He’d woken up as sober as when he’d slid into her the night before. No drunk excuses. Sunlight was streaming into the hotel room, illuminating her silky blond hair, porcelain skin, and delicate profile that would inspire songs in his future, and he’d freaked the fuck out. Instead of acting like a man, he’d dressed and disappeared before she woke up. Things had been awkward since.
“Knock, knock, we’re coming in!” Dash recognized his lead guitarist Jagger’s voice followed by footsteps, letting him know Mac, the bassist, and Axel, the new drummer, who happened to be Cassidy’s brother, were with him. And fuck no, Axel did not know what had happened between Dash and his sister.
“In the kitchen,” Dash called out.
“Really?” Xander asked, eyebrow raised in annoyance.
Sasha squeezed his shoulder. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not. What’s wrong with your house?” he asked Dash. “I love you but half the time it feels like you guys live here.”
Dash lifted his shoulders. “Our road manager came by, called a few friends…”
“There’s a party at his place,” Mac said as the guys filed into the kitchen dressed in bathing trunks and sneakers.
Sasha narrowed her gaze. “Where’s Cass?”
Cassidy used to be Sasha’s personal assistant until the band’s latest one quit. Xander, Sasha, and Harrison Dare, a movie star friend of hers, were creating a production company and had asked Cassidy to be their creative director. With her ad agency background prior to working for Sasha, she was a perfect fit.
But there was time before they’d need Cassidy to start work. Axel had convinced her to lend the band a hand. Again, because Axel had no idea that Dash had fucked his sister and walked out, making certain she understood what one and done meant. Because yeah, when Dash got feelings, he was that much of an asshole.
“She’s at the pool, keeping an eye on shit,” Axel said, wincing under Sasha’s pissed-off glare.
Normally Dash would get the brunt of her anger, but Axel had been the last guy to leave the house. And he was Cassidy’s brother.
“You left her there with your goddamn entourage and the groupies?” Sasha walked over and smacked Dash upside the head.
“Hey! I didn’t do it,” he muttered.
She shot him a look that let him know he’d done other things to earn him that swat, and he couldn’t deny he deserved it. Nor could he fight with her in front of the band.
“Overseeing your parties and babysitting your groupies isn’t part of her job description.” Sasha swiped a set of car keys that sat in a bowl on the counter.
“Where are you going?” Xander asked.
“To save my best friend.” She waved at Xander with a warm smile that Dash had to admit would make any man envious, ignored the rest of them, and strode out of the kitchen.
“Good job,” Xander muttered. “Way to piss her off.”
Dash ran a hand over his face. “Look, I have a lot on my mind!”
Xander looked at him, his jaw tight, and Dash didn’t say a word. Of his two brothers, he could read Xander better. And Xander wanted to give Dash the same lecture Linc had.
When this nightmare was over, Dash needed to get his shit together. ASAP.
* * *
Cassidy Forrester sat on the edge of the saltwater gunite pool and dipped her feet into the warm water, ignoring the half-naked groupies hanging on to men who were friends with Dash Kingston, the owner of the East Hampton home.
“I want a raise,” she said out loud to no one in particular. Because she sure as hell wasn’t paid enough to babysit the entourage of the Original Kings, an award-winning rock band, comprised of man-child idiots who did what they wanted, when they wanted, everyone else be damned.
Her actual title was personal assistant to the band, a job she’d taken as a favor to her brother. The four core members had disappeared, leaving her to deal with the people, party, and mess they’d left behind. Nobody else would watch over the house and make sure these guests respected boundaries and stayed outside.
Not that Dash deserved anything from her, but her brother did.
“Hey, Cass,” a familiar female voice said.
Cassidy glanced up, shading her eyes from the sun, just as her best friend, Sasha Keaton, joined her, sitting by her side and also dipping her bare feet into the pool.
“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be home with your hot fiancé?”
Sasha leaned back, her hands behind her on the bluestone patio. “When the guys showed up, I figured you’d want company.”
Cassidy smiled. “And that’s why I love you.”
“Back at you,” Sasha said, tilting her face toward the sun.
Sasha and Cassidy had been based in Los Angeles and traveled to locations where Sasha filmed until a couple of months ago, when Sasha had come to New York for a role. Cassidy, as her then personal assistant, had joined her. Sasha and Xander Kingston, Dash’s brother and the author of the book on which the movie was based, had history they’d rekindled. After filming ended, Sasha had decided to move across the country to be with Xander and, along with him, open a production company with another famous actor, Harrison Dare.
Cassidy eventually planned to work for their new company, K-Talent Productions, a name they’d recently updated, but for now she’d agreed to help the band until they could hire someone they agreed on permanently.
“I came to take you to Xander’s. You don’t need to babysit the house,” Sasha said.
“I take it the band made their way over there?” Cassidy asked.
Sasha nodded. “If they don’t want to be here, there’s no reason for you to be, either. Let’s go hang out at my place.”
Cassidy grinned.
“What?”
“I like that you consider Xander’s house your place. I’m glad you’re happy.” Her friend had soared to stardom, sacrificing her relationship with Xander in the process. But in the end, things had worked out and they both deserved it.
“I want the same thing for you. So while we’re alone, I just wanted to make sure you’re not upset with me,” Sasha said. She lifted her feet out of the pool, and they both stood and reached for towels on the chairs behind them.
“Why would I be?” Cassidy asked while drying her legs.
Sasha did the same before sitting down to buckle her sandals as she replied. “I know you don’t want to be around Dash, but when Xander and Axel asked if the band could borrow your talents for a short time, I couldn’t lie. It’s going to take a while to get the paperwork for the new business going, and Harrison is finishing up a movie. We all have downtime now.”
“I know. And I didn’t have to say yes when Axel asked. This job isn’t your doing. It’s my brother’s and that’s because he has no idea I slept with Dash.” Cassidy winced at the reminder of the best night of her life that had ended in the most humiliating morning after.
“I want to throttle Dash for being such an asshole,” Sasha muttered.
There was nothing Cassidy could say to that since she agreed. And if Axel found out, he’d kill Dash himself.
Cassidy and Axel’s parents had died in a car accident when Cassidy was five and Axel seven. Their grandmother had raised them until she’d passed away, leaving an eighteen-year-old Axel to deal with Cassidy, a sixteen-year-old girl just finding herself. Though Cassidy felt like they’d looked out for each other, Axel had deemed himself her father figure and still acted as such.