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.