Chapter 46
Yasmine
The evening had turned into an impromptu party at Zeus’.
Almost everyone who had taken a turn waiting to see her in the waiting room at the hospital was now packed into Zeus’ house to be there for her first evening out of the hospital.
To her relief, she’d had enough time to get herself together for the evening.
Zeus had helped with her hair and opening her makeup palettes.
She felt a lot more like herself in a sleeveless dress that flowed down to her knees and her hair properly washed and blown out around her shoulders.
So much better than at the hospital. She’d gotten used to being seen without her makeup and hair done, and while wearing a hospital gown, but that hadn’t meant she’d liked it.
Hope and Tiger were running around underfoot, doing their best to accept all the pets and attention people were happy to give them.
Hope was dragging the gigantic stuffed animal Yasmine had gotten for her—she’d insisted on stopping by the pet store on the way home.
Thankfully, Tiger was empty-mouthed. He’d already gleefully ripped apart three of the little stuffies Yasmine had given him.
She’d put together a basket of the clearance stuffies, which she was now glad she’d done.
Zeus hadn’t been kidding about how much Tiger liked to rip them apart.
They’d lasted exactly as long as it had taken for someone to stop playing fetch with him.
Within five minutes after that—decimated.
Thankfully, he seemed to understand that Hope’s stuffie was hers and hadn’t tried to do the same.
“You seem more relaxed than I thought you’d be,” Yasmine said to Zeus, snuggling in beside him. She was happy to have everyone there, but even happier to be there with him. The fact that no one was giving them a second glance was also nice.
Standing in the kitchen, looking at everyone arrayed around the dining room table and in the living room, this was about as private a moment as they were probably going to get until people left.
Zeus looked around and shrugged.
“It’s not so bad,” he said, lifting his beer bottle to his lips to take a sip.
“It actually is kind of nice having everyone here.” His gaze flicked over to where Lincoln and Ashley were talking with Yasmine’s parents.
“Though I would have wished for different circumstances for having the team over for the first time.”
“I’ll definitely try not to repeat the circumstances.” Yasmine leaned her head against his shoulder.
“Aren’t you two cute?” Jensen said, sauntering over, his dark eyes gleaming with cheerful appreciation.
Yasmine smiled back at him. From what Zeus had told her, Jensen had been among the first to accept him on the team. She’d always liked the happy-go-lucky youngest member of Black Fox.
“I could say the same about you and Jennifer,” she teased.
“Oh, yeah, we’re adorable.” Jensen puffed out his chest. “That’s not why I came over here, though.”
“Why’d you come over here?” Zeus asked, sounding mildly amused.
“We need a permanent call sign for you. Especially now that we have a group chat.”
Yasmine straightened. “Black Fox has a group chat? I thought you weren’t allowed to do that.”
“They weren’t,” Claudia said grumpily, coming up from the other side, as if the very mention of such a thing was enough to summon her.
“Yet here we are. It’s all Mason’s fault.
” She raised her voice, tossing the comment out towards Mason, who had been talking with David and Cassidy over by the couch.
Mason turned. Apparently, he didn’t even need to ask what they were talking about. “It was time, Claudia. Think of it as team building.”
“We had the work chat.”
“Which is for work,” Lincoln called out, turning his head to join in the conversation, even though he was clear across the room.
“Which is why it was perfect,” Claudia retorted. “We shouldn’t need another one.”
“Sometimes, it’s easier to just text the group.”
Claudia made a derogatory sound, then glared around the room at everyone who wasn’t focused on their own conversations, which weren’t many people.
Mick, Jensen’s brother, and Brenda were in the corner whispering about something.
Amara and Veronica had stepped out onto the back deck with Brenda’s book club, Grace, and Sarah.
Everyone else was now turned toward Yasmine, Zeus, Jensen, and Claudia, including her parents, though they both looked a little confused.
“Why don’t I get to be a part of the group chat?” Jennifer complained.
“Don’t worry, I’m not either. It’s just for the Spice Doms,” Lincoln told her. “I bet Claudia would trade places with you if you wanted, though.”
“Yes, please.”
“No, it’s fine.” Jennifer eyed Claudia. “I’d rather have a group chat for game night. Or book club. Or both.”
“Absolutely not. One is my limit. One.” Claudia held up a threatening finger.
“We’re getting off track,” Jensen interjected. “We need a call sign for Zeus that we can put into the chat. I’m thinking Oregano.”
“Garlic,” Drew suggested from the couch where Naomi was sitting on his lap. She laughed before throwing out her own suggestion.
“Thyme?”
“Fenugreek!” Cassidy looked proud of herself, lifting her head from her phone where she’d obviously just looked up spices.
“Saffron!”
“Terragon!”
Zeus held up his hand, stopping the flow of suggestions, shaking his head. Surprisingly—at least, surprising to Yasmine—everyone quieted to see what he had to say.
“Obviously, it has to be dill.”
Silence hung in the air for a moment as everyone stared at him, including Yasmine. What was obvious about that? Why did it have to be dill?
The edges of Zeus’ lips curved up in a tiny smile.
“Because I’m a big dill.”
Yasmine choked on laughter as the entire room erupted.
Ow. Ow. Ow. The pain in her shoulder had dulled a lot when she was just standing there, but too much movement set it off again, and she was laughing way too hard to be able to stop it.
Doubling over, she put her hand up on her shoulder, pressing it to try to keep her movements smaller.
“Big Dill it is,” Jensen crowed, clapping his hands together.
Wiping tears from her eyes with one hand, Yasmine straightened up, still leaning against Zeus. He was the only one who hadn’t actually laughed, but he was grinning. A big happy grin, the like of which she’d only seen a few times on his face. Warmth flooded her with happiness for him.
For both of them.
Here in his house, where they’d kept their relationship a secret, now it was out in the open. Everyone knew. And they were all there to support not just her but Zeus as well.
Leaning against him, she looked up at him. He looked down at her. Something inside her settled at the feeling of belonging. This was where she belonged. With their friends. With him.
No more secrets.
No more curse.
Just being present in the moment with her friends and family and the man she was pretty sure she’d fallen in love with, even though he’d never been part of her plan. And maybe that was for the best.
Three weeks later
Zeus
“You seriously didn’t know that Amara and Veronica were seeing each other?
” Zeus asked, frowning at Yas from across the counter.
He was making dinner. Tiger was lying on the couch, watching out the front window for the big husky mix that usually took its walk at about this time.
Yas had offered to help with the meal, but even though the sling was off and she was healing well, he didn’t want her doing anything yet.
He had plans for celebrating that sling coming off.
“No!” Yas glared at him, as if it was his fault she’d missed the obvious. She tossed her head, making her hair bounce around her shoulders. The blue silk top she was wearing under her jacket made a nice contrast to the dark black of her hair. “How did you know? You met them like, twice!”
“And both times it was very obvious that there was something going on between them.” He felt his lips quirk in amusement at Yas’ annoyance with him. “I think the real question is, how did you miss it?”
She scowled at him, huffing.
“Fine. Obviously, I was oblivious to something happening right under my nose. Hasn’t been the first time.” She tossed her head. “In my defense, I was a little distracted by my own secret relationship. And Pete James. And then being shot.”
“You had plenty of good reasons for being distracted.” He couldn’t help but chuckle as he shoved the pan in the oven, moving around the counter so he could put his arms around her.
Yas turned toward him on the stool she was sitting on, smiling when she was able to reach for him with both arms. While she would be in physical therapy to get all the motion back in her shoulder, her pain was pretty much gone, and she was able to move her arm well enough to hold him.
Which she took great delight in doing.
Zeus liked feeling her holding him, too. Leaning down, he brushed his lips over hers, holding her body with one arm, while cupping her face with his other hand, sliding his fingers along her jaw and back into her hair. Yas hummed against his lips as he gave her ponytail a tug.
When he opened his eyes and looked down at her, her dark gaze was shining with need. Fuck. His dick started to harden immediately. He hadn’t meant to get things started yet, but…
“Were you a good girl today, Yas?”
“I’m always a good girl,” she lied, grinning up at him.
Zeus laughed.
“Did you lift anything you weren’t supposed to?”
“No, Sir. I really was a good girl today.” She stressed the final word, which made him laugh again.
Despite everything going on at work, the fact that there hadn’t been any movement on the investigation into the sniper at the women’s shelter or who was behind the shooting at Macleod’s brunch—much less whether they were the same person—Zeus had been smiling and laughing more in the past few weeks than he had in his entire life. And it was all due to Yas.
Well, mostly due to Yas. Though he had a feeling the way the team now fully accepted him had a lot to do with her, too.
Lincoln was pleased at the way they were all working together.
He hadn’t heard from his parents since that last time.
And Yas had been living in his house for weeks now without making any noise about wanting to move home.
Even with her sling off.
“Good.” He tugged her ponytail again and watched her pupils dilate. “Yas.”
“Yes?” She tilted her head back to look at him, a dreamy smile on her lips.
“What would you think about moving in here? Officially. Not just staying here.” If she said no, he’d accept that, but he wanted to make the offer. He didn’t want her to leave. This way, whichever way she was leaning would be out in the open.
“Really?” The cautious delight in her voice seemed like a good sign. “It’s… it’s not too soon?”
“You’ve basically been living here already. Most of your clothes are here at this point.” His lips quirked. “It might be too soon, but the truth is, I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to go, either.” She bit her lip, as though she was thinking about it.
“You don’t have to say yes right now. I just wanted to bring it up as an option.
So that you knew before you started having crazy thoughts like you have to move home just because your sling is off.
” He smiled because she wrinkled her nose in that way she did when he called her out on her thoughts. “I don’t want you to go.”
Fuck. This was a harder lead-up than he’d thought it would be.
The words were hovering, right there. Ready to be said. Waiting to be said. But he was having trouble getting them from his thoughts to his mouth.
“I don’t want to go, either.” She tilted her head at him.
“I… we haven’t really talked about the future.
And I don’t want us to get too deep into the weeds.
I don’t think I’m cursed anymore. Probably.
I’m pretty sure I’m not. Just so you know, if you dump me, I will do everything in my power to make sure you don’t marry your next girlfriend, even though I have no idea what that would look like. I’m petty like that.”
“Have you ever done that with any of your other exes?”
“No. But I’m sure I could figure something out. Claudia would help me.”
Wasn’t that a scary thought?
Still, kind of nice to know that he’d merit that special attention.
“I don’t think you have to worry about that. I’ve already decided that if we break up, I’ll get back together with Noelle, just for a little bit, to ensure I don’t marry the next girl I date, and I’ll break your curse.”
The horrified expression on her face was almost comical. “Oh my God, don’t you dare do that to yourself!”
“I guess the only solution to both our problems is to not break up.” He leaned his forehead against hers, and she slid her hands to the front of his body and up his chest to his shoulders.
“That works for me.” Yas tilted her head back, obviously waiting for another kiss, but Zeus had something he needed to say first. And suddenly, the words weren’t so hard to get out.
“I love you, Yasmine.”
“I… what?” Her voice went a little shrill on the second word.
Zeus took a deep breath. Thankfully, repeating the words was a little easier than getting them out the first time.
“I’ve fallen in love with you. I’m not asking you to move in here just because I like having you here for right now. I’m hoping that you’ll never move out. I know we’ll need to talk about marriage and kids and—”
He was cut off as Yas launched herself at him, wrapping her hands around his neck and pressing a kiss to his lips as she stood. Laughing, he moved his arms to hold her in place against him, his cock twitching with interest in hopes that things were moving along now.
When she pulled away, her eyes glowed.
“I love you, too,” she said breathlessly. “I thought it was too soon, but…”
“We’re on our own timetable. Not your parents. Not society’s. Ours. I love you.”
“I love you.”
Their lips met again, tongues dancing.
Zeus barely remembered to turn off the oven before they made their way back to the bedroom, and the only reason he did was that he didn’t want to be interrupted by the fire alarm. He firmly shut the door in front of Tiger’s nose, ignoring the dog’s indignant huff at being left outside.
He didn’t want any interruptions.