Chapter 37
Yasmine
Spending the afternoon with Sarah and Hope, who were so happy to be reunited that it brought tears to her eyes, and she was pretty sure she saw Zeus wipe his eyes too, Yasmine texted Claudia that she would not be coming to game night tonight.
Not just because she wanted to stay at Zeus’, but also because she wasn’t ready for the onslaught of questions she knew would be coming her way.
Tomorrow she was going to have to face Naomi, but Naomi would be distracted by the senator’s visit, and she didn’t know about Zeus and Yasmine.
Though it was possible, she’d find out tonight from one of their other friends.
Still, if Yasmine wasn’t there, they couldn’t ask her anything, and Naomi likely wouldn’t be able to tomorrow, either.
After leaving Sarah’s and armed with some very important information, Yasmine set about her first step toward fighting for Zeus.
Since Sarah had spent time with him before, she knew which of the local delivery places were his favorites to order from and what his favorite things to order were.
Yasmine settled on the Greek place and got them both gyro meals, as well as an order of dolmades, extra tzatziki, and peach melba for dessert.
Well, peach melba for him. Chocolate cake for her.
It was not lost on her that, overall, they liked the same meal.
Zeus had texted to let her know that he’d be home by six thirty, so she had the delivery scheduled for six fifteen.
Thankfully, it was right on time, though she still might have gotten nervous when there was a knock at the door if Tiger hadn’t alerted her to the incoming arrival by barking his head off.
“You’re a good guard dog,” she murmured as she maneuvered around him after accepting the delivery through the thinnest opening of the door that was possible.
The delivery guy had not seemed sad not to be able to greet the fierce-sounding dog.
His bark was definitely intimidating, even though he was such a sweet dog. “Yes, you are. Such a good guard dog.”
Wagging his tail furiously, Tiger planted his butt on the ground and looked up at her, mouth hanging open, tongue lolling. His gaze flitted between her and the bag of food in her hand, making Yasmine laugh.
“Oh, no. You do not get people food. Do not try that with me.” She made her way to the dining area to put the bag of boxes on the table and start unloading them. She’d already set the table.
Not a minute too soon, either, because suddenly Tiger went nuts again, running for the door.
His bark was different, though. Not nearly as aggressive and with more of a whine.
Sitting down about a foot away from the door, his ears were perked up, and his tail was going a mile a minute as he kept bark-whining.
Yasmine picked up the pace of getting the boxes out of the bag at the very clear indication that Zeus was home. A little earlier than six thirty, too. Early was better than late, but she’d hoped to be a bit more set up.
She was just getting the glasses of water on the table when he walked through the door and immediately bent down to greet Tiger, who jumped up and started licking his ear.
“Ack, ew, Tiger. Love me with less tongue.” Zeus chuckled, pushing Tiger back and roughly rubbing his head.
As soon as he let go, Tiger spun in circles while Zeus got to his feet.
His head lifted, and he sniffed, looking an awful lot like his dog.
His gaze moved to meet hers, and his eyebrows went up as he glanced at the table beside her. “What smells so good?”
“Um, well, I thought since you’re letting me stay here, I’d get dinner for us.” Yasmine stepped forward, gesturing nervously at boxes. “Sarah said gyros from the Big Greek Café were your favorite. And dolmades. And I got extra tzatziki.”
Walking towards her, Tiger trotting eagerly beside him, Zeus looked at the table. He wasn’t smiling, but he looked like he almost was.
“That is my favorite.”
“And peach melba for dessert.”
“Also, my favorite.”
He was only a few feet away from her now, and as he looked at her again, for just a moment, Yasmine thought he might pull her to him. Kiss her. But of course, it wasn’t that easy. Even if she wished it was.
“Thank you.”
“It felt like the least I could do. Um, do you want some wine?”
“No, thanks, water is good.” He rolled his head around his shoulders. “Don’t let that stop you if you’d like some, though.”
“Water is good for me, too.” She didn’t want to be even a little bit tipsy around him right now.
The odds of throwing herself at him and begging for forgiveness, very possibly humiliating herself in the process, were too high.
Not that he didn’t deserve an apology, but she wanted to have some dignity about it.
“Any updates from the cops this afternoon?” he asked, pulling out her chair.
Yasmine sat down, shaking her head.
“No. I mean, yes, but the update was that they don’t have anything. They haven’t been able to find him.” She couldn’t help the fear that trickled through her voice. She would feel a lot better knowing he was behind bars.
How hard was it to track down one asshole?
“They will. And if they don’t, I will.” The grim way Zeus said it made Yasmine think it would probably be better for Pete James if the cops found him before Zeus did.
Did it make her feel like a bad person to wish that Zeus found him first? Or Claudia?
Yasmine opened up her box and started scooping some of the food onto her plate. Zeus hadn’t bothered. He’d shoved the plate to the side and was eating straight out of the takeout box to her amusement. He looked happy, though. Wasn’t there a saying about a man’s stomach being the way to his heart?
She could only hope.
“Are you worried about him showing up at the shelter tomorrow?” she asked.
“No. For starters, if he knew where the shelter was, the likelihood is he would have gone there rather than to your and Naomi’s homes.
He’s looking for his wife, and she’d be more likely to be at the shelter.
” Zeus shrugged. “Secondly, he would have no reason to go after the senator, even if he did know she was visiting, and there should be no way for him to know that. If by some fluke coincidence, he did show up tomorrow, it wouldn’t be the worst time since there will be so much extra security. ”
“Well, that’s a relief at least.” Yasmine took a bite of her gyro and moaned. “Oh… that’s so good.”
Zeus chuckled. “They’re my favorite place for a reason. It’s owned by a Greek couple who moved here a couple decades ago, but they use all the recipes they brought from home. Here, try the tzatziki. It’s the closest I’ve been able to find to the tzatziki you can actually get in Greece.”
He picked up a piece of pita bread and scooped some tzatziki with it, holding it out to her. Yasmine almost reached up to take it from him, then something inside her sparked, and instead, she leaned forward to take a bite while he held the pita bread. Their gazes met. Sparked.
Maybe there was some hope for them yet.
Zeus
Had he forgiven Yas?
He wanted to. Zeus realized that now. It was still hard to feel like maybe he could trust her, but he wanted to. Lincoln was right. Zeus should go after what he wanted.
Both of them had their reasons for keeping their relationship quiet. Yes, he would have liked to know who Yas was from the beginning… but she hadn’t realized who he was at first. He did believe her about that. And if he had known that she was Mason’s ex-fiancée? Would that have stopped him?
No. They’d had an arrangement, not a relationship. Mason had no claim on her, especially since he was now with Audrey. And it wasn’t like he and Mason were friends. Teammates, yes; friends, no.
Would he have wanted to keep things secret, though?
Yeah. Absolutely. At least until he could convince Yas that she wanted a real relationship instead of being fuck buddies.
While he didn’t feel that Mason had a claim on her, he could understand that Mason might feel different.
It wouldn’t be worth it to Zeus to mess things up with the team until he and Yas were official.
As she pulled back, sitting straight in her seat again, chewing the pita and tzatziki, she closed her eyes. Sighed. She sounded just like she did in bed, and it was making his cock start to perk up.
Hell.
Maybe he should just do a punishment scene with her and get it over with.
See where they could go from here. That was one of the perks of BDSM, being able to do a scene like that and then move on.
Wipe the slate clean. There were some things a couple couldn’t move on from, but this wasn’t one of them.
For instance, there wasn’t a punishment scene in the world that could wipe Noelle’s slate clean.
Yas, on the other hand…
“That is so good.” Yas opened her eyes, which were shining with pleasure. “I’m going to have to check their delivery area and see if they come anywhere near my house.”
If not, she could always come to his house to get it… Zeus almost said the words but kept them back.
“They’re worth it.” He took another bite of his gyro to keep him from saying things he shouldn’t. Not when he and Yas hadn’t had an actual discussion about where they were going to go from here. “So, how was the afternoon with Sarah?”
They kept things to easy topics. Sarah. Hope.
Yas’ business, which apparently included more people from the club.
Her receptionist, Veronica, was a submissive at The Outlands, and the other financial advisor was Mistress Amara.
In such a big city, Pittsburgh could sometimes feel very small.
For a little bit, they did a bit of “do you know so-and-so” to find out where else their lives might intersect.
Other than club members and the Black Fox teams, they didn’t, really. And Zeus only knew so many of the members of The Outlands, whereas Yasmine knew all of his team at Black Fox, though she didn’t know everyone on Harris’ team.
“I can be kind of focused on my own little world sometimes,” she admitted. “It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just…” She blew out her breath. “Okay, I kind of don’t care sometimes.”
That made Zeus laugh as he helped her clear the table. “I don’t care sometimes, either. Which is probably how I missed the name of Mason’s fiancée. If he ever said it around me.”
“That does make me feel a little better.” She smiled shyly at him. “I don’t mean to be self-involved…”
“I think a little self-involvement is a good thing. Especially for women. I’ve seen a lot of women get sucked into the trap of taking care of everyone but themselves or even sacrificing everything because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do.
” A sharp ache panged in his chest, and he turned away as he shoved the empty gyro and dolmades boxes in the trash.
Yasmine was putting hers in the fridge since she’d only eaten about half her meal.
They were going to eat their desserts out on the back porch.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see who was calling and froze. It was like even the slightest inkling of a thought about his mother had summoned her. Again.
“What’s wrong? Who is it?” The tension in Yas’ voice snapped Zeus out of his freeze.
“It’s no one.” The reply was automatic and obviously a weak response.
To his surprise, Yas scowled, putting her hands on her hips.
“Is it Noelle? Is she still bothering you?” She took a step towards him, reaching out for the phone with one hand. “Here, let me talk to—”
“It’s my parents.” He said the words, getting them out quickly before he could start thinking twice about sharing. If he thought about it too much, he might snap at her again. Like he did the last time they’d called.
Yas blinked, slowly lowering her hand as she absorbed his statement.
“Your parents?”
Letting out a long, slow breath that did nothing to ease the tension in his chest, Zeus nodded his head. He swiped to ignore.
“We… aren’t in touch.”
“But they want to be.”
He shrugged. “They’ve called a couple times recently.
They’ll stop again, eventually.” Probably.
Though this was the most persistent they’d ever been.
Normally the most they tried was once or twice, usually around the holidays.
Which was when they thought he should be coming home to play happy family.
There was a long moment, then Yas nodded.
“Okay. Are you ready for dessert?”
“Okay?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Okay.”
For a long moment, he stared at her. “No questions? No encouraging me to see what they want? No wanting an explanation for why I’d cut my parents off?”
“Nope.” Yas shook her head. “You forget, I’ve been to the shelter.
It’s not just for abused partners. Kids don’t just cut their parents off for nothing and no reason.
I talked to one of the shelter therapists about it because I was curious, and she said that going no contact with a parent or both parents is literally one of the most painful things a child could do.
Most hang onto that relationship despite extreme emotional damage to themselves.
So, if they do go no contact, there’s a reason.
And whatever your reason is, it’s none of my business. ”
Last time his parents had called, he’d flat-out told her they weren’t supposed to be in each other’s business, and he’d regretted that.
His phone buzzed, and he glanced down, turning his hand so he could see the screen. Voicemail notification. Zeus grimaced. Then he lifted his head and shook out his shoulders.
“Let’s get our desserts,” he said gruffly, not quite able to meet Yas’ eyes. All of this was making him extremely uncomfortable, but he did want to tell her. He did want to explain. “We can talk about it while we eat.”
Tiger leaned against his leg as if to offer some comfort, tail wagging slowly. Zeus reached down to scratch the dog’s head, acknowledging his presence.
“Okay,” Yas said gently. “But you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“I know.”