Rule of Three

Chapter Two

Chris watched the exchange between Dag and Kassidy. Damn, he wanted Dag to like Kassidy. Because she was so important to him. They hadn’t talked marriage, but that’s probably where they were headed. It was…right.

But he also wanted Kassidy to like Dag. First, he wanted her to know Dag. The guy had showed him what hard work was. Motivated him. Kicked his ass when he tried to slack off. He knew he’d been lucky in life and Dag had definitely not, and he’d learned from Dag that rewards were so much sweeter when you’d worked for them. When you’d earned them. Chris had always wished Kassidy could meet him, could know how big a part Dag had played in shaping who he was. And finally he was here.

Typical Dag, even though he’d come across as mocking and sardonic, he was looking at Kassidy as if she were dessert and he’d missed his last three meals. But he always did that. The guy was a chick magnet, no question, yet he’d never been serious about anyone, basically a man-whore who’d slept his way around campus and continued it in the business world when they’d graduated. Was Chris jealous? Nah. There might be a tiny element of jealousy there, but Chris had to admit to a tinge of admiration for the ease with which the guy attracted girls, and truthfully, he’d reaped the benefits of that magnetism himself, with some of the things they’d done.

But Kassidy…didn’t seem impressed. Chris’s stomach tightened as he sipped his wine, watching them eye each other, Dag with heated interest, Kassidy with wariness.

“This wine is very nice,” Kassidy said. She set the glass of ruby Shiraz down. She was being all polite and he could tell Dag had pissed her off when he’d ordered the wine. She hated pretention and she hated people who showed off their money.

“Thanks,” Dag replied, sitting back so the waitress could place his dinner in front of him. Chris smiled at the girl as she served him his, and picked up his knife and fork. The charbroiled smell of the meat rose to his nose. Damn, it smelled good and he was starved.

“How’s your steak, sweetheart?” he asked Kassidy.

“Delicious.” She smiled at him.

The weird thing was, Dag wasn’t the type to show off his money. Chris had made the joke about it, but really, it had been a joke. Because he knew Dag, and that wasn’t him. Or at least it never had been before. Because Dag had never had money. Had making it big changed him?

“So, you’re out of a job,” Chris said, trying to get things back on track.

Dag laughed. “Yeah. It feels weird.”

“I heard you made a killing when you sold to Momentum Media.”

“I did okay.” Dag made a face.

Now that was more like it—more like Dag to downplay his success. The seven-figure deal had been in the news a month or so ago.

“What are you going to do with all that money?” Chris asked.

“That money is my freedom to do whatever I want.” Dag grinned. “You know I don’t like being tied down to stuff.” He shrugged and cut a piece of meat. “Like I said, I have a few meetings lined up. I need something new to sink my teeth into.”

“You always need something new.” They shared a smile. “What kinds of ideas do you have?”

They talked business for the next while as they ate, and Chris watched Kassidy listen to them. She was relaxing, he could tell, thank god.

The conversation fell to reminiscing about college days, which also left Kassidy out, but she laughed at their stories and asked questions, and seemed to warm up to Dag a bit.

“How did you two end up friends?” she asked.

Chris grinned and shot Dag a glance. “Mostly because we were in all the same classes. And we were the two best-looking dudes on campus.”

Kassidy laughed. “Well, yeah, I can see that.”

One corner of Dag’s mouth lifted. “We had other things in common too.” He slanted a glance at Chris. Oh yeah. Chris didn’t exactly want to go there, not with Kassidy, not now. But yeah, he and Dag had shared some good times.

“I should set something up for all the old gang,” Chris said. “You remember Jeff and Sarah? And Cole.” He named a few others. “How about next Friday we all go out somewhere? You should see everyone while you’re here.”

“Sounds good.” Dag leaned back in his chair, his dinner finished. “More wine, Kassidy?” He lifted the bottle.

“Sure. Thanks.”

He filled her glass then Chris’s, and drained the small amount left in the bottle into his own glass. “Should we order another? Or do you want to go somewhere for a drink?”

“Let’s just go in the bar here,” Chris suggested.

“We’d invite you back to our place, but it’s a bit of a mess,” Kassidy said. “We just finished moving in today and there’s still unpacking to do.”

“That’s okay. Although I don’t mind a mess, believe me.”

“Um…maybe tomorrow…” Kassidy flashed a look at Chris.

“Yeah. Come for dinner tomorrow.” The place wasn’t that bad.

“Actually…I have tickets for the Cubs game. I was going to see if you wanted to come.”

Chris leaned forward. “Cubs game! Yeah, that’d be great.” And he’d get to see more of Dag while he was here.

“I just have two tickets,” Dag said apologetically to Kassidy. “I don’t know if you like baseball…”

“I don’t mind it,” she said with a smile. “But that’s okay. You two should go. Catch up. I’ll get things straightened up at home and you can come back for dinner after.”

“Great.”

There. Perfect. Things were looking up. Kassidy didn’t mind him going out with Dag and they’d all have dinner together after. It was all gonna be good.

“You guys have two of everything.” Hailey held up the toaster. “What are you going to do with this?”

“I don’t know.” Kassidy sighed. “There are so many things we don’t need. Keep that toaster, it’s better than mine.”

Her sister had come over to help with some of the unpacking while Chris and Dag were at the baseball game, although she hadn’t actually been that much help.

Hailey set the toaster on the counter in the kitchen and began unpacking dishes. “So what’s Chris’s friend like?”

Kassidy’s stomach clenched. “He’s um…interesting.”

Hailey paused and looked at her. “Interesting? What the hell does that mean? Was he a jerk?”

“Not exactly. He’s…” How could she describe Dag to Hailey without her sister getting all the wrong ideas? Dag was…unexpected. She, too, had expected Chris’s best friend to be someone more like him. But Dag was clearly different. A rebel, where Chris always followed the rules. A bad boy compared to Chris’s golden goodness. Intense dark eyes that looked right inside you. Shaggy dark hair falling over his eyes in a sexy swoop, dark sideburns that dipped into stubble shadowing a square jaw, and the wickedest smile she’d ever seen. A smile that made her think bad thoughts. About her boyfriend’s best friend.

She gave herself a mental slap on the back of the hand.

“Kass? Hello? Anybody home?”

Kassidy’s gaze flew to Hailey’s face. “Oh…um…he’s okay. He’s kind of annoying, actually.”

“Really. How so?”

Kassidy set some kitchen towels into a drawer. “Apparently he’s filthy rich.”

“Oh. One of those. Talking about money all the time, huh?”

“Well…no.”

Hailey heaved a sigh. “Jeez, Kass, did you like him or not?”

“I guess I did. You know.” She shrugged. “I hardly know him. He’s coming for dinner later.” She looked around the kitchen. “What was I thinking when I invited him? This place is a disaster.”

“Order pizza.”

“Yeah, that’ll impress him.”

Hailey lifted a brow. “You want to impress him?”

“No!” Kassidy sighed. She felt as confused as she knew she sounded. The evening had been a strange combination of comfortable friendship and sexual sparks that had made her pussy clench. Dag just oozed sex. Everything about him said lickable, kissable, fuckable. She’d been squirming in her seat all evening.

Maybe she’d just been all worked up from the quickie in the shower with Chris just before they’d left. And they’d certainly burned up the sheets when they’d gotten home last night.

When Dag looked at her, she’d sensed a sort of predatory attraction, which was ridiculous, layered over animosity. As if he liked her, but he didn’t want to like her. Maybe he thought she wasn’t good enough for his friend. But then, she got the feeling he did think she was good enough for him.

That was just so wrong.

“Okay,” she said, closing up the cardboard box she’d just emptied. “Pretty much done in here, which is good. I can cook dinner, anyway. Now I just have to finish putting some clothes away.”

Hailey glanced at her watch. “I should get going.”

“Oh. I was going to see if you wanted to stay for dinner too. You could meet Dag.”

“Much as I’d love to meet a boring friend of Chris’s, I have other plans.” Hailey’s contempt for Chris and Kassidy’s corporate careers and conventional life annoyed Kassidy, but she let it slide off her like she always did. “Got a hot date.”

“Oh. Really.”

Two years younger than Kassidy, Hailey’d always been the wild child of the family, causing their parents no end of anxiety. When Hailey had started smoking at age fourteen, Kassidy had been horrified. When Hailey’d started doing drugs, she’d been shocked. The drinking and partying had in truth made her a little envious…and the boys…well, Kassidy couldn’t even imagine that. She’d had three steady boyfriends in her entire life, including Chris. She much preferred that to a string of meaningless sexual encounters with guys she didn’t even know.

And Hailey showed no signs of settling down. She’d dropped out of college to work as a bartender, and still did. Kassidy had no idea how Hailey lived the lifestyle she did off the kind of money she made bartending—maybe she didn’t want to know. Hailey’s licentious lifestyle had always made her a little uncomfortable.

“Well, have fun,” she told her sister. “Thanks for helping.”

“No prob.”

“Hey, Mom and Dad’s thirtieth anniversary is coming up. I was thinking we should plan something for them.”

Hailey frowned. “We just did something for their twenty-fifth.”

“That was five years ago!”

“But twenty-five is the big one. We don’t need to do something for their thirtieth.”

Kassidy blew out a breath. “Sure. Never mind. Chris and I will do something.”

Jesus, Hailey could be annoying, especially when it came to their parents.

Hailey took off with a wave and Kassidy wandered into the bedroom, her irritation with her sister scraping away some of the pleasure she felt from living with Chris. She opened a drawer and saw Chris’s socks and underwear shoved inside in a jumble. Shaking her head, she removed everything and carefully replaced it, neat and organized. He’d be so happy when he saw that.

She sat on the bed and looked around the room, now nice and neat, the mix of their belongings a happy symbol of their two lives now linked together in cohabitation. She let the happiness swell inside her again. She loved Chris so much, and seeing her moisturizer sitting beside his aftershave sent a wave of contentment through her.

She glanced at her watch. Better get dinner started. In her new kitchen, she laid the cookbook open on the shiny granite counter and looked back and forth from it as she prepared the Greek chicken casserole, adding chicken to tomatoes and black olives. She crumbled feta cheese on top and popped it into the oven to bake. The guys would be back any minute.

She set out salad ingredients, and then, because they weren’t home yet, used the extra time to fix herself up, changing from rolled-up sweatpants and a T-shirt into a pair of knee-length shorts and a loose camisole top.

She was ready. The casserole was ready. Chris and Dag still weren’t back. They must have gone out somewhere after the game. With another glance at her watch, she sighed. The casserole sat on the stove. It would keep.

Then she heard the key in the lock and hurried toward the door. Chris and Dag walked in, bringing the smell of fresh air and sunshine with them. Their eyes sparkled, their faces were tanned from sitting in the sun all afternoon at Wrigley Field and they looked like they’d been laughing.

“Hey, sweetheart, sorry we’re late,” Chris said, hugging her and kissing her mouth. He smelled like beer. Not obnoxiously, like he was drunk, just as if he’d had a few.

“It’s my fault,” Dag said from behind him, and she met his sexy dark eyes. Once again that little current of electricity jolted her as their eyes met and held. “These are for you.”

He held out a cellophane cone full of pale pink and fuchsia gerbera daisies, all bright and cheery. She’d been ready to be annoyed, but the sweet gesture softened her up, even though she totally recognized it as sucking up.

“Thank you.” She moved to take them from him. He opened his arms for a hug. She hesitated. For some reason she did not want to touch him. But she moved toward him anyway and gave him one of those superficial, barely touching hugs you give a near-stranger or an uncle you haven’t seen for years.

But that wasn’t good enough for him, and he pulled her in and gave her a quick squeeze that pressed her breasts into his chest and sent fire licking over her. It was over in a second but she had to swallow and clasp her hands tightly around the flowers. She focused on them instead of Dag.

“They’re beautiful,” she said. “I love them.”

Dag smiled, his dark eyes crinkling and warm. Both he and Chris were bright-eyed and suntanned and happy, and her heart swelled at seeing Chris so relaxed and cheerful. A surge of gratitude toward Dag rose inside her, gratitude for coming back to see his old friend, for bringing such a smile to his face and a sparkle to his eyes. Not that Chris had been miserable. She just knew this meant a lot to him. So she sent a warm smile Dag’s way, and once again their gazes hooked together and hung there, suspended, as if she couldn’t look away.

“Come on in,” Chris said, leading the way into the living room. Dag looked around and Kassidy moved to the kitchen to find a vase for the flowers, hands unsteady, stomach quivering.

She could not remember where she’d put the vases. Likely Hailey had unpacked them. She searched through cupboards, flustered—Where are the vases, dammit?—and listened to the guys talking about the condo.

“Nice,” Dag said. “Really nice.”

“Three bedrooms,” Chris said. “One’s going to be my home office eventually. Still have some work to do.”

She found a vase and arranged the flowers then carried them to the living room and set them on a side table. “Dinner’ll be ready in a few minutes,” she said. “I just have to cook the pasta and toss the salad.”

“How about another beer?” Chris offered Dag. They followed her into the kitchen. It seemed very confined in that small space with those two big guys moving around.

“Who won the game?” she asked, filling a pot with water.

“Phillies won, three to two.”

“Cubs kinda sucked,” Dag added.

“It’s early in the season,” Chris said. “Thanks for the game, man.” And he looped an arm around Dag’s neck and pulled him in for a brief squeeze.

She watched the hug then turned away to run water into the big pot for the pasta, the image of that brief embrace lingering in her head. Stuck there. Making her feel…she didn’t know what. And she didn’t know why. Maybe it was because she’d never seen Chris do that with any of his other friends. As she set the pot on the stove to boil, she kept thinking about it, even as they moved out of the kitchen with their drinks.

She liked seeing Chris do that. Once again, she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because of what had happened when Chris met her friend Steve. Steve had been one of her best friends in high school, part of the crowd she hung around with, and he was gay. He’d never “come out”—he just always was out. As far back as she could remember, everyone knew it and accepted it. He was a great guy. He had boyfriends, and so did she.

Then in the summer after graduation, he’d been attacked by some kind of sick homophobes after coming out of a gay bar downtown. He’d been close to dying, in the hospital for weeks with serious injuries. She and all her friends had spent hours at the hospital visiting him, sick with grief and rage over what had happened to him. He’d recovered, but after that he’d moved away. They still kept in touch, and when he’d come back for a visit last year, she’d been anxious for Chris to meet him and his new partner. It didn’t bother her at all, but Chris was cool, almost awkward around Steve and Ryan, and that troubled her a little.

She’d tried to talk to Chris about it after. He really didn’t even want to talk about it. Like many guys, she guessed, the idea of two guys together was—what was the word—distasteful? Repellent? She wasn’t sure. She remembered having those kinds of conversations with male friends over drinks in college, trying to get insight into the male perspective of why the idea of two girls together was a turn-on for them but not two guys. She’d even broached that idea to Chris, in an attempt to understand where he was coming from, but he had not wanted to talk about. Even the two-girls scenario.

Anyway. She didn’t think Chris was homophobic, but seeing him physically showing casual affection for a male friend made her feel good. She liked it.

After dinner, she didn’t have anything for dessert and Chris said, “I’ve got the perfect thing.” And he pulled the bottle of Limoncello out of the freezer.

So they poured icy-cold lemony shots of the liqueur and drank them, talking and laughing about all kinds of things, until about ten o’clock when Dag said, “Man. I can’t drive back to the hotel like this. What is that stuff? I’m plastered.”

Chris laughed and showed him the alcohol content. “You’d better crash here, buddy.”

“I can take a taxi, I guess. Come back tomorrow for my car.” It was the Memorial Day long weekend, so neither Chris nor Kassidy had to work in the morning.

“Nah. Just stay here. We have room.”

Chris looked at Kassidy. She had this vague idea that it might not be a good idea but was a little buzzed too from all the drinks, so she said, “Sure. I’ll just make the bed.”

“I’ll help,” Dag insisted, following her down the hall.

“This sofa bed is from my apartment,” she told him. “I just had a little studio apartment so this was all I had room for.”

“So this was your bed,” Dag murmured, and the sexy suggestive tone in his voice made her pulse leap.

“Um. Yeah.”

He helped her pull the bed out and she found sheets and pillowcases and pillows. They both laughed as they bumped into each other trying to stretch the fitted sheet over the mattress, but she was a tad tipsy and almost fell over. Dag caught her and pulled her against him to steady her.

Their eyes met.

“Thanks for letting me stay here,” Dag said, his voice a velvet stroke over her senses. “And thanks for letting me monopolize your boyfriend today. I know you two just moved in here and you probably wanted him home.”

“That’s okay,” she said, a little breathless. Her heart had picked up speed. The warmth of Dag’s body heated her. His sexy mouth curved into a smile, not far from her own, close enough for her to see the whiskers shadowing his square jaw. “He’s glad you’re here. Of course you should spend time together.”

He nodded, eyes searching hers. She felt something, like Dag’s thoughts floating beneath the surface, but didn’t know what they were. And then they moved apart and she picked up a pillow and began shaking it into a pillowcase. Dag did the same.

“There ya go,” she said, and moved to the door. “Help yourself to anything you need in the bathroom.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Kassidy.”

She caught his eye as she walked out the door, and for some reason she thought the look in his eyes was…loneliness.