Page 7 of Danger and Dominance (Black Fox Security Doms #1)

Cassidy

The house was stunning. When she pictured a safehouse, she’d been picturing living inside a safe or something. A lot fewer windows. Less furniture. Definitely not somewhere that was beautiful, inside and out. Or somewhere that felt more temporary. Like a rental.

The second-floor room David showed her was nice, but the third floor was even better.

It was obviously set up for guests, with two smaller rooms furnished with beds, a bathroom, and a huge rec-type room complete with a kitchenette.

It was almost like an apartment unto itself; the only thing it was missing was a stove and oven, though there was a toaster oven and a microwave.

If she wanted to, she could stay up here and be completely private, though if she wanted to actually cook, she would need to go down to the first floor.

“I think I’d like to stay up here,” she said, standing in the middle of the rec room.

The house beside this one was close enough that she could see their windows, though their shades were drawn.

Somehow, she liked the closeness. When she looked down, she saw nothing but yard on both sides.

The bushes that divided them were too low for anyone to hide behind.

Unless Don could scale brick walls, he wasn’t getting up here.

For a moment, she considered the idea of a grappling hook or something like that, but then he would have to break the window, and Jensen had already explained that the glass was incredibly difficult to break through.

It wasn’t bulletproof, and firefighters weren’t going to have any difficulty getting in with their axes, but a regular hammer would bounce right off.

He’d even offered to demonstrate, though Cassidy had reassured him that she trusted him.

“Absolutely,” Jensen said. “I guess if David’s done showing you my house, we can go get your bags.” He snickered when David shot him a look.

“You can go get her bags, Baby,” David said, making Cassidy and Kincaid blink. It didn’t sound like he was using ‘baby’ as an endearment, yet she couldn’t think of another reason why.

“Yes, Sir, Ginger, Sir,” Jensen said with a salute, clicking his heels together, though they didn’t actually click since he was wearing tennis shoes.

David rolled his eyes, though the corners of his lips tipped up in amusement.

Since he didn’t smile much, Cassidy was intrigued by the small change in expression.

“Ginger for the red hair?” she asked.

David turned back to her, one hand rising to slide his fingers through the red hair in question.

“It’s my call sign… was my call sign when we were active duty.

We still use the same ones when we’re on a mission now, though we try to call each other by our real names for the most part when we’re not.

Otherwise, Baby gets snippy.” The little smile on his face widened into an honest-to-goodness grin, and Cassidy couldn’t help but stare.

As hot as he was when he was brooding, he was even more attractive when he smiled.

Especially when he was smiling at her. Her body was coming to life in a way she found utterly disturbing, mostly because it was so unexpected.

His gaze met hers, and she felt a little zing go through the room…

though she couldn’t tell if she was the only one feeling it.

“Is he ‘Baby’ because he’s the youngest?” she asked, dragging her gaze away from David’s and returning to look around the room.

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you all called the Spice Doms at the club?” Kincaid asked, not bothering to hide the laughter in his voice. Cassidy spun around again to look at David, whose grin had dropped into a look of resignation.

“Also, yes. The subs were kind of responsible for our call signs after seeing us together at the club. They came up with their own names for us, and they kind of stuck.” He shrugged ruefully, though he was still watching Cassidy rather than looking at Kincaid.

She wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he was hoping to get from her, but she couldn’t help but giggle as he explained.

“I’m Ginger, Mason is Posh, Drew is Sporty, Claudia is Scary, and Jensen… ”

“Aw, poor Baby,” she said, outright laughing this time, though she quickly tried to stifle it when she heard Jensen coming up the stairs.

His footfalls were very heavy, though he was moving fast. They all went out into the hall to meet him and saw that he had both duffles slung over his shoulders, the straps crossing across his chest, and her roller case in his hand.

Yet he hadn’t even broken a sweat coming up two flights of stairs with all of that on him.

“Luggage delivery,” he said with a grin, coming to a halt on the landing. “Which room did you want to take?”

Cassidy immediately pointed to the one closest to him.

Both rooms were nice, but she wanted the one closer to the staircase.

Just in case there was an emergency at night; that way, she’d be right next to the stairs.

Also, there was a window that was right over the porch roof, so that if danger came up the stairs, she could go out that window and not have to drop down as far.

If she could hang from the windowsill, she’d only fall about a floor before hitting the porch roof, which was gently sloped, so she could roll over to the edge of it and then drop down onto the flowerbeds below.

The other bedroom looked out over the side and the back, and she didn’t want to have to jump out a third-story window straight to the ground if she had another option.

“Perfect,” Jensen said cheerfully, heading into her chosen room.

She was starting to think he was never anything but cheerful, which was nice since they were going to be living together.

Don had rarely been cheerful, even in the beginning of their relationship.

She’d taken his seriousness to mean that he was a serious guy and that he would be serious about her. Now, cheerful sounded good.

Which made it hard to explain why she was so drawn to David.

Maybe her internal ‘picker’ was broken.

Or maybe she just felt safe with him, even if he was serious and broody.

“I’ve got to get back to the office,” David said, glancing at his watch before looking up at her and Kincaid.

“If you think you’d be up for it, I could gather everyone together to come over here for dinner.

Let you get to know the team a little better right off the bat and give Kincaid a chance to hang out with us a little more before he goes back to D.C. ”

“Sure, Ginger,” Jensen called from the bedroom, a series of thuds emitting at the same time as he put down her bags. “Just give them a tour of my house and then invite everyone over to dinner.”

“Well, we could do it at someone else’s, but I thought Cassidy might be tired of traveling for today,” David retorted.

Jensen appeared in the doorway, grinning widely.

“I’m just joshing ya,” he said. “Dinner here sounds great. You’re buying. Kincaid can take the other guest bedroom if he wants.”

“Noted,” David said dryly, raising his eyebrow in question at her and Kincaid.

Kincaid looked at her.

“I love the idea, but don’t feel like you have to stay if you don’t want to…” Her voice trailed off because part of her was sad to see him go. In some ways, he was her last tie to Stronghold and D.C. Once he left, it was just her in this new place, with new people and a whole new life.

As usual, Kincaid seemed to read her thoughts rather than listening to what she was saying. He was unnervingly good at that.

“I’ll stay.” He smiled reassuringly at her before turning to David. Something altered in his expression, making it seem like the two men were facing off. Measuring each other up. “It’ll be good to hang out with the team a bit. Plus, not having to drive three hours home on the same day sounds nice.”

“What about Zach?” she asked. Zach was his boyfriend, a really super sweet guy who also happened to be a sadist. She didn’t want to put them out if Zach was expecting Kincaid to come home, and she had the sneaking suspicion that Kincaid was only staying because he thought she’d be more comfortable if he did.

“I’ll give him a call. I have an overnight bag in the car with me. Zach knew I might not feel like driving home tonight. And this is better than grabbing a hotel room.” Kincaid flashed a grin at her. “As David said, I could use some time hanging out with the team, too.”

It made her feel a little better that he wasn’t putting himself out just for her.

David

The dinner idea had been an impromptu one, but it was one of his better ones.

No emotional or physical entanglements with the client, but also, this wasn’t their usual kind of case, and he wanted Cassidy to know and trust the rest of the team.

Since she didn’t have a single bodyguard assigned to her or even a pair, they needed her to respond quickly to all of them.

Mrs. Tulieman also ended up being invited by Jensen when she brought her pie over, which she was very pleased about and which meant she would be even more invested in keeping an eye on Cassidy.

The friendly older lady was sharp as a whistle and kept up with all the neighborhood gossip.

If someone came around looking for Cassidy, she would be one of the first to know, and now she knew to tell Jensen, his brother Mick, or one of the other team members immediately.

“You should come to game night,” Claudia was telling Cassidy.

Dinner was long since over, and the groups had spread out a bit around the first floor.

Mason and Mick were in the kitchen cleaning up while Jensen and Kincaid kept them company, chatting.

Kincaid had finally relaxed enough to take his eyes off Cassidy, which was a good sign.