Rule of Three

Chapter Fourteen

Kassidy froze. Well, first she froze, icy and motionless. Then fiery heat swept over her naked body as she stared into her sister’s eyes.

Hailey looked as shocked as she did. Chris appeared behind her, dressed in his plaid boxers, his hand in his hair, mouth open.

Hailey’s eyes shifted to Dag, and Kassidy didn’t even need to turn around to know exactly what she saw—his long, lean and very naked body only half covered by the sheets, his hair rumpled, his jaw morning sexy with a dark growth of beard.

Her heart crashed into a rapid beat. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. Chris pushed past Hailey and grabbed Kassidy’s robe, strode toward her and shielded her from her sister, handing her the robe. She took it automatically, her face burning, breath coming in shallow little spurts.

“What the hell is going on here?” Hailey finally asked. She turned dark eyes to Chris with a long, appraising look, then back to Kassidy, and the corners of her mouth kicked up. “Kassidy. Well, well, well. I cannot believe this.”

What could she say? Helplessly she tied the belt of the robe and looked at Chris, then back at Hailey. The words “it’s not what it looks like” came to mind, but that was such a lame cliché and so patently untrue. It was totally what it looked like.

“Why are you here, Hailey?” Kassidy finally managed to get some words over her tight lips. “It’s not like you to be out so early on a Sunday.”

“Yeah. I know.” She shrugged. “I came to see if you were going over to Mom and Dad’s today. I’ll go with you.”

“Jesus. You could’ve called first.”

“And missed this?” One eyebrow arched. “Are you kidding me?” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the doorframe, eyes moving over both male bodies.

“Hailey. This is…” She swallowed. “This is private.”

“Oh yeah.”

“I mean…don’t tell anyone…” Oh god. “Especially Mom and Dad.” She tried to keep the panic out of her voice because it never failed, if Hailey knew something was important to her, she didn’t want her to have it, and if Hailey knew Kassidy didn’t want her to do something, she’d do it for sure.

Please, Hailey, she begged inside her head.

She shrugged and straightened. “Are you going over there or not?”

“I actually wasn’t planning to today.”

“What? The good little daughter isn’t going over to check on her injured mother?”

“I’ve been there almost every day for the last two weeks. Dad’s there with her today; I think they can manage one day.” Then she frowned. “What do you need me there for? Go over by yourself. You haven’t even been once.”

“Yeah.” Hailey’s eyes fell away from Kassidy’s and her mocking smile disappeared. “I’ve been busy. I guess I’ll do that.”

Kassidy led Hailey out of the bedroom, with a roll of her eyes at Chris and Dag over her shoulder as she did so. She took her straight to the door.

“Not offering me coffee, even?” Hailey asked, amusement shading her voice. “I guess you’re anxious to get back to…whatever the three of you were doing. In bed.”

“Hailey.” Kassidy’s insides churned. “I…” Once again she didn’t know what to say. She’d been caught. In the act. Flagrante delicto—was that the term? In a scandalous liaison with Chris and his best friend. She wanted to believe she didn’t care what Hailey thought of her, and she’d wanted to be the bad girl for once, but the sad truth was, she was so invested in being the good girl that this threat to her pristine reputation threw her way off balance. “Please don’t tell Mom and Dad.”

Damn. She didn’t want to say that again. She had a feeling that telling Hailey not to do that would send her straight to their house with shocking tales of their older daughter’s sexual escapades.

Hailey just laughed. “See ya later, Kass.”

And she was gone.

Kassidy stayed there in the foyer for a few long moments, head leaning on the wall. Visions of Hailey driving straight to Mom and Dad’s, the shock and horror on their faces when she told them what she’d discovered, had her stomach heaving, her mind reeling, and oh hell, her body still pulsing with unsatisfied lust. But her hunger wasn’t about to be slaked as she heard Dag and Chris behind her, and when she turned, they’d emerged from the bedroom fully dressed, both of them wearing identical sheepish expressions.

That mood had been killed.

She sighed. “Well, shit,” she said.

Chris walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay, Kass,” he murmured.

“Who cares what she thinks?” Dag asked, although his eyes were shadowed. “It doesn’t matter.”

It didn’t matter to Dag what people thought. He just did what he wanted, the rebel bad boy. But it mattered to her.

Although the idea that she’d shocked Hailey gave her just a tiny little triumphant thrill. “I just…even if I don’t care what Hailey thinks about me, what about all the people she’s going to tell? Mom and Dad will die.” And she did care what they thought about her.

“She won’t tell them,” Dag said with confidence.

She looked at him. “Why do you say that? You don’t know her. That’s exactly the kind of thing she would do.”

“It would hurt your parents more than it would hurt you,” Dag replied, taking a step nearer to rub her shoulder.

“Except Hailey doesn’t care about our parents,” she said. “In fact, one of her goals in life is to make them miserable. And I doubt she cares that much about me, either.”

“She can’t be that bad.”

He didn’t know her. Kassidy took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure she’d tell her parents, either, but the thought of it was enough to have her insides churning furiously.

“Well, there’s nothing you can do,” Chris said, always practical. “If she tells them, we’ll deal with it. I’m with you, sweetheart, you know. If I have to face your parents and try to explain what’s happening here, I will.”

She regarded him with warm gratitude, knowing this had to be huge for him too. The one who always followed the rules and did what was right…if he had to face her parents and try to explain this all, he’d be dying. She tried to smile as she said, “Maybe you could explain it to me, first.”

“Mom’s accident changes what I wanted to do for their anniversary,” Kassidy told Chris later that night. “I wanted to have a party, but Mom’s not up to it.”

“When’s the anniversary?”

“Next weekend.” She sighed and pouted. Her sexy bottom lip made him want to suck on it. Jesus. All he thought about lately was sex. Living in a ménage à trois would do that to you, he guessed.

“You could just wait. Do something when she’s better.”

“I suppose.” The bottom lip came out farther.

“How long have they been married?” Dag asked.

“Thirty years.”

“Wow.”

“I know. Amazing, huh? We did a big party for their twenty-fifth. Hailey doesn’t even want to be involved, so…I don’t know.” She paused, clearly thinking about what had happened that morning. Her pout turned into a thin-lipped grimace. Chris’s chest tightened, remembering how upset she’d been. He’d been pissed off at himself that he hadn’t grabbed Hailey and physically stopped her from walking right in. He’d never thought she would go all the way to their bedroom door when he’d told her Kassidy was still in bed. The fact that she’d upset Kassidy made him want to kick Hailey’s ass. And not for the first time.

Kassidy sighed again. “Maybe we could just go over there and do a nice dinner for them.”

“Seafood on the barbecue,” Chris suggested.

“Yeah. That sounds good. I should call Dad and see what he thinks.”

Her hand hovered over the phone and he knew what she was thinking—had Hailey said anything to her parents? How would this phone conversation go? Then she picked up the phone and Chris listened to her side of the conversation along with the baseball game on the television, his muscles tightening. Dag sprawled in a chair across from him, looking relaxed and all at home, his stuff in the spare room, but Chris noticed Dag’s fingers tapping against the arm of the chair, the slight tightness of his mouth.

“He says that’s fine.” Kassidy set the phone on the table beside the couch. She swallowed and sank back into the couch, closing her eyes briefly. “He says not to invite lots of people though, Mom’s still really tired all the time. Still in quite a bit of pain.”

“Just us then,” Chris said, muscles relaxing.

“I guess I’ll invite Hailey too.”

Chris reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry, Kass,” he said. “I should have tried harder to stop her from walking in like that.”

“It’s okay.”

But it wasn’t. She was obviously disturbed by it and had been distracted all day. Was she going to have second thoughts about what they were doing? Chris cast a glance at Dag. He too watched Kassidy with a faint frown.

She blinked and met Chris’s eyes. He smiled at her. “I love you, Kass.”

She huffed out a breath, almost a laugh. “I love you too.” Chris tugged her into his arms, and then remembered Dag sitting across from them. When he lifted his eyes to his friend, the look on Dag’s face had Chris’s gut clenching. Hell. Yeah, he and Kassidy were a couple. Dag was their third. The intense longing in Dag’s eyes caught at Chris and made him wonder. Maybe they were headed for trouble doing this. Maybe it was a huge fucking mistake. It might be short-term gain for long-term pain. It might be instant gratification…but delayed suffering.

But as usual, he had no problem pushing away troubling thoughts to the backside of his brain, and all three of them slept together that night, and every night that week.

Thursday was Chris’s turn for stress at work. He’d had to personally tell five people they were losing their jobs.

On the drive home, he was stubbornly silent, not wanting to talk about it, Kassidy’s sideways glances swiping over him, her frustration at his bad mood palpable.

He disappeared into the bedroom to change without a word, shedding his clothes. When he went to walk into their closet, he nearly tripped over a pair of high-heeled pumps. Jesus, she had too many fucking shoes. He kicked the shoes out of his way, sending them flying into the back of the closet.

He changed into a pair of baggy shorts and a ratty old T-shirt, emerged from the bedroom to see Kassidy and Dag watching him cautiously.

“What?” he snapped, crossing the living room to the kitchen to search out a beer.

He saw them exchange serious eye contact.

“You okay, man?” Dag asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I like firing people.”

He yanked open the fridge door and stared inside, searching with his eyes. “Don’t we have any goddamn beer?” He lifted a head to glare at Dag.

“I…uh…mighta drank the last one.”

“Shit.” He slammed the door shut.

“Chris.” Kassidy’s soft voice held a note of censure that pissed him off even more.

He ran a hand through his hair. Blew out a breath.

“What do you want to do?” Dag asked.

One corner of Chris’s mouth pushed in. “What do you mean?”

Dag hitched a shoulder, leaned against the kitchen counter. “I mean, d’you wanna go out and get a beer? Something to eat? Shoot some pool? Punch a bag?”

Chris stared back at him. “Yeah. Hell yeah,” he said slowly. “Punching a bag sounds good.” He hadn’t been to the gym in a couple of weeks. He eyed Dag. How’d Dag remember he used to do that all the time? More importantly, how’d he know that was exactly what Chris needed right then?

Dag grinned. “Better than using us as a punching bag.” He straightened. “Come on. Let’s go. I assume you have a gym membership somewhere.”

“Yeah. Double Tiger Kickboxing.”

Dag lifted a brow. “Martial arts?”

“Yeah, but they have equipment there too.”

Chris looked at Kassidy. Her head tipped to one side and she gave him a wry smile. “Go on,” she said. “If that’s what you want to do.”

Taking out his frustrations with some intense physical activity was exactly what he needed. And maybe some sex. They could do that later. He grinned, already feeling better, and slung an arm around Dag’s neck.

“Okay, buddy, let’s go see what you got.”

“You can buy me a beer after.”

“Ha! You’re the one who’s loaded. You’ll buy the beer.”

While they punched and kicked the crap out of a couple of bags, Chris told Dag in between panting breaths about his shitty day, about the guy who’d told him to fuck off and die when he’d told him he was being turned loose, and the other one who’d cried. Dag didn’t say much, just listened, and Chris liked that. They picked up fried chicken and beer on the way home, which Kassidy shared with them, and then the three of them had hot, intensely physical sex.

It was good.

Kassidy worked up her nerve and called Hailey about the party she was planning for Saturday. Hailey said nothing about what she’d interrupted the weekend before and sounded like she actually might come to the anniversary celebration.

Friday night Kassidy went shopping for the food. The only good thing about Hailey catching them like that was that she’d completely distracted Kassidy from the troubling feelings she’d been struggling with. Focusing on the shopping she had to do was another welcome distraction, but as she pushed the cart up and down the aisle in the grocery shop she felt a weird out-of-body sensation, as if she were a different person, living a different life, a life that had changed stunningly. When people looked at her, they had no idea what kind of kinky sex life she was leading. That old lady with the thinning white hair and bright red lipstick smiling at her—no idea. The girl with the ring piercing the middle of her nose—eew—and thick black eyeliner looked at her and saw an ordinary mid-twenties woman dressed in boring shorts and T-shirt shopping for boring groceries—and had no idea.

She walked in the door of the condo, home sooner than she’d expected to be, and heard sounds from the television in the living room. The guys were no doubt watching sports—again.

She smiled as she dropped the bags to the floor and walked in. The guys. Her guys. Weird.

The living room was nearly dark and apparently they hadn’t heard her come in because the image on the big screen television had her stopping short. A naked woman was centered between two men, holding two erect cocks. They were watching porn!

Kassidy’s mouth dropped open and she stared at the TV. She blinked. “Uh…what are you guys doing?” she finally asked. They both jumped, seated side by side on the couch. The guilty look on their faces almost made her laugh, but she could also see they both had hard-ons and flushed cheeks.

What had she interrupted?

She swallowed.

“Kassidy.” Chris jumped to his feet and Dag reached for the remote. “You’re home already.”

She walked in farther, the groceries forgotten, her gaze riveted to the screen. “What are you watching?”

“Uh…” Dag fumbled to stop the movie.

“No, no, don’t stop it,” she said. “I want to see this.”

“Kassidy…” Chris followed her to the couch where she lowered herself beside Dag. She sent him an amused glance. “Geez, you guys. You aren’t getting enough kinky sex, you need to watch porn movies?”

“No, uh…”

They both seemed at a loss for words. Kassidy leaned back to watch, intrigued—maybe a little aroused—by the explicit images. Did they think she’d be pissed off? She wasn’t that much of a prude. Surely they knew that.

Chris lowered himself to the couch beside her. She wanted to reach over and feel the erections inside their jeans, but just as she was about to do that, the scene changed and another woman joined the threesome on-screen. Another woman who looked familiar…

Holy shit!

It was Hailey.