Rule of Three

Chapter Six

They walked into Kiss through a nearly invisible entrance at the end of a narrow alleyway just off Oak Street. A long staircase descended into a room lit with low red lighting from pot lights, antique light fixtures dripping with gilt and crystal, and candles everywhere, filling the air with a warm beeswax fragrance that mingled with expensive perfumes. People crowded the dance floor, moving to the drum beat of the DJ’s mix of bhangra and hip-hop.

“Looks like we’re the first ones here,” Chris said. “Let’s find a spot.” He led the way through the bar to several black leather and faux-leopard-skin sofas arranged in a small group around a low table.

Dag took in the eclectic surroundings, liking the cosmopolitan vibe of the place. Yeah, dammit, there were things about Chicago he missed. He sat on one of the black leather sofas, and Kassidy and Chris took a seat across from him.

“There’s Hailey,” Kassidy said. Dag shifted his gaze across the room to the artfully lit bar, with rows and rows of bottles stacked against the wall behind it glowing in the red lights. He searched for which bartender might be Kassidy’s sister, finally picking out a slender dark-haired woman in a constant whirl of movement, pouring, spinning, reaching for glasses. Her short dark hair was a spiky cap on her head, but even from here he could see the resemblance to Kassidy in her build, her graceful movements and the shape of her face.

A waitress clad in a short skintight black dress approached to take their drink order and Dag smiled up at her. She returned the smile with a wink as they ordered. Dag handed over a credit card so they could run a tab.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me,” Chris said. “You left without paying your bar bill this afternoon. You owe me fifty bucks.”

Dag looked at Chris, saw the glint in his eye and laughed. “I figured you wouldn’t mind picking up the tab.”

“For you and my girlfriend sitting and drinking all afternoon without me? Not fucking likely, buddy.”

Then they both laughed and shook their heads.

“There’s Jeff and Sara,” Kassidy said, waving a hand. Their friends began to arrive. Dag stood to greet the people he hadn’t seen for so long, with handshakes and hugs and smiles and questions. Everyone was finding a seat and milling around the area when Kassidy’s sister approached them.

“Hey, Kass,” she said. Her gaze narrowed in on Dag and he arched a brow and returned her smile. Again, he could see a family resemblance in the shape of her mouth and eyes, but Hailey’s face was thinner, her chin a little sharper, her eyes harder. Her smile held a hint of tartness instead of Kassidy’s sweetness. A silver stud pierced her left eyebrow and a diamond glittered on the side of her nose. “You must be Dag.”

Kassidy moved to stand beside Hailey. “Yes, this is Dag. Dag Spencer, my sister Hailey Langdon.”

Hailey fastened her eyes on him and extended a hand, which he took. Interest heated her gaze. “Pleasure to meet you,” she said. “You’re not what I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

“Mmm. Someone more like Chris, I guess.” Her smile deepened.

“What makes you think I’m not like Chris?”

She moved closer to him, into his personal space. “Just an impression I get.”

He laughed. “I’m guessing you’re not like Kassidy either.”

Her smile turned sly. “And what makes you think that?” She turned his words back to him.

“Just an impression I get.” He arched a brow.

Now she laughed with appreciation. “Yeah, Kassidy’s a good girl. Boring, but good.”

Boring? Whoa. That wasn’t a word he ever would have used to describe her, albeit he’d only known her a week. He flashed a glance Kassidy’s way and saw her mouth tighten. “And you’re not good?” he asked Hailey.

“I’m good at some things.” She set her hand on his forearm and leaned even closer into his personal space, so close he could smell the spicy scent of patchouli. Strangely, patchouli had always given him a headache and he felt the faint throb begin deep in his head. But he smiled at her because she was Kassidy’s sister. She slid her hand higher on his arm. “Very good. But…sometimes I’m a bad girl.” Her voice went throaty.

Jesus. Subtlety wasn’t part of her makeup.

“So, how long are you in Chicago, Dag?”

“I’m not sure.” Earlier in the week his plan had been to get the hell back to San Francisco, but now he had this great idea he wanted to explore and Kassidy was the perfect one to help him with some of it. Then he’d had to listen to them fucking on the other side of their bedroom door and once again his resolve had changed to getting away from them. Christ, he didn’t know what the hell he wanted, what he was doing. “Depends on business, I guess.”

“I could show you around town,” she said. “If you’re interested.”

“I might be.”

Then he caught sight of Kassidy’s face as she watched them flirting—and the crease in her brow and the tightness of her pretty mouth.

She should have known Hailey and Dag would hit it off. They seemed to be two of a kind—a bad boy and a self-professed bad girl, both of whom seemed to effortlessly attract attention from the opposite sex. Yeah, they would have a lot in common. Why that sent a shaft of pain slicing through her, she had no clue.

Kassidy tipped her mango martini to her lips and took a big gulp. Sweet coolness washed down her throat. She forced a smile. “Are you on a break, Hailey?”

Hailey didn’t even look at her, no surprise with a gorgeous guy standing right in front of her. “Yeah. So, Dag…”

Kassidy moved away to let them talk, for a moment alone in the crowd, her stomach tight. She searched for her anchor—Chris. There he was, over talking to Cole and Tyra. She made her way over to him.

He glanced down at her as he talked, smiled, slid an arm around her to rest his hand on her hip. A feeling of security eased the stiffness inside her a little. A feeling of knowing she was loved and wanted. She had that with Chris, always.

Why did it bother her that Hailey liked Dag? Or did it bother her that Dag liked Hailey? Her eyes fell on them across the room, still talking, laughing, and that tension returned, gripping her body.

But Hailey’s break couldn’t last forever and a few minutes later she returned to her place behind the bar. Dag’s attention turned to their friends. As the evening went on, she overheard him talking, “business meetings” and “San Francisco’s great” and “nice to be back”, as he moved from group to group. And it wasn’t just their friends—a crowd of women formed around him, beautiful women. All the while he looked so damn gorgeous and sexy, hair falling into his eyes, his black T-shirt—not just an ordinary T-shirt but some kind of silky expensive fabric—stretched across his taut body, tucked into just the front of his black pants, a gleaming belt buckle riding low. He looked dark and dangerous and exotic.

“I need to sit down,” she told Chris awhile later, her feet starting to hurt in the strappy heels she wore. She lowered herself to the soft leopard fabric of a couch. Chris sat too, and she was glad. She snuggled up to him, winding her arm through his, and sipped her drink.

“Having fun, Kass?” he asked, leaning closer.

“Mmm. Yeah.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Good. Looks like Dag is too.”

“Yeah.” She wanted to ask if he’d seen Dag and Hailey together, but couldn’t get her voice to form the words. Dag’s familiar laugh carried over the music, now an African-funk blend, primal and rhythmic, as he flirted with the girls surrounding him. She felt the music inside her, like another heartbeat. Her body pulsed against Chris’s.

When Dag lifted his head and his eyes met hers across the room, she turned her face to Chris and kissed the side of his neck, his skin warm and fragrant. Chris made a low noise in his throat, rested one hand on her bare thigh where her dress had ridden up. Her pussy ached. She wanted him to slide his hand higher.

They were in a nightclub surrounded by people. What the hell was she thinking? She swallowed. “I think I need another drink,” she said in Chris’s ear.

He drew back and smiled at her, his hand still warm on her leg. “Want me to get you one?”

“Sure.”

He got up and moved toward the bar, and she could still feel the weight of Dag’s gaze on her without even looking at him. When she did turn her head slightly, their eyes once again met and held. And held. And…held.

He lifted his drink to his mouth and slowly sipped, never taking his eyes off her as some girl chattered beside him.

Oh Jesus. What was happening? She was filled with all kinds of rampant, reckless feelings that she couldn’t even identify, except she knew the dominant one was lust. Analyzing that just made her skin tighten up, though. She took a deep breath and crossed her legs, not bothering to pull her skirt down, wanting Dag’s attention on her, not some nameless pretty stranger.

She turned her attention to watching other people in the bar, and it was a good place for people watching. Couples danced in sexy abandon on the dance floor, including one female couple, both of them young and pretty and dressed in short skirts and skimpy tops. Kassidy watched as they touched each other, danced closer, mesmerized by the sensuality of it.

When Chris returned with her drink, she guzzled down half of it then said, “Let’s dance.”

He took her hand as they walked onto the dance floor and they shifted into the rhythm of the music, moving together. He set his hands on her hips and they watched each other’s faces as they danced. Then Chris’s gaze drifted off to the side and she followed it. He was looking at those two girls, still dancing together, bodies now pressed together, back to front, the girl in back sliding her hands over the hips and stomach of the girl in front.

She glanced at Chris’s face, went onto her tiptoes to speak into his ear. “I thought two girls didn’t excite you.”

He smiled. “It’d be hotter if one of them was you.”

Her eyes flew open wide. “What!”

He grinned and pulled her closer.

“You want to watch me and another girl?” she asked incredulously.

His breath tickled her ear. “Watching you with anybody would be a turn-on.”

Holy crap. How did she not know this about him? Kassidy pulled back to look into his eyes. “Really?”

The corners of his eyes crinkled but he held her gaze steadily. “Really.”

Heat suffused her body. She didn’t know what to say. Chris was so…straight. Did he expect her to make that kinky fantasy come true? Or was it just that—a fantasy?

The music changed and without saying a word, they left the dance floor and returned to their couch. She picked up her drink and downed the rest of it in three big heat-quenching gulps. Oh god.

“I’ll get you another one,” Chris said with a knowing smile.

She sat there in a bit of a daze until the sofa dipped beside her. She turned quickly, thinking it was Chris back already with her drink, but it was Dag. His dark intent eyes fastened on her face. “How’re you doing?”

“Good!” She gave him a bright smile. “You? Having fun?”

He shrugged, sipped his drink again—Scotch? Probably.

Chris returned with drinks. He couldn’t sit beside Kassidy because Dag was there now, but she didn’t want him to sit far away on another couch. Then Dag shifted away from her, pulling her with him so there was room for Chris on her other side. She took her drink from Chris, shoulder-to-shoulder with big, warm maleness on both sides of her.

Other friends came and sat too, and they all talked and laughed while Kassidy tried to ignore the achy fullness in her pelvis.

After a while, Dag said, “Come dance with me, Kassidy.” He set down his drink and rose to his feet. He held out a hand, and she looked at Chris, who smiled and nodded. She took Dag’s hand and followed him back to the dance floor, feeling a little like she were being led down a dark downtown alley at midnight, nerves fluttering in her tummy and her pulse leaping.

They moved to the music, a throbbing Latin drumbeat. Dag was a good dancer—of course—nothing flamboyant, but he knew how to move his body with an athletic grace. She let herself absorb the music, let it move her body, never taking her eyes off his face. When the rhythm slowed and merged into a slower song, he slid his hands over her waist, hips, around almost onto her ass. His heat enveloped her, the scent of his sultry aftershave filled her head as she slid her arms over his shoulders. Their hips moved together to the beat of the music.

Sex.

It felt like sex. Liquid heat slid through her body and pooled between her legs.

She bit her lip and looked over to where Chris sat. He’d crossed one ankle over the other knee, one arm stretched out along the back of the couch, looking so big and handsome and watching them.

Watching you with anyone would be a turn-on.

He lifted his chin in acknowledgement of Kassidy’s glance. She was almost afraid to tear her gaze away from him and return it to the dangerous man she was dancing with.

“Chris is watching,” Dag said.

“Yes.”

“He likes to watch.”

Dag knew that about him?

Their gazes locked. His hands slid lower on her hips, to just below the curve of her ass and his fingers moved. Dear god, he was pulling up her skirt. And it was short enough to begin with. Her pussy pulsed.

The silky fabric slid higher, bunching a little beneath Dag’s fingers. “What are you doing?” she asked him through tight lips.

“Giving your boyfriend a show,” he said with a wicked glint in his eye.

“And everyone else in the bar.”

But she didn’t stop him.

“Nobody else is paying any attention to us,” he said. “They’re all watching those girls.”

The female couple was now dancing even dirtier, grinding their bodies together. They were so beautiful and sexy it was hard to take her eyes off them.

“Hot,” Dag said. They watched. The girls turned to face each other again, and then they kissed. A long, lingering kiss on the mouth, hands buried in each other’s long hair.

Dag and Kassidy looked at each other. The air sizzled around them. They were both aroused and maybe that was why she let him continue to ease the skirt of her dress up, his hands on her hips sliding the fabric higher. She looked back at Chris, now with both feet on the floor, leaning forward with elbows on his knees, still watching them, his gaze scorching her with erotic intensity.

And maybe that’s why she still didn’t stop Dag. She was pretty sure the cheeks of her butt were showing now—she was wearing a pair of cheeky panties, but they didn’t cover much.

Then Chris was striding toward them, joining them on the dance floor. He pressed against her back, his erection hard against her, and nuzzled her neck. The three of them danced together, hard bodies pressed against her front and back.

Chris pulled her hair aside to mutter in her ear. “That was so fucking sexy.” She pressed her ass back against him, tightened her fingers on Dag’s shoulders.

“Your girlfriend is hot, Chris,” Dag said.

“I know.”

The music picked up pace again and they continued dancing, still close, just changing the tempo. Heat sizzled up and down Kassidy’s spine and she felt hypnotized by the beat of the music, the hot desire of two men, lost in the utter sensuality of it. She lifted one arm above her head and hooked it around Chris’s neck, four hands on her body. Her breasts swelled and her nipples tingled. She ached to be touched there.

By the time they decided to leave the dance floor, every nerve ending in her body was on fire, sizzling and snapping with sexual tension.

The three of them sat on the couch side by side again, damp with perspiration and a little breathless. Some of their friends had already left, others had disappeared, perhaps into the crowd on the dance floor, and they were alone. Chris set his hand on her bare thigh and picked up his drink with his other hand.

“I should get going,” Dag said. “I’ll come by for my car tomorrow.”

“Why don’t you just stay at our place again?” Chris said. “Saves you a trip tomorrow.”

Kassidy’s blood surged in her veins, hot and scary, as she waited for Dag’s response. A response that seemed…significant. Weighty. A response that took forever.

“Okay,” Dag finally said.

Her chest tightened.

“I’m ready to go too,” Chris added. “Kassidy?”

“Sure.” She licked her lips.

A couple of yellow cabs waited on Oak Street when they emerged from the alley where the club was and Dag lifted a hand. One pulled up and all three of them climbed into the back. The night air had cooled her heated skin, but now inside the taxi the air was heavy, pulsing with thick arousal. There was enough sexual energy in that vehicle to power the small hybrid car for many miles. Her heart pounded all the way home, and she stared at her bare knees, once again in the middle of the two men. It was only a short ride back to their place, and when she unlocked the door and let them into the condo, her heart sped up even more. She could hardly breathe, the sense of anticipation tightening her lungs.

They walked into the condo, Chris leading the way and flicking on a lamp. He turned and the three of them stood there, snared in a net of erotic tension.

Chris held out a hand to Kassidy and she drifted across the living room to take it without a word. He slid his hand into her hair, cupped the back of her head and kissed her. She melted into him, already a semi-liquid puddle of arousal.

“Watching you dance with Dag was fucking hot,” he whispered against the corner of her mouth.

Questions backed up in her brain but none of them came out of her mouth. Then Chris did the same thing Dag had done, started sliding up the skirt of her dress, baring the back of her thighs to Dag.

This was a dangerous game they were playing. She was so turned on, so fevered with hunger, it made her afraid of what she might do. They were just fooling around, making each other—all three of them—hot and bothered. How far would they go?

“What panties are you wearing?” Chris murmured.

Her throat was so tight she could barely speak.

“Show us,” he urged.

She couldn’t move, her body locked into place, her heart racing.

“She’s not going to show us her panties,” Dag said. “Kassidy’s a good girl. Isn’t that what your sister said?”

His words mocked her, the words her sister had used, her sister who always made fun of her and made her feel like a straight-laced prude, even though she wasn’t. She was different from Hailey, sure, but it wasn’t like she was totally naïve.

She didn’t want to be a good girl. And she wanted Dag to know that. The sexual tension that had been building inside her for the last week, so much that fast, hard sex with Chris in the shower and even up against the bedroom door had still not quite satisfied her, was leading her into doing naughty things. A heavy ache pulsed in her pelvis.

She took a step back, lifting up her dress. She glanced at Dag, who stood there watching them with scorching intensity, his mouth a tight line of self-control.

“Nice,” Chris said. “Don’t you think, Dag?”

“Very nice.”

Her panties were a band of pink lace around her hips. She bit her bottom lip, knowing how wet they were. Dag smiled at her. Her fingers trembled, clutching the fabric of her dress.

“You haven’t told her, have you?” Dag looked at Chris.

Chris’s eyes met Dag’s. Kassidy’s gaze darted back and forth between them.

“Told me what?”

“No,” Chris said.

“Are you afraid Kassidy will be shocked?” Dag continued. “Because she is a good girl.”

“Told me what?”

Chris’s eyes narrowed and his body tensed next to her. Dag’s eyes gleamed and his wicked smile made her body pulse again.

“Told you…” Dag’s gaze moved over her face. “About the threesomes we used to have.”

Her mouth did drop open a little. Okay, she wasn’t naïve, but the idea that Chris and Dag had done that…gave her a jolt. She turned to Chris.

He gave her a sheepish little smile. “It was a long time ago.”

Wow.

She wasn’t jealous. She knew Chris had had girlfriends before her. She even knew some of them. They were all done and gone before she came along.

“Does that disgust you, Kassidy?” Dag asked.

“No.” She had to close her eyes against the wave of heated arousal that shimmered through her body, a sharp, forbidden thrill.

“Or does it turn you on?”

How could she admit that to Dag…to Chris!

She met Chris’s gaze. “It turns me on.”

“Oh sweetie.” Chris’s voice was a groan.

They were just talking about it. It wasn’t like they were going to do it.

“Who did you do it with?” The words slid out of her mouth.

They exchanged a glance then Chris said, “It doesn’t matter who, sweetheart. Like I said, it was a long time ago. Before you.”

Curiosity scorched her. She wanted to know what happened—who did what to whom. The idea of two men making love to her at the same time seemed incredibly hot. Her skin tingled and tightened with electric pulses of heat and longing.

Their eyes met once again, exchanging some kind of wordless communication. She wanted to know what they were thinking. What if they wanted to do it? What if they wanted to share her, like they apparently had shared girls before?

A moan leaked out of her. Her breasts swelled and ached, her nipples tingled and her pussy clenched hard at the idea of being with two men.

Chris was such a conservative guy, she could hardly believe what they were telling her. His earlier revelation that he wanted to watch her with someone else had been a prelude to this shocker. But then he looked into her eyes and sparkles shot through her body at the question she saw on his face.

It wasn’t because of her sister. She had nothing to prove to Hailey. Kassidy was her own person and comfortable with how she lived her life. But at that moment, she wanted to be the bad girl. She wanted excitement. She wanted that adrenaline rush that Dag got from taking risks, making dangerous business deals, jumping out of airplanes. And she wanted Dag.

She licked her lips and turned her attention to Dag. He watched her with hot, predatory eyes, his beautifully shaped mouth smiling slightly, and she knew he wanted her too. She’d known it all along.

She would never cheat on Chris. Never. She’d never been tempted, not even once. If he wanted this, it wouldn’t be cheating. But it was the baddest thing she’d ever contemplated doing in her entire, careful life.

Once again she met her boyfriend’s eyes. “Do you want to?” he finally asked out loud.

She couldn’t do it. She wanted to. How could she do something like that? Arousal swelled and burned inside her, and she countered, “Do you want to?”