Chapter 8
Yasmine
Holy crap.
Yasmine didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or have a total breakdown as she navigated her way out of Sarah’s neighborhood.
Maybe a bit of both. That had been… terrifying in some ways, but also this was going to be one of those stories she’d be telling for the rest of her life.
A confluence of events that were stranger than fiction.
As for Zeus, that was one seriously hot man.
Something about his name was niggling in her brain, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
It wasn’t exactly a usual name. Sure, she could have just been thinking about the mythological figure, but it felt like there was some other reason she should know his name. She just couldn’t remember exactly why.
At least she had the food for Hope now. And the phone number of someone familiar with the dog who had a key to Sarah’s house.
Zeus had asked her to just text anytime she wanted to go in, so they could lock the back door.
She had to admit that gave her some relief because there had been a tiny voice in the back of her head worried about someone being able to waltz right in while Sarah was in the hospital.
Now, she didn’t have to worry about that if she needed to go back for some reason, Zeus would be able to let her in. Hopefully, she’d gotten everything and wouldn’t need to go back.
And no, she did not feel any disappointment about not having a reason for a future interaction with Zeus.
She was off men right now. At least, for anything other than an occasional scene at The Outlands.
While Zeus carried himself with confidence, there was a difference between that and being a Dom.
On the other hand, would it be the worst thing to have a hookup that wasn’t a scene with someone who wasn’t connected to the club?
She’d already been considering going down to D.C.
to the club down there, just to get away from the scene up here.
Not that there weren’t plenty of good Doms up here, but she’d had a craving for something different.
Somewhere people didn’t know her or her curse.
Even at the house parties here, there was a lot of crossover with Outlands membership.
It might be nice to hook up with a total stranger. And she would swear the zings of attraction she’d felt when talking to Zeus were mutual.
There was just a way a man looked at a woman when he was interested in her. She hadn’t missed that he’d tried to make himself less intimidating and more approachable once she’d introduced herself. Which had been greatly appreciated as a woman alone in a house faced with a strange man.
The thoughts circled around in her head the rest of the way home.
So, when Hope came to greet her, wagging her tail happily, then went to settle down on her bed and watch Yasmine make dinner, Yasmine snapped a quick picture of Hope resting and watching. She texted it to Zeus and grinned when she got a happy face emoji less than a minute later.
Zeus
Definitely more settled than when she was at my house.
Yasmine
Glad to hear that! She seems okay, so maybe she really was looking for Sarah at your house.
Zeus
Makes sense. Thanks for keeping me updated. Let me know if you hear anything about Sarah?
He’d already asked that, but Yasmine didn’t mind that he’d repeated it. It just showed that he cared and was worried.
Yasmine
Of course!
That was the natural end of the conversation, even though her brain kept trying to come up with something to keep it going.
Instead, while she was waiting for her dinner to finish cooking, she fed Hope, then texted her friend Claudia since tomorrow, she’d be going to Claudia’s weekly game night.
She’d feel more comfortable if she could bring Hope instead of leaving her at home.
Especially since Hope would be at home during the day while Yasmine was at work.
Although… maybe the dog was so well behaved that Yasmine could bring her in with her. Then she wouldn’t even have to run home to walk her.
She sent a quick text off to Amara and Veronica, asking if they’d mind having a dog in the office for a few days.
While she was eating and reading the latest Xio Axelrod book, she got texts back from everyone and grinned. She looked over at Hope, who was still lying on her bed, watching Yasmine.
“Wanna go to work and a game night with me tomorrow?”
Hope wagged her tail. Probably just because Yasmine was paying attention to her, but it still felt kind of like agreement.
Of course, Claudia wanted to know when and where Yasmine had gotten a dog.
Yasmine
I’ll tell you and the others all about it tomorrow.
Claudia
You’d better! I didn’t even know you were thinking about getting a dog.
Yasmine
It’s more like a foster situation. It’s complicated.
Claudia
Okay… can’t wait to hear about it. See you tomorrow!
Yasmine
See you then!
Claudia was probably going to yell at her about going over to do a wellness check at Sarah’s alone, much less going back as many times as she had. She was probably going to throw an absolute shit fit about Zeus.
Yasmine frowned.
Hm.
The new co-worker at Claudia’s security firm, the one she wasn’t sure she could trust, was his name Zeus?
Was that why it sounded familiar? It might be.
Yasmine had to admit, she hadn’t really been paying attention to the office drama stuff.
She’d been kind of involved in figuring out whether she and Mason were a good fit for an arranged marriage, then having that relationship yanked out from under her, too.
Was the new guy named Zeus? Or just something really similar?
Regardless, Yasmine made up her mind then and there that she was not going to tell Claudia the neighbor’s name. He could just be the neighbor. Because if it was the same guy, that was probably just a bunch of extra drama to deal with. And it wasn’t like she was going to be seeing him much.
While she was doing the dishes, her phone rang, and she was relieved to see Grace’s name come up on the screen. Yasmine swiped to answer, putting the phone on speaker, and set it on the ledge above the sink so she could talk and keep cleaning.
“Hey, Grace, how’s it going?”
“Good, it’s good.” Grace sounded exhausted but happy. “I just wanted to update you that Sarah’s out of surgery and the doctors expect her to make a full recovery. They do want her to stay in the hospital through the weekend, but if everything goes well, she’ll be home by Monday.”
“Oh, that’s great to hear.” Yasmine leaned her hip against the counter as relief rushed through her. She certainly didn’t mind Hope’s presence, but she wanted Sarah to be better and to get well. “Does she know I have Hope?”
“She does, and she’s completely fine with it… grateful actually,” Grace said. “If you run into any trouble or you can’t keep Hope the whole time, there’s also a neighbor you can contact.”
“Is his name Zeus?” Yasmine laughed when Grace said yes, then gave her the rundown of everything that had happened earlier, which had Grace in stitches by the end of it.
“Oh my God, so he had the dog, then you had the dog…” Grace cackled. “You couldn’t make this shit up!”
“Tell me about it.” Moving over to the couch, Yasmine smiled when Hope immediately abandoned her bed to jump up beside her, resting her head on Yasmine’s thigh and looking up at her with soulful brown eyes.
Who could resist those eyes? Yasmine ran her fingers through the soft fur on the top of Hope’s head, and the sweet doggy closed her eyes as Yasmine rubbed her ears. She really was adorable.
“Anyway, I have his number already, but we figured it was best to keep Hope with me since she seems able to settle down at my house.”
“That makes sense, and Sarah appreciates it so much.”
“Did you ask her about me paying for Hope’s surgery?”
“I did… she was kind of torn between metaphorically jumping for joy and feeling like she should say no because you’re already doing too much.”
“Well, Zeus offered to pay for half, so maybe that will help her feel better,” Yasmine said. “I’ll call the vet tomorrow.” Because that wasn’t a no, and she didn’t want to give it the time to turn into one. Hope didn’t have much time left to have it, according to the vet.
“Thank you so much. I’ll chip in for the surgery, too. I’m going to try to come out to visit Sarah as soon as I can, but the earliest I’ll be able to make it is in about a week and a half.” Grace sighed. “I’m sending you the nicest gift basket as soon as I can.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Yasmine protested, even though she was touched Grace would even think of it.
“And you didn’t have to do any of this, but you are, and you’ve eased Sarah’s mind, and you’ve eased my mind,” Grace said firmly.
“If it’s okay, I’m going to start a group chat with the three of us.
She’s probably sleeping now, but I was thinking you could send pictures of Hope so she can see her while she’s in the hospital. ”
“I can absolutely do that.”
True to Grace’s word, she started the chat the second they got off the phone, and Yasmine sent the picture of Hope she’d taken for Zeus. Even if Sarah was sleeping now, hopefully, that would be nice to wake up to.
Zeus
He was sitting on the couch, doing the endless scroll of trying to figure out what to watch, when his phone buzzed again. Looking down and seeing that it was a text from Yas sent a little jolt through his chest.
Probably because he was worried about Sarah and Hope.
Okay, maybe just a little because he was excited to hear from Yas, specifically.
Dropping the remote at his side, he picked up his phone to see why she was texting him again.
Yas
I just got a call from Grace. Sarah made it through surgery well, and she should be back home on Monday, barring any complications.
Relief suffused him, easing the tightness that had been living in his muscles all day without him even realizing it. He felt almost boneless as his concern for Sarah lifted, leaving him unburdened. Tiger whined and pawed at Zeus’ leg as the pressure of the pets he was receiving had lightened.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, needy dog,” Zeus muttered, going back to giving Tiger a belly rub at the pressure he preferred while he ran his thumb over his screen to text Yas back.
Zeus
Thanks for letting me know. I’m really glad to hear that.
Yas
Have a good rest of the night!
Zeus
I definitely will.
Short, sweet, and to the point. So why did he feel the urge to try to find something else to say to her?
Maybe he was feeling the need for a rebound.
Which would make sense after finding out his girlfriend was cheating on him.
Noelle had had it rough, and he’d wanted to help her out, but it turned out she’d played him.
He wasn’t even sure she’d actually had it rough or if she’d just had a sob story designed to draw in some sucker.
Him being the sucker in question.
They hadn’t had anything deep, but he’d liked her.
She’d been interesting. Funny. Sometimes a little dramatic, but he’d never minded that.
He liked it when a woman felt free to be fully herself around him.
It had been nice having someone to talk to at the end of the day, someone to push him to leave the house.
Zeus knew he could be a bit of a homebody, but he’d liked taking her out.
Well, other than the time he’d tried to take her to things with his team, he now had to wonder if she’d been deliberately trying to sabotage his relationship with them.
Looking back, knowing she’d been cheating on him with Devlin, he couldn’t help but wonder if she’d set him up from the beginning or if Devlin had approached her after they’d gotten together.
While he wouldn’t describe her as an ‘easy’ personality, he didn’t know how many of her actions had been directed by Devlin and how many had been just hers.
Zeus hadn’t really expected the relationship to go anywhere, but he also hadn’t anticipated discovering that she was cheating on him and definitely not that she was cheating on him with his former boss.
When he’d confronted her and dumped her, she had gone from pathetic distress to furious anger once she’d realized he wouldn’t be manipulated.
Would Noelle have gone to do a wellness check for a friend? Scratch that, an acquaintance. Noelle didn’t have friends. And Yas had done it for a client’s friend, so not even her own friend or even her own client. A total stranger. And she wasn’t getting paid for it.
Noelle might have gone to Sarah’s house if she thought she might lose a client over it. He couldn’t see her returning to help clean up or with the dishes, though. And what would she have done about being confronted by the dog they thought was dead?
Probably kenneled Hope somewhere and sent the bill to Sarah.
Which wasn’t an awful thing to do, and he couldn’t really blame anyone who would have taken that step, but with Hope’s condition, it could have proven deadly.
Zeus could not picture her taking Hope with her and putting herself out that much, even for someone who was paying her.
Besides, he sincerely doubted Noelle would have come to check on Sarah in the first place, much less returned to do her dishes. That wasn’t why she was a bad person, but when he looked at Yas’ actions, it was clear she was a good person. Someone who went above and beyond, even for an acquaintance.
Well, he had her number now.
Maybe when Sarah was home, and both she and Hope were better, he’d use it for something other than dog and neighbor updates.