ANGELCAKE

Chapter 74 - Boot Licking Freaks!

∞ 74 ∞

BOOT LICKING FREAKS!

Finding the metal thing was by far Lucius's easiest task. His first real job was to clean out the stable and he found just lifting a few shovelfuls of muck, to be insanely tedious (and it gave him terrible blisters – and it was, well... mucky). So after the first day (and having gained a new respect for Muggle labourers) he decided the best plan of action was to use Magic for all of the jobs entirely. Naturally he couldn't risk Valentina catching a glimpse of things flying around on their own, so he insisted she stay in the house while he did his work.

When she came and found that he had cleaned out the entire stable in half an hour (especially considering he had hardly made any progress on it in several hours the previous day) she naturally became suspicious. She made some offhanded comment that: "I'm sure you have an army of little worker elves waiting behind the barn to come in here as soon as I leave," which he found unsettling and didn't know how to reply. He quickly learned how to pace himself and resolved to research the length of time Muggle work was meant to take before taking on each new task.

After the fourth visit and Lucius continued to have little interaction with her for most of the six hours he was there, insisting that she remain in the house the entire time while he remained outside and did a considerably large amount of work, Valentina became worried. She wondered if he was one of those S&M freaks that 'got-off' on being humiliated, because they were so overly dominant in their ordinary lives they needed that release – or whatever reason it was they liked being spanked and led around in dog collars behind closed doors.

It wouldn't be the first time she had attracted the type. When she lived in London, she had actually had offers from wealthy, shockingly conservative looking men, who were interested in that sort of thing, with startling frequency. She had had a note from one man (an MP, she thought) whom she had met at a function at the Victoria and Albert Museum (or perhaps it was the National Portrait Gallery). She had only been normally pleasant and friendly as one should be, as far as she was aware. Somehow he had gotten a hold of her mobile number and sent a text asking her if she wanted "a slave". She hadn't understood what the man meant and assumed he was speaking metaphorically until he explained it to her that he would very much like to come over and wash her underwear and clean her shoes, the house, et cetera. She was shocked that people were actually into that sort of thing! She was the sort who would probably have wanted to bake the man a cake to try and make him feel better for whatever it was that he was missing, rather than want to order him to polish her shoes – "without making eye contact" (well, alright, at least not when he hadn't done anything to her to make her cross with him). She was worried what her ex husband, Alexey, would have done if he found out and had been very stern, making sure the man never contacted her again. Thinking back, her sternness had probably excited the man for all she knew. It was too bad she had the wrong temperament to make that work really, because she could have used the free housekeeping... Then there was some Dutch (or Belgian... probably Belgian) business man who would show up on his business trips every few months, sit at the bar and take photographs of her when she was just walking around helping at Alexey's club. (Alexey noticed and beat the man pretty badly; the incident was what made her finally realise he had an aggression problem and couldn't stay with him.) And there had been another foreign businessman in the Caribbean who had done similar things actually. And there was this other guy when she was in university... Come to think of it, percentage wise, it was seeming like this was the main type she attracted! (Okay, there were also quite a few 18 and 19 year olds, but she knew she looked younger than she was and figured guys at that age were pretty much attracted to whatever they could get, so she didn't think that really counted.)... It wasn't as if she was that type of girl, for goodness sake!! FAR FROM IT!! It must have been the haughty side that appealed to them. But that was only a little part of her! The rest of her wanted to be (was) delicate and girly and passive (with the right man)... all right maybe not 'passive', but something like that. And she wasn't really haughty. (Was she?) She just took certain things seriously and thought it was important to be respectful about certain things and to receive respect in return. (What was wrong with expecting to be treated with respect?!)