrie whispered loudly. “I didn’t put that in there.”
Duke glowered at his butler. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
Hubrie smirked and slipped away.
Duke’s melted shopping cart crept up to them. It had stuck around the mansion all night. This morning, it had followed them all the way to the Brimstone Industries office.
Duke patted the cart and placed the slip of paper in its cargo basket. “Take this to the other side of the office.”
The cart trembled excitedly, skidding away in its eagerness to be useful.
Nat watched it disappear behind some desks. “What was that about?”
Somehow, Duke’s ears turned redder through his glamour.
“That was a—a draft,” Duke muttered, the most awkward Nat had ever seen him.
He was surprisingly adorable like that. Nat hadn’t thought Duke could beadorable.
“You could win a blue ribbon,” Nat blurted.
Duke frowned. “Aren’t those for farming events?”
Farming? Did Duke think he meant the goat thingagain?Nat whimpered. “No! Not farming! I didn’t mean the goat thing. Fuck.”
And now Duke looked confused.
“Wa!” Wanda beamed and kicked her legs.
One of these days, when Nat finally wrestled some control over his mouth, he was going to clean up his swear words. Children didn’t remember the swear words they heard as babies, right?
“I meant that you could win an award with your adorableness,” Nat said. Then he wished he could’ve swallowed those words. He wasn’t supposed to hit on his boss, damn it!
Duke blinked. “No one has said I’m adorable in... a century.”
“You can’t be older than forty.”
Duke smiled. “Try a hundred and seventeen.”
“That’s... way more than I can comprehend, to be honest.”
“That’s fine. Demons are long-lived.” Duke came closer, lightly grasping Nat’s chin and tipping his face up. “So, you think I’m cute?”
“As a doorknob!” Nat cringed the next moment. “Wait. I mean, doorknobs can be cute. I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable with my words!”
Duke rumbled low in his throat. “I’mverycomfortable with you thinking I’m cute. Most people think I’m scary.”
“Oh.” Nat blushed. “Um. Yeah. That is what I think. And I really need you to forget about the goat thing.”
Duke snorted. “I’ll forget about it when you stop reminding me of it, sweetheart.”
Nat cursed himself. “Okay. Um. I need to... start work.”
He turned to his desk, then looked at Wanda in his arms.
