Page 104 of Danger and Dominance

He wondered if she would keep laughing when she realized his grandmother was completely serious.

“Come on,” he said, gesturing toward the door.“Let’s get you two home.”

37

Cassidy

Claudia’s impromptu birthday party was held at her favorite restaurant, the House of Starrett.It was a pretty standard restaurant with a fairly ornate wooden bar, which was where everyone had gathered to celebrate Claudia.The carpet was blue and green, and the walls were wood until about halfway up where they met the wainscotting, then there was blue wallpaper on the upper half, which matched the blue in the carpet.The servers wore green shirts with black pants.

It was a normal restaurant.

But the bartender was completely weirding her out.

He lookedexactlylike Shane, the bartender from Marquis.

Same height, same build, and same face.Same bald head, same salt and pepper goatee.Same neutral expression and brisk efficiency as he served people.

David brought her up to the bar to order her drink, and she couldn’t help it.

“Shane?”she asked when he looked up at them.

He blinked.

“No, I’m Seamus.”Different name but the same voice, though the inflection was a little different.Which was also freaky.

“Oh… sorry.You look exactly like someone I know.”

“Shane’s my twin.What do you want to drink?”

“Um, whiskey sour, please,” she said.

“Blue Moon,” David replied right after her, his hand still resting protectively on the small of her back.Seamus nodded and immediately turned away to get to work.

Apparently, Shane was chattier than Seamus, which Cassidy would not have thought possible.She hadn’t even known Shane had a twin.Then again, Shane was known for not talking very much about himself, though he was a good listener.Part of her wondered if Shane had actually been sent up from Marquis to keep an eye on her in the city, like maybe he was some kind of secret assassin now masquerading as his twin, but then he reached into a glass on his side of the bar and picked something up, popping it into his mouth.

It only took a quick glance for her to see that the little bowl he’d just reached into was full of candy corn.

That clinched it.

Definitely not Shane.Everyone knew Shane hated candy corn.

Unless this was part of his ruse to make it seem like hewasn’tactually Shane.

Oh my God, Cassidy, stop.

Though it was kind of nice to know her brain could spiral about things other than fatal threats and death.

They got their drinks and walked away.She was just going to keep her back to Seamus for the night.Seeing a Shane doppelganger was just too weird.Weren’t identical twins supposed to still have some physical differences?Because if that really was Shane’s twin and not Shane himself, they looked more like clones.

And why had Shane never mentioned a twin?

David led her over to rejoin the group.Claudia was dressed up in a little black dress, her hair completely down for once, so Cassidy could see it nearly reached her waist.She’d even put on a little makeup.For someone who had insisted she didn’t want to come out and make her birthday a big deal, she looked like she’d put some effort into it.

“It’s still weird seeing you in a dress,” David said as he sat Cassidy down at the table next to Claudia, shaking his head.He stood behind Cassidy.They almost had enough chairs for everyone, but not quite, so several of the men were standing.Mostly the Black Fox men.Ian was seated on the other side of Claudia, Manuel next to him.On Cassidy’s other side was Naomi, with Drew standing behind her, talking to Mason, who was standing next to him.Jennifer and Yasmine were at the end of the table, with an empty chair between Jennifer and Manuel, which Cassidy could only assume was for Ashley, though she hadn’t seen her yet.

“Great, weird is exactly what I was going for,” Claudia said dryly.

“You look beautiful,” Ian chimed in immediately.“David is just so besotted with Cassidy, he’s blind to all other’s beauty.”