Same man as the one who had shown up at Yas’ door looking for Stacy. Zeus wanted to ask more questions—like, did Naomi know Yas? Had Shitbag Pete shown up at Drew and Naomi’s door? How did Drew know that Shitbag was looking for his Stacy?
This was the first olive branch Drew had held out between them, and Zeus wasn’t sure how far he wanted to extend his own branch. Better to start out by getting the information Drew wanted, then seeing how things went from there. Maybe he could ask Yas about it, too.
He hadn’t last night because she’d clearly needed an escape from thinking and worrying about the situation, but they’d have to talk about it later today. Especially now that he knew there was a connection between Stacy James and Naomi Murphy. Zeus preferred going into a situation with all the information in hand he could possibly have, so he’d do the research first, then admit to Drew he already knew who Pete James was. Maybe. If he felt like Drew needed to know.
But he wasn’t going to share immediately.
Not until he knew all sides of what was happening. Then he could decide if he wanted to share and how much to share.
It was possible Drew would find out that Zeus also knew someone Pete James had targeted and read something unexpected into the common ground. Maybe even think it was some part of an evil mastermind plan with Devlin. Zeus was now going to do a deep dive to make sure the man had no connection with Devlin. Just in case.
“What do you want to know about him? Anything in particular?”
“Location, assets, anything that might be useful in a divorce.” Drew looked grim. “He’s got a history of domestic abuse with Stacy, but I don’t know if actual police reports were made or not.”
There were, although Zeus suspected they’d been heavily edited from what had actually happened. He wasn’t going to tell Drew that he already had all this information, though. First, because then he’d have to tell Drew how and why, and secondly, because now he wanted to do a deeper dive on both Shitbag and Stacy.
“Got it.” Zeus turned to go again.
“Hey, Zeus.” Drew cleared his throat as Zeus looked back over his shoulder. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
He would have done it even if Yas hadn’t been tangentially connected, but now he had double the reason.
And he had some questions for Yas.
Yasmine
Not only did she sleep in, but Yasmine slept hard. The lack of sleep from the night before, combined with absolutely fantastic sex, had drained her. Even when she did wake up, she didn’t get up right away, which wasn’t like her. It was just too easy to loll in bed and stretch and think about how incredibly satisfied she felt.
Mornings like this didn’t happen often, especially these days.
Yeah, she would not object to hooking up with Zeus regularly. She just had to watch herself to make sure she didn’t get too attached.
Which was why she did not immediately check her clock or jump up to get ready so she could see him sooner. Nope. She was going to take her time. Though she wasn’t going to dress in sweats today just to put him off. Obviously, that hadn’t worked, anyway. Even just going back home, she really didn’t want her neighbors to see her totally raggedy.
It was Hope’s snuffling that finally got her moving. The dog hopped up happily when Yasmine got up, which meant she’d made the right decision.
“Hey, pretty girl,” Yasmine said, giving the dog’s ears a ruffle as she yawned and covered her mouth with her other hand. “How are you feeling this morning? You slept as hard as I did.”
Hanging out with Tiger must have worn her out a bit. That or being back at home, even if Sarah wasn’t here. Yasmine felt a little guilty about having taken Hope home with her, rather than staying at Sarah’s immediately, but it really would have given her almost twice the commute from work. Plus, Sarah hadn’t invited her to stay yet.
“Maybe we could stay here tonight, too. Since it seems to be good for you,” Yasmine murmured.
Then immediately started second-guessing herself. Did she really want to stay here for Hope’s benefit… or for hers because Zeus was right next door? Crap, was she already going down her usual cycle of getting way too attached and thinking about what she wanted with him—even if right now what she wanted was focused on orgasms?
Was she doing this for herself or for the dog?
Because if it was for herself, she needed to go home tonight.
On the other hand, it wasn’t like she could keep spending the night. This would be a one-time thing because of Hope. Which meant it was for the dog. Even if Yasmine did end up benefiting from a second night of fantastic sex… and feeling very safe because she would be difficult to find and had Zeus sleeping right next door.
“I’ll think about it,” she told Hope, then gave her one last pat before getting up. Hope jumped down from the bed at the same time as Yasmine stretched.
She headed to the kitchen to feed Hope before getting into her actual stretching routine. Thankfully, she’d almost completed it by the time Hope finished her breakfast and came over to see what Yasmine was doing. Since her current position was on the floor, it was easy for Hope to get in her face, horrifying doggy breath and all.
“Oh… no… Hope!” Yasmine couldn’t help but laugh as the dog turned away but sat down, trying to seat herself in Yasmine’s lap. “You are not a lap dog!” She gave Hope’s silky coat a good rubdown anyway, from her head all the way down her back, before giving the dog a little push to get her up and moving.