“We have some family days we can use for things like this.”
The small knot in her stomach tightened at the thought of the project at work she needed to work on, but she had a plan—she’d stop by in the morning, make sure Mom had everything she needed, get to work, do a few things and gather up some work she could do at home, then come back and stay with her mom for the rest of the day. It would only be a few days and then Dad would be back, and Mom would be able to get up and around on her crutches a bit more, hopefully.
So that’s what she did, but Tuesday night she’d done all she could do on the project away from the office and she was stressing about how she was going to get her tasks done by deadline and still look after her mom.
“God, I wish I could help,” Chris said, shoving a hand through his hair. “But I’m swamped myself.”
“It’s those layoffs, isn’t it?”
The company was moving forward with outsourcing. Working in Human Resources she knew all about it, but she didn’t like it—cutting staff was never a good thing—and she knew Chris didn’t either, but didn’t have much choice.
“Yeah.” He sighed. “Fuck. I’m in meetings all day and I might even have to fly to Seattle this week.”
“Oh no.” She stared at him in dismay. “Not now.”
“I hope not. I’ll try to avoid it.”
“I’ll go check on your mom,” Dag spoke up, and both Kassidy and Chris turned to him in surprise. One corner of his mouth tilted up. “What? So she doesn’t know me. I feel like a useless piece of shit sitting here while you two run yourselves ragged.”
“I’m okay,” Kassidy said automatically. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know I don’t have to, I want to,” he replied evenly. “Come with me in the morning to introduce me and I’ll stay with her for a while and you can go to work.”
“Don’t you have meetings tomorrow?” Dag had been busy all week too, with seemingly back-to-back meetings and constant phone calls and emails on his BlackBerry. He’d worked most evenings, too, and Kassidy had come to realize that contrary to her impression about him having everything dropped into his lap with no effort, Dag was as much as a workaholic as Chris was. Maybe more. He seemed driven to turn this idea he had into reality.
“Not until four o’clock. You can come after work and that should cover things pretty well.”
“Yeah. She can be alone for a couple of hours.” She nibbled her bottom lip and regarded him. “Thank you, Dag.”
“Thanks, man.” Chris laid a hand on Dag’s shoulder. Dag looked up at Chris, and Kassidy saw a flash of something in Dag’s eyes, something…disturbing. Dag looked at Chris as if he wanted to eat him.
She swallowed and blinked, but the hunger was gone and Dag just smiled easily. “No sweat, man,” he said. “Anytime.”
So the next morning Kassidy led Dag into her parents’ home and introduced him to her mom. Predictably, her mom protested that she didn’t need someone with her all day and she certainly couldn’t impose on someone she didn’t even know.
“It’s no trouble, Mrs. Langdon,” Dag said, with his devilish charming smile, and Kassidy watched her mom soften at his irresistible appeal.
“Call me Hope,” she said. “I feel terrible about this. I’m sure you’re a busy young man…”
“I may have to take a few calls,” Dag said, smiling. “And I’ve got my computer to keep me busy with some work, but otherwise I’m yours for the rest of the day. I’m looking forward to knowing all about Kassidy’s childhood. I want to hear all the stories about what kind of bratty kid she was.”
Hope laughed. “Sorry, there aren’t any stories like that. Kassidy was a perfect angel.”
“There must be something.” His dimples deepened and Kassidy shook her head.
“Don’t tell him, Mom,” she said, smiling. “He’ll hold it against me.”
Her eyes and Dag’s met above the bed and heat sizzled for a few seconds.
“I wouldn’t hold that against you,” he said softly, and she knew exactly where his mind was and what he would hold against her. And her insides softened and warmed.
“I better go,” she said hastily, picking up her purse. “Thank you again, Dag, and just call my cell phone if you need anything.”
What would her mother tell him? God. Once again, she didn’t want Dag to think she was a boring goody-two-shoes, although at this point he had to have a fairly good idea that she was definitely no angel.
Chapter Twelve
“You should just stay with us,” Chris said, then clenched his jaw. Fuck. Where the hell had that come from?
Dag laughed as if it were a joke. They were in the kitchen making dinner. Kassidy had gone over to her mom’s place after work, just for a quick check in, and Dag had had the idea to make dinner for her. A damn good idea, Chris had to admit, ashamed he hadn’t thought of it himself. Kassidy was running herself to pieces between her mom and her work since the accident two weeks ago.
“Seriously,” he said, stirring the pot of pasta. “I mean, you’ve been in Chicago for nearly a month. You’re spending a fucking fortune for a hotel room and you’re hardly ever there.” He didn’t look at Dag. His stomach tightened into hard knots.
Since that night when Kassidy had—Christ, what had she done? Sucked them both? Pulled them close and rubbed their cocks together? Yeah, that and a whole lot more. Since then, Chris had found his head swimming with sizzling images, his body responding with heat and hardness. He tried to get those pictures out of his mind, the vision of his cock and Dag’s together seared into his senses. The feel of Dag’s cock against his, so goddamn wrong. So goddamn hot.
Dag nodded slowly. “Yeah. I guess that’s true. But what does Kassidy think about that?”
“She’ll be fine with it.” Chris was sure of that. He hadn’t talked to her about it, but he knew she’d be okay with it. What he didn’t know was why the hell he was even suggesting it. Was he sick? Was he asking for something? Was he daring himself to see what he’d do with Dag around all the time?
“Well…okay. I do seem to end up here most of the time. Not sure how much longer I’ll be in town.”
Chris didn’t know whether to laugh or curse. He struggled for composure. “I thought maybe you were thinking of moving back to Chicago. Permanently.”
Dag’s face, too, stayed neutral. His wrist twisted as he opened a can of tomatoes. “I haven’t decided that.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Chris rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, tomorrow you can get your stuff and bring it back here.”
The sound of the door opening had him lifting his head.
“I’m home!” Kassidy called. She appeared in the kitchen doorway, sniffing. “God, that smells good! Garlic! What are you doing?”
“Making you dinner. Hey, sweetheart.” Chris moved over to kiss her forehead, almost feeling relieved she was home.
“How’s your mom?” Dag asked.
“Doing okay. Still in a lot of pain.” Kassidy rubbed between her eyebrows and sighed.
“You look tired,” Chris said. “Go change and I’ll pour you a glass of wine. Dinner’s almost ready.”
“That is so nice.” She surveyed the kitchen. “Thanks.” And she disappeared again, returning moments later dressed in a pair of beige shorts and a white T-shirt. She accepted the glass of Chardonnay from him with a smile.
“I can’t believe you guys are cooking.”
“Gotta give Dag the credit.” Chris circled his hand around the nape of her neck and stroked. She felt tight beneath her soft skin, the downy hair at the nape of her neck tickling his palm. This had been a rough couple of weeks. “But I helped.” He grinned and took a swallow of his beer. “You’ve been running your ass off trying to look after your mom and stay on top of things at work. Thank god I didn’t have to go to Seattle. And thank god Dag was here to help out too. Thanks again, man.” He turned to his friend. Yeah, he was glad Dag was back. Then he remembered.