Page 37 of Horn in My Side
Her eyes widened and he swore her pulse jumped under his palms.Which reminded him that he still held her delicate wrist, so he dropped his hand to his side.
“Er, yeah.”She lowered her gaze.“You’re fully clothed in all of them, going about your day.”
“It’s fine if you want to keep up the pictures you already have.Just tell me if you’re taking and posting more photos of me, okay?”
“Sure.Of c-course,” she stammered.“I didn’t mean ...Again, I’m sorry for violating your privacy like that.”
“Apology accepted.”
“I appreciate it.”She clucked her tongue.“Oh, I almost forgot, there’s something I wanted your help with.”
Yes, Jasmine.
Of course, Jasmine.
Do with me as you please, Jasmine.
Gaku help him, he was a goner.
“Er, sure.”
“Let’s go upstairs.”
He followed her up to the second level, doing his best not to stare at her shapely ass.He remembered how perfectly outlined it was when she wore those slacks to the assembly.And that frilly and proper blouse, along with her hair in a bun, stirred up all kinds of naughty secretary fantasies.Mal had to remind himself many times they had an audience, otherwise, he would have been sporting a semi the entire time.
She led him to the back corner to a room marked “private.”Jasmine had previously explained to him that this was their hatchery.As Fantastic Tails did not do any breeding, purchasing eggs and hatching saved them a lot of money.Tanks with incubating lights lined several shelves on the wall, though currently, only one was occupied with a clutch of basilisk eggs.Jasmine gestured to the middle of the room, where a single wooden crate lay on top of a table.
“This,” she began as she took the lid off, “is what I need your help with.”
A single egg lay inside the box, resting on a bed of hay.Slightly smaller than a football and covered in pearly blue scales, it glinted under the overhead lamp.
“What is it?”
“It’s a carcinos egg,” Jasmine said.
He frowned.“Really?”
Carcinos were basically crabs, except they had four claws, and instead of a hard shell, their bodies were covered in beautiful shiny scales that came in a variety of colors.
Jasmine continued.“One of our suppliers said he had an extra one and gave it to me for fifty per cent off.They’re expensive to purchase as full adults, so I thought I’d try to hatch one.”
“I see.”
She cocked her head to the side.“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.I mean ...”He leaned in for a closer look.“A couple years back, I helped this guy install a massive custom-made aquarium in his house.Turns out, he was one of those crazy collectors.Loved carcinos.Already had two other tanks filled with them.One day, he showed me about a dozen or so eggs he was incubating.”He paused.“I don’t recall the eggs themselves being scaly.”They had been smooth, like a normal egg.“Or this big.They were also orange, not blue.”
“According to the internet, carcinos come in all kinds of colors and sizes.Maybe this is a different species?”
“Perhaps.”Though his gut told him something else.Still, he didn’t want to contradict her, lest he end up having to apologize again.Besides, when that guy told him how much a single carcinos cost, his jaw had nearly hit the floor.Selling this one carcinos would probably pay their water bill for a couple of months.
“Okay, so what do you need my help with?”
“I don’t think any of our hatching tanks will be big enough for this one.”Tapping her chin, she slowly spun around, looking at each tank in turn.“Maybe ...Do you think you could build a bigger one?And I’d like to put it downstairs.”
“Downstairs?Why?”
“I’ve been scrolling my feed on Picstagram to check out what other pet shops are doing on their socials.”She snapped her fingers.“I thought, what if we did a series of posts to follow the hatching process?It’ll be good content, plus if we set up the tank downstairs, people could come visit and see the egg for themselves.Think of the foot traffic.”Her eyes shone with excitement.“We might be able to find a buyer once it hatches too.”
