Page 44 of Danger and Dominance (Black Fox Security Doms #1)

Cassidy

By the late afternoon, when nothing else had happened, and they hadn’t found anything, everyone else cleared out from the apartment, leaving her alone with David.

She kind of missed Jensen’s house and how comfortable and unique it was, but she had to admit, having David there helped make up for a lot of that.

Though, at the moment, he was going over the security footage again rather than talking to her.

Which was fine. She was sitting on one of his armchairs, earbuds in, listening to the latest upload from her favorite true crime podcast and pretending she wasn’t watching him.

Truthfully, she was only half-listening because her brain was going a mile a minute.

Mostly, she was worried about Brenda, and she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to go to work on Monday. David hadn’t said anything about it yet, but she figured they’d talk about it this evening. They still had Sunday to get through.

Maybe she’d get lucky, and Don would do something monumentally stupid. Like, get pulled over for a traffic ticket and try to run instead of complying. Then he could get arrested for that.

Unlikely. He’s a good-looking white guy. He’d probably have to do something a lot stupider to actually get arrested.

It wouldn’t solve the long-term problem anyway, though at least she’d be able to sleep a little easier. Plus, just knowing where he was would be a bonus.

The not knowing was driving her crazy.

Part of her wanted to believe Mason that it could be someone else. Don had hardly been the type to buy flowers for any reason. Spending money on her? Absolutely not. Now, if they’d been dead flowers that he’d pulled out of the garbage bin… she could believe he’d send to the house to mess with her.

But the roses had been beautiful in their own way, if terrifying. They’d been fully in bloom, beautifully arranged, and in a vase.

It just didn’t feel like Don.

On the other hand, she had no idea what his state of mind was like.

She would never have guessed he’d become fixated on her the way he had or that he’d start stalking her or slashing people’s tires.

Truthfully, she didn’t think she’d mattered enough to him for him to care that she was out of his life.

“Hey.” David appeared in front of her, frowning down at her. “What are you listening to?”

“Um…” She didn’t want to say. It had really weirded Jensen and Mick out when she’d told them she liked to listen to true crime to unwind. Hitting the pause button on her phone, she popped her earbuds out. “I wasn’t really listening. Honestly, I was kind of lost in thought.”

He looked her over, examining her for a long moment before nodding in acceptance of her answer.

“What do you want to eat for dinner?” he asked.

Holy crap, was it that time already? She glanced at the clock. Apparently, it was.

“Whatever you have. I’m not picky.” She was used to eating whatever she was given.

“Come on.” David held out his hand to help her up. “You can help me choose.”

Well, fine then.

She ended up not just helping him choose, but helping him cook the meal and laughing as he told her stories about his grandmother and sister.

Some of them she’d already heard from Brenda’s point-of-view, and she took great joy in telling him that his grandmother’s perspective was a little different.

The mock scowl on his face made her giggle even harder.

They ended up making salmon, asparagus, and roasted potatoes. Easy and delicious.

It was a little weird being in David’s apartment, wearing Ashley’s clothing and wondering what was going to happen to her life this week, but she had to admit, she felt safe. And she wasn’t sure she would have if she’d still been at Jensen and Mick’s.

For now, she could at least hope that Don didn’t know where she was.

“Do you think I should go to work on Monday?” she asked.

David frowned, scooping up a forkful of salmon.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said. “First, we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I want to see what your ex does next.”

“You think he’ll do something?”

“If he realizes you’ve been moved… or maybe since nothing has happened.

He’ll have been wanting a reaction. Getting no visible reaction might spur him to do something.

Hopefully, make a mistake.” David smiled reassuringly at her, and Cassidy realized her anxiety was showing, which wasn’t surprising.

“Mick and Jensen are on alert. If he does something, we’d rather have you not there. ”

“I guess.” She would never forgive herself if either of them got hurt, though, even though she knew it wasn’t really her fault. It would be Don’s. But she didn’t want them hurt.

“Let’s talk about something else because there’s nothing we can do about that right now,” David said firmly, reaching out across the table to take her hand. Her senses hummed at his touch, perking up with interest. Cassidy let her fingers wind around his, trying not to blush.

It was kind of crazy how such a little touch could make her body go so haywire, but that was the effect he had on her.

“Okay, what do you want to talk about?”

“Well, you brought up your job… is being my grandmother’s caretaker really what you want to do? Jensen said you’d wanted to be a nurse.” The way he was looking at her, his gaze focused and intent, it seemed like he was really interested in the answer. He also didn’t let go of her hand.

“I did. I don’t know…” She sighed. “I feel like I’m completely starting my life over, and I’m behind on where I’m supposed to be. I love being your grandmother’s companion, but it doesn’t come with benefits.” She gave him a look when he chuckled. “I’m not talking about those kind of benefits.”

He winked at her, unperturbed, and she was hard-pressed not to smile back.

“That’s mostly because you’re being paid under the table,” he said.

Cassidy jumped when his foot slid along hers under the table. Cute. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he smiled guilelessly.

“We can change that once you don’t have to hide anymore. In the meantime, we’ve got you on Black Fox’s insurance… Lincoln didn’t tell you that?”

“Oh…” She cast her mind back, trying to remember. “He might have said something about it. I’m not sure. I don’t have a card, though.”

“I’ll find out what happened to it,” he promised, which made her feel a little better. “It has been a little crazy.”

“Just a bit.” She smiled. “It’s not just that, though; it’s trying to figure out everything.

Right now, I’m in limbo, but I feel like there’s so much I haven’t done to prepare for my life.

Like, I feel like I wasted my twenties on a shitty relationship that prevented me from doing the things I need to do. ”

“Like what?”

“Like starting something for retirement. Or a savings account. Or something. Even once I’m able to work a real job with benefits, I’m behind. And one emergency away from being homeless because I have no safety net.” Don was supposed to have been her safety net. Except he hadn’t been safe at all.

David blinked as if that wasn’t what he’d been expecting her to say.

But Cassidy had had a lot of time to think and realize how precarious her situation was over the past year.

Though her friends in Maryland had helped her get a job once she’d gotten away from Don, she’d needed all of that money.

She hadn’t been able to put anything toward savings or the future. Something she was acutely aware of.

She was behind in every sense of the word.

“You need to talk to Yasmine,” David said. It was his turn to surprise her. Since she’d just taken a bite of food, Cassidy tilted her head at him in question. “Yasmine didn’t tell you what she does?”

Cassidy shook her head. They’d talked about a lot of things at game nights, but Yasmine’s job hadn’t been one of them.

“She’s a financial advisor, one who specializes in advising women.”

She was? Why hadn’t she said anything? Then again, it wasn’t like Cassidy had said anything about her own financial situation. If she had, Yasmine would probably have told her. Swallowing, Cassidy nodded her head.

“I’ll talk to Yasmine.” She smiled at David, who appeared happy to have been able to give her a good direction to go in.

Cassidy was happy, too. She’d feel a lot more comfortable talking to Yasmine than she would to a stranger. Yasmine already knew what she’d been through, and she wouldn’t judge.

Other than the flowers being sent today, things were mostly looking up. Though, even if the flowers meant that Don had her in his sights again, in some ways it had backfired. They were on alert now, expecting him. And it meant she’d ended up in David’s apartment with him.

Kind of ironic that Don could have sent her into another man’s bed just by trying to scare her with a flower delivery.

It would have made him absolutely furious to know that.

Not that she would have slept with David just for that reason, but since she already wanted to be with David, knowing it would outrage Don if he knew…

well, it made her feel a little smug. As though she’d gotten one over on him, even though he was doing his best to make her life miserable.

Cassidy wasn’t sure how things would work when she and David actually went to bed, but it was nearly as awkward as it had been in the club. Apparently, having her in his house made David a lot more open to just kissing her and maneuvering her into the bedroom, much to her delight.

She wasn’t sure how she would feel, being alone with a man in a house with no Dungeon Monitors listening in, no one outside the door…

but when David pinned her down to the bed with his head between her legs to devour her, she definitely wasn’t panicking or thinking about getting away.

By the third orgasm, all she could do was whimper when he finally lifted his head so he could turn her over, propping a pillow under her hips so he could fuck her from behind.