He guzzled down the rest of his Coke. “I’ll uh…get dressed,” he said. “And get out of your way. I’m sure you have a lot to do.”

“No rush, man,” Chris said. “What are you doing today, anyway?”

Dag paused in the hall. “I have some business stuff to go over. To get ready for my meetings later this week.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Dag returned to the bedroom where he’d slept, found the rest of his clothes and quickly dressed. He pulled the sheets and blankets off the bed, folded the mattress back up into the sofa frame and replaced the cushions. Then he gathered up the bedding in his arms and took it out to Kassidy.

“What should I do with this?” he asked her.

“Oh, thank you, Dag.” She rose from the couch and accepted the bundle of laundry with a smile. “You didn’t need to do that. I’ll just toss it in the washer right now.” And she disappeared into a small room off the kitchen.

“So I’ll call you later this week,” Chris said, standing too. He followed Dag to the door. “We’ll get things set up for Friday night. But hey, we can do lunch or something one day. If you have time.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Kassidy came to the door too, and Chris pulled her in front of him, slid his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her head. His forearms sat just below her breasts, plumping them up a bit, which made Dag notice they were braless beneath the soft cotton tank top she wore, her nipples hard little points. Another demonstration of the warm and sexy chemistry between the two of them.

Out. Of. There.

“Thanks for dinner, Kassidy. You’re a great cook.”

She grinned. “Thank you. Any time. It’s been great getting to know you.”

And he got the hell out.

On the leafy street, he sucked in big breaths full of fresh morning air as he walked to his car parked at the curb halfway down the block. Oh man. All the emotional crap twisting and turning inside him was completely unexpected. There was no fucking way he could move back to Chicago.

He rubbed his face as he unlocked his car door then slid into the vehicle. His best plan would be to get through these business meetings he had lined up, and then get the hell back to San Francisco.

Kassidy had the day off Friday and planned to do some shopping. They needed towels for the main bathroom—Chris’s mismatched, well-worn towels didn’t fit in with their new condo. And they needed curtains for both the extra bedrooms. When Dag had slept over, it made her want to do up the rooms nicely. Not that she anticipated having guests very often.

Dag.

She got all warm inside when she thought about seeing him that morning. Jesus, the man was walking sex. Those worn jeans sat so low on his hips she could see the twin indentations at the base of his spine when she looked at him from the back, and facing him…well she couldn’t even look, afraid of what she might see. The lowest she’d let her eyes go was his six-pack abs and even that was dangerous. His silky dark hair had flopped over his forehead and those eyes had looked at her with such heat, she’d almost felt like she were burning up.

She’d felt so guilty for admiring his half-naked body she’d practically jumped onto Chris’s lap to force her attention where it should be—on her handsome boyfriend. Who was equally as sexy. There was just something about Dag that kept pulling at her.

And tonight they were going to see him again. He and Chris had had lunch yesterday but hadn’t invited her along. Not that she’d wanted to go. She’d had lunch with friends from work, as she usually did.

The doorbell rang just as she was checking her purse for cell phone, keys and shopping list, and when she peeked out she saw…Dag.

She didn’t know why her heart started thudding in her chest, heavy and slow, taking her breath away. She unlocked the door and opened it with shaky fingers, forcing a smile.

“Hey,” she said. “This is a surprise.”

He smiled back at her, that wicked sexy smile that crinkled his eyes and creased his lean cheeks. “I tried to call you at work but you weren’t there.”

Puzzled, she tipped her head to one side. “Yeah. I mean, no. I took the day off to do some errands.”

“That’s what Chris told me. I called him to find out where you are. I was hoping to pick your brain.”

“Me? Why?”

His eyes sparkled. “I’ve got this idea…met with a guy yesterday, and it got me thinking. And you’re the perfect one to help me.”

“Idea for what?” Thoughts buzzed around in her head. Why me? What guy? What was he talking about?

“Let me take you out for lunch,” he said, not answering any of her questions. “And I’ll explain everything.”

“Uh…okay. I guess.” She glanced at her watch. It wasn’t even eleven yet. “Kind of early for lunch, though.”

He shrugged and gave a crooked smile that sent a shaft of heat right through her. “I’m hungry.”

“Let me guess. No breakfast.”

“Yeah.” His smile deepened. “Okay, I’ll take you for a late breakfast then. No, you have lunch, I’ll have breakfast.”

“Whatever.” Amusement glimmered inside her. “Fine. Let me get my purse.” She grabbed it from the kitchen table where she’d been checking it then flicked off the lights. “I was just heading out. A few more minutes I’d have been gone.”

“Lucky me,” he said, and the husky timbre of his voice brushed over her. She licked her lips as she locked the door of the condo behind her.

His rental car was parked at the curb beneath the rustling green canopy of the big old maple trees in front of their building. He opened the passenger door for her and she climbed in.

“Where should we go?” he asked, fastening his seat belt.

She had no idea. There were so many places they could go, but since it was a gorgeous warm day, she tried to think of somewhere outside. “There’s a little place not far from here. In fact…” She made a face. “We could probably have walked.”

He slanted her a grin as he shifted gears. Something she’d always found very sexy was a man driving a standard transmission, shifting gears smoothly like he could feel the motor revving. When she saw his hand on the gear shift, she had to swallow hard.

“Turn left at the next light,” she directed him. “It’s called Lombardo’s.”

“Sounds fancy.”

“It’s not. It’s just a little place, but it has a nice patio.”

“Sounds good.”

He found the place easily, and with some kind of wicked luck he found a parking spot on the street and eased the car into it in a smooth feat of parallel parking. He did everything so easily—he seemed to Kassidy to be the kind of guy who had it all, who never had to work that hard, someone for whom things just fell into his lap.

They sat at a small table on the patio under a red-and-white-striped awning, surrounded by pots of scarlet geraniums and blue lobelia. Jazzy music played in the background for them alone, as they were the only ones there at that in-between-breakfast-and-lunch hour. Kassidy ordered coffee and Dag requested a Coke, making her smile, and the waiter left to get those while they looked at the menu.

She wasn’t hungry. She was burning with curiosity. She wanted to know what Dag wanted to talk to her about. All kinds of wild thoughts ran through her imagination, none of them appropriate. At all. But then, Dag had called Chris about where to find her, so it wasn’t likely that he wanted to talk to her about…inappropriate things.

He slapped his menu shut. “Steak sandwich,” he ordered when the waiter returned. Kassidy requested a spinach salad.

“A steak sandwich isn’t exactly breakfast,” she pointed out.

He laughed. “Why not? I’ve never liked following rules.”

That she could believe. Coke for breakfast.

He leaned back in his chair and linked his fingers behind his head. His snug black T-shirt outlined his buff torso, his arm muscles bulging from beneath the short sleeves, exposing a sexy tattoo. His teeth flashed white in his tanned face as he smiled at her. The power of that smile to captivate, to make her feel like she was the center of his attention, of his world at that moment, astonished her.