Rolling his shoulders back, he felt his jaw lock into place as he turned back to the house. Yasmine was standing on the stoop, hands clasped together in front of her, and she looked small. Tired. Scared.
Fuck.
The desire to wrap her up in his arms and tell her she was safe welled up inside him again.
Instead, he stalked to the house and got the door open. Tiger bounced all over both of them, greeting Yasmine with ecstatic fervor, his tail going a mile a minute and whipping against Zeus’ thighs with enough force to sting.
“Down dog,” he ordered. Tiger sat, tail sweeping the floor, doggy grinning up at Yasmine. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck, bowing her head. Taking the hug from him that Zeus so badly wanted to give her.
He let out a long, shuddering breath, getting himself under control, and stepped around them to head deeper into the house.
“I’ll put this in the guest bedroom,” he said over his shoulder, lifting her bag in case she didn’t know what he was talking about. “I assume you haven’t eaten dinner yet?”
“No, but I’m not really hungry,” she replied, still hugging Tiger, her voice low and sad.
“You’re going to eat something.” It was the adrenaline drop, he was sure, which meant she needed food.
Whatever her answer was, it was muffled in Tiger’s fur.
By the time he got back from putting her bag away, she was sitting on the couch. Tiger was beside her, facing outward, butt firmly planted next to her thigh. Guarding her. Yasmine stroked his back. Her gaze flitted over to Zeus, then away.
As much as he wanted to question her about her connection to Claudia and the rest of his team—who she clearly knew if Claudia was going to call them in to help clean up her place—he wasn’t sure this was the right time. She still looked several shades paler than usual, giving her an almost ashy complexion, and her dark eyes were wide and haunted. She was watching the back of Tiger’s head as though it was a fascinating television show, as his ears perked up, then went back down at Zeus’ entrance.
Because he couldn’t think of anything to say, Zeus went to the kitchen and started getting some food ready. Tiger must have sensed that Yasmine needed him more than he needed food, staying by her side rather than coming to beg for whatever Zeus was making.
Although, of course, he did hop up once Zeus started scooping his actual food. Yasmine got up at the same time, silently moving to the dining room table where Zeus had set a place for her. She hovered behind the chair.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” She wasn’t as pale anymore, and she looked less haunted, more like her normal self.
“You can sit,” he replied, nodding his head at the seat in front of her. “And you can start telling me about how you know Claudia.” Not just Claudia, but he figured that would at least start her down the road to telling him how she knew everyone else.
Yasmine let out a long, slow breath. It was almost like she was a deflating balloon, sinking right down into the chair. He set the pan of chicken and rice on the table, along with a plate of kale, peppers, and onions. That way, she could put as much as she wanted on her plate.
As long as she put something.
“Right,” she said hollowly.
Zeus handed her the serving spoon for the chicken and rice. Their fingers brushed as she took it from him, and the little touch made him want even more.
“So, um. I didn’t know who you were at first.”
He raised his eyebrows at her.
“It’s true,” she insisted. “I mean, I was engaged to Mason, but?—”
“You were what?”
Chapter 33
Yasmine
If there was any way to make a situation worse, she was on top of it. The expression on Zeus’ face was almost enough to make up for it, and she kind of wished she dared snap a picture of it.
“Um… I was engaged to Mason?” she repeated. She was still holding onto the empty serving spoon, so it gave her a good excuse to look at the casserole dish as she scooped food from it onto her plate. More than she meant to. With the way her stomach was twisting and flipping, she was even less hungry than before, but it gave her something to do.
Zeus still sat across from her, hands on either side of his plate, staring at her.
“It wasn’t a real engagement,” she tried to explain. “I mean, it was real in that we were going to get married, but it was arranged… You really didn’t hear about this?”
