Page 29 of Security and Submission
Wait, he’s a Dom? Yasmine managed to keep from asking the question out loud because it didn’t matter. She wasn’t getting involved with him or anyone else.
“It doesn’t matter, though,” Yasmine said firmly. “We’re only in touch about Sarah and the dog. It’s kind of sweet how much he cares about them.”
“Don’t tell Mason or David,” Claudia said, surprising Yasmine as the other woman looked between Audrey and Cassidy. She didn’t bother admonishing Brenda, Yasmine noticed. “Zeus is already having trouble fitting in with the team; he doesn’t need Mason and David coming down on the guy just because he happened to meet Yasmine and help her out.”
“Yeah, that’s fair,” Cassidy said with a sigh. “Plus, with his connection to Noelle…”
“What connection to Noelle? Wait, I think I remember this…” Yasmine frowned.
That frown deepened as Cassidy quickly told her the whole backstory about Zeus and his ex-girlfriend, who was cheating on him with Devlin. Which made the team not trust him.
That was bullshit. It was so obvious he’d been set up, she wanted to go around and smack everyone who doubted him. Zeus wasn’t shady at all. Why on earth would they think he was?
Although even Claudia seemed suspicious of him. She nodded along with everything Cassidy was saying.
Maybe the team didn’t get to see much of the real Zeus. Not the way she had. And maybe they hadn’t given him a fair shot from the beginning, whereas she hadn’t known who he was and hadn’t had any preconceived notions about him. But it still made her want to smack all of them upside the head. Especially Mason. How could he not tell her about all of this?
“So, yeah.” Cassidy shrugged, looking a little regretful. “I like Zeus, personally, but he is very standoffish. I don’t know how the guys would react to you being involved with him.”
“Why should they react at all? They don’t get a say in my life or who I date.” Especially Mason.
“Because they’re nosy, interfering, overprotective busybodies, and they still don’t fully trust Zeus.” Claudia twisted in her seat and pulled a game box from the shelf. “Now. I’m tired of talking about work and men. I think Deadly Dowagers is the right game for this evening. It’s not strip poker, Brenda, but I think you’re going to love it. We murder our husbands to increase our fortunes until one of us has a big enough dowry to marry the duke.”
“Oh, yay, that does sound like fun.” Brenda perked up with real interest. Of course, she did.
Yasmine just shook her head with bemusement. It didn’t seem fair that David and Mason didn’t trust Zeus, but Claudia clearly didn’t want to talk about it more. Just because he used to work for Devlin didn’t mean he was a bad guy. Especially since it was past tense.
Maybe she’d try to find out more from Claudia or Audrey later. Or maybe not. Since it wasn’t like she was going to be getting to know him better. Since she was off men now.
She focused on Claudia rehashing the rules of the game. It had been a while since they’d played this one.
Chapter 11
Yasmine
Hope woke her up from a dead sleep. In Yasmine’s dream, she’d been running from a horde of men, all of them waving red roses at her and shouting. She’d gotten through a door and slammed in behind her, heart racing in her chest, and they’d begun pounding on the door.
That’s when she’d heard Hope whining, but there was no dog in her dream.
For a moment, she was more than a little disoriented, as the yelling and door pounding seemed to have followed her out of the dream—and that’s when she realized it was; it was as real as Hope’s whines. The dog was cuddled up to her on the bed, facing Yasmine’s bedroom door, and making a plaintive sound that made it difficult to make out what was being shouted.
Yasmine glanced at her clock.
It was after midnight.
What the heck…
Getting up from her bed, Yasmine went to her window, which overlooked her front yard. Hope hopped up and followed her, no longer whining now that Yasmine was moving, which meant Yasmine could hear the shouting more clearly.
“Bitch! Where the fuck is she? Is she in there?”
It was with a start of shock and fear that Yasmine realized the shouting was coming from her own front yard. Her front door was the one being pounded on. Her heart, which had barely come down from racing after her dream, picked right back up again.
“Hey!” Someone shouted from down the street. “I’m calling the cops, asshole!”
Cops. That was a good idea. Yasmine spun in place and grabbed her phone off the nightstand because the guy pounding on her door wasn’t stopping.
“I know you know where she is! Tell me where Stacy is!”
