Security and Submission (Black Fox Security Doms #3)

Prologue

Yasmine

“It wasn’t Mason’s fault, Maman. It was the curse,” Yasmine explained patiently.

It was her first dinner after her and Mason’s engagement had ended, and she was having to deal with the fact her mother obviously felt responsible for yet another failed relationship.

After all, she and Yasmine’s father had been the ones to arrange the marriage.

Which was probably more Yasmine’s fault for thinking that she could circumvent the curse by having her parents arrange her marriage instead of finding and dating the man on her own. It had worked for them after all. They hadn’t been fully arranged, but neither had Yasmine and Mason.

Her parents had been matched by their parents, who had introduced them to see if they would suit. Which was exactly what her and Mason’s parents had done for her and Mason.

On paper, they’d been a perfect match.

Similar interests, similar goals in life, similar backgrounds. Her parents didn’t know it, but they’d even had similar interests in the bedroom. Not that they’d ever gotten there to see how things went. The biggest thing they’d been lacking was chemistry. She’d thought it would come eventually.

Instead, he’d fallen head over heels for another woman not long after he and Yasmine had agreed to get married. A woman he’d clicked with instantly. The chemistry between them had been palpable. It hadn’t hurt to lose Mason so much as it had hurt to give up her dream of getting married.

Letting her parents arrange her marriage had been her last-ditch attempt at thwarting the curse.

Yasmine’s father sighed, leaning back in his chair.

The fringe of hair around his mostly bald head was salt-and-pepper, with more salt than pepper.

Thin wire-frame glasses were perched on his nose.

He was wearing a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches.

He always reminded her of a stuffy college professor, as if he should be standing in an old library, surrounded by parchment and ink-stained papers.

Which was quite the contrast to her elegant mother, who was routinely mistaken for Yasmine’s older sister.

“There is no curse,” Papa said, giving Yasmine a stern look over his glasses, as if he could wipe away years of proof with a simple statement.

“How else do you explain it?” Maman asked, turning towards him and frowning.

Thankfully, she kept her voice low since they were at a restaurant.

Maman gestured at Yasmine. “She is beautiful. Smart. Kind. Yet no husband. No grandbabies.” The mournful expression that suffused her beautiful features was enough to make Yasmine’s chest ache.

She wanted those things, too.

Marriage. A partner. Children.

But it never worked out. Not for her. For her exes, yes, with the very next woman they dated after her.

Just never her.

“Mason should do the right thing and marry her,” Papa said, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back in his seat. “That’s what the agreement was.”

“I’m the one who let him out of the agreement, Papa,” Yasmine reminded him. “I do not want to marry him when he wants to be with someone else.”

“Phaw.” Papa made a derogatory noise, waving one of his hands to brush away her argument. “An honorable man would not have accepted that. He should have followed through with what he said he would do.”

Yasmine did her best not to roll her eyes. Although her parents had been disappointed and, overall, accepting when she and Mason had broken the news to them, her father obviously hadn’t been quite as accepting as he’d pretended at the time.

“I don’t want to marry him,” Yasmine said bluntly. “Not anymore.”

“Of course you do not,” Maman said, reaching over to put her hand over Yasmine’s.

The dark pink manicure on her perfectly oval nails was a very nice color against her tanned skin.

Yasmine made a mental note to try that shade out for herself sometime soon.

“If he prefers another woman, then he does not deserve you.”

Yasmine decided not to point out that every man she’d ever dated ended up preferring another woman. Her mother thought she was perfect and would hear no word against that, not even from Yasmine. It was a difficult expectation to meet.

“Thank you, Maman.” It was easier not to argue, even as her heart sank in her chest.

“Do you want us to try again?” Maman asked. “We will do better this time.”

“No.” Yasmine was firm. She twisted her hand under her mother’s so her mother’s was no longer resting atop hers, and they held hands. “I think I am going to take a break from dating for a bit.”

Her mother’s face fell, but Yasmine knew this was what she needed to do. While her mother maintained hope, Yasmine didn’t. Eventually, her mother would come around and realize that the curse couldn’t be overcome.

Yasmine would have to resign herself to living her life alone. It wasn’t what she wanted, but she didn’t have it in her to fight fate anymore.