Rule of Three

Chapter Thirteen

For the first time, Dag felt like he belonged there in Chris and Kassidy’s bed. He’d moved his stuff from the hotel to their place the day before, and when they’d all drifted off into exhausted, sated sleep, it felt good to know he had nowhere else to be. Just there. With them.

In the morning, he recognized how dangerous those thoughts were. What the fuck was he doing? Why had he agreed to stay with them? This was getting so much deeper than he’d even contemplated, but ultimately where could it go?

No fucking where. That’s where. His gut cramped as he lay there, gradually rising to wakefulness from the depths of sleep. Chris and Kassidy continued to sleep, Kassidy between them as usual.

Yet it felt like somewhere. It felt like home.

Confusion twisted inside him. He had to start being honest with himself about what he wanted. Coming back to Chicago had been all about Chris—seeing him again, finding out if things had changed. Instead, he’d found Chris in a serious relationship with a woman, which had told him—no, things hadn’t changed.

And yet, Dag found himself changing. Yeah, his feelings for Chris were still there. Dammit. Still big and powerful and completely beyond reach. But Kassidy was within reach. And, as in the past, if he could be with Chris as long as he was with someone else too, he’d take it. Except he hadn’t counted on the feelings for Kassidy he’d developed.

Her sweetness and compassion pulled at him. Her acceptance of him and even, mind bogglingly, her willingness to let him into their bed.

It wasn’t what he’d planned. He hadn’t even imagined this happening.

Kassidy stirred beside him, and once again, she and Dag were awake in the bed before Chris. When she saw he was awake, she turned into his arms and snuggled into him. He wrapped her up, held on to her, last night having been a pinnacle of both joy and self-deception for him. Because he hadn’t just been fucking Kassidy—he’d been fucking Chris too.

Feeling Chris move inside Kassidy, their bodies moving together like they were fucking each other with her between them, had almost made Dag’s heart explode. The joy he’d experienced had been amplified at seeing the pleasure on Chris’s face, but it had been ramped up times ten seeing Kassidy’s ecstasy too.

Kassidy’s hand curled around his shoulder, their legs entwined, and Dag’s heart turned over in his chest as he realized just how much he’d come to care for this woman.

Now not only did he have to leave Chris behind when he eventually left, but her too. How the hell was he going to survive that?

He wasn’t one for commitment. He liked moving on—to the next new adventure, the next thrill, the next challenge. There was no way in hell he could be thinking about something long term, with anybody, never mind with both Chris and Kassidy. He felt like fingers had wrapped around his throat and were squeezing, and he forced his muscles to relax. Kassidy lifted her head and looked up at him as if sensing his discomfort.

“You might be sore today,” he said in a low voice.

She smiled. “I might be. That’s okay.” Then she buried her face against his chest, and mumbled, “I can’t believe we did that.”

For a good girl, she’d been doing a lot of dirty things lately. Including what she’d done to him. He got the feeling she wasn’t entirely at ease with all of this, despite the willingness with which she participated in their three-way sex. He stroked a hand up and down her smooth back.

“I…I…”

“Shh.” He pushed her head back down, kept moving his hands over her. “It’s okay, Kass.”

They lay like that for a while, his hand moving down over the curve of her smooth little ass, back up and into her hair, and down again until her hips started moving against his thigh and he knew she was getting hot again. He lifted her chin and found her mouth, kissed her in long, lush kisses. She tried to press her pussy against him and he knew what she wanted. What she needed.

He reached out and gave Chris a smack on the shoulder. Because it had to be all three of them. “Wha…?” Chris mumbled, opening eyes blurry with sleep.

“Kassidy needs you,” Dag said. “Wake up.”

Chris lay there blinking, his mouth soft. “Jesus, man, I was sound asleep.”

But they started playing, soft and slow, slumberous and lazy, with long, wet kisses, gentle touches and low sounds of pleasure. Dag drifted on a hum of arousal, in no hurry, just taking time to find all the places that made Kassidy sigh and quiver. He wanted to know them all, wanted to be able to please her, absorbing the scent of her, the sound of her pleasure and the feel of her skin soft and silky beneath his fingertips.

Until the doorbell rang.

His body went still.

“Jesus, who the hell is that?” Chris muttered against Kassidy’s tummy. She groaned.

“Ignore it,” Dag said, his tongue in her ear.

“Mmm.”

But it rang again, and then Kassidy’s cell phone buzzed on the dresser across the room.

“Oh, for…” She threw herself back onto the pillows and blew out a breath. “What if it’s Dad? If something’s wrong…”

“I’ll go,” Chris said, tossing back the covers. He swung his long legs out of bed, grabbed for a pair of boxers and pulled them on, half-hopping across the room, his hard-on making it difficult to pull them up. He cursed and disappeared out of the bedroom.

Kassidy bit her lip and looked at Dag. He smiled. “It’s okay, baby.” He stroked her hair off her face. “Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

She cast a worried glance at the alarm clock. “It’s almost noon,” she said. “I didn’t realize how late it is.” The blinds on the window kept the room nice and dark for lazy late mornings. If they wanted to keep Chris, the morning man, in bed, they had to keep the room dark.

Voices carried from the door down the hall, Chris’s and a feminine voice.

“Shit!” Kassidy sat bolt upright. “It’s Hailey!”

Dag’s brows shot up.

“What the hell’s she doing here?” She started to scramble out of the sheets, but he grabbed her wrist.

“Chris’ll get rid of her.” He fucking better get rid of her.

“But, what if… I don’t know why she’s here.” She turned her pretty face to him, squinting, mouth turned down.

He sighed. “Yeah. Go see.”

She was just getting out of bed when he heard steps in the hall. He turned his head, expecting to see Chris telling her Hailey was there, but his heart slammed to a stop when he saw Kassidy’s sister appear in the open door.

Just as Kassidy climbed naked from the bed in which he was lying, also naked.