Page 115 of Danger and Dominance

Brenda had come to the hospital as often as she could to visit them, and she treated Cassidy like a granddaughter rather than her employee, but she wasn’t, really.So, she wanted to give them some privacy to just be in each other’s company and reassure Brenda that David was going to be okay.

Because he was.

Thank goodness.

“Thanks for volunteering to drive us around today… and Brenda,” Cassidy said quietly to Jennifer, not wanting to be too loud.Brenda was busy showing David where she’d put all the groceries away and the casseroles she’d put in both the fridge and the freezer.

They weren’t going to have to cook for weeks with all the things Brenda had stocked them up on.

“Of course, no problem,” Jennifer said immediately, glancing over her shoulder at David and Brenda before leaning into Cassidy and lowering her voice.“So… what’s next for you?”

Cassidy stared at her, blinking, trying to figure out what she meant.Her brain might still be fuzzy from the injury because she couldn’t figure out what Jennifer was talking about or why she suddenly looked so serious.

“Next for me?You mean, like meeting Audrey?”She kept her voice low, too, since she didn’t want Audrey’s name to draw Brenda or David’s attention, though she wasn’t sure why they were whispering other than that.

Now, it was Jennifer’s turn to stare at her in confusion, though she quickly recovered.

“No, I mean, like… what’s next?Are you leaving us?Because you don’t have to, you know.Jensen and Mick would totally be willing to let you move back in with them if you don’t want to stay here.Yasmine told me to tell you that you can come be her housemate if you don’t want to live with boys.”

Oh.

Oh.

Because Don was dead.

She didn’t need to be protected anymore.

Her friends here were worried that she was going to want to go back home.

But was it home?

Cassidy hadn’t even thought about it.She’d been so focused on what David was going to need during his recovery… and he hadn’t said anything about her moving back out… But she hadn’t even been living here a full week before they’d ended up sleeping in the hospital…

She didn’t know what he wanted.

Did she know what she wanted?

Why hadn’t this come up in therapy?

Had Mistress Julie just assumed she’d be coming back home now that it was all over?Or had she assumed Cassidy would be staying here?

“I don’t know,” she said slowly.“I haven’t thought past a day at a time… and I said I would take care of David during his recovery… although I guess he doesn’t really need me.”

“Don’t rush to decide,” Jennifer said quickly, reaching out to take Cassidy’s hand.“Just know that, even though you haven’t been here that long in the grand scheme of things, we all consider you one of ours, and we’re all hoping you stay.If you want to.We want you to have what you want, more than anything else, but we’re hoping that maybe what you’ll want is to stay.”

“Thank you,” Cassidy whispered, squeezing Jennifer’s hand.Jennifer squeezed back.

Cassidy wanted to stay, too.

Would she want to stay even if David didn’t want to be with her?But he had said that he’d want to date her after the danger had passed.

That was before she’d gotten him shot, though.

She also shouldn’t stay just for a man.She should stay because she wanted to for herself.That’s what Mistress Julie would tell her.

And it was definitely, probably, too soon to move in with him if there wasn’t a real need.He couldn’t have planned for that to happen.Without needing protection from Don, she probably should stay somewhere else.

Find a real job.