Sassy Ever After: Dragon Sass (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free Page B

me and come home. Needed gas money. Grabbed some out of the cookie jar. Need to ask you a big favor. Talk soon? Love ya, Stuart.
    Of course, big favor meant he needed money. And not just the fifty bucks or so she kept in the cookie jar. Disgusted with him, and herself, Jules hadn’t even bothered brushing her teeth or otherwise getting ready for bed. She just tugged off her jeans and crawled in.
    She slept like the dead until an insistent knock on her front door woke her at some ungodly hour. On a weekday, when she hadn’t spent most of the night in the bar, she would have been up already. But it was Saturday, her alarm was off, and she’d been looking forward to sleeping in. At least until eight or nine in the morning.
    The doorbell rang and the knock came again. Pounding this time, not really knocking. She groaned, rolling over and searching the floor blindly with one hand for the jeans she’d discarded the night before.
    Pound. Pound. Pound.
    “I’m coming!” Jules yelled, yanking on her pants and buttoning them as she hurried, barefoot, out of her room and into the kitchen. Like most old farm houses, the main door opened into the kitchen and every room centered around it.
    Pound. Pound. Pound.
    She unlocked the door and pulled hard. It was warped with age and it stuck.
    If she’d had time to think, she would have assumed it was Stuart knocking. But that didn’t make sense. He had his own key. But she never would have expected the sight that greeted her on the front porch.
    “These are for you.” Kai shoved a cardboard box at her and she had no choice but to take it. The man’s face was a storm cloud of anger as he pushed his way into her kitchen, slamming the door behind him.
    Jules looked down into the box, drawn by the sound it was making, and saw it was filled with kittens. She quickly counted them and came up with the number eight. They meowed and scrambled over each other, trying to scale the side of the box.
    One of them, a precocious orange kitten, used his sibling’s head as a springboard, and managed to get his paws hooked on the edge of the box. Jules unhooked him and gently placed him back into it, which she set on the kitchen table before turning to face her unexpected morning visitor.
    “Don’t look at me like that.” Kai shook his head, scowling at the mewling and vibrating box. “Wasn’t my idea. Barb made me. She said you needed barn cats and these don’t have homes.”
    “Just what I need.” Jules rolled her eyes, leaning over to peer into the box again. They were awfully cute. “One more thing to take care of.”
    “Do you have any Band-Aids?” Kai held up both hands and Jules saw he had scratches all over his hands and arms. He still wore the same clothes she’d seen him in the night before. Had he slept at all? Had he stayed up all night?
    “You poor thing.” Jules reached out to take one of his hands, turning it over and inspecting his wounds. “Ravaged by kittens.”
    “They’re vicious.” Kai gave her a sheepish look. “Far worse than you think. You better put them on the floor or one of them is going to get hurt. They jump right out of the box.”
    Sure enough, the orange one was once again peeking over the edge, and Jules heard his back feet scrabbling, looking for purchase, so he could climb out. She swiftly put the box on the floor, tipping it so the kittens had free reign. Then she went around closing doors, so they couldn’t go into any other rooms.
    “I’ll go get something to bandage you up.” Jules glanced over her shoulder and grinned. “Sure you’ll be okay alone with them?”
    “Very funny.” Kai scowled, an expression Jules found rather amusing. “I’m bleeding all over your floor here.”
    Jules squeezed past the door, gently keeping a curious white kitten out with her foot before closing it behind her. She washed her hands and grabbed the first-aid kit out of the bathroom, squeezing back into the kitchen to find Kai at the sink, washing the